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allamericansbitch · 2 years

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Hey everyone! Here’s this weeks (november 28 - december 5) addition to my Creator Shoutout Series! For info about the series, I explained it in the first post here, but generally, it’s to show appreciate to editors and their creations that i love from the past week. To track this series or look at previous shoutouts, please check out the tag on my blog *creatorshoutouts. Have a great week everyone!

taylor swift: music videos + emotions gifset by @nessa007

succession: 3.07 too much birthday gifset by @jakegyllenhals

taylor swift graphic by @thisisustrying

brooklyn nine nine: jake peralta gifset by @lolasteppe

phoebe bridgers: moon song graphic by @promqueendyke

succession gifset by @naiey

taylor swift: all too well graphic by @sawthetruthinme

stranger things: steve harrington gifset by @scoopsahoy

succession: 2.04 x 3.07 parallels gifset by @rory-amy

taylor swift: call it what you want graphic by @cruellesummer

you netflix: love quinn gifset by @shegos

all too well: the short film graphic by @queenofbadlands

taylor swift: victoria’s secret fashion show performances gifset by @xiexielians

stranger things: steve harrington gifset by @rebelharrington

hunter schafer: harpers bazaar 2021 gifset by @hunterschafer

taylor swift art by @xjulianaz

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer gifset by @naiey

never have i ever gifset by @bellamysgriffin

taylor swift: surprise album concept design by @cellphonehippie

phoebe bridgers x taylor swift graphic by @lovelycloudsart

brooklyn nine nine: memorable quotes gifset by @brooksdavis

taylor swift: music videos gifset by @mancskins

olivia rodrigo gifset by @zeindaya

ted lasso: 2.04 episode gifset by @trentcrimms

taylor swift: red (taylor’s version) gifset by @paintedmesgolden

anya taylor joy gifset by @kateverdeen

olivia rodrigo: sour gifset by @bestmistake

taylor swift: december/winter lyrics gifset by @cametotheshowinsd

doja cat: planet her + singles gifset by @melodramas

the great gifset by @murdock-matt

taylor swift: evermore gifset by @melodramas

only murders in the building gifset by @levy-tran

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer gifset by @morozko

taylor swift: red (taylor’s version) tracklist gifset by @onlyhereforangst

succession: shiv roy + season one gifset by @succescion

lorde gifset by @zeindaya

taylor swift: dorothea gifset by @midsummerknife

olivia rodrigo: drivers license gifset by @bestmistake

f.r.i.e.n.d.s: holiday episodes gifset by @torisvega

taylor swift art by @mitsutay13

the office gifset by @leojfitz

the princess diaries gifset by @frodo-sam

taylor swift: speak now (taylor’s version) album design concept by @summertimelover555

paramore: ignorance live in chile 2011 gifset by @headfirrstforhalos

orla gartland collage art by @peachstiicks

taylor swift: all too well short film x tolerate it gifset by @tayloralison

brooklyn nine nine: raymond + kevin gifset by @userleias

orla gartland: woman on the internet graphic by @andtosaturn

taylor swift art by @sandviart

parks and recreation gifset by @rizahawkais

taylor swift: red (taylors version) lyrical parallels gifset by @thatwasthenightthingschanged

olivia rodrigo: deja vu gifset by @bestmistake

a charlie brown christmas gifset by @gregory-peck

taylor swift: back to december music video gifset by @wishfulthinkinglove

high school musical: troy boltons character arc + bi allegory gifset by @tonyleunq

olivia rodrigo: sour + singles gifset by @queenofbadlands

taylor swift: evermore x back to december gifset by @starlighdt

gilmore girls: rory x jess + all too well gifset by @endiness

taylor swift art by @ohnoballoons

tangled + letterbox reviews gifset by @kingreywrites

taylor swift: the swiftmas chapters gifset by @hermionegrangcr

succession: tom wambsgans art by @tomgregs

tangled gifset by @loveyazy

taylor swift: holiday headers and icons by @sadbeautifutragic

new girl: holiday gifset by @jakeperalta

taylor swift: debut (taylor’s version) t-shirt design concepts by @cellphonehippie

#*creatorshoutouts

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aliciaofchitaqua · 2 years

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intro post

-aka tumblr user @crowmunculus

-fan from 2012-2014, quit in s9 (JUSTICE 4 KEVIN), dragged back in by canon destiel Nov 5 2020 and watched the last two episodes live unfortunately

-nb butch dyke heller with terminal dean-liker disease. deancoded deangirl sun, cascoded casgirl moon

-down to agincourt fixed everything in me that spn broke, please read it

-expect mostly reblogs for now with the occasional tag ramble, because despite thoroughly spoiling myself for everything it's still been a long time since I watched much of the series and I need to rewatch and catch up on everything I missed (like...half the series RIP) before I formulate more original Thoughts

-trying to make more dta posts though because I have Many Informed Thoughts about dta, I'm just allergic to letting people know I exist so bear with me as I slowly emerge from my snail shell of solitude

-I like all of the main characters and I'm just here to have fun. I am cutting canon into little pieces and making neat little collages out of it. if I reblog contradictory posts it's because I am rotating the story in my brain like a cheap snowglobe and appreciating how it looks differently tacky at different angles

-I love spn earnestly and unironically but it also really pisses me off a lot of the time. I contain multitudes

-my primary media special interest is No. 6, a series with a drastically smaller fandom where everyone (everyone!) ships the same canon pair. spn fandom intimidates the shit out of me and I'm shy and awkward but I would still like to make friends 🥺

-the original purpose of this blog was so I could re-find posts I like or otherwise want to find again. ignore that I never fucking tag anything consistently, I'm mostly on mobile and it's faster and I'm lazy. may eventually retroactively tag for at least some things because tumblr search sucks

-at any given point I have a backlog of a couple hundred reblog tabs open because I just live like this, so if I reblog something you posted like a year ago, or do a reblog spree about a clusterfuck from months earlier, that's why

-I'm an adult with a job and bills and I refuse to waste my one wild and precious life arguing about cw shows on the internet

#my main blog has been unsearchable since that was first a feature so since like...2017ish i think???#I'm shy and conflict-averse and compensate by being really loud and chatty when i do interact with people #but I'm still not great at interacting with new people lol #hi everybody! i would like to be friends! but i am also terrified of being Perceived!!!

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furtho · 4 years

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Playlist 2019

Music posted on furtho.tumblr.com during 2019:

23 Skidoo’s Just Like Everybody, biting post-punk collage

A Certain Smile’s Original Replacement, sweet janglepop balladry

Adrianne Lenker’s Abysskiss, wistful folk sadness

Ai Yamamoto’s Going Home (Excerpt), super-quiet ambient minimalism

Altered Images’ See Those Eyes, bittersweet pop perfection

Al Usher’s Lullaby For Robert (Bogdan Irkük remix), lovely downtempo house re-imagining

Ampersand’s I’m Still Waiting, homemade indie tune

Anemone’s Sunshine (Back To The Start), kitchen disco-friendly pop

Anne Clark’s Our Darkness, lost classic proto-technopop from 1984

Aphex Twin’s T69 Collapse, twisting, twitching, frantic electronics

Asilomar’s Shimmer And Faded, spacious-but-warm Californian dreampop

Aster More’s Bought It, sweetly fuzzy indiepop

Asuna’s Sea Above, Chubby Plane, Sky Below, blissed out longform drone

Beatnik Filmstars’ Apathetic English Swine, trashy Bristolian garage rock ‘n’ roll

Ben Chatwin’s Coruscate, oddly delirious ambient

Bernard Grancher’s Fluxion Des Mollesses, homemade electropop with echoes of acidity

Biff Bang Pow!’s Someone To Share My Life With, quietly impassioned cover of TV Personalities gem

Black Channels’ Two Knocks For Yes, longform collage on suburban hauntings

Blue Tomorrows’ Sound Of Moving, echoing, downtempo dreampop

Body Type’s Palms, energetic back-and-forth indie tune

Brambles’ Salt Photographs, quietly exhilarating modern classical

Brian’s Turn Your Lights On, big ecstatic I’m-in-love indie

Broadcast’s Before We Begin, glorious space age girl group pop

Buzzcocks’ Promises, lo-fi video for punk pop gem

Celer’s Rains Lit By Neon, drifting ambient drone

Chris Child & Micah Frank’s Debris Of The Days, dusty ambient folk chimes

Cloud Babies’ Dear Moon, too-fragile ballad from Kyoto duo

Corpse Factory’s Party Girl, “lo-fi mountain gloom rock from Thomas, West Virginia”

