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the-starsabove-you · 5 years

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The Spotlight

Chapter 5- Marie Author’s Note: Hello! We have another chapter! Feedback is always welcome and also thoughts on characters! We have another character introduced in this chapter and she is quite difficult so yeah! Enjoy! “So what’s your favorite thing to do in your spare time?” Michelle questioned as she looked forward as her hair-stylist was fixing up her face, she looked real quick at her phone and saw Mat was thinking, they were on facetime, and he nodded “Music.. Dancing to it, singing. My friends like to take me fishing and of course golf. I’m filling in that typical hockey player right now I’m so sorry�� He laughed and even her hair-stylist chuckled in amusement before MIchelle smiled “I think that’s awesome! I’m not much of a golf person so if you really take me out golfing you’re gonna have to explain everything” She said and his eyes lit up “I’ll take you mini golfing!” He said and she grinned widely “I actually like that idea!” “We also have ice skating so I’m more excited for that if I’m more honest” Mat admitted as he was walking to practice, it was one of the many road trips he was entering and he wish those road trips weren’t in the way of him and Michelle actually getting to know each other. Michelle looked at him “Your friend Tito left an impression on Emily as well, she hasn’t stopped talking about him and they’ve been texting each other” “Ah, so that’s who he’s been texting the whole day. I was starting to wonder” Mat said and Michelle chuckled and she looked at him “I really wish we were on that first date right now” She muttered and Mat sighed softly but he remained thoughtful “It’s Tuesday, I get back on Saturday and you’ll be back on Sunday. It gives me time to think of how to woo you and come up with the best first date ever” Mat said and Michelle laughed “You can literally cook in your apartment and I’ll love it.. We’ll have a blast either way” She said and Mat grinned, he liked that Michelle was more humble than most girls in the industry. He really liked that she never took advantage of the fame or acted like she was the it girl. “In sad news, I can’t really cook. So it will be someone else’s cooking” Mat said and Michelle nodded “Fair enough” Mat grinned and suddenly there was an incoming phone call and Michelle literally groaned and Mat frowned “What’s wrong?” “My agent is calling.. I know it’s for scolding too so I’ve been expecting this ever since the Barclays accident” Michelle said and Mat frowned “Your agent can’t be that bad” Michelle gave him a look “Oh she’s not bad but very.. Hard to work with at times, I have to call you back” “I’m about to head into the locker room anyways, I’ll text you when I’m done and just text me when you’re done and we can Facetime” “Alright, take care Mat” Michelle smiled before Mat said his farewells and then Michelle sighed and she answered the phone “Hi Marie!” Michelle tried to say cheerfully “Oh no, you do not get cheerful on me young lady.. Do you know what you’ve done?” Marie said on the phone and Michelle flinched but she remained calm “I went to a hockey game?” “Well false.. Number one, I know you don’t watch hockey. Number two, I heard about that group of fans swarming you, with Emily too. You could have been stabbed or shot, you could have snapped at a fan which would have gotten you backlash.. Michelle, I expected you to be more smart” Michelle sighed softly, Marie was hired as her agent when she first became famous. It was her parents that ended up picking Marie as her agent and really her caretaker. Marie was about 50 years old, a smart woman in the industry as well as being known to be very protective of her clients and training them to not be really out there and interact with fans as much, such as signing autographs and stopping generally in the street as much. Marie had tried training Michelle to do all those kind of things but Michelle had said that she had to give back to her fans in some kind of way. But Marie would sigh and her phone calls to Michelle were regular, that’s why Michelle tried to not do anything horrible in public. “So do you want to tell me the reason why you were actually there or is it gonna have to feel like I’m pulling teeth out of you?” Marie questioned “Emily and I were seeing a couple of friends” Michelle began and she could tell Marie was narrowing her eyes “Friends?” Marie muttered and Michelle sighed “A couple of the Islanders” She said and Marie sounded irritated “Are they just only friends?” “Well I’m kinda talking to one of them and he’s very nic-” “Oh no! Michelle Wilson! I’ve heard so much about hockey players and some of the other girls that work with me have dated some and I will tell you Michelle, some of them are dogs” Marie said loudly and Michelle jumped and even her hair stylist flinched a bit of how loud the older woman was. “He’s not bad at all! He’s very nice and really down to earth.” Michelle said and Marie snorted “Please, you’ve just met him. You don’t know his true intentions at all. You’re young, famous and beautiful. You don’t think that he just wants to sleep with you and brag to his teammates that he managed to sleep with one of the most beautiful and famous models in your generation? You don’t hear the Hadid sisters being with hockey players.” “But you don’t hear their agents telling them who not to date” She muttered and she knew Marie heard it as her agent was now angry “Your parents chose me because I take care of my clients well. I make sure they don’t end up unknown years after and that they’re safe and healthy. If you don’t like the way I’m saying or doing things, you can explain to your parents why you need another agent” Michelle sighed and leaned back into her chair as Marie said slowly “I don’t want to hear anything about you and this hockey boy. Anything bad to ruin you, because I’m not his agent I’m yours. I’m telling you, it won’t end well with this boy. You need to focus on your career and being the best you could be. Do you understand?” “Yes Marie” Michelle muttered and Marie sounded happy “Good, I’ll call you tomorrow in your Orlando gig. Check in and make sure you’re doing well. You should call your parents soon.. They should come to New York and have dinner with us” “You’re in New York?” She questioned “Right now to get some stuff from my house. Then I’m off to Paris with one of my clients” She said and Michelle nodded “I’ll let you know when I’m back from Paris, I’ll be emailing a couple of gigs that I’ve accepted for you too, but they’re gonna be two weeks from now. I want you to have a week of rest” “Thanks Marie.. I can’t wait for the next few gigs” Michelle said and Marie chuckled “I can’t wait too, we’ll be in touch” “Bye Marie” She hung up and groaned again, she had wish Marie didn’t see the pictures and videos. She wanted to keep Mat a secret from Marie as she knows that Marie will literally rip Mat to shreds if possible. Michelle was scrolling through her phone and her phone beeped and she saw it was a message from Mat and she saw it was a video and it was someone recording him practicing as he was getting some pucks into the goal. Mat had wrote ‘Thinking of you, can’t wait to see you soon x’

