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totaldrama-showdowns · 28 days

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Unused Submissions for the Favorite Rivalry Showdown!

justin and trent

please im so tired of seeing fluffy ship art of them THEY DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER

justin literally got him eliminated i cant imagine they had a good relationship after action

"one time justin threw a tambourine at me and that kinda hurt >:|"

THE GUITAR SNATCH AND GLARE IN CELEBRITY MANHUNT

you know they had the nastiest most jawdropping arguments in the recording room during drama brothers recording sessions

uhh yeah they hate each other they should get to fight to the death as a treat

Alejandro and duncan

they're perfect

Scax

is this a rivalry? idk

Dave vs Leonard

IT'S ME! I DON'T BELIEVE IN YOU! NOW PICK UP THE PIG!

Lindsay vs Courtney

it was brief but it was enjoyable

Izzy and Justin

They're sooo funny, especially cause they're exes

Julia vs Priya

I don’t actually think this is the best one I’m just putting it here because we need more reboot characters in this bracket

Whatever Lindsay and Beth had with Heather after Island

you go girls

Geoff and Trent

hockey bros vs birds

why do they get beat up by birds so frequently

Dawn and Scott

Ok sure they lasted for two scenes but THEY COULD'VE BEEN SUCH GOOD RIVALS MAN

Julia vs Every Other TD '23 Blonde

Nominating this because I think it's funny

Julia and Caleb

I don’t actually gaf about them but i like when julia hit him with a frying pan or something

the roti writers and gen 2 female characters

they did them so dirty :(

bowie vs straight people

he's seen enough

chris vs blaineley

divorced enemies sweep

lightning vs cameron

it was ooc but it kinda slayed

Chris and Sierra

The New York episode. Please Chris should've been a hater the whole season and Sierra wouldn't notice it would be funny. See my vision

Ezekiel Vs Death

I just know Death keeps snapping those bony fingers any time Ezekiel escapes death

Emma and Julia

white on white violence

Terry and Chref

We saw that tweet

Mal and Julia

Mal plays the game really well and Julia's getting insecure. But I have faith Julia will triumph

Marmaduke and Garfield

I love tti

Me vs Blaineley

We are currently fighting over who gets 2 date Kelly (I'm winning)

larry v chef

chef’s gotta defend his man what can I say

Everyone (- Priya) Vs Caleb

He literally has no friends.

priya's personality versus the writers

season 2. need I say more?

Heather Vs Blaineley

I cannot tell you how funny it is that Blaineley turned up to the TD jumbo jet and chose violence against a girl half her age

Ezekiel and Chris

demolish that monster zeke

Sky vs Dave

He tried to kill her I think this counts as a rivalry at least a little bit

Damien vs Millie

Yeah! The finish line!

Duncney

toxic yaoi

Noah anf Harold

autism on autism violence and we love that

do alejandro and noah count,,, if not im voting leshawna and heather

brainrot says so

jasmine and shawn

just being a hater here, they were much more tolerable (but still crappy) when she hated him over them being a couple

dramarama ella and dramarama max

why couldnt this be their dynamic in the canon show

Damien & Julia

WE WERE ROBBED OF THEM!!!!

MK vs the bear

They literally fought in a duel together

Geoff/Bridgette and blaineley

Ma'am that's a child. Leave him by

Mal Vs Duncan

They suck I hope they get in so they're elimination fodder so someone else can go forward easily.

alejandro puppet and heather

1984

Wayne and me

I hate you little white boy! Get a job

#favorite rivalry showdown #unused submissions

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its-to-the-death · 4 months

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Bracket B thoughts:

"Yodel-Aadle-Eedle-Idle-Oo" is better than I expected from the movie's reputation, but I really only have so much tolerance for yodeling. Also the lines "You'll suffer till the end of time / Enduring tortures, most of which rhyme" from "Robot Hell" are hilarious.

...It's fucking "In the Hall of the Mountain King." I don't need to explain that one.

"Kidnap the Sandy Claws" isn't as bad as I remembered it being, but the verses that don't rhyme really irk me for some reason, and Lock+Shock+Barrel's singing is just...not great. So I'll give this one to "Big Shot."

"Wait for It," I will begrudgingly admit, is a good song. It's not the best villain song in that matchup, though. It's not even Burr's best villain song (that would be "The Room Where It Happens"). "Want You Gone" still very clearly has GLaDOS' trademark condescension, snark, and vitriol towards Chell, but it's also mixed with her complicated need for her to be around that adds a lot of emotional nuance to her insulting goodbye. Does she really want Chell gone because she's a pain in the ass, or because she knows keeping her in Aperture will hurt her? Does she want Chell to stay to keep testing her, or because she's her only friend? Honestly, probably some of both columns. GLaDOS has very good villain songs.