Cosey Fanni Tutti’s Tutti (edit), pulsing, joyful electronics

Cristina Quesada’s Hero, super-cute classic indie discopop

Darren Harper’s Slow Reveal, sweetly understated ambient

David R Edwards’ A Novel For Lazy Readers - An Antidote To The Headache Of BBC Radio 4, bleakly comic spoken word

Dayflower’s Sweet Georgia Gazes, Lightning Seeds-style indie jangle

Death Cab For Cutie’s Northern Lights, appropriately big-skied indie

Dedekind Cut’s The Crossing Guard, foggy, distant ambient drone

Depeche Mode’s A Pain That I’m Used To (Jacques Lu Cont remix), gripping, propulsive dance mix

DJ Downfall’s To Bring You Joy, heartbreaking vocodered robotpop

Edgar Froese’s Epsilon Of Malaysian Pale, classic prog ambient

Edward Artemyev’s Dedication To Andrei Tarkovsky, expansive late Soviet-era modern classical soundtrack

Emily A Sprague’s Piano One, quietly glitchy minimal piano

Emmanuel Witzthum’s Book Of Shadows, thoughtful modern classical

epic45′s Kaleidoscope Days, haunting, woozing post-rock dreamscape

Flaüta’s Pensar Mucho, lo-fi bedroom indie from provincial Argentina

Flying Fish Cove’s Sleight Of Hand, ramshackle but uplifting guitar pop

For Against’s Don’t Do Me Any Favors, catchily confident indie jangle

For Tracy Hyde’s 櫻の園, sweet-voiced shoegaze pop

Franziska Lantz’s Run For It, experimental minimal techno

Gabe Knox’s Lo Spettro, languid electronic pastoralism

Gavin Bryars with Philip Jeck & Alter Ego’s The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-), spine-tingling long-form modern classical

Geotic’s Actually Smiling, blissful warm house

Grand Veymont’s session for La Souterraine, Radio Campus, Paris, stunning live longform pastoral drone

György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes, live avant garde performance - great for fans of clicking noises

Harae Nagoshi’s Case1, glitchy piano pastoralism

Hatchie’s Sure, big open indie tune

Hazell Dean’s Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) 12″, thrilling 80s hi-NRG pop

Heartsease’s Blurs, drifting ambient sadness

Help Stamp Out Loneliness’ Pacific Trash Vortex, uptempo hooky indie with charismatic vocal

Hood’s Houses Tilting Towards The Sea, languid post-rock pastoralism

International Teachers Of Pop’s After Dark, anthemic, booty-shakin’ electropop

Jane Weaver’s Slow Motion (Loops Variation), dreamily melancholy synthpop

Jonteknik feat Malte Steiner’s Fernsehturm (iEuropean remix), glistening electro modernism

Kasper Marott’s Keflavik, beautifully, er, constructed house

Kenji Endo’s Curry Rice, charming snapshot of Japan’s underground folk boom of the late 60s and early 70s

Kevin Drumm’s A Puddle On The Floor, spine-tingling minimal drone

Kirill Mazhai’s Love Theme, hazily warm ambient drone

Komputer’s Skyskrapers, downtempo bleep-pop balladry

Kraftwerk’s Antenna, rare video of the electronic classic from 1975

La Boum Fatale’s Walls (Instrumental), warmly glitched-up technopop

Laveda’s Dream. Sleep, distant echoing dreampop

Listening Center’s Meridian, brisk synthpop experimentalism

Lives Of Angels’ Imperial Motors, lost classic of catchy post-punk drum machine pop

Lowfish’s Live In San Francisco, forty minutes of gorgeous funky electro

Lunar Vacation’s Blue Honey, sweet and fragile indie

Magazine’s The Light Pours Out Of Me, captivatingly gloomy post-punk

Malish Kamu’s Birds, ethereal minimalism from south-western Russia

Marble Index’s Love Talking To Boys, 1999 take on synth-driven post-punk

Marie Davidson’s Work It, funky as fuck minimal technopop

Martha & The Muffins’ Echo Beach, irresistible new wave classic

Martial Canterel’s You Today, frantically catchy minimal synth

Mary Jane Leach’s Bruckstück, breathtaking modern choral

Memoryhouse’s The Kids Were Wrong, catchily polished indie

Meter Bridge’s It Was Nothing (Rodney Cromwell remix), blistering disco’d up electropop remix

Mick Trouble’s Shut Your Bleeding Gob You Git, bracingly ramshackle punk pop

Mode Citizen’s Sex & Steel (The Dark Robot remix), pounding sequenced electro remix

Moving Panoramas’ Baby Blues, exhilarating piece of kind of Alvvays-esque indie

My Robot Friend’s Sex Machine, hopeful in lyrical theme, bleepy minimal wave in terms of sonic stylings

Naps’ Bad Vibrations, exciting indiepop from much-missed (by me) Florida outfit

Naw’s Still Breathing, looping electronic experimentalism

Night Hikes’ Avila, “you’re the only one who ever made my coffee right...”

Night Sports’ Substance, joyful disco-y synthpop

Nonconnah’s Driving Away For The Last Time Without Looking Back, determinedly lo-fi folk drone

Nov3l’s To Whom It May Concern, infectious modern post-punk jangle

Okonomiyaki Labs’ Blue Toast (edit), mischievous experimental bleepery by Japan-based former Pale Saint

Palais Schaumburg’s Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt, Neue Deutsche Welle post-punk angularity

Part Timer’s Nothing Changes, restrained modern classical vignette

Patrik Fitzgerald’s Tonight, acoustic punk poetry from back in the day

Pelopincho’s Puchos, exuberant two-chord indie from Argentina

Petrichor’s Petrichor Ten, charming minimal electronic sketch

Pet Shop Boys feat Example’s Thursday, scintillating hooky electropop

Piano Magic’s Dark Secrets Looking For Light, bleak post-rock balladry, as you may have inferred

Remington Super 60′s The Highway Again, luscious laidback jangle

Rico Loverde’s He’s A Wiardo, oddly funky electro experimentalism

Riton & Kah-Lo’s Fake ID, rough-around-the-edges funky house

Robert Rental & The Normal’s Live At West Runton Pavilion, incendiary live experimentalism from the lo-fi synth pioneers

Robjn’s Suburban Temple/Feel This Way (Corwood Manual remix), hauntological glitchpop, complete with captivating video

Rose Elinor Dougall’s Fallen Over, pleasingly brief loved-up pop

Roxy Girls’ Interjections, energetically catchy punk pop

Ruby Jaunt’s Jeune, haunting electronic indie

St Etienne’s Carnt Sleep, lovesickness + insomnia = popdub heaven

Saariselka’s Void, charming blend of ambient and folk Americana

Sector One’s Can Machines Be Sad?, delirious post-Kraftwerk synthpop

Six Microphones’ Overture & Part 1, minimal ambient experimentation

Slow Pulp’s New Media, melodic post-punk twang

Sobs’ Girl, tuneful indie jangle from Singapore

Spread Eagle’s Palatine Hill, distant, foggy Glaswegian indie

Stan Tracey Quartet’s Starless And Bible Black, extraordinary jazz tune inspired by Under Milk Wood

Steve Reich’s Come Out, ground-breaking tape loop experimentation

Sugar World’s Sad In Heaven, perfect rough-and-ready indie jangle

Surf Friends’ Outdoors, relentlessly upbeat guitar pop

Suicide’s Touch Me, can’t-break-the-spell synthpunk hypnotism

Susumu Yokota’s Grass, Tree & Stone, hypnotic cut-and-paste ambient by the late, great Yokota

Telefon Tel Aviv’s The Birds, hypnotic electronic glitch rock

Teleman’s Rivers In The Dark, winning melodicism from under-rated popsters

The Adverts’ The Great British Mistake, lost gem by punk legends

The Autumn Teen Sound’s Telegraph, Casiocore cover of OMD hit

The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness’ Close The Doors, laidback indie jangle

The Flirts’ Passion, trashy disco from early 80s New York

The Juan Maclean’s What Do You Feel Free About? (Man Power remix), driving techno-disco to get your party started

The Leaf Library’s Hissing Waves, lovely pastoral post-rock

The Screamers’ 122 Hours Of Fear (live at the Target), thrilling late 70s synthpunk

The Silicon Scientist’s Sinister Street, notably un-sinister vocoder-driven synthpop

The Slits’ Typical Girls, spiky post-punk pop

The Twin Roots’ Know Love, warm and soothing reggae deliciousness

The Wannadies’ You And Me Song, quiet-loud-quiet-loud indie classic

Thistle Group’s High, bittersweet solo tape loop experimentalism from New Zealand

Tiny Magnetic Pets ft Wolfgang Flür’s Radio On (Alice Hubble remix), dreamy electronics topped off with spoken word by ex-Kraftwerk legend

Tremelo Ghosts’ Paradise, sweetly lo-fi indie folk

Tvärtom’s Iltariennot, melancholy Finnish indie jangle

Utro’s Где-то там, hypnotic indie drone from Motorama spin-off act

VDOF’s Zooming In I Can Clearly See Your Heart Has Got Aliasing Issues, confident minimal electronic debut

Viktor Timofeev & Simon Werner’s Sphynx Cats Nuzzle, spookily experimental spoken word

Walt Thisney’s Shadows, delightful modern classical sketch

Will Burns & Hannah Peel’s Moth Book, charming blend of electronics and spoken word

William Doyle’s Millersdale, wide-eyed ballad inspired by the housing estates of England

Window Magic’s From Here Flows What You Call Time, pastoral found sound collage

Yazoo’s Midnight, killer-sweet electropop ballad

Yoshio Machida’s Synthi #04, whistling, gurgling, oddly pastoral electronic experimentalism

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The playlist for 2018 is here. The playlist for 2017 is here. The playlist for 2016 is here. The playlist for 2015 is here. The playlist for 2014 is here. The playlist for 2013 is here.