#mathew barzal #mat barzal #mat barzal imagine #nhl #nhl imagines #hockey #hockey imagines #New York Islanders #ny islanders

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secretradiobrooklyn · 3 years

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Secret Radio | 8.27.21, 9.12.21 & 10.8.21

“The Time Warp Edition*” Secret Radio | Aug, Sep, & Oct 2021 | Hear it here.

Edition 8/27 et al - notes start on 10/23

1. Passi - “Il fait chaud”

Y’all — this broadcast has been unstuck in time like Kilroy, knowwhatimean? This first track is a French dude talking about how hot it is in the city right now… and when we started this broadcast, Brooklyn was broiling. We always appreciate the heat though, all the more now that it’s getting straight-up chilly out there. I love this guy’s flow, even more when you watch the video. “Pic nic!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EYBLkK7qYA

2. The Fall - “Industrial Estate (Peel Session)”

Even though I’ve listened to dozens of Peel Sessions, including every track The Fall did with him (thank you, Sean), I don’t know WHY his sessions always sound so radically awesome. I think the first Peel Sessions I knew were Pavement’s, from this early bootleg called “Stuff Up the Cracks,” and those versions have distortions that I still dream about catching on tape in my band. This one has so much of what I love about the Fall in their earliest versions. The left-hand guitar in this one is the same, just perfect noise. But as always, I find myself baffled by Mark E. Smith’s approach to songwriting and the confidence with which The Fall just blazed their way forward from the very first album to the very last. In fact, I was listening just this week to “New Facts Emerge,” their last album before Mark’s death, and it is so radical and hardcore and unbending that it puts Jesus Lizard and every other hardcore rock band to shame. This guy blasted through his life, without losing the bet, for decades longer than could’ve been expected, and then hurled himself snarling and spitting over the cliff at the end. The coolest.

