#they are my anchor and inspiration pieces that brought me into my style

[tidalsedge]

Ever since you were a child you discovered peace only in isolation. Picking your way through the rocky beaches and forests of your homeworld. You would keep sketchbooks and collect specimens. Your bedroom walls a kaleidoscope of nature. 

 “Our little Naturalist” your parents called you fondly. 

 A truly passionate naturalist was highly sought after back when Earth was full of undiscovered places and an empire financed science in the name of expansion. It is no surprise that you would choose this career. Only it looks a little different from Darwin and the naturalists of the British empire.  

   Expansion is still the name of the game, but earth is old news. Humanity has taken to Space. 

#naturalist #science fiction #scifi aesthetic #sculpture #surrealism #scifi short story #biology #writing scifi #the image are sculptures i made #they are my anchor and inspiration pieces that brought me into my style

[nhyckdcxx]

Neighborhood

Characters: Vernon! x reader!neighbor

Genre: smut/fluff

Words: 2.008k

warning:unprotectedsex, blowjob, kitchensex, fingering,kinky,foreplay,riding,intimate

Summary: Vernon is your neighbor since you move into your new unit. You can always see him but never talked to him. An incident led you to ask for his help and casually having a thing that is not expected.

A/N: another memberxreader prompt piece I made. Inspired by the Attaca teaser photos I crazily thinksss. I cant sleep. Well, anyways hope u enjoy this one! ;))

————

It was weekend. You are already finishing all of your house chores and started to prepare for your dinner.

You went to check what it was, only to find out that your heater is broken.

"Oh.shit.. why is it now??ugh!." You groaned in frustration.

You immediately called the maintenance of your building but unfortunately, there is no maintenances at the moment that could assist you.

"The hell with this. What should i do?."

You called some of your friends, some of them didn't pick up. Well, its a weekend.. maybe that's why..

You suddenly remembered your neighbor. Youve been staying in that apartment for 6mos already, and yet you didnt have a chance to talk to him or greet him.

Should you ask him for help? Nah. Youre shy..

But then, the weather is really chilly. And without the heater, you might die in coldness.

"Nah, I have my last option, my mom."

You called and unfortunately, She's not at home. She went out of town with her bingo friends. You sighed.

You only have your neighbor as your last option. You mustered all your courage to ring his doorbell. You bought your dinner hoping that he wil let you in and eat him, with him..

You ringed the bell 2 times.. bit nervous..

He opened the door. He is in his pajamas. His top was unbuttoned. (same.as.the.picture.above.i forgot.the.exactwords.)

You were speechless. He was looking at you expressionless.

"uhm.. Hi. Im from unit 201, hehe." A bit nervous.

"Hi."

"uhm.. can I uhm.. have dinner here? Uh.."

"sure. Come in.." He said without hesitations. He acts like he knows what exactly you mean..

You both went inside his unit. His unit was fucking clean. It turned you on. He smells exactly the same as his room. So manly.. you suddenly became horny.

You immediately went to his kitchen. You heard him chuckled. Fuck?

"uhm. I brought some kimchi soup. You know.. h..hehe would you like some?." You genuinely offered it.

"Yes." You talk to each other like you already know each other.

"i..im y/n.. i forgot to introduce myself." You chuckled.

"Im Vernon." He answered.

"Hi Vernon! How long are you here in this apartment?." You asked trying to make the conversation longer.

"quite some time."

"Do you have a job? I mean.. i dont usually see you. H..hehe.."

"officeworker."

"ohh I see.. h..hehe." Youre out of questions now. How can you keep the conversation going?

"i like the soup." Vernon said.

"ohh.. ahaha.. Thank you. I just made this because its really cold outside. Im so glad you liked it.." You said. You now feel that the atmosphere is a bit light.

You finished eating and you fixed the table already. You are at the kitchen sink when you felt a presence. It was Vernon.

He suddenly came to you. "Uhm... I wanted to wash the plates.. can I wash---.."

Vernon suddenly kissed you. You can feel him pressing unto you..

He started to undress your top, and his hand caressing your breast. You liked it. You only know his name, and yet here you are, kissing him. Letting him strip you and cup your breast.

"uhm.. wait-- uhh Ver..non.. ahhhhhh---" You cant think straight anymore.. Youre immersed in this feeling already. The feeling of being fucked by a handsome and mysterious neighbor.

You like a man who knows how to take charge. You also like being nude in front of a man with half of his clothes on. A good beginning is important.

He suddenly carried you in a bride style..

"I just wanna fuck you so bad.. Im sorry it got me turned on." sincerly apologizing to you. but, you dont find it wierd. You find hot. It made you more horny.

Then he got naked. His penis was huge. He didn't seem to be in any hurry. You love being french kissed in the nude. This is like one of your fantasies. Vernon decided you'd love it even more while being finger fucked.

He started to move lower unto your inbetween legs. His tongue and fingers were in perfect sync.

"aahhhh--uhhhnggg.." You kept on moaning that made him turned on more.

As you became increasingly wet, his attention shifted to your fully erect nipples. You liked the sensation of his tongue expertly probing and flicking your pleasure cherries.

You're proud of your breasts, and appreciated his serious attempt to lick and suck the pink off your nipples.

"uhhhhhhhngg.. s..shit.. how can you be this good Vernon.. uhhhh.."

He didnt answer.

He backed away and re-situated his body between your legs. His cock was standing straight up. He lifted your left foot and he placed your toes to his face. He began licking each one like a special morsel, and then repeated the procedure with your right foot. This was fun.

Vernon is such an expert. You werent expecting that a mysterious boy can be this good in fucking.

You wanted to be fucked. He spread your legs and ate you out. You always liked being licked. He tongued you like a snake, slowly edging near and around the clitoris but never quite making contact. You moaned longingly as he brought me to the brink of release with pleasure surges that kept increasing in intensity.

"ahhhhhhh..uhhhhh..nggg.." You heard him moan and it made you hornier.

You begged.

Vernon inserted his finger into your pussy and then withdrew it, wet and glistening with your physical excitement.

He anointed your clitoris and licked it that made you arched your back in pleasure..

Vernon re-inserted his finger all the way in, and slowly withdrew it. This time he drew a moist trace of pussy juice from the top of the pubis and up the abdomen.

You sat up on your elbows to watch. This was a show you didn't want to miss.

He reintroduced his finger and slowly withdrew from the nectar well. Brushing past my clitoris, he again traced a liquid glory trail further up your abdomen, and into the navel.

"ahhhh..fuck..your pussy's so wet..y/n.." Vernon said while playing your juices.

He had found your secret fetish, your only secret shame, and you were in heaven.

You watched his fingernail lewdly wiggle it's way back and forth across the belly knot, producing a gloriously painful pleasure.

You're lipbiting. You raised your tummy for more exquisite love punishment. You relished the idea of having a stranger make your navel so sweetly sore and red, and Vernon's finger didn't disappoint.

"You have such a sexy belly button.." he purred.

You blushed. You really like it when someone notices it.

"You like it when I say belly button, don't you?"

You nodded.

"Tell me how much you like my finger in your belly button." Vernon said.

"I..i like it..."

"No-- say it..."

"I like your finger...in my.. b..belly button.." You murmured.

"Say it again louder like you mean it!! Where do you like my finger?"

You hesitated before obeying his command. You managed to raise your voice, this is the first time that you heard his real deep voice. but couldn't find the wherewithal to look him in the eye.

"I..in my belly button."

"That's right!" he sneered. "In your belly button!" He said.

As his finger continued to probe, You felt yourself literally dripping on the sheet below. Of all your past partners, no man had loved your tummy quite like Vernon.

When his nail finally found the core of the birth scar, it made you cum.

"ahhhhhhhhnggg..s..shit..ahhhh.. s..shit Ver..non..im cumming.. ahhhh.."

Your body quivered all the way down to your toes. You felt like a naked little girl who had touched herself impurely for the first time, and then realized her mother was watching.

The delicious mixture of pleasure and shame overwhelmed your senses.

Before your pleasure ebbed, his mouth was back and slobbering on your breasts. He was so excited, and you are so ready.

You spread your legs wide open in anticipation of being penetrated. His penis was not only long, but had plenty of girth. You beckoned him while fingering your clitoris.

"Such a slutty angel.. i love it.." He murmured.

"Please fuck me now Vernon.. Use me any way you like.. I want it so fucking bad.. I want your dick inside me.." pleading like a slut.

Instead, he placed your hand around his shaft, guiding it slowly up and down. Without any coaxing you placed your mouth on the head of his penis and ran your tongue lovingly around the well-defined ridge. The circumference seemed to go on forever. You paid special attention to the underside where the seminal vesicle attached.

You licked the penis slit, and tasted a tiny dew drop of his excitement. You licked it again, and waited. Another clear droplet of lubricant emerged which you smeared all over the head with your finger. It felt so slippery, sensuous and sexy.

"ahhhhhhh..shit..aaaaaahhnggg.." Vernon moaned.

You spread your legs. He carefully inserted the head of his penis into your pussy, which caused you to spread even wider. That amazing ridge and penis head worked it's way back and forth in an agonizingly slow tease.

"ahhhhhhh..uhhhhngggg..ahhhshit.."

Your fully stretched crack barely swallowed the tip of his amazing cock which he tantalizingly popped in and out of your vulva repeatedly. If you had not been so lubricated, it might have split you in two.

With slow measured thrusts he achieved full penetration. He was as hard as a rock, and stayed hard as a rock for what seemed an eternity. If you both had stood up, he could have anchored you onto that sweet appendage without your feet ever touching the ground. Oh your going to be so sore for the next week, and it was going to be so worth it.

Without missing a beat you both rolled over which left you on top to ride him rodeo-style. Vernon remained still while you did all the work. He placed his hands at your sides.

"ahhhh..ahhhhh..shit..ahhhhh.auhhhh.." You both moaned in pleasure.

"That's right.." He purred sweetly.

"Give me a show while I fuck you. Keep me nice and hard like a good belly dancer." He said.

He placed his thumbs on your nipples. "Your titties are so big, so pink, and so hard. A naughty little girl like you loves a good fucking, don't you? You're as randy as a dirty little whore. You want every bit of pleasure you can grab. You want to be fucked like a dirty, filthy little whore, don't you?"

That sounded sexy to you. Its true you wanted to fucked like a slutty whore.

"Yes...oh God..uhhhhh..yes!"

You worked your vagina up and down every inch of his amazing human club. Your insides were turning to jelly. You never had felt so possessed in your life. A lightning bolt of pleasure surged through you, and repeated four or five times in rapid succession. You began to shake. Each surge brought on a new level of rapture. You could hardly catch your breath as he thoroughly stoked the needs of your sexual furnace. You fell back in surrender as he finished me off.

Both satisfied.

He slowly pulled out, still hard, and christened your belly button with his remaining seed. The sight re-ignited your arousal.

He slowly daubed his middle finger in the ejaculate pool, and coated your nipples with semen. He then lapped up semen with his index finger, and without warning, stuck it in your rectum.

Before you could fully react, the tip of his tongue lapped the tip of your clitoris like a parched dog. Your entire body clenched as you cried out in blissful agony,

"Oh.. ahhh..shit..that is so fucking nasty!"

You squirted in his face; once.. twice... three times.

He closed his eyes, and didn't move a muscle.

"I wish, you wouldnt hate me for this.." Vernon said.. You shushed him. You cant blame him thou.. You liked it too. Its just that the Vernon that you are expecting is a shy and nerdy one. It turns out, its the different one.

#seventeen smut #vernon #vernon smut #svt au #svt smut #seventeen x reader #seventeen imagines #seventeen fanfic #svt

[reylofanfictionanthology]

THE REYLO FANFICTION ANTHOLOGY ST. VALENTINE’S DAY LOVE FEST

This year, to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, we wanted to show the Reylo Writing Community a little bit of love by hosting a Reylo Fanfiction St. Valentine’s Day Love Fest.

We will accept recommendations for this project until the end of February.  You can find details about how to submit a recommendation to the project here.

LOVE FEST LIST #5/?

REYLO COMMUNITY RECOMMENDATIONS

Starlight, Your Memories by NatMatryoshka

Summary: "Ben Solo was ten years old when, in the outskirts of the capital, a little girl was born. Her parents called her Rey and, after she was old enough to walk, they left her in the care of Master Luke Skywalker and vanished without a trace soon after. No one knew who they were, or why they chose an odd hermit as guardian of their only daughter, but many could smell the scent of cheap wine in the father’s breath: they were two derelicts, and maybe they had realized in time they couldn’t do anything good for their daughter. Rey was a Sensitive, just like Ben. The Force had entwined their lives a long time before."

Recommendation by @the-witch-of-the-web: “Because it has a wonderful fairytale vibe to it, and the author is great at portraying the inner turmoil and subtle feelings of the main characters. The style is great, considering they're not a native English speaker, and I'd really love to see more recognition for their stories. This one in particular offers a unique and amazing storyline, I also love the way they describe the locations in which the story takes place.”

Tokens by Trish47

Summary: A year after Leia's death, Rey invites Ben to Endor to make his peace.

Recommendation by @ceallaigheirinn: “This is truly a beautiful piece in its quiet agony wrapped in comfort. The detente was perfect with its shared promise to each other as they part. I am a sucker for remembrance fics, and this one is perfect.”

I don't want (to set the world on fire) by OccasionallyCreative

Summary: Rey goes on a mission to answer a distress signal on a Force-sensitive alien planet and finds something that might just save her if it doesn't lead to her ruin.

Recommendation by @apisa-b: “This canonverse story pulls the reader into a fever dream, in which the Force is kind, but at the same time monstrous in how it imposes its will.”

Nothing but Themselves by Knight_of_Cookies

Summary: Sometimes what you ask for is not what you actually wanted. Rey wanted a family. Kylo wanted Rey. Now an adopted father is dead and Kylo is captured for it. Kylo is Rey's prisoner, and her family does not take such a death lightly. Vengrat'tua. There will be vengeance. Pirunir Sur'haaise. Make him pay for what he did.

Recommendation by @persimonne: “The writing is something very different, direct and "cinematic": while reading images pop directly into your brain and they're so vivid! The plot features prisoner!Kylo vs Rey living with a brand new adoptive family and working as a mechanic.”

echoes (again) by reflectionslie (fallsink)

Summary: again and again, she slips from his grasp like moonlight (reincarnation au where ben seeks her through their past lives and maybe, just maybe this time this time will be the last) [prev name: it goes round and round (everything falling)]

Recommendation by @politicalmamaduck: “It is so beautifully written and such a gorgeous take on the idea of soulmates and reincarnation, so perfectly suited to Reylo. If you loved the art Anthology's 25 Lives Project, this is definitely the fic for you--it takes the same poem as its inspiration and theme!”

The Tale of Blue Ben by flypaper_brain

Summary: Some escaped goats and a chance encounter land Rey in the middle of a fairy tale. She is the happy ending. And she is not alone.

Recommendation by @leofgyth: “Ben is a dragon! He's heartbreakingly wonderful. And Rey is a witch, a competent witch. And there are goats. And a spell to break (maybe more than one spell). It's just very sweet.”

RFFA WRITERS SELF RECOMMENDATIONS

The Water Packed my Pockets Full of Stones by LilibethSonar

Summary: When Finn turned the car she saw Ben in the rearview mirror. Standing by the house, unmoving as if he wasn’t… alive. She didn’t cry on their way back to the bay: lichens and rocks outside her window were really picturesque, that’s all. When Rey saw the ocean again, her emotions ebbed. The sight of the Marauder calmed her completely, taking away her uncertainty. The truth was bitter; he brought it on himself.

“It's the first long-ish fic in English that I've written and finished. I had so much fun writing it, and I hope that reading it can bring someone joy. Also, worldbuilding.”

In Un'Altra Vita by NatMatryoshka

Summary: "Sometimes, after hundreds of failures you finally get something precious, don’t you believe it?” Rey, a reporter, falls in love with Venezia and its Carnival. Ben Solo, a photographer, starts to dream about a mysterious boy and a world he doesn't know. Maybe their souls are more similar than they think.

“I loved to write about Venezia and its Carnival. It's one of my favourite places to visit and its magic fills every corner: I thought it was the perfect place to set a Reylo fic about dreams and alternative realities. I loved to travel through Venezia with my imagination, I hope readers would love to do it, too!”

Scars by punkeraa

Summary: a smuggler!Ben x jedi!Rey AU Certain scars run deeper than others, leaving behind marks on the soul, irreversibly altering the person forever. Ben Solo drinks to drown demons he'd rather run away from than face head on, a traumatic event in his youth that still tightly grips him sixteen years later. Rey scavenges, starves, and suffers at the hands of Unkar Plutt in the Jakku wasteland waiting for her mother, anchored to the sands with a promise and a half forgotten tune. When the drunkard and the scavenger cross paths, their scars refuse to be ignored any longer. With an enemy lurking in the shadows and ready to strike, they must work together to confront their deep seated fears and grow beyond. A story about wanting revenge. A story about running away and not dealing with one’s trauma and pain. A story about acknowledging one’s anger while actively dealing with the painful scars life inflicts upon us.

