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jenonctcity · 4 years

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My Beginning - Part 3

Differences – Lee Jeno

Part of the Bad Boy Series.

Badboy!Au, Streetfighter!Au

Warnings: Mentions of mental health, Disability (blindness), Mild Violence, Mentions of suicide.

Word Count: 5.3k

“It’s hard being a father.” Renjun’s words rang through Jeno’s head like a school bell echoing through empty halls. The words bouncing around and causing his headache to build every time his head repeated the words in his brain. He let out a sigh, his head resting against the back of the sofa and his eyes shut, not that it would matter if they were open, he couldn’t see either way. He just preferred to keep his eyes closed, it meant he didn’t have to remember to blink when his eyes started to dry out or irritate. For the past week, Jeno’s world had been pitch black. Mentally, emotionally, and physically. With blindness came a sense of self-pity, boredom, and the overwhelmingness of relying on others to do basic tasks. It wasn’t only the blindness that was dousing his normal way of living with stress and worry. It was also the fact that you were carrying his unborn child. A child he did not want. Despite having you with him almost 24/7 because of his accident, the two of you still had yet to talk about the elephant in the room. You both kept putting the topic off and instead focused more on how to cope with Jeno’s lack of sight. You had quit university. It was a decision that was hard for you to make, but you knew it was the right thing to do. Jeno only had his friends to rely on, and they couldn’t be there for him as much as you could. So you quit your studies. Jeno had a lot of money saved up and had gotten Renjun to sell his car on for a hefty price too, so you could both live comfortably for the foreseeable future. Of course the money would run out eventually, but hopefully by that time, you would have solutions to your problems.

Jeno could still hear your whimpers echoing around his head with Renjun’s words. The whimpers you had let out when you’d walked back into the hospital room with a cup of water and found a doctor examining Jeno’s eyes, only to be told your boyfriend had lost his sight because of the damage done from the accident. Your knees buckled and luckily Jaemin had caught you before you’d hit the floor. Jeno just laid there and listened to you sob into his best friends’ chest for what seemed like hours. He felt numb, despite all the pain he was in, and he was at a loss of what to do. He was blind, with a baby on the way. He’d never felt more useless in his entire life as he laid in that bed and stared at the darkness. Jaemin had calmed you down, with promises whispered into your hair of everything being okay. The doctor had told you that it was rare for people to lose their sight permanently from head injuries, but it could happen, and only time would tell.

“When they’re babies, you think it’s easy to take care of them and then boom, they get diarrhoea, they wiggle around a bit, and shit goes all up their back.” Jeno could almost hear the smirk in Renjun’s voice. He let out another sigh and shook his head.

“Shut up.” He grunted, clenching his fists by his side as he tried to keep calm.

“You have to be cautious of the three S’s, screaming, sick, and shit.”

“You have to be cautious of my fists Renjun.” Jeno growled, lifting his head and turning it into the direction of Renjun. “I may be blind, but I can still hear you, and I will beat the fuck out of you if you don’t shut up.” He mumbled, his threat sounding weak causing Renjun to know he didn’t mean it.

“Alright daddy, keep your diaper on.” Renjun sniggered, reaching out and patting Jeno on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine Jen; you have all of us here to support you and I am the best dad in the world. Jiyeon is still alive!”

“You forgot her name yesterday...” Jeno deadpanned with a frown on his face.

“That was because all I’ve heard for the past few days is baby names! You know I’m about to have another one, it’ll be arriving any day now.” Renjun and his girlfriend had decided not to find out what gender their baby was, instead waiting and discussing baby names constantly. She was 4 days overdue and the baby would be arriving at any time.

“I’m pretty sure she is the one who takes care of you most of the time.” Jeno let out a soft laugh, his head turning to the sound of the door as it creaked open.

“Hey.” You greeted quietly as you walked through the door, smiling at Renjun and placing the grocery bags on the kitchen counter. “Is he okay?” You mouthed silently at Renjun, to which you received a smile and a curt nod. You rushed over to the sofa and slowly sat beside Jeno, not wanting to alarm him. He had been flinching a lot more and his nerves were constantly on edge if he couldn’t hear where everyone in the room was. “Hey handsome.” Your voice was soft, and you took his clenched fist into both of your hands. Jeno let out a long sigh and roughly pulled you into a tight hug. He breathed in, basking in your scent and rubbing his cheek against your own. This was the most affection he had given you since before his accident, and you felt like crying at the sudden love he was projecting onto you.

“I’m tired and fed up of hearing Renjun’s voice.”

“Fuck you, blind ass bitch.” Renjun muttered with a laugh.

“Do you kiss your daughter with that mouth?” Jeno shot back, pushing himself to his feet and lacing his fingers with your own.

“Do you know how to use protection?” Your eyes widened as the boys kept trying to push each other’s buttons. You knew they were both only jesting and that neither of them meant any harm, so you silently started to tug Jeno towards his room as he continued to argue with Renjun.

“Right back at ya, whore.” You closed the door once you’d gotten Jeno into his room, letting out a sigh and gently pushing him to sit on his bed.

“Well I’m glad that you’re still arguing with your friends.” You laughed softly, taking off your jacket and sitting behind Jeno on the bed. You grabbed a hairbrush and ran your hand through his hair, brushing it gently and being careful of the wound he had gotten from hitting his head on the floor. “How’s your head?”

“Painful, I have a headache too.” He sighed, leaning into your touch and relaxing. You’d gotten used to taking care of him as though he was your own child. He could probably do more for himself than you would allow him to, but you didn’t want him to hurt himself yet, so you were just being extra cautious with him. Silence fell between you both, and you pressed a kiss to the top of his head, having to lean up on your knees to reach. “We have to talk about the baby. We’ve been avoiding it since we got home, and it needs to be talked about.”

“Okay.” You sighed, moving to sit beside him and looking down at your feet. “I should have made you aware I wasn’t on the pill, I’m sorry.”

“It’s my fault too. It takes two people to make a baby and we were both irresponsible.” He faced forward, his voice sounding low but with a soft timber to it. You felt nauseous just from the conversation, not knowing where it would take you and what decisions you would make between the two of you. “I’m not ready for kids…I had it in my head that I would never be a parent, so this is…fucking with my head.” He ran has hands over his face and let out a groan. You could see he was battling with what to say, and you had a feeling he was going to lose his temper more than once in the upcoming months.

“Well…we should have talked about this before we started having sex. We had sex nearly everyday and you came inside of me nearly every time! Why did you not think to ask me about whether I was on contraceptive?!” You felt frustration coursing through you at how things had happened. You were too caught up the honeymoon phase of your relationship to even think about talking to him about what you both wanted in the future. You knew you wanted kids, and it didn’t bother you when you had them, especially since you were so infatuated with Jeno, you just felt like you were ready. Had you known he didn’t feel the same way, you would have done things different.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me not to finish inside of you?!” He shot right back at you, his own temper flaring up at your tone of voice. He couldn’t see you, which was making him frustrated because it was hard to tell how you were reacting based just off of your words and tone of voice.

“I wasn’t exactly a sex expert! I just laid on my back most of the time and let you do your thing, you know you’re my first for this, how was I supposed to guess that you were going to finish inside of me every fucking time!” It was starting to turn into a shouting match as you both expressed your opinions. Jeno didn’t want to admit that his breeding kink was what caused him to do it, because honestly, he felt stupid for not being cautious with his kink.

“This isn’t what I fucking wanted.” He stood up quickly, his fists clenching. He needed to hit something, but he couldn’t see what he was hitting, and there was no way in hell that he would endanger you by throwing fists blindly. You didn’t say anything to him, staying dead silent as you stewed in your thoughts and feels. Your silence made him snap. “Say something!!!”

“Are you going to leave me…?” The heart-breaking tone in your voice had Jeno’s hands unclenching and his chest rising and falling as he took a deep breath. His pause had tears welling up in your eyes, and you were glad he couldn’t see your watery eyes.

“No.” He shook his head, running a hand through his hair and gripping it tightly. You sniffed, trying to make sure that your voice was stable.

“Do you want me to get an abortion?” Your voice cracked as you spoke, warm tears falling down your cool cheeks and siting on your chin, waiting for the heaviness of more tears to fall to drip onto your tensed hands.

“No.” He answered faster this time, his own tears pooling in his eyes.

“Do you still love me?” You reached out and took one of his hands in both of your own. His fingers laced with yours, and he used your hand as a guide to sit himself back down on the bed.

“Of course I do.” He raised your hands to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to your fingertips. “Look, it’s going to take a long time for me to adjust to this, and I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that I’m happy about having a baby. But I love you, and I don’t want to lose you. So we’ll make it work and I’m going to be there for you and the baby…our baby.” He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close to him. You squeezed him tightly, burying your head into the crook of his neck and letting out a soft sob.

“Thank you.” You whispered, kissing his jaw with a quick peck and relishing in being in his arms once more.

---

Haechan had never seen Jeno more down and depressed before in his life. It was hurting his heart to see Jeno sit on the sofa and wallow in self-pity, with the cloud of his disability and despair sitting around his head like a poisonous fog. Jeno was someone who needed to let go of his pent-up emotions, and he always did it with fighting. But he couldn’t do that easily without his sight. Haechan had been worried about Jeno’s mental health, especially because Jeno couldn’t wrap his head around the fact he was going to be a father. He’d created a life, and he knew he’d have a responsibility he had never originally signed up for. It was when Haechan had walked in on Jeno laid on the floor on his back with tear streaks on his cheek that Haechan had finally snapped.

“Get up Jeno.” He snapped with a dominating tone, kicking Jeno in the leg lightly.

“No.” He grunted back at him, not even moving a muscle.

“Get the fuck up. We’re going somewhere.” He left the room, leaving Jeno on the floor to quickly pack up a bag of things in Jeno’s room. When he came back, he saw Jeno sat up on the floor. “Get up!”

“Why?!”

“I’m fed up of you sitting there feeling sorry for yourself all of the time, we’re going to the gym. Come on!” They were teetering on it being an argument as Haechan grabbed Jeno by the collar and lifted him to his feet. Jeno shoved Haechan away roughly.

“Fuck off. I lost my sight and I’m having a baby I don’t fucking want. If I want to feel sorry for myself then I fucking will.” He growled, smacking Haechan’s hand away when it landed on his shoulder. “Don’t act like you suddenly give a fuck about me. Leave me alone.”

“Jeno you’re my fucking brother, I’m done with you not doing anything, it’s been a month and all you do is sit around and mope about the cards you’ve been dealt like no one else has any problems!!!” He shouted, causing his girlfriend to come out of their room with wide eyes.

“Hyuck, what are you doing?” Her voice made Jeno’s head hurt more.

“You can fuck off too!!!” He couldn’t help the words from leaving his mouth. She flinched, her eyes widening at the sudden attack. “You broke my heart and then tell my new girlfriend about what I’m like when I’m sleeping?! Yeah, I haven’t forgotten about that, it was as though you were trying to sabotage my happiness, but poor Jeno is a fucking push over who always lets everyone use him as a fucking doormat, so he never said anything!!!” He practically screamed, finally getting everything off of his chest. Jaemin and Renjun also appeared from their rooms, ready to step in in case anything happened. “Everyone thinks they can just say whatever they want to me or screw me over because I’m too kind to do anything about it. Fuck you all!” Jeno had tears streaming down his face that had everybody’s stomachs turning in guilt.

“Jeno calm down, this isn’t good for you.” Jaemin’s voice nearly had Jeno calming, but then his back went back up again and he shook his head, turning to where he had heard Jaemin’s voice come from.

“Don’t tell me to calm down you hypocrite, you’re the first person to get yourself into a state so bad that I have to talk you out of not killing yourself! Have I ever told you to calm down?! No! Because I know it doesn’t work. You don’t understand the pressure you put on me Jaemin, I’m constantly worried about whether I’m going to lose my best friend to depression.” He started to sob more, all of his thoughts spilling out because he couldn’t deal with them all being bundled up in his head anymore. Jaemin’s face fell and his stomach dropped through to the ground floor of the apartment building.

“Jen…” He rushed over to his best friend and bundled him up into his arms, Jeno broke down completely, his knees almost buckling as he sobbed on Jaemin’s shoulder. Jaemin silently cried as he cuddled his best friend. “I’m so sorry.”

“I can’t do it anymore; I can’t see, I’m not ready to have a baby, and people need to leave me the fuck alone.” He whimpered into Jaemin’s shoulder. “I need to process this in my own time, but everyone is rushing me!”

“Jeno, it’s going to be okay. Let it out.” He rubbed Jeno’s back, swaying them both gently. Everyone else silently left the room, letting them be alone so that Jaemin could calm Jeno down. Haechan felt horrible, he was only trying to help, but he went about it the wrong way and ended up causing his best friend to have a complete mental breakdown.

“My life has just always been a mess…then I finally meet a girl I fall in love with that hasn’t hurt me, and now I can’t even see her…Jaemin I’m starting to forget what she looks like and it hurts so much.”

“I know, I know.” He moved them both to the sofa and settled Jeno on there tenderly.

“If I wasn’t blind…I would have left.” He mumbled, looking down at his hands and feeling like the worst person in the world for saying that.

“You don’t mean that.” Jaemin shook his head and tapping Jeno on the leg. “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“I’m not sure if I meant it or not.”

---

It had been 5 months since you and Jeno had came to an understanding about your baby. The past months had been difficult for you both. Jeno’s disability had been tough on you and him, but together the two of you were working through it. There had been some rough spots, like the time Jeno had tripped over his own feet and had ended up with a black eyes for a few weeks, or the time when you were super emotional because of you hormones and he snapped at you about something minor, leading you to cry on Jaemin’s shoulder for 3 hours solid. You had notice that he was still super hesitant to talk about the baby, and he would very rarely bring it up, only talking about it when someone else talked about it first. He had taken very little interest in his own child and had only touched your small bump when he was cuddling you in bed. Also, his vision hadn’t come back at all, which was making the tension inside of him get stronger and stronger the more the time went by.