"Magic Dance" just feels like an excuse to have David Bowie do David Bowie things while singing a David Bowie song alongside minions whose singing...really sucks. "Meant to Be Yours" is a really intense encapsulation of JD's character, swinging from slow, emotional expressions of love to fast-paced, aggressive vows of violence.

"Great at Crime" is just a fucking bop, IDK. It's very catchy and goofy (in an intentional way).

Both "The Mob Song" and "Biggering" are very good, honestly. Personal preference for me.

Have you heard that guitar in "E.G.G.M.A.N"?! That shit SLAPS. It makes the phrase "I am the Eggman" sound cool.

"Look Away" is...really just not a Villain Song. Doesn't focus on Olaf enough. "There Ain't Nothin But Bad Days Ahead" is not exactly what I'd call good, but it's more fitting for this tournament.

...fuck IDK, I voted for "Who Will Know" because it seemed underappreciated, but I get why "Nothing Left to Lose" is winning. That one is really good. Maybe I should have gone for that instead.

All of the IEYTD theme songs kick ass and "Cog in the Machine" is no exception. Those vocals are powerful and emotional and very good.

"Love Doesn't Stand A Chance" confuses me because it has Regina calling Snow White a "bitch," but also can't show her doing any villainy more intense than childish mayhem like ripping a grandma's knitting and pushing a dwarf over. The tone is very confused. Also, Jeremy Jordan sings the English version of "Hurricane" and I'm a sucker for him belting about justice.

"Les Poissons" is...fine. But "Hero" and the scene it accompanies are some of the few things I actually like about RWBY, which says a lot about how good that song is.

"Heffalumps and Woozles" is not about actual villains but mere products of Pooh's imagination, so I am disqualifying it in my books on the same grounds as "Look Away." Also, "The Hounds" is pretty damn good.

I really appreciate the sheer drama of Raphael singing his own damn boss theme, and I honestly could not give a shit about that rich white girl.

I always like a good Weird Al, and "Let The Pun Fit the Crime" is very good, but "The Pitiful Children" had already seared itself in my brain as one of my favorite villain songs.

I’m right there with in Great at Crime. Epithet Erased songs are just so good lyrically.

#pulling from the pot of asks #villain song showdown

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readingoals · 2 years

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Queenathon II - Bingo

This is one of the two ways to join in the Queenathon readathon! Each of the prompts on this bingo board were inspired by Queen - either the band, their achievements, or their songs. Except for the yellow diagonals which are activities so that you can still make progress on the board even if you aren’t reading! Below the cut I’ll go through each prompt, row by row, and give a more thorough explanation of them. Songs they were inspired by are in brackets beside the prompts.

And remember - books CAN count for multiple prompts! So you may be able to get a bingo with just one or two books!

1. 5 Star Prediction (The Prophet’s Song)

Read a book you predict you’ll enjoy enough to give 5 stars!

2. Friend Rec (You’re My Best Friend/Friends Will Be Friends/Dear Friends) Read a book a friend has recommended or picked out for you.

3. Adapted into a movie or show featuring one of the BoRhap cast

Quite possibly the hardest prompt in this readathon. Read a book that was adapted into a movie which features an actor who was also in Bohemian Rhapsody, the Freddie Mercury Biopic.

Suggestions: Rami Malek: Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer, a James Bond novel - Ian Flemming, Henri Charrière‘s autobiography Papillon, The Story of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting, The Night At The Museum - Milan Trenc

Ben Hardy: X Men comics, The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins, The Girl Before - J.P. Delaney, The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight - Jennifer E. Smith, a Mary Shelley biography

Gwilym Lee: Henry V - William Shakespeare, any of the Chief Inspector Barnaby series - Caroline Graham, a Catherine The Great biography

Joe Mazzello: Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa - Eugene Sledge, Helmet for My Pillow - Robert Leckie, Enslaved By Ducks - Bob Tarte, G.I. Joe Comics, Fire In The Hole - Elmore Leonard

Lucy Boynton - Sense And Sensibility - Jane Austen, Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans - Agatha Christie, The IPCRESS File - Len Deighton, a Marianne Faithfull biography, a biography about Joseph Bologne the Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Or try some of the support cast like Allen Leech, Tom Hollander, Aiden Gillen, etc.

