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ronalddear · 3 years

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Experiment.

hey! this is a little one-shot into some DH tent angst (really doesn't get better than that) this is my first time writing any fanfiction at all so bear in mind that this is very armature.

I've been thinking about this idea for a couple months now and it's officially my headcannon replacement for the Harry-Hermione dance scene in DH, which i'm not the biggest fan of. I've already rambled on a bit but please feel free to reblog and comment your opinions and possible improvements!

The ground was inexplicably hard where Ron stood, the canvas tent behind him violently thrashing through the harsh night wind. Perhaps his thin shoes were wearing out after years of being hand-me downs, or months of endless use while they aimlessly trudged around Britain.

Ron knew though, that he was just tired. He didn't know how his shoulders managed to sag with exhaustion while remaining tense in discomfort but that's how he's been since he woke up in that god-forsaken tent.

He checked and re-enforced the wards, something that he was insanely adamant about after returning, paranoia finally setting in. It was constant at this point, hunger had become somewhat familiar and his fingertips were always a faint purple.

Not that he was complaining, he had Harry and Hermione within arms and ears reach now and he could not possibly ask for anything more.

"Ron! Dinner!", Harry's voice rang through his ears, disrupting his thoughts.

Shit. He had done it. He wasn't aware how long he had been wallowing outside and he was sure the porridge he had taken his time making for the three of them had overcooked on the stove.

He could picture Hermione's look of disdain clearly and cursed himself, not wanting her to get more mad at him but also acknowledging how he had wasted their already near non-existent supply of food.

"Merlin, I'm sorry! I'll try and find something else to-" he began with pace and halted halfway through.

Harry stood expectantly in the tiny living room area in front of Hermione who was neatly sat on their tiny couch. Harry's hands were raised excitedly yet awkwardly in an 'L" shape gesturing towards the worn table where Hermione's books usually lived.

Except there was a small space cleared, and it was occupying a small plate which had about 4 stacks of bread, with jam doused in-between and on top, with the wand that he had given Harry stabbed in the middle, a tiny flame at its tip.

Bloody hell it was a birthday cake.

"My birthday already?" he mumbled, still in awe of the poorly presented but beautiful stack in front of him.

"Well-"

'It was yesterday, I checked the calendar this morning." Hermione cut Harry off shortly, her eyes shamefully anywhere but Ron.

"Oh" he said, wishing so desperately that she would just look at him.

"Come on then mate, make your wish, because I'm not bloody singing" Harry encouraged, his eyes shining fondly at Ron.

With a soft chuckle, he sat on the ground at the table, feeling Harry follow next to him. He blew out the 'candle' softly, not even thinking about his wish, there were simply too many.

Harry gave a low whoop and reached over Ron with a knife and fork and haphazardly cut the cake into thirds.

When Hermione's eyes finally reached his, because yes, he had not taken his eyes off her, his stomach gave a jolt and a small smile graced his lips. Her lips however were still set in the line that she had been giving him for the past couple weeks but her eyes were so gentle and loving, almost unwillingly so, as if she was trying so very hard to be mad. After Harry hurriedly plated their shares and they began eating, a small lump began forming in Ron's throat. He willed himself not to cry, it was just sodding jam soaked toast after all.

He looked up at his two best friends as they ate, observing as Harry scarfed down his portion and as Hermione ate slowly, taking sips of her weak tea in between, knowing it was far too sweet for her taste.

"Wish we could have given you a gift." she said so softly, that he had taken a few seconds to register that she said anything at all.

Her eyes were still on her plate.

"Don't need one", he murmured, hoping that he sounded earnest enough that it could translate how very thankful he was.

"Really?! You sure?", Harry said, and Ron swore for a second that it was eleven year old Harry speaking to him. It was evident that the boy was prone to sugar rushes, even if it was a tablespoon of old jam.

"I have all I need.", he said, voice steadier this time, flashing a grateful smile at him, which was returned.

"Really? Not even a special birthday snog Ron? Because if you want I'll do it again-"

"Harry I'm fine! Merlin's Beard!', Ron interrupted Harry's rushed teasing with loud laughter, Harry's roaring laugh following close behind.

"Wait what do you mean again?" Hermione chanced at Harry, her eyebrows furrowed inquisitively and mouth adorably agape.

Breaking their giggling fit, they both turned towards her , eyes widening at the exact same time. It was then Ron realized that there was soft music playing, presumably from the wireless that was on the table. Has it always been on?

'Nothing don't worry."

"Nothing!"

Harry had followed Ron with the most non-convincing 'nothing' he had ever heard. Sensing what was about to happen, he suddenly felt the strongest urge to slap Harry on the back of his head.

"No no, you said again" Hemione retaliated, her eyes wide as ever, it was the most lively Ron had seen her for months.

"It was once in fourth year!"

'Don't worry about it Hermione, it's fine."

Ron's head snapped toward Harry cursing the stupid sugar in the stupid jam that apparently made Harry, quite frankly, very stupid.

"Wait wait! what?!" Hermione was energetic now and had fully swiveled to face them both.

Realizing that he physically could not lie to Hermione straight to her face, he accepted his fate and both boys began rambling at the same time, Harry excitedly, Ron bracingly.

"Look after the Yule ball-"

"This is rather depressing actually-"

"Shut up Ron, you liked it."

"I don't recall saying I didn't-"

'Anyway, after the shit-show that was the ball, y'know, we wanted to see if-"

"Oh my god I can't believe we're actually- We said we wouldn't tell anyone!"

"Bit late now Ron, anyway, we wanted to-'

"To see if what?!" Hermione gaped at them both, she was clearly teasing now, after seeing Harry's frantic (and hand waving heavy) storytelling and Ron's hair to toe blush.

"Just experimenting-"

"Just for fun!" Harry interjected.

They turned towards each other, eyes wide and then proceeded to practically scream at Hermione.

"Just for fun!'

Just experimenting!"

Great. Now they've switched excuses.

Hermione burst into loud laughter, after much suppression. It was, by far, the most beautiful sound Ron had ever heard and he wished for it to never stop.

This unfortunately, did not halt his maroon blush or the clearly embarrassed look on his face, which made her laugh even more. The second he took a glance at Harry and their eyes met they erupted into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, Harry doubling over and Ron throwing his head back. Drunk on laughter perhaps, Harry leaned over to the wireless and increased the volume, a slow yet rhythmic song filled the small tent.

"Let's have a ball yeah? Like last time?' Harry said, eyebrows wiggling suggestively on the last part, causing Ron to start laughing again, completely red faced.

Hermione struggled to breathe giggling as she looked on at them clearly trying to ballroom dance and failing miserably. The form was so bad no one was sure who was leading at this point, Ron's shoulders much too stiff and Harry's hands much too loose around Ron's waist. They were jumping around madly in the tent laughing harder than ever. Hermione managed to tease once more through gasping breaths,

"Should I leave before you start snogging or-"

"Oh shut up you!", Harry exclaimed, accompanied by a rude hand gesture and Ron simply stared at her and grinned.

'Come join us then', Ron said, holding out his hand for her.

She pretended to think for a moment before getting up, the thin blanket around her laid forgotten on the couch. They rotated for a couple moments, Hermione taking turns in being spun by Harry and Ron, all three of them a giggling mess, their threadbare socks squeaking on the wood floors.

Ron and Harry began a much too rough slow dance once more and Hermione was lightly swaying on her own before standing behind Ron, wrapping her arms around his stomach and tiptoeing her furthest, her nose barely reaching his shoulder. Effectively sandwiched between the pair of them, Ron was thrashing widely in attempts to throw them all off balance, cheeks impossibly red. The lump that was in his throat earlier had developed into free flowing tears and sniffles and he didn't care to stop them.

It didn't bother him because he knew he saw Harry's watering eyes and wobbly smile and felt Hermione's soft sobs through her giggles.

It was definitely the sugar or perhaps the sheer sadness of it all but for a moment they were still children who didn't have any worries or wars to fight on their own. Hermione nuzzled into Ron's back, still giggling, and placed a shy but firm kiss on his jumper-clad shoulder. He reached behind him for her hand and gently pulled her to the front, now spinning both Harry and Hermione, his heart glowing with joy. He tugged her towards him and gave a soft, chaste kiss to her hairline. Now both giggling, they seized Harry and planted two very hard kisses on his cheeks from behind, startling him enough to let out a disgusted squeak and he roared with laughter as he wiped his face on his jacket.

It was insanely messy but it was perfect. So perfect that Ron didn't care that in the morning he would have to second guess if Hermione was even close to forgiving him or that Harry would brood all day about the Hallows and be distant from them both, a war on their shoulders. He was with the two people he loved the most and for that he was thankful.

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ventura-starlight · 3 years

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𝓻𝓸𝓷 𝔀𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓪𝓼 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓫𝓸𝔂𝓯𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭

hello everyone :)) I am so sorry I have not been active. I think my chemistry teacher knows I write and doesn't like it so she assigns like 3 hours of homework a night. I also have been casted in my schools production of The Secret Garden so that has kept me busy. I am trying to stay afloat at school and have inspiration to write but that is a lot harder than I expected. if you have sent in any requests I am going to work on those as soon as I can but I haven't had the most creativity :') I hope you aren't upset and enjoy this as compensation for my lack of content.

SUMMARY-> ron weasley as your boyfriend :)

KEY 🔑 -> Y/H- your house at hogwarts

WARNINGS-> curse words, snape slander 😌, not edited, but otherwise pretty sweet domesticity

*+.-°><°-.+*

how does it feel to live my dream?

this man is a grade A simp and I will die on that fucking hill

would he ever admit it?

hell no

does everyone know?

yes

how you two met

let me set the scene 😌

you were just going to potions class, you hated Snape and weren't afraid to show it to the snake of a professor [period 😼💅]

ron and harry were only sat a few chairs away from you so they normally laughed at the interactions you shared with the potions teacher

and so when Snape had some smart stuff to say to you,,,,,well lemme just;

"L/N I suggest you keep that smart tongue to yourself unless you want to end up in detention" Snape quipped with a slap of his wand again your desk

"I do apologize professor" you said with sarcasm dripping off your tongue. you sighed and brought a hand to your forehead, "I do hope you forgive me Professor Snake- oops! I mean Snape" you snickered as the other students giggled, including the red headed weasley boy

"Detention and 50 house points deducted from Y/H" Snape shouted with a scowl only for your giggles to grow louder. From that moment on, Ron Weasley had a crush on you

my man here was struggling to even talk to you

you exuded this aura that was honestly very intimidating to him

shy boy indeed

how you two got together

so Ron's crush on you obvious to anyone who had eyes

you just didn't see it

I mean you of course had seen the boy around school before, everyone knew of him

you may or may not have liked him as well

but when people told you he felt the same you deadass looked at them like "🤨"

this situation was much like the case with ron

for some dumbass reason you just didn't see why he would like you

everyone knew you liked him

except him

hermione and harry were kinda tired of hearing him be so lovesick

they were happy for him, just annoyed with how,,,,sappy he was

with the help of the twins, hermione and harry brought both you and Ron to a small party in the griyffindoor common room

basically they threw you two in a closet at the party

"JUST CONFESS YOUR UNDYING LOVE FOR EACHOTHER ALREADY!" yelled George from the other side of the door. you heard some light crying

"Oh Georgie our little brother is all grown up!" Freddie sniffled as the duo walked away

you and Ron were really just standing in the closet like "🧍‍♂️🧍"

yeah it was awkward

after a while you spoke up,

"so uh do you like me back?" you said with a faint warmth spreading across your face. he frantically tried to explain himself,

"I NEVER WANTED YOU TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE BUT I-I WAIT" his eyes widened as his brain registered what you had said, "Like you back? of course I do! Are you an idiot or something?"

you only scoffed, "Well sorry I'm not the most obvious about it" Ron only looked down and apologized for his outburst,

"I didn't mean to say your stupid, I just thought it was obvious, I suppose I wasn't as obvious as I thought" he stated simply, as if it was a fact that you would find in any textbook

you shrugged "Im a little oblivious sometimes I suppose," turning your full attention to his face you simply said "Well I guess that's good huh? We have something in common!" you laughed slightly. He held your hand hesitantly,

"Yeah I guess it is" he replied with a smile.

"AWWWW YAY!" the two of you heard the twins says more people began to cheer from outside the door.

semi anticlimactic but it was sweet

relationship headcannons

So, to start, love languages <3

Ron's love language for you is gift giving and physical touch

this boy,,,,he has to be holding onto you in someway at all times you are together

it kinda grounds him and brings him a lot of comfort

(unless of course if you are uncomfortable with that! he is very respectful of your boundaries)

so in turn he also loves giving you gifts

I think he like does either wood carving or something like that

so expect handmade gifts!

he paints rocks for you 🥲

if you display them in your dorm?

man might cry

he just loves seeing you love the things he gives you 🥺

His preferred love language from a partner is either physical touch, which I have discussed previously

but his other one?

acts of service

he doesn't necessarily expect gifts or anything like that

he just loves it when you do little things

like for example you left him a note

it was a day of a match and Ron was honestly nervous about it

it was nothing too fancy

simply,

have a good day today! you are gonna do amazing hun, I'll be in the stands cheering you on! love you :)

-Y/N <3

he keeps that note now in a box under his bed

that box holds every note or doodle you have ever given him

if you want to help him study he is gonna be so thankful

he loves dates taht are spontaneous

you two have become Snape's worst nightmare since you started dating

double trouble >:)

SO MANY SNACK DATES

LIKE YOU GUYS JUST LISTEN TO MUSIC OR WATCH MOVIES AND EAT SNACKS WHILE CUDDLING

it's heavenly 😌

Speaking of cuddling!

he loves lying on your chest

it's kinda just his safe space

credits to virid on tumblr!

he is a caring lover, his biggest concern is is making you happy in the relationship

he wants to be the person that helps you grow, not by force, he wants to support you through whatever you are going through

you help him be more confident in himself, believe in the good in the world

honestly you changed his life

and he couldn't say thank you enough for being in his life

I don't think he can sing so he hums instead. this happens a lot while lying on your chest so yeah

songs that I think fit your relationship

This December- Ricky Montgomery

How Can I be Sure- Durand Jones and the Incantations

Sinatra- Forrest Nolan

Like or Like Like- Miniature Tigers

-----------

he just loves you so much please my heart can't handle this right now 😭

*+.-°><°-.+*

@70swonderpoisonstark @peterandtheparkers @brianmydear @casuallywriting @fantasticnewtimagines @silversslytherin @sugawaraaaa @ghullehh @living-through-the-fictional @fire-in-her-veinz @regalillegal @a-hopeless-fan

#chesley can't deal #ron weasley #ron weasley x reader #ron weasley imagines #harry potter fanfics #fanfics #bro these are so long #MAYBE I WROTE SOMETHING GOOD #Does anyone read ron weasley fan fics #i know i do but...#gosh i hope this goes okay #thank you again for 200 followers!#fred weasley x reader #george weasley x reader #draco x reader

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sphecodes · 3 years

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just remembered i can post whatever i want on here so

here’s a list of songs i associate with @polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup‘s tma fic “nature has taught her creatures to hate”

if you haven’t read this fic GO READ IT please it’s so so good

(also for clarity, i’m talking about the characters in this fic specifically, not the in-canon characters, unless i state otherwise)

1. “Abbey” by Mitski

i’m definitely going to make a full lyric analysis post abt this one bc IT IS JUST SUCH A JON SONG OH MY GOD go listen to it right now with jon in mind do it do it now

2. Andrew Rannells “Kevin” (by Joe Iconis)

ok ok ik this song is about a guy going numb and killing a woman BUT if you ignore the murder and focus on the “i’ve tried everything i can to feel something again i know i have before so why isn’t it working” it is also a very jon song

3. “Kiss Me Son of God” by They Might Be Giants

FUCK YOU MR. ELIAS MAGNUS WRIGHT YOU PIECE OF SHIT EYE HIPSTER SLUT FOR THE BEHOLDING TWINK-

but seriously the line “now i laugh and make a fortune of the same ones that i tortured” fits so well. elias is profiting off of jon’s suffering and there’s nothing jon can do about it

4. “Love Me, Normally” by Will Wood

another one i’m going to make a whole post about but for now i’ll just leave you with the line “so dear god who made this man, you better have one hell of a plan” in relation to jon being forced to become an avatar from childhood

5. “My Bike” Kimlay Dawson

*tearing up* the stoker brothers. the emotional support. man. they had to rely on each other so much during childhood and it’s like “i wish you didn't also have to go through this but at the same time i'm glad ur here with me”. and it’s created such a strong bond between them

6. “2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)” by Will Wood

ok i’m gonna be honest this one was mostly vibes at first but then i actually went and read through all the lyrics and they fit jon SUPER well especially the line “how can i commit to reality, when my third eye’s open and i like what i see” and the ENTIRE second verse

and finally here are some honourable mentions of songs that don’t really fit but have certain lyrics that fit very well

- [Chorus 1] of “Bad Bad Things” by AJJ

jon sacrificing his freedom and safety to protect the only family he has left even though she doesn’t even love him :’)

- [Refrain] of “A Pearl” by Mitski

this song is about the PTSD of an abusive romantic relationship but these lines specifically make me think of jon struggling to accept/trust martin’s help because of the abuse he’s suffered from elias

(side note here i’m not the biggest fan of romantic jonmartin in canon tma [i understand the appeal tho] but martin’s whole “i am going to aggressively make sure this child takes care of himself godammit” and jon’s confusion is a friendship dynamic i absolutely ADORE)

if y’all have any other songs u associate with this fic please add em on i’d love to hear abt em

#if you read through this entire post and you still haven't read the fic #what are you doing #go read it #nhthcth #nature has taught her creatures to hate #tma fic #the magnus archives fanfic #the magnus archives fanfiction #tma fanfic #tma fanfiction #tma au #the magnus archives #tma #tma podcast #tma pod #magpod #magnus pod #jonathan sims

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spammingitsobadly · 4 years

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Not a requested story or anything, but I’m not doing too hot and wanted to write about my biggest comfort characters since I’ve read every fic this site has to offer, hah. Also I finally found out how to make an under the cut thing on posts so now my fics don’t have to automatically take up all of the screen :-]

“Long Day” Pairing: Wu Chang x Hunter!Reader Category: Comfort

Warnings: None I think? Fan does start to get a little.. kissy.. but it lasts like one line and doesn’t go further than that. All still SFW.