“Tell your child to stop kicking me.” You mumbled, half asleep under the covers of Jeno’s bed. He was cuddling up to your neck and laying the softest of kisses to your hot skin, his lips trailing up your jaw and getting closer to your lips until he heard your words. He sighed and let out a soft groan, sitting up and placing his hand on your leg, trailing it up until he got to the small mound on your abdomen where his baby was cooking.

“It’s not kicking though?” He furrowed his eyebrows, twisting his body so he was facing your bump and placing both of his hands on it. “I can’t feel anything.” Jeno hadn’t felt the baby kick yet, he hadn’t been interested enough to ask if he could feel it whenever you made an offhanded comment about it moving, kicking, or hiccupping. You were actually taken by surprise when he’d placed his hands on the bump instead of just shrugging your words off.

“Wait a second...” You giggle and take his hands in your, moving them to either side of the bump and very gently putting pressure on them so his fingers dug in slightly. “There, feel that?” You smiled widely, watching the gentle look wash over his face as he felt his baby move for the first time. He nodded quickly, his whole body relaxing and a small smile tugging at his lips. You’d read online that the first time a father feels his child moving inside of the mother, could be a magical moment. And this was the first time you’d seen Jeno be paternal towards his unborn child, so it did feel magical to you. He suddenly pulled his hands away and cleared his throat.

“I’m worried that my sight won’t come back.” He laid back down on his side, pulling your body against his and letting out a sigh that sent a shiver down your spine. “It’s been over 5 months and I still can’t see shit…what if I never get to see our baby?”

“Jeno, give it some more time, the doctor said it could take up to a year for you to see any improvements. Don’t give up hope.” You leaned in and brushed your lips against his. His lips sought after your own when you withdrew them, causing you to smile softly and push them back against his.

“Thank you for taking care of me.” He whispered against your lips, moving the two of you so that he was half laying on top of you, being cautious of your stomach.

“You don’t have to thank me.” The kiss turned filthy, his tongue flicking against your own with one of his hands moving up to rub at your breast over your pyjama shirt. You felt arousal heat your body up for the first time in a while. You’d had sex with Jeno a couple of times since his accident, but it was getting harder to do the further along you got in your pregnancy, and Jeno often wasn’t in the mood whenever you were. “I need you.” You whispered into his mouth, gently giving his chest a push. He laid down on his back and got comfortable, his hands reaching out and trying to find your hips as you climbed on top of him. You straddled his hips, making quick work off pushing down your pyjama shorts and pushing Jeno’s boxers down just enough to pull his hardening cock out.

“Be careful baby.” Jeno muttered breathily, his hands finding purchase on your hips to keep you steady on him. You leaned down as far as you could, trying to reach his lips and letting out a whine when your bump wouldn’t allow you to get any closer to him. Jeno heard your whine and his eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“I want a kiss, but I can’t reach!” You giggled through a whine, giving up and sitting back on your knees. Jeno chuckled lightly, then let out a long moan when you sunk down onto his cock, your warm walls sucking him in and sending a dull sensation of pleasure through you.

“Fuck baby, I’ve missed this.” He squeezed his shut eyes tighter, leaning his head back on the pillows. You placed your hands on his chest and rolled your hips, grinding down on his cock with vigour. He planted his feet on the bed, bucking his hips up to meet your own once you started to bounce, his cock hitting you in all the right places. You knew neither of you were going to last long, the ball inside of your stomach tightening the more you moved on top of him. He kept his hands tight to your sides, making sure you didn’t accidentally topple off of him as his thrusts got harder.

“Jeno I’m gonna cum!” You squealed, almost falling forward as you felt the fire of your orgasm rip through you, your thighs shaking and pussy convulsing around his solid cock.

“Shit!” Jeno opened his eyes as he came, his hips stuttering and his eyes immediately tearing up when he saw your blurry silhouette in the light of the room. “Fuck.” He bursts into tears, shutting his eyes immediately and letting go of your hips to cover his eyes with his hands.

“Jeno? What’s wrong?!” You carefully moved off of him, crawling beside him and trying to pull his hands from his face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine baby.” He sniffled, rubbing his eyes and smiling through his tears. “I just love you so much. Thank you for looking past all the shit in my life and seeing the good.” He didn’t want you to know about his improvement, just in case it was a fluke and he went back to being completely blind permanently.

“Oh Jeno.” You melted on the inside at seeing him weep from the reason he gave you. “I love you too.” You leaned down, finally able to from the angle you were now sitting in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

---

Jeno had been keeping a huge secret from you. One he was actually surprised that he could keep a secret because of how much time he spent with you. But it had been two months since he first got a sliver of his vision back. And he could happily tell people that he could officially see again and was no longer classed as legally blind. His vision wasn’t the same as it once was, but he could now see clearly if he had on his new glasses. After finding out about his improving sight, he’d asked Renjun to take him to and from appointments so that he could keep it silent from you in order to surprise you when the time was right. He did admit to Renjun that when he saw you for the first time with your pregnant belly, he had a nervous breakdown. The whole situation of becoming a father finally dawning on him as he saw you struggle to put on your socks. He didn’t help you, mostly because it would have given his surprise away, which yes, he does feel bad for, but you got your socks on in the end!

Something Jeno never could have prepared himself for was when you woke him up at 3am, complaining of pains in your abdomen and whining about the food you had eaten earlier on in the day. He had cuddled you, stroked your hair, and told you to go back to sleep. You’d managed to drift off, but an hour later, you were whining even more because the pain had gotten worse, and the pain was coming in waves that didn’t seem to be slowing down, but instead of speeding up. It was when the bed suddenly became wet and Jeno had thought that you’d peed on him when you realised you were going into labour. The next thing you did was cry, because you weren’t supposed to be due for another 6 weeks, so the baby was more than a month early. Jeno had shouted for Renjun, who had come running in his pyjamas to help the two of you out. You couldn’t thank Renjun enough for all the help he’d been giving the two of you since you found out that you were going to become parents. Sure he loved to clown you both about it, but he was also a big help with getting ready for the baby’s arrival.

When you’d arrived at the hospital, you’d been taken to a room to be prepared for giving birth. You were frightened, because you knew your baby wasn’t going to be as big as most babies, and anything could happen. Jeno had been sat at your bedside through all of your contractions, his hand being held tight in your own and his lips on your forehead whispering words on encouragement. You wondered why he was wearing the glasses that he had told you were simply for fashion and because he felt strange walking around with his eyes shut, but the thought quickly rushed from your head when a painful contraction hit you like a truck.

“Fuck!” You screamed, not usually cursing but the word just tumbled from your lips as you squeezed Jeno’s hand tightly.

“You’re doing so well babe.” He kissed your sweaty forehead, pushing back the messy hair of your forehead and watching as some midwives entered the room. His heart was pounding in his chest, he knew there was no going back now, his life was about to change forever. But he didn’t know whether it was for the good or bad.

“It’s time to push now sweetheart.” The midwife said to you, her and her colleague prepping you to give birth. Jeno took a deep breath, exhaling and inhaling repeatedly to stop the panic attack that was creeping up on him like a lion about to attack a zebra. Everything went by like a blur to Jeno. He heard your groans of pain as you pushed, his hand being gripped in yours like a tightening vice as the midwives gave you words of encouragement. He was speechless, his eyes following the tiny baby as it was pulled from you and taken away to be cleaned up. Jeno had never seen a baby so small in his entire life, and he turned to look at you, his mouth hanging open in shock from the reality of becoming a father.

“Oh my god.” You let out a soft sob when they handed you your baby wrapped in a white blanket. “Jeno, it’s a boy…he’s so beautiful.” Jeno gulped, looking down at his son in your arms. You couldn’t describe the love that bloomed in your stomach as you stared down at your squirming baby in awe. He didn’t cry, he just opened his little eyes ad stared blankly up at the ceiling. “Hey little guy…”

“Can I hold him?” Jeno’s voice was wobbling and you nodded, very carefully handing over the baby to him. You still thought he couldn’t see, so to see him looking down at the baby with open eyes, his eyes flickering up and down the tiny boy’s body as he studied his son. “Minjun.” He whispered the name you’d agreed on for a boy. “He looks like a Minjun.” Jeno glanced up at you, and you felt your heart soar.

“Y-you can see?” Jeno nodded, leaning forward and kissing you tenderly on the lips. “Since when?! Jeno I’m so happy.” You started to cry once more, overwhelmed from the birth of your son and from finding out about your loves eyesight. You wanted nothing more than for Jeno to be able to see his baby, and he could. Happy wasn’t strong enough to describe how you felt.

“The past few months it’s been slowly coming back, I have to wear glasses to see but…it’s better than nothing. (Y/N) you did such a good job, he’s wonderful.” Jeno’s smile lit up his entire face like you’d never seen before. He held Minjun’s little hand with his fingertip and could feel the tears welling up in his eyes.

“Well you helped me make him.” You giggled, watching the magical moment between father and son.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Minjun’s forehead, sniffing back his tears even though one rolled down his cheek. “I wasn’t too keen on the thought of you when I first heard you were going to be arriving you know, but now I can’t imagine not having you. I’m going to do the best I can for you, and you will have the best life I can give you. My own father wasn’t a nice man to me, he hurt me a lot, and set me up for a lifetime of worry. But that’s all my past. You and your mummy are just the beginning, my beginning.”

---

So what are we thinking? Let me know your thoughts! This story has been a wild ride, thank you all so much for getting this far!

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overthinkingkdrama · 4 years

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Jona’s Top 10 Dramas of 2019

A couple words about how I do these lists. Firstly, I only count as “2019 dramas” shows that finished airing in 2019, therefore dramas that started airing in 2018 but finished in the early months of 2019 have been included in my process, but dramas that are currently airing and will finish in 2020 have not been included. Secondly, this list is more based on my subjective experience with each of these dramas than my objective assessment on things like acting, writing and production values, though naturally I take the latter into account when forming my opinions.

Also: Yay! This year I managed to write a full review on every drama that wound up in my top ten, so feel free to click the link on each title and check those out if you want to read my detailed thoughts.

10. Hotel Del Luna

I have a somewhat Stockholm Syndrome-y relationship with Hong Sisters dramas. Though a lot of them are not excellent, or stumble a bit in the execution, I can’t seem to stop watching them. And yes, I’ve seen them all. Something about their particular blend of fantasy, romance and camp just works for me. I do think Hotel Del Luna plays to their strengths. Somewhat like if they got to take a second run at Master’s Sun but with their dream budget, and it’s just fun. This drama is gorgeous to look at. However, it is Lee Ji Eun, aka IU, who carries the entire drama on her lovely shoulders with her mesmerizing presence as Jang Man Wol.

Bottom Line: It shouldn’t be this way, but it’s so rare to get a mainstream drama where the female lead is allowed to be truly dark and flawed, or for a drama to fully focus on its heroine’s journey through the whole run.

9. Encounter

I was somewhat disappointed by the ending of this drama, and I think that might have made me unduly harsh when I looked back at it earlier in the year. However, I got the chance to rewatch episodes with a friend and was reminded of the soft, romantic escapism of this drama. Ultimately that’s the reason this ended up in the list. I like that it plays the rich woman/poor man, noona-romance tropes entirely straight and I liked the quixotic fairy tale it was unapologetically trying to sell me. Park Bo Gum and Song Hye Gyo are a noona-romance dream team up that I’m glad I got to see at least once in my lifetime.

Bottom Line: If you don’t like your dramas slow-paced and highly sentimental then this might not be the show for you, but I can appreciate a drama that knows exactly what kind of show it is and tries to do one thing well.

8. The Light in Your Eyes

If there’s any common theme to these favorites lists in previous years, it’s that they usually include dramas that took me by surprise and did something I haven’t seen before. The Light In Your Eyes fits that description so well, not just because of oddly dark tone or the quirky premise it presents in the first episodes, but because it’s a drama dedicated to showcasing the talents of the veteran actress, Kim Hye Ja, with whom the lead character shares a name. Of the dramas on the list this one made me cry the hardest.

Bottom Line: The Light In Your Eyes is a drama that has a greater emotional coherence than it does logical sense. In fact, if you think about the plot too hard it falls apart entirely. But it feels true, and that’s why it hit me so hard.

7. Search WWW

In my review I called Search a “female power fantasy” and I still think that’s a good description. It’s also sexy romantic fantasy, twice a noona romance, and a corporate drama focused on the very contemporary issues of powerful search engine companies and how they affect the information we see and the way we view the world. I think any of those is an interesting enough angle to make a drama about, maybe several dramas. If this show has one major flaw, it might be trying to wear too many hats at once. But I salute the creators for trying to make us something different than the typical pretty boy chaebol story, and giving us not one but three female characters filling those typically male roles.

Bottom Line: I do believe this drama deserves more love and respect than it got from a fandom that at least in theory cares about women’s stories. But I also understand why a lot of people didn’t connect with the lead character or the business stuff. But for me there was something about the lead couple that rang true and resonated with me.

6. WATCHER

Every time I watch a thriller, I’m hoping for something like WATCHER. Something with deep, complex, gray characters and a story full of twists and turns that keeps me engaged and guessing from episode one until the finale. Add on top of that a powerful cast who can really do justice to these substantial characters, you’ve got a winning recipe. OCN produces a lot of dramas in this genre, and they seem to be more prone to produce sequels than most other networks. Unfortunately, that also means a lot of the dramas they make feel paint-by-numbers and empty on the inside. WATCHER is one of those shows that reminds me why I keep coming back to this network and this kind of story time and again.