4. Flowers on the Cover (Lily of the Valley)

A Lily of the Valley is a type of flower so pick a book with some sort of flower in the cover art.

5. Listen to some Queen songs

The first of the activity prompts and a fairly easy one to do I think. You can listen to a full album or just get a music video or two up on youtube.

6. Bestseller

Queen holds the record for the best selling album in the UK with their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits and are one of the world’s best selling musical artists. Read a book which is considered a best seller. This could be a book that appears on anything from an official list of best selling works to a list that your local bookstore creates about popular books of the month, whatever works for you.

7. About A Musician or Band

Pretty self-explanatory. Queen is a band, so read a book that somehow includes a band or musician.

8. Featuring a Pet/Animal (Delilah)

Freddie Mercury wrote this song about one of his cats. Read a book with some sort of animal companion or pet.

9. Cosy Reading Night

The second activity prompt. Have a cosy reading night (or day!), whatever that means to you. Maybe it’s just being curled up in comfy PJs, maybe it’s a nice hot bath and a few candles while you read.

10. Seasonal Read (A Winter’s Tale)

Read a book that fits the vibes of the season you’re in. For southern hemisphere folks like me it’ll be spring, and for northern hemisphere folks it’s autumn.

11. LGBT+ Main Character

Freddie Mercury was gay so in honour of that, read a book with a queer character.

12. Multiple Authors (Under Pressure)

Under Pressure was written with and featured David Bowie. Read a book with multiple authors. It could be an anthology or a collection of essays or just a book that was co-written by two people. You could even count a book translated by someone other than the author if you wanted.

13. HOT SPACE LETS GO!

Free Space!

14. Parent Rec (Father To Son)

Read a book that was recommended or picked out for you by a parent, guardian or parental figure of some sort (heck even just someone older than you lmao).

15. Written by a Freddie, Brian, John or Roger

The four members of Queen are Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor, so read a book by someone who shares any of their names.

16. Been Putting Off (The Miracle)

Everyone has at least one book they picked up fully intending to read and then never got around to and now you just keep not reading it. Maybe it’s large and intimidating, maybe it’s a genre you used to be much more into, maybe you’re just worried you won’t enjoy it as much as you thought you would. Whatever the case, this is your chance to finally, miraculously, get around to it.

17. Complete A Personal Goal

The third activity prompt. Check this off when you’ve completed some sort of goal you set yourself. It could be a goal related to the readathon like getting a bingo or finishing a particular book or reading a certain number of pages. Or, it could be something else entirely - going to the gym or completing a household chore that needs to be done or getting your sketchbook set up for Inktober.

18. Features Fairies, Ogres, Dragons and/or Queens (My Fairy King/Ogre Battle/Dragon Attack/Killer Queen/etc)

Queen have a lot of songs with fantasy creatures or elements. Read a book that features some sort of mythical creature or royalty (they have songs about kings and princes too so they absolutely count).

19. Favourite Genre (Rock It (Prime Jive))

Do you find yourself mostly drawn to romance books? Or maybe scifi is more your thing? Whatever genre you enjoy most (your prime jive...), this is an excuse to pick up another one!

20. Published or Set in 1970s

Queen first formed as a band in 1970 and released their first album in 1973. So read a book that was publish or is set during the 70s.

21. Guilt-Free Activity

The last of our activity prompts. If you really want to go see a movie but feel bad about taking hours off of reading, you can now do it guilt free! Or, conversely, if you’ve got some chores you should be doing but put them off to read a little longer, that also counts. Whatever sort of activity you feel guilty about doing or not doing, this is a free pass.

22. Black and White Cover (White Queen/March of the Black Queen)

The album Queen II featured a bit of a black/white theme which carried into live performances where Freddie and Brian would paint their nails to match their queens. Read a book with black and white on the cover.

23. Digital (Machines (Back To Humans))

Read an ebook or listen to an audiobook. You could read the whole book digitally or you could switch between an ebook and a physical copy, or follow the physical book as you listen to an audiobook. As long as you read at least some of a book in a digital format, it counts.

24. Set In England

Queen is an English band, so read a book set in England.

25. Translation (Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)/Las Palabras De Amor (The Words of Love))

Both of these songs feature lyrics sung in other languages. So read a book that was originally written in another language!

#readathon #booklr #queenathon #queen #queen band #reading #brigid speaks

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notanothersongaboutlovebracket · 1 year

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Round 0

Disclaimer! All of the songs can be found on YT bracket submissions playlist linked in the pinned post.