Reader Pronouns: They/Them

It was quiet. Xie Bian sat comfortably upon a chair in the livingroom of the manor as a fire crackled and licked at the brick interior of the fireplace. He’d been enjoying a novel for most of the day as neither him nor Fan Wujiu had been called out for a match. Xie flipped through the pages of the novel as Fan lay bored on the couch, fiddling with his bell.

Fan placed the bell upon the wooden flooring with a soft ring and sat up with a huff and a sigh. He looked through the frosty windows and noticed how dark it was outside. The sun had rested below the skyline long ago and the stars twinkled and stared down upon him. Snowflakes floated down gently from the skies onto the slumbering flowers and gardens, marking the first signs of the upcoming winter. Fan rolled his eyes at the sight.

He hated this time of year. It was far too cold to do anything and it was such a pain traveling through the thick white snow. Teleportation was almost a necessity to get to one survivor to the other as chasing them was near impossible at this rate. Fan sighed once more and flopped back down onto the couch. Then he remembered you. You’d been called out a great deal today, chasing and fighting in the freezing fall air. You must be miserable, he’d thought to himself.

As Xie flipped through another page of his book, he glanced over at the manor doors as laughter echoed from outside. Fan glanced over as well, trying to take a gander at what the commotion was. A group of survivors pushed through the heavy doors, laughing like there was no tomorrow. Fan sneered at them. What happened?

“I still can’t believe how well done that counter attack was, Norton!” A figure cloaked in green chuckled, patting the prospector on the back. A smug smile was spread across Norton’s face as he chortled and wiped the light snow off of his shirt. Rolling his eyes, Xie continued reading his novel but Fan squinted, annoyed at the group.

“I didn’t even plan it. We were just in the right place at the right time, I suppose,” Norton replied gleefully. Following angrily behind the group of cheerful survivors was the hunter of the final match that day. You.

You were soaked from head to toe and shivering immensely. Your usual smile was nowhere to be seen as you glared bitterly at the giggling bunch, growing more and more irritable by the second. You threw your weapon down at the ground in a fit of rage with a loud clang, startling Xie who jumped in his seat. Without hesitation, he sprung up from his chair, tossed his book upon it, and hurried towards your shivering figure.

“Oh, my dear, what did those hooligans do to you?” Xie asked worriedly, ushering you towards a spot in front of the fireplace. Fan rose from the couch and walked towards you and Xie. He didn’t show much emotion on the outside but inside he was fuming. What did those fuckers do to his love? Kneeling down, Xie sat you down at the fireplace and began wiping the snow from your hair and clothing before you swatted your hand at him in annoyance.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” you snapped, crossing your arms with a huff. Xie looked down upon you, his fuchsia pink eyes filled with nothing but worry. He began to wipe the snow off of your form once more, though this time you didn’t stop him. You just stared quietly into the fire as it ate at the wood in the center. The room was silent besides the distant laughter of the survivors echoing against the manor walls. It remained such for a few moments before you calmed and gathered your thoughts.

“The prospector attached one of his magnets onto me while I chased him,” you began. Xie and Fan looked down at you as you spoke.

“The lawyer was typing in the code for the exit gate. I would’ve gotten them if it weren’t for those damn magnets.” Xie tilted his head at you, he’d grasped your hands and held them tightly in his as your shivering began to calm. You didn’t make eye contact with him. Your eyes were fixated on the blaze in front of you as Fan stared down at you, arms crossed.

“I got too close to the other magnet and it shot me backwards. I couldn’t regain my balance and slipped into a puddle. It was a rather nasty fall. And it was the last straw for me. Those fuckers had been teasing me all day and I just had it. I gave up. I let them escape. I was too cold to do anything at that point.” You let out a soft sigh as Xie rested a hand upon your ice cold cheek. You turned your head towards him, closing your eyes and leaning into his touch.

Fan huffed angrily. Oh, they were going to have the beating of their life next time they were paired with him. In fact, why wait? Rage induced thoughts echoed in his head like a static as he stomped towards the chair Xie had been sitting at previously. He grabbed the black umbrella left aside the chair and gripped the handle tightly, planning his revenge before Xie stopped him.

“Leave them be. It’s all part of the game,” Xie reminded the black guard, his tone soft yet strict. Fan stumbled his words, unable to come up with a proper counter argument as his head was only filled with the ungodly punishment he was about to lash out at every survivor that sat calmly at the dinner table. Xie turned towards his fuming black and white haired lover, a light glare in his eyes to show that he wasn’t going to repeat himself. Fan pouted and crossed his arms, umbrella still in hand, complying with the white guard’s wishes.

“I’m sorry your day went this way, my love,” Xie whispered, turning back to look at your saddened face. You finally looked up at him and gazed into his rose colored eyes. He smiled softly. God, you were just so beautiful to him. Even when soaked, tired, and unkempt, you were still so marvelous to him. He rested his hands back onto yours.

“Come along now. Let's get you changed,” Xie said, pulling you up from the floor. He guided you to your room, a hand on your side. Fan followed swiftly behind, shooting a final sneer at the survivors as he walked by. Fan walked aside you and Xie, rubbing your sore back reassuringly. The floorboards creaked gently as the three of you traversed through the corridors to your living quarters. Your shivering had died down as your two beloved partners comforted you.

Fan opened the door to your room. The door creaked on its hinges as a cold breeze sent shivers down his spine. You and Xie took a step back as Fan peered in the room. The white curtains that covered your window waved gently as the crisp fall air trickled into your room.

“Stupid, what did I tell you about leaving your window open this time of year?” Fan asked rhetorically, walking inside and shutting the window. You rolled your eyes. The black guard rested the umbrella against the wall as Xie escorted you inside, shut the door, and sat you upon your bed. He fumbled around the room for a way to light the area as Fan looked around for dry clothing.

“Aha,” Xie whispered to himself, finding a small box of matches. Striking the tip of the match against the edge of the box, he set it alight. He lit the few candles that were placed accordingly around your room before extinguishing the flame from the match. Fan found a large shirt folded neatly in your dresser drawer. He recognized it. You stole this from him, didn’t you? Ah, it didn’t matter. He also grabbed a pair of pants from the dresser, walked towards you, and placed the dry clothing upon the bedsheets.

“May I?” Xie offered to help clean you up. You nodded your head, not saying a word. You were too exhausted and sore to do anything yourself at this point so you gladly accepted their help. You had known them long enough to be comfortable with them seeing you in a state of undress.

Xie began unbuttoning and untying your wet and unkempt clothing, averting his eyes respectfully. Fan snuck a peak as Xie helped dress you, but the white guard knew Fan’s little antics.

“Wujiu,” he teased in a sing-song voice. Fan turned his head away, sat down upon a chair that sat beside the window and glanced away with a sigh. Xie placed the wet clothing onto the floor and pulled the large shirt over your head. You pulled your arms through the sleeves and pulled the pants over your legs before making yourself comfortable.

Fan looked over to see that you were done getting dressed and stood up to reach for the hair brush that lay upon your nightstand. He removed his shoes so as to not muddy up your sheets and climbed onto the bed with you, brush in hand. He began combing through your hair which had gotten a bit messy due to the winds that came in like waves during the matches that day. Unlike his attitude, Fan was very gentle when he cared for you. He wants to make sure that his partner is calm and happy and if that means swallowing his pride or calming his nerves for you then so be it. He ran his fingers through your hair as he brushed it, admiring how gorgeous you looked with your hair all down and neat.

Xie sat upon the edge of the bed next to you without much to do, but he was fine with that as he got to see your beautiful face as his loving partner combed through your hair. He admired all of your features as you sat there. Your sparkling eyes, your soft skin, your form, all of it.

“How were your days?” You spoke, breaking the silence.

“Boring,” Fan answered, still brushing your hair.

“It was nothing eventful. However, I did catch up on my reading,” Xie replied, before remembering he had left his novel back in the living room. Ah, no worries. He could get it later. Fan finished up brushing the last section of your hair and placed the brush back down onto the night stand. You were suddenly jerked backwards and pulled up onto the black guard’s lap as he began to massage your shoulders. He noticed there had been slight bruising and a few scratches upon your skin from the palettes the survivors slammed into you. He ran his fingers over them delicately as his anger came flooding back to him.

“I’ll make those boneheads pay. Just you wait,” Fan muttered, leaning down a bit to plant a soft kiss upon each bruise and cut. You chuckled to yourself as his nose tickled at your skin. He rubbed his hands against your arms as he kissed at your shoulders and back. He’d begun kissing and nipping at your neck playfully, but you kindly asked him to stop before it escalated further. Not tonight. Respecting your wishes and boundaries, he stopped and wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you into an embrace from the back. He rested his head upon yours.

“Don’t hog them all for yourself now,” Xie joked, crawling up towards the two of you on the bed and laying down at your side, resting his head on a soft white pillow. Fan chuckled and shifted his position, still holding you close with an arm. He laid down on his side and pulled Xie closer to the two of you, planting a kiss upon his forehead with a soft smile. Xie smiled back in return and wrapped his arms around both you and Fan.

There you lay, sandwiched tightly, yet comfortably in between the two guards. In between your two lovers. In between the two men who would do absolutely anything for you if it meant it would bring a smile to your face. Oh, how they loved you dearly. Xie ran his gentle fingers through your hair as he gazed into your kind eyes lovingly. He traced your facial features with his fingertips over and over, admiring your charm. Fan grumbled, hungry for affection. The white guard snickered softly and ran a finger over his nose before resting his palm against his cheek, rubbing his thumb over it affectionately. Fan leaned into his touch, shutting his eyes, and letting out a calm sigh.

As all three of you hunters began to grow tired, Xie pulled the blanket over your bodies and you snuggled into each other like a batch of kittens. The white guard placed a chaste kiss upon your lips and ran his fingers through your hair a final time.

“I love you so much,” he whispered, a smile on his face.

“I love you too. I love you both so dearly,” you whispered in reply, resting a hand on Xie’s side. Fan hummed in response, too tired to speak. You drifted off into a quiet slumber as your lovers followed soon behind.

#idv #identityv #idvxreader #idv imagines #wu chang #xie bian #fan wujiu #polyamarous

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

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TWB 1x08 + TTD Clues

Hey Everyone! So here, at last, is my TWB post. Sorry it took me an extra day to get it finished. But before I get into the awesome TD symbolism, I want to say something. Today is Thanksgiving in the states. It’s a day we eat lots of good food and appreciate everything we have and tell each other what we’re thankful for.

So today, I just want to say that I’m extremely thankful for this fandom and for all my lovely followers and fellow TDers. It’s been such a huge part of my life for these past years. It’s kept me company and shaped me in ways even I probably don’t appreciate. So thank you so much for all being on this journey with me. I’ve no doubt that our girl is coming home. And soon!

Okay, onto the episode. First, a quick run-down. Most of the episode is centered around whether or not Silas killed Tony and what they’re going to do about it. We do get a humdinger of a twist at the end: Huck is a double agent.

I rewatched part of episode 1 because I thought I remembered the lieutenant colonel (Julia Ormond – I’ll just call her LC, okay?) saying something to the girls about having a kid. And she did. It’s in the scene where Hope and Iris talk to her in the dark, still back at the University, and she gives them the map. She says she has a daughter who’s older than them and who is a soldier from the CRM, so she’s away from her mother a lot and LC misses her. Guess who that daughter is? It’s Huck. So, she’s been a spy for LC this whole time, and has been living at the university colony specifically to do her spying. When she “scouts ahead” of the group, she’s often reporting back to her mother.

LC asks Huck how “the asset” is and Huck says the asset is fine. My fellow theorists and I talked about who the asset actually is, and we’ve agreed that it’s probably Hope. I think the most obvious answer is Iris, because she’s more the “main” character and the one LC connected with the most in episode 1. But I think that’s misdirection.

Not only because of the flashback conversation Hope had with her dad, where he hinted there might be something she needed to know that he hadn’t told her, but also because Huck is always with Hope. She’s the one Huck is friends with. Anytime the group splits up to check things out or look for supplies, Huck goes with Hope. Like she’s protecting her or something. So for now, our theory is that Hope is the “asset.”

But let’s turn to Silas. We finally get flashbacks as to what happened with his father. And this is where more his Daryl-ness comes in. His father was super abusive. Silas beat him up in a fit of rage/self-defense. And while his father didn’t die immediately (it wouldn’t be fair to say Silas actually beat him to death) he died later of his injuries. And then as a walker, he attacked Silas’s mother and Silas had to put him down. It’s all pretty brutal and you understand why Silas is kinda messed up.

The point is, he has rage blackouts. That’s what happened with his dad. Silas goes into a rage and actually blacks out and, for at least a time, doesn’t remember what happened. So in the episode, even Silas thinks he probably killed Tony and Percy. I don’t think he did. The best evidence is that, when it happened with his dad, he didn’t remember what happened immediately, but within a few minutes, it does come back, and he remembers what he did.

In this episode, he doesn’t remember what happened with Tony and Percy, and it never comes back to him. And they specifically show us that that’s not how it worked with his dad. So, I’m thinking someone hit him over the head and that’s why he doesn’t remember: he didn’t do anything. But even he doesn’t believe that.

So, this struck me as being Silas’s Them episode. He’s super sad, hates himself, grieving a lot of things, and at one point even sort of gives up and is going to let a walker bite him until Hope shows up and saves him.

But the biggest thing is that he leaves at the end. Felix and Huck are trying to decide whether to leave him behind or not. They don’t want to, but they don’t know much about him and, in their eyes, he could be dangerous. Even if he doesn’t mean to, he could have another rage blackout and hurt someone.

Iris talks to him and says “just tell me you didn’t kill anyone and I’ll believe you.” He says he can’t because he thinks he might have done it. Then he just leaves so he’s not a burden on them anymore.

TONS of Beth dialogue at this point. Iris says he’s “gone.” He says he’s glad he got to know Iris (what Beth said of Zack in 4x01). So he leaves by himself and Elton wants to go with him (Hope finally confesses to Elton about his mother, so this episode ends very sad).