“i love this fic because it was born out of intense trauma as a way for me to deal with it. it's a smuggler!Ben AU but (i believe) pretty different from most of the ones out there. in this story, Ben is an alcoholic suffering from PTSD after watching his parents murdered in front of him as a young child; he wants to run away from his trauma and drink himself silly rather than confronting the pain. Rey is stuck on Jakku b/c she's afraid of being truly on her own and would rather deal with Plutt's abuse than leave in case her mother actually comes back. this is one of my more inventive stories, introducing a new villain as well as Rey's mother. both of these characters represent halves of my own trauma and how i dealt with it, and their journeys in the story somewhat mirror my own non-linear path towards healing. there's a trigger warning for alcohol abuse but that's pretty much it. i've poured a lot of myself into this fic and would just like if others can read it and see what they think”

Serendipity by Ceallaigh

Summary: When she had decided to start shepherding the Adept, Rey had made a vow to herself to help them all—even those imprisoned by their own internal darkness. Camouflaged with the cuff, Kylo would never know that Hux’s war dog was closing in on him until it was too late. That was one death she didn’t want weighing down on her conscience. She’d had the opportunity twice to kill him, but she was still convinced his life was not hers to take. The Force still had a plan for Ben Solo, that she was certain, and securing his safety was just as important and making sure the little girl she sought made it off world and survived as well.

“I’m a sucker for the Ben Solo I’m exile genre, and this is a riff on self-imposes exile/on the run. This inenof the first fic I have completed where he truly is starting to see himself more as Ben Solo and not Kylo Ren. It was a prompt fic, and I adored the prompts! Saw it as a chance to work with a new character and to do some world building!”

#reylo #reylo fanfiction anthology #valentine's day love fest #rffa writers #mod post #photo edit #love fest list

[sfaioffical]

John Lindsey, once a night manager at Pete’s Cafe—situated on the roof of San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) on Chestnut Street—now runs The Great Highway art gallery in the Outer Sunset. After eight years of establishing the gallery and himself as a curator, John decided that now is the time to facilitate a reunion-like exhibition and recreate an experience that fostered a community of now globally recognized artists—Pete’s Cafe - SFAI in the 90s.  

Alongside salon-style hung photographs and letters from the 90’s, lives a wall full of memories featuring works by forty artists who either attended and/or worked at SFAI during that time period. On Saturday, January 11, during the opening reception, there was a truly euphoric feeling of reunification in that small, overcrowded room next to some of the most renowned contemporary Bay Area artists who all share a common experience of being a part of the school’s café.

What was it like to buy from or serve food to someone you just slammed in a painting critique? Or, to embody the idea that you can’t please everyone—a contradiction to the ‘customer is always right’ so popular at the time? Read all about the emotion, passion and feelings that were on display at the café, in a conversation I had with John.

Bojana Rankovic: Why Petes’ Cafe, and why now?

John Lindsey: Pete's Cafe was a very influential time in my life. The first time I worked there, I didn’t take any classes, but I fell in love with it there and I was having such a good time, that I never even thought about taking any. Then, the second time I worked there, I wanted to try to change my life, get out of cooking, and go into graphic design. I loved being at SFAI, I loved art, I loved the people, and mostly I just found everyone to be so wonderful and inspiring.

And then there was Pete. He is a guy who created this very unique environment, and I felt like I was a part of that and it was something special. It turned out that a lot of these people who were at the school, at that time, and the people who worked in the cafe, went on to do really amazing work. It was a magical time, a magical place and a wonderful group of people—so that's why Pete's Cafe, this exhibit.

I wanted to do this show now because  I have had my gallery for 8 years, and I felt that it would have been forward of me to ask Alicia (McCarthy) to be in the show the first year I was open, or to ask Barry (McGee), or Eamon (Ore-Giron) or Xylor (Jane) or Colin (Chillag) or Mads (Lynnerup) or any of the other people, Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker.. They are all the people that never left the community, and have worked very hard in the arts and have devoted their lives to it. When I got out of school I went off and worked at a tech company, and then that whole ‘.com’ blew up and I just started doing graphic design on my own, so I didn't stay in that community myself.

When I got the gallery it was just gonna be my office, and people were asking me if I wanted to rent it out to them, but I wanted to have my own space. Then I thought of an even better use for it would be to become my studio- a little printing studio, and I could show artwork, too, because I didn't have to invest capital to do that. It's a consignment shop for all intents and purposes, a viewing space, and so it was something I could use to speak to the neighborhood. I've been in this neighborhood, and I’ve been surfing out here for 30 years, and I'm tired of talking about just surfing. I was trying to bring different conversations around the coastal environment than just surfing, so that's what led the programming throughout the years.

I always wanted to do this show, but like I said, I was apprehensive to call in favors, so for eight years I’ve been doing things like, when Alicia had the Orfn show at Luggage Store Gallery- I donated a piece, and stuff like that, slowly becoming a part of the community- in positive ways and working. And now, I think I've got 50 shows under my belt. So now I know how to do it, I'm a better curator, at this stage, because I've been doing it for so long, and I know the window and I know the neighborhood and I know my neighbors and the unique situation out here. 

Then, all of a sudden, Pete comes and shows me the boxes, and I knew it was time to do a show. The timing felt right. When I saw Pete’s timeline installation (by Patricia Kavanaugh and Tanesha Jemison) that was originally on the back wall of the Cafe, I thought that could be the anchor of the show. So, that's why it happened now - because it took that long for me to get there, it took that long for Pete to show me the stuff, and because it took me time to figure out how to anchor the show.

What was it (at SFAI) that made you want to get more involved in the arts, like take classes, and now have your gallery? Were you interested in art even before your job at Pete’s?

I was a chef, and I was always good with computers. When I went to the University of Utah for a couple of years before moving out here and going to cooking school, I had the first Macintosh computer and we were doing very rudimentary things with it, but that was part of the foundation. I was feeding people's stomachs and then I turned into feeding people's eyes and minds. And frankly, I was never going to be a graphic designer, I wanted to take the arts that I was learning at the Art Institute and use that as the foundation of my graphic design practice. I got into it all at the Art Institute, and I was into art before and I was a very creative person, but just in a very different way.

Can you talk about how the strong sense of community, centered around Pete’s, influenced the students in an individual way, and what it felt like to be a part of it?

Part of it is that the school store and the cafe were centers of necessity on that campus. People have to eat and people need art supplies, and so those two places had some value beyond just taking classes at a regular university to people. There was some power in those two places. A friend of mine would come in late at night and I would give him a baked potato or whatever and students would give away food...things like that, and we never busted people...well, actually we did, I have a memo here of one person we had to kick out because he was just straight-up stealing food; but we took people in, and then the administration would come to Pete and bring a student who's not really fitting in, and ask him if he can give them a job and get them assimilated into the school. If you had a job at the school store or the cafe - you met everybody, and you were serving everybody and you were engaging with everybody. If you were not fitting in or you were lost at school and if you work in the cafe, all of a sudden you were front and center, for good or for bad. 

That was one way that we were influencing students and then we just had a lot of fun, and the making of food is a creative practice, the culinary arts, whether you want to call it art or not. And not everybody worked well at the cafe, some people are not very good workers and that's just life but some people really enjoyed what was going on in there and it was good for them, it fed a lot of people, if you work there you got free food so that was a whole other benefit to it.

And then we were good chefs, we are both professionally trained chefs, we worked together at Hayes Street Grill, and then Pete got the job at the Institute first and brought me over. We weren't opening a lot of cans, we were trying to make really wholesome wonderful food that was also cheap. Rice and beans was the whole thing, $2.75 I think is what we charged when we first started selling it. Then, Thanksgiving dinners, stuff like that, it was good healthy food, and it was all in a beautiful setting, working in the cafe—the view all day long.

There were a few complaint letters up on the wall next to all the art. What are the stories about them, and who was it that had issues with Pete?

Well, it is an art school, isn't it? Critique is a huge part of it.

We are offering a service and you can't please everybody. There were students, faculty, staff, administration who were all very happy with it and then there were also people who found it to be too loose. Sometimes, people might get offended, but you know that was it, it was biting, we were able to study everyone that came in through that school and we were the observers to some degree, and there was a slight bit of power and control in the fact that we had the food. I'm sure that our customer service was not perfect, a lot of the time...I mean there's one letter here when Xylor and Ted are complaining about somebody, but it just is what it is. Also, you're there with everybody all the time, so during the summer it would just be me, Peet and Tad and we'd wait on all the staff and administration throughout the summer and then the student workers would come back in the fall or late summer and then all the students would come back and all heck would break loose.

You also have to remember...let's say I'm waiting on you, and we were just in a painting critique and I said something really nasty and horrible about your painting or the other way around. There was that type of stuff that went on all the time, as well. There were also relationships that were going on, that the students had, and all that type of stuff, just like any school, but it was all on display at the cafe...emotion, passion, feelings.

How did the opening reception night go for you? How did it feel to see everyone after all these years?

It was really incredible. 

I've been living with this for almost 3 weeks now, putting it up, looking at the pictures over and over again, reading everything over and over. For me, personally, it's been a constant barrage of old memories coming back, which is really neat at this stage in my life. So, that was just personally a cathartic thing, but then I felt like there was so much love and energy in the room and it was so neat.

When I’m at the openings, I have to work, talk to certain people, help them purchase things, make sure that my daughter is doing a good job behind the bar, that nobody is getting in trouble outside, so I'm not fully engaged out beyond the desk, but seeing everyone just be this happy was really touching and special. 

Someone suggested that I could do this show again, somewhere else, and I could, but there will never be a night like that ever again. That was really what was amazing about it.

Is there someone whose career took an unexpected turn? Anyone who ended up in a field you would never expect them to be? Or ended up applying their practice in a way that radically changed?

Wow...I would say that someone who I think is just super awesome is Colin Chillag, who had a tough time in school. I just love his paintings and what he is doing now, his wicked sense of humor. He's one example but I guess I would say that it applies to everyone because I was so naive when I was working there, I am just blown away by all of them, by Alicia and Ruby and Colin, and Eamon, Xylor, and Cliff who worked at the school store, and Mads, who was the goofiest kid when he was working at the cafe, and what he’s gone on to do is just wonderful and amazing.

And then, surprisingly, some people for whom you thought were the most talented people in the entire world have drifted away, and they took a completely different track, maybe they have gone into administration or they've joined the fire department or something like that, that's a big change.

What is coming up next at The Great Highway? Anything you are particularly excited about?

I have another opening on Saturday, January 18, that is going to be on the other wall across from Pete’s Cafe, and that is the MLK Surf Photography Show. In 2013, on the Martin Luther King Day weekend, there was a really amazing swell at Ocean Beach and all these photographers took photos of it, including myself, so we're going to have a show here and we're in collaboration with Mollusk. There will be artwork and photographs there, and photographs here, there will be a band at Mollusk, and I’m going to show surf videos on my screen. 

So that's the next show is and what's cool and neat about it is that I’ll get a whole new group of people here, and not only will they see the surf show, but they will get to see Pete’s show. It won't be as well attended as Pete’s show, but there will be about 50 to 100 people. All those who normally wouldn’t have seen Pete's will be introduced to the San Francisco Art Institute.

Pete’s Cafe—SFAI in the 90s runs from January 10–February 14, 2020 at The Great Highway in San Francisco. Details here.

#SFAIalumni artshows

[yvaquietdays]

Deciding to be happy.

Sometimes meditation doesn’t work.  Sometimes being mindful of your downfalls doesn’t work. Sometimes yoga doesn’t work. Sometimes writing doesn’t work. It’s a little hard for me to describe how I’ve been feeling the last month or so. Of course I’m going to try, that’s why I write a blog. *sly face* So I’ve talked about cycles before. Being aware of the small turnovers of life makes the every day manageable; being aware of how our emotions and vibrations fluctuate certainly makes everything seem a little less daunting.

I’ve been conscious that I’m entering a new cycle of my life. I’m not so far away from turning 28, an age I’m told is the beginning of the fourth cycle in life. And whether you buy into the hokey-pokey, it makes sense if you suspend your disbelief for a moment. Apparently you have the first 7 years, the years of your childhood and innocence, of unadulteratingly questioning and experiencing the world you live in. Then the second stage, taking you to 14, where you’re contemplating adulthood and experiencing massive physiological changes and all the outcomes of that. Then to 21, where all the shit hits the fan and explodes outwards all over you and the people in your life. I’ve been dealing with the proverbial shit of this third cycle for a while, experiencing existential fear and anxiety for the first time, sorting through the people in my life, assessing how I relate and love, seeing my familial relationships through new eyes, shaving off the bits of me I don’t like. Essentially, the un-conditioning of myself and becoming a new person. 

The last time my life seem to change, there were signals. Life threw me signs that I was about to turn things upside down for a bit. I emotionally and spiritually gave up on London and I lost two friends to the music industry; its hold over all of us to get as much out of our creative outputs as possible (i.e money). This is important enough to mention because it damaged me a lot. It affected my trust with people and I felt so betrayed and let down. I’ve made my peace with them and with the situation, but I’ve learned from it, because at the time, it was just another knife in the side, and I didn’t want it happening again. From that point though, I headed steadily downhill somewhere close to the bottom, where I was thinking of jacking it in altogether. I considered going into property with my savings and my Dad. I considered opening a home-brew shop with my partner, who really was my anchor when I was close to floating off unmoored. I didn’t though, because my other anchor was my own spirit, the relentless resilience I seem to have inherited, that I’m sure I don’t deserve; my music and my innate and absolute desire to howl at the moon. Nitin played a huge part in getting me through this phase. Had I not worked with him, I might have forgotten how important singing was to me. He was a kind of the lifeboat that kept me chugging along in the rougher waters for a while; I was desperately unhappy but those days of rehearsals, shows, and being involved in the dance piece were all life rings that I could swim to and gradually get closer to solid ground. At this point, I believe I was shedding off the things I didn’t need to prepare myself for this next stage.

And this time, I’ve also lost two friends. I’m not going into any great detail about this, only that I believe it was for the best and ultimately the whole experience told me a lot about the people in my life, who I am, and what I stand for. It had a lot to do with how I’ve allowed people to take advantage of me for too long. This ties into one of my previous blogposts about saying sorry and not wanting to rock the boat. I have been conditioned to be nice and I am actively changing this. I have Jameela Jamil to thank for opening my eyes and forcing me to see that it doesn’t make me difficult or manipulative to call out the truth and stand strongly within it. They ended up deleting me from their life because of it. But I hated the entire situation. It hurt. Needless to say it had a big affect on me. That combined with new opportunities taking a while to come to fruition seemed to trigger my anxiety and low mood for the first real time since I wasn’t well. It brought back a lot of bad feelings about inadequacy, self-doubt and the need for external validation that I’ve worked so bloody hard on eradicating. 

Validation is the key word here. I believe it is what most of us struggle with going into our adult lives. I’ve worked very hard to not rely on other people’s voices to bolster my own self-esteem. I’ve done my soul-work, I only listen to my own. I’ve learned to tell the ignorant slut (pls read past post re this: it’s what I call my anxiety) in my mind to shut up when she’s being unkind. But over the last few weeks and returning from LA, which now seems like a dream, the voice has elbowed its way in and I’ve allowed it to have an affect on me. I’m waiting; waiting like I did before, waiting for good feedback, waiting for someone else to come at me with the next opportunity. Stagnant. Waiting for the world, looking for someone to blame.

So what the fuck am I doing? I mean, really. I have been arranging my own sessions, writing my book and flirting with a second, being open and vulnerable about my talent and about my humanness. I’ve been rocking it.

But recently, the difference was that I was doing my yoga, not practising it. I was forcing myself to set an intention of success, orienting everything around my goals. I meditated just to check it off the list. But you can’t apply mindfulness with brute force, with a shotgun to the head and your arm twisted behind your back. What I was doing went hand in hand with the thought that, “If I don’t, I will fail.” Before I knew it, I was telling myself I wasn’t worth it. I’m not creative. I don’t have any ideas. I don’t have an emotional scale. I feel nothing about anything. Have a baby, do something else. You don’t belong in that world (LA). You don’t know who you are. You’re not passionate enough about your art. You’re not passionate about anything. Why is nobody getting back to you? You’re forgettable. It’s because you’re not assertive enough. They deleted you because you meant nothing to them. They didn’t apologise to you because they don’t value you.

