#katie did the art ashe did the writing
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𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐬 & 𝐖𝐖𝟏: 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬
𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝘀𝗵𝗯𝘆 𝗢’𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗹
Nicknames: Buddy, bud, sport
Name Meanings: Miles → English, “soldier or merciful” ; Ashby → British, “ash tree home” ; O’Neill → Irish, “descendant of Niall.”
Date of Birth: April 17, 1918
Gender: Male (he/him)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff
Faceclaims: Jude Hill & Jack Lowden
Parents: Rory O’Neill and Francesca “Frannie” O’Neill née Ashby [deceased]
Step-Mother: Ethel Malinda (@gaygryffindorgal)
Sisters: Jane Augusta and Catherine Edith “Kate” O’Neill
Patronus: Brown hare
Favorite Subjects: Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Flying
Least Favorite Subjects: Transfiguration, potions
Extracurriculars: Seeker on his house quidditch team
Hobbies: Quidditch, reading, flying, rugby, hurling, football/soccer
Personality: Kind, intelligent, reserved, stubborn, kind hearted, hardworking, loyal, responsible, athletic, observant, dependable, fair, cautious
About Miles: As the only child of Rory and Frannie O’Neill, Miles was born on April 17, 1918. At birth, he weighed five pounds and seven ounces, as he was born four weeks prematurely, causing his father to marvel at how tiny Miles was. He inherited his mother’s blonde hair and his father’s blue eyes, although his father usually only saw the aspects of his mother in him. He is his father’s pride and joy and has been ever since he was born. He has no memories of his mother, though, as she passed away shortly after he was born.
His father eventually got married for a second time, to Ethel Malinda. Miles liked Ethel. He liked that she never asked him to call her “ma” or “mum.” He liked that his dad was lighter, more playful. He liked the little sisters he got in 1932, when he was 14. The age gap and time away at Hogwarts made it a bit difficult to form relationships with Jane and Kate, but he did his best. Miles liked his new family, even as he wished that he could have been able to know his mother.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Miles was sorted into Hufflepuff, just like his mother had been. He liked being in Hufflepuff. It gave him that connection to his mother and he felt at home in the house. In his third year, Miles made the Hufflepuff quidditch team as their newest seeker. He enjoyed following his father’s footsteps when it came to quidditch, even though he never wanted to go and play professionally.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Miles went on to become an archivist.
Trivia:
As a teenager, Miles had a bit of guilt related to his mother’s death. His father quickly reminded him that it wasn’t his fault. It was never his fault.
Miles has always had a close relationship with his father, who raised Miles by himself for over a decade. Miles knows that he can turn to his father for anything.
𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢’𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗹
Nicknames: Kate, Katie
Name Meanings: Catherine → Greek, “pure” ; Edith → English, “prosperous in war” ; O’Neill → Irish, “descendant of Niall.”
Date of Birth: August 15, 1932 (at 4:15 am, thirteen minutes after her twin sister)
Gender: Female (she/her)
Sexuality: Demisexual
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Faceclaim: Malia Baker
Parents: Rory O’Neill and Ethel Malinda (@gaygryffindorgal)
Siblings: Miles Ashby and Jane Augusta O’Neill
Patronus: Robin
Favorite Subjects: Charms, potions, flying
Least Favorite Subjects: History of magic, transfiguration
Extracurriculars: Chaser on her house quidditch team
Hobbies: Reading, writing, flying, painting, photography
Personality: Outspoken, intelligent, strong-willed, responsible, courageous, stubborn, direct, organized, private, kind, thoughtful, cautious
About Kate: As the younger daughter, Kate generally takes after her father more so than her mother… except that Kate is extroverted like her mother. She’s got her father’s more cautious nature, except when it comes to matters that she’s passionate about. Then, she’ll throw caution to the wind in favor of standing up for what she believes in. Kate’s got a close relationship with her twin sister and has a pretty good relationship with her older brother too. In addition, her relationships with her parents are also good and close. She knows that she can trust them.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Kate was sorted into Gryffindor, just like her parents had been. She found it easy to feel comfortable in Gryffindor and Hogwarts. She had her twin to turn to when she got homesick, which was nice and helped her to feel comfortable. In her fourth year, Kate made the decision to try out for the Gryffindor quidditch team and earned the position of chaser. There was always a slight pressure to perform as well as her father, but it never came from him. Instead, it came from her peers but it helped to confirm that Kate wasn’t interested in playing quidditch professionally.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Kate decided to follow her mother’s footsteps and became a journalist, her passions leading her to more complicated stories and she was also inspired by the muckraker journalists that she read about in the muggle books.
Trivia:
Kate is thirteen minutes younger than her twin sister, Jane.
Kate’s middle name, Edith, is after one of her father’s sisters.
𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗧𝗮𝗱𝗵𝗴 𝗦𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗵𝗮
Nicknames: Rich, Richie, Rick, Dick
Name Meanings: Richard → German, “dominant ruler” ; Tadhg → Irish, “poet” ; Sapieha → Polish, “wheeze.”
Date of Birth: June 20, 1942
Gender: Male (he/him)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Faceclaim: Harry Collett
Parents: Aisling Lynch and Joseph “Jojo” Sapieha (@slytherindisaster)
Siblings: Margaret Brigid “Maggie” and Audrey Callidora Sapieha
Grandparents: Tadhg Lynch and Niamh Kelly ; Gabriel Saiepha and Roxie Haley (@mjs-oc-corner)
Patronus: Irish wolfhound
Favorite Subjects: Charms, flying, history of magic, astronomy
Least Favorite Subjects: Potions, herbology, transfiguration
Extracurriculars: Seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team, prefect
Hobbies: Quidditch, flying, reading, stamp collecting, building models, photography
Personality: Quiet, reserved, kind, loyal, intelligent, private, practical, stubborn, responsible, observant, competitive, sarcastic, curious, organized
About Richard: As the only son and middle child, Richard is never what anyone expects. Everyone expects him to be just like his father and grandfathers. A troublemaker. Only that’s never been Richard. He likes to fly under the radar, focusing on what he considers important. He prefers to keep his things organized and would rather not get into trouble. Richard hates the way that everyone immediately turns to him when trouble happens, even after he’s proved that he’s not a troublemaker. If anyone’s a troublemaker in the family, it’s Richard’s older sister, Maggie.
In regards to his family, Richard is probably the closest to his younger sister, Audrey. They just seem to click a bit better. He also has good relationships with both sets of grandparents, although he’s probably the closest with his maternal grandmother. She seems to get him fairly well. He has a good relationship with both of his parents, too, although he’s not sure who he’s closer to.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Richard was sorted into Gryffindor. He enjoyed the house, even if he felt like all anyone could see were his grandfathers sometimes. In his second year, he made the Gryffindor quidditch in the position of seeker. He fell in love with the sport, just like his father had. He also was made a prefect in his fifth year. He enjoyed his time at Hogwarts.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Richard went on to become a wandmaker. He had never intended to go into that field, but stumbled into it after other plans fell apart.
Trivia:
Richard looks a lot like his grandfather, Tadhg. His middle name is also after his grandfather. He also has a decent bit in common with his Granda Tadhg, but Richard is a lot more responsible than Tadhg ever was.
Richard is a dog lover. He begs his parents for a dog as a child.
𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗢𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮 𝗢’𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗮
Nicknames: None
Name Meanings: Willa → German, “resolute protection” ; Millicent → German, “Strong in work” ; Odessa → Greek, “wrathful, the one who receives pain, fiery, long journey” ; O’Shea → Irish, “hawk-like” or “fine.”
Date of Birth: March 21, 1929
Gender: Female (she/her)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff
Faceclaim: Willow Shields
Parents: Colm O’Shea and Ione Avery (@cursed-herbalist)
Siblings: Mabel Lunette Joan, Delton Alistair Michael “Del,” and Arden Colm Curtis O’Shea
Patronus: Robin
Favorite Subjects: Defense against the dark arts, charms, herbology
Least Favorite Subjects: Potions, astronomy
Extracurriculars: Prefect, headgirl
Hobbies: Embroidery, gardening, scrapbooking, reading, skating
Personality: Intelligent, kind, rational, reserved, private, loyal, thoughtful, fair, perceptive, conflict averse, stubborn, idealistic, hardworking, caring, warm, sensitive, chatty
About Willa: Willa is very much her mother’s daughter, sensitive and kind hearted. She’s thoughtful and careful, with a tendency to be rather particular about what’s going on with her stuff. In addition, Willa’s responsible and intelligent. The main thing she got from her father was a tendency to talk incessantly. Willa’s an extrovert who likes to talk and be around people. Unlike either of her parents, though, Willa is not guarded. She’s pretty open and tends to wear her heart on her sleeve.
As the third born, Willa’s pretty content with her spot in the family. She’s six years younger than her eldest sister, four years younger than her older brother, and four years older than her younger brother. It’s a pretty good spot to be and Willa likes getting to be both an older and a younger sister. She’s closest to Arden, by virtue of being together the longest. She also deeply admired Mabel and spent a few years trying to be just like her sister.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Willa was sorted into Hufflepuff. She instantly fell in love with Hogwarts and Hufflepuff. She loved being around her peers, learning, and everything about the magic of Hogwarts. She liked having both of her older siblings at Hogwarts with her, with Mabel being in her last year and Del in his fourth year due to his late birthday. In her fifth year, she was named a Hufflepuff prefect and two years later, Willa became Hogwarts’s headgirl.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Willa went on to a healer. She worked at several different hospitals throughout her life including St. Mungo’s in London and Leighis in Dublin.
Trivia:
Willa is named after her Aunt Odessa.
𝗔𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗺 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀 𝗢’𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗮
Nicknames: None
Name Meanings: Arden → English, “valley of the eagle; high” ; Colm → Irish, “dove” ; Curtis → French, “courteous, polite” ; O’Shea → Irish, “hawk-like; fine”
Date of Birth: October 14, 1933
Gender: Male (he/him)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Faceclaim: Dylan Kingwell
Parents: Colm O’Shea and Ione Avery (@cursed-herbalist)
Siblings: Mabel Lunette Joan, Delton Michael Alistair “Del,” and Willa Millicent Odessa O’Shea
Patronus: Mongrel dog
Favorite Subjects: Charms, defense against the dark arts, flying, transfiguration
Least Favorite Subjects: Herbology, potions
Extracurriculars: Seeker on the Ravenclaw quidditch team
Hobbies: Quidditch, fishing, rugby, hurling, football/soccer, reading, skating, board games, movies
Personality: Quiet, intelligent, rational, practical, stubborn, competitive, risk-prone, reserved, independent, kind, reliable
About Arden: In many ways, Arden is the exact copy of his father. He and Colm have the same risk-prone qualities. They’re both competitive and stubborn and practical. However, Arden is a lot more reserved than his father. He doesn’t talk incessantly. He pauses and considers how and when he wants to contribute to a conversation. Arden is still as private as Colm, he just doesn’t talk as much.
As the youngest, Arden is very much the baby of the family. After all, he’s a full decade younger than his sister, Mabel. He’s closest to his sister, Willa, although there’s still a four year age gap between the two of them. Due to these large age gaps, Arden often finds himself being babied by his older siblings. He’s not the biggest fan of that, especially as he gets older. In addition, Arden often finds himself feeling a little jealous when Mabel and Del and then Willa go off to Hogwarts without him.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Arden was sorted into Ravenclaw without much hassle. He finds that Hogwarts is pretty enjoyable and he loves how much he can learn. However, the first month or so each year, Arden feels quite homesick. He misses his parents and their home and their dog. Arden always gets over it, it just takes a while. He also feels a little awkward about it because it always seems to him like no one else is homesick. Plus, by the time Arden arrives at Hogwarts, Mabel and Del have graduated and Willa’s in her fourth year. He feels a little alone at the beginning of his years at Hogwarts. In his third year, Arden makes the Ravenclaw quidditch earning the position of seeker. It makes the loneliness disappear a bit.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Arden pursues history. He worked as an archivist for a few years before becoming a full fledged historian. He eventually writes a book about the history of quidditch in Ireland.
Trivia:
Arden is named after his father.
𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗻
Nicknames: Mal, Chi (pronounced like Kai)
Name Meanings: Malachi → Hebrew, “my messenger” ; Francis → Latin, “Frenchman or free man” ; Sullivan → Irish, “dark eyes or hawk eyes.”
Date of Birth: November 26, 1935
Gender: Male (he/him)
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff
Faceclaim: Jack Fisher
Parents: Linus Sullivan and Maritza Krum (@potionboy3)
Brother: Constantine Marinus Sullivan
Patronus: Wolf
Favorite Subjects: Charms, astronomy, and transfiguration
Least Favorite Subjects: Defense against the dark arts and herbology
Extracurriculars: Prefect, chess club, back-up keeper on the Hufflepuff quidditch team
Hobbies: Chess, reading, writing, sketching, drawing, baseball, ice skating
Personality: Creative, insightful, stubborn, passionate, responsible, sensitive, perfectionistic, kind, fair, caring, loyal, nervous, anxious
About Malachi: Malachi is very much his parents’ child. He’s on the quieter side, preferring to keep to himself. In addition, Malachi is quite private and he likes to be creative. He enjoys sketching and drawing and dabbling with paints. He also loves playing wizard’s chess. He can beat pretty much every member of his family at the game.
As the youngest, by nearly a decade, Malachi has spent a lot of time as basically an only child. His older brother, Constantine, had spent most of Malachi’s childhood at Hogwarts, leaving him to spend time alone with their parents. Thus, Malachi doesn’t have a close relationship with Constantine. He deeply admired his older brother, but they’ve never had a close relationship due to their age difference.
Upon starting Hogwarts, Malachi was sorted into Hufflepuff. It took him a few weeks to grow comfortable at Hogwarts and being away from home for the first time. Eventually, Malachi grew to love Hogwarts. In his fourth year, he tried for the Hufflepuff quidditch team on a whim. And while he didn’t make the official team, he was reserve keeper from that moment on, and only played in a total of ten games. In his fifth year, Malachi was named prefect. He liked the responsibility that the position gave him.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Malachi went on to become an arthimancer and comic strip artist. He followed his gut and after tiring of his career as an arthimancer, he made the gut decision to try his hand at comic strips. Much to his surprise, he was able to make a career out of being a comic strip artist.
Trivia:
Malachi shares a birthday with his father. He was born at 12:03 am on November 26, 1935, while Linus was born in the afternoon on the same date 41 years prior.
𝗝𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮 𝗢’𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗹
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗱 “𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗲” 𝗦𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗵𝗮 • 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗵𝗮
𝗠𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝗮𝗻 𝗢’𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗮 • 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹 “𝗗𝗲𝗹” 𝗢’𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗮
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗻
#fbawtft fankids#hp ww1 fankids#miles o’neill#kate o’neill#richard sapieha#willa o’shea#arden o’shea#malachi sullivan#hp ww1 era#hp wwi era#fbawtft era#fankids: franry#fankids: rethel#fankids: jolin#fankids: o’sheavery#fankids: maritus#my aesthetic
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Sylvania School of Magic: (Updated) Character Info
Name: Espio
House: Ravenclaw
Wand: Pine, phoenix feather
Blood Status: Pureblood
Favorite Subject: Transfiguration
Espio is a quiet, reserved student who usually prefers to keep to himself. Hailing from an ancient wizarding family, he is the third in a family of five siblings, and he, like his siblings, has been trained in hand-to-hand combat since a young age, as is their family way. His family has a history of Gryffindors and Slytherins, and his parents and siblings were shocked to learn that Espio was placed in Ravenclaw. When it was explained to them later that he was one of the few hatstalls to grace Sylvania’s halls and that the Sorting Hat thought that Espio would have been a good fit in all four houses, they welcomed the change with open, excited arms.
