#jamie musical sweden

[musicals-in-sweden]

Trailer for Everybody's talking about Jamie - Malmö Opera, 2023

#everybodys talking about jamie #everybodys talking about jamie sweden #everybodys talking about jamie malmö #jamie musical #jamie musical sweden #etaj musical #etaj sweden #malmö opera #malmo opera #trailer #production footage #2023 #musical theater #musical theatre #musicals #musicals in sweden

[veilingofthesun]

Yesterday I was back at my happy place for the first musical of the season. I went in not knowing much about Everybody's talking about Jamie, but I wasn't disappointed. Such a talented ensemble, really cool and creative choreography, a great set and a lot of my favourites on the stage.

Oscar Pierrou Lindén is just perfection in this role, it's like it's made for him. I just love seeing and hearing him perform. He is such a star. I just don't get how he is so good at everything he does and in every single role he plays, no matter how different they are.

It made me really happy seeing Leila Jung as Pretti. I have seen her in the ensemble a couple of times and I've always enjoyed her performance, but seeing her in a bigger role was amazing. Her voice, stage presence and passion was something else. I'm so glad she got to shine.

#everybodys talking about jamie #jamie musical #everybodys talking about jamie sweden #i had a great time #it felt so good to be back #emmas theatre thoughts

[sharp-edges]

yes it was the connor post I haven’t read that intently in ages

the connor post nonny is refering too

YESSSSSSS, i cant be normal about him because no one else is able to be normal about him, the part that gets me, that im being really abnormal about at this specific second is him and his family temporarily MOVING TO SWEDEN, when he was 15 so he could train.... that's not normal!!!!! he never had a normal teenage years, we will never have normal adult years, i need to wipe the worlds memory of him and send him to college for two semesters, i need him to throw up in the bushes outside a frat, i need him to regret taking an 8am, i need him to socialize with people who don't play hockey, i need him to be normal. i need the league to teach these kids to take hits, i need them to try and acclimate the kids who don't get sent to a farm team after getting drafted, how many fucking rookies need to get hurt, and take bad hits for the league to finally realize that they aren't doing well by them. how many more players need to use the nhlpa player assistance program before they realize that taking a bunch of children and signing them to multi year contracts and with a schedule that leaves you traveling and away from your non hockey friends and family for months on end is a recipe for unhealthy coping mechanisms, mary @pwhl-mybeloved said earlier that someone sent in 15 duplicate cards to get graded of a kid who isn't eligible for the draft until 2026, the era of social media is putting even more eyes on "generational talents" THIS QUOTE FROM EMILY KAPLAN AT ESPN

Bedard tries to stay out of public when he can, and as he gave me a tour in his off-roader SUV, bumping some top-40 music, it became apparent why. When he stopped at a red light, a car pulled up with four adults who recognized Bedard instantly. The driver honked and waved enthusiastically as the three passengers frantically fiddled with their phones to take photos. Bedard, clearly experienced with this exact scenario, politely smiled back. "There's a bit of buzz, and for me, it's kind of crazy to see some of the things and people I've been compared to," Bedard said. "It's a lot different getting recognized out and about. It's something I'm getting used to. It's supercool feeling the support. But you know ... I'm still a kid." He's understating the buzz.

^^^^^ HE WAS 17!!!!!!!! THE ENTIRE ARTICLE GUTS ME

he's too young!!!! we are putting children on too high of pedestals, we make children sign contracts with an organization that doesn't care, not about their physical health, not about their mental health, we are stuck perpetually dooming hundreds of children each fucking year.

people want to be angry at cutter gauthier because he "broke up" jamie and tz but i care that a child (okay hes 20 now… and was 19 when the tarde happened, and he was 18 when drafted) who informed the flyers back in MAY OF LAST YEAR, that he didn't want to sign, WAS DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD!!!!! because the flyers dragged their heels for almost a year and wouldn't take his "im not signing" as an answer!

the fucking amazon tv show "focusing on 10-12 players" will never show any of this shit, the league wants to grow its audience and appeal to a younger and more female audience, but young people are smart, and more people are going to notice, cutter didn't break to mainstream audiences, but this fucking amazon show is going to bring a bunch of eyes, and those eyes are going to look at connor, because there is no fucking way he isnt going to be one of the players they focus on, the league isn't that stupid, and those new eyes are going to see what i see, and i won't be the only person walking round in circles mumbling about gifted children never adjusting.

#asks #anon #connor bedard #cutter gauthier #too i guess #this started out all hahah im abnormal about connor and ended with me screaming about the nhl lack of concern for its youngest players (or #any of their players for that matter)

[passportapproved]

10.1.23

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK'S SHOW! GIANT ROOKS – “Somebody Like You” (UMG, Germany)  NOTHING BUT THIEVES  – “Tomorrow Is Closed” (AWAL, UK) MIDDLE KIDS – “Highlands” (EMI Music, Australia) MATTHEW MOLE – “See Me Again” (Universal Music, South Africa)   SAHARA BECK – “Thinking Twice” (Unsigned, Australia) BELLZZZ – “No Shoes Girl (Succession)” (Unsigned, UK)  BANNERS – “C’est La Vie” (Island Records, UK) TRIBE FRIDAY – “Salt Clouds” (ICEA, Sweden)  ONLY THE POETS – “Crash”  (EMI, UK) KYTES – “Out of Time” (Frisbee Records, Germany) ALEX SPENCER – “One Way Ticket” (Modern Sky, UK)  PAUL PARTOHAP – “BESTFRiEND” (Warner Music, Indonesia) THE SLATES – “What Have You Done?” (Unsigned, UK) ASHLEY ESPER – “It’s Called Art” (Unsigned, N. America) AMSER – “Don’t Let Go” (SO Recordings, UK) LAUREN WALLER – “Green Eyed Jealousy” (Unsigned, N. America) RHETT REPKO – “I’ve Been Feeling Down Lately” (Unsigned, N. America) PICTURE THIS – “Ireland” (RCA Records, Ireland)  BLAIRE DAVIE – “Lovely” (Watercolour Heart, UK) YARD ACT – “The Trench Coat Museum” (Island Records, UK) LIME CORDIALE – “Imposter Syndrome” (Chugg Music, Australia)  THE SHERLOCKS  – “Remember All The Girls” (Unsigned, UK) TALISCO – “Keep ur head up” (Talisco Music, France) THE ROYSTON CLUB – “Blisters” (Run On Records, UK) CASSIA – “Whatstheuse” (Republic of Music, Australia) THE VALMONTS – “Love Overdose” (Unsigned, Ireland) COYLE GIRELLI – “Jane Tells A Lie” (Unsigned, UK) DECLAN MCKENNA – “Sympathy” (Believe, UK) THE MOVING STILLS – “Westside” (Sureshaker, Australia) ST LUNDI – “Fall” (Propeller Recordings, UK) RUM JUNGLE  – “Dash of Speed” (Sureshaker, Australia) BARBERA MARI – “Torn” (Unsigned, Czech Republic) IAMJJ  – “On My Way” (Unsigned, Denmark) JAMIE HANNAH – “Surrender To You” (Unsigned, UK)

[vs-redemption]

As someone with an eurovision tattoo, I think I'm qualified enough to talk about this 😅.

Eurovision is a wonderful mess.

Europeans yelling at each other trough music, cursing at countries only, crewing other countries over with voting and all collectively rooting against the UK when it comes last again. Yes it is high in betting odds, but I believe in my fellow Europeans that we can give UK 0 points again. It's tradition!

Though Eurovision has a fascinating history! It started in 1956 to bring Europe together again after the wars. At first mainly Western Europe participated, then in 1961 Yugoslavia debuted, making it the only communist country to participate. The Soviet Union didn't like that the country became close with the West but that's a different story! Yugoslavia actually won the contest in 1989 (with Rock me by Riva), making it the first and last communist country to win.

In 1974 the legendary band ABBA won with Waterloo. ABBA is well known for their musical and movie Mamma Mia and its sequel. Funfact this was Swedens first win, so they won with a Classic!

In 1987 Johnny 'Mr Eurovision' Logan won the contest for the second time, he also wrote the 1992 winning entry 'Why Me' he is the only winner that won multiple times, though many have tried.

In 1993, the first ever pre-qualifiers were held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. 7 countries wanted to debut in Euroviaion, the EBU (broadcaster) didn't want that many new nations, so the qualifiers were held. Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia took part, the last 3 countries qualified for Eurovision. The other 4 debuted with Poland and Lithuania the year after.

There have been many political songs but I wanted to talk about Bosnias Eurovision song that year. Sva Bol Svijeta, all the pain in the world. At that time Bosnia was at war. Sarajevo (capital) was under siege. Europe watched as it didn't want to get involved. So the band Fazla, sung about the war, how they wouldn't give up, halfway trough the song they turned their back at Europe, The same way Europe did at Bosnia. To this day that song makes me cry. The band and spokesperson, who was in Sarajevo giving their points got alot of applause for this.

Well some fun facts

Serbia won the year they debuted in 2007

Portugals 1974 song became the signal against their dictator weeks after the contest.

Lucia Moniz (Portugal 1996) was in the classic Christmas movie, Love Actually. She played the Portugese Love interest of Jamie, the writer. She was also the highest result for Portugal until they won in 2017. Making it the longest wait to win in Eurovision! Now that title belongs to Iceland.

The youngest winner was a 13 year old girl, who lied that she was 15. Sandra Kim from Belgium.

Eurovision is sometimes called the gay superbowl and is more watched than the sport.

3 songs were performed in a made up language (Belgium did that twice and NL followed its neighbor in 2006)

I always root against my country.