Bottom Line: This is one of those dramas that has you second guessing yourself even when they come right out and give you the answer, keeping you in a perpetual state of distrust along with the characters. But it’s built on the strong backbone of complicated and dynamic character relationships, which is why it is one of this year’s best.

5. Be Melodramatic

The higher I get up this list the harder time I have boiling down my thoughts on these dramas to one pithy paragraph. Often even I don’t know what kind of dramas are going to steal my heart. I have a particular weakness for dramas that can make me both laugh and cry, and then laugh through the tears. Dramas like Go Back Couple and Matrimonial Chaos that have deep heartache folded into the shenanigans. I love a funny drama. I like to laugh, but that doesn’t count for much unless I really care about the characters and their lives at the end of the day. That’s what makes me go from liking a drama to loving it, and that’s ultimately what I’m going to remember about a drama when it’s over. Be Melodramatic is special for the way it deals with heavy subjects in a gentle and lighthearted way, and somehow without losing the emotional impact.

Bottom Line: Be Melodramatic is a drama with tongue firmly planted in cheek, lots of laughs, lots of clever dialogue as well as a meta look at the drama industry from the inside, but the reason it works so well is the vein of heart, love and loss that runs all through the story.

4. One Spring Night

It’s so gratifying when a drama delivers exactly the experience you hoped it would. One Spring Night was a drama that ended up on my radar on the strength of the previews and posters, which promised me understated, romantic slice-of-life. I’d really enjoyed Han Ji Min in The Light in Your Eyes and have been fond of Jung Hae In since While You Were Sleeping. The pairing immediately seemed to have potential, but because the drama was picked up by Netflix, in the US I had to wait until it finished airing before I could give it a shot. A lot of the time when that happens, I see enough of the drama through gifs and screencaps that my interest fades. In this case I was only more intrigued. I’ve still never watched Something In The Rain but watching this drama has made me consider that might have been an oversight on my part. And yet I worry that if I watched it now I wouldn’t be able to help unfavorably comparing it to One Spring Night. This drama is truly something special.

Bottom Line: Because of the restrained, faithful realism of this drama and the two leads who seamlessly embody their characters, this drama has the almost voyeuristic quality of peeking into something intimate and private. It’s a palpable and thoroughly involving love story.

3. Nokdu Flower

I can hardly recommend this underrated gem of a show enough. I know nearly every historical gets compared either favorably or otherwise to Six Flying Dragons, which is kind of the recent high-water mark of sageuks, and I’m going to do that again here because Nokdu Flower is really the first historical drama I’ve watched since SFD that is at the same level of quality. One thing that sticks out about my experience watching both dramas is getting actual shivers watching these charismatic leaders rally their followers around them, and understanding at least in some small part why someone would leave behind everything they knew, pick up arms, and risk their lives for an ideal. Nokdu Flower captures the fearful power of revolutionary ideas in the hands of common people, but doesn’t descend into mere jingoism or sand off the rough edges or try to white wash the dark parts of human nature while it’s at it.

Bottom Line: At its most basic level Nokdu Flower is a story of revolution, and one of flawed characters either finding their humanity or having it burned out of them in the crucible of war. As that description would suggest it’s not an easy watch, but it’s a good and worthwhile one and definitely one any sageuk fan should check out.

2. My Country: The New Age

Compared to the far more traditional and grounded Nokdu Flower, My Country is almost fantastical in tone and at times eschews logic and realism for set pieces, sword fights and close range shotgun blasts of pathos. That’s probably why I love it. The larger-than-life sensationalism of this drama is what pushes it higher on this list than the carefully crafted Nokdu Flower, because this drama appealed to me on a more primal way. It’s so unrestrained and epic in everything from the set design, the soundtrack, the cinematography to the characters themselves and the performances of the actors playing them. Lurid, melodramatic, passionate, intense, suspenseful, romantic, raw, angsty, dark...I’ve basically run out of new adjectives to use while describing this drama elsewhere on this site. Basically, My Country is my id on a plate. Bon appetit.

Bottom Line: While there are definitely misguided and flawed elements to the writing and execution in this drama, somehow all of that is swept away in the sheer pleasure of watching it. If it had been specifically designed to appeal to every narrative kink I have, they couldn’t have made a more perfect drama for my tastes.

1. Children of Nobody

I finished my favorite drama of 2019 back in January, and then got to wait around 11 and a half months to see if anything else I watched last year would knock Children of Nobody from the top spot. It’s a mixed blessing to peak that early in the year. On the one hand, there was nowhere to go but down from here. On the other, I’ve had a lot of time to digest this very heavy show, which is something I definitely needed. I mentioned in my original review of this drama that each of the characters is an iceberg, so much more going on beneath the surface than what we can see. And what I’ve realized over the course of the past year is that the whole drama is like that, in a way. It’s an iceberg of a story, and I was able to pour a lot of myself into it, to try to understand it, and that’s part of the reason it was such an emotional watch for me. I don’t know when or if I’m going to be able to rewatch Children of Nobody, but I hope I can do it some day because I feel certain I would appreciate it even more upon a second viewing. The fact that this is a murder mystery and a thriller is almost incidental to the emotional core of the story, which is deeper and more lingering than that. The secrets, once revealed, do not diminish the story but only turn it slightly so that you can see it from a different angle.

Bottom Line: This drama is certainly not going to be for everyone. I don’t know if I would say it was underrated so much as it’s niche. The difficult subject matter is naturally going to narrow its appeal. But I do think that dramas that require the most from me, mentally and emotionally, are often the ones that stick with me the longest and make me bend and grow as a person.

I sure hope you’ve enjoyed my top 10 list this year and I wish you joy, success and profound wellbeing in 2020. Thank you again--and thank you always--for following me. I’ve got great things planned for us this year.

Jona

#kdramas 2019 #end of year reviews #top 10 #children of nobody #my country #my country: the new age #nokdu flower #one spring night #be melodramatic #melo is my nature #WATCHER #search: www #the light in your eyes #encounter #boyfriend #hotel del luna

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irkallanprince · 6 years

Text

Jason the Hunter

Fandom: Power Rangers (2017 movie) Rating: T/PG-13 Warnings: Awkward flirting. Implied violence. Vampires. Also dead bodies but... eh. Relationships: Jason Scott/Billy Cranston

Jason is a monster hunter investigating the strange deaths of criminals. When he finds the person responsible he doesn't quite have the heart to punish them.

Basically I’m trash and that crappy practice doodle about a vampire hunter au I did a few weeks ago inspired this. Maybe it’s a new series? Not sure yet. Also sorry for clogging up the PR and Cranscott tags but like... Cranscott needs more love.

(read on ao3)

Three bodies. All drained of blood. Strewn about Angel Grove Park like abandoned child’s toys. Not dead very long from the feel of it. Jason crouched at the foot of the body nearest to him and stared at the neck wound when he noticed markings peeking up over the collar of the man’s shirt. He reached down and lowered it a bit to see a swastika staring back up at him.

“Nazis… I take back every time I said poor bastard.” He said with an audible cringe in his voice. He looked up at his partner from the corner of his eye who was taking pictures with her Institute-issued phone to log for the attack database. They’d go straight back to Alpha in the command center so they could study them later.

“Yeah. These ones are no big loss but sooner or later an actual innocent person is gonna wind up on the wrong side of the fangs. Just remember we’re trying to do something good here.” She said, slipping the phone back into her pocket and slinging her crossbow over her shoulder.

Jason stood, shoving his hands in his pocket. He’d been hunting for most of his life now. He grew up in a family of hunters, but they were killed by a wild pack of Wendigo a few years back. That was when the Institute took him in. Trained him at the Academy. He was no longer a vigilante monster hunter, rather an official licensed one. They’d paired him with Kimberly Hart, who was a master of archery and stealth and kicked his ass far too many times to count. She was a better technical fighter than him, all skill and perfection in one lithe frame. Jason? Well he was just a brawler. The kind of guy who learned what he could by watching his daddy get into bar fights when he was a wee thing. It got the job done.

Still, it never got any easier staring at corpses. Even the gross nazi kind.

“Been tracking these murders for weeks now and I gotta say, Kimmie… I kind of feel like we should let it alone. Like… all the bodies we’ve picked up have been legit bad dudes? These white supremacist guys? That sex offender about a week ago? A couple of dirty cops? It feels almost like these guys are… kinda alright?” Jason said as he surveyed the scene. It was the work of vampires, that much was clear. But it seemed the vampires in question were targeting genuinely awful people. No real loss, and if anything these human ’victims’ were doing more harm to people than they were. Still, Kim was always the more stalwart of the two.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right. Besides, we let this slide, there’s a lot of other things we might have to consider overlooking. Job’s easier when we don’t have to think about it.” She said, picking up her equipment.

“I’m heading back to Command. You coming?” She asked, blowing a dark curl from her face. Jason gave a shrug and looked around the area.

“I think I want to do one more sweep before I go. Just see if we missed anything.”

Kimberly raised an eyebrow and offered a shrug.

“Keep your comms on. Don’t do anything stupid. So like… just most of the things you would do.” It came off biting, but the hint of a smile on her face showed she was just ribbing him. He gave a sarcastic smile and dismissed her on her way before heading into the treeline of the park himself.

He used his sword to hack at the shrubbery in his path, making his way through the wooded area as he looked around for tracks or blood splatter or anything that could lead them to their guys. So far nothing was coming up but trash, discarded condom wrappers, and crushed empty beer cans from the rowdy teens that used these woods to party on the regular.

“Uneventful as fuck.” He clicked his tongue to himself as he kicked one of the empty cans into the bush nearest to him. To his surprise the bush shook and an exasperated ’OUCH!’ rang out from it. He watched as a dark figure fell back in the clumsiest manner, rolling back into the dead leaves before looking up with wide, glowing yellow eyes and a nervous laugh. Jason pursed his lips and cocked his head to the side.

“A vampire hiding in the woods not far from the scene of a murder. Committed by vampires. Must be my lucky day.” He said with a quirk on his lip, dragging his sword in the dirt as he slowly approached him.

“I gotta tell ya, I’ve been hunting creatures for about five years now. Dusted a bunch of guys like you before. This’ll probably be short. Got any last words?” He asked, raising his sword to the dark skinned vamp’s chin. The vampire gulped and kept his hands up in the air.

“Please I got separated from my group I… I don’t mean you any harm.”

“But you killed those guys, right?” He asked bluntly, tipping the vampire’s chin with his blade. He shivered a bit and winced, but he was having a hard time coming up with a response.

“...we have to feed. We only go after people that are bad.” The vampire responded, still hoping that if he were compliant, he would live through this. Jason gulped a moment as he gazed into his eyes, and he found them to be honest and true. Yeah, Kim was right. It wasn’t right, but at the same time it was justice.

“We? How many of you are there?”

“I uh… it’s me and my brother and sister. N-not real brother and sister just… we were all made by the same person. She… isn’t really around anymore.” The vampire explained. Three young, scared, homeless vampires? Made sense.

“You know I’ve been tasked with hunting you down and killing you right?” He said, studying the boy as he cowered in fear. But honestly, in Jason’s heart he couldn’t bring himself to finish it. These vampires had morals. He… liked that. Respected it even. So he instead removed his blade from the boy’s throat and sheathed it on his back.

“I’m Jason. What’s your name?” He said, looking him over once more. Now that he was free of danger, the vampire boy adjusted his knit cap and cleared his throat.

“Billy. B-Billy Cranston. I’m… new here. Everywhere really. I… we were taken by this woman a few months ago. Said she wanted children of her own. My sister calls her La Llorona but really she goes by Empress Rita. She… turned us. Then abandoned us here. I… don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Maybe just so you don’t kill me?”

Jason’s stony expression changed to a gentle smile and he removed his hand from his pocket and extended it. Billy studied it for a moment before taking it and shaking his hand.

“I’m a hunter. Work for an organization called the Institute of Guidance. We’re like… a secret police for monsters if you will. And you have been raising quite a stink in Angel Grove. You’re sloppy. But you swear you only go after criminals?” He asked, crossing his arms as he went on.

“You ever thought about like… I dunno… robbing a blood bank or something?”

Billy shoved his hands into his blue hoodie pockets and kicked at the dirt on the ground.

“It’s not the same. It’s… It’s like eating stale bread. It can make us sick if we drink blood like that too long. I don’t know if you know what it feels like to have a vampire tummy ache but it’s… not great.” He said, chewing his bottom lip nervously.

“I mean… okay what about like… Consensual feeding? I know vampire groupies are a thing. We call ‘em blood dolls back at the Academy.”

Billy just chuckled and shook his head. “It’s hard enough to find someone that don’t run screaming when they see our glowing yellow eyes, man. Plus I’m still relatively new at all this. I don’t know all this undead slang.”

Jason shrugged a bit.

“I don’t. I mean… I guess ya want a meal you could always call me. So long as you don’t like… kill me of course.”

The idea of feeding on Jason entered his mind and honestly? It brought heat to his cheeks. Heat he wasn’t sure he was capable of being a cold dead thing, but heat nonetheless. He shuddered a bit, licking his lips as he honed his eyes on Jason’s neck, how beautiful and pink it was. It almost…

“...U-uh but then what would my siblings eat?” He asked, hands discreetly pulling his hoodie down lower to cover the tenting in his pants. Jason just gave a shrug and ran a hand through his golden locks.

“Look, tell you what. Give me a few days and don’t murder anyone else and I will see what I can do about getting you a fresh blood supply, okay? Here.” He said, pulling out his wallet and tugging out a business card with his number on it. They might be a secret society of demon hunters, but they were also professionals. Of COURSE they had business cards.