#folk #ambient #indie #indiepop #experimental #acoustic #electronic #synth #synthpop #electropop

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more--than--music · 5 years

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2018 Albums of the Year

Here’s my albums of the year. 2018 has been a brilliant year for music, and so I thought I’d lay out my favourite albums, and the reasons why they’re my favourites.

10: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Sex and Food

Kicking the list off at ten, we have the fourth full-length project from the New Zealand lo-fi psychedelic group Unknown Mortal Orchestra. An album that calls to mind at various points dusty late 70s grooves, 80s synth work and yet very modern production sensibilities, Sex and Food bounces between deeply introspective balladry, and funky danceable beats. A sure step forward for a band that only looks to become more experimental as time goes on.

9: Ben Howard – Noonday Dream

The Devon based singer-songwriter gives a compelling vision of the future of indie-folk with this transient and supremely accomplished set of songs. Taking a further stride away from the straightforward acoustic sound of 2011’s Every Kingdom, Noonday Dream shows an artist unafraid to utilise aspects of electronic and ambient music into his soundscapes, resulting in a transcendent, elegant, and above all beautiful set of tracks. The opening duo of Nica Libres At Dusk and Towing The Line are a particular high point.

8: Thom Yorke – Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film)

Surprisingly his first ever venture into soundtrack work, Thom Yorke’s masterful score for the Luca Guadagnino film of the same name could be in this list simply on the strength of its lead track; Suspirium is an otherworldly waltz, a spartan piano line presided over by Thom’s instantly recognisable vocals. But it is the deeper cuts for which this album earns its place; Open Again begins with a fingerpicked guitar progression that grows into a monolithic walk to the gallows and then fades out once more. A master at the height of his powers.

7: Sports Team – Winter Nets

Undoubtedly the least well-known name on this list, the debut EP from the London-based indie-pop outfit Sports Team has been one of my most played records yet this year. A cerebral mix of Jarvis Cocker-style lyricism preoccupied with the minutiae of suburban life, and pitch perfect indie rock arrangements teetering on the edge of chaos, this shows talent beyond their years; the only EP on this list, these five tracks managed to catch my attention early on, and have stayed with me through the year. Ones to watch.

6: MGMT – Little Dark Age

A name I would not have expected to see on this list at the start of the year, the comeback from the early 2000s electro-pop group is unexpectedly brilliant. Far from the runaway chart success of singles such as Electric Feel, Little Dark Age is full of tracks that could have been pulled from the dusty archives of pretty much any 80s synth bands, but combined with so many left-field production choices, and lyrics that belie a dark sensibility beneath the bright instrumentation, this album becomes a very mature release indeed. The single, Little Dark Age, is just magic. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

5: Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy

Bringing us into the second half of this list is Will Toledo’s project Car Seat Headrest, with a rerecorded, remastered version of his 2011 breakout album Twin Fantasy. Toledo’s DIY ethos calls to mind contemporary Kevin Parker, of Tame Impala, although the two go about their self-imposed individualism rather differently. Toledo’s recordings retain the lo-fi teen emotion of the original Twin Fantasy, while adding the production sensibilities of Toledo’s later Car Seat Headrest ventures, resulting in such a dizzying barrage of pitch perfect indie ballads that display mature, incisive and insightful lyricism. The peaks of the album slip off the rails in the most glorious way, and culminate in simple, honest, and resounding emotional resolutions. Few albums so perfectly capture the teenage experience... a brilliant achievement.

4: Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer

It will come to no surprise to those of you who know me that Josh Tillman has made his way into this list; I have been following Father John Misty since last year’s existential crisis of an album, Pure Comedy. But God’s Favorite Customer is an entirely different beast- aside from the single, Mr Tillman, the typical luscious arrangements of a usual Father John Misty album are conspicuously missing here. Gone are the chamber pop orchestras and parlour ballads; here is FJM with an acoustic guitar, a month’s stay in a hotel room, and some utterly shattering songwriting. Tillman has abandoned his lofty perch overseeing the human condition in favour of personal, painful lyrics that dissect a failing relationship in real time. Many of these songs are addressed to, or from the perspective of, Josh’s wife, Emma, and the narratives are as autobiographical as ever. But the key here is that Tillman has ceased to be just an observer of the phenomena he comments on; in God’s Favorite Customer he has no choice but to experience them from the inside, and it makes for devastating listening in places. However, Misty has not abandoned all hope; closer We're Only People (And There's Not Much Anyone Can Do About That) ends the album with a remarkably beautiful and optimistic look at humanity, and leaves you ready to emerge from the hotel room, blinking against the sunlight, into the outside world.

3: Blood Orange – Negro Swan

London born producer, multi-instrumentalist, and general prodigy Devont Hynes, has outdone himself on his fourth project under the moniker Blood Orange; Negro Swan represents exactly the kind of progressive song writing Hynes is so sought after in the pop world for, and brings together a beautiful collage of sounds and textures to produce an album that is so of the moment, it feels like a time capsule of today. Swan embraces diversity, revelling in a celebration of sexuality and identity that feels almost carnival-like in its embrace of so many aspects of modern R&B and Hip-Hop. On what other album can you find Puff Daddy monologuing about his own fear of being loved? This whole project is filled with moments such as this, with trans black activist Janet Mock providing a loose narrative thread tying the album together. But for me, the true highlight of this album is Hynes himself; a young black artist showcasing a striking talent that simply refuses to obey the laws of genre or society. The musical prowess on show is undeniable; in particular, Hynes’ guitar work is so accomplished, tracks such as Charcoal Baby are sheer joy to listen to because of it. The vocals on this record are equally impressive; comparisons will undoubtedly be drawn to Prince, although personally I see Hynes as akin to Frank Ocean, both showcasing a new vision for R&B in the 21st century, and Swan feels in many ways a sibling to Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde, in its transient nature and almost soundscape-like mixture of sounds and feelings. Negro Swan is a glorious celebration in which all expression is embraced, and no identity is off-limits. This is what all modern R&B should aspire to.

2: Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Those monkeys, eh? Four years after their last studio effort, with each member having done something entirely different (and accomplished, see Alex Turner with The Last Shadow Puppets, and Matt Helders on the latest Iggy Pop record) with their sabbatical, no one quite knew what shape their return would take. Recorded in London, Paris and Los Angeles, the sixth album from the band synonymous with early 00s indie could have taken quite a number of directions; furthering the slick arena rock of AM, delving deeper into the baroque pop offering the Last Shadow Puppets pursue, or perhaps even a return to their raucous indie rock roots. Naturally, they did none of the above. The first sign of their step in a different direction was a video they posted in mid-April, announcing a return with an eerie synth line and a fuzzy guitar lick; in hindsight it was the perfect segue into the TBH&C era, both a nod to the leather-clad rock of AM, and yet the space-age synths and fictional space resorts of Tranquility Base. And when the album did come? Oh boy. I’m not sure a release in 2018 divided fans quite like the Monkeys’ did. I’ve heard it variously described as “sheer genius”, “derivative retro nothing” and “f*cking lift music”. It really was that polarising. I’m sure that from its spot on this list you can guess which camp I fall into. From the go, the surreal lyricism of Alex Turner is front and centre, and the record is all the better for it. From surreal references to Kubrick film techniques, and obsession with sci-fi jargon, to ridiculous pastiches of Hollywood clichés, critics weren’t short of liner notes to unpick. But the key for me was the way that the album, as all great sci-fi does, comments on modern life through the lens of futurism, while also keeping you scratching your head the whole time. Furthermore, the actual songwriting is as good as ever, with Turner making a tune about a less than perfect review for a taquiera on the moon into the rhythmic centrepiece of the album. I do have to confess, I am slightly biased; I’m a lifelong AM fan, and I did see this performed live, which only deepened my admiration of it but truthfully- listen to this album. Then listen some more. And then some more again. Because when it clicks, you won’t experience anything else even remotely like it all year.