#tournament poll #notanothersongaboutlovebracket #Spotify

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huglife619 · 20 days

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winners were chosen by YOU, our TrueFire students. Thank you for joining in on the fun!

The Greatest Guitar Solo of All Time: Stairway to Heaven

The Greatest Superbowl Halftime Show: Prince (2007)

Favorite Drummer: John Bonham

Best Genre for Guitar Music: 70's

Most Stylish Musician: David Bowie

Favorite Album Cover: Led Zeppelin - "Led Zeppelin"

Favorite Rhythm Guitarist: Jimmy Page

Favorite Songwriter: Dolly Parton

Favorite Band: Led Zeppelin

Favorite Guitarist: Jimi Hendrix

#music #guitar

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westerhos · 4 years

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Our Story: Chapter One

Life has been running a mile a minute and I feel like it’s been a century since I’ve contributed to ~Outlander fandom/fic discourse~. So! To get back into the swing of things, I’m going to re-post an old AU of mine: Our Story (shout out to @gotham-ruaidh for giving me the courage).

I’ve chosen this one because A) I’m proud of it; it’s the only multi-chapter fic I’ve ever finished, but also B) it’s basically a timeline of my first year in NYC, which will (maybe?) make for some interesting commentary. I’ll post a chapter every other day and include my self-indulgent author notes at the bottom (songs, anecdotes, whatever dumb shit I come up with).

Yes, you can read the entire fic on Ao3 . . . but what’s the fun in that? ;)

Chapter 1

[December 24th, 1989]

It is the beginning of their story, the first time Jamie sees her. The dividing line between 'what was' and 'what would be.' The setting is a Christmas party: an Edinburgh flat, roaring on the cusp of a new decade. Champagne bubbles float in flutes and greetings.

The players are just two university students, dancing across a stage of shaggy green carpet. Garlands of tinsel trip their feet.

And the opening scene? Well. It goes something like this:

She is wearing a holiday sweater, a confection of silver bells and sequined penguins. It is the hard-won earnings of an hour’s wade through mothballs, she says, of a knee-deep dive in a charity shop bargain bin. All of this she relays to Jamie with a smirk, a precocious, all-knowing smile that he will come to know so well.

The lights dim, and her eyes flicker. Lit coals in the flat’s half-dark. She smells of fresh rain, of flowers just beginning to open, and the scent forms a sweet, perceptible weight in the air. It settles on him, around him, when she leans forward, straining to hear his stuttered—

“Hello,” Jamie says, or tries to. He forgets his vowels and it comes as, “Hlllll?”

“Sorry, what was that?”

Claire starts when his hand takes hers, crunches it firmly inside his palm. For Claire, this moment will never lose its clarity, and in the years that follow she will argue that this is where their story begins: nestled in the slight curl of Jamie’s lips; his voice, as smooth as the whisky he offers to pour her; another ugly sweater, this one boasting a lager-stained Santa and a hem of unraveling wool. The red string hangs there for her to tug and close the gulf between them, and she does. Twenty one (him) and twenty two (her) years of strangerhood reduced to nothing—and then, so suddenly, transformed into knowing.

They make small talk in the corner, mentioning the weather (“seasonably cold”) and her biology exam (“after break”). Eventually Claire asks, “Do you know anyone here?”, and bracketed inside this question is her secret hope that he does not. She wants to believe that Jamie is on her side, that it is only the two of them (it has only ever been the two of them) against the world. She is so used to feeling alone in crowds—but here! Oh, but here in the rainbow glow of tree lights, she feels a part of Something. She holds onto it, wishing her hand was as big as his so that his curling lips and his whisky voice would never seep through her fingers.

“Dinna ken anyone,” Jamie confirms, “though I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.”

He inclines his head towards the mass of bodies, all gyrating in a singular, chaotic wave. Music plays in the background, oppressive and electronic, as a third year belts Bowie between tokes. Jamie lets it fade away, forgets it all—the noise, how to blink, how to breathe. Forgets everything except her.

Claire wrinkles her nose.

“The problem with these people is that they think they’re interesting.” She is yelling into his ear but even so, it seems strangely intimate. Every word exchanged is a secret between them, one they tuck inside their pockets, will place under their pillows when they lay their heads to sleep. “But they aren’t. Not even remotely!”

“Weel, fortunately you’ve met me now.”

“Mmm. But are you truly interesting or only remotely?”