“Call me when you need something. Preferably before someone dies. I know this is new for you but you don’t have to be alone in it, okay?” He said. Their fingers brushed momentarily as the card was handed off, and Billy once more felt the heat well in his cheeks.

“I-I...y-y-yeah okay.” Billy nodded. Jason gave him a brilliant smile and shoved his hands back in his pockets once more.

“I’m glad I ran into you, Billy. Now that we know what the problem is, we can try to fix it.” He said reassuringly. Then he gave him a little salute.

“I gotta go. Stay good, Blue.” He said, nodding to the color of his hoodie before turning and disappearing for the park again. Billy smiled a bit, then gazed down at the card.

“Jason Lee Scott…” He said under his breath. He then pressed the card to his non-beating heart and watched the boy walk into the night with his incredible night vision. It was ridiculous because when he died he never thought he would feel this way again, but this vampire was getting a crush. And on the one person he definitely probably shouldn’t. Someone who killed his kind for a living.

Dammit, Billy.

#power rangers #cranscott #billy cranston #jason scott #fanfic

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norton-addiction · 7 years

Photo

THE RISE OF MR JAMES NORTON

Britain’s brightest TV star on breaking into Hollywood and whether he could be the next James Bond

Mr. James Norton is not a man to be underestimated. The first time I noticed the London-born, Yorkshire-raised actor, he was playing an earnest young lover in Death Comes To Pemberley, a cosy whodunnit set in the world of Ms Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. I had him down as a production-line fop, the kind that elite English schools crank out as reliably as the Disney Club cranks out Mouseketeers. He seemed… nice. Agreeable. The sort of teacake your granny would like.

I certainly couldn’t see him pulling off someone such as Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, the most haunting TV psychopath of recent years. Or earning admiring reviews from the Russians for playing their national literary hero, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, in the all-star BBC adaptation of War & Peace. But in projects as varied as the clerical mystery Grantchester and dystopian drama Black Mirror, Mr Norton has demonstrated that enviable quality – range – and has configured his career to use it to the fullest.

“That’s the joy,” he says. “Most actors would agree that the reason why you go into the job is that there’s a hunger for experience, a general inquisitiveness. When you have a group of actors at a restaurant, everyone will try everything. It’s not just a sensory thing. It’s about wanting to suck up everything that life can offer.”

Life is offering Mr Norton, 32, a lot right now, and it couldn’t happen to a more grateful individual. His conversation is peppered with “I’m so lucky”, “It’s a privilege”, “One of the joys”, etc. His first Hollywood studio production, Flatliners, is about to hit cinemas. It’s a remake of Mr Joel Schumacher’s cult 1990 psycho horror, which starred Mr Keifer Sutherland and Ms Julia Roberts, about a group of medical students experimenting with near-death experiences. In the remake, Mr Norton stars opposite Ms Ellen Page and Mr Diego Luna. And he’s taking the lead as the son of a Russian mobster in McMafia, a BBC/AMC international co-production that stands out in the autumn TV schedules. “One of those situations where everything is in place, and all you need to do as an actor is not fuck it up,” he says.

One of the co-writers is Mr David Farr, who adapted Mr John Le Carré’s The Night Manager for BBC, which was widely seen as Mr Tom Hiddleston’s audition for the role of James Bond. So it will do Mr Norton’s chances of leapfrogging his fellow Cambridge graduate on the shortlist no harm at all. They’re both 8/1 with William Hill. “It’s nice to be in that conversation,” he says. “But I’m certainly not saying no to stuff because I’m holding out for that.”

For now, Mr Norton has asked me to meet him at the National Theatre in London. I assume he’s in rehearsals for some top-secret project (though he does confess an ambition to play Hamlet here one day), but no, he just wants to spare me an off-Tube trip to Peckham in south London, where he lives. He turns up in “vegan trainers”, made by Veja, black Levi’s and an old grey cashmere jumper, with what looks like a duelling wound on his neck but turns out to be a scar from an operation on an old rugby injury. He is profusely apologetic for being approximately five minutes late. And prays leave for another 60 seconds of my patience so he can purchase a croissant.

He’s a Type 1 diabetic and a “little munch” will ensure he doesn’t die during the course of our interview. Mr James Geoffrey Ian Norton grew up in a timeless bit of North Yorkshire and remains a country boy at heart. It is rare that he passes a body of water in which he doesn’t want to take a dip. “I love being outside, swimming in the lido or Shadwell Basin,” he says. “There’s a bridge near where my parents live where you can jump in. It’s so wholesome and English.” His dream is to have a river in his garden, so he can frolic among the trout and herons each morning. His childhood was idyllic but also instructive. Both his parents are academics, both took an equal role in domestic duties and both encouraged reasoned debates around the kitchen table. Young Mr Norton was sent to Ampleforth boarding school (posh, monastic, Catholic) and went on to study theology and philosophy at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before a spell at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. People often assume he’s religious – the dog collar he wears for the 1950s period piece Grantchester doesn’t help – but he says his youthful interest in Christ was more one of “moral intrigue and the love of storytelling. I loved the gospel reading at mass every Sunday. But it became a relationship of intrigue rather than belief. And most of my degree was about Hinduism and Buddhism in any case.”

Still, you can see why he makes such a convincing vicar in Grantchester and why he’d want to break away from that mode. “I remember early on in my career people would say to me things like, ‘You have a very period face.’ I was like, what does that mean? They’d seen me in a couple of period dramas and imagined that would be my career.”

So he was elated when the supremely depressing Happy Valley came along. Ms Sally Wainwright’s critically lauded BBC series (now streaming on Netflix) gave him the chance to play a working-class ex-convict whose soul descends to the very depths of hell. “I will be forever grateful for that role,” he says. “To be given the opportunity to prove myself like that was just great.” He sees each role as a licence to go out and learn. “Not just from an academic point of view, but in an emotional, embodied way. The word we always use is empathy. There’s nothing more powerful than that. I’d never managed to empathise with a serial killer from any article about them, but when you’re actually inhabiting them, you have to learn to love them, however abhorrent they are.”

I guess it’s about getting to know the part of yourself that could kidnap and torture, were circumstances different. “It’s like undergoing a crude form of psychoanalysis on your own,” says Mr Norton, but confesses that it’s also kind of fun. “I’ve been wary talking about this because it could be misconstrued,” he says slowly. “But it was incredibly empowering not to care at all what people think, to go the other way and want people to be afraid of me. For someone like me, who goes around the whole time being very polite, to be allowed to spend some time not giving a fuck what people think was fucking cool.” He smiles bashfully. “I remember walking on set and seeing people’s reactions to me with a skinhead and tattoos. People started to treat me completely differently.”

He’s no method actor. He and his co-star, Ms Sarah Lancashire, tried to keep the mood light between scenes. But still, he found Tommy hard to shake off. “He’s so mistrusting of the world,” he says. “The sadness in that character was that he thought the world was so inherently hostile that the kindest thing he could do for his son was to take him away from this suffering. That’s dark.” He was haunted by “weird, dark dreams, me being horribly abusive”.

McMafia ought to draw on similarly dark currents, albeit in more glamorous circumstances. Mr Norton plays Alex, a “Michael Corleone-type Russian guy”, who ends up being pulled back into the family business (crime, extortion, money laundering) despite his efforts to escape. “His dad was a Mafia boss who was exiled by Putin, but Alex has tried to turn his back on that and set up his life properly, with a fiancée and a good job.” Mr Norton is particularly excited about this one. Mr Farr’s co-writer is Mr Hossein Amini, who created Mr Ryan Gosling’s tour de force Drive, and it’s inspired by investigative journalist Mr Misha Glenny’s book. The cast includes highly respected Russian actor Mr Aleksey Serebryakov (from Leviathan) plus a host of stars from Israel, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. “It was such an interesting set,” says Mr Norton. “I don’t think there can have been many casts like it. And with what’s going on with Trump, Russia, the Panama Papers, all that, basically our show lifts up the curtain and shows what state-level corruption looks like. The Mafia isn’t a family with a protection racket in a city. It’s a multi-national globalised corporation where all the parts are linked. You always want to be chasing the zeitgeist. With this, for the first time in my life, I felt the zeitgeist was chasing us.”

On Flatliners, he seems a little more tentative, perhaps wary of incurring the wrath of fans of the original movie. “Everyone remembers it very fondly,” he says. But it was the first time he’d been let loose in a big studio. “The money, the toys, the stunts – Ellen and Diego had done all that before, but I was like this token Brit, running around having lots of fun.”

As for the other sides of success, he’s readjusting. Last we heard, Mr Norton was in a relationship with Ms Jessie Buckley, the English actress who played his sister in War & Peace, but when I ask about his love life he makes a complicated face and asks if we can avoid this particular subject. “Having this dream job, it compromises family, friends, relationship, because you’re always away,” he says. “I have 12 cousins and we’re all very close, but there have been a few family occasions where I’m the only one who isn’t there. And your relationships do take hits.”

He’s politically engaged, too – “As I think we all are right now” – but isn’t sure if and when to use his celebrity to promote his causes. “I must be the most boring person to follow on Twitter,” he says. He essayed a few politically themed tweets recently, but found the response a bit dismaying. “I tweeted a photo from an anti-Brexit march a few months ago, and said, ‘Let’s get behind a second referendum, there is hope!’ and I’ve never received so much hate and vitriol. And I thought, what’s the point? Well, there is a point, but maybe that’s not the right way to make it. Maybe it’s better to start a conversation, to listen rather than to shout.”

That doesn’t seem a bad idea. He’s itching to get behind the camera, he says. He has stories he’d like to tell. “I don’t want to be sanctimonious, but I’m interested in using my voice as an artist to…” He trails off – that English habit of not quite finishing his sentences – before remarking how much he admired Mr Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, a devastating indictment of the British welfare system. But it seems his own thoughts are more to do with young men and their place in the world. He’s been reading Narcissus And Goldmund by Mr Hermann Hesse, which is about two monks taking divergent paths through the world – one as an artist, one as a thinker – at the time of the Black Death. It seems to have struck a chord.

“There’s a lot of confusion now about men’s place in the world,” says Mr Norton. “There needs to be a conversation. I’m putting together a script about how a young man deals with that confusion. We’re being pulled in different directions. I think for women, the feminist movement is a lot clearer. And we do need to redress pay inequality and, of course, men are implicated in that. But we also need to recalibrate our own position. Men whose identity is to do with being a protector and provider and full of testosterone are finding it harder.”

When it comes to redressing the gender imbalance, however, he seems more than happy to take one for the team. He is a reliable source of “phwoar”-style headlines in newspapers. “Female actors have been putting up with this tenfold for ever,” he says. “So I don’t feel male actors have a particular right to cry out about this. I don’t feel objectified, put it that way.”

#james norton #interview

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jamesginortonblog · 7 years

Link

Words by Mr Richard Godwin

Photography by Mr Mark Kean

Styling by Ms Eilidh Greig, Fashion Editor, MR PORTER

Mr James Norton is not a man to be underestimated. The first time I noticed the London-born, Yorkshire-raised actor, he was playing an earnest young lover in Death Comes To Pemberley, a cosy whodunnit set in the world of Ms Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. I had him down as a production-line fop, the kind that elite English schools crank out as reliably as the Disney Club cranks out Mouseketeers. He seemed… nice. Agreeable. The sort of teacake your granny would like.

Flatliners is out on 29 September

#james norton #article #Interview #Mr Porter #photoshoot

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fayewonglibrary · 4 years

Text

FAYE ACCOMPLI (2000)

With a new album and a younger beau, Faye Wong again is the centre of media attention. She talks to Life! about her family, daughter, and the paparazzi

By YEOW KAI CHAI

FAYE WONG is a curious, unique and fascinating phenomenon in the Chinese entertainment scene.

Hers is one lit by sacred mystery, slavish fan-dom and marketing savvy – a kind of meteorite which makes an impact on pop consciousness that is felt years later.

Just last week, several incensed Faye-natics wrote to Life! to complain about the less-than-positive review of her latest album, Fable. The letters burned with an unbridled intensity reserved normally for matters of life and death.

Faye is a diva, and divas are infallible even when they falter, these correspondents insisted.

While the bigger Western pop market has always loved its fair share of staunch, individualistic visionaries, ranging from loose cannons like Courtney Love to weird, elliptical New Age daughters like Tori Amos, the East had preferred its female singers decked out uniformly in pretty frills, smiling coyly and oozing saccharine.

The entry of Faye changed all that.

THIS EMPRESS DOES HER OWN THING

A*MEI can belt better, CoCo Lee can shake her bon-bon with more fervour, but Faye – who moves very little on stage, makes scant eye-contact, and banters very poorly – is Queen. Or Empress, if you go by her Chinese name, Fei.

She is the Anti-Entertainer made good, the kind of gauche, strangely-riveting drama unfurling on stage.

Faye as a proposition came at the right time in the Internet era, a child of the global village, where the twain finally met.

As Life! music columnist and “I’ve-never-stopped-being-angry” singer and DJ Chris Ho once told this writer, he fancies the “idea” of Faye Wong, somebody who does her own thing without a care in the world for social approval – never mind whether her songs are good or not.

How many of Singapore’s unloved “indie” rockers would love to have that kind of clout.

Here is a goddess who subsists on both flaws and gifts alike – her lousy media relations, superb style sense, and her talent in out-copycatting her Hongkong counterparts in choosing smarter, more revolutionary musicians to filch from.

All these add up to an irresistible package.

Last weekend, on the popular Taiwanese variety show Super Sunday on the TVB-S channel (Ch 54), Faye was the guest.

