#this isn’t a serious h.c but it’s not NOT a serious h.c

[mute-call]

the idea that phone guy leaves hours-long messages (from 12-2 on night 1 for example). that he’s rambling w filler / other stuff we don’t hear in-game. that to hear the useful information you have to sit through half an hour of him telling you the most random shit

#this isn’t a serious h.c but it’s not NOT a serious h.c #like I’m kind of obsessed w this idea #he’s just chatting away :) to no one :) #;hc

[notimefics]

Meeting the Parents - H.C.

Word Count: 2.1K

Requested? Still no, I’m still waiting 

Warnings: I didn’t proof read it because exam season is here and I should actually be studying instead of doing this - so it’ll probably be messy! Apart from that, not much! 

A/N: Super sorry it took me this long to write this but I’m having exams so time is not on my side! Today’s piece is v fluffy! I hope you like it and if you do don’t forget to show it with a like, a comment or a reblog! Because I didn’t proof read it I might read it tomorrow and edit some stuff out! 

Henry’s POV “I can’t believe we are bringing 3 cakes,” I say laughing as we get out of the car in front of my parents house and start walking towards their door.

“We’re not bringing 3 different cakes!” She complains. “We’re brining muffins, a banana bread and a chocolate cake. So it’s only one cake. Plus I’m staying there for the weekend, so if we count today we’re really only bringing one thing per day,” 

“Plus the flowers,” I say with a chuckle. 

“The flowers obviously don’t count!” She says, but at least now that we’re joking she doesn’t look as nervous as she did in the car. 

“Obviously,” I say with a laugh. “Why would they? They’re not even edible,” 

“Well... they’re pansies so technically you can eat them. They make salads look beautiful and I used them once and it was quite good!”

“And did people survive that culinary experience?” I ask with a laughter. 

“Well, I’m here and alive ain’t I?”

“How long was this? Because you are looking a bit pale,” I joke as we get to their porch and I ring the door bell. 

“What?!” She asks me concerned. “Are you serious? I knew should’ve... put some bronzer on or something,”

“I was joking! You look wonderful as always,” I tell her and lean in to kiss her cheek. “They’ll love you,” 

“Once you explain that you’re not dating a ghost,” she says with a smirk as I pull away. 

I’m still laughing when my mum opens the door. 

“Henry! Love! Aw, I missed you so much, sweetheart!” She says and gives me a tight hug. “Oh, and this must be Y/N, I’m so glad you could come this weekend,”

“Oh! Thank you so much for inviting me,” Y/N says with a big smile. I knew mum and dad would love her, the only problem would be my brothers. It’s not that they wouldn’t love me, it’s just that they would tease me about her the whole weekend and tease her because of me too. But Y/N was tough, she’d get along with them. 

“We come bearing gifts,” I tell my mum holding the basket higher so she could see it.

“You shouldn’t have!” My mum reprimands us quickly. 

“Oh, it’s nothing! They’re not really gifts. I just had some free time on my hands” woke up at 6 this morning “and thought I’d get my hands on some recipes I’ve been dying to try,”

“Thank you so much,” My mum tells her and steps aside from the door. “Come on in, come on in! Your dad is somewhere around the corner, but go ahead and put your things in your bedroom while I put these lovely cakes in the kitchen and look for your father. Don’t forget to show Y/N around!” She says and takes the basket from my hands before walking towards the kitchen. 

“Come on, you’ve heard my mum, I’ve got to show you around,” I say and hold her hand showing her the way, first to our bedroom and then around the house. 

“I guess it’s a good thing she didn’t ask why you were dating a ghost,” Y/N says as we go up the stairs and I chuckle and shake my head. “She was probably just being polite though,” 

“Or maybe she was afraid she’d get the species wrong. Like maybe you were a vampire or a ghoul or something along those lines,” I try and she laughs.

“Well, when she saw me I was standing in the sun so if she thinks I’m a vampire she’s a little misinformed. And aren’t ghost and ghouls kind of the same thing?”

“Well, I think ghouls are evil spirits or something,” 

“Oh, do you think that from our 5 second exchange she could see how evil I truly am?” 

“Yeah, the flower pot present gave it away,” I tell her and she laughs again. That laugh... It was how I knew I had to bring her here. I just figured I would never get tired of it and, more than that, I would like to be the reason of that laughter for as long as I can. 

“Ok, so 1 parent down. 1 to go,” She says as we put our bags in the bedroom. 

“It doesn’t help that you’re talking about them like you’re a sniper and they’re targets, just saying,”

“Come one, pick a lane mate, am I a sniper or a ghoul?” She asks and then takes a seat on the bed and looks around. “Your bedroom is nice,”

“Yeah, it was renovated a few years ago,” I tell her as I sit next to her. 

“Oh noooo, I wanted to see child or teenage-Henry’s bedroom!” She whines, letting her back fall on the bed. How easy she could make me laugh also made me sure that I wanted to bring her here. 

“You really don’t,” I tell her with a laughter thinking about all the posters and crap I had in my bedroom back then. 

“I beg to disagree, let’s just hope your parents have some terrible pictures of you as a kid to make up for it,” 

“Well, they do, but you won’t come anywhere near them if I have anything to do with them,” I tell her and lay down next to her, our legs dangling on the edge of the bed. 