Bonus Round

These are albums that I discovered in 2018, but weren’t released this year… they deserved recognition along with the rest of these projects.

5: Frank Ocean – Endless

Frank Ocean is one of, if not the, best and most innovative artists working in modern R&B. That much is undisputed. But until 2018, despite being a huge Frank Ocean fan, I had neglected his 2016 visual album, Endless. Perhaps this was due to laziness, not having Apple Music, or perhaps it was because for me it was vastly overshadowed by the release of the seminal Blonde a few days later. Or maybe I simply thought a visual album wasn’t worth my time. Whatever the reason, I was a fool to overlook it. Endless is an ethereal journey through Ocean’s psyche, with a vast soundscape of beautiful, flowing synths and guitars. Furthermore, Endless features some of Ocean’s best rap work since Channel Orange. A truly beautiful project, and Higgs is, for me, Ocean’s most devastatingly sad track… further evidence that Frank doesn’t put a foot wrong.

4: Leonard Cohen: Songs Of Leonard Cohen

In 2016, the music world lost one of its most treasured talents, in the form of Leonard Cohen. However, although I have always been aware of Cohen’s work (Hallelujah, his inspiration of Nick Cave, The Last Shadow Puppets’ Is This What You Wanted cover), I had never taken the time to sit down and immerse myself in his work. Well, I was very much missing out. His cinematic, confessional storytelling, and his instantly recognisable voice and manner, mean that his songs are almost exactly the type of ballads I love, and Songs is his finest work. From start to end, you see the world through Cohen’s eyes. A poet.

3: King Krule: The OOZ

King Krule (real name: Archy Marshall) is a divisive artist; many see him as a visionary, however he is also, to many (including my dad) just “the one with the awful voice”. To me, Krule is a fantastic lyricist and producer, with an instantly recognisable sound. From the moment you enter The OOZ, you are in Marshall’s world, a London of grimy concrete and eerie loneliness. However, there are moments of beauty among the sluggish, smog-filled music; Slush Puppy, despite descending into madness near the end, is a really quite endearingly desperate performance. Cadet Limbo also shows off Krule’s more jazzy influences, and is all the better for it. A view into the future of singer-songwriting.

2: Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear

Josh Tillman has already featured on this list once, and it’s no secret I think he’s one of the best artists working today. However, until this year, I had never given his 2015 romantic opus, Honeybear, a proper listen. I was turned on to Misty by his 2017 work Pure Comedy, and after an existentialist view on all of Humanity, a romance album seemed like a step back, so I didn’t give it the time it deserved. How wrong I was. Honeybear is a beautiful, tender, and being an FJM record, deeply satirical and funny, look at love, relationships, and society. It features lush, beautiful arrangements, and gorgeous melodies, all delivered with Misty’s characteristic tongue-in-cheek smirk. Not one track on the album is dead space, and there are several high points, right from the start. Favourite for me is I Went To The Store One Day, which is a simple, yet incredibly beautiful and moving ballad to close the album. Stunning stuff indeed.

1: Everything Everything – A Fever Dream

I’ve known of Everything Everything for quite a while now, but in early 2017 I was gifted tickets to see them on their A Fever Dream tour, and it absolutely blew my mind. EE have crafted brilliant electronic indie music in the past, with catchy melodies and odd, skittering rhythms. However, A Fever Dream builds on this in the best possible way, building on their electronic sound and adding an even more fiercely of-the-moment view on songwriting. One of the highlights for me was Jonathan Higgs’ vocals, which electrified the music with a fierce intellect, and sparkling melodies. An ecstatic blend of so many musical styles, which results in a fantastic album. A masterpiece for today.

Okay, finally the main event. My album of the year 2018 is…

1: IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance.

Here we are then. Number one spot. And again, if you know me, you know there could never really have been any other album here. I first discovered IDLES earlier in the year, riding off the success of their breakout debut album Brutalism, an unstoppable punk locomotive of an album, with guitar and bass lines that are so, well, brutal, that they break down the door and hold you at gunpoint until you sit up and pay attention. This band is the perfect voice for austerity Britain, more mature than Slaves, more relevant than Sleaford Mods, and yet they walk an incredibly fine line. It’s almost impossible to define until you hear a band that possess it, but they simply make. So. Much. Sense. Joe Talbot talks with such a fiery intensity that it’s impossible not to listen, and an eloquence that is so often missing from punk. He’s so likeable, and oddly enough for punk, easy to listen to. However, don’t mistake that for the album lacking brutal riffs. Because it has those in spades. From the opening bass rumble of Colossus, JAAAOR picks you up by the scruff off your neck, and doesn’t put you down until the last manic notes of Rottweiler fade away. This is a rock record that defies rock, a punk record that doesn’t define itself as punk, and a political statement that bases its politics on the phrase “Love yourself.” This provides an infectious alternative to the toxic masculinity of so much mainstream rock, and a uniquely vulnerable take on an incredible variety of issues. Beginning with an immediate left-footing with Colossus, the album the catches its witty and caustic stride with Never Fight A Man With A Perm, going from strength to strength the whole time. I’ve never quite identified with a track lyrically as much as I’m Scum, a rallying call for liberals everywhere: “I'll sing at fascists 'til my head comes off, I am Dennis Skinner's Molotov / I'm lefty, I'm soft, I'm minimum wage job”and erupting into the chant of “this snowflake’s an avalanche”. It goes on to postulate about not caring about the next James Bond, as “we don’t need another murderous toff”. The next track is the joyous Danny Nedelko, an ode to Talbot’s friend, and frontman of Heavy Lungs, Danny Nedelko. It’s a quite magnificent celebration of immigration and diversity, and embodies the sentiment of the album as a whole quite simply with a roar of “Unity!”. Potent stuff. The next highlight (or rather lowlight) for me is the one-two punch of June and Samaritans. June is a singularly moving ode to Talbot’s stillborn daughter, building all the time to a non-existent crescendo, and repeating the six-word mantra “Baby shoes, for sale. Never worn.” Incredibly painful, raw and poignant; you feel as if you’re witnessing a moment that you really shouldn’t be, a would-be father grieving at the bedside. It then transitions into Samaritans, an anti-toxic masculinity manifesto, furious in its denial of male stereotypes: “Man up, sit down, chin up, pipe down”, and building relentlessly to sheer ecstasy of the decree: “I kissed a boy and I liked it”. Powerful, powerful stuff. Track eight, Television, is pinned down by a juddering riff complimented by the incredibly able drumming of Jon Beavis (a very much unsung hero of the group), and a wonderful self-love mantra. Moving on, Great is an anti-Brexit track than manages to reveal the hypocrisy of nationalism without ever moving into preachy politicism, which is Talbot’s greatest strength; he can make any point sound like the simplest and most honest declaration ever. Gram Rock and Cry To Me are witty, and the least overtly political tracks of the album; but even these apparent low points aren’t by any means stale, quite the opposite. Every moment of this record fizzes with energy. Finally, Joy rounds off with the magnificent Rottweiler, a searing discrediting of the UK media, ending in the wheels coming off as the tension built throughout the 42 minutes comes to a chaotic end, with Joe yelping “Unity!”over and over. I have one final thing to say about Joy; it’s production is pristine throughout, with clarity in even its most chaotic moments. This is my record of the year, because I feel no other record held my attention so completely, and was so representative of the sentiment of this year. Pure joy.

Well then, thanks for sticking with me. 2018’s been a belter of a year for music, and I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.

#2018 #albums of the year #unknown mortal orchestra #ben howard #thom yorke #sports team #mgmt #car seat headrest #father john misty #blood orange #arctic monkeys #idles

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kayliewrites · 2 years

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That list I talked about...

You’ve got it, babes.

BEHOLD, Kaylie’s List of Inspirationy Stuff!

[GIF ID: multicolored confetti falls on a white background]

These are the things that always give me a little creative kick in the pants. Maybe they’ll help you too! Add some books to your Goodreads or queue these up on Netflix... I hope you find some inspiration here, too.

MOVIES

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

The Secret Garden (1993)

A Little Princess (1995)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

The Princess Bride (1987)

Spirited Away (2001)

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Dan in Real Life (2007)

Finding Forrester (2000)

Stuck in Love (2012)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

BOOKS

Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

On Writing by Stephen King

Brain Storm by Don Hahn

Steering the Craft by Ursula LeGuin

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (and The Heroes of Olympus series) by Rick Riordan

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes by Cory O’Brien

The Shades of Magic Trilogy by V.E. Schwab

The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair

The Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

SHOWS/ANIME

Ouran High School Host Club

Fairy Tail (don’t worry, I’m not caught up either)

Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra

Danny Phantom

Teen Titans

Fullmetal Alchemist (and FMA Brotherhood)

Inuyasha

Adventure Time

Sailor Moon

ART

Cooking or Baking! (attempt a new recipe! make something up! what would people eat in your story? start there!)

