#sally reed you will always be loved by me!

[zilabee]

Just stumbled on this brilliant post over on Meet The Beatles For Real. It's a german article in Bravo Magazine interviewing the women that worked at Apple. The wonderful keeper of mtbfr then typed the whole lot out and google translated it into english - all love to her for the wonderful work she does on that site.

I've not copied all of it over here, just my favourite bits... but that is most of the bits.

Janet Lumley - Kitchen maid (16) I have been cooking for the Beatles for half a year.   It is fantastic.   I cook just as carefully for the four of them as I do for my own family. John is the pickiest, he is vegetarian. Paul is the hungriest and has even brought his plate back to tell us how good it tasted to him.

Sally Burgess - Press Secretary (21) John, Paul, George and Ringo only have young, funny and talented people around and it flatters me to be a part of it. Although we work hard, the atmosphere is casual and fun, better than any other company in the world. And every day something new happens.  You must learn to quickly adapt to any situation. Once however, it even became too much for me and I just crawled under my desk.

Debbie Wellum - Receptionist (20) I have decided that I have the most exciting Apple job. I have to catch all the teenagers who want to speak to my bosses.  Recently, a group of Italian scouts were here, all of whom claimed to be cousins ​​of George Harrison.  But I didn’t fall for such a dirty trick.  I wouldn’t trade in my bosses for anyone else in the world, even if they had really had so many cousins!

Sally Reed - Secretary (20) I've been a Beatle fan before I started here eight months ago. The four are no longer for me, but I've learned to respect them as businessmen and superiors. I work in the production department; the Beatles are always nice and easy going, even if everything else is wobbling around them. They have a professional attitude which is a very different attitude to these things than a normal human; sometimes I wish I could have some of that.

Dee Meehan - Assistant (25) I have to listen to all the tapes that are sent to the Beatles from people who want to make a career out of music.   A tough job, but whoever has worked in the pop industry, knows what is going on, especially if you have the Beatles as bosses. Paul is the best; he always knows exactly what he wants. George and Ringo are always nice and polite, but sometimes John gets on my nerves. But he has improved a lot recently.

Amanda Hull - Tea cook (39) I am responsible  for tea and coffee, which  is used a lot with us, because Apple is a hospitable house. In a little chamber, I have a two burner stove, on which is always a pot of water and a pot of coffee standing. The tea is always fresh, otherwise it will be bitter. With Paul, I make sure that he does not get too much sugar. This is not good for his future children.

Linda Bristow - Assistant Publisher (22) I work for Apple music publishing. Of course I'm a Beatles fan, but I do not fall into a swoon every time they come through the door. Just to be a fan is not enough for a job at Apple. There is plenty to do and you have to know something too. But as for us, we are paid well and have the best bosses in the world. My favourite boss is George. He is for me the most beautiful thing. But I cannot tell him - because he would be pissed.

Carol Padden - Press Secretary (23) Of course, I'm a Beatles fan. Who isn’t? It's easy to work for such pleasant, young handsome men instead of old thick, bad-tempered men who are constantly, trying to flirt with you. Such a thing does not exist in the Beatles.   I have never heard any girls complain that one of the Beatles had flirted with her!

Barbara Bennet - Secretary (24) My best experience with Apple was when Paul gave me a little Yorkshire terrier.  He had heard me gushing to a colleague about this breed, and a few days later he had one in tow. But once when I visited my friend Colin Peterson the terrier ran into the city by himself.  I never saw him again, although I'd put up a lot of ads.

#I love Sally Reed - “the four are no longer for me...” #(I love that she respects them as businessmen) #I love Sally Burgess - “I just crawled under my desk” #I love Dee Meehan - “John gets on my nerves” #I love Amanda Hull - “Apple is a hospitable house” #(I love her being weird about Paul) #everyone here is fantastic no criticism well done and long live #bravo magazine #the beatles #meet the beatles for real #beatles #apple

[thekimspoblog]

This blog's main blorbos:

Kim Wexler: She needs a sequel!!!

Jimmy McGill: He's just Ken.

William Delos: "I can fix him" becomes very literal.

Dolores Abernathy: 10/10 girlboss. Got to see her revolution through to the end. Morally gray in a way that didn't feel like centrism pulling its punches. No notes. Please teach Kim how to shoot a gun.

Love Quinn: She deserved so much better. A single episode of hearing her unhinged internal monologue was insufficient. I wish she had killed Joe and been the POV for Season 4. Kim's frenemy.

Rose Quartz: A crusader who puts all her friends and family on the line for the "greater good"? If you haven't noticed the theme yet, this is very much a "support women's wrongs" kind of blog.

Ruby+Sapphire/Garnet: She should be Jimmy and Kim's marriage counselor. She should be EVERY ship's marriage counselor!

Elphaba Thropp: Same appeal as Rose Quartz. But she also beat a white supremacist to death with a broom once. That gets her extra points.

Pearl X: Not a star. But a solid addition to the chorus.

Peter (Leigh) Graham: Where do we go from here? The little free will he had has been crushed by a family legacy, and he's the only one left to carry on. These creeps think he's a god; he's just the same scared teenage boy he's always been.

Wheatley: Doesn't really fit in with my current fandoms. But I still love him.

Audrey II: Did I mention I love Faustian bargains?

The Angel of Crockett Island: Did I mention I love Faustian bargains?

Hippolyta Freeman: Actual best-written female character on tv in the past 10 years. Seriously, I love Kim but calling her "best character" is antifeminist, when we have characters like Hippolyta who are getting overlooked.

Letitia Lewis: She's flighty. She doesn't get along with her sister. She likes scifi and mystery. She doesn't resist the call to adventure. She gets knocked up by her sweetheart as the result of magical shenanigans. And by the end, she's one of the few remaining characters who knows how to cast spells. If I was a character in "Lovecraft Country", I'd like to think I'd be Letti. Just please... anyone but Christina!

Adelaide Thomas: I still don't feel like I fully understand this character. But her story speaks to me on a profound level.

Clara Saburova: Has a lot of Elphaba's same "benevolent misanthrope" witchy energy. Not only can she break the fourth wall; I'm pretty sure she knows how to use console commands. Send her off to America to study THE LAW.

Nadia Vulvokov: Misc. failwoman archetype

Oksana Astankova: Misc. failwoman archetype

Judy Gemstone: Misc. failwoman archetype

Sally Reed: Speedrunning these "blonde crime-drama love-interest" tropes.

Dee Reynolds: Misc. failwoman archetype

Turanga Leela: Ponytail? Check! Exposed biceps? Check! Schlub she does care about but she's mostly just keeping around for sex? Check! Confidence exceeding competence? Check! Back and ready for more punching stuff, Ma'am!

Carmella Soprano: Supra.

Skyler White: Res Ipsa.

Daenerys Targaryen: ⚠⚠ Construction Site! Do Not Enter! ⚠⚠ We are still waiting on the autopsy reports. But man, she left a CRATER when she fell off.

Bella Swan: Basically the drip-pan for everything above her.

#better call saul #westworld #netflix you #fandom #blorbos #girlboss #failwoman #failmarriage #support womens wrongs #kim wexler #jimmy mcgill #kim x jimmy #westworld william #dolores abernathy #love quinn #ruby x sapphire #garnet #dolores x william #rose quartz #elphaba thropp #wicked #pearl 2022 #hereditary #portal 2 wheatley #audrey ii #little shop of horrors #midnight mass #angel midnight mass #lovecraft country #hippolyta freeman

[writerleo86]

Terravenger - Season 5: Part Two - The Pugioh City Survival Arc - Episode 465 (Do Not Copy)

    The captive Duo slowly woke up and saw a relieved Hope McCormack bending toward him.

    "Thank the gods that you have finally come to," said Hope.

    Duo slowly rose and found himself sitting on an old bench. He soon discovered that he was inside a small cell made of metallic bars.

    Hope sat by his left side and gave a calming smile.

    "Hey," greeted Duo.

    The younger boy looked around for a moment.

    Then Duo asked "How long was I out?"

    "I believe nearly an hour," claimed Hope. "I thought they had brought a dead body in to frighten me. But I felt a pulse on your neck. I am grateful for that."

    Duo felt the back of his head with his right hand as he implied "I heard you were swapped by them bastards."

    "Indeed," answered Hope. "Those people had taken me after they made quick work of your team members. Your captain as well."

    "No way!" cried Duo. "The L.T.? Jinxie and Iris? Even Keira?"

    "Yes," Hope informed him. "All of them including Gale Reed and Ronnie Miller were taken out before one of the villains finally stole me away. I am surprised that they unlocked me from my chains once you arrived."

    "Yeah," said Duo. "I remember now. Griffin and I got caught wit' our pants down against more of the enemies. We did fine until the last man showed up."

    "The last man?" questioned Hope.

    The regaining Duo leaned his head back and described "The guy had this scar... This big scar on his face. Some strange tattoo on his chest. And his eyes... His eyes glowed green."

    "You must be referring to one of their leaders," replied Hope. "I did overhead that the man wants to see Dev dead."

    "Dev?" questioned Duo. "You mean Elken?"

    Hope gave a soft laugh and replied "Devin Elken, yes. This man plans to annihilate Devin. He also wishes to erase the entire legacy of the Elken clan."

    Duo blew a small breath and revealed "They may have done it already. I think them bastards were tryna destroy the entire castle."

    "What?" cried a shocked Hope. "Was Devin there with you?"

    "Elken's fine," answered Duo. "He left with some of his men to the Mafic Isle. He and his army. Justy and his guys too. And the L.T. and some of my guys."

    A worried Hope lowered her head and cried "No! He is leading Devin into a trap! Devin mustn't come!"

    "A trap?" questioned Duo. "And who the hell you talkin' about?"

    And Hope placed both hands around her head.

    She told the young soldier "He said that Devin is needed for the resurrection of his master!"

    After that, a scared Hope leaned her head on the gated door at the front of their cell.

    "Sir Drako is dead," said the woman. "There is no use of hiding this now."

    "Hidin' what?" asked Duo.

    And Hope faced the youth with fear in her eyes.

Terravenger -- Season 5: Part Two -- Episode 465: The Survival Arc -- The Queen of DSL

    A few minutes later, Hope slowly fell on the ground as her back remained on the gated door.

    The emotional woman informed Duo "Dev and I... Well, Devin and I... We have known each other for as long as my cousin Paige has been friends with Drake and Silvan Justinian."

    "Drake?" called Duo. "Elken's brother?"

    "Yes," responded Hope. "My mother used to bring both Paige and I to see the Elkens in Pugioh for many years. Sally had many of her fashion shows in the city. While Paige had trained with Sir Drako, I had spent time with Devin. Devin was a quiet and emotionless person around many people. But he always opened up to me. He did teach many things to me from riding a horse to drawing portraits."

    "I figured Elken was the artsy-type," commented Duo. "Cool."

    The kind Hope shook her head and continued.

    "Many years went by, and we continued to stay in contact. But one day, Devin had declared his love for me. He asked for my hand in marriage. But we both knew that neither our parents would not approve. So, he and I traveled to a small village near Pugioh. And we married in secret with only a priest."

    Duo jumped off the bench and cried "You tied the knot with Elken?"

    "Yes," answered Hope. "I am the Wife of the Strong Arm."

    "Then that would make you a princess or somethin'," implied Duo.

    And Hope told him "These people. Somehow, these people had discovered it and kidnapped me. They plan to use me to lower Devin's defenses. And this appeared to be his plan -- the Bringer of Light."

    "So Meph's behind this," replied Duo. "I shoulda known. Then that guy that talked to you. It was probably that Goran guy."

    "Goran?" repeated Hope.

    Duo lowered his head and replied "The Purple Lady... Alexis Sanyo. She told us about Goran, everything. He works for Meph. And the guy with the scar's gotta be Mayne. Meph's usin' Mayne to raise up from prison, or somethin'."

    "Mephistopheles," added Hope. "He wishes to use Dev for his plan as well."

    Duo leaned his head on the wall and responded "I guess that's the jest. And Meph is tryna either destroy everythin' in the universe or take it over."

    "He plans to dominate every realm with only Power and Chaos," directed Hope. "Mephistopheles is a high force. He may have influenced many events in order to quicken his release from his imprisonment."

    And Duo thought to himself "Maybe Meph had somethin' to do wit' Tai's death."

    Suddenly, the gated door had opened on its own.

    "What the hell?" cried Duo.

    Hope stood at the front of the opening as Duo hurried beside her.

    "The hell's goin' on here?" asked Duo.

    Hope looked around carefully as she asked "Do you believe this is the work of him? This Goran character?"

    "Dunno," whispered Duo. "It's gotta be a trap."

    The pair continued to face forward.

