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genesisrose74 · 3 years

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Christmas With the Karasuno Boys (HC’s)!!

Part 2: Kageyama, Hinata, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Kinoshita, & Narita

Part 1 (Daichi, Suga, Asahi, Nishinoya, Tanaka, & Ennoshita) here!

A/n: Tumblr said my word count was too much so I’m splitting this bad boi up into two parts :p Enjoy!!

*****

Kageyama

This boy has a secret soft side for Christmas istg

He HATES showing it to other people on his team and shit

But holy bejeezus he is mesmerized by the holiday in every way possible

Lights, sweets, snow, just like,,, the general magic of December is the most awe-inspiring thing to him

Since he is still a sporty and pretty active mofo, you decided to fuel that on your holiday-themed date as Kags had noted that he’d never gone sledding before

Your jaw was on the FLOOR when he first told you because he would 10000% enjoy the hell out of it

And so you dragged him out to this popular sledding hill that you frequented as a child and taught him what to do

Not gonna lie, he was kind of nervous

“Well you’re experienced at it. I don’t wanna mess up”

🥺🥺🥺 bubby

“You won’t, Tobio! I can already tell you’re gonna be a sledding pro”

Feels a little better after that, but he asks you to help him out for his first run down the hill

He sits behind you with his arms secured snugly around your waist and his head nestled on top of your shoulder

Which would probably seem really funny to passerby because this boy is tol and intimidating in most other situations

As soon as the sled started down, Kags tightened his grip and made this cute little yelp of surprise

But you were laughing insanely hard at the combination of going really fast downhill whilst also having your boyfriend cling to you for dear life

And then when the sled stopped safely at the bottom he started to chuckle

FULL ON, GENUINE SOUND OF ENJOYMENT

That shit is rare

Y’all stayed at that hill for half the day because it was so fun

You got him a new, very high quality athletic roller for Christmas because his old one was just not cutting it anymore

And you also gave him this really cute bracelet with a volleyball, his jersey number, and a little strawberry milk set of charms attached to it

It matched this really pretty and subtle chain he’d bought for your birthday

His blueberry eyes got all wide with affection dfjdskfjsdk—

Got super blushy and couldn’t get a handle on his speech for a fat minute

He thinks you’re the coolest person ever no I do not take criticism

Geez you’re both adorable together, ideal “stoic boy becomes warmer during the holidays around his love” movie plot and I love it

Hinata

He is all in on Christmas. Not a chance this boy doesn’t get excited as hell

Will openly go into holiday mode as soon as November is over

Was secretly already listening to his Christmas playlist before then

He is one of the sweetest gift givers, that is FACTUAL

If you want something really badly, he will take notice and get it as your present immediately

He’ll also gift you an extra thing that’s handmade 🥺

Like some pastries that his mom helped him make, or a specially made basket of soaps with your favorite scents in it

It’s absolutely adorable and you cherish those ones especially

Is happy if you simply get him something; mans doesn’t care what it is

New practice volleyball? A brand new sweatshirt? Elated either way

You had seen an advertisement for a friendly match between Japan and Poland’s men’s volleyball teams, so you waited online on the ticket sales website until the minute it opened

Spoiler alert: you got some banger seats 😌✨

Shoyo may or may not have tackled you when he read the ticket details, letting out his excited giggle (you know the one)

“I can’t believe you got these, angel! You’re coming with me, right? You’ve gotta! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Gives you sweet little kisses between each individual ‘thank you’

“Of course I’ll go with you, Sho! I’m really glad you like it!”

He will give you the brightest smile of all time — that shit makes Christmas lights pale in comparison

“Have I told you how much I love you?”

RIGHT BACK AT YOU BBY

Hold his hands to warm up together when temperatures drop pls :)))

It’s become a weekly December tradition to watch a Christmas movie with Natsu at the Hinata household

She’ll sit in your lap while the three of you are cuddled under a blanket together, and Shoyo will lace his fingers with yours all discreetly

In conclusion, I am a sucker for holiday Hinata 🥺🥺🥺

Tsukishima

His room is decorated to the very minimum simply because his mom and brother had insisted on him being festive

You know those holiday instrumentals that are really calming and jazzy and stuff? Yeah, that’s the only Christmas music he will tolerate in his house

While he’s still got his usual icy demeanor, this blond bitch does get slightly less snippy with the Karasuno boys

Is always on the nose with getting you the exact thing you wanted for a present

Like,,, TO THE SMALLEST DETAIL

You don’t even have to bring that shit up beforehand, he just KNOWS

“Tsukki, how did you—?”

“It’s pretty obvious, with the way that one ad kept showing up on your phone.”

b r u h

How does he pay such good attention without even letting on??

As for his own present, you’ll usually get him two: one gag gift and one more serious gift

His dino plush collection size is partly due to the former’s contributions this time of year

Yes the dinos have names

You exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve with all the team (you made him go) and he saved your more serious one for last

It was a scarf that you’d gotten custom made, which had a Spotify code knitted into the fabric

Scanning the code opened the app to a playlist you’d created especially for him

He got pretty quiet when figuring it out and scrolling through the playlist

Would let out a certified Tsukki Nose Exhale™ when he came across certain songs

The more subdued reaction was expected because it’s Tsukishima

His little chuckles and warmer eyes were enough of a giveaway to tell you he very much enjoyed your gift

But on the walk home, he took the scarf and wrapped it around you both, and then brought his arm around your waist

“Thank you.”

You deadass almost combusted because it was so unexpected??

“You’re welcome. Merry Christmas, Kei”

Way to respond calm and collected 😌👍

But on the inside your body was in freak out mode

He wears the scarf all the time jdfsklfjdsk

Yamaguchi

Take the most tooth rotting fluff you could imagine

And then double that and put a fucking cherry on top

That’s the equivalent of what Christmas is like with Yama Yama

Y’all are like kids in a candy store — literally

For your Christmas dates it’s all about sweets and shared giggles, so frequent trips to the candy and baking isles of the grocery store is a must

Making gingerbread houses, peppermint tasting (mostly trying those different and wild ass candy cane flavors), you name it and it’s there

Stomach aches? I don’t know her

Yeah you do but they go away with enough butterfly kisses 🥰

Tadashi is exceptionally good at decorating gingerbread houses for whatever reason

He put a poll on his instagram between yours and his final products and he won by a landslide

It’s not like yours was necessarily bad, more like he’s just an icing master

You also might have eaten too many gumdrops which left your rooftop lacking in ✨spice✨

But it’s okay because Tadashi donated some of his leftovers to you

He’s such a sweetheart uwu

Please for the love of everything get him something heartfelt as his present

You know those long distance bracelets for couples?

Basically if your s/o taps the icon on the bracelet it’ll send a little vibration to the other person’s as a notice that you’re thinking about them

This boy seeks constant reassurance, and you love to give him his deserved love and validation, so it was the perfect present

It takes a second for him to figure out what it is, but after reading the directions and testing it out, the most adorable smile erupted on his face

And then since you already had yours on, he tapped the little icon again with a giggle

“Hey there”

It becomes common habit to tap it at least once every couple hours

GOD HE IS SO CUTE

He is just so soft this time of year, give him all the love and he will return it tenfold ☺️

Kinoshita

This boy is absolutely an awkward cutie and an avid romantic

Give him the cliches and he will eat em up, no doubt

It naturally gets more apparent around the holidays

He’ll take you on pretty winter walks, give you lots of little gifts (while blushing a hell of a lot), and is just a professional at stumbling upon some mistletoe

Wow wonder how it got there, Hisashi

He’s quite a bit more confident when simply alone with you than in a crowded space

And that definitely shows when he takes you out on a secluded sleigh ride around town

Yeah you heard me

A fuckin’ sleigh ride

Horses and blankets and everything

Don’t even ask how he managed to pull it off, because he loves watching the cogs turn in your head and simply will not give you a straight answer

Of course there’s the nice driver guy who’s there, but in the back alone Kinoshita’s confidence goes 📈📈

Lots of flirting, tons of skimmed touches and shared giggles throughout the ride

I legitimately simp really hard for him

Anyways it was a gorgeous ride through town and super fun

On Christmas Eve you both exchange gifts together and tbh whatever you got him will leave him happy and flustered regardless

But when he opens the wrapping paper to find an entire set of vintage VHS tapes, he’s stunned

He owns a VHS (actually canon!) and honestly loves it to death, and the fact that you’d get him tapes of pretty high quality for his collection meant a lot

Gosh he’s so underrated but a definite sweetheart, give him all the holiday love

Narita

Another underrated bby 🥺

He’s so chill and is pretty open to anything during the holidays, so long as he gets to spend ample time with you, his friends, and his family

Definitely more of an indoor person despite being accepting of most situations

Hence why you thought a cute little indoor winter picnic would be right up his alley

Which it absolutely was 😌✨ nice work

You’d made plans while in secret communications with his family members about the whole thing

He’d been pretty stressed lately with trying to handle his schoolwork, while also helping out others with theirs

Despite being a wonderful tutor, it was clearly becoming a bit overwhelming as he tried to grapple with so much at once

So when he came home one day to find a pristine house with you settled on a blanket in his living room, he was quite surprised

There’s a cheese plate, soda cans in a cute ice box, sandwiches, snacks, a presparked fireplace — you and his family went all out

Really adorable I cannot lie

“I thought you said you were going gift shopping today?”

“I might have maybe lied :P”

So he gives the sweetest little smile and sits across from you

Y’all stay there and talk for hours

After finally getting through everything previously laid out on the blanket spread, you slid him a little rectangular box that he looked at curiously

“Already? I haven’t wrapped yours yet!”

“Mine can wait a bit! Just open yours”

And so he does, and you watch with a face-splitting grin as he looks down in awe

You got tickets to see his favorite rock band in concert while they were on tour

He sprung onto you and pulled you into the tightest hug ever

“Holy shit you’re the best I love you so much how do you get even more loveable every day—!?!l”

It’s a jumble of words but you’re able to put it together and it makes you giggle

He deadass sprints upstairs to go get your gift and make sure that you feel as equally appreciated as he does

In simple words: wholesome holiday sweetness 🥰

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darling-i-read-it · 5 years

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Babysitters

Billy Hargrove x reader

Word Count: 1.2k

Warnings: making out

Author’s Note: I always have so much fun with the teens in the same story as the kids I love writing the interactions so I had a ton of fun here! I hope you like it!

Requested: by @biliyonce can you do something with billy x fem!reader and the party while they’re watching a movie or something and billy and his girl are all over each other lmaooo i would honestly love to see how the kids would react

Summary: the request!

Genre: fluff!!

Song:

(not my gif)

Karen asked you if you wanted to babysit Mike and Holly and his friends while she attempted to bring Ted out somewhere for dinner. She told you that she would have asked Nancy, but she was supposed to be at a school function and Steve, the regular babysitter had to work late.

You knew Mike and his friends really well. You used to hang out with Nancy all the time and whenever they come over you were usually hanging out with her. When Billy and Max came to town you got to know most of them better while Max convinced her brother to truck her and her friends around when they needed it.

You and Billy started dating within the month he showed up at your hometown Hawkins. He explained to you that he wasn’t looking for a long term relationship but that quickly changed when you went out on a date on a whim. A year later you were both going strong and you asked him this weekend to come over and bring some snacks.

You sat on the kitchen counter, staring at Will while he made sandwiches. Dustin was looking through the VHS tapes to find something to watch, Mike was making popcorn and chatting with El while Lucas argued with Dustin about movies. The doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the final member of the party and her brother. You walked over to the door and let them in, taking bags from Max and giving Billy a quick kiss.

“I’m glad you guys didn’t get stuck up in the storm it's getting pretty bad,” you said, rushing them inside and out of the rain. While Steve was their usual babysitter and they all really loved him, you were rather close. You let them do what they wanted for the most part sometimes taking them out for fun.

Tonight however you figured everyone could eat junk food and watch a few movies before Karen and Ted came home. Holly was already tucked into bed as it was nearing around 9:30 and everyone was trying to get things situated.

“What movie have you decided upon?” Max asked as she entered the kitchen. Billy wrapped his arms around your neck from behind, leaning forward against you so his face rested on your shoulders.

“I hope it's a scary movie,” Billy voiced right next to your ear.

“I handle scary movies better than you do Hargrove,” you countered and he rolled his eyes.

“Get a room. We’ve chosen Poltergeist,” Dustin said.

“It was between that and Friday the 13th but most of us have seen that one.”

You and Billy had seen Poltergeist together on a date a while back but you didn’t say that. You were usually a stickler with movie watching but the fact you had seen it already gave Billy some leeway with his shenanigans which he knew all too well.

“Put it in, Billy and I will grab some blankets you guys put the movie in.” Billy followed you to the basement. You could still hear the kids rummaging around upstairs, throwing popcorn and laughing at something. You had every intention to grab some blankets with your boyfriend turned you around with a sneaky smile.

