#yorkshire love song-verse

[zot3-flopped]

I'm fascinated by what 1D and after was really like for Louis. The fans didn't even try to hide that they supported him because they felt sorry for him! All that stuff about 'management' turning down his mike. Him not getting lines in songs. That has to hurt. I know he's found a way to monetise it but ouch, he's 'loved' for not being able to sing as well as 4 other guys. and people think he's forbidden to be gay as well.

I think he's a good grifter, like he has all the girls feeling sorry for him and they pay him for the privilege. Boo hoo Harry got my verse, boo hoo nobody on radio will play my songs. What do you think his next grift will be? I have said it before but I think he will pull back from the alcoholism and drug use and use the inevitable rehab story to get sympathy, maybe in a ghostwritten book (a format that doesn't need him to sing, because he's fucked his voice now).

I can see him releasing a book and pretending he wrote every single word when in reality he was just interviewed by a ghost writer.

Rehab isn't something he thinks about. He's proud of his 'little vices' and has also stated that he has 'too much Yorkshire pride' for therapy.

#louis tomlinson

[imichelle-l-rigby]

Reflections: Cillian Murphy’s Limited Edition

Season 3, episode 8

✨it’s almost Thanksgiving but I’m finally in the November episodes✨

———————————————————————

*I am a music prof (predominantly classical vocalist), and I LOVE listening to Cillian’s music choices! That being said, sometimes I won’t like a song simply because of a vocalist (it’s a professional hazard - sorry!) 👩‍🏫

** The following are my own observations/opinions. We may not agree, and that’s ok! That’s what makes music fun! 😊

*** I wouldn’t say I’m well-versed in Cillian’s music preferences, but I do enjoy them (for the most part). I always wind up adding to my own playlists after listening to Cillian’s recommendations.

———————————————————————

*snuggles up in my blanket with my tea* alright. Let’s do this 😎

🎵Set 1 (Kick in the Eye - Teenage Wildlife)

Kick in the Eye: 😎 what a cool way to start the show!

Teenage Wildlife: FINALLY some Bowie! I’m honestly impressed that he was able to wait this long to get a Bowie song in 😂. Bowie is a love/hate relationship for me. I like his music and LOVE covers, I just don’t like listening to Bowie’s voice. 😕 it actually makes me sad I don’t like him more, but I just can’t do it.

🎤Talking Break

Woo November!

Ooh uninteresting facts again!

“So delicious and dull”

“Nap for 13-15 hours at a time” - cries in tired teacher 😭😭😭😭

Cillian. Howwwww do you sleep with the light on?!?!?! HOW?????

I can see how it reflects a little of “Heroes”

I love his Moog synthesizer talk! THANK YOU FOR THAT, CILL!

🎵Set 2 (Good Listening - Générique)

Good Listening: ah yes, the swing/big band jazz days! I love it! ❤️

Ohh… an ident! Is this Duke??? Sounds like him.

I’m Beginning to See the Light: Duke is amazing. Hands down! And I loooooove the plunger mute - such a fun timbre! I love how he sounds so classy and raucous all at once. But who’s the vocalist??? The track list doesn’t tell me 😢

Générique: Miles! 😍 so Cool…. No words, just vibing.

🎤Talking Break

Ooh a soundtrack track! And of course they just improvised…

And yes - it was Duke!

Blues accordion. I am intrigued!

🎵Set 3 (Trouble in Mind - Slippin’ Into Darkness)

Trouble in Mind: yes. It is blues accordion. Why does this work??? 😅👍

Slippin’ Into Darkness: it’s got such a mix of styles! It’s gospel-like, rock, Motown, all sorts of stuff! I like! 😎

🎤Talking Break

An exclusive!

A reading from a memoir!

🎵Set 4 (Superstar -

Superstar: kinda cool how it starts with low bass and higher guitar melody. And the vocals sound like they’re in a cave. Fun cover!

Deep Blue Day: nice and atmospheric ☺️

Left Hand Path: this is like the previous 2 songs had a baby. I like it, but it just fits SO WELL in this set! 😂

🎤Talking Break

Lots of covers!!! Why are covers so good???

Irish music!

I’m glad he pronounced all that 😅

🎵Set 5 (The Trees They Do Grow High - Travel Size)

The Trees They Do Grow High: I must say this sad/angsty feel fits the folk song so well, but it’s also quite jarring if you know the song well!

Travel Size: ooooh this is so pretty! I like that this embraces treble for so long! Very few songs will do that today. Then halfway through it gets intense and mysterious! And of course a random sax 🎷 because why not??? ✨might be my fave for this episode✨

🎤Talking Break

“Brand new tunage”

Yay! More new music!

🎵Set 6 (Vampire Empire)

Vampire Empire: monotone, but so fun! Even though it’s new, it sounds like ‘70s music! And I like the upward leap on “chills” - great touch 👍

🎤Talking Break

Controversy over Yorkshire Man!

I love that the best guess is “idk” 😂

🎵Set 7 (Farewell, Farewell - I’ll Keep It With Mine)

Farewell, Farewell: beautiful vocals! I like this a lot. I always do appreciate folklike undulating melodies

I’ll Keep It With Mine: same group, but this time it’s got a Joan Baez vocal quality. ❤️

✨These 2 are awesome✨

🎤Talking Break

“Lots of covers on the show tonight, which I wasn’t prepared for, but I can handle, I think, just about”

🎵Set 8 (Everything - Barcelona)

Everything: yes - awesome jazz! I do love newer, experimental jazz styles. 👍

Barcelona: absolutely beautiful, but I am genuinely confused as to why he’s got an Italian lyric in a song about a Spanish city. So confused, in fact, that I googled! If what I found is correct, that makes this song even more poignant and meaningful. It is speculated that the Italian comes from Verdi’s opera Macbeth. Makes much more sense now.

🎤Talking Break

Gotta love how he’s obsessed with music from the beginning of his career

🎵Set 9 (Atmosphere - Toast)

Atmosphere: no, I don’t think I like this. 😳

If I Fall Under: this is more groovy!

Toast: … this is not what I expected 😅😂 I don’t even know how to explain it! 😂😂

🎤Talking Break:

“That was good, wasn’t it? That was… energetic” - no Cill. No. 😂

Ask a reasonable question!

Dude. That’s a lot of posters! 🙀

🎵Set 10 (Timing, Forget the Timing - Bukom Mashie)

Timing, Forget the Timing: this is a fun disco/synth track! 💃 🕺 🪩

Got to Get Your Own: oh yes - I honestly kinda am sad that the flute was only heard in ‘60s pop/jazz and didn’t really go further. It’s so iconic, it honestly needs to come back into mainstream (course maybe that’s what Lizzo is trying to do?)

Bukom Mashie: ok now this is fun! Awesome bass and percussion, but the brass feels so jazz! JAZZ FLUTE. YES. ✨fave jazzy piece of the evening✨

🎤Talking Break

The end! 😢

Improv one-take pieces. Yes, please!

“Mind yourselves”

🎵Set 11 (Marginalia #59 - Copenhagen One)

Marginalia #59: this reminds me of Olivier Messiaen. He was famous for using bird call as inspiration, even transcribing bird calls and writing them into his compositions.

Chant: I can kinda see how this is like a chant. It’s not got a defined meter or beat, and it centers around one predominant tone. Interesting!

Copenhagen One: super atmospheric - perfect for sleepy time. It reminds me of something in particular, but I can’t think of what. Could certainly be used as film score.

———————————————————————

Thank you so much for reading! If it’s Thanksgiving for you this week, eat plenty and enjoy the day with loved ones! 🥰

Tag list:

@iammrsrogers @deliciousnutcomputer @mariamoonie @brownskinsugarplum76 @look-at-the-soul @kj-davis @neverroad @teapothollow @thepurplearmyposts @possessedmarshmallow

#cillian murphy #cillian murphy’s limited edition #bbc 6 music

[existentialmagazine]

Review: Boxteles’ new racing indie-rock single ‘Hindsight’ pulses with adrenaline bears a bittersweet lyrical undertone

West Yorkshire’s four-piece Boxteles have only grown from release to release since their 2018 beginnings, writing about subject matters that are close to them whilst infusing an indie-rock sound that’s hard not to love. Continually growing their sound to be bigger and more addictive, Boxteles keep expanding upon their experiences to create art that fuels authenticity and brightly infused tones, and their newest offering ‘Hindsight’ does all that and more.

A driving, dominant drum beat and a deep, twangy electric guitar riff jump headfirst into ‘Hindsight’ from the moment you press play, bringing about an abundance of building thrills and pulsating adrenaline you can’t help but immediately feel looped within. The verse settles to more of a moody deepness but continues the speeding pacing, seeing quick drum beats and a murky bassline intertwining for a rising heart-rate and danceable soundscape sure to get you on your feet. With the chorus taking all of this condensed steaming energy and exploding into an atmospheric leap of colour, the rapid beat barrels onwards with a racing guitar riff all laid into a warm backing of soft chords that make the thrill-seeking sound feel more at bay. All laced with their vocalist’s rich, slightly rock-tinted vocals, ‘Hindsight’ truly flourishes in a sound that errs between indie-rock and indie-pop, capturing both the intense and emotive rock sound with more melodically addictive edging.

Though it cascades through the most gorgeously vibrant soundscape, ‘Hindsight’ is a song with a little more of a melancholic undertone embedded within its lyrical storytelling. As Boxteles reflect on a relationship and how it’s newly perceived once it’s all over, ‘Hindsight’ takes on the conflicting emotions of holding a love for someone you also can’t help but feel has become tainted by an abundance of growing resentment and bad experiences. As such, lines jump between indecision, mentioning ‘I want you next to me, but retrospectively you act like you’re a ghost.’ Torn between the desire to return to the romance of the past while bittersweet reality seems to seep over, Boxteles find themselves mourning a love lost where someone they deeply cared for seemingly slowly distanced themselves from what once was a beautiful thing. Picking up more of the heartwarming memories than those that weighed things down, ‘Hindsight’ pleads for one final night together freed of the baggage and simply united once more like the giddy beginnings once again: ‘in hindsight, will you spend the night with me?’ As lyrics like ‘still love the thought of you, so sentimentally’ declare themselves to be connected still, there’s a sweet love buried within ‘Hindsight’ that even while it longs to move forward, it still carries a respect and care that will likely linger forever, even if just a little.

Check out ‘Hindsight’ for yourself here to appreciate Boxteles’ swift and soaring sound with a lyrical journey sure to leave you reminiscing in a positive light!

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Ami Barwell

// This coverage was created via Musosoup, #SustainableCurator

#music #singlereview #boxteles

[carlisle980]

I don’t know why it’s happening or how long it’ll last, but I’m writing some Richard and Isobel all of a sudden. I blame the wonderful Jihope thing I’m in the middle of reading for the burst of inspiration.

And because I’m that bitch, I’m gonna tease.

(Here goes nothing ... pardon me while I vanish back beneath the rock from whence I came.)

Hot off the press:

She contents herself with his mouth: the taste of his breath and the curl of his tongue; he gives up the most delightful little exclamations —half a gasp, half a moan— when she nips at his lips. But soon she is tugging at his collar, pulling his shirttails free from the waistband of his trousers and yanking at the cuffs of his sleeves. It’s on the tip of his tongue to remark about her eagerness —get her blood up a little—, but when she pushes his vest up to his ribs, when warm palms skim along the vee where his abdominal muscles meet his hips, the cheek is swiftly and decisively silenced.

She swallows his sounds, her chest heaving with the effort of breathing between kisses. “Richard.” She sits up, pushing at his chest until he follows, the hem of his vest bunched in her fists. “Need to feel you.”

He grunts and it’s primal; he’d be mortified under any other circumstances but for now he sheds his shirt, unbuckles his belt, opens his flies. He can feel the heat of her eyes on him, doesn’t need to look at her to know, but oh!, when he does.

He watches her drink him in as he toes off his shoes —thank fuck for late spring and boat shoes because there is absolutely nothing sexy about socks, nor the shedding thereof in the heat of the moment. But as it is he kicks his shoes away and drops his trousers, stepping out of them with just enough bravado and swagger to leave her gaping. He has no idea what comes over him, but, spurred on by her response, he traces his palms over his abdominal muscles as he raises the hem of his vest, pulling it over his head and tossing it away.

She gasps, then giggles a little. “Are you mad? What’s got into you?” But when, not a moment later, he’s caught her about the waist and is lifting her dress overhead, she shivers in his arms. She’s had him in the palm of her hand all afternoon, but two can play at this game.