    And Hope replied "We should press on. Perhaps Goran or another has requested an audience. And the two of us are their guests of honor."

    Duo shook his head and said "Okay. Let's go. Maybe we'll find a way outta this shit-hole."

    The pair finally walked on, but with caution.

    "Before we head to possibly our deaths," Hope told him. "I may as well share with you another piece. This is something that Sally and I have not told a soul. Even Paige does not know of this."

    "I'm all ears," said Duo.

    The sensitive Hope shook her head and spoke.

    "This story involves both my mother and I. Many years ago, Sally had hired an associate whose job was to help in everyday activity at DSL, my family's fashion house. This was long after Sally's first husband had died. The name of the associate was Clark Grey. After a short number of weeks, Sally had fallen in love with her worker. But she was still married to her second husband, Ben Kincaide."

    "Wow!" cried Duo. "Mommy Sally was cheatin' on her husband?"

    And Hope continued.

    "Eventually, Ben found out about their monthly affair and divorced Sally immediately after a week. Sally continued to see Grey long after the divorce was finalized. But everything was destroyed after one very night. Grey had brought Sally to a local restaurant while she lived in South Height City. The man secretly laced a glass of wine which he had given to her. And Sally felt weary until she finally fell unconscious. Sally awoke and found herself laying on her bed."

    Tears slowly fell from her eyes as Hope revealed "Then she discovered her clothing was ripped open. Finally, Sally figured out that she was abused sexually by her date, and many of her jewelry were taken. A few months had passed, and she discovered that she was expecting a baby. And I... I was the baby."

    A shocked Duo stopped and faced the emotional woman.

    "Sally was raped?" cried Duo.

    Hope held her hands together and told him "And I... I was the product of that rape."

    Duo lowered his head and thought to himself. Meanwhile, he placed his right hand on his forehead.

    "So?" He asked. "That bastard? He did your mom in the worse way? And she got pregnant with you 'cus of that?"

    After that, Duo looked up at Hope who stood before him.

    "Life..." implied Duo. "Life musta been hard for you."

    Hope wiped off her tears using the fingers from her left hand and revealed "Actually, it wasn't. Sally never thought of me as such. She loved me like she has always with her other children. I was an honored student since I was very young. And I had a good life."

    A supportive Duo shook his head and Hope added "Ever since I was born, Sally had never thought of me as a burden. She... She was the greatest to me."

    Duo soon gave a soft laugh and said "I always thought Sally was a loon, in a good way. But she's so brave. To go through that. She's somethin'. And I'm glad you came out okay."

    Hope gave a comforting smile and replied "I agree. Sally is an original. She has always been a great voice to not only those in her family, but to everyone around her. One of the main reasons why she opened her business with Davis Lord was to be a help to everyone, especially those who didn't have much. She has a big heart. She is just a caring person."

    "She sure is," said Duo. "Sally's a big name in this world. Even people like me respect the hell outta her."

    Then he placed his right hand on the left shoulder of the loved woman who still had her back turned.

    And Duo replied "I know Sally's waitin' in Midas. So, we gotta find a way outta this place. Then you'll get to see her again."

    A happy Hope faced Duo and shook her head.

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I re-watched Tommy (1975)

I fucking love the band The Who. I have since highschool. I also love director Ken Russel. I love pretty much every actor and musician in this movie, so I should love this movie. I haven't seen it in forever and it's time for a rewatch.

A Rock Opera about a young boy who goes blind deaf and dumb after he witnesses a murder, and then grows up to become a famous pinball champion and eventually a Messiah.

Rock Operas are no doubt difficult to create. An album that tells a story. And then to somehow make that into a film is a tall order. You have to entertain an audience and you're already ostracizing the people who don't like the musical part of musicals. And, you have to hope that the rest of the audience enjoys every song after song because it's important that they are following along with the story.

For me personally, Tommy isn't my favorite Who album by far. It's good and there are some amazing songs its just not my favorite. And maybe the same could be said of this movie and Ken Russell. I like it, but it's certainly not my favorite Ken Russell film, although it still has some great moments.

Russell's use of "weirdness" throughout a long with This version of the Who's songs can be overwhelming and muddy at times, but during the times it all comes together it's fucking fantastic. The song Christmas is a great moment in the film. Eric Clapton doing eyesight to the blind with the Who backing him up is great, despite Clapton having zero energy. Tina Turner turns shit out, being anything but low energy in her turn at Acid Queen, followed by Paul Nichols bringing life to Cousin Kevin. Elton John does a damn good version of Pinball Wizard. And, of course when Roger Daltrey starts singing, his voice is perfect. Best song for me is when Daltrey and Pete Townshend do Sally Simpson.

Ann Margret is crazy good in this movie and Oliver Reed is always his sweaty fantastic self. Knowing of his party hard friendship with Who drummer Keith Moon adds a little fun to think about what they got up to behind the scenes.

Is this a drug movie? By that I mean, is it a movie you should do drugs before watching. I mean, I'm not advocating drug use, but let's just say this would be better on drugs. I didn't do drugs and I wish I had chewed up a few mushrooms before diving on in. Not only is it a 1970's rock opera, which lends itself to drug use, it is so excessive in every way. Russell seems to have wanted to just go for it without any restrictions. It certainly ends up with some serious cheesiness, but that's part of the fun. From a sober point of view it can be a little tedious at times and you can certainly end up worn out by it all.

What I've always loved about The Who is their ability to give such a huge amount of energy to everything. Even the slow songs feel big and important and franticly grand. Ken Russell isn't a strange choice to bring The Who to the big screen with his visually stimulating images and insane style, but in bringing these things together, it might all be too much.

But, despite it's many failings this is certainly a classic of both music and film. It's a moment in time that bathes in it's era.

Overall, Tommy lands on the side of a decent movie, which is a spectacle that fans of film and Rock and Roll should see. But, may I recommend the album Quadrophenia if you know nothing about The Who. (That album also technically got a movie which is pretty great)

#tommy #the who #ken russell

[everythingloureed]

Humphreys was raised in Bridgeton, NJ, and San Antonio, TX. It was said that the family were of part Mexican Native descent. An apparent trans child who played with dolls, and wore girls’ clothes, Humphreys wanted to do people’s hair. As Rachel she graduated in hair-dressing at a cosmetology school in Bayonne, NJ, (north of Staten Island, across the river from Manhattan).

She was a regular at Max's Kansas City, the hip and glam rock nightclub on Park Avenue South. She also frequented the 82 Club on E 4th St which was in transition from a transvestite performance club to a glam rock and then punk club.  The New York Dolls did their first show there on April 17, 1974, when they performed in drag, except for Johnny Thunders who refused. They were followed by Wayne County (not yet using the name Jayne) and short-lived glitter bands like Teenage Lust and Harlots of 42nd Street.

It was there at this time that Rachel met Lou Reed, the musician. Lou described Rachel in an interview with Bambi magazine:

"It was in a late night club in Greenwich Village. I’d been up for days as usual and everything was at that super-real, glowing stage. I walked in there and there was this amazing person, this incredible head, kind of vibrating out of it all. Rachel was wearing this amazing make-up and dress and was obviously in a different world to anyone else in the place. Eventually I spoke and she came home with me. I rapped for hours and hours, while Rachel just sat there looking at me saying nothing. At the time I was living with a girl, a crazy blonde lady and I kind of wanted us all three to live together but somehow it was too heavy for her. Rachel just stayed on and the girl moved out. Rachel was completely disinterested in who I was and what I did. Nothing could impress her. He’d hardly heard my music and didn’t like it all that much when he did. Rachel knows how to do it for me. No one else ever did before. Rachel’s something else.”

She moved in with him right away. He was then living in a modest one-bedroom apartment at 405 East 63rd Street. Lou had already written a few songs about trans women, and with the single, “Walk on the Wild Side” (which referred to the Andy Warhol-sponsored trans stars, Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis) had his biggest hit. Rachel was at this time oscillating. Some days she was Ricky, and others he was Rachel. People who knew Lou and Rachel used either pronoun. One journalist referred to Lou’s ‘boyfriend named Rachel’. Both Lou and Rachel enjoyed the confusion and further muddied the water by wearing each other’s clothes. She was street-wise and spunky in a way that Lou only pretended to be. She was said to always carry a knife, and was good in a fight – which proved useful when a concert at the Pallazzo dello Sport in Rome turned into a riot 15 February 1975.

Lou had been working on his fourth solo album, Sally Can’t Dance – the title track and spin-off single assumed to refer to trans woman, Sally Maggio, who was manager at the 220 Club, another trans bar where Lou went drinking. Sally would in the 1980s open Sally’s Hideaway, and then Sally’s II, again a bar for trans persons and with trans performers. However it was Rachel whose image was on the obverse of the Sally Can’t Dance LP sleeve, drawn as if reflected in Lou’s shades.

She supported him on some of his tours. In New York, they lived for a while in the Gramercy Park Hotel, and then an upscale apartment on East 52nd St at FDR Drive where Henry Kissinger, Greta Garbo and John Lennon had lived. In 1975 they began to frequent the rather grimey but seminal punk club, CBGBs. Lou was recording Coney Island Baby, released January 1976 and several tracks refer to Rachel. At the end of the follow-up tour, Rachel was mugged and assaulted. A doctor was called, who inevitably referred to Rachel as ‘she’, even though Lou was saying ‘he’. As Aidan Levy says:

“Rachel had been contemplating gender reassignment surgery, but the transgender rights movement had not yet solidified, and not fully understanding the nature of the decision, Lou was adamantly opposed to any operations, a growing source of conflict in their relationship”.

Despite this, a friend commented: ““I think that Rachel was the glue holding Lou together, or at least keeping him in the public view in many respects … I know that he doted on her. If there was a light shining, it was the two of them together. It doesn’t mean it was the healthiest relationship in the world.” The cover of Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed, 1977 is of photographs of the two of them.

Rachel acted as road-manager on the next tour, managed the money, and watched over the road-crew. They were in London for their third anniversary and ordered a three-tier cake to celebrate, and Lou gave her two diamond rings. He said:

"Rachel knows how to do it for me, no one else before ever did”.

However by the end of 1977, Lou and Rachel were fighting more and more, and frequently it was about the issue of transgender surgery. She had a date for surgery but backed off as Lou said:

“Well why are you doing that? I love you because of the way you are”.

The title track of Street Hassle, 1978, is about her, and an article in Rolling Stone referred to Rachel as the raison d’etre of the album, although in fact it marked the end of their relationship. Lou moved on, having met Sylvia Morales, who became his third wife in 1980.

Reed completely refused to talk about Rachel after 1978. He desisted and decided to go straight. Both his later marriages were with cis women.

Rachel died in 1990 age 37 at St Clare’s Hospital, which specialized in treating AIDS patients, and she was interred in the gigantic pauper burial site on Hart Island off the Bronx coast (which contains over a million corpses).

Lou died in 2013, aged 71, from liver failure.

LegsMcNeil & Gillian McCain. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. Penguin books, 1997: 154-5, 206.

Marc Campbell.  "Rachel: Lou Reed’s transsexual muse".  Dangerous Minds, 02.06.2013.  Online.

Howard Sounes. Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed. Doubleday, 2015: 182-4, 187, 189, 191, 192, 194, 195, 202, 203, 205, 208, 212, 213, 214, 215-6, 221-2, 226, 229, 235, 248, 269.

Simon Reynolds. Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and Its legacy, from the Seventies to the Twenty-First Century. William Morrow Publishers, 2016: 271-2.

Aidan Levy. Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed. Chicago Review Press, 2016: 221-2, 227, 233, 244, 251-3, 264, 285.

Corey Kilgannon.  "Dead of AIDS and Forgotten in Potter's Field:  In an untold chapter of the AIDS epidemic, scores of unclaimed bodies were buried in a remote spot on Hart Island.  How many exactly remains unclear".  New York Times, July 3, 2018.  Online.  

#lou reed #rachel #Rachel Humphreys

[fangirl-imagines]

Valentine’s Day Headcanons for Some of My Favorite Characters

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! These took me way too long to write but here are a few headcanons about what I think Valentine’s Day would be like with a few of my favorite characters. I hope you all have a wonderful day and are staying safe in the winter storms. 

Barry Berkman

He forgot it was Valentine’s Day. 

It’s a holiday he really has never had to pay too much attention to and it doesn’t occur to him until the night before when he sees the picked over Valentine’s display at the store and remembers ‘Oh, yeah, that’s tomorrow).

He feels really bad that he forgot and tries to get your favorite candy and a way way too big stuffed animal and pretends like he never forgot but was just trying to surprise you. 

You’re smart enough to know he did in fact forget but you don’t really care about Valentine’s Day anyway so you play along. 