Some countries almost won on their first attempt, and for some it's still their best result

Lithuania best result is a joke entry (2006, we are the winners, wich came 6th)

Joke entries are the best and the Baltics are the kings of the jokes.

The presenters of the 2008 contest got married in 2012

The presenter of the 2006, 50 years of eurovision made a joke that Finland would not win if they kept screaming, couple of weeks later Finland won, with a screaming band (Lordi)

Moldova is the meme country (epic sax guy, door meme...

The UK gets voted last as a joke by the rest of Europe.

Euroviaion had a mascot in 1990, called Eurocat. Never saw that again.

Some of my favorite entries if you want to check them out

Hajde da Ludujemo by Tajči 1990

Tih dezeven dan by 1x band 1993

Nekonecna Piesen by Tublatanka 1994

Romeo by Ketil Stokkan 1986

My Star by Brainstorm 2000

Honestly I could go on and on about eurovision and I might send another ask in the morning about Eurovision, but its 3 am and I'm tired!

-Enis

Wow Enis! You really know a lot about it!! I’ll look at some of your favorites later. I’m excited! I can’t believe it has so much history. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom! 💖

#enis💖 #anon squad #chat with cindy #Eurovision

[johnandtracyslittleones]

Haven Box Christmas School: Christmas Spices

This week could easily have been called Holiday Baking!

Poetry & Books

I couldn’t get any of the suggested books from the library this week (Competition for holiday books is fierce). I managed to snag a couple that featured baking in them, but that’s about all. We also read the poems offered for this week.

Science & Nature

Holiday Cookie Chemistry Lab! Our guide provided us with the info about the components of a holiday cookie:

Fat+Sugar+Egg+Leavening+Flour+Salt=Cookie!

I found a generic cookie dough recipe for them to experiment with so we would have the right proportions, then set out different options for fat, sugar and flour (I have an unreasonable amount of baking options). They each got to make a half batch. The guide explained the purpose of each element in the recipe, which we discussed before they added to their batter.

Kira’s mix included butter, a blend of powdered and brown sugar, and both oat and white flours. Jamie chose coconut oil, light and dark brown sugar, and a blend of almond flour and gluten free flour.

The next step was adding the Christmas Spices! The guide nicely explained what they are and how they are sourced. Then the kids each chose their spices and quantities - Jamie did cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla while Kira did cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Both batches turned out tasty, and it was fun to spot the differences each choice made. They LOVED this activity, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked to do it again in the future.

Nature Play

Our friends have left town for the rest of the year, so our nature play this week took place at the playground with Jules :)

Forest to Table

We made the recipe for cinnamon buns for breakfast last weekend before ice skating. I made the dough the night before, but they helped with the fillings. Did you know the first cinnamon roll was made in 1920 in Sweden? That feels far too recent…

Art & Handwork

For handwork, Kira made a delicious smelling orange and clove pomander. We enjoyed reading the history of citrus at Christmas from our guide to go along with it.

Another suggested handwork was making gingerbread ornaments. We have plenty of ornaments from last week, so we built our gingerbread house instead.

For music appreciation we learned the history of Jingle Bells and listened to several versions of it. We studied Deer in the Snowy Forest for art appreciation.

Field Trips

Does a field trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to bake cookies count? I think so! We baked and decorated holiday cookies with the family. They turned out really cute.

We also went caroling in the neighborhood, and lovely neighbors offered lots of home baked and store bought cookies and hot cider. Lots of holiday spices to be sampled 😁

[mirandamckenni1]

Are You a Butch, a Femme, or a Stem? Get an exclusive @Surfshark Black Friday deal! Enter promo code JESSICA to get up to 6 additional months for free at https://ift.tt/tHDfGqF The Original Lesbian // Sappho of Lesbos- https://youtu.be/7gzpY4Wv81U Is it ok to say 'queer'?- https://youtu.be/lh5R5mOFidU The Secret LGBTQ+ Language // Polari- https://youtu.be/D7ZEs2UbUPs The Girl King of Sweden- https://youtu.be/zro1NFz-uts How we got engaged after 5 months- https://youtu.be/pRxCVIrxLTA Queer Sign Language- https://youtu.be/Qq4zd3x_QIA Check out Jamie and Shaaba! https://www.youtube.com/@UCHSIA2JRC5PWvUX4Sl8OrcA FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram ➭ https://ift.tt/Bzt0qiG TikTok ➭ https://ift.tt/1BSRnpI Facebook ➭ https://ift.tt/QZtk5E2 Threads ➭ https://ift.tt/6xoOFGC How to JOIN the Kellgren-Fozard Club and SPONSOR this channel ➭ https://www.youtube.com/c/JessicaKellgrenFozard/join If you've enjoyed this video then feel free to buy me a drink to show your support! ➭ https://ift.tt/UjHyDYK Music by Epidemic Sound ➭ https://ift.tt/tYoEl7W Citations https://ift.tt/9Ga0qJ3 https://ift.tt/XRneT6c https://ift.tt/wbJom6E https://ift.tt/S4NzBbC https://ift.tt/myU8zcl A Girton Girl on the Throne https://ift.tt/hNKSFqX https://ift.tt/rUVQwte https://ift.tt/sVI7npt https://ift.tt/8d2RhJI https://ift.tt/FeQ1B2R https://ift.tt/lItT2rq --------------------- EQUIPMENT: These are Amazon affiliate links, they cost you nothing extra but they give me a little cash to feed my dogs! Sony a7 III ➭ https://amzn.to/2ZW9Zer LED lights ➭ https://amzn.to/2N0kVRI Rode Mic ➭ https://amzn.to/2DuO6Ik Zoom Recorder ➭ https://amzn.to/2tgLGYU via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33f02phVEAI

#IFTTT #YouTube #Youtube

[brookston]

Holidays 7.25

Holidays

Act Like a Caveman Day

Bayreuther Festspiele begins (Wagner festival; Germany) [thru 8.28]

Be Adamant About Something Day

Commonwealth Constitution Day (Puerto Rico) 

A Day Out of Time (Last Day of the Year; Mayan, Galactic)

Ebernoe Horn Fair (Sussex, UK)

Feed the Country Ducks Day

Festival of Picaresque Animality

Guanacaste Day (Costa Rica)

Guayaquil Day (Ecuador)

Health and Happiness with Hypnosis Day

John Knill Day (Cornwall, UK) [Every 5 Years]

Jumatul Bidah (Bangladesh)

Jumat-ul-Wida (India)

Merry-Go-Round Day [also 5.17]

National Carousel Day

National Day of Galicia (Spain)

National Hire a Veteran Day

National Video Game Team Day

Rain of Black Worms Day (Romania)

Red Shoe Day

Republic Day (Tunisia)

Santiago (Spain)

Test-Tube Baby Day

Thread the Needle Day

World Drowning Prevention Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Candles on a Cake Day

Culinarian’s Day

Frozen Fruit Freeze Day

Indie Beer Day (Australia)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

National Wine and Cheese Day

Fourth Monday in July

Hurricane Supplication Day (Virgin Islands) [4th Monday]

Feast Days

Anne (Eastern Christianity)

Christopher (Western Christianity)

Cucuphas (a.k.a. Cueufas; Christian; Saint)

Furrinalia (Old Roman Goddess of Springs)

Glodesind (Christian; Saint)

Holbein (Positivist; Saint)

Hot Fudge Sundae Day (Pastafarian)

Ilyap'a Festival (Inca thunder god)

James the Great (Western Christianity)

John I Agnus (Christian; Saint)

Julian of Le Mans (Christian; Translation)

Magnerich of Trier (Christian; Saint)

National Baha’i Day (Jamaica)

Nissen, Abbot of Mountgarret, Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Paul (Christian; Martyr)

Shylock Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Thea and Valentina (Christian; Virgins)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Air Force One (Film; 1997)

Back in Black, by AC/DC (Album; 1980)

Caddyshack (Film; 1980)

China Grove, by the Doobie Brothers (Song; 1973)

A Chorus Line (Broadway Musical; 1975)

Drinking Buddies (Film; 2013)

Fame, by David Bowie (Song; 1975)

Kill ‘Em All, by Metallica (Album; 1983)

Maximum Overdrive (Film; 1986)

Seabiscuit (Film; 2003)

Step Brothers (Film; 2008)

Yes, by Yes (Album; 1969)

You Can’t Hurry Love, by The Supremes (Song; 1966)

Today’s Name Days

Jakob, Thea (Austria)

Ana, Yana (Bulgaria)

Beata, Jakov, Krsto, Valentina (Croatia)

Jakub (Czech Republic)

Jacobus (Denmark)

Jaagup, Jaak, Jaako, Jaap, Jako, Jakob, Jass (Estonia)

Jaakko, Jaakob, Jaakoppi, Jimi (Finland)

Jacques, Valentine (France)

Jakob, Valentine (Germany)

Anna (Greece)

Jakab, Kristóf (Hungary)

Cristoforo, Giacomo (Italy)

Jēkabs, Marika (Latvia)

Aušrinė, Jokūbas, Kristupas (Lithuania)

Jack, Jakob, Jim (Norway)

Jakub, Krzysztof, Nieznamir, Sławosz, Walentyna (Poland)

Jakub (Slovakia)

Jaime, Santiago (Spain)

Jakob (Sweden)

Jac, Jack, Jacki, Jackie, Jackson, Jacky, Jacques, Jimmie (Universal)

Coby, Colby, Diego, Israel, Jacob, Jacoby, Jack, Jackie, Jackson, Jaclyn, Jacqueline, Jacquelyn, Jacques, Jaime, Jake, Jakob, James, Jameson, Jamie, Jaquan, Jaqueline, Jaxon, Jaxson, Jim, Jimena, Jimmie, Jimmy, Kobe, Koby, Kolby, Santiago (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 206 of 2022; 159 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 30 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 17 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Héyuè), Day 27 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 26 Tammuz 5782