Knitting something new! (tried a sweater last year and it was awful! Can’t wait to try again! maybe socks this time...)

Sketching/Drawing/Coloring! (draw your characters! color in a coloring book! learn about color theory!)

Painting! (try a new medium! experiment with gouache! learn watercolor techniques! use acrylics to paint a thrifted piece of furniture!)

Mixed media! (make a collage of your story! make scrapbook pages for your characters! and if you don’t have time/money/energy to thrift magazines, make Pinterest boards!)

Make playlists! (I use Spotify, but I make playlists for each of my stories, and sometimes playlists for each individual character. Try making one for your best friend or sibling for their next birthday!)

Photography! (phone cameras are amazing these days! go for a walk and take pictures of things you like, or find a prompt list/scavenger hunt online! you don’t need fancy schooling to know how to push a button!)

Visit a virtual art gallery! (with COVID happening, and even before, many galleries have virtual visits available on their websites!)

MUSIC

Infinity on High (by Fall Out Boy; album)

MOONCHILD (by NIKI; album)

Skin and Earth (by Lights; album with corresponding graphic novel)

Ever After (by Marianas Trench; album)

Any of Paramore’s albums. I love them all.

VIDEO GAMES

Kingdom Hearts (the most convoluted and confusing series of all time but I LOVE IT, OKAY?! KH3 can’t even ruin it for me)

Legend of Zelda (Minish Cap and Breath of the Wild are my favorites)

Hades (absolutely gorgeous and the story is FANTASTIC)

Immortals: Fenyx Rising (Like BotW but with Greek mythology!!!)

Well, this ended up longer than I expected... but you know what? It doesn’t matter. If it helps, it helps. Try something new this week, you majestic little bagel! I believe in you! Go get ‘em!

Love,

Kaylie

#writing inspiration #original post #book recommendations #movie recommendation #video games #creativity

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carolinerecords · 6 years

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ALTALENA FANZINE

Nell'Aprile 2017, a Bologna, nasce Altalena Fanzine, una giostrina che ti fa dondolare tra recensioni di locali o festival, playlist, foto, rubriche insolite ed interviste ad artisti e musicisti, sempre secondo un tema prefissato. Dentro ci si trova anche un colorato carosello di illustrazioni, poster, collage, poesie ed un’esplosione di grafiche bizzarre, così che non possono certo definirsi minimal :) E’ autoprodotta così come adesivi, spille e vari gadget “brutti” che potete comprare sul loro profilo Depop o ai loro banchetti in giro per la penisola. All’appello abbiamo: Stefania, ideatrice delle playlist e della rubrica “Stream of regazness”, Giulia, che si occupa delle grafiche digitali e crea tutti i ninnoli che portano ai banchetti, Roberta, cantastorie addetta alle recensioni e Camilla che realizza a mano tutti i collage. Sono anche su Instagram, Tumblr e Spotify @altalenafanzine.

1 - Ti svegli su un isola deserta. No panic: hai potuto portare con te tre cose e una di queste è un album.

- Stefania - Mi porto erba a sufficienza, il mio peluche di Charlie Brown e Carnavas dei Silversun Pickups perché quando lo ascolto sento male da dentro. Roberta - Una birretta, un'amaca e The dark side of the moon dei Pink Floyd. Camilla - Non so se portarmi gli Smiths per affrontare al peggio la solitudine o un best of di David Bowie, se là trovo un giradischi o affini funzionanti per il resto direi gran blocco da disegno e pastelli. Giulia - Mess dei Liars, la mia parrucca verde e glitter per il corpo.

2 - On the road : c'è un’ autoradio con dentro una musicassetta. Dentro ci sono almeno tre canzoni da cantare a finestrino aperto. - Stefania - Senza ombra di dubbio le tre canzoni sono A praise chorus dei Jimmy eat world, Mercy me degli Alkaline Trio e Waking up in Vegas di Katy Perry. Roberta - Looking out my back door dei Creedence clearwater revival, Bullet proof di La Roux, I feel love di Donna Summer e Psycho killer dei Talking heads. Camilla - King of the beach - Wavves Nove maggio - Liberato (eh si) T’appartengo - Ambra Angiolini. Giulia - I gelati sono buoni degli Skiantos, Secchio di Pop X e I miss you dei Blink 18.

3 - Hai rimandato, hai rimandato, ma oggi tocca a te. La playlist dal dentista per non sentire il trapano nelle orecchie. - Stefania - •Built to spill - going against your mind •plenty for all - hot snakes •a minute - shellac •mountain energy - the fall •pillars - sunny day real estate •manana desaparesidos •boxcar - jawbreaker •hope - descendents •no fun - the stooges •germs - we must bleed Roberta - Nofx, Storm{o}, Antares, Converge e Caninus. Camilla - I Fidlar a coprire finalmente Tiziano Ferro, la mia dentista ascolta solo lui nelle casse dello studio, un’esperienza ogni volta terribile. Giulia - "Oh ce li hai i biglietti" di Altalena Fanzine, la trovate su spotify

4 - Qual è il tuo memorabilia musicale a cui non potresti mai rinunciare?

- Stefania - Dookie dei Green day che mi masterizzó un caro amico d’infanzia. Stampó la copertina a colori ma riportó illustrazioni e testi all’interno ridisegnandoli a mano lui su un altro libretto. Roberta - Grace, la mia chitarra acustica recuperata dalla spazzatura, col suo sporco blues. Camilla - Il plettro dei Naked and Famous. Giulia - La mini cassettina giocattolo con Survivor delle Destiny’s Child

5 - Guilty Pleasure : quella canzone che ti fa vergognare, ma che non puoi proprio fare a meno di ascoltare. - Stefania - ...Greygoose di Cesare Cremonini... e non me ne vergogno neanche troppo. Roberta - Roma-Bangkok di Baby K ft. Giusy Ferreri. Camilla - Una qualsiasi di Gigi Dag, ma anche io vergogna ormai zero. Giulia - Tu t'e scurdat' 'e me, Liberato ( sì, lo so). 6 - Film o serie tv : questa volta sceglilo per la colonna sonora. - Stefania - Ovviamente Gilmore girls la serie e Juno il film. Roberta - The Deuce. Camilla - Arancia meccanica di Kubrick. Giulia - Death proof. 7 - La chiavetta nello spazio : la band o il musicista di cui la terra non ha proprio bisogno. - Stefania - Suppongo Elettra Lamborghini. Roberta - Cosmo. Camilla - Alanis Morrisette. Giulia - Direi Sferaebbasta? (si chiama così?) 8 - Il 1999 per noi Caroline Records è stato l'anno in cui abbiamo cominciato a diventare quello che musicalmente siamo oggi: tu a che punto eri? - Stefania - Io vivevo ancora a Torino e avevo 9 anni! La mia cultura musicale credo che oscillasse tra le sigle dei cartoni, gli aqua e musica dance alla eiffel 65. Roberta - Io cantavo le sigle dei cartoni animati sul palco di un villaggio sperduto nel Montefeltro. Camilla - Ero piccolissima e per me la musica era solo Festivalbar e Anastacia (!) Giulia - Io probabilmente stavo ancora ascoltando "hanno ucciso l'uomo ragno" degli 883.

9 - E invece un album degli ultimi 12 mesi che tutti dovrebbero ascoltare? - Stefania - Science fiction dei brand new non mi ha delusa, grazie brand new. Roberta - "Stop making fans" di B. Fleischmann. Camilla - Parabolabandit di Sequoyah Tiger. Giulia - Brutalism, Idles. 10 - Dal vivo: il miglior concerto che hai visto, quello che rimpiangi di aver perso e quello che non vuoi assolutamente perdere. - Stefania - •I Circa Survive all’house of blues di San Diego hanno raggiunto un alto livello di pathos quella sera. •Rimpiango di non aver visto qualunque concerto del giovane Elvis. •Il 22 aprile alla Tenda voglio spararmi qualche singalong alla vecchia con i Tiny moving parts. Roberta - Miglior concerto: Queens of the Stone Age al Primavera Sound di Barcellona nel 2014 Che rimpiango: David Bowie Che non perderò: Tom Waits. Camilla - È dura, migliore forse i Vaccines forse Jake Bugg forse i Foals forse i Kills, non riesco a decidere o forse il concerto della vita deve ancora arrivare. Rimpianti mai che se no anche qui non so da dove cominciare e non vedo l’ora di vedere Pupo a Montecatini accompagnando mia madre :-))) Giulia - Probabilmente i Soulwax a Saint Malo, rinpiango Kevin Morby e non mi perderò ASSOLUTAMENTE Ruggero dei Timidi.