“We have to grab blankets,” you told him, only half meaning it. His hands were already in your hair and you had kissed him in 3 seconds flat. You could feel the intent behind his lips tonight and had to pull the plug. You patted his chest with an innocent smile before grabbing a blanket and shoving it at him.

He whined but if you had been down there one moment longer the kids would have come to find you. You tossed some blankets around and saw everyone had already settled down together. Max, Lucas and Dustin were sitting on the floor against the couch, Mike and El were in the love seat, no surprise there and Will was sitting on the floor against the loveseat. The couch was open for you and Billy. They had the movie on and the opening credits began just as you and Billy sat down. He sat up straight and you laid down so that your head was resting on his lap.

The two of you behaved for most of the movie. It wasn’t until about the halfway mark where you felt Billy's hands moving from your arm down to your waist and you looked up at him from his lap with skeptical eyes.

You sat up slowly, trying not to gain more eyes on the two of you. You saw Mike and Eleven, staring intently at the screen. You got up and grabbed another glass of water before leaning against the back of the couch and against Billy's back. He took the glass of water from your hands and put it on the end table so that you could put your arms around him from behind. You worked your way to his mouth, him turning around so that he could kiss you better. It didn’t take very long for Lucas to hit Billy's foot to stop.

“Get. A. Room!” Dustin yelled throwing popcorn at the two of you. You smiled against the kiss, letting Billy guide you over the couch so that you sat on it as well. You could hear the sounds of disgust around the room and saw the break in immersion of the scary movie.

When you eventually did pull away you erupted in laughter.

“Mike you stop throwing candy at me you make out with Eleven like you’ll never see her again,” you joked.

“I can’t! That's my brother, you’re my brother please get a room!” Max explained.

“Is that what makes her happy scream Max?” You raised an eyebrow, still sprawled over the couch. Max turned red and everyone laughed causing El to go into confusion.

“Maybe when we get out of here,” Billy pointed out and it was your turn to go red.

“Not with that attitude baby,” you pointed out.

“I just want to watch the movie,” Will pleaded. You liked Will a lot. You just wanted him to be happy.

“Let's finish the movie then Billy and I will shut up.”

“At least a foot in space,” Dustin demanded.

“Between our lips maybe.”

All day: @swanky-batman @caswinchester2000 @alexander-reformed

#billy hargrove x reader #stranger things imagines #stranger things #billy hargrove imagines

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signor-signor · 4 years

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Trending 27th - January 2020

What have been your efforts in the campaign for SaveWOY and what are your upcoming plans to save WOY? Now this is a question worth answering!

In the past, I made a little list of the things I did to support SaveWOY and bring awareness to Wander Over Yonder’s existence and its third season plans. Since then, I’ve done a whole lot more from hand-drawn art to more intricate art. Some of them are almost as special as that signed poster @peepsqueak got from the WOY crew as a token of their gratitude.

Here’s an updated list of everything I did for SaveWOY so far:

Attended the SaveWOY picnic at Griffith Park, where I got to sign a banner.

Pointed out various higher-ups involved in the business of Disney television.

Sent several letters to the higher-ups, some of which had envelopes with an image of the downed space pod taped to them.

Started a weekly Twitter post series, SaveWOY Thought of the Week.

Made Lite-Brite art of Wander and Lord Hater, which Craig McCracken and Francisco Angones liked.

Attended D23 2017 with an Operation: FORCE drawing of Hater, a colored page of Wander and Sylvia and a few facts about WOY, and an orange pen with a green hat (I got the hat from the aforementioned picnic) - there, I signed a bench with Wander and the phrase, “Never hurts to help.”

Signed my name, drew Wander (and my own character, Jacken DeBox), and wrote, “Happiest place in outer space!” on the highest beam for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Wrote a letter (and drew Wander) for the victims of the Las Vegas tragedy with the message, “The darkest times call for the sunniest smiles!”

Got Craig to reveal the name of the ship (said to play a BIG part in S3, made a cameo in Future-Worm) when I commented that we’d have to figure out the name - his response: “The ship is called The Star Nomad.”

Wrote a couple of cards to two Disney higher-ups with the message, “A little nice makes naughty think twice!”

Drew Dominator in a situation that might take place several seconds after she passes the downed space pod, just in time for Noël Wells’s B-day.

Made the Star Nomad with LEGO Digital Designer.

Made three images in the style of the original Star Wars trilogy VHS set.

Posted 50 WOYS3PredictionPolls on Twitter.

Made an image of “The First 5 Years” with over 140 individuals (including the question marks for 3 new mains and 2 new regulars - I still want to know what they look like!) and one cleverly made Hidden Mickey.

Shared WOY-related images from my 1st 5 Years fan art on Twitter acknowledging the B-days of most of the voice actors (Charlie Adler, Kevin Michael Richardson, Ken Marino, Josh Sussman, H. Michael Croner, James Adomian, Jason Ritter, and Piotr Michael clearly noticed).

Typed a summary of how I think the S3 premiere would go.

Typed lyrics to “Let’s Go Soarin’ and Explorin’,” a song from my aforementioned S3 premiere summary. Wouldn’t it be great if Andy Bean used it?

Made a microgame with WarioWare: D.I.Y. where the player has to spin the fan to make the Star Nomad fly. Part of a chorus from “Let’s Go Soarin’ and Explorin’” included.

Started FanCharacterFriday on Twitter - more Tumblr users seem to like Dr. Otmar Vunderbar.

Made a short comic page of Lord Hater trying to break out of the DTVA vault plus a sly reminder that Disney owns the rights to WOY.

Shared a list of potential episode titles for S3.

Made an actual LEGO Star Nomad based on the model made with LDD. Hopefully, those who worked on WOY have noticed. In case you missed it, here’s a picture...

Now, the ideas I have in mind for further boosting support for the campaign. I may not be able to do most of them myself, but they are certainly for everyone’s consideration.

Provide updated information of higher-ups (if any).

As soon as we find out what Kid Cosmic looks like, expect fan art of him saying, “Watch my show and tell your friends so we’ll make that Mousey Company pay for what they did to my half-brother!”

Another SaveWOY picnic - if there’s one in my general area, you can count me in.

LP album artwork of My Fair Hatey.

A mural identical to that of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate consisting of not just characters from WOY, but also characters who were said to debut in S3 and characters who’d fit in perfectly, namely some of my OCs.

Pumpkin stencils of the main characters for Halloween.

Drawings of various WOY characters stuck on the ex-secret planet explaining why they need to leave said planet. Maybe I could also show how the galaxy’s villains would react if they learn that Lord Dominator’s been bested by Lord Hater.

Drawings consisting of SaveWOY-related messages spoken by the main characters from Disney shows that got at least three seasons (e.g. DuckTales, Fish Hooks), tons of love from the viewers and the executives (e.g. Gravity Falls), or both (e.g. SvtFoE, Mickey Mouse ‘13).

Example with Phineas and Ferb:

Phineas: “We may be creative and famous, but we’re not the ones who came up with the Star Nomad. It’s the ship powered by orbbles! Orbbles! I’d LOVE to see it take flight, wouldn’t you? If you let Mr. McCracken end the show his way, and not the executive way, which, truth be told, is the absolute worst, Wander will surely be elated!”

Ferb: “The Orbble Transporter was invented by conjoined twin brothers, voiced by the performers of the theme song.”

Irving (peeking in from the side): “Speaking of voices, the titular main character sounds JUST LIKE ME! How could you possibly resist?! And look, just because I’m the biggest fan of these guys (gesturing to P&F) doesn’t mean I have no interest in what’s planned for the furry orange fella!”

Since I’m a full-time Disneyland cast member, I should be able to make contacts with anyone who might have more clues about what S3 would entail. It might be a long shot, but if I’m able to convince Disney that WOY’s influence on my life boosted my chance at gaining employment at the company, they should understand.

A weekly Jeopardy-type pop quiz on Twitter - here’s the catch: you must refrain from finding information online when you read the answer (I bet you that the most hardcore fans of the most popular shows will get most of the questions wrong).

Example: This arachnomorph got his name from a dog tag he swallowed when he infiltrated a fish-shaped ship. He later became Lord Hater’s beloved pet.

-Who is Captain Tim?

Summaries of S3 episodes I made up myself a while back.

More fan-made characters - my most recent is an elected official of Cluckon, Mayor Spye C. Drumstick.

Conjuring a logo that best fits the status of S3/TV movie - Wander Over Yonder: The New Galaxy (the center would have the silhouette of the Star Nomad with Wander and Sylvia on it).

Brainstorming possible ideas for the three new main characters.

If all else fails, I suggest we make a web comic based on the hints we accumulated back in 2016 and what we learned from the cameo in Future-Worm’s finale. Team Sea3on has been taking that approach for SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog S3, though they are also making an animated version.

That’s about all I’ve got so far. In closing, I have several questions to ask as the new decade kicks off.

Disney executives: Are you even listening to us WOY fans? What more do you want? I’ve done so much for the campaign that I feel I’m entitled to know everything that was planned for WOY’s third and final season, especially now that I’m working full-time for your company. If you tell us what your demands are, we’d be happy to oblige.

@crackmccraigen: Are you aware of how hard the fans and I have been trying to talk Disney into giving you the chance for true closure? We’ll make sure we watch KC when it comes out on Netflix. If we’re lucky, we might see WOY get added to Disney+, where it should get that closure, assuming you’ll have finished KC your way before then.

@suspendersofdisbelief: I know you’re super busy with DuckTales and you love the plans for WOY S3 so much that you can’t bear to reveal it all in one post, but it’s been waaaay too long since we got any hints from you. Are there any other WOY S3-related facts you could describe in much greater detail? The campaign could do with more motivation.

Non-WOY fans: Are you convinced? Need I remind you what’s in the end tag of the “last” episode of WOY? You know there’s much more to life than tales from the land of Ooo, a blue middle school cat boy in a world of unusual individuals, adolescent twins in an Oregon town filled with oddities, a half-gem half-human protagonist, a coming-of-age princess of Mewni, a trio of ursine trend-followers in San Francisco, and all that jazz. If you’re not one bit interested in Hater’s origin story and all that was planned for S3, it’s your loss.

Pessimists: Will you please dispense with this unnerving “Wander is dead” talk? As a certain Popeye would say, “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!” You’re not trying to let the Disney bosses win, are you? You probably used to think previously canceled shows like Hey Arnold!, Samurai Jack, and Young Justice could never be brought back. The point is, all is not lost.

@peepsqueak and WOY fans/SaveWOY supporters: Have I been of assistance? Almost every remark I’ve ever made shows wit and perception. I mean, just think. Wander is still stuck in that vault where his goal of reforming Lord Hater remains incomplete, and he has no idea of what threat awaits him. He says, “Glorn, help us.” It’ll take something big and extraordinary to convince every Disney fan (and perhaps every Netflix fan) to talk some sense into the higher-ups. Not to mention the replacement/back-up voice actors we’ll have to find if Disney takes even longer (we already lost one - René Auberjonois). We shan’t rest until we get the answers!

@disneyanimation

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lunamanar · 4 years

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Favorite tv shows?

Um...hm. I don’t watch a ton of TV. I used to watch Star Trek with my dad growing up and have a lot of fond memories and pleasant associations with that series (TNG especially, though DS9 definitely grew on me), so I guess that’s a favorite. I also love tearing it apart, which I only really bother to do if I love something, so...yeah.

Stargate SG-1 I like by the same token/for much the same reasons and is responsible for my interest in ancient mythology.

I really enjoyed House, M.D. although even I called BS on a lot of it, haha. It was well-written, for the most part, and just believable enough that the nonsense could be excused most of the time. I still find the ending kinda frustrating, though.

When I was a little kid, there was a cartoon series called Mysterious Cities of Gold that was really intense and left 3-4 year old me rather haunted. When it ended, it didn’t run again, and for years and years all I had of it was 1/2 of grainy episode recorded on a deteriorating VHS tape. I never forgot the name of the series though because the theme song was burned into my brain. For a long time, though, no one else I knew had seen it or heard of anything like it, so if not for the tape, I might’ve thought I’d imagined the whole thing.

Somewhere around 2005 though, I thought to look for it again, now that The Internet was a thing, and lo and behold, it was all over various nostalgia sites and had an IMDB entry. It wasn’t available to buy anywhere, but I...uh, aquired it, just to see if it was as intense as my childhood brain had recorded it being. At that point I’d already had a lot of my childhood favorites ruined by rewatches, so I didn’t have high expectations.

Except, it actually was good. Pretty amazingly good, for an 80s kids series, and I can see why it messed me up a bit. The emotion in that show was legit (it’s plenty problematic in a lot of ways, of course, given its entire premise, but I can acknowledge that and still appreciate what it does right). I actually recommend giving it a watch, if you can find it in its entirety anywhere. So that’s a favorite, too.