Islamic: 25 Ḏū al-Ḥijjah 1443

J Cal: 26 Lux; Foursday [26 of 30]

Julian: 12 July 2022

Moon: 9% Waning Crescent

Positivist: 10 Dante (8th Month) [Holbein]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 35 of 90)

Zodiac: Leo (Day 3 of 31)

#calendar #Holidays

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.25

Holidays

Act Like a Caveman Day

Bayreuther Festspiele begins (Wagner festival; Germany) [thru 8.28]

Be Adamant About Something Day

Commonwealth Constitution Day (Puerto Rico) 

A Day Out of Time (Last Day of the Year; Mayan, Galactic)

Ebernoe Horn Fair (Sussex, UK)

Feed the Country Ducks Day

Festival of Picaresque Animality

Guanacaste Day (Costa Rica)

Guayaquil Day (Ecuador)

Health and Happiness with Hypnosis Day

John Knill Day (Cornwall, UK) [Every 5 Years]

Jumatul Bidah (Bangladesh)

Jumat-ul-Wida (India)

Merry-Go-Round Day [also 5.17]

National Carousel Day

National Day of Galicia (Spain)

National Hire a Veteran Day

National Video Game Team Day

Rain of Black Worms Day (Romania)

Red Shoe Day

Republic Day (Tunisia)

Santiago (Spain)

Test-Tube Baby Day

Thread the Needle Day

World Drowning Prevention Day (UN)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Candles on a Cake Day

Culinarian’s Day

Frozen Fruit Freeze Day

Indie Beer Day (Australia)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

National Wine and Cheese Day

Fourth Monday in July

Hurricane Supplication Day (Virgin Islands) [4th Monday]

Feast Days

Anne (Eastern Christianity)

Christopher (Western Christianity)

Cucuphas (a.k.a. Cueufas; Christian; Saint)

Furrinalia (Old Roman Goddess of Springs)

Glodesind (Christian; Saint)

Holbein (Positivist; Saint)

Hot Fudge Sundae Day (Pastafarian)

Ilyap'a Festival (Inca thunder god)

James the Great (Western Christianity)

John I Agnus (Christian; Saint)

Julian of Le Mans (Christian; Translation)

Magnerich of Trier (Christian; Saint)

National Baha’i Day (Jamaica)

Nissen, Abbot of Mountgarret, Ireland (Christian; Saint)

Paul (Christian; Martyr)

Shylock Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Thea and Valentina (Christian; Virgins)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Air Force One (Film; 1997)

Back in Black, by AC/DC (Album; 1980)

Caddyshack (Film; 1980)

China Grove, by the Doobie Brothers (Song; 1973)

A Chorus Line (Broadway Musical; 1975)

Drinking Buddies (Film; 2013)

Fame, by David Bowie (Song; 1975)

Kill ‘Em All, by Metallica (Album; 1983)

Maximum Overdrive (Film; 1986)

Seabiscuit (Film; 2003)

Step Brothers (Film; 2008)

Yes, by Yes (Album; 1969)

You Can’t Hurry Love, by The Supremes (Song; 1966)

Today’s Name Days

Jakob, Thea (Austria)

Ana, Yana (Bulgaria)

Beata, Jakov, Krsto, Valentina (Croatia)

Jakub (Czech Republic)

Jacobus (Denmark)

Jaagup, Jaak, Jaako, Jaap, Jako, Jakob, Jass (Estonia)

Jaakko, Jaakob, Jaakoppi, Jimi (Finland)

Jacques, Valentine (France)

Jakob, Valentine (Germany)

Anna (Greece)

Jakab, Kristóf (Hungary)

Cristoforo, Giacomo (Italy)

Jēkabs, Marika (Latvia)

Aušrinė, Jokūbas, Kristupas (Lithuania)

Jack, Jakob, Jim (Norway)

Jakub, Krzysztof, Nieznamir, Sławosz, Walentyna (Poland)

Jakub (Slovakia)

Jaime, Santiago (Spain)

Jakob (Sweden)

Jac, Jack, Jacki, Jackie, Jackson, Jacky, Jacques, Jimmie (Universal)

Coby, Colby, Diego, Israel, Jacob, Jacoby, Jack, Jackie, Jackson, Jaclyn, Jacqueline, Jacquelyn, Jacques, Jaime, Jake, Jakob, James, Jameson, Jamie, Jaquan, Jaqueline, Jaxon, Jaxson, Jim, Jimena, Jimmie, Jimmy, Kobe, Koby, Kolby, Santiago (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 206 of 2022; 159 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 30 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 17 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Héyuè), Day 27 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 26 Tammuz 5782

Islamic: 25 Ḏū al-Ḥijjah 1443

J Cal: 26 Lux; Foursday [26 of 30]

Julian: 12 July 2022

Moon: 9% Waning Crescent

Positivist: 10 Dante (8th Month) [Holbein]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 35 of 90)

Zodiac: Leo (Day 3 of 31)

#Holidays

[jamiencommonsswedishfanpage]

#jamiencommons #goldenvoice #jamie n commons sweden fan page #heavenlyvoice #music

[musicals-in-sweden]

Teaser for Everybody’s talking about Jamie - Opening at Malmö Opera September 1st 2023

#everybody's talking about jamie #jamie musical #etaj musical #etaj #jamie musical sweden #malmö opera #Malmo opera #teaser #2023 #musical theatre #musical theater #musicals #musicals in sweden

[louistomlinsoncouk]

Headline Wembley Arena Show Announced For April 2022

New Postponed World Tour Dates Confirmed For Spring 2022

Louis Tomlinson today announces that he is partnering with BMG to release his second album globally.

Recording is already underway for the record, and Louis joins a roster at BMG that includes KSI, Craig David, Richard Ashcroft, The Prodigy and Kylie Minogue.

Louis says: "I’m very excited to start the next part of my journey with BMG.”

Jamie Nelson VP A&R at BMG UK says: "We are delighted to welcome Louis to BMG. He is already busy working on new music, and we are excited to join him on the next phase of his extraordinary career."

Louis also announces today the first wave of new 2022 dates for his postponed World Tour in UK, Europe, USA and Australia, including a brand new date at London's Wembley Arena. This show replaces Louis's two sold out London shows at The Roundhouse, and tickets will be transferred to the new venue.

Louis's first show at Wembley Arena will take place on April 22nd 2022, and extra tickets for the gig go on sale on Friday 14th May at 9am BST.

After postponing his 2020 world tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Louis will now finally get back on the road with his first solo tour, which is already completely sold out. The new dates are listed below. Further international rescheduled dates will be announced at a later date.

Last year, Louis released his million selling smash debut solo album 'Walls' which hit Top 3 in the UK and Top 10 in the USA. A lyrically personal album that proved he had found his feet as a solo artist, the album produced a clutch of acclaimed singles including the emotive first release Two of Us, the raucous Kill My Mind, the reflective We Made It.

In 2019 Louis headlined the Coca-Cola music festival in Madrid to an audience of 25,000 people, and performed to 65,000 fans at Premios Telehit in the Foro Sol stadium in Mexico City. Louis picked up the Best Song Award at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards for 'Two Of Us', which has so far hit over 100 million streams on Spotify alone.

In 2018 Louis won an iHeart Award for 'Best Solo Breakout', and an EMA Award for 'Best UK & Ireland Act' in 2017. He was ranked No.5 on Billboard’s emerging artists of 2018 and has over 60 million combined followers on social media. Last year he won 'Artist Of The Summer' in Philly radio station 96.5 TDY's annual awards.

In December 2020, Louis hosted one of the biggest live stream concert events of 2020, selling over 160,000 tickets to fans in over 100 countries and raising funds for several important charities. As a member of One Direction, Louis has sold over 100 million records. Overall Louis’ solo music has garnered over a BILLION streams.

Louis Tomlinson Tour Dates 2022

NORTH AMERICA

1st Feb South Side Ballroom, Dallas, TX

2nd Feb ACL Live at The Moody Theater, Austin, TX - SOLD OUT

3rd Feb Bayou Music Center, Houston, TX - SOLD OUT

5th Feb The Pageant, St Louis, MO - SOLD OUT

7th Feb Coca-Cola Roxy, Atlanta, GA - SOLD OUT

8th Feb Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN - SOLD OUT

10th Feb Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY - SOLD OUT

11th Feb Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY - SOLD OUT

12th Feb The Anthem, Washington DC - SOLD OUT

14th Feb Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA - SOLD OUT

15th Feb The Met, Philadelphia, PA - SOLD OUT

17th Feb House Of Blues Boston, Boston, MA - SOLD OUT

19th Feb REBEL, Toronto, ON - SOLD OUT

20th Feb The Fillmore, Detroit, MI - SOLD OUT

21st Feb Murat Theatre at Old National Centre, Indianapolis, IN - SOLD OUT

23rd Feb The Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT

24th Feb The Fillmore Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN - SOLD OUT