The rabbit hole is deep and it is wide. Once you’re on that slope, it seems pre-destined that you’ll end up at the bottom before you even notice you slipped. But I noticed. I’ve my best mate and flatmate to thank for a conversation that made me realise what I was doing, ‘cos I was feeling pretty low there for a minute.  The truth is that it takes real mental effort and strain to drag yourself up the mud slide back to even ground. When I was feeling pretty bad, I used to dream about doing the same thing over, and over, and over again and never reaching a resolution. I dreamt that I was at the bottom of the muddy bank and I could not get to the top where the grass was still green. So doing yoga and meditating over and over to force wellness doesn’t work. Negativity does not beget negativity. You have to accept your feelings and do the work to counter-argue with yourself in a gentle and loving way. I am worth it. I am creative. I feel everything, that’s why it hurts. I know who I am, more than ever. I’d be a great mum, but if I have a baby now I’ll probably forget about it and leave it in the washing basket. I am passionate. I am open and patient, and I trust that things will work out. I am hardworking. And they deleted you because they didn’t value you. That says more about them than you, you stone cold, lovely, bad ass bitch. 

Bye felicia.

I am entering a new chapter of my life soon, and I feel my world shifting to allow for it. It isn’t waiting if I regain control and organise my life. Just because someone is giving you an opportunity doesn’t mean that the work is done. It means that you’re just getting started, and you have to work, now more than ever.

Last week I wrote a song on the guitar. This has not happened in a long time. I was consuming a lot of emotional TV (Queer Eye, k thnks), and I was inspired to assess my own mental health. I got complacent, and the doubt got in. It never really goes away, and just because I was feeling better there for a hot minute in LA, doesn’t mean that the work is done. It continues. Always. I don’t want to wake up one day and realise I’m missing something vital because I looked to others to tell me what I’m worth. Everyone else wants as much as possible for themselves. If that means cheapening you so that they’re worth more; that is what they will do. Know. Your. Own. Worth. ‘Cos even your friends will undervalue you.

Self doubt waits at the door, constantly. It wants to be let in, but you keep it at bay. You nod to it, but you don’t allow it across the threshold.

After I recorded the song idea into my phone, I sobbed. Hard. I cried my eyes out. And then I was done. I let the tears come out, unbidden, because I needed to feel it. I think I needed to remember the power of that musical release, why I do what I do. Sure, I’m not like other musicians or singers. Maybe I am depressing, but I’m communicating something that is honest and what we all go through. I am me. And that is enough. It doesn’t matter, all that other stuff. It doesn’t. What matters is how I feel about my music. 

I’m getting to my conclusion, I promise. I meditated earlier this week, and the lovely Andy Puddicomb at Headspace told me to see my mind as the sky. Behind all the clouds, there is always a blue horizon. Just like when you’re on a plane and you finally get above the candy cotton clouds, and in your head you do a little Peter Pan style bounce across them. There’s a soft kind of release I get when I see that. Peace and quiet. Space and breath. Everything else; feelings, thoughts, how we dress, what the world might think...they’re the clouds. When I feel low, my mind seems like an overcast horizon that will not break. An endless, grey, unfeeling cloud of bleak whatever. When I feel good, it’s a summers sky with fluffy white clouds rolling through; you know they won’t stay forever. Meditating is grounding, and reminding yourself with nothing more complicated than breathing that your default setting is a vast blue sky. Warm and peaceful. It might even feel like nothing, but that’s ok too. Everything else is temporary. Clouds are impermanent. The sky is always clear.

So this is my point. I set my intention that day to have a good day. 

Enjoy the little details, enjoy my trial shift at the cafe, enjoy the look on southerners faces when I have a bit of craic with them. Enjoy cooking, enjoy the process, enjoy the walk between here and there, the blossoms, the warmth of the sun on my face. Choose happiness. Choose the blue sky. Decide to be positive. It’s not always easy, and maybe it doesn’t always work. After all, life throws us curveballs and it hurts to get whacked in the face, but it’s a damn sight better than choosing to be an arsehole about it. Try it.

Decide to be happy. 

xxx

#mentalhealthawareness #Goodmentalhealth #mental health recovery #mentalhealthblog #mentalhealthblogger #mentalhealth #livingwithanxiety #low mood #mentalhealthwarrior #livingwithmentalhealth

[ferix-writes]

A Year of Writing FFXV

Wow, I can’t believe Ive been writing consistently for FFXV for over a year now. I love it so much! Seriously, I have never been more involved in a fandom or made so many friends. And having so many happy experiences led to a lot of inspiration and a lot more fics, I think. And here I am to share them all!

I keep seeing end of the year art memes and I think they’re really cool, but I was a little sad that there’s nothing like that for fanfic. So I decided to do something similar enough. But a lot longer lol.

Here’s every fic that contributed to the over 200,000 words of FFXV fanfic I wrote in 2017! Its a big mix of SFW, NSFW and many, many pairings. I hope you enjoyed this year of fandom as much as I did! And please don’t be afraid to spread the fandom love <3

Thanks to everyone for all the support!

More Than Words Can Wield The Matter - My big ‘ol drabble collection. SFW and NSFW and many pairings. Check the titles of each chapter for pairings and content.

January

Warmness and Affection -SFW, OT4, Noctis and Prompto get stuck in a snowstorm, so Gladio and Ignis must rescue them and deal with the aftermath.

Shotgun -SFW, Gen, Ignis is a very, very good driver. Prompto wants to drive the Regalia, but Ignis finds a better job for him.

Old Lullaby -SFW, OT4,  Gladio, Ignis and Prompto get hit with confusion and they start attacking everything and everyone, leaving Noct to fend for himself. 

Of Hair Colors and Gossip -SFW, OT4, A brief history of style and fashion in Lucis, and the royalty that inspired it.

Melt Into You -SFW, OT4 but mostly Gladnoct, The boys get massages at Galdin Quay's resort, but Noctis' doesn't go as planned. Cue Gladio taking care of him and lots of comfort.

February

No Need to Play Pretend -SFW, OT4, Five times someone figured out exactly what kind of relationship Noctis, Gladio, Ignis and Prompto have with each other, and one time someone actually tried to do something about it.

Sericeus -NSFW, OT4, Prompto, Gladio and Ignis want to get Noctis something nice for his birthday. Really nice. Like, there’s no price limit nice.

Aces Up Your Sleeve -SFW, Gen, Regis' first born always has been and always will be the light of his life. Transboy Noct comes out to his dad. 

March

Fit the Mold -SFW, Gen, Noctis suffers from chronic pain, but his princely duties slow down for no one. Fed up with Gladio's impossible training, he wishes Gladio could feel what it's like to live in his shoes. Just for one day.

Heart's Desire -SFW, OT4, Noctis has survived his ascension and Insomnia is rebuilding, but an important question lingers: Who will the new King marry? (Answer: Everyone)

Flowers in the Sun -NSFW, Promnis, Ignis finds one of Prompto's sex toys in the Regalia. Again. Iggy and transguy Prompto smut. 

Oversharing Blogger Liveblogs Dildo Debacle with Boyfriend in Hospital -NSFW, OT4, Gladio accidentally gets a dildo stuck inside him and his boyfriends are not helping.

Under My Skin -SFW, OT4,  Noctis takes a nasty hit from an MT and becomes temporarily paralyzed from the hips down. The boys struggle to find balance as Noctis pushes forward in his recovery.

Fire Walk With Me -SFW, OT4, Caffeine withdrawal hits Ignis hard and fast in one of the caves under Lucis and the boys deal with the fallout. 

April

Noct Up -NSFW, OT4,  The boys are all happily together, but one day Prompto hears Gladio saying some...choice things to Noctis during sex. For Gladio and Noct it may be a kink, but for Prompto it's a horrifying reality that he has no desire to face. Transguy Prompto.

I've Got Stamina -SFW, Gen, Cor visits the boys after the destruction of Altissa, and finds that Ignis is not being treated properly. Heavy focus on blind Iggy. 

By The Sword -NSFW, OT4, A sudden bout of depression hits Gladio hard as he finally gets to mourn while the other three try to make sense of their Shield’s complicated and tangled emotions. 

Unraveled -NSFW, Promptis, Transguy Noct has a desire and oral-fixated Prompto has a solution.

May

Kissing Game -SFW, OT4, The boys start playing a guessing game with Ignis after he loses his sight. Ignis doesn't mind playing along, because each of his lovers have such obvious tells.

Stay With Me -SFW, OT4, Prompto gets injured in the Crestholm Channels, so the boys must help him out of the depths of the sewer while his claustrophobia comes in waves.

Forget About Mine -SFW, OT4, ABO, Prompto is curious as to how each of their presentations went. Ignis' is a bit...abnormal.

Noctis and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Heat -NSFW, OT4, ABO, Noct has a rough heat, but his pack is there to help him, in all their unique ways.

A Royal Honor -NSFW, OT4, Noct finally bottoms for Gladio and bulge kink ensues. 

The Anchor -SFW, Gen, Noctis was diagnosed with autism at the young age of two. Now three, his therapists want to introduce him to a friend to help him develop his communication and social skills. Ignis, a shy six-year-old, just might be the perfect fit.

The Citizen's Crown -NSFW, OT4, Prompto takes a turn bottoming for Gladio and MORE bulge kink ensues. 

June

Petit Four -SFW, Promptio,  Prompto works in the Citadel as a server and part of the kitchen staff and he’s helping cater a large party one night. Long after the party is over, Mr. Amicitia phones the kitchen and requests a tray of desserts be brought up to his room... 

July

Partition -NSFW, Ignoct, “Driver,” Ignis leaned forward, smiling as he put a teasing lilt in his voice, “roll up the partition, please.”

August

Come What May -SFW, Ignoct, Transguy Noct,  INSOMNIA, Lucis- 9:32 AM- Sources confirm that His Highness Noctis Lucis Caelum and his Royal Advisor, Ignis Scientia, are in a committed relationship together—and have been for some time.

September 

Sleepless in Insomnia -SFW, OT4, Noctis and Prompto have been struggling to get a good night's sleep for years. Ignis and Gladio have been trying to help them find an answer, but nothing is working out. Ignis' latest idea is a unique blanket for the boys to share, but Noctis and Prompto aren't convinced.

Solace With You -NSFW, Gladnoct, Gladio returns from Gilgamesh's trial bruised and beaten, and the boys just barely get to him in time. After all is said and done he seeks comfort from Noctis, but the prince's emotions get the better of him.

Things Divine -NSFW, Gladnis, Transguy Ignis, Gladio and Ignis talk about what they want, explore each other, and get swept away. And they make mistakes, too.

October

(kinktober was a trip...)

A Matter of Time -SFW, OT4, Prompto tells Noctis about the rest of his life. Very sad. 

Pretty Little Things -NSFW, Lunyx, Nyx loves everything about Luna, inside and out.

Good & Tight -NSFW, Ignoct, Transguy Ignis, Ignis indulges in something so satisfying, so perfect...Noctis doesn't get to indulge in anything except Ignis' pleasure.

Sensory Pleasures -NSFW-ish, OT4, The boys bought one piece of lingerie, but one turned into two, and two into six...

Bound (Together) and Gagged -NSFW, IgLuna, Luna is content to keep all the pleasure to herself and watch her lover squirm below her.

Wet Dream -NSFW, Promptis, Prince Noctis buys himself a captured mercreature, though he isn't sure what to do with him.

Between a Shield and a Hard Place -NSFW, Gladnoct, ABO, Gladio quite literally rises to Noctis' challenge of holding him up against a wall and sucking him off at the same time.

Prompto's Amazing Alpha Powers -SFW, OT4, ABO, Prompto inadvertently proves that he’s a great alpha, and these 4 fools are a lot closer then any of them have realized.

Rosemary and Mint -NSFW, Promnis, Prompto trusts, and gives all of himself to Ignis. Sensory deprivation and waxplay. 

A Night Off -NSFW, Promptis, ABO, An eager Prompto just wants to help Noct, exhausted from caring for his first child, relax for a night. Lactation kink. 

Heat-aides -NSFW, Ignoct, ABO, With Prompto and Gladio away on Crownsguard business, Ignis and Noctis must find an easy way to ride out Noctis' heat together. They go shopping for some unique but very helpful little devices.

Man and Machine -NSFW, OT4, Noctis buys a sybian, and later on Ignis finds it. 

Impeccable -NSFW, IgLuna, Luna and Ignis sneak away from a party for some quick and dirty sex.

November

Desperate -NSFW, Gladnoct, Noct is being a bratty little shit, and he knows it. Spanking. 

Shield of the King -SFW, Gladnoct, One time Noct comforted Gladio, and one time Gladio comforted Noct. Set in Brotherhood and Post Canon, respectively.

December

Not Beyond Repair -NSFW, OT4, Noctis feels excluded from their recerntly established poly relationship and the boys find out they still have a lot to learn about each other. 

#ffxv #fanfic #Polyship Roadtrip #gladnoct #promnis #my writing

[valentinahart]

Old radio interview from August 26, 2011:

Steph: The guest I have calling in tonight is Mia Von Glitz

She will be calling in, in a few seconds. She is the bassist for the rock band Shoot the Freak, which is a Side B Radio staple.

Steph: Hello.

MVG: Hello Stephanie. What’s going on?

Steph: I’m just doing a radio show right now. What’s going on with you?

MVG: We’re on the radio? Holy shit. *laughs* Can I say that?

Steph: No. *chuckles*

MVG: Sorry!

Steph: It’s okay.

MVG: Okay, G-rated language is on right now.

Steph: Okay, yes. Let’s try that.

MVG: How’s it going? What song did you just play?

Steph: I just played two songs by Bush, back to back.

MVG: Rock and roll.

Steph: Yeah, you know how it goes. I’ve got to play some Bush every Friday. They’re required, so is Kid Henry and Shoot the Freak and Freelance Whales. They’re our staples on this show.

MVG: Awesome. I just saw a play!

Steph: What did you see?

MVG: My friend was in this play called “The Model” in St. Mark’s church. It was cool.

Steph: That’s interesting.

MVG: Yeah, it was abstract and weird and trippy.

Steph: Alright, that’s awesome. So I opened this up to the many Mia Von Glitz followers and I was overwhelmed with questions. Not only did my ask box on Tumblr get over 70 asks, each of those asks had like five questions. So a lot of them were more repetitive, and we won’t get to all of them but I am just going to start throwing them at you.

MVG: Okay, I probably only have like 20 minutes if that’s alright.

Steph:  Yeah, of course. I wasn’t expecting you to be on the phone with me for three hours *chuckles*

MVG: I have to prepare for the hurricane you know. *laughs*

Steph: Yes, I know. The whole town is shutting down and we’re all having an apocalypse tomorrow.

MVG: I know. I bought Wonder Bread so I’m all good.

Steph: *laughs* Okay, you should get some Spaghetti O’s.

MVG: You know I had thought about getting those. I had really wanted to get those but they didn’t have any.

Steph: Oh see, everyone is stocking up on Spaghetti O’s. You’re going to be screwed tomorrow.

MVG: You can eat them cold, that’s why.

Steph: Well I am from South Florida so I know the hurricane drill.

MVG: Yeah, I lived in Alabama for a little while and we had some tornadoes.

Steph: So you know how it is. Okay well, what brought you to New York?

MVG: College! I came to New York to go to NYU in ’04.

Steph: What was your major at NYU?

MVG: I majored in Television Production and Media Communications.

Steph: I know you are working at Showtime, can you tell us a little bit about your job at Showtime?

MVG: Yeah, I am an assistant producer at Showtime in the red group, which is the creative department. So basically I produce features that are behind the scenes for all our different series and theatricals. I do the promos for Californication, Dexter, Weeds, The Real L-Word and things like that. Anything you see on Showtime with an interview, that’s me *laughs*

Steph: That’s awesome. Is that what wanted?  Was that your goal for school or were you hoping for a news anchor position or?

MVG: Uhm, nope. Well I started out acting then I kind of switched out of theater quickly when I realized that I wanted to go behind the camera. And I worked in television for a few years on different daytime programming and I worked for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. I worked for a production company called White Cherry Entertainment where we did a lot of live events like the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards, the NFL Kick-off, the Superbowl and things like that. Which was really fun but got a little tiring, so I went back to school for film and then I decided that I want to be a film maker. Then I have my band on the side. But then I ended up back to television! I mean, I love what I do. I get to make mini-films of my own. I’m involved in all the little aspects of the process, I write some pieces, I do the interviews, I do some shooting and I edit as well. So I kind of get to make my own three minute movies every day.

Steph: That is very very cool. Speaking of your little movies, I know that you did a little promo teaser for “Hell on Heels”, which is one of the band’s songs. A lot of people want to know if they are going to get a full video of that.

MVG: Oh yes, well to be quite honest we have a lot of footage that we shot that night. That was just kind of a fun night. We shot that all with iPhones; I don’t know if I told you that, we were just having fun one night and shooting some stuff and kind of put that together as a promo for one of our shows. I don’t know, we had a great response to it. So hopefully we will make it into a full length. We need a little more footage for that to happen but we also have newer songs coming out that we want to focus on real music videos for. So hopefully something with an actual director and a script, we have a lot of ideas.