I liked Airwolf waaaaay too much, for some reason?

Yeah these are 80s and 90s shows, mostly, because I really haven’t watched much, or at least not religiously, since I started living on my own. TV watching comes in fits and spurts for me and I haven’t had a formative experience with it in a long time, although I have certainly seen things I enjoyed a lot. Hard to call them favorites though, because I think something has to change me, or create something new in me, to qualify for that.

#personal #tv shows #asks #jadetarsier

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lorewytch · 5 years

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A 80′s Gushing Rant

Sorry I just spammed everyone with 80s cartoons XD (Well.. sorry, not sorry?) As a child born in the 80s, I have a special attachment to these cartoons. I mean doesn’t everyone? Nostalgia sells for a reason after all. We all at least have one fond memory of one cartoon or TV show or book that touched us. I was born a only child so often I only could play with myself. I was shy and much different than my other classmates. I was awkward a lot and often did my own thing. But one thing I loved was my parents giving me VHS’ to play which I would watch over and over until the tapes warped. I had many favorites over the years. And the 80s and early 90s were a peek time for several different companies to open their doors and unleash a barrage of toys, videos and books at young kids. I of course loved the popular shows. Shows like TMNT, Tiny Toons, Care Bears, My Little Pony, etc. I had a special spot in my heart for them all. But there were a few that were widely unknown. Most of these were popular but only really had one animated episode created. I kinda just wanted to gush about them a bit. Because these were underrated and I felt needed more recognition. A few of these did have a few episodes out on VHS but most only had one or two episodes. Some you may recognize, some not. Granted I didn’t watch everything that aired in the late 80s and early 90s. But these are some I just remembered.

Rose Petal Place

This one had only one episode, several dolls and apparently a board game XD. Rose Petal Place was about a group of flowers. They were given life when a little girl cried over them, wishing to stay with her flower garden forever. But the family was forced to move and she had to leave her poor garden behind. The magic behind those tears transformed the flowers into real magical beings whose sole duty it was to protect the garden per the young girls wishes. Rose’s voice is the only thing that can keep the flowers blooming in the garden. Her singing brings life back and her spunky and upbeat personality kept me intrigued as a child. I loved girl heroes fighting bad guys as a child. It inspired me and showed me I could be as strong as her. Rose never backed down even when her voice was stolen from her by Nastina the classic spider villain in the series. She still tried to sing even without her voice. One of the very first lines we hear from Rose Petal perfectly defines what kind of character she is. Nastina: Rose Petal. You think you can restore the rose garden with your singing? Rose Petal: You know I can. (hands on hips) She was pretty classy too for a cartoon character. I loved her voice and singing was very on point. The episode itself was rather cliche and dated by todays standards. But the voice acting I felt was mostly on point. It did struggle a bit, but it kept it entertaining even as I watched it a few months ago. Sadly it didn’t really define the characters all that well. But I think given the chance it could have been a nice series. Maybe even with more colorful villains. It was very similar to Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite. I think also with the limited setting and semi unbelievable background story was probably a few of the reasons it didn’t do so well. However, the character designs were pretty cute and I loved the creative concept. “Friends, would you like to be friends? Would you like to share the day with me? We can be anything we want to be!” -Rose Petal Pound Puppies (1980s)

Okay this one is a bit more popular than the others on this list. But honestly, I forgot about it until recently. The series itself is nice, but the one thing I remembered most about it was the movie.

I think the best part of it was the music. While some songs were meh, Songs like “All In your Mind” and “At the Pound” were pretty good and I found myself singing along. Also it was pretty dark for a kids movie. If you really think about it, the villain was creepy and him turning those puppies into those vicious dogs reminded me a bit of dog fighting and how people turned dogs into killing machines. Plus the background design on these were pretty impressive as well. At least for me anyways. This is really all subjective anyways. But I liked the concept. Who wouldn’t love singing Dogs and cats going on adventures? XD But I feel like a lot of that vanished in the TV series. I got to say I don’t remember the TV series that well. And while it was popular, I think if you think of the 80s cartoons, this one takes a while to come up. It’s not forgotten totally but its not one of the first ones you remember. I certainly didn’t. I remembered the movie more than the TV show. But I also think it was a important show/movie. Because it was the show to bring more awareness about Pounds and shelters. Adopting kitties and dogs from shelters seems common now. But it wasn’t so back then. And a lot of animals were treated very badly at these places. I feel like this had more promise. And I’ll always remember Cooler and his gang from back then. The voice acting was meh most of the time. But some of the characters were pretty interesting and I loved the movie. Also, can I say I love the whole 50s/60′s theme they got going on?! Poodle skirts! YES!

Lady Lovely Locks

Okay for this one, I only remember two episodes in particular off the top of my head. The Dragon Tree, which I loved because of the creative way dragons were born in this world. (Born from flowers the dragon tree bore) and the cute little baby dragons that emerged from them. Plus you got to see Lady Lovely Locks in black of all colors. The second episode being the first one. We get to see first hand at how Lady Lovely Locks can make her kingdom beautiful. Its literally in her hair. Magical girl hair. She was also rocking colored hair before it was popular. The voice acting can be cringe worthy and there’s not much music in this series, which is probably why it never got SUPER popular. It was semi known enough. Again, not one of the first ones I would think of. But I loved the character designs. I think in the 80s there were a lot of creative people wanting to create new and prettier dolls that stood out in one way or another to sell the toys to girls. But the world itself was very creative too and I appreciated that. So yeah the writing and stories kind of fell flat, especially by today’s standards.

But it was a series that doesn’t get nearly enough credit. It was one of the first American magical girls we had really. Lady Lovely Locks was a lady true to every word and not afraid to get her hands dirty to stop Ravenwaves. Also those Pixie Tails were so cute! Peppermint Rose

“Listen... to the legend... of Peppermint Rose...” Can I just say how much love I have to this lesser known cartoon girl? Okay, I admit, this girl at the beginning of her one episode debut was a bit of a brat. Hey they even admit it in the cartoon! Rose is the typical spoiled teen. She has a bit of a attitude problem and is more the hesitant hero than anything. But she has personality!

The writing on this episode is some of the better writing I feel on this list. Not to mention the music in this animated episode was pretty, flowery and I fell in love with many of the lyrics. Here’s the title song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEy536JeVEc “ Sunshine, Rainbows A breeze that gently blows A garden filled with magic The home of Peppermint Rose Daydreams, Laughter A sweet and Fragrant Glow As Four enchanted Maidens Help their gardens grow. There’s lemon Drop Lily So pretty and frilly Miss Vanilla Daisy Kind of Cute And kind of crazy And Dreaming ‘neath a sky of blue Merry Mint Violet dreams here too Someone Special And so the story goes A rose whose a rose Who’s much more than a rose And we call her Peppermint Rose Listen to the Legend Of Peppermint Rose..” Yeah no I had that stuck in my head for weeks.. couldn’t get it out. Despite Rose’s sour personality, she manages to cross a dangerous river, out wit the Bubba Beetle and magically sing the evil Queen turning her good as well as her henchmen because.. y’know...magic! XDDD The ending did seem rushed and the bad guys were very typical bad guys of the time. But I loved that Rose had a lot of negative traits. It goes to show people can change and her transformation into Peppermint Rose only proved that she could be stronger, braver and kinder. I admit the story does not age well. But I loved the music and character designs of them all. The story was also very cute. This was a decent cartoon for the time honestly and I was sad that there was only one episode of this. It had potential to be more. Again, another one like Rainbow Brite. “What’s that Smell?” “Begonia!”

Now I didn’t put Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Brite, Jem and the Holograms or any of the other more popular 80s cartoons here because while I did love them to death.. this list is for lesser known cartoons that others may not be familiar with. Granted the 80s and 90s were quite the decades themselves with a ton of cartoons. Both good and ehhh. But these always stuck out to me as a kid. Yes, I was a very girly girl. Still am in a few aspects. But each of these had something I appreciated and carried with me. And all had really cool designs for characters. I just wanted to show how much I appreciated them even as a adult. Even if they are dated and slightly cringe worthy today. I just appreciated the magic they brought with them, the music and the characters. I would love to see great remakes of any one of these. (The new pound puppies is kind of meh to me honestly) But I’d also love a great revival of Rainbow Brite and Jem and the Holograms too. Sorry this got so long. Whew... I think I will wrap this up. If I think of any more I may post something separate. Now remember, keep singing to bring life to those around you, never lose your bone of scone, let down your hair and let it shine and remember this beyond all else: A rose, whose a rose, who’s much more than a rose... And we call her.. Peppermint Rose.

#80s #Peppermint Rose #Pound Puppies #Rose petal Place #Lady Lovely Locks #lesser known cartoons #my childhood #I loved these #SO MUCH NOSTALGIA!

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years

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The Weekend Warrior 9/11/20 – I AM WOMAN, BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY, RENT-A-PAL, UNPREGNANT AND MORE!

Thankfully, we’re getting a slower week this week after the past few weeks of absolute insanity with so many new releases. This week, we also get a nice string of movies about women that are mostly made by women directors, so hopefully these won’t get lost in the shuffle of theaters reopening.

To be perfectly honest, I went into Unjoo Moon’s I AM WOMAN (Quiver Distribution) – this week’s “Featured Flick” -- thinking it was a doc about ‘70s pop sensation Helen Reddy. Imagine my surprise to discover that it actually was a narrative film with Tilda Cobham-Hervey playing the Australian singer who moved to New York in 1966 after winning a contest, expecting a record deal but only winding up with disappointment. Once there, she’d meet journalist Lilian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald, being able to use her real Australian accent for once) and Jeff Weld (Evan Peters), the man who would become her manager and then husband. Once the couple move to L.A. with Helen’s daughter Traci (from her previous marriage), things began to pick up at the same time as Reddy starts dealing with issues in her marriage and friendship with Roxon.

Listen, I get it. To some (or maybe all) younger people, including film critics, Helen Reddy represents the cheesier side of ‘70s music. I only know her music, since I was a young kid who listened to AM Top 40 radio for much of the ‘70s, but by the end of the decade, I had already switched to metal, punk and noisier rock. As you can tell from watching I Am Woman, Reddy is a particularly interesting music personality, particularly once you realize how hard she struggled to get into the business with a husband who only feigned to support her after dragging her to L.A. for “her career.”

There were many takeaways from watching Moon’s film, but one of the bigger ones is how amazing Cobham-Hervey is at portraying a woman that few of us may have actually seen perform even on television. I’m not sure if Cobham-Hervey did any of her own singing or is lip-syncing the whole time, but it doesn’t matter because she instills so much joy into the performances, especially the two times she sings the highly-inspirational title song live.

Although there isn’t a ton of major drama in Reddy’s life, most that does exist revolves around her relationship with Wald, who is depicted by Peters as an out-of-control coke-sniffing monster. Those in Hollywood may have dealt with Wald as a movie producer or during his stint as Sylvester Stallone’s manager, and only they will know how exaggerated this performance is. Far more interesting is Helen’s friendship with Macdonald’s Roxon which would inspire her to perform the song “You and Me Against the World.” (Seriously, if you want a good cry, throw that song on after watching I Am Woman.)

Moon does a great job with the material, whether it’s recreating New York in the ‘60s – often using music to set the tone of the period -- or by framing Reddy’s story with Phyllis Schlaffly’s fight against the ERA, as depicted in FX’s mini-series Mrs. America. Still, it never loses track of Reddy’s journey and her role as a mother to Traci and slightly less to Wald’s son, Jordan. The movie ends with a wonderful and tearful epilogue, and I will not lie that I was tearing up more than once while watching this movie.

I Am Woman may be relatively uncomplicated, but it’s still a compelling relaying of Reddy's amazing story bolstered by an incredible knock-em-dead performance by Tilda Cobham-Hervey. It’s also one of the most female-empowering film I’ve seen since the Ruth Bader Ginsburg movie On the Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones.

This week’s primary theatrical release is Natalie Krinsky’s THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY (Stage 6/Sony), starring Geraldine Viswanathan as Lucy, a young woman who works at a gallery who is still obsessed with her ex-coworker/boyfriend Max. On the night of her disastrous break-up, Lucy meets-cute Nick (Dacre Montgomery from Stranger Things), who later inspires her to rid of her hoarding issues by creating the “Broken Hearts Gallery.” This is a place where people who have broken up can bring the remnants of said relationship by donating the mementos they’ve maintained from their partners as sentimental value.

I’m a big fan of Viswanathan from her appearance in Blockers and TBS’ “Miracle Workers” series, as she’s clearly very talented as a comic actress, but I couldn’t help but go into this with more than a little cynicism, because it does follow a very well-worn rom-com formula that can be traced right back to When Harry Met Sally. Yup, another one. Much of this movie comes across like a bigger budget version of a movie that might play Tribeca Film Festival, and I wish I could say that was a compliment because I’ve seen a lot of good movies at Tribeca. But also just as many bad ones.