26th Feb Uptown, Kansas City, MO - NEW SHOW

28th Feb Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO

1st Mar UCUU Center, Orem, UT - NEW VENUE

3rd Mar Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA - SOLD OUT

4th Mar Roseland, Portland, OR - NEW VENUE - SOLD OUT

6th Mar Orpheum, Vancouver, BC - SOLD OUT

7th Mar Roseland, Portland, OR - NEW SHOW

10th Mar Fox Theatre, Oakland, CA - SOLD OUT

12th Mar Performance Venue at Hollywood Park, Los Angeles, CA - NEW SHOW

UK & EUROPE

23rd Mar Valsheimilið, Reykjavik, Iceland

25th Mar Arenan Fryshuset, Stockholm, Sweden - SOLD OUT

27th Mar Spektrum, Oslo, Norway - NEW VENUE

28th Mar Forum Black Box, Copenhagen, Denmark – NEW SHOW

30th Mar Columbiahalle, Berlin, Germany - SOLD OUT

31st Mar Forum Karlin, Prague, Czech Republic - SOLD OUT

2nd Apr AFAS Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands - SOLD OUT

3rd Apr Palladium, Cologne, Germany – NEW SHOW

5th Apr L’Olympia, Paris, France - SOLD OUT

6th Apr L’Olympia, Paris, France - SOLD OUT

8th Apr Lorenzini District, Milan, Italy - NEW VENUE

9th Apr Halle 622, Zurich, Switzerland - SOLD OUT

11th Apr Gasometer, Vienna, Austria - SOLD OUT

13th Apr Torwar Hall, Warsaw, Poland – NEW VENUE  

14th Apr MTP5, Poznan, Poland – NEW SHOW

16th Apr Lotto Arena, Antwerp, Belgium – NEW SHOW

18th Apr O2 Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, UK – SOLD OUT

19th Apr O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK – SOLD OUT

20th Apr O2 Apollo, Manchester, UK – NEW SHOW

22nd Apr SSE Arena Wembley, London, UK – NEW VENUE

23rd Apr Doncaster Dome, Doncaster, UK – SOLD OUT

20th Jul Fortitude Hall, Brisbane, Australia – NEW SHOW

22nd Jul Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia – SOLD OUT

25th Jul Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, Australia – NEW VENUE

29th Jul HBF Stadium, Perth, Australia – NEW SHOW

#louis tomlinson #10may21 #bmg

[passportapproved]

4.28.24

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK'S SHOW! THE DREAM MACHINE  – “Frankenstein” (Unsigned, U.K.) GIRL IN RED  – “Too Much” (AWAL, Norway) GIANT ROOKS – “Under Your Wings” (Universal Music, Germany) KEYSIDE  – “Turn Back The Time” (Modern Sky, U.K.)  GOOD NEIGHBOURS – “Home” (Unsigned, U.K.) ALFIE TEMPLEMAN  – “Eyes Wide Shut” (Chess Club/AWAL, U.K.) MIDDLE KIDS  – “The Blessings ” (EMI, Australia) CARAVAN PALACE – “Fool” (Wagram, France) RED RUM CLUB  – “Hole In My Home” (Modern Sky, U.K.) MICHAEL ALDAG  – “Sabotage” (3 Beat/Universal, U.K.)  ANAÏS – “Stephen King” (Believe, Germany) ONLY THE POETS  – “One More Night” (EMI Records, U.K.) DOTAN – “Louder” (7 Layers Music, Holland)  RHETT REPKO  – “My Love Will Stay” (Unsigned, N. America) NEWDAD – “Madra” (Atlantic Records, U.K.) NOTHING BUT THIEVES – “Oh No :: He Said What?” (RCA Records, U.K.)  BETTER JOY – “Hard To Love” (Fader Amp, UK) THE MEZZ – “Now I Found You” (AWAL, U.K.) ACROBVT  – “Neon” (Unsigned, U.K.) MATTHEW MOLE – “Always By My Side” (Universal Music, S. Africa) RADIO FREE ALICE – “Waste of Space” (Double Drummer, Australia) TRIBE FRIDAY – “Andy” (ICEA, Sweden)  JAMIE HANNAH  – “What If” (Unsigned, U.K.) SEA GIRLS  – “I Want You To Know Me” (Believe/Alt Records, U.K.) FLAT PARTY  – “Aching For Living” (Unsigned, U.K.) CORELLA – “Head Underwater” (Corella Music, U.K.) TALISCO – “Sorry” (Roy Music, France) EVERYTHING EVERYTHING  – “The End of The Contender” (Propeller, U.K.) BO MILLI  – “Making Friends” (AWAL, Norway) MASI MASI – “Cigarette Smile” (Unsigned, U.K.) MYLES SMITH – “Solo” (Propeller Recordings, U.K.) THE CAVS – “The Kids Are Talking” (Unsigned, U.K.) MARIE NAFFAH  – “Rust & Blue” (Frictionless, U.K.) CATHOLIC GUILT  – “Can You See Me” (Unsigned, Australia)

[starring-movies]

The Haunting of Bly Manor: Episode Analysis

*SPOILERS*

Episode 1 - The Great Good Place

The first episode of the second season of ‘The Haunting’ anthology series, ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’, begins with the opening credits which kick off each episode of this season. In these credits, we see painted portraits of each of the main characters of the season (Dani, Peter, Rebecca, Jamie, Owen, Miles and Flora, and Hannah) and the features of their faces gradually disappear, the significance of which we do not discover until later on. Although Dani is the only one who actually remains a ghost after becoming the new Lady of the Lake and will have this physically happen to her, having not just Dani’s but all of the main characters’ facial features smoothing over, goes deeper in telling us that even though the general ‘shape’ of you remains in people’s memories of you, it is the final fate that “all things fade” [ep 8] and will eventually be forgotten over time.

Is is also notable that all of the characters’ portraits are shown to be in rectangular frames, however, Hannah Grose’s portrait is in an oval frame. This subtle detail, just like the disappearing facial features, indicates something important to the plot that is not made sense of until watching further. In this case, we find out in Episode 5 that Hannah is actually a ghost herself and that her body is lying at the bottom of a well on the grounds, but in the beginning credits, we are subtly being shown that Hannah is different to the others without it yet being revealed in what way.

After the beginning credits, the actual episode begins with The Storyteller, who we later find out is Jamie, reciting the lyrics of “O Willow Waly” by Isla Cameron. The lyrics of the whole song are:

“We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow,

But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree,

Singing ‘oh willow waly’ by the tree that weeps with me,

Singing ‘oh willow waly’ till my lover return to me,

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow,

A broken heart have I,

Oh willow I die, oh willow I die”

The song was originally in the 1961 movie ‘The Innocents’ which, like The Haunting of Bly Manor, is another adaptation of Henry James’ 1898 novella ‘The Turn of the Screw’. The song is constantly repeated throughout The Haunting of Bly Manor by various characters, as well as being the music played in a music box which was found amongst the belongings of Miles and Flora’s mother, Charlotte Wingrave.

The lyrics of the song, describing the singer sitting beneath a willow tree giving a sad lament for a lost lover, are very apt for what will come throughout the series - the tragic gothic romances of Henry and Charlotte Wingrave, Rebecca and Peter, Owen and Hannah, and Dani and Jamie. In each of these instances, someone in the partnership can be reflected in the singer of the song, lamenting for their lost love and lover (Henry Wingrave, Rebecca, Owen and Jamie all suffer this same sad lament after losing their love).

Having Jamie recite these lyrics at the beginning of the season also tells us at the very beginning, what Older Flora tells us in Episode 9; that Jamie isn’t telling a “ghost story” but a “love story”, and similarly that we are watching a love story and not necessarily a ghost story in the traditional sense.

We then watch as Jamie wakes up in her hotel room and she immediately looks towards her right shoulder. This is something that can easily be overlooked on a first viewing, however, we discover at the very end of Episode 9 that Dani’s hand was touching Jamie’s right shoulder as she fell asleep - it is up to the viewer whether this is actually Dani or instead a comforting memory of Jamie’s - so in this moment as she wakes up, Jamie is actually looking at her shoulder because she felt Dani’s presence to some degree. Similarly, we also find out in Episode 9 that Jamie’s ritualistic staring into the water’s reflection in the bath and sink is done in the hope that she will one day see Dani reflected back at her.

When Jamie first wakes up we can also see that she’s smiling, as if she was dreaming of her life with Dani, possibly having been tucked away in a memory of them by Dani, who quietly watches over and protects her.

We then continue as we see that it’s 2007 and Jamie arrives at Older Flora’s wedding reception, and it seems that her arrival is surprising to Older Owen, who looks like he did not expect Jamie to attend. His surprise is most likely due to the grief that he will be aware that Jamie carries after losing Dani, and Dani only died from the sacrifice that she made to save Flora from The Lady in the Lake. However, after seeing Jamie arrive, Owen says in his speech that “to truly love another person is to accept that the work of loving them is worth the pain of losing them”. This is something that is not only applicable to Owen himself, as he truly loved Hannah and is under the belief that loving her was also worth the pain of eventually losing her; but what he says is also applicable for Jamie (who he seems to be specifically directing this comment towards).

The wedding reception carries on into the evening, where all the attendants have gathered together and begin to talk about ghost stories. They speak of ghost stories flippantly, chalking them down to being “just a story” and a “part of the sales package” so that “they can charge a few hundred extra for the ghost story”. In this conversation one woman also jokes about being warned of a ghost called “Seamus” who had “his head crushed in where a horse had kicked him” and all the other guests laugh lightheartedly (and somewhat disrespectfully) at this.

However, Jamie says that she has a real ghost story but she warns that it’s long and not her story, and despite this Owen encourages her to tell it saying, “well it seems we’ve got time enough, and wine enough, why not?”. Owen is more than likely to be aware of what story Jamie is referring to and so he clearly also wants Miles and Flora to know what happened to them as children, and more importantly the sacrifice that Dani made for them. This is something that Dani, Jamie and Owen discussed when Dani and Jamie were visiting Owen’s restaurant in France, A Batter Place, in Episode 9.