“What? Why do you think I came here this weekend? It was for the ammunition against you!” She says looking at me sideways, with a big goofy smile. 

“And the nerves about meeting my parents?” I ask, my cheek laying on the bed to look at her. “If this is only for you to see embarrassing pictures of me as a kid, why were you nervous?”

“Isn’t it obvious? If they didn’t like me they might not want to show me the pictures! It has nothing to do with the fact that I want to impress them so that they don’t hate me when they see me in the future,”

“When they see you in the future, eh?” I ask her. 

“Exactly, it has nothing to do with that,” She says and then quickly stands up. “Come on! I want to meet the rest of your family!” 

I shake my head but stand up and gladly take her to meet the rest of my family.

*The next day*

I am standing in the kitchen table looking outside where Y/N passed back and forth talking on the phone. There had been an emergency at work and she had to take this call and solve problems only she could solve. She apologized about a thousand times even though it was so early no one but me would even know probably.

“So,” I hear behind me startling me. “No need to jump!” My brother says with a laugh, he had clearly done it on purpose. 

“You’re up already?” 

“The kids woke me up,” he explains.  “But I put them in front of the tv, like the responsible dad I am, and came here to ask you why you were up already,”

“Y/N had a work call and I woke up as well,” 

“Look at you being a supportive husband,” He jokes.

“I’m no one’s husband,” I tell him, shaking my head. 

“Yet, eh?” He says raising his eyebrows. 

“Stop it,” I chuckle. 

“So is it a work call or was she so freaked out by us that she had to get some emotional support from her friends or therapist this morning?” 

“Surprisingly enough it’s actually work. Though knowing you guys I should probably have a therapist on speed dial,” I laugh. 

“Nonsense.” He says dismissing it. “If she has a sense of humour she’ll be alright! And she looked ok last night,”

“You barely talked to her last night, but thanks,” I tell him. 

“That’s true,” He admits, “But I did see you drooling over her when she was playing with my kids,” He makes fun of me. 

“I’m pretty sure you should be watching your kids not me, but again, thanks,” before he can say anything else Y/N is heading inside again. 

“Hey! Good morning! I hope I didn’t wake you up,” She says to my brother. 

“No, no! The kids beat you to it,” He tells her with a smile. 

“They seem to beat me at everything, first it was last night winning at hide and seek, now this?” She says and my brother chuckles. I knew he’d love her. 

“Did you manage to solve it?” I ask her, talking about the phone call. 

“Yeah, thanks,” she says leaning on me, and because I am sitting and she is standing, her hip is against my side and at the perfect place for me to wrap my arm around her. “It was a bit messy and, but 5 phone calls later, it’s handled! Do you want to help me make breakfast because I don’t know where anything is?” She asks me. 

“Well, I’m gonna go see some idiotic cartoon with my kids so I don’t have to help with breakfast too!” My brother says before leaving the kitchen. I take the opportunity of being alone with her to quickly stand up and kiss her. 

“Come on,” she says pulling away with a smile. “your parents could come in any moment. You’re very tempting but...”

“They already love you can’t we just enjoy that and be comfortable?”

“No,” she says with a laugh. “I am not so sure that they like me and, if they do, I want to keep it that way!” 

“You’re not sure if they like you? My mum was sharing recipes with you and you were talking with my dad for god knows how long about business! They love you! Even if they accidentally bore you to death,” That gains mea laughter. 

“Don’t be daft, they were not boring me. They were super interesting actually!” 

“Super interesting?” I ask her skeptically. 

“Yes! Your mom’s salted caramel recipes is wild!” I tell him. “Now come on, I’m starving!” She says and takes a step back. 

A few minutes later, while she is cutting some bread to toast and I am scrambling some eggs my brother gets back in the kitchen. 

“Hey, H, could you do me a favour and keep and eye on the kids every now and then so I could go back to sleep for a few more minutes?”

“Of course,” I nod and my brother smiles and happily goes back to bed.

“I guess you should add a few eggs for your nephews,” She tells me and I nod. 

“You know I could get used to this,” I tell her nonchalantly. “You and me making breakfast, kids in the next room,”

“Oh,” she says slightly surprised. I’m trying to act cool and not at all nervous that we’re not on the same page. “I guess it wouldn’t be the worse thing in th world,” she says cooly as well,  a big smile and a blush on her cheeks giving her away. Oh, I hope I never lose the ability to make her blush. 

I can’t help it, I put the bowl and the fork down, turn to her, wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her. 

“Come on,” She tells me with a smile. “I want kids too, but now might not be the right moment to try to have one,” she says with a wiggle of her eyebrows. I am still laughing when my mum comes in the kitchen a few moments later. 

“Good morning to you two,” She says merrily. “You’re in a good mood,” She tells me with a smile. 

“I got some good news,” I tell her and, from the corner of my eyes I see Y/N blushing some more. 

“Oh, if you’re making breakfast you wouldn’t mind if I spent some time with the children, would you?” She asks us barely even registering what I told her. 

“Of course not!” Y/N tells her. 

“Thank you, you’re a sweetheart,” My mum says before walking away. I immediately turn my attention back to Y/N, one arm around her again. 

“Your mom is in the next room!” She whispers to me. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll stop with the PDA in front of my family, but it’s very hard when you tell me things like you just said,” 

“Me? You said it to me!” She argues, but she’s smiling. 