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mooncobs · 4 years

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Jacob Wallpaper

#jacob bae #tbz jacob #kevin moon #tbz kevin #tbz wallpaper #tbz lockscreen #the boyz #tbz collage #the boyz wallpaper #the boyz lockscreen #kpop wallpaper #kpop lockscreen #kpopwallpapers

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trippingonroads-blog1 · 5 years

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Teotihuacan

The final day: Los piramides de Teotihuacan. We booked a tour through TripAdvisor and set it on our last day based on the recommendation from one of Lindsay’s friends who said it’s a pretty exhausting half day that can have lingering effects on the creaky and weak like us.

We left the Airbnb a little before 6 AM to walk to the tour bus pickup spot at a hotel about 15 minutes away. Every city puts its funniest hats on before dawn and Mexico City is no exception. Mini rush hour, although the rush better described the pace of the vehicles on the road, not the amount. A few early-rising street vendors setting up their tents and starting to boil hot water for coffee and lay out the day’s ingredients. Finely dressed people stumbling from their cars to their apartments, truly inexplicable to us on a Monday morning.

There were a few people sitting outside the hotel when we arrived, a massive relief for Lindsay who had read a couple of reviews that said the bus had failed to show up in the past. Sure enough, at 6:20 on the nose it pulled up and 40 or so of us piled on in an early morning bilingual daze.

Leaving Mexico City isn’t easy and by the time the bus pulled onto the freeway, the sun had come up and the neighborhoods began to look a whole lot more like what we usually see in American media. One of our guides, Gerson, a boisterous, cheery performer with a squeaking rubber chicken in his shirt pocket, explained with glee that 12 million people lived in these neighborhoods and the favelas we were soon to pass on the highway. Million! Almost double the population of the state of Massachusetts in an area about 20 square kilometers.

“No es Roma Norte, La Condesa… eso es el Mexico verdad!”

He joked that the favelas of Mexico aren’t the favelas of Brazil, where you can sit and have a coffee, eat some street food, and admire the poverty. In Mexico, the favelas are dangerous as hell. My only knowledge of Brazilian favelas comes from the movie “City of God” and they sure look pretty dangerous to me but I don’t know enough to comment one way or the other. Gerson seemed almost proud of that danger and as we traveled away from the last vestiges of urban Mexico City, he told us to get our cameras ready. While the favelas of Mexico City are rough, Gerson energetically hyped the destitution of the upcoming ones on the outskirts, lining the mountains along the highway, like a seal handler at Sea World.

“Cameras! Cameras!” He insisted we document the poverty. Grim, but to be fair, destitution’s beauty is a shocking, photogenic irony.

The mountains outside the city are doused in a favela collage of teal, pink, yellow, blue, and grey while the fittest green emerges near the peaks, resiliently staying the hand of human advance. Wide avenues span up and down like ski slopes between the stucco cracks. Beyond the roads, it’s nearly impossible to tell where one wall ends and another begins, turning the hillside into an elaborate canvas. You tend not to wonder who’s inside the buildings in paintings; you wonder less in reality. I wondered where the grocery stores were.

About 45 minutes later, we pulled into a red dirt parking lot at Teotihuacan and split into English and Spanish tour groups. Our English group, surprisingly, was mostly comprised of non-Americans. Danish, Scottish, Israeli, Canadian, Australian, Italian… only five Americans out of 17 people. Kevin, our more-straightlaced-than-Gerson tour guide, spoke the most English of anyone we’d met all week and, dangit, the man knew his stuff.

I’ll hold off on trying to describe the city of Teotihuacan too much because, like the Grand Canyon, it’s really too magnificent to explain. The preserved area that you can see today is only about one-seventh the size of the original city at its peak around 800 AD, and it’s still mind-boggling to consider how an ancient civilization could construct such an enormous, sophisticated city with only stone tools.

The city features three primary pyramids, built at the head of vast public spaces that had varying uses over time. The Pyramid of Quetzacoatl stands on one end of the park, the Pyramid of the Moon stands at the other, connected by a 3-kilometer-long pathway dotted by sunken public spaces and surrounded by the ruins of family homes and workshops. The Pyramid of the Sun, one of the largest pyramids in North America at 64 meters tall, stands about 30 meters from that pathway, called the Avenue of the Dead.

The pyramids, as you could probably surmise, were built to honor kings and originally held temples at the top, where royalty and nobility would confer with the gods and demonstrate their hegemony over the public. In the middle of the squares sat elevated platforms where shamans performed human sacrifices of war prisoners and children (because they’re pure) to appease the gods. Once upon a time, the squares and pyramids were painted red and constructed with gargoyle-esque symbols and the faces of gods and animals. They’re imposing and beautiful now; they’d definitely make you believe in the celestial more than one thousand years ago.

Contrary to what you might think, Teotihuacan was not built by the Aztecs. It was built by a people called Teotihuacanos, about whom not a whole lot is definitively known. Mayans and Aztecs both lived in Teotihuacan at different times but they mostly pillaged the city of all of its riches years after the Teotihuacanos evacuated it under mysterious circumstances. Some archaeologists think the San Juan River dried up, depriving them of a primary water source and their main sewage outlet. (Yes, they built a subterranean sewage system in the 6th fucking century.) Some say a civil war purged the population and the varying tribes moved in separate directions.

What is known is that the pyramids we see today are the final product of a series of escalating pettiness. After a new king took over, he’d build pyramids on top of the existing ones just to show he was bigger and badder than the previous guy. As such, the Pyramid of the Sun contains six smaller pyramids within it. Unlike the Egyptians, Teotihuacanos didn’t use pyramids as tombs. They were built to become closer to the gods and display a king’s power. In some, the innermost pyramid was used as a vault for riches. Of course, by the time archaeologists excavated these vaults, they had been picked over by the Aztecs who only left behind the stuff they didn’t want. Hence why it’s hard to know much about the Teohituacanos: A bunch of assholes pillaged their history. Sound familiar?

Another thing we learned is that Teotihuacanos ate turkeys. Extension: There are turkeys in Mexico! I had no idea. On the walk between pyramids, I asked Kevin about the Teotihuacano diet and what the marketplace might have looked like and he gave me an extensive answer that attracted a few of the solo travelers to gather around as we walked.

One, an older American woman we had seen throughout the day trying to talk to anyone who would listen to her, caught on to the turkey bit. Turns out, this lady despises turkeys. According to her, they’ve become a scourge in Northern California (I called that this lady was from the Bay Area the second I heard her speak) and are “taking over.” Lindsay nor I had ever heard of turkeys in California so when this was happening, we bowed out of the conversation to look at each other and say “what the f is she talking about?” Googling later, turkeys have apparently become one of the most prominent non-native species in California over the last decade or so. Who knew!

Anyway, we didn’t know that at the time, which is why it was exceedingly difficult to keep from laughing while this lady exhorted her vitriolic fucking hatred for turkeys.

“They’re constantly in my yard, they’re everywhere. One of them scratched my son and he’s got a scar down his forearm. I had to put up a six-foot fence just to keep them off my property!”

I imagined a spiked wood fence, painted red in the blood of foolhardy turkeys, the points adorned with freshly decapitated turkey heads and a sign outside that read in red “Gobble gobble gob gob gobble dee goo” with English translation in Helvetica beneath: “Turkeys who cross pay the ultimate price.”

But then she said you aren’t allowed to shoot them. Nobody is listening to her at this point as she exclaims what an outrage it is that you can’t kill them on your own property. Lindsay and I drop jaws at one another in amusement as I realize, “Holy shit, I was just doing an imagination joke but this lady has definitely fantasized about turning her home into a turkey slaughterhouse.” But the God damn guvrnmint say she cain’t shoot what been trispassin’ on her pro’pty! (Based on my subsequent eavesdropping, she lives in Marin County, is married to a 76 year-old Mexican man, is the self-proclaimed most adventurous member of her family, has bad knees because she played soccer in college forty years ago, and was on this trip to “discover her husband’s heritage” which baldly means she’s bored by her own Western European heritage and needs to have some more culturally interesting things to say about herself at the next garden party. There is no doubt in my mind that she’s a bleeding heart liberal and would never bluntly denounce government overreach but I couldn’t help giving her a pissed off Southern accent.)