Her bra follows directly, and he is always so careful about these things: asking, and then asking again, whether she’s ready; peeling her out of her underthings with tenderness and reverence. But not today. He uses his proximity to propel her backwards again, her calves hitting the chaise, and she half-sits, half-falls down as he stalks towards her. He’s been hard, aching with it for hours now, and he palms himself over his shorts as much for his own benefit as hers.

“I was rather thinking I’d like to get into you,” he snarls, inserting himself into her space, chasing her down to lie against the throw pillows. And yes, it’s trite, and it’s got them both laughing because he doesn’t do this, but they’re tussling and kissing and good-naturedly battling for dominance and it’s everything: warmth and skin and sweetness, heat arcing between them as she pins him beneath her, pressed hip to hip. The joyous little cry of victory she gives; the smile that starts in her eyes and lights up her face. Love. This love of theirs that radiates from her every pore, that leaves him longing to gather her to him and shag her senseless in equal measure.

“Ah, fuck,” he declares, arms dropping to the cushion under him in surrender. The heat of her, damp through her knickers and his shorts, relentless as her hips begin to work against him in hypnotic little circles. He doubts she even knows she’s doing it, lost as she is in her appraisal of him. Strong, delicate fingers trail over his chest, tracing circles around a nipple. She hums in the back of her throat, knows that she’s driving him to the brink of madness.

“You are lovely,” he rumbles. His hands ghost against her hips as he rocks his pelvis against hers, desperate to hold her, contain her, and at the same time, let her fly. She throws her head back at the contact and now her torso is one continuous, graceful arch. The warm weight of her breasts fills his palms and he wants this image etched onto the backs of his eyelids, memorialised for all of time. He strokes her nipples, grinning at the way she writhes above him and murmuring filth in her ear. (“Oughtta put my mouth right there, reckon you can take it? Make you come just like that, so fucking pretty.”)

He’s wicked, and she’s weak for it. Entirely at his mercy. She’s given up fighting it; there are worse fates by far. She collapses against him, bare breasts to bare chest and even if they find themselves in this position a thousand times it will always feel like the first time to her. She breathes it in: the moment; the ache deep within crying out to be assuaged, and the conflict; yearning to remain exactly as they are now. And therein lies her rejoinder, and she curls close, the tip of her tongue tracing the shell of his ear. “Not if I get to you first.”

He pushes at her shoulders till she levers up, arching a brow at her. “Well, well,” he breathes, a smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. “Game, set, and match to Dr. Crawley. I dare say, very well played, love.”

She grins and it’s blinding. Thrilled with herself; thrilled with him. Grateful beyond measure for this evening, this life. This man; this love. “That’s Mrs. Clarkson to you.”

“Damn right,” he grunts, kissing her, and she giggles against his lips.

“Oh, do shut up,” she whispers, punctuating it with a kiss, “and let me put my money where my mouth is.” They’re absurd and giddy, breathless with laughter, and he thinks tipsy Isobel just might be his favourite.

“Sod the money. Just give me that wonderful proliferative mouth of yours, eh?”

#ejb actually still writes shit believe it or not #downton abbey #richobel #isobel crawley #dr richard clarkson #modern retirement au #yorkshire love song-verse #newtonverse #anéanti #eventually #hi bye leaving now before i start watching this stupid app for reactions and ruin my life again

[ircnwrought]

BASICS

FULL NAME : sybil cora crawley

NICKNAMES : sybbie

HEIGHT : 5′5

AGE : 20s-40s (verse dependent)

ZODIAC : aries

SPOKEN LANGUAGES : english, french

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

HAIR COLOR : dark brown

EYE COLOUR : blue verging on brown

SKINTONE: pale

BODY TYPE : thin,  graceful

VOICE : a unique mix of both light/high and gravelly/low tones that meet in a song-like cadence

DOMINANT HAND : right

POSTURE : straight and proper

SCARS : none

TATTOOS : none

BIRTHMARKS : a small tan spot on her right oblique

FEATURES : expressive eyes,  dark ringlets down her back,  ski slope nose,  rosy cheeks

CHILDHOOD

PLACE OF BIRTH : yorkshire,  england

SIBLINGS : lady mary talbot,  lady edith pelham,  marchioness of hexham,  and an unnamed unborn brother (deceased)

PARENTS : lord robert crawley,  7th earl of grantham and lady cora levinson,  countess of grantham

ADULT LIFE

OCCUPATION : socialite,  nurse in the voluntary aid detachment (VAD)

CURRENT RESIDENCE : downton abbey,  downton,  yorkshire,  england

CLOSE FRIENDS : her family,  anna smith-bates,  tom branson,  thomas barrow

RELATIONSHIP STATUS : single or married (verse dependent)

FINANCIAL STATUS : extremely affluent

CRIMINAL RECORD : none

VICES : alcohol

SEX AND ROMANCE

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : heterosexual

PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE : sub

LIBIDO : average

TURN-ONS : listening,  playing with her hair,  tracing her skin with fingertips

TURN-OFFS : bigotry,  misogyny,  belittling behavior

LOVE LANGUAGE : quality time and acts of service

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES : soft whispers,  hand holding,  intense but passionate love

MISCELLANEOUS

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG : dawn by dario marianelli

HOBBIES TO PASS TIME : reading,  writing letters,  walking in the garden,  attending political rallies

NEUROLOGICAL : idk what this means lmao

MENTAL ILLNESSES : none

PHOBIAS : none

SELF-CONFIDENCE LEVEL : High

tagged by: @bloodpures <3

tagging: steal it from me i dare you (triple dog,  can’t turn that one down)

#❛ born before her time ❜ ▬ ( sybil crawley headcanon. ) #dash games.

[dailytomlinson]

At the stroke of midnight on January 31st, 2020, the music industry was single-handedly saved by just a young lad from Doncaster. We can all agree, in confidence, that the majority of artists won’t top the charts with their first LP, especially with little to no promo. “Walls” however, debuted at #1 on the worldwide iTunes charts, a feat not many will come by. Judging by its success, we can rightfully assume this album could be rather magical. Just over a month into the decade, I can happily testify that this may be one of the greatest pieces of work we’ll see over the span of the next 10 years. The only record I may allow to top it, will be Tomlinson’s sophomore album, which is fair to speculate will have a little less fan service and show a little more of the grunge britpop rockstar that Louis is dying to showcase.

Oh, this guy’s from One Direction, too. It’s a fact that doesn’t need to be honed in on, but in case you aren’t familiar with his older work, the UK-based band is where he found his origin story. Though hopefully after giving these tracks a listen, we’ll all be able to start celebrating him as the solo artist he was destined to become.

Kill My Mind

You hate me and I want more.

Perhaps I wasn’t alive during majority of the Britpop Movement of the 90s, but I can wholeheartedly say that if you played this opening track for anyone familiar with the genre, they would tell you it would feel right at home as a feature on one of Oasis’ final LPs or as a single brought to us by Blur. However, that is not to say it lacks originality. In fact, far from it. His thick Yorkshire accent demands your attention right off the bat. This song is confident, it’s loud, it’s sexy, it’s everything his loyal fanbase has been patiently waiting to see arise from the musician. It’s a different Tomlinson than the general public may be accustomed to, but it’s a perfect example of an artist finding their authentic self. The electric opener, Kill My Mind gives us a little tease as to what’s to come.

Don’t Let It Break Your Heart

What hurts you is gonna pass and you’ll have learned from it when it comes back.

After careful consideration, this may be the album’s weakest link. It draws on a bit of the pop-influence his previous audiences may be more familiar with. Previously, Louis released a single-edit and a piano version. The one featured on the album, is by far the most well mixed. It’s filled with beautiful harmonies and the layered vocals have a lot of potential. The message of this song is uplifting, about overcoming hardships with grace and allowing yourself to grow from them — A theme not uncommon in Louis’ writing or general life philosophy. Always the lyricist, coming from him, this message works and it works beautifully into the melodies of the song. My main issue comes down to production. The background vocals are choppy and make the general feeling of the song a little cheesy. Ultimately, it all just sounds forced. I can say however, experiencing this song live is a different story. Some songs are meant to be played live, and this just happens to be one of them.

Two of Us

We’ll end just like we started, just you and me, and no one else.

The lead single was one Louis himself proclaimed needed to be written, or else his other art would suffer from being insincere. “I just feel like musically, I almost needed to get this song off my chest,” He recently told Rolling Stone, “People say writing is a part of therapy and in a way, I feel like I’d been avoiding writing this song because I knew I only had one chance to get it right.” For those who may be unaware, at the start of his solo career, Louis tragically lost his mother, the person he was closest with, to leukemia. Out of respect to him, I won’t dwell on this, and it does feel fairly inconsiderate to put the piece under review, per say. I will, however, assert that it is a stunningly orchestrated song. You can feel the authenticity and honesty radiate from the words he’s singing, especially in the big build up of the chorus in comparison to the heart wrenching and softly sung outro. It’s rare we find artists who are proud to wear their hearts on their sleeves and speak with true openness. Each song is an example of this, but Two of Us broadcasts this vulnerability loudly, as he gives us an anthem of accepting that you’re grieving and reminding listeners to always hold onto hope.

We Made It

Nothing in the world that I would change it for, singing something pop-y on the same four chords.

Yes, she’s corny, yes her lyrics might not be up to standard with the rest of his work, and yes, she is my favorite song on the album. We Made It, is filled to the rim with nostalgia and embracing that although the tunnel was dark, there was in the end, a light. For anyone who has grown up with Louis and supported him through all the twists and turns of his decade long career, this song could be a celebration of us and our relationship with our favorite musician. There were always struggles along the way, but we, as fans, never turned our back on him. We were there for him when he needed us to lean on. The sentiment remains when reversed. Ultimately, whatever we needed, he was able to provide. It’s easy to see how much of a team Louis and his followers are, and this song is honoring that. If you’re less familiar with the singer himself, then this track is just a fun little guitar-driven song that reminisces those nights of getting smashed and blazed out of your mind with your young love, and what’s wrong with that?

Too Young

Face to face at the kitchen table, this is everything I’ve waited for.

Every album needs a song to cry to, and for Walls, this is the one. There aren’t too many complexities here, as Louis has said he generally likes to stray away from metaphors when he can. The calm strumming of the acoustic guitar, lends itself beautifully to the track, and never overpowers Louis’ voice. Vocally, this a huge example of a myriad of Louis’ strengths. It contrasts some of the heavily belted pieces we hear later on in the album, and focuses on the softness he’s able to convey in his killer range of a chest voice. His raspy tone demonstrates a certain intimacy. When the song is listened to through headphones with your eyes closed, it almost feels as if Louis is right there on your bedside, gently playing a personal piece he had just written and trusts you enough to perform it for you first. There’s a certain amount of emotional intelligence demonstrated in this song, as he never pulls the victim card, but instead takes the mature approach of admitting to where he’s gone wrong. This notion is used a lot in his writing, and is a sure telling of his character. This catchy little ballad wouldn’t feel out of place on albums of most genres, musically lacking some originality, which is made up for with the candor and polish in his vocals.

Walls

Why is it that “thank-you” is so often bittersweet?

Objectively speaking, this is the most well crafted track on the album. Perhaps even more Oasis-y than some Oasis hits, it even earned itself a writing credit from Noel Gallagher himself. By now, we are more than well accustomed to embracing Louis’ themes of overcoming barriers (or walls). It’s something he writes about often, and why shouldn’t he? He knows what it’s like to stand above what’s been dragging you down more than anyone. The most titular lyric opens and closes the tune, proclaiming, “Nothing wakes you up, like waking up alone.” As soon as you’re hit with this, you know you’re listening to a song which dares the audience to take the musician earnestly. Louis has always been the funny one who has chosen to never take himself too seriously in life. With his music, he had a hard time at the start, choosing to put out records which defined Top 40, but never himself. Walls forces us to accept the artist he’s become. It proves to every listener, that Louis Tomlinson is a musician, a lyricist, a vocalist; a true craftsman. He is a serious artist and this salient track forces us, for once, to accept him as one.

Habit

Took some time cause I ran out of energy, of playing someone I’ve heard I’m supposed to be.

Back in February of 2018, Louis teased this lyric on his twitter, sending fans into a frenzy of when and where this sentiment might come into play. In September of last year, he finally played it for us live. This live version of the song was a complete bore. Again, Louis’ biggest asset in his music may come from his lyrics. He wrote more songs for One Direction than any of the other boys, often partnering with Liam Payne who would work on the melodies, while Louis focused on cutting deep with his words. This is more than evident here, meaning any initial fondness of this song was independently due to the verses he was singing. When the album finally hit stands and we were able to hear the studio version, I have to say, my opinion on this absolute banger changed drastically. It may be a little controversial to say, but this song might have some “Yeehaw” vibes. If you played someone the opening, before his vocals take the forefront, it would’ve been fair to assume it was a Maren Morris hit. Country/Britpop/Indie isn’t exactly something I would ever even consider diving into, but let me tell you, this certified bop has been on repeat. Here’s to hoping him and his band can put together a new live arrangement before the world tour kicks off in March.