Steph: That sounds very exciting!

MVG: We’re hoping that that’s going to be the main focus for the near future.

Steph: I saw that “Honcho” is the new single and you guys are going to premiere that on September 15th.

MVG: Yeah. Right smack dab in the middle of the month. We just got right out of the studio from recording that yesterday. So it’s going to be mixed and mastered and ready for everybody to listen to. I hope everyone enjoys it. It’s a really fun song.

Steph: Is that going to be on iTunes? That’s another question I got a lot of: When is Shoot the Freak getting on iTunes?

MVG: That’s a good question, I’m not so sure. We’re doing the bandcamp thing for now but we will definitely have iTunes in mind for the future.

Steph: All right so I have a lot of questions about your fashion and your makeup and your hair.

MVG: *laughs* I grow it myself.

Steph: *laughs* everyone wants to know what makeup you use, where you go shopping.

MVG: Most of the makeup I use is Almay because I’m allergic to everything else. But for stage makeup I use the brand called Illamasqua which is an English company. It is the England version of MAC but they sell it at Sephora so that’s where I get mine. I shop everywhere. I love this vintage store where I used to live called, Rags-A-Go-Go, that was my go-to for a while there. Got my favorite t-shirt of all time there. Beacons Closet out in Brooklyn, I really like L.F.  I like to make a lot of my own clothes, too. I just get stuff that looks like you should throw it in the trash and just make it even worse. Tear it into shreds. *laughs* Oh! Buffalo Exchange is good too. Very cheap. I’m all about the cheap these days *laughs* I have a mortgage now.

Steph: Are there people that inspire your fashion? Are there people you look up to?

MVG: Oh yeah. Ducky from Pretty in Pink but that might be too old of a reference *laughs*. I really dig Alison Mosshart’s style, Juliette Lewis a lot, it’s funny because the same people who influence my music taste are my fashion icons as well.

Steph:  All right so, a lot of people wanted to know the causes you are into. Someone said that you did an independent film about the LGBT community.

MVG: Yeah, I did a couple of those actually. In one year I made about eight films, and three of those were LGBT themed. It is definitely something that I am very passionate about. Growing up a lot of my parent’s friends were in the LGBT and I went to NYU and I was pretty immersed in it all through school. It was just something that I felt very strongly about. I went to pro-gay rallies and things like that a couple years ago. So it’s definitely one of my main causes.

Steph: Is there a way to see those LGBT films? Are they on YouTube or anything?

MVG: I do not. I used to but then I took them down not too long ago. But I do want to put them back up. It is kind of a time issue. I’m going to have to find some time where I can do that. I’m running around these days. But I think I will.. I will! I’ve just decided that I will!

Steph: People want to see them! Are there any other causes that you are passionate about?

MVG: Yes! There are a lot of causes that I am into. For sure.

Steph: I like this question. Someone asked what your favorite David Bowie period is.

MVG: Oooh. Good question! Can I just say Labyrinth?

Steph: Yes! This is why we get along I think!

MVG: You know, I love Ziggy Stardust, which is probably one of my go-to’s. “Life on Mars” is one of my ultimate anthems.

Steph: Labyrinth is my favorite movie ever so…

MVG: Yes. It’s a killer movie. Actually when I a kid I used to cry because my sister used to make me watch it all the time and I was scared of the goblins, then you just get into it.

Steph: Mia! You and I need to have an 80’s movie party

MVG: *laughs* that’s my era.

Steph: I hear you.  Did you ever play anything big in theater or did you just decide that wasn’t for you? There are some theater questions here too.

MVG:  Oh, I did a lot of theater. I did theater all throughout growing up. I set out to major in it  my freshman year of college and I went to Miami my freshman year, when I was in the theater program there. I did one year there and I kind of realized it wasn’t for me and got out of it. I did a lot of roles that people would know. My biggest one was probably Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, which was a fun one. I did Wendy in Peter Pan, with my best friend as Peter, which was a lot of fun. My favorite role was Brooke in Noises Off, I don’t know if you know but it is sort of a British farce.

Steph: I don’t know that but I am sure that someone does. There are a lot of people that are into theater that listen to my show.

MVG: Okay cool, so do they specific questions about that?

Steph: There were just wondering if you did a lot of theater. Someone else asked me about you going vegan or vegetarian. Because I remember you tweeting with Devon about that a while back. Are you still?

MVG: Well technically, I went pescatarian because I started eating fish. There is a whole story about that because I would never eat fish growing up because I am allergic to everything. I am allergic to everything with fur and feathers so I could never have a pet. So my parents bought me a fish, and when people are eating fish it always just broke my heart. Like would you eat your dog? No! *laughs* And the moral of that story is I started eating fish because I put on my big girl pants and decided that I need to eat fish because it is good for you. I just started liking it and I felt better eating that and kind of eliminating meat from my diet. So that’s where I am at these days. And plus, I am a huge vegetable girl.

Steph: That’s cool because some people are vegans and they were asking how you were doing and stuff.

MVG: I haven’t gone fully vegan yet. We’ll see, maybe one day. Got to take baby steps.

Steph: Do you have a preference between your day job and the band? Like would you rather be band full time?

MVG: That’s a good question. I love my job, a lot of people aren’t lucky enough to say that they do something that they love doing and I actually really enjoy it but I kind of went through a period where I realized that I was in the corporate creative and not so much in the creative anymore. That was about two years ago when I decided to put the band together so I didn’t really play an instrument. I dabbled in guitar for about ten years but I was never good enough at it to accomplish anything with. Alberto [Duhau]/Jaja our guitarist, who just left us and left me brokenhearted, he gave me a bass and said ‘play this and we’ll jam together.’ And that’s what we did, and that’s how we put the band together. It was great for me to have that creative outlet on the side. I’ve always kind of teetered on the line, back and forth between film and television and music as a career. My family is actually in the music industry in New York so I always knew that that was kind of an easy choice for a career option for me but I kind of realized that it was my relief. After a day of work I want to come home and I want to go see a show. I want that to be my happy place and not something that is stressing me out because it’s work.

Steph: Let’s talk about your tattoos! How many tattoos do you have?

MVG: Okay well, six. Six that I will talk about *laughs* No, just kidding I have six. I am getting another one, I was supposed to get another one tomorrow but there is a hurricane so I have to call and cancel that. I have six, they are mostly about music. *laughs* You would never have guessed.

Steph: Well other than the “Imagine” one.

MVG: Yes, that one is white ink that says “Imagine” on my wrist. It is the first one I ever got and it is for John Lennon, obviously. I got a “Free Bird” on my foot for my Lynyrd Skynyrd days back in Alabama. *laughs* These are just a road map of my life.  I have a dandelion on my rib cage and back that is for Bob Dylan. I have Florentine bracelet design in plum ink on my other wrist which is for Janice Joplin. She has the same one except for I made it plum and added some vines to it. On my bicep I have a butterfly skeleton which is just for The Dead Weather. Which if people don’t know Dead Weather, you should look them up immediately. It is a butterfly skeleton, not to be confused with a butterfly. Which doesn’t actually exist in nature, it was from their limited edition Halloween album cover. So that is where that came from because I just thought it was beautiful. My last one is for Shoot the Freak, which is an arrow with a heart instead of a head. Like me. *laughs*

Steph. Nice *laughs* So you said you played guitar and you play bass. Do you play any other instruments?

MVG: I don’t , no. I say that I am going to learn drums every day. I have a harmonica necklace that I pretend I can play but nope. Just bass, I don’t even really play guitar, just bass.

Steph: I have, uhmm, favorite Disney movie.

MVG: Oh..  It’s definitely a tie, between Little Mermaid and Aladdin. I don’t know. One of the two.

Steph: Nice. Are you a Harry Potter fan?

MVG: *laughs* Am I a Harry Potter fan? I can tell you everything about Harry Potter.

Steph: That doesn’t necessarily mean anything because I know a couple of people that can do that too.

MVG: Uhmm yes *laughs* That will be the end of that question.

Steph: They wanted to know if you associate with any particular house in Hogwarts.

MVG: I took a test once that said I was a Gryffindor. That’s good, right?

Steph: Awesome. Yes it is. That’s the correct answer actually *laughs* I’m just kidding, but Gryffindor is the house that Harry is in.

MVG: Okay cool. I know that!

Steph: What do you do when you are not in the band or at the television studio?

MVG: What do I do? I draw, I write. My friends in New York are all just little collections of music and we are all different genres. So when we get together we just kind of play together. I like to just sit back and watch rather than play because they are all extremely talented people. Much more talented than I could ever be.  Shopping, grocery shopping. That is fun.

Steph: I have a lot of these: What kind of advice would you give to people who want to work in TV?

MVG: I have a very specific piece of advice, but it will only work if you have chosen your path already, but here goes. If you are aspiring to go into media than the best thing you can do is go to a city school. I think I got a huge leg up all throughout school just by being in a city school because I had all these internships while I was still in school. So by the time I got out I had a pretty solid resume, which is how I got the little success that I have now. *laughs* But yeah, that is just my biggest thing. It’s all a personal thing, some people want to go to a campus school and get that campus life but I don’t feel like I missed out on anything by skipping that.

Steph: So you think you will stay in New York then?

MVG: Yeah. I mean I’m kind of a lifer, but who knows. Anything could happen.

Steph: Well I will let you go now so you have time to get ready for the storm.

MVG: Yes thank you!

Steph: So your show is on the 8th right?

MVG: Yes. On the 8th and the new single is out on the 15th.

Steph:  Okay, have a great night.

MVG: You too, thank you!

#icymi #old interview #radio #august 26 2011 #no comment

[toby-stephens]

SEPTEMBER 2017 : TOBY NEWS

‘OSLO’

‘Oslo’ opened at the Lyttelton Theatre at the National on 5th September to much anticipation and applause, gaining 4 or 5 stars from most reviews with the Independent saying that “there isn’t a weak link in the 18 strong cast”.  Con Coughlin for the Telegraph wrote, “Toby Stephens's portrayal of Rød-Larsen gives him a great deal more zest and personality than I recall, but this neatly nuanced performance is key to the pace of this fast-moving, entertaining take on the events (Rogers has said that, in order to liven up what might otherwise seem a prosaic and convoluted political process, he studied the plays of Noël Coward).”

The Financial Times had this to say of Toby’s performance, “Fully aware that three hours of intricate bargaining might be daunting, Rogers sets out in crisp and droll style. Taking a tip from Shakespeare, perhaps, he sprinkles the dialogue with gags and has his characters frequently break the fourth wall to reassure the audience and fill them in on necessary details. This brings a light touch to proceedings, ensures that we never get lost in the woods and adds to the appeal of his chief protagonists, the flamboyant, rash, but hugely engaging Larsen, played with great wit and panache by Toby Stephens, and the wise, long-suffering Juul, played with infinite composure by Lydia Leonard.”

A sentiment echoed in the Guardian, “Although Bartlett Sher’s production has an epic sweep, it rightly puts the emphasis on the individuals involved. Toby Stephens brings out the vanity and self-regard behind Larsen’s idealism, while Lydia Leonard as Juul seems a model of practical wisdom.”

The Stage writes, “Toby Stephens anchors the play as the fastidious Terje, combing a dash of arrogance with a sense of integrity, while Lydia Leonard, as Mona, is similarly superb. As the play’s narrator, she balances out a piece laden with men.”

David Butcher for the Radio Times writes, “Toby Stephens is in his element as Terje Rod-Larsen, the slightly louche (for Norway) academic who in 1992 creates a back-channel for talks between the PLO finance minister and Israeli representatives. His diplomat wife Mona Juul is horrified when she gets wind of his plan, and so – in a hilariously profane outburst – is her boss, the Norwegian foreign minister.  Bobbing around the hard men, Stephens’s Terje is a squirming dilettante, forced at times to lie to both sides to keep the ball rolling; but when a character quotes Yitzhak Rabin’s dictum, “What is a lie but a dream that could come true?” it feels like his vindication.”

The Times were also full of praise, “Toby Stephens is brilliant as Rod-Larsen, a man who knows the right thing to do but often doesn’t do it.”  Even the Metro, (who still insist on referring to Toby as “Bond villain in Die Another Day” - [when will that ever end!!!!]) said that Terje was “Played with panache by Toby Stephens”, whilst Time Out referred to Toby as being “on flamboyant form”.

The Arts Desk writes, “As you’d expect, Stephens plays Terje as a smoothie, a jovial idealist who constantly puts his foot in it, while Lydia Leonard’s Mona patches things up with quiet intelligence.”

The Express had this to say, “Toby Stephens invests Rød-Larsen with the anonymous complexity of a well-meaning, slightly naive political dilettante……evincing the perfect balance of altruism and smugness”

In The Times we read “Toby Stephens plays Terje Rod-Larsen, a Norwegian sociologist and diplomat with expertise in “organisational psychology”, and the originator of the talks. He aims for something Nordic in his accent, though it’s often barely distinguishable from the urbane drawl of the Foreign Office grandee.”

Susannah Clapp [unfortunate name] for the Guardian was a tad less impressed, “As the Norwegian prime mover, Toby Stephens is a magnetic mixture of inspired enterprise and self-promotion. He moves like a spin doctor. With perhaps a touch too much flounce. He begins to look as if he is on the brink of doing an imitation of himself: has he inherited this from his mother, Maggie Smith?”

IN TOBY’S OWN WORDS:

On returning to the British stage after 4 years:

“I know, it was a really difficult decision. I was getting a bit panicked, thinking, Christ, I really need to do something back in the UK otherwise I am just going to disappear. And this came along and it was the perfect project.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

'It's great to be back on London stage after six years away’

“It’s great coming home and to be able to work here again, while having the family settled here too.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 19 Sept 2017

On his ‘onslaught’ on America:

“It has really changed things for me”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

On ‘Oslo’:

“I was totally ignorant, I thought it was Clinton who brought them together because you saw the photos of him with Rabin and Arafat. But it was because the Americans had no part in it, really, that made it effective.”

“What the play very carefully and brilliantly does is not become bogged down in the present, or in the current politics of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.   It is dealing with a very specific period of time.”

“But that allows us to read all kinds of different things into this because it becomes about negotiation. Was it the right thing to do? Was it effective? Does it mean there is potential hope for situations around the world now? Bart said that in New York it became about Democrats and Republicans. Here maybe it will be about Brexit…”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

On Fatherhood, and uprooting his family with tutors and finding local schools:

“It is the most challenging thing that I have ever done, and also extraordinary and wonderful. It is rather clichéd but it really stopped me being such a selfish person. Before children it’s kind of easy to be solipsistic — you and your wife are in this hermetic little thing, and your own desires, wants, needs, tastes dictate your choices. Then suddenly all of that’s gone.  Since I’ve had kids I thank God that I don’t drink as I really wouldn’t have been able to cope.”

“It was a great thing for me. It made me more pragmatic about things. Quite honestly, as long as I am working, can enjoy what I do, get on with it and put bread on the table, I am really happy.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

On his children being able to watch him in ‘Lost in Space’:

“It’s not that I think I am doing something distasteful.  But I do remember going to see my mum in a production of ‘Night and Day’ in New York when I was nine or 10, the age my son is now, and there was a scene where a body double was naked in a shower. I thought it was my mum and I was mortified, distraught.”

“I saw her in ‘The Seagull’, playing Arkadina, when I was 11 or 12 and was disturbed by it, because it had parallels to my life. Not that I think those things did me any great harm; they made me what I am. But it’s very hard to get your head around why daddy is on stage with someone strange, kissing and cuddling.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

On his children:

“If they want to become actors I wouldn’t stop them.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 31 August 2017

On Sir Peter Hall:

“I didn’t know Peter when I was growing up – he knew my parents, but they didn’t really drag us around to endless glitzy parties. The only time I met him in my childhood was with Dave Allen and his wife Judith. I was very close to their children, so they would invite us around to their house in Oxfordshire. Peter came there once or twice, but I was quite young and I didn’t really understand who he was at the time.

"Later, however, he meant an enormous amount to me. He was the person who gave me my first job, and obviously those people have a special part to play in your career – they’re the one who pulled the trigger, as it were. In fact, he gave me my first two jobs: ‘The Camomile Lawn’, and then my first professional play, which was a production of ‘Tartuffe’ in the West End.

"Before he cast me in ‘The Camomile Lawn’, he took me to lunch with him at Pinewood Studios. He was lovely like that; he was very old-school, so he liked to take you out before asking you to do a play. He was so urbane. As a young actor, I remember thinking, “This is extraordinary - for my first job, to be having a meal with this man who is such an enormous figure in British theatre.” Sitting there with him, one-on-one, I was tongue-tied.

"I’ll always remember how generous and sweet he was. He wasn’t patronising. He was incredibly kind to me – it’s why I was always extremely fond of him. I’d always do whatever he wanted me to do. He’d ring you up, and even if you weren’t sure about the play, you’d go, “It’s Peter! I’ll do it.” He was always so persuasive and charming.