“Yeah, but... ok, we’ll talk about it when we’re back home yeah?” I ask and she nods. She quickly gets on her tiptoes and kisses me before getting away and back to the counter. 

“You’re right, it’s very hard not to kiss you when we’re talking about this,” 

#henry cavill fluff #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill one shot #henry cavill x reader

[thcnderslam-a]

 H.C Libre’s tendency to give people nicknames stems from her primary way of communicating to people, sign language. In FSL (Ferrum Sign Language) taught to her by her Battle Trainer, names are generally chosen based on traits both physical and personality wise, occupation, or interests. This isn’t her only way of giving a person a name, however. In the rare occasion she’s being formal she’ll sign out the first initial along with a description. For example, if she were speaking formally about a close friend of hers she’d sign their first initial then raise her hands up to her ears, the FSL sign for Pikachu or simply make a heart over her chest. Full names, on the other hand, are reserved strictly for speaking of serious manners, in which she’ll sign every letter of the addressed person’s name one by one.

#headcanon tag tba. #//saw some name business going around #//figured I'd take the opportunity to explain why Libre gives out names all the time #//Even when speaking normally she calls peeps by nicknames out of habit #//any dialogue in parenthesis was her speaking in sign language #for any of y'all not in the know

[past---caring]

The Dancing Plague of 1518

It was the 14th of July 1518 when Frau Troffea in Strasburg, Alsace left her home and started dancing. She kept doing so for the first day only collapsing from exhaustion briefly. By the third day her feet were drenched in blood and she was carted off to a shrine for St.Vitus in Saverne as the Imlin family’s chronicle notes. Paracelsus recorded how her illness was attributed to this saint due to his representing conditions like the falling sickness or plague.The Dancing Plague is one of the most singular and puzzling medical events of history and even now the reasons for it occurring are wildly debated. The world that Frau Troffea lived in was one in which women could birth monsters, saints and demons could intercede with humanity and magic and religion were central ways of understanding the world.A killer dance must be understood in light of this.

Soon other people were joining Troffea in the deadly dance. Within four days thirty-four people were infected in total ,the 17th century chronicle of Oseas Schad discusses that this soon jumped to two hundred and within four weeks of Troffea’s dance this number doubled to four hundred as the Imlin family’s chronicle said.

To the citizens it was evident that either the sufferers blood was overheated or spiritual figures like God,the Devil or Saints were involved. The city’s Council of Twenty One argued for the former cause to start with ,prohibiting masses for it at first as in their view it was the Galenistic overheating of blood which was the Cause.And such natural sickness,one chronicler noted,required natural curative means.Galen treatments for it should have involved cooling through cold foods or bleeding yet the actions took by the city’s government did not involve this. Instead more dancing was prescribed…

The Council of Twenty-One ordered two town guidhalls to be set aside for dancers and employed guards to watch over the sufferers as they danced. Daniel Specklin noted that people danced with the victims by the sound of fife and drum with chronicler Hieronymus Gebwiler noting “they dance day and night with those poor people”. It didn’t work.

And thus people turned to spiritual means. Gebwiler ,a Alsation Humanist argued that the Strasbourgeois had been punished by God for forgetting Christ’s suffering for them and stated that the glee of people watching one woman who danced for six day led to her passing it on through being watched. Even dancing in and of itself was a cause for the curse as the citizens had danced shamefully ,in blasphemous fashion and with the wrong people or in the wrong places. This act of rhythmic movement that seems so neutral to us today was symbolically powerful enough to cause those like Calvin to ban it gradually everywhere in Geneva between 1539-49.

To combat it, documents by Sebastian Brant in the Munincipal Archive of Strasbourg preserve accounts of how on august 3rd dancing was banned with a fine on it of 30 shillings til St Micheals in September 29th.Only stringed insturments could be used in Masses or at Weddings as it was believed that drums and tambourines could make the condition worse and on top of these things Loose persons like prostitutes and gamblers(Leichtfertigen) were banished and a hundred pound candle was bought for a high mass and three low masses. They then turned to St.Vitus.A child maytr ,saint and holy helper representing a disease he was prayed to for conditions like epilepsy and as the crisis deepened the new dancing disease or plague. Consequently were put in carts and took away to the Saverne St Vitus shrine where they were prayed over by the priests and given pfennigs to offer to the church. Specklin notes how they fell down at images of St. Vitus , were given little crosses and red shoes with the sign of the cross on them and were blessed with holy water. Many seemed to recover. By August and September the plague started by one lone woman’s dance drew to a close , but not without many horrific deaths occurring as people moved continuously until their bodies could not take it anymore.

The medieval period was filled with cases of similar dancing themed mass delusions or illnesses. In 1247 the children of the Germanic town Erfurt danced with some dying, 200 people in Maastricht during 1278 did likewise while the summer of 1374 Rhineland provinces to Aachen, Ghent, Metz and Strasbourg danced and had delusions of a devil called Friskes making them do it ,1375 saw it in France and Holand, 1381 an outbreak of dancing occurred in Augsburg, 1428 saw it occur in Zurich and the cloisters of St. Agnes in Schaffhausen where monks danced until they died.

The mass of dancing plagues like this before and after the 1518 outbreak was therefore substantial…It’s just the 1518 version captured the public imagination and crystalized people’s reactions to it in an ever larger Renaissance world of disseminated news and knowledge. The surprisingly fact that many of the outbreaks between the 14th century and 1518 outbreak happened along the Rhine and Mosel rivers begs thinking about. Why was this area so damaged by the dancing phenomena? What causes do we now attribute to it?