Always You

Waiting to wrap your legs around me, and I know you hate to smoke without me.

To be blunt, this song was a fan service. If it wasn’t for Louis’ persistent stans, this track may have been ditched months ago. However, when he gave us a glimpse of the songs upbeat opening lyric three years ago, we latched onto it. For years we bombarded Louis, telling him this song needed to stay on the record, and thank God he listened. He did realize partway through the writing process that this isn’t the sort of music he would like to put out anymore, so it may not resonate with someone looking for the more grungy side of the artist. Always You is almost pure bubblegum and it sounds like it should be radiating loudly off festival speakers. The tune will be a crowd-pleaser, and will surely bring the most hype for live audiences. It’s the sort of song you want to scream out while drunk on a rooftop in the summer atop the ocean in New York City, which is exactly what myself and approximately 6800 more fans will be doing this June.

Fearless

Cash in your weekend treasures, for a suit and tie, a second wife.

God damn is Fearless sexy. The slow and pulsing beat of this song, with the organic guitar, subtle production, and his sultry voice are a recipe for a great and sensual tune. The song was written with the inspiration of feeling youthful, and teaches what to center your sense of self-worth around. There’s a certain level of maturity that comes with a song of these intentions, and in that, Louis is able to showcase his ever growing wisdom. “What I wanted to try and capture with the song is the idea of feeling youthful and how important that is,” He recently said in an interview with Apple Music, “I’m at this age where I’m on the cusp — I’m definitely not a teenager, I’m not a young lad anymore, nor am I old, but I sit in this space where I’m aware of my age now. I hear it as a playground or going back to real youth.”

Perfect Now

Don’t you wanna dance? Just a little dance?

On release day, Louis did a signing, where he bravely asked a few fans what their least favorite track on the album was. Everyone said Perfect Now, earning them a high five from the man himself as well as his genuine agreement. While many look at it as a cheesy romantic love song, masquerading as a rejected early One Direction track, mirroring Little Things or What Makes You Beautiful, I wholeheartedly disagree. It’s easy to chalk it down to being “cheesy” when you approach it as being romantic, but if you look at it as, simply, a love song, that changes the perspective. Louis sings over an appealing and charming little guitar melody, and you can almost hear his smile. It’s easy to picture him singing this to his younger sisters as a piece of brotherly encouragement, or to a good friend who needs cheering up after a hard day. This darling melody invites you to dance around your bedroom feeling loved. Perfect Now proves that not everything has to be deep and serious; allow yourself to be open to simply feeling happy over the little things like a lyric that makes you smile. When in the chorus he prompts, “Keep your head up, love,” listeners can’t help but feel a sense of personal support from the artist, which is exactly what makes this song so special.

Defenseless

We’re sleeping on our problems like we’ll solve them in our dreams.

It’s understandable why Louis likes to stray from metaphors in his writing, because generally speaking, they simply aren’t good. This is proven with lyrics such as, “I’m running to you like a moth into a flame”. As well as this, the rhyming of “defenseless” with “fences” and then “defenseless” again, doesn’t exactly sit well. The song does grow to be much better than anticipated after the first verse. The pre-chorus has a strong beat, which you’ll find yourself accidentally clapping along to in public. The bridge allows Louis to explore his falsetto, which is something we’ve never heard from him before. It’s strong and poignant, and it’s a real shame that his old band never gave him the opportunity to use his voice in all its capabilities. The control Louis has over his vocals throughout this song is astonishing, and almost unheard of in most modern music outside of musical theatre. This track alone, proves that he is one of the most vocally gifted artists not only to come out of One Direction, but to come out of the last decade at all.

Only the Brave

It’s a church of burnt romances and I’m too far gone to pray.

The lyrics to this song are borderline poetry. Each and every word draws you in and leaves you speechless. It’s a short song, ending at one minute and forty-four seconds, and that works well. It leaves us wanting more, even when we’ve reached the very end of the whole experience. The tune feels like a mantra; something to sing to yourself as you prepare for something you’re nervous about or to congratulate yourself on completing a task you never thought you could accomplish. There’s no proper structure and his voice has a retro filter over top, giving the whole thing a bit of a wartime vibe. The most powerful moment is undoubtedly when he sings, “It’s a solo song, and it’s only for the brave,” as a way of patting himself on the back for where he is now in life and in his career. It’s the perfect way to bring home the album. After 12 tracks demonstrating it, it is proven to us that he doesn’t need his ex-bandmates, he doesn’t need a big production, he doesn’t need Simon Cowell, he doesn’t need other songwriters dictating what direction to go, because he is Louis Tomlinson and he is brave.

#walls review #keira millian #050220 #louis tomlinson

[louistomlinsoncouk]

Louis Tomlinson, a new direction

It’s been a long and turbulent four-year road for Louis Tomlinson. Since his band, One Direction, announced their ‘indefinite hiatus’ in 2016, Tomlinson has struggled to find a professional path that suitably represents him as an artist. As he gears up to finally release his long-awaited debut album Walls this coming January, the singer-songwriter finally feels comfortable in his own skin, finding his own unique Britpop-inspired sound which has been spurred on by the resentment towards a diluting of his vision in a bid to find radio play in the States.

Tomlinson, it is safe to say, has finally found his feet and, with a new record label firmly behind him and a renewed energy propelling his every move, the 27-year-old is now a man on a mission with two fingers in the air and a point to prove.

His remarkable story really needs no introduction. Plucked from a crowd of hopefuls auditioning for the X-Factor in 2010, the then 18-year-old singer was placed alongside Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik by Simon Cowell much to the joy of their growing social media fanbase. Just 12 months later their debut album, Up All Night, was released and propelled the group to international fame. In the six fast and furious years as a band One Direction tour relentlessly, released five hit records and became unfathomably rich in the process.

For Tomlinson, however, the immediate highs were quickly met by severe lows when it all came suddenly crashing down. The end of the band, the media relentlessly pursuing his private life, personal tragedy and more have followed. Now though, with a renewed vigour and clarity for his future, Tomlinson has picked himself up and is about to carve out his own niche of pop music.

I met Tomlinson in a back bar of a central London hotel as I self-consciously began to consider the possibility that I may be underdressed for the occasion. Thankfully though—and much to my relief—he arrived casually dressed in a brown quarter-zip jacket, jeans and Adidas trainers which arrived as a refreshing change in reference to the typical, modern-day pop star. Having travelled down to London from Yorkshire that day, with my editor’s words ringing in my ears, the somewhat opulent surroundings of our meeting lacked the relaxing edge I was hoping for.

It must be said that interviews with musicians of international fame can be tricky — especially when they have a new album to sell. With media training, PR managers typically watching over and a sense ill-trust with the media, it will come as little surprise that popstars can be standoffish in interviews. Despite my initial trepidation though, Tomlinson greeted me with immense warmth and immediately offered to get a couple of beers in from the bar—the first sign that our conversation would follow the laid-back pattern I was hoping for.

After we’d sat down and had a sip of lager, our Yorkshire accents clashing, my mind turned to his recent performance of his last single ‘We Made It’ on Children In Need. Tomlinson looked in his element, like he’d finally found his feet as a solo artist—something that hasn’t been an easy adjustment for him to make in the last few years. “Yeah, naturally I feel as any fucking solo star finds – the longer you’re in it, the more experienced you get, the more confident you get. I think it took me a second to work out who I am musically, to fully detach from One Direction and stuff but I feel like I’m there now so, naturally, I’m more confident in my songwriting ability, I’m more confident performing, singing and all of that, so it feels good.”

Following the split from the band, it did feel from the outside looking in that there was no clear direction where his solo career was going to take him. With collaborations with the likes of Steve Aoki and Bebe Rexha, both of which performed commercially well, there was a creative direction that left more questions than answers. Earlier this year, he took to social media to make a statement to claim that he was turning a page, that he was fed up with writing to a formula in a bid to chase radio play and instead he wanted to make music he loved.

That moment was the beginning of the second chapter in his solo career, which he expands on looking while back at that difficult time with more than a pinch of honesty as always, disclosing: “Yeah but I’m not going to lie, it’s still something that I’m fighting up against if I’m being honest. I mean, because there’s constant opinion around me and you know a lot of people do want to focus towards radio—which I do understand—but what bugs me is just how much it limited me — especially because what I grew up listening to on pop radio is very different to what’s on pop radio now and because I couldn’t see a place for myself. I thought that it wasn’t not going to be authentic because I’m going to be trying to sound like what’s on the radio. Today, in 2019 more than ever, people can spot bullshit. So yeah, I think since that moment I’ve always been conscious of that and as I say it is a constant battle, but I think I’m winning at the moment.”

The state of mainstream radio is something that Tomlinson is passionate about. As an artist who aims to make songs that are accessible to the masses without compromising integrity at the same time, Louis appears to be well versed on the shift in the popular musical landscape: “If I’m being honest, I didn’t actively search for stuff because it was on pop radio,” he said while discussing the change in approach to consuming music. “Especially a band like Catfish and The Bottlemen,” he adds after a moment of contemplation. “When I was growing up they would definitely, definitely, be on every radio and I think those bands are very important and now I have to actively search for them or listen to the right station.” He continues, “Also, I think it took me a second to come out and say what my influences are because I know what people expect from someone who has been in a boyband and stuff like that.”

With this lightbulb moment, Tomlinson wanted to detail more about the inner workings of his creative process, how collaborating with like-minding musicians helped free his thought process. “Once I’d had this epiphany and put this message on social media, at that point I’d done four songs that are still on the album. I think ‘Kill My Mind’ was actually a turning point, I wrote it with a guy called Jamie Hartman and the next session we had together we wrote ‘Walls’ which is the title track for the album and is going to be my next single. I think from that moment it unlocked something and we got some momentum so then the second half of the album was written relatively quickly but I think as I say it being transitional I’d have loved 10 ‘Kill My Mind’s’ but maybe the next record.”

‘Kill My Mind’ looks and sounds like the first step towards the definitive direction that the Yorkshireman is aiming for. It has a punchy Hot Fuss era Killers’ chorus and is more reminiscent of the type of music that Tomlinson himself loves. “That’s probably the proudest I’ve been of a song because that is genuinely a song that I fucking love listening to and that’s not necessarily always the case when you’re playing for radio all the time. It didn’t get the attention that I think it quite deserved but that’s the way it is.”

The shift towards the guitar-led music, which bucks the trend with current chart-toppers, is the path that the 27-year-old is determined to follow. A recent writing session with Australian indie giants DMA’s had popped up in our conversation and the beaming smile across Tomlinson’s face said it all: “I’ve hung out with those boys (DMA’s) actually, one night because we were in the same studio and I’ve written together with [them] before,” he said before clarifying that the drinks were flowing which resulted in an unfinished recording. When probed on whether this is something he’d like to re-visit at a later date, Tomlinson expanded with an eye firmly on the future: “The DMA’s session was a bit of an experiment, to be honest, when I look at my solo career I’m looking at it as a five, six or seven-year plan. I realise this from doing the DMA’s one, I would fucking love to do an album full of them but it’s a transition you know what I mean, I’ve got to understand the fan base and what they want. I don’t want anything to be so drastic so in my eyes, it’s a two, three even four-album progression before I get there and I also think to write those kinds of songs that I love I need to have more experience as a songwriter as well.”

For someone who has had such rich successes in their career to date, the singer-songwriter does seem to have struggled with his self-confidence since going solo—but this year seems to have changed that. One song that stands out is ‘Two of Us’, a track which was released earlier this year is a tribute to his late Mother who tragically passed in 2017. Tomlinson’s life was then struck by more devastation following his sister’s sudden death in March this year.

‘Two of Us’ clearly carries a heavy weight of emotion. Created from the inner workings of Tomlinson’s grief, the song is by a distance the most personal release in his entire career to date. Despite that, the track manages to find the universal within the personal as it’s lyrics resonate for anyone who has ever lost anybody close to them—myself included. While our conversation remained on this topic I was keen to know whether these heart-breaking events had impacted his professional epiphany, whether the personal grief had allowed him to stop worrying about the chart and instead focusing more on enjoying the ride: “When I wrote ‘Two Of Us’ that was something I never really had with music before where I like to think every lyric has meant something. There was a different emotional weight with that song and just hearing people’s stories about what it meant to them and how they related to it, that was amazing for me.”