The problem is that The Broken Hearts Gallery isn’t very original, and its roots are especially obvious when it starts interspersing the recently-heartbroken giving testimonials. It’s also a little pretentious, because rather than the real New York City that would be recognizable to anyone who lives there, it’s more of a Millennial woke fantasy where everyone is a 20-something LGBTQ+ of color. Even so, the main trio of Lucy, Nick and Nick’s business partner Marcos (Arturo Castro from Broad City) do keep things fun even when things are getting predictable.

To be honest, I’ll be perfectly happy to see Viswanathan become the next Meg Ryan, because part of the reason why I warmed up to the movie is because I thought she was quite great in it. (I hate to say it but she’ll definitely need a simple name to remember to make that happen. I’d like to suggest G-Vis… as in G-Vis, she’s awesome!) There’s no question she’s the best part of the movie, but it also thrives from some of the other women cast around her, including Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo and (surprise, surprise!) Bernadette Peters. (At times, I was worried Lucy’s friends would get particularly annoying, but you’ll warm up to them as well.)

Krinsky’s movie is cute, and while it certainly gets a little overly sentimental at times, there are also moments that are quite heartfelt, so basically, it’s a tolerable addition to the rom-com genre. The fact that the characters are so likeable kept me from outright hating the movie, especially once it gets to its corny and somewhat predictable ending. Another thing I like about Broken Hearts Gallery is that at least it’s making an effort to have some sort of theatrical presence, including drive-in theaters.

Next up is Jon Stevenson’s RENT-A-PAL (IFC Midnight), a rather strange and very dark horror-comedy. It stars Brian Landis Folkins as David, a lonely 40-year-old living with his elderly mother suffering from dementia, who has been using the services of a dating service called Video Rendezvous. This is the ‘80s after all, so it involves getting VHS testimonials from various women. One day, David finds a tape labelled “Rent a Pal” and he decides to check it out. It turns out to be a video of a guy named Andy (Wil Wheaton aka Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation) who David begins having conversations with, but once David gets his chance to have a real relationship with a nice woman named Lisa (Amy Rutledge), he’s been dragged too far down the rabbit hole with Andy’s evil urgings.

This was recommended to me by my own personal rent-a-pal, Erick Weber of Awards Ace, who saw it weeks ago. I totally could understand why he would have liked it, because it’s pretty good in terms of coming up with an original idea using elements that at least us older guys can relate to (especially the living with your Mom part which I had to do a few years ago). I wasn’t sure but I generally thought I knew where it was going, because David’s trajectory always seemed to be heading towards My Friend Dahmer or Maniac territory. What I liked about Folkins’ performance is that you generally feel for him right up until he gets to that point. I also really liked his innocent relationship with Lisa and was hoping things that wouldn’t get as dark as where they eventually end up. I also have to draw attention to Wheaton’s performance, because as one might expect if you only know him from the “Star Trek” show he did as a kid, this is a very different role for him similar to Seann Michael Scott in last year’s Bloodline.

Either way, Stevenson is a decent writer and director who really pushes the boundaries with where Andy takes his new friend, and it’s especially great for its synth-heavy soundtrack that reminds me of some of John Carpenter’s best scores, as we watch David’s inevitable descent into madness. You’ll frequently wonder where it’s going, but for me, it just got too dark, so I only really could enjoy it up to a point.

A little cheerier is UNPREGNANT (HBO Max), the new film from Rachel Lee Goldberg, who directed the recent Valley Girl remake, although this time she’s adapting a book written by Jenni Hendricks. It stars Haley Lu Richardson (from Split and Support the Girls) as 17-year-old Veronica who discovers that her dopey boyfriend Kevin has gotten her pregnant. Since women under 18 can’t get an abortion in Missouri without a parents’ consent, she goes on a road trip with her estranged childhood friend Bailey (Barbie Ferreira) to New Mexico to get the job done.

It’s more than little weird seeing this movie come out in the same year as a much more serious version of the same movie in Elyza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometime Always. That aside, Goldberg and her cast do their best to make this something more in the vein of last year’s Book Smart, although that’s also a fairly high watermark for any movie.

Because this is a road trip comedy, it tends to follow a fairly similar path as other movies where they meet a lot of strange characters along the way, as they try to get a ride after being busted cause Bailey stole her mother’s boyfriend’s car for the trip. For instance, they meet a friendly couple who tend to be pro-lifers who want to change Veronica’s mind, and the best side character is Giancarlo Esposito as a conspiracy theorist named Bob.

I guess my biggest problem with the movie is that it just isn’t that funny and feels fairly standard, but at least it has a decent ending to make up for the predictability of the rest of the movie.

Now streaming on Netflix is Maimouna Doucouré’s French coming-of-age film Mignonnes aka CUTIES, a film that premiered at Sundance and then stirred up quite a bit of controversy last month due to its marketing campaign, but is actually not the pervy male gaze movie which it may have been sold as. It’s about an 11-year-old Sengalese girl named Amy Diop (Fathia Youssouf) who wants to join the school’s “cool girl” dance group, known as the “Cuties,” even though it goes against her family’s Muslim beliefs. Amy learns to dance so she can be part of the dance team and take part in a dance competition, but you know that this decision will led to trouble.s

Cuties got a lot of backlash from for the trailer and Netflix’s decision to release Doucouré’s movie, which is about a young girl discovering her sexuality, although it isn’t really something lurid or gross but actually a very strong coming-of-age film. I haven’t seen the trailer, but I can only imagine what scene it focused on that got people so riled up, since there are dance scenes that felt a little creepy to me. Other than that aspect of the film, Cuties is as innocent as a Judy Blume book. I mean, how else do you expect kids to learn about real life than movies like this? (Unfortunately, the movie is TV-MA so young teens won’t be able to watch it.)

The big problem with the Cuties is that they’re actually kind of bratty and bullies, almost like a younger “Mean Girls” girl gang, so it’s very hard to like any of them. They’re also trying to act way older than they really are, and you can only imagine what dark places that might led, as you worry about Amy getting dragged down with them, just because she wants to have friends and feel popular.

Despite my issues with Cuties, Maimouna Doucouré is a fantastic filmmaker, and this is a pretty amazing debut, especially notable for how she’s able to work with the young cast but also make a movie that looks amazing. That said, Cuties is a decent coming-of-age film, although I feel like I’ve seen better versions of this movie in films like Mustang and The Fits.

Also from France comes Justine Triet’s SYBIL (Music Box Films), starring Virgine Efira (who appeared in Triet’s earlier film, In Bed with Victoria) as the title character, a jaded psychotherapist who decides to return to her passion of writing, getting her inspiration from an actress patient named Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who she becomes obsessed with. I don’t have a lot to say about this movie other than it wasn’t really for me. As far as French films go, a movie really has to stand out from the usual talkie drama filled with exposition, and though I thought the performances by the two women were great, I didn’t really care for the script or the pacing on this one. After playing at last year’s Cannes, Toronto and the New York Film Festival, Sybil will be available via Virtual Cinema through Film at Lincoln Center and the Laemmle in L.A. as well as other cities. You can watch the trailer and find out how to watch it through your local arthouse at the official site.

Now seems like as good a time as any to get into some docs…

Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés’ doc ALL-IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY (Amazon) follows Stacey Abrams through her run for Atlanta Governor in 2018, but it also deals with the laws that had been put in place to try to keep black voters from taking part in their right as Americans to be able to vote. I’m not sure what’s going on with me right now, but I generally just don’t have much interest in political docs right now, maybe because there’s so much politics on TV and in the news. I also have very little interest in Abrams or even having the racist history of the American South drilled into my head by another movie. I was born in 1965, my family didn’t even live in this country until 1960, and I’ve spent my life trying to treat everyone equally, so watching a movie like this and being preached to about how awful African-Americans have been treated in parts of the South for hundreds of years, I’m just not really sure what I’m supposed to do about it here in New York. I guess my biggest problem with All-In, which is a perfectly fine and well-made doc – as would be expected from Garbus – is that it lacks focus, and it seems to be all over the place in terms of what it’s trying to say… and I’m not even sure what it is trying to say, nor did I have the patience to find out. I thought Slay the Dragon handled the issues with gerrymandering far better, and I think I would have preferred a movie that ONLY focused on Abrams and her life and political career than trying to make a bigger statement. All-In will open at a few drive-ins (tonight!) and then will be on Amazon Prime on September 18.

I was similarly mixed on Jeff Orlwosky’s doc, THE SOCIAL DILEMMA, which debuted on Netflix this week. This one looks at the addiction people have for social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, and how the information of what people watch and click on is collected into a database that’s sold to the highest bidder. Basically, it’s your worst fears about social media come to life, but my issue with this one is that the filmmaker decided to hire actors to dramatize parts of the movie, showing one family dealing with social media and phone addiction, which seemed like an odd but probably necessary decision other than the fact that the topic is so nerdy and so over my head that maybe it was necessary to illustrate what’s being explained by programmers. Again, not a terrible doc, just not something I had very little interest in even if it is an important subject (and I’m probably spending too much on social media and essentially more of the problem than the solution).

I saw S. Leo Chiang and Yang Sun’s doc OUR TIME MACHINE at Tribeca last year, and I quite liked it. It follows influential Chinese artist Ma Liang (Maleonn) who collaborates with his Peking Opera director father Ma Ke, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, on an elaborate and ambitious project called “Papa’s Time Machine” using life-sized mechanical puppets. I don’t have a ton to say about the movie but it’s a nice look into the Chinese culture and traditions and how the country and art itself has changed between two generations.

One doc I missed last week but will be available digitally this week is Michael Paszt’s Nail in the Coffin: The Fall and Rise of Vampiro about semi-retired professional wrestler Ian Hodgkinson aka Vampiro, who is a Lucha Libre legend.

There’s a lot of other stuff on Netflix this week, including THE BABYSITTER: KILLER QUEEN, the sequel to the Samara Weaving-starring horror-thriller, again co-written and directed by McG (Charlies Angels: Full Throttle). This one stars Bella Thorne, Leslie Bibb and Ken Marino, as it follows Judah Lewis’ Cole after surviving the satanic blood cult from the first movie.

I don’t know nearly as much about the British comedy series The Duchess, other than it stars comedian Katherine Ryan as a single mother juggling a bunch of things. Julie and the Phantoms is Netflix’s latest attempt to be the Disney channel with a movie about a young girl named Julie (Madison Reyes) who decides to start a band with a group of ghosts (hence the title). It’s even from Kenny Laguna, who is best known for the Disney Channel’s biggest hits High School Musical and The Descendants.

Other stuff to look out for this week include Kevin Del Principe’s thriller Up on the Glass (Gravitas Ventures), which is now available On Demand, digital and Blu-Ray; the Russian dogs doc Space Dogs (Icarus Films) – available via Alamo on Demand; Phil Wall’s doc The Standard (Gravitas Ventures), and Andrei Bowden-Schwartz, Gina O’Brien’s tennis comedy All-In (on Amazon Prime and VOD/Digital) and Sam B. Jones’ Red White and Wasted (Dark Star Pictures).

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

#TheWeekendWarrior #Movies #Reviews #TheBrokenHeartsGallery #IAMWoman #Unpregnant #AllIn #Cuties #rentapal #Netflix #VOD #streaming

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jessefandomunited · 7 years

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How about this for an Atlas oneshot? The reader is Merritt's teenage daughter and she really loves to annoy Danny with Disney songs, more specifically Why Should I Worry from Oliver and Company (i saw the outfit thingy on your page and i freaking love that movie). One night, she goes to grab something from the kitchen and she hears Danny humming/singing the song under his breath to himself. He comes in the kitchen, still humming, she smirks at him like "Lookie there. I rubbed of on ya after all"

I love this so friggin much, it’s so adorable, Sorry it took so long for me to get to it.

It had been about a year since you reconnected with your father Merritt McKinney and got the opportunity to step into his world of crime and magic. Well, kind of , since you were not really magically inclined you did more of the paper work and filing, which was fine, a bit boring but fine. You honestly didn’t care as long as you got to be with your father, meeting all his coworkers was a plus as well. The horsemen , being adored by millions of fans and being hunted down by pretty much every law enforcement ever, lived right down the hall from you. You got to see them at breakfast, hang out with them, play games, watch movies, you were actual friends, well, most of them were your friends. Atlas never liked the idea of a “little kid” running around the place. He didn’t really expressly tell you, but he would more give you the silent treatment. You didn’t care too much but you did like to try and annoy him. One of his least favorite things was Disney songs. You never found out why but every time one came on your ipod he would ask you to either put on headphones or go in another room. You began using this knowledge and put a ton of Disney songs on his own ipod, you also would skip around the house singing them sometimes. You would watch him tense up every time you began a new verse and it made you laugh.

one day however you were watching “Oliver and Company” one of your favorites, and the first song came on. You loved this song and began singing it at the top of your lungs. “y/n I’m trying to practice can you turn that down or off,” Atlas said in his same smug way. You rolled your eyes and said, “ hey this song is good, though i think your theme song is the one Georgette sings, Perfect isn’t easy.” He rose his eyebrow, “ and which is that?” “ i don’t know, you gonna watch it with me,” You asked batting your eyelashes. He hesitated, then slowly sat in the armchair next to you.