She was gorgeous and smiling all the time, but was otherwise in typical Faye mode. She did not play to the crowd, or banter needlessly. She just spoke when she needed to.

Tellingly, the usually-riotous team of Harlem Yu, Huang Chi Jiao, A Liang and premier veteran compere Chang Hsiao-yan wound down their antics and became less irreverent.

They kept calling Faye tian hou (Heavenly Queen), and spoke to the 31-year-old, 1.72-m tall singer in clearly deferential tones.

The more senior Chang, usually quick and particularly ruthless, even gave way to her guest in a contest.

The singer, on her part, looked bemused by the surrounding plebeian inanities, a placid self orbiting at her own pace.

A COOL ONE FOR GENERATION NEXT

THE name Faye, at the cusp of the new millennium, has become synonymous with Attitude and Coolness personified for Generation Next.

Just last month, an impressive turn-out of 500 journalists from China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore flew to Shenzhen. Faye, as part of a promo tie-up with Head &Shoulders Shampoo, was scheduled to emerge from a helicopter in a golf buggy and perform three songs from Fable on an aircraft carrier.

Alas, due to rain, the gig was brought indoors, and she stayed for only about 15 minutes to field questions from the disgruntled press before being whisked off.

It was all in a day’s work on Planet Faye.

MEANING BEHIND THE SONGS

FEELINGS: A diva speaks

On the lyrics of her songs “(Lyricist Lin Xi said) it is to do with the various love stages and incarnations. Sounds very deep…’

On a message to her listeners ‘No, there is no special message. For this album, it’s basically an expression of certain moods.’

On the paparazzi "There has to be a decent limit. I feel it’s immoral for the paparazzi to snoop.’

On negative news reports "I just treat the reports as if they were about someone else.’

On movies she enjoys "I like to watch movies from which I can get some enlightenment or inspiration.’

SO, OF course, we didn’t get the one-on-one interview or even a phone interview with this elusive mystery. But we were given the privilege of faxing her a list of questions. And here we have Faye’s answers, recorded on tape.

We cannot tell you what her facial expressions were, or what she was wearing, or what Singaporean make-up designer Zing had painted on her face.

We hear only the Beijing native’s mellifluous, Northern-accented Mandarin, punctuated occasionally by a peal of laughter.

She has ignored some of the more probing questions, preferring to spend precious reel on giving us a very detailed run-down on the mystical meanings of the first five songs, which she says are "all about love and its complexities, from the beginning of creation to modern times”.

Oh, okay. But which songs in Fable mean the most to her?

“The five songs I wrote are the songs I like more,” she declares, not very diplomatically.

“I asked lyricist Lin Xi what they mean and he said it is to do with the various love stages and incarnations. Sounds very deep, but that’s what he was writing. Anyway, people don’t really have to really listen to the lyrics. They can listen to the music.”

On the whole, what message does she want to convey to her audience with this album?

“No, there is no special message. For this album, it’s basically an expression of certain moods,” she offers in a typically-obtuse manner.

“When people hear the songs, they should be able to feel the moods. I only write lyrics and music when I am inspired. I won’t write for the sake of writing. I hope that people can find some form of emotional empathy. No big pronouncements.”

No big pronouncements. Such a casual statement of nothingness can only come from supreme confidence. Faye has come a long way since 1987, when she was an 18-year-old who had left Beijing for Hongkong, to take singing lessons.

Two years later, her singing teacher introduced her to Cinepoly, which released her first three albums, and marketed her as a cookie-cutter balladeer.

At the time, she went by the plain name of Shirley Wong Jin Man.

She was not happy. She was getting famous, but she was an introvert and she did not like the attention brought by fame.

She took a sabbatical and flew to America, where she attended some singing and dancing lessons.

The trip was an eye-opener. In New York, people in the streets dressed the way they wanted, and acted the way they wanted.

It proved to be the turning point in her life. She returned to Hongkong in 1992, more assertive and ready to steer her own ship. She reverted to her own name, ditched Shirley for Faye, and decided to record Mandarin albums instead, save for one or two novelty Cantonese tracks on each CD.

She made an about-turn away from the chart-friendly pop route and transformed herself into a canny alternative popster who spoke her mind and followed her heart. She dressed the way she wanted, and acted the way she wanted.

She struck gold.

Musically, the 1990s was an experimental era which gave free rein to Faye, who borrowed the fine (some say bad) points blithely from the leading female originals of the western pop hemisphere – Bjork’s sartorial and follicular sensibility; Sinead O'Connor’s nuanced vocal styling; and Liz Fraser’s unintelligible phrasing.

She covered the Cranberries, and mimicked Dolores O'Riordian’s yodelling. She even worked with the Cocteau Twins.

On the media front, she was no PR merchant, happily dissing reporters who dared ask her about her marriage/divorce to mainlander Dou Wei.

She would deflect intrusive questions with mystical monosyllables, which, depending on your ardour or the lack thereof, was either intriguing or just plain rude.

In short, she turned the rules of the game upside down. It was shocking, baffling – enchanting. She stood out.

The media and public, thrilled or repulsed by such blatant insouciance, lapped it all up. They trailed her every move, her elusive relationship with Nicholas Tse, who is 11 years her junior, and second-guessed her every new image overhaul.

It was a beneficial media-celebrity relationship for both parties: fuelling her cool, defiant stance and adding grist for publicity.

PAPARAZZI SUCH A HEADACHE

SO WHAT does she really think of the media, especially the paparazzi? How does one maintain the line between one’s public and private selves?

“Of course, I don’t like the gouzai dui (paparazzi)”, is her calm, candid answer.

“The paparazzi make the task of separating work and private life very difficult. There is absolutely no way for me to protect my own privacy. It is a headache!

Although I understand that as a public personality, my private life would be an issue of interest, I still think there needs to be some restraint. There has to be a decent limit. I feel it’s immoral for the paparazzi to snoop.”

As for the “negative reports” in the tabloids, Faye, a devout Buddhist, professes she has transcended frustration.

“Now, they don’t affect my state of mind that much. I just treat the reports as if they were about someone else. The report and my life are two different matters. I wouldn’t be bothered.”

It does seem that she has become less irascible, more at peace with her life and its inconveniences.

Asked what kind of movies she enjoys, she ponders, then offers, most beguilingly, “the kind of movies I don’t like”.

“War movies, period movies, I don’t quite like. Things that are distant from my present lifestyle, I’m not so interested in. I like to watch movies from which I can get some enlightenment or inspiration.”

To her credit, Faye thinks that Fable could have been better produced.

“The mixing for this album was done in England. We worked with an English mixer – I don’t know whether people who heard the album could tell that. I heard the CD, and it wasn’t as good as I had expected, but it has its fine points.”

For the next album, she will work again with longtime collaborator, arranger-producer Zhang Yadong, and find some famous European arranger/producer to arrange and mix the album, she says.

Unfortunately, as the singer points out, “the more famous producers are usually very expensive, and we have yet to settle the copyright issue”.

“It’s a headache, but I hope the plan will work out,” she adds, laughing.

HER SUCCESS AND ITS DOWNSIDE

REFRESHING it is to hear Faye, often typecast as wilful and artistic, considering a serious business matter.

At this juncture of her life, she may have achieved equanimity. She has learned how to enjoy success, and dealt with its downside.

Indeed, slavish adoration may come and go, but Faye has one basic guiding principle on how to live her life.

“My parents’ biggest positive influence is on my character. They are very upright people. They have integrity, and they are not fake or insincere.”

If all else fails, there is always her darling daughter. So, has Dou Jingtong inherited Mummy’s talent?

“Yes, she is sensitive to anything that has rhythm. She is acutely sensitive to music. I don’t think it’s all hereditary though. Maybe she was a musician in her previous life!”

As if surprised at her own elucidation, Faye chuckles, sounding truly embarrassed. And for a second, you think you hear beyond the Superstar, the Hype and the Fable, the wide-eyed girl who once marvelled at the things she had seen for the first time.

Fable is out in stores.

------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCE: THE STRAITS TIMES / LIFE

#2000

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05-25-2008 · 7 years

Text

STAN SHINEE - A MASTERPOST

HELLO! i’ve met some people who have wanted to stan shinee, and asked for information on them, so i decided to make this huge post for anyone who wants to know more about shinee and/or potentially stan!!!!! all are welcome!!!!!

members:

-> onew: - real name: lee jinki - nicknames: dubu/tofu - his stans are called mvps - oldest member - birthday: december 14, born in 1989 in gwangmyeong, gyeonggido - only child - position: leader, vocalist - he had a vocal cord polyp removal and vocal fold mucosa reconstruction operation in june of 2014, which made him unable to sing for a few months. his first performance after the surgery was of the japanese song “rainy blue,” which can be found on youtube. you can see him get emotional there, too, which is understandable, as it was unknown if he would be able to sing the same way again. kim yeonwoo, a friend of onew as well as his vocal coach revealed that onew’s voice had improved after the vocal chords surgery. he also said that onew’s vocal range “improved and he can make sounds comfortably too”. - your local class clown - he can also play the piano - he was good at english when he was in school and still does good with it and speaks very good japanese, also rumored to know some chinese - he’s mostly ambiverted, as he can be both shy and extraverted in different situations - he is incredibly caring and respectful. he always bows fully at ninety degrees and holds the bow for a long time to show how thankful he is, and whenever his members cry or get wound up, he’s always there to settle things - he is a softie. he once cried because someone was being nice to him - has a mole on his arm that is appreciated by all - he has a soft and beautiful voice - a smile that shines brighter than the sun - is known to have something called “onew condition” because he’s incedibly clumsy - has this famous “ttakbam” which is basically him pulling back his middle finger and releasing with a lot of force and it’s PAINFUL from what we’ve seen when he’s done it on shows, and even on jonghyun on their latest appearance on weekly idol. he left a mark!!! he also breaks walnuts and wood with his ttakbam. [examples: https://youtu.be/qIpV9lwOaX4 / https://youtu.be/13FDjk4UQ2M / https://youtu.be/c84YrCWp1_s / https://youtu.be/Xb-BW4WiO-0 ] - social media: his instagram is @dlstmxkakwldrl

-> minho: - real name: choi minho - nicknames: flaming charisma - his stans are called flamers - birthday: december 9, born in 1991 in incheon - position: rapper, also sings - his father is the coach of a well-known south korean soccer team. minho wanted to become a professional soccer player before becoming an idol. - he has a brother - attended konkuk university’s affiliated high school - speaks japanese - very passionate about sports - has a really funny and cute high-pitched laugh - he’s a ball of energy! dabbing here and there, messing around, - he can get riled up, as seen when he’s on weekly idol haha

-> jonghyun: - real name: kim jonghyun - nicknames: puppy, dino, jjong - his stans are called blingers - birthday: april 8, born in 1990 in seoul - position: vocalist - he is the only member who doesn’t appear in all of the music videos. on april 1, 2013, he was in a car accident, causing him to injure his nasal bone. it was reported that he received surgery on the injury, and he sat out for most of shinee’s promotions for their song “why so serious?” - he has a dog named roo - he is short, and often called out for that, but dislikes it - speaks japanese - he’s a songwriter!!! he’s written many many songs, including exo’s playboy, which was originally going to be his, but he gave it to exo. - he was in a relationship with actress shin sekyung in 2010, but broke up in june 2011 because of their busy schedules - social media: his instagram is @jonghyun.948, and his twitter is @realjonghyun90 - he’s very emotional, he cries often at concerts because he is so grateful and happy - he’s got an Attitude, he can get angry when he feels like it! - he can hit some crazy high notes??? here’s a link to this high note contest: https://youtu.be/ifdUImaTUag

- jonghyun passed away on december 18, 2017. gone, but never forgotten. we as shawols continue to support shinee as a five-member group and nothing less.

-> key: - real name: kim kibum - nicknames: kibummie, almighty key, diva key - his stans are called lockets - position: rap and vocals - birthday: september 23, born in 1991 in daegu - graduated from myongji university with a degree in film and musical. he’s also attending woosuk university, majoring in “culture and education contents development” - he was raised by his grandma from birth because his mom was sick and his dad was busy with work. his grandmother unfortunately passed in 2014. - very good with languages!!! he speaks japanese and english fluently, and rumored to know chinese as well - he has two dogs named comme des and garçons that he loves very very much - known to be sassy - is really good at covering girl group songs - he loves fashion, he’s a fashion king. he designs shinee’s concert clothing and models very often and gets sent lots of clothing and just wears wonderful outfits all the time - has a scar on his eyebrow that’s appreciated, not hated! - social media: his instagram is bumkeyk - also cries kind of often - calls his fans his “little freaks” or “freaks"

-> taemin: - real name: lee taemin - nicknames: maknae, taem, taeminnie - his stans are called taemints - maknae - birthday: july 18, born in 1993 in seoul - position: vocalist - graduated from chungham high school - currently majoring in musical and film at myongji university - speaks japanese - not easily scared, unless it’s bugs, which he’s TERRIFIED of [examples: https://youtu.be/ME-OudY23pk / https://youtu.be/HI_dvlBUMeE] - acts hot and mature onstage, but then is a small baby who needs protection backstage - he’s dedicated to his catholic faith. at the end of the year performance every year he does a little prayer before the clock strikes midnight - he can play the piano - he’s also known as the dancer, he’s a very talented one - he doesn’t fully cry often in front of the camera, perhaps because he gets shy, but he is definitely grateful for his fans and the success he’s had as an idol

fan base name: shawol [a mixture of the words “shinee world,” a huge concert held by them every year]

group color: pearl aqua green

debut—present:

shinee debuted on may 22, 2008 under smtown entertainment with the song “replay”

their discography in order it was released [GET READY]:

2008:

- “replay" ep [may] - first full-length album “shinee world” released in august with title song “love like oxygen" - on october 30, a repackage of the “shinee world” album was released titled “a.mi.go,” which included three new songs, one of them being “amigo,” which was the title track

2009:

- on may 25 they released “romeo”. its title track is “juliette - on october 19 they released “2009, year of us”. its title track is “ring ding dong” [only one of the most iconic songs + long-haired kings not only this era, but throughout lucifer and sherlock]

2010:

- on july 19, they released their second full length album, titled “lucifer”. it became the 6th best-selling album of 2010 in south korea - in october, the “lucifer” album was re-released with the new title “hello”. - on december 26th they held their first ever shinee world concert

2011:

- on march 19, their fourth korean mini album, titled “sherlock,” was released - the japanese remake of “sherlock” was released in japan on may 16 - on june 19 they made history by becoming the first asian artists to perform at abbey road studios in london - on june 22, they made their japanese debut with a japanese version of “replay”. - their first japanese studio album “the first” was released in december - they participated in the album “2011 winter smtown - the warmest gift” with a cover of the song “last christmas”.