But here’s the real kicker, guys. At the end, we see Silas walking through the woods by himself, and he’s wearing his headphones. A walker comes toward him. The walker immediately caught my attention because it’s blond and female. Truly, it wasn’t any more or less Bethish than any other blond walker we’ve seen, but it still jumped out at me after all the other Beth symbolism around Silas in this episode.

He grabs a board or a branch and kills it. Doesn’t seem like that big a deal. He does injure it in the forehead, but it’s on the right side. And you know, no gun or anything.

But then, at the VERY end, it shows the walker lying in the road up close and we see Silas walking away in the distance.

And then it pans over, and his walkman and headphones are on the ground next to the walker. He left them behind.

And the thing is, I don’t know why. Did he just abandon the music? Or did it stop working? I almost wonder if the walkman broke when he was fighting the walker.

If that’s the case, it’s a MASSIVE parallel to the broken music box. Lying next to the blond walker. With the forehead wound.

See why I’m having feels about this episode?

So, either he’s just a massive Beth proxy, or he’s heading toward wherever she is. I almost feel like the writers are telling us Silas is heading toward Beth. (And granted, I’m not at all objective about this; it’s totally my TD hopefulness kicking in. But there’s one other reason I think this could be a thing. I’ll come back to it in a minute.)

Huck said something weird, too. When Iris told everyone Silas had left, Huck asks Felix, “Do you think he’ll change his mind and come back for us?” It’s just a weird way to word it. Why would he need to come back for them? Besides, they’re going to look for the girls’ dad, so they’re not going to hang around in the same place.

I feel like that’s definitely a foreshadow on the writers’ part. And it really may just be a Silas/plot thing. But it suggests that at some point he’ll return to save the group in some way. …Which is exactly what we’ve always thought about Beth, no?

Let’s talk about Percy for a minute. They couldn’t find his body, but there’s a trail of blood that ends at the river. The thing is, they’re all assuming Percy is dead. They think either he’s a walker and staggered away, in which case the river current simply took him. Or that even if he was alive when he staggered away, he was wounded, and no one can survive the river’s currents and undertow. If he went in wounded, he’s probably dead anyway.

It just stuck out to me that that’s EXACTLY what we think happened with Beth. The group went back for her, didn’t find her body, but maybe some blood or a trail that Daryl followed for a time, searching for her. But they’re assuming she died/staggered away as a walker (hence blond tree walker in 5x15) but they never found a body.

I siriusly doubt Percy is actually dead. It’s just meant to look like he is. And my main theory throughout the episode was that Percy must have killed Tony and framed Silas. No idea why he’d do that, but we’ve already discussed that Percy has kind of a sinister vibe about him, and I’m happy just going with it and waiting for them to eventually explain what happened and why.

But the reveal about Huck at the end throws a wrench in things. We have a second suspect, now. I still don’t know why, exactly, she would kill Tony and either kill or attempt to kill Percy, but the two of them did know a lot about CRM resources and were kind of flouting their rebelliousness and thievery. If she’s loyal to the CRM (because LC is her mom) maybe that would be enough for her to kill them. Or maybe something else went down we have no idea about yet (kinda like at Grady?). Or maybe it really wasn’t her. No way to know, yet. But it’s an interesting possibility.

There were plenty of other symbols to be had in this episode, but I don’t think I need to go over most of them, because by now you all know how to interpret them. Lots of stars.

Boots. Pig references. Clocks. The scene where Elton and Iris talk and he tells her the stars she THINKS are dead are actually very much alive. (If that’s not on-the-nose, I don’t know what is.) And don’t forget the title: The Sky is a Graveyard. Lots of focus on the stars, including a shooting star indicative of Sirius, a blue bird toy at the playground, a song called “The Crosses Made.” Oh, and there were tons of dinosaurs behind Silas, especially in his room in flashbacks, which was interesting.

So yeah, you get the idea.

I said I had one other reason to think Silas might be heading toward Beth, right? Well, this didn’t come from the episode. Rather, it came from TTD, which they did for both FTWD and TWB this past week.

Among others, the actor who plays Silas (Hal Cumpston) was on. At the very end, as Chris Hardwick always does, he asked what the actors could tease about the rest of the season. Various answers were given, but Hal Cumpston said, “Rick.”

Now, don’t anyone freak out. The way he said it, laughingly, made it obvious he wasn’t being serious. He was teasing. It actually reminded me a lot of Lauren Ridloff being asked about Connie and Daryl and teasing a shower scene. The huge grin on her face is what let’s you know that’s not actually happening. She’s just having fun teasing fans about it. This was similar.

And let’s be real: if Rick WERE going to show up in TWB, no way they’d let this kid spoil that for everyone.

But one other possibility comes to mind: Beth. I have no idea if she’s what he was alluding to, but given the “new sheriff in town” symbolism and how interchangeable Rick and Beth symbolism is, it wouldn’t surprise me. I could be wrong, of course. I’m just throwing it out there as a possibility.

And given how many Beth parallels were in this episode, to have him say this on the TTD right after? Yeah, giving this a long, hard, side-eye.

That’s all I have for today. Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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ninjafrog13-blog · 5 years

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Wicked Movie Dream Cast

It has been announced that ‘Wicked’ will be adapted into a movie, and will be released in 2021, so I thought I’d make my own dream cast, even though I’m not too sure about it yet, and I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

While making this list, I had some criteria I wanted to stick to:

Cast people who have proven they can sing the songs from the show, so the person will probably have done musical theatre in the past.

Try to cast people who are recognisable to mainstream audiences, not just us theatre lovers

Try to stick roughly within age ranges of characters if possible, or cast people who look the same age as the characters

Cast people who have played similar roles in other shows or have played the same role (optional)

Elphaba - Samantha Barks

Samantha Barks played Eponine in Les Miserables on the West End and in the movie, so we know she’d have no trouble belting out songs like ‘The Wizard And I’. She also competed in a BBC talent show called ‘I’d Do Anything’, and sang ‘Defying Gravity’, so she’d be brilliant at that. Most recently, she played Vivian in the musical adaptation of ‘Pretty Woman’ on Broadway, and you’d need to ask someone else if she’s still there. Samantha would be a wonderful fit for the role of Elphaba, and I’d really like to see her play the role on Broadway and/ or the West End.

G(a)linda - Anna Kendrick

Anna Kendrick is most well known to mainstream audiences as Beca Mitchell in the ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies. However, not everyone knows that she started out on Broadway, and was nominated for a Tony Award at the age of twelve for originating the role of Dinah Lord in ‘High Society’ on Broadway, and also played Fredrika Armfeldt in ‘A Little Night Music’. She’s most well known for her filmography, and several of the movies she has starred in have been musicals. I think she’d be able to bring the right amount of sass and sweetness to the role, and vocally, I don’t think she’d have much trouble with Glinda. Also, just imagine Anna and Samantha singing ‘For Good’, it would be stunning.

Fiyero - Darren Criss

Need I say more? All us Starkids know Darren as Harry Freakin’ Potter, so he has the charm and charisma necessary for Fiyero. He also definitely has a mischievous side to him but can also be very sweet and caring. Thinking about it, Harry and Fiyero are more similar characters than I realised. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked, Darren has also played numerous roles on Broadway, and has starred in popular TV shows such as ‘Glee’ and ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace’, the latter of which I am currently binge watching and loving. All in all, I think Darren would be a fantastic fit for the role of Fiyero, and I really want to hear him singing ‘As Long As You’re Mine’ with Samantha, I think it would be beautiful.

Nessarose - Barrett Wilbert Weed

You’d be hard pressed to find a theatre fan unfamiliar with Barrett Wilbert Weed, but if you don’t know her, she’s most well known and loved for originating the roles of Veronica Sawyer in ‘Heathers’ and Janis Sarkisian in ‘Mean Girls’. Barrett definitely has the vocals to take on any role, and I partly cast her as Nessa and not Elphaba because she’s the only person on this list that doesn’t have the same mainstream appeal as the others. That being said, I think she’d make a great Nessa She can definitely play the hopelessly in love girl that Nessa is in Act 1, and I don’t see her struggling with Nessa’s slightly evil turn in Act 2 when she curses Boq. It would be a very different role, but I think Barrett would be brilliant as Nessarose.

Boq - Ben Platt

I really don’t need to go into much detail here. Ben has proved he can play the awkward, lovestruck kid as evidenced by Evan in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. Ben has played multiple roles on Broadway, so we know he’s a talented performer. I’d only be worried about Boq’s transformation into the Tin Man. He becomes much more vengeful, and loses his sweet, innocent, caring personality, probably because his heart was shrunk by Nessa. However, I think Ben would be able to pull this transformation off. He’s a talented actor, so I don’t think he’d struggle at all, we just haven’t seen him as this sort of character, but I think he’d make a wonderful Boq.

The Wizard - Neil Patrick Harris

How perfect is this! Neil would definitely nail the kooky, eccentric aspect of The Wizard, and he’s proved he can play a villain on ‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ where he plays Count Olaf. He also matches how I imagine The Wizard would look, seems quite nice, doesn’t really look like he could beat you in a fight (sorry, Neil). For the record, I was very close to casting Hugh Jackman as The Wizard, but decided to cast Neil because he matches how I imagine The Wizard to look, and he’s played more roles that would suggest to me that he'd be able to play The Wizard. I honestly think Neil is the perfect casting choice for The Wizard and will honestly be confused if he isn’t cast.

Madame Morrible - Glenn Close

Are there many people who can play a villain better than Glenn Close? Famous for playing Cruella De Vil in the live action remake of ‘101 Dalmatians’ and Alex Forrest in ‘Fatal Attraction’, probably one of her most iconic and scary roles. She has also performed extensively on the stage. She was nominated for a Tony for originating the role of Charity Barnum in ‘Barnum’, and going on to win three Tonys. Really, name one person who could play Madame Morrible better than Glenn Close, and don’t say Meryl Streep because I really don’t think she’d be a good Madame Morrible, she hasn’t proved she is capable of it. Anyway, I think Glenn Close would be a fantastic Madame Morrible.

Dr. Dillamond - James Corden

Dr. Dillamond probably has the most jokes in the show, but also has to be very serious at times. James Corden would be perfect. He’s a very funny man, as evidenced by literally everything he does, but he can get serious. His performance as The Baker in ‘Into The Woods’ was brilliant, and it proves that he can be both funny and serious when he needs to be. And can you imagine him appearing after ‘Wonderful’? That would be heartbreaking. Dr. Dillamond is not the biggest role in the show, so there isn’t too much time for the show to make you care about him. Of course, we all do, but having someone so recognisable and well-liked having this fate would be terrible. I’m also going to add here that they had better use make-up for Dr. Dillamond in the movie. I’m gonna be so upset if they make Dr. Dillamond CGI. Anyway, James Corden would be a great match for Dr. Dillamond and I would love if he was cast in the movie.

And that is my dream cast for the movie adaptation of ‘Wicked’, which would also make an amazing Broadway/ West End cast. I might do more dream casts in the future if I have any good ones.

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wilderwoodsfans · 5 years

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Interview: Wilder Woods on his debut album, family, forgiveness

By: Dominiq Robinson AXS Contributor Aug 1, 2019

Very rarely does an artist find success after emerging on the scene as a member of a prominent collective. However, William Stanley "Bear" Rinehart III, known as Bear Rinehart, has proven that he capable of standing on his own in one of the most fickle and harshest industries known to man. Bear alongside his brother, Bo Rinehart, founded the alt-rock band NEEDTOBREATHE, during Bear's collegiate years eventually adding members Seth Bolt and Josh Lovelace. Since then, NEEDTOBREATHE has released a total of six critically-acclaimed studio albums, been nominated for a Grammy for Best Christian Song/Performance for their song "Multiplied", and won a total of ten Gospel Music Association Dove Awards.

It takes a lot of faith for an individual to walk away from guaranteed prominence in order to rebrand themselves and become a solo artist, left alone to be the only person to judge by music critics and fans alike. Yet, Bear Rinehart has done exactly that taking up the new stage moniker, Wilder Woods, experimenting with different musical elements/genres, and preparing to release his self-titled debut solo album, Wilder Woods, dropping next week on Aug. 9 via Atlantic Records.

Now, with an upcoming album release date, three released singles, and an international tour set to kick off in September (Tickets), the "Supply & Demand" singer is ready to provide the masses with new raw, unfiltered sonic vibrations reminiscent of Motown's glory days.

And we here at AXS was able to carry out an exclusive dialogue with the new-look Rinehart brother to discuss his first-ever solo musical offering, his creative process, family, and most importantly forgiveness.

AXS: Alright, this interview is about you and your metamorphosis into Wilder Woods, but let's nip this in the bud... NEEDTOBREATHE tends to get labeled as a Christian rock band. I've read that that isn't particularly the case. Do you want to let the people know that [NEEDTOBREATHE] isn't in that category and speak on the dangers of putting artists in a specific box for the people?

Wilder Woods (WW): It's one of those things we don't love, we would never call ourselves that and never intended to be. But it's also one of those things where we've been doing this so long, you kinda quit caring about what people are calling you. I think we're just thankful now people are coming to the shows and like our music, and honestly, that's kinda where we're at. If I'm loading into a venue or something, and one of the crew guys is like 'I think it's some Christian band,' I definitely still roll my eyes at that.

AXS: It's gotta be kind of annoying having people put that label on you, but at the same time, you guys [NEEDTOBREATHE] are scooping up a lot of GMA Dove Awards. So, you are getting the proper recognition and accolades for your work.

WW: Yeah, man. 'Our band is the biggest band you're friends have ever heard of,' I say that on stage all the time. And it's just like, 'cause people will say that and they'll be like 'so, where are you playing at?' and I'll tell them that we're playing at the arena, you know? And they're still like 'wait, what?' It's one of those things we're proud of, at one point in time there was never any hype around our band yet, we've still made a career out of it so, you know, we're proud of that.

AXS: Wilder Woods is your debut album and first solo project. The creative process has to be totally different than sitting down with a collective, your brother isn't there and your other bandmates aren't contributing. So, what are the differences in your creative process for this particular project?

WW: Honestly, I started it on my own. I had a buddy across the street from me that had this little kind of like garage/apartment thing and I would go there to write and just get away from everybody. I spent several months writing for the record by myself and then I started collaborating after that. And the whole point of the record was for me to collaborate with new people and not just have it be the band obviously but with all kinds of producers and writers and really find some people that scared me. Meaning some people that would push me off my line, teach me things, and honestly, it became that process of experimenting with other producers and ended up landing on a producer that had never made a major label thing, you know?

So, it was just a guy that I felt like we got along great and what he was bringing to the table was so different from what I was bringing to the table. It really felt like in some ways I got other people around me to help me do it. I've always had that so, it was really helpful for me to invite other creatives into the process. Ultimately, a band is a democracy in a lot of ways and it's obviously nice is being your own boss when you're doing a solo record. Decision making takes a fraction of the time so, I think that that part is really fun but it's also incredibly scary, you know? [If you] fail or slip off on something then it's all on you. Whereas if you're in a band you can kind of spread the culpability out. (Laughs.)

AXS: In regards to the producer you were mentioning, are you referring to Gabe Simon? He was the major contributor to the project?

WW: Yeah, he ended up doing most of the project. He became like... what I call him my Quincy Jones. He really became a collaborator in a lot of ways, he wrote some of the songs on the record with me. But also, we just beat everything up. We'd have a song/demo that we'd know would end up on the record and we'd take it and see how weird we can make it and how messed up we can make it. So, I'd say he's someone that I've become really close to and instrumentally involved with the record and I could not have made it without him for sure.

AXS: I noticed your sound is very big when it comes to NEEDTOBREATHE. Your records are super well layered and warm but, it seems like with this new music you strip some of those layers and provide a more simplistic sound. Some of these records are reminiscent of early R&B and have a certain vibe.

WW: Yeah, I really avoided it at first then I thought how far out there can we take it. Then at the end, as the songs started fitting into the record, I felt like it was ok to do a ballad but for it to feel like something I would write. It became somewhat of a story, we were separating the Wilder songs from the Woods songs that way. The Wilder things were some of the lighter/alternative songs while the Woods stuff was a little heavier lyrically. Throughout some of those lyrics, I may even be talking to my kids in those songs.

AXS: About your new moniker... Wilder Woods is both of your sons' names combined.