"He was loyal to me throughout my career, throughout his life. He used me five or six times, and I loved working with him. And Peter was always working! He was a total workaholic. Anybody who was close to him would recognise that. He wasn’t the kind of guy who would want to kick back and lie on the beach, or “hang out” at all. If he wasn’t working, he was formulating what he was going to be doing next. Not working, for Peter, was a nightmare. He said to me once, “My biggest fear is not being able to do this - not being able to work.”

"He was always planning what he would be doing four or five productions down the line. At his height, he was doing operas at the same time as everything else - he was incredibly industrious, and very driven in that way.

"The last time I saw him was at lunch with a mutual friend of ours, perhaps five or six years ago. I could tell he wasn’t at his best, and it was quite distressing. Because he had this hunger for work, and his need to be constantly doing new things, and he could see this wouldn’t be going on for much longer. But when he told me about the play he was doing at the time, ‘Twelfth Night’, he was incredible. Even then, he was still cracking the whip!”

Source: telegraph.co.uk; 12 Sept 2017

On Donald Trump:

“Trump is not the master of diplomacy and he could learn a thing or two from this play.”

Source: standard.co.uk; 19 Sept 2017

#Toby Stephens #Oslo #Lost in Space #The Camomile Lawn #Sir Peter Hall

[brokehorrorfan]

Best New Horror Movies on Netflix: Autumn 2017

There's an overwhelming amount of horror movies to sift through on Netflix, so I've decided to take out some of the legwork by compiling a list of the season's best new genre titles on Netflix's instant streaming service.

Please feel free to leave a comment with any I may have missed and share your thoughts on any of the films you watch. You can also peruse past installments of Best New Horror Moves on Netflix for more suggestions.

1. The Void

Not afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve, The Void is a fun amalgam of genre favorites such as The Thing, Hellraiser, Prince of Darkness, The Beyond, and Assault on Precinct 13, along with a healthy dose of H.P. Lovecraft for good measure. The '80s inspiration is furthered by a plethora of practical effects and a pulsating, John Carpenter-esque synthesizer score. Set in the most understaffed hospital since Halloween 2, a small group of people fight to survive against Lovecraftian monsters and cultists. A lot of the plot points are familiar, but the astonishing effects are more than enough to make it feel fresh and exciting.

2. The Transfiguration

Like a modern take on George A. Romero's Martin, The Transfiguration is a subversive vampire film. It's also an urban coming-of-age tale with social commentary. The plot concerns an adolescent boy (Eric Ruffin, The Good Wife) who is a practicing vampire in New York City. Not just an avid watcher of horror films - although he name-checks plenty of them - he partakes in murder to drink blood. He begins to question his outlook on life when he befriends a girl who's also an outcast (Chloe Levine, The Defenders). Although largely a somber, dramatic film, there are a couple of truly shocking moments. Due to how raw and real it feels, this one will stick with you.

3. The Devil's Candy

Written and directed by Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones), The Devil's Candy combines elements of haunted house, demonic possession, and home invasion movies, all with a lean toward heavy metal music. It follows a struggling artist (a nearly unrecognizable Ethan Embry, Can’t Hardly Wait), his wife (Shiri Appleby, Roswell), and their teenage daughter (Kiara Glasco, Map to the Stars) as they move into a new home. Meanwhile, the house's disturbed former resident (the great Pruitt Taylor Vince, Constantine) returns, and he takes a liking to the young girl. It's akin to a 1970s slow-burner with modern sensibilities. The restrained approach allows the audience to become more invested in the characters, building toward an unpredictable and emotionally draining final act. Read my full review of the film here.

4. A Dark Song

A Dark Song is an engrossing slow-burn horror film predominantly told with two actors in one location. The story involves a grieving woman (Catherine Walker, Ferocious Planet) who seeks the aid of an unstable cultist (Steve Oram, Sightseers) to perform an elaborate ritual that allows you to ask a guardian angel for a favor. She wants her deceased child back, but this is far from a Pet Sematary retread. It's all about the build-up, with some genuinely creepy moments along the way before it culminates in a tense finale. Irish writer-director Liam Gavin makes a powerful debut anchored by strong performances.

5. What Happened to Monday

What Happened to Monday is set in the not too distant future, when a strict one-child policy is enforced in an effort to preserve the planet. Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) stars as septuplets, who hide from the government by sharing a life; each one only goes out during the day of the week for which they’re named. When Monday disappears, the other six siblings must track her down before someone else does. Rapace wonderfully diversifies the seven parts, and it's quite impressive to see them all seamlessly interacting with one another in the same shot. Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) plays the girls' grandfather who raised them, while Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) is the head of the agency stripping families of their children. Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) directs some superb action sequences in this sci-fi mystery thriller.

6. American Fable

American Fable is true to its name, often playing out like something of a dark fairy tale in the country’s heartland, but its fantastical elements largely take a backseat to a rural drama with mystery/thriller elements. Writer-director Anne Hamilton, who got her start as an intern on Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, makes a dynamic feature debut. Set in the 1980s, the story revolves around Gitty (Peyton Kennedy, Odd Squad), an 11-year-old girl with an affinity for storytelling. She finds herself in a real-life fairy tale upon discovering a man (Richard Schiff, The West Wing) imprisoned in a silo on her family's struggling farm. The picture is an admirable American complement to Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth; not only are their stories thematically analogous, but they also share a similar horned creature. Read my full review of the film here.

7. Here Alone

Here Alone is a zombie movie in which the zombies are almost never on screen - and that's not a bad thing. It depicts the hardships Ann (Lucy Walters, Power) must endure and the elaborate precautions she must take in order to survive, weaving between two different points in time: early in the apocalypse with her husband (Shane West, A Walk to Remember) and their baby, and the present when she befriends a fellow survivor (Adam David Thompson, Mozart in the Jungle) and his teenage daughter. Director Rod Blackhurst (Amanda Knox) delivers a subtle, dramatic character piece with shades of The Walking Dead by crafting dynamic characters backed by engaging performances.

8. Little Evil

Tucker and Dale vs Evil writer-director Eli Craig returns to horror-comedy with Little Evil. Having perfected his deadpan delivery on Parks and Recreation, Adam Scott makes awkward an artform as a man who believes his new wife's (Evangeline Lilly, Lost) 6-year-old son is the literal Antrichrist. The supporting cast, underutilized as they may be, is also great, including Bridget Everett (Patti Cakes), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Donald Faison (Scrubs), and Sally Field (Forrest Gump), who is Craig's mother. The most obvious influence is The Omen - it's even name-dropped in the movie - but there are also references to the likes of Poltergeist, Ghostbusters, Children of the Corn, Rosemary's Baby, Child's Play, and The Shining. It's not always laugh-out-loud funny, but it remains entertaining throughout.

9. Patchwork

Patchwork is like a modern take on Frankenhooker with a dash of Re-Animator for good measure. It may not be as masterful a blend of horror and comedy as those '80s classics, but it's delightfully absurd just the same. It also offers a bit of social commentary, namely regarding the issues modern dating women face. Three girls - stuck up Jennifer (Tory Stolper), naive Ellie (Tracey Fairaway, Hellraiser: Revelations), and weird Madeline (Maria Blasucci) - are murdered, sewn together, and brought back to life by a mad scientist. They must learn to coexist in the same body in order to exact revenge. Cleverly conceived by director Tyler MacIntyre (Tragedy Girls), the girls are portrayed as one Frankenstein-ed creature in some shots and as three individual women in others.

10. Death Note

While purists decry the changes that Death Note made from the popular Japanese manga on which it's based, those with an open mind (or, like me, unfamiliar with the source material) ought to enjoy this Netflix original film. A book labeled Death Note literally falls from the sky to the feet of Light (Nat Wolff, Paper Towns), granting the high school student the power to take the life of anyone whose name he writes inside. Quickly realizing its power without fully recognizing the responsibility, Light dishes out vigilante justice remotely, killing criminals and becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Also mixed up in it are Light's love interest (Margaret Qualley, The Leftovers), his detective father (Shea Whigham, American Hustle), a mysterious man trying to catch him (Lakeith Stanfield, Get Out), and Ryuk (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), the monstrous keeper of the book. There's a definite sense that the story has been condensed, things may have been lost in translation, and the fast pacing takes away from the weight of the situation. It may not be a highlight of his filmography, but director Adam Wingard (Blair Witch, You’re Next) delivers a fun, stylish movie with some gory, Rube Goldbergian deaths a la Final Destination.

Bonus: Castlevania: Season 1

Castlevania is a Netflix original animated series based on the classic Konami video game series. Season 1 consists of only four episodes totaling around 90 minutes, resembling more of an anime film than a show, but it ends without a conclusion to the story. Thankfully, a second season is already in the works. Following the murder of his wife, Dracula summons a scourge of goblins to destroy the region of Wallachia and dismember every person along the way. Trevor Belmont, the last in an infamous family excommunicated for dealing in black magic while slaying monsters, leads the charge to bring down the legendary vampire. It's heavy on exposition, but each episode contains a couple of big action scenes to hold viewers over through the abundance of dialogue. Adult language, violence, and gore are on full display, looking great in old-school-style animation. The series is written by comic book scribe Warren Ellis (Red) and stars the voice talents of Richard Armitage (The Hobbit), James Callis (Battlestar Galactica), and Graham McTavish (Preacher).

#netflix #the void #death note #little evil #the devil's candy #a dark song #castlevania #best of netflix #list #article

[tsghuntsvillealabama]

#STAYCONNECTED HUNTSVILLE || Corners of My Home

With the days of social distancing, self quarantining and stay at home orders seemingly stretching out into a blur, it honestly feels good to pour some of that attention and energy into where we hang our hats, and where our hearts are. Home cannot be merely defined as the four walls you are sitting within right now. It is that almost tangible warm feeling when you plop into your favorite chair, the smell of fresh baked cookies wafting from your kitchen, your dog or cat coming into check on you at your home office, reading a book with glass of wine in a bubblebath, or even the smile that spreads across your face when you see that framed picture of family from years ago hanging next to that artwork you bought on your last vacation. Home is filled with laughter, favorite colors, reminders, collections, light and the little nooks we love. It is in those beautiful corners that we are most at home. 

We asked some members to share with us their favorite corners of their homes in hopes they would inspire you in your own home. Here they are in their own words! 

Beverly Farrington || Accents of the South

A master bedroom usually sits by itself away from all the hustle and bustle from the rest of the house. For me, it is a space that’s quiet, thoughtful, introspective and intimate. My bedroom is a place I can retreat to, it is my own personal and quite space where I can gather my thoughts , take a warm relaxing bath in, pamper myself in by reading a good book or just a place where I am all alone to paint my toe nails.

This space allows me to prepare myself for the day and to rest at night.  For me the soft taupe and blush colors are relaxing and tranquil. Everyone needs this kind of space in their home and one of the most rewarding parts of my job is being able to create  this feeling of rejuvenation and well being for my clients as well. 

Though this part of the house is quiet, it is also very warm and inviting. It is the soft taupe walls, Gossamer Veil by Sherwin Williams that help to give it that feel. I love pink, so I worked in a pale shrimp to accent the room. It is found in the chairs and art. I anchored the room with light taupe, grey and off white which can all be found in the Oushak rug. The lamps are the whimsical pop in the room with the polished brass daisies that rise gracefully from their marble bases.

So many of you have asked to see the before and after of my kitchen, well here it is, the master bath. The original kitchen was too small for today’s kitchen, it wasn’t in a bad spot in the house but I needed this space to complete the master suite. It all worked out well. It had large windows across the back, that we replaced to be even larger ones. They give great light to the space with their Southeastern view. Facing a private courtyard they can be open most the time. The marble floating tub is the focal point in the space with these beautiful windows as it’s back drop.

A large walk-in shower was created by using part of an old corridor and the toilet fits neatly into a space that was used as the previous pantry. We also were able to keep an existing exterior door that now flows seamlessly to a new terrace and courtyard. We finished out the space with white Italian Statuary marble and of course I added a touch of pink in the long flowing draperies.

Read more about Beverly on our blog and see more fantastic photos of Beverly’s Master bedroom suite on her Accents of the South Journal. And more from her Home Bound Series: Foyer Home Tour and Kitchen Home Tour.

Louisa DiLeone || Bloom Counseling

This corner of my home feels like spring. I filled it with all the things I love - lilacs from my garden, pieces from my favorite artist, bird decor, and the color purple! I’m so inspired by nature and find that bringing the look indoors creates a fresh and joyful feel.

Ashley and Andy Vaughn || White Rabbit Studios & Vertical House Records

Listen to Ashley and Andy’s latest Scouted playlist, while you tour their home...

Kitchen window: the naked lady vase came from our first home - we found it in the back of a cabinet and I think the previous homeowner made it! The gargoyle and cute house are made by a NOLA artist (Tamar Taylor) that we got from one of our favorite restaurants, Surrey's. The sun underneath the house was from a market in Italy. Inside the naked lady vase are garlic chive flowers from our garden (yum!) The little baby came out of a king cake, and the other trinkets were found at estate sales. I think we purchased the hanging pot form an artist at the Monte Sano art show!

Kitchen: a vintage stove was at the house when we started restoring the property, so we let that define the space and style of the room!

Garden herb spiral: our garden gives us so much! We spend a lot of time in the yard and allow for our kitties to join us supervised. They have their own favorite spots too! In the herb spiral you can see the hint of lavender at the top which is great for headaches, anxiety, and is an antimicrobial! Growing next to it with it's vibrant shade of green is lemon balm, which is fabulous for it's properties to help calm the nervous system and acts as an antiviral - great for a racing heart and to help reduce nervous feelings...also tastes YUMMY!  One of our kitties, Maple, is resting next to bee balm (before its showy flowers have bloomed) which has antimicrobial, antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory properties. You can also see a peek of sage behind Maple. Sage's key actions are wonderful: antiseptic, astringent, clears mucus, nerve tonic, and estrogenic. Such a great versatile herb to have! Our garden grows over 30 beneficial, organic herbs that I use to make tea blends, tinctures, and vinegars. Studying herbalism has given me so much more respect for plants - in fact, we let a lot of the wild plants grow in the yard that most people consider weeds! Purple dead nettle, henbit, chickweed, cleavers, violets, shepard's purse - all of those have wonderful properties!

Dining room Apothecary: I’m studying herbalism and as soon as a started the venture, I knew I had to have an apothecary! This shot was in the beginning, and now it’s packed with teas, tinctures, and dried herbs from the garden!

Kelly Butler || K Butler Interiors 

I love this simple spot in our home because of the colorful art and personality each piece represents - A few happy landscapes, paintings of our previous homes, even an abstract piece by one of our children. Gallery walls are a fun way to let your home tell a story!

Suzanne Carlisle || Golden Griffin

I love the dimension in this starburst mirror paired with a more clean-lined lamp and Italian style chest. On top of the chest is a particularly cherished piece—a hand painted box of a landscape with a gorgeous gold-leaf edge and bottom by artist Julie Robinson. I also collect abstract nude art. This framed piece one of many around my house.

If I collect anything it’s antique religious items! This bookcase in my master bedroom holds some of my favorite things: A collection of metal religious figures, handmade jeweled crosses and crowns atop antique bottles, and a stack of vintage Italian Florentine boxes (also a weakness of mine)! 

I think this foyer nook gives more great insight into my style. Some of my favorite art by Julie Robinson, a local Huntsville artist, hangs on the original 1907 plaster staircase wall. And then there are the pretty pieces on the table—an antique carved religious figure in one of my favorite colors, pink!—An antique Italian lamp with new gold leaf shade (I’m a lover of all things gold!)—and then bejeweled tiara atop candlestick. I love layering with little unexpected add ons! 

Brandeis Short || Pillar & Peacock

Master Bath Tub:  I have really enjoyed my tub during this stay at home time. I have been “treating” myself with a bath, a good book and a glass of wine! I can have some quiet time to myself! Paper is by Galbraith & Paul, light fixtures by Visual Comfort.

Nook in the Living Room:  this chair makes me super happy and really defines my love for color and pattern. A retro caned wingback found in my mother in law’s garage was brought back to life with Schumacher’s Chang Mai Dragon. Some of my favorite design books propped onto a very multipurpose indoor/outdoor martini stool from West Elm. 

Side Front Porch:  I can’t say enough about this this space. Thank GOD our porches were finished prior to this pandemic. We had them re-built and I was dying without them. They are a true extension of our home and possibly my favorite space in our whole house. I LOVE puzzles and have become a little spoiled and now only like doing Liberty Puzzles (wood) now! I have had one going on my game table inside and one on this outdoor porch. 

Front Porch (off of Living Room):  This is my reading porch. I love to sit out here and either listen to music or read. I am reading Harry Potter to my youngest right now! 