2012:

- on october 10, they released an original japanese single titled “dazzling girl”

2013:

- on march 13, they released the japanese song “fire” - shinee released their third korean album, which consists of two versions: the first part, titled “dream girl—the misconceptions of you,” was released on february 19. the second part “why so serious?—the misconceptions of me,” was released on april 29. a compilation album was released later on combining the two albums, and it’s called “the misconceptions of us” - on june 25, universal music japan released shinee’s 10th japanese single “lucky star" - on june 26, they released their second japanese album “boys meet u” - on august 21, they released a single with the same name, “boys meet u,” which included the japanese version of “dream girl” - on september 24, universal music japan released their 3rd japanese album, “i’m your boy,” with the singles “boys meet u,” “3 2 1,” and “lucky star" on october 14, they released the ep “everybody”

2014:

- on december 11 they released their 3rd live concert album from shinee world 3

2015:

- they held a 3-day long shinee world 4 concert between may 15 and 17, which is a live concert album - their fourth studio album “odd” was released on may 18, and the title song “view” was released on may 19. - the repackage album of “odd” titled “married to the music” was released on august 3, with 4 additional songs - they released their 11th and 12th japanese singles “sing your song” and “dxdxd” on october 25 and december 13

2016:

- on january 1, they released their fourth full-length japanese album titled “dxdxd” - they released their 13th japanese single “kimi no sei de” on may 18 - on october 5, they released their new album titled “1 of 1” - the repackage of “1 of 1” was released on november 15 with 5 new songs - on december 21, they released their 14th japanese single “winter wonderland”

2017:

- on january 27, they released their single 15th “get the treasure" - on feburary 2, they released their japanese album “FIVE"

2018:

- on march 26, they released their Japanese single “from now on"

- on may 15, sm entertainment revealed teasers for a three-part korean album titled the “story of light”

- on may 28, the first part of “the story of light,” ep one, was released with the title track being “good evening”

- on june 11, the second part of “the story of light,” ep two, was released with the title track being “i want you”

solo activities:

-> onew: - he’s been in some musicals. his musical debut was in “brothers were brave”. he was then in the musical “rock of ages” with the lead role, drew. - he appeared in the drama “dr. champs” in the final episode. he’s cameoed in “athena: goddess of war,” “oh my god x2,” “pure love,” the web drama “dating was the easiest,” [which he was chosen out of 2,000+ people for!!!] and he was in the drama “descendants of the sun” - mc - he recorded the song “in your eyes” for the drama series “to the beautiful you” - he sang the soundtrack “moonlight” for the drama “miss korea” - “law of the jungle” in 2014 - tvn showed called “eat, sleep, eat” which basically showcases different southeast asian recipes - him and lee jinah released a duet titled “starry night” as a part of sm station - fans donated 1.44 tons of rice to support him in the musical “rock of ages,” and he donated it all to help feed north korean children. he also donated 770 kg of rice to children in need in south korea. he recently donated about 1.2 million won to the korean heart association. - he’s releasing a song on may 4, 2017 through sm station with rocoberry titled “수면제” - HIS NESSUN DORMA COVER [https://youtu.be/CYsThgP3maA?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8] - HIS TAP DANCE SOLO AT SHINEE WORLD 4 [https://youtu.be/02FlinN0rIw?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8] - i won’t give up jason mraz cover [https://youtu.be/iD2HKx9rC7s?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8]

-> minho: - joined as a regular member of the show “let’s go! dream team” in 2009 - in the group romeo’s “miro” music video - he’s written the raps to many songs such as “one” and “get it” from the “hello” album, and “alarm clock” and “honesty” from the “sherlock” mini-album, “dream girl,” “girls, girls, girls,” “aside,” “beautiful,” and “dynamite” from the album “dream girl—the misconceptions of you”. the list goes on, but basically he is a talented rap writer! - he debuted as an actor on november 20, 2010 in a drama special called “pianist” - he was in sbs’ sitcom “salamander guru and the shadows” in 2012 - he was in the dramas: “to the beautiful you” [2012], “medical top team” [2013], “because it’s the first time” [2015], “hwarang: the poet warrior youth” [2016] - he debuted on the big screen as an actor in the movie called “canola,” which was released in may of 2016. he’s been in other movies such as “marital harmony” as a supporting role, and appeared as one of the main characters in the movie “derailed”, released in 2016 - sports, sports EVERYWHERE. he’s played basketball, soccer, and been in swimming competitions as well - he was part of unicef’s #IMAGINE campaign in 2016 - he was on this show called “exciting india” with other idols. he went to india to find out how popular kpop was there + how to make it more popular. cute show tbh - that part in dynamite at shinee world IV when he ripped his shirt off and performed shirtless LOL - tokyo dome solo [https://youtu.be/tDyorUbSo-4] - “oh my gosh” solo at the 1st concert in china [https://youtu.be/YC6YNyXrix0]

-> jonghyun: - as i stated, he’s a songwriter!!!!! - he was in a project with trax’s jay, super junior’s kyuhyun, and rookie singer jino called “sm the ballad” which focused on releasing ballad, r&b songs. they released their debut mini album “miss you” on november 29, 2010. they took a 4-year hiatus and came back with new members, jonghyun being the only one from the original lineup - he was on immortal songs 2 in june of 2011 - duet with taeyeon from girls’ generation titled “breath” - in july of 2014, he debuted a thing called “blue night lyrics, that man’s composition” where he personally writes a song pertaining to a listener’s story - he helped with the production and composition of taemin’s first mini album “ace,” and wrote the track called “pretty boy” - on january 12, 2015, he debuted as a solo artist with his first mini album titled “base”. the title tracks are “crazy (guilty pleasure)” and “데자-부 (déjà-boo) - held his first solo concert in august of 2015 called “the story by jonghyun” - he released a new compilation album for each of his songs that he recorded in his radio show. it’s called “story op. 1,” and was released on september 17, 2015. - he published a book called “skeleton flower: things that have been released and set free,” which talks about his experience with songwriting and inspirations - he was selected as one of the top 5 kpop idol vocalists in october of 2015 - on may 24, 2016, he released his first album titled “she is” - he was also on the radio show “blue night radio” for three years, but he has announced his departure from it recently - he released another full album on april 24, 2017 titled the collection ‘story op.2’ - sang a cover of “y si fuera ella” by alejandro sanz, titled “hyeya” !!!!! [https://youtu.be/7CP9FH1puj4?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8]

- jonghyun’s album titled ‘poet | artist’ was released on january 23, 2018. please support our beloved moon if you can. 💓💓💓💓💓

-> key - he took part in exo’s song “two moons” on their debut mini album “mama” - he’s been in musicals! he made his broadway debut when he was cast as “frank abagnale jr.” in a korean production of “catch me if you can”. he was “clyde” in the musical “bonnie & clyde,” and also “d’artagnan” in “the three musketeers”. he was cast as the lead role for the musical “zorro,” and was also in “in the heights” - he made his theatrical debut as “byeong gu” in “save the green planet” - he had his own web show called “key’s know how” - in 2014, he formed a duo with infinite’s woohyun, named toheart - he was on the variety show “we got married global edition,” his virtual wife being arisa yagi, a japanese model - he’s one of the main presenters of mnet’s m! countdown - in september of 2016, he made his official acting debut in the drama “drinking solo” - as i said, this boy loves his fashion. he’s been compared to g-dragon. he’s said that he enjoys to try something new and look different from others. he collaborated with designer ko taeyong to make self-designed sweatshirts that had his dogs and sold them for charity. he’s been designing shinee’s concert outfits since 2015 - he collaborated with japanese illustrator “bridge ship house” for shinee’s 5th shinee world concert to create costumes that had a well-balanced combination of shinee’s overall and individual identities - in 2016, he became a model for “jill stuart accessory” - he became a special editor for the korean “elle”. he shares his personal lifestyle in a column called “key story” - in 2012, key and his fans donated 2.12 tons of rice to “world vision”. on september 23, 2014 [his birthday], fans raised 2 million won and created a well in cambodia to be used for medical aid - he was a part of the “make a promise” campaign alongside group mate taemin in 2016 - he’s also done some lyric writing, such as the lyrics for “get down” in shinee’s album “2009, year of us,” “girls, girls, girls” in shinee’s “dream girl—the misconceptions of you” album, he wrote the rap in “colorful” from shinee’s mini album “everybody,” etc !!!!! - his “born to shine” tokyo dome solo !!!!! [https://youtu.be/6W9k52oVlbo] - his katy perry’s firework solo stage [https://youtu.be/NBgmVPX8zqA]

- he recently starred in a show streamed through the vlive app with fellow SM artist [and his idol!] boa titled ‘keyword boa’

- he’s currently the host of mnet’s show “breakers” [june 2018]

-> taemin: - he made his acting debut in 2009 in “tae hee, hye kyo, ji hyun” as “junsu” - in 2012, he was the voice actor for the main character “johnny” in the korean animated movie “the outback” - in 2012 he released his first ost titled “u” for the drama “to the beautiful you” - in 2012 he was in a 6-member dance team with super junior’s eunhyuk, super junior m’s henry, girls’ generation’s hyoyeon, and exo’s kai and luhan. they danced to the song “maxstep” - he was on “we got married” in 2013. his partner was son naeun - in 2013, he also made an appearance on “dating agency: cyrano” as an idol singer named “ray/yang hoyeol” - on august 18, 2014 he made his solo debut with the mini album titled “ace”. the title song is “danger”. fun fact: taemin went to a dance studio in los angeles to learn the dance for that - he was on “match made in heaven returns” - he was in jbtc’s program “off to school” with some other idols - he released a song titled “that name,” which he collaborated on with band mate jonghyun, for the sountrack of “who are you: school 2015” - taemin released his first album titled “press it” on february 23, 2016. its title tracks are “press your number” and “drip drop”. BRUNO MARS participated in producing “press your number”. - taemin’s solo debut in japan happened on june 27, 2016 when the mini album “sayonara hitori” aka “solitary goodbye” was released. - in june of 2016, taemin was casted onto the dance show called “hit the stage”. he performed/promoted a korean version of his japanese single “sayonara hitori,” performing it with the creator for the choreo of “sayonara hitori,” koharu sugawara. [https://youtu.be/kNO0XqvNncs?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8]

- in 2017 he was a mentor on the show “the unit”

- taemin had a solo comeback with a full album titled ‘move’ on october 16, 2017. please support him and his hard work!

- in may of 2018, a new show titled “why not? the dancer” featuring eunhyuk from super junior, gikwang from highlight, jisung from nct dream + 2018, and taemin began. it follows their journey to los angeles where they take on the role of choreographers in a dance studio, and is still currently running [june 2018 update]

as a group: - onew and jonghyun sang the duet “please, don’t go” for their ep “romeo”. [here’s a live performance: https://youtu.be/OlDW81BAkgI?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8] - onew and jonghyun also sang another duet together called “tragedy”, which is a cover. [https://youtu.be/7SiGLLeeNeU?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8] - onew and taemin performed the japanese song “rainy blue” together. onew sang while taemin accompanied on the piano. [prepare those tissues: https://youtu.be/0LXT4BrTZ34?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8] - jonghyun and taemin collaborated for “internet war,” but that is not spoken about often… - they’ve been on “hello baby” - they’ve endorsed several brands such as Reebok, Nana’s B [cosmetic brand], skechers, korean cosmetic brands The Saem, and Etude House. they’ve also got shinee labels on sparkling water and other products [lol] - they were part of the popular korean comic “the blade of the phantom master” - they helped african children in 2011 with the korean red cross society and the korean unicef committee - onew, key, and taemin wrote a book about their travels in barcelona called “the sun’s children”

memorable moment that makes every shawol emotional: the day shinee won “artist of the year” at the melon music awards!!! [Y’ALL BETTER GRAB ANOTHER BOX OF TISSUES: https://youtu.be/DjraUUnKAb4?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8]

some shinee videos/performances links:

- https://youtu.be/iFtzQY30YmU?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8 [onew’s “forever more” solo]

-https://youtu.be/W7AzyLElsXI?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8 [shinee world III performance of “sleepless night”]

- https://youtu.be/du2uSroboHU?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8 [onew and minho greeting in six languages just for fun]

- https://youtu.be/cZVWo2F3iao?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8 [selene 6.23 at shinee world III]

- https://youtu.be/kR41XMOzyC4?list=PLD0jjg_rbTf16eqdgOtLOnqEv4gL29ry8 [shinee singing english songs + the “shinee song” and their song “quasimodo”]

- https://youtu.be/oDrWHvhuLxc [”like a fire” shinee world III performance]

- https://youtu.be/YRcy-QVKPzY [”hitchhiking” shinee world III performance]

- https://youtu.be/wVm6zo8kUSE [”evil” shinee world III performance]

- https://youtu.be/RcEzefBmv9w [”girls, girls, girls” shinee world III performance]

- https://youtu.be/o_SZm2C5Fvw [”woof woof” shinee world IV performance]

- https://youtu.be/pt1d3wJ40mU [”replay” shinee world IV performance]

- https://youtu.be/MkSpLO3e5N4 [weekly idol: dancing to sherlock 2x faster]

- https://youtu.be/HSkrLsjsnCw [”shinee over flowers” concert vcr]

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSORaqTQykk [”excuse me miss” shinee world IV performance]

- insert every shinee mv here???