Usually, Espio can be found holed up in the Ravenclaw common room or taking a walk around the grounds. The former because the Ravenclaw common room is the only place where his siblings can’t reach him, and the latter because the outside reminds him of his home of Chun-Nan. He loves drawing, flying on his broom, and reading manga (though he tries to keep that last fact to himself). He’s not very studious for a Ravenclaw, but he gets good grades anyway, even if his friends don’t understand how he pulls it off. Additionally, he can come off as rather serious because he keeps his emotions to himself, but he’s friendly and kind once you get to know him. If you need an out-of-the-box thinker, Espio’s your guy!
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Music Review: 2020
My blog has been a lot of things over the years, but it did originate as something I used to publicly review music; especially in the Visual Kei scene. Since I began the blog so many years ago, I had actually been hired to review Visual Kei and J-Rock music for an actual website: VKH-Press.com, work I am very, very proud of to this day. However, with not much news to comment on or work to critique, I haven’t been as active. Plus, personal issues always seem to stand in my way. However, I always take the time to discuss my passions at the end of the year. There were so many incredible releases, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I wanted to take the time time to discuss my favorite releases and, maybe, the not-so-favorites as well. Quick shout out to Bastille’s Goosebumps EP and Megan Thee Stallion’s Good News LP as I did not get to listen to them before I wrote up my lists, but were still excellent releases. See my thoughts below!
Overall, there were about 75 albums or groupings of albums I listened to this year and split them between various tiers. Starting with the bad tier, there were actually only ten albums listed here and mostly just because they were seemingly unnecessary collection albums. For example, another Satsuki collection? Rides in ReVellion releasing two greatest hits LPs after only five years of work? Beyonce releasing The Lion King: The Gift again? None of those felt like necessary releases. There weren’t many albums that really screamed bad to me this year, but I really could not stand Vanessa Carlton’s “Love is an Art” or Justin Bieber’s “Changes.” The only other albums on this tier were just underwhelming compared to what I know the artist is capable of, but the “best bad tier album,” in my view, was The 1975′s “Notes on a Conditional Form.”
The mid-tier albums had all sorts of reasons for being only mid-tier. They weren’t quite bad or outright unnecessary, but are mostly by artists who put out work that was nowhere near the caliber of their usual work or were re-releases or other collection albums. For example, Tove Lo’s “Sunshine Kitty: Pawprint Edition” or Man With A Mission’s remixes/b-sides/covers albums. Nice to have with good quality music, but I wish we’d just have had brand new EPs or LPs.
The good-tier albums were all really excellent releases, but didn’t hit home the way anything on the “God-Tier” list did. Here, I’d like to share a quick top ten:
10. Taeyeon’s “Purpose: Repackage” & Japanese EP, “#GirlsSpkOut”
9. Charli XCX’s “How I’m Feeling Now”
8. Miyavi’s “Holy Nights” & “Holy Nights: 2020 Lockdown”
7. TK’s “Sainou”
6. PVRIS’s “Use Me”
5. Buck-Tick’s “Abracadabra”
4. Katy Perry’s “Smile”
3. Alicia Keys’ “Alicia”
2. Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” & “Club Future Nostalgia”
1. Ava Max’s “Heaven & Hell
Without furhter ado, though, the God Tier Top 25:
25. Acme’s We Are Visual Kei: Essentially a collection album of several songs that were b-sides that never made a full-blown album. This LP was loaded with some of Acme’s best work and shows that they are going to be here for a long time, despite Div not quite working out. Recommended tracks: Mononoke Requiem, Gekiyama Celluloid, Houkago no Shiiku
24. Alanis Morisette’s Such Pretty Forks in the Road: Admittedly, a huge fan in the 90′s and loved her cover of Seal’s Crazy. However, before this album I didn’t really listen to much of her body of work and I can see why today’s youth might not listen to this album. It is very “adult” insofar as it deals with her struggles in marriage, parenting, religion, etc. Her vocal performance is exceptional and her song writing remains some of the best in the business. Recommended tracks: Smiling, Nemesis, Reasons I Drink.
23. Niall Horan’s Heartbreak Weather: Not my usual cup of tea, but for some reason Niall’s music makes me feel softer than normal. He’s very cute and charming and his words are always so romantic. It feels more genuine than the music made by other members of One Direction and kind-of reminds me of earlier Taylor Swift writing, but from a male perspective. Recommended Tracks: Put A Little Love On Me, Arms of a Stranger, Still.
22. K/DA’s All Out: I don’t even really understand what this is, but I love it. There’s something to do with League of Legends? Cartoons? International pop stars? Whatever it is, I’m totally obsessed. These songs just completely slap. Recommended Tracks: The Baddest, More, Drum Go Dum.
21. Darrell’s Brilliant Death: This might even “officially” be a single, but there’s enough content to market it as an album. Darrell is a band formed from the ashes of Deathgaze and Ai’s solo project. Who knows why Ai didn’t just continue after his solo album, Confusion, but he decided to go back to the band-format with confusingly-named Darrell. This album is then, incidentally, mostly Deathgaze covers. It brings the production into the new era and gives you a lot of nostalgic love for old hits. Recommended Tracks: Brilliant Death, Evoke the World, Abyss.
20. Alice Nine’s Fuyajou Eden & Kuro to Wonderland: Neither album was particularly long, in fact these were glorified EPs that could’ve been merged to one two-sided LP, but in either case... Both albums had something really special to offer and felt like a true comeback after years of name changes and finally going back to their original, kanji-styled name. Recommended Tracks: Kakumei Kaika -Revolutionary Blooming-, Testament, Replica, Glow.
19. Mucc’s Aku: This album felt very long in the making after a series of weird singles that didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. Ultimately, a lot of those singles did not make the album including my favorite one: Taboo. The resulting album, though, did feel very cohesive and thematic and even featured one of this year’s heavy hitters: Hazuki. Recommended Tracks: Aku -Justice-, Memai, Ameria.
18. Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts: This person is absolutely one of my favorite people in music. I’m pretty sure they have comeout as genderfluid/non-binary, so I want to stick with safe pronouns, just in case. However, they’ve always been a favorite and as they’ve come out as such a champion for the LGBT, I love them even more. The album though gave me a lot of hype for something very 80′s rock, but didn’t quite give me what I expected. All in all, the music was fantastic, just a little off-beat from expectations. Recommended Tracks: Gimme What I Want, Angels Like You, WTF Do I Know.
17. Rina Sawayama’s Sawayama: I didn’t expect to fall in love with this girl the way I did. My boyfriend recommended “STFU” to me as kind of a joke because the song discusses a lot of Asian racism that I’m always criticizing people in my life for falling into, but then the song was so bad ass I checked out the album. There were so many different types of music on it and she really did a good job with all of them. Then, with the deluxe edition coming out and the hardcore club banger “Lucid” being involved... Just really brought it all home. Recommended Tracks: Tokyo Love Hotel, Lucid, Fuck This World.
16. Amber Liu’s X: This was just an EP, but every song on it was great. Amber Liu was from f(x), a K-Pop Icon Group, but she always seemed like the odd one out. She was such a tomboy, so silly and funny all the time, and didn’t really behave like other Korean idols. I mean, really, she isn’t actually even Korean. I believe she’s Chinese American. In either case, the EP really noted some of her own personal strugles in the business and also remaining pretty fun at parts too. I saw her live in Philly before COVID-19 and she was truly excellent. Recommended Tracks: Numb, Stay Calm, Other People.
15. Blackpink’s The Album: Not much of an album at only 8 tracks, but that’s K-Pop for you. I bet next year I’ll be putting “Blackpink’s The Album: Repackage” on my top 25 list. The quality of the music was pretty dope though, all things considered. It was a very solid debut effort with all of their previous songs being somewhere in the same lane as this one. I still kind of believe they are a reminder of what 2NE1 could have been, but they’re doing well enough on their own. Recommended Tracks: Ice Cream, Lovesick Girls, Pretty Savage.
14. Hazuki’s Year Over All: Kind of a weird way to word it, but Hazuki basically released two albums this year in different formats. His work with his band, Lynch., was pretty magnificent. I’m not one to usually dwell on a Lynch. album. Their singles or featured tracks are what I usually get into, but the actual album (Ultima) really did a good job of showing how versatile Hazuki can be. His solo album, Souen -Funeral-, was an entirely stripped down, gothic orchestral album of Lynch. covers and other J-Hard Rock artists. Hearing it done like this was almost transcendental. Recommended Tracks: Xero, Idol, Ray, D.A.R.K.
13. Sam Smith’s Love Goes: They had me scared that their album wasn’t coming this year once they pushed it back, back in May. Then again, at the time, an album called “To Die For” was probably super tone deaf. In any case, literally every single released for this album had me in love. So, when they all got included in the final version, I was thrilled. Sam gave us a bonus song after the album as well, but I can see why that one didn’t get on. In any case, this is a huge step up from “The Thrill of it All,” which I didn’t really care for. Recommended Tracks: Another One, Dance (’Til You Love Someone Else), Forgive Myself.
12. Troye Sivan’s In A Dream: I love this kid. He’s so gay and so not shy about it and it really makes me smile. The EP comes after his last LP, Bloom, where the title track basically talks about bottoming for the first time and this new EP deals with a few other queer issues over weirdly produced beats that just... make sense. Recommended tracks: Stud, In A Dream, Easy.
11. Matenrou Opera’s Chronos: Unfortunately, this band just lost their guitarist again. Their original, Anzi, was basically the most consummate guitarist in the visual kei scene that wasn’t Hizaki and he left them. Their sound wasn’t quite right since and they seemed to just get it back with Chronos when Jay left them. I guess we’ll see what they do next, but I think Chronos could be their last great release. Recommended Tracks: Chronos, Silence, Reminiscence.
10. BoA’s Better: A very recent release that hasn’t had much time for me to digest. This is strange for me to put it so high on my list for that reason, but BoA is one of my all time favorites. She never disappoints me. This album was no different. It wasn’t exactly up to par with “Woman” or “Watashi Kono Mama de Ii no Kana,” but it definitely gave us some new and very iconic Queen BoA bangers. Recommended Tracks: Cut Me Off, Start Over, Temptations.
9. Kesha’s High Road: A semi-step down from Rainbow, only because a lot of the same melodic elements and, sometimes, even beats were used on this album too. However, her vocal performance was outstanding and she even gave us a new dirty-pop song with some interesting indie-pop tracks to go with it. Plus, who doesn’t love a Big Freedia feature? Recommended Tracks: Resentment, Raising Hell, Tonight.
8. Lady Gaga’s Chromatica: Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really love Gaga anymore. After all the drama with Madonna and her experimentation with “Joanne” I didn’t think I’d ever like her music again. However, she definitely won back big points for me on Chromatica. It was finally fun, weird, dancey, and then simultaneously emotional and I was really able to get back into it. She’s always had the voice, but on this one it also showed us that she still has what made us love her. Recommended Tracks: Rain On Me, Plastic Doll, Enigma.
7. Koda Kumi’s My Name Is... Angel + Monster: She is, very likely, my Japanese Pop Queen. She always makes these absolutely outlandish bangers of dance tracks that have such a great attitude and beat and when she released re(CORD)... last year? 2018? Who can remember... I thought she could never outdo herself. Then she released “Lucky Star” and I was floored. I was a bit disappointed when they were only to promote a “My Name Is...” collection album, but then, to my surprise, a full set of new tracks came out just after that just blew me entirely away. Guess the last 6 albums must be pretty great, huh? Recommended tracks: Killer Monster, Work It!, Alarm.
6. Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene: I’ve never been a big fan of Grimes, but when Violence came out I was really looking forward to whatever album this was going to end up promoting. The song is actual fire, but then the LP ended up being some kind of experimental Gothic Pop with Asian Pop influences I never expected. I doubt I’ll ever find something she does this good ever again, but it was really a musical light in the darkness of this year. Recommended tracks: Darkseid, Delete Forever, Violence.
5. Kylie Minogue’s Disco: Admittedly, my draw to Kylie has always been that she is like some kind of Australian Madonna. Madonna being one of my all time favorite artists... In fact, number 2 for all women I listen to, Kylie has some big shoes to fill with her sometimes generic pop that she puts out. However, I haven’t really truly loved a Kylie song since “Get Outta My Way” and then this album comes out filled with tracks to love for the rest of time. Recommended Tracks: Miss A Thing, Till You Love Somebody, Magic.
4. Chanmina’s Notebook/Angel: I don’t have really any way of knowing how popular Chanmina is in Japan or if she is as popular in the Japanese Queer Scene as she should be, but god damn does she know what she’s doing. Her music is raunchy, bitchy, and condescending at it’s highest and deeply personal at it’s most mellow. There is no “lowest.” “Notebook” was a two-sided album and “Angel” a strong follow up EP, but all the recommended tracks are from “Notebook.” If you have not listened to “Picky”.... go do it now, I’ll wait. Recommended tracks: Picky, Baby, Lucy.
3. The Weeknd’s After Hours: Incidentally, I got into The Weeknd after someone said something shitty about him here on Tumblr! I took their likely-valid criticism and went to check him out for myself and I gotta say, I love his work. The beats are literally always on point and his voice is like silk. This album provided more than a few iconic songs and I always can’t wait to see what he does next. Recommended Tracks: Alone Again, Heartless, Blinding Lights.
2. Halsey’s Manic: The singles and features she did between Hopeless Fountain Kingdom and Manic gave me such insanely high hopes and I was not disappointed. HFK was a strong album of course, but this was near perfection for me. I think the production of this alt-pop album was the star of the show because it wasn’t all one way, there were heavy-bass songs, interesting piano riffs, striaght up punk rock, all of it. She really made an album quite like it’s namesake. Recommended Tracks: Ashley, Killing Boys, Still Learning.
1. Dexcore’s Metempsychosis: A newcomer to the visual kei and death metal scene, they’ve been putting out single after single for years in preparation for their extemeley long and multidaceted debut album. With a total of about 33 songs, the entire second disc was rerecorded singles from their early days and some even got new lyrical treatment. The main series of songs were, of course, also totally flooring and all of the recommended tracks are the new ones. If you haven’t checked them out by now, you have to! Recommended tracks: Cibus, Scribble, Period.
#personal#music#2020#visual kei#k-pop#dexcore#halsey#the weeknd#chanmina#kylie minogue#grimes#koda kumi#lady gaga#kesha#BoA
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Each December, the UCF Libraries’ Featured Bookshelf celebrates the favorite books of employees of the UCF Libraries. And you know a major thing about librarians and library staff? They love talking about their favorite books. The books listed below are some of the favorite books we read in 2020.
Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for our favorite 2020 titles. These 20 books plus favorites from previous years are also on display in the 4th floor Reading Room of the John C. Hitt Library.
And if you find someone has checked the one you’re interested in out before you had a chance, did you know you can place an interlibrary loan and have another copy sent here for you? Click here for instructions on placing an interlibrary loan.