During that conversation in France, Owen says that he wouldn’t tell the children and “just let them be” and “let them live their lives the way they should without anything hanging over them”. However, since that conversation Dani has died and unlike the children she didn’t get a chance to live her life the way she should, and so it seems that Owen’s opinion has changed. It appears that he now thinks that the children should know what happened and what Dani sacrificed for them (especially if they’re told indirectly, which Jamie subtly makes clear to Owen as she makes a point to say that “it isn’t really my story”).

Jamie then begins to tell her story where we switch to London in 1987, and we do not return to Older Jamie at the wedding reception until Episode 9. In our first introduction to Dani, we can clearly see that she’s a tourist and very much out of her depth. She appears slightly flustered and scattered as she checks her map to make sure she’s arrived at the right location and comically, with typical tourist fashion, she wears a hidden waist bag which holds her map and the address of the location for the job interview.

Interestingly, Dani’s red rucksack has some flags on it, which are most likely patches which she’s collected on her European travels after leaving America. The flags show us that she’s not just come straight from America to the UK, but that she’s been backpacking all throughout Europe and really is running away from her past. The flags show us that she’s been to Sweden, the UK, France, Luxembourg/The Netherlands and Italy (or Ireland, but it’s unlikely that she went to Ireland based on the direction she’s travelled and the fact she’s in London now) - Dani has also attached the flags of Luxembourg/The Netherlands incorrectly, as these two are upside down.

As Dani is about to cross the road to go into Henry Wingrave’s office building, she suddenly sees a spectre with glowing eyes in the window of a fast passing car. We don’t yet know that this is her ex-fiancé who’s image she is haunted by after he is killed when she breaks off her engagement to him, having realising that she is attracted to women. The fact that Dani sees him on her way to the job interview, shows us that he appears to her not only when she is feeling the guilt from her sexuality, when she is advancing her relationship with Jamie (which we see happens later on); but also when she is just generally attempting to move on with her life.

During her interview with Henry, we can clearly see by her body language that Dani is trying to put on a confident facade but it’s exactly that - a facade. Although she tries to exude confidence through her body language, we can see that she’s uncomfortable as she awkwardly shuffles and attempts a British accent when she says that she’s “fallen quite in love with London”. An attempt which we can see is not well received by Henry as he rolls his eyes and says “god” under his breath.

Although, Dani is used to putting on a facade, we know from Episode 4 that she has in fact been putting one on for her whole life; agreeing to marry Eddie (the fiancé) just because she “didn’t want to hurt you [Eddie] and your mom” and was just hoping that she “could just stick it out and eventually [she] would feel how [she] was supposed to”. Dani had been putting on a front and was hiding how she felt for her whole life, just as Older Jamie says in Episode 4, that “the au pair had been telling herself to wait another night, another time for years and years”.

We can also see that although Dani still appears to be quiet and meek, she is now stronger in her life than when she was with Eddie, and when Henry tries to ask what “the catch” is, she bites back at him and says that she had the same question for him as the job seemed easy to fill. We also see this confidence later on when she decides that she wants to pursue a relationship with Jamie, she is sick of hiding how she feels and acting how she’s been told to, and so in Episode 3 she tentatively makes the first move with Jamie as she’s sick of hiding and wants to show Jamie that she’s interested in her.

We also find out why Dani has such continual trouble making tea, as she says to Henry that she hasn’t “quite mastered tea, I’m used to it coming in a pitcher, full of ice cubes and lemon wedges”.

This facade is also shown visually in the interview scene, as she is wearing a black blazer during the interview with Henry, when she is trying to impress him for the job. When we see her looking in the job section of a newspaper after the failed interview, we can see that she has taken off her blazer and she has also taken off the front of caring what impression she makes with him, and so she storms up to confront him when she sees him sit down at the bar. The removal of the blazer also shows us how much more genuine Dani comes across when she’s not pretending and is just being herself - Henry doesn’t give her the job during the interview, when she’s trying to be impressive; but when she’s just being her authentic self in the pub, he decides to give her the job because he can see her genuine caring intention to help the children.

It is also notable that she is drinking a beer, a stereotypically masculine drink and another thing that makes her more unusual.

During this conversation Dani says that when she used to teach the fourth grade there was “too many of them and too little of [her]” and she thinks that she “could make a difference, a real difference, with just two”. This wish, to “make a real difference”, is actually something that Dani ends up fulfilling when she saves Flora and Miles, but she is only able to do this with a tremendous sacrifice of her own life and happiness.

Whilst on the car ride with Owen, after being picked up by him in London, Dani has a conversation about Bly with him. In this conversation Owen tells Dani how he was born in Bly, how he has been living in France but has now come back, and says that “the whole town is one big gravity well, and it’s easy to get stuck”. This inescapability of Bly makes sense, as we later find out in Episode 8 that The Lady of the Lake has created her own “invented gravity” within the grounds of the manor from her grief and anger. From what Owen says it is apparent that The Lady of the Lake’s “gravity” is the strongest within the grounds, but its affect has also managed to seep its way into the town of Bly itself.

After Dani arrives at Bly, it is strongly implied that Fora had just been controlled by Rebecca Jessel. Flora is singing “O Willow Waly” by the lake, which is the song that plays in the music box that Rebecca and Peter kept their Polaroids in, but she turns around in confusion saying “what song?” when Dani remarks “what a beautiful song” - this confusion at not being able to remember what she’s done is something that Flora always has after being taken over by Rebecca.

As well as this, Flora is sitting by the lake, which Dani says in Episode 3 that Flora “hates the lake”; but just like the various other times when Flora is taken over by Rebecca, Rebecca uses Flora’s body to walk to the lake (the location where she was killed by Peter and mourns for her life that was snatched from her).

Flora goes on to tell Dani that “you’re expected”, which is a nod back to ‘The Haunting of Hill House and actually a chilling thing for Flora to say after knowing what happens to Nell. In Hill House, Olivia - who is Nell’s, also played by Victoria Pedretti, mother - similarly tells Nell “you’re expected”. Nell goes back to Hill House and dies there and Dani eventually returns to Bly Manor where she dies.

Flora also introduces Dani to Miles and Mrs Hannah Grose. The latter of whom we come to find out is actually a ghost and has, only moments before, been pushed down the well by Peter Quint (possessing Miles’ body) and killed, and when we first see her she is actually staring down at her own corpse.

The creepy moment when Miles is lurking by Dani’s door and watching her get changed is still unsettling, but it’s made slightly less creepy when we later find out that it was one of the times when it was actually Peter in Miles’ body.

When they all have their dinner that evening, we do see Hannah have a sip of tea (which Dani notices she’s hardly drank any of, but she puts down to it tasting bad), however she also doesn’t eat her food and continues not to eat any food - a small hint that Hannah is actually dead.

While Dani is giving Flora her bath before bed, Flora looks over Dani’s left shoulder and seems to be having a partial conversation with someone who’s not Dani - Flora comments that she’s being silly even though Dani hasn’t said anything that would prompt her to say that, and she’s initially mad at Dani for having the butterfly clip that belonged to Rebecca. But after looking over Dani’s shoulder, Flora nods in agreement and tells Dani that it’s actually okay, so it appears that Rebecca told Flora that Dani could have her hair clip. We learn later on that Flora continuously sees Miss Jessel standing behind Dani’s left shoulder, as she seems to be continuing to watch over Flora even as a ghost, but Rebecca doesn’t reveal herself to Dani until Episode 7.

Just before bedtime, Dani says that Flora can play with her dollhouse, which is a microcosm of Bly Manor. The locations for all of those within the house are shown to Flora by the Doll Face Ghost, who dictates the placement of the dolls for her. Dani sees Flora playing with one of the dolls and asks “is that me?” to which Flora replies “why, no, silly, you’re you”. At first this is a comment that can easily be dismissed, but in Episode 9 it bears much more importance. In Episode 9, Flora gives Dani the doll that she was playing with in this scene, because she tells her that “you must have it, it’s you”.

Flora knows that The Lady of the Lake is within Dani and now, unlike when they first met, she has become a doll. Dani is just a puppet who will one day be completely taken over by The Lady. Flora knows that Dani is no longer “you”, after The Lady has accepted Dani’s invitation she has lost a part of herself to The Lady, and the doll is now as similar to Dani as she is to herself.

We are shown some shots of within the dollhouse where we can see that Miss Jessel’s doll is next to Flora’s bed, so this confirms that Flora has just been looking at and speaking to Miss Jessel; we can also see that Peter’s doll is in Miles’ room, so this also confirms that Peter is following Miles around.

The next day Dani goes into the church on the grounds, where she finds Hannah lighting some candles for “the dead”. She lights four; one for Charlotte Wingrave, one for Henry Wingrave, one for Rebecca Jessel and she doesn’t yet realise it (and nor do we) but the last candle is sadly for herself - it can’t be for Peter because Hannah doesn’t yet know that Peter is dead, everyone thinks that he’s just ran away.

That night, just before Miles and Flora’s bedtime, Dani kicks the doll which represents The Lady of the Lake, as it was sitting in the middle of the floor. Flora’s dresser represents the lake and the dollhouse is the manor, so we know that The Lady is on her way to the house, which is why Dani is locked in the cupboard - not because the children are playing a cruel game, which is what it first seems, but because they are actually trying to protect her, as they know that The Lady approaching and they’ve seen what she did to Peter.

