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hotvintagepoll · 1 month

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Propaganda

María Félix (Doña Barbara, La Mujer sin Alma, Rio Escondido, La Cucaracha)—Maria Felix is still possibly the most well-known Mexican film actress. She turned down multiple-roles in Hollywood and a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer in order to take roles in Mexico, France, and Argentine throughout the 1940s, 50s, 60s. She was so famous and so respected as a dramatic actress that she inspired painters, novelists and poets in their own art--she was painted by Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, Bridget Tichenor. The novelist Carlos Fuentes used her as inspiration for his protagonist in Zona Sagrada. She inspired an entire collection by Hermes. In the late 1960s Cartier made her a custom collection of reptile themed jewels. She considered herself to be powerful challenger of morality and femininity in Mexico & worldwide--she routinely played powerful women in roles with challenging moral choices and free sexuality. But even still, years after he death, she is celebrated with Google Doodles, and appearances in the movie Coco, and holidays for the anniversary of her death.

Frances Farmer (Among the Living)— has multiple songs written about her, a mentally ill icon, sexy as fuck and a feminist icon

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

María Félix:

She's Thee Hot Vintage Movie Woman of México. She's absolutely gorgeous and always looks like she's about to step on you. you WILL be thankful if she does.

"María Félix is a woman -- such a woman -- with the audacity to defy the ideas machos have constructed of what a woman should be. She's free like the wind, she disperses the clouds, or illuminates them with the lightning flash of her gaze." - Octavio Paz

María Félix is one of the most iconic actresses of the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. La Doña, as she was lovingly nicknamed, only had one son, and when her first marriage ended in divorce her ex-husband stole her only child, so she vowed that one day she’d be more influential than her ex and she’d get her son back. AND SHE DID! María Félix rejected a Hollywood acting role to start her acting career in Mexico on her own terms with El Peñón de las Ánimas (The Rock of Souls) starring alongside actor, and future third husband, Jorge Negrete. She quickly rose to incredible heights both in Mexico and abroad, later on rejecting a Hollywood starring role (Duel in the Sun) as she was already committed to the movie Enamorada at the planned filming time. Of this snubbing she said, quote: “I will never regret saying no to Hollywood, because my career in Europe was focused in [high] quality cinema. [My] india* roles are made in my country, and [my] queen roles are abroad.” (Translator notes: here the “india” role means interpreting a lower-class Mexican woman, usually thought of indigenous/native/mixed descent —which she had interpreted and reinvented throughout her acting career in Mexico— and what abroad was typically considered the Mexican woman stereotype, with the braids, long simple skirts, and sandals. This also references the expectation of her possibly helping Hollywood in perpetuating this stereotype for American audiences that lack the cultural and historical contexts of this type of role which would undermine her own efforts against this type of Mexican stereotypes while working in Europe) She was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world of her time by international magazines like Life, París Match, and Esquire, and was a muse to a vast number of songwriters (including her second husband Agustin Lara,), artists, designers, and writers. Muralist Diego Rivera described her as “a monstrously perfect being. She’s an exemplary being that drives all other human beings to put as much effort as possible to be like her”. Playwriter Jean Cocteau, who worked with her in the Spanish film La Corona Negra (The Black Crown) said the following about her, “María, that woman is so beautiful it hurts”. Haute Couture houses like Dior, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Hérmes, among others, designed and dressed her throughout her life. She died on her birthday, April 8, 2002, at 88 years old, in Mexico City. She was celebrated by a parade from her home to the Fine Arts Palace in the the city’s Historic Downtown, where a multitude of people paid tribute to her. Her filmography includes 47 movies from 1942 until 1970, and only two television acting roles in 1970. She has 2 music albums, one recorded with her second husband, Agustín Lara, in 1964 titled La Voz de María y la inspiración de Agustín «The voice of María and the inspiration of Augustín», and her solo album Enamorada «In Love» in 1998. Her bespoke Cartier jewelry is exhibited alongside Elizabeth Taylor’s, Grace Kelly’s and Gloria Swanson’s. In 2018, Film Director Martin Scorsese presented a restored and remastered version of her film Enamorada in the Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Festival and Google dedicated a doodle for her 104th birthday. On august 2023 Barbie added her doll to the Tribute Collection.

#frances farmer #maría félix #hotvintagepoll #ladies 1 #fuck that old woman

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yetanothersparrowofthedawn · 2 months

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Love Songs and Shit (Extended Masterpost)

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x YN

Genre: Angst, Hurt, Fluff, Smut (honestly it varies depending on the chapter)

Wordcount: if only I knew...

Plot: YN is a popular American singer-songwriter who, on a rainy evening in 2018, crossed path with the members of Greta Van Fleet. It didn't take long for the usually detached and fiercely independent girl to experience an unfamiliar itch. As she put pen to paper, it seemed a certain long-haired guitarist had her thinking about writing love songs and shit.

Concept: Each Album is a period of YN's journey, each track is a song she wrote after a specific chapter, so basically her discography is a chronological story of her life (with Jake, mostly). I'm currently not posting chapters in chronological order, but everything is organized in chronological order on this Masterpost.

Disclaimer: All the album covers are paintings by Norwegian painter Henrik Aarrestad Uldalen I edited. So, credit to that guy.

Also some chapters may involve triggering themes, I'll add the specific trigger warnings at the beginning of each chapter. Stay safe, besties.

(PREQUEL)Debut Album: "Remain Nameless" => NOT YET STARTED

Old Money

Seven

Blue Velvet

Lost at Sea

Bel Air

South London Forever

This is what makes us girls

Dollhouse

All-American Bitch

Hope There’s Someone

Grace

idontwannabeyouanymore

Remain Nameless

Brutal

Rabbit Heart

National Anthem

2nd Album: "Sweet Nothings" => NOT YET STARTED

The Night We Met

Ride

Lover to Lover

Body Electric

Moves

Hiding

Hope is a Dangerous thing for me to have

Love Song

Sweet nothings

3rd Album: "Let the Light In" => NOT YET STARTED

Wildest dreams

All the girls you've loved before

Cornelia street

How Big, How blue, How beautiful

Dress

Love

Always Remember Us This Way

Let the Light In

Lover

4th Album: "How to Disappear" => NOT YET STARTED

The Next Best American Record

King

Brooklyn Baby

How to Disappear

Mariners Apartment Complex

Norman Fucking Rockwell

Watercolor Eyes

Sky Full of Song

One step forward, three steps back

Out of the woods

5th Album: "The Greatest" => NOT YET STARTED

Happiness is a Butterfly

Swan song

Too Good at Goodbyes

Favorite Crime

You're Losing Me

Without You

The Greatest

6th album: "Long & Lost" => IN PROGRESS

Hits Different (coming soon..)

Now that we don’t talk

Beautiful People with Beautiful Problems

Long & Lost (coming next)

Is it over Now? (coming soon..)

All This and Heaven Too

7th Album: "St Jude" => DONE

California

Secrets from a Girl

Style

The Way I loved You

St Jude

All You Had to do Was Stay

Honeymoon

Happier than ever

8th Album: "The End of Love" => ON HIATUS

The Bomb

Prayer Factory

River

All too well

Caught

Stargirl Interlude

Getaway car

Angels like you

Various Storms and Saints

Leave my Body

Cassandra

The End of Love

9th Album: "Dream Girl Evil" => NOT YET STARTED

Carmen

A&W

Hometown Glory

Dream Girl Evil

Swimming

Restraint

Sober

Sober II

Heaven Is Here

June

God knows I tried

Never Let Me Go

(SEQUEL) 10th Album: "Margaret" => NOT YET STARTED

Morning Elvis

Girls against God

Mama who bore me

Patricia

Did you know that there's a tunnel under ocean boulevard?

Kitsungi

Back in Town

I Drink Wine

Back to December

Margaret

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hearts-4-tomkaulitz · 13 days

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ALL ABOUT TOM KAULITZ

Tom Kaulitz is a German guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is best known for his work from 2001 to the present as the guitarist of the band Tokio Hotel. He has an identical twin, Bill Kaulitz, who is the lead singer of Tokio Hotel, and his best friends are Georg Listing and Gustav Schäfer. He was born in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic. Tom and his brother, Bill, used to live in Hamburg but moved to Los Angeles in October 2010

He grew up in Leipzig with his second-born, identical twin brother Bill. His parents, the painter Simone Charlotte Kaulitz and the truck driver Jörg W., separated when he was six years old. The mother then moved with her two sons to Loitsche near Magdeburg to live with her new partner, the musician Gordon Trümper. As children they were seen in the Radio Bremen production "Verkehrt nach dir". Both found their passion for music as children, which they worked on together from then on. Tom learned to play guitar at the age of ten, while Bill Kaulitz concentrated on singing. They were supported musically by their stepfather, who was himself an active musician in Magdeburg. While performing at a club in Magdeburg in 2001, Bill and Tom Kaulitz met Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing. Shortly afterwards they founded the band "Devilish" and performed their first regional performances.