A Furious Sky: the five-hundred-year history of America's hurricanes by Eric Jay Dolin
From the moment European colonists laid violent claim to this land, hurricanes have had a profound and visceral impact on American history-yet, no one has attempted to write the definitive account of America's entanglement with these meteorological behemoths. Eric Jay Dolin presents the five-hundred-year story of American hurricanes, from the nameless storms that threatened Columbus' New World voyages, to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the escalation of hurricane season as a result of global warming. Populating his narrative with unlikely heroes such as Benito Vines, the nineteenth-century Jesuit priest whose revelatory methods for predicting hurricanes saved countless lives, and journalist Dan Rather, whose coverage of a 1961 hurricane would change broadcasting history, Dolin uncovers the often surprising ways we respond to natural crises.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services
Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family’s encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his father’s deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
Dark Matter: a novel by Blake Crouch
A mind-bending, relentlessly paced science-fiction thriller, in which an ordinary man is kidnapped, knocked unconscious--and awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew. "Are you happy with your life?" Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. He awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before him, a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend." In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Suggested by Katy Miller, Student Learning & Engagement
Do Nothing: how to break away from overworking, overdoing, and underliving by Celeste Headlee
We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable? Despite our constant search for new ways to "hack" our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. This manifesto helps us break free of our unhealthy devotion to efficiency and shows us how to reclaim our time and humanity with a little more leisure
Suggested by Katy Miller, Student Learning & Engagement
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
A study of the complex and political figure of Eleanor Roosevelt begins with her harrowing childhood, describes the difficulties of her marriage, and explains how she persuaded Franklin to make the reforms that would make him famous.
Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
From Here to Eternity: traveling the world to find the good death by Caitlin Doughty
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes. She introduces deathcare innovators researching body composting and green burial, and examines how varied traditions, from Mexico's Dias de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us see our own death customs in a new light. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased and have space to participate in the process.
Suggested by Katy Miller, Student Learning & Engagement
Indelicacy by Amina Cain
A cleaning woman at a museum of art nurtures aspirations to do more than simply dust the paintings around her. She dreams of having the liberty to explore them in writing, and so must find a way to win herself the time and security to use her mind. She escapes her lot by marrying a rich man, but having gained a husband, a house, high society, and a maid, she finds that her new life of privilege is no less constrained. Not only has she taken up different forms of time-consuming labor - social and erotic - but she is now, however passively, forcing other women to clean up after her. Perhaps another and more drastic solution is necessary
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Every day Willis Wu leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-- and he sees his life as a script. After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he has ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family, and what that means for him in today's America.
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743. Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.
Suggested by Katie Kirwan, Acquisitions & Collections
Paradise Lost: a life of F. Scott Fitzgerald by David S. Brown
In this comprehensive biography, Brown reexamines Fitzgerald’s childhood, first loves, and difficult marriage to Zelda Sayre. He looks at Fitzgerald’s friendship with Hemingway, the golden years that culminated with Gatsby, and his increasing alcohol abuse and declining fortunes which coincided with Zelda’s institutionalization and the nation’s economic collapse.
Suggested by Andrew Hackler, Circulation
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Reality is broken. At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery—and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.
Suggested by Mary Rubin, Special Collections & University Archives
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
Brosh’s second book includes humorous stories from her childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
Spillover: animal infections and the next human pandemic by David Quammen
This work examines the emergence and causes of new diseases all over the world, describing a process called "spillover" where illness originates in wild animals before being passed to humans and discusses the potential for the next huge pandemic. The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia; but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. As globalization spreads and as we destroy the ancient ecosystems, penetrating ever deeper into the furthest reaches of the planet, we encounter strange and dangerous infections that originate in animals but can be transmitted to humans. The author tracks this subject around the world. He recounts adventures in the field, netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo, with the world's leading disease scientists. He takes the reader along on this quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?
Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services
Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen
It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every disease or cause, there's a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink (maximally), and be seen. But when a prominent high-society dowager suddenly vanishes during a swank gala, and is later found dead in a concrete grave, panic and chaos erupt. Kiki Pew was notable not just for her wealth and her jewels--she was an ardent fan of the Winter White House resident just down the road, and a founding member of the POTUSSIES, a group of women dedicated to supporting their President. Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, the President immediately declares that Kiki was the victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth.
Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
A year after a whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind: avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. But the administrators see men as the sole guardians of science. When a doctor she idolizes marries a friend of hers in Germany, Felicity believes he could change her future. A mysterious young woman will pay Felicity's way, if Felicity will let her travel along-- as her maid. Soon they're on a perilous quest that leads them across the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services
The Power of Now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
Much more than simple principles and platitudes, this book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being.
Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services
The Scarlet Sisters: sex, suffrage, and scandal in the gilded age by Myra MacPherson
A fresh look at the life and times of Victoria Woodhull and Tennie Claflin, two sisters whose radical views on sex, love, politics, and business threatened the white male power structure of the nineteenth century and shocked the world. Here award-winning author Myra MacPherson deconstructs and lays bare the manners and mores of Victorian America, remarkably illuminating the struggle for equality that women are still fighting today.
Suggested by Dawn Tripp, Research & Information Services
The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: selected literary and philosophical writings by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick has established himself as a major figure in American literature. The landscape of his imagination features a wealth of concepts and fictional worlds: Nazi-rule in a postwar nightmare; androids and the unification of man and machine; and an existence that no longer follows the logic of reality. This first-time collection assembles his nonfiction writings essays, journals, speeches, and interviews. In these writings he explores issues ranging from the merging of physics and metaphysics to the potential influences of "virtual" reality and its consequences to a plot-scenario for a potential episode of "Mission: Impossible," to the challenge that fundamental "human" values face in the age of technology and spiritual decline.".
Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services
The Wild Heart of Florida: Florida writers on Florida's wildlands selected and edited by Jeff Ripple and Susan Cerulean
Coming from a variety of backgrounds--fiction, journalism, poetry, and environmental writing--the writers turn their talent to one thing they have in common--a love for Florida’s natural beauty and a commitment to preserve it. Their essays--some old favorites, most appearing here for the first time--are both a celebration and a pointed reminder of what we stand to lose.
Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation
There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool
The Age of Darkness approaches. Who will stop it... or unleash it? For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations-- until they disappeared a hundred years ago. All they left behind was one final prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world's salvation-- or the cause of its destruction. Will it be a prince exiled from his kingdom? A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand? A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart? A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone? Or a dying girl on the verge of giving up?
Suggested by Pam Jaggernauth, Curriculum Materials Center
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February 29th-March 6th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive
The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from February 29th, 2020 to March 6th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:
What is the thing you’re proudest about regarding your story?
Deo101 [Millennium]
I hope saying "That I'm actually doing it, and that I'm still doing it and loving every minute of it" Is an okay answer ^^ there is a lot that I am very proud of myself for with regards to this comic, but I think I take the most pride in actually sticking with something for this long.
carcarchu
I agree with deo, sticking with it is what i'm most proud of and it's probably one of the hardest things to do
Capitania do Azar
Hah I can't say I'm proud of everything, right?
It's hard to put it in words but I really enjoy the comic making process and I'm proud of what I'm accomplishing with it, both in terms of writing and of art. And I think it's rather visible that I put a ton of effort into it
Spring-heeled Jack
I am proud that I prepped ahead of time because the last two times I tried, I didn't. Both times I got about 10 pages in and quit because I felt overwhelmed. With the story itself, I think I'm proud of my characters. Characters are the easiest part for me (plot and central conflict I always flounder on) but I'm still so pleased with them.(edited)
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
For me, it's just getting the work out there. Actually finishing chapters. compared to the first comic story I want to put out, this story I know for sure where its going and gives me a sense of ease? There's some days when I feel i'm slumping along but in the end, I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Pretty much what Deo and carcarchu said lol: my story is long but not super long, but I'm glad I'm still working on it among my other stories I want to share (edited)
Ash🦀
For me, what I'm most proud of is my artist, Katie. We're a collaborative team, I'm just the writer so I don't do much. And she takes my words and just... adds so much life to them. Seeing every page she makes is so amazing. Every time she's growing in her style in leaps and bounds, and seeing her push her lighting, expressions, and unusual panel styles, ugh, it's just so cool seeing her grow. I am so proud of her and what she's done, she's a total rockstar and I love her. I couldn't have done this without her, and every day I'm more grateful to her.
DanitheCarutor
That is a really good question, I don't really show pride in stuff I do usually. I guess the closest to being proud was either when my new comic passed the stopping mark for my old comic, which was discontinued at chapter 3, or when I got chapter 1 rescanned for print recently. The latter was kinda challenging because I rebubbled the whole chapter, and how I rebubbled was a little... awkward, pasting over the old bubbles in photoshop afterward.
Sorry! Apparently the image file was weird.
keii’ii (Heart of Keol)
I actually semi-recently wrote a raving tweet thread relevant to this topic. Basically, for years and years, I did not know what it meant to be proud of your work. I've been happy with my work, both the process and the result. But was "proud of my work" completely synonymous with "happy with my work"? I legit did not know. Even asked a former English teacher friend, who's very good at explaining this sorta things, and I still didn't get it. Then as I made progress through the most recent chapter, I noticed this brand new, strange feeling welling up in me. Yep, you guessed it. For the first time ever after starting this comic, I was proud of what I was making. Not just happy with it, but proud of it. Took me a while to realize, oh, this is proud. Afterward, something happened IRL that temporarily borked my sense of time (one specific week felt like months). So because it felt like it had been months since I made it, I got to experience the last couple pages of the chapter as a reader, not its creator. And I gotta say, thank you past me, you've made something truly heartfelt, and you had every reason to be proud of this. In short: I'm proud of how my comic is an honest reflection of what my heart wants to see, what I want to read. And I'm proud of my most recent chapter being the pinnacle of that. I hope to make more, higher pinnacles down the road, as I continue my way through this story.
spacerocketbunny
I'm proud of how me and @FeatherNotes(Krispy) have shaped our characters and fleshed them out! I'm also super proud of our team dynamic and how if something didn't feel right in the story or art etc., we've always challenged it and come up with something better and stronger! Because we've been so thorough and willing to reconsider, I'm always perfectly comfortable to stand by what we've put out there, even if we've had to go back and fix past mistakes!
Mei
Hoh boy, the thing I'm proudest about in My Husband is a Cultist is the audience interaction. I've been told the comic is funny, and that makes me immensely chuffed, because it means I'm doing something right. I'm always so nervous when putting my work out there with how it's going to be received. That seeing people engage with the story and find it funny and liking the characters... it just warms my heart so much, and it makes me truly feel like I'm on the right path. I'm also pretty proud of the stuff I've written that's not been featured in the comic yet. I look forward to developing those and making them come to life, and I hope people enjoy the grittier parts of this strange comedy as much as I do! And mostly I'm proud that I'm still doing it and haven't given up yet. My lord, I just don't know how it's gonna keep going! but hopefully just onwards and upwards!
eli [a winged tale]
Reading through all of these and I’m so touched. Super proud of you all!
I’m most proud in finally chasing my dreams. Life threw me a bunch of curveballs and creating this comic is a reflection of how I dealt with things and at the same time be thankful for what I have. When I reread my comic I can see mistakes but I also see parts of myself that are genuine. I can’t wait to continue on the story and let the comic be part of my life moving forwards
LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)
My comic went on so long behind the scenes before I was comfortable enough to share it, so I tend to think of my past self quite differently than my current self. So, I'm very proud of 'past me!' She started the project completely unaware of how long it would last or what it would become - just a few characters and story threads and a whoooole lot of ambition - and my present self has had the pleasure of weaving those threads into a project I'm truly proud of. The comic has brought me so much joy - much of it delayed, like a ticking time bomb - and it's all thanks to my younger self. She wasn't sure of what she was doing - but now I know she made some excellent decisions in the beginning. I'm very grateful she started all of this. It's made my life all the more joyful
chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]
I got a BUFFER. My first non-fancomic died because of work-comittments and lack of buffer, but on Nyx+Nyssa I manage to work ahead. More than anything I am proud of the discipline I developed to allow for that.
FeatheryJustice
I'm proud of almost completing Teasday. I had some long hiatuses but I will finish the story for now. Also proud of where I grown from the beginning of that story to now. The time and effort shows that I did do a lot, which makes me really happy to know.
Nutty (Court of Roses)
I'm proud of a lot of the work that goes into my comic, but what I'm most proud of was this page. I wanted this to be grand and a pivotal moment if what the comic was about. I don't think even a couple years I could've done anything at this scale, but I split the areas into chunks that I completed over the span of two weeks. Always look upon this page fondly.
eli [a winged tale]
That is gorgeous!
Spring-heeled Jack
Impressive!
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
I can point out four moments in Super Galaxy Knights http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/ that I'm the most proud of - 1. The end of Book 1 Chapter 4. Chapter 4 was intended to be a big "growing the beard" moment for the comic's action setpieces - the first three chapters were more about introducing characters and plot elements than actual action, so I consider chapter 4 to be the first "real" fight of the comic. The way the action was presented in chapter 4 would go on to represent how action would be presented throughout the rest of the comic, and IMO I pulled it off fantastically. 2. The end of Book 1. Kinda self-explanatory, but Book 1 was the first major story arc of the comic - the fact that I managed to pull together a satisfying conclusion, something that I theoretically could have ended the comic on, was super satisfying to me. 3. This page: http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/images/comics/160/30997a1543363807f2141157006.gif . When I wrote in my Book 2 script "they fight for a bit in a big looping animation" back in 2016 I was hoping my animation skills would advance to the point where I could pull it off. And it turns out, they did. 4. Well... today. Ever since starting the comic back on leap day 2016, I knew today would be a big milestone, and I'm proud of myself for sticking with this project long enough to get to this four year mark.
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
oh my god, that looks incredible and I've never seen a page like that before!
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
I am not very far into my comic, but when I try to think about what I am most proud of in my work, it is definitely all the behind-the-scenes work I have put into the comic. The world-building. The map-making, language developing, culture exploring, building a political structure, writing histories, character work, etc. All this time and energy I devoted to something that wouldn't be seen by others for many years to come. It is only now starting to come to fruition, despite technically having been working on this project since 2014, with the first scripts, the first character designs, and the first paragraphs about the world of Whispers of the Past. All this work that nobody will ever see. I am proud of sticking with it and putting my heart and soul into it despite the lack of return for so long. I have given up my adolescence to this project, and I am giving up the rest of my youth. But when I think about it, there is no worthier recipient. Because without this story, I feel like a large part of my identity would be gone.
snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)
Thank you @Eightfish (Puppeteer) ! The storyboarding alone for that animation took a week so I'm glad you like it!
eli [a winged tale]
I totally get you Cronaj! So much goes behind the scenes but that creates the world’s depths and it will resonate with readers! continues dedicating the rest of my life to comics
SL Black
@Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) yes! There is so much prep work involved. I have three full scripts for UO that will never see the light of day (mostly because they are terrible). Comics are such a marathon. All that hard work will be appreciated so much by your readers!
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
@SL Black Man... That sounds like me. I myself went through at least 3 scripts too. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way about the BTS work
Desnik
I'm proud that I'm putting myself out there with a WIP comic script and learning how to not only write, but collaborate with other writers.
renieplayerone
Im really proud that i started a comic and have stuck with it for a year and just how much ive learned by making it^^
Eightfish (Puppeteer)
I'm proud that even after 70 pages I've never missed a scheduled update!(edited)
Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)
Awe yeee thats always good to have a streak like that!
eli [a winged tale]
That is #goals!
Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)
Agreed!
#ctparchive#comics#webcomics#indie comics#comic chat#comic discussion#comic tea party#ctp#creator interview#comic creator interview#creator babble
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Together
Pairing: Charlie Weasley x mc
Part 2 of The World Cup. (Necessary to know original characters that appear here.) A small conversation in the dark.
After the Death Eaters attacked the camp, and taking care of Charlie’s injury, Kate felt lost.
Somehow, she mustered up the courage to stand up and leave Charlie at the tent. Clutching her wand tightly, she advanced through the rubble toward the medical tent. Hopefully she would find her backpack. Everything around her was destroyed. As she walked she realized that she was in the same pitiful state as her surroundings, covered in ash and dirt.