Modern explanations for the event are as varied as contemporary ones. It has been argued that the condition is evidently psycho-physical as touch or contact isn’t needed to pass it on. It could not have been a wholly somatic condition but something else. The explanation used for such dancing symptoms in Italy was Tarantism. This was a dancing condition caused supposedly by the bite of a local spider in the Apulian region of Italy as deforestation during the 1400s-1600s had caused them to spread. However, their venom even when combined with the heat of the area is unlikely to have produced proper dancing. Ergot poisoning is another suggestion. Eugene Backman claims that the mold of ergot formed on damp rye stalks which would have been cultivated in the area of Strasbourg. The problem with this reasoning is that everyone should have been affected if it was throughout all the rye being eaten. Also it causes delusions, yes, but also gangrene which none of the sufferers are described as having in the records and dancing over fits is not a symptom of ergot.

John C. Waller suggests a combination of factors,both physical and psychic. It could not be a heretical cult as some historians claim as the sufferers begged for help and the church never saw them as heretics.Instead the degredation and chaos of Renassiance life in Strasbourg likely had a mental and physical impact on people. Serious famines had occurred in 1492,1502,1511 while drought occurred in summer 1516.1517 was deemed the bad year by one resident.With agricultural and thus monetary and food uncertainties many families took out high interest loans,slaughtered their livestock and begged for charity in Strasbourg. A bad pox had arrived in 1495 and syphilis was introduced by mercenary pike men returning from the Italian wars in 1517. August of that year saw many attending a holy procession ‘contra pestilentiam’ and begging the virgin,st Sebastian and s troche for mercy. The English sweating sickness arrived in Strasbourg by 1517 killing people in a mix of copious sweating,delirium and unquenchable thirst.All of this,as Waller shows, represents the fact that during the year 1518 a number of phenomena came together to make this astounding event possible..The people of Strasbourg had been beaten down for decades by circumstances out of their control which affected their health and impacted the way they approached the world mentally.

As works on the subjective experience of psychosis across different cultures has shown, like Luhrmann et al’s paper, just location and the resulting specific culture of a place can greatly impact one’s experience of auditory hallucinations and other symptoms. In places like Ghana voices have been found to be more positive and accepted by the person with them than places like the USA where they are more negative. The world of 1518 Strasbourg was one of gods and demons, plagues and monsters, heaven and hell…Whether the condition that prompted the dancing in this case or others was physical, mental or both is still unclear, but nevertheless it was something that could happen and did. Four hundred people of the city of Strasbourg took to their feet and moved until dead or bloody. Anything was possible in the Renaissance world they lived in and sometimes you just have to dance.

References:

H.C. Erik Midelfort, A History of Madness in Sixteenth-century Germany, (California: Stanford University Press, 1999), p.32-37

Louis Backman, Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine, trans. E Classen, (London, 1951), p. 190-234; 22

Die Strasburger Chronik des Elsassischen Humanisten Hieronymus Gebwiler, ed. Karl Stenzel, (Berlin, 1926),p.74-75

Fragments des Anciennes Chroniques d'Alsace, ed. L Dacheux, Vol 4, (Strasbourg, 1901),p.252,

L. Dacheux, Les Chroniques trasbourgeoises de Jacques Trausch et de Jean Wencker. Les annales de Sebastien Brant. Fragments recueillis par l'abbe L. Dacheux(Strasbourg 1892),p.148

Archive Municipal, Strasbourg, R3, fol. 72 recto

John Witte and Robert M Kingdon, Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin’s Geneva: Courtship, Engagement and Marriage ,vol 1,(Michigan and Cambridge: William b.Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005),p.454,

Les Sources du droit du canton de Geneve, ed. Emile Rivoire and Victor van Berchem,4 vols(Aarau,1927-1935)

John Waller,A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518, (UK:Icon,2008),p.1-4,6,8-10,83,109, 111-113

LJ Donaldson , J Cavanagh and J Rankin, “The Dancing Plague: a Public Health Conundrum”, The Society of Public Health ,111,(1997),pp.201-204,p.201-203

John Waller, “In a spin: the mysterious dancing epidemic of 1518”, Endeavour, 34,3(2008), pp.117-121

J. F. C Hecker and B. G Babington, The Dancing Mania Of The Middle Ages (Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2004),p.87,104,110

Cancellieri, Francesco, Letters of Francesco Cancellieri to the ch. Signore Dottore Koreff, Professor of Medicine of the University of Berlin, about Tarantism, the airs of Roma, and of its countryside, and the Papal palaces inside, and outside, Rome: with the description of the Pontifical Castel Gandolfo, and surrounding countryside, (Rome: Presso Francesco Bourlie,1817)

JF Russell “Tarantism”, Med Hist, 23,4, (October 1979), pp. 404–25.