Instead you split the candy with him and the two of you watch a movie together. 

Sally Reed

She is the kind of girl who will get offended if you don’t give her flowers on Valentine’s Day. 

She doesn’t mean to be that way but she feels she deserves a show of affection on a day literally all about love (and she’s right). 

Treat her right!

She would wear pink and red because she loves a theme and bring you your favorite coffee to start off the day and probably made you the cutest homemade card because handmade gifts are so much better. 

Her idea of a perfect Valentine’s date would be you two cooking dinner together and watching a chick flick with wine. 

Donny Donowitz

He doesn't care about this holiday at all. He does however, care about you and would make an effort just because he thinks the holiday is important to you. 

He would take you dancing just so he has an excuse to press up against you and hold you tight. 

He’s not a great dancer by any means but he will try and keep up with you. 

He only steps on your toes a few times so he’s making progress. 

His favorite part of Valentine’s Day is what happens when he gets you home at the end of the night. 

Cliff Booth

He does not celebrate Valentine’s day and thinks it is a made up holiday. (Sorry). 

Steve Harrington

He is young and cheesy and very very in love with you so he would probably be traditional and cute. 

He may or may not ask Dustin opinion on his plans but will never ever admit it. 

He would fill your locker with red roses to surprise you

He would ask to take you out to dinner but is even more excited when you suggest the two of you getting a pizza and hanging out at his house to watch a movie instead.

Wanda Maximoff

She is so sweet and can’t wait to spend the day with you. 

You guys would have a low-key but sweet day, sleeping in, taking a shower together (hehe), and grabbing brunch together. 

Whatever kind of gift she would give you would be something so sentimental and probably even handmade and she would be so excited to give it to you. 

There would be lots of cuddling on the couch together at the end of the night too. 

Dale Cooper

He gives you the full history lesson on St. Valentine because he thinks it’s romantic. 

He would take you on a picnic by the water too with food from the diner. 

Of course there will be cherry pie and coffee too. 

Of course it’s February in upstate Washington so it’s gonna be kind of cold but he will bring extra blankets for the two of you. 

The whole thing is very wholesome, the two of you could just sit there together wrapped in the extra blankets and just enjoying being together. 

Peggy Carter

She is working that day (because isn’t she always) but she will call you from the office in the middle of the day just to flirt with you over the phone. 

She promises she will make it up to you as soon as she can that you two won’t be together on Valentine’s Day.

You could surprise her with a romantic dinner after she gets off work though and she would look at you like you were the most amazing thing she has ever seen. 

Mr. Jarvis would only be too happy to help you set it up too. 

Bruce Wayne

Bruce is nothing if not flashy and loves to spoil you on Valentine’s Day. 

He always feels like he doesn’t spend enough time with you because of his nighttime activities so he will try and make up for that on days like today. 

For one thing he would try to surprise you with breakfast in bed and your favorite flowers to start the day. 

He actually makes the food himself too but afterwards you both agree it’s probably best if Alfred does the cooking from now on. 

All of the batboys call to wish you a happy Valentine’s day too (perhaps with a little bit of reminding from Alfred but it's still sweet). 

The best thing he can do though is he moves his entire schedule around so he can spend the entire day with you without any interruptions.

#valentines day #barry berkman #barry berkman imagines #sally reed #sally reed imagine #donny donowitz #donny donowitz imagine #cliff booth #cliff booth imagine #steve harrington #steve harrington imagine #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff imagine #dale cooper #dale cooper imagine #peggy carter #peggy carter imagine #bruce wayne #bruce wayne imagine

[oatflatwhite]

hi :) I’m a big fan of your writing so I was wondering- what are some of your fave books/books that inspire you!!

anon this is?? the sweetest thing???

ok so i really, really love lyrical writing. my all-time favourite book is all quiet on the western front – even in translation, it has some of the most beautiful prose i've ever read in my life:

The trucks roll monotonously onwards, the shouts are monotonous, the falling rain is monotonous. It falls on our heads and on the heads of the dead men up at the front of the truck, on the body of the little recruit with a wound that is far too big for his hip, it’s falling on Kemmerich’s grave, and it’s falling in our hearts.

a recent favourite is also mary renault's the charioteer (where my blog title is from!) and again, her prose just about knocked my socks off:

"For God's sake," said Laurie, even now remembering not to raise his voice, "don't stand there like St Sebastian full of arrows, thinking of nothing but your own bloody principles. When you care about people you can't always be so choosy." [...]

What he had said came home to home to him only gradually, like the collapse of a wall which starts with a few loose bricks.

Andrew stood where he was. His face had a pinched look, as if he were cold. You could see the bone-structure of character showing, the shape of the winter tree.

i also adore charlotte brontë's jane eyre, and think it has about one of the best opening passages that takes you right into story (the gothic setting, our protagonist jane, her tension with mrs reed) ever:

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.

i'm also a big fan of sally rooney's stream-of-consciousness writing style, though i'm not sure i could ever pull off her conversation technique (she never uses quotation marks, the dialogue just flows straight on from the prose. it's really quite astounding).

i am also a huge fantasy fan :) some of my fave series are lord of the rings, celine kiernan's moorehawke trilogy, isobelle carmody's obernewtyn, sam hawke's poison wars, kristin cashore's graceling, and (targeted at younger audiences but fuck it the nostalgia value is off the charts) angie sage's septimus heap and brandon mull's fablehaven. all have amazing worldbuilding i wish i could develop myself! but i've always struggled at sustaining sweeping narratives. maybe one day :)

anyway sorry this got away from me anon! hope you check out at least some of these books because all come highly recommended!

#anon #answered

[funkymbtifiction]

Get out of here! I can’t believe you also love the movie You’ve Got Mail! But I am curious now as to why you don’t think of Kathleen as ENFP like I do, since you are also one yourself. Her entire behavior through the movie screams Ne-Fi to me, like that scene in which she dramatically describes her fateful encounter with the butterfly on the subway. Being unable to lash out at people when she wants to, in my opinion, is a sign of low Te, as much as the visible remorse in her face when she does it with Joe (also combined with Enneagram 9, of course). Being content running her late mother’s store and extremely nostalgic about it strikes me as inferior Si combined with Enneagram 6, actually. As a 6w7, I also have no difficulty living through a routine and having a normal job, as my Ne and 7 wing can dream and fantasize all they want inside of my own mind, without me having to get out of my comfort zone, and I always felt she is the same kind of person. By the way, her relationship with Joe seems to mirror the one of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and Kathleen remarks how much she likes Lizzie as a character, probably because she relates to her, and so do I. No wonder, as she is also another ENFP, lol.

Anyway, in case you have ever watched other Meg Ryan movies like When Harry Met Sally, French Kiss and my favorite, Sleepless in Seattle, what do you think are Sally, Kate and Annie’s types? I don’t know if it is because I am an ENFP and love these movies or because Meg Ryan is also supposed to be an ENFP herself, but these heroines she portrays all seem to be ENFP to me, haha. Thank you, Charity!!

Maybe because I don’t see her as a “spreader of ideas to implement change” like Ne-doms are? She has no deeper wondering in that sense, no intellectual restlessness, no sense of seeing the best in others and wanting to bring it out in them, no boredom in simply running a bookstore, and it only occurs to her to write a book after her other job has gone away despite spending her entire life immersed in books – “You know,” she exclaims, “HE’s the one who started me thinking about writing!” Pitted against Jo March, Chloe Sullivan, George Bailey, Catherine the Great, etc., all people excited about new ideas, eager to share them like a communal disease, and living and breathing ‘change,’ she simply does not have enough Ne to be Ne-dom.

I know some people type her INFP (is she a dominant judging type?), but I think her dreaminess comes from being an so/sp 9w1. That much nostalgia isn’t inferior Si – if anything, inferior Si’s neglect nostalgia, sometimes to their own determent (along with being forgetful and lacking details) and/or have one or two weird things that MUST stay the same. Her Si is strong and she doesn’t consider alternatives. An INFP might live in denial that the world is changing and her bookstore is going to have to close, simply because it’s not a truth her Fi wants to face -- but IFPs are typically not described by others as ‘charming’ (like her) because they are focused on their own feelings so much they come across as aloof. I think Frank is a good example of an INFP, to be honest -- he’s somewhat self-based and lost in his own feelings, he talks about everything on an abstract level (she is a “lone reed, waving in the corrupt sands of commerce -- which implies a Fi-dom judgment about capitalism + intuition), and he has a low Si eccentricity about his typewriter (he doesn’t want to upgrade to a computer, even if it’s easier and more efficient -- again, a Fi preference, Si habit, and inferior Te rejection of progress). When she needs help with her store, his instinct is to write about it (a Ne response - inspire abstractly ) whereas hers is to go out into the neighborhood and mobilize people on her behalf by appealing to them as New Yorker’s and inspiring them to think about what WE want (Fe). (Do we want our neighborhoods to change? No, we don’t!!!) She assumes changing people’s minds and drawing attention to it will change the outcome, but it doesn’t impact her bottom line as much as she hoped, forcing her to close. Then, she starts casting about for other things to do, including writing. His is a feeler-abstract approach and hers is a sensor-feeler approach.

Joe on the other hand is an actual Ne-dom (ENTP). He shows insight into her character, a perceptiveness about people she lacks, he plays mind games with her in an elaborate attempt to win her trust, he does all of his interacting through rapid-fire talking, and he thinks quick on his feet. I think he’s either a 6w7 or a 9w8, which makes their dynamic interesting – both of them hate conflict, but he will rise to the occasion in a way she will not without great inner turmoil.

I have seen SOME of their older movies together, but it’s been a long time, so I can’t really say for sure their types other than SiS, which I typed a few months back. :)

#question #mbti #you've got mail #infp #isfj #submission

[demigodsanswer]

What are everyones favorite songs/bands?

(all links go to Youtube)

Percy: It’s been said before, but this boy is a music snob. He only listens to “real music” and for sure has London Calling and Sticky Fingers on vinyl. Sally can always tell when he’s had a bad day, because he comes home and listens to The Wall (because he’s a drama queen). Bisexual music snob Percy for sure has this poster of Jim Morrison on his wall, and not just because he’s a fan of The Doors: 

He is also a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His favorite song by them is “Easily” (some of the lyrics are: “The story of a woman on the morning of a war / Remind me, if you will, exactly what we're fighting for / Throw me to the wolves because there's order in the pack / Throw me to the sky because I know I'm coming back”). He’s also a fan of Rise Against, and his favorite album by them is Appeal to Reason. 

Annabeth: Listen, I’m gonna say something potentially controversial, but it’s something I believe very strongly in. Annabeth is a Britney Spears fan. Hard core. She was born in 1993 and got to camp in 2000. You know that older girls at camp were all learning the dance moves to “Oops I Did It Again” and she learned with them. In 2007, when Britney had her breakdown, Annabeth looked back on her own past three years - the quest for the lightning bolt, the sea of monsters, holding up the sky, and going into the Labyrinth, and she just thought “Oh okay. I’m not gonna do it, but I totally get it.”

And for a while she hid this, writing it off as a guilty pleasure. But then, somewhere after the war with Gaia, she was finally like “fuck it. I’m Annabeth Chase, I’ve saved the world, I redesigned Olympus. I like Britney Spears and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” Now she’ll unironically say things like: “I didn’t like the Greatest Showman, I thought it was too derivative of the Britney Spears Circus music video.” This does annoy her music snob boyfriend to no end, but she just responds to his complaints with: “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over how much fun I’m having.” 

Grover: I feel like he and Percy just chill in the woods and listen to the Grateful Dead while Grover plays covers of their songs on his reed pipes. 

Nico: This is also potentially controversial. I don’t think he’d really like pop punk or emo music. I think that he’d actually really enjoy more mellow indie-folk music. I think he’d love Hozier (favorite song is “Be” and “In a Week”. He also loves Hadestown, both the musical and the original concept album. Besides Hozier, he also loves the band the Oh Hellos. His favorite song by them (and possibly his favorite song of all time) is “Dear Wormwood.” 

Thalia: Green Day, but especially newer Green Day. She did not pay attention to the parental advisory warning on American Idiot and now she’s gay and she hates the government. Her favorite song is “Letterbomb,” and, although she’s not a fan of musical theater generally, she has to admit that Rebecca Naomi Jones killed that song on the musical album. 

Piper: I don’t know what her favorite band would be, but she for sure has the energy of someone who says “Oh yeah, I like Panic! at the Disco, but only their early stuff, like A Fever You Can’t Swear Out and Pretty Odd.” But then she secretly jams to Prey for the Wicked. 

Leo: He for sure likes comedy music, like Bo Burnham (favorite song is the Kanye Rant) and Lewberger’s “White People Taco Night.”