3. Ilaiyaraaja - “Manathinil feat. B.S. Sasirekha”

Ach! It’s been so long since we put this part of the show down that I can’t remember what brought us to Ilaiyaraaja! Paige was immediately smitten with the first thing we heard, which was “Solla Solla.” I wasn’t sure right that second, but “Manathinil” is just undeniably awesome. This is primo Kollywood, the Tamil-language movie industry in India. One of the biggest stars and personalities is Ilaiyaraaja, who was a Kollywood star for years but also a really wild composer and musician. I love how these songs take off and breathlessly fly in all different directions — it’s so exciting to hear the song keep unfurling in new ways. And there’s a key change in the chorus (refrain? bridge? I can’t even tell) that I would love to snag for a Sleepy Kitty song.

- Hailu Mergia - “Sintayehu”

Ultra-bed.

4. Casino Gardens - “Get It Right”

One of the glorious and strange nights of tour with Cowboy Indian Bear brought us to Manhattan, KS for a house show. The night was a classic — crazy sound system, a statue of the city’s faux Paul Bunyan in the middle of Central Park, a set that started a bit awkward but got better and better til it was a righteous show, and a memorable guy telling us that drugs “aren’t my bag, man.” We realized our accommodations were meant to be at this same house, which wasn’t likely to clear out til dawn, so we got a hotel and made our farewells. On our way out a guy handed us a tape by Casino Gardens. That night was a whole other long story (that I’ll probably tell), but the tape turned out to be the ideal van tape deck driving experience — dreamy and joyous and nonsensical and inherently warped. Other than the time we took Andy Kahn out on tour, that tape was our finest tour soundtrack.

5. Kourosh Yaghmaei - “Gol-e Yakh”

Oh yeahhhh — THAT’s how we learned about Ilaiyaraaja: we’d gotten obsessed with the album “Pomegranates,” a compilation of Iranian psych and funk from before the Revolution. This track is from that collection, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Yaghmaei is from Teheran, and this song, “Ice Flower,” was his first single, released in 1973. He combines Persian poetry with his own words and melodies. He learned to play traditional Iranian music on the santur, a sort of harpisichordal percussive instrument, then taught himself guitar at age 15 at about the same time he heard the Ventures and flipped out. He started a couple of bands, combining Persian melodies with Western harmonies to make a whole new sound. The lyrics to “Ice Flower” were derived from a poem by Mahdi Akhavan Langeroudi, who was a university friend of his. In 1979, when the Islamic Revolution happened in Iran, Yaghmaei was suddenly and completely banned from performing or releasing music. The ban continued for 17 years, during which time he refused to leave the country.

6. Guv’ner - “Help Me” - “In the Fishtank 2”

Guv’ner will always be one of my favorite bands. I associate this band entirely with Sean for their first album, then Sean and Brad for the second album onward, and then Les Savy Fav on the last album, “Spectral Worship,” because there are a few sounds that their respective releases shared.

Charles Ganza and Pumpkin Wenzel made the raddest couple I’d ever heard of, pretty much, and their albums are full of these complicated jokes and satisfying harmonies and actually secretly amazing ideal guitar playing. And then there’s this Joni Mitchell song they did for “In the Fishtank,” a super-cool series made by bands passing through the Netherlands, where they just record a song they haven’t put down yet, or work with another band to write songs together. I feel like this take on this song allows me to understand the original in a way I really hadn’t before. For my own taste, I will even admit, I have a definite preference for this recording even. Controversy!

7. The Breakfast Club - “Shit on the Ground”

This is the most adorable recording, and it totally gets stuck in my head. It’s such a perfectly recognizable cheap studio demo of a band just getting started — but this band’s singer is Madonna. The glimpse of her as this kind of character is so surprising… but I also feel like it’s the implied backstory to the girl who showed up with the “Like a Virgin” album, or the self-crafted icon from “Desperately Seeking Susan.” It’s like proof that Madonna does have a rock soul, which makes her music even more approachable to me.