#history #medieval history #middle ages #medicine #medical history #renaissance

[too-many-loose-ends]

1-40 plz

1: Do you regret anything in life?No because everything I've ever done has led me to where I am right now and I'm pretty happy rn2: Your biggest accomplishment in lifeAcademically: still being college but I'm doing better nowAthletically: making it onto a D1 teamFor any other aspects of life: dating Sarah because she's the best person ever 3: Do you believe in ghosts/Spirits?Nope4: Fluent in any languages other than English?Unfortunately no 5: Are you in love with anyone right now?Yes6: Biggest fear in lifeBeing alone but I don't have to worry about that anymore7: Favorite foodPizza or pancakes8: Favorite SongH.M.A.S Lookback or I Heart H.C. both by The Amity Affliction9: Favorite BandProbs The Amity Affliction10: Are you an introvert or an extrovert ?Introvert11: Cat or Dog person?I would be both but unfortunately I'm allergic to cats 😭12: Who is the last person you talk to before going to bed each night?Sarah13: Biggest regret in lifeNone really14: If you could travel back in time, which time period would you visit?Assuming I could go anywhere and be safe and still make it back, I'd travel to any point in time and space where I could watch a supernova up close 15: What keeps you up at night?My poor sleeping habits16: What are you thinking about?Sarah, school, track, and obviously Sarah 17: Would you get back together with any past exes?Hahahaha never18: How are you?Hungry and tired and I miss Sarah19: How do you relieve stress?Masturbating, actually doing my schoolwork now, running, lifting20: What turns you on?Sarah21: Favorite Movie/TV Show quote"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist," from The Usual Suspects22: Sports Fan? If so, what are your teams?Just my team, the NKU Norse23: Why so serious?Fuck off with this stupid question24: What is your deepest darkest secret?I don't think I have one?25: Have you ever felt not good enough?All the time26: Is there someone you wish you were with at this very moment?Sarah27: Happiness = ?Anything with Sarah28: Have you ever broken any bones?Yes, my big toe, the growth plate in my other big toe, my foot, and this isn't really a break but I dislocated my shoulder and when I popped it back in my humerus and shoulder blade collided and left a dent on my humerus29: What makes you laugh?Sarah, myself, memes30: Last time you’ve criedWatching Perks of being a Wallflower with Sarah it's such a sAD FUCKING MOVIES31: Ketchup or mustard?Neither32: Where are you from?Northern Kentucky33: What are your Short and long term goals?Short term: do well this semester, athletically and academicallyLong term: get a good job somewhere using math, physics, and astronomy so I can spoil Sarah and also support all the pets we're gonna have34: Favorite subject in schoolMath and physics35: Ideal first dateGoing to an art museum then an amusement park36: Longest relationship you’ve hadSarah and I will have been together for 17 months on the 18th37: Last person you texted has to save you from a burning building, who is it?Sarah38: Last food you ate is now what you have to eat for the rest of your life. What is it?Bacon39: Soda or Pop?I say pop40: Who is your celebrity crush?Probably Bayley from WWE bc she's a cinnamon roll who is too pure for this world

[pedalfuzz]

Hopscotch 2018: Pedal Fuzz Picks

The Hopscotch Music Festival is almost here! From September 6-8, downtown Raleigh, NC, will be electric with nearly-non-stop music. The Pedal Fuzz team scoured the schedule of over 120 bands for some of the acts we can't wait to see.

Our picks come from Dustin K. Britt, Melvyn Brown, Jon Foster, Eddie Garcia, and Tom Sowders. 

  H.C. McEntire - Thursday, 5:50pm (City Plaza)

I'm not going to lie or flatter myself: when I initially saw the Hopscotch lineup for 2018, I didn't recognize the name H.C. McEntire. I'd kind of slept on Un Deux Trois and Mount Moriah, even though when I'd hear them in passing they'd be added to my ever-expanding Mental List Of Things That I Definitely Need To Sit Down And Give A Serious Listen To Sometime Soon. But when I realized that H.C. McEntire was also Heather McEntire, from erstwhile mid-2000s Durham band Bellafea, I perked up pretty quickly: I loved Bellafea every time I saw them to the extent that I've considered peeling one of their old stickers off of a friend's bumper and keeping it for myself (sorry, Adam). Heather/H.C.'s new stuff is soulful and self-searching, and country-tinged in a way that avoids cynical, syrupy pastiche in favor of the authentic and sincere. I've now had a few serious listens through my headphones, but I can't wait to hear this stuff live. -  Melvyn Brown

 Real Estate - Thursday, 7:15pm (City Plaza)

I got into a fun fight with a friend a few weeks ago about whether or not "New Jersey sux LOL" is a lazy and unoriginal take (correct answer: it is!), and along with Walt Whitman and The Wrens, the band Real Estate was one of my main arguments on the Garden State's behalf. "It's Real" from 2011's Days is the cut that immediately made me a fan: the melodic interplay between the guitars, the rhythmic counterpoints and switchbacks from the bass and the drums, and the keyboard swirls all come together to produce a sound that's dreamy yet grounded, effervescent yet substantial, focused yet effortless. Martin Courtney's vocals wash cooly above it all, like waves over the sand on some idyllic Jersey Shore afternoon. The overall impression is clean, direct, and mildly euphoric, something like the mirror twin of a hangover-induced panic attack. -  Melvyn Brown

 The Flaming Lips - Thursday, 8:45pm (City Plaza)