Jason: Jason has the energy of a white boy who loves the Beatles. His favorite song is probably “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” His favorite movie is “Across the Universe.” 

Hazel: I don’t know what her favorite band/singer/song would be, but I do know that Jason tried to get her to listen to Abby Road once, and she laughed in his face. 

Frank: I think that Frank just vibes with everything. Doesn’t matter what it is. Spotify is so confused by what to recommend him, because he’s just got the most eclectic playlists. The algorithm is like “Do you want show tunes? KPop? Rock? R&B? What do you want??”

Clarisse: I don’t think she’d really care about music that much, she just wants music thats upbeat to workout to. If she were to go to a band’s concert live, she’d probably go see the Dropkick Murphy's; they’re probably the only band that she actually listens to when she’s not working out (she prefers audiobooks and podcasts for things like commutes to work/class and downtime). Her favorite song by them is “Rose Tattoo.” One time, she wore a Murphy’s tee shirt to a bar, and the bartender asked if she was from Boston or if she was Irish, and she just said: “No, but I’m white and violent, so I feel spiritually connected to them.”

Will: I think that he’d be the one to be obsessed with early 2000s pop punk and emo music. Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Say Anything, all of it. He hears the opening chords to “Cute Without the E” and he loses his damn mind. 

I can’t do everyone, because I’ve pretty much only listened to the same 48 songs for the last decade. Also my youtube algorithm is not fucked from searching for all this music. 

#some regularly scheduled programing #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #piper mclean #leo valdez #jason grace #hazel levesque #frank zhang #clarisse la rue #will solace #Anonymous

[almostreading]

The time has come for  yet another reading wrap-up, because I read a lot of books in April and this was actually kind of fun last time.

Bone crier’s moon by Kathryn Prudie

This was such a basic ya fantasy that sadly brough nothing new or interesting to the genre. It was entertaining enough and I did really like that it had a good female friendship, but other than that it sadly had very little going for it

I’m thinking of ending things by Ian Reed

I never read horror or psychological thrillers or whatever this is supposed to be, but this was pitched to me so well that I had to try it, and surprisingly I ended up enjoying it. I think. It was such a wild ride and so strange that I am not really sure. Would recommend, though

99 precent mine by Sally Thorne

I absolutely adore the hating game so I finally read Thorne’s other novel, and even though it didn’t quite reach the heights of the hating game it was still a lot of fun and the kind of romance that I like

The bone gap by Laura Ruby

This is part of me trying to read my goodreads tbr backlist and beacause the bone gap has been there since it was published, I thought I’d finally read it. It was an interesting mix of when the moon was ours and the raven cycle, had a lot of elements I love and was extremely beautifully written, but I couldn’t help thinking that when the moon was ours just does what this book was trying to do better. 

Howl’s moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones

This! Book! I absolutely adored it and I was so happy to find out that the movie is so different from the book that I am able to love both of them in a very different way. It was briliant and magical and funny and exceeded all my expectations. Please read it.

An unkindness of magicians by Kat Howard

Again, from my backlist, and this was maybe one of the biggest disappointments of the year. I had so many hopes for this! I absolutely adore witch books! But my god how can someone make a magical world this bland and write a book this predictable and with so many unnecessary plotlines

Bluets by Magie Nelson

An absolute classic that I knew I would love even before I started it and it did not let me down! My god was it a beautiful rollercoaster that I enjoyed with all my heart,

Why we swim by Bonnie Tsui

This month’s wild card that ended up being one of my absolute favourites. I love swimming, if you didn’t know, and this was just a beautiful, thoughtful and informative book on everything swimming. I might have cried. No, I don’t want to talk about it. A must if you are a swimmer, but a very fun reader even for those of you who aren’t.

All the bad apples by Moira Fowley-Doyle

One of my most anticipated releases of last year and again! Did not let me down! Even though I might have a few small qualms with it, I still adore her writing, her characters, all the magic that are in Fowley-Doyle’s books and the way she isn’t afraid to include hard topics and current issues. I need more books right now

The art of fielding by Chad Harbach

I have been trying to get through this book for the whole month. Again, backlist, and I think it ended up there because it was recommended to me as a book set in university (which I am always on the lookout for), but... this book was both too much and not enough at the same time. I went into it waiting for one thing and boy was it not what I got. Still not sure if I like it or not, but I think I am leaning towards the not side. Being written by a guy named Chad is also not doing this one any favours. 

Was that fun for any of you? Who knows. But it is what you got.

#book recs #wrap-up

[allforhader]

Why here?!

Barry Berkman x (F) Reader

Warnings: Blood, Language

Y/N and Barry have been dating for half a year, but secrets weren’t kept very long. When Barry told Y/N about his affairs, she needed space. She didn’t take the space to protect herself, she needed it to process the information. She needed other reasons to cloud what’s been said.

“Please don’t make me do this”

“You promised your fucking word Barry”

“I can’t do this”

“Just fucking do it”

Y/N jolts awake in her bed to a loud crash coming from the main room of her apartment. She grabs the bat from under her bed and braced herself making her way out of her bedroom. She reaches and takes a hold of the door knob quickly opening it about to swing when the silhouette was too familiar.

“Barry?” Y/N questions as she turns on the light and the first thing she notices was the broken window. “Barry I can’t afford-“ she stops talking when she noticed the blood on him. Was it his?

“I’m sorry I-I’ll fix....” Barry felt lightheaded as he stopped talking to process what’s happening internally until he couldn’t.

“Barry-!” Y/N freaks when he passes out on her coffee table, well what was her coffee table.

Fuck...

Why here?

I could’ve...

No I couldn’t have...

I trust her

I love her

She’s my everything...

Barry groans as he woke up eventually after passing out. He sits up in Y/N’s bed realizing his shirt is off and his wounds were taken care of. He looks around finding Tylenol waiting for him with a glass of water on the night stand. Barry tried to get out of the bed when Y/N walks in angrily smacking his legs to be brought back onto the bed. He noticed her hospital uniform and he immediately thought that he made her late, but the worried expression said otherwise.

“Y/N...what are you doing here...”

“I live here and there’s a patient in my damn bed. Who should stay in the damn fucking bed” Y/N’s anger seeped through the worry as she took his wrist doing the regular check of vitals she’d do in the ER.

——

Barry met Y/N in the ER, but it wasn’t for him that time. Sally fell and hit her head during an exercise, and Gene made Barry take her.

“Hello my name is Doctor Y/L/N and I’ll be your doctor this evening. Can you tell me...” Y/N trails off when she locked eyes with Barry. She immediately looked at Sally to bring back the attention. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“I fell...”

“Well, you clearly hit your head” Y/N sets down the tablet for keeping charts on the end of the bed before putting on gloves. “You have a head lac. What exactly did you hit?”

“One of the floor speakers. Y’know, on stages?” Barry states as Y/N gave him an annoyed smile for talking to her like she doesn’t know shit.

“This is LA, Mr.?”

“Berkman”

“Mr. Berkman. So please. Don’t talk to me like an idiot when I get actors almost every day. The usual is heat exhaustion or dehydration. What is up with you actors not taking care of yourselves?” She frowns checking the lac as Sally winces. “Alright. You hang tight while I order a CT before stitching up that lac”

“Oh wait. Are staples faster?”

“Why?”

“I have an audition”

Y/N rolls her eyes taking the tablet and ordering the CT before waving over an ER nurse to put a pressure dressing.

“Ms....Sally Reed” Y/N reads the chart for her name before giving her a stern look. “Staples will definitely scar. If you let me take my time with your stitches, I promise there won’t be a noticeable scar”

“Fine...”

“As for you...Berkman. You can wait for your friend in the waiting room” Y/N states as she left to take care of a few things.

The hours went by and Y/N’s shift was over, she always leaves from the ER’s exit/entrance and when she stepped out. Barry sat on a bench outside the ER catching her attention.

“You injured Berkman?”

“No ma’am”

“Then what are you doing out here?” Y/N smiles walking over to Barry as he stood to his feet looking down at her.

“My name is Barry”

“Oh, first name formality is why you came here?”

“Well I thought I’d ask the badass ER doc if she’d like to get a drink”

“This...badass ER doc. Doesn’t drink on call” Y/N smiles. “But Y/N, would happily get tea with Barry this late”

“Then shall we?”

“We shall”

——

“You’ve been out for a week”

“I’ve been out for what...?”

“You lost a lot of blood Barry. I already stole gauze, a syringe, lidocaine, wraps, a few suture kits. I can’t steal blood to replace what you lost. So your body made it natural while you were out cold” Y/N frowns grabbing the clipboard off the night stand seeing the Tylenol and water. “You should take some right now if you’re still in pain” she states writing down his vitals as she’s been charting it down.

“Y/N, you didn’t-“

“What? Didn’t have to? Oh like I totally want my boyfriend dead on the streets for who knows what fucking happened to him” Y/N frowns making him sit up completely so she can check the wounds on his back.

Barry frowns feeling her take off some of the bandages to clean and re-patch.

“Tell me”

“What?”

“How this fucking happened”

“One bad job”

“Details Barry, for fuck sake”

“I was paid. Well. Boss-“

“Fuches”

“Fuches, was paid and then I’ll be paid. To take down this guy in downtown LA for the favor of Hank. I got stuck in a fight. That involved Guns of course. I only got grazed for the most part until I took a metal bat to a few places and well a knife to a gun fight”

“How many people were involved? Was it a trap?”

“It seemed like that. Honestly. You do a lot better job at taking care of wounds compared to Fuches when I fought a guy with a fucking black belt”

“Barry...”

Barry frowns turning around looking at Y/N upset expression only becoming her balling. He tried to move completely to hold her but she stopped him. Y/N got up cleaning up everything before propping Barry up with her pillows.

“I’ll....be back after my shift”

“Y/N...”

“Why here? You have actor friends. Aren’t actors supposed to be great liars? Lie to one of them that you got mugged. Just like New York, there’s a lot of jackasses in the streets of LA.”

“You’re the only one I trust Y/N”

“...it’s hard to believe that love”

Barry frowns watching Y/N grab one of Barry’s jackets on her way out. A part of her still loves him, even if everything is so out of the ordinary.

A few hours into the shift, Y/N sat down in the ER nurse’s station taking a minute as she watches interns freak out when nothing much is going on. She started trailing into her thoughts causing her to think out loud.

“He would’ve died...if he got shot...”

“What?”

Shit

“Huh?” Y/N looks over to find her favorite nurse Ollie look at her confused.

“You said something about getting shot?”

“Oh, yeah sorry. I’ve been thinking about an episode of Greys” wow.

“Y/N how can you watch that stuff when you do most of it everyday?”

“How can you watch that show AND it’s spin offs?”

“Okay. This isn’t about me”

“I just think about it a lot. They over dress a lot of stuff that we tend to see everyday. Can you imagine it being that bad every day? Also...I wouldn’t want to be Owen Hunt”

Ollie laughs at the final comment before answering the call. When he ends it he gave Y/N a look.

“You jinx the ER when you mention Owen!”

“Sorry!” Y/N laughs getting the trauma gown on as she makes her way out to meet the rig.

When Y/N meets with the rig, it wasn’t a big trauma but the person was too familiar.

——

Y/N sat in the middle of the audience waiting for the play to begin.

“Why are theaters so cold...” she whispers to herself as she heard a man laugh at her comment.

“Actors can’t sweat or the makeup will melt off”

“Tsk. Fucking actors”

“Who are you here for?”

“My boyfriend, you?” Y/N turns to look at him as he scoffs a bit.

“My uh. Nephew” Fuches laughs. “I hate acting. I think it’s an excuse of a job but he wants to do it. So whatever right? Support the ones you care about”

“Yeah, so. Your name?”

“You first little lady”

“Y/N”

“Fuches”

——

Y/N frowns putting her gloves on and checking Fuches for any major injuries but for the most part he took a beating. To her, he got what he deserved. But to her as a doctor, no one deserves to be in pain.

“Get an x-ray and CT. Let me know when he’s conscious”

“Should I admit him?”

“If there’s anything on the scans according to radiology that recommends observation, then yes. Please” Y/N states going to order the tests but before she did. She decided to handle all of it.

Fuches groans waking up in a hospital bed but when he looked around. The only one he spotted was Y/N.

“You...”

“You broke a few ribs and there’s a grade two liver lac. We are observing it and if it doesn’t resolve, we’ll do surgery”

“Why...our of all the doctors-“

“Did I help your ass?”

“...”

“I should’ve known that the funny guy sitting next to me during the showing of A Midsummer’s Night Dream, was the guy telling my boyfriend to go kill people”

“Should you...really be saying that out loud?”

“Who hurt you?”