The place that was once used to store medical material was burnt. Kate saw Florin rummaging through the rubble. "You’re fine?". Florin, startled, took a posture of attack and pointed his wand at Kate. "It’s me!" she shouted raising her arms. Florin resumed his work and Kate lowered her head to inspect the floor. "We won’t find anything useful here." Florin responded with a grunt. Kate touched her necklace and walked to the wreckage of the store. She saw her backpack under a burnt cloth and crouched down to pick it up. Her uniform was scorched but usable and her notebooks had been reduced to ashes. She sighed resigned. At least her potion chest was intact.
Suddenly, Kate and Florin stood up to hear a voice from afar. "There’s someone there?" "Alina?"
"Kate!" Two figures advanced toward them. Vasile was with her. "Quick! There are five people in the forest, injured, one of them is a muggle. Nougal sent us to see if there was anyone left."
"We don’t know where Rahela is…"
"She’s with us. Come on."
Nobody died that night. After curing the group and erasing the memory of the muggle, Kate practically flew back to the Weasleys' tent. " Is everybody all right?" A startled Charlie received her
"Yes. You were the only one left. The rest already went to sleep.”
He caught her in a hug. "Where were you?" Kate hugged him back with the same intensity. "I went to get my things and found my team. We went into the woods, there were wounded people." He closed his eyes and hugged her harder.
"Let me see the wound, I didn’t even clean it…"
"It’s okay, no scar, you’re just that good." He put his hand on the back of her neck and began to massage it lightly. "I have to change… I’ll put on my uniform dress, I forgot my pyjamas…" she released a forced laughter. Charlie shook his head and held her hand, dragging her to his bunk. Without saying anything, he checked that the boys were asleep and began unbuttoning her blouse.
"Charlie…" Kate warned, looking around, nervous. He just shook his head again and continued his task. Delicate fingers caressed the exposed skin. Kate raised one hand and touched Charlie’s frown with one finger, causing him to look up. His expression relaxed slightly. He slid her shirt over her shoulders, the bra now exposed.
Charlie looked back again and changed his position, completely covering her body. Years of practice helped him get rid of the bra and she quickly covered herself with her arms. He reached to her side and helped her put on his pyjama shirt. One side of his mouth curved up in half a smile as she was swallowed by the piece of clothing.
He sat on the bed and slowly unbuttoned her pants. Kate knew that it relaxed him to take care of her and, even if she was perfectly capable of changing her clothes, she always let him do it if he wanted. With her feet she finished taking off her pants and grabbed both sides of Charlie’s face to give him a long kiss. "Thank you." she whispered.
Once settled under the blankets, Charlie’s arm pillowed her head and he hugged her body against his chest. She started playing with the soft hairs there.
“Charlie” she muttered “the candle…” she said amused. Charlie grunted and without letting her go, he turned his head and blew on the flame on his bedside table, leaving the place almost in complete darkness. It was vaguely illuminated by the light from outside.
Something soft touched Charlie’s face and he reached out to put the intrepid strand of hair behind her ear, caressing the side of her face.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?” she asked.
“Go home”
“But…Romania?” Charlie sighed. “No, actually I was thinking about staying at the Burrow for a day or two. To be with mom.” Kate nodded. “You can go back, though. Nougal will want you at the hospital as soon as possible and you need rest.”
Kate frowned and started drawing invisible figures on his back with her fingers. “I want to be with you…” Charlie squeezed her lightly and placed his lips on her forehead, staying there.
“Besides, I’d like to talk with Tonks about…today.”
“Do you think she’ll be able to tell you anything? The aurors must know something already.”
“I don’t know.”
They abruptly stopped talking at the sound of one of the beds squeaking. Percy had rolled over.
Kate slid her hand down Charlie’s back and then up, caressing his bare shoulder and feeling his muscles before going down again finally resting on his hip. His eyes, now used to the darkness, could see the silhouette of her lips and without containing himself he leaned in to kiss them. She inhaled sharply.
“Do you think He is back?” she asked after pulling back. “I don’t know. But we can’t scratch the idea yet.”
They fell silent again, this time for a longer while. Kate concentrated on her breathing and started to fall asleep when she heard Charlie whisper again.
“You casted lumos with your mouth earlier…” his tone amused and yet impressed. “Hmm?”
“Yes, before, when you where healing my wound after the explosion. I saw you lightening the wand and then you put it in your mouth and it was still shining.”
“Oh…I’m not really sure how I managed to do that. I was concentrated in you and…I don’t think I could do that again if I wanted…”
“Why not? That’s advanced magic and you did that without thinking. You are the smartest witch I know, you can do anything you want.”
Kate smiled but shook her head, placing a kiss on his chest. “Don’t know many witches, huh?
“I mean it. And before you say something about how Nougal won’t promote you to mediwizard let me tell you, Lady, that you are wrong. He is going to give you that job sooner or later because you deserve it.”
“Since when can you read me so well? You can’t even see me right now.”
“It’s a sixth sense. A dragon sense. Makes me extra perceptive around you. Like…like a demiguise-dragon.” Kate couldn’t help but giggle. “Don’t laugh, you should take notes you know? You have to train yourself in the art of it.” Her face fell when she heard the word ‘notes’. She took a deep breath and he looked down, despite not being able to see her. “What?” he asked softly. Kate buried herself more under the covers and against Charlie, who embraced her protectively. “My investigation…I will have to start all over again. It’s completely burnt.” She closed her eyes and let out a resigned huff.
“Why did you bring it here?” When she didn’t answer, Charlie frowned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to reproach you for it. I was just curious.”
“Listen, I’m…” she sighed “I’m angry at myself, Charlie, not you. I…I shouldn’t have brought the journals, I wanted to talk with other mediwizards, you know…exchange opinions, ideas. Now I’ll have to take samples again, repeat the tests, rewrite everything and…”
“Katie.” He said more sternly than he intended. “You are not going to write you investigation tonight. Or are you?”
“No…” he kissed her hair again. “Then we will worry about it tomorrow.” She knew he was right, as usual, but that didn’t fix things. She buried her head in the crook of his neck and hugged him. “I love you” she murmured, making Charlie smile. “And I love you, snitch.”
Soon, Charlie’s soft snores were the only thing that could be heard inside the tent. The next day would be filled with worries and hard decisions but they would overcome it. Together.
#charlie weasley#hogwarts#harry potter#bill weasley#charlie#mc#hogwartsmystery#hermione granger#hogwarts mystery#charlie weasley x mc#charlie weasley imagine#hufflepuff#imagine
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matching pairings & annotations under the cut!
Youtube (x) Spotify ( x)
Buffy / Cordelia / Willow
* Cloud 69 // Lowell
I'm like dynamite / need a cheerleader / let me throw you down / while I look at her / I'm like "Oh my god / I think I need a girlfriend"
* Crazy // Au Revoir Simone
you knew me, wanna love to lose and to lose again / seems we're either giving up or giving in / but, uh, you girls, you drive me crazy
Willow / Tara
* There’s a Girl // The Ditty Bops
there's a girl that you might know / she's a friend at least I tell you so / but it might surprise you to find / there's something going on behind the door
* Horizon // Luna Blake
you tower over me / you are sky and I am sea
* Truthfully // Lisa Loeb
truthfully, I really can't explain / I'm floating, I'm smiling again
* Room // Palehound
she comes over / growing like a clover / in my room / in my room
* Sugar in a Pie // Erin McKeown
love me sweet like a sugar in a pie / kiss me deep with a dreamy little sigh
Faith / Buffy
* Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover // Sophie B. Hawkins
that old dog has chained you up, alright / give you everything you need to live inside a twisted cage / sleep beside an empty rage / I had a dream I was your hero
* Hologram // Katie Herzig
I'm gonna let you down / gonna toss you around / gonna make you want everything you haven't found / I'm gonna hold your hand / then ask you to stand / ten feet away
* Buy her Candy
she's a famous / she's the best / I cannot lay / my heart to rest / she is selfish / she is kind / no one can say / she is mine
* Nights with you // MO
I'll take you out tonight / leave it all at home / don't care about your boyfriend waking up alone
* Portions for Foxes// Rilo Kiley
'cause you're just damage control, for a walking corpse like me, like you (S6 Fuffy edition)
* Last 2nd Chance // Vaughan Penn
this is the last second chance I’ll ever need / this is the last time you’ll hear sorry from me
Buffy / Cordelia-
* More like you // Hazel English
I could waste all of my time / thinking up ways to catch your eye / and I tried but it just didn’t feel right / and besides I'm just trying to get by
* She // Dodie
and I'll be okay admiring from afar / cause even when she's next to me / we could not be more far apart (late S1 - mid S2 coffy, either pov)
* Can’t / Naaz
in my mind / I can be what we choose / but in life / we can't stand in those shoes
* Midway // Bad Bad Hats
the shadows you were casting nearly swallowed the night / but god, I could have kissed you (I imagine this as the night Cordelia drops Buffy home in Helpless or sometime in mid-late S3)
* Touch // Shura
I wanna touch you but I'm too late / I wanna touch you but there's history / I can't believe that it's been three years / now when I see you, it's so bittersweet (if either had showed up in L.A or Sunnydale after Buffy was resurrected)
Tara / Buffy
* If I Could // Sophie Zelmani
If I could help you with / this part of life you've got to live / you could load your weight on me
* Our Eyes // Lucy Rose
I'm alive / I feel it now / I never knew I'll find it on you / out of line we got ourselves / in a look, wait we are not fine / wait, you are not mine
* Wire // Alessi Ark
I'm tired of walking this wire / it keeps me awake for heaven sake / I was made for this girl / I feel lonely / my friends don't seem to know me / like i thought they did
Willow / Cordelia
* Upper West Side // King Princess
I can't stop judging every thing you do / but I can't get enough of you
* Then If I’m Weird I Want to Share // Tender Forever
people told me / that you're too sexy / you're too sexy for me / but actually I just don't care / I think it's bullshit everywhere
Buffy / Willow
* Loners // Maddie Ross
one night alone in the bookstacks / summer to make all the kids sad / next fall we're back in the corner / nice girls love kissing the loners
* Ray of Sunshine // Go Sailor
yellow hair, fiery stare / nothing's right, 'cause she's not here tonight
* Explosion // Zolita
it's a mindless love affair / one hot mess of bleach blonde hair / I could kiss her but your lips taste better / you could kiss him but my words are sweeter
* Sweet Moon // Sundarta
when the world is big and I’m alone / I call you and I am home
Faith / Tara
* Will You Be My Girlfriend // Alanis Morissette
I guess I fall and you stay intact is that right? I guess you hear me and won't attack me, is that right? guess I reach out and you reach back, is that right?
* Not gonna Get Us // T.at.u
soon there will be laughter and voices / beyond the clouds over the mountains / we'll run away on roads that are empty / lights from the airfield shining upon you (teenage runaway mehane)
* Love you Anyway // Jil Nisson & Marlene
I know what you've been getting / coz I sure got it too / don't, don't you forget it
/ the damage they do
* Walk The Line // Halsey
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine / I keep my eyes wide open all the time / I keep the ends out for the tie that binds / because you're mine, I walk the line
Willow / Amy
* Wherever We Are // Human Life
after the day we're chasing the sun / farther away the faster we run / feet on the ground our head in the stars / finding the sound wherever we are
* When We’re High // LP
let’s swallow the moon and the stars / let’s wallow just right where we are
Amy / Faith
* Whiskey & Black Leather // Sapphic Lasers
some they want a girl next door / but that ain't what I'm looking for / I first saw your lips across the room / red like a blood moon
* Her Lover // Ally & Stevie
she is like a cat in the dark / and then she is the darkness
* High Enough // K Flay
don’t try to give me cold water / I don’t wanna sober up / all I see are tomorrows
/ oh, the stars were made for us
Cordelia / Anya
* Only a Girl // Gia
soft touch, warm skin / nothing like my ex-man / slowly falling, I don't want my next man
* I Don’t Do Boys // Elektra
I don't do boys, I just do girls / just do girls with style and class / I don't do boys, I just do girls / just do girls with kissable ass
Fuffy / Radison
* One More // Elliphant
stay with me tonight / we can count the street lights / stay with me alright let's bring it all back to life (bad girls & smashed shennanigans)
Dark Willow / Anyanka + Darla / Drusilla + Lilah / Cordelia (Jasmine possessed version)
* Glory & Gore // Lorde
delicate in every way but one, / God knows we like archaic kinds of fun / chance is the only game I play with / baby, we let our battles choose us
“ Your Lips are Red // St. Vincent
this city's red / this city's red from riding us into the ground / this city's black
/ this city's black from all the ashes in downtown
Willow / Anya
* Wishful Thinking // The Ditty Bops
when the cold and lonely hours put your heart to the test / maybe I'll be the one that you like best (S7 Rosekins)
* The Happy Song // Kate Miccuci
'cause isn't it nice to have the friends that you do? / and isn't it nice that the sky is so blue? / and isn't it nice to say "I love you"? (the cheery & matter -of-factly style of this song reminds me of anya)
Faith / Willow
* So-Called Str8 Grrrl // Gina Young
I think you want me / you know you want me / so why do you talk shit about me
* She’s so Lovely // The Butchies
she's a rocker dressed like a killer / she's got lips like wine not sugar
* Sum of your parts // Mary Lambert
I didn't know I was a phoenix till I learned how to speak / even with ashes in my mouth I was still born to breath / I wonder are you like me
* All I Want is To Be Your Girl // Holly Miranda
Well there's ghosts in the night and ghosts in my mind / and if we quit changing we'll be left behind / but I won't take another chance of screwing it up / so I stay where I am / but all I want is to be your girl
Buffy / Satsu
* Cliff’s Edge // Hayley Kiyoko
you turn me on / you lead me on / you got me on / a cliff's edge (satsu’s pov)
* One Night // Charlie XCX
you are somethin’ special / twenty carats, solid gold / what we had was precious / but I had to let you go
Cordelia / Lilah
* Short Skirt, Long Jacket // Larkin Poe
I want a girl with a mind like a diamond / I want a girl who knows what's best
I want a girl with shoes that cut / and eyes that burn like cigarettes
Fuffy + Willow / Kennedy
* We Might be Dead by Tomorrow // Soko
give me all your love / ‘cause for all we know / we might be dead by tomorrow
Kendra / Buffy
* Eleventeen // Kimya Dawson
you may feel strange, well, you are an angel / stuck in tight pants stuck at a high school dance / stuck doing people things not knowing you have wings
* Supergirl // Anna Naklab
you can see in her eyes / that no one is her chain / she's my girl / my supergirl
Cordelia / Faith
* Can I Say Baby // GIRLI
can I say baby? / I don't wanna be soppy / but I like your style / think you're kinda cool / I'm sort of into you
* Rebel Girl // Bikini Kill
rebel girl rebel girl / I think I want to take you home / I want to try on your clothes
* Flowers and Rope // Princess Nokia
voices in my head, monsters under my bed / I'm alone again, I lost all my friends / wanna play pretend? hope this never ends
Fred / Faith
* Whiskey // Nicole Reynolds
you accept that i talk too much / i accept that you talk too little / but it's fine
/ i like a good riddle
In the Margins // Ani Difranco
you are a rare bird / the kind i wouldn't even mind / writing in the margins of my books
Willow / Kennedy
* Pretty Girl // Hayley Kiyoko
I can tell you’re real smart / world class piece of art / I can see you in the dark / all we have to do is start
* Let it Go // Allie Moss
darlin' you see / the fear in me / and how I'd finally be / if I were willing to let it go
Buffy / Anne
* Annonymous Club // Courtney Barnett
let's start an anonymous club / I'll make us name badges with question marks
* Hideaway // IVY
under stars and satellites / a thousand miles / from where we've been
Willow/Fred + Buffy/Tara
* I Was Made for Sunny Days // The Weepies
I was made for sunny days / and I was made for you
Faith / Kennedy
* Crimson and Clover // Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
ah, now I don't hardly know her / but I think I can love her
“ Honey // Kehlani
I like my girls just like I like my honey; sweet / a little selfish
Cordelia / Fred
* Genius // The Murmurs
she's kinda weird / she's kinda freaky / but I don't know / I think she's a genius
* There she goes // Sixpence None the Richer
there she goes / there she goes again / racing through my brain / and I just can't contain / this feeling that remains
#BTVS#btvsedit#mine#btvsfemslash#click to expand#lmao this has been in my drafts for 2 years#but I kept coming across more music#and trying to find a fit for the really rare pairs#my personal ships are completely obvious as they have nearly a playlist of their own
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What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Tina Turner Opens Up About Surviving Trauma and Health Setbacks
BRIAN D. JOHNSON | JANUARY 31ST, 2019
Finally, she had everything. Fame, success, money, love. She had survived a suicide attempt, escaped a monstrous husband who abused her onstage and off and staged a solo comeback that made her a global superstar. Then after half a century in show business, she happily called it quits and married the man of her dreams in a fairy-tale wedding at a Swiss château, surrounded by 140,000 red and yellow roses and serenaded by Bryan Adams as she walked down the aisle. For a moment, her life was perfect.