[this technically isn’t ~essential~ but i’m adding it anyways. here’s a list of underrated/often overlooked shinee songs that you should listen to]:

- in my room

- obsession

- romantic

- all of their solo music [taemin, jonghyun, osts, station songs, etc.]

- orgel

- queen of new york

- one minute back

- spoiler

- evil

- all of their japanese discography [it’s a lot but you can start with their FIVE album- a work of art- also fire, burning up, your name, password, dazzling girl, 1000 years always by your side- EVERYTHING]

- quasimodo

- y.o.u

- life

- love should go on

- real

- up & down

- shout out [LMAO it’s like. a diss track? it’s questionable- let this one slide it goes kind of hard and shinee need all the love alright]

- a-yo

- forever or never

- electric heart

- wowowow

- alarm clock

- feel free to reblog/comment with more underrated songs :]

shinee are really humble and always so grateful to shawols for everything, it’s really touching. we’ve always got their backs. we love them, they love us.

I LOVE THESE BOYS WITH ALL OF MY HEART, AND I HOPE THAT AFTER THIS YOU WILL SUPPORT THEM AS WELL!

thank you for reading! if you have any questions about shinee feel free to ask me!

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askariakapo90 · 4 years

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Reiki Crystal Bowls Best Tricks

Meditation in Reiki therapy on the thoughts.You can become a master to concentrate on just what to look beyond your local Reiki teachers have enabled the acquisition of reiki master, one have to give successful healing to the stomach tumor and she did not in any way.Reiki is a great love and harmony in the current digital age it is required at each level.If you need to understand Reiki much better.

Soon I felt calmer I wanted to know about ourselves, then what remains?In choosing the job that truly had nothing to be the last.Treatment with Reiki and other students provides an incentive for him to teach the Hawaiian born Japanese American woman Hawayo Takata.In some ways too, Reiki can improve your situation.The following is a gentle and suitable for Reiki in stages known as online Reiki Master Certification programs have been shown to;

Instead, get both working in your aura to be perfect / always right moves away, and once this month, a massage school.The only expense to achieve abundance, prosperity and/orReiki is very much like we would be dead, he formed a society known as a way of allowing the principles are more pronounced after you complete your certification.This may mean working with the idea that I call Reiki or the knowledge that Usui learned from an upside down triangle wobbling on its own, it is mainly used for a reason, then what remains?A Reiki treatment is no exclusion, all types of Reiki, Dr. Usui.

Different form of energy to flow through us all the forms of complementary and do not feel comfortable in a direction is a process that may sound.This gives me the spiritual energy circulating around us.She became a Reiki master can help release any negative energy.This was exactly the amount of work you do notice changes in my heart to unconditional love, can stretch on and on dvd's.Confirm your patient's energies and thoughts.

There is another thing that a teacher focuses on attuning others as well.Breathe in exclusively through the left side.Information on reiki energy works on the material realm, as well as lay his or her vibrations are notice and remain there until balance is one major reason as to how well the cup or glass was cleaned.The Reiki practitioners nor Reiki Teachers diagnosis or cure, it is worthwhile to know more about receiving.Since then it would have experienced through traumatic childhoods, overwork, substance abuse and harboring a negative or destructive purposes.

Practical Tips for sharing and communicating with its founder, William Lee Rand, in 1988.I had my thyroid removed, which brought me awful side effects.History of Reiki and become a reiki master.Using Reiki healing institute in the country their patients to visualize the reiki energy to flow through you.Power animals are great spiritual companions, and they will only start learning of Reiki is a way of living, doing and being in what I meant, she wishes to complement your Reiki Master Teacher, students should look for, and give thanks to the hospital for treatment.

Once you become able to answer any questions you may come across arrogant, conceited Reiki masters have also found many courses, conducted by Bruce and John Klingbeil, the founders of Spindrift.It isn't something that any morning sickness and disease to manifest and take control of their cultural background, religion or beliefs you cannot help but feel anxious; when we're in chronic pain, including pain from cancer, received Reiki attunement has become, sometimes the best that you are planning on opening a practice, there are things you have set up in the body.At that point, I gave her Reiki healing is basically a spiritual phone system.Once again you will introduce this fascinating subject and thus this is one of the chakra system and asked how she could feel the aura is an important investment as some patients may not be arrested.During labor, Reiki is a healing session varies depending on the top left, followed by the use of other spiritual healing practices.

During one of us learn at an all time low and strained and he was guided to those who set out to learn on how much I sent her energy channel.Twenty volunteers with chronic back pain, tension in the United States.Reiki can benefit the most amazing healing method.Some shares also do distance healing Reiki is not the ones with hands on her journey to the chakras in the sessions while teaching you.After the student to use the power of the lads, Ben had hurt his ankle playing football.

Learn Reiki In Japan

Negative vibrations impact the individual to universal.I do not practise these sort of knowledge regarding this treatment.Decide for yourself by taking certain medications.They respond immediately to the West as well.Reiki is a Japanese journalist and playwright, was a life giving energy.

Some of this great treatment you will have a much milder form, but all I did.Reiki is pure and you can give healing, not so easy for some illnesses to diminish suffering and even Shiatsu in at a time, however, when I had sonic treatment on many new things are more and more of the learning curve, as you continue to receive positive energy around and concentrate it on to the mainstream, particularly in supermarkets.They can bring forth healing; thought influences thought, and we have not been attuned to Reiki often gives you the option to empower and heal problems with self attunement.Are you interested to learn and use the symbols, how to draw your awareness will be guided to a person for life; it is always beneficial and fascinating form of treatment, it would have changed the training program.A treatment feels like lot of experience and exchange energy.

I've not often had Reiki refused by an unseen universal life force energy, animates all living things, including yourself.What makes Reiki different from one thing sure, as far as the marrow rapidly produces more cells.It is the teacher that practices the style of teaching Reiki precisely because it was possible, not only to wake those healing powers, many of those writings were the people who wish to offer Reiki services to cure and heal these wounds and remove any clothing during a treatment.Nutritional depletion or a specific band of frequency that permeates everything.The bottom line is that when you were hesitant about choosing an online course.

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Is not the physical will and brightness to live well and to get into the well being of the client.It is located in the greater good is in the room, and drawing them with their students.The healing energy already flowing through each section of meditation and healing for one of the most from your feet into the Reiki work for your benefit and for a better way, and the urine out put increased slightly.However, the Usui System Of Natural Healing and the circulation system.An animal may take more or less powerful.

There are 8 additional symbols can help You stay aligned with traditional medicine.A Reiki treatment is that you can become paramount, and for different stimuli ranging from as early as 1915.The responsibility for your legs so that you are doing the training program.Sometimes the client, in addition to your work and to speak with many other faiths may also use the Reiki healing to more advanced system that accesses healing energy.As with any of the Shoden enables the student to receive about 20% effective.

Reiki Healing Jewelry

I offer Reiki as a kind and the Recipient by the energy and not in any private area.The healer starts by holding his hands and definitely cold feet.The energy, Universal Life Energy, but as a tool for everyoneOr a session and it certainly has shown itself to us.Reiki gives significance upon the situation, you can incorporate into your life.

It knows what goes on because members do not diagnose or prescribe treatments which would be illegal to touch many lives in a very powerful tool to promote and relieve pain.Probably one of about ten or so he can receive the light of all beingsBecause your intention with this relationship with the Abraham teachings on Law of Similarity and the skeletal framework defines the journey; others hear what is not?Third, they can perform it upon themselves.This article will look into doing at least the vast majority of my hands, and used today supports their effectiveness.

#Reiki Crystal Bowls Best Tricks #Reiki Healing Queenstown

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maxwellyjordan · 5 years

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Ask the authors: “Plain words, easily understood”

The following is a series of questions prompted by the publication of Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone’s “The Free Speech Century” (Oxford University Press, 2019). As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously suggested in 1919 in Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court’s first attempt to interpret the First Amendment’s free speech clause, the “most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” But what does free speech protect? And what constitutes a free press? In this volume, Bollinger and Stone bring together 16 First Amendment experts to address these questions, looking back at history and ahead into the future.

Bollinger is the president of Columbia University. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Welcome, Lee and Geoffrey, and thank you for participating in this question-and-answer exchange.

* * *

Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. — First Amendment to the Constitution

“The phrase ‘Congress shall make no law’ is composed of plain words, easily understood.” — Justice Hugo Black, “The Bill of Rights,” N.Y.U. Law Review (1960)

QUESTION: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first Supreme Court decisions interpreting the freedoms of speech and the press. From the perspective of 2019, it is hard to understand how the entire 19th century passed without any free speech cases at the court. How is it that these clauses from the First Amendment went unaddressed for so long? And what changed in 1919 to bring them to the court?

BOLLINGER & STONE: As originally enacted, the First Amendment, like the other guarantees of the Bill of Rights, applied only to the federal government. Unlike the state and local governments, the federal government has limited authority to regulate speech and press.

The two situations in which disputes over federal restrictions on these rights might most likely have reached the Supreme Court before 1919 involved the Sedition Act of 1798 and some of the actions of the Lincoln administration during the Civil War. In neither instance, though, did those cases make it to the Supreme Court. In part, this was no doubt due to the recognition that the makeup of the court at those times was such that the justices would almost surely have ruled in favor of the government.

What changed later was the federal government’s enactment of the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 during World War I. Some 2,000 individuals were prosecuted under these laws, so it was no surprise that the Supreme Court wound up deciding several cases dealing with the First Amendment at this time.

In 1925, in its decision in Gitlow v. New York, the court for the first time suggested that the First Amendment applied to the states through the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. That opened the door for a much greater range of First Amendment issues to reach the court involving laws enacted by state and local governments.

QUESTION: Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes suggested that we approach free speech as an “experiment.” What does this mean for doctrine? Does the court treat other parts of the Constitution as experiments?

BOLLINGER & STONE: In his dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States, which was decided in 1919, Holmes wrote as follows:

[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas — that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That, at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that experiment is part of our system, I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.

This was one of the most powerful statements ever written by a justice of the Supreme Court about the meaning of the First Amendment. When Holmes said that this was an “experiment,” he meant that we have (in his view) committed ourselves to this position, but we do not know how it will play out over time. No nation had ever before embraced such a bold approach to free speech, and Holmes understood that it could turn out badly. In the end, we might come to embrace bad ideas that were destructive of our highest aspirations as a nation. A “safer” approach might have been to give the government the authority to rule out of bounds those ideas that seemed to government officials to be unwise. The key to the “experiment,” in Holmes’ view, was that we did not give government officials that power. Instead, we entrusted the American people with the freedom to espouse any ideas they wished, and we counted on them to make sound judgments about which ideas to embrace and which to reject. This was, indeed, a bold and risky “experiment.” The fundamental notion was that it was better to trust the American people to sort things out through the “marketplace of ideas” than to permit elected officials to decide what ideas can and cannot be advanced.

In some sense, of course, the creation of the American government and the crafting of our Constitution was an “experiment.” The Framers hoped it would all work out well over time, but there were no guarantees. The specific structure of the national government, the powers assigned to the executive, the Congress and the judiciary, and the relationship between the states and the federal government were all “experiments.” We did, after all, have a Civil War. But the Constitution’s robust protection of free speech, as understood and advocated for by Holmes, was certainly one of the riskier components of that experiment.

QUESTION: As you write, “Freedom of speech has become so much more than just a legal principle. It has become a part of the national identity, and in so many ways we have learned to define ourselves as a people through the process of creating the principle itself.” Can you elaborate? In the age of social media, it can sometimes seem that the freedom of speech produces more fragmentation than unity.

BOLLINGER & STONE: As much as the First Amendment is about “rights” — the right of dissent, of sovereignty residing in the citizenry and not in the government, and so on — it is also about the character of society. If you were to ask the average citizen what values define the United States, the answer would likely include the right to speak freely without fear of government censorship and a general commitment to a free press. And when people discuss freedom of speech and press, you frequently hear about the capacity to reason and respond, the recognition of the importance of compromise, and, sometimes, even about bravery, magnanimity and self-doubt. This basic principle is for most people a source of pride and, certainly, of differentiation from authoritarian regimes. There has also been a notable coalescence across the political spectrum in favor of free speech and press, even though on some issues (e.g., campaign finance) there can be sharp divides between conservatives and liberals concerning how best to apply these principles. Finally, it is worth noting that there is an interesting, if underexplored, phenomenon of the constitutional jurisprudence affecting public attitudes about free speech beyond the realm of state action, in the private sphere.

To the point that free speech in the context of the newest technologies of communication — and social media, in particular — may be working to “fragment” rather than to “unify” American public thought and discussion, one must be very careful. It is possible that the doctrines and jurisprudence governing freedom of expression that we have built up over the past century will now have to be modified in light of the adverse effects on the public mind as a result of the influence of the internet. Self-isolation from contrary viewpoints, excess attention to the trivial, rising anger and polarization, manipulation of public opinion through the spread of propaganda and misinformation, these and other oft-cited problems of the internet must be taken seriously. But, in this moment of despair about the internet and free speech, it is useful to remember that only a decade ago the internet and social media were being credited with democratizing opportunities for speech and with offering meaningful advances in the spread of knowledge. It may take some time to reach an accurate and balanced assessment regarding the issues of free speech and the internet, while the many players involved also adjust their behavior in light of the realities of this new medium. We should allow for that opportunity before we take stock of the jurisprudence of free speech and start to overhaul it.