“That’s none-“

“It’s my business if its the same fuckers that almost killed Barry”

“Tsk. So he’s not dead”

Y/N frowns realizing what she admitted as she crosses her arms leaning against the back of the chair.

“You leave him alone, or I’ll call the police”

“They’ll...only arrest Barry too Y/N..”

“The leave him alone or I’ll make it look like a complication in surgery, if there is one.” Y/N got up from her seat as Fuches watches her leave the room.

“Crazy bitch...”

Barry jolts awake when he heard the front door shut. He pushes himself to get out of bed and check on Y/N but she had already walked in when he stood to his feet.

“What’s wrong?” Barry frowns as Y/N just stood there. “Y/N?”

Y/N places her hands on his face giving him an angered look. Barry frowns resting his hands on her hips waiting for her to say something but for the most part all she did was look at him and tear up.

“Y/N what happened?”

“That fucker...that fucking fucker that told me he was your goddamn uncle at the play, was in my ER with semi similar injuries to you”

“Did he say anything? Anything of concern...?”

“No just....“ Y/N lets go of Barry trying to pull away when Barry only wrapped himself around her. She just didn’t want...she didn’t want this. She didn’t want to have to worry to an extreme level. Her job is already stressful enough...now there’s so much more.

“I’m in love with you Y/N...”

“...really? I should be saying that to you...I did just threaten to kill a man to protect you...” Y/N frowns feeling Barry squeeze her in his arms as she gripped onto his shirt. “I’m in love with you Barry Berkman...and I don’t want anybody hurting you anymore”

#bill hader #barry berkman #barry berkman x reader #barry block #barry block x reader #barry hbo #barry x reader #bill hader x reader #I like...writing. a lot

[berkblockman]

Keep going // Barry Berkman x reader x Sally Reed

Pairing: Barry Berkman x reader x Sally Reed Word count: 1901 Warnings: Smut, oral sex (female and male), unprotected sex, lenguage, open relationship Request: can you please, PLEASE write a fic where bill and the reader are doing the deed and maggie walks in and it get wEIrd, (i'm thinking some ladY cuCk shiT bAbeY) you're the mastermind and i'll let take that prompt and do whatever you want with it. love your work btw :)  (a/n): This was really interesting to write, so thank you again for your request, anon! Hope it is like what you had in mind when you requested it 😄

Acting used to be more like a hobby to you when you started doing theatre in college. You though that, even though everyone was always complimenting the way you acted, you could never do it for a living. That was, of course, until you moved to LA. You didn't move there because you wanted to be a famous actress or become rich, you just wanted to have a normal life with a job and a place of your own. At least, that was your plan until you started to take Gene Coussineau's acting classes.

Seeing everyone in class being so excited and so sure that they could turn acting into their way to make a living, inspired you enough to try to become a professional actress yourself. And since you were one of the best of the class, you soon got some lead roles in the plays you made. It didn’t take long for you to play the main role in some sort of ‘romantic comedy’ set in the 2000's that Gene purposed to the class. You had always played classical plays, mainly Shakespeare and some Greco-Roman authors like Aristophanes or Plautus, so this seemed like a new challenge for you, playing something that hadn’t been written centuries ago. But what you actually found more challenging was working with the person who played your romantic interest in the play, Barry.

Working with him was difficult not because Barry was a bad actor or because he was unprofessional in any way, he had improved a lot since he first got to the class. But even if it sounded as a cliché, you couldn't help but to develop a crush on him as you worked together. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if it wasn't because he was already dating another girl from class, Sally, who also was casted as your best friend and confident in the play.

By the time the opening day arrived, you were even more nervous about what you were feeling for Barry than you actually were about the play. You tried to suck it all up and be professional, but still you couldn't help but feel those 'butterflies' in your stomach whenever you had to interact with him in and out of stage. But despite of everything the play went incredibly good, and after it was finished, an agent gave you his phone number so you could work with his agency.

After you got out of costume, you headed to the bar with the rest of the class and started to celebrate the success of the play. You tried to keep your mind clear as you talked with everyone and drank a beer or two, but you couldn’t help but to notice Barry’s presence at all times. You couldn’t lie to yourself, you were dying to make a move on him, but you were also fully aware of the fact that Sally was also there. The last thing you wanted was to create unnecessary drama in the class, so you went to the bathroom to try and clear your head. Looking at your reflection in the mirror, you decided that you were going to head back home before anything happened, but as you got out of the bathroom, you found Barry getting out of the toilet too.

“Hey.” You smiled at him, with the intention of saying your goodbyes and head out as soon as you could.

“Hey.” He greeted you back, and as you were about to make your way to the rest of the group so you could bid your farewells, he added. “You were amazing today.”

“Oh, thank you.” The smile on your face grew bigger. “But I was only able to do it because of you. I mean, I don’t think the play would have worked out so well if I had anyone else as my scene partner.” You could see the way that he blushed as he heard your words, making you think that he looked extremely cute.

“Really?” He asked, almost as if he wasn’t able to believe your words.

“Yeah, I was kind of nervous because I had never done something like that before, but working with you has been awesome.” As you talked, you could feel the way your heart was beating in your chest. “You have been the best love interest ever.”

You looked at Barry straight in the eye as your only thoughts were about how good he looked and, before he could even reply to you, you lent in to kiss him. As soon as you realized what you were doing, you mentally hit yourself. Now everything would be awkward between you and him, and if he told his girlfriend, you would probably need to find a new theatre group. But, surprisingly, Barry didn’t pull back or stopped you, he just kissed you back. And the feeling of his lips against yours after weeks of building sexual tension was all you needed to forget everything you had ever heard about morality and loyalty.  

When you started to feel that familiar heat in between your legs, you grabbed Barry’s hand and guided him into the women’s bathroom to try and get some privacy. As soon as you both got in, Barry started kissing you again, his hands running all over your body. You could feel yourself already trembling with anticipation as he picked you up. You wrapped your legs around his waist, feeling his already growing erection against your belly as he sat you on the sink and started to kiss your neck, sending you goosebumps all over your body and getting you incredibly wet. But that was nothing compared to when his hand traveled from the back of your neck to your core and started rubbing his fingers against your clitoris. By that moment, you were already a moaning mess, so you had to bit your lower lip in order to keep yourself quiet, hoping no one would hear you outside.

You were unbuttoning his shirt when suddenly you heard how someone opened the door. You immediately pulled back and looked in their direction just to find Sally standing on the door. In that moment, you cursed yourself for doing exactly what you had promised yourself you wouldn’t do and fuck it all up. You stood there, nervous, waiting for Sally’s reaction. Honestly, you were expecting her to scream at you, to call you a whore, and it wouldn’t have surprised you if she walked to you and slapped you in the face. But you wouldn’t have expected that she closed the door behind her and stood there, looking at you.

“Don’t mind me.” She simply said. “Keep going.”

As if nothing had happened, Barry knelt in front of you and undid the zipper of your jeans, taking them off alongside your underwear. You couldn’t help but to feel Sally’s stare on you when Barry started to eat you out, forcing a moan out of you. His tongue was making circular motions around your clit, making your body shiver, but you were still looking at her, wondering what was going on. Was this some kind of a wet dream? It felt way too real. But if it was actually happening, why was Sally standing there without doing nothing?

Your breathing was getting heavier and heavier by moments, and when he entered a finger on you, you decided to stop holding back and start moving your hips slightly, feeling insanely aroused. Strangely, Sally watching the two of you made everything hotter, and you supposed she also felt that way when she slipped one hand under her clothes and started touching herself.

“Fuck, I’m cumming…” You managed to say between moanings, which made Barry fasten the pace of his movements, making you reach your first orgasm.

Trying to catch your breathe and with every inch of your body still shaking, you kissed Barry again when he stood up, your attention still focused on Sally. You slit a hand under his pants and started caressing his already hard cock, gaining a few silent moans from him as you got down from where you were sitting and on your knees. Licking the tip of his dick first, you started to blow him as you heard Sally groaning. You didn’t remember being as wet as you were in that moment, but you were definitely loving it. Barry pulled your hair back as he watched the way you took him in. He knew he wouldn’t last long if you kept playing with your tongue around him that way. You took him out of your mouth and looked at Sally, who seemed extremely close to her climax. Giving one last look at Barry, you grabbed his hand and the two of you walked to her.

Her eyes were on you as you got closer to her and kissed her. She could feel the taste of his boyfriend’s precum on your mouth and it turned her on even more. You got rid of her clothes as you placed your mouth on her core, sucking carefully on her clit. You tried to be careful, fearing that you would hurt her, knowing yourself how sensible that spot was. As your tongue moved around her folds, you suddenly felt Barry enter you, making you moan against Sally. He gave you a few seconds to adjust before pounding into you, causing you to feel the pleasure building up inside of you once more.

Just as Barry had done minutes earlier with you, you introduced two fingers inside of Sally, which made her bit her lip as she tried to hold back a moan. The sight of her about to cum added to the feeling of him thrusting hard and fast into you was all you needed to reach your orgasm again, followed by the immediate release of Sally. She lent in to kiss you as Barry finished thrusting into you. When he finally came, you lied on the floor for a few seconds, exhausted.

“Everyone must be wondering where we are.” Sally said, as she started to dress up again.

“We should come back then.” You replied when you finally caught your breathe again.

You put your clothes on again and, being as discrete as you possibly could, the three of you decided to return to where the rest of the class was. The first one to leave the room, by herself, was Sally, leaving you and Barry alone again. You stared at him as he finished buttoning his shirt.

“Well, that was fun.” You stated as you put on your jacket, you walked to him and gave him a final kiss.

“Sure, we should repeat it again some time.” A smirk formed on your lips as you heard his words.

Not wanting to be even more suspicious, you got out of the bathroom and walked back to where your classmates were. Sally was already there, drinking a beer and chatting with everyone. You gave her a knowing look as you sat by her side and told everyone that you were out having a smoke. You tried to play it cool, converse normally and act as if nothing had happened as you still felt your legs shaking under the table. When you saw Barry coming back, you couldn’t help but to smile again as you thought about his words. You definitely wouldn’t mind to repeat that again.

#Barry Berkman #Sally Reed #Barry Berkman x reader #Sally Reed x reader #Barry Block #Barry Block x reader #Barry imagine #Barry Berkman x reader x Sally Reed #Barry Berkman x you #Sally Reed x you #Barry Berkman one shot #Sally Reed one shot #Barry Berkman imagine #Sally Reed imagine #Barry Block x you #Barry Block one shot #Barry Block imagine #Sarah Goldberg #Bill Hader #Bill Hader x reader #Sarah Goldberg x reader #Bill Hader imagine #Sarah Goldberg imagine #bill hader x you #Sarah Goldberg x you #Bill Hader one shot #Sarah Goldberg one shot #Barry Berkman smut #Sally Reed smut #Bill Hader smut

[beansonbread2]

BEANSONBREAD AWARDS 2020 - BEST ALBUM

AWARD NO.2 - BEST ALBUM OF 2020

PAST WINNERS

2019 > Self Esteem - ‘Compliments Please’ (see full list HERE)

2018 > Kero Kero Bonito - ‘Time ‘n’ Place’ (see full list HERE)

2017 > Richard Dawson - ‘Peasant’ (see full list HERE)

2016 > Blood Orange - ‘Freetown Sound’ (see full list HERE)

2015 > Holly Herndon - ‘Platform’ (see full list HERE)

2014 > FKA Twigs - ‘LP1′ (see full list HERE)

2013 > These New Puritans - ‘Field Of Reeds’ (see full list HERE)

2012 > Django Django - ‘Django Django’ (see full list HERE)

2011 > Shabazz Palaces - ‘Black Up’ (see full list HERE)

2010 > These New Puritans - ‘Hidden’ (see full list HERE)

2009 > Animal Collective - ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ (see full list HERE)

2008 > Wild Beasts - ‘Limbo, Panto’ (see full list HERE)

2007 > Animal Collective - ‘Strawberry Jam’ (see full list HERE)

2006 > Safetyword - ‘Man’s Name Is Legion’ (see full list HERE)

2005 > Animal Collective - ‘Feels’ (see full list HERE)

2004 > Devendra Banhart - ‘Rejoicing In The Hands’ / ‘Nino Rojo’

2003 > Dizzee Rascal - ‘Boy In Da Corner’

2002 > The Streets - ‘Original Pirate Material’

2001 > The Beta Band - ‘Hot Shots II’

2000 > Outkast - ‘Stankonia’

1999 > The Beta Band - ‘The Beta Band’

1998 > The Beta Band - ‘The Three EPs’

1997 > Radiohead - ‘OK Computer’

1996 > Beck - ‘Odelay’

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THE RULES - No Re-issues, Live Albums, Compilations, or EPs.