In 2003, Bill Kaulitz took part in the "Kinder-Star-Search" talent competition, after which the band was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. In the same year they received their first record contract through Sony BMG under their new band name "Tokio Hotel". Shortly before the release of the first single, Sony BMG canceled the contract, and in 2005 the band moved to Universal Music Group for their second contract. In June 2005, Tokio Hotel celebrated its first TV appearance with Bill Kaulitz as lead singer, Tom Kaulitz as guitarist, Gustav Schäfer on drums and Georg Listing on bass, with their debut single "Über den Monsun". The piece reached number 1 in the German charts in August and Tokio Hotel became one of the most popular German pop bands within a few months. In September 2005, the band released their first album entitled "Schrei", which once again dominated the top spot in the charts in Germany and Austria. In France, "Schrei" reached number 19 in the album charts in the first week, making Tokio Hotel the first German band to enter the French top 20 directly with a debut album.

Meanwhile, in 2005, the musicians, who were still of school age, were awarded the "Bambi" in the "Pop national" category and the "Comet" in the "Best Newcomer" category. In 2006, Tokio Hotel was awarded the "Echo" as "Best Newcomer", the "BRAVO Otto" as "Best Rock Band" and the "Golden Tuning Fork" as "Best German Pop Band", among others. Tom Kaulitz dropped out of school in 2006 in the 10th grade of high school. In the spring of 2008, he and his brother completed their secondary school diploma at an internet school. The twins were awarded the "Distance Learning Youth Prize" in April 2009 for their "exemplary academic achievements". The second album "Zimmer 483" was released on February 23, 2007. Shortly afterwards they were awarded the "MTV Europe Music Award" in the "Inter Act" category. In the same year, 2007, a major European tour followed from March to November. In 2008 they received the "MTV Video Music Award" in the "Best New Artist" category. At the beginning of October 2009, the band's third studio album "Humanoid" was released internationally at the same time for the first time.

In 2010, the band received the "NRJ Music Award" in the "Band Of The Year 2009" category and the MTV Europe Music Award in the "Best World Stage Live Performance" category. That same year, the twin brothers moved to Los Angeles, where they worked on their fourth studio album. In 2012, Kaulitz and his brother Bill were a jury member for the tenth season of "Deutschland sucht den Superstar". On October 3, 2014, the band's fourth studio album, "Kings of Suburbia" (Island Records), was released; the first album recorded only in English.

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imponderabillia · 3 months

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David Sylvian - Perspectives (Polaroids 82-84)

”In the early part of 1982 I had, for numerous reasons, decided to take a rest from songwriting. This was to be the first break I had had since I’d started as a child at the age of 12. It was therefore not surprising that to relieve the subsequent frustration caused by this action, I turned to the only other creative outlet I’d known, and which had been my main preoccupation until my discovery of music, drawing.

The freshness brought on by this change, the naive pleasure of working and learning in a virtually unexplored area for me opened many doors.

Not least of which being my new found appreciation of the world of the arts. Drawings, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, a universe of creativity which had always been hidden from me, suddenly came to life. I had of course been aware of works by various famous artists before, but although I was able to appreciate a lot of what I had inadvertently seen, I had never felt anything emotionally from the work in the way that I could quite naturally feel from music.

Now all was changed. I first realised this whilst visiting a major exhibition by a painter living and working here in England, Frank Auerbach. The depth and intensity of emotion I experienced surpassed anything I had felt in music for a very long time, if at all. I explain this because through these and various other similar experiences my outlook on life and work changed (or maybe matured would be more appropriate) at quite a dramatic pace. In the midst of these changes came my first attempts at Polaroid montage.

It was during a visit to Hong Kong, one of the stops towards the end of a rather lengthy tour, that I first started working with Polaroid film. As was my routine throughout the tour, I would return to my hotel after the day’s performance and there I would stay for the remainder of the evening, reading and drawing sketches. On our arrival in Hong Kong we found ourselves with a day free. However, having been there fairly recently, and not having particularly enjoyed the place, I decided to spend the day at the hotel, and among other things write some letters and complete some rawings. By evening, having filled all the paper space available with notes and sketches and wishing to continue working on ideas formed while drawing, I turned to the only materials available to me at that time, the Polaroids. This is how it started and so it has continued since, constantly developing, trying to find different uses for the same materials, and when a new technique shows itself using it to the advantage of creating interesting photographs/pictures. I feel I must point out that although looking back I know there were other artists working with Polaroids in the same, or similar areas as myself (most notable of these being D. Hockney), at this time (the remaining months of ’82) I was working totally by means of self-discovery as I had no other possible guides. I gradually became more aware of the work of others towards the middle of ’83. Sometimes consciously (and I hope with humour) I place references in my work to that of others.

Prior to my work with the SX-70, my interest in photography was to be found in areas of concept and design. I never intended or expected to become personally involved in photography, indeed even now my knowledge of the practical side of the art is extremely limited. For this reason and also because of the nature of the work I do, I would not begin to think of myself as a photographer. I have far too much respect for the people who spend a large part of their lives working with the camera (Brassai, Kertesz, Riboud, Benton, McBean and Ray) and who give true meaning to the word.

I do not see the work in this book as an end in itself. Essentially I believe that there are only a handful of pictures I have produced which transcend the techniques used and show a possibility of standing up to time. The remainder are either very personal pictures and ‘or show and explore germs of ideas which may be followed up in the future by work in other mediums.

My experimenting with Polaroids is about at an end. Although I’m still working with the techniques I’ve developed in an attempt to produce pictures of a more lasting quality. I’ll soon be turning my interests to new areas, using, along with new ideas, the more valuable I have learnt from working with Polaroids."

#david sylvian #polaroids #japan #photography #1980s #ryuichi sakamoto #yuka fuji #collage #nature

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femmefatalevibe · 9 months

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Heyyyyy.

which artists (actresses, singers, painters, etc.) have the feminine dark aesthetic? Should we take inspiration from it?

Thank u !

P.S : I like your work and your advice 🖤

Hi love! Thank you so much <3

I would say, of those who come to mind, the following actresses, singers, and other creatives offer great dark feminine inspiration:

Angelina Jolie (Actress)

Rihanna (Singer-Songwriter, Entrepreneur)

Megan Fox (Actress)

Miley Cyrus (Singer-Songwriter)

Mila Kunis (Actress)

Alexa Demie (Actress)

Michelle Pfeiffer (Actress)

Lily Rose-Depp (Actress)

Bella Hadid (Model)

Kendall Jenner (Model)

Monica Bellucci (Actress/Model)

Sophia Loren (Actress)

Brigitte Bardot (Actress/Model/Activist)

Isabelle Adjani (Actress)

Eva Green (Actress)

Elisa Morucci (Actress)

Jane Birkin (Actress, RIP <3)

Sharon Tate (Actress/Model)

Vittoria Ceretti (Model)

Naomi Campbell (Model)

Irina Shayk (Model)

Kate Moss (Model)

Sofia Coppola (Film Director)

Floria Sigismondi (Film Director)

Chantal Akerman (Film Director)

Lazar Georgeta (Painter)

Fabian Perez (Painter)

Briony May Richardson (Painter)

Hope this helps xx

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blouisparadise · 1 year

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There are so many amazing bottom Louis fics that were posted or completed during the month of December. We’re entering a new year feeling incredibly grateful for the amazing fics we got in 2022, and excited for the many we’ll get in 2023! Happy reading!

1) Far From Reality | Explicit | 1138 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Henry Cavill.

Henry and Melissa looked like the perfect couple. Nothing could be further from the truth.

2) Honeymooning In Italy | Not Rated | 2386 words

Honeymoon sex.

3) Poisonous Ivy | Explicit | 3241 words

Louis is a starving man.

He craves many things in his life. Mainly of those things that he is hungry for are things that had been deprived off of him.

4) Flame Colored Paradise | Explicit | 3282 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Mads Mikkelsen.

A side smirk widened Mads’ lips. He looked like a sight straight from heaven in his dark three-piece suit, hair in perfect place, a relaxed look on his face, as if he hasn’t had a hard-on for the last half an hour. Louis loved how Mads was always perfectly composed, never a single strand of hair out of place. He could have his whole cock buried in Louis, with the boy falling to pieces in front of him, but not a single drop of sweat would dampen his face.