You can read my previous The Haunting of Bly Manor posts here:-

Episode 2 - The Pupil

Episode 3 - The Two Faces, Part One

Episode 4 - The Way It Came

Episode 5 - The Altar of the Dead

Episode 6 - The Jolly Corner

——————————————————————————

#the haunting of Bly manor #Mike Flanagan #victoria pedretti #Oliver Jackson Cohen #Amelia Eve #t’nia Miller #rahul kohli #carla gugino #tahirah sharif #Henry Thomas #kate siegal #the haunting of hill house #dani x jamie #film #good tv #lgbtq #w|w #tv recommendations #tv reviews #horror #cinematography #dani Clayton #thobm #thohh #reviews #love #gothic romance #you #peter x rebecca #owen x hannah

[corinthbayrpg]

NAME. Emma Darlington AGE & BIRTH DATE. 376 & September 3rd, 1645 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Female & She/Her SPECIES. Vampire OCCUPATION. Singer at Ambrosia FACE CLAIM. Olivia Holt

BIOGRAPHY

( tw: death, blood, violence, nazis ) In a small cottage in the English countryside, a young girl came wailing into the world. Colicky, fidgety, and desperate for her parent’s attention; Emma Haywood was well-loved and adored by both her mother and father. Her father was a physician, not in study but in practice. He was known for splinting broken bones and using tonics and salves to stave off infection, while her mother was an artist. Creative and carefree, Marie was a force of nature. Emma’s earliest memories came of her father’s distance, it was around when she was two or three that he grew apart from his family. At least, that was how it seemed. He would never hold his daughter, or coddle her, nor did he show his wife any physical attention that Emma could see. To her, that was simply the norm. Where her father lacked, her mother picked up. Marie reminded Emma daily of her father’s love for them, of how he worked hard for them, and how he had demons that needed to be contended with. 

It was a few months after Emma’s seventh birthday that her mother fell terribly ill, it was not long after that she passed on. Her father, Leighton, was a mess and clearly unfit to raise a young girl properly. She was passed off to a neighboring family, close friends who had a son only two years Emma’s junior. They had grown up together already, and at the very least Emma would have someone who was like a brother to her. For a time she kept expecting her father to come back, like it was a visit to the neighbors like any other. Every night in secret she would light a candle and leave it in her window so that her father might see it and find his way through the dark to her. In the morning Emma would find the candle burned down to the wick, a pool of deflated wax over the sill that she found she had something in common with. It too had learned to pour itself into a new shape, and so should she. 

Days turned to weeks turned to years and Emma’s father never returned, but by now she had a new family. People who played with her, a brother who loved her, and more and more the sting of her mother’s death and her father’s abandonment became but a distant memory. There were more happy Christmases than sad, and when times were hard there was an ample supply of love between the four of them to keep them afloat. 

Much like her mother, Emma was naturally creative and had a talent and ear for music that others in the village lacked. It was for her fifth Christmas with her new family that they revealed that they’d scrimped and saved to procure her a lute. It was nothing fancy, but to Emma it was the entire world. She played it day in and day out, not well, but she learned. They had no formal sheet music, so Emma would make up her own tunes - she’d mimic the sound of the river, or the whistle of the baker, and the hum of the church choir. 

Years passed and Emma grew older and proved herself a formidable young woman, there was an expectation that she would have to marry, but at every turn she deflected the advances of the locals. She was not without her girlhood crushes and romances, but the thought of settling down as her mother had, of having a daughter of her own. It didn’t sit well with her when she still had so many dreams of the outside world, her adopted mother would tell her to get her head out of the clouds. She told Emma that she was living in a fantasy world and that someday she’d need a man to take care of her. Like the rolling hills of the countryside, Emma could see all the years of her life stretched out before here. She’d marry the baker’s son, or maybe the blacksmith’s and she’d bare for them a batch of cherry-cheeked children. Perhaps she would continue to play the lute, but most likely she would become too old and too tired, then Emma would simply pass on. Perhaps of sickness like her mother, or perhaps she would grow old and her children would care for her like the fisherman’s mother. 

Emma saw all the years of her life before her and thought of her father, he had left, and despite all the whisperings that the locals made of him at least he was free. Emma convinced her brother Sterling to leave with her, to move to use what money they had scrimped and saved and move to London so they could have a shot at a real future. Emma was nineteen at the time, a woman grown, and Sterling was a man. They made their choice together and despite their parent’s wishes slipped out and made for the big city. 

In London Emma found work at a pub, she played her lute and sang for the patrons and earned a few tidy coins as she did. Their life was meager, but it was theirs. Together Sterling and Emma found a place together and for a few years everything was peaceful and seemed to be as it should. It was late one evening when Emma was mugged on her way home from work, they wanted the money she’d earned and she refused to give it up. Bleeding and weak in the street, a shadow swept over her, the person fed her his blood but not in time to save her from death’s embrace. Emma died with the vampire’s blood in her system and awoke later that night as one of the undead. 

Bloodlust was not something the young vampire could control, but people disappeared everyday in the bustling city. Emma could not walk in the light of day, but her work at the tavern only brought her out at night. Sterling was the only one who knew her truth, and even he needed to keep his distance because she simply couldn’t control herself. Years passed and gradually Emma got a hold of her new found condition, but she noticed that Sterling was still growing old while she remained the same. Emma had already been abandoned twice in her life and the thought of spending any amount of eternity without her brother was painful. It took some convincing, but after her own experience she knew that she could turn another if she tried. 

Sterling’s transformation was not without consequences, Emma killed more liberally now as she took some enjoyment in her newfound power. She and her brother had a terrible falling out because he grew to resent what she had convinced him to do. Sterling left, and he was the third person to abandon her. Angry and resentful, Emma took her anger out on the world and clung to the first person she met who could even remotely relate to what she was going through. This came in the form of a newly-turned vampire named Jamie Price. Emma had grown up with nothing and watching high society types bend to the will of her compulsion was endlessly enjoyable once she learned how to exercise it properly. There was a part of her that might have loved him, but he was as reckless and violent as he was sweet and charming. It made for an intoxicating combination and the two of them flamed out just as quickly as they had begun. 

For over a century Emma terrorized London and the neighboring countryside and for this she earned the ire of a coven who called upon a fury to enact vengeance. She’d have died if another vampire did not save her life, Deucalion protected her and taught her what she needed to not only be a vampire, but to survive as one. She procured a daylight ring and for the first time in over a hundred years Emma stepped out into the light of day once again. A feat that she’d long given up hope for. She was powerful and she was sated, it would have been her wish to travel with Cal for longer but it was not his nature and she was not his progeny. A term she only came to learn while under his care. 

No longer the ripper she’d once been, Emma began to ponder what more there could be for her. The world was continuously changing but what she’d never really experienced was true love - nor did she ever have the best example for it either. Her adopted parents had loved one another, but somehow she still wanted more. She fell for men and women alike, and there was one man in particular who captured her interests though she soon found that she was not the only one who shared his bed. Emma confronted this other woman and made a lifelong friend out of yet another vampire named Harlow. Unlike Sterling, or Jamie, or even Cal there was nothing that Harlow wished to change about her and nothing that Emma would change about the other. The philandering man happened to have a wife, and he paid for his insolence dearly. 

Though they were not always together, Emma was a natural wanderer and kept in touch with those she’d come to know. Jamie was difficult to peg down and their history was... Complicated, but Cal was easy to find, and Harlow perhaps the easiest. They continued to keep in touch via letters with Emma keeping a home in London where she’d have all of her post sent to. The songbird would travel now and again, extending her exploration of the world a little more each time. France, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and eventually Germany. The more the world turned the more she knew how women were treated as second class citizens. She’d known several men in her extended lifetime and had never met a single one that was her equal, and yet, socially and politically they held all the power. Men of science claimed that a woman’s brain was smaller than a man’s, but the men she’d known didn’t seem to use it often if at all. 

The right to vote was hard won, but the more Emma found herself taking to the streets, the more alive she felt. Immortal and young forever, she was easily dismissed but she had a voice and a right to be heard. She was in Munich studying political science when a friend of hers recruited her into The White Rose; this non-violent, intellectual-resistance group created an anonymous leaflet that actively spoke out against and opposed the nazi regime. Emma’s friend Sophie and her brother were caught distributing these leaflets and as a result were executed. She watched on as the crowd cheered, and as her friend said her final piece. Galvanized, it was clear that the world was capable of innumerable cruelties and she was not free of it. Words were not enough, so she enlisted as an army nurse after she escaped Germany. Not able to fight on the frontlines, Emma instead opted to tend to the soldiers that had been wounded. She saved all those that she could, and provided comfort to those that she could not. 

It was here that she fell in love once more, and here that Emma decided to follow the young soldier to the United States. Despite the fact that he was human, she told him everything. Her history, her family, and of course that she was a vampire. He proposed. She asked him to spend eternity with her, but he was a simple boy from the South and wanted no part of immortality. Emma’s lesser self wanted to convince him to change his mind, but after what happened with Sterling she knew that she couldn’t, and if she did then he would resent her. So, instead she settled down: despite the fact that she promised she never would. The two got married, adopted a couple of children, and Emma watched as they grew old. Her husband passed away, and then her daughter was mistaken for her sister, then her mother, grandmother. Emma’s family grew and they all took after her in some form, they marched for civil liberties, they cared for friends and loved ones during the AIDS crisis, some were present at Stonewall. The world moved on, and Emma had no choice but to move with it - she thought of Sophie who died for a cause, and her friend’s last words haunted her: What does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?

Over the years Emma put some distance between herself and the family she’d come to create. She was a vampire, and they were better off not knowing the truth of the supernatural world. Though time dragged on, Emma always kept in touch with the family she’d made for herself along the way: Cal, Harlow, and the others who had known her at her worst. 

With the sundering of the veil, she died. And in the river Styx she had nothing but time to reflect in absolute isolation. When Emma was brought back into this world she wanted to find the source of this, and the reason for her death. She opted to follow Harlow to Corinth Bay, where it was rumoured to be the source of all magic, and there she got a job as a musician working at Evie’s latest: Ambrosia. There was another reason for her trip though, a face she saw in the river that was just out of reach, and out of range of her voice. This river was a place for the souls of vampires to be trapped for eternity - so then why did she see her father there too?