WW: Yeah. Honestly, I don't have any delusions that when their eighteen they're gonna listen to the record and think it's cool. They're gonna think it's wack and they're not gonna like what I'm wearing on it. I remember my dad made a record in the '70s, he's a trumpet player, and I remember finding it when I was a kid and being like 'what is he wearing?!' and not thinking the music was that great or whatever. But, I want there to be lessons in [the album] for them, name it after them, and I want them to know it's ok to take a risk to do something new in the middle of your life like this. Also, I want them to be aware of the things that matter, the things that are important. There's some stuff on there about guilt and shame and I don't want them to have that. Obviously, they are going to feel it someday but I want them to know that I love them no matter what they do.

AXS: You speak on forgiveness on "Someday Soon" and mainstream music tends to veer towards more secular topics but you've found a good balance sonically while still remaining inspirational.

WW: Yeah, I think that's important, man. I don't care what people are doing but I want them to feel inspired when they listen to it. I want [the music] to take them to a place, you know? The last thing I would want is to influence them to make bad decisions or hate themselves more after listening to my music.

AXS: So far as using your family as motivation for your projects, is that something you're gonna continue to do as a solo artist?

WW: It will be interesting to see where I'm at next time around. Because this [album] is the first one, some artists tend to leave their families out of their work but for me, it was an opportunity to bring them in. My wife, she was in the first video we shot ("Sure Ain't"). [The label] called and said 'we need a model, like a really hot model or whatever...' and I was like 'I want to bring my wife and put her in this video.' To me, that's just more important, more valuable, it's a little more real, you know? I'm certainly not trying to become some kind of pop star who forgets who he is. I feel like bringing family with me. And honestly, my boys are super young, my oldest is four, but I would say since they've been born I've learned from them more than I have anybody else in the world. They teach me something new every day and that's what I wanted to sing about.

AXS: You describe that your trial and tribulations within your personal relationships have helped define who you are and made you a better person. What are your thoughts on the youth movement's views on relationships? Younger people tend to throw in the towel a lot easier these days due to the over-exposure of outside influences.

WW: I think that anytime that you can show a relationship with your wife that is good and healthy, like the relationship between John Legend and Chrissy Tiegen, that's positive to see. Growing up when I was in high school, we didn't have social media. So, I didn't have this perfect view of what everybody is going through, I had more [of an experience] of what actually was happening. And now, there's a lot of comparisons going on which makes people think 'well their lives are going that way' when in reality it's not true.

Secondly, I'm at that age where I'm starting to realize I've been married for a while but, mistakes are where you get to learn about yourself. They're just as good as the good things that happen to you, you know? When something bad starts to happen I think 'Ok, this is probably gonna lead to something better. It might not be right now and I might not know how.' I think it's more about perspective than anything else.

AXS: Totally understandable. It seems like not just artists but many people are struggling within their personal relationships these days.

WW: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff out there. There's a lot of traps. I've been fortunate enough to be shown grace. There's a song on the record called "Mary, You're Wrong" and it's mostly about that. I think it's not about how good I've been but how gracious the people around me have been and I'm thankful for that.

For me, I got married when I was really, really young. I think when I first got married, I probably didn't trust the grace and forgiveness that was always there from my wife. That's a lesson I've learned, she's got more than I think she does, you know? She loves me no matter what. Early on [in our relationship] I could have honestly been more open about things and would have learned a lot faster. I had to learn the hard way. If there's anything I've learned and it's not just with family or business or whatever but like, being open and honest and real, people have a lot more love for you than you think.

AXS: Do you have any expectations for your first solo album? Do you have any specific goals?

WW: I definitely have goals. They're more long-term though. I think this project will still be really new three years from now when I'm making a different record and will have the ability for the live show will be able to build on itself. I think that that will be a really exciting time. But at this time it's so new, I just want to take it slow. I want people to sorta attach themselves to a song and go, but it's gonna be a long build-up, you know? There are artists that I like now that took a couple of years to kinda break. So, if this thing is gonna work it's gonna be because we found new fans and not just NEEDTOBREATHE fans. I think we've made it different enough and weird enough and I'm excited about the live show that I believe in it in that way. This project is setting me up for where I want to be and where I see myself a few years from now.

Be sure to check out Wilder Woods self-titled debut album, Wilder Woods, upon its release on Aug. 9 (preorder here) And check out the video premiere of his acoustic version of his new single "Electric Woman" in the video provided above. Don't miss the opportunity to catch the "Light Shine In " singer/songwriter in a city near you during his fall tour (Tickets).

#Wilder Woods #wilder woods live #wilder woods tour 2019 #electric woman #electric woman live #electric woman acoustic #bear rinehart #needtobreathe #axs #interview #atlanticrecords

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baldtaelovemaze · 6 years

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Love me for me (1)

What kind of love story starts with two people locked in a classroom and ends with the two same people in a courtroom? This one. After unfortunate circumstances, Venice is forced to illegally change her identity and live as a boy in a all boys school.

She planned everything out. Every. Single.detail. but no matter how much she tries, she can’t stop herself from falling for the son of one of the biggest lawyers.

Is loving the man of her dreams worth years in jail?

Reader (OC) X jungkook ft.Taehyung

Warnings: mature language

Words: 3k

"Dear Miss. Abass, unfortunately, your demand at Yale University has been Rejected-"

“fuck”

Orbs clouded, I rip apart the letter. The torn cream pieces dance with the wind my fan generates and I watch them gracefully fall to the floor, blending perfectly with the wood.

Years of studying, isolation, practically not having a social life I forced upon myself to proudly become a valedictorian graduate but everything i did was in vain.

On the floor lays the last piece of hope I once clung on to. Now crushed under the weight of disappointment and failure, my chest hitches as I desperately try to hold back a sob. Water gathers at the rims of my heterochromia eyes. Left one a muddy green and the other a murky blue with a tinge of that same muddy green who manages to stick out no matter what like I do so very well. Intentionally or not.

I don’t cry, instead, I sniff away all the mucus who threatens to slide down my nasal passages and roll myself into bed.

For a moment, the smell of the freshly cleaned sheets and my dearest pillow make me forget of the hell hole I am in, of the chains that confine me.

That moment is short-lived when it all comes back rushing down on me like a wave. These chains that I have, invisible to the human or anything supernatural expect me. This rope around my neck who never ceases to tighten as time goes by.

I ponder on this fact. Or is it a question? It’s something I definitely know the answer to. So a fact it is.

The chains that hold me aren’t emotional or even close to physical. Nor did I ever do anything to earn them but that’s how the system works.

The system refused every single application I sent to prestigious universities. Not one of them accepted me even after they had contacted me for scholarships offers. Claiming that “my chosen classes were already full and to try elsewhere.’

It wasn’t a coincidence. Out of everyone, I should know that. Because I knew the system far too well.

That system chained me without even binding my wrist to chains, that system took my freedom away without truly stripping me of my rights, that system tied a noose around my neck and is waiting for any given occasion to rip away the chair from under my feet.

The system doesn't want my education to blossom. the system wants me to settle for less every time then die. That’s our government. the system is our government and it’s trying to kill me off.

I could apply at a community college and get accepted in mere seconds but that's what they want. That is their plan and no matter what, I will not succumb to it, not after seeing how it ended for father. Not after seeing that.

I gulp at the thought of him. My body and mind react instantly at the mere idea of my father. My breathing becomes ragged and I sense my palms get clammy and sweaty. The noose around my neck feels like it got ten times tighter. Even though nothing is truly there, my brain acknowledges the hard rope covered in sharp split ends digging at the skin of my neck. My hands who once were tucked underneath the pillow flock to my neck, grasping around nothing but my own skin.

I seal my eyes shut and begin chanting the only thing that calms me down during my breakdowns.

“A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I....”

the alphabet, something you often associate with learning toddlers full of life and not a 19-year-old having a nervous breakdown.

“J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S!!” I scream loud, frail body shaking like a leaf as I try my best to block out the nose, block out the shots and the footsteps who are threateningly close. I hiccup between a sob when I feel his big greasy hands grip my long ebony hair, yanking me back painfully, he throws my whole body across the room.

what letter was I at? I forgot. Now I can barely breathe. I frustrate the man furthermore. I know this when he yells “shut the fuck up. Make another sound and your lovely mother gets it.” I open my eyes and stop breathing altogether. She lays on the floor.

I shake my head, clearing my mind of theses awful flashbacks as I shoot up from bed to reach for the pieces of paper, crumble them into a tiny ball and neatly shoot them in my plastic dollar-store basketball net who hangs just above the door. It hits the rim before falling on the floor with a plop.

“damn, where did my basketballs skill go?” I ask my self, feeling slightly better due to the self-pity that seems to have eaten me whole.

The alphabet always calms me down, it brings me back to earth when I need it the most -when my anxiety decides to lock me in my painful past.

My back now on the bed, I look at my white ceiling, its time to think rationally, like an adult - I smile to myself. Like an adult, huh? I quickly recognize the fact that most adults don’t actually know what they are doing. Most of the time they let themselves get dragged with the wave. Some try to overpower the water while others succumb to it and others find a way to float, to stay on the surface no matter how strong the storm gets.

I huff a breath of defeat "what am I going to do? It was the last one on the list.” I toy with my phone. I run my fingers against its smooth metal surface all while making sure to not unlock it by accident with the touch ID.

I've been ignoring Haerin’s messages for a while now.

I frown, hoping that she won’t misunderstand and think that I a mad at her.

the screen lights up.

Haerin: Don’t worry I know that you’re not mad at me or anything but I'm just worried.. plus I kinda miss your ugly ass so text back soon. I can’t believe you’re making me seem like a desperate hoe by ignoring all my text. Your fuckgirl mode has, unfortunately, been activated :/ [2:45]

I snort. Not being able to ignore her for any longer, I text back.

Me: I usually don’t text girls back after we fuck... but ur kinda special so come over or whatever... [2:46 pm]

Haerin: omg okay daddy! I’ll bring take out that way my ass won’t be the only thing you’ll eat today! I'm omw bitch you have some explaining to do. [2:46]

I chuckle and lock my phone.

With the stretch of my limbs, I'm out of bed and I beeline straight to the bathroom.

I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. “fucking hell, I barely look alive.”

after peeing and a quick face wash, I stand in front of the mirror and notice that my pixie cut may need a trim soon. I can’t ever let my hair grow past my ears and I rather not think about the reason behind this -not yet at least, not yet.

I watch the clear droplet of water cling on to the curl near my forehead before dropping and rolling down my tawny skin. I can’t help but to glance down at my neck, it’s red. I pray that I won’t bruise. I take in the fact that my new skin care routine has been working marvelously. From my high cheekbones, my narrow chin and slightly protruding forehead my skin is spotless.

"Venice, you little thot, I have arrived in your domicile"

I jump in surprise at first. After a smile covers my plump lips when I realize who that voice belongs to. I step out of the bathroom which is linked to my room and meet the fake redhead.

In a matter of seconds, I am engulfed in her tight embrace. Face hidden in the crook of her armpit I notice that the tall girl is wearing her favorite mustard hoodie.

I break the hug. “ I missed you too,” I say, gazing up at her through my short lashes. I see the worry in her slanted eyes but I know she isn’t judging, she never does.

“let’s talk, okay?” her voice is soft when she speaks. I nod and lead her to my bed.

A couple tears, three hugs, and many heartfelt words later, we lay diagonally on my bed. Looking up at the ceiling. With a shift in position, I look over at Haerin’s toes who never fail to not be ugly and stinky but who can blame her? She's an aspiring basketball player. Now I look up to her profile. It seems like the ceiling is long forgotten and that she is currently deep in thought, I can tell by the way her straight thick brows furrow and how she chews almost aggressively her full bottom lip. I Am caught red-handed when she suddenly turns at catches me staring.

“I've got an idea.” her lips part as she smiles, revealing the gap in the middle of her two front teeth that fits her so well.

“Shoot”

“How about we watch old Disney movies to take off some of your stress for today? let's deal this fucktard of a situation tomorrow. '' She pushes her elbow underneath her to lift herself. Her round glasses droop down the bridge of her nose but she's quick to push them back with the help of her lanky fingers.

I smiled at the idea. I ask myself how can someone be so pure and genuine sometimes.

''Okay, but just don't put anything with romance in it. I don't want to be reminded of the fact that the only thing I wake up next to in bed is my life-sized Makoto Tachibana pillow.'' My feet drag on the warm floor as Haerin intertwines her arm with mine. '' That's extremely sad and I hope that you'll throw it out once you get a boyfriend-'' she stops in her tracks and looks at me.

we both stare at each other only to explode with laughter.

''BAHAHA! I can't believe I just said that! You? a boyfriend? I think WinWin would finally be getting lines in songs before that happens.'' wiping away the tear that escaped, we go down the stairs and she grabs the laptop on the kitchen counter before plopping herself beside me on the sofa.

''Shut up you shouldn't be the one to speak here.'' I laugh back with her.

''Whatever ugly loser, go grabs snacks that way we can stuff our faces and I'll pick a movie'' She orders and am up in seconds.

''I know you said no romance but I still picked the Amanda Bynes movie She's the man '' Haerin informs me as I come back into the living room

I shrug my shoulders, indifferent.

''I don't care what we watch at this point, anything to get my stress down.'' I slur on my words near the end, taking a big fat handful of popcorn and shoving it down my throat.

'We could watch porn then'' she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and I pinch her left nipple.

''shut up and play the god damn movie.''

And with a click, the movie is playing and I am finally relaxing.

About an hour and forty-five minutes later the movie is done and you're left with a strange idea in mind.

''hey Haerin..'' you start off

her eyes squint, which suggests that she's thinking . ''hm?''

''Are you possibly thinking the same thing as me ?'' now my eyes squint, trying my best to read her expression.

'' If you are thinking about dressing yourself up as a male and infiltrating the all-boys prestigious Uni then yes, we are thinking the same thing!'' her grip on my wrists is tight and I feel light headed when she shakes me like a polaroid as soon as I nod.

''CALL CHRISTIAN RIGHT NOW! SOME MADAME DOUBTFIRE MAKEOVER SHIT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN THIS BITCH!'' She screams at the top of her lungs.

"You called me here because am what?" Christian took place on the sofa beside me. Brows creased together, he leaned forward, as if he hadn't heard me the first time. He heard me perfectly fine. "Because you're the dude-dest dude I know and I need to learn how to become a dude."

He drowns himself deeper in the couch, taking a chunk of his locks between his fingers, he let out an exasperated "what kind of fucking drugs do you guys take to come up with this shit?" And shortly after "Okay, I'll help."

This was our relationship. Christian Yu a very stable young adult that happened to be my childhood neighbor. Even when I moved out of my mother's home, he never left me behind. Kind of like a big brother that allows me to do dumb shit only with his supervision.

"This might seem crazy but just trust me on this. It might work,"I reassure.

His eyes bulge “What exactly might work Venice please don’t tell-”

“I can’t keep living on like this. I don’t want to live a meaningless life all while knowing that I can achieve so much more. Just entering that school and studying to become a lawyer would be a huge step for me” my jaw clenches “Its a step towards my goal and..” nostrils flared, I watch Christian tense, the weight of my words slowly seep into his pores, completely changing his first resolve. “ I will fulfill it no matter what”.

“I understand what you want to do but wouldn't that be proving what the government is doing to people like you -no offense, right? You're just doing what they expect of the children of criminals, you're becoming one too” He remains tense. Lower lip stuck between his pearly teeth, Christian avoids eye contact.

“Reflect on this: What do criminals have in common?” I get up from the couch under the perplexed gaze of my friend.

Lips puckered, brows screwed together, he comes up with an answer quickly “Its simple, they do illegal things!”

“That's partially true but I want you do think of the biggest names in the dark world, the infamous one. What brought them together besides the fact that what they did was prohibited?” I am patient, smiling down at my friend who racks his brain fora retort. His wide shoulder slump, not knowing where exactly am I go going with this. I give in, choosing to spare him a brain burn out “they were all selfish.”

“W-What?”

“yes, it really is that simple.” I smirk “ Just think about it, All their lives, their goal was to enrich themselves, gain profit or some form of power. They were ready to do whatever it took to gain these things. Kill, steal ect. What separates me from them is that I am not only doing this for me but the others who suffer alongside me in silence. We both know that the system is wrong and should be taken down even if that means sacrificing the little freedom I have.” I exhale, coming back to sit near Christian on the couch.