5) Alpha Heater For Sale | Ten & Up | 3626 words

He passed by the bulletin board in the hallway, as usual, flyers about open mics, dorm events, and the like. This time though, he stopped when a flyer caught his eye. The words “alpha” and “heat” calling out to him.

Louis tilted his head at the flyer curiously.

It read: Alpha heater for sale! Winter weather got you down? Call Harry for your warm, furnace-like needs!

6) Unspoken | Explicit | 5175 words

Harry and Louis broke up when they were nineteen. They see each other after six years.

7) You're The (Devil In Disguise) | Explicit | 5179 words

Louis is, in appearances, the perfect omega. Small, graceful, docile, polite and very sweet. At least, until the rebellious side of him comes out, which sends alphas running away.

8) Little Minx | Mature | 5514 words

Harry’s new flatmate Louis seems to have a growing problem…literally.

9) Down Comes The Night | Explicit | 5974 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Pedro Pascal.

A love story set in the 18th century. Pedro is a painter, commissioned to create a wedding portrait of Louis, a young man who has just left the convent. Louis is a reluctant spouse to be and Pedro must paint him without his knowledge.

10) Our Stained Skin | Explicit | 6019 words

When Louis' 8-year-old daughter shows up with a tattoo on her arm Louis needs to get to the bottom of it. That may or may not involve him tailing someone. But at least he has a good reason for it. Sort of.

11) Forever Is Composed Of Nows | Not Rated | 6598 words

There was one time of the year that Louis loved more than any other. It came on the heels of autumn, slowly at first in frosted blades of grass and misty mornings and then swept over the countryside in sheets of freshly fallen snow glinting in the sunlight. With its arrival came the glow of multi-colored strings of lights strung from the eaves of every home and a magic in the air that filled the lungs of awe-inspired pups craning their necks to take in the festive displays.

Harry and Louis spend Christmas Day together.

12) Can We Please Get Back to Fucking? | Explicit | 8370 words

Harry and Louis have had a toxic back-and-forth relationship since they hate fucked at freshman orientation. Now in their senior year, they’ve lost count of how many times they’ve broken up and gotten back together. This is a smutty one-shot from when Louis makes Harry jealous at a club. Harry takes back what is his, and they fuck in the bathroom.

13) Singer And Photographer | Not Rated | 15361 words

Harry Styles: singer, songwriter, alpha

Louis Tomlinson: photographer, omega

What if you get invited by one of your best friends to join him and his band on tour?

What if you are photographing the tour?

What if you're slowly falling in love with a special alpha?

14) Here Where You Should Be | General Audiances | 19497 words

When Harry, an anxious alpha, found himself panicking over last minute Christmas shopping, he found comfort in the kind omega shop assistant, Louis. He wasn't meant to invite the omega home for Christmas when he found out that he's spending Christmas alone. He wasn't meant to catch feelings. Hell, he wasn't even meant to be able to go home for the holiday. It was shaping up to be a Christmas full of surprises.

15) Under The Rain Or Under The Snow | Explicit | 20667 words

“I don’t think I understood.” He shakes his head and closes his eyes, as if distancing himself from the situation. “Harry? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Your mum invited me, also, how could I say no to her superb roast potatoes?”

16) 12 Days of Courting | Explicit | 22709 words

They're friends with benefits and Louis' heat is scheduled for Christmas.

17) The Evenness I Fake | Explicit | 26385 words

Harry doesn’t do relationships. He has a perfectly enjoyable friends-with-benefits agreement with a perfectly lovely omega, and he doesn’t see the need to change that anytime soon. The small fact that Louis giving his attention to another alpha makes Harry want to put his head through a wall isn’t nearly as much of an issue as everyone’s making it out to be.

18) Something Along The Lines Of ‘An Office Love Story At Christmas’ | Explicit | 43148 words

Harry hadn't planned on seeing Louis again, not after that night. When he finds out his only competition for a very desired promotion is Louis, he spirals into a mess of trying to be a better coworker and person right before Christmas in hopes that he can outdo Louis' effortless effect on his office. If he manages to get his head out of his ass along the way, it’ll be a holiday miracle.

19) All I want For Christmas Is You | Not Rated | 43253 words

Christmas AU in which a soft alpha with gorgeous green eyes and an even prettier smile moves into Louis' apartment complex and turns the omega's world upside down during his most favourite time of the year - featuring christmas decorating, christmas markets, cookies in the making, and copious amounts of mulled wine (and kisses).

20) Your Gift is Wasted On Me | Not Rated | 54472 words

“He had a partner for a long time, and he says that he was too dependent. He doesn’t want an alpha, at least not right now. But he’s got a pretty severe case of touch deprivation. So it’s … not great.”

“Is there anything …”

“He doesn’t like to be touched. There was an incident a few weeks ago and he just … he can’t bear human touch.”

21) Now I'm Begging for Footnotes In The Story of Your Life | Explicit | 80742 words

Harry and Louis are engaged, but a few months before the wedding Louis realises that they don't like each other, so instead of ending the engagement two of them go head-to-head in an all out prank war.

In the battle of who will end the engagement first.

22) You Sunshine, You Temptress | Explicit | 88148 words

A story about a forbidden love

& secrets that come to light.

Eyes as green as the forest And eyes as blue as the lake When they met a love began

Stronger than the tide And wilder than a river Fearless Despite the ban

Fairy and wolf Together one

23) My Kind Of Love | Explicit | 108178 words

Harry marries Louis for one year. Louis has no choice other than marry Harry fucking styles. There is a reason behind Harry’s sudden marriage with Louis and Louis has no idea about that. Maybe Harry married Louis for revenge.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

You can find other monthly roundup fic rec lists here.

#fic recs #bottom louis #top harry #larry #blp fic recs #monthly fic recs #blp

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47burlm · 1 year

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“A Painter Passing Through”

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s ] He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and was known internationally as a folk-rock legend. Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."[

Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—and "Black Day in July", about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the No. 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One", followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or Adult Contemporary (AC) chart with the hits "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970), "Sundown" (1974); "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40.

Several of Lightfoot's albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Harry Belafonte, the Grateful Dead, Olivia Newton-John, and Jim Croce.[9][10] The Guess Who recorded a song called "Lightfoot" on their 1968 album Wheatfield Soul; the lyrics contain many Lightfoot song titles.

youtube

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jamieroxxartist · 4 months

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youtube

✔ Mark Your Calendars: Wed Dec 27 on 🎨#JamieRoxx’s Pop Roxx Radio 🎙️#TalkShow and 🎧#Podcast w/ Featured Guest:

Ela Ozturk Page ( #SoulfulPop )

☎ Lines will be open (347) 850.8598 Call in with your Questions and Comments Live on the Air.

● Click here to Set a Reminder: http://tobtr.com/12296561

Pop Art Painter Jamie Roxx (www.JamieRoxx.us) welcomes Ela Ozturk (Soulful Pop) to the Show! (Click to go there) ● WEB: www.ela-ozturk.com ● IG: @ela_ozturk ● FB: @TheElaOzturk ● TW: @TheElaOzturk ● YT: @elaozturk ● TK: @elaozturk

Ela Ozturk is a Turkish-American singer/songwriter, who found her love for music as young as the early age of six years old. Ela Ozturk pulls from a variety of influences, inspired by strong female vocalists such as the likes of Etta James, Aretha Franklin, and Adele, Ela Ozturk found herself drawn towards their soulful voices and expressive lyrics. Growing up in the Bay Area and having a Turkish background helped expose Ela Ozturk to a wide variety of artists, genres, and musical movements. Ela Ozturk’s unique blend of Blues, Jazz, R&B, Blue-eyed soul, and Pop, paired with her powerhouse vocals and confessional lyrics, helps her stand out as one of the new and exciting artists to watch out for.

● Media Inquiries: www.ela-ozturk.com

#Youtube

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joandraws · 6 months

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Connie Converse

Maybe you've heard of her, maybe you haven't. I'm writing this for those who haven't.

Connie may well be the first American singer-songwriter, though her name remains relatively obscure. I only stumbled upon her music recently and was instantly captivated by it. My fascination with her artistry drove me to delve deeper into her life and the mystery surrounding her disappearance. This exploration took an emotional toll, as I found myself relating to her on a profound level. Her lyrics already resonated with me, but as I delved into her story and read parts of her final letter titled "To Anyone Who Ever Asks," the line, "Let me go, let me be if I can, let me not be if I can't," moved me to tears. I suddenly felt like her disappearance was such a significant loss to the world.