“That’s for you to decide, lass. You being the expert on such things.”

Claire grins at the floor. “You haven’t even told me your name, y’know.”

“James Fraser,” he says, all too quickly, and he’s unreasonably embarrassed. James, he thinks. How many ‘James’ were in this very room, wearing equally hideous and soiled sweaters? How many ‘James’ had she met in Scotland? Would she even remember him, one of 337 (to be precise), after this night? (She would, of course. During her biology exam, she will think of James Fraser and leave fifteen questions blank. She will get a C—a grade as average as his name.)

“But you can call me Jamie,” he adds over the roar.

“I’m Claire Beauchamp. Just plain Claire Beauchamp!”

And Jamie laughs—a beautiful laugh, the best laugh, a laugh Claire will spend the rest of her life wanting to hear (she will have to work harder on certain days).

“If I call ye anything, it’ll be ‘Sassenach’. Whereabouts in England are ye from?”

And Claire smiles—a beautiful smile, the best smile, a smile Jamie will spend the rest of his life trying to earn (finding success and failure in turns).

“Oxford by birth,” Claire says. “But from nowhere, really.”

She pauses, hearing the third-year shout, “Bowie, man! Greatest artist of all time!” and swears the kid is wrong. It’s God who was the greatest artist, and this six-foot deity with his lager-stained knit was his chef d’ouevre.

“Do you want to make this night interesting, Jamie?”

“Remotely interesting?”

“More than remotely.”

“That depends. What d’ye have in mind?”

Claire reaches for his hand, and he gives it to her. Jamie squeezes; she squeezes back. She leads him through the throng. He follows, licking his lips and at her heels.

(Who knew it could ever be this easy? Falling in love.)

Note: I started this fic with a variation of the last line (“Who knew how easy it was to fall in love?”) and worked my way backwards. I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to write: a cross between Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, David Nicholls’ One Day, and the movie Blue Jay. Ah, ambition! I ultimately veered away from the last one, but leaned very heavily on Fates and Furies (more on that later) and stuck to One Day’s idea of tracking a relationship over the course of multiple decades. I thought I could do this in a couple of chapters, but after I wrote this opener—in the middle of the night; anxious as fuck because I was a one week away from moving to New York (also more on that later)—I chucked my original five-chapter outline. Still had no idea where I was going with it though.

In retrospect, I like this chapter as a whole, although I realize Jamie/Claire sound like pretentious snobs (the result of my Fates and Furies obsession!) and wish I carried the red string image throughout the rest of the story.

#outlander #claire fraser #claire beauchamp #jamie fraser #myfic

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best-bowie-bracket · 1 month

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And the winner for Aladdin Sane is…

Time!!!

I’m so happy because this is the first time that my favorite song on an album has come out as the winner. Congratulations to Time!!! Please join us now to start voting on PinUps!

#best bowie bracket #david bowie #polls #tournament #tumblr polls #music #please vote #it’ll be fun

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bestsynthpop · 2 months

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youtube

All the bracket 1 match-ups

#Anything Box #David Bowie #bracket 1 #round 1 #best synthpop song #Youtube

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battingonjakku · 4 years

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Okay so I was waiting for a last.fm of the decade stuff as it’s more accurate for me than Spotify, there being a lot of stuff I’ve listened to on iTunes and my iPod and whatnot in that time.

So here we have it, my top 5 tracks of the decade:

1= Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life

1= Los Campesinos! - Plan A

1= Los Campesinos! - Straight in at 101

4- The Libertines - Up The Bracket

5- Frank Turner - Reasons Not To Be An Idiot

my spotify top track came down in 16th

Albums:

1 - Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring

2 - Hamilton soundtrack (I’ve gone at that hard in the past 3 years then when I got into it! The rest here have been constants throughout the decade)

3 - Frank Turner - Love Ire & Song

4 - Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals

5 - The Libertines Best Of (fun fact: I don’t actually have their albums on my iTunes still and I just playlist it up to listen to them because I was a lazy teen about buying the missing tracks)

Artists:

1 - Bowie

2 - Frank Turner

3 - The Libertines

4 - Los Campesinos!

5 - Patrick Wolf

Patrick is close to double the next highest too. That is close to my all time most played as well. Surprised Frank is up at 2 though, thought he’d be behind LC! and probably is in the last 5 years

#random personal shit

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totaldrama-showdowns · 3 months

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Round 1 Match 15

Propaganda

Chowie: “I'm so sorry but the idea of bowie hating on chase for emma and then getting with him anyways is the funniest dynamic. like he's toxiccccc get away from him. BUT he is kinda funny... emma staring daggers at bowie like...”