I turned my attention to The Flaming Lips for the first time after finding out that Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker loved the song “The Gash,” off of The Soft Bulletin. I checked that song out and loved it and put it on a VERY important volume of my personal mix cd series (I believe it was Stinger Vol. 13). Anyway, it became a favorite: so big and dreamy, like a sky full of javelins. Since then, The Flaming Lips have lavishly expanded indie rock into a colossal dreamscape full of giant eyeballs and lasers and feather boas, and I have still never seen them live. That’s bout to change, y’all - I’m eager to see what these fearless freaks do at Hopscotch. - Tom Sowders

 Deaf Wish - Thursday, 11:30pm (Slim’s)

I do ‘rock bands’ less and less. Whether it’s my age, the ‘been there done that’ sameness I so often encounter, or my compulsion  to explore ‘other’ sounds, I can’t say for sure. Probably all three. SO that’s why I find it goddamn significant that when I pressed play on the Deaf Wish song “FFS” (from a press release no less!) I listened to it three times in a row and sent it to a handful of friends. It’s got that Stooges snarl, the dissonance of Sonic Youth at their more aggressive early moments, and I bet it's going to smoke live. And every member of this Australian band takes turns at vocal duties, how cool is that? - Eddie Garcia

Thundercat – Friday, 7:15pm (City Plaza)

I first went to Japan in July 2000. It was a life-defining trip. In 2017, in connection with the college I teach for, I went again. The morning I woke up in Tokyo, I opened my window, and boiled some water for instant coffee. It was early. I looked out over the street. People were just starting to move around, starting to head to their jobs as the sun began to rise. The twelfth song on Thundercat’s album Drunk is “Tokyo.” Looking at the people from my tiny hotel room and thinking about the references in the song, both the song and the experience of being there again took on a new emotional depth. - Jon Foster

Grizzly Bear -  Friday, 8:45pm (City Plaza)

The quartet’s records emit a throng of atmospheric noises coming from some unidentified dimension. Airtight vocal harmonies, instrumental experimentation, and psychedelic soundscapes are easy enough to capture in the studio, but can Ed Droste et al. deliver a sonically precise package live with adequate spontaneity and animation? I intend to find out. - Dustin K.  Britt

  Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - Friday, 10:00pm (Fletcher)

I never knew I wanted to hear a mix of shred / shoegaze / prog / pop but buddy was I wrong. And honestly, that’s not really doing justice to the melting pot of musical styles this band tackles. This experimental art & music collective swirls Buddhism with sci-fi while subverting the expectations of their Asian Canadian heritage. Their latest album is described as “the soundtrack for an unreleased Haudenosaunee- and Buddhist-themed Anime” From what I understand their live show involves much makeup and costumes and theatrical twists. I’m in. - Eddie Garcia

Shopping - Friday, 12:30am (Wicked Witch)

My wife introduced me to Shopping a couple years ago. We don’t always agree on what constitutes good music. That’s largely because I’m kind of a sad bastard who enjoys listening to the dreary music of other sad bastards, so that my own floating sadness can become inhabitable, and I can enter, sit down on a milkcrate, stay in there, stay safe and headphoned and probably wine drunk and blazed to bits. My wife prefers fun, cool music that ISN’T just an onanistic playground for narcissism masquerading as sensitivity. Anyway, it’s nice when we can land on a band that makes both our brains sparkle, and Shopping is such a band. Their music is like strutting with pointed toes on down a neon rainbow while LSD cartoons go dancing by in a great swirl toward the speaker at 174 bpm. I feel a physical need to get my groove on to their surfy, angular, rock ‘n’ roll dance music. - Tom Sowders

Moses Sumney -  Saturday, 6:40pm (Red Hat Amphitheater)

An expert a cappella arranger, Sumney’s androgynous voice seeps from the record player like a cloud of blue incense that gradually fills every room and penetrates your pores. On stage, his breath pushes gently against the spiritual waters of the amphitheater, growing exponentially into a wave that soars far above the heads of the crowd and crashes against every surrounding building. I plan to submerge myself along with the rest of downtown Raleigh, willing victims of the Sumney tsunami. - Dustin K.  Britt  

Nile Rodgers and Chic - Saturday, 8:00pm (Red Hat Amphitheater)

Even when I was too young to understand the songwriter/producer/session musician nexus or to have any concept of a trademark sound, I knew that I loved "Le Freak" (Chic), "Let's Dance" (David Bowie), and "We Are Family" (Sister Sledge) because they all had some essential, incredible thing in common. Time passed; I listened to more music, read more magazines and gatefolds and liner notes (and frankly, watched a heroic amount of VH1), and I eventually pieced together that the previously ineffable common link between these songs and approximately a million others was Nile Rodgers. Seriously, you could get pretty lost in the weeds trying to chase down every recording he's had a hand in–I just found out, for example, that he produced and played rhythm guitar on my favorite B-52s track, "Topaz”.  Like the telltale trumpet trills of a Capitol-era Sinatra record or the twelve-string twang of The Byrds, Rodgers leaves his indelible but never overbearing signature on everything he touches so that even if you can't quite put your finger on it, you're glad that he already has. - Melvyn Brown

MC50 – Saturday, 8:45pm (City Plaza)

There’s no reason for this to happen.  The last time the MC5 were together, Richard Nixon was still in office. Wayne Kramer is the only original member playing, which should give music fans some reservations about why this is happening. There’s too many high profiled reunion tours that last too long and barely have any connection with the original music. Why would I want to see this band? The answer is easy, Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) and Brendan Canty (Fugazi). If those guys are in your “cover band” then they’re worth seeing. - Jon Foster  