Then a strange thing happened as I was painting this portrait of her. I glanced at my worn-out, old Intuos4 graphic tablet (yes, it still works), its stickers peeling off, and I couldn't help but cry. In a hypothetical scenario (if I also disappeared) where someone as sensitive as me discovered my possessions, viewed my art, and learned about my life, they might feel the same way about me. In that moment, I gained a newfound appreciation for my art, for what I do, and for who I am.

Being proud of my art has always been a challenge for me. Typically, I create and release my work into the world, allowing it to find its own audience. And I have to admit that a lot of the time I even dislike my art. But lately, I've been working on having the same level of appreciation for my own work as I do for others. I'm sharing this because I know there are many artists, like me, who are excessively self-critical. Yes, I struggle with perfectionism, but even more than that, I used to be so self-critical to the extent that I would stop myself from creating at all.

This year, however, through my personal sketchbook project, I've made a conscious effort to change that. I've been focusing more on savoring the process of simply putting pen to paper.

But enough about me for now; let's shift our attention back to Connie Converse, and I'll just leave this sentence that her brother Philip Converse wrote about her:

"Sis was a genius and a polymath. I do not use the terms lightly. Connie was a poet, a writer of scholarly articles, a cartoonist, a painter, a would-be novelist by her own description, an activist, sculptor, and among other things a songwriter."

She wrote most of her songs between 1950 and 1955 when she was in her late 20s, living in New York City. While they do evoke that period, they are also timeless.

There's another intriguing aspect about her, at least from my perspective. Based on my reading and the accounts of those who knew her, it's my personal belief that she may have been on the asexual spectrum. I don't mean to speculate or offend her family, but this is just my personal opinion. Her music often delved into themes of loneliness and isolation, but it also celebrated her independence and contentment with being on her own. It's evident that she grappled with depression and often felt unheard. If she indeed fell within the asexual spectrum, it's highly plausible that she also carried feelings of being different or "broken," a common experience for asexual individuals, including myself.

There has also been speculation that she might have been a lesbian, though it remains just speculation. Ultimately, we'll never truly know, and her personal life remains her own business. I believe there might be a connection between these aspects. She was undeniably brilliant, and while it might be wishful thinking on my part, the fact that she was never found and her family respected her wishes allows me to imagine that she might still be out there somewhere. I hope she senses how much people cherish her music now and realizes how deeply appreciated she is.

Thank you for reading if you did! If you want to know more about Connie Converse you can listen to Spinning On Air's beautiful podcast episodes about her here, here and here.

#connie converse #illustration #art #personal #personal post #I don't know if this is interesting to someone #i felt like sharing #maybe it can help another soul #thank you for reading

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stevelieber · 1 year

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Eleven ideas for enlivening a comics page.

Painters & songwriters can sometimes go from conception to completion in a single session, fueled by new-idea energy. Comics tend to take a lot longer. Some pages will just lay there, not engaging you. And if you're not engaged, the reader won't be either.

Let’s talk about ways to solve those problems from the picture-making side. Now, your goal should always be STORYTELLING. If the scene isn't interesting, the problem might be that there's nothing happening to engage the reader—no relevant conflict, no attempt to overcome an obstacle in pursuit of a goal. If it's the script that has problems, do the work there rather than just trying to obscure story problems with clever pictures.

So here goes. Treat these as options to deploy, like Wally Wood's "22 Panels that Always Work."

1. CONTRAST is always interesting. It can add humor and make elements in a panel comment on each other. Your shabby romantic lead never looks so worn down as when you show him next to a spotless butler in a tuxedo. Juxtapose opposites. Big vs. little. Warm color vs. cool. Dark vs. white. Curvy vs. angular. Plain vs. lavish. Young vs. old.

2. PROPS Build a scene around a single striking prop or detail of setting. It could be a gorgeous, exotic object, or something rough-hewn or oddly sized. Make it MEMORABLE. Ideally, this will tell the reader something about the character or setting it belongs to. Look at the mid-century illustrator Al Parker for some great uses of props.

3. MOOD SWITCH Life can be perverse. Funny moments at a funeral. Deeply sad incidents at a child's birthday party. Sometimes you can leave behind the dominant mood of a scene for a panel and insert something incongruous in there that, just for a moment, reminds the reader that this isn't a one-note world you're creating.

4. MOVEMENT Even in a static medium like comics, movement is a continual source of interest. When your characters have that important conversation, they can stretch, bend, twist, gesture. Let them fiddle with their glasses, rubs their hands together, reach to tie a shoe, wave away an insect. Movement does more than just make a page more lively. It can make characters more interesting.

5. APPROACH TO LAYOUT Been sticking to a grid? Maybe introducing unusual panel shapes, or a montage or poster-ish approach to a page will wake things up. Be careful with this one. You still want to control the order with which your reader receives information. Take extra care with how you guide the eye around the page. But for a lot of artists breaking free from the strict grid opens up a world of graphic possibilities.

6. TAKE SOMETHING OUT You don't have to treat every panel like a window on a scene. Try vignetting the important stuff and letting the parts that aren't important fade into the white of the page. Early 20th century illustrators were brilliant at this. Here are some examples from Dean Cornwell.

7. CHARACTER MOMENT Sometimes a character has to do something prosaic. Let's say… shopping for groceries. If you've got a page of your character shopping, find a way for them to do it that tells your reader exactly who this person is. Does she kick an apple into the cart like a hacky-sack? Does she pile the cart alarmingly high with junk food and whistle as she pushes it? Does she unknowingly knock over displays as she passes? Find a way to do it that's uniquely her.

8. PARALLEL STORY IN THE PICTURES Does the dialogue in the scene carry all the required information? Perk things up by running a parallel narrative. While the off-duty cops in your crime story have their big conversation at the diner counter in the foreground, maybe a new family in the background can be seated, get their baby into a high chair, place an order and struggle to get him to eat. Just be sure to stage it so that the reader doesn't forget that this is the cops' story.

Your parallel story can comment on the main action. It can reinforce a theme. It can even be used as a slight-of-hand distraction from some important detail you're subtly planting for later on

9. MOMENT OF BEAUTY You want your reader to be paying attention to the story rather than what an impressive draftsman you are, but there are times when these goals reinforce each other. If you're in a place in the story where it's appropriate for the reader to stop and be impressed with how beautiful something or someone is, cut loose and let your drawing take center stage.

It signals to the reader that this moment or object is something of significance. And if you are stuck drawing a page with absolutely nothing to care about, it's a good idea to at least do some cool picture-making to provide a measure of value for your reader.

10. RESTATE THE RELATIONSHIP Your pictures can clarify the relationship between two things on your page. Does the boss have all the power? Let him blow smoke at his underling, or take a sandwich from him, take a bite and hand it back. Is Louise's crush on Janine unrequited? Show Janine looking anywhere but at Louise. If Michael is heartbroken that he didn't make the basketball team, put his brother's trophies where you can juxtapose their rigid poses of triumph with Michael's slouch of despair.

11. BUILD THE WORLD Do some research and show your reader something real and relevant to your story. As the brash young pilot and his older, wiser trainer cross the airfield talking about the mission, you can show all the fascinating things the ground crew have to do to get a plane ready to take off. And when the knight and squire catch fish in the river, showing real fishing techniques will make for engaging visual business.

...and that's that! Thanks for following along. I'd love to hear your own ideas about enlivening a page.

#makecomics #comic book art #drawing comics #protip #steve lieber #protips

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theriseofthebravetangleddragons · 1 year

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The Big Four's Patron Gods

I decided to do Greek gods and like how that manifests basically? Use it for Witchcraft AU, Pagan HCs, Percy Jackson crossovers, whatever u want idc it’s my free to use headcanons lmao

Rapunzel - Apollo

You've seen her, you know her, she's the lost princess, the saviour, the home bound, the baker, the signer-songwriter and a painter. Rapunzel's artistic and inspiring nature make her a perfect contestant to be under the patronage of Apollo!

Apollo is the god of the sun, music, the arts and like 12 more other things. He’s renowned for his work with artists and many pagans today worship the patron god of plagues the arts.

The only other guesses I have for her are Helios (Greek) or Grannus (Celtic)

Raps is a great contender for anything that’s like “art is a prayer” and artistic actions and whatnot? Yeah she’s your good’n’kind classical bard here!

Merida - Artemis

She's got red curly hair, stands at 5'4'' (my height ladies and gentlemen) and has once turned her mother into a bear!! Her skills in archery, independence and the like make her a great choice for Artemis!

Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, the moon, chastity and like her twin brother Apollo, like 12 other things. But most importantly here, archery. She is known to be a symbol of protection of children as well.

Her Gaelic god-parent would be Arduinna

Merida seems to be more attuned to acts of devotions like riding, hunting and archery rather than calm prayer, poetry and the like. Artemis is absolutely a guide she could go with all in all!

Hiccup - Hapheastus

You’ve seen him, you know him, he's the only one with more than one movie, and despite 1/3 of a leg missing, HE'S STILL KICKING! Make way for Hiccup, under the patronage of Hapheastus!

Hapheastus is the god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes— this one deserves a long list cuz he’s a sweetheart tbh

Brokk and Sindri are the closest Norse equivalent that would fit in here!

Not the most well known god, but hiccup who works as an apprentice in the shop, would be delighted to be under this god. He is the patron and protector of workers and forges many great weapons, hiccup’s fire sword could be a devotion to him!

Jack Frost - Hermes

The man, the myth, the legend, he's the fan favourite and he's an icon: Jack Fost! He may not be a messenger, but he does give Sheperd vibes with his staff! Anyways, his patron God would be Hermes.

Hermes is a trickster, a psychopomp and messenger of the gods, descendant of an older Pan, he’s a chaotic character well associated with tricks and jokes! He’s also the god of shepherds, cattle and livestock, making him a pretty multi-tasking guy on the day-to-day basis!

Jack’s relationship with the god, something else as it is with most Hermes kids ig, if anything though, his work would absolutely be through actions, his connection with the wind and frost brings Zagreus and Boreas to mind, but rather in an accessory way. Either way; Both Hermes and Jack rule.

*i might edit this in further later lol*

*edited once so far*

#rotbtd #rise of the brave tangled dragons #jack frost #merida #rapunzel #hiccup #hc #rotbtd hc #patron god

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mateomeijer · 3 months

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⸻ peter gadiot, 38, cis male, he/him // in the ORCHIRD PARK neighborhood of Covington, you’ll find MATEO MEIJER who’s lived there for SEVENTEEN YEARS and they spend their days working as a DETECTIVE WITH COVINGTON PD and THE OWNER OF THE VAULT RECORD STORE. They’ve been described as PERSEVERING, GENUINE, REACTIVE, and GUARDED by the people that know them. This is his story.

Triggers: child abuse, mental illness, death/suicide

When looking back on where he has come from, Mateo doesn't like to look too deep or with too much intensity. Born and raised until aged 11 in upstate New York his father was an artist and his mother was the same. They were two painters that forged a life together after growing up with him always in pursuit of her. As kids, it had been love at first sight for his father, and his mother came around eventually. It just wasn't until after his mother's best friend had moved away to California and had married a film producer out there.

The early years his childhood was happy and warm. It wasn't until after his mother's best friend had passed away in a horrible accident in California that his mother's mental and emotional state began to decline. She drank too heavily and became abusive, first only verbally then it had become physical as well after nearly two years. Mateo's father had done everything he could to protect him and his older sister from the abuse. The man also sought help for his wife's drinking and declining health. Nothing worked. It all only got worse.

When Mateo was 11 he had walked into the converted carriage house near the main house turned working studio and found his father hanging lifeless. It's a sight that he's never been able to unsee. By the time his father was buried and laid to rest his mother had cleared out his studio and gotten rid of everything. It was only six months later that he and his older sister were taken away by the state. Unfortunately, Mateo and his sister were separated and adopted out to different families with him finding himself in the south. Covington, Georgia.

It took many years and plenty of required therapy for Mateo to come out of the poor state he'd been in. At the start he'd been unable and unwilling to open up or trust anyone despite his new family being absolutely wonderful with him. They were patient and it eventually paid off. Mateo came out of grief and survival mode with an interest and ability with music, a talented guitar player and decent songwriter. There was even a possibility of going off to music school and several times he'd been on the verge of starting a band or recording music. But, ultimately, Mateo knew that wasn't his purpose in life.

What he really needed to do was help people. So, after graduation from high school, he went off to university in Atlanta and studied criminal justice. Mateo's purpose was to become a detective, a lawman, someone that could help those in need. Partly, he wanted to learn the necessary skills for selfish reasons. His sister was out there somewhere and the desire to reconnect with her is strong. There's also the need to uncover the truth about his past and make peace with it. Once he earned his degree he came back home to Covington and became a cop. It didn't take long for him to build a very strong reputation and rise through the ranks to detective.

Many times he has received special accolades and commendations for his outstanding work. Has even been offered promotions, asked to take on a role and title with more responsibility but has always turned it down. Mateo didn't become a cop so that he would be stuck and desk and push around papers, there was no interest in the bureaucracy or business of it all. Being a detective and making a difference where he could has been all that's mattered.

Without a doubt the job is difficult and can be incredibly taxing. In times that he's nearly quit and walked away because the weight on his shoulders was too much, or he'd noticed how he'd picked up his birth mother's drinking habit, Mateo knew that he needed to find another outlet. There had to be somewhere to turn. And that happened to be music. Considering that he didn't make a ton of money but also had little expenses with no family of his own, just a house and a German Shepherd, it was easy to take his savings and buy out The Vault Record Store from it's previous owner.

A couple of years ago Mateo found a young woman badly hurt following what had appeared to be a brutal attack. It was perhaps the wrong move to make but he rushed the woman to the hospital himself knowing he could get her to help fast than it would take emergency vehicles to get to them and then take her in. With her condition critical it was a call he took responsibility for. While in emergency care and waiting on the woman to become stable Mateo had already begun the quest in finding out what had happened to her and who was responsible.

For the six months she was in the hospital in a coma Mateo visited at least once a week. At the urging of staff suggesting he talk to her, he did just that. The news would be read to her, there would be updates on her case or just him talking through what little he had, and he'd apologize for not making any progress. Her case had quickly become the one that took him over. It wasn't easy for the seasoned detective to solve, and even more frustrating that Mateo couldn't seem to find a road to travel down. When she woke he remained close to her, perhaps a little too close, and struggled with the professional boundary line.

Now, at 38, his mother has reached out to him. Sick and with not much time left Mateo's under even more pressure to find out where things went wrong in the past. There's some secrets he knows he has to uncover and most days he's not sure if he wants to. What he has never told anyone, not his therapist when he was adopted or his sister before they were separated, was that he still has the note his father left.

#covingtonintro #( 📌 pinned post ; )#( never had much time for nostalgia ; )

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dollarbin · 5 months

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Dollar Bin #27:

Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson

When I was eight years old my parents took me to see my first naked lady. Let me tell you all about it.

I grew up in LA but had no real relationship to Hollywood; yes, we'd take periodic trips to Universal Studios to ride through the one foot high Red Sea, see the Psycho house and climb on props from The Incredible Shrinking Woman, but Ricky Schroder didn't live on my block and my dad was a house painter.

My only connection to Hollywood and fame was my mom's famous cousin Kris, who we'd see once every other year or so. Kristofferson has never known me from Adam but, like me, he loved my mother and deeply loved my grandmother. He was also incredibly handsome, kind, deeply masculine and, by that point, stone cold sober. So of course he was my idol.

And so when Songwriter, Kris's totally forgettable buddy flick with Willie Nelson, came out in 84, I begged my parents to take me to see it. The movie was about writing, I argued, and I was going to be a writer when I grew up. I was eight years old and I was already full of crap; the movie is almost as dumb as I was:

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Bizarrely, my parents agreed to take me, and next thing you know my mother was literally covering my eyes with her hands as Cousin Kris cavorted with a naked lady who clearly wasn't his wife and who had the world's biggest knockers. Happily, my mother's fingers are skinny, so I got an eyeful. The movie taught me absolutely nothing about writing, but I did start to wonder about naked ladies. They seemed pretty cool.

Still, I wondered just how Kris's lovely wife felt about him making such a movie. Every time I was around them, she was literally covered in their babies - there were way too many of them for me to begin identifying individual ages or names, especially as they all looked the same. Did she know, I worried, about the lady with the giant boobies? Would there marriage survive?

Well, it's 40 years later and I'm proud to report that they are still very happily married. Maybe she never bothered to watch Songwriter...

Thankfully Nelson and Kristofferson's relationship was not born on the movie lot, and based on the image on the back of Willie's 79 album Willie Nelson Sings Kristofferson and their time together in the Highwaymen, I sense that the relationship is a special one for both men.