PERSONALITY

+ charming, creative, thoughtful - gullible, single-minded, prim

PLAYED BY SHANE. EST. He/Him.

#female #taken #vampire #emma darlington #olivia holt

[hlupdate]

A bathroom figures significantly in the origin stories of at least two classic One Direction songs. The first will be familiar to any fan: Songwriter and producer Savan Kotecha was sitting on the toilet in a London hotel room, when he heard his wife say, “I feel so ugly today.” The words that popped into his head would shape the chorus of One Direction’s unforgettable 2011 debut, “What Makes You Beautiful.”

The second takes place a few years later: Another hotel room in England — this one in Manchester — where songwriters and producers Julian Bunetta and John Ryan were throwing back Cucumber Collins cocktails and tinkering with a beat. Liam Payne was there, too. At one point, Payne got up to use the bathroom, and when he re-emerged, he was singing a melody. They taped it immediately. Most of it was mumbled — a temporary placeholder — but there was one phrase: “Better than words …” A few hours later, on the bus to another city, another show — Bunetta and Ryan can’t remember where — Payne asked, maybe having a laugh, “What if the rest of the song was just lyrics from other songs?”

“Songs in general, you’re just sort of waiting for an idea to bonk you on the head,” Ryan says from a Los Angeles studio, with Bunetta. “And if you’re sort of winking at it, laughing at it — we were probably joking, ‘What if [the next line was] “More than a feeling”? Well, that would actually be tight!’”

“Better Than Words,” closed One Direction’s third album, Midnight Memories. It was never a single, but became a fan-favorite live-show staple. It’s a midtempo headbanger that captures the essence of what One Direction is, and always was: One of the great rock & roll bands of the 21st century.

July 23rd marks One Direction’s 10th anniversary, the day Simon Cowell told Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson that they would progress on The X Factor as a group. Between that date and their last live performance (so far, one can hope) on December 31st, 2015, they released five albums, toured the world four times — twice playing stadiums — and left a trove of Top 10 hits for a devoted global fan base that came to life at the moment social media was redefining the contours of fandom. 

It’d been a decade since the heyday of ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys, and the churn of generations demanded a new boy band. One Direction’s songs were great and their charisma and chemistry undeniable, but what made them stick was a sound unlike anything else in pop — rooted in guitar rock at a time when that couldn’t have been more passé.

Kotecha, who met 1D on The X Factor and shepherded them through their first few years, is a devoted student of the history of boy bands. He first witnessed their power back in the Eighties, when New Kids on the Block helped his older sister through her teens. The common thread linking all great boy bands, from New Kids to BSB, he says, is, “When they’d break, they’d come out of nowhere, sounding like nothing that’s on the radio.”

In 2010, Kotecha remembers, “everybody was doing this sort of Rihanna dance pop.” But that just wasn’t a sound One Direction could pull off (the Wanted did it only once); and famously, they didn’t even dance. Instead, the reference points for 1D went all the way back to the source of contemporary boy bands.

“Me and Simon would talk about how [One Direction] was Beatlesque, Monkees-esque,” Kotecha continues. “They had such big personalities. I felt like a kid again when I was around them. And I felt like the only music you could really do that with is fun, poppy guitar songs. It would come out of left field and become something owned by the fans.”

To craft that sound on 1D’s first two albums, Up All Night and Take Me Home, Kotecha worked mostly with Swedish songwriters-producers Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub. They’d all studied at the Max Martin/Cheiron Studios school of pop craftsmanship, and Falk says they were confident they could crack the boy-band code once more with songs that recalled BSB and ‘NSync, but replaced the dated synths and pianos with guitars. 

The greatest thing popular music can do is make someone else think, “I can do that,” and One Direction’s music was designed with that intent. “The guitar riff had to be so simple that my friend’s 15-year-old daughter could play it and put a cover to YouTube,” Falk says. “If you listen to ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ or ‘One Thing,’ they have two-finger guitar riffs that everyone who can play a bit of guitar can learn. That was all on purpose.”

One Direction famously finished third on The X Factor, but Cowell immediately signed them to his label, Syco Music. They’d gone through one round of artist development boot camp on the show, and another followed on an X Factor live tour in spring 2011. They’d developed an onstage confidence, but the studio presented a new challenge. “We had to create who should do what in One Direction,” Falk says. To solve the puzzle the band’s five voices presented, they chose the kitchen sink method and everyone tried everything.

“They were searching for themselves,” Falk adds. “It was like, Harry, let’s just record him; he’s not afraid of anything. Liam’s the perfect song starter, and then you put Zayn on top with this high falsetto. Louis found his voice when we did ‘Change Your Mind.’ It was a long trial for everyone to find their strengths and weaknesses, but that was also the fun part.” Falk also gave Niall some of his first real guitar lessons; there’s video of them performing “One Thing” together, still blessedly up on YouTube.

“What Makes You Beautiful” was released September 11th, 2011 in the U.K. and debuted at Number One on the singles chart there — though the video had dropped a month prior. While One Direction’s immediate success in the U.K. and other parts of Europe wasn’t guaranteed, the home field odds were favorable. European markets have historically been kinder to boy bands than the U.S.; ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys found huge success abroad before they conquered home. To that end, neither Kotecha nor Falk were sure 1D would break in the U.S. Falk even says of conceiving the band’s sound, “We didn’t want it to sound too American, because this was not meant — for us, at least — to work in America. This was gonna work in the U.K. and maybe outside the U.K.”

Stoking anticipation for “What Makes You Beautiful” by releasing the video on YouTube before the single dropped, preceded the strategy Columbia Records (the band’s U.S. label) adopted for Up All Night. Between its November 2011 arrival in the U.K. and its U.S. release in March 2012, Columbia eschewed traditional radio strategies and built hype on social media. One Direction had been extremely online since their X Factor days, engaging with fans and spending their downtime making silly videos to share. One goofy tune, made with Kotecha, called “Vas Happenin’ Boys?” was an early viral hit.

“They instinctively had this — and it might just be a generational thing — they just knew how to speak to their fans,” Kotecha says. “And they did that by being themselves. That was a unique thing about these boys: When the cameras turned on, they didn’t change who they were.”

Social media was flooded with One Direction contests and petitions to bring the band to fans’ towns. Radio stations were inundated with calls to play “What Makes You Beautiful” long before it was even available. When it did finally arrive, Kotecha (who was in Sweden at the time) remembers staying up all night to watch it climb the iTunes chart with each refresh.

Take Me Home, was recorded primarily in Stockholm and London during and after their first world tour. The success of Up All Night had attracted an array of top songwriting talent — Ed Sheeran even penned two hopeless romantic sad lad tunes, “Little Things” and “Over Again” — but Kotecha, Falk and Yacoub grabbed the reins, collaborating on six of the album’s 13 tracks. In charting their course, Kotecha returned to his boy band history: “My theory was, you give them a similar sound on album two, and album three is when you start moving on.”

Still, there was the inherent pressure of the second album to contend with. The label wanted a “What Makes You Beautiful, Part 2,” and evidence that the 1D phenomenon wasn’t slowing down appeared outside the window of the Stockholm studio: so many fans, the street had to be shut down. Kotecha even remembers seeing police officers with missing person photos, combing through the girls camped outside, looking for teens to return to their parents.

At this pivotal moment, One Direction made it clear that they wanted a greater say in their artistic future. Kotecha admits he was wary at first, but the band was determined. To help manage the workload, Kotecha had brought in two young songwriters, Kristoffer Fogelmark and Albin Nedler, who’d arrived with a handful of ideas, including a chorus for a booming power ballad called “Last First Kiss.”

“We thought, while we’re busy recording vocals, whoever’s not busy can go write songs with these two guys, and then we’ll help shape them as much as we can,” Kotecha says. “And to our pleasant surprise, the songs were pretty damn good.”

At this pivotal moment, too, songwriters Julian Bunetta and John Ryan also met the band. Friends from the Berklee College of Music, Bunetta and Ryan had moved out to L.A. and cut a few tracks, but still had no hits to their name. They entered the Syco orbit after scoring work on the U.S. version of The X Factor, and were asked if they wanted to try writing a song for Take Me Home. “I was like, yeah definitely,” Bunetta says. “They sold five million albums? Hell yeah, I want to make some money.”

Working with Jamie Scott, who’d written two songs on Up All Night (“More Than This” and “Stole My Heart”), Bunetta and Ryan wrote “C’mon, C’mon” — a blinding hit of young love that rips down a dance pop speedway through a comically oversized wall of Marshall stacks. It earned them a trip to London. Bunetta admits to thinking the whole 1D thing was “a quick little fad” ahead of their first meeting with the band, but their charms were overwhelming. Everyone hit it off immediately.

“Niall showed me his ass,” Bunetta remembers of the day they recorded, “They Don’t Know About Us,” one of five songs they produced for Take Me Home (two are on the deluxe edition). “The first vocal take, he went in to sing, did a take, I was looking down at the computer screen and was like, ‘On this line, can you sing it this way?’ And I looked over and he was mooning me. I was like, ‘I love this guy!’”

Take Me Home dropped November 9th, just nine days short of Up All Night’s first anniversary. With only seven weeks left in 2012, it became the fourth best-selling album of the year globally, moving 4.4 million copies, per the IFPI; it fell short of Adele’s 21, Taylor Swift’s Red and 1D’s own Up All Night, which had several extra months to sell 4.5 million copies.