8. Rolando Bruno - “Thai Cumbia”

I think this track must have been delivered to us via algorithm — I mean, we’re sitting ducks for a track called “Thai Cumbia.” But also, as is kind of frustratingly often the case: the algorithm was not wrong. My life is better for having this track in it. I need to listen to the rest of the record, “Bailazo,” because it sure suggests that he’s been listening to the same kinds of records we have.

9. Bunny Girls - “Why That Person?”

Bunny Girls were a Shin Joong Hyun-directed band from Korea. That’s about all I know. We’ve been listening to the two Light in the Attic compilations of Hyun’s work, both of which are just jawdroppingly diverse in style but uniformly awesome in quality. The second volume is “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains,” covering his work from 1958-1974. 1958!

- Hailu Mergia

10. 48 Chairs - “Snap It Around” - “70% Paranoid”

Am I late to the party on 48 Chairs? Definitely… but how big is this party anyway? To me this band sounds like they coulda shoulda been huge when they put this album out in 1979, but I guess nothing came of it in the broader sphere? Or I did and I was clueless? This was put out by Finder’s Keepers 3 years ago and the write-up they give it is so damn hilariously rock-jargoned that I’m going to print it right here:

“Documenting the unlikely coupling of British free jazz bastion Lol Coxhill and the sarcy synth pop don't-wannabes known as Gerry And The Holograms this rare incognito full-length album bridges the micro-niches of electronic jazz and punk jazz from a band formed in 1979 at an axis where DIY and new wave hadn't quite collided! With sprinklings of post-punk female vocals worthy of PragVEC and Suburban Lawns, featuring angular art rock paeans to voodoo dolls and closed-circuit TV, this privately pressed LP comes directly from the man who gave Martin Hannett some of his best ideas and wrote the ‘Blue’print for Manchester's new musical order. Imagine if Talking Heads became Mark E Smith’s backing band for a week before being sacked for wearing a Frank Zappa t-shirt while Eric Dolphy forgot to take his headphones off… If that sounds up your street, then you should be paying double. A genuine lost moment from the post-punk era with progressive pop credentials from the university of Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias before everyone got a job at the local Factory. Why are you the only person who doesn't know about this?”

11. Ilaiyaraaja - “Solla Solla”

Speaking of Finder’s Keepers: this is that first Ilaiyaraaja video that completely converted us. Watch this video. He has an amazing dancing style that is apparently not some sort of pre-existing tradition, just his own weird take on dancing to this music. He’s an incredibly prolific artist as well, creating music for more than 900 films becoming an icon in his own right sometimes known as The Maestro. His soprano “ba-dit-da” solo in the middle passage of this song is so nimble and cool and funny at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oK5CgOw8kw

12. T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - “Azanlokpe”

It felt like it was time for some old-school T.P. Orchestre, as the magnetic center of Secret Radio. This song we got on a 7” as the reverse side of an Antoine Dougbé song that we were after — but man, this one rules! As usual, I’m so thankful this band exists, and that I can reach out into the digital world and find a physical copy of it in France.

13. Mireille Mathieu - “Bravo Tu As Gagné”

Paige: “I don’t even know if I like this music, I’m just really impressed by it. And I find it impossible to look away, auditorially. It’s the feeling of being at a good karaoke bar without being at a karaoke bar. To me. Take that as you will.

“If you want to hear more music like this and get really good pasta and baguette, you should go to 306 Court Street just off the Carroll F & G. It’s Le French Tart, a French deli where they’re always playing music like this.”

14. Teddy Afro - “Yamral”

We got some excellent Ethiopian food with Jon and Michael in DC, out on the sidewalk on a beautiful afternoon. Every time I stepped inside, it sounded like Teddy Afro was playing. This music does for me what some other people tell me reggae does for them — I find it uplifting and invigorating and deeply relaxing at the same time. As always, Teddy Afro tracks go out to Bobby, the Somali cab driver who introduced us to his songs then disappeared during the pandemic.