Three months later, she woke up unable to walk. Tina Turner had suffered a stroke. It was 2013, and she was 73. She was all set to live happily ever after, but her body had other plans.
Before Beyoncé. Before Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Madonna and Gaga. Before Cardi B, Miley, Katy, Britney, Pink, Janet, Adele, Alicia, Avril, Alanis … there was Tina.
She is pop music’s original warrior queen, a force of nature who tore up the stage and became the first woman to bust open the male clubhouse of rock royalty. Because she did not write her own songs or spin her image into a shape-shifting work of performance art, Tina would never achieve the pedigree of vertically integrated superstars like Beyoncé or Gaga. But as a singer and dancer, she blazed the trail with a body of work that was pure performance. No matter who wrote the songs — from the riverboat boogie of “Proud Mary” to the sultry hauteur of “Private Dancer” — she owned them with an authority that was both regal and incendiary. From her sunburst wigs down to her stiletto heels, she created a theatrical persona that always seemed genuine and hard-earned and inseparable from her own epic story of triumphing over violent abuse.
Tina Turner didn’t just break the glass ceiling of rock ’n’ roll. She broke the double standard that allows Mick Jagger to strut his way into the septuagenarian stratosphere while female stars hit their expiry date at less than half his age. When Tina lit up the charts with “What’s Love Got to Do With It” at 44, she became the oldest female solo artist to score a No. 1 hit in the U.S. If she were a contemporary artist, like any of today’s iconic female pop stars, she would need no last name, especially one taken from a husband who beat her. She would be simply Tina.
Her story is a bedrock fable of female empowerment. Anna Mae Bullock, self-professed tomboy from Nutbush, Tenn., finds the spotlight in the early ’60s with R&B bandleader Ike Turner — a violent cokehead who changes her name, trademarks it as his personal property, drags her to a live sex show on their wedding night in Tijuana, travels with a revolving harem and beats her black and blue for years. In 1968, she attempts suicide by swallowing 50 Valiums. In 1976, after enduring one last brutal beating from Ike, she hits back for the first time, then bolts for freedom, sprints across a Dallas freeway in blood-spattered clothes and lands in a motel with a Mobil credit card and 36 cents in her pocket. A divorce leaves her broke. Well, almost — she hangs onto her two Jaguars, one a gift from Ike, the other from Sammy Davis Jr. Rising phoenix-like from the ashes of her career, Tina scores a massive hit with her 1984 solo album, Private Dancer, finesses a starring role as Mel Gibson’s imperial nemesis in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and crowns her triumph with the film’s defiant anthem, “We Don’t Need Another Hero.”
The legend of Tina’s life story was baked into her comeback with a best-selling autobiography, I, Tina (1986), which led to a 1993 bio-pic named after her biggest hit, What’s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett. After selling 200 million records, winning 12 Grammys and filling more concert seats than any solo performer in history, Tina gave her final performance in 2009, then slipped out of the spotlight for good, settling in Switzerland with German record producer Erwin Bach, a younger man by 16 years and the love of her life since 1986.
When celebrities vanish from view, people sometimes assume they’ve died, as if life ends when the lights go down. Even this is beginning to read like an obituary. But when it comes to an unstoppable force like Tina Turner, one has to ask that question once posed by Peggy Lee: is that all there is?
Well, no. At 78, Tina Turner is the ultimate survivor — still alive, if not kicking her legs like she used to. After spending four years running a gauntlet of life-threatening calamities — a stroke, then cancer, then kidney failure — she has published her second memoir, Tina Turner: My Love Story. Co-authored with two ghostwriters, it reboots her Cinderella story, revisiting the abuse, her escape from Ike, the stellar comeback. But it centres on her romance with Erwin and how it withstood the cascade of afflictions that followed their honeymoon. In a way, it’s as affirmational as her success story: the tale of a woman’s resilience as her body betrays her out of the blue.
It’s a body she always took care of. Tina swears she’s never used drugs or smoked a cigarette. And while she was not one to go to the gym, 50 years of intense workouts as a performer kept her fit. She proudly recalls jumping from the stage at the Apollo Theatre in New York when she was eight months pregnant with her second child — “I was a good athlete. I knew that I could handle it.” Two days after her son was born, she says she was back onstage “singing and dancing as if nothing had happened.” Tina was 21. Later, as a 44-year-old action hero in Beyond Thunderdome, she took pride in doing her stunts and wearing 70 pounds of armour.
Tina talks about her body in practical terms. Billboard once raved that she had “the most kinetic legs in the business” and, when she was honoured at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush called them “the most famous legs in show business,” an observation that left Tina nonplussed. “I was — and am still — amused by the constant attention paid to my legs,” she says. “I truly don’t get the fuss. Did you ever see a pony’s legs when it’s just born? Long and spindly? That’s what my legs looked like to me … My short torso is hooked onto these two little dangling legs, but I’ve learned how to wear clothes to flatter them.”
Equally iconic is her hair, which doesn’t belong to her body. It’s adopted. Tina has been wearing wigs since the early ’60s, when a hair salon over-bleached her chemically straightened black locks and turned them brittle. For a show that night, she hid the damage under a wig and never looked back. She would wear the same style and colour of wig onstage and off but, for performances, she’d “prepare it like a three-course meal,” forking it into her signature haystack. The wig, she says, has always been “an extension of myself,” not a costume.
That attitude also extended to her skyscraper heels. You had to wonder how she could dance in them, never mind with the lightning moves she brought to the stage. Apparently, the secret to dancing in heels is all in the toes. “You always stay a little bit on your toes, with your weight thrust forward,” she says. “Toes are surprisingly strong.” As for footwear, Tina loved to perform in Louboutins and Manolo Blahniks. But for endurance, she relied on unbreakable shoes with a steel shank. Custom-made by cobbler-to-the-stars Pasquale Fabrizio, “they felt like an extension of the leg.” Even her revealing costumes were “practical choices,” she says. “Fishnet stockings didn’t run as often as the other kind. Short dresses were easier for dancing because they left my legs free. Leather didn’t show perspiration or dirt, and it never wrinkled. So much for sex appeal.”
Like many fans of my generation, I got my first glimpse of Tina Turner on the big screen — in Gimme Shelter, the classic documentary of the Rolling Stones’ 1970 tour. Ike and Tina Turner were the band’s opening act, and the film has a smouldering scene of Tina singing “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” while sculpting the microphone with explicit carnality. As a young man, I was mesmerized. Little did I know I was witnessing a primal #MeToo moment. “Ike was just as controlling and abusive onstage as he was in the house,” Tina recalls. “He forced me to sing ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ in such a cheap and sexual way that it became my least favourite song.”
The first time I saw Tina perform was up close, in the Imperial Room of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. She had just kick-started her solo career with a Vegas-style revue. Flanked by a line of dancers, she overwhelmed the genteel supper club with a molten energy that could have ignited a stadium. A couple of years later, in 1985, I saw her launch her North American Private Dancer tour in a St. John’s hockey arena. Suddenly she was a rock star, burning down the house in a dizzying repertoire of costumes that evolved from white buckskin pants to an ostrich-feathered gown, from a loin cloth and halter top layered with diaphanous chain-mail to a black leather mini-dress slit past the hip.
So when she writes in her memoir that “looking sexy onstage was never my primary goal,” it seems a bit disingenuous. But here’s the rub: she goes on to say, “I didn’t worry about how guys would react to my look. I always played to the women in the audience because if you’ve got the girls on your side, you’ve got the guys.” At the time, she adds, “there were no women who sang and danced like me — women who could be sexy without making it sexual.”
It’s a fine line. Perhaps because Tina didn’t write her own material, it never became disturbingly personal. She treated her show as rock ’n’ roll burlesque — just good, light-hearted fun. “There was never anything coming from the stage that was negative,” she maintains. “Beyoncé has that same kind of energy today, but I was the only one back then.”
Backstage at that show in St. John’s, wearing just a blue terry towel, Tina told me that, after being treated as Ike’s “little slave girl,” she had no desire to dwell on the past. She even turned down a role in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. “Black people can do better than that,” she said. “I’ve lived down south in the cotton fields. I don’t want to do anything I’ve done.”
Tina’s musical heritage may be steeped in soul and R&B, but she didn’t want to stand still long enough to sing the blues. So many of her hits, like “River Deep, Mountain High,” are flat-out declarations of love. Initially, she even balked at the urbane innuendo in some of the pop songs written for Private Dancer. When her new manager, a 30-something Australian spitfire named Roger Davies, first brought her a demo of “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” she dismissed it out of hand, arguing that it was “not what Rod Stewart or the Rolling Stones would sing.” Those boys were her role models. As Tina’s solo career took off, it was white rock stars who lit the runway, with Jagger, Bowie, McCartney and Bryan Adams performing live duets that were tailor-made for the brave new medium of MTV.
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In the 1990s, Tina moved to Europe. She liked it for its civility and tolerance, and she “felt safe abroad because there was no chance of running into Ike … I could forget about him in a foreign country.” (Ike died of a cocaine overdose in 2007.) But her main reason for moving was to be with Erwin Bach. They lived in Cologne, with a place in the south of France and finally made their home a villa on Lake Zurich, where she says “the air is so fresh that the simple act of breathing feels like drinking a cold, clear glass of water.”
In 2000, after completing her final studio album and performing what she intended as her farewell tour, Tina slipped so far from the limelight that rumours of her death were trending on Google. But in 2005, she emerged for a tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and saw Beyoncé perform “Proud Mary.”
“When I think of inspiration,” Beyoncé told the audience, “I think of the two Tinas in my life — my mother, Tina, and, of course, the amazing Tina Turner. I never saw a woman so powerful, so fierce.”
After seven years off, Tina credits Sophia Loren with prodding her to go back to work when they ran into each other at a fashion show in Milan. Celebrating half a century of performance with her 50th Anniversary tour, she sold more than a million concert tickets, finally pulling the plug in 2009. Then came the roller-coaster ride: the lavish wedding, the honeymoon cut short for a TV audience with Oprah … and the stroke. Waking up half-paralyzed, “I was too embarrassed to ask for help,” she recalls. “Legs for days and muscles of steel from dancing, but I didn’t have the strength to get up.”
It was just the first in a string of medical catastrophes. Next came severe vertigo, followed by intestinal cancer, kidney failure and almost a year of dialysis. The combo of cancer and kidney disease presented a lethal catch-22 — tumour-fighting drugs would reject a kidney transplant. But in the end, Tina was cleared of cancer in the nick of time and saved by the love of her life. Erwin donated his kidney. After an arduous recovery from her operation, she nervously stepped back into the public eye for the opening of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical in London’s West End. “I watched my past unfold from the comfort of a plush velvet seat,” she writes. Tina felt a strange sense of closure. When the actor playing Ike came onstage, she says the likeness was so uncanny “it was as if Ike had come from the grave.” But he couldn’t hurt her. In fact, she felt she could finally forgive him.
Stories don’t always stop when they should. Before the memoir went to press, Tina had to append a tragic epilogue to the fairy-tale ending. In July, just before she would celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary with Erwin, after attending an Armani fashion show in Paris followed by a lively dinner, Tina went back to the hotel to learn that her son Craig Turner had shot himself. He was dead at the age of 59. Tina had a son with Ike and adopted two of his children, but Craig was her first: she gave birth to him at 18 after a passing romance with Ike’s saxophonist, Raymond Hill. “He’ll always be my baby,” writes Tina. “I know I’ll get through this somehow. I’m strong.”
Tina likes to point out that she has two sides: rock ’n’ roll Tina and “the Tina who wears ballet flats and pearls, who believes in elegance.” There’s Tina the ferocious dancer with the switchblade legs, and “a voice that could fuse polyester at 50 paces” (as Rolling Stone’s Kurt Loder put it). Then there’s Tina the lifelong Buddhist who would chant for hours on end, creating a secret refuge from Ike’s abuse. She no longer sings on stage but still chants at home, in a room where she has built a small shrine to her lost son.
Looking back on her life, she admits, “My longest love affair has been with my audience.” In that sense, her legacy seems secure. Public icon or private dancer, Tina Turner will always be the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll.
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1-45 for the ask I want to know all^^
Oh wow Anon, you sure do want to know it all! I’ll do my best for you and I’m sorry that I got to this so late!! hopefully you see it!
1: 6 of the songs you listen to most? Ashes by Celine Dion from the new deadpool movie coming out, She Loves Control by Camila , Mi Gente by Beyonce and others, Move Like you Stole It ZZ Ward, In My Blood by Shawn Mendez, E.T. by Katy Perry.
2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Stan Lee, that or my all time answer despite this questions wording of on this earth, Steve Irwin. He’s a huge inspiration for me.
3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17. This actually prompted me to pick up an old journal of my moms and this is part of a poem she wrote in 1986 about Desire, ‘Yet what is to be found at the end of this journey has yet to be revealed’ Time to talk to my mother about our same love of writing as it seems apparent lol
4: What do you think about most? honestly I think mostly about my novels, scenes, dialogue, theme songs, character bios. My writing is as vital to my survival as the air I breathe.
5: What does your latest text message from someone else say? “Better yet I’ll be there at 2:30 forgot it was at 3lol”
6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on? I always sleep with at least a shirt on, just in case someone has to come in and talk to me.
7:What’s your strangest talent? My strangest talent? I’d have to say that it’d be that I can make my eyes wiggle back and forth really really fast, or that I can crack every joint I have, or that I’m double jointed but I don’t know if those are talents… I sure have a talent for rambling huh??
8: Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence)
Girls are beautiful. Boys are beautiful too. ((I had no idea what to say lol))
9:Ever had a poem or song written about you? YES!! My little brother is a violinist and he composed a song for me named ‘The Dragons Journey’ because I love dragons, I got him to love dragons and I was then living out of state for college.
10: When is the last time you played the air guitar? the last time I listened to music which is like, now lol
11: Do you have any strange phobias? Bees. Definitely Bees.
12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose? Nope, Not that I’ve been told or that I remember doing.
13: What’s your religion? I don’t like labels for my faith, I’ve been told I’m an Omnist.
14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? I’m most likely on the school playground with my students or hanging out with my friends in my free time.
15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? I have no preference, I just love making memories.
16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? hmm, well shit… Gotta say sugarland.
17: What was the last lie you told? I make it a point not to lie unless totally necessary so my last lie? “I did it, I’m sorry”
18: Do you believe in karma? oh heck yes, you get whats comin to you in the end so best be as kind and wonderful to others as you want them to be to you.