Palberta - Saturday, 10:30pm (Slim’s)

The problem with having too many music fans on your social media page is that you’re inundated with new stuff. There’s always something to check out. Most of the time I feel that listening to new music is homework: I have to listen to everything, or I won’t pass some god-awful hipster test. Add friend suggestions and posts from music blogs, and you’re never really on top of stuff. I “try” new things constantly, clicking on a few seconds of a new song three or four times a day. Somehow Palberta appeared in my Facebook newsfeed like it would for any “hip” 37 year old. I loved them immediately. They were trashy, noisy, and complicated all at the same time. They’re the perfect antidote for well-orchestrated soullessness. I imagine two things might happen when I see them: either they will play a transcendent show, or everything will fall apart as soon as they hit the stage. I don’t know which I prefer. - Jon Foster

Yonatan Gat - Saturday, 10:30pm (Pour House)

The first time I saw Yonatan Gat, he was playing as a trio on the floor of Snug Harbor in Charlotte. Setup in a circle, the band had lamps with colored bulbs surrounding them. Gat would switch them off and on to indicate a change was coming in the (to my ears) largely improvised songs they were playing. Gat (who the Village Voice once named best guitarist in NYC) is a dexterous, dynamic player who eschews effects, save for a wah-wah pedal leading into a reverb soaked amp. And the band is a Hendrix-Experience-but-in-the-2010s ball of psych freakout, holding it down while creeping into catchy chaos. On the latest album Universalists, radical tape-splicing techniques were used in assembling the record; I’m very eager to hear how that fractured methodology takes shape live. - Eddie Garcia

Mind Over Mirrors - Saturday, 11pm (Fletcher)

Last year’s Undying Color was one of my favorite albums of 2017. The drone of Jaime Fennelly’s harmonium was elevated by propulsive rhythms, searing synths, and cascading mysterious vocals. The blend was intoxicating. This year’s Bellowing Sun I can only describe as a Steve Reich dance party. They describe it as, “a sonic inquiry into celestial cycles and the illuminating nature of darkness.” So see, you win either way really. My No. 1 pick. - Eddie Garcia

Sarah Shook & The Disarmers -  Saturday, 11:00pm (Lincoln Theatre)

Once a beloved pourer of libations at Chapel Hill’s (not closing) The Cave, triangle folks haven’t seen much of our hometown hero lately, and for a damn good reason: our queer country crooner is ruling the world on a major tour. Shook and company stomped through Charlotte in June to open for Willie Nelson, and now the Triangle kids are getting our turn. - Dustin K.  Britt

Grouper - Saturday, 12:00am (Fletcher)

I think I’ve established that ONE kind of music I like to listen to is sad, sad music. I think this predilection emerged sometime around the release of Use Your Illusion II by Guns N' Roses. “Civil War,” “November Rain,” me swaying in my dark bedroom with a bowl cut, you get the idea. Well, I’m not ten anymore, so I need SADDER. I can’t wait to stand before the unfurling sparkle of the sequin weighted blanket that is Grouper. I just want to feel it in my sad bastard body. I need a hit, man, and Grouper’s got the sad stuff. - Tom Sowders

Dustin K. Britt is a Durham-based performing arts critic and award-winning theatre artist. He is the managing editor of Chatham Life & Style and provides content for IndyWeek and Carolina Parent. In your spare time, you can stalk him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  

Melvyn Brown is a musician (Toothsome, Broads, NONCANON, Ladies Auxiliary) and writer from Greensboro, NC who is also passionate about the Four Ts: taking photographs, Thai food, technology, and thrift stores. His appreciation of Scotch whisky is not necessarily related to Steely Dan. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, or at generalclearinghouse.com

JON FOSTER IS A MAIL-ARTIST, TEACHER, AND PASSIONATE DEFENDER OF MATH ROCK. 

EDDIE GARCIA PLAYS GUITAR AND ALL THE PEDALS AS 1970S FILM STOCK. YOU CAN ALSO HEAR HIM REPORTING ON NPR AFFILIATE 88.5 WFDD IN WINSTON-SALEM, NC. IN THE WEE HOURS HE RUNS PEDAL FUZZ, WHICH IS A PROUD RECIPIENT OF A GRANT FROM THE ARTS ENTERPRISE LAB / KENAN INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS.

Tom Sowders pirouettes angrily through the streets of downtown Raleigh. Like really aggressively, really windmilling his arms around. His hobbies are not using his PhD and fronting the band Toothsome. 

#Hopscotch #music festival #Raleigh #Hopscotch Music Festival #Thundercat #Grizzly Bear #flaming lips #Mind Over Mirrors #Yonatan Gat #Moses Sumney #Grouper

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Ny Times: For China’s Factories, a Weaker Currency Is a Double-Edged Sword

Mr. Trump has not acted on a campaign promise to label China a currency manipulator, and Steven Mnuchin, the new Treasury secretary, has said the administration is conducting a standard review of China’s currency policy. Still, Mr. Trump has kept up his rhetoric.

Investors and economists widely expect market forces to push the renminbi to weaken even more. And that leaves China with some tough choices. If Beijing lets its currency slide, it will risk worsening relations with Washington.

On the other hand, a weaker currency would help its factories. But economists and business executives are increasingly throwing cold water on that thinking, saying the dynamic has changed: These days, they say, a weaker currency may hurt China and its companies more than it helps.