“Loser dumbass fuckface x the best boy ever”

“toxic yaoi SWEEP!!!!!!”

Shed: “S cary girl x HEzekias x Damien. It's Zeemien and Scarmien but with Scarzee. Scary Girl gives Zee the idea to ram the ship and he listens, he clearly respects her. Plus I feel like he'd be the one to calm Damien down when Scary Girl says "I'll make Damien toe soup:)" without elaborating. Also trout sweep. Think of how awesome they'd be.”

“Literally for what the other person said yeah. Awesome polycule and zee deserves to be in a polycule in this bracket that doesn't involve chase”

“Theyre some of the best characters of gen4 we should make them kiss”

#total drama #gen 4 ship showdown #total drama island 2023 #chowie #shed #scary zeemien #scaryzee #scarmien #zeemien #bowie td #chase td #zee td #damien td #scary girl td #td spoilers

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fenceanddeckconnectionusa · 3 years

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#Fences

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jojbrackets · 7 years

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I was tagged by @tuesdaysrequiem and @acrosstrawberryfields

1.Nicknames:lorri/lolo

2.Gender: female

3.Star sign: Sagittarius

4.Height: 5ft

5.Time: 8:04pm

6.Birthday: Dec.14.2000

7.favorite Bands: the Beatles,the rolling Stones,the wings, Chevelle and Cage the elephant

8.Favorite solo artist: David Bowie, George Harrison,John Lennon,Paul McCartney,Bill Wyman

9.Song stuck in my head: Kathleen by Catfish and the bottlemen

10.Last movie I watched: A Hard Days Night

11.Last show I watched: The voice

12.When I created my blog: idk I think somewhere in June

13.What do I post: BEATLE TRASH,the rolling Stones.. and random shit I like

14.Last thing I googled: mclennon fan fics

15.Do u get asks?: I did recently by my best m8

16.Why did you choose your url: because joj saying brackets is the best

17.Following:369

18:Followers:939

19: Favorite colors: vibrant Blue

20: Average hours of sleep: 6hrs…ya ik I need to sleep more

21: lucky number: 9

22: Instruments: electric guitar..but I’m still learning how to play it

23:What am I wearing: Sleeping clothes some comfy pants and a shirt that says “ain’t no body got time for that”

24: How many blankets I sleep with: Two

25: Dream job: Forensic Artist

26: Dream trip: TO LONDON

27: Favorite food: hot wings and fries

28: Nationality: American

I tag: @macca-girl @honeystarkey @george-harrrison @paulmccharmleyy @sarahthefluff @blind-lemon

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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 5 years

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Consumer Guide / No.87 / Top Of The Pops LPs archivist & blogger Terry Wilson with Mark Watkins.

MW : Tell me about your background...

TW : I grew up in Aylesbury, and from as early as I can remember, I loved music - and it was these very Top of the Pops LPs which were the earliest I had, bought for me as presents when I was four or five, and spun on an old mono Dansette. Little did I know, the LPs were being pressed in a small plant five minutes from where I lived (I found that out about forty years later!).

I guess Top of the Pops started me on the road to what would become quite a serious record collecting habit, and a love of music generally. I went on to play in a number of unsuccessful bands, before taking up music writing (plug: Tamla Motown - The Stories Behind The UK Singles). I'm now 50, and live in Sussex with my wife and child, and although I completed my Top of the Pops vinyl collection years ago, I still splash out on the odd rarity or overseas pressing when I see it. The overseas ones especially fascinate me, although I'm no longer able fill my home with records, like I did in my bachelor days.

MW : When & why did you set up your Top of the Pops website?

TW : The project started around 1999, and I knew nothing about web design at that point. I'd started collecting the series (as an adult, that is - my childhood LPs were long gone), but this was when the internet was still in its infancy - nothing like we have today. For example, there was no such thing as a Top of the Pops LP discography, so I had no idea how many I needed, what the catalogue numbers were, or what the LP sleeves looked like.

The website project actually began as an Excel spreadsheet, where I started listing the volume numbers, catalogue numbers and so on. A few of the albums had gotten into the LP charts back in the 1970s, so the relevant chart books were consulted and provided a few more snippets - that's how hard it was to find anything out before the internet, young people. That listing gradually expanded to the point where I thought I'd try my hand at making a website, which was a steep learning curve for me. I guess it went online around 2005.