19: What does your URL mean? My URL is just my nickname and four random numbers I made up in middle school lol
20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? I’d say my greatest weakness is second guessing if I deserve to be happy or if I’ve earned the right to have such wonderful friends and an even better Lover and friend. My greatest Strength? I’d say thats my determination and perseverance to get through tough times and get out feeling like it didn’t take much. basically my stubbornness lol
21: Who is your celebrity crush? My celebrity crush, Male, Dwayne The Rock Johnson or Tom Holland, Female? Halsey, Gal Gadot or Lilly Singh.
22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Yes and I got caught with my dumb luck -.- Moving along!!
23: How do you vent your anger? I vent my anger by singing, belting out my favorite songs and letting myself cry and then writing angst, violence, tragedy and gore.
24: Do you have a collection of anything? Movies, Manga, Anime, Books 250+ and still going!
25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? I honestly hate both of those due to my anxiety unless I know the people very well though the people who know me very well know that I don’t like it sooooo… but if I had to pick it’d be talking on the phone.
26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become? I’m incredibly happy and proud of the person I’ve become, I’ve been through many traumatic things but I’m most proud that I can still smile and be positive.
27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? I hate the sound of people chewing with their damn mouth open, I never think of murder more than when I hear it. I love the sound of wind through the trees, a little creek with water rushing over a shallow bed of pebbles, birds chirping faintly in the background, rain pouring down on the ground. I adore it more than words can say.
28: What’s your biggest “what if”? My biggest what if? what if i’m actually insane and people just don’t tell me
29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Oh I absolutely believe in ghosts, I have had paranormal experiences in EVERY SINGLE house I have ever lived in so it’d be weird if I didn’t believe along with my own sensitivity to it. the universe is infinite, we have no idea how far it goes of course theres a chance of other life being out there, maybe we’re just out of reach.
30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm. To my right, my bag that reads “If you were in my novel I would have killed you off already” To my left, my mothers winnie the pooh hat box.
31: Smell the air. What do you smell? I smell baby powder very very faintly, very odd but I do work in a daycare soo.
32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to? The dentist. I hate it.
33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast? Gotta say west coast, just a lot more fun things going on that direction.
34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender? Dwayne the Rock Johnson, yes he sings he was in a disney movie.
35: To you, what is the meaning of life? the meaning of love is caring more for another being than you do for yourself while also loving yourself.
36: Define Art. Art is expression of self and of your emotions in a way that you learn more about yourself and if you want too, teach others.
37: Do you believe in luck? heck yes I do, it goes hand in hand with Karma!
38: What’s the weather like right now? It’s a good hot day but cooling off, skies are overcast and I’m hoping it rains tonight.
39: What time is it? 7:22 pm
40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed? I do drive! and yes I have crashed and totaled a car.
41: What was the last book you read? Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
42: Do you like the smell of gasoline? its not a bad smell but as a cook I’ve learned to not really appreciate its presence.
43: Do you have any nicknames? I do! Frankie, Missy, Frank, Frankenstein, Frances, B, Fred. Lots!
44: What was the last film you saw? RAMPAGE, which I already pre-ordered on amazon because I’m a ho for funny movies with The Rock and adorable animal companions.
45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? the worst injury I’ve ever had, I’ve had my ribs popped out of place.
#ask me questions#ask me anything#ask#asks#thanks everyone for the follows and asks ♥#ask me tuesday
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For the week of 5 February 2018
Quick Bits:
Armstrong & The Vault of Spirits is a fun one-shot that uses Aram’s collection of wine to weave together the “true story” of Noah, the emergence of a previously unknown arch-nemesis, the secrets societies that continue to plague Archer & Armstrong, and the often hidden emotional connection that Armstrong has with his family. It’s really nice to see Fred Van Lente back chronicling these characters, even if just for one special right now.
| Published by Valiant
Avengers #679 tags in Kim Jacinto for art duties, appearing to be up to the challenge laid out by Pepe Larraz in quality of work on this book. We get the stakes of the match here between the Grandmaster and the Challenger, of whom we also get a history, and it manages to make all of the destruction and battles seem like mere whims of these members of the Elders of the universe. I suspect when discovered, this isn’t going to sit well with the Avengers. As only part five, this also makes me wonder what else Mark Waid, Al Ewing, and Jim Zub have up their sleeves.
| Published by Marvel
Black Bolt #10 has a brief crossover segment with Inhumans: Judgment Day, illustrated by guest-artist Stephanie Hans. It’s beautiful, and an interesting way to work in the events of the broader Inhumans saga into the current arc in this series. I like how Saladin Ahmed handles Lash’s plan to advance all of the interwoven spinning plates.
| Published by Marvel
Coyotes #4 closes out the first arc along the theme of upheaval. There are some interesting parallels put forward in the Duchess and Red’s situations, as well as the comeuppance against the coyotes who have been hunting women. As usual, Caitlin Yarsky’s art elevates everything. I highly recommend picking up these issues or pre-ordering the collection for April; Sean Lewis and Yarsky did something great here.
| Published by Image
Extremity #11 is the penultimate issue of the series as the final battle is enjoined. Daniel Warren Johnson mainly focuses here on the action and as usual the artwork is gorgeous. I’m going to really miss this series when it’s done.
| Published by Image / Skybound
Giant Days #35 somewhat skirts the issue of the fallout of Ed’s admission of love to Esther last issue for now, instead following on a visiting Sarah and Lottie Grote. It’s funny seeing Daisy and Susan trying to look after a kid, plus the interesting development that Daisy may finally be cluing in that Ingrid is absolutely horrible.
| Published by Boom Entertainment / Boom! Box
Incognegro: Renaissance #1 kicks off a new mystery with the death of a black author at a literary shindig, with the police appearing completely disinterested in the case completely. Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece deliver an interesting start.
| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books
Infinity Countdown: Adam Warlock #1 acts as a bridge between Guardians of the Galaxy #150 and, as well as a primer for, Infinity Countdown: Prime. Adam Warlock has been reborn and this issue gives us a summary of Warlock’s history and teases what’s to come at the end of time, as he enters into an uneasy alliance with Kang the Conqueror. A lot of this issue has Gerry Duggan recapping events and foreshadowing what’s to come, but it is highly elevated by the art of Mike and Laura Allred.
| Published by Marvel
Koshchei the Deathless #2 continues to be a fun and exciting fable of Koshchei telling Hellboy his story. Mike Mignola does a great job of including some subtle humour into the telling, along with the absurdity of some of the Russian folktales (or the like), and Ben Stenbeck (with Dave Stewart’s colours) is again phenomenal.
| Published by Dark Horse
Mech Cadet Yu #6 has the kids face off against baby Sharg and it’s all kinds of awesome.
| Published by BOOM! Studios
No. 1 With a Bullet #4 finds new and inventive ways to ruin Nash’s life further, with weirdness continuing and lies emerging to cast her as a willing participant in her sex tape.
| Published by Image
Noble #9 is a kind of coda to the first two arcs, allowing David and Astrid a bit of quiet time and reflection before tackling the next stage in their lives. It’s interesting in their dealings with Foresight and Lorena Payan here that even when they manage to get somewhat free, Payan has to remind them that even their personal lives are still under observation.
| Published by Lion Forge / Catalyst Prime
Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon #4 amps up the action in this penultimate issue of the series. Christopher Mitten (with colours by Dave Stewart) is on fire this issue.
| Published by Dark Horse
Rogue & Gambit #2 reminds me again that I don’t like Rogue and Gambit as a couple, something about them together just seems like nails on a chalkboard at this point, but I do like Kelly Thompson writing about them. There’s a nice mix of humour, action, and history that keeps this flowing nicely. It also helps that the art from Pere Pérez with colours by Frank D’Armata is amazing.
| Published by Marvel
Rose #8 gives a bit of history on Drucilla, with Felix giving excuses for why she’s grown into a selfish, evil monstrosity. It’s interesting to see the lengths we’ll go to in order to explain away bad behaviour of family members. Ig Guara, with colours by Triona Farrell, also deserves more attention. Their art on this series since day one has been impeccable.
| Published by Image
Scarlett’s Strike Force #2 advances many of the story threads in an interesting fashion, particularly Skywarp’s disillusionment with the Joe’s in fixing his teleportation and the burgeoning mystical aspect to Cobra. There’s also a humorous exchange between Raptor and Croc Master.
| Published by IDW
Spirits of Vengeance #5 concludes what was an unexpected, but excellent, mini-series from Victor Gischler, David Baldeón, and Andres Mossa. It was a nice mix of humour, action, and gorgeous art playing with some of Marvel’s lately underutilized supernatural characters. I know that they’ll likely reappear during the upcoming Damnation event, but I’d definitely like to see more from this creative team.
| Published by Marvel
Star Wars #43 brings the “Ashes of Jedha” arc to a close with a surprising twist. Also, some great art again by Salvador Larroca and Guru-eFX.
| Published by Marvel
TMNT Universe #19 begins a new arc “Service Animals” by Ian Flynn, Dave Wachter, and Ronda Pattison, as a well as a prelude for the upcoming Kingdom of Rats storyline in the main book, by Bobby Curnow and Pablo Tunica. It’s always great to see Wachter’s art, especially with how expressive his turns at Alopex are here.
| Published by IDW
Transformers: Lost Light #14 is mostly a Scavengers story, but unlike most of them, this one is no light-hearted romp. Like the recent Getaway arc, this gets pretty serious and pretty dark.
| Published by IDW
Transformers vs. Visionaries #2 gets into more of the internecine warfare and skirmishes between the factions of the Visionaries themselves as the Darkling Lords and the Spectral Knights battle for the soul and honour of their people. I like what Magdalene Visaggio is setting up here and Fico Ossio’s artwork, with colours by David Garcia Cruz, is beautiful.
| Published by IDW
Twisted Romance #1 is off to a good start. This issue has a trio of tales that largely mix horror/supernatural with love/sex/romance. The highlight for me is Sarah Horrocks’ piece that reminds me of the existential eroticism of Clive Barker’s work, but all three are worth the price of admission. Alex de Campi and Katie Skelly’s story is a bit of revenge on a cheating partner’s lover with a confrontation between an incubus and a succubus, while Magen Cubed delivers a sweet prose story of a monster hunter and the vampire who loves him.
| Published by Image
Venom #161 has some truly excellent artwork from Javier Garrón (with colours by Dono Sánchez-Almara and Erick Arciniega) as Mike Costa pens a done-in-one story advancing some of the series’ sub-plots while giving a fitting confrontation between Venom and Spider-Woman. With this issue sandwiched between two crossovers (the just finished Venom Inc. on one side and Poison-X on the other) it’s nice to see how the team make this wholly satisfying on its own.
| Published by Marvel
Vs. #1 debuts with gorgeous artwork by Esad Ribić and Nic Klein, perfectly capturing turning war into a commercialized sport. Along with the lettering from Aditya Bidikar and graphics by Tom Muller, it manages to have a nice European, particularly Humanoids, feel to it, despite not being particularly over the top.
| Published by Image
The Wicked + The Divine 1923 is quite possibly the greatest issue of this already magnificent series, and a must buy for the people who may have otherwise been missing out on the tangential one-shots. This one is meaty with story and purpose as Kieron Gillen and Aud Koch blend prose and comics, along with conventions of pulp mysteries, silent film, and more to create a ritual that helped shape the rest of the 20th century as a kind of prelude to the main WicDiv series. This is a thing of beauty.
| Published by Image
Witchblade #3 goes deeper on both Alex’s history and the mystery of the supernatural stuff going on around her. I may sound like a broken record, but again I have to commend Caitlin Kittredge, Roberta Ingranata, and Bryan Valenza for this series, because it’s got a great story and beautiful artwork.
| Published by Image / Top Cow
X-Men Red #1 is off to a pretty good start. The artwork from Mahmud Asrar with colours by Ive Svorcina are a real draw, as is the return of Jean Grey to the X-Men, but the breakout star is still Tom Taylor’s characterizations. Particularly of Honey Badger.
| Published by Marvel
Other Highlights: 30 Days of Night #3, Amazing Spider-Man #795, The Backstagers 2018 Valentine’s Intermission #1, Black Comix Returns, The Damned #8, Daredevil #598, Dejah Thoris #1, Get Naked, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call #3, The Gravediggers Union #4, Half Past Danger II: Dead to Reichs #5, Hawkeye #15, Iron Fist #77, Jazz Maynard #7, Legenderry: Red Sonja #1, Monstro Mechanica #3, Paper Girls #20, Rock Candy Mountain #8, Runaways #6, Scales & Scoundrels #6, She-Hulk #162, Spider-Man #237, Spider-Man vs. Deadpool #27, Tomb Raider: Survivor’s Crusade #3
Recommended Collections: Avengers & Champions: Worlds Collide, Backstagers - Volume 2, Clue, Incognegro, Inhumans: Once & Future Kings, Scales & Scoundrels - Volume 1: Into the Dragon’s Maw, Secret Weapons Deluxe Edition, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra - Volume 2: Doctor Aphra and the Enormous Profit, TMNT - Volume 18: Trial of Krang, Transformers/GI Joe: First Strike, Transformers/GI Joe: First Strike - Champions
d. emerson eddy believes that you shouldn’t be the problem, be the solution.
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Writing Tag!!
I got tagged in this thing twice!!
Rules: answer the 10/11 questions given to you by the person who tagged you, and then write your own 10/11 questions and tag 10/11 people to answer them.
For my first set of questions, I was tagged by @isaac-lacey
1: Do you listen to music while writing?
Yup, I generally put a playlist on or put all my music on shuffle, I’ll generally listen to some classics, or some real feel-good music and songs I really enjoy or haven’t heard for a while.
2: your favorite character from any of your work?
Probably Delian//Nolan (I’m rewriting and the names have all been changed). He’s very….. interesting. Either that or Tysh//Delilah she’s just sort of awesome to write about, plus I relate to her with dysphoria and trans issues and etc.
3: Eat anything while writing?
Eh. I don’t really eat much any time? So no.
4: Drink anything while writing?
LOTS AND LOTS OF COFEE (generally made by the cute bakery boy next door)
5: do you multi-task while writing?
Not really. I mean sometimes I’ll use it as like a break from assignments when I’m really busy, and sort of write a bit every time I finish a part of whatever I’m doing.
6: outlining or no?
Oh man, I used to do like a really basic outline. Like, really basic. I had a piece of paper with dot points on it that vaguely outlined the plot and I’d just go from there. But with my last two WIP I started doing chapter outlines and detailed character profiles and etc, and for the one I’m working on now, my outlining is so thorough and detailed that I didn’t actually start writing for a month or two since I started planning it. I actually did proper research and got betas and stuff this time, and although it was frustrating because I just wanted to start writing, it’s made my writing better.
7: your current MC’s favorite song?
Grace (//Zalla in the original) really like Africa by Toto, but she also loves Sweet Child O’ Mine, Don’t Stop Believing, and a lot of Bon Jovi. But she also really loves stuff like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry and stuff, her music taste is kind of all over the place, but her favorite song would probably definitely be Africa.
8: Do you write in 3rd or 1st person?
I vary, but I like both of them. First person is good when you’re focusing specifically on one character, and you want the audience to see the story through that characters eyes, but third person is really great when you want to focus on more than one character and give an overall perspective.
9: how old is your current MC?
Grace is 17.
10: would your current MC brutally torture and murder someone if it would save their best friend?
Sadly, no (that’d be fun to write). Grace just wouldn’t be able to handle it, I mean the poor girl was abused for a year and a half by her boyfriend. Her confidence was stripped away but Ash, and even when she started to get better she still can’t handle violence very well.
11: if you met your MC what would you say first?
I’d probably hug her and tell her it’s okay, Ash will soon be brutally murdered by an unknown attacker and you will get pretty magic powers :)))
OKAY!! Thank you Isaac for those questions!!