He sighs, elbows now up on his tighs, he rubs his eyes. “Fine, I support you in this but please don't you dare end up in jail or else-”

“You’ll lose your mind since you can't live without her.” Haerin finally speaks. She had remained so silent I forgot that she was even there.

“Y-yeah, you're probably right actually, I don't think I can't live without either of my girls” he pipes, scooping both of us in his toned arms and engulfing us in a tight hug.

“Let me go, Chris, my face is literally buried in your armpits” Haerin whines.

“Then smell them!”

“Oh no, you don”t-”I send my knee in his crotch in a matter of seconds, making him groan in agony all while curling into a ball on the floor. Haerin stares unbothered, pulling out her phone and calling someone. The conversation is short but it leaves a smile on her lips when she hangs up.

"Okay whores, I just called the best makeup artist in town. After you get your lesson on how to become an owner of a dick and get a makeup lesson cuz god knows you struggling in that.." Haerin shakes her head and muffles a laugh with her hand when I pipe out “bitch.”

"You will go in the room and do what you have to do to make the world believe you are a man."

"Okay, let's start then!" the serious and somber mood is gone, excitement is now what is left behind. Am thrilled, justice pumps through my veins and it's only fueled more by the support of my friends. I can do this

"Okay let's start then...but no homo"

"I know I taught you to use 'no homo' but it doesn't mean you need to say it in every sentence, Venice," Christian shouts from the kitchen, watching the makeup artist teach me the basics on how to make my face look more masculine and the brands that stay on the longest.

Haerin had told her that we were just filming a really weird porno and the women weirdly enough, nodded as if what Haerin said was something that she had seen often.

A couple more minutes spent by my side and she was out of the house, I shooed Christian and Haerin out as well.

With years of fraudulent knowledge in my hands, creating a new identity would be a breeze.

What should my new name be?

I grab my phone and open the group chat

Me: I need Name ideas, got anything? [5:15]

Chris: keep it simple... something like Steve Duncan or whatever [5:17]

Haerin: Don't listen to this loser, Bob Mcniplecoker shall be your new name, beloved ;) [5:17]

Chris: i- [5:18]

Me: 00Ooo thank you Haerin! very cool! [5:18]

Chris: please don't tell me you're actually using that- why am I the only sane person in this group? [5:19]

I shut off my phone, content with the name and ready to get down to serious business. Hours and hours of serious business.

Creating a whole new identity sure was time-consuming.

The wait was over.

The letter who held my fate had arrived to my surprising displeasure. I huffed a breath of frustration. Why am I so nervous? With the grades I have, it is certain I’ll be getting in but why can't I open it?

The pretty creme letter waited for no one other than me to open it. I was first made known of its presence when I was taking a shit and my uncle so kindly slid it under the door when he was staying over for a couple days.

All Boys: Great Jeon University

I had just finished taking a shit but after re-reading the letter I felt like taking a second shit. Curling on the floor, my nose rose up in defiance as I glanced at the paper, still centimeters away from under the door.

Let's just open the letter and get this over with.

With trembling hands, I reached over to the letter but I at last second I let my hand fell back to my side.

This Is so stressful! Is it possible to vomit and shit your pants all at the same time? I shot up, heading to the sink determined, with a couple splashes of cold water on my face I stared at myself in the mirror, determined.

I pursued my full lips, taking in a pimple that formed right next to my thick brows. This stress is really getting to me. I know damn well that a pimple wouldn't have been there otherwise.

"Okay you big wuss, tear that shit open !" I gas myself up, finally picking up the letter, I rip the envelope, already expecting the worst.

"Dear Mister. Mcniplecocker, we are glad to inform you that you have been accepted-"

“Oh thank God...” relief washes down on me like a ton of bricks. ”Thank

god..”I exhale, I can't contain the small smile that forms on my lips.

"THIS CALL FOR DANGEROUSLY HIGH AMOUNTS OF CALORIES !" Haerin shouts, grabbing the takeout menu to order too much food and possibly max out her credit card. She is reckless and often thinks of the consequences after she does something but if she ever got in trouble with the law due to her shenanigans, me, a soon to be law student would help her.

Christian took his usual seat at my right and Haerin at my left on our favorite brown couch. They were here so often on this couch that their butts were permanently imprinted.

"I need to tell you guys about this girl I've met. She's older but I swear I've never seen a woman more beautiful" Christian gushed, tugging on my shirt. "Oh, my man is finally getting some action! I started getting worried for you I was almost going to ship you with Haerin."

The girl snapped her head to look at me at the mention of her name. "Excuse me? Me and Christian? I'd rather let your creepy pillow anime guy date me." She snickered and I scoffed "Bitch, you wish Makoto Tachibana would be with your dusty crusty ass plus you're acting like Christian is ugly! I mean he might be a lil on the grandpa side since he's so old but-"

He deadpanned. "I'm literally 25 ???"

"Anyways, in two months I'll be going to one of the most prestigious schools and I'll be a lawyer. If one of you ever gets in trouble with the law don't call me because I'll be the one making sure you go to jail." I joke, picking a movie on the laptop.

I was over the moon. Things were going my way and it felt good, so good.

"If you ever do get caught, who will defend you ?" Christian hesitated when he asked, not wanting to stress me.

"Don't jinx it, idiot. I won't happen, don't worry." Haerin leaned forward, taking my hand in hers and gave me a small smile not knowing that the damage was already done.

It was something that I ridiculously tried shoving at the back of my brain. It was something I needed to face. I was going to be a lawyer for crying out loud, I knew that I could face time in jail and fines I wouldn't be able to afford to pay.

It was something I was ready to risk. For my education. I was breaking the law in order to work as a person who enforced the law. How ironic.

"Yeah, don't jinx it, Chris."

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yearsblog · 6 years

Link

“I’m glad you noticed!” says Olly Alexander with one of his impish smiles. “I’ve come a long way since then.” We’re talking about the difference between the first time I saw him sing with his band, Years & Years, and the strutting peacock that he has since become. In 2015, fresh from winning the BBC Sound Of . . . poll, Alexander had a mean falsetto and a clutch of killer synth-pop ditties (Shine, King), but he cut a diffident figure during his show at the Heaven nightclub, dressed down in a T-shirt and beanie.

The second time I saw him, a year later, he was rising on a hydraulic lift through the stage of a rapturous Wembley Arena, wearing a red tunic with silver shoulder pads, and garlanded with laser beams. Alexander’s ascent to serious, tabloid-baiting stardom continues. Years & Years have a dazzling album out this week and days before we meet he was on Graham Norton’s sofa, regaling Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock with the story of how Meteorite, the song he wrote for Bridget Jones’s Baby, was about “a big dick”. Diffident no longer.

“Looking back, it’s quite overwhelming,” says Alexander, 27, as he lunches on quinoa in a restaurant in King’s Cross, north London. He is slight and conspiratorial, with tiny safety pins through his ears, a ring through his nose and his cropped hair dyed scarlet. “At first you really don’t know what support from an audience is going to feel like. But when people started showing their support for me being honest and being a camp, gay frontman — I just never really expected it and it added so much fuel to my fire.”

Among the things he has eloquently spoken out on are LGBTQ rights (he presented a BBC Three documentary called Growing Up Gay), mental health (he extols the virtues of therapy, which he started pre-emptively, before he became famous) and bullying (at school in Gloucestershire he was regularly “bushed”: thrown into the bushes next to the assembly hall). He is far more vocal than he was at the start of his music career, when an industry person advised him not to talk about being gay. “She was, like, ‘Why do people need to know your sexuality?’ She wanted to protect me.”

Well, it turned out that he didn’t need protection, he needed confidence. That came with experience and a changing musical landscape in which artists as diverse as Janelle Monáe, Christine and the Queens, Frank Ocean and Perfume Genius felt able to be candid about their sexuality. “It’s quite astonishing,” Alexander says. “We’re seeing a lot more visible queer artists and visible gay people.”

Pop has been missing male stars with strong views, especially those with a sense of theatre; it’s all uber-polite George Ezra or anti-glamorous Ed Sheeran. “It has its place, having someone who’s not dressed up,” Alexander says, trying to be diplomatic. “But the thing I love most about pop music is the fantasy, the escapism. I had this moment when I realised I’m in the best place to engineer that for myself. I realised you could go as far as you want on stage.”

A few weeks ago at Radio 1’s Biggest Weekend in Swansea he wore a lime-green Freddie Mercury leotard and led an onstage conga of his dancers, who seemed to be styled as drugged-up zombies. It felt like a long way from Mike Read and Bruno Brookes. “There was a point where I realised if you embody supreme confidence, you can get away with anything,” Alexander says. “It is quite a religious experience for me, to be on stage.”

Religion is a bit of a theme for Years & Years, whose other members are the keyboard player Emre Türkmen and the bassist Mikey Goldsworthy. Their first album was called Communion and their new one is entitled Palo Santo, after a mystical South American tree burnt as incense. Its literal translation, “holy wood”, joins the dots between spiritualism and smut (“It’s a Carry On album!” Alexander says with a giggle). So too does the recent single, Sanctify, partly inspired by a relationship with a straight-acting man, which refers to two very different things that one can do on one’s knees. “See?” Alexander says, turning to his publicist, who is sitting near by. “Ed gets it!”

He has always been into spiritualism and the occult, he says, albeit in a slightly sceptical way. “The first place I ever had a job was in this shop called Moonstones — it sold gemstones, pagan spellbooks and chocolate dildos.” He grew up loving fairytales and fantasy fiction: Lord of the Rings, The Magic Faraway Tree, Harry Potter. You can see why he might have wanted to escape to other worlds, such was the rotten time he sometimes had at school, where he was mocked and sometimes “bushed” for wearing eyeliner, nail varnish and choker necklaces.

Has being a posterboy for LGBTQ and anti-bullying issues become a burden? He gets Instagram messages from fans every day. “It doesn’t feel like a burden. I think it would be more of a burden to not acknowledge any of that. But I’ve had to learn the ways to cope with my own mental health along the way, and I feel like I’m in a good position now, but if you’re having a bad day and you’re suddenly having to talk about things that you experienced when you were 13 years old, it can feel a bit challenging.”

He’s talking about the break-up of his mother, who ran community craft groups, from his father, who worked at amusement parks, but, tellingly, dreamt of being a musician. After the split Alexander moved to Gloucestershire with his mother and brother; his father has only been in contact sporadically. Alexander has sometimes shied away from the subject because “I was trying to protect him, and I was, like, ‘Why am I still trying to protect someone who hasn’t been in my life for over a decade and who’s actually very difficult and caused a lot of pain to my family?’ ”

They hadn’t been in touch for seven years when his father broke the silence in wincing fashion, by tweeting him. Matters got worse when Alexander’s fans started replying to his dad, even trolling him. It sounds horrific. He has seen him once since then, last year. “It was quite triggering,” he says. “I just couldn’t deal with it at the time, it was too overwhelming.”

Social media can be a perilous place for him, especially deciding what to keep private. “I’ve always been fairly ‘Here’s everything!’ ” He’s also prone to “stalking someone that I fancy, and then getting upset because they like so-and-so’s picture and not mine”.

Yet the lure of Instagram can be irresistible. Take his appearance on The Graham Norton Show, when he met Rihanna, one of his heroes, and posted a picture of them backstage, in which he wears an expression of volcanic ecstasy. He was more nervous about meeting Ri-Ri than he was about singing on the show, he says, but she was lovely. “She was, like, ‘My fans love you.’ I feel like we’re destined to be friends.”

Or, perhaps, rivals. Palo Santo, with its mega-hooks, shimmering melodies and sumptuous production, is an album built to take on the superstar Americans at their own game. It was inspired by the R&B and pop that Alexander grew up on: Timberland, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and, before them, Prince and Michael Jackson.

He’s a better fit for music than he was for his first, slightly accidental career as an actor. “It just feels like people can express their identity easier as artists in the music industry.” Still, acting was where he initially made his mark, straight out of school, first in the film Summerhill and later playing a Bullingdon-style posho in The Riot Club, Herbert Pocket in David Nicholls’s TV adaptation of Great Expectations, and a stage role in Michael Grandage’s Peter and Alice, during which he befriended Judi Dench.

He was quite intimidated, but Dench turned out to be “very cheeky. One day she brought in biscuits that had dicks and balls on them; she was, like, ‘Do you want a cock biscuit?’ ” She has since narrated a short film to accompany Years & Years’s new album.

Acting has some happy associations for him, then, but “Hollywood is the worst culprit” when it comes to diversity, he says. “It’s just so far behind the times, it’s disgusting.” He even felt a subtle pressure not to reveal his sexuality on God Help the Girl, a low-budget British indie film directed by Stuart Murdoch of the band Belle & Sebastian, in which Alexander played a straight musician.

“It gave me a lot of anxiety. It was one of the reasons I wanted to stop acting. I definitely felt at the time it was something you had to be quiet about, because otherwise directors wouldn’t believe you could pull off the part.” That was nothing to do with Murdoch, he stresses. “I got on with Stuart really well, and I felt guilty because I never told him I was gay. I kind of tried to play up to the fact that I could actually be straight still, based on lies, even though everyone else knew I was gay.” During the shoot he met a man in a club. “After filming every day I’d just go straight to his house and spend the night with him. You just feel like you’re living a bit of a double life.”

I tell him my editor will tell me off if I don’t ask about his romantic status. “I’m single,” he replies with a smile. “Let everyone know, including your editor! Is he gay? It’s a she? Maybe she has gay friends. Yeah, I am happily single. It’s been like . . . almost two years. Not that I’ve been a nun in that time, I would like to stress.” Celebrity is double-sided in that regard: adulation on one hand, lack of anonymity on the other. “It obviously has positives,” he says with a smile, “but my sex life’s taken quite a beating.”

Don’t buy the mock self-pity — Alexander is doing just fine. There’s the stellar album and an arena tour in the autumn. Nor have his experiences put him off acting. “I feel like I could do something really, really fun and weird, like play an alien,” he says. “Or, you know, a goblin king!” From dressed-down diffidence to a budding Bowie in three years: he really has come a long way.

Palo Santo is released tomorrow on Polydor. Years & Years play the Roundhouse, London, July 10; Manchester Arena, July 14 and tour the UK from November

#olly alexander #article #the times #interview

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ollyarchive · 6 years

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Years & Years’s Olly Alexander: ‘Celebrity has positives, but my sex life’s taken quite a beating’

Olly Alexander is Britain’s most exciting new pop star, but the Years & Years singer has also become a poster boy for social change

Ed Potton

July 5 2018, 12:01am, The Times

“I’m glad you noticed!” says Olly Alexander with one of his impish smiles. “I’ve come a long way since then.” We’re talking about the difference between the first time I saw him sing with his band, Years & Years, and the strutting peacock that he has since become. In 2015, fresh from winning the BBC Sound Of … poll, Alexander had a mean falsetto and a clutch of killer synth-pop ditties (Shine, King), but he cut a diffident figure during his show at the Heaven nightclub, dressed down in a T-shirt and beanie.

I tell him my editor will tell me off if I don’t ask about his romantic status. “I’m single,” he replies with a smile. “Let everyone know, including your editor! Is he gay? It’s a she? Maybe she has gay friends. Yeah, I am happily single. It’s been like … almost two years. Not that I’ve been a nun in that time, I would like to stress.” Celebrity is double-sided in that regard: adulation on one hand, lack of anonymity on the other. “It obviously has positives,” he says with a smile, “but my sex life’s taken quite a beating.”

Palo Santo is released tomorrow on Polydor. Years & Years play the Roundhouse, London, July 10; Manchester Arena, July 14 and tour the UK from November

#olly alexander #years & years #yearsandyears #interviews #articles

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legendsmag · 4 years

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A COMPLETE RUN DOWN OF THE 2020 LEGENDS AWARDS PERFORMANCES

WINNIE KANE

Winnie Kane opened the evening with a double performance of “Lose You To Love Me” and her latest single, “Look At Her Now”. She started off a little shaky but that’s to be expected with a less experienced performer, especially on one of the biggest stages there is today. Visually she looked incredible. The black and white filter was a really nice touch. There were some timing issues, some pitch issues and I kept waiting for her to shake off the nerves, hoping that maybe something more high energy would help as she moved into “Look At Her Now”, it didn’t. Her dancing needs work, vocals need work, pretty much all of it needed several more days of rehearsal.