MW : How have you developed the site since its beginnings?

TW : The first site I made was quite different to the current one. The technology was much more clunky, and the pages were all out of line. It wasn't great, but at least gave me a grounding in web design, so I knew what I needed to do. I made the decision around 2008 to re-invent it using a different host, whose layouts I much preferred, and that's where it still lives today. From my perspective, the website was more than just a space to write up and organise the discography; it was also a forum for research. I've lost count of the number of kind people who've contacted me through the site, and given me information, photos and even records over the years.

A Russian collector, for example, used to send me Top of the Pops records from the old Soviet Union, pressed on flexi-disc and coloured vinyl - I'd never even have known about them otherwise. Plus, every new discovery meant a new page for the site, and whole new sections came into being - it has expanded to the point where it's now quite vast. It's because of the size of the site that I started a blog (http://copycatcovers.blogspot.com) where I could flag up new discoveries which might otherwise not get noticed - not just Top of the Pops, but across the whole genre of what I call copycat cover versions.

MW : How do you store and maintain all your vinyl?

TW : I'd love to say I have a dedicated room with security cameras and temperature control - but in reality I store my collection in a humble way on ordinary shelves.

I used to have them in a series of proper LP cases, but they became unwieldy, so I took them out again. Just having them stacked vertically away from undue heat or humidity is all the care they need. The more precious ones are in heavy-duty protective covers, but I don't go to great lengths to look after them, or treat them like precious jewels.

They rarely encounter a record deck, though, as I got together with a few fellow collectors some years back, and between us we digitised the whole set - so the vinyl can stay safely inside the sleeves while I listen to MP3s. The rarer tape editions in my collection are less hardy than the vinyl, so they are housed in protective cases and kept in a safe place.

MW : What are your views on these kinds of LPs - in the sense that they were once seen as cheap and cheesy - until The Mike Flowers Pops lounge music revival in 1995…

TW : There's a part of me that sees them exactly as you describe - cheap and cheesy - but there's another part of me, which I guess is the dominant voice in my head, which sees them as creative fun. It's important to remember these are not compilation albums. The making of them required a band to go into a studio, red light running against the clock, and capture track after track after track - and in this way, the original 'Top of the Poppers' group recorded around 70 full LPs in ten years - by any measure, that's dedicated musicianship, arranging and singing. I can't think of any band in history with such a prolific work rate. I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek article in which I argued these were the most important albums ever made, and by the end of it, I'd almost convinced myself! Two of them even made Number 1 in the UK album charts. That's two more than Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, etc…

MW : Do you search charity shops and similar for these albums? Your best finds? Any missing?

TW : My UK collection is essentially complete, and has been for a few years - so I no longer hunt them down. For better or worse, I'm past the point where I still find anything I need in charity shops. Overseas releases are a different matter. I buy them when I can, but I probably have more missing than I will ever know. (To my knowledge, I am the only person who's ever researched them.)

When I was buying the UK albums, charity shops and car boot sales were my main source, and I frequented them religiously - there was Ebay, of course, but it costs a lot more to have an LP posted to you than to chance upon it for 25p in a charity shop - so I held out and gradually finished the set. My best find was probably Volume 90 - I'd never seen it, and I was killing time in a town in West Sussex when I had a rummage in a junk shop and found it for pennies. Back then, Ebay was around, but the number of sellers was a fraction of what it is today. On the very rare occasions something like Volume 90 or Volume 91 turned up, they would command prices in the £100 bracket - and that's no exaggeration. (I thereby learned I was not the only one collecting them!)

But most of my truly astonishing finds have been via the internet. I'll never forget discovering one of the LPs had been issued in Argentina, and I bought it immediately. When it arrived, I slipped it out the sleeve to find it was pressed on starburst multi-coloured vinyl. Amazing! And still it goes on - just last year I chanced upon a UK release, a double album of disco tracks by The Poppers, which I'd never even heard of! You never know what will show up next.

MW : Tell me about some of the famous (now) but not famous (then) musicians who started their careers off doing Top of the Pops cover versions...

TW : It would be great to say a succession of stellar names cut their recording teeth on these Top of the Pops albums, but in truth, there aren't that many examples. Those who know about the cover version sub-industry (and Top of the Pops was only one LP series among many) immediately think of Elton John. He did record a good number of anonymous cover versions in the late-1960s for labels like Avenue, Marble Arch and Music For Pleasure, but only one for Top of the Pops - ‘Snake In The Grass’, issued on Volume 5 (which is, consequently, worth a few pounds).