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Chinese officials, who keep a tight grip on the currency’s value, appear to be aware of that. In recent months, they have kept the value from falling to 7 renminbi to the dollar, a level the currency has not seen since May 2008. Currently, it is hovering at about 6.9 renminbi to the dollar. That support is expensive — China has drawn nearly $1 trillion from its huge stash of foreign money to hold its currency steady.

The currency is under pressure to depreciate for a number of reasons. Among them: Families and companies are sending their money out of China, looking for safer places to store it as the country’s growth cools.

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China keeps a tight rein on the amount of money that flows over its borders. But between the semiautonomous Chinese city of Hong Kong, which has a separate currency and legal system, and its neighbor on the mainland, Shenzhen, “there are thousands and thousands of smugglers, and they just bring billions of dollars” out of China, said Kevin Lai, the chief economist for Asia excluding Japan at Daiwa Capital Markets. A weaker currency could push more Chinese people and companies to send their money abroad, for fear of further losses if they continue to hold renminbi.

That isn’t all. The weaker currency makes it harder for many of China’s heavily indebted companies to pay off what they owe overseas or to raise more money. A weaker currency also does not pack the same competitive punch because so much of the world’s manufacturing base is now in China; four-fifths of the world’s window-mounted air-conditioners are made in the country, for example. Basically, a weaker currency is not as much help if a company’s competitors all use the same currency.

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Li Xinghao, founder and chairman of Guangdong Chigo Air Conditioning Company, says a falling renminbi provides only a temporary boost to business. Credit Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Today’s dynamic signals a big shift from a decade ago. Back then, Beijing kept the currency artificially weak compared with the dollar — and Chinese businesses benefited. A cheap and stable currency was one of a number of reasons that companies like General Electric, Mattel and Samsonite shifted production there. The shift gave China tens of millions of manufacturing jobs, stoked its economy and helped create a world power.

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In time, it also helped nurture homegrown competitors. The Carrier Corporation — which has partly reversed plans to move some production from the United States to Mexico after coming under pressure from Mr. Trump — built seven air-conditioner factories in China more than a decade ago. But in 2008, Carrier put them into a joint venture with Midea, one of Chigo’s main rivals in the Chinese air-conditioner industry. Carrier said it still held 40 percent of the joint venture but declined to comment further.

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The weaker currency still helps a number of companies, especially a small but growing group of Chinese companies that export specialized or high-quality products and compete with Western companies. One such Chinese company is Broad Air Conditioning, a maker of specialized central air-conditioning systems that are more energy-efficient but also considerably more expensive than most central air-conditioning systems.

“However much the U.S. dollar rises, our profits rise the same,” said Wu Zheng, general manager of Broad’s international operations.

But for most companies, other issues dwarf the currency. Wages have risen to the point where global manufacturers of low-cost items like shoes and clothing are shifting work outside China. Economic growth is slowing. Global trade has weakened. And in many industries, like window-mounted air-conditioners, a surplus of Chinese factories has undermined pricing and wiped out profits.

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Chigo — which is headquartered in Foshan, on the outskirts of the city of Guangzhou — lost money from operations in 2014 and 2015. In the first half of last year, Chigo eked out a tiny profit as the renminbi began to tumble. It was briefly able to capture some gains from the currency’s depreciation before foreign retailers demanded price discounts.

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At the Chigo factory. Western retailers are adept at pitting Chinese manufacturers against one another for better prices. Credit Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

Chigo sells air-conditioners in 180 countries, including outlets in the United States like Menards, a Midwest chain of home-improvement centers.

Three years ago, Chigo experimented with its own shift overseas. With wages rising at home, it chose two countries with even lower wages as well as steep barriers to imports: Nigeria and India.

Chigo found that in both countries, worker productivity was much lower while government corruption was a problem. In Africa, security was also an issue. A car carrying Chigo sales managers in Ghana was approached in broad daylight by two armed robbers who demanded the managers’ wallets and pistol-whipped their driver. Now its Indian and Nigerian operations have nearly shut down.

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“In China, companies feel a sense of safety, which is already a huge support” for business, said Jackie Cheng, the vice president of Chigo and general manager for its overseas marketing. China’s high-speed rail network and its world-class network of new expressways also make it easy to do business, he added.

Persuading Chinese managers to live overseas is also difficult, Chigo found. “That’s serious,” Mr. Cheng said. “We can’t get used to the food outside, and many Chinese can’t really speak English.”

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The factory in Foshan ran only four days a week late last year because of weak orders and overcapacity in the Chinese air-conditioning manufacturing sector. In interviews, some Chigo workers expressed irritation that this meant they earned less money.

But Mr. Cheng said that the company’s sprawling, 23-year-old factory had become busier in recent weeks as orders have risen. He attributed this mainly to an acceleration in the American and Chinese economies but also to the fall of the renminbi, which makes air-conditioners slightly cheaper and more affordable around the world and results in slightly greater demand.

Yet if the renminbi weakens further this year, as many economists expect, Mr. Cheng expects further demands from overseas retailers for discounts, coupled with threats to move orders to other Chinese air-conditioning manufacturers if Chigo does not comply. Frowning, he added, “Our clients have already told me, ‘The renminbi will reach 7.1. Please reduce your prices.’”

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