OLIVIA MARIE

The pick up in energy did take place once Olivia Marie took the stage to perform “Cool For The Summer” (very fittingly). She looked amazing, badass and much of that was reflected in her vocal delivery. The change of scenery was welcomed, she delivered her performance from the streets of LA, where the crowd seemed even more enthusiastic and loud. It was sexy, steamy and technically sound. This is how you deliver a performance.

RYDER TOMASI

The sole hip hop-rap performance of the night, Ryder Tomasi sings about “Stoner Girl” while clearly being inebriated himself. However it didn’t really distract from his performance. He did well for what it was, there wasn’t much expectation of anything better so Ryder did what hes known to do. Overall a fine performance.

BELINDA BLANCHARD

Belinda Blanchard sings about how “California Gurls” are unforgettable while delivering one of the most forgettable performances of the night. Belinda, who is quite pregnant, pranced around in a metallic mini dress while doing half assed choreography with a set of backup dancers. You can tell her voice has some assistance, which isn’t uncommon during a performance, but it just made her sound fake and unenthusiastic. Not much else to say. She can do better, hopefully.

MAXWELL HARPER-BENNETT

Maxwell Harper-Bennet never fails to be a crowd pleaser, even with a more mid tempo song like “Lights Up” he really gives his all on that stage. With very little production, mostly just him, a mic and a band backing him, he manages to shine and keep everyone invested in his performance. His little dance during the vocal break was very Max and you can tell that he honestly loves being on that stage. The audience backed him up on his last chorus continuing to prove he's a fan favorite.

RYAN PRICE

Ryan Price mellowed things out with his performance of “Heart Out”, contrary to that of Max before him, but it works. His vocals were where they needed to be and he seemed to be having a good time up there, which clearly translated to the audience who joined in on the fun. Less spectacle, more music and it worked.

CALLAN DUFFY & MAIA KARIM

This performance was simply a beauty. Callan Duffy and Maia Karim are a duo that seemingly came out of nowhere but it works perfectly in the fact that it’s really a showcase of what happens when you bring two great talents together. Their voices blend so beautifully with one another, and Maia in a different stripped down setting was truly a sight to see. They suckered in the entire audience with this one, had everyone in the palm of their hands.

CHLOE ZUICQ & CARTER BLUE

Chloe Zuicq and Carter Blue were up next with a somewhat forgettable performance of their song “One Kiss”. Visually it looked really cool. The colors and stage production were lovely and, vocally, Chloe was near perfection but it just seemed rather low energy given the song they chose. It’s supposed to be a dance track yet Chloe, who we know is a great dancer, just kinda stood there swaying back and forth. Carter may have saved this performance just by live mixing it but honestly it was a bit of a low point in the show. Neither really put their all into it and it showed.

QUINTON HARPER

Quinton Harper can sing! Vocally this was a huge stand out moment for the show. It wasn’t the radio version of the song everyone was expecting but honestly, this was way better. He did the entire first verse with minimal backup, proving to any of his haters that he really is that talented. Even when the band and backing vocals kicked in you couldn’t help but feel the passion Quinton brought with flawless vocal execution and the dance break on the rising platform was spectacular.

LYNN SAWYER

The sole country performance of the night delivered by Lynn Sawyer did not disappoint. Her voice was on fire from start to end. Not shying away from the country roots and highlighting the banjo was a bold move, but that’s exactly what this entire performance was. Lynn brough the fire and owned that stage in a way no other performer that night had done. This performance felt straight out of a broadway show with it’s theatrical delivery and it was perfect. The choir was a delightful touch and really filled everything out beautifully. The lighting was stellar as well. The representation of country music was important and who better to deliver it?

ROMAN

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Roman deliver a performance, and it fit nicely into the program following Lynn’s fire. He kept things simple, but it was the unique nature of his voice that won over audiences. It’d have been nice if there was a little more energy kicked into him, but his voice emoted the song, “Take Me To Church” perfectly. The performance would have benefitted from some sort of spark or change of pace, but it served its purpose. The band sounded amazing, and that was what mattered here.

PENNY LANE

Penny Lane was next to take the stage and boy was this a performance you did not want to miss. She is simply THAT performer. We got the two sides of Lane we love and adore and the first side came through the flawlessly belted out “Imagine”, the title track of her latest album. It was clear she felt this one, and the feeling bled through to her vocal. She looked beautiful and the accompanying orchestra was a beautiful compliment to not only her voice but to the aesthetic of her performance. This part was short and sweet as she quickly dove into the classic “Favorite Things” as a transition into her most recent hit single “7 Rings” This triggered a loud audience reaction in addition to a costume and set change. Now we got the second side of Lane we love… the bad bitch. Featuring probably the best choreography of the night, this 7 Rings rendition was on point, featuring an impressive split moment to be remembered. She closed off with the final bridge and chorus of “Thank You, Next” which was delivered emotionally yet triumphantly as a grand finish.

KYLIE BLUE

I mean, really. Did anyone think that Kylie Blue would be anything other than mind blowing? From her wardrobe, to the stage, the features she included in her performance, to the choreography, it was everything you could want in a performance and then some. She kept the energy up with “You Need To Calm Down” a fitting choice given it being Pride month, however, it was her premiere of her new song “Lover” that stole the show. After a very quick wardrobe change, Kylie walked downstairs to the applause of the audience and delivered what could arguably be one of her best performances to date. Between showing Kylie the camera flashed around the audience highlighting some of the couples including a very sweet moment between Olivia Marie and Maxwell Harper-Bennett slow dancing but it was very clear Kylie only had eyes for one man as her attention kept being drawn back to sing lovingly to Callan Duffy (was that a tear, Callan?). Vocally she was flawless, proving once again that she can sing her heart out and we can already tell that this will be a fan favorite track off her upcoming album.

YOUNGBLOOD

Youngblood, about to take off on tour, stood as the sole band to perform and, as always, did not fail to deliver. Levi’s vocals were on point, Zeus didn’t miss a single moment, Saint pulled double duty with piano and later on in the song bass and Benjy showed why he’s one of the best drummers in the game by not only keeping the rhythm steady but also providing major backing vocals with near flawless delivery. However it seemed like the chemistry was slightly off? The boys typically play off each other a lot more and this performance felt like four separate guys playing their roles but not really vibing? Hopefully it was just an off day. Maybe they were just a little tired from all the tour prep?

ESSENCE WOODS

Closing out the show, Essence delivers a keen to the ear rendition of “Summertime Sadness” a song that has quickly taken the world by storm. There’s not much to the performance, just vocals and Essence taking up all of the attention but that’s pretty typical of an Essence Woods performance. There’s a wish for the show going out with a bigger bang performance wise, especially following up some of the nights earlier grandiose showcases, but the name Essence Woods is a pretty big thing in itself. She managed to keep the audience entertained however, as this served as one of her more vocally charged performances. It was also very beautiful to see the quartet of violinists accompanying the piano is a simple sonic setup that elevated the sound quality of the performance. The final chorus felt like a climax and a good send off to the show. Though we wish she had gone a little bigger, the performance was good on a bill of great showings.

The Best: Quinton Harper definitely leaves tonight the golden boy despite only taking home one trophy. His performance is the one moment of the show people will be talking about for years to come. He proved his star status and talent.

The Worst: Belinda Blanchard/Winnie Kane both ladies could’ve given us much more here or much less and we would’ve been better satisfied. Both rookie performers here so the hiccups are expected.

#legend awards

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middlehollow · 4 years

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ALANA WALKER

❝ LEAN INTO WHATEVER CONSUMES YOU. ❞

DATE OF BIRTH: August 25th, 1998

AGE: twenty one

PLACE OF BIRTH: aurora, ontario

OCCUPATION: medical student

SPECIES: fae (changeling)

PRONOUNS: sher/her

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

FAVOURITE SONG: so will i by ben platt

FACECLAIM: elle fanning

APPLYING FOR SOULMATE CONNECTION: I am open to it!

BIOGRAPHY/IN CHARACTER QUESTIONS

Alana Walker has honey blonde hair, bright blue eyes- and the etches of her father’s smile. Medical students never get quite enough sleep- and her body posture reflects that bone aching weariness, dark undereye circles thumbed in starkly against her pale complexion. Dove gray sweaters, dark slacks, and sensible hiking boots are her attire of choice. She’s quiet- but has a magnetism that draws the eye, a cold reserve about her that breaks away readily once engaged. It’s as if you’re being truly seen for the first time- or catching a glimpse of someone beneath a carefully curated facade of indifference.

Raised between two worlds: Alana spent the majority of her life split between meandering walks in the woods and curling up by the hearth with chunky textbooks. While she’s always been aware that she didn’t quite fit into the life that her father, James ‘Jay’ Walker, a retired professor and avid outdoorsman had envisioned for himself- Alana had thought it was because of a nasty divorce. She’d never imagined that her mother was inhuman- fae, even. The realization that she’d displaced someone else, taken the life and home that was rightfully theirs had been earth shattering. The grief and guilt from that has haunted her since.

question #1: “what was the biggest mistake you made while you were still alive?”

The sequence of events that led up to my death, right? Isn’t that going to be everyone’s answer? If it isn’t, there better be a good reason for it- a dramatic, cinematic, blockbuster sort of juicy reason. Life ruining, maybe. Otherwise, that’s just illogical- and I know how funny it sounds, to try to ascribe logic to emotion. Still.I guess I should stop dodging the question. If I had to single out one burning instance- it would be opening that front door, and walking out into the autumn night. I didn’t even get to celebrate my 21st birthday- my dad was going to break open a bottle of whiskey he’s kept on hand since I was a little girl, in anticipation of sharing it over cold glasses and a roaring fireplace. I thought it was going to be just another walk. I’d taken plenty of them before. I meant to come home. I really did- even if that’s not how they see it. How was I supposed to know it was going to be different? How could I have known?

question #2: “if you were forced to be stuck in one place around town, where would it be and why?”

Tout Museum- easily. I think everyone has a bucket list of artists’ works that they long to see in person- even if the security ropes keep you well cordoned off from ever stroking your fingers across the paint and canvas. I never quite got to check much of anything off of mine. I’d love to park a plein air easel in front of a Cassatt and try to emulate her brushwork, like how they learned in yesteryear. Marble sculptures posing in languor, relics and artifacts from long lost civilizations, Fauvist paintings exploding with colour like fireworks crackling across the night sky: there’s so much to sink your teeth into. There’s a million different stories just waiting to be ripped apart and devoured. What could be more intimate than that frisson of connection with someone thousands, millions of years in the past- of knowing that someone else saw the world through the same lens as you do?

question #3: “what is your greatest fear?

I don’t really think that I have one of those, not anymore. I suppose that’s how it goes, when you’ve already braved the absolute worst you could envision- and you’re still kicking. I’d always been afraid of not living up to my father’s expectations- that’s an easy enough conclusion to draw: single father, no maternal figure, he’s a professor- and I’m a high aspirations, Type A neurotic medical student. Is there any other kind? Thing is- you can’t be afraid of not living up to expectations, if it was never even possible for you to fulfill them to begin with. I already am a disappointment- was, had been. So what? Guess that makes me fearless? Doesn’t feel very much different, to be honest with you. Just a little empty. Numb, maybe. Could be shock- that sort of thing can take a while to settle in proper, come talk to me again in a month’s time: maybe my answer’ll change then. Until now: that’s the best I can do for you

question #4: “what type of person do you think you would end up with? why?”

Someone forgiving, hopefully. I’m an intense person- but the strength of those convictions can sometimes be difficult for others to stomach. I’d like to be able to come home at the end of the day- kick off my boots, shed academia like white lab coats in the laundry hamper, and slip in underneath the covers to someone who doesn’t want to pick my brain like sliding the flat of an oyster knife along the sulci and gyri. I get cross examined enough in lecture hall. I want someone who’s alright with silence, and settling into the long, dark night- without having to know the minute details to understand what I’m going through- someone I can say I need to be loved a little louder today to, and not have to plead with or justify why I’m deserving of that. Someone who’s loving, and accepting, even if they don’t know all of the details just yet- the kind of person who always has your back, is in your corner. Loyalty, and simplicity- not trying to solve all of my problems, trust me- I ruminate on them enough. Just someone who’s there, and solidly so. If I wanted an analytical, blow-for-blow rival, I could go out and grab any other medical student or resident by the collar. It’s a surprise to most- but I don’t want someone who lives in the academic grind day in and day out: it’s relentless and exhausting enough to have to go through it myself. I want someone who feels like home, you know? Someone you can trust with your heart, and all those silly little fears that seem so diminutive by daylight. Someone who loves art, and music, and poetry- and baking bread. The little things that medicine sets out to save, and that colour life in all of its little pleasures that make it worth it.

question #5: “you are given a magic lamp and three wishes that go with it. what would you wish for and why?”

That’s a ridiculous question. Really? I suppose there are stranger things than genies and wishes, but still. Frankly, the mind boggles at trying to encapsulate it all. I’m still coming to grips with my own heritage. Working off of the assumption that I can’t just take advantage and wish for infinite wishes, here… I suppose it’s not as if that really matters, though. The number of wishes. There’s only really one thing I’d like- even above being alive, which is kind of a cheap assumption that I’d guess more or less everyone around here would seize, given half a chance to. I’d want for- things to be set right. For me to have never taken her place to begin with- for him to have his daughter back. I love dad- but he’s not… He wasn’t meant to be my father. He’s hers. I don’t know who she is- but she deserves better than what happened- and he does, too. He deserves better. That’s all. An impractical answer for an impractical question- how’s about that?

question #6: “how did you die?”

It was stupid. It was shockingly stupid, actually- no one who knew me could’ve predicted it. It was an accident. It wasn’t something I could have foreseen coming- but I should’ve all the same: who runs outdoors into the woods in the dead of the night? I forgot to never take it for granted- that precarious truce, that humanity has with nature. It’s so easy to forget. All it takes is just a moment. I thought it’d just be a walk- I’d traced those same paths so many times before. It was like a second home, for me. How was I to have known? What was I supposed to do? I’m sure the papers chalked it up to some tragedy steeped in wasted potential, face down in the creek: too far gone by the time they found the body to accurately determine the cause of death. I fell, and broke my neck: the spinal column doesn’t tell lies. That much was clear. The motive was more muddled, though. Maybe they thought I was soused, or that I’d lost my footing accidentally. Did someone else have a hand in it? I don’t know if they ruled out foul play. I’m not quite sure that I could pinpoint down just the one cause for you myself- but I was clear headed when it comes to drink, and I don’t think that I would be so careless as to fall down on uneven ground of my own accord. I hope he didn’t find me- not like that. I know he would’ve gone looking for me. Dad wasn’t the type of guy to sit around on his hands, when there were things to be done. But it would be an ironic sort of inverse opening at the closing, wouldn’t it? To find a lost girl you thought was your own?

#alana #fae #MY GIRLLLL #bio #mhaccepted #town rp #supernatural rp

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glenngaylord · 4 years

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MY MOMENTS OUT OF TIME IN FILM 2019

Instead of a Top 10 List, every year I like to honor a long-discontinued but influential annual column from Film Comment magazine. I couldn’t wait for my father to come home from work with the “Moments Out Of Time” issue. The writers would cite their favorite scenes, images, or lines of dialogue, even from films they may not have liked, because let’s face it, even bad films may have a great moment or two.