In preparation for my discussion of the record, here's a warm-up, one-question, multiple choice, pop quiz on Nelson:

Question: How many studio albums has Nelson put out in his 61 year career?

565

100

Before you google the answer, let me provide a little perspective. Nelson and Bob Dylan both made their album debuts in 62; 6 years later Neil Young put out his first solo record. To date, Neil has 45 studio albums, or so, to his name, depending on how you count. Dylan, 40.

(Stephen Stills, as we all know, Sucks: in a career that's as long as Young's he's produced somewhere under 30 records or so, and that total generously includes all the C, S & N albums.)

Choice #1 in the above quiz makes sense. It would make Nelson slightly more productive than Neil and far more productive than Bob, and I can get my mind around that: Bob's production has slowed down considerably in the last 30 years, and Young's alternated between rushing things out half-baked (for example, everything he ever made with members of Willie's family in the Promise of the Real) or refusing to issue finished and impossibly great records for decades for no discernible reason (Homegrown, Chrome Dreams - you know, two of the best records of all time).

Choice #2, wherein Nelson spent less time in the studio than either Bob or Neil, could work too: Nelson is 4 years older than Dylan (Willie's 90!) and he didn't put out any records until his late 20's; plus he's always high, right? So maybe he's less prolific?

Choice #3 is included to make sure you're not a bot. If you are, Greetings, Machine. I hope you are enjoying my blog! Thank you for being 53 of my 59 followers. When you are done reading this please go attack some Russian servers or something, okay?

Choice #4 is nearly as wacko, right? How could Willie possibly have produced 1.64 albums a year, smoked all that supposed pot, evaded all those supposed taxes and made a terrible movie with Cousin Kris along the way? Can't be done, right?

Wrong. The correct answer is #4. Nelson has made an even 100 studio albums in his career. In 1982 alone he put out 4 records, 3 of which were issued in consecutive months. Holy Smoke, Willie!

Now I want to come right on out and say that I own, and have only heard, a fraction of those albums. I count 9 on my shelf at the moment and I'm no real authority on Willie. What's more, I've never been to Farm Aid, nor have I ever seen an Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground. I've never even smoked any of Nelson's herb and I'd decline it if offered. So, if you want to put me in a full Nelson in the comments and critique all the follows, be my guest.

But in the meantime I'm gonna act like I know a lot about Wet Willie and his impossible album total and argue that the sheer enormity of his output explains a few things about him generally and Sings Kristofferson in particular.

The album in question is alternatively workman-like, tossed off, intricate and sublime. I'm guessing he recorded it in a weekend of single takes after spending ten years singing the songs for his own pleasure. Let's dive into this Dollar Bin must-have.

To begin with, the hits are all here. Make a list of Kristofferson songs you know and they are probably all on the record.

Bobby McGee is given a country blues work up with an extended jam at the back end. Nelson rides the riff in baritone. The truth is that I've never heard a single version of this wonderful song that I really love other than Kris's own take: only he really understands how damn sad the story is. Roger Miller sings it like he's the gringo at the fiesta; Gordon Lightfoot gets the job done then moves on to songs of his own that mean much more to him; Janis Joplin rewrites it almost entirely, and while the result is classic, I have to remind myself that hers is the same song.

Much the same can be said for the album's Sunday Morning Coming Down. Nelson is thoughtful, takes the song to church and then the dance hall, and fills both spaces with stately grace.

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I like playing Nelson's version of the song while putting together a nice weekend brunch for my family. There's plenty fresh hot coffee on hand for my wife and the egg sandwiches have avocado, swiss and homemade hollandaise. I pick out nice plates.

But the song is about beer for breakfast. And only Kristofferson really conveys just how much misery it contains:

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And so I think that the real magic of Nelson's record lies in the songs Kristofferson got wrong on his own. Take You Show Me Yours (And I'll Show You Mine). Kris was pretty lost on alcohol when he blasted through his own version: there's a 4,000 member choir on hand along with a trashcan percussion section and too slick of a pianoman. All poor Kris can do is warble along.

But Willie uses the song to show off his pipes. And, oh, aren't they glorious!

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And the album closes with something pretty extraordinary I think. Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends is a song Kris passed on to others in the late 60's. He didn't attempt a version of his own until the 3rd album he made with Rita Coollidge and that record is straight up boring. Their marriage was already over; the story had already ended.

But Nelson's version is startlingly perfect. Just sit with me a moment. Enjoy it, till it's over. And lean in for the second line of the second verse. I find the note Willie hits for "softer" to be one of the most surprising and sublime moments in my entire Dollar Bin.

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I kind of imagine Nelson will live to 100 and put out another 25 records. But Cousin Kris will surely pass away in the coming days, months or years. So too will Bob and Neil. I honestly hate to think about it. Just like me, they are all flawed men, yes, but I believe they are important artists and their contributions have been, and will continue to be, deeply positive.

When the day comes and I hear of Kris's passing, I'll surely put on this record and think with appreciation of the really nice moments I was lucky to spend in his company as a kid. I'll think of his wonderful songwriting, and I'll think of the loving pride with which he stood beside my grandmother. I'll probably remember too how he granted me my first look at boobies.

And when Willie Nelson begins to sing in Please Don't Tell Me How... and describes so perfectly a last night spent together, I'll sit still and close my eyes, saying a little prayer in my own way.

That's how I want the story to end.

#Youtube #kris kristofferson #willie nelson #bob dylan #neil young #stephen stills still sucks #songwriter #me and bobby mcgee

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blueyisszy · 1 year

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“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.” —Yohji Yamamoto

It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.” Thank goodness.

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes.

We learn by copying. We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism—plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own.

Copying is about reverse-engineering. It’s like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works.

We learn to write by copying down the alphabet. Musicians learn to play by practicing scales. Painters learn to paint by reproducing masterpieces.

Remember: Even The Beatles started as a cover band. Paul McCartney has said, “I emulated Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis. We all did.” McCartney and his partner John Lennon became one of the greatest songwriting teams in history, but as McCartney recalls, they only started writing their own songs “as a way to avoid other bands being able to play our set.”

As Salvador Dalí said, “Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”

First, you have to figure out who to copy. Second, you have to figure out what to copy.

Who to copy is easy. You copy your heroes—the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. The songwriter Nick Lowe says, “You start out by rewriting your hero’s catalog.”

And you don’t just steal from one of your heroes, you steal from all of them. The writer Wilson Mizner said if you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many, it’s research. I once heard the cartoonist Gary Panter say, “If you have one person you’re influenced by, everyone will say you’re the next whoever. But if you rip off a hundred people, everyone will say you’re so original!”

What to copy is a little bit trickier. Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes. The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds.

That’s what you really want—to internalize their way of looking at the world. If you just mimic the surface of somebody’s work without understanding where they are coming from, your work will never be anything more than a knockoff.

At some point, you’ll have to move from imitating your heroes to emulating them.

Imitation is about copying. Emulation is when imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing.

“There isn’t a move that’s a new move.” The basketball star Kobe Bryant has admitted that all of his moves on the court were stolen from watching tapes of his heroes.

But initially, when Bryant stole a lot of those moves, he realized he couldn’t completely pull them off because he didn’t have the same body type as the guys he was thieving from. He had to adapt the moves to make them his own.

Conan O’Brien has talked about how comedians try to emulate their heroes, fall short, and end up doing their own thing.

Johnny Carson tried to be Jack Benny but ended up Johnny Carson. David Letterman tried to copy Johnny Carson but ended up David Letterman. And Conan O’Brien tried to be David Letterman but ended up Conan O’Brien.

In O’Brien’s words, “It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.” Thank goodness.

-Steal like an Artist.

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homomenhommes · 7 days

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 12

1526 – Marc-Antoine Muret, French humanist and philosopher, born (d.1586); Known as Muretus, he was a French humanist who was among the revivers of a Ciceronian Latin style and is among the usual candidates for the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissance.

It wasn't exactly easy to be a humanist in the 16th century. The slightest misstep and you'd end up seeing your entrails popping right before your very eyes as you burned at the stake. In France, in particular, the Church had a couple of effective ways to dispatch those whose views were too liberal - charge them with sodomy or Protestantism, much the same abnormality to the official medieval mind.

Muret was regularly charged with both offenses. Only one of them was true - he was homosexual. His success made him many enemies, and he was thrown into prison on a charge of homosexuality, but released by the intervention of powerful friends. The same accusation was brought against him at Toulouse, and he only saved his life by timely flight. The records of the town show that he was burned in effigy as a Huguenot and as sodomite (1554).