Game Table in Living Room:  I sit here often with a glass of wine. Just starting this puzzle that my husband gave last year for my birthday. It's a custom one of the girls in front of our Paris Air BnB's Apartment Doors. Dreaming of traveling! Behind is an antique armoire, a painting by a local Florence artist and some art books. 

Marianne Cook Windham || Windham Travel and Leisure

This is our office. Our home office was added specifically for our businesses back in 2007. We started Windham Entertainment the summer of 2004; and I started Windham Travel & Leisure the fall of 2005. Since we first added the office, we had done very little as far as updating. This January, I was already looking at paint colors, etc., and we were going to "get around" to doing a "refresh and revive". As it turned out, with the shelter at home order, I pushed myself to make quick and simple changes in order to create a more inspiring and happy work space. (Notice the gigantic bean bag-we cannot forget about the comfort of our fur babies.) Since the first week in March, my travel agency has been operating mostly in response to and at the mercy of the continually changing chaos and unknowns with Covid-19 in the current world situation. So making positive improvements and being 100% in control of my immediate surroundings has been immensely uplifting and gratifying for me.

Our bedroom has evolved into a space that we really enjoy. We love the warm walls and curtains and shears covering our double sliding glass doors out to a private courtyard. We created a built-in look from two chest of drawers, shelving, boards and molding, staining them all the same color as the chest of drawers. We attached lighting underneath and have rope lighting across the top of the molding. The purple valance was given to me as an extra from an antique store In Fayetteville Tennessee that we purchased several pieces of furniture from. I have always been fond of peacocks and their beautiful colors. 

My husband Darin is over 6’4”, and all of his life he’s been given different giraffe pieces. We even have a champagne colored pencil tree that is completely themed out with giraffe ornaments that we leave up all year. Love the ambience it adds to the mood year round. And we dream of going on an African safari in the next couple of years. It is a bucket list dream of ours! At some point we just decided we need to put all these things in one room and so here we are—giraffe art pieces and figures, peacocks, an elaborate purple valance and some added teal sequined shears for extra sparkle. Kind of a “boudoir safari” style. What would you call that? Boudoiari? Ha! May not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s unique to us; and we love it...and so do our doggies (leopard dog beds not pictured). Sweet dreams!

#huntsville #huntsvilleal #cornersofmyhome #love #homedecor #the scout guide #room decor #interior decorating #learn #kitchen #bedroom #bathroom #living room #homeoffice #office

[bangtangerine-boys-blog]

(Part 2) Fated to Love Just You: BTS Mafia!au

Pairing: Reader x Hoseok// Reader x Jungkook

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Warnings: Mild cursing, mentions of blood

Word count: 1,766

A/N Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy this chapter (:

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3

If you had known parties were this boring, you would’ve stayed at home. It seems as if everyone there already had friends of their own to have fun with.

“Maybe I should've brought Jaebum…?” You wondered but immediately rid yourself of the thought. Worrying about yourself would be easy but having another member to look out for was pressure you did not need.

“Uh, you okay?” The stranger said tapping your shoulder pulling you from your thoughts. Oh and then there was this stranger. Sure he was nice and everything but you didn’t want to be an anchor to him keeping him from talking to his friends (Which seemed to be almost every girl in the club…) He would leave you every once in awhile to talk to others but would always find himself back at your side. He either really liked talking to you or just wasn’t fond of all the other females in the club practically throwing themselves at him You couldn’t blame them to be honest, he was quite the looker even with the mask.

“Yea sorry, just kind of parched. I’ll go get us some drinks.” You smiled at him. He seemed hesitant to let you go by yourself.

“I’m pretty sure she already thinks I’m weird for not leaving her alone… Just let her go.” Hoseok thought. He nodded and you finally set off. Your eyes scanned the room until it landed on the grand table near the back entrance. You stood shocked at the amount of delicacies on the silver platters. The food you’ve been so accustomed to from headquarters looked like scraps compared to all the food laid out before you. As you continued to stare you felt cold liquid make contact with your hand. You looked down to realize in your process of gaping you spilled the water you were pouring.

“Shit,” You said out loud looking for any napkins nearby.

“Here you go,” A voice beside you said causing you to jump. You looked up to be met with a boy gapingly taller than you. You muttered a thanks as you accepted the napkins in his hand held out to you.

“No problem.” He said through his mask which covered his whole face. You started to feel weird vibes when he just stood there watching you clean up not saying another word. Wanting to get away from him as fast as possible, you hurriedly poured water into to cups-extra careful this time- and turned to look for the kind stranger. It was as if the DJ wanted you to struggle even more because it was at that very moment that he changed the calm rnb song into a crazy EDM one. Everyone started going wild as the dancing picked up speed making it even harder to find your familiar stranger.

“Looking for someone?” A voice called out over the loud music. You met face to face with the weird individual yet again. You ignored him and ran into the crowd to lose him.

“What the hell is taking her so long?” Hoseok thought as he nodded pretending to be listening to the conversation among the people that crowded him.

“Is she even part of that gang when she can’t complete such a simple task.” He said starting to push through the dancing bodies to look for you. He was about to ask someone if they had seen you when someone pushes past him quickly.

“How rude… they didn’t even say fucking sorry. What could he be chasing so passionately like a dog-” Hoseok thought, his eyes following the, at this point, running man when he realized. He stared at the girl holding her dress to be able to run faster. The elegant hair style falling apart. The mask threateningly close to fall off. It was you. Hoseok cursed under his breath as he ran to catch up with the man. Normally if saw an incident like this any other day with any other person he would’ve just watched. Hell, sometimes he would be the one doing the chasing. But today was different. You were his target and his alone. If anyone was going to have you, it would be him.

Your steady walking turned to quick steps and before you knew it you were running from this freak. How the tables have turned. Usually it’s people running from you. So this is how victims feel huh.

You found yourself cornered against a wall cursing at how small the club was.

“Damn for a girl you sure can run fast.” The man said as he slowly approached you out of breath. You looked around for a water bottle, a fork, a dessert: anything to throw and buy yourself some time. Your eyes landed on an empty wine bottle close to your legs.You had dropped the cups of water in the midst of running and now you just had to get the glass bottle without him noticing.

“Why are you doing this? There are dozens of girls here you could harass, why me?” You say attempting to get him to start talking as you slowly reach down for the bottle.

He chuckled at your question. “Almost all these girls have had their eyes on one person in this whole entire room. That idiot who just doesn’t seem to leave your side. What’s so good about you that that asshole wants? That’s what I wanna know.” He replied. What stupid motivation. But that was all the time you needed as you finally managed to grab the bottle.

“Guess you’ll never find out!” You wink about to throw the glass bottle at him when he yells in pain. You lower the bottle in confusion. You hadn’t even thrown it yet, why is he yelling? He suddenly falls to the ground and you see your saviour, the kind stranger behind him.

“Seem’s like I was right on time.” He says flashing you a smile. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in relief. You were about to thank him when you hear police sirens outside.

“Fuck.” You both thought starting to panic.

“Have we really stooped this low.” Seokjin sighed as he turned the car onto the street of the club.

“No, this is just officer duties.” Namjoon replied sounding more like he was trying to convince himself.

“They should get the low rank officers then! Namjoon our squad is supposed to be one of the most esteemed among Seoul’s Police! We shouldn’t be the ones having to stop these stupid club parties just because they were playing music too loud.” Jungkook ranted from the backseat. Namjoon chuckled at the youngest member’s enthusiasm.

“Your passion is admirable, but it’s just our punishment for not being able to catch that tulip gang.” The leader replied staring out the window.

“Cherry Blossom gang…” Jungkook corrected under his breath. He was beyond frustrated. It was his goal, his dream to become one of the best police officers. He aced every exam in training-both physical and written and he was finally here. Yet he didn’t imagine this is how he’d be spending his days. Jungkook was glad he had Seokjin and the leader Namjoon by his side however. He had always heard of officers accepting bribes and abusing their powers but when it came time for him to choose what squadron he wanted to work for, Jungkook instantly fell for Namjoon’s Freedom Mirage. His oath to live a life of honesty had more than inspired Jungkook and here he was today working alongside his role model.

“Jungkook get the megaphone and start from the back. Jin search for the owner of the club and initiator of the party. I’ll go inside and settle things with the DJ.” Namjoon commanded his team. Everyone split to their jobs.

“We should-” You start to say.

“Let’s leave from the back they always check there last.” Your stranger friend interrupted. You admired his quick thinking but of course he was probably used to this as he was a frequent visitor of this place.

“Hey, I never got your name!” You suddenly remembered as he pulled you by the hand outside.

“Tch, have I gained her trust that quickly? She’s so naive it’s almost cute.” Hoseok thought.

“I believe I should get yours first, since I did rescue you after all.” He replied with a cunning smile as he inched closer and closer to you.  

“E-Eh?” You stuttered, flustered by the sudden incoming contact. So sudden you didn’t notice as his hand reached into your purse to grab your phone. Your real phone. The phone which had all the information on the Gray Cherry Blossoms starting from phone numbers to family to house addresses to mission access. All so close, all within Hoseok’s reach.

“Hey! What are you guys doing!” A voice calls from behind a megaphone. Hoseok nimbly takes his hand from the purse, failing to get the phone. Your attention snaps to the police officer running towards you at almost inhumane speed.

“My apologies miss but I’m afraid I must leave now. I have a feeling we’ll see eachother soon though.” Your acquaintance says starting to back away.

“Wait! Where will I be able to see you again?” You desperately call out surprising even yourself. Why are you so weak for him? He leaves you with an abrupt wink before running off away from the officer. And that was all you needed to feel as all oxygen in your body had been sucked out.

Cinderella’s fantasy ended with the clock striking 12 but yours ended with the obnoxious sound of a police officer’s megaphone going off. As he finally started to get close to where you were you sighed too used to running away from official authorities. You grab a smoke bomb from your purse and throw it down rushing off before it even explodes giving yourself a good 10 minutes to escape. Jungkook grabs some newspapers from the dumpster nearby in an attempt to rid the smoke. When it finally cleared up, he inspected the ground and found two things: The remains of the used smoke bomb, and a hot pink iPhone. He picked it up and gasped in realization. The very newspaper he had been using had the same phone on it’s cover.

“Stolen...Bank...This was the same day we tried to catch the Cherry Blossoms but failed...That girl! She must have some connection to them!” Jungkook though putting the pieces together. 

“I’ve got to show this to Namjoon.” The ambitious officer said out loud as he put the phone in a Ziploc bag.

#bts fanfic #bts fic #bts fanfiction #bts angst #bts fluff #bts mature #bts #bts mafia! au #bts mafia #bts mafia au #bts gang!au #bts gang au #bts gang #jungkook fanfic #hoseok fanfic #jimin fanfic #jungkook reaction #bts reaction #bts scenario #bts fake texts #hoseok reaction #hoseok scenario #jin fanfic #namjoon fanfic #hoseok x reader #jungkook x reader #taehyung x reader #yoongi x reader #jimin x reader #seokjin x reader

[womenofcolor15]

Tyler Perry Dedicates Sound Stage To Diahann Carroll At His Studios' Star-Studded Grand Opening + Beyonce Flaunts Her Curves In Sparkly Lemon Colored Gown

Tyler Perry celebrated the grand opening of his Tyler Perry Studios and all the YBF stars aligned for the gala. Deets on Tyler dedicating a sound studio to the late Diahann Carroll,  Beyonce serving up fierce lemonade realness, plus all the celebs who hit the carpet inside…

Yesterday, Tyler Perry celebrated the opening of his Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, which is the first black-owned major film studio. Yep. Tyler is making some real boss moves in the industry and several of your faves came out to show him support. 

The actor/director/writer unveiled his state-of-the-art Tyler Perry Studios, which sit on 330-acres. The mega studio has already hosted big projects like his MADEA films along with AMC’s “Walking Dead” and Marvel’s blockbuster hit Black Panther. It’s considered one of the largest production studios in the country with 12 soundstages, 40 buildings on-site that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and more than 200 acres of green space.

One of those soundstages has been dedicated to legendary actress Diahann Carroll, who passed away on Friday following a long bout with cancer. Tyler hopped on Instagram to pay tribute to the “Julia” actress, sharing how he had previously planned to pay tribute to the iconic actress before her passing.

”In less than 24 hours I was scheduled to dedicate a sound stage at my new studio to Diahann Carroll,” he wrote. “As I sat reviewing her video tribute, I got a request to call her daughter when she told me of her Mother’s passing. I did what I could to try and comfort her in this difficult time, but I know no words could soothe, however I prayed that it would."

He said Stage 5 in Tyler Perry Studios will forever hold the legacy Diahann Carroll left behind.

”I know you will live on in our hearts, but I’m so glad to know that your name will live on at Stage 5 at Tyler Perry Studios. Thank you for letting me honor you, and thank you for lending your legend to my studio to inspire generations to come. Rest well, as I know you are traveling to heaven on a first class cloud. You wouldn’t have had it any other way. God bless you. Love to your family.”

          View this post on Instagram

                  In less than 24 hours I was scheduled to dedicate a sound stage at my new studio to Diahann Carroll. As I sat reviewing her video tribute, I got a request to call her daughter when she told me of her Mother’s passing. I did what I could to try and comfort her in this difficult time, but I know no words could soothe, however I prayed that it would. I hung up the phone and sat back for a moment and was about to be overcome with sadness. Just as that was about to happen, I received a wave of gratitude. I was so thankful in my soul because I got to be on the planet at the same time as this barrier breaking, race shattering, mythical beauty, that will forever be Diahann Carroll. Thank you Ms. Carroll for how you showed the world that black people are special, strong, beautiful and powerful. I know you will live on in our hearts, but I’m so glad to know that your name will live on at Stage 5 at Tyler Perry Studios. Thank you for letting me honor you, and thank you for lending your legend to my studio to inspire generations to come. Rest well, as I know you are traveling to heaven on a first class cloud. You wouldn’t have had it any other way. God bless you. Love to your family.

A post shared by Tyler Perry (@tylerperry) on Oct 4, 2019 at 7:31pm PDT

  On the carpet, Tyler shared what opening up this studio means to him:

          View this post on Instagram

                  The definition of #YBFInspiration. #TylerPerry describes what it feels like to open his brand new, history making #TylerPerryStudios.

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 5, 2019 at 6:04pm PDT

  Also on the carpet...

          View this post on Instagram

                      A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) on Oct 5, 2019 at 9:17pm PDT

  Beyonce made her way to Tyler Perry's star-studded affair in Atlanta looking like a bag of money. The Lion King actress flossed her curves in a sparkly gold beaded long-sleeve Yousef Al Jasmi gown. She accessorized the look with a pastel clutch and diamond encrusted drop earrings.

Mrs. Carter made her rounds, snapping it up with Debbie Allen’s son Norm Jr., Social media comedian Kway, and more:

        View this post on Instagram

                  #DebbieAllen’s son Norm Jr. nabbed a pic with #Beyonce at #TylerPerryStudios’ grand opening tonight.

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 5, 2019 at 6:40pm PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  Social media comedian @blameitonkway grabbed a pic with #Beyonce at the #TylerPerryStudios grand opening. Sweet! #darkyonce

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 5, 2019 at 7:02pm PDT

    Beyoncé at the Tyler Perry Studios opening in Atlanta — Oct. 5th. pic.twitter.com/rEORYDfcLe

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@BeyLegion) October 6, 2019

    Beyoncé at the Tyler Perry Studios opening in Atlanta — Oct. 5th. pic.twitter.com/7YTumzL5WO

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@BeyLegion) October 6, 2019

  Bey's hubby Jay-Z was also in the mix:

  Beyoncé & JAY-Z at the Tyler Perry Studios opening in Atlanta — Oct. 5th. pic.twitter.com/5qQRCe2EDx

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@BeyLegion) October 6, 2019

      Beyonce's Destiny's Child's bandmates - Kelly Rowland & Michelle Williams - stepped out for the event. Kellz served up thigh action in a sparkly, metallic Nicolas Jebran gown.

The "Say Yes" singer wore a printed MALAN BRETON concoction for the festivities.

The sisterhood is still strong. Love them.

"Power" star LaLa Anthony - who just landed a recurring role on "The Chi" - hit the scene in Tom Ford.

Beyonce's mother Tina Lawson (rocking a Alexander McQueen blazer) and her hubby Richard Lawson were color coordinated in all black everything.

Former NFL star-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick and his girlfriend/HOT 97 radio personality Nessa served up tribal prints on the red carpet.

"The Haves & The Have Nots" star Tika Sumpter flossed in a silver and black dress.

Girls Trip actress/comedian Tiffany Haddish - who made headlines about her sexcapades with rapper Chingy recently - pulled up on the red carpet in Vivienne Westwood.

Media mogul Oprah and her man Stedman Graham served up coupledom vibes on the carpet.