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SPECIAL MENTIONS for these collections

Bulbils (Richard Dawson & Sally Pilkington) - 50 lockdown albums

Dean Blunt ‘Roaches 2012-2019’

These New Puritans ‘The Cut (2016-2019)’  

Hudson Mohawke ‘B.B.H.E.’ & ‘Poom Gems’

Various Artists ‘Paul Institute - Summer 2020’

Various Artists ‘Return To Y’Hup - The World Of Ivor Cutler’

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***SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FEATURES TRACKS FROM TOP 80 ALBUMS (coming later) ***

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WORTH A MENTION (in no order) - A bunch of albums i enjoyed but didn’t quite make the final lists and others i just didn’t hear enough to be considered properly.  A list for future me to revisit.

Still House Plants / Fire-Toolz / Lomelda / Jerskin Fendrix / Zebra Katz / The Bug / Lorenzo Senni / Diamond Soul / Wilma Archer / Black Dresses / The Fantasy Orchestra / William Carkeet / Bonny Light Horseman / KA / Yung Lean / BlackPink / Rural Internet / Okay Kaya / Future / Belan / Tame Impala / Banoffee / JARV IS / Grimes / Whitmer Thomas / Jeff Parker / The Massacre Cave / Porridge Radio / Selena Gomez / Teyana Taylor / Sparkle Division / Cecile Believe / Lyra Pramuk / Waxahatchee / Happyness / Khruangbin / Bananagun / OHMME / Drakeo The Ruler / Missterspoon / Juice WRLD / Lonnie Holley / Jiafeng / October Drift / Roisin Murphy / KeiyaA / Dizzee Rascal / Salem / Tiña / The Weeknd / Aaron Cartier / Dana Gavanski / A.R. Pinewood / The Cool Greenhouse / Royce Da 5’9’’ / Rachel Aggs / Karl Band / Four Tet / Georgia / Sonic Boom / Kali Uchis / Luis Pestana / Salac / David A Jaycock / Klein / Temple After Faith / Roman Noseband / Dylan Henner / G.S. Sultan / Hinds / Jess Williamson / Coby Sey / Randolph’s Leap / Matthew D. Gantt / Stephen Kerrison / Katie Gately / Snails / Juniore / Good Dog / Lil B / Kamaiyah / Ryuichi Sakamoto / The Big Moon / Zoe Mc Pherson / Holy Fuck / Ovrkast / Reol / Andy Shauf / Ethan Gruska / Poliça / D Smoke / Sign Libra / Chara & YUKI / Wiley / Bad Bunny / Shirley Collins / Jordana / Gaika / DJ Python / North Americans / Michael / Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith / Lido Pimienta / Everything Is Recorded / Lwesberg / Sufjan Stevens & Lowell Brams / Rhodri Davies / LA Priest / Ian William Craig / Flohio / Irreversible Entanglements / Islet / Westside Gunn / Empress Of / NNamdi / Warm Digits / Baxter Dury / Kehiani / Eels / Emmy The Great / Owen Pallett / Elysia Crampton / The Beths / Julianna Barwick / Liv.E / Jimothy Lacoste / Ben Frost / J Hus / Sylvan Esso / Haiku Hands / Ariana Grande / Jean Dawson / Food House / Nuala Honan / Helena Deland / Boldly James / Headie One / Oliver Coates / Lowkey-E / Bree Runway / Warren Ellis / Boldy James & The Alchemist / Young Knives /  Little Dragon / The Garden / Melt Yourself Down / Quakers / Kamasi Washington / Mogwai / Gil Scott-Heron & Makaya McCraven / Eyeliner / ‘The Whalebone Box’ OST / Special Interest / Teyana Taylor / Nadine Shah / Tricky / Moor Mother / Nick Storring

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2020 RUNNERS UP (in no order)

William Basinski ‘Lamentations’

Hook ‘Crashed My Car’

Vic Berger IV ‘Late Enough To See The Moon’

Nines ‘Crabs In A Bucket’

My Morning Jacket ‘The Waterfall II’

Firestations ‘Dream Home’

Moses Boyd ‘Dark Matter’

Dick Dent ‘Life’s Hard’

Nicholas Stevenson ‘Dead Arm, Vol.2’

Otto ‘Clam Day’

Pa Salieu ‘Send Them To Coventry’

Undermedvetenheten ‘Undermedvetenheten’

Martha Ffion ‘Nights To Forget’

Adrianne Lenker ‘Songs’

Happy Spendy ‘You’re Doing Okay’

Mark Korven ‘The Lighthouse’ OST

21 Savage and Metro Boomin ‘Savage Mode II’

Yorkston/Thorne/Khan ‘Navarasa’

Three Queens In The Mourning & Bonnie Prince Billy ‘Hello Sorrow / Hello Joy’

Shopping ‘All Or Nothing’

Megan Thee Stallion ‘Good News’

Obongjayer ‘Which Way Is Forward?’

Mush ‘3D Routine’

Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury & The Insects ‘Devs’ OST

Luke Abbott ‘Translate’

Spinning Coin ‘Hyacinth’

Princess Nokia ‘Everything Sucks’

Fleet Foxes ‘Shore’

Julia Holter ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ OST

Sufjan Stevens ‘The Ascension’

Nicolas Jaar ‘Cenizas’

Pottery ‘Welcome To Bobby’s Motel’

Jessie Ware ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’

Jung Jae II ‘Parasite’ OST

Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist ‘Alfredo’

Doves ‘The Universal Want’

Brigid Mae Power ‘Head Above The Water’

Bab L’ Bluz ‘Nayda!’

James Yorkston ‘That Summer, We Flew’

Oklou ‘Galore’

Angel Olsen ‘Whole New Mess’

The Lemon Twigs ‘Songs For The General Public’

Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu ‘Renegade Breakdown’

Gupi ‘None’

Alexia Avina ‘Unearth’

John Bence ‘Love’

Colin Stetson ‘Color Out Of Space’ OST

King Krule ‘Man Alive!’

Against All Logic ‘2017-2019’

Willie J Healey ‘Twin Heavy’

Jam City ‘Pillowland’

MXLX ‘Maximum Amounts Of Extremely Fucking Yes (Vol.1)’

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THE TOP 80 ALBUMS OF 2020

80. Poppy ‘I Disagree’ 79. ThisisDA ‘Mud Hype’ 78. Fenne Lily ‘BREACH’ 77. Gorillaz ‘Song Machine’ 76. Soccer Mommy ‘Color Theory’ 75. 1995 Epilepsy ‘1995 Epilepsy’ 74. Jabu ‘Sweet Company’ 73. Actress ‘Karma & Desire’ + ‘88’ 72. Chloe x Halle ‘Ungodly Hour’ 71. Dirty Projectors ‘5EPs’

70. Beatrice Dillon ‘Walkaround’ 69. Matmos ‘The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form’ 68. Blanck Mass ‘Calm With Horses’ OST 67. Eartheater ‘Phoenix: flames Are Dew Upon My Skin’ 66. Sega Bodega ‘Salvador’  65. Savage Mansion ‘Weird Country’ 64. Kelly Lee Owens ‘Inner Song’ 63. Daniel Blumberg ‘On&On’  62. Clementine March ‘Le Continent’ 61. HAIM ‘Women In Music Pt.III’

60. Dua Lipa ‘Future Nostalgia’ 59. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs ‘Viscerals’ 58. Darkstar ‘Civic Jams’ 57. Lil Uzi Vert ‘Eternal Atake’ 56. This Is The Kit ‘Off Off On’ 55. Shabazz Palaces ‘The Don Of Diamond Dreams’ 54. Princess Nokia ‘Everything Is Beautiful’ 53. The Orielles ‘Disco Volador’ 52. Oro Swimming Hour ‘Pteradactyl’ 51. MXLX ‘Serpent’

50. Dan Deacon ‘Mystic Familiar’

49. Jay Electronica ‘A Written Testimony’

48. Fiona Apple ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters’

47. Galen Tipton ‘Ungoliant’

46. Knife Liibrary ‘MARKS: Songs For Those I Have Killed’

45. Deerhoof ‘Future Teenage Cave Artists’

44. Caribou ‘Suddenly’

43. Working Men’s Club ‘Working Men’s Club’

42. Seamus Fogarty ‘A Bag Of Eyes’

41. Field Music ‘Making A New World’

40. Cornershop ‘England Is A Garden’

39. Lambchop ‘Trip’

38. Katy J Pearson ‘Return’

37. Amaarae ‘The Angel You Don’t Know’

36. James Ferraro ‘Neurogeist’

35. Hen Ogledd ‘Free Humans’

34. Spectres ‘It’s Never Going To Happen And This Is Why’

33. Laura Marling ‘Song For Our Daughter’

32. Bill Callahan ‘Gold Record’

31. Bob Dylan ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’

30. A.G. Cook ‘7G’

29. Good Sad Happy Bad ‘Shades’

28. SAULT ‘Untitled (Black Is)’

27. Run The Jewels ‘RTJ4’

26. Clipping ‘Visions Of Bodies Being Burned’

25. Thundercat ‘It Is What It Is’

24. Pictish Trail ‘Thumb World’

23. Jessy Lanza ‘All The Time’

22. Yves Tumor ‘Heaven To A Tortured Mind’

21. Sorry ‘925’

20. Yaeji ‘What We Drew’

19. A.G. Cook ‘Apple’

18. Wesley Gonzalez ‘Appalling Human’

17. Pet Shimmers ‘Face Down In Meta’ & ‘Trash Earthers’

16. Arca ‘KiCK i’

15. 100 Gecs ‘1000 Gecs And The Tree Of Clues’

14. Tara Clerkin Trio ‘Tara Clerkin Trio’

13. Richard Dawson ‘Republic Of Geordieland’

12. Phoebe Bridgers ‘Punisher’

11. Perfume Genius ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’

10. Charli XCX ‘How I’m Feeling Now’

9. Rina Sawayama ‘SAWAYAMA’

8. Dorian Electra ‘My Agenda’

7. Alabaster DePlume ‘To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals Vol.1’

6. SAULT ‘Untitled (Rise)’

5. Tim Heidecker ‘Fear Of Death’

4. Moses Sumney ‘græ’

3. Oneohtrix Point Never ‘Magic Oneohtrix Point Never’

2. Crack Cloud ‘Pain Olympics’

1. The Flaming Lips ‘American Head’

#list #Awards #2020 Awards

[fangirl-imagines]

Being in a Poly Relationship with Barry Berkman and Sally Reed Would Include...

A/N: Huge, huge shout out to @starting-now who basically co-wrote these with me. They are such an amazing writer and always inspire me. Thank you for always being willing to scream about Barry and Sally with me! They will also have some poly Barry x Reader x Sally stuff coming out on their blog so make sure to go check them out!

You and Sally would already be dating when Barry joins your acting class. 

He was sweet and kind of awkward, not the best actor but a good person. The more he hung around with the rest of the class, the more you liked him. You weren’t sure what to do with these feelings though, you were still in love with Sally too after all.

Then on the night of Ryan’s memorial at the bar you walked outside to find Sally and found her and Barry standing close. Too close to be innocent. Barry looked away guilty but you were surprised to find you weren’t upset at the idea of Sally and Barry together. You had no idea how to bring this up to Sally though.

Barry walked you both home from the bar after the memorial and once you were inside you just turned to Sally and said, “So Barry…” “I know!”

 Turns out Sally had been having the same thoughts about Barry as you.

The two of you talked things out the rest of the night and decided to ask Barry if he wanted to date you both. 

Which of course he says yes to because he’d be an idiot not too. Especially considering he already likes the two of you both and felt guilty for thinking that way about the two of you like that since you were already dating.

It would take a little while for everyone to find their footing in this new arrangement and there would often be times the three of you would have to talk something out and come up with your boundaries within the relationship.

Jealousy is an issue in your relationship early on. Sally isn’t used to having to share your attention with anyone and Barry just is jealous in general because he’s insecure. But you all work on this. 

Barry isn’t sure at first how he fits in since he’s not used to being in a loving relationship in general and coming into an existing relationship is new to him as well and makes him feel a little insecure. 

You and Sally would have to sit him down though and remind him that you both love him and that he’s as big a part of this relationship as the two of you are.

Sally doesn’t care if you and Barry have sex without her but Barry gets all pouty about it when you and Sally have sex without him there.

You and Barry would both be pissed when Sam comes back into town and you would have to remind Barry that you both needed to keep your cool for Sally’s sake.

You would think that Barry is the dominant one in the relationship but really it’s Sally. She's got you and Barry wrapped around her finger.

You would all be very protective of each other. You don’t let anyone talk bad about Sally or Barry to you. 