“If I’m being honest what made me have my epiphany was me spitting my fucking dummy out because I was sick of being put in writing sessions which I couldn’t relate to, or people trying to pull me in a certain way to work on American radio. I could probably have commercial success like that, but I’ve got the luxury of having had that already with One Direction and I thought ‘what does success mean to me?’ I just thought I’ve got to follow my fucking heart and if I can win like that it’s like a double win you know what I mean.”

One Direction’s immediate success was unprecedented for a British boyband. Together they conquered the world with their debut Up All Night going straight to number one in the States and shifting more than 4.5million copies globally. Just one to this moment, Tomlinson was an 18-year-old living for the weekend in Doncaster—but he was determined not to let his newfound fame change him: “Yeah I was always pretty resistant to it [fame] to be honest, I always say that when I got famous, when I first got put in band, that I was having the best year of my life. So, it was a lot to deal with to leave my favourite year behind and to be doing something else where you’re working really hard.

The personal and professional problems that have occurred in recent years appears to have given Tomlinson a remarkable sense of life experience. Despite still being so young, despite having lived a whirlwind life, he still has the ability to self reflect on with a grounded honesty. “Being from Donny you don’t expect to get that kind of opportunity and I then got put into the band and then had to deal with everything on the job. Honestly, it was a fucking incredible time in my life that shaped me as an artist and shaped me as a person, I saw some amazing things but it is also nice now to have a little bit more free time because we were so fucking busy and also you know stand on my own two feet and say this is who I am.”

“As far as what’s on my checklist of a credible artist you know they have to write their own tunes, that was always important to me and I did a lot of writing in the band which I think gave me the incredible experience to write now. It was like a crash course, there were so many sessions and I think it’s put me in good stead, but I feel like I’m always getting better as a writer man I feel like with every song I learn a little bit more.”

Although, it’s clear from speaking with Tomlinson that he looks back on those years he spent with the band with all the fondness in the world. Yet the media attention that came with all the success was something that got the better of him at times. “That was hard and I’ve often envied artists from an era where smartphones weren’t around. There were definitely some days where it got the better of me. I suppose you’ve got to be selective on where you go and I learned the hard way from a few different people that you can’t trust. Some people want something out of you and it took me a second to understand, but again I think that helps me have a thicker skin in the real world outside of my job. There are times when I’ve gone through difficult things in my life and I’ve thought certain people haven’t been amazing but it’s part of it, fuck it.”

As our conversation then meandered toward the split of the band and what life was like for Tomlinson after exiting the world of One Direction— which was all that he had known for the entirety of his adult life up until that point. A sense of honest emotion entered his voice, a moment that seemingly suggested that this permanent change was something that was taken from his own control: “It was good to be back doing normal things but I wasn’t ready for the band to go on a break and it came as a shock for me,” Tomlinson exclusively told Far Out Magazine. “It definitely wasn’t my choice but I understand why the decision was made and there’s a good argument for that. I’m enjoying expressing myself now but it rocked me for a time and for a bit and I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said, vehemently.

From the tone in his voice, it is obvious that the subject is still a relatively raw one for Tomlinson who initially struggled to find the right sound for him following the split of the band—a factor stemmed from his initial reluctance to move solo. From the gravitas of the moment to the importance of his first steps back into music, it was clear that Tomlinson wasn’t ready to be going out on his own so soon after the band’s breakup—a learning curve which other members of the group seemed to overcome in different ways.

The break was initially thought to be just that ‘a break’, but nearly four years after the announcement there are still no signs that the group is entertaining ideas of reuniting anytime soon. With Louis Tomlinson set to release his debut album in January, Liam Payne’s debut LP1 out next month, Harry Styles’ second offering, Fine Line, being made available on December 13th and Niall Horan working on the follow-up to his 2017 Flicker, the One Direction members are firmly in solo mode.

Tomlinson acknowledges that during the final One Direction tour he began to accept that the break was inevitable, admitting: “It had kind of been brewing and we knew the conversation might be coming around but it was just one of those things. It was always going to happen, we were always going to take a break, but I think there are always people who are going to take things better than others.”

Looking on the bright side, however, since the break he has been allowed to live a bit more of a quieter life. From speaking with Tomlinson I get the sense that he’s in this because he loves the music, appreciates the love he gets from fans and loves playing live. However, the celebrity lifestyle that comes with it isn’t why he’s in this game. “I think I can definitely have a bit more of a balance now, there are obviously times when I’m releasing songs or releasing album when it’s really ramped up [...] It’s hard but definitely easier in those off times to have the balance because otherwise when you’re so busy it’s impossible to literally fit everybody into your life. It’s definitely nicer having more time to do normal fucking things,” he adds with an almost sigh of relief.

Tomlinson’s solo career, which has found its feet with emphatic effect and is currently flying high with a sold-out world tour and highly anticipated debut on the horizon, was something that the singer himself had never initially envisioned. With Tomlinson originally wanting to take a back seat in the music industry following the end of the band, he revealed exclusively to Far Out: “I’m not going to lie it hit me hard but it definitely inspired me to get on with my own solo career because it wasn’t something I was always going to do. I was just going to write songs and just hopefully send them to other people and stuff like that, but everything happens for a reason, so they say anyway.”

As the careers of all five members of the band have all taken off, with each turning into different avenues sonically, our conversation then turned to the competitive nature between the band since they went their separate ways. Typically, the avid Doncaster Rovers fan opting to use a hugely specific football analogy to describe the relationship with his former bandmates: “I could be wrong but I think we’ve all got that in us, there’s a competitive side to everyone. I can only speak from personal experience, and as time goes on you understand the differences. It’s not all that relevant but I liken to the feeling at first was that you’ve all been at Barcelona’s youth academy, so we’ll call One Direction ‘Barcelona’ and then we’ve all been put off at different clubs and that takes a second to understand and compute but we’re all still lucky to be able to do it as solo artists.”

Having time off to relax over the last few years for the first time since stepping foot for his X-Factor audition all those years ago, Tomlinson seems to have returned with a renewed love for music and everything that comes with it. For a while, it appears the music was falling second in line to all the hysteria that surrounded his fame—a situation that has been duly rectified.

Next year will see him return to Doncaster as part of his world tour for a very special homecoming and, with that mention, his face lights up with a grin on his face the size of South Yorkshire: “It’s going to be class, I can’t wait for Donny Dome. I don’t feel like my career has fully started until I do that first tour show, it’s all well and good writing songs, releasing songs, doing all the promo and everything that comes with it but the most important fucking thing is that you put on a good show. I started realising the longer that I’ve been in this that there’s a level of importance in these nights to people, especially the avid fanbase that I’m lucky enough to have. You can see from the reactions and look into people’s eyes and see what certain lyrics meant to them.”

What struck me the most from the time I spent with the singer-songwriter was just how grounded he was, seemingly bereft of any level of arrogance and still just that same local lad from Doncaster who began this journey ten years ago. His working-class Yorkshire heritage, he told me, is what has made him the man he is today: “You’ve got to be fucking humble where we’re from you know what I mean? Because otherwise you get called out like ‘who the fuck do you think you are?’”.

The greatest takeaway from our conversation is that Louis Tomlinson is still that music enthusiast that entered the music industry in 2010 who, despite all the success and fame, has managed to stay grounded. With surreal highs came earth-shattering lows—all of which has shaped him in one way or another. Instant success is no longer what he seeks with it now being about the long game for him, this change in attitude is a sign of maturity for Tomlinson who no longer losing sleep about pleasing streaming algorithms.

Having been sitting at the mountain top of the music industry for almost a decade, it seems it is only now he is really getting started with a long-term plan of where he wants his solo-career to go. With a strong sense of support around him, his future and creative vision is firmly in his own hands. With an abundance of experience behind him and has renewed enthusiasm, Louis Tomlinson is finally ready to find his own direction.

Walls is available on 31st January via Sony Music, for tickets to his world tour – visit here for tickets.

#louis tomlinson #29nov19 #far out magazine

[hlupdate]

Louis’ full interview for The Guardian - 25/09/19

After Louis Tomlinson’s recent show in Madrid, some fans got the chance to meet him. One girl wanted to talk to him about his song Two of Us , which he had written after the death of his mother. The girl had lost her dad, and wanted the singer to know how much his lyrics had meant to her. He’d never had that in his band One Direction, he says. “We wrote cool songs, but they were love songs. It only goes so far, and to have someone say that I could help them with my …” He pauses. “It blows my mind, that shit. I was proper proud.” It has been a hard few years. Tomlinson’s mother died in 2016, just as he was about to launch his first solo single. In March this year, his 18-year-old sister was found unconscious at her flat in London and couldn’t be revived. We will come to that, but, professionally, Tomlinson was struggling too. One Direction - that supernova of a boy band - broke up in 2015. Or announced they were taking a break. Or “‘hiatus’ or whatever word we use”, he says with a smile. At the time, Tomlinson, now 27, was finding his place as a songwriter. “I wasn’t singing a lot, I wasn’t the frontman. Without being a sorry little bastard, I thought: ‘How do I do better, how do I make something of myself, an identity?’” In the last 18 months of One Direction, he says, “I felt like I knew who I was in the band, and I felt a real worth for who I was.” The break up, he says, “rocked me. I wasn’t ready for it. I felt like I was getting to be a better songwriter, singer, a more confident performer, and all of a sudden, when I felt I was finally getting some momentum …” We meet at a bar in north London. Tomlinson greets me with a hug as if I am one of his fans (I am not, particularly, although I am by the end). He seems open but not vulnerable, and more self-aware and modest than you would expect from a man who was once part of the biggest boy band in the world. He is friendly and relaxed, dressed in a black tracksuit, with a beer in front of him. Tomlinson’s personal tragedies also meant his solo career has had a bit of a stop-start quality, but now it looks as if there is focus and momentum. He released his single Kill My Mind earlier this month; an album will follow next year. Kill My Mind is an indie-pop delight, not so huge a departure as to alienate his fanbase, but it sounds like the music he grew up listening to - Oasis and Arctic Monkeys - and his South Yorkshire accent brings more than a hint of Liam Gallagher-style northern vocals. He sounds confident on them, more so than on the previous singles he put out, a couple of fairly forgettable collaborations. “I think, in hindsight, that was me trying to find my place in the industry and making music I thought I had to make to get on radio. “I had this epiphany when I was thinking about the music I grew up with,” he continues. “I kind of had a bit of a word with myself and worked out what I want - to be happy and proud of what I’m doing. I love those early singles, but I never really felt proud of them, because it didn’t feel too true to me.” As a child, growing up in Doncaster with his mum Johannah, who raised him alone until she married Tomlinson’s stepfather, he loved performing. “I liked to be the class clown, I liked to make people laugh, to show off, all that.” When his younger twin sisters were cast on TV dramas, he would sometimes go along as their chaperone, earning £30. “Where I’m from, we don’t have anyone who’s been on TV or anything like that, so it was super-exciting,” he says. He ended up picking up work as an extra. “The pinnacle of my acting career was one line on an ITV drama. I don’t even know if they used my scene,” he says with a laugh. When he was 15, he joined a drama group in Barnsley, which his mum would take him to when she could afford it. “I think I was confused, thinking I wanted to act when actually what I wanted to do was perform.” At school he joined a band, where they sang Oasis and Green Day covers, and when The X Factor came up, he made it on to the show in 2010 on his third attempt. He queued from 3am to make sure the producers wouldn’t have audition fatigue before they saw him, and he got his goal - to get in front of Simon Cowell “and just have a professional opinion on how I am as a singer. I was so flustered. Going from school performances to performing in front of professionals, TV cameras, a 3,000-strong audience. I wasn’t present. I sang terribly. I remember coming away from it thinking: ‘I wonder if I’ve got through as one of those lads who looks all right but isn’t really a good singer.’”