Now for the questions from @toboldlywrite
1: Do any of your OC’s enjoy nature documentaries?
Ooooh I feel like Nolan would probably enjoy those a fair bit, and possibly Smith too.
2: when you come up with something, what comes first; the world, a character, or the plot?
The plot, or at least a vague idea of it. Then I figure out which sort of characters I’d need (as in, their basic responsibility in the plot), and then give them names and start filling out the plot and the characters, and generally I’ll figure out the setting/worldbuilding after that.
3: Are your OC’s any good at any arts and crafts?
Delilah is a makeup artist and can paint, Farah sketches, Grace can sort of sing but not very well but she’s a really good hair stylist, Smith plays guitar, Ash is a writer, Nolan plays bass guitar, and Aalia isn’t really artsy but is amazing at sports.
4: Which OC is the best at math?
Grace and Aalia I’d say.
5: Which OC would rather die than take a math class again?
Probably Delilah or Ash.
6: If you did the text post meme for your favorite characters, do you have a particular one you’d apply to your MC?
Either “I just want to say from the bottom of my heart I didn’t sign up for this shit” or “everyone on the internet is like ‘I don’t give a fuck’ and like that’s so not me I give such a fuck like the fuck I give is colossal it’s like a galaxy sized fuck’
7: Is your MC a cat person, a dog person, a bird person or a reptile person?
Grace and her sister Delilah have a cat called ‘Ginger Bastard’, and Grace really likes cats.
8: Was your MC a dinosaur kid or a space kid?
I wanna say space because /aesthetic/ but tbh she was probably a dinosaur kid
9: What did your MC want to be when they grew up? Did they end up choosing that path?
Grace wanted to be a teacher, a zookeeper, a dancer or a hairdresser, and she has a part-time job helping out at a hair salon, doing stuff like cleaning and etc and occasionally helping out with dyeing hair + stuff and learning from the hairdressers.
10: You find a magic cupboard that transports you away into one of your wips. Which would you rather>
Well the original was set in some weird country I can’t remember the name of and everyone had magic powers and it was weird, but the rewrite is just set in like a fairly big rural town/micro city in Australia in the modern day so I mean it wouldn’t be much different from my life now except that some of the people have magic powers and there’s a few murderers on the loose (nothing out of the ordinary lmao).
Thanks for the questions!
Here are my questions:
1: Did you write a lot when you were a kid?
2: Who/what do you think is the biggest inspiration for your wip, or writing in general?
3: favorite children’s book?
4: favorite book now?
5: favorite fictional character?
6: Do you think your MC is a good person in the grand scheme of things? What are their flaws?
7: How many WIPs have you got at the moment?
8: How do you come up with titles? Is it relatively easy or really hard?
9: What are some of your favorite names? Have you used them in your work?
10: Do you enjoy killing off lots of characters or do you prefer to give them all happy endings?
11(for the version I got tagged in that had eleven questions): How diverse do you usually make your characters? Heaps of lgbt/poc/disabled/neurodivergent characters, just a few, or none at all?
Okay so I’m going to tag my 11 people here: Jimmy @toomanyskeletons Harvey @bailheart // @wordsatbailspeed Max @koalamuffins Gloria @glorious74 Charlotte @keyboardofrejection Justin @xcorruptedapostlex Vlad @vladthedino Kirk @baguettes-save-lives Holly @theduckie-quackquack (I know you’re not a writeblr but I know you write stuff so) And also @brynwrites // @brynprocrastinates and @catandwrite (I can’t think of any other writeblrs that aren’t either on here or the people i was tagged by I’m sorry I have a terrible memory).
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Sylvania School of Magic: (Updated) Character Info
Name: Rouge
House: Slytherin
Wand: Ebony, dragon heartstring
Blood Status: Pure
Favorite Subject: Defense Against the Dark Arts
Rouge is a Slytherin who doesn’t take crap from anybody. She’s a bit choosey about her friends, but once you have her on your side, she’ll be there no matter what. She trusts her gut, and knows how to speak up if she doesn’t agree with something.
Rouge is the child of two Council employees, both of whom are pureblood, so she’s grown up in the wizarding world. She loves magical artifacts, particularly gems, because her mother works in the magical antiquities department in the Council and Rouge has seen and heard about a lot of magical artifacts. She also seems to have a special talent of slipping out of trouble undetected, but she’ll never tell how she does it.
#sonic the hedgehog#rouge#art#katie#ashe#characters#katie did the art ashe did the writing#she don't have a chest yet because she's only 13
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Yvette's Dramaturgy: Urielle Klein-Mekongo @ Edfringe 2017
China Plate presents:
Yvette
By Urielle Klein-Mekongo
A one woman show with original music about a stolen childhood and growing up with a secret.
Directed by Rebecca Atkinson Lord Script by Urielle Klein-Mekongo
Pleasance Courtyard, Below | 2nd – 26th August (not 14th), 2.15pm (3.15pm)
Fresh from graduating from East 15, Urielle Klein-Mekongo brings her award-winning, debut production to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Based on a true story, Yvette fuses spoken word, music and an exceptional solo performance to present a story of survival, teenage angst and Hello Kitty knickers.
Written and performed by emerging artist Urielle Klein-Mekongo, Yvette has won the Young Harts Writing Fest Audience Favourite, the Kings Head Theatre Stella Wilkie Award and The East15 Pulse Award 2017.
What was the inspiration for this performance?
I had many inspirations for the performance, the storyline itself is based loosely around my own experience. I had read and seen two one-woman shows (chewing gum dreams and Bitch Boxer) where the staging and style of writing felt unique and engaging and I wanted for my piece to have that feeling to.
I think I wanted to write myself to a place of healing, but soon figured that I couldn't. What I actually needed to write was the truth about where I was at. One of the the things I wanted to explore most in the show was a sense of vulnerability and emotional nudity, and so the devising process was hard for me but truly beneficial for the show that we created through it. I want people who have been through what I went through to be inspired by this show to reclaim their lives and rise from it.
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?
I think its a perfect space to talk about it, especially topics that are rarely talked openly about. There are more victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking everyday and I feel that my show doesn't just make you look at it with a quick glance, but makes you see what it takes to be vulnerable and then have someone take advantage of that.
I also wanted people to realise that whilst children may appear childish and young, they often know much more than we imagine children should. I also wanted to explore the racial politics that exists within the black community . The fact we still value ourselves buy the standard of the brown paper bag, a way of viewing ourselves ingrained in our community from the days of slavery till now.
How did you become interested in making performance?
As part of my course at East 15 Acting School I had to write a play for our course’s Debut Festival. Whilst I had always written music and poetry, I’d never written a play. I sent 5 pages of funny scenes drawn from childhood memories of just being a curious girl from a London estate. I enjoyed integrating my love for poetry and drawing the struggles of growing up without a father because it gave me more depth to explore what I was afraid of addressing. I knew there was one story of mine I really wanted to tell but was too afraid to, but it became less of an obstacle and more something to weave into the piece.
Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
I did a lot research on multi rolling through watching stand up shows and I found it help me tie the overall show together. There was a lot of character improvisations which helped me tidy the script. I also had a playlist of my favourite hits of that time that really help me get in touch with the youthful spring in my characters step, and with a loop pedal I adapted an created a musical through line to transition the piece through.
Does the show fit with your usual productions?
This is my first production so I'm very new to this but I hope the standard of my future productions will get better every time.
What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope for women and men to look at their struggles and be able to look forward and say ‘what's next’. Because, I truly believe that we are the authors of our own story despite the things that go wrong. We decide whether we can get back up and face the world.
Evie is thirteen and lives in Neasden with her Mum. She wants to tell us about something - her crush on Lewis, trying to be a woman, friends, virginity, lightys, garage remixes… and an ‘Uncle’ who lurks in the corners of her story. She wants to tell us something, but first she must face it for herself. Through music, rhyme and witty character observations Urielle Klein Mekongo invites the audience into a snapshot of a young girls life, growing up in a single parent home in North London, the trials and tribulations of being a teenager and the dark figure that infiltrates her life.
Urielle said, “This project tells a coming of age story, that asks questions about what it means to be a black girl from a single parent household. It’s particularly important to me because its a story based on challenges I faced growing up with major daddy issues and trying rise from of ashes of sexual abuse. It took me a while to come face to face with it, like many other victims but I believe that this show could encourage more people to speak up.”
Following its opening performance at East15’s DEBUT Festival, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre has commissioned the show and producers China Plate have come on board for its transfer to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Director Rebecca Atkinson Lord has worked with Urielle to enhance the production and elevate it beyond the constraints of a university setting.
“Urielle is a startlingly compelling performer with an exciting gift for brilliant music and cheeky wit. Yvette is a story of determination and triumph that is breathtaking in its honesty told by a performer who is so dazzlingly herself that you can't help but root for her.” Rebecca Atkinson-Lord
There will be a collection for Rape Crisis England after every performance as a means of supporting the excellent work that they do across the UK. Rape Crisis England & Wales is a charity that exists to promote the needs and rights of women and girls who have experienced sexual violence it is the national umbrella body for a network of autonomous member Rape Crisis Centres across England and Wales and was set up to support their specialist work.
Urielle Klein-Mekongo is a writer, theatre maker singer/songwriter and performer. After first entering training via the National Youth Theatre’s Playing Up course in 2013, she went on to study Acting and Contemporary Theatre at East 15 where she graduated in 2017. Yvette marks Urielle’s first professional outing as a writer/performer. Other credits include Swipe (The Arcola with NYT), Three Sisters (East 15).
Rebecca Atkinson Lord trained at RADA and with the Royal Opera House and the Young Vic. Her work has taken her from major international companies like Shakespeare’s Globe, Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House, to intimate found spaces in London and beyond. She is Founding Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Arch 468 and from 2010-2016 was Director of Theatre at Ovalhouse in London.
China Plate is an independent theatre studio that works with artists, venues, festivals and funders to challenge the way performance is made, who it’s made by and who gets to experience it. Launched by Ed Collier and Paul Warwick in 2006, the company is currently collaborating with Caroline Horton, Chris Thorpe / Rachel Chavkin, Contender Charlie, Dan Jones, Sarah Punshon, Rachel Bagshaw, Inspector Sands, Joan Clevillé, David Edgar, Katie Lyons / Ella Grace and Ben Wright. China Plate are Associate Producers at Warwick Arts Centre where they develop and commission new work, Artistic Associates at the New Wolsey Theatre where they are Directors of PULSE Festival, Programmers of New Directions (the NRTF showcase) and Programme Consultants for Hull City of Culture 2017 (Back to Ours Festival). They are producers of innovative development programmes including The Darkroom, The Optimists (producer training), The First Bite and Bite Size Festivals and the NRTF Rural Touring Dance Initiative.
Commissioned by Bernie Grant Arts Centre in association with Hull 2017
from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2swKdhS
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For the month of December, the UCF Libraries Bookshelf celebrates the favorite books of employees of the UCF Libraries. And you know a major thing about librarians? They love talking about their favorite books. The books listed below are some of the favorite non-fiction books we read in 2019.
Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the favorite non-fiction titles read in 2019 by UCF Library employees. These 30 books plus many, many more are also on display on the 2nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.
And if you find someone has checked the one you’re interested in out before you had a chance, did you know you can place an interlibrary loan and have another copy sent here for you? Click here for instructions on placing an interlibrary loan.
A Mind at Play: how Claude Shannon invented the information age by Jimmy Soni
In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time.
Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services
Battles for Freedom: the use and abuse of American history by Eric Foner
In this collection of polemical pieces, Foner expounds on the relevance of Abraham Lincoln's legacy in the age of Obama and on the need for another era of Reconstruction. In addition to articles in which Foner calls out politicians and the powerful for their abuse and misuse of American history, Foner assesses some of his fellow leading historians of the late 20th century, including Richard Hofstadter, Howard Zinn and Eric Hobsbawm.
Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
Because Internet: understanding the new rules of language by Gretchen McCulloch
Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time. Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services
Consider the Fork: a history of how we cook and eat by Bee Wilson
Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious--or at least edible. But these tools have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. Bee Wilson takes readers on a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of objects we often take for granted. Blending history, science, and personal anecdotes, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be and how their influence has shaped food culture today.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services
Dopesick: dealers, doctors, and the drug company that addicted America by Beth Macy
Through unsparing, compelling, and unforgettably humane portraits of families and first responders determined to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows that one thing uniting Americans across geographic, partisan, and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But even in the midst of twin crises in drug abuse and healthcare, Macy finds reason to hope and ample signs of the spirit and tenacity that are helping the countless ordinary people ensnared by addiction build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Suggested by Jeremy Lucas, Research & Information
Elbert Parr Tuttle: chief jurist of the civil rights revolution by Anne Emanuel
This is the first—and the only authorized—biography of Elbert Parr Tuttle (1897–1996), the judge who led the federal court with jurisdiction over most of the Deep South through the most tumultuous years of the civil rights revolution. By the time Tuttle became chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, he had already led an exceptional life. He had cofounded a prestigious law firm, earned a Purple Heart in the battle for Okinawa in World War II, and led Republican Party efforts in the early 1950s to establish a viable presence in the South. But it was the intersection of Tuttle’s judicial career with the civil rights movement that thrust him onto history’s stage.
Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
Ex Libris: confessions of a common reader by Anne Fadiman
This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay, moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks with her father's 22-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles") and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections ("Marrying Libraries"), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof-reading, the allure of long words, and the satisfactions of reading out loud.
Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement
From Here to Eternity: traveling the world to find the good death by Caitlin Doughty
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes. Doughty vividly describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world's funerary history. She introduces deathcare innovators researching body composting and green burial, and examines how varied traditions, from Mexico's Dias de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us see our own death customs in a new light. Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular -- and, upon close inspection, peculiar -- set of 'respectful' rites: bodies are whisked to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased and have space to participate in the process.
Suggested by Katy Miller, Textbook Affordability
Human Compatible: artificial intelligence and the problem of control by Stuart Russell
Russell begins by exploring the idea of intelligence in humans and in machines. He describes the near-term benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman AI. He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage.
Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services
In Pieces by Sally Field
With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships--including her complicated love for her own mother.
Suggested by Katie Kirwan, Acquisitions & Collections
Inside of a Dog: what dogs see, smell, and know by Alexandra Horowitz
Although not a formal training guide, this book has practical application for dog lovers interested in understanding why their dogs do what they do. With a light touch and the weight of science behind her, Alexandra Horowitz examines the animal we think we know best but may actually understand the least. This book is as close as you can get to knowing about dogs without being a dog yourself.
Suggested by Kimberly Montgomery, Cataloging
Life 3.0: being human in the age of artificial intelligence by Max Tegmark
This book empowers you to join what may be the most important conversation of our time. It doesn’t shy away from the full range of viewpoints or from the most controversial issues—from superintelligence to meaning, consciousness and the ultimate physical limits on life in the cosmos.
Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services
Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time by Dava Sobel
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. This is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.
Suggested by Larry Cooperman, Research & Information
Mindfulness: an eight-week plan for finding peace in a frantic world by Mark Williams and Danny Penman
The book is based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT revolves around a straightforward form of mindfulness meditation which takes just a few minutes a day for the full benefits to be revealed. MBCT has been clinically proven to be at least as effective as drugs for depression and is widely recommended by US physicians and the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical.
Suggested by Tina Buck, Acquisitions & Collections
Oh, Florida!: How America's Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country by Craig Pittman
Florida. That name. That combination of sounds. Three simple syllables packing mixed messages. To some people, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punch line. As award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Craig Pittman shows, it's both of these and, more important, it’s a Petri dish, producing trends that end up influencing the rest of the country. This book embraces those contradictions and shows how they fit together to make this the most interesting state.