The year brought us so many wonderful films. Parasite wowed me with its ability to surprise while telling an important story about class divisions. I think Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood will stop me in my tracks over and over again with its immersive deep dive into late 1960s Los Angeles. The female-on-female gaze gets a workout in the stunning Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, while Jojo Rabbit masterfully walks a tightrope between hilarious and moving. Watching Eddie Murphy return firing on all cylinders in Dolemite Is My Name remains one of the most joyous movie experiences of the year. Yet, even I can’t see them all, but here, in no particular order, are my Moments Out Of Time in film for 2019:

A door opens, someone calls out “Honey?”, as the plot veers off in a jaw-droppingly unexpected, biggest WTF of the year direction, turning a light class comedy into something far, far, deeper- Parasite

Upon the assassination of JFK, his enemy, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) orders the half mast flag in front of the Teamsters' Union to be raised back to its standard position. As Hoffa looks up at the flag, this chilling, diabolical scene feels like the end of civil society as we know it - The Irishman

“Climb in my fur” - my favorite line of dialogue last year, cementing Jennifer Lopez’s Ramona as an iconic film character who can take sexual innuendo and turn it into an invitation for friendship - Hustlers

“That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life” - dialogue runner up as a young actress (Julia Butters) whispers into the insecure but committed actor Rick Dalton’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) ear, causing him to weep uncontrollably and giving him the recognition he’s always craved - Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood

A boy spies a flitting butterfly and stands up to get a better look, notices a pair of shoes next to him, and in an instant his entire life heartbreakingly changes - Jojo Rabbit

A vacationing family looks out their window to see…themselves…lined up and waiting to invade their home - Us

A gate which will no longer close on its own. Two estranged parents and their child manually slide it shut with the barrier separating them from each other. The battle lines have been drawn with deft precision - Marriage Story

A woman stares at another across a theater. They have a history. The symphony plays a striking, propulsive piece which both women know so well. A searing two minute close-up of the women she sees betrays her anguish, the pain, the missed opportunities, and the suffering of a woman who society demanded could not be herself - Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

Best final scene of the year: Two best friends sit in a car curbside at an airport. They awkwardly exchange awkward pleasantries even though we can tell they’re really going to miss each other. A delicate cover of “Unchained Melody” plays over stellar performances of Kaitlyn Dever walking away and Beanie Feldstein looking forelorn, both conveying that painful moment when high school besties part. Then, suddenly remembering it’s a hilarious comedy, Feldstein almost crashes into Dever, who gets back in the car and they decide they have enough time to get pancakes. Feldstein yells, “F*ck yeah!” as we smash cut to black - Booksmart

While he’s wanted inside at his premiere, Rudy Ray Moore can’t walk away from the fans waiting outside the theatre, choosing instead to give himself over to them and melting everyone’s hearts, including mine, in the process - Dolemite Is My Name

Wait! This guy is at your Passover Seder? You’re related to him? Now I’m scared - Uncut Gems

A milked cow. A barn. A dogfight up in the skies above. A knife. Two soldiers foraging for food, safety, and a chance to survive the next minute. Everything changes. - 1917

Matthew McConaughey as Baker Dill (!) spends most of his time howling to the heavens or completely naked, and for these reasons, I will never forget this terrible, amazing film experience - Serenity

When she forgets the words to her signature song, the audience sings them for her, making us all realize that even though she was close to death, the memory of her will never fade away - Judy

Normally, I’d be delighted to open my window and see Isabelle Huppert staring at me from across the street, but here, it’s a hauntingly nightmarish image - Greta

Julianne Moore sings along to an Air Supply song in her car and somehow manages to make her lapse in taste seem heartfelt - Gloria Bell

I love comedic moments built from repetition or missed connections. When Jack (Himesh Patel) can’t get his parents to sit still for a moment so that he can convince them he wrote the song “Let It Be”, his incredulousness and frustration strikes comedy gold - Yesterday

A young writer negotiates her terms with a publisher, gloriously finding her voice and her power at a time where such bravery seemed impossible - Little Women

A drunk, lonely, middle-aged woman dances alone in a small town honky tonk to Leon Russell’s “Out Of The Woods”, giving us a glimpse into her less austere past - Diane

A dildo with a retractable switch blade - Knife + Heart

What do the sounds of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s songs look like? A man crashing out of a window and joining a dancing flash mob at a carnival to “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” felt alive and electric, Yet, even more so, in a moment achieving some level of transcendence, Elton (a fantastic Taron Egerton) falls sideways off of a diving board into a pool where his boyhood self plays the title song on a piano at the bottom. That we somehow end up at Dodger Stadium where a sparkly Elton greets his fans and flies up into the stratosphere makes his classic soar - Rocketman

A grunge pop star/recovering addict (Elizabeth Moss), not too dissimilar to Courtney Love, sits at a piano and performs a sober rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven”, stripping away the outrageous bravado to quietly break out hearts - Her Smell

“Agency” seems to be on everyone’s lips when describing dynamic, plot-driving lead characters, but Leo’s (star in the making Félix Maritaud) choices don’t fit into a standard box. His decision, like it or not, is all his. - Sauvage/Wild

In a film filled to the brim with unforgettable, emotionally-laden images, its final shot of a man rowing a boat across turbulent waters moved me to tears - The Last Black Man In San Francisco

To learn from a documentary that the Ten Commandments monuments on display in front of many City Halls across the U.S. resulted from a Charlton Heston-led publicity tour for his 1956 movie epic is to realize, painfully so, that sometimes Hollywood and not the Churches, ruins everything! - Hail Satan?

Although, sooner or later, most of us will end up in a patch of dirt, some long for that moment more than others and find beauty in it - High Life

Watching Laura Dern pull off one of the most notorious literary scandals of modern times gives us one of the most original kicks of the year in a scene with an interviewer. She hides in plain sight as a novelist pretending to be the terribly British Manager to Kristen Stewart’s fake face of the same novelist in order to build mystique and sell more books - J.T. LeRoy

Who knew that a CGI-animated film for the whole family would have the most bone-chilling sequence of the year? But there it was in an antique store with Gabby Gabby and the creepy ventriloquist dummies - Toy Story 4

A woman enters her drab Chinese hotel room only to be asked if the U.S. is better by the anxious bellboy. Afraid to offend him, she merely tells him it’s different. The things we do to ease the pain of the less fortunate. - The Farewell

Three women. An elevator on its way to the chairman’s office. The sideways glances. The knowledge they all have of what awaits them. A silent sisterhood until Nicole Kidman’s Gretchen Carlson awkwardly comments, “Hot in here”. The year’s best calibrated scene - Bombshell

An out gay actor, Mark Patton, confronts the writer of the film which ruined his career and gets an apology. The years of pain written across his face don’t go away, but a little weight of the world gets lifted from his very relieved, very courageous shoulders - Scream Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street

While Tarantino played around with historical revisionist wish fulfillment, director Mary Herron and writer Guinevere Turner tapped into female rage in telling the story of the Manson murders. When Hannah Murray as Leslie Van Houten carries out one of the murders, screaming as she plunges a knife into someone, we get a rare glimpse into finally understanding what brought her to that point - Charlie Says

After Lily Collins’s Liz demands, “ Release me…what happened to her head?” as a way for doomed serial killer Ted Bundy (a chilling Zac Efron) to admit his guilt, he finally writes with his finger on the glass prison visitor’s window which separates them, one frightening word, “Hacksaw” only to wipe it away immediately - Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile

A gay white man and his straight, non-English speaking Latino handyman bond over Madonna’s “Borderline” in the back seat of an Uber. Matt Bomer’s angsty character finally relaxes and connects with this adorable man (Alejandro Patiño) doing ridiculously cute seated dance moves - Papi Chulo

A young woman rushes to her apartment bathroom and in a seamless transition, she emerges down the aisle of a plane headed for Sweden - Midsommar

Sometimes one can derive great pleasure from a film by simply listening to how Adam Driver says the word “ghouls” - The Dead Don’t Die

An actress known primarily for her own murder gleefully watches herself on the big screen in a Westwood Village movie theater, and in that moment, we finally experience the gorgeous humanity and not the horrendous end of this lovely person - Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood

When you have an icy, almost robotic main character, you need Alfre Woodard to masterfully play drunk and show you all of her other shades - Clemency

I don’t care if the film felt like a xerox copy of the original or if the CGI ruined everything, because Billy Eichner’s Timon arrives at a now barren, picked apart Pride Rock and blurts out, “Talk about a fixer-upper. I think you went heavy on the carcass.” - The Lion King

When was the last time you saw a film where a character stops the action to demand of another, “I want you to know about me!”? - The Peanut Butter Falcon

A young Irish indentured servant in 1825 Tasmania watches helplessly as a soldier kills her baby just to stop its crying, and that’s only the beginning of a long line of justifications for her rage - The Nightingale

Nothing like a well-placed coffee mug to illustrate your main theme in the final image of your movie - Knives Out

Tracy Letts’ Henry Ford II feels the sheer power of one of his race cars and provides the most beautiful, unexpected crying scene of the year - Ford v. Ferrari

The funniest crossing a busy freeway scene since Eddie Murphy attempted it in 1999’s Bowfinger - Good Boys

A split second choice at what should have been a routine traffic stop changes the lives of our unlucky, racially profiled, sweet, smart but “not a match” Tinder date protagonists - Queen & Slim

A passport inspector asks, “Purpose of your visit?” The young man replies, “I’m going to see Bruce Springsteen’s hometown.” As he stamps his papers, the inspector responds, “I can’t think of a better reason to visit the United States than to see the home of The Boss” - Blinded By The Light

A horribly brutalized gay man wafts to shore only to see the haunting image of a scary clown reaching out to perhaps save him? Nah, he’s a midnight snack - It Chapter 2

A young child, caught between his parents arguing over the phone, conveys painful messages to the supposed adults in the equation - Honey Boy

Sometimes an unreturned text can send you spiraling so far out of control that you ruin your life and everyone else’s around you - Waves

That last moment of bliss between a husband and wife right before their quiet mountaintop hamlet gets invaded by the sounds of planes overheard and the Nazis arriving to recruit them - A Hidden Life

You may have gotten in shape, but without true growth, the fat girl inside you won’t hesitate to shame another - Brittany Runs A Marathon

Gabriel Luna wins the award for sexiest performance in a terrible movie as a new killing machine decked out in tight pants and a killer stare - Terminator: Dark Fate

A mentally disturbed aspiring comic turned homicidal maniac disastrously makes his late night talk show debut, posing ominously backstage, skipping out with a bizarre tap twirl flourish, and then…well…like a true comic…he kills - Joker

Alec Baldwin, in a stunning monologue, basically shows us the early rise of people like Donald Trump, as all sense of hope gets sapped away - Motherless Brooklyn

An old sailor and his new charge stare down the camera right at us, somehow letting us know that we have no idea what bleak is, so hold on tight - The Lighthouse

A farmer (a never better Bill Camp) barges in on a corporate lawyer to get him to investigate the dying cattle in his hometown. From such humble beginnings comes something which affects every single one of us - Dark Waters

An aspiring Scottish country singer sneaks away from her Grand Ole Opry tour group to sing alone on the main stage and perhaps get discovered. When she learns that everybody does that, she realizes she isn’t that special after all - Wild Rose

Biggest cinematic moment of dread: When a Chinese billionaire reopens a shuttered Ohio GM plant and hires back some of the workers at half their salaries and without benefits, you know you’ve just boarded a slow moving train to hell - American Factory

Did he do it? Is he a terrorist? Or is he a good guy? How much of his tragic past is still present within him? That final image will keep me guessing forever - Luce

A devoted Chinese Communist Party Member and abortion specialist knows she can never redeem herself from the part she played in ruining so many lives - One Child Nation

You may take issue with the implications that her real life character traded sex for intel and that she’s no longer alive to defend herself, but Olivia Wilde gave one of the most vivid, exciting, ballsy performances of the year - Richard Jewell

An actual minute of silence in a film would normally be its death knell, but when Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers demands it, we rethink our own hurried, impulsive lives - A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Sure she overdid it. Yes she had an odd, hairy, uncanny face and strangely manicured nails for days. Overwrought doesn’t even begin to describe it, but when she hits that big note and belts out, “Touch me / It’s so easy to leave me / All alone with the memory / Of my days in the sun”, damned if I didn’t snot cry right along with her - Cats

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mysmetheatre · 7 years

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MysMe & Musical Theatre

First Headcanon Post!! And ofc it’s musical theatre lmao. This will include the RFA + V + Saeran + Vanderwood!

ZEN

ofc i have to start w our resident drama freak

Zen’s love for the performing arts is not unknown

I mean he’s a star in his own right

But boy oh boy does this kid love his Broadway shows

And not just Broadway either

He loves it all

Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, Broadway Musicals, Straight Plays, everything

This kid is in love with Disney musicals

Not just the Lion King either which he thinks everyone should love

But he hardcore loves The Little Mermaid

Zen drags MC to each new Disney musical movie to see which character he wold want to be cast as when it goes to stage

Frozen? He’s Hans. Moana? Hoo he would love to be Maui but he’s too white for that

He even practices his rapping for Maui

His all time fave self casting tho is Eugene from Tangled

He thinks he would make an amazing Eugene

Huge fan of our man Lin Manuel Miranda

Has been a fan since In the Heights and is very sad he’ll never be in it

Almost all of his songs on his phone are from musicals

Definitely works out to the Hamilton Mixtape

JUMIN

This man has always been a fan of the performing arts

It’s how he was raised: enjoy the arts but don’t partake

that’s also why all his pictures are blurry

He respects Zen greatly for being such a successful actor but teasing him is so much fun

He enjoys all the well known shows: Les Mis, Phantom, Wicked

But the one show he absolutely adores is The King and I

He’s even thought about funding Zen’s theatre company if they put on this show

Also, the whole bit about Zen at odds with the brokers put him on edge

He would’ve bought the entire company and funded it as a “project” had it not been for Zen disliking him

Would definitely take MC to Broadway to see a show that MC had even the slightest interest in

“Mr. Han, where are you going?”

“Cancel all my meetings for the next couple of days, Assistant Kang. MC and I are going to go see Amélie”

poor jaehee...she wants to go see broadway musicals too

JAEHEE

Jaehee isn’t just Zen’s fan, oh no

Zen’s musicals just opened her eyes to the whole world of musical theatre

She most definitely admires the acors, but has an undying respect for the crew

Sometimes she lies awake at night wondering how hard it is to manage the puppet in Little Shop of Horrors

While some people complain about delays in performance due to technical difficulties, she is completely understanding and commends their efforts

That being said...

Her favorite musical is Matilda

She relates to Matilda very deeply as a character and admires her tenacity and drive in the face of adversity

But she also lives for them lights

Really, Jaehee loves any show with a strong female lead

Her biggest dream is to go to Broadway and see a show

She knows she’s too poor for that though

So she settles on her second biggest dream: hoping Mr. Han will create a performing arts project that she gets to work on

She also may or may not have fancasted the RFA into various shows

SAEYOUNG

He was never a big fan of musical theatre

At least, not until he and Zen started talking more

Then the floodgates had opened

Zen rambled on and on about well known musicals like Wicked and Les Mis

Saeyoung didn’t care about those shows though

He lives for the lesser known shows

We’re talking 21 Chump Street, Be More Chill, and Tick, Tick, Boom among others

He dreams of the day 21 Chump Street becomes a full length musical

One of his biggest dreams though...is to do Cell Block Tango with the RFA

He just knows it would be hilarious, but has been less than successful in getting their agreements

Zen is “too manly” for it, Jaehee is too shy, and Jumin is too serious

He could definitely trick Yoosung into doing it though

Saeyoung is a huge fan of everything Rogers & Hammerstein

They’re his only exception to his “lesser known shows” rule

The Baron of Bootlegs™ if you will that’s what he calls himself, everyone else would be just as happy calling him king of bootlegs but ofc Saeyoung had to rhyme

If some kid took a crappy video on their flip phone in 2007, Saeyoung can find the clip

Can’t wait for Spongebob: The Musical

YOOSUNG

Pobrecito he doesn’t know much at all about theatre

Zen tries to teach him at least the basics but Yoosung doesn’t quite understand it

All he knows is that he loves cinematic musicals and the OBS recordings of stage musicals but he doesn’t care to see them on stage

He knows he would much rather be home, playing LOLOL

There is one person who successfully gets him obsessed with a musical: Saeyoung

Yoosung and Saeyoung bond over Be More Chill

It’s just a real good musical to them

Saeyoung finds a bootleg and they watch it at his house one day too

Yoosung enjoys that a lot more than he would actual theatre because he can stay comfy and eat popcorn

Yoosung also really enjoys adaptations like The Color Purple and Heathers because then he has some sort of background

Not as big of a Disney musical fan as Zen, but he is such a Rogers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella stan

Totally unironically; will shout his love for that show from the rooftops

He just likes happy endings

He does put a lot of effort into actively listening to the same musicals as MC

I mean he does adore her after all

Will bring up musicals in conversation just to keep MC talking for longer

SAERAN

Will never admit to liking musicals

If you somehow manage to get him to, though, he only says he likes Heathers, Rocky Horror, and Little Shop

I mean he does but that’s besides the point

He has an all time fave, and it’s none of the aforementioned shows

His favorite musical of all time is...Legally Blonde

Yup, that’s right. Elle Woods is an inspiration to him

Legally Blonde is 100% his guilty pleasure but he would never admit that

Saeran manages to find it online and watches it a million times

Saeyoung finds it in his search history and goes to town with the jokes

Saeran makes him swear not to tell anyone or he’ll kill him y’know same old same old

Saeyoung gets in a few more jokes before finally agreeing

...and admitting he loves the show as well because the music is awesome

Otherwise, Saeran isn’t a huge fan of musical theatre

He does have his shows that he enjoys but the rest are meh to him

He doesn’t care for mainstream shows like Les Mis and Wicked

He does like Into the Woods though he identifies with the wolf and MC is his red riding hood

V appreciates all the arts; especially the ones he can’t do like theatre and dance

He much prefers to be behind the lens rather than in front of it

He’s also often booked to take the publicity shots and will gladly take free tickets over cash

This way he and Jumin can enjoy the show together

Much like Jumin as well, V heavily enjoys the mainstream musicals

V would honestly die for Wicked

He adores every aspect of the show

From the costumes to the sets to the lights, he loves it all

Like, if he could take the publicity shots for that show he would probably faint

He wouldn’t even need tickets in exchange, he would be happy with the memory and pictures alone

He feels such pride with Zen too

V knows that Zen often credits him with the success he’s been able to find and that makes V immensely proud

Not of himself but of Zen

He tries to go to every show Zen performs in

When he can’t, he makes Zen tell him every detail over the phone

Zen, of course, is embarrassed by this but does it nonetheless because he knows it makes V happy

VANDERWOOD

Is not a huge fan of musical theatre

Thinks that a lot of it is just pandering to certain audiences

Only partakes in what he deems as “high quality” musical theatre

Which is probably one show and that’s it

And that show?