After a wandering and insecure life of some years in Italy, he received and accepted the invitation of the Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este to settle in Rome in 1559. In 1561 Muret revisited France as a member of the cardinal's suite at the conference between Roman Catholics and Protestants held at Poissy.

1927 – Richard Olney (d.1999) was an American painter, cook, food writer, editor, and memoirist. He was best known for his books of French country cooking.

Olney was born in Marathon, Iowa. He lived in a house above the village of Solliès-Toucas in Provence, France, for most of his adult life, where he wrote many classic and influential cookbooks of French country cooking. He had first moved to France in 1951, to Paris, where he was close friends with (and painted many of) the American and English bohemian expatriate set, including James Baldwin, filmmaker Kenneth Anger, painter John Craxton, poet John Ashbery and composer Ned Rorem. Chef Jeremiah Towers was a lover.

His deep knowledge of traditional classic French food and wine got him a job writing a column entitled Un Américain (gourmand) à Paris for the journal Cuisine et Vins de France beginning in 1962. After The French Menu Cookbook was published in English in 1970, his then-revolutionary approach of seasonal menus and close attention to wine pairings began to attract notice in Britain and America. By the time he wrote Simple French Food in 1974, he was one of the most important food writers of the era, with a huge impact on nouvelle and California cuisine.

James Beard was an important American mentor, and Olney, in the midst of his career, taught a series of cooking classes in Beard's West Village apartment. Despite this, Olney, in a memoir, presents a mixed picture of Beard's character.

From 1977 to 1982, Olney edited the 28-volume Time-Life book series The Good Cook. By the time of his death, from heart failure, in addition to the Time-Life set he had written many of his own brilliant, idiosyncratic, poetic books about food and wine. His last book, Reflexions, a memoir, was published posthumously by Brick Tower Press. Olney died aged 72 in Sollies-Toucas, France.

1945 – The American composer and musician Tom Wilson Weinberg, was born on this date. Tom Wilson Weinberg began singing original queer- themed songs in coffee-houses and gay pride events in the late seventies.

A songwriter and singer who has written words and music for the Off- Broadway shows Ten Percent Revue and Get Used To It!, two solo albums, Gay Name Game and All-American Boy, and the Stonewall 25 CD, Don't Mess With Mary. His songs have appeared on several recordings by other artists, including the soundtrack of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America; Feeding the Flame, an AIDS benefit compilation; Ron Romanovsky's Hopeful Romantic and Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus CD, SING OUT. Gay Name Game (1979) and All-American Boy (1982) were among the first Gay-themed albums. Both were released by Aboveground Records under the name Tom Wilson. In 1982 he assumed the family name Weinberg.

Ten Percent Revue opened in Boston in 1985 and played four summers in Provincetown, produced by Laura Green, who took the show to New York in 1988. On tour the show earned two Los Angeles Drama-Logue Awards, three Golden Gull Awards (Provincetown), and the Bessie Smith Award (Boston). For more about his wonderful music visit www.tomwilsonweinberg.com

Weinberg’s song "Lesbian Seagull" was featured in the film "Beavis and Butt-head Do America" (Paramount/MTV), on the soundtrack (Geffen/Universal), published by Warner Chappell and released as a single with Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Love Rollercoaster."

Tom was a founder of Giovanni's Room and president of The Attic Youth Center, both in Philadelphia. He is a member of ASCAP, OutMusic and The Purple Circuit. He lives with John Whyte, his husband of over 40 years. Tom and John are the dads of boys Jesse and Max.

1957 – On this date the film The Strange One was released. The Strange One (1957), a psychological drama about military school mores and veiled homosexuality, was promoted as the first picture shot entirely by a cast and crew from New York's the Actors Studio, and the connection shows. Both the power and self-indulgence of that particular school of performing is on ample display here.

However, even though some scenes were eventually censored or made less explicit by the Motion Picture Production Code, The Strange One was still a shocking film for its time, and was a harbinger of greater things to come for several of its cast members.

Ben Gazzara plays Jocko De Paris, a macho troublemaker who lords over his younger classmates at a southern military school. De Paris and his dim-witted partners in abuse, Koble (Pat Hingle) and Gatt (James Olson), take special joy in tormenting Simmons (Arthur Storch), a young man who appears to be Gay. Maj. Avery (Larry Gates) is an adult who's on to Jocko's power trip, and attempts to get him kicked out of the school. Jocko, on the other hand, recognizes his enemy, and tries to harm Avery's reputation. Gazzara's character is so wholly despicable that the tag line on The Strange One's movie poster actually states: "The Most Fascinating Louse You Ever Met!" He might also be fighting his own homosexual tendencies, but that wasn't the kind of thing you shouted about on movie posters in 1957.

Producer Sam Spiegel, who was deep in preparation for David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and had already produced Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), originally wanted Kazan to adapt Calder Willingham's play, End as a Man, into a high profile film starring James Dean. When that proposal went nowhere, he decided to position the picture as a low-budget launching pad for several Actors Studio members who had originated their roles on stage. Spiegel then hired Jack Garfein, who had introduced the play to the actors during a Studio workshop, to direct the picture. As generous as this seemed at the time, things quickly headed south once filming began.

Initially, Garfein had a close relationship with Spiegel, but he eventually grew to dislike the producer intensely. For starters, Spiegel had problems with the play's powerful, open-ended final act, and he also felt that Willingham was a long- winded bore. To get a small amount of revenge on Spiegel for his needless antagonism, Willingham would actually steal expensive cigars from the producer's desk when he wasn't looking; he'd open his jacket and show them to Garfein after their meetings. Tack on that Spiegel couldn't stand hot weather, and that most of the picture was shot in central Florida, and the kettle boiled over on a regular basis.

In his autobiography, In the Moment: My Life as an Actor, Ben Gazzara wrote that

[Garfein's] command of the film surprised me. It was the first movie for all of us but he seemed especially comfortable and assured. There were two actors who had not been in the Actors Studio production: the young, handsome George Peppard, who I had never heard of, replaced William Smithers, and James Olson played the dumb football player that Al Salmi portrayed so well. Jack got them to blend in perfectly. Peppard brought an innocence and vulnerability to the part that helped the story, and Olson got all the same laughs Salmi had gotten. Arthur Storch, who played the butt of all the insults and hazing, took the additional step of having a dentist fit him for an upper plate of very bucked teeth. Onstage he used no visual device to demonstrate how unattractive his character was, but it was decided that on film it would work well. And it did. Paul Richards' comic take on a homosexual who is writing a book about Jocko was as good as ever. And my sidekick, Pat Hingle, with his fear of flouting protocol, was even better on film than he was onstage."

Bosley Crowther, the legendary critic for The New York Times, could well have pointed his finger directly at the censor's edits when describing The Strange One's failings:

"The plot for corrupting one boy with a prostitute is sketched vaguely in a feeble scene wherein Julie Wilson ably plays a slack-jointed dame, and the suggestion of the homosexual angle, so strong in the play, is very cautiously hinted here."

One is simply left to wonder how Gazzara and his fellow revolutionaries at the Actors Studio approached the material when they appeared in the uncensored play...and if Spiegel ever missed all those pricey cigars.

1961 – Willi Ninja (d.2006) was an American dancer and choreographer best known for his appearance in the documentary film Paris is Burning.

Born William Roscoe Leake in Middletown, New York, Willi was a self-taught dancer and was perfecting his vogueing style by his twenties with from fellow voguers in Washington Square Park. While he didn't create the form, he worked at refining it with clean, sharp movements to "an amazing level". His influences included Fred Astaire, olympic gymnasts, and Asian culture.

Ninja, who was gay, was a fixture of ball culture at Harlem's drag balls who took inspiration from sources as far-flung as Fred Astaire and the world of haute couture to develop a unique style of dance and movement. He caught the attention of Paris is Burning director Jennie Livingston, who featured Ninja prominently in the film. The film, a critical and box office success, served as a springboard for Ninja. He parlayed his appearance into performances with a number of dance troupes and choreography gigs. His style served as an inspiration to Madonna, who immortalized it in her 1990 hit song and music video "Vogue." He also starred in the earlier music video for Malcolm McLaren's "Deep in Vogue".

He participated in Harlem's drag balls with "children" from his House of Ninja. Like other ball "houses", HoN was a combination of extended social family and dance troupe, with Willi as its Mother.

Willi's later career included runway modeling for Jean-Paul Gaultier, performing with dance companies under Karole Armitage, and providing instruction to Paris Hilton on perfecting her walk. He opened a modeling agency, Elements of Ninja, in 2004, and made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Ninja died of AIDS-related heart failure in New York City on September 2, 2006, aged 45.