Everything was going pretty much as you expected. Atlas was trying his best to be a blank slate but occasionally he would throw in some random fact about what was going on. A lot had to do with the fact that certain things were not possible. Then came the song you had said was his. He perked up a bit and listened, you watched on his face as he slowly reilized how you saw him. He quickly got up, “ i have to go, I need to go practice. “ “ Alright, if you ever want to finish it it’ll be down here,” You offered continuing the movie.

It had been a couple days, and Atlas had been acting weirder than usual. He was acting like he was hiding something. You weren’t sure why. You had stopped the movie a bit after he left because you felt a little bad for bruising his ego however you still wanted to finish it. You hopped on the couch and slipped the movie in the Tape player, yes the only copy you had was on VHS. As you did though it began playing the credits. “That’s odd i could of sworn i had it right where i left off, “ you mumbled to yourself. You stopped the tape and began rewinding it, as you did you heard a light humming from the other room. You crept over and heard it get louder and louder. Clear as day Atlas was humming the song “ Why should i worry” to himself. A sly smile snuck onto your face, he had finished the movie. You slowly walked over to him and said, “ so did you enjoy the rest of the movie?” He jumped and quickly spun around, “ what are you doing in here? WHat are you talking about?” You started humming the song and watched his face turn red, “ Glad to see i’m rubbing off on you.” You giggled and headed back into the other room humming the entire time.

(This was a lot of fun to write, i could even see myself doing a 2nd part of this one, just let me know. But seriously isn’t the song Georgette sings right on with atlas XDD )

#Jesse Eisenberg #daniel atlas #nysm #now you see me

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chadpetersondatingblog · 7 years

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8 Couples’ Halloween Costume Ideas From The ’90s That’ll Give You All The Nostalgia

Oh, the ’90s. What a time to grow up. I can’t be the only one who still has boxes of stuff from this era lingering in the attic. Whether your toy of choice was a Furby or one those Neopets that were fun until they died because you kept forgetting to feed them, the ’90s are the perfect time for you to reminisce on if you’re still searching for the perfect Halloween costume idea. If you and your boo are looking for the perfect ’90s couples costumes, then we’ve got you so covered.

However, be warned: All of these costumes may result in some serious nostalgia. But before you start calling your mom begging her to ship you a care package full of those thick, ruffly scrunchies, take a breath. Although the ’90s may have been super amazing, you most definitely would not be sitting here right now combing the web for costume ideas because the internet was still super weird and way less fun. Plus, it took forever to log onto AOL. Remember that crazy sound that the computer used to make while it was connecting?

But luckily, Halloween is the perfect occasion to get your throwback on, so there’s no need to get too down daydreaming about sippin’ Capri Suns in your Heyday.

1. Reggie And Otto From Rocket Power

Nickelodeon

Few ’90s kid shows will reach the glory of Rocket Power. At the time, it felt like there was nothing cooler than watching this group of awesome kids getting into all kinds of shenanigans. Now that I think about it, this show was also pretty diverse for its time. so kudos to Nickelodeon for that one.

If you decide to show up at this year’s Halloween festivities dressed as brother and sister pair Otto and Reggie, then be prepared because you’re gonna be dishing out some serious nostalgic realness. Naturally, whoever decides to go as Reggie is gonna need a medium-length purple wig. All she needs now is a magenta/pink shirt — brownie points if you have the time to cut out a yellow rocket design to glue on the shirt — red sunglasses, and army printed cargo pants. Otto is definitely gonna need some kind of gingery wig, sunglasses, green headband, yellow shirt, and athletic shorts. If you’re feeling ambitious, then by all means, feel free to grab your skates and spend the evening rolling from venue to venue.

2. Tommy And Angelica From Rugrats

Nickelodeon/Klasky Csupo

Rugrats was the bomb. The best part of this costume idea is that it is hilarious and pretty easy to throw together for all of my procrastinators out there who like to wait ’til the week of to start figuring their lives out.

All Tommy needs is an adult diaper and baby blue crop top. Can’t find a crop top? No worries. You can also just buy a normal light blue shirt and cut it to give it that authentic baby look. Angelica could most definitely use a blond wig — although it’s not totally necessary if you’re in a pinch. Throw on an orange sweater and purple dress over it, and you’re good to go. Just don’t forget the matching purple hair bows for Angelica’s pigtails and baby bottles, which can conveniently be used to hold some of your alcoholic refreshments for the evening. You can thank us later.

3. Corey And Topanga From Boy Meets World

American Broadcasting Company

Who could forget the adorable young lovebirds Corey and Topanga from the ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World? This is another great throwback-inspired costume that requires pretty minimal planning.

First things first, Topanga needs a denim vest if you’re going for the classic girl next door look — although if you want to get creative and spend some time browsing her other looks, then don’t let us stop you. She’s also gonna need a white shirt and a skirt; might I suggest corduroy? Now you have a perfect excuse to head on down to your local thrift store. If the Corey to your Topanga doesn’t have naturally curly hair, then you should probably opt for a dark curly wig; it may give the costume more of a goofy vibe, but it will definitely help with recognizability factor. As far as clothes go, Corey has a ton of artistic freedom. A denim button-down, argyle sweater, or just about anything else will work as long as it’s a bit oversized.

4. The Olsen Twins Then Or Now

Gerald Wu Productions

Nothing screams the ’90s quite like the Olsen twins. For better or worse, we watched them grow up right before our eyes. There are a ton of different routes you can go when trying to emulate these cuties. The easiest way is to invest in two identical blonde wigs to communicate the whole twin vibe. Next, you’re going to need two matching dresses and accessories. If you’re going for a more current Olsen twin look, then keep the wigs, add some oversized black sunglasses and all black clothes, and you’re good to go.

5. Beanie Babies

WBIR10 News

Who doesn’t remember the bizarre ’90s kind-of-sort-of toy, Beanie Babies? The secret to pulling this costume off is one thing, and one thing only: that infamous “ty” tag that made millions of children’s hearts beat a little faster. Grab some construction paper or poster board, and get to work. Don’t forget to fill in the tag with your beanie name and information about yourself.

6. Wayne And Garth From Wayne’s World

NBC Films

Ah, Wayne’s World — a cult classic. Reminiscing about this goofy duo is just the thing to get all the ’90s kids dreaming of a time when VHS tapes were a life source and Nintendo was your favorite pastime.

If you and your partner would like to pay homage to this super silly film, then I’ve got some really good news for you: This couples costume is available already assembled with all of the necessary costume components. That means you have absolutely zero excuses to not have your life together come October 31. If you’re feeling like putting in the extra effort, then Garth is going to need a grungy white band tee, blue flannel, blonde wig, and large framed glasses. Wayne needs a Wayne’s World hat and black tee — and voila.

7. Your Two Favorite Chipmunks From Alvin And The Chipmunks

NBC

Sometimes, cartoon animals are too cute. Like, straight up, if you look at them too long, you will definitely get weirded out by how adorable and symmetrical they are. Alvin and The Chipmunks were definitely too cute for their own good. That’s why deciding to dress up as two of these little guys is a fantastic idea, and if you’re a couple who loves the spotlight, here’s your excuse to break out into spontaneous song and dance.

All you’re gonna need is an oversized turtleneck sweater to match the color of your chosen Chipmunk — make sure if one of you decides to be Alvin that you spray paint a yellow “A” onto your sweater — and a red hat for Alvin and/or glasses for Simon.

8. Kim And Ron From Kim Possible

Disney Channel

I can’t be the only person who thought that the theme song to Kim Possible was actually a catchy pop song that I wish was a full four minutes. A ’90s inspired Halloween roundup just wouldn’t be complete without these two. Although the show technically didn’t come out until the early 2000’s, I was still all about it.

If either you or your partner is a red head, then it’s settled; they’re playing Kim. For the rest of you ginger-less couples, guess what? There’s a wig for that. Kim is also going to need a black cropped turtleneck sweater and cargo joggers. Ron is also going to need a black turtleneck with matching black gloves and cargo pants.

Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.

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8 Couples’ Halloween Costume Ideas From The ’90s That’ll Give You All The Nostalgia

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theseventhhex · 7 years

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Children of Bodom Interview

Children of Bodom

Children of Bodom’s skyrocketing start in the mid-90s was a takeoff that newcomer metal bands are still being measured against till this day, almost all of their albums earned gold or even platinum status in their home country and over the past two decades they‘ve become regulars on some of the world‘s biggest stages. Brought into existence in 1993 by childhoold pals Alexi Laiho and Jaska Raatikainen at the astoundingly young age of 13 and 14 years respectively, the Finnish formation was completed by keyboardist Janne Wirman and bassist Henkka Seppälä. With every subsequent album, the band manages to improve and perfect their unique sound. Thus, they build a pillar in the metal pantheon. They are long known for their light hearted musical principle of operation and for their grave work ethos rather than a just-for-fun-attitude, which is why they could position within the front lines of the world’s finest metal bands… We talk to the iconic CoB frontman Alexi Laiho about his songwriting, touring and Freddie Krueger…

TSH: Over twenty years into the band's existence, the consistency with each Children of Bodom body of work is truly remarkable. How rewarding is it to know that you guys have a seamless way of communicating a trust that is expressed musically?

Alexi: It feels great man. Essentially we are just like family; this is a band of brothers who respect each other very much. I don't know if there is a key factor to our consistency, but because we grew up together, as well as going to the same school since we were like 11 years old, that's obviously given us a unique bond. We've kept the same four of us since the first album too. Also, when you tour as much as we do, you get to really know a person even more so. You can't compare this band to a marriage or anything like that, there's just simply a great balance of harmony and chaos with each passing album, and that's what it's all about.

TSH: How do you feel your songwriting had evolved in recent years?

Alexi: I've always felt that anything and everything that's happening around me somehow finds its way into my music. I guess even world events affect me in some way, whether it's conscious or not, but I feel like my songwriting is not pulling from what you commonly hear on the news. I tend to draw from real life experiences. I don't really like to focus on religion or politics, but I guess even if you don't know it, those things are impacting you in some way, simply because there is so much bedlam that cannot be avoided. Negativity has always been an outlet for me to write about. I guess it sounds cliché, but writing about negative things is like the best form of therapy for me, and the only form of therapy that actually works...

TSH: You've stated that when you feel bummed out or pissed off is when you feel strongest…

Alexi: Absolutely, and that's something that I learnt at a very early age. I always kind of cherish that feeling, when you feel, as you said bummed out or stressed, but you can turn it into something positive with music. I like it when I get that one second of fucking pure rage and it makes me feel like superman. Also, feeling bummed out doesn’t have to be anything heavy like feeling suicidal, I haven't felt suicidal since I was 18 years old - it doesn't have to be anything too dramatic. You can still find inspiration from small moments of rage - like being in a traffic jam and getting super-pissed off. There is no human being on the planet that will run out of shitty feelings, it just won't happen, so all this negativity and shitty energy can actually be a good source of inspiration. Life isn't always one big party, I mean I do like my poison too, but sometimes you need to find a balance between the two.

TSH: You're no stranger to being told that you're a guitar god. Being incredibly gifted and skilled on guitar, does it please you that you're constantly changing the conversation and taking your guitar playing to new heights?

Alexi: Oh, for sure. It's great that the guitar continues to take me to new avenues. This instrument has always just been so intriguing to me, I guess intriguing doesn't do it justice; I'm actually obsessed with the guitar! I've loved it since I was like 3 years old. I got my first guitar when I was 11 and the rest is history. To this day it remains important to enjoy practising on my guitar and even just playing the guitar for the hell of it.

TSH: I wanted to get your views on some classic Children of Bodom tracks. When you look back on a track like 'Sixpounder', what resonates with you most?

Alexi: I do remember that track was the first time that we used drop tuning on a Children of Bodom song, and it instantly stood out from the rest of the songs. I remember it had this super heavy and hardcore feeling and it was very different for us. As far as the song structure goes, it actually has a pretty simple verse chorus, verse chorus thing going on. 'Sixpounder' is one of those songs that we still play today and it fucking kills every time we play it.

TSH: Furthermore, 'Everytime I Die' is a song that many individuals connect with and interpret in their own way. What does this track convey to you?