Nobody else on the tour was quite so interesting as to have a vendetta against a species of bird but we did meet two nice Canadians (duh) at the tequila tasting and buffet lunch after the tour. They were sisters, doing a catch-up vaca together, and were heading to Los Angeles after their stay in Mexico City. We gave them a few recommendations and when I was at the buffet for seconds, Lindsay discovered that their Airbnb was in our same building. I told you it was all Airbnbs! We walked home with them from the hotel drop-off.

Yes, we made it to the top of all the pyramids if you were wondering, so we were pretty beat when we got back to the apartment. However, my friend Kira lives in Mexico City now and she reached out to see if we wanted to get dinner. We did but it took some effort.

All for the best, though, as Kira picked the place — Taquitos Frontera — and we had yet another amazing taco night. Kira’s been in CDMX for two years, teaching some of the country’s wealthiest, most spoiled middle schoolers at an American school. She had some high school Spanish under her belt when she moved but she’s been pretty much learning on the job and kicking ass living abroad. I hadn’t seen her in five years and it was very cool to see how much she was loving being in the midst of this incredibly bold life decision.

After dinner, we got consuelitos — ice cream sandwiches made with cookies and cream ice cream and mini circular churros — and then caught an Uber home. We were asleep by 9:30.

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healingmoonlight · 7 years

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July 5 - July 12 ♡

my stay in London was amazing and I thought I’d share a little about each day of my stay ♡ Of course I was there mainly for Vivien, and there was just so much, but I referenced my journals and picked out some hi lights <3 ♡

July 5 - My Mamita and me arrived in London late at night; on the plane I watched Beauty&TheBeast 2017, read my Vivien book, and listened to Taylor Swift ♡

July 6 - National Portrait Gallery day ♡ We met everyone a part of the Vivien Leigh Circle and received a beautiful welcome Vivien tote bag, pin, schedules & such! I found Viv’s portrait in the gallery and even other OH stars (like JoJo Baker!) Me and my mum ate lunch at a pretty little French cafe decorated with vintage French posters ♡ I bought Vivien postcards from the Gallery, and we went to the afternoon lecture with Adrian Woodhouse (when I got his signature!!) and saw so many photos I have never seen of Viv. Then we viewed the Gallery archives of Viv and again saw many photos&clippings of Viv I’ve never seen <33 After we saw Buckingham Palace! <33

July 7 - Dear Vivien rest in peace ♡ V&A Blythe House Vivien archives viewings ♡ Saw SO much (btw I took photos of literally everything I saw this whole week!) Things we got to see include Gertrude Hartley’s Vivien scrapbooks, her beautiful head piece she wore in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Vivien’s journals, and letters Vivien wrote and received ♡ We also saw 2 3D slides of Vivien and they were so amazing it looked as if Viv was right there </3 For lunch me and mum went to another cute outdoor Paris cafe <3 We saw Big Ben, I tried my first gin&tonic (Viv’s fave drink) and it was so good omg. At night was the evening memorial at St.Paul’s “Actor’s” Church. It was so beautiful, my heart was so happy and everyone was there for Vivien <3 The Church was filled with beautiful Vivien photos and white roses, we had champagne to cheers to Vivien, and I even met Tarquin Olivier (who called me pretty and I almost died) and he signed my program <33 almost full moon tonight <3

July 8 - Walking tour around London of Vivien related sights <3 We visited Durham Cottage, Waterloo Bridge, Eaton Square, the Old Vic, and many theaters <33 We all had white roses and photos of Vivien; My mom and me met another mother/daughter fans and we had lunch with them... we met so many people and fans and everyone was so lovely, I miss them all so much. Later that day I met a black cat with striking green eyes and he sat in my lap <33 Also we had watermelon margaritas :**)

July 9 - “Loving Vivien Leigh” at Queen Mary University - The love we all have for Vivien is just so amazing. We listened to lectures from Vivien authors, and people who personally met and knew Vivien, we all made collages of answers to why we love Vivien and such <3 we had tea and finger foods and Kendra Bean signed my Vivien Leigh book <3 The show and tell was absolutely incredible. It was full of costumes, letters, theater programs, magazines, photos, videos, fan art, dolls .... too amazing ♡ Tonight I had fish and chips, hot peanuts, visited Harrods <33

July 10 - Visit to Notley Abbey - before leaving I got myself a pretty pink shawl! Notley Abbey was so magical and beautiful. It was Alejandro&Kevin’s wedding anniversary, and they married at Notley, so it was extra special! seeing photos of how Vivien decorated Notley comparing them to how it looks today was so surreal. We had tea and biscuits, toured the grounds, and had a lovely day all together. We went out for a group dinner, saw new photos of Vvien’s beloved Tickerage Mill (which I sadly could not attend to see the following day) and visited a Vivien ground mosaic ♡

July 11 - last day in London - Visited the V&A to see Vivien costumes and such <33 Saw her Duel of Angels Christian Dior gown, Caesar and Cleopatra headdress and costume sketch, and a little archive viewing display <3 After, we got to experience some England rain and had high tea in a gorgeous Italian cafe (I had sweet peach for Scarlett!) We finished up some shopping and went to The Ivy for dinner <3 (where Vivien would go to eat when she was just beginning theater shows) and had Sheppherd’s pie with pink rose and cappuccino after.

July 12 - Traveling back to NY I watched Julie and Julia the film and had Darjeeling tea for Viv <33