One Direction in 2012 (from left): Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Harry Styles. Photograph: IBL/Rex Shutterstock Yet he ended up in One Direction, the band the show put together in its 2010 series. For six years they sold tens of millions of records, broke America and each made a rumoured £40m-plus fortune. Their fans, Directioners, are another level of devoted. I don’t know how he coped with the attention, or the pressure. There were really only a few times when it got too much, says Tomlinson. They were in Australia and a local news station had got a helicopter and a photographer was trying to get pictures of Tomlinson in his top-floor hotel room. “I think I was naked, or just in my boxers, and even in my hotel room there was no escape. I could feel the pressure.” He tweeted about it - “your standard bratty celebrity tweet” - and was attacked. “At times it did stress me out but never was I allowed to whinge, allowed to be a human and say: ‘Today has got too much for me.’ I found that difficult at first.” But he is keen not to sound as if he is complaining. “There was much more positive that outweighed that.” And he never blames the fans for their intensity. Theirs is a special relationship, he says. “So many people have bullshitted about what they feel about the fans, but they’re like family to me.” Even when Directioners have got a bit too ardent - there is a conspiracy theory, for example, that he and his bandmate Harry Styles have long been in a secret sexual relationship - he seems more bemused by it than annoyed. Although he is wary, he says, of adding “fuel to the fire” by talking about it. “I know, culturally, it’s interesting, but I’m just a bit tired of it,” he says. The HBO drama Euphoria recently showed an animated sequence of Tomlinson and Styles together, as imagined by a smutty fan-fiction writer. Was it annoying that a show had taken something fairly niche and given it new mainstream life? “Again, I get the cultural intention behind that. But I think …” He trails off, trying to work out what he wants to say. “It just felt a little bit … No, I’m not going to lie, I was pissed off. It annoyed me that a big company would get behind it.” Why does he think he never went off the rails during the band’s heady period? “My mates and my family, really. It’s from my upbringing and where I come from. If I went back to Doncaster and I was dripping in Gucci or whatever, I’d probably get whacked. I’m always very conscious of not acting too big for my boots. It’s the people around me who keep me sane and normal, because they give me insight into real life.” He lives with his girlfriend, Eleanor and his best friend, Oli. “Some celebrities, in pop in particular, only surround themselves with amazingness, and all they see is good, good, good, which is lovely, but you don’t understand the real world then. I have the luxury of my mates around me, just reminding me how fucking good I’ve got it, really.”

With his mother, Johannah, in 2015. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images The day of One Direction’s final concert in November 2015, Tomlinson and his bandmate Niall Horan sat together “and had a little cry, because it was such a journey we had been on. That day in general was so poignant. As much as you try and prepare yourself, it’s a whole other thing when it comes.” Because they had worked so much with few days off, he assumed that a break would be exciting. “But it wasn’t like that. When you’re used to working however many days, it’s all that more evident when you’re not doing something. Especially in the first six months.” He spent time in Los Angeles with his son, who was born in 2016, after his relationship with a stylist, Briana Jungwirth. “My life became -and I don’t mean this to sound derogatory - very normal, from being a life of pure craziness.” At the same time that Tomlinson was trying to work out what to do with himself, his mother, to whom he was intensely close, had been diagnosed with leukaemia; she died in December 2016. He performed his first single on The X Factor just a few days after her death, then seemed to half-heartedly continue with his solo career, releasing another single in 2017. It would be another two years - during which he became a judge on The X Factor - before he released Two of Us, a raw and beautiful (and under-rated) song. “After I lost my mum, every song I wrote felt, not pathetic, but that it lacked true meaning to me,” he says. “I felt that, as a songwriter, I wasn’t going to move on until I’d written a song like that.” He knew he needed to get it out of him, but there was a lot of pressure - he felt he should be an experienced songwriter before he attempted it. Two songwriters he worked with played him the chorus. “It was like the song I always wished I’d written. I went in and put my personal touch to the verses. It was a real moment for me in my grief, and as part of the creative process, because it felt like it was hanging over me.” Earlier this month, an inquest found that his sister Félicité had died of an accidental overdose; she had been taking drugs, including anxiety medication, since the death of their mother. He has been through some terrible times, I say, which must put a perspective on a pop career. “Exactly,” he says, a little quieter than before. “That whole dark side I’ve gone through, it sounds stupid to say, but it gives me strength everywhere else in my life, because that’s the darkest shit that I’m going to have to deal with. So it makes everything else, not feel easier and not less important, but, in the grand scheme of things, you see things for what they are, I suppose.” His fans have been crucial, he says. “I’m sure every artist says this, but I do believe it. We’ve been through some dark times together and those things I’ve been through, they carry a weight, emotionally, on the fans as well. And I felt their love and support. I remember really clearly when I lost my mum, that support was mad.” What have the experiences of loss he has been through taught him about himself? He thinks for a second. “I keep going back to it, but I don’t know if it’s a combination of where I grew up and my mum’s influence, but I just have this luxury of being able to see the glass half-full no matter what.” He is the oldest of his mother’s seven children, which is grounding and means, he says, “there’s no time for me to be sat feeling sorry for myself. I’ve been to rock bottom and I feel like, whatever my career’s going to throw in front of me, it’s going to be nothing as big or as emotionally heavy as that. So, weirdly, I’ve turned something that’s really dark into something that empowers me, makes me stronger.” He gets up to go to the toilet, which I think is his polite way of asking me to move on, although when he gets back he says, by way of a final word on the matter, “I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. That’s not how I feel for myself. Somehow it fuels me.”

1D face the fans: the band’s last performance was in 2015. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar One Direction will get back together one day, he believes. He still speaks to the others. “We’re not texting each other every day, but what we do have, which will never go away, is this real brothership. We’ve had these experiences that no one else can relate to.” Styles has become quite the superstar. The others seem to have steady solo careers. Tomlinson says he’s embarrassed to admit that, when he first went solo, he would have been devastated had his album “only” reached No 3, so used is he to everything he did with One Direction going to the top. Is it hard not to measure himself against his former bandmates? “Oh, naturally,” he says. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I’ve never been competitive like that, but, naturally, you think: ‘If they’re getting this then I deserve that.’ I think, the longer time goes on, I can see it for what it is and just be proud of them.” And success means something else to him now. “It means I’m happy with what I’m doing.” Kill My Mind, by Louis Tomlinson, is out now on Arista. His debut album will be released in 2020

#tw death #tw drugs #stunt mention #louis tomlinson #250919

[interesting-blog-name]

LOOSE REVIEWS (It Looks Sad., Pablo’s Paintings, Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Steve Lacy)

Just a bunch of very quick, very throwaway reviews that I put together while I’m writing the Björk discography post (I’m currently at Vespertine, so this shit is gonna take a while). Mostly slightly underground bands, all very short projects and one of them don’t even have a project, but you should check them out. Anyway.

It Looks Sad. – Songs For Quarantine

Not much to say about this. It is a 9-minute EP, obviously not meant to be taken as a serious, ambitious release, but it’s from a band I wanted to check out: It Looks Sad.. They’re categorized as emo, but their style reminds the listener a lot more of shoegaze and dream pop, at least from what I’ve heard by them (right now, this and Drool, which fits cozily in my Summer playlist).

If you want some moody music for the quarantine (if it’s still going on by the time I post this) and you don’t care if the songs sound like they were recorded in an underwater cave, then go ahead and listen to this I guess. It’s average as fuck but whatever, that’s the point.

 WORST TO BEST: Eyes, Love, Waves, Bug

 bedroom music/10

“*insert shoegaze mumbling here*”

 It Looks Sad. - Kaiju

2015 EP. Two tracks, one sucks and the other is tolerable. Like I really don’t know what the fuck the singer was trying to do with Creature, he’s hollering all over the place, and the delivery would be more at home in maybe some poorly-recorded punk song, but the instrumental is nothing like that, as it’s pretty much indie-rock 101; not to mention the lyrics, which are the blandest broken-hearted songwriting I’ve heard yet, probably. I now understand how truly emo they were.

For Nagoya, I can at least say the hook is pretty cool, but that’s it really. I guess I’m grateful they changed their style.

 2.45/10

“Best friend this is terrible. You know it’s inevitable. I hope you come back, I hope he comes back.”

 Pablo’s Paintings

Just wanted to give a shoutout to the underground Leeds, Yorkshire band Pablo’s Paintings. I had listened to Lizard a long while ago, and loved it, so I decided to check out the rest of their stuff today (May 25th), and it’s very solid. The track You’ve Got A Long Way To Go draws heavily from a psychedelic influence, while Paint’s Gone Dry and So Long (All Your Friends) sound like something The Beatles would maybe write.

I guess you could call them formulaic, but their mixing and distinct sound are all pretty good for a band that hasn’t gotten a song with over 2000 streams on Spotify. Their songs can be a little to bubblegum-ish, such as So Long (All Your Friends) which doesn’t really stand out as many others, but for the most part, they deliver. Can I Draw You Something? has a slight edge to it, in comparison, but still sporting cute lyrics about just drawing for someone, and Ghost In The Machine has a great progression to it, and a very cool cover art to accompany it. It’s clear the band has a taste for visual arts, from the lyrics to the band’s name.

In short, they do have a long way to go, and I hope they release an album soon, considering all but two of their Spotify singles were from last year; I’d be the first to listen to it.

 WORST TO BEST: So Long (All Your Friends), Paint’s Gone Dry, You’ve Got A Long Way To Go, Can I Draw You Something?, Lizard, Ghost In The Machine

 good band check them out/10

“I draw these lines and take them for a walk. I find that I say things better when I don’t need to talk”

 Vancouver Sleep Clinic – Winter

Contrary to the name, the band Vancouver Sleep Clinic is from Australia. Led by ambient singer (a term I didn’t know existed until today) Tim Bettinson, from my understanding, the band have partly built their audience by reeling people into the music by putting having the songs feature in TV shows and movies and whatnot, since there’s a hefty list of times their songs have appeared in this type of media on their Wikipedia page. I decided to listen to Winter because I discovered Stakes from the fact that the $uicideboy$ sampled it on the song Sold My Soul To Satan Waiting In Line At The Mall, and liked it a lot. The EP as a whole, however, not nearly as much.

To start off with the main problem I have with Winter, the tracks are all the same. Seriously, I cannot distinguish one from the other; all the songs are soaked in reverb and mainly center around simple acoustic guitar chords and generic pianos, mixed with Tim’s head voice and sometimes the dumb decision to include a synthesized drumming track, like in Vapour, where the fast-paced hi-hats sound so out of place and clip so badly in your ears, it sounds like your earphones are having a mini seizure, but not in a cool way. Meanwhile in Flaws, there’s this unnecessary, wack finger-snapping that makes it sound like I’m listening to some techno song with around 3000 views on YouTube (I do like his backing vocals in the track though).

At its best, tracks like the opener, Collapse, offer an actually powerful passage, in that song’s case, the hook breakdown, where the 808 drum patterns are actually very welcome, and the synths under it are very beautiful and harmonize really well. The final track, Rebirth, also attempts a grand breakdown of sorts, but falls flat because the song is so unnecessarily stretched out and weirdly segmented, and it’s so unexpected: the song is a slow piano/guitar ballad as usual, and then, around 3 minutes in, after the song fades out almost entirely and tricks you into thinking it ended, the drum kicks start rising and all of a sudden there’s... something? I don’t even know what instruments are playing apart from the  superimposed drums and what I think is an electric guitar, because it sounds like god knows what, an overheating computer mixed with some shrieking sound, which I assume is the guitar, way off in the background. And then Tim sings a last verse and the song suddenly ceases to exist. Same thing happens with the shortest track here, (Aftermath), consisting of 4 lines, your average piano and strings, and of course, the reverb. It builds up an epic instrumental, and after the brief singing section, just ends. No further instrumental work, just woosh. It’s gone.

I will give credit to Tim’s verses. Even though they’re always delivered with the same intonation, his lyrics are alright, and at least in Stakes, he employs some backing vocals that really make the track, and the hook is magnificent. They tend to blend into one another, with constant themes being metaphors for words he should have or regrets saying, the cold (obviously, given the EP title), sometimes drowning/large bodies of water, and of course, all tracks are about melancholy and heartbreak. But in some parts of the EP, his verses really do feel like some alright poetry, such as the awkward last verse in Rebirth (“I’m starting again, tearing my flesh, stripped to the bone, the all that I’ve grown. Leaving behind, breathe like a child. It’s taken the winter to find who I am”) or the already mentioned beautiful hook in Stakes. In most of the songs, however, I find his themes to be too repetitive and, I wouldn’t say uninspired, but run-of-the-mill.

So overall, the EP doesn’t amount to much. All the tracks attempt to go this emotional route, but they’re very repetitive, and that numbs them and robs them of their emotion a lot. Listen to it if you want to relax, or maybe even sleep to it if you want to take their name literally.

 WORST TO BEST: Vapour, Flaws, (Aftermath), Rebirth, Collapse, Stakes

 4/10

“I sunk in oceans blue, now they’re all frozen over. I should have took your hand, we should have crossed the border.”

 Steve Lacy – Steve Lacy’s Demo

Member of The Internet, singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, drummer and producer Steve Lacy is an artist I’ve wanted to check out for a while. I have at some point in my life heard his song Looks, off this demo, but thankfully I forgot how it went so I can check it out again. It’s gonna be a quick listen and review, but I’m curious (and while looking him up I found out he won a Grammy with Kendrick’s DAMN., for producing, backing vocals and songwriting, so that’s cool, congrats Steve).