- Hailu Mergia

15. Dijf Sanders - “Jaipong”

A contemporary Belgian producer’s take on modern Sumatran music. I couldn’t tell you what he does here — whether he composed and performed the pieces himself or assembled them from samples or what the instruments are or anything. But I love how tightly everything fits together.

16. Noosh Afarin - “Gol-e Aftab Gardoon” - “Pomegranates”

During the time it took to create this broadcast, my birthday occurred, and I was presented with a record from my parents that was in fact exACTly what I wanted: that “Pomegranates” album we had been longing for. It’s every bit as good as we thought it was going to be, every track shining new light on psychedelic Iranian pop from before the revolution. One thing that gets me about this rock music from all over the world is how crucial the trapset drumming is to the whole fabric… and how people from all over the world figured out how to play this strange assemblage of drums and cymbals and pedals and sticks and stands in such amazingly satisfying ways. I think that Clyde Stubblefield had a lot to do with it.

17. T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - “Debrouiller n’est pas voler”

Written by, lead guitar and organ by the one and only Zoundegnon Bernard aka Papillon, composed by Melome Clement. This is pretty much the dream lineup, — Bentho Gustave on bass, Yehouessi Leopold on drums, Loko Pierre on sax, and rhythm guitar by Maximus. I never know which parts are Papi’s, but they’re clearly crucial to the braided sounds in every passage. I think that’s Lohento Eskill on lead vocals in the second half. Papillon is right up there with Jimi Hendrix in guitarists I truly wish I could have seen play with my own eyes.

18. X Ray Pop - “Ding Dong”

From the album “Ding Dong Disques,” a compilation rescuing the best work of a band that started in the ‘80s and kept on going in the French underground music scene for 30 years, released on Cache Cache Records.

19. Dub Thompson - “No Time”

Unfortunately it seems this band isn’t active anymore. Paige and I really fell hard for this super cool track from what appeared to be a trio of teenagers. The limits of what is built by instrument and what is built in the studio later are all blurred and smeared. I was looking forward to seeing how Dub Thompson was going to push this aesthetic forward, cos I don’t know anything quite like it — except maybe Casino Gardens?

20. Ilaiyaraaja - “Kadal Mele (featuring S. Janaki and S.P Balasubramaniyam)” - “Ilectro” - Finders Keepers

This track is just another in the virtuosic range of The Maestro. He was considered a musical genius in Tamil and in the tiny but might Kodambakkan Kollywood scene, writing and recording his music for practically the entire industry. It really does feel like you can see a whole film unfold around each song.

21. The Ethiopians - “Engine 54”

We really don’t find ourselves listening to reggae or rocksteady very often, and I’ve rarely found my way inside those styles (unless it’s Beninois), but this 1968 side is such a sweet track full of satisfying harmonies. The vocal train sounds are so satisfying, and the high haunting harmony is too perfect.

22. Moondog - “Bird’s Lament”

23. Kim Jung Mi - “From Where to Where”

This is from the other Shin Joong Hyun collection, “From Where to Where: Digital EP 1970-79.” This wildly popular fountain of creativity was plugged when the president of South Korea demanded that Hyun write a praise song to the leader, Hyun refused, and his career was completely shut down. Eventually he was even imprisoned and tortured. It sounds like life got pretty harsh for Hyun for the following decades, but he managed to survive and even helped put together this collection. Kim Jung Mi, who sings on this track, had a reputation as a singer before this track, but after it was released she was known as a Korean-style psych singer.

24. Mafatshi Leh - “Al Massrien”

I don’t know anything about this song except that I found it on a killer collection called “Habibi Funk,” and it’s totally undeniable. We’re really been feeling the collision of Western instruments with Eastern melodic instincts and styles.

- Hama - “Ataraghine”

Man, I LOVE this track. It’s just a guy and a keyboard in a video, but it’s mesmerizing. I think somehow it was DJ Région who got me to notice this one. This is from Niger in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vr5lxiTx4A

25. Willie Dunn - “I Pity the Country”

Willie Dunn was an Indigenous songwriter. This song documents the anger and destruction and rebellion that colonialism inevitably calls forth.