#mine #Vivien Leigh

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spotlightsaga · 7 years

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... This Is Us (S01E16) Memphis Airdate: February 21, 2017 @nbctv Ratings: 9.354 Million :: 2.48 18-49 Demo Share Score: 9.5/10 **********SPOILERS BELOW********** AGGGH! I want to just scream, but I can't because of the tears. If one episode of 'This Is Us' has made me 'ugly cry' the hardest, so far its 'Memphis'. I might need a minute to emotionally adjust and calm down to get through this review because I promise you I'll be crying while I'm writing. The show has given me another chance to parallel some feelings and experiences (and lack of ones) with Randall and William, and I won't let it pass me by. Both men have been given such a rare opportunity, Randall was given a rare chance to connect with his biological father and was able to explore that relationship in depth and even take one last ride with the man. William was given a rare chance of redemption... Something that doesn't often present itself in our lives, not like the way it did in William's. I'd like to think it was because William has good soul and underneath all the pain, regret, addiction, and lost dreams... There was a beautiful man who loved and felt very, very deeply. Sometimes, those of us who feel those emotions in such a volcanic & visceral way, end up masking that intensity or running from it because they seem to be inexpressible. From the very start of 'This Is Us', I felt an immediate connection to Randall. The Randall-centric episodes gave me a chance to explore a possibility, or maybe live a fairy tale, and also truly put some emotions into words about my feelings towards my own abandonment by my father and explore feelings I didn't know were in there. If you've been following along with me on our Website, TVShowTime, Twitter, or Tumblr (and now our Facebook page), The Trip' S01E09 was where I really just RELEASED and not only connected with Randall feeling like an outsider in his own adopted family, trying to find his place, but also dealing with the absence of my father and the grief of losing a loved one who was my connection to that part of me. I made some statements in that piece that my mother read and was upset by, I want to make it clear that tho my mother and I do have a strained relationship at times, I love her deeply and know that sacrifices she made having me at such a young age, early in her high school years. She could've made the problem go away, she could've not given me the chance for life, but she did and by doing so risked her own future and made her own ride through life even more turbulent. And even tho we live our lives very differently, I will be forever grateful for the life she gave me. Watching her struggle through high school, then leaving me behind while she went to college, coming back for me and going from poor apartment life, struggling through our step fathers addiction and subsequent & extremely inspiring recovery, to them both rising from ashes as both being independent & successful business owners has been almost intimidating for me as their son. Yeah they've made incredible mistakes, parenting mistakes, along the way, but we are human and their fighting spirit in life is inspirational and I hope to one day even come close to achieving what they have in their lives. Like Rebecca, who did not appear in this episode my mother was extremely apprehensive (that's probably not a strong enough word) about me meeting my biological grandparents... But I think the worry truly lied in the possibility of somewhere down the line meeting my biological father. Since I've already covered the subject, I'll leave it at this, but I needed to set some things straight as I continue the parallel. Many people reached out to me after writing that piece on 'The Trip' and a few other extremely naked and raw pieces, letting me know that they had gone through something similar. Somehow it's comforting to know that throughout this universe that my brothers and sisters who reached out to me from France, Brazil, The UK, Spain, Iran, and several other countries are connected to me through a similar struggle. A struggle we also are connected with through Randall, who actor Sterling K Brown has really made come to life. He's incredible and without his vulnerable and incredibly powerful performance as well as Ron Cephas Jones who also gave us an award worthy, captivating presentation as William, this just wouldn't have popped and have given us such a deeply affecting experience. This last hurrah with William, this trip to Memphis, a trip that Beth wasn't exactly on board with (as we saw in she and Randall's heated, but equally adorable back in forth in Doctor/therapeutic consultation) was the perfect leg to end this arc on. Knowing that there wasn't much time left to live, they set out on their cathartic road trip journey, something I myself am in need of as of late... Giving William the chance to go back home to face his demons, make amends, and live like nothing was wrong one last time... And giving Randall the chance to meet extended family, to trace his roots he'd only been able to dream about since he was a boy. For most of us this will never happen, I'm in my 30's and still waiting on that phone call or email from my father, but it hasn't come, and I don't know if it ever will, so watching it happen is like vicariously living through Randall. It's surreal. As they start the trip Randall says they won't be using GPS and pulls out a bunch of maps to which William promptly throws out the window... Yup, "Just drive, son... We'll get there." Truer words have never been spoken. They really captured that freeing road trip experience, an empty road as they forged ahead, surrounded by trees on either side, bright grassy medians, and windows down, wind blowing through their souls... There's something so cleansing, so purifying about a road trip. And as they followed the winding highways and byways to Memphis, we saw William's own timeline paralleled as his walk in life was explained... The show had started with his birth and then we saw that his father was killed leaving him with a single mother... The trip started with his mother seeing him off to explore his music and art to see if he could spread his wings the way that she knew he had it in him. Let's be clear, success isn't defined by the house you have, the things you sell... It's defined by the people you touch and whether or not you leave this plane of existence with a smile on your face. Randall and William traded stories about their lives, Randall talked about Jack Pearson, the myth, not necessarily the man, and how he used to calm him down through his debilitating panic attacks. At this point in the episode I had probably welled up with tears at least twice... Ok maybe three times, or possibly four. William wanted to know more about Jack and I just love hearing the three 'children' talking about Jack. When one of close loved ones passes we start to forget the bad and remember all the amazing things they did, the little things that brought us joy, relief, or just smiles. This is how we immortalize our lost ones, we all are terribly faulted, and if you can't look back and smile at a fault then it's probably not worth remembering. It's a human condition thing, I don't know if it's right, but it's what we do. I miss the long talks with my Aunt, who was more of my sister than anything, she'd talk to me on the phone for hours as I moved across country looking for a place I could call home. She always fantasized and pushed for me to come live with her, but we both knew I belonged somewhere far away. I remember when I was very little she would play on the piano and sing... My favorite was when she would sing Bette Middler songs... But she could do everything from 'Guns N Roses' to Power Ballads. She introduced me to music and we would sit in her room for hours and she'd write down and memorize every lyric to every song... Poison, Whitesnake, REM, Tesla, Joan Jett, Tone-Loc, nothing was off limits What I wouldn't give for some of those pieces of paper. I'd probably collage them out into a piece of artwork, but they are long gone. You never think about those things then because you don't think that one day they'll unexpectedly leave you. I pretty much knew that when William suggested that they drive a half a day out of the way to pay respects to Jack, that he knew this was his last trip. His speech to Jack's official resting place, where he says 'I would've liked to have met his son's father' had me in knots. To all of you out there like Randall, like me, who missed out on their real life blood father, I hope you get your redemption story. I hope that you are able to meet your cousins and your brothers and sisters. I hope that you don't just get to meet them once and swap an email or meaningless Facebook posts every once in a blue moon. I hope that what we are seeing in 'Memphis' is a possibility and not just a fairy tale, manipulating our emotions on NBC. We all deserve closure and to all the lost fathers, lost mothers, I don't care what you've done... You all deserve redemption. But you can't just sit back and hide in fear of get stuck in your feelings, frozen in their icy hold. You have to reach out. You have to make a call. You have to tell your sons and your daughters that deserve to hear you say that you're sorry, or you did what you thought was best... Whatever it may be. You might not get your Memphis, but even if you receive a emotionally charged reaction.... Anger, Sadness. Relief, Fear (and whatever else is controlling us from the inside like in the existential Disney/Pixar masterpiece 'Inside Out'), you owe it to your children and you owe it to yourself to just say something, anything at all.

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correct-opinions · 7 years

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The Top 60 Tracks of 2016

60. Memoryhouse, “Dream Shake”

From Soft Hate

59. Mike Posner, “I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix)”

From At Night, Alone.

58. Dec 99th, “HYMN”

From HYMN – Single

57. Chairlift, “Crying in Public”

From Moth

56. Drugdealer, “Suddenly” [ft. Weyes Blood]

From The End of Comedy

55. Father John Misty, “Real Love Baby”

From Real Love Baby – Single

54. Alicia Keys, “In Common”

From Here

53. Wild Nothing, “Life of Pause”

From Life of Pause

52. Lindstrøm, “Closing Shot”

From Closing Shot – Single

51. Radiohead, “True Love Waits”

From A Moon Shaped Pool

50. The xx, “On Hold”

From I See You

49. Kanye West, “Real Friends”

From The Life of Pablo

48. Cameron Avery, “C’est Toi”

From C’est Toi – Single

47. Lady Gaga, “Joanne”

From Joanne

46. Santigold, “Banshee”

From 99¢

45. Bibio, “Wren Tails”

From A Mineral Love

44. The Japanese House, “Face Like Thunder”

From Swim Against the Tide EP

43. Chance the Rapper, “Same Drugs”

From Coloring Book

42. The Avalanches, “If I Was a Folkstar”

From Wildflower

41. Pinegrove, “Aphasia”

From Cardinal

40. Drake, “Controlla”

From VIEWS

39. Carly Rae Jepsen, “The One”

From E•MO•TION: Side B

38. AraabMuzik, “Chasing Pirates” [ft. Raiche]

From Dream World

37. Fat Joe & Remy Ma, “All The Way Up” [ft. French Montana & Infrared]

From Plata O Plomo

36. Kevin Morby, “Dorothy”

From Singing Saw

35. The Chainsmokers, “Closer” [ft. Halsey]

From Collage

34. Frank Ocean, “Self Control”

From Blonde

33. Roosevelt, “Colours”

From Roosevelt

32. Weyes Blood, “Generation Why”

From Front Row Seat to Earth

31. Ada, “You and Me”

From DJ Koze Presents Pampa Vol. 1

30. The Weeknd, “Secrets”

From Starboy

29. How to Dress Well, “Salt Song”

From Care

28. Beyoncé, “All Night”

From Lemonade

27. Angel Olsen, “Shut Up Kiss Me”

From My Woman

26. Drake, “Feel No Ways”

From VIEWS

25. Aurora, “I Went Too Far”

From All My Demons Greet Me as a Friend

24. Regina Spektor, “Older and Taller”

From Remember Us to Life

23. Poolside, “And the Sea”

From And the Sea – Single

22. Bon Iver, “33 ‘GOD’”

From 22, A Million

21. Lucy Dacus, “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore”

From No Burden

20. Acid Pauli, “Nana”

From DJ Koze Presents Pampa Vol. 1

19. Kanye West, “Feedback”

From The Life of Pablo

18. Flume, “Never Be Like You” [ft. Kai]

From Skin

17. Rihanna, “Higher”

From ANTI

16. Angel Olsen, “Sister”

From My Woman

15. Roosevelt, “Night Moves”

From Roosevelt

14. Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam, “A 1000 Times”

From I Had a Dream That You Were Mine

13. Jon Bellion, “Guillotine” [ft. Travis Mendes]

From The Human Condition

12. Kaytranada, “Lite Spots”

From 99.9%

11. Charlie Puth, “We Don’t Talk Anymore” [ft. Selena Gomez]

From Nine Track Mind

10. Jonathan Morali, “Golden Hour”

From Life Is Strange OST

9. Whitney, “No Woman”

From Light Upon the Lake

8. Drake, “Too Good” [ft. Rihanna]

From VIEWS

7. The 1975, “Somebody Else”

From I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it

6. Angel Olsen, “Never Be Mine”

From My Woman

5. Rihanna, “Work” [ft. Drake]

From ANTI

4. The Avalanches, “Saturday Night Inside Out”

From Wildflower

3. Ariana Grande, “Into You”

From Dangerous Woman

2. Whitney, “No Matter Where We Go”

From Light Upon the Lake

1. Mitski, “Your Best American Girl”

From Puberty 2

Honorable Mention:

Frank Ocean, “Pink + White”

Andy Shauf, “The Worst In You”

Chance the Rapper, “All Night” [ft. Knox Fortune]

Foxygen, “America”

Cass McCombs, “Bum Bum Bum”

Beyoncé, “Sorry”

Meghan Trainor, “Better” [ft. Yo Gotti]

Camp Cope, “Flesh and Electricity”

Joey Purp, “Girls@” [ft. Chance the Rapper]

case/lang/veirs, “Atomic Number”

Bibi Bourelly, “Sally”

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