Right away, I’ll just mention this project is very lo-fi. As in, the drums and his voice are poorly mixed. I’ll give it a little bit of a pass because this man played all the instruments in here and I appreciate the fuck out of that, but anyway. You can tell right at the first track that singing isn’t Steve’s forte, at least in this album, at this time. The hook in that song is just bad, the good part are the instruments, the guitar riffs and the very dynamic bassline, plus the fun little bongos. However, just like all songs here except Dark Red, this is waaaaaaaay too short. It has two short hooks, the verse, and that’s it. The songwriting, I feel, is one of Steve’s more substantial talents; this song I just mentioned is mainly about how a relationship can’t progress because the two involved don’t like much about each other apart from their looks, and Ryd is all about taking a girl to your backseat, but even though these themes are very simplistic, Steve fleshes them out into something more interesting and melodically rich. In Ryd, his smooth vocals surf over the sunny riffs, but what takes away from it are the weirdly mixed drums, as they sound like they’re playing way louder than they should be. The track is groovy though.

The most focused song here, Dark Red, tells the story of a man who’s worried his girl might leave him soon. The instrumentals are nothing special, very basic, and same with the vocals, even though they’re more rooted and solid in this song. The next song, Thangs, emphasizes its bass way more than other songs, but once again, Steve’s voice is not pleasing to listen to, specifically his high-pitched backing vocals, they’re awful. The lyrics are the most basic here, and this song just goes by without leaving any impact after ending pretty abruptly.

Haterlovin is weird. The vocals are way too low, but I like how they differentiate themselves by not going the melodic route, instead Steve chooses to rap them, and his flow in the verse is impressive, but at the same time the hook is way too repetitive for the song to work, and even though it’s nice he switched up and focused the track on the drums, it still leaves it pretty bare.

To close it up, Some brings some promise, with a pretty funky bassline and hook, but then ends out of nowhere and starts a hidden track, Snaily, which I admit has nice falsetto vocals from Steve, but I don’t know why I couldn’t be a separate track. Overall, the album isn’t great, but I appreciate how organic and talented Steve is. Throughout the songs, his creativity is pretty noticeable, so I can’t hate his efforts, but unfortunately his ideas don’t find the right light to shine here.

 WORST TO BEST: Thangs, Haterlovin, Looks, Some, Dark Red, Ryd

 4.5/10

“Next thing I know she was feeling on me, and I was in the M double-O D when she said park my car down the backstreet”

#it looks sad. #it looks sad #pablo's paintings #vancouver sleep clinic #steve lacy #songs for quarantine #kaiju #winter #steve lacy's debut #indie rock #indie pop #underground rock #shoegaze #alternative #i should be doing school work #album review #album #review #ep review #ep

[slytherdaddy]

h e r o e s  always get remembered                                                 but y’know legends never die

𝖖 𝖚 𝖔 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

”Purity will always conquer.” ”The decay will feed the bloom.” ”These violent delights have violent ends.” ”He wore his hatred like a cruel second skin.” "You can romanticize me all you wish, but the devil wrapped in silk is still the devil.”

𝖇 𝖆 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈

NAME: Lucius Abraxas Malfoy NICKNAMES: Lucius Malfoy has never been given a pet name in his entire life, because he is not well-liked by, well, anyone. Occasionally, when he did something flawlessly and earned praise from his father in his youth, he would get called ‘son’ affectionately. It’s happened four times, and they’re part of his top five happiest memories.  AGE: 28 BIRTHDAY: December 20th GENDER: Male PRONOUNS: he / him

𝖋 𝖆 𝖒 𝖎 𝖑 𝖞

MOTHER: PRISCILLA ERIDANI MALFOY ( deceased ) FATHER: ABRAXAS CEPHEUS MALFOY ( deceased ) SIBLINGS: none

𝖕 𝖍 𝖞 𝖘 𝖎 𝖈 𝖆 𝖑 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖇𝖚𝖙𝖊𝖘

FACE CLAIM: Hunter Parrish BUILD: Broad shoulders but otherwise slim; takes care of his body only to the capacity as he has to. HAIR: Short, as it should be; it is tradition for the patriarch of his family to cease cutting his hair as soon as they learn they have received a male heir to the name.  HAIR COLOR: Golden blond EYE COLOR: Emerald green SKIN COLOR: Pale white DOMINANT HAND: Left ANOMALIES: None; his skin is flawless, and he doesn’t bear a single scar aside from the garish black snake & skull tattoo on his left forearm. Lucius uses numerous illusion & glamour charms to hide the hideous thing at all times, and as a result, it always itches.  SCENT: Whatever cologne Narcissa has bought him for this season; usually trendy and... masculine? He would reek of clove & tobacco if he didn’t actively glamour charm away the smell each time he burned a cigarette. ACCENT: British, no local inflection ALLERGIES: None DISORDERS: Lactose intolerant; he takes a draught from the family Healer to supplement the calcium, his family riddled with a history of brittle bones FASHION: The most luxurious robes, all custom tailored fits to accent his shoulders; he prefers decadent silks & velvet, lace as an accent, all the buttons and snaps guilded with expensive precious metals. He has an expansive collection of rings and brooches, rare and ancient gemstones glistening from the box he keeps in his study, away from prying eyes. NERVOUS TICS: None; Lucius is in perfect control of his mind & body at all times. Any physical nervous tic would’ve been beaten out of him in his youth, anyway... He may have light OCD tendencies if he’s losing his shit, but it’s incredibly rare for a Malfoy to risk their impeccable reputation for composure in such a way.  QUIRKS: He’s got an addiction to nicotine that no one saw coming. The second investment of his ludicrous inheritance was into a tobacco plantation across the sea, where Lucius gets all his cigarettes hand-rolled by some dusty old wizard farmers making a literal killing off him. It’s worth it though, to be free of the shame of a Muggle vice by ensuring it’s decidedly not Muggle. The tobacco is mixed with Jobberknoll feathers & Mandrake leaves, an old wives’ tale that allegedly counteracts the effects of truth serums. Lucius just likes the taste.

𝖑 𝖎 𝖋 𝖊 𝖘 𝖙 𝖞 𝖑 𝖊

RESIDES: Yorkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom BORN: Yorkshire, again RAISED: despite being “raised” in Yorkshire, Lucius never actually spent any time with the common people, and he rarely even resided in Malfoy Manor until a year after his father’s death. He had always been abroad or at boarding school until he turned of age, and was in Myokonos when he received the news. He hasn’t left the manor since, the patriarch of the name never abandoning his stronghold. PETS: he doesn’t really consider the peacocks “pets,” as much as they are moving displays of his wealth. The closest thing to a pet he has are the house elves, although that’s too affectionate a term. 

CAREER: Advisor to the Minister for Magic, Public Relations; the position was held by his father at the height of his power in the Ministry, before his retirement. Although the Rosier patriarch wasn’t ready to follow suit, Harold managed to convince him it was for the best before giving the coveted title to the burgeoning Malfoy heir, following his 25th birthday.  EXPERIENCE: None; a very powerful last name & a more powerful father who called in a few favors, the least he could do for his son during his dying hour... or whatever. Although honestly, Lucius’ entire life is experience enough; he’s been manipulating others since he was in diapers, such was the art of his illusion.  EMPLOYER: The Minister For Magic; he was personally appointed, as it were, and Lucius answers to nobody in the Ministry other than him, so he doesn’t really believe himself included in their workforce as much as Minchum’s.

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: Death Eaters BELIEFS: Traditional, conservative pureblood values - what more needs to be said? MISDEMEANORS: Nope. FELONIES: Nope.  DRUGS: Don’t be a prude, but don’t get caught. It’s a fine line to tread. SMOKES: Habitually, obsessively, constantly - use whatever adjective of choice, he feels no guilt for his only vice ALCOHOL: Publicly, he limits himself to one or two at functions; after he turned of age, Lucius had a bit of a problem, and the only regrets he bears are those two years until he sobered up. If he is drunk, he becomes affectionate, giggly, rosy cheeked.... It’s a terrible look on him, and he avoids it all costs. His father, however, had a sizable investment into a extravagant, private winery tucked away in Bordeaux, and several shipments sit waiting in the basement of the manor. It is the only wine he allows on the estate. DIET: A creature of habit, Lucius maintains the same diet seven days a week, the house elves on a strict schedule to adhere to unless alternative plans are made for parties or unexpected guests. It helps him remember

LANGUAGES: Ancient Runes, Latin, Greek, French, Italian - languages were an easy skill to pick up when he was always traveling or studying abroad

PHOBIAS: Irrelevancy, public shame or humiliation  HOBBIES: Lucius is well-versed in the classics, as expected of him by various boarding schools and his hard to impress father - painting, piano, & poetry were always his forte. The only hobby he enjoys for himself is reading, reading, and more reading; he enjoys the history of wizarding kind and his father has a vast library, filled to the brim and largely untouched still. All of Lucius’ free time is spent locked in the patriarch’s study, having a glass of red and pouring into anything he can before bedtime. The problem is he doesn’t have a lot of free time.  TRAITS: { + }: composed, calculative, confident, dependable, observant { - }: vengeful, manipulative, haughty, disingenuous, self-serving

𝖋 𝖆 𝖛 𝖔 𝖗 𝖎 𝖙 𝖊 𝖘

LOCATION: France - the countryside, the cities, it doesn’t matter. He enjoys their flair for the dramatic. SPORTS TEAM: Montrose Magpies - he cares about Quidditch as much as he has to just to get by in polite conversation, and they’re the local team of his youth.  GAME: Wizard chess MUSIC: Abraxas was ever the elitist, and a near obsessive collector of all the finest things. The Malfoy Manor’s library has an entire vinyl section filled to the brim of ancient classical Wizard composers, musicians, and singers; his favorites were obviously inspired by the Baroquean era, but Lucius was always more swayed by the Romantics, and has contributed much time and effort into cultivating that part of the collection.  MOVIES: He does not know what those are. FOOD: Confit de canard BEVERAGE: A glass of Malfoy Merlot, if he must COLOR: White

𝖒 𝖆 𝖌 𝖎 𝖈

ALUMNI HOUSE: Slytherin WAND (length, flexibility, wood, & core): 11 inches, stiff, elm & dragon heartstring; the wand is passed down to the male heir the night after his father’s death, and the son’s previous wand is destroyed to represent his ascension as the patriarch. It is to be kept inside a fabricated black casing with a snake head handle that measures at 18 inches & is capable of being placed in a cane, but the Dark object has long been lost to history. It’s Lucius’ deepest desire to locate the relic of his heritage one day.  AMORTENTIA: The smell of burning firewood & an unknown array of spices, with a hint of coffee. He doesn’t go near the bloody shit because he’d recognize that scent anywhere, and it often induces a blush only Firewhiskey can achieve.  PATRONUS: Cannot and will never be able to produce a Patronus BOGGART: Bellatrix, dead, corpse warped and reanimated as an Inferni

𝖈 𝖍 𝖆 𝖗 𝖆 𝖈 𝖙 𝖊 𝖗

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral evil MBTI: INTJ-A MBTI ROLE: The Architect ( assertive ) ENNEAGRAM: Type Three ENNEAGRAM ROLE: The Achiever TEMPERAMENT: Melancholic WESTERN ZODIAC: Sagittarius CHINESE ZODIAC: Rabbit PRIMAL SIGN: Sugar Glider TAROT CARD: The Chariot TV TROPES: Classic Evil Villain, Billionaire Boys Club, Enemy In Plain Sight SONGS: Emperor’s New Groove - P!ATD, Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Lorde, Kings - Tribe Society

IDEOLOGIES: History & time have both proven the validity of blood purity & its direct relevance to the power of a family’s bloodline. Love is weakness. Nothing fancy, nothing poetic - it’s just another attempt of man’s to qualm the suffering of the human condition. A distraction that only makes one vulnerable. No game worth playing is worth being exposed over. The best players exist in the shadows, without getting their fingerprints anywhere near the guilty party. There has never been a loyalty to Lord Voldemort; Lucius’ loyalty is confined to the Malfoy name alone. Fame, fortune, power, honor - anything to ascend the Malfoy name to the highest standard it deserves. The Dark Lord exists as a stepping stone, a revolving door, a temporary fix. As all great men do, he will eventually fall victim to his own hubris.  If you plan to ask for a favor, you better be able to look him in the eyes; if you plan to ask for forgiveness, you better already be on your knees. Lucius does not take kindly to insubordination nor disrespect. 

#dulcetask #headcanons: welcome to my world of fun

[thegirl20]

"And if we die today?" - Vanity Thanks 😊

Set today (i.e. the Saturday following Moses’ birthday.)

It’s far too early to be up and about on a Saturday morning, never mind dressed, out the door and driving along some near deserted road with Vanessa leading Moses and Johnny in a rowdy rendition of The Wheels on the Bus. But, somehow, they’ve managed it.