Alexi: I'm pleased that our fans and various individuals can connect with this song and apply their own feelings. I've had fans from around the world tell me how they associate with the lyrics and energy of the song - it's so cool. You know, for me, this song is kind of venting and it has this tension, but I also feel that there is a lot of positivity in 'Everytime I Die'. It's very much like when you're on your knees and you just let go of the weight on your shoulders to feel free.

TSH: I understand that starting a song is the most frustrating part for you, after the initial few riffs, everything comes out naturally. Is it still a case of having to switch off and have a deep level of concentration?

Alexi: Yeah man, it's always been this way. Right now, we are starting to work on new material and every day I'm fighting with a blank page and looking to just sort of get the first riff out of my system. I've got tons of ideas, but I find it's important to get the first song down to makes things a little easier. Man, making new music is fucking hard! It's a hell of a challenge, but I live for challenges and embrace the hurdles that I need to overcome. After all these years, trying to sound fresh means you have to find the right state of mind when you're writing, therefore overcoming that initial first challenging phase is always vital.

TSH: Children of Bodom has constantly performed in the US and Europe, you've even taken your shows throughout, South America, Indonesia, India and Japan. How liberating is it to perform to such a loyal legion of followers and to know that you have a bond with fans where English isn't even their native tongue?

Alexi: It's fucking amazing man, it really is! Performing live to metalheads around the world is probably the main reason that we are still doing this. Touring is always a pleasure, I don't give a shit if it's a dive rock club, a large festival, or an arena - it pays off once you get onstage and you see people going crazy. Sometimes it pisses me off when bands are bitching about touring. It seems like everybody is trying to prove a point that there is nothing glamorous about touring. I say fuck that attitude! Touring is fucking awesome! To be on the road and play live often is not a bad job to have at all.

TSH: How's your shoulder feeling after surgery?

Alexi: Much better. I had surgery two months ago, which was long overdue, so I've been trying to rehab and get back in shape. It's all about making sure that my body stays whole and healthy. I do concentrate on preserving my voice a lot these days too.

TSH: How are your days off being spent?

Alexi: When I do have a day off, I just watch brainless TV, something that doesn't make you think too much, ha! I like to watch sitcoms a lot, especially trashy ones. I really do like Seinfeld, and obviously horror movies are a must for me...

TSH: Being a fan of Stephen Kings IT, you must be looking forward to the remake this September?

Alexi: No way man! I didn't even know there was a remake! You'll have to send me some links. Pennywise the clown is a fucking scary character - highly rated, for sure!

TSH: Is Freddie Kruger your ultimate horror movie icon?

Alexi: Ha! Yeah, man. By far Freddie Krueger is my favourite character. Man, when I was a kid, the Elm Street movies were specifically banned, we were not allowed to watch them. When I was in the first or second grade, I remember my neighbour's parents had the Nightmare on Elm Street tapes on VHS and we watched the first two. It was an amazing experience! Those movies were the scariest and most fucking appealing films ever! To this day I love the music, the feel and everything about those movies. You can't beat 80s nostalgia.

TSH: Are your intentions with Children of Bodom to very much always attempting to get better as a performer, player and singer?

Alexi: Absolutely. I'm always looking to improve on all levels with this band. You know, I had this need when I was a teenager to show the world that I can succeed and prove people wrong, even now this attitude is still driving me. I had many doubters and people that did not believe in my intentions initially, and proving people wrong over the years has become one of my favourite things in the world. I would do anything to fucking prove someone wrong if I disagree - I get crazy with it! If I have an aim with this band, I'm going in 110% sure that it will happen. I mean who'd of thought we’d be able to keep this up for 20 years, that even surprises me, yet we still have so many amazing fans! We have fans that weren’t even born when the first record came out! That's fucking insane and mind-blowing dude! I'm just so grateful for the support and I’ll always look to give it all and deliver our best work possible with every Children of Bodom release and live show.

Children of Bodom - “Morrigan”

I Worship Chaos

#Interview #Children of Bodom #alexi laiho

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spookypastatoo · 7 years

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Hanging Man Hill

Gaston, South Carolina is a lonely little place. Sitting just south of Columbia along 321, it’s just a small crumb off of the misshapen piece of pie on the United States plate that we call South Carolina. Its population has almost never gone over two thousand, and it is only 3.4 square miles across in all directions. It feels even lonelier when you come in from a place like Roanoke, Virginia.

After Mom lost her job, we moved to the only place where the rest of our family resided – good ol’ South Cackalacky. I had been moping on the trip the whole time on the way down here. The way I saw it, the only friends I was going to be making here were fire ants and that inferno of a sun. Once we got settled in at 304 Dixiana Drive (I always remembered the address because the number in it was carved into the driveway, and it spelled “hoe” if you looked at it upside down), I immediately set out into the neighborhood in search of friends. I didn’t know how to ride a bike at the time and I barely knew how to ride a skateboard, so I petered down a long stretch of road directly across from the front of the house on my cheap little Wal-Mart board until I came to a small cul-de-sac that seemed to go uphill. Sitting outside on his front porch was a chubby kid with glasses that looked about ten or eleven, about my age at the time. I really had no one else to talk to, so I asked what his name was and he told me that it was Terry. He liked being outside a lot and I didn’t, but we both seemed to like video games. With that, we would get along just fine. There was one thing that he hadn’t told me over the next few weeks that we spent riding around the neighborhood: he was into scary movies.

I was a massive chicken when it came to anything that seemed intent on forcing you to change your underwear every five minutes, so I didn’t really like this aspect of him. Even worse, he had tons of horror movie action figures and loads of VHS tapes of all the creepy movies you could think of stacked in his room. Every time I came to visit, he was almost certain to scare the living bejeezus out of me with one of those creepy Freddy Kreuger dolls or force me to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with him in the dark. His room wasn’t really that nice-looking to begin with. He had a bunk bed (he was an only child, and only his grandmother lived with him) in which he slept on the bottom and all his slasher flicks and action figures slept on top. There were loads of holes in the walls and everything had a generally grimy feel to it. It made those horrifying moments of watching pure terror in the dark all the more… icky. One day, when he realized that I pretty much hated any kind of horror movies he threw at me, he began telling me urban legends. Some of them were about the town as a whole, but more often than not, they were about our particular neighborhood. I didn’t really believe any of them. That is, until he told me about Hanging Man Hill.

It was about a year after we had met each other and we were riding around the neighborhood (by this time, Terry had told me to “man up” and he had eventually taught me how to ride a bike). He stopped when we were riding in front of a house we had simply entitled “The Crack Shack” due to its residents being stoned out of their minds on a regular basis. He seemed to be peering out at a small pathway behind the place that went up the farther you went back. He was usually the leader when it came to showing me new places in the neighborhood, so I didn’t question a thing when he beckoned for me to follow him up the trail. It was a pretty steep climb up the side of the hill, with plenty of sand and rocks to send anyone not being careful straight back down. It felt as though the trees were closing tighter and tighter on us until we reached a large opening at the top. Besides the empty soda bottles and used condoms, the only manmade thing in the area that I could see were long stretches of telephone poles going across a series of sandy, dry hills. If not for the two strips of heavy forest on either side of these hills, it might have gone on forever.

The area didn’t seem to have any particular importance. I had expected him to bring me to some awful cemetery, but in the dying light of the late afternoon sky, those rolling hills looked beautiful. I thought that me might try some desperate last attempt to scare me, but instead, he just turned to me with the most serious and grim face I’d ever seen on him. “Here we are. Hanging Man Hill,” he whispered. “Hanging Man Hill? Is this another one of your stories?” “Sort of. Except, this one’s true.” I rolled my eyes at the thought. How did he possibly expect me to believe any of his stories? He just kept staring at me with that face, waiting for me to respond. “How could this even be a ‘Hanging Man Hill’? There’s no hanging man, and there’s at least five dozen hills here!” “Right down there. Look.” He pointed his finger toward the nearest telephone pole, sitting between the two closest hills to us. A small creek, no more than five feet across, ran between the two hills and went onward into that never-ending forest. There was no hanging man, but the pole itself seemed more ominous than the rest. “Roy Terrance,” he whispered. “Who?” “It wouldn’t be Hanging Man Hill without a hanging man, would it?”

He bolted down the first hill on that blazing orange bike of his. I tried to keep up, but Wal-Mart and sporting goods don’t seem to mix. There was a faulty chain on my cheap dull red bike. The sticks from the surrounding trees had rooted themselves to the ground and were now snagging on the dangling chain. With one mighty tug of a huge root on the bike, I was head over handlebars all the way to the bottom. I landed on my knees with a small sploosh sound as my legs hit the water. It couldn’t have been more than a few inches deep. I almost called for help from Terry when I realized that he had stopped at the bottom just before I had tumbled to the creek alongside him. His head was peering upwards, looking straight at the top of that dark and shadowy-looking telephone pole. “Little help?” I squeaked. Terry broke his gaze with the pole just long enough to wrench me from the creek and get me to my feet. After that, his stare continued to be fixed on seemingly nothing at the top of the pole for the longest time. “What is it – or who – that you’re looking for again?” I grumbled in frustration. I was going to be pretty pissed if he had taken me down here and all I had gotten out of the trip was a banged-up knee. I hadn’t noticed the pain before because the water in the stream was cool, but now it stung like the dickens.

“Roy Terrance. Owner of that small shed just beyond the trees over there.” I hadn’t noticed the shed before. It sat just behind a large oak. It couldn’t have been bigger than five outhouses put together. “After his wife and kid left him, he hung himself on the wires just above us. Cops didn’t find much, just a charred husk of what used to be a man. Legend says that whoever is out here at his exact time of death gets strung up on the wires with him.” “Oh, and do tell, when would that be?” For once, he broke his serious tone to give me a goofy “I dunno!” shrug, and then he was back to that grim attitude. “And you’re suggesting that we stay here and wait for him? Despite the many excuses I have to dispute this, I think I’m going to go with ‘It’s late and mom is making dinner, so I have to go home.’” “Fine. Tell your mom that you’re sleeping over at my house tomorrow night, and I’ll do vice versa with my gramma. Meet me here at seven.”

Against my better judgement, I decided that I might as well come. What harm could it do? Obviously, he was lying and if nothing else, it would set my mind at ease to see that he was. While none of his stories actually seemed to be true up until this point, his sudden change of tone had made it slightly more believable. When he had told his other stories, he was giggling so hard that one might think that he had snorted at least a pound of Happy Crack. When we were headed home, just as the last tint of orange had left the sky, I asked him, "Why did you get so serious back there? You’re always such a total goofball.” “I lost my grandpa to Roy Terrance. My gramma was with him when it happened. Haven’t you ever wondered why she’s so grumpy all the time?” His grandmother was, in fact, very crotchety. I had never bothered to ask why she was that way. If this was all some elaborate hoax by Terry, I was going to slap him into next Thursday when it was done. That night, I had a horrible nightmare. Like most people, I couldn’t remember much about it, but it had Roy Terrance written all over it. Even though it was roasting on that hot South Carolina night, I had woken up with the chills.

By the time 6 PM had rolled around, I had already packed my old school backpack with basic equipment like a flashlight and a few bags of Chex Mix in case we got hungry. By 6:30, I had rolled out into the neighborhood as fast as an overweight 11-year-old could. I had to admit, I was actually pretty excited. Finally, at around 6:55, I arrived at the small creek where Terry had already set up a small fire and was roasting marshmallows. If I hadn’t decided to show up, I would have disappointed him like hell. “How exactly is this going to work out? Are we just going to camp out here all night? We don’t know when he’s supposed to show up,” I said. “Er’ll wert erl nert hurr erf er herft ter.” He had stuffed his face with a marshmallow. “What?” He crammed the marshmallow down his throat. “I said, I’ll wait here all night if I have to.” “Whatever,” I retorted as I plopped down next to his fire (he had thrown three lighters in to keep it lit) and began to pull out my snacks.

After about three hours, the first of the crickets had begun to sing their endless chirping song as the last streak of sun had reached its end. I had begun to grow irritated, and a little bit tired. Terry was wide awake, his hand glued to the bag of marshmallows. He had begun his eternal gaze on the top of the pole again. “Terry…? Man, I’m tired. If I don’t see a crispy dead dude in the next hour, I’m out.” “Mmmfkay.” His cheek stuck out like a squirrel’s with another marshmallow. I snuggled up to the fire and began to doe off. Just as I was about to slip into unconsciousness, a loud, crusty, brittle peeling sound echoed through the hills and out into the forest. I immediately sat up. My vision was pretty blurred form having almost dozed off, but I could make out Terry’s shape. He was gaping, wide-eyed, at the top of the pole. If there had been a bit of moonlight, I might have seen what I was sure to have seen up there, but the crescent moon sat beyond the trees, like the shed. In an instant, Terry was on his bike and flying up the hill, bag of marshmallows in hand. I managed to pull myself up and get to my bike. I began peddling like a madman when I realized that my chain had popped off. Stupid damn bike. With my eyes adjusting to the dark, I peered back at the top of the pole one more time before I bolted to the top of the hill.