1974 – Slava Mogutin, a New York-based Russian artist and author, who was the first openly gay personality in the Russian media, works across different media, including photography, video, text, installation, sculpture and painting.

Born in Siberia, in the industrial city of Kemerovo, Mogutin moved to Moscow as a teenager. He soon began working as a journalist for the first independent Russian publishers, newspapers and radio stations. By the age of 21, he had gained both critical acclaim and official condemnation for his outspoken queer writings and activism. Accused of "open and deliberate contempt for generally accepted moral norms"; "malicious hooliganism with exceptional cynicism and extreme insolence"; "inflaming social, national, and religious division"; "propaganda of brutal violence, psychic pathology, and sexual perversions"—he became the target of two highly publicized criminal cases, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to 7 years.

Forced to leave Russia, Mogutin was granted political asylum in the US with the support of Amnesty International. Upon his arrival in New York City, he shifted his focus to visual art and became an active member of the downtown art scene. Since 1999, his photography has been exhibited internationally and featured in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, The Village Voice, i-D, Visionaire, L'Uomo Vogue and BUTT.

slava mogutin nyc go-go

Mogutin is the author of two hardcover monographs of photography, Lost Boys and NYC Go-Go, and 7 books of writings published in Russian. He is the winner of the Andrei Belyi Prize for Literature (2000). His poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies in 6 languages. He has translated into Russian Allen Ginsberg's poetry, William S. Burroughs' essays and Dennis Cooper's fiction. He appeared as an actor in Bruce LaBruce's agitprop porn movie Skin Flick (1999) and Laura Colella's independent feature Stay Until Tomorrow (2004).

In 2004, together with his partner-collaborator Brian Kenny, he co-founded SUPERM, a multimedia art team responsible for site-specific gallery and museum shows in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Berlin, London, Oslo, Bergen, Haifa, and León, Spain.

1993 – Carl Nassib is an American football defensive end who is a free agent. He played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, earning unanimous All-American honors as a senior in 2015. Nassib was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft, and has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Las Vegas Raiders. In 2021, Nassib became the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay. He is also the first openly gay NFL player to play in a game.

Nassib was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He attended Malvern Preparatory School, a Catholic private school in Malvern, where he was a three-year letterman in football. He played as an offensive tackle and defensive end. He helped lead the team to a 7–4 record in his junior and senior years. Nassib also lettered twice in basketball as well as three times in track and field. As a senior, he was selected team captain in basketball, helping lead the Friars to a 24–7 record.

Nassib's father Gilbert Nassib played college football at the University of Delaware. His older brother Ryan was a quarterback at Syracuse University and played in the NFL from 2013 to 2017.

On June 21, 2021, during Pride Month, Nassib released a statement on his Instagram account stating that he is gay, becoming the first active NFL player to come out publicly. In the statement, he pledged to donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to crisis intervention and suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, and to continue to champion their work. He received public support from the NFL, Raiders, Penn State, and current and former athletes. That day, jerseys and T-shirts with his name were the top sellers among all NFL players at Fanatics, the league's sales partner.

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gardenofkore · 1 year

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You can do politics and protest in a thousand ways. I sing. But I’m not a singer...I’m different. Let’s say, I’m an activist who makes rallies with the guitar.

Rosa on herself [my translation]

Rosa Balistreri was born on March 21st, 1927 in Licata (in the province of Agrigento) from a poor (and also alcoholic and often violent) carpenter and a housewife. She had two sisters, Mariannina and Maria, and a brother, Vincenzo (paraplegic since birth).

Since she was a young child, Rosa had to work to help support her family. She worked as a maid with wealthy families, preserved fish, and gleaned the fields of nearby villages during summer. Singing was her only enjoyment, and soon her raspy and passionate voice started to be appreciated, to the point she was hired to sing during wedding and baptism celebrations.

Around 15-16 years old, she was married to Gioacchino Torregrossa, called Iachinazzu and whom she will later describe as “latru, jucaturi e ‘mbriacuni” (thief, gambler and alcoholic). From this marriage, a daughter, Angela, was born. True to the description his wife gave of him, at some point Iachinazzu bet his daughter’s dowry and lost it. This event must have been for Rosa the last straw, so once she found out, the enraged and desperate woman stabbed her husband with a knife. Thinking she had killed him, she turned herself to the Carabinieri. As it turned out, Iachinazzu had just been severely wounded, so Rosa was only sentenced six months.

Once she served her time, she started working as a peddler, until she left her husband and moved to Palermo together with her daughter. In Palermo, she worked as a maid for a noble family. She was able to send her daughter to boarding school, while she learnt to read and write. Everything seemed to go well until the family’s young son seduced Rosa and got her pregnant. With the (false) promise of marrying her, he convinced her to steal money from his parents. Unfortunately for her, Rosa was discovered and ran away. She was nonetheless arrested and sentenced seven months. When her time was served, she was forced to live on the street until a midwife friend took her in and helped her give birth to a stillborn son.

Thanks to the intervention of Earl Testa, Rosa was employed as keeper cum sacristan of the Church of Santa Maria degli Agonizzanti, Palermo. For a while, she lived in the sacristy’s basement together with her brother Vincenzo, until the priest attempted to assault her. The woman took revenge by stealing the church’s alms-giving and with the money, she bought two tickets for Firenze, one for her and the other for her brother.

In Firenze, Vincenzo started working as a shoemaker while she resumed her job as a maid for upper-class families. The siblings were soon joined by their sister Mariannina, and their mother. The other sister, Maria (together with her children), joined them later, following a terrible fight with her violent husband. Unfortunately for Maria, her husband followed her and, once he found his wife, he killed her. Maria’s death was a huge blow to Rosa’s family, their distraught father was so desperate he hanged himself.

In the meantime, Rosa had started a relationship with Florentine painter Manfredi Lombardi. Through him, she managed to get introduced to artistic figures like Genoese art critic Mario De Michele (who allowed her to record her first album), Sicilian poet Ignazio Buttitta (who suggested that she learnt how to play the guitar and helped her with the songwriting and the composition of the music tracks), or 1997 Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo (who hosted her in the first two editions of his theatrical show Ci ragiono e canto).

Eventually, her decade-long relationship with Lombardi would end after he dumped her for a model, causing Rosa to fall into depression and attempt to kill herself. To make things worse, her daughter Angela had abandoned boarding school because she found herself pregnant and now Rosa had to provide also for her. To her rescue came her friends from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) who allowed her to perform during the various Feste de l’Unità the Party organized in various Italian cities.

She returned to Sicily at the beginning of 1970s. No longer an unknown Sicilian émigré, she came back as an accomplished artist. In 1973 her song Terra che non senti was disqualified during the XXIII edition of Sanremo Music Festival. The disqualification occurs after the RAI denounces the song via telegram as not being an unreleased track, prompting various controversies since it seemed like the real reason Rosa was banned was that the RAI was afraid that she (a known activist with Communist ideals) might use the Festival to make some dangerous social statement in front of 30 millions of viewers. By many, she’s considered the moral winner of the XXIII edition.

In Palermo she kept singing and playing in the Teatro Biondo, as well as touring the world, performing among other in Sweden, Germany, and the USA and always being celebrated.

While in tournée in Calabria, Rosa suffered from a stroke. She was hospitalised in Palermo, in Villa Sofia Hospital, where she died on September 20th 1990, although later buried in Trespiano, near Firenze. She was 63.

Rosa’s voice, her strangled singing, dramatic, anguished, sounded as if it came from Sicily’s parched earth. I got the impression of having always known her, to have seen her being born and heard her throughout my whole life: child, shoeless, poor, woman, mother, Because Rosa Balistreri is a fantastic character, I’d say a drama, a novel, a faceless movie.

Ignazio Buttitta [my translation]

Sources

Balarm, Sanremo 1973: la grande assente Rosa Balistreri, esclusa con "Terra che non senti"

Cascio Franco, Quella volta che Rosa Balistreri fu esclusa dal Festival di Sanremo

Grasso Mario, Rosa Balistreri, la cantautrice siciliana che ha vinto contro ogni mala fortuna

Meli Cristina, Rosa Balistreri, la prima cantautrice e cantastorie donna italiana

PalermoViva, Rosa Balistreri Canta e Cunta

Providenti Giovanna, Rosa Balistreri

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#women #historicwomendaily #women in history #history #historical women #rosa balistreri #ignazio buttitta #palermo #province of palermo #licata #Province of Agrigento #contemporary sicily #people of sicily #women of sicily #myedit #historyedit

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