Someone only made the mistake of calling Sally a bitch in front of you once. Barry literally picked you up and carried you away before you could do any real damage but the person learned never to talk about your girlfriend in front of you again and Barry learned how scary you could be. 

And Barry would literally kill someone for hurting either of you. 

Cute date nights where the three of you cuddle up on the couch and watch movies. Barry’s arm around your shoulders while Sally lays her head in your lap and Barry plays with her hair. 

Sometimes you can see Sally out of the corner of your eye moving her lips in time with the actor on the screen, practicing their lines. 

Getting distracted joking about the movie or distracted by each other…

Individual date nights too where you and Sally will go to museums or film festivals that Barry’s not interested in. Or going to see nerdy movies or on runs with Barry when Sally doesn’t want to join you. And Barry and Sally will go to plays or drinks when you don’t feel like going out. 

All of you spend time individually when you can without the other person feeling pressured to come. 

Of course whoever on the date will usually wind up taking pictures to send to the other person to make them smile.

Eventually you and Sally decide to ask Barry to move in with you and Barry tears up when you both give him the key, thrilled and honored that you both want to build a life with him. He never thought he could have this life or anyone to love him, let alone two wonderful people.

Having to buy a bed big enough for the three of you to all sleep in at once.

You all alternate at random who sleeps in the middle. No one really has a preference. Though sometimes Barry will feel antsy if he can’t sleep on the edge of the bed closest to the door. And sometimes when Sally has a bad day she will throw her body into the bed and over the both of you.

Sally can’t sleep unless she’s touching at least one of you.

Splitting chores three ways where everyone has their own task or two that's specifically their job.

Sally does dishes, you do laundry and vacuum, and Barry dust because he’s tall enough to reach everywhere that needs it. 

You all do them at the same time after dinner so you can talk and listen to music while you do them.

Afterwards you can all just settle down together and turn on a movie, taking turns to pick one. It's all very domestic and adorable.

Sally likes to pick dramas or anything with a female lead that she can use for class. Barry likes comedies and action movies. 

You all have very simple matching bracelets that you got everyone for Christmas.

Their nothing girly or fancy, just simple leather or cord bands that you all wear.

It started as an inside joke when you and Sally wore matching shirts by accident and Barry laughed, asking “What are we all gonna have friendship bracelets or something?”  but then for Christmas you surprised them both with bracelets you made yourself, matching the one you were already wearing. 

You were kind of insecure about it, not sure if they would even like them and were fully prepared to play it off as a joke until Sally beamed at you warmly and kissed you softly, telling you how beautiful it was, asking you to help her put it on. But you still a little embarrassed and assured them that they didn’t actually have to wear them.

Of course Barry already had his on and is tearing up looking at it because no one has ever made him in anything or ever loved him enough to give him something like this. 

So while you and Sally wear yours almost daily, Barry will never take his off ever. He plays with it when he’s nervous and looks down at it when he needs to be reminded that he’s loved. 

Especially when he’s trying to get out of his job. It's a reminder that he has two people he loves who love him and he has a reason to get out.

Threesomes. Just a lot of threesomes. 

Barry and Sally now having two people who they can come to when they need comfort and support. 

The acting class would be so supportive of your relationship and provide a bubble of support for the three of you. 

Other people are less accepting though, often asking inappropriate questions about your relationship or making gross,crude comments to the three of you.

One time some creep tried to tell Barry how “lucky” for having two girlfriends and asked Barry if he got to watch you and Sally. Barry almost broke his jaw. 

He refuses to let anyone make you or Sally feel ashamed of your relationship with each other or himself. 

Sally and you both comforting Barry when he starts to have a panic attack, both of you cuddling him and taking care of him.

Sometimes you feel insecure yourself because Sally and Barry are just so beautiful and amazing and you feel like they might be better off without you. 

Both of them telling you that’s crazy and they both think you are beautiful and wonderful.

Barry thinking he doesn’t deserve to be happy and with the two of you and he worries that one day you will both realize this and leave him. He's sure he doesn't deserve one person to love him, let alone two.

You all bring your own strengths to the relationship. You’re better at providing emotional support and being there to make sure everyone's okay. Sally is great at making sure everyone is communicating with each other. And Barry is the best at making sure everyone feels loved and beautiful.

When you need to talk about something Sally is the one to go to while if you need a hug Barry is the one to go to.

All of you having each other for support and love when life gets crazy.

#barry berkman #barry berkman imagine #barry berkman x reader #sally reed #sally reed imagine #sally reed x reader #barry berkman x reader x sally reed #poly barry berkman x reader x sally reed #barry block #barry block imagine #barry block x reader #bill hader #bill hader imagine #bill hader x reader #sarah goldberg #sarah goldberg imagine #sarah goldberg x reader #barry hbo #barry hbo imagine #barry hbo x reader #lgbtq #lgbtq imagine #lgbtq reader

[daggerzine]

You Gotta Lose? Hell, Some Of Us Ain’t Dead Yet by Mary Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fz3FVBlOE

NRBQ has done so many amazing songs. I never thought much about “Roll Call,” from Tiddlywinks - for one thing, it has a lighter, almost Billy Joel sound that’s more about latter day Terry Adams style than what I think of as the classic Q. Yet just as Adams’ work has grown on me, this track has made its way into my consciousness. The lyrics speak to me more in 2020 than they did when Tiddlywinks was released in 1980, before the D.C.-area music scene had lost Robert Goldstein (Urban Verbs), Kevin MacDonald (brilliant visual artist and scene stalwart who helped me design and layout [The] Infiltrator), Danny Gatton disciple/guitar maverick Evan Johns, bassist Michael Maye from the original H-Bombs, Rick Dreyfuss (Half Japanese/Chumps/Shakemore), Libby Hatch and Michael Mariotte  (Tru Fax and the Insaniacs), Sally Be/Berg - REM/Egoslavia/SHE/Robert Palmer), Nurses member Marc Halpern (heroin, 1982), Lorenzo (Pee- Wee) Jones (Tiny Desk Unit) and hybrid rocker Jim Altman (HIV, 1990s).  Goldstein, Dreyfuss, Maye and MacDonald succumbed to cancer, while Evan Johns’ deterioration followed years of touring, hard drinking and pushing himself past the limit.

(Top to bottom: Tommy Keene, Kevin MacDonald, Susan Mumford)

Those named above have been joined by Tommy Keene (the Rage/the Razz/solo/Paul Westerberg/Matthew Sweet - cardiac arrest at the age of 59; 2017), TDU’s Susan Mumford (cancer, 2018), David Byers (Psychotics/H.R./Bad Brains), and Skip Groff (Yesterday and Today/ Limp Records/Dischord - seizure, 2019).  This is just an imperfect/incomplete naming of D.C.-area losses - I’m sure journalists from other cities could make lists. A horde of New Wave and early alternative musicians have died within the past few years. Whether through the stress of hard living/poverty, substance abuse, cancer or Covid-19, we’re seeing artists pass much earlier than I, anyway, expected them to.

(Top to bottom: Fred "Freak” Smith, Michael Maye with Evan Johns, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs)

We’re already past the loss of all the original Ramones. All the Cramps less Poison Ivy. Joe Strummer. Robert Quine. Hilly Kristal. Lou Reed. As of July, 2020, since 2018 we’ve also lost Andy Gill, Ivan Kral, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Schlesinger, Danny Mihm, Ric Ocasek, Daniel Johnston, Kim Shattuck, Lorna Doom, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Ranking Roger, Mark E. Smith, Glenn Branca, Randy Rampage, Hardy Fox, Pete Shelley, Matthew Seligman, Bill Rieflin, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider,  Ian Dury, Benjamin Orr, Kirsty McColl and David Roback.

(Top to bottom: Sally Be/Berg, Ranking Roger, Danny Mihm)

Talking about the deaths of talented, gifted creatives is a helluva way to start a column. But here we are. Older performers don’t always get the attention afforded newer, so the rest of this piece shares and celebrates artists from the original New Wave/punk scenes who are still around and active. Many are from the D.C.-area cornucopia I know best, while others have just come to my attention, or seem especially noteworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED9_XK_JVQ

The Zeros’ Javier Escovedo has been steadily emitting tasty Americana-ish rock while occasionally dropping some Zeros sturm-’n’-drang - most recently with Munster Records single “In The Spotlight” and a track on Burger Records’ Quarantunes compilation. Quarantunes is a seven-album affair featuring 140 alternative/punk performers old and new, all of whom wrote songs between March-April 2020. A cursory listen to Volume 2 reveals the recorded version of a good night at a very wild bar, with Zeros still handily kicking ass of all ages.

https://velvetmonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/legacy-of-success?fbclid=IwAR0lJyS0YDE4e3o7LJiITEtw1lhBWMkUX47Vuag1Lf9fs2QozJJKD1lwkes

Velvet Monkeys/B.A.L.L. player and Sonic Youth/Teenage Fanclub producer Don Fleming reports, “We’ve put out new tracks ‘Theories of Rummanetics’ and ‘Legacy of Success.’ Jay has written a few ‘modules’ and Malcolm and I are having fun doing the music,” adding, “I play some electric six string on the new Rob Moss album - it’s fun to be on, with lots of guitar slingers from the DC daze.”

Yup, Rob Moss of Skin-Tight Skin has solicited contributions from Fleming and from Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys), along with a pile of talent including Stuart Casson (Psychotics/Dove/Meatmen), Franz Stahl (Foo Fighters/Scream), Billy Loosigian (Nervous Eaters, the Boom-Boom Band), Nels Cline (Wilco) and Saul Koll (the guy who made guitars for Henry Kaiser and Lee Ranaldo). The set is called We’ve Come Back To Rock ‘n’ Roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIB8a_0Q4c

Chumps/Workdogs/Jam Messengers player Rob Kennedy apparently has too much energy to throw in the towel - he’s kept recording, performing and making various sorts of lo-fi, DIY mischief that never loses that fresh, ‘70s feeling. Jam Messengers released Night And Day on vinyl in 2017. One of my fave Kennedy tracks, “A Low Down Dirty Shame” speaks to this moment as well as any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CRBEGVLE4

Former Tiny Desk Unit/Fuji’s Navy/Rhoda & the Bad Seeds members Bob Boilen, Kevin Lay, Michael Barron and Bob Harvey have released a new Danger Painters joint, Thank Speak Love This Record. Lay joked, “I have a voice made for Morse Code” before revealing his recent work with Rhoda and the Bad Seeds material, released June 30 as Live at Nightclub 9:30. Boilen continues to introduce artists both vital and obscure via Tiny Desk Concerts and All Songs Considered/NPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ1GajwfB0

I’ve seen David Arnson play recently and can attest to his proclivity for unfettered growth via Insect Surfers, the instrumental group that originally had some trouble establishing cred. with younger D.C. punks. The Surfers’ most recent release was Living Fossils (2019). Arnson celebrated the band’s 40 years of existence with a European tour in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkIuWIZVkM

Jad Fair says, “Half Japanese will have a new album released in November on Fire Records.” Jad’s art was recently featured at the Hiromart Gallery/Tokyo, while David has created a Facebook page where fans can pick up his colorful images for, well, mere bags o’ shells, as far as we can see -  https://www.facebook.com/David-Fair-Painting-107055447700859/

Despite health issues for several members, Bad Brains has collaborated with Element to make BB themed skate wear https://www.elementbrand.com/mens-collection-bad-brains/ and added some killer live tracks to its YouTube channel.  

Former WGTB programmers John Paige and Steve Lorber have been presenting Rock Continuum on WOWD-LP FM 94.3 since 2017.

Mike Stax continues to give excellent motivation for hunting down a pair of Beatle boots - Munster released the Loons’ 7” EP, A Dream In Jade Green, last year. The latest issue of Ugly Things, said by Stax to be heavily focused on the Pretty Things’ Phil May, was reported in early July to be nearing publication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jSc7gEAv0

Razz (the) Documentary will tell the story of how an uncommonly combustible rock band - especially with the Bill Craig/Abaad Behram line-up - helped spread the Flamin’ Groovies gospel while throwing down oddly compelling originals and taking the two-guitar thing up several notches - the producers are purportedly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether anyone can ever recreate the experience of being in an altered state via obsessive, sometimes conversational repetition of certain chords, anchored by Ted Nicely rethinking just what can be done with a bass guitar, given girth by Doug Tull’s intuitive drumming; with Mike Reidy the heat-seeking missile somewhere near the center... well, I doubt it. ‘Cause at this point you’re feeling no pain and it’s not about drinking; there is no room for anything but water - the beer will be knocked over when you’re this busy matching David Arnson’s other-side-of-the-front-line’s leaps into joydum while PCP’d out yahoos from the sticks learn the hard way that hugging Marshall amps can lead to lifelong repercussions. There (in case nothing I want to say about [the] Razz makes it into the film) - I’ve said it.