It's frustrating that the session men and women are largely unknown to this day, but a couple more famous names can be confirmed. Tina Charles, for example, who had success with her hit, ‘I Love To Love’, can be heard singing ‘Stand By Your Man’ on Volume 45, while well-known singer Laura Lee performs ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ on Volume 36. We might also mention Elvis Costello's dad, Ross McManus, who sang on more than one LP - including the same Volume 5 which Elton was on. Rumours that David Bowie appears on some are probably not true, but who really knows?

MW : What are your favorite album covers...why?

TW : It may seem paradoxical, but I've never really been a fan of the album covers. There are many collectors of the 'cheesecake' sleeve genre, but I'm not one of them. Mostly, I find them amusing, with the ridiculous poses and whacky clothing - they are sometimes described accusingly as soft porn, but I think that's taking them too seriously. Maybe they were considered more shocking back in the day, but there's one in particular, Volume 8 - in which the model sports a fur bikini! Can you think of a more absurd garment?

I like the quasi-psychedelic cover of Volume 16 but my favourite is probably the ultra-hideous Volume 22 - one of the ones I had when I was a kid. That's famous actress, Nicola Austin, in what can only be described as a roll-neck leotard, capped off with matching sailing hat! We should give a shout-out to Bill Graham, a designer for Pickwick Records, who came up with the iconic sleeve design in 1968. Even into the mid-1980s, when models like Sam Fox and Linda Lusardi were by then appearing on the covers, the design was essentially unchanged. He came up with a classic.

MW : What are your long term plans for the site / collection?

TW : The site continues to grow, every time another record comes to my attention. One area I never did get into was reviews of the LPs. I would have, but a fellow enthusiast, called Tim Joseph, has been preparing a book about them for years, and I didn't want to tread on his toes, so to speak. It's something I might do one day though. As for my collection, I don't know what will become of it! I have some bona-fide rarities in my possession - autographed sleeves, advance promo copies, a genuine gold disc award, and numerous overseas pressings, one of which accidentally includes a real hit recording by Elton - don't ask me how that happened, but so far as I am aware, the album is unknown to his fans and collectors. If they found out about it, they might make me some handsome offers! But who, besides, me, would really want the rest of it?

I doubt I will ever sell my collection, so I guess I'll keep it until I shuffle off this mortal coil, then what will become of it, I don't know. I could offer it to a museum, but I fear they would die laughing! In a sense, I feel I've done my bit in preserving the LP series by photographing, cataloguing and documenting it all - at one point I actually lent some records back to Pickwick so they could make digital versions of some they couldn't locate - and so they were my copies, loaded up globally to iTunes. It's a honour for me, and that's reward enough.

MW : Away from the website, what are your other interests?

TW : I've always had many interests to pursue - I have what's sometimes called the collector's gene.

So when I'm not mulling the small print of old record sleeves, I might be cataloguing every Aston Villa football card ever printed, or compiling a collection of every King George VI postage stamp.

I tend to go for ambitious projects - all or nothing - so when I wrote my Tamla Motown book, for example, I researched and wrote up every single 45 they ever released - a mammoth task which had to be squeezed between building websites, playing football, playing in a band - and also, a full-time job (Special mention here to my patient wife!). I've always had in interest in writing. I used to work as a journalist and edited a few magazines.

These days, much of my spare time is consumed with mixing and remixing music on pc. It's great fun, and the technology is so freely available, anyone can do it.

MW : What's to see and do in the area you live in?

TW : I grew up in the countryside, and moved down to Brighton in my 20s. It's a place I still love - so much going on all the time with bands, nightlife, festivals and so on - but one way or another, I've ended up back in a village.

Life here is quiet, and the village is a bit other-worldly - which is fine - but very different from the pace of city life. Cars will actually pull up to a stop in the middle of the road, if someone's waiting to cross!

The village has its own events - an annual village day, a dedicated fireworks society and various arts’ groups, which I take a passing interest in. Fortunately, there's also a choice of good pubs.

MW : How do you intend to spend the summer holidays?

TW : I have no plans yet for the coming summer - which is leaving it late, to say the least. I quite like the idea of getting a last-minute deal and flying off to who-knows-where, but I'm not sure what we'll do. I get bored easily and like to have things to do and see, whereas my wife likes to lay in the hot sun and do nothing. So, we find things which work for both of us. Last year we headed down to Cornwall to a seaside resort and went out on a few adventures, so it worked for both of us. This year, who knows?

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