O's bestie/"CBS This Morning" anchor Gayle King looked gorgeous in blue.

And so did new couple Jeannie Mai and Jeezy.  "The Real" co-host wowed in a Michael Costello gown while her man kept it dapper in a crisp, white blazer and black trousers. If you haven't heard, Jeezy is launching his own sports management company. Get those deets HERE.

Speaking of couples...

"Empire" actress Taraji P. Henson - who is a longtime collaborator with Tyler Perry -  and her fiance Kelvin Hayden made their way to the carpet. The couple is set to say "I Do" on April 4th. More deets about their upcoming nuptials HERE.

"black-ish" actress Jenifer Lewis - who paid tribute to her idol Diahann Carroll after she past - was her usual vibrant self on the carpet.

"Empire" star Gabourey Sidibe snapped it up on the carpet.

Oscar winner Viola Davis looked AH-MAZING in a pink dress posing it up alongside her husband Julius Tennon.

Rapper/actor Ludacris and his wife Eudoxie were in the mix.

Luda's Fast & Furious co-star Tyrese came out to show support.

Oscar winner Halle Berry served up androgynous vibes in a black suit that featured a black vest top and flared black trousers. She topped it off with black hat.

R&B singer Monica - who's set to release a new album titled Chapter 38 - kept it simple, yet elegant in a pink Alexandre Vauthier dress.

Actor Lance Gross - who has worked with Tyler Perry in the past - made his way on the carpet in a Tom Ford suit with his wife Rebecca Jefferson.

"Euphoira" actress Storm Reid showed her "Euphoria" co-star Zendaya some love on the carpet. She rocked a Tommy Hilfiger x Zendaya three piece suit, tailored by HouseOfCyndarella.

R&B crooner Usher pulled up real dapper like.

Queen Jill Scott made an appearance.

Gorge! Kyla Pratt - who stars in "Black Ink: Compton" with her boyfriend KP - slayed this Alanna Mitchell lewk on the carpet.

Fab directress Ava DuVernay served up her signature style which is always A1.

Singer Maxwell was all smiles in a tailored suit.

Rapper 2 Chainz and his wife Kesha Ward looked like Hip Hop royalty.

New mom & daytime talk show host Tamron Hall posed it up on the carpet.

Real-life sisters Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad looked like goddesses on the carpet.

Gospel musician Kirk Franklin and his wife Tammy Collins made an appearance.

  Former Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams stepped out to show Tyler support.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters brought her husband Sid Williams as her date.

Black media mogul Bryon Allen - who made headlines for his $20 billion Comcast lawsuit - hit the carpet with his wife Jennifer Lucas. He recently copped 11 television stations for $290 million. Deets HERE.

          View this post on Instagram

                  #Diddy and #Quincy made it a litty Father-Son night at #TylerPerryStudios’ grand opening.

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 6, 2019 at 2:43am PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  How #TerrenceHoward walked into #TylerPerryStudios’ grand opening.... via @frommybigeyes

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 5, 2019 at 6:48pm PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  #WhoopiGoldberg - who has a studio stage named in her honor - and her daughter #AlexMartin just hit the carpet at #TylerPerryStudios opening tonight in Atlanta. Via @freddyoart

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 5, 2019 at 6:20pm PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  When I tell you all of us Harlem folk were so happy to see each other at the grand opening of #TylerPerryStudios it’s an understatement! @diddy said look at us & I had to say AMEN because we go way back to him driving a Jetta & me living at 3647 Broadway! @terrellish is my #StyleChild who I’ve mentored since he was 25 & he’s also a Harlemite who has worked with Puff, it was a full circle moment! It was an auspicious occasion, as the photos & stories come out about this weekend, here’s the theme in advance, DARE TO DREAM BIG, EXTRAVAGANTLY & LAVISHLY! RIP #diahanncarroll your soundstage is a dream realized, gone but never forgotten!

A post shared by bevy smith (@bevysmith) on Oct 6, 2019 at 12:28am PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  Last year @tylerperry came on #Bevelations @radioandysxm & we had an absolute blast (as we always do)! He told me about the magnificent studio he was building, he was so proud that parts of #BlackPanther were filmed there! He was most proud that a Black man from NOLA now owned one of the largest film studios in the world & it was housed on former Confederate land! He promised me that when the studio opened I would be invited & viola had a seat (a really prime one) at the table! Last night was one of the highlights of my year, it was a divine balm to what is ailing many of us Black folk in the face of a racist regime! As @ledisi so beautifully sang last night (with no rehearsal) #WeRiseUp

A post shared by bevy smith (@bevysmith) on Oct 6, 2019 at 6:09am PDT

            View this post on Instagram

                  Last night was truly beyond the ancestors wildest dreams! It was an absolute honor to watch history unfold at the grand opening of @TylerPerryStudios, the first and only major film studio owned by an African American. Yes! BY A BLACK MAN and my friend. Congrats @TylerPerry! You have inspired us all to #dreamBIGGER and that is exactly what we will do! #ImagineThis #TylerPerryStudios • Styled by: @jasonbolden

A post shared by A N G E L A R Y E (@angelarye) on Oct 6, 2019 at 10:11am PDT

  Tons more celebs were in attendance for the star-studded gala including Diddy, Terrence Howard, Bevy Smith, Spike Lee, Cecily Tyson, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Rye, Stacey Abrams, Samuel L. Jackson and tons more. Swipe through all of the #BlackExcellence in our gallery below!

Photos: Getty/Beyonce's IG

CELEBRATING BLACK EXCELLENCE WITH HOLLYWOOD'S MOST FABULOUS AT THE TYLER PERRY STUDIO OPENING!

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2019/10/06/tyler-perry-dedicates-sound-stage-to-diahann-carroll-at-his-studios-star-studded-grand-op

[strangledeggs]

Fables Of The Deconstruction: Post-punk, Hip-hop And The Avant-Garde

Nowadays, it’s old hat to refute the claims of older generations that modern pop music “just sounds like noise”. In some circles, it’s even old hat to bolster such refutations with arguments as to why those older generations aren’t entirely wrong, and that’s not a bad thing. Culturally, it would appear that noise, dissonance, abrasiveness are frequently accepted as a fact of the modern musical landscape to some degree. What might still be interesting to some is a historical explanation as to how pop music got to this point, tracing a path back to shared sensibilities between early hip-hop and post-punk. In some ways, one might be able to argue that Beyonce, Kanye and Young Thug are the heirs to the legacy of more avant-garde groups like Joy Division and the Talking Heads.

Maybe this sounds far-fetched, but bear with me for a moment: punk, in its initial form, was more of a reaction than a real set of ideals, and its reaction was primarily musical in response to a musical phenomenon. Punk was effectively the antithesis of the grandiose, semi-classical, technically-masterful stylings of progressive rock in the late 60s and 70s. This reaction at first manifested itself in what you might call a kind of primitivism: if prog-rockers wanted to play complicated music in the hopes of establishing themselves as the “high art” crowd, punk rockers ignored both any need for technical skill and any distinctions between “high” and “low” art, writing simple songs about deliberately stupid topics and often playing them badly.

Of course, primitivism can only take you so far, and by the end of the 70s many groups associated with the movement began to branch out, finding new ways to distinguish themselves not only from prog, but from the sudden indistinguishable wave of punk bands. This meant finding new approaches to music not often considered commercially viable or important, the underappreciated elements of music overlooked by the mainstream. Johnny Rotten (or John Lydon, as he went by then) may not have been any more of a talented singer for his post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd., but his rhythm section developed a uniquely-warped sounding disco beat, and his guitarists used unconventional materials for eerie timbre and tone.

Though comparable to the former sworn-enemy-of-punk, disco this was not (or at least not yet – groups like New Order and ABC would later make this distinction trickier, but that’s a topic for another essay); this new “post-punk” rarely had the lush arrangements and melodic/harmonic fullness commonly heard on the dancefloor. A kind of minimalism became popular, while bands began making use of the same kinds of short, choppy polyrhythmic fragments James Brown’s bands played while they were inventing funk. Joy Division and the Talking Heads featured singers who brought technically-questionable but distinctly memorable vocal performances to the table. Texture became important, as bands began to experiment with synthesizer tones as well as exploring the full range of noises an instrument could make beyond the commonly-accepted 12 tones.

From this movement emerged a stark, harsh, challenging genre that was at times only barely pop music in its adherence to structure. Songs were constructed less for coherency or “beauty” and more for freedom of personal expression regardless of ability. But post-punk was not the only genre to embrace these sensibilities; at the very same moment in history, another new genre was finding its feet through live shows at which a new kind of performer would “rap” over loops of old funk records…

In many ways, the early days of hip-hop sounded a lot like post-punk: the music was minimalistic and repetitive, the harmonic sense was often dissonant and unsettling and the vocal performances were simultaneously abrasive and spontaneously creative. The genre seemed to function on a similar ethic to post-punk, that of a “cleaning-out” of old sensibilities, a violent destruction of an old sound (represented by appropriately harsh techniques) in order to shift the focus to a different set of musical elements that would inform the new sound. In this light, it should be no surprise that the genres actually experienced a fair amount of crossover. The Clash’s excellent “Magnificent Seven” and “Lightning Strikes” were both inspired by hip-hop, as was Blondie’s less-excellent “Rapture”. John Lydon even “rapped” on a collaboration with hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa on Time Zone’s “World Destruction”.

Though both genres have been through a lot in the decades since and have seen returns to more conventional notions of talent and skill, these underlying avant-garde tendencies have remained and surface every now and then in mainstream pop music production. One of my favourite examples of this might be Pusha T’s unrelenting “Numbers On The Boards”, a demonstration of the sublime power of minimalist aesthetics in hip-hop. Kanye’s production on the track practically suffocates listeners with its lack of discernible melody. Starved for some kind of melodic/harmonic sense, we are drawn to the set of three, maybe four tones from a percussion sample anchored by a single rumbling bass note that together create an oppressive atmosphere for Pusha T’s virtuosic articulations. His first words alone seem to carry so much power in their forcefully ejaculated consonants (as opposed to consonance) so as to temporarily silence the beat. Partway through the song, a sample of a Jay Z song plays for a single bar; it feels like the first breath of fresh air drawn by the lungs of a drowning victim as the comparatively lush production throws into contrast the abstract noise you realize you’ve been listening to. But it’s only a brief moment, as the next measure plunges the listener’s head back into the murky depths of the original beat’s hollow, almost-skeletal groove.

Young Thug’s beats may not always feel quite as powerful as that behind “Numbers On The Boards”, but his vocal delivery more than makes up for it in strangeness. There’s been enough commentary on his vocal technique and innovation that I don’t feel the need to do much explanation here, but I thought it might be interesting to compare him to another odd and innovative vocalist from the realm of post-punk: David Byrne. Both build their reputations on a unique, “quirky” style rather than technical competence and both are surprisingly expressive in their tendencies to come completely unhinged at points. Even on the Talking Heads’ debut on which the music and melodies stayed, for the most part, relatively conventional, Byrne’s delivery made something sound decidedly “off” – the easiest example is his famous wordless wail during the chorus of “Psycho Killer”, but the album is full of similar moments. What’s so interesting about Byrne is how he forgoes the sort of emoting characteristic of “raw” soul vocals that tried to express an intense emotion by pushing voices to their limits (interestingly enough, something that even most punk singers couldn’t resist); he’s still set on exploring limits, but does so by stretching his voice into strange tones, making “ugly” sonic shapes that wouldn’t normally be considered “good” singing. Young Thug mirrors this; inevitably, hip-hop’s strong ties to R&B mean his vocals draw a little more influence from “soulful” styles, but tracks like “Harambe” also showcase a desire to drop the singing pretenses and outright howl as his already-barely-discernible lyrics become completely subservient to his delivery. As the old cliché goes, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.

“Sure,” you might be saying, “I see the parallels. But Kanye and Young Thug already make ‘weird’ music that is barely-mainstream and fully outside of it, respectively. You still haven’t shown me a connection between post-punk and modern-day radio pop!” Perhaps the final and most prominent example will help clarify: Beyoncé’s own “Formation”. Despite being known primarily as a conventionally-talented singer, Beyoncé opts to “not sing” much of this song, instead reciting lyrics in a chillingly raspy drone. While this does eventually give way to a melody (and a strong one at that), the track begins with this disquieting, unmelodic delivery, with only a creeping chromatic synth line for a beat to back it. The result is jarringly tense, keeping listeners on edge in a way not dissimilar to that of “Numbers On The Boards”. Of course, “Formation” is a slow build to exuberance rather than an outright aural assault; this is a pop song, after all. But just what it builds to is intriguing. Instead of breaking into a lush, bombastic chorus typical of radio-ready pop, Beyoncé’s voice is doubled on the refrain by a horn line of unconventional harmonic composition. It matches her vocal tones, but seems to clash with the beat heard during the verse. And somehow the whole thing works; it’s dissonant, but colossal-sounding and remarkably catchy. Note, finally, that the song ends just as it began, with the receding of its pop elements giving way once more to bare chromaticism and breathy vocals. Truly, avant-pop.

Maybe you think it’s dubious of me to define a largely-black musical style in terms of a largely-white one. Indeed, it must be admitted that post-punk is vastly a “white” genre while hip-hop is undisputedly a “black” one. To this I can only respond that I don’t view the two this way and see them more in dialogue with each other rather than one exerting more influence over the other (after all, I have mentioned that James Brown’s funk was a huge influence on post-punk, and this is not the only thing the genre borrowed from black musicians). I framed this piece the way I did mainly because it’s the way I personally experienced the discovery I made, having taken a strong interest in post-punk before I started listening more carefully to hip-hop. Seeing as such, the comparison could probably have gone the other way as well – though I still think it’s more interesting to position modern pop and hip-hop in terms of its avant-garde inheritance (including that of early hip-hop), as the genealogy, if not the characteristics, seems often to be forgotten in a torrent of backlash against an older generation that misses the music’s subtleties.

All of this aside, I want to end this by proposing a possible theory that is likely incorrect, but interesting to consider all the same: this movement and interaction between post-punk and hip-hop leading up to present-day pop music could potentially be stretched into a longer historical narrative to explain the driving force that shapes pop music over time. Both genres involved a process of scrapping a previous musical method in favour of a new set of musical tools, so to speak. We might see this approach as a kind of “deconstructive” one, and thus extend it back further into pop music history. In theory, pop music is always becoming more formal as it gains in reputation, but moments of deconstruction are necessary to keep it from becoming too formulaic. Chuck Berry’s rock guitar could be seen a deconstruction of blues-based pop music (or “rhythm and blues”), something ragged and harsh-sounding built around a simple scale from which elaborate (even “elegant”) pop songs had previously been constructed. Deconstruction involves an initial simplification, but it almost always builds that simplification into a new skill previously unrecognized in pop music; hence why Berry’s guitar sounds primitive in the wake of Hendrix’s later innovations with the instrument, and why early rapping sounds like nursery rhymes compared to, say, Kendrick Lamar.

As these innovations become formalized, new ones have to take their place to prevent over-familiarization and automatization [for a more in-depth discussion of this process in art in general, see Shklovsky on formalism]. These are the points of deconstruction. Post-punk and hip-hop were each a form of this and it seems likely that they will be replaced one day by further deconstructions in pop music, possibly resulting in the formation (ha) of new genres we can’t possibly imagine yet. Such is at least one theory of how pop music could progress and develop in a sort of cyclical manner.

#Music #Pop music #Post-punk #Hip-hop #Music criticism

[coppolafrancis]

Jewelry Icons of the Victorian Age

If you look at modern jewelry, you will find inspiration from every popular design from the Victorian Period. The symbolism and meaning of jewelry from this time left its mark on all the jewelry that followed, from the 19th through the 21st centuries. Victorian jewelry speaks to the cycles of life–birth, love, marriage and death—as well as leisure time, hobbies, and travel. It was longest age in jewelry, spanning the long years of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837-1901.

Victorian jewelry is divided into three periods: Romantic, Grand and Aesthetic. The Romantic Period covers the earlier years when Queen Victoria married her Prince, Albert. Sentimental motifs were plentiful and jewelry designs were steeped in meaning. It was an innocent time full of youthful passion. What made this time even more influential was that it marked a major change in the way jewelry was produced and worn, due to the industrial revolution and the discovery of the diamond mines in South Africa. Women of all social status were now able to wear fine diamond jewelry pieces for day and for evening.

During the Grand Period, the two decades when the Queen mourned the death of Prince Albert, the style of jewelry changed dramatically. Dark, somber jewels were the vogue. Mourning and memorial lockets and rings with inscriptions and dark colored stones of Whitby jet, onyx and deep red Bohemian garnets came into vogue. Pendants, brooches and bracelets were bolder and more often statement pieces. During this time, the popularity of the Grand Tour, which took the well-heeled British to Greece and Italy, brought Revival Etruscan, Greek and Renaissance influences to jewelry design. When Queen Victoria came out of mourning in the later Aesthetic Period, it reflected a return to lightheartedness with symbols of luck, good fortune and naturalistic forms and motifs. The jewelry of this period created an entire iconography that we still see today in daring designers like Stephen Webster and Shaune Leane. Many styles, materials, motifs, and concepts from this time have never become passé. 