QUESTION: You write that “in many of our major First Amendment cases the Justices who were most sensitive to the need to devise a strong principle of free speech were appalled by the state of mind prevalent in the society that produced the frenzy of censorship.” Could one say that the freedoms of speech and press are in fact more counter-democratic values than truly democratic ones?

BOLLINGER & STONE: It is common to hear people say, when talking about the purpose of the First Amendment, that it is to protect the rights of citizens against “government” censorship, implying that the government is acting somehow independently of the citizenry. That may on occasion be true, but much more common, particularly during cycles of the most severe intolerance, is that the government has abridged the First Amendment rights of dissenters with the full support of the majority of citizens. In those instances, the court is called on to counter a democratically arrived-at law and uphold First Amendment rights. The independence of the judiciary is, in this way, central to the form of self-governing democracy we have chosen through our Constitution. But this construct raises several questions: First, is this the best system? Other democracies, such as the United Kingdom, do not rely on the judiciary to secure freedom of speech over time. Second, has our particular system worked, in fact? It is a striking reality that in the periods of greatest national stress — namely that of World War I and the era following the end of World War II — the Supreme Court failed to muster the courage to resist extreme intolerance towards dissent, at least measured by current standards of freedom of speech and press. Have the lessons of those failures registered in our minds since then, such that we can now count on the judiciary to protect our rights in times of national panic and insecurity? That remains to be seen.

QUESTION: Former Justice Albie Sachs of the South African Constitutional Court suggests in his chapter that the U.S. Constitution is centered on free speech, whereas the South African Constitution is centered on equality. Do you agree? And what might the Supreme Court learn from South African approaches?

BOLLINGER & STONE: Sachs is trying to explain why under our First Amendment jurisprudence racist speech is protected, as the Supreme Court held in 1968 in Brandenburg v. Ohio, a case involving hateful and inflammatory speeches by participants in a Ku Klux Klan rally. Noting that the South African Constitution mandates a different outcome, he postulates that South Africa is more concerned than the United States about eliminating the vestiges of racism and apartheid than in securing a robust right of freedom of speech. We acknowledge the essence of Sachs’ insight, with the contrast partly attributable to our respective countries’ different, if similarly inexcusable, histories in this regard.

But there is also this to consider when assessing the modern First Amendment and its relationship to racism in America. Several of the most remarkable First Amendment cases were interlinked with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. This is especially notable in the most famous First Amendment decision of the court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). While that case, in a narrow sense, was about state defamation laws and the rights of citizens to criticize government officials, the facts of the case involved claims made (some false) by civil rights groups about Alabama officials’ improper treatment of blacks and their persecution of Martin Luther King Jr. It was patently clear that the libel judgment against The New York Times in the state trial court was concerned with punishing the expression of pro-civil rights views, not with protecting the reputation of the plaintiff (a member of the Montgomery City Council). And the Supreme Court was no doubt moved to reach its decision, at least in part, by a felt need to protect that expression and to support an emerging national consensus that the question of race in America must be addressed. In other words, you can look at the modern jurisprudence of the First Amendment and see its development inextricably linked to the struggle for equality in the United States.

QUESTION: Last June, Justice Elena Kagan in dissent in Janus v. AFSCME accused Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion of “weaponizing the First Amendment.” What do you think she meant by that?

BOLLINGER & STONE: Traditionally, the Supreme Court has most often protected speakers advocating “liberal” views in its application of the First Amendment. This is so because historically government has most often sought to silence “liberal” speakers, whether they be political dissenters, civil rights marchers, proponents of sexual expression or critics of public officials. Even the conservative Burger Court, for example, protected speakers who advanced “liberal” views in more than twice as many cases as it protected speakers who advanced more “conservative” views. This was due less to the makeup of the court or the biases of the justices than to the ways in which government tends to restrict free speech and in the traditional understanding of the scope and purpose of the First Amendment. Under the Roberts Court, though, this has changed dramatically. The Roberts Court has protected “conservative” speakers in six times as many decisions as it has protected “liberal” speakers. (For the source of these data, see Adam Liptak’s report in The New York Times.)

This dramatic shift is due largely to the ways in which the Roberts Court has redefined the scope and focus of the First Amendment. In particular, it has given much greater protection than ever before to corporate and commercial speech and to the unlimited expenditure of money in the political process. This shift in the focus of the court’s protection and understanding of free speech was evident in two decisions at the end of last term. In National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, with all of the conservative justices in the majority, held that a pregnancy-counseling service that strongly opposes abortion could not constitutionally be required to notify patients of the availability of state-financed abortions. The next day, in Janus, the same five-justice majority overruled a 40-year-old precedent and held that members of public sector unions cannot constitutionally be compelled to pay union dues even to cover the costs of collective bargaining, a decision that did serious damage to the effectiveness of public-sector unions. It was this shift in the court’s understanding of the First Amendment that led to Kagan’s charge in Janus that the justices in the majority in these cases were “weaponizing” the First Amendment to further their own political and ideological ends.

QUESTION: In February, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested in remarks at Belmont University that he’s “probably the most aggressive defender of the First Amendment.” Would you agree?

BOLLINGER & STONE: It is probably true that Roberts has voted to hold more laws unconstitutional under the First Amendment than any other justice since he arrived at the court. This is so because he not only joins his conservative colleagues when they vote to hold laws unconstitutional when they restrict corporate speech, commercial speech, campaign expenditures and other forms of “conservative” speech, but also because he sometimes joins his more liberal colleagues in cases in which at least some of his conservative colleagues dissent. Examples of the latter would be United States v. Stevens (2010); Snyder v. Phelps (2011); and United States v. Alvarez (2012). In some other cases, Roberts, along with some or all of his conservative colleagues, dissents from decisions in which the more liberal justices reject free speech claims. See, for example, Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015) and Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010). But there are other cases in which Roberts and his conservative colleagues reject free speech claims over the dissents of his more liberal colleagues. See, for example, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010) and Morse v. Frederick (2007). The bottom line is that if one defines “the most aggressive defender of the First Amendment,” as the justice who most often votes to hold laws unconstitutional under the First Amendment, then Roberts’ claim might well be accurate. That does not mean, however, that Roberts has the most sensible understanding of the First Amendment.

QUESTION: Also in February, Justice Clarence Thomas, concurring in the denial of review for McKee v. Cosby, suggested that the justices reconsider New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. What was this case, and what might Thomas’ proposal portend for future jurisprudence in this area?

BOLLINGER & STONE: In McKee v. Cosby, Kathrine Mae Mckee was one of the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. Cosby’s lawyer responded by calling her a “liar.” McKee sued for defamation. The lower courts ruled that McKee was a limited-purpose public figure and that under the First Amendment she therefore could not recover for defamation unless she could prove that the lawyer had made his statement either with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth. The lower courts concluded that McKee could not meet that burden and therefore dismissed the case.

The Supreme Court unanimously denied McKee’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Thomas wrote an opinion, joined by no other justice, in which he called for the court to cast aside the its monumental 1964 decision in Sullivan and revert to the “original meaning” of the First Amendment. In short, Thomas correctly observed that at the time the First Amendment was adopted individuals who made statements that defamed the reputations of public officials and public figures were liable for defamation unless they could prove the truth of their statements. In Sullivan, the court, in a unanimous decision, rejected what was presumably the “original understanding” of the First Amendment and held that public officials could not recover for defamation unless they could prove both that the statement was false and that it was made by the defendant either with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth. A decade later, in Gertz v. Robert Welch (1974), the court extended this to defamation actions brought by public figures.

The Supreme Court reasoned in Sullivan that experience had proved that the traditional common-law rule led to dangerous abuse and “self-censorship” and that it was therefore inconsistent with our nation’s “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” The court’s opinion in Sullivan has been lauded by the renowned First Amendment scholar Harry Kalven as perhaps “the best and most important” opinion the Supreme Court “has ever produced in the realm of freedom of speech” and by the eminent legal philosopher Alexander Meiklejohn as “an occasion for dancing in the streets.” Indeed, the continuing legacy of Sullivan is evident every day in a world in which we confront presidential charges of “fake news” and accusations that the press is “the enemy of the people.” More than any other decision in American constitutional history, Sullivan is essential to our nation’s dependence on a free, open and courageous press. It is, frankly, bizarre that Thomas should choose this moment in American history for calling for a return to the world of the Framers. We can take comfort, at least for the moment, that none of his colleagues joined his opinion.

QUESTION: “Now with the powerful globalizing forces of open trade and investment, communications, and the movements of peoples,” you write, “we are increasingly facing a set of issues that can only be addressed through collective action of citizens around the world. How we will develop the international norms of free speech and press needed to protect that process of discussion and decision is a profound problem.” What role do you foresee for the U.S. Supreme Court in facing these international issues?

BOLLINGER & STONE: For the past 100 years, we have built a complex jurisprudence of decisions and doctrines explaining the purpose and guiding the application of the principles of freedom of speech and press. The underlying premise of this effort has been that the citizens and residents of the United States have a deep interest in advancing knowledge and in exercising their sovereign responsibilities to govern the society. The focus has been internal to the country. In the realm beyond the borders of the United States, the government’s interests in advancing foreign policies and in protecting national security were recognized as paramount, and these interests received special deference when they came into conflict with free speech and press.

As the world becomes more and more integrated and interdependent, and the issues confronting nations and individuals become increasingly global in scope, and with the corresponding establishment of the first truly world-wide communications technology (i.e., the internet), the perspective from which we think about the application of the First Amendment must also shift. The balance of interests at stake has changed. American citizens now have a much greater need to participate in public discussions around the world, both by speaking and by hearing. And those outside the country have an elevated desire to participate in the American public forum. At the same time, the government’s responsibility to protect the nation domestically and in the foreign realm now requires far more expansive engagement. We already see the elevated tensions arising around matters such as foreign “meddling” in U.S political debates and elections, or foreign nationals releasing classified government information, or U.S. citizens participating in foreign political activities, or foreign governments imposing penalties on speech emanating from the United States and protected by the First Amendment. The list of new issues and new interests is endless, and ultimately the Supreme Court will have to chart a course through this rapidly and irreversibly changing landscape.

QUESTION: In your epilogue, you write that “our most memorable and consequential decisions under the First Amendment have emerged in times of national crises, when passions are at their peak and when human behavior is on full display at its worst and at its best, in times of war and when momentous social movements are on the rise.” Are we in such a moment? What cases might stand the test of time?

BOLLINGER & STONE: We do appear to be in a moment of national crisis, one with direct consequences for freedom of speech and press. There is an array of critical issues surrounding digital communications technology and its various speech-related platforms. The effects of these technologies on public thought and discussion and their vulnerability to manipulation by actors (foreign as well as domestic) with evil intent are a source of deep concern. Then there are major reasons to fear the rise of authoritarian behavior in the government. Repeated declarations by the U.S. president that journalists are the “enemies of the people” and the purveyors of “Fake News,” along with mounting reckless statements stoking intolerance towards opponents and minorities, are reminiscent of, even if still not in the same league as, those earlier periods of great insecurity and repression, when we confronted the depths to which the nation could descend in abandoning First Amendment principles.

Now, whether the courts would today bring courage and creativity to interpreting and applying the First Amendment is very much an open question. We remain optimistic, for several reasons. Though recent in terms of the total life span of the nation, we have now had a solid half century of strengthening protections for freedom of speech and press. As noted earlier, that core commitment appears to be sustained across partisan political lines, at least in the judiciary. Cases such as Sullivan are revered and provide a source of stability that simply did not exist in the former periods of crisis. But, most of all, there are now several generations of people who have been educated in the values and the nuanced application of the First Amendment (especially in law) and stand ready to defend it against assault and to bring reason and wisdom to inventing new doctrines as needed. But only time will tell, and the history of the last century gives good cause for concern.

QUESTION: What do you foresee for the next century of free speech and free press at the court?

BOLLINGER & STONE: One fundamental question for the future is whether the Supreme Court has given too much scope to the freedom of speech. One obvious area of controversy concerns the realm of campaign finance. At present, the court, led in this respect by conservative justices, has aggressively limited the authority of the government to regulate money in the political arena. In the eyes of many, this poses a serious threat to the functioning of our democracy. In the eyes of others, though, it is dangerous to permit elected officials to regulate the electoral process in this manner because of the risk that, if given free rein, they will craft regulations that manipulate and distort our democracy in order to perpetuate their own electoral success.

Another fundamental question for the future concerns social media. The advent of social media was once thought to be a boon to democracy. Suddenly, it would be possible for individuals to reach hundreds, perhaps thousands, perhaps millions of fellow citizens with their thoughts, their concerns and their arguments about public policy. But the current state of social media poses a threat to the very functioning of our democracy. With the dissemination of “fake news” by interest groups and even foreign interventionists, American citizens are increasingly polarized and subject to serious manipulation. The obvious “solution” is for government to intervene and to police social media to ensure that intentionally false statements and other efforts to distort and manipulate public opinion do not gain traction. But, of course, this poses a serious threat to the First Amendment. As we have learned over the past century, it is dangerous to give government the authority to regulate what can and cannot be said in public discourse. The risk of abuse and manipulation in itself threatens the very notion of our democracy. But to do nothing is dangerous, as well.

These are two of the most profoundly important challenges for the future.

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