Discussions among old friends have confirmed that I’m not alone in being happily surprised at this development - we never expected our actions - which led to the hardcore explosion that’s received a lot more attention... would ever make it into any history book. Yet coverage of many of the D.C.-area musicians featured in this piece also comes with Punk The Capitol, A History of D.C. Punk and Hardcore, 1976-1983. Spring 2021 is the projected date for streaming/DVD release.

Ivan Julian came back from a scary 2015 bout with cancer to do a show in New York in 2016. The cancer has returned. Friends have organized a GoFundMe to raise money for surgery and basic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDB_3by-xkI

The Shakemore fest also refuses to fade, promising “eight hours of streaming steaming video” on August 1. Sounds will be provided by R. Stevie Moore, Velvet Monkeys, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Half Japanese, Johnny Spampinato, Weird Paul and the Chumps, among many, many others.

Despite having played at CBGB and other alternative venues in 1979, at the height of the New Wave, Gary Wilson’s work is so distinctive, he’s rarely been included with any musical genre other than the oft-vague “experimental” category. Folks were too unmoored by his visceral performances to get behind him. Wilson’s 14th album, Tormented, was released by Cleopatra in February.

Paul Collins recently published a book that he wrote with Chuck Nolan; I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (Hozac Books).

As “Heath,” Michael Layne Heath, a journalist who contributed to (the) Infiltrator and many other ‘zines, published My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed in May (Hat & Beard Press).

In April, X released its first album in 35 years; Alphabetland.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1I-laItPI

As exciting for me as any of the above is Richard Hell with the Heartbreakers’ 2019 release of Yonkers Demo 1976. Hell’s “You Gotta Lose” is one of my picks for best punk/new wave singles of all time. The Heartbreakers version is, predictably, messier than the Robert Quine guitar-spiked classic. Its more excessive charms are growing on me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QnsysCN_A

This piece could go on and on - compiling it has been exhausting. The best part has been the response to my social media call for any info I didn’t have re: the D.C.-centric scene I left for New York in 1983. Musicians anxious to keep their compadres’ names alive have hammered that post with 138 comments to date. Urban Verbs percussionist Danny Frankel, who’s played with a colorful spread of artists including Beck, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, John Cale and k.d. Lang, made a point of being sure I knew about the passing of Marc Halpern, a source of obvious pain. People were worried I wouldn’t mention John Stabb (Government Issue - 2016), rockabilly player Billy Hancock (2018), Fred “Freak” Smith (Strange Boutique/Beefeater - murdered in Los Angeles, 2017), John Hansen (Slickee Boys - 2010), record store owner/Wasp Records starter/music supporter Bill Asp, Jimmy Barnett of The Killer Bees, and David Byers.

One of the hardest for me to write about is Chris Morse, whose 1984 passing from a drug overdose wrenched so many - I managed to get an obituary into, I think, The New York Rocker (that physical trek was part of a long-ago blur; a very hot day of traipsing over steaming concrete in a narrow-skirted dress to deliver the copy). Chris popped up in my dreams for years - one “visitation” pushed me to write a poem about it in the ‘90s. Morse, who played in Rhoda & The Bad Seeds and worked as a doorman at The Pyramid after moving to NYC in the early ‘80s, was on one of the Urban Verbs’ early flyers. I’m on another.

(Top to bottom: Me in an early Verbs flyer/photo shot at the Atlantis; Chris Morse on another Verbs flyer)

I ended up getting so burnt out on the responsibility of populating this sad roll call, I’ve started a memorial page for them all on Facebook. The nature of truly alternative music is such that many of its lights still fail to fill the pages of major publications. Many of these lights gave a great deal of their lives, if not everything, for the art they believed in. It’s good to remember them, and those heady early days. It’s good to enjoy what we still can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA3IfK76mmI

[eyreguide]

National Theatre Live - Jane Eyre

In 2016, I eagerly watched the theater broadcast of the U.K. play adaptation of Jane Eyre. This 3-hour production was directed by Sally Cookson and starred Madeleine Worrall as Jane, Felix Hayes as Rochester, and five other actors playing all the other roles.  I wrote this review back in 2016, and with the release online, I’m re-posting my thoughts.  I do have some critiques on the choices in the production, but I did enjoy it overall and am looking forward to seeing it again!

During the interval before the broadcast of this play, there was an interview and behind the scenes video about the play, and I really liked what I heard from the director about how she views the story, and how she feels that Jane's journey is the essential feature.  It is called Jane Eyre after all.  I very much agreed with her on that, and I loved that she felt such a connection to the story and put that love for it into her production.  The play is focused on Jane's story as a whole, starting with how she develops, so it was nice to see that all five parts of the book (Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Morton, and Ferndean) are pretty fleshed out (the first three though is the main focus).  It was overall a good adaptation and a bold and unique interpretation of the story.  I only had some minor issues with it.

I wonder that if I had a chance to watch this again, I would feel as strongly about the things I'm about to mention.  Because when I first heard Jane Eyre the Musical I didn't love it, but after listening to the soundtrack a few times - I adored it.  So it's possible I just need to get used to some things, and also forget some of my hopes and expectations to really see the piece for what it is because this is not a straightforward adaptation.  

But anyways.  The first thing that struck me with this play was the staging.  It's very stark, modern, minimal and theatrical.  But I would have liked something a bit more evocative of the time period.  This is theater, so I understand that sometimes it's nice to pull back and focus on performance and see the story created by just the actors, but for me, sitting in a theater watching it on a big screen, I felt a little taken out of the story at times by how the background was bland and unexciting.  It had the feeling of a really good rehearsal.  I would have loved a little more theater-level realism to set the stage as it were.  When there were some great moments in the play (and there were!) I was so easily distracted by the feeling that these are actors performing a role.  It was just something that was at the back of my mind sometimes while watching.  I did like some things about the set though. There was real fire coming out from the bottom of the stage.  And for a simple constructed set, they made good use of everything and it was very inventive.

Some of the ways they adapted the story felt more like it was there to be modern or innovative and I felt like it would have been better if it was there to serve the story and not just to be an effect.  Things like the way the play shows Jane traveling to a new place by the whole cast running in place.  It went on for a little longer than necessary.  And I felt like they could have just transitioned (*cough* and added more dialogue from the book *cough*).  And Rochester's dog Pilot.  He was comic relief because he was played by a person, running around barking, and he was funny, but Pilot isn't in the story that much.  It didn't add anything to the story and must have replaced some things I would have liked to see.

There was music to go along with the action - a live band played background and also played for the mysterious woman who seemed to narrate Jane's inner thoughts through song - turns out the woman was playing Bertha and I actually liked that! - and I also did like the music.  Some of the songs that are in the novel was set to music for the show (with some liberties taken with the lyrics)  including my favorite - Rochester's song to Jane.  I don't think I've ever seen that done before!  That made me so happy!  However, there were a couple (two that I recognized) modern songs that were sung to illustrate the story and it bothered me that although the songs have some parts that fit with the story (kinda) the lyrics don't completely fit. Like  "Mad About the Boy" with one lyric that goes "Lord knows I'm not a school girl/ Who's in the flurry of her first affair" -- but that's exactly what Jane is though....  And then near the end there was "Crazy" - the Gnarls Barkley song which hardly fits if it was sung for Jane.  Which it seemed like it was.  If it was sung for Bertha, that fits better.  It was strange for me though.

Things that I really liked:

The Greek chorus of the cast speaking Jane's inner thoughts as if she was having a conversation with herself.  I especially liked it when Rochester tells Jane he'll tell her everything when they have been married a year and a day, and the chorus of Jane's thoughts are basically like "What? Are you kidding me??"  For me (because Jane does not show her feelings!) it's nice to get that window into her thoughts this way.  

The scene where Jane tells off Mrs. Reed was particularly powerful to me.  I loved the real indignation that seemed to emanate from the actress playing Jane.  That moment was very believable in the show.

After Jane and Rochester meet, there is this montage of Jane and Rochester sort of seeing each other around the house and watching each other.  It showed that they sensed each other's 'strangeness' and were intrigued by each other. Especially because there is that passage in the book where Rochester talks about watching Jane in the early days.  It was nice to see that adapted.  Pretty much anything that shows Jane and Rochester's connection appeals to me though.

In a similar vein - Jane and Rochester's engagement scenes appealed to me, because Rochester was trying to give Jane gifts, and Jane kept refusing them.  Until he gave her the veil.  And she accepted it - only because it would make him happy.  Aww.

The farewell scene emotion-wise was pretty good too.  I did wish there was more time spent on Rochester's motivation for what he did (like when Jane says she does believe Rochester would hate her if she were mad, Rochester does not say his answer to that - and I do love that speech.)

The Cast

Since the cast is small, I want to talk about them individually:

Madeleine Worrall as Jane.  I think she did a tremendous job carrying the whole production with a lot of emotion, and she had to play Jane as a baby into an adult which must not have been easy.  I do wish Jane was played by a younger actress though - it is superficial of me, but I feel like Jane's youth makes it easy to understand why she makes the mistakes she does with Rochester.  I also thought that it was out of character how overly emotional Jane was at times.  When Jane is an adult, she really keeps things locked down tight, on the outside.  Madeleine's Jane always seemed on the verge of an outburst.  Jane is restrained and composed. which makes those moments when her reserve cracks all the more effective.  That seemed missing to me in this adaptation.  It would have been nice to see her inner emotions more through the chorus of Jane's thoughts I think.

Felix Hayes as Rochester.  Just superficially again - me no likey the beard haha.  But I liked him more as Rochester than I did of Madeleine as Jane.  Even though this Rochester showed a bit more anger and bitterness than that teasing side of Rochester that I like, he did have some funny moments and he did deliver on some teasing.  The proposal scene just lacked a little bit in romance because he seemed so angry when he was asking/ordering Jane to marry him.  I mean the audience laughed at how aggressive he was, and I feel like the proposal shouldn't really be a funny moment...  Felix also played John Reed which was interesting.  Should I read some kind of interpretation in that??

Simone Saunders as Bessie, Blanche, and Diana.  There were two actors I really liked in this production.  Simone was one of them.  I liked her because I felt like her portrayal of Bessie was so spot on.  Just the right amount of temper and tenderness, and she was so believable.  And her Blanche was fantastic too.  Snooty and entitled.  I was really impressed by her acting!  Especially because they were such different characters and she was so great at doing all of them.

Craig Edwards as Brocklehurst, Pilot and Mr. Mason.  Craig Edwards was the other actor I really loved.  I kinda wish he played Rochester!  It would have been interesting to see his interpretation. But it was his Brocklehurst that I thought was so good.  He just seemed so stiff and forbidding and perfect.  And his Pilot was fun, even if I was not as happy with the addition he made to the scenes.

Laura Elphinestone as Helen, Adele and St. John Rivers.  Hmm.  Helen is Jane's friend, but I didn't really get a sense of Helen's great kindness from this production.  It seemed like Helen was really nice to Jane just once,  the other two times Helen's conversation with Jane came off a bit begrudging. Adele was weirdly super loud and annoying every time she had a scene.  No wonder Rochester didn't want her around.  That's probably just the way both characters were adapted perhaps.  Laura as St. John was very good though. I loved how uptight and preachy she was.  There was very little sympathy for him as a character though.  Not that I do have sympathy for St. John, but Jane does in the book.

Maggie Tagney as Mrs. Reed and Mrs. Fairfax.  Maggie was great in both roles.  They are such different characters, and Maggie made them very believable as individuals.  And they felt true to the characters as they are in the book!

Melanie Marshall as Bertha.  Wow, Melanie has a fantastic voice.  Such a great range, and it was used to full potential here.  Sometimes her singing was high and eerie and served as background, and other times it was jazzy or folksy for whatever served the song.  And again, I liked that she was Bertha too.  It kind of fit that she was in a way, shadowing Jane throughout her story.  But not in the way that Jane and Bertha are similar or have a similar life, but because she will play a role in Jane's life unbeknownst to her.

I feel like this review is pretty critical but I hope not overly so.  I think this was a good production - I mean there are ones that really get it wrong, but this play does have a lot going for it.  A great sense of atmosphere for one.  It's like an impressionistic version of the story, and it does portray the emotional beats of the novel well for the most part.  And again, I love that the focus is so much on Jane.  It's gotten some very good reviews in England, so I think as a piece of theater it must be excellent.  And it seemed like a lot of the theater goers when I went enjoyed it.  It is a very intriguing interpretation that got me thinking, regardless of my personal issues!

#Jane Eyre #Charlotte Bronte #National Theatre #National Theatre Live #Play