Roy Terrance was not so much of a person as he was a sagging shape. His flesh, dark as the night, was clinging to his bones for dear life. His facial features, though not entirely evident, seemed to be in a constant state of both agony and ecstatic joy. And that eye… that one eye he had left, deep in its socket, gazed upon me with absolute hatred and insatiable want. Just when it seemed that he was ready to climb off of the wire and come for me, the weak spine that had been holding his head to that molten pile of flesh and bones snapped, sending what was left of his skull tumbling into the fire Terry had started. It gave me one glowing, burning satisfied grin before disintegrating into a wisp of ash. I had been halfway up the hill before I had realized I was moving. I followed the bike tracks Terry had left, which led further into the hills instead of off to the side, where the trail led back to the neighborhood. Just as I clawed my way to the top of the hill, I saw a thin shape, dangling from above. “Oh no,” I croaked.

Terry’s bike, that blazing orange bike that he loved so much, was left wrecked at the base of a telephone pole. Above, Terry’s body hung limply. Although, it didn’t look much like Terry anymore. Terry hadn’t been on the wires as long as Roy, which made it even worse. He was charred, but not entirely. His eyes bulged from his head in constant shock. What was left of his hair stood on end, still smoking. The seemingly endless wires above entangled Terry’s neck like a boa constrictor. Dangling from his scrawny, burnt little arm was a bag of marshmallows, melted to his hand from the heat.

The police investigation didn’t dig up much. They had scoured all throughout the area and had not found any evidence that anyone was ever there. I begged them to search the telephone wires, but they continued to state that there was no evidence that anybody had even touched the wires. The search continued for three weeks. After police had finally given up, Terry’s grandmother passed away. For those last few days, she hadn’t said anything to anyone at all. She only sat and stared at a picture of her and her husband for the remainder of her life. After the house had been cleared out, the contents of Terry’s room were offered to me. His entire collection of horror movies, action figures and all else were donated to Goodwill. My request. I went back a few years later. We had gone to Gaston to visit with our family for a while, and I had requested that we stop by the neighborhood. Any evidence that we had ever been there those few fateful years ago had been swept away by police or the weather. Now, like before, there was only useless garbage and telephone poles. Just as I was getting ready to walk away, I caught a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye. I only saw a tiny bit of it before it fluttered away. It was a melted marshmallow bag.

#creepypasta #creepy pasta #spookypasta

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titleofaking · 7 years

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October 12th, 2016

I read Liz’s account of meeting family, and i sobbed. This is my attempt at a response. My sister writes. She's writing a book as the friends on Facebook know, she has gotten very far. And she writes like i think, so when scrolling through Facebook and i stop at this, i get to experience a part of a trip i never got to have, seeing my first house and the house that will always be across the street in my head, my Grandmas. I got to be right next to where all this was happening, and i have been doing some of my own remembering this night, funny enough. There was a slowly pressing weight on my chest while i was reading this, starting out slowly and gaining mass so it feel like while im sitting here replying to this outstanding memory it feels like ive got the weight of a person on my chest. About the weight of the narrator. And it feels cheap to just share, so i add what is left out, at least on my end. I wonder about what happened to Erica and Victoria too. I remember when Dad still lived in the Salem House and the kittens were just born from Wendy and (Max? i know her name is Wendy. There was also a kitten named Lily). But when i try to remember things with Dad in them, they dont get sorted out like that. I remember the Salem house, thats where all this ties back to for me. I can explore it in my head still, even though its been a decade (or very close to it) since ive been in there. Upstairs throught the screen door. Someones police radio sat over there, i assume it was Dad since he towed cars for a living. the kitchen on the right when you walk in through another door, living room on the left where one time we stacked all of the VHS tapes we had into a tower, of course it fell. I remember one Christmas after the divorce where i was a brat and wasnt happy with anything, and Liz was. I remember a pinball machine i broke the glass on, and did not fess up to, and then pushed peanut M and Ms through because it made sense. Continue straight and you get a hallway to the bedrooms, and ours is the first on the right. Liz and Mom and i shared a bed in the earlier years, and then it became just Liz and mine. We watched Roseanne and the Simpsons when we were supposed to be sleeping, and there was a mirrored closest that i was afraid of. Next room is the bathroom on the left, where if you opened the door, it sounded like you tugged on a balloon string with the balloon still attacked, (*doink.... doink doink doink) i can still hear it in my head, even though it doesnt make sense to why i can remember that instead of more important things. I remember Ray being little and upset and Mom saying "someone call the waaaaaaaambulance" and now i think thats just a way to relieve your stress of a kid crying, just make fun of them, but in a funny way so they dont catch on. And the pressed leaves in the frame that we still have, i can go and touch them if i want. on opposite sides, Ray and Justins and Jess and Sarahs rooms. I dont have good memories for the room on the left (Rays and Justins) besides looking for a specific shirt and the forever useful Lego table. The room on the right, i remember fuzzy animal stickers and a candle holder that looked like a couch and hiding behind the curtain on the loft bed because i could. Liz has a story about hiding pants behind a door, but i dont remember that. If you backtrack to the begining of the hallway, theres a set of stairs on the left. the first set is red, leads to a landing with a front door that no one ever used (I have fallen backwards down these stairs) to a set of stairs that leads to the downstairs that were green. on the right is Mom and Nans/Dads bedroom, leading through a door is the laundry room. if you turn around, theres a door that leads to the playroom/Barbaras bedroom. On the inside of the door, theres a branch that was soaked in water and was twisted into a great circle. Through the door is where we played as little kids, where Justin got his head stuck in the banister. We had a playplace in there at one point, a red roof thing made of plastic that was just a blast to have, even more on the inside. I have eaten the entire bottom excess salt of Pretzel Goldfish there, and have met kittens and watched National Treasure. Theres a bathroom in that room, and that is by far the best bathroom ive ever been in. It was small, but the wallpaper was like reading the comics, without having to grab a newspaper each time. Its hard to describe, but id love to see that bathroom and take pictures so i can show people what i mean. I remember washing my blue feet off from when we were painting the table. Sarah and Jess let us put our footprints on the bottom, and when that table got watterloggend and thrown away after the move to Tennessee, i cried. Theres a backdoor, right next to the fireplace. you go out there and your in the yard, massive to me. Theres a Tuggy the Tugboat in the far right corner, next to an old wooden play place that was fun to climb up to the top but absolutely infested with bees. In my head the gocart is still parked next to it, and i have no idea what happend to it. If you walk up the wooden steps, youre in the back yard were the pool is, where Justin got beaned by a plastic diving shark and was bleeding from it. I think we had grapes around the fence. I took a faceful of gravel from standing on one end of a see saw and asking someone to jump on the other end. Theres Lilac, absolutely giant privacy bushes of it between our house and our cousins. This backyard is massive too. Theres a picture in a scrapbook of Justin laying out excess bricks in the grass so it looked like a person was climing out. Its as cool as i remember it was when i was there in person. The boulder is out front in my head still, even though i know it was turned into gravel by the new owners. Mr. Kashi still lives across the road, and two kids down the street still owe us an XBox. Going back inside from the other porch door (man there were a ton of doors in this house) brings up different memories, years later when we had moved out and my Dad had stayed. This wasnt really about my Dad, but what i could remember from that part of my life. I remember weekends with my Dad, and one year when we were at The Hotel there was Christmas in a whole seperate room, and i got a Unicorn horse head on a stick, or maybe i got the regular horse one. I dont remember Dad at our house, but i remember him at The Hotel. Christmases i dont remember Mom giving us (besides one where i got Dragon Heart on VHS and one in Maine) and Jesses friends over and breaking the glass in a picture and putting it into a pillowcase to toss in the trash. Hawaiian shorts and little oranges i ate far too many of. Liz writes how i think, but i havent mastered that yet. This note she wrote, named after a Henry Paul Band song our Dad wanted us to sing, deserved more than a share.

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etcetezine-blog · 7 years

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TV Shows That Scarred Me As A Child

LIL_STEPHANIE21

Hey crew, Lil_Stephanie21 here, and this month I thought I’d do something a bit different. Instead of just analyzing 1 piece of media, I’m gonna make a list (sort of) of some things that scared the hell out of me, and ended up scarring me as a child. These aren’t gonna really be in order, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

Magic School Bus Lost in Space

When I was little (like ages 3-7) I LOVED Magic School Bus. Like, that was my s***. I used to pretend to be Arnold, Ralphie, and Keesha (Not sure why just those guys) and would not answer to any other name except the one of the character I chose that day (Magic School Bus kin?). I would watch that show religiously, and none of the episodes really scared me that much, that is, except for the episode titled Lost In Space. The basic rundown of the episode is Arnold decided to bring his annoying cousin from another school along for the class’s field trip into outer space. She's floored by the fact that they're actually in space, so with each planet they go to, she collects tons of rocks. When they finally got to pluto at the end of the episode (Which was still a planet when this episode aired in ’94) The Frizz is like “lol the bus is too heavy to go back to earth unless we get rid of those rocks, we’ll be stuck here :/“ But STUPID JANET (lmao now I know why I hate that name so much) doesn't wanna leave her rocks. Now, this is the part that scared me, you ready? Janet refuses to get on the bus, she's like “I’m gonna stay” but Arnold's like “Hell no! This is what will happen if you stay on Pluto” AND HE TAKES OFF HIS HELMET AND FREEZES!!! TO DEATH!!!! Ok ok, technically Arnold didn’t freeze to death, but I was 4, what did I know? The entire class gets Arnold back on the bus, and at the end of the episode we see he’s perfectly fine, just has a slight cold. Not only did that episode scar little innocent Lil_Stephanie21 for life, it gave me unrealistic expectations on what would happen if I took my helmet off in space. Way to go MSB, you could've killed me if I ever became an astronaut.

Scooby Doo Zombie Island

Something else I loved when I was little (let’s say 4-10 age range) was Scooby Doo. I was in LOVE with that show What’s New Scooby Doo, the two live action movies, Witch’s Ghost, Alien Invaders, and Zombie Island being my favorite. I’m only gonna talk about Zombie Island today though, because of all of them, that one terrified me the most. For those not aware of the plot, screw you that’s what Wikipedia’s for. But I’ll still tell you. The gang has been separated for I think like a year when they decide to reunite and go on a cross country ghost hunting trip (which I’d love to do irl) where they discover that, as per usual w these guys, all the ghosts and stuff they see are fake. When they get to New Orleans however, they’re invited to this creepy house where, not only are there real ghosts, there are also real zombies, and REAL WERECATS!!! WHAT!?!?! Now, the first time I watched this, I don’t really remember being that scared until the last 20 or so minutes when it’s revealed that the owners of the house they’re staying at have not only been dead for like, 200 years, but are also werecats.I remember sitting there as the credits rolled, being scared out of my mind. I think the part to me that was really scary was the fact that they weren’t just people in masks or something like that, they were seriously real! And they almost killed the gang! I didn’t watch that movie for years afterwards, and to be honest, those werecats still scare me to this day.

Disneyland Sing Along Songs Grim Grinning Ghosts

I’ve always loved Disney and Disneyland, even as a child I attribute this to me watching this VHS tape of the 1990 Disney Sing Along Songs that was taped at Disneyland. I always thought this was super cool because it was like I could go to Disneyland at any time I wanted! I loved this tape, and I remember watching it nonstop. I’m sure all of you know what a Disneyland Sing Along Songs tape is, so I’m not gonna get into it. Just know that it’s just like a regular SALS, except for at Disneyland, so it’s like you’re singing these Disney songs, at Disneyland, with the characters (And a ton of random early 90s kids). So it was super child friendly, except for one of the songs. That song was Grim Grinning Ghosts. I remember the title song for the song coming up on screen and me high tailing it out of the room before I caught even a glimpse of the horror. Even watching it today it’s still scary. It’s basically just the costumed characters of the Big Bad Wolf, Evil Queen from Sleeping Beauty, the old Evil Queen from Snow White, Captain Hook, and, for some reason, Donald Duck in a ghost costume dancing around on the lawn of the Haunted Mansion at night with the spooky trees from Snow White dancing with them and a couple interior shots of the Haunted Mansion. Never failed to scare the hell out of me. I still get goosebumps when I see that title card.