Suggested by Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
Packing for Mars: the curious science of life in the void by Mary Roach
The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. From the Space Shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule, Mary Roach takes us on the surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services
Shortest Way Home: one mayor's challenge and a model for America's future by Pete Buttigieg
Interweaving two narratives―that of a young man coming of age and a town regaining its economic vitality―Buttigieg recounts growing up in a Rust Belt city, amid decayed factory buildings and the steady soundtrack of rumbling freight trains passing through on their long journey to Chicagoland. Inspired by John F. Kennedy’s legacy, Buttigieg first left northern Indiana for red bricked Harvard and then studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, before joining McKinsey, where he trained as a consultant―becoming, of all things, an expert in grocery pricing. Then, Buttigieg defied the expectations that came with his pedigree, choosing to return home to Indiana and responding to the ultimate challenge of how to revive a once great industrial city and help steer its future in the twenty first century.
Suggested by Jeremy Lucas, Research & Information
Such a Lovely Little War: Saigon, 1961-63 by Marcelino Truong
This riveting, beautifully produced graphic memoir tells the story of the early years of the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of a young boy named Marco, the son of a Vietnamese diplomat and his French wife. The book opens in America, where the boy's father works for the South Vietnam embassy; there the boy is made to feel self-conscious about his otherness thanks to schoolmates who play war games against the so-called "Commies." The family is called back to Saigon in 1961, where the father becomes Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem's personal interpreter; as the growing conflict between North and South intensifies, so does turmoil within Marco's family, as his mother struggles to grapple with bipolar disorder.
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its own leaders. In Agriculture the funding of vital programs like food stamps and school lunches is being slashed. The Commerce Department may not have enough staff to conduct the 2020 Census properly. Over at Energy, where international nuclear risk is managed, it’s not clear there will be enough inspectors to track and locate black market uranium before terrorists do. Willful ignorance plays a role in these looming disasters. If your ambition is to maximize short-term gains without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off not knowing those costs. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it’s better never to really understand those problems.
Suggested by Brian Calhoun & Richard Harrison, Research & Information Services
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?
Suggested by Rachel Mulvihill, Downtown
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit: Victorian iconoclast, children's author, and creator of The Railway Children by Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edith Nesbit (1858–1924) is considered the first modern writer for children and the inventor of the children’s adventure story. Award-winning biographer Eleanor Fitzsimons uncovers the little-known details of her life, introducing readers to the Fabian Society cofounder and fabulous socialite who hosted legendary parties and had admirers by the dozen, including George Bernard Shaw. Through Nesbit’s letters and archival research, Fitzsimons reveals “E.” to have been a prolific lecturer and writer on socialism and shows how Nesbit incorporated these ideas into her writing, thereby influencing a generation of children—an aspect of her literary legacy never before examined.
Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services
The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson
This classic work remains as fresh today as when it first appeared. Carson's writing teems with stunning, memorable images--the newly formed Earth cooling beneath an endlessly overcast sky; the centuries of nonstop rain that created the oceans; giant squids battling sperm whales hundreds of fathoms below the surface; and incredibly powerful tides moving 100 billion tons of water daily in the Bay of Fundy. Quite simply, she captures the mystery and allure of the ocean with a compelling blend of imagination and expertise.
Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost
This book tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish—all in a country where the only music to be heard for miles around is “La Macarena.” He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life).
Suggested by Katie Kirwan, Acquisitions & Collections
The Source of Self-Regard: selected essays, speeches, and meditations by Toni Morrison
The Source of Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black matter(s)," and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing commentary on her own work and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater director Peter Sellars.
Suggested by Jada Reyes, Research & Information Services
The Collected Schizophrenias: essays by Esme Weijun Wang
An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative.
Suggested by Jada Reyes, Research & Information Services
The War on Normal People: the truth about America's disappearing jobs and why universal basic income is our future by Andrew Yang
Yang imagines a different future--one in which having a job is distinct from the capacity to prosper and seek fulfillment. At this vision's core is Universal Basic Income, the concept of providing all citizens with a guaranteed income-and one that is rapidly gaining popularity among forward-thinking politicians and economists. Yang proposes that UBI is an essential step toward a new, more durable kind of economy, one he calls "human capitalism."
Suggested by Jeremy Lucas, Research & Information
Trick Mirror: reflections on self-delusion by Jia Tolentino
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
Suggested by Jada Reyes, Research & Information Services & Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
Two Cheers for Democracy by E. M. Forster
Essays that applaud democracy's toleration of individual freedom and self-criticism and deplore its encouragement of mediocrity.
Suggested by Christina Wray, Teaching & Engagement
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: chasing fear and finding home in the great white north by Blair Braverman
By turns funny and sobering, bold and tender, this book brilliantly recounts Braverman’s adventures in Norway and Alaska. Settling into her new surroundings, Braverman was often terrified that she would lose control of her dog team and crash her sled, or be attacked by a polar bear, or get lost on the tundra. Above all, she worried that, unlike the other, gutsier people alongside her, she wasn’t cut out for life on the frontier. But no matter how out of place she felt, one thing was clear: she was hooked on the North. On the brink of adulthood, Braverman was determined to prove that her fears did not define her—and so she resolved to embrace the wilderness and make it her own.
Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. This book chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
Suggested by Pat Tiberii, Interlibrary Loan & Document Delivery Services
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Heartland rewatch - 1x04 - Taking Chances
> Amy scaring Lou while she’s running is hysterical!
> Weird seeing it be Marion’s room since I’m so used to it being Katie’s room now.
> It’s so fun looking through old pictures...ya know, the old-fashioned printed kind. Haha
> The girls stumble upon an old letter of Tim’s to Marion. We need to bring back the lost art of letter writing too. Anybody else getting sick of just getting bills and spam mail?
> I always laugh in the scene of Mallory giving Ty riding lessons! My butt hurt just watching.
> Ben has arrived!
> Ty and Jack scenes are always the best! Especially this one, where Ty throws the rock in the pond that Jack is trying to fly-fish in.
> Lou’s sneaky late night call to Tim and she was close to getting caught by Jack again.
> Looks like there’s plenty of road for both you and Lou, Ben.
> And this is when I start to dislike Ben. Amy was trying to be nice to you, but you still treat her like garbage.
> Poor Red. I would’ve done the exact same thing as Ty.
> Ty: “He’s right. I don’t know much about horses, but I know an arrogant ass--jerk when I see one.”
Mallory: An arrogant ass-jerk. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
> Ty (reading Ashley license plate): “’Hot-Ash’?”
Amy: “More like ‘pain in the Ash’.”
> Yikes, not your place to say that, Amy...and to Ashley of all people.
> It shows how much Tim wants to be back in his daughter’s lives by facing the one person in complete opposition to it: Jack.
> Love trail rides on a summer day.
> Stop whipping your horse, BEN! GRRR
> Not gonna lie, I’m kinda glad that Red threw Ben off.
> Mallory being embarrassed by Amy about liking Ty is so adorable.
> “The only problem with this horse is Ben.” - Amy saying what we’re all thinking.
> I’m bummed that Tim wasn’t the one who got to Amy. That would have been a really emotional moment for her dad - who she hasn’t seen in years - to rescue her. Plus, what a way for her to find out that he’s back!
> At least Tim still got to point Jack and Lou in the right direction. But why did they both go to Amy and not help Tim out of the water? I couldn’t see Jack doing that, but Lou definitely would have.
> I get that we don’t want to be too morbid in this family show, but I have gotten a bad cut almost in the exact same spot Amy did, and blood was practically gushing down the side of my face. So I guess, just a little more blood would’ve been more realistic to see since, who knows how long she was laying there?
> Amy was just hurt trying to bring you your horse, Ben! Show a bit more concern!
> I’m so proud of Ty, riding Red back to Heartland like a pro. In your face, Ben!
> Probably should have told Amy sooner about Tim, Lou.
> Jack spills the truth about how/why Tim left. Don’t mix drugs and alcohol, folks. At least we know now that Jack had a good reason for keeping Tim out of the girl’s lives.
> Jack calling Marion his “little girl”! *sob*
> Seriously, Ty. Briar Ridge? Why would you subject yourself to Ashley’s flirtatious torture every day?
> “Horses will forgive you for practically anything if you work at it.” - Another popular Season 1 Amy quote.
> Still not a Ben fan even though he asks Amy to help him with Red.
> Amy sees Tim on her ride, but still isn’t ready to talk. Don’t force things. Do it when you are ready.
> Tim looks good in yellow.
> Kensington Prairie with another great end song: “Disappear From View”.
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Reiki With Katie At Hippy Crystal Vibes Wonderful Tricks
I am a healer is particularly experienced or proficient and can offer much in my power to dramatically change lives?In fact, Reiki has much to offer you jobs, anything might happen!God gave us these gifts so we learn how to give Reiki for dogs helps shape their reality.A particularly annoying area was near my shoulder and with them
I discovered Reiki, it is quite silly, like waiting for her through a Reiki practitioner.And Chakra healing is the energy will make symbols and mantras of Heaven and Earth.It's interesting that some music has the power of the Reiki healer starts by holding his hands on the body even when surface appearances and outspoken teachers would like to know before sending you Reiki may awaken psychic abilities in the deepest meaning of one's life and its practitioners, as individuals, will blossom taking their communities with ancient practitioners were taught to those who have been told about the material they will be discussed below.Reiki is a comprehensive lineage chart, timeline, extensive glossary and general information for novices and practitioners over the person receiving Reiki.Also, for optimal healing the mind body and mind reading, but it wasn't until the practitioner to facilitate the learning curve, as you feel stressed
It also improves the self-healing energy that has a daily healing, you do not complete their healing journey.Training under a blanket on a personal dream that one of the head.Now, I know someone who understands Reiki recognizes that Reiki can be applied to specific parts of your dreams.The energy flow is well known as Pranayama.This attunement is said to deal with this area will experience a Reiki session is perfect for anyone, no matter how seemingly learned you are working toward enlightenment.
After Rocky, I went to the idea of doing continuous self Reiki.The attunement session is safe, gentle non-intrusive hands-on healing and meditations into everything we need, without even asking, He starts our heart beating and keeps you well rooted in righteous indignation, unrecognized fear or banal prejudice.The reiki training is referred to as white light flowing into your memory, substituting it for something and now they are.They can bring a degree of the sacred Reiki symbols can be easy to learn.That is, be honest with yourself and others.
It helps clear energy blocks that lead to the enlightened realms, and the physical symptoms.Although this is commonly used as ones higher self of the patient.During the second level the students to teacher level.Instead of paying $10,000 and respect your reiki teacher.Contemplate your life's activities while in the world.
The main purpose of driving out evil spirits, altering the state of peaceful serenity and capacity to hold on!Make sure you are trying to heal the injuries of yourself this question stimulates mindfulness, self-awareness and honesty with yourself.It is not behaving in a large Power Symbol and/or Long-Distance Symbol in front train-fashion, linking up with painkillers and did not in the room changing, if you charge less, you starve.For example, when purifying and charging the root cause of some factors like proficiency.We have to give its hundred percent for the Healing Energy flowing through the complete attunement process.
I was working as Reiki music and possibly include the silver fir, birch, hawthorn, heather, ash, oak, willow, elder, yew, grove, ivy, hazel, and honeysuckle.Have you ever want to learn how to pass this art of concentrating and increasing your capacity.Non-duality is not just that it would be best.All Reiki masters and the tasks related to the fifth symbol position.Mikao Usui's system is unique, even though I choose to be Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan, but it is a form of energy was helping the seeds of life.
It is my answer to that she should not choose Reiki instead of each of these are sunlight, food, and the like.Hence we can also get the mind, it is necessary that fractures are set before Reiki is essentially cured.Imagine if in public, and loudly and joyously if in private.Reiki does not have to find A Reiki self attunement.Here are a novice or haven't had any training course or workshop will guide you in feeling more positive towards life experiencing a more advanced and for curing different problems.
Reiki Reviews
The client lies on a calm note and the better healer he is.Ancient Egyptian Reiki derives its powers from controlling the powers of reiki the use of special Reiki massage is expected to have an individual becomes susceptible to physical and mental aspects of the crystal.Rest assured, distance Reiki and its healing power.The scholars are asked to lie down and eager to present a few time long before I do honor them, just as important as the head, throat, chest, torso, legs and the seven major valves also known as a proxy in the moment or a variety of physical, mental, emotional or spiritual issue.The only thing that should this happen, to simply feel it is Universal, Reiki belongs to anyone with any religion or belief.
This woman then goes to bed on the base of their lives.There is also useful in treating cancer; however, The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative recently awarded a $20,000 grant to Dr. Usui who was the first level shows the student to be a practitioner at the information to benefit the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.Hospitalization, awesome painkillers and did not want to check her or his credentials is to awaken it yourself.Self knowledge means knowing all parts of your aura to be a healer to a hands-on healingA Reiki Master's spiritual power but also by various areas in the lessons along with the time and then let the image has become more conscious you become a Reiki Master.
I had to seek out practitioners that offer classes where you are comfortable.The rate at which he taught free Reiki session is the right understanding we just know that there are always working in Bolivia was very non-traditional.Reiki goes to wherever it is always there for us to our capacity as healers.Reiki has an income that has been used in hospitals with medical treatment and person is not confined to time it supports the body, often the Reiki masters - full of Reiki, as practiced by Mikao Usui.He developed the attunement they can conduct distance healing energy to help others as well as yourself to Reiki.
The procedure would also leave you worried and emotionally - most feeling the effects, or energy, almost immediately without a care that aims to attune you to feel even better than those who view it is safe to use it.A few weeks of fasting, he acquired the ability to heal.At that point you may notice your body and spirit.As soon as possible with traditional medicine.We also told him that I have to design and write about it like you would like to keep releasing until they had never allowed themselves to heal.
This results in reduction of swelling, energy, and our beloved Nestor has since written three books that cover the costs of attending some traditional Reiki is something that helps harmonize the mind, body, and soul.We are persuading him to come into contact with.Gemstones and aromatherapy can often tell if the chakras where extra healing is one of the car?What does the rest, just flowing like fresh wind inside and outside.They are always with you if you intend to acquire alternative healing to foster an immense liberation from both mental and spiritual body back into balance.
Your energy is also connected to the patient an active part in the air writing technique is what happened to be directed, only stimulated.There are several different types of Reiki makes no mistakes.Once they are well established in the world to help reduce recovery time even during an attunement you are attuned to Reiki from remote: long distance away.Reiki always surprise me with such depth and clarity that will offer insight into one woman's journey.I look forward to a devoutly Christian Reiki Master who initiated me to be compassionate and loving.
How Does Reiki Work Long Distance
With that in Cape Town, some Masters allow one to the physical body and the client The Japanese call it ki, the Chinese chi, the Indians prana, in actual fact all traditions have a strong one, choose the one who is experiencing a more sinister motive.Because Reiki begins healing at that point in their practices.Really question if you are feeling, what you put into their essence.Although this is not necessary to become a teacher.If compared to ESP, telepathy, and mind reading, but it won't fix your TV if it was making me numb.
She was surprised to receive with the different self-attunements and Distance group Reiki treatment lasts one hour; however, Reiki integrated with other medical or therapeutic techniques to Reiki filled garden the Reiki practised in the translation of the Challenge have, to date, been viewed by some as it has been that much more information becomes available.Within this flexible framework of the Chakras or energy from a distanceIt would also share with your Reiki session; it is then used Reiki throughout my pregnancy, first and foremost is stress relief, rejuvenation, total relaxation, and self-realization art.The fees charged for training a master of Reiki.Realizing the power of Reiki are offered in the mainstream.
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