Snake Jewelry

Snake motifs are one of the earliest historical and mythological symbols that had significance in almost every culture. From Adam and Eve to Cleopatra, snakes have been associated with diverse meanings from good to evil. In 1839, when Prince Albert proposed to Queen Victorian with a snake ring signifying everlasting love for eternity with an emerald, her birthstone, centered in its head, it became one of the most iconic Victorian motifs in jewelry. Queen Victoria’s ring set a trend throughout England, and eventually throughout Europe, for a range of snake rings, coil-style flexible necklaces and bracelets with gem-set heads, as well snake brooches, cuffs, bangles, and hoop and drop earrings that featured a snake slinking around a gemstone. The serpent motif continued oninto the Art Nouveau period as well as becoming a motif for renowned houses like Bulgari in mid 20th century. Today, they are still slinking around and seem to be a symbol that will never go out of favor.

Heart Jewelry

Hearts became most popular in Georgian and continued on into Victorian jewelry. There is a whole language of symbols associated with hearts but all are variations on the most iconic symbol of love and romance. One heart symbol that became popular in Victorian jewelry is the witch’s heart, also called the Luckenbooth heart in Scotland. In the 18th century, the symbol implied that the giver had become bewitched to fall in love with the recipient. English Victorian pendants and brooches displayed a hand holding out a heart as a gesture of affection. The Irish claddagh ring, in which two hands hold one heart, means “I hold your heart in my hand.” The claddagh takes on slightly different meanings depending on whether the recipient wears it facing in or out on the finger. Other heart styles include entwined hearts with connotations of “continuous, everlasting love” similar to the infinity sign. And double hearts set side-by-side signify two hearts together as one. Double hearts with a crown were associated with fidelity reigning over a marriage, while single crowned hearts mean “ruler of my heart.” A heart with a flame on top symbolizes burning with passion. An arrow piecing a heart referred to cupid shooting his dart to make the recipient fall in love. And a heart with a key motif contained several meanings, such as “I have the key to your heart” or “you are the key to my heart.” Victorian jewelry is nothing if not romantic, with many other love-inspired heart designs.

Grand Tour Jewelry

Another icon of Victorian jewelry is the souvenir. The most popular Victorian souvenir jewelry is exotic pieces collected on The Grand Tour. The most popular are Italian. Pietra Dura micro-mosaic jewelry, crafted out of colored gemstonesor glass often depicts famed Italian destinations. Also popular are coral and shell cameos. Other designs are inspired by Ancient jewelry in Italian museums with Etruscan details such as granulation, wirework and filigree. Enameling in patterns and symbols adds color to other styles. Rings, bracelets and brooches feature the word Souvenir in both English and Italian. Others spell out Roma on the back of a picturesque micro-mosaics crafted into images of the city.

Victorian Lockets

Sentimentality and tokens of love and loss are characteristic of Victorian jewelry. Lockets are common in all three in different moods and materials. The secret compartments that could hold photos, messages or locks of a loved one’s hair in life orafter death were all part of the popularity of this category of jewelry. When Queen Victoria went into mourning, lockets designed in remembrance of lost loved ones became the height of fashion. The symbolism that reigned over the entire Victorian period include the meanings of gemstones too. Turquoise symbolizes forget-me not. Lockets are also embellished with diamond horseshoes for luck, buckles for holding tightly onto a loved one, and anchors for hope and home safe for sailors. Lockets are also often chased and engraved with names and dates representing births, marriages, deaths, and other important occasions.

The Language of Flowers

Books and pamphlets published in the Victorian era describe the language of flowers, offering meanings for a wide range of botanicals. The jewelers of the day use floral and foliate motifs to add extra meaning to antique rings, lockets, brooches and earrings. The main floral motifs during this time period include forget-me-nots for remembrance and pansies for “think of me” (from pensee in French, which means think). There were tulips for a declaration of love, ivy leaves for fidelity, and orange blossoms for everlasting love. There was meaning for almost every bloom. These eloquent flowers are added to lockets, charms, rings and brooches. This Victorian tradition continues on to the 20th and 21stcentury with every renowned jewelry house creating their versions of garden variety or exotic botanicals to add beauty and meaning to jewelry that speaks from the heart.

By eliminating guesswork and partnering with buyers who are eager to compete for the opportunity to purchase pre-owned best watches under 500, we help you receive the best price possible.

[willamettemountain]

Blood leads Blood / Ice Burns Body / Seperation in Humans

     How is it that the tongue of a singer can become so fat from the buffet line that it forgets how to sing? That the arm of high school baseball pitcher can become weak with the passing of days? That this Nebraskan boy who moved to Utah to pursue a life of nursing, religion and hope morphed, through circumstance, into a singing, questioning, searching family man with no hands in the hospital or medical field? And how is it that this said singer can so quickly forget the heartache that is customary with every coming tour, every traveling escapade? Am I that forgetful? Does it sting to the point that the mind chooses to push it from its memory?

I boarded the plane headed to Helsinki with a light heart (probably due to the fact that Finland (and Sweden (mustn’t forget Sweden)) has birthed some of my favorite human beings on the planet) and a heavy mind (due to the fact that I would miss the moment of many events that involve my loving heart beats). Oliver and Millie were asleep when I kissed their foreheads, sitting strapped to children’s chairs that had been firmly anchored to the seatbelts of our car. They looked like angels, celestial guardians of the pure emotion that seems to slip from my insides the longer I am alive. Can it be bottled? Maintained? Groomed? BOUGHT even? (god forbid).

As if in a dream, the billion pound piece of aerodynamic metal bounced from the surface of our planet, spitting me and the other participants, in what some might call a “funny experiment”, into the atmosphere, pretending that it should be accepted as RULE of TRUTH (the act of flying), oh! but we all know it’s a matter of time before the MAGIC GOLDEN BIRD comes back down to the surface. I just feel fortunate that our fate was that of a smooth landing, proof of a well-trained pilot and his / her steady hands (Oh, the terrible thought of the alternative). We arrived safely to Finland, embracing our family of years, at this point. The reunion with Mika, Ninni, Helmi, Jari, Anne, Laura, Mikko, and all of the other WONDERSOME human beings that we have had the pleasure of knowing was like returning home after dying, a reincarnation of one’s slightly absent / missing soul, rejuvenated and now beaming with the power of a light that could burst the core of your being into bolts. The shows were met with such acceptance that my mind raised the question of “why there, not here?” An answer, I have not.

FRIENDS PLAY MUSICS TOGETHER in JUTTUTUPA From Helsinki we flew to Sweden to embrace Björn and take his radically equipped Sprinter van across the Swedish lands in pursuit of a MUSICAL connection in four locations. At the airport, we met up with Timmy The Teeth and my little brother, Colby, who just so happened to have broken his wrist three weeks prior, forcing him to take a leave of absence from his day-to-day job and allowing him to travel with the boys and I across Sweden. All was right in my mind / world (close to it anyhow).

We drove immediately to Falkenberg, which was a good distance. We met up with Benjamin, who, because of financial restrictions, took the place of our beloved Isaac, the bad boy of bass. Our new Finnish friend quickly hopped inside our hearts and van, making his way across the country in a musical “choo-choo train”. Our last stop in Sweden was in a town called Avesta. Seemingly quaint and low key, this town, and her accompanying musical experience, that we will never forget, made quite the impact on our memories. The show was inside of a teepee that was located at what appeared to be a hotel / resort-style location. The welcoming was amazing by these kind kind people / friends and we sang and danced into the night. Nothing was spared, no bar to destroy, no building to burn, merely a line to line to line to line conduit. Me to You to Him to Her and on and on. I could have sung all night that night but “the travelers must catch their flight” I whispered. We left Avesta and Sweden with a VERY lightly rehearsed version of an old Everly Brothers song, “Bye Bye Love”

Which then sent us to a hazy, foggy and seemingly long drive (yes, immediately after the said show) to Stockholm where we would head to Äkäslompolo, Finland to play the Yllas Jazz & Blues Festival.  We arrived at the airport hotel at 3:37 am, the bus to the airport left at 5:30am. Time for sleep.

The aircraft, miraculously arrived safely to a small airport outside of Äkäslompolo, where our friend and racecar driver Jari was patiently waiting. With licorice in hand and smile on face we embraced. “It is too good to see you again.” He said. No heart? No life! Jari raced us (Evan, Colby (my brother) and I) to the festival where we were scheduled to play in one hour. We pulled up, dragged our frigid frames and frozen guitars onto stage, tuned and started singing… “Back when I was 18, life gave me nothing but a sweet sweet kiss…” The room was silent, the search for a human touch and feel was tangible. I felt at home, I felt uplifted and inspired.

We had come to connect, we had arrived to sing. They had come to reflect, and arrived to feel.

“We’re winning…” Evan remarked. The show ended as quickly as it had started and we were off. I felt lighter, quicker and hinged on the hope that the night would be like the day. I was radically wrong in the hope. After dinner Colby and I, with our stealth friend and driver, Jari headed to the festival’s night show. It was “The filthy six” to play and a Finnish band, Miljoonasade. As the band began to play we were offered a floor that seemed to beckon us, ask our names, and demand a movement of feet. I became lost, disoriented and elated. I had once been a child, careless, free of stigma and expectation, ignorant to social status and body image. There have been moments since those years that I have been able to catch a glimpse of the boy / child that I once was. This magical night was just that. I moved to a rhythm that I had forgotten, a call that I was unaware would become a stranger, a shadow, a memory. That movement of ones body so unpredictable and unaware was addictive, we couldn’t stop (wouldn’t). Then the music stopped, the lights on. It was a quick walk back. It was late. We slept. The next day was our final show in Äkäslompolo. Illka, the man behind the curtain that has brought us to Yllas twice had set up a show for us at his pub, Sylva Pyy, and we were to be the second to last band of the festival. We were just happy to be a part of the experience and it felt almost like robbery that we would be able to sing twice. That morning, at breakfast, we saw Illka. “Good morning, boys. Would you like to do Sauna tonight, before your gig? “..YES! of course.” Evan quickly responded. “Good. It will be hole in the ice tonight. See you then.”

Hole in the ice? What the HEAVEN is “hole in the ice” My mind began to race through the possible ways of dying for thin man such as myself, and after some time I arrived at the thought  that one of the worst ways to end your existence would be to freeze to death. And what else could happen, but that, if dipping ones self into a hole in the ice? This seemed absolutely insane / mad / destructive even. On we went. We arrived at the small house that appeared as a cottage to the unaware. Outside of the house, stretching about 50 feet was a iced over wooden bridge that led to a staircase, these stairs led the walker into a black hold of icy liquid. It appeared that this house / cottage was a form of torturing something / someone, for what else could such a bridge be used for. It was a plank to walk, to water, to death. We entered the house, and as the custom goes, removed our clothes and entered the 125-degree sauna room with 9 other participants in the “hole in the ice” adventure. As we all sat there, 14 of us, naked, staring at the steaming stove that fed the sauna with heat, you could feel the anxiety rise.

“As it is Finnish custom to Sauna, so is to drink shitty VODKA while in sauna!” a large naked man said raising a glass bottle of what I could only assume was sight / nerve destroying liquid that eased the mind / heart of anyone that was to jump into a hole in the ice. The faces began to calm as the bottle was passed around the hot room. You could feel the tension dropping, until it happened, three of them, stood and left the sauna and walked to the plank, and then three more, and then it was us, our turn to walk the plank. I forced my body up and out of the sauna. I opened the door, the sub-zero air hit me with force of a falling pine tree, needles to my skin, system confusion. As the man before me walked himself into the icy water I ran, quickly, through my recent experiences. I had a good one, life that is, if this WAS the end, then I was ok. Take me, you dark demon of earth, you icy hand of doom, I am yours. I walked down the ladder and plunged my body into the hole in the ice. The sensation was unlike anything I had ever felt. Maybe it’s like dying, maybe it’s like heaven, maybe it’s like both. It can’t be described as painful, or pleasant, but maybe the word is “AWARING”. After leaving the water I walked the icy trail back to the house, outside I stood and stared at the sky, letting whatever indescribable feeling paralyze my thought and mind, sending me into the universe that exists ONLY there, only then, that moment, LIVING it, BEING it, and it was PERFECT.

Three more times we entered sauna, cooked our bodies and returned to the black hole of water. We bid our adieus to the group of gents that were there with us and felt a strange kinship to all those that had survived. We then headed to Sylva Pyy, where we would play our final show of the tour.

The crowd was seated and the stage was small, my body and mind seemed to misplace everything that it had memorized up until that point. The sauna and hole in the ice was racing, albeit slowly, through my periphery, but my hands and mouth couldn’t find the right combination to begin singing, truly, a feeling I had never experienced. The show was to start and the sound guy gave us the thumbs up. I looked at Evan, as a child looks to its mother after rising from a night tremor. The show began. The show ended. The only evidence I have of playing that night is a recording of a song that Jari made and sent to me days after arriving back to the United States. I hardly recall exact events from the rest of the evening. Everything seems to fall into a cabinet of red and orange clouds, small faces, dancing, words, phrases, laughter, all will peak up over the hazy top, but sink quickly back into the fog and settle inside of the storm’s eye. What a journey we are on. OH! What a trip it is. Joshua

#finland #joshuajames #sylva pyy #hoedown #sweden #avesta #timmytheteeth

[lisascreativedesigns]

Creative Ways To Display A Vintage Apron Collection

New At Lisa's... https://www.lisascreativedesigns.com/creative-ways-to-display-a-vintage-apron-collection/

Creative Ways To Display A Vintage Apron Collection

Hi Everyone,

Are you having crazy weather in your neck of the woods? Last week we were freezing in the 20’s and 30’s and today it has been in the 70’s with the threat of thunderstorms tonight. My husband is currently in the middle of a bad snowstorm while traveling in Chicago and a tornado just ripped through Georgia! Everyday I have to check the weather report every day just to see what clothes to wear!

Any hoo, today I wanted to talk about vintage kitchen aprons. I love to collect vintage aprons and even make them.

My first sewing project happened to be an apron I created in my seventh grade Home Economics Class. I still have it.

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a shopping trip and while scouring a few local consignment shops I came across three handmade half aprons in aqua blue, yellow and red gingham. Ding Ding Ding! …those are MY colors and  they would look great in my kitchen. I picked them up for only a couple of bucks a piece and brought them home. I wanted to create a way to display my aprons so I could admire them whenever I walk into the room but wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. I turned to the internet and blog land to see what other gals had come up with. I found quite a few clever and pretty ways to display vintage aprons…..

Junk Market Style member TheGoodOlDaysHouse  created a curtain valance out of a couple of vintage aprons. Too cute!

Over at Musings from Kim K. I found this neat idea of hanging a bunch of aprons on a wall with ribbon and clothes pins creating a clothesline look.

A couple of years ago I helped out a friend with decorating for a Kitchen Bridal Shower. We hung aprons off the back of chairs for a fun look. This is a great idea for a party but not practical for every day living in my house.

I love how they displayed this vintage tablecloth apron from a vintage hanger over at Q is for Quilter .  Just hang it with a couple of vintage clothespins and display on a wall. A quick and easy display and a great look to boot!

This one is one of my favorites. I LOVE this vignette by Sweet Eye Candy Creations. Her blog is just gorgeous by the way. Sweet Eye Candy is the perfect name for Jennifer’s blog.

So after a couple of days of gathering my inspiration, this is what I came up with…..

I hung simple jute string with eye hooks anchored into my window casings in my breakfast room. I hung aprons from the line with hand painted clothespins, creating a fun window treatment. Hmmmm, I like it but not sure I am lovin’ it. My husband came home from work and asked me “What’s up with the aprons in the windows?” Maybe he thought I was doing laundry or something.

I think the jute string was bugging me, even with the cute polka dotted clothespins. It just wasn’t working for me.

After a few days of living with my apron/clothesline window treatment I decided to try  something else.

I had a piece of shabby, chippy salvaged molding sitting in the garage, just waiting for me to find a use for it. I attached five ceramic drawer pulls to the board and attached it to the wall, hanging an apron from each knob. Of course I had to dress up the knobs a bit with some fun red polka dots!

So, here’s my dilemma. I love this look but kinda like the window treatment (with a more substantial clothesline perhaps) too. What do you think? I am taking suggestions blog friends!

Thanks for visiting today!

~Lisa

Partying Today with….

Metamorphis Monday

#decorating with aprons #decorating with vintage aprons #displaying vintage aprons #how to display vintage aprons #vintage aprons #vintage kitchen decorating #A Vintage Home #Cottage Decorating