Moses had spent his birthday with Ross since they’d had him for Christmas, so his birthday treat had been delayed to the weekend. Vanessa had asked if maybe he’d like a party with all the kids from nursery, but Charity couldn’t imagine anything worse. Two of them are hard enough to keep track of enough to make sure they’re not eating liquitabs or jumping off heights. Twenty of the little buggers would be an absolute nightmare. She hadn’t said that in so many words. She’d suggested they do something as a family instead. And, of course, that made Vanessa’s eyes light up and she was off googling ‘family days out in Yorkshire’ before Charity’d been able to finish her sentence.

Noah had declined the invitation to join them. Politely, which is a step up from a few months back, so it’s just the four of them. They’re meeting the rest of them for dinner in the pub later.

They finally work through all the verses of that flamin’ song, but just when Charity thinks she might get two minutes’ peace, Moses pipes up from the back. “Are we there yet?”

Charity turns to look at him in the backseat and lifts her eyebrows. “What do you think, bab? Do you think we’re there yet?” He looks out of the window and then back at her, shaking his head. She copies him. “No. ‘Cause we’re still driving, aren’t we? Ness is taking us to the back of beyond. Or worse.” She widens her eyes. “Morecambe.”

Laughing, Vanessa slaps her knee. “We’re nearly there, love. Not too long now, I promise.”

“Five minutes?” Moses asks, hopefully.

“About that, yeah.” Vanessa looks in the mirror and smiles at him.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before,” Charity mumbles, settling down in her seat, resting her head against the window. “Wake me when we get there.”

—

To Vanessa’s credit, it’s less than ten minutes before she’s turning up a single track road, and into a makeshift car park. The boys are babbling ten to the dozen as they get them out of their car seats and Vanessa applies sun tan lotion to their faces and arms ‘just in case’. Charity regards the sky doubtfully. It’s dry and fairly warm now, but there are some threatening clouds in the distance. No doubt it’ll be tipping it down before long.

One look at Moses’ grinning face, sun cream caught in the tips of his hair, and she puts all thoughts of rain to the side. Today’s about him getting to run around daft and have fun. It’s times like these where she’ll be accosted by flashes of what her life could have been if she’d made certain choices. Not so long ago, she was willing to leave her kids behind and jaunt off to France with Cain, if he’d let her. Only last year, the bottom of a vodka bottle was more appealling than spending time with her kids when they clearly needed her.

But things are better now. She’s got her head on straight. Her eyes drift to Vanessa’s backside; she’s bent over, trying to rub lotion onto Johnny’s ears. Okay, maybe not straight. But she’s got her priorities in order. She’s hit rock bottom so many times she should’ve really bought a timeshare there. But she knows she doesn’t want to go back there now. She’s found a place in the world where she’s safe and loved and wanted. And that’s so much better than the money and other material things she used to think she needed to make her happy. Who knew chucking a picnic and a couple of kids into a Beetle could actually be enjoyable?

“Right, I think that’s just about us, yeah?” Vanessa announces, slinging the backpack containing the picnic onto her shoulders and adjusting the straps. There’ll also be baby-wipes, a change of clothes for the boys and a full first aid kit in there, if she knows Vanessa at all.

And she does. She knows her completely.

At the beginning of their relationship, Charity had been desperate to keep Vanessa at arm’s length. In her experience, getting to know someone ultimately led to disappointment. People are rarely who they let you think they are. There’s always a front, and sometimes what’s behind it is boring. Or frightening. Or both. And Charity didn’t want to go through that again.

With Vanessa, though, it came so easily and so naturally that the intimacy was there before she could block it. She might have been worried about becoming one of those couples who leaves the bathroom door open, but it happened without her noticing. And seeing Vanessa on the loo did nothing to alter her feelings about her. It didn’t peel back a layer that Charity didn’t want to see beneath, because all of Vanessa had always been on offer. Open and ready and willing to be loved.

She smiles and nods, holding both hands out. “Okay boys, you need to take my hands since Bear Grylls there is carrying everything but the kitchen sink on her back.” They quickly do as they’re told, each grabbing one of her hands, all the while talking away about how they like Bear’s big beard. Charity rolls her eyes. For a bald bloke he certainly manages to leave a good amount of hair in the bath whenever he’s in there.

They head across the nearly empty car-park and when they reach the fenced in area by the entrance, Charity lets go of the boys and they run ahead. She takes Vanessa’s hand instead, loosely threading their fingers together.

“Listen, Ness, I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh, yeah?” Vanessa bumps their hips together. “What about.”

“Just, about…you know. Stuff.” She takes a deep breath, making sure not to break her serious demeanour. She stops walking, waiting for Vanessa to do the same. “As I said, I’ve been thinking. And…and if we die today-”

“Charity,” Vanessa’s using that stern voice of hers, but there’s amusement underneath it.

“No, listen,” Charity urges. “If we get eaten or…I dunno, stampeded or-”

Vanessa throws her free hand out towards the sign, covered with pictures of sheep and hens and rabbits. “It’s a petting zoo, Charity. Not a Kenyan safari.”

“Well, anyway.” She turns to face Vanessa, taking hold of both of her hands and looking into her eyes as soulfully as she can. “If we die, I just…I want you to know that you are the love of my life.”

Immediately, she feels the change in Vanessa’s body as she melts towards her. Her smile becomes wobbly and her eyes grow to Disney Princess proportions.

“Oh, Charity.” Vanessa squeezes her hands, blinking up at her. “You’re the-”

“And I also want you to know that it would be your fault we were killed, because I said we should take them to the soft play.” It takes a second, but Vanessa’s radiant smile collapses into a frown and she huffs, trying to tug her hands free, but Charity doesn’t let her, pulling her closer instead and whispering against her ear. “Hey. Doesn’t mean the first bit wasn’t true, babe.”

“Hmmph,” Vanessa pulls back to look at her, clearly trying to remain grumpy and failing miserably. “Well. Same goes for me, I suppose.”

“Oh, you suppose, do you?” Charity smiles and kisses her quickly. “Come on, before these two try and tunnel in under the fence.”

They pay what is truly an extortionate sum of money for an experience they could get by visiting Moira, and then head through into the park itself. There’s a big open area and several smaller penned off bits, presumably housing animals that would eat the other ones. Johnny is immediately enchanted by the chickens pecking at some seeds near the gate, while Moses yells something about lambs and grabs Vanessa, pulling her off in another direction.

Johnny looks up at her, pointing at the hens. “Can I touch them?”

She tries her hardest to keep her nose from wrinkling at the thought, glancing around and seeing several other children touching the animals. One very determined looking little girl, who can’t be any older than Johnny, has a chicken tucked under one of her arms and is running away from what looks to be her very flustered father.

“Uh, yeah, course, if you want to, babes.” Charity smiles and crouches down beside him. “Do you like chickens?”

He nods. “They’re like Chickaletta.”

Of course. That daft programme. She nods and smiles. “Well, go on then. Give her a pat.”

Reaching out, while still trying to stay as far away from the thing as he can, he barely brushes the tip of his index finger over a single feather before springing away, clasping his hand to his chest and pressing against Charity’s side. She wraps an arm around his waist and hides her smile in his shoulder. Definitely not a vet in waiting, this one.

“What does she feel like?” she asks.

“Soft,” he says, eyeing the chicken like it might suddenly transform into a pterodactyl. “Funny. Like a pillow.”

“Right.” She’s not a big fan of birds, really. “Will we go and look at some of the other things? Animals? Other animals?” He nods, lifting his hand, which she manages to intercept just before he puts his fingers in his mouth as is his habit when he’s uneasy. “No, babes, you can’t touch the animals and then touch your face, okay? They’ve got too many germs.” She stands, keeping his hand firmly in hers. “Let’s go find mummy and get some hand sanitiser, yeah?”

“The one that smells like strawberries?” he asks.

“Uh, yeah, probably.” She has no idea which hand sanitiser Vanessa brought. Probably a selection. She rolls her eyes. When did she become the type of mum who insists on hand sanitiser?

—

She’s sitting on one of the benches, her face turned up to the sun - See? Told you they’d need sun cream! - when she hears a shriek and opens her eyes to find Johnny barrelling towards her. She scoops him up onto her lap, wrapping her arms around him as he cowers into her.

“What is it? What’s happened?” Something bumps against her shin and she looks down to see a little goat nibbling at the hem of her jeans.

“That goat is chasin’ me!” he whispers.

She looks down again. The thing is tiny. She smiles and cuddles him tighter. “Maybe he just wanted to play with you?”

“He’s just looking for something to eat, darling,” Vanessa says, heading over to them with Moses in tow. He’s carrying a bottle of milk. The goat must smell it, and trots over to them. Vanessa crouches down and helps Moses arrange the bottle so that the goat can get milk out of it. Johnny watches them, slowly sliding off of Charity’s lap and moving over to stand beside them, just behind Vanessa’s shoulder.

Once the goat’s had its fill, it bleats one and then skips off. Moses goes after him and, with a few reassuring words from Vanessa, Johnny follows. Vanessa stands and watches them for a moment before coming over to Charity, sitting the bottle down on the bench and shrugging the backpack off, sighing and rolling her shoulders as she drops it to the ground at Charity’s feet.

“Having a good time?” Vanessa asks, stretching her arms over her head, revealing a sliver of skin at the top of her jeans and sending a spike of arousal through Charity. That still catches her off guard, sometimes; how attracted she is to Vanessa.

Reaching out and grabbing Vanessa’s hips, she drags her closer, to stand between her legs. “I am.”

“Better than the soft play, yeah?” Vanessa says, tousling Charity’s hair with both of her hands. Charity tries not to think about where they’ve been in the last hour.

“Yeah, I suppose.” Something stands on her toe and she looks down to see the same little goat back, its head butting rhythmically against Vanessa’s leg. She glances up and lifts an eyebrow. “Looks like you’ve got a mate there.”

“Awww, hiya again,” Vanessa bends to scratch the little thing’s head and it proceeds to butt its non-existent horns against her hand. She laughs in delight and holds it up flat for him to get a better target.

“What is it with you and goats, anyway?” Charity says. “This isn’t some kind of fetish, is it?”

Vanessa looks up at her and smiles. “What? Me liking stubborn things that don’t like being told what to do, eat whatever’s lying around and run headfirst into everything?” She stands up and tilts her head, bending at the waist so that their faces are close together. “What’s your star-sign again?” She pecks Charity’s cheek and then she’s off jogging over to look at whatever Moses and Johnny want to show her.

Charity watches them, their heads bent together in deep conversation. Vanessa looks up and smiles, beckoning her over to join them.

As she gets up and grabs the rucksack, she decides that being the kind of person who gets up and ready and heads out to a petting zoo before nine on a Saturday maybe isn’t the worst thing in the world, really.

#charity x vanessa #vanity #emmerdale #moses dingle #fic by me #writing #justusandlove #vanity fic

[ssfoc]

While Hypersonic Missiles is a commentary on the current society, I find Imagine by John Lennon which remains on Louis’ 28 playlist more and most significant in the playlist. It’s also a commentary on the world but like Louis’ songwriting style, it is also hopeful. The issues that Lennon wrote about 40 years ago is still relevant now, about wanting no walls and saying no to things that separate us, and to wanting to live together in peace. Love this song.

Yes, THANK YOU.

Louis’ 28 playlist includes songs that highlight issues of social injustice, poverty, and the structures that exacerbate economic inequality.

It is an adult’s song list. Louis is listening to voices that engage with loneliness, disillusionment, escape, bleakness, addiction, disappointment, and occasionally, hope and euphoria. Through music (made by mostly male, mostly northern English musicians), Louis invites us to consider the fullness of life and the ways that these feelings are universal.

It reminds me of James Joyce’s using his hometown of Dublin, with all his conflicting emotions about it, and his incisive, brilliant character descriptions to make Dubliners universally human.

It also reminds me of what Steve Aoki said about Louis’ “album,” which he said he heard in 2017, that Louis’ writing was very “human.”

In Louis’ lyrics, a regional Yorkshire voice sings about his personal feelings. However, they are more than aesthetics; they have larger, more complex, conceptual meaning.

Lennon’s “Imagine” was written in a politically turbulent time, with gaping holes in executive oversight, in a world that had seemingly gone mad. In a few verses, Lennon gave a message of unity and love. It has since then been covered endlessly, because madness and chaos return in times of fear, in a world without true leadership.

A world without leadership mirrors the microcosm of the music industry: the leaders eat its citizens, the grand façade masks the ugliness beneath.

Louis’ list also shows us that this world is real. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not hysteria. The world is real, the suffering is real, but hope and optimism are also real. We persist. We rise in spite of it. That’s an amazingly mature, encouraging, self-aware message.