Kotecha, Falk and Yacoub’s tracks anchored the album. Songs like “Kiss You,” “Heart Attack” and “Live While We’re Young” were pristine pop rock that One Direction delivered with full delirium, vulnerability and possibility — the essence of the teen — in voices increasingly capable of navigating all the little nuances of that spectrum. And the songs 1D helped write (“Last First Kiss,” “Back for You” and “Summer Love”) remain among the LP’s best.

“You saw that they caught the bug and were really good at it,” Kotecha says of their songwriting. “And moving forward, you got the impression that that was the way for them.”

Like clockwork, the wheels began to churn for album three right after Take Me Home dropped. But unlike those first two records, carving out dedicated studio time for LP3 was going to be difficult — on February 23rd, 2013, One Direction would launch a world tour in London, the first of 123 concerts they’d play that year. They’d have to write and record on the road, and for Kotecha and Falk — both of whom had just had kids — that just wasn’t possible. 

But it was also time for a creative shift. Even Kotecha knew that from his boy band history: album three is, after all, when you start moving on. One Direction was ready, too. Kotecha credits Louis, the oldest member of the group, for “shepherding them into adulthood, away from the very pop-y stuff of the first two albums. He was leading the charge to make sure that they had a more mature sound. And at the time, being in it, it was a little difficult for me, Rami and Carl to grasp — but hindsight, that was the right thing to do.” 

“For three years, this was our schedule,” Bunetta says. “We did X Factor October, November, December. Took off January. February, flew to London. We’d gather ideas with the band, come up with sounds, hang out. Then back to L.A. for March, produce some stuff, then go out on the road with them in April. Get vocals, write a song or two, come back for May, work on the vocals, and produce the songs we wrote on the road. Back to London in June-ish. Back here for July, produce it up. Go back on tour in August, get last bits of vocals, mix in September, back to X Factor in October, album out in November, January off, start it all over again.”

That cycle began in early 2013 when Bunetta and Ryan flew to London for a session that lasted just over a week, but yielded the bulk of Midnight Memories. With songwriters Jamie Scott, Wayne Hector and Ed Drewett they wrote “Best Song Ever” and “You and I,” and, with One Direction, “Diana” and “Midnight Memories.” Bunetta and Ryan’s initial rapport with the band strengthened — they were a few years older, but as Bunetta jokes, “We act like we’re 19 all the time anyway.” Years ago, Bunetta posted an audio clip documenting the creation of “Midnight Memories” — the place-holder chorus was a full-throated, perfectly harmonized, “I love KFC!”

For the most part, Bunetta, Ryan and 1D doubled down on the rock sound their predecessors had forged, but there was one outlier from that week. A stunning bit of post-Mumford festival folk buoyed by a new kind of lyrical and vocal maturity called “Story of My Life.”

“This was a make or break moment for them,” Bunetta says. “They needed to grow up, or they were gonna go away — and they wanted to grow up. To get to the level they got to, you need more than just your fan base. That song extended far beyond their fan base and made people really pay attention.”

Production on Midnight Memories continued on the road, where, like so many bands before them, One Direction unlocked a new dimension to their music. Tour engineer Alex Oriet made it possible, Ryan says, building makeshift vocal booths in hotel rooms by flipping beds up against the walls. Writing and recording was crammed in whenever — 20 minutes before a show, or right after another two-hour performance.

“It preserved the excitement of the moment,” Bunetta says. “We were just there, doing it, marinating in it at all times. You’re capturing moments instead of trying to recreate them. A lot of times we’d write a song, sing it in the hotel, produce it, then fly back out to have them re-sing it — and so many times the demo vocals were better. They hadn’t memorized it yet. They were still in the mood. There was a performance there that you couldn’t recreate.” 

Midnight Memories arrived, per usual, in November 2013. And, per usual, it was a smash. The following year, 1D brought their songs to the environment they always deserved — stadiums around the world — and amid the biggest shows of their career, they worked on their aptly-titled fourth album Four. The 123 concerts 1D had played the year before had strengthened their combined vocal prowess in a way that opened up an array of new possibilities.

“We could use their voices on Four to make something sound more exciting and bigger, rather than having to add too many guitars, synths or drums,” Ryan says.

“They were so much more dynamic and subtle, too,” Bunetta adds. “I don’t think they could’ve pulled off a song like ‘Night Changes’ two albums prior; or the nuance to sing soft and emotionally on ‘Fireproof.’ It takes a lot of experience to deliver a restrained vocal that way.”

Musically, Four was 1D’s most expansive album yet — from the sky-high piano rock of “Steal My Girl” to the tender, tasteful groove of “Fireproof” — and it had the emotional range to match. Now in their early twenties, songs like “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” “No Control,” “Fool’s Gold” and “Clouds” redrew the dramas and euphorias of adolescence with the new weight, wit and wanton winks of impending adulthood. One Direction wasn’t growing up normally in any sense of the word, but they were becoming songwriters capable of drawing out the most relatable elements from their extraordinary circumstances — like on “Change Your Ticket,” where the turbulent love affairs of young jet-setters are distilled to the universal pang of a long goodbye. There were real relationships inspiring these stories, but now that One Direction was four years into being the biggest band on the planet, it was natural that the relationships within the band would make it into the music as well.

“I think that on Four,” Bunetta says with a slight pause, “there were some tensions going on. A lot of the songs were double — like somebody might be singing about their girlfriend, but there was another meaning that applied to the group as well.”

He continues: “It’s tough going through that age, having to spread your wings with so many eyeballs on you, so much money and no break. It was tough for them to carve out their individual manhood, space and point of view, while learning how to communicate with each other. Even more than relationship things that were going on, that was the bigger blanket that was in there every day, seeping into the songs.”

Bunetta remembers Zayn playing him “Pillowtalk” and a few other songs for the first time through a three a.m. fog of cigarette smoke in a hotel room in Japan.

“Fucking amazing,” he says. “They were fucking awesome. I know creatively he wasn’t getting what he needed from the way that the albums were being made on the road. He wanted to lock himself in the studio and take his time, be methodical. And that just wasn’t possible.”

A month or so later, and 16 shows into One Direction’s “On the Road Again” tour, Zayn left the band. Bunetta and Ryan agree it wasn’t out of the blue: “He was frustrated and wanted to do things outside of the band,” Bunetta says. “It’s a lot for a young kid, all those shows. We’d been with them for a bunch of years at this point — it was a matter of when. You just hoped that it would wait until the last album.”

Still, Bunetta compares the loss to having a finger lopped off, and he acknowledges that Harry, Niall, Liam and Louis struggled to find their bearings as One Direction continued with their stadium tour and next album, Made in the A.M. Just as band tensions bubbled beneath the songs on Four, Zayn’s departure left an imprint on Made in the A.M. Not with any overt malice, but a song like “Drag Me Down,” Bunetta says, reflects the effort to bounce back. Even Niall pushing his voice to the limits of his range on that song wouldn’t have been necessary if Zayn and his trusty falsetto were available.

But Made in the A.M. wasn’t beholden to this shake-up. Bunetta and Ryan cite “Olivia” as a defining track, one that captures just how far One Direction had come as songwriters: They’d written it in 45 minutes, after wasting a whole day trying to write something far worse.

“When you start as a songwriter, you write a bunch of shitty songs, you get better and you keep getting better,” Ryan says. “But then you can get finicky and you’re like, ‘Maybe I have to get smart with this lyric.’ By Made in the A.M. … they were coming into their own in the sense of picking up a guitar, messing around and feeling something, rather than being like, ‘How do I put this puzzle together?’”

After Zayn’s departure, Bunetta and Ryan said it became clear that Made in the A.M. would be One Direction’s last album before some break of indeterminate length. The album boasts the palpable tug of the end, but to One Direction’s credit, that finality is balanced by a strong sense of forever. It’s literally the last sentiment they leave their fans on album-closer “History,” singing, “Baby don’t you know, baby don’t you know/We can live forever.”

In a way, Made in the A.M. is about One Direction as an entity. Not one that belonged to the group, but to everyone they spent five years making music for. Four years since their hiatus and 10 years since their formation, the fans remain One Direction’s defining legacy. Even as all five members have settled into solo careers, Ryan notes that baseless rumors of any kind of reunion — even a meager Zoom call — can still set the internet on fire. The old songs remain potent, too: Carl Falk says his nine-year-old son has taken to making TikToks to 1D tracks.

There are plenty of metrics to quantify One Direction’s reach, success and influence. The hard numbers — album sales and concert stubs — are staggering on their own, but the ineffable is always more fun. One Direction was such a good band that a fan, half-jokingly, but then kinda seriously, started a GoFundMe to buy out their contract and grant them full artistic freedom. One Direction was such a good band that songwriters like Kotecha and Falk — who would go on to make hits with Ariana Grande, the Weeknd and Nicki Minaj — still think about the songs they could’ve made with them. One Direction was such a good band that Mitski covered “Fireproof.”

But maybe it all comes down to the most ineffable thing of all: Chance. Kotecha compares success on talent shows like The X Factor to waking up one morning and being super cut — but now, to keep that figure, you have to work out at a 10, without having done the gradual work to reach that level. That’s the downfall for so many acts, but One Direction was not only able, but willing, to put in the work.

“They’re one of the only acts from those types of shows that managed to do it for such a long time,” Kotecha says. “Five years is a long time for a massive pop star to go nonstop. I know it was tiring, but they were fantastic sports about it. They appreciated and understood the opportunity they had — and, as you can see, they haven’t really stopped since. Most of them weren’t necessarily musicians before this happened, but they loved music, and they found a love of creating, writing and playing. To have these boys — that had been sort of randomly picked — to also have that? It will never be repeated.”

#harry styles #louis tomlinson #one direction #1d ten #220720