It’s Bring It On

Vanderwood swears that of any of the productions that Lin Manuel Miranda’s been a part of, Bring It On is the best

He thinks Hamilton is mediocre compared to his cheerleader show

“Wait, you...only listen to Bring It On?”

“Of course! They do actual cheerleading onstage! The pit is right below them! Peak of physical fitness, I tell you.”

Never get between Vanderwood and his cheerleaders

Never.

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thisisheavynews · 5 years

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25 worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees ever

Simone Joyner

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s that time of year again for people to get enraged. That’s because the nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 are due any day now.

But before we get to whether newly eligible acts like Oasis, The Notorious B.I.G. and Weezer will make the cut, or if longtime snubs like Depeche Mode, Doobie Brothers or Kraftwerk will finally get in, let’s take a look back.

Like most Halls of Fame, the Rock Hall can be polarizing. While, you can make an argument for just about any artist that has been inducted, there are a few dozen fans will swear have no business in music’s hallowed ground.

In an effort to upset as many people as possible (Not really, but it’s inevitable), we ranked the 25 worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selections of all time. You know, the ones that had you scratching your head wondering why them and not [insert snub here].

This is just one man’s opinion, of course. Just remember: They’re all good, if not great artists. But were they Rock Hall worthy?

25. Ritchie Valens

Inducted: 2001

Better option: Link Wray

Associated with “American Pie” (“The Day the Music Died”) after passing away tragically in a plane crash alongside Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, Valens is a legend. But digging deeper, his Rock Hall resume is pretty light. Yes, he was the pioneer of Chicano rock. And yes, “La Bamba” was a huge hit. But that alone should not have earned him induction when you consider other genre pioneers/one-hit wonders such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Big Mama Thornton have never even been nominated. There were several better options for the Class of 2001 when it comes to 1950s rock and roll pioneers, top among them being Link Wray.

Victoria Will

24. Darlene Love

Inducted: 2011

Better option: Mary Wells

You’d be hard pressed to find a Rock Hall Inductee more lovable than Darlene Love. An essential figure in Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, Love was (and still is) a great singer. That, along with “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” are her two main arguments for Rock Hall Induction. But you can’t help but wonder why her and not The Marvelettes or Mary Wells, two essential acts for early Motown with bigger hits to their names.

Chris Ware

23. The Dave Clark Five

Inducted: 2008

Better option: Lonnie Donegan

Well, this is sure to upset a lot of baby boomers who still geek out to “Glad All Over.” The Dave Clark Five was a very popular British Invasion act of the 1960s, and the second British act after The Beatles to appear on the “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But The Dave Clark Five’s resume, even compared to just other acts of the 1960s, makes them a borderline Rock Hall candidate. Are they that different from The Crystals, Tommy James & The Shondells, The Shangri-Las or Paul Revere & the Raiders: All acts you could argue for or against? A better choice would have been Lonnie Donegan, the most influential recording artist in British history before The Beatles came around.

Getty Images

22. Cat Stevens

Inducted: 2014

Better option: Nick Drake

Cat Stevens had a great run during the first half of the 1970s, with two very essential albums and a string of hits. But you have to wonder how the Rock Hall landed on his name instead of a wide variety of 1970s acts that have never even been nominated, from Doobie Brothers to Emerson, Lake & Palmer to Jim Croce. Even in his own genre, you could make a better case for Nick Drake who, as time goes on, feels like a better choice than Stevens, given how the former’s influence continues to be felt in the artists of today.

Keystone Features

21. Small Faces/Faces

Inducted: 2012

Better option: New York Dolls

It’s easy to see why fans of bands like Mott the Hoople, J. Geils Band or Little Feat might cry foul that their favorite act isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Small Faces/Faces are. We’re dealing with a combination of two acts here, a la Parliament-Funkadelic (Though, far less significant). The talent and, to a lesser extent, influence are there. Both the Small Faces and, more so, Faces’ back-to-back to basics style and care-free attitude would influence several acts of the 1970s. But in that regard, the impact of, say, the New York Dolls was much greater. After all, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood were going to get in anyway.

Getty Images

20. Donovan

Inducted: 2012

Better option: Phil Ochs

A lesser Bob Dylan? Sure. But you could say that about any folk artist really. Donovan’s impact runs deeper, primarily in his merger of folk music with psychedelic pop. But where Donovan falls short is in having just a handful of hits that resonated in the States. That’s not enough to justify his induction over artists who came before such as Phil Ochs or Judy Collins. And how the Nominating Committee saw fit to nominate Donovan years before Joan Baez is beyond me.

19. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Inducted: 2015

Better option: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers

Let’s face it. Before being nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame multiple times, most mainstream music fans had never heard of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. That doesn’t mean the band wasn’t impactful. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was integral in bringing Chicago blues to white, suburban audiences in the 1960s. But the band’s lack of “Fame” and the fact that an landmark blues artist like Son House shockingly can’t get a nomination makes you question how The Paul Butterfield Blues Band got on the ballot, let alone chosen over Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, Chic and others nominated for the Class of 2015.

Hulton Archive/Getty

18. Electric Light Orchestra

Inducted: 2017

Better option: Jethro Tull

When you take into account Jeff Lynne’s production legacy, then you can make a solid case for Electric Light Orchestra’s Rock Hall worthiness. But the band on its own — I’m just not seeing it. ELO got in as part of the Nominating Committee’s surge in recent years to include B (or maybe even C) level classic-rock acts. But nothing really puts Electric Light Orchestra ahead of other 1970s acts s like The Guess Who, Bad Company or Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Then again, I wouldn’t induct those bands either.

AP/Los Angeles Times

17. Laura Nyro

Inducted: 2012

Better option: Judy Collins

Laura Nyro is one of the first names that comes up when people list the least deserving members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And it’s easy to see why. It feels like her nomination was plucked out of thin air. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t a great artist. Nyro most certainly was. But she feels somewhat fringe compared to almost any other inductee. She’s sort of like a lesser Randy Newman, where as the Rock Hall could have opted for someone with more influence like the aforementioned Judy Collins.

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16. Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers

Inducted: 1993

Better option: Billy Ward and His Dominoes

Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers were nominated for the Rock Hall every year since the beginning until they were inducted in 1993. Why did the Nominating Committee have the group on par with the greatest rock and roll acts of all time. Sure, Lymon has a compelling story as a child star who died young. But while the lack of noteworthy catalog has kept other influential 1950s acts out of the Rock Hall, namely Johnny Ace and Jesse Belvin, it didn’t affect Lymon. Maybe in the “Early Influences” category this makes sense. Otherwise, can most people name anything besides “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?”

Stephen Lovekin

15. Little Anthony and the Imperials

Inducted: 2009

Better option: Ben E. King (solo)

Little Anthony and the Imperials’ longevity is impressive. Of all the acts come out of doo-wop and move into R&B, few, if any, had a longer run. But the significance of that run is debatable, especially when you start rifling off the list of influential R&B artists that aren’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Joe Tex, Mary Wells, Junior Walker & the All Stars, Ben E. King (solo), The Crystals, etc.

George Konig

14. Del Shannon

Inducted: 1999

Better option: Chubby Checker

It must have been easy to get behind the idea of Del Shannon being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when artists like Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne practically worshiped the ground he walked on. But Shannon is one of those artists whose legacy is really built around just one song in “Runaway.” Yes, it was a No. 1 hit and Shannon had a distinct style. But why him and not someone like Chubby Checker or Tommy James & The Shondells.

Getty Images

13. Bobby Darin

Inducted: 1990

Better option: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Looking at the list of successful artists of the 1950s, Bobby Darin certainly has some of the deccade’s biggest hits, including “Splish, Splash” and “Mack the Knife.” But how much those songs resonated in the decades that followed? Darin was a famous star who became an actor. But musically, it would have benefitted the Rock Hall to have pushed for an artist with a more unique style and sound.

Ian Showell

12. Chicago

Inducted: 2016

Better option: Procol Harum

Saying Chicago was a successful band during the 1970s would be an understatement. But even after selling all those records, they never really felt like a larger than life act. And when they came close, they morphed into a lame soft rock act with songs like “You’re the Inspiration” and “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” Yes, Chicago brought horns into rock in the 1970s. But they weren’t the first or, arguably, the best at it, considering the Mothers of Invention and Electric Flag haven’t been nominated.

Plain Dealer Historical Archive

11. The Lovin’ Spoonful

Inducted: 2000

Better option: The Shangri-Las

I’m okay with kicking The Lovin’ Spoonful out of the Rock Hall based on the band’s Induction Ceremony performance alone. Yes, the band had some hits during the 1960s. But they weren’t a game-changer the level of peers like Grateful Dead or The Mamas and the Papas. And in terms of the 1960s as a whole, you have to imagine the impact of act like Joe Tex or The Shangri-Las stretches much further. Heck, I’d take The Monkees over these guys all day, everyday.

Robert Cianflone

10. Bon Jovi

Inducted: 2018

Better option: Iron Maiden

If we’re talking just commercial appeal, record sales and longevity, by all means Bon Jovi belongs in the Rock Hall. Influence and authenticity? Not so much. I could get behind the band’s induction more had Desmond Child been included, since there’s something to be said for the songwriting on choruses to songs like “Livin’ on a Prayer.” As it stands, however, I don’t see any significant changes to the history of rock music if Bon Jovi never existed, other than the Goo Goo Dolls never becoming a band or there being fewer songs to sing along to at weddings. Why Bon Jovi and not Boston, Thin Lizzy or Bad Company?

9. Journey

Inducted: 2017

Better option: Duran Duran

The arguments for and against Journey and Bon Jovi are the same. Only, Journey fans are even more passionate, and, thus, more likely to slash the tires on my car. Yes, “Don’t Stop Believin'” is an indelible pop song. But you know who else made at least one indelible pop song? Duran Duran, Whitney Houston, the Go-Go’s and INXS, each not in the Rock Hall despite having more influence on today’s music landscape than Journey. Whose getting in next: Nickelback?

M. McKeown

8. Gene Pitney

Inducted: 2002

Better option: Harry Nilsson

There’s a case to be made for Pitney in a specialty category, considering his work as a sound engineer and songwriter on hits like “He’s a Rebel” and “Hello, Mary Lou.” But as a “Performer” it doesn’t make much sense. His impact during the 1960s doesn’t measure up to other acts that aren’t in the Rock Hall like Love, Dick Dale or Jan and Dean.

Getty Images

7. The Moody Blues

Inducted: 2018

Better option: King Crimson

The Moody Blues made good (if not boring) music, some of it great. But this an example of the Nominating Committee and its Boomer voters preferring a second- or third-tier classic rock act rather than a top-tier band from a later decade. The Moody Blues certainly weren’t the kind of groundbreaking act snubs like T. Rex, The Jam or Kraftwerk were.

Plain Dealer Historical Archives

6. Bill Withers

Inducted: 2015

Better option: Lionel Richie and the Commodores

Bill Withers is a fine R&B act with a handful of great soul songs. But even within his own genre, maybe (MAYBE) he rates as one of the 100 most important R&B acts of all time and certainly isn’t in the top 50. The Nominating Committee seemingly pulled Withers’ name out of thin air and voters went for it, despite there being several better options in the forms of Chic, Luther Vandross, Kool & the Gang, Barry White, Rick James, The Commodores and The Ohio Players. I could go on.

Getty Images

5. Jeff Beck

Inducted: 2009

Better option: Dick Dale

If prior to 2009, Jeff Beck felt like a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, it’s because he was as a member of the Yardbirds, and rightfully so. But there was no reason for him to become a two-time inductee, other than the Rock Hall wanting to put together a guitar showcase at its annual ceremony. Beck is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitarists of all time. But his solo career leaves something to be desired in terms of significance.

Promotional Handout

4. The Dells

Inducted: 2004

Better option: Teddy Pendergrass

If you find something significant that separates The Dells from a large group of other like-minded R&B/doo-wop acts from the same period, please let me know what it is. The Dells have one (“Oh What a Nite”), maybe two (“Stay In My Corner”) essential hits, which somehow got them into the Rock Hall ahead of The Dramatics, The Stylistics, Harold Melvin, Teddy Pendergrass, The Dramatics, The Spinners, The Del Vikings and The Chi-Lites, among others.

Ethan Miller

3. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Inducted: 2015

Better option: The Runaways

This concept of Joan Jett as the archetype of the female rock star is a bit weird. Yes, when you think of a woman with a guitar, she comes to mind. But she did not invent that or do anything with it that hadn’t been done before. In fact, her two biggest hits are cover songs. The fact that Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are in the Rock Hall and The Shangri-Las aren’t is a bit absurd. That’s not to say Jett doesn’t belong in the hall. She’s just in there with the wrong group. The Runaways were far more essential.

Timothy A. Clark

2. Percy Sledge

Inducted: 2005

Better option: Joe Tex

There’s a thought among some people that a push for Percy Sledge to get into the Rock Hall was made after he performed at Steve Van Zandt’s wedding. I’m going to ignore that, only because, if true (which it may very well be), it’s INSANE! Sledge has one hit. That’s not discredit his other work. That’s just a fact. “When a Man Loves a Woman” is all anyone knows. Does that make him influential? Sledge was an important artist in terms of southern soul in the 1960s or, better yet, “When a Man Loves a Woman” was an important song, one of the essential hits of the decade. But, in terms of body of work, there just isn’t much else there.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

1. Stevie Nicks

Inducted: 2019

Better option: Tina Turner

If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were to admit Stevie Nicks was nominated because she finished first in the “Voice Your Choice” in-museum fan vote, I’d let this go. However, the Rock Hall Foundation has said the vote had no influence on the committee. So we’re left to wonder why Nicks was worthy of becoming the first two-time female inductee. To say Nicks has more than one essential album or song would be a reach. And while she’s an influential figure, most of that (if not all of it) can be chalked up to her time with Fleetwood Mac. The list of women who have had better solo careers than Nicks is too long to list here. So, I’ll just list the women who would have made better two-time inductees, which includes Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Grace Slick.

from Heavy News https://thisisheavynews.com/25-worst-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inductees-ever/

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