#louis’ 28 #9 may 2019 #ask me why i love him #a dash without louis is an empty dash #john lennon #imagine

[imichelle-l-rigby]

Reflections: Cillian Murphy’s Limited Edition

Season 3, episode 6

✨I think I’m sorta catching up 😊✨

———————————————————————

*I am a music prof (predominantly classical vocalist), and I LOVE listening to Cillian’s music choices! That being said, sometimes I won’t like a song simply because of a vocalist (it’s a professional hazard - sorry!) 👩‍🏫

** The following are my own observations/opinions. We may not agree, and that’s ok! That’s what makes music fun! 😊

*** I wouldn’t say I’m well-versed in Cillian’s music preferences, but I do enjoy them (for the most part). I always wind up adding to my own playlists after listening to Cillian’s recommendations.

———————————————————————

Let the show begin!

🎵Set 1 (Fading Stars II - Come And Play In The Milky Night)

Fading Stars II: sounds like film music. It uses the same motif over and over again, slowly filling out the texture

Come And Play In The Milky Night: this reminds me of 2010s pop music. It’s got that wistfulness that I associate with that decade! (Isn’t it horrifying to be talking about the 2010s as “old”? I just hurt my own feelings!)

🎤Talking Break:

Grand isn’t as good as tippety top. Noted.

Coltrane! ❤️

Wow! The last song is from the ‘90s!

“Sitting in cars that are moving”

“Scintillating observations”

🎵Set 2 (Over My Shoulder - Glass, Concrete & Stone)

Over My Shoulder: I am having so much fun with this one! 😎😆 I love the story of this song as well.

The Beggar: again, a very fun song! But so different from the other in this set. Rhythms are interesting.

Glass, Concrete & Stone: it’s cool that there are 3 predominant instruments, like the 3 materials mentioned in the title. Melody is strange and unexpected. I like it!

🎤Talking Break:

Cillian just wants a twin, specifically David Byrne. 😂

Every track on the album is in the same key, and it’s heard above the drone. I am intrigued.

🎵Set 3 (Ta Douleur - Hard-boiled Babe)

Ta Douleur: this is so urban, but I’ll be honest - some of the sound effects sound *ahem* rude? 😅 not offensive, just like someone ate something that didn’t agree 😂😂😂😂 and I’m afraid I’m not mature enough to move past that. 💨

Hard-boiled Babe: I didn’t expect the harmonica!

These French “girl pop” songs are a genre I didn’t expect him to be into! Goes to show you can’t pin this guy’s musical tastes down.

🎤Talking Break:

He’s forever better at French than me

🎵Set 4 (War Zone - Ethiopian Rock)

War Zone: another song featuring “sound effects” - I like how the war sounds get louder and louder, but also how the melody is just so “vacation vibe”. Good commentary!

Ethiopian Rock: melody is in the bass line. The echo is fun. It feels like a reinterpretation of protest rock, but I can’t explain why other than vague similarities.

🎤Talking Break:

Old Jamaican music! Cool!

🎵Set 5 (Hill & Gully Ride - Asa Branca)

Hill & Gully Ride: this is so fun! Had I not been told it’s Jamaican, I would’ve assumed Puerto Rico or Cuba. It reminds me of those dance rhythms that came to NYC in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Ma Blonde Est Partie: this sounds so early country/country blues. Aka OLD American styles. And I find this amazing. This might honestly be my favorite song for this episode! I love the instrument mix (in ways it sounds Appalachian?), and the vocals are so fitting here!

Asa Branca: gorgeous! 😍 it’s got a little of everything to offer! The style keeps jumping around!

✨favorite set✨

🎤Talking Break:

Cajun! Now that makes sense why I’m hearing so many Appalachian sounds!

And a series about music in the US. I’m not going crazy for hearing all that! Phew! 😅

Ask a reasonable question - your question may not be reasonable or even adequately answered! But it’s not Brian Cox

Him trying to describe emojis is precious

“A mystery wrapped inside an anorak wrapped inside an enigma”

More Yorkshire Man

🎵Set 6 (See the Sky About to Rain - Big Pharma)

See the Sky About to Rain: Neil is a specific voice. It’s always jarring at the beginning, but then I settle in and can enjoy his vocals.

Your Name Is Snake Anthony: whoa! Talk about jarring - that segue was shocking! Quite atmospheric, and in some places the background is atonal or polytonal (no key or multiple keys).

Paralysed: so my autocorrect doesn’t like the way the title is spelled 😂😂😂😂 bless it’s American little heart. I suppose the bass line that plays the “short long” motif over and over is representing your heart beat. It also repeats notes over and over again, like it’s possibly paralyzed.

Big Pharma: interesting rhythms/punctuations. I don’t love it, but it definitely sticks with you. Will be honest, the “sniffing” sounds at the beginning was a little gross. Idk what it’s supposed to be, but it sounds like someone’s got a stuffy nose 🤧

🎤Talking Break:

Ah yes, the exclusive

A poetry reading!

🎵Set 7 (Geronimo Blues - Condition of Us)

Geronimo Blues: a pretty song (which I know is weird since the lyrics are pretty critical)! And Kae is good at this, but it always takes me a second to understand the lyrics. I guess my brain has a buffer with this accent 😅

Condition of Us: again- such a strong contrast! I love the vocals here! ❤️ I’m having fun!

🎤Talking Break:

I can’t even spell the verb for getting goosebumps. Dude. What even?! 😂

🎵Set 8 (I Walk on Guilded Splinters)

The archive footage - I have concerns about his speaking vocal quality.

I Walk On Guilded Splinters: honestly, this sounds like healthier vocal production than what I just heard. Yes - there’s a way to give a raspy sound without hurting yourself. ANYWAY. This is a cool song! I love the echos. 😎

🎤Talking Break:

Correct. No intro needed for Bill Withers

🎵Set 9 (Kissing My Love - Inside Straight)

Kissing My Love: 💃💃😍😍 ooh these vocals! The funk! The groove!

Inside Straight: gimme that jazz! 😎 and can we just talk about the subtle internal harmony changes in the piano chords? Like… that shouldn’t be that cool. BUT IT IS. And everything about this is fire! 🔥 although, the raspberry scat line was a little… special. Impressive, but … yeah. 😅

🎤Talking Break:

Miles played with everyone! He pioneered so many jazz styles it’s insane!

“Pugilistic kind of sound”

“He played with the Wombles!”

🎵Set 10 (Video Life)

Video Life: just getting flashbacks to the VHS era. 😅

🎤Talking Break:

Lots of pop

“One man Beatles” - I am intrigued!

🎵Set 11 (Somebody Made for Me - Every Night)

Somebody Made for Me: OMG HE DOES SOUND JUST LIKE PAUL MCCARTNEY!! 🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀 even the scoring sounds like Paul! Like… 🤯

Every Night: I AM SINGING ALONG WITH A PAUL COVER AND JUST LIVING MY BEST LIFE 💃😎😆

🎤Talking Break

You are correct, Cillian. All roads lead to the Beatles!

🎵Set 12 (Single Pigeon)

Single Pigeon: IT’S PAUL!!!! 😍😍😍 🙌 the vocal line is kinda all over the place (awkward?) and that reminds me of pigeons just wandering around 😂

🎤Talking Break:

“Doesn’t outstay its welcome”

🎵Set 13 (I Want You to Love Me - She Walks In Beauty)

I Want You to Love Me: I like the driving, powerful left hand bass in the piano against the right hand melody. And the vocal drone! That’s not heard often! The drone isn’t even always in the “right” key as she’s going through, so that’s also a fun quirk!

Must Be Tears: I love the “old school” production aesthetics!

She Walks In Beauty: gorgeous! So ethereal, which is what I get from the title alone. It’s hard to make synth and electronic instruments not sound cheesy, so I really like this. And more poetry!

🎤Talking Break:

Byron!

No it’s over already???

Yay covers! And jazz!

Coltrane!!! Finally.

“Mind yourselves”

🎵Set 14 (Wonderful World - Nature Boy)

Wonderful World: I do like the jazz, but I’m not enjoying the vocals that much. Strings are an interesting addition, though!

All I Need: more layering effects. I like this a lot! It’s got a swanky nightclub vibe to it. The piano solo is so satisfying.

Nature Boy: yes! 😎 the bebop is popping! I loooooove bebop/hard bop so much. It’s INSANE and I have so much respect for the art form. This is a great way to end the show!

———————————————————————

Thanks so much for reading! And dare I say it, I’m proud of myself for catching up - I think I’m only a week and a half late with this one! Woohoo! 😂

Tag list:

@iammrsrogers @deliciousnutcomputer @mariamoonie @brownskinsugarplum76 @look-at-the-soul @kj-davis @neverroad @teapothollow @thepurplearmyposts @possessedmarshmallow

#cillian murphy #Cillian Murphy’s limited edition #bbc 6 music

[a-kitten-with-claws-archived]

                                                         𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻

repost, don’t reblog !

KIT PRINCE

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME. Katherine Matilda Prince NICKNAME. Kit GENDER. female. HEIGHT. 5′6″ AGE. 40 ZODIAC. aquarius SPOKEN LANGUAGES. English

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR. dark brown

EYE COLOR.  hazel

SKIN TONE. pale

BODY TYPE. fit, supple and slightly curvy

VOICE. British accent, slight Yorkshire accent

DOMINANT HAND. right

POSTURE. straight spine, head high, shoulders back

SCARS. c-sec scar on lower abdomen (main verse only)

TATTOOS. none

BIRTHMARKS. none 

NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). full lips, buzz cut, long legs, relaxed posture

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH. Yorkshire, UK HOMETOWN. London, UK (verse/thread dependent) SIBLINGS. a brother, Kallum. Five years younger than her PARENTS. Vernon and Mattie Prince

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION.  Clinical Psychologist and Therapist CURRENT RESIDENCE. London, UK CLOSE FRIENDS. Many RELATIONSHIP STATUS. single (verse/thread dependent) FINANCIAL STATUS.  independently wealthy DRIVER’S LICENSE.  yes CRIMINAL RECORD. no VICES. alcohol, smoking, designer shoes and very possibly sex

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. heterosexual PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch LIBIDO. average to high LOVE LANGUAGE. gentle touches, secret looks, hand-holding, eye contact RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. total honesty on both sides (if possible), extremely loyal, very tactile

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. Slave to Love by Bryan Ferry HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.  reading, shopping, eating out with friends, socializing LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. a great mix of both - she’s logical but also emotion-led in equal amount FEARS. being old and irrelevant SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL. high (or so she’d like everyone to believe) VULNERABILITIES. men who lie, ego, her appearance

Tagged by: @the-darkening-sky​

Tagging:  @anyone who would like to do this - feel free to steal ;)

#about kit

[carlisle980]

I’ve been reading lots of things with very aesthetic moodboards lately. This morning I was thinking about retired Richobel and autumn in the Yorkshire Love Song-verse and, well ... this happened.

I’m not saying I’m going to write something to accompany this. I’m not not saying it, either. I don’t know what I’m saying. I have another thing I’m writing that occupies all of my heart and my feels at the moment but man, these two. I’m still absolutely gone for them.

#downton abbey #richobel #isobel crawley #dr richard clarkson #yorkshire love song #modern retirement au #penelope wilton #david robb #perfect beautiful babies #serendipity

[mikesmithrhythmandrhyme]

Tuesday, 13th August, 2019

I'm doing the next One-hour Friday Afternoon Fund-Raising Entertainment in The Shire Hall, Howden, East Yorkshire, on Friday, 23rd August, 2.30pm. Tickets £4 (incl. refreshments on arrival) from Touchwood (01430 431535), or on the door if available. Love to see you there, if you can make it.

~

It may not be the finest verse

It may not win awards

It may not, to the experts, mean a lot

It may not count as poetry

It may not change the world

But I should like to say - "It's all I've got!"

~

And therefore I shall flaunt it

Enjoy the words I write

And hope that others feel they're worth a read

Or better still a listen -

Also songs I sing -

Rhythmic rhyming pleasure guaranteed

~

"We'll be the judge of that!" they cried

"We'll be the jury, too!

Your writing may not leave us satisfied"

Whereupon I answered

In rhythmic rhyming lines

"Let the God of Rhythmic Rhyme decide"

~

And so I scaled Parnassus

Sought out the Heavenly Muse

Asked her for her views about my verse

She answered me most gently

Some might say discretely

"Well, ould son, it's crap. But I've seen worse!"

~

At which I was elated

I made my way back down

Such fulsome, glowing praise from up on high!

Hot-footed to my audience -

Glasgow Empire Theatre -

Saturday night.

Stood up.

Performed.

And died!!

#poem #rhythm&rhyme #verse #performancepoetry #public performance