Doctor Who Blink

Alright if you know me in real life, I know you’re thinking “Lil_Stephanie21 you loser! You were in middle school when you were into that show!” And to that I say two things. One, screw you, and two, I was actually in 5th grade when I started watching the show, it just wasn’t till middle school that I got super into it. So I was in fifth grade watching the ending of an episode of Doctor Who, minding my own business, when the credits begin to roll. Doctor Who does this thing where it shows a little preview of the next episode in the credits of the episode you’re watching. When I saw the Weeping Angels, I screamed. I IMMEDIATELY ran to turn off the TV, started crying, and absolutely refused to watch any episodes (there were 3 at the time) containing those horrible creatures. Even now I can barely look at them. I’m not even gonna begin to try and explain the plot of the episode, it’s super unnecessarily complex, but I will explain those guys to you. Ok so the weeping angels are stone angel statues with a twist. They’re normal statues when you first see them, but the second you blink, close your eyes, or turn around, they turn into a horrifying looking angel. At that point they’ll do one of two things. They’ll either send you back in time to any random location with no way to get back to the present, or just snap your neck. Either way you’re pretty much screwed, cause there’s no WAY you can stare at them forever, you know. Also, you’re not supposed to look at them in the eyes, because if you do, they’ll get into eyes and you’ll turn into a weeping angel. The only way to defeat them is by getting two or more to look at each other so they turn to stone permanently. This episode, and others containing the angels, MESSED. ME. UP. If I ever accidentally stumbled onto an image or video of the angels, I’d scroll down as fast as I could so I didn’t accidentally blink. Yeah, it didn’t help that at the end of Blink, the main protagonist of the show, The Doctor, turned directly at the screen to tell you, the viewer, that every single statue in the world was a weeping angel and that no one was safe. What the hell.

Wizards of Waverly Place Wizards Vs Werewolves

WOWP has always been one of my favorite kid shows (I wrote a whole article on it for Pete’s sake!) But there was one episode of it that shook me to my very core. I was 9, almost 10 years old when this episode came out, and I remember watching it on its air date. Man I was pumped. I didn’t get to finish the episode though. Why, you may ask? Because I turned off the tv and started crying. Mason turning into a werewolf was the SCARIEST thing ever to me at the time! And to be honest, it’s still frightening. You’ve got this mild, tame, British kid who suddenly goes beast mode on his gf and his gfs best friend, like? He grows fangs too, and long nails! He growls, he yells, it’s scary. I really don’t have much to say about this episode because it’s part of an arc I don’t really have the time to talk about, but man. I remember laying in bed that night, being scared out of my mind that Mason would somehow get onto my roof, come through my bedroom window, and maul me. To this day, the thought remains in the back of my mind.

#lil stephanie21 #fun stuff #april

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dreamsandplants · 7 years

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Thanks to my bestie @absintheandbooks for tagging me. I am also kind of doped up on cold meds so this should be fun.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, write a post with 82 truths about yourself and then tag 25 people

My Favourites:

Animal: Foxes

Colour: blue & yellow

Drink: Coffee

Food: Strawberries, chicken n dumplings, and spaghetti

Time of year: Halloween

Films: Wonder Woman (I cried)

Book: Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand

Subject in school: Biology

Flower: Sunflowers

Fruit: Strawberries

About Me:

I have a pug named Edgar Allan Pug

I cosplay

My major in college is Environmental Science with a minor in English

I have extremely purple hair

I have a strong belief in aliens and cryptids like Mothman & Loch Ness Monster

I almost went into Astronomy for my major because I have a HUGE obsession with space

I always try to keep myself busy because I am easily bored

I was the kid who re-watch Scooby Doo over and over again because I had the VHS tapes.

I am NOT straight which a lot of people seen to forget. I’m bisexual with a preference for girls so hit me up if you are single

Most recent:

Phone call: Mom

Text: Plato’s Closet telling me about the sale

Food: Cheddar and Broccoli rice

Drink: Pibb

Book: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Purchase: Halloween pj pants and cold meds

Song I listened to: Middle of the Night by The Vamps

Reason to be excited: Abs agreed to watch Stranger Things with me which makes them a real MVP

TV show: The X Files

Obsession: Aliens

Memories: I would prefer not to do this

Happiest:

Saddest:

Strangest:

Scariest:

Funniest:

Exciting:

Proudest:

Boring:

Biggest Fears

Spiders

Dying before I get a chance to discover myself

Being irrelevant

Not living up to expectations

Needles

Excited for in Life:

University

Finding a partner that isn’t a dickwad

Grad School

Travelling

Help the environment the best I can

Books

Moving out on my own

I am always…

Reading

Watching stuff on Hulu or Netflix

Playing with Edgar

Stressing out

Tired

Over people

Doing what I can to help others

Complaining

Very into girls

ready for adventure

I wish I was, and I eventually will be…

Responsible

Less stressed

Healthier

Ready to tackle problems head on

More confident in my abilities

More of an adult

Skilled in boxing

Anxiety free

Free of idiots

Stress free

Favourite Things about Myself

My eyes

Memory

My ability to keep going when shit gets real

I’m very silly

My ability to make friends that somehow don’t hate me

My freedom to have colored hair

The fact that I am handling owning my own dog so well

I care a ton about others when I know I shouldn’t

I am always willing to try new things

Finally, my blog…

makes me want to own more plants

makes me want to follow my dreams

helps me when I feel like crying

I am gonna tag @bookandwords & @coffee-with-ellie

#personal #tag

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getyourgossip0-blog · 6 years

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Girlboss show there are second acts in indie rock lives

New Post has been published on https://getyourgossip.xyz/girlboss-show-there-are-second-acts-in-indie-rock-lives/

Girlboss show there are second acts in indie rock lives

Martyn Pepperell talks to Girlboss about the transition from Christchurch to Wellington – and from music’s blog-era to its playlist-era.

It’s a warm Tuesday evening. Inside a warehouse practice space in Newtown, Wellington, Lucy Botting, the lead songwriter of breezy guitar-pop band Girlboss and her bandmates – Darian Woods, Douglas Kelly, and Olivia Campion – are joking around, and explaining a bit of what led to their dreamy debut EP Body Con, released earlier this year by boutique local label Ball of Wax. In the same spirit as Botting’s first Girlboss song ‘Miss Doubtfire,’ a low-key SoundCloud cut that popped up on prominent music blog Gorilla Vs. Bear in 2016, the five songs on Body Con trade on faded Polaroid nostalgia, understated pop-culture in-jokes, and wistful introspection, all underpinned by a sturdy inner strength.

“When I started thinking about playing music again, I’d just started working full-time as an early childhood teacher,” reflects Botting. “I didn’t really know it at the time because I was new to it, but in my first job, I was the brunt of a lot of workplace bullying. I’d come home feeling shit, listen to music, and feel like I’d transcended.”

Having just jumped onto the streaming revolution, she was revelling in the ever-growing Spotify music library. “I was listening to people like Chastity Belt, Jessica Lee Mayfield, and Cocteau Twins,” she says. “Darian was living overseas, and we used to make Spotify playlists for each other.”

Although she was already an experienced singer and keyboard player, Botting was learning guitar and began recording demos. She came across the term Girlboss, liked its assertive connotations, and used it as an alias when she uploaded ‘Miss Doubtfire’. Not long afterwards, Woods returned to Wellington from the US, where he’d spent the last two years completing his masters in public policy at UC Berkeley and interning for NPR. Excited by Botting’s music, he offered to help expand it into a band. Botting noticed that her old buddy Josh Burgess’ buzzing dream-pop band Yumi Zouma had a Wellington show coming up at Cuba Street’s San Fran venue. “I messaged Josh, and asked if I could open,” she says. Burgess had sent the ‘Miss Doubtfire’ demo to Gorilla Vs. Bear, so she figured he’d be receptive. “He said yes, so we pulled together a band in three weeks.” Opening for Yumi Zouma was a gateway to more support slots, shows around the country, and eventually, proper studio recordings tracked over a day in Auckland by one of Botting’s cousins.

Due to the mundane, frustrating realities of day-to-day life (i.e. having to fit music in around full-time work) things were a little bit stop-start for Girlboss, but when you listen to their recordings or see them play live, it’s smooth sailing. It’s smooth because they’re experienced – Girlboss is the second time Botting and Woods have played music together.

GIRLBOSS (photo: Rachel Brandon)

Although they live in Wellington, they’re both originally from Christchurch. Last decade, Woods was part of a semi-anonymous, somewhat notorious indie music gossip blog that did a great job of entertaining and infuriating the garden city’s underground. “A few people weren’t happy with us at the time,” Woods admits chuckling. “All I’ll say is this: we were getting seven hundred hits a week.”

One day in 2008, he approached Botting on the street. “That was one of the first ways we became intertwined,” Botting says. At the time Woods was transitioning the blog into street fashion. “Darian saw me on the street, asked to take a photo of me and wrote some shit about me … I’d just come from my job as a dishwasher, so I wasn’t even wearing anything good.”

Blogging wasn’t the only online endeavour Woods was engaged in – he also started the Wikipedia page for journalist Steve Braunias, editor of the Spinoff Review of Books. “That’s a tidbit for you,” he says with a wry grin.

GIRLBOSS (photo: Rachel Brandon)

Botting and Woods dated for a number of years and began making experimental pop music together as Wet Wings. They quickly became an antipodean outpost act in a loose international grouping of bands and solo artists often described with terms like chillwave, glo-fi, and hypnagogic pop. It was a very 21st-century style of internet music which drank deeply from the practitioners’ fading memories of the now retro 1980s/1990s music, film, television, fashion, and technology they’d loved as children. “I had a VHS recording of The Sound of Music that I used to watch all the time as a kid,” Botting remembers. “The best part of watching it was always the adverts because it was recorded off the television in 1989; the TV3 logo looked so different then. When I was older, I worked in video stores and spent a shit ton of time watching movie trailers on repeat. They’re potentially part of my pop culture references.”

Many of the acts associated with this scene-not-scene, which included the likes of James Ferarro, Pocahaunted, Sun Araw, and Emeralds, were initially supported online by a network of music blogs like 20 Great Jazz Funks, Chocolate Bobka, Friendship Bracelet, the aforementioned Gorilla Vs. Bear, and Rose Quartz, a blog run by a group of New Zealanders. “Blogs meant a lot more then than they do now,” Woods remembers. “This was pre-Spotify,” Botting adds.

As things progressed, Pitchfork unveiled a short-lived blog aggregator project called Altered Zones, that unified 14 so of these niche blogs under one more accessible newsfeed. Rose Quartz and Gorilla Vs. Bear both posted and wrote about Wet Wings music. The online coverage helped them develop a niche profile and partner up with labels like Infinity Tapes, La Station Radar, Atelier Ciseaux, and Auckland’s Lil Chief Records to release an EP, an album, and a mini-album.

Things weren’t only happening for them online, though. Alongside their internet buzz, a big part of the Wet Wings experience played out within the local DIY and all-ages music scenes Botting and Woods had their initial musical epiphanies in. “We saw Grouper play twice in Christchurch,” Botting says. “We also saw The Evens and Calvin Johnson play in a small venue to forty so people,” Woods adds.

“It was a really nice community and environment,” Botting continues. “People were drawn to it for that reason. It wasn’t just about fun; it was about having a break from normal Christchurch shit like racism and conservatism.”

Outside of Wet Wings, the local bands of the time included Sleepy Age (Burgess’ pre-Yumi Zouma project), T54, Tiger Tones, Bang Bang Eche, Shocking Pinks, Mt Pleasant, and Von Klap. Wet Wings played shows alongside many of them. One time in Auckland, a young Chelsea Jade, then known as Watercolours, supported them at a show. “Can you believe that?” Woods laughs. “What a role reversal!”

Just before the February 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, Botting and Woods moved to Wellington, where they continued to pursue their musical pursuits. Three years later, they put Wet Wins on ice when Woods headed overseas in 2014.

GIRLBOSS (photo: Rachel Brandon)

In 2018, with Botting leading the songwriting process, Girlboss sees them reunited creatively, but within a whole new musical landscape. Youtuber users leave comments on the video for ‘FourFiveSeconds’ by Rihanna, Kanye West, and Paul McCartney saying “This Paul McCartney guy might have some potential.” Rappers post doctored Instagrams of themselves running numbers on fake Spotify charts. Emerging EDM producers fret that their career might be tanking if they get less than 200 likes on a photo, and everyone worries about getting on the right playlists. Girlboss aren’t immune to this either. “We’re on four playlists,” Woods says. “It’s all about playlists now,” Botting adds. I mention that the playlist thing can be deceptive. Sometimes a song clocks up numbers because of its placement, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into the act gaining more fans. “It’s still easy to tell who is actually doing well though,” Woods says. “You go to the artist, check their monthly listens, and check how many people actually follow them. Local bands like Mermaidens are doing well because their ratio of people who listen and follow is really high, but other people are just on playlists, and people aren’t following them.”

I ask Woods to reflect on how this is making people think about and engage with music.

“It’s bad,” he admits.

“It’s bad,” Botting agrees with a laugh. “He’s obsessing.”

It’s not what you want to be worrying about as a musician, but it is a reality, one Girlboss are navigating the best they can, while still coming up with gold.

Body Con by Girl Boss was released March 18 through Ball of Wax Records. You can purchase it on cassette here, or on digital formats here.

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