* I know there’s no “Time Warp” on this episode, but it’s been such a crazy last several weeks/months that it took us this long to finally post!

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180abroad · 5 years

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Day 179: To Amsterdam

After nearly six months abroad, one of the most bittersweet days of the trip was finally upon us. When Jessica and I checked out of our Airbnb, it would be our last checkout out as a duo. When we boarded the train out of Bruges, it would be our last major train ride of the trip. In one more day, we'd have finally made it 180 days abroad. They hadn't all been easy, but every one of them was a precious experience in its own right---at least in retrospect. And there are very few people either of us can imagine having done it with instead.

But we weren't done yet. For our final week in Europe, we'd be taking a victory lap around Holland, and we'd be doing it with family.

Jessica's brother Nic had already landed in Amsterdam and had been keeping our hotel room warm for us the past two nights. Literally, since Amsterdam was cool and rainy at the moment. As we sipped coffee with our Belgian host and her girlfriend, Jessica was on the phone with Nic arranging the details of our rendezvous in Amsterdam that afternoon. Or at least, she was trying to.

Our host's girlfriend's dog, a chihuahua whose name we've sadly forgotten, would not stop yapping throughout the entire conversation. She was wearing a shock collar that gave her a little zap whenever she barked, but it didn't seem to discourage her from making her voice heard.

Our host's lab Louis, meanwhile, was happily occupied with rolling around quietly on the floor. Jessica mentioned that Nic's girlfriend has a labrador-chihuahua mix. Without saying a word, they looked from the 70-pound lab to the 5-pound chihuahua. Then back to the lab, and back again to the chihuahua, their faces steadily adopting a dubious cast. "They had help," Jessica clarified.

The ride to Amsterdam was smooth and unremarkable, with an easy change in Antwerp. Along the way, we laughed to find that we were passing through a town named Sint-Niklaas, the Belgian name for Saint Nick. Appropriate, given our upcoming rendezvous.

Antwerp Central was really impressive, and it became even more so as we descended further and further and further down until we reached the lowest level where the bullet trains ran. Thanks to the station's open design, we could still gaze up at the main floor far above us.

It was raining hard in Amsterdam when we arrived. Nic had been waiting for us at the station, but it took us an unusually long time to find each other. Still, it was a happy reunion.

We took the metro back to our hotel in the Bijlmer neighborhood of southern Amsterdam, right across the tracks from the stadium where we'd be seeing the soccer game---a friendly match between the Dutch and Peruvian national teams. But even though they weren't playing for stakes, the excitement was still palpable amidst the throngs of orange and red clad fans filling the streets in anticipation of the match still hours away.

After dropping off our bags and relaxing in the hotel room for a bit, we took in the drizzly ambiance of the area and settled on an Italian place for dinner.

Finally, it was time to enter the Arena.

We had great seats near one of the goals, and the game itself was spectacular. The fans were great, too. Perhaps it helped that it was just a friendly match, but it was cool to see people showing off their national pride in a positive, lighthearted way.

Our seats ended up being right in front of a rogue Dutch pep band filled with trumpets and drums. Thankfully, they handed out earplugs to everyone in front of them. They were fun, but they were also loud and annoying. They might have been less annoying if they had played in tune.

With friendly games I tend to wonder how hard the teams will actually play, but both sides really brought their A game. Peru was more consistent and coordinated, earning the first goal. But while the Dutch missed a lot of big opportunities, they took so many more shots that they ended up winning 2-1.

After the game, the Dutch team honored their captain Wesley Sneijder, who was retiring from the national team after this game. They set up a little family room scene in the middle of the field–complete with couch, coffee table, potted plants, and a big screen TV. With Sneijder and his family sitting on the couch, they played them a farewell video. Even though we couldn’t understand the video or Sneijder’s own goodbye speech to the fans, it was clearly heartfelt and sincere.

Back at the hotel, we got our stuff ready for an early morning checkout. We had timed tickets to visit the Van Gogh Museum in the morning, and we weren't about to miss it.

#180abroad #amsterdam #netherlands #travel #football #soccer #game day

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