#ARIA Awards 2013

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Oasis - Wonderwall 1995

"Wonderwall" is a song by English rockband Oasis, written by lead guitarist and chief songwriter Noel Gallagher. The song was produced by Gallagher and Owen Morris for the band's second studio album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, released in 1995.

The song was released as the fourth single from the album on 30 October 1995. "Wonderwall" topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand and reached the top 10 in 13 other countries, including Canada and the US at number 5 and number 8, respectively, as well as number 2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart. The single was certified septuple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and 11-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Its music video was directed by Nigel Dick and won British Video of the Year at the 1996 Brit Awards.

In Australia, it was voted number 1 on the alternative music radio station Triple J's Hottest 100 of 1995 and "20 Years of the Hottest 100" in 2013. In May 2005, "Wonderwall" was voted the best British song of all time, in a poll of over 8,500 listeners conducted by Virgin Radio. In October 2020, it became the first song from the 1990s to reach one billion streams on Spotify.

"Wonderwall" received a total of 80,2% yes votes!

[lboogie1906]

Robert Calvin Bland (Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was a blues singer. He developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal, and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was influenced by Nat King Cole. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis' Beale Street blues scene." #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn6wkepriNF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[theart2rock]

Northlane

BESTER METALCORE AUS AUSTRALIEN Northlane ist eine chartstürmende, preisgekrönte Metalband aus Sydney, Australien. Durch ihre unerschrockene Entwicklung und beispiellose Innovation sind Northlane weltweit zu Pionieren der Heavy Music geworden – und das auf ganz eigene Art und Weise. Die Band hat sechs gefeierte Alben veröffentlicht, darunter die Nr. 1-Alben der ARIA-Charts Obsidian (2022) und Node (2015), sowie Singularity (2013), Mesmer (2017) und Alien (2019), die alle auf Platz 3 debütierten. Northlane haben darüber hinaus drei aufeinanderfolgende ARIA Awards für das beste Hard Rock oder Heavy Metal Album und zwei AIR Awards für das beste Independent Heavy Album gewonnen. Quelle: Kofmehl Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel

[felipeandletizia]

Felipe and Letizia retrospective: December 2nd

2003: Funeral ceremony for seven intelligence officers who were killed in Iraq at the Madrid headquarters of the secret service CNI.

2004: VIII Edition of ‘the Foundation for Cooperation and Development of Assistential Activities’ awards (CODESPA)

2005: Commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the YMCA in Spain

2007: Funeral for Civil Guard agent Raúl Centeno Bayón

2008: Visit to A Coruña

2009: Inauguration of His Excellency the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sánchez, as Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca

2010: Closing of the 13th State Volunteer Congress

2013: National Sports Awards

2014: Official Visit to Germany

2015: Delivery of Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts 2014 in Sevilla &  Meeting with the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón

2016: “International Symposium: Sustainable Food Systems in Favor of Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition” at FAO’s headquarters in Rome, Italy

2019: Received the presidents of Ecuador and Costa Rica & Offered a reception to Chiefs of State visiting Spain to take part on COP25

2021: Visited Colombia to attend the World Law Congress Colombia 2021 & Event of reopening to the public of the collections of the “Real Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales”

2022: Meeting with Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the IMF Headquarters in Washington DC, USA; Held a meeting with Georgetown University’s president, John J. Degioia and attended a lecture & Dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Masters of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) Program

F&L Through the Years: 1096/??

[stylestream]

Alicia Keys | Stella McCartney gown | ARIA Awards | 2013

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week 

Collen Doran’s A Distant Soil [ADS] was groundbreaking for being among the first comics to feature openly gay characters and gay romantic leads and explore questions of gender identity. It is also an important early example of a creator-owned comic. Doran is a foremost figure in comics self-publishing, known for her advocacy for creator rights in addition to her award-winning career as an comic artist. 

Based on characters Doran started drawing at the age of twelve and developed in fanzines throughout her teens, A Distant Soil’s first official appearance was in Elfquest #16 (WaRP Graphics, 1983), followed by a nine-issue run for WaRP (1984-1986). The first 5 were published as magazine-sized comics, with the remaining in standard comic format. A tenth issue was completed, but an acrimonious split with WaRP halted it’s publication. According to Doran, WaRP not only attempted to claim ownership of the series, but claimed to have created it as well. The issue was settled out of court, and Doran maintained control of ADS.

Doran was then approached by the Donning Company to relaunch the title as a full color graphic novel on their imprint, Starblaze Graphics, turning down offers from Marvel and Dark Horse. Doran made a fresh start, rewriting and redrawing the comic from scratch, abandoning the pencil-only textures of the original run. In the afterward to the first of those graphic novels, Immigrant Song (1989), Doran acknowledged that fans “enjoyed the textured look of that, but after a few too many nights of a cramped hand soaked in epsom salts, I had to beg off that technique.” Unfortunately, the Donning Company folded and only two ADS books were published. 

Doran decided to take a leap and self-publish ADS as Aria Press. A new series was initiated, launching in 1991, drawing on art and story lines from the Starblaze graphic novels (note images 7 & 8, from the Starblaze and Aria Press runs). After fourteen self-published issues, the title was picked up by Image Comics in 1996. The latest installation (#42) came out in 2013. 

The images shown here are from our Comic Book Collection, as follows:

The first image is from Elfquest #16 (WaRP Graphics)

Images 2-4 are from the WaRP Graphics run.

Images 5-7 are from the Starblaze Graphics/Donning Company run.

Images 8 & 9 are from the self-published Aria Press run.

Image 10 is the cover from the first Image Comics publication (a continuation of the Aria series)

View other posts from our Comic Book Collection.

View our other Staff Picks.

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[junicai]

MIYAZU AKARI, otherwise known by her stage name ARIA, is the current sole female member of the 4th generation K-Pop sensation group, NCT. As an active member of sub-units NCT 127 and NCT Dream, she holds the official positions of main vocal and main dancer respectively. As of 2019, it was announced that Aria would be joining her fellow members Taeyong, Ten and Mark in the SM Entertainment “supergroup”, SuperM.

[requests] closed !

Meet Aria

[profile] [quirks] [history] 

Relationships, in and out of NCT

[NCT 127] [NCT Dream] [WAYV] 

[NCT U] [SuperM] 

Aria VS the Internet

Aria’s official Instagram account [@/ariiaxx2] search *aria.insta

[210201] [210212] [210214] [210227] [210324] [210418] [210802]

NCZennies Tweets [#REALTAI] search *aria.realtai

[160521] [210207] [210211] [210221] [210206] [210317] [210321] [210329] [210416] [210622] [210718] [210802]

Dispatch Scandals [destroyingcareer.com]

[writings] 2013, through 2021; Aria’s life with and without the boys.

[promotions] Aria in official promotions: music videos, award shows, etc.

[moonlight café] [menu]

[30secondfics]

EAT OR BE EATEN (A/U) 6 OF 6

~ Author’s Note ~ “Before the renaissance we had the Black Plague.” 

- @thekingoflegoland

Rated M

Part 1 > Part 2 > Part 3 > Part 4 > Part 5a > Part 5b > Part 6

Seattle, January 2021

Gabriella Torres stepped out of her rideshare and studied the house she stood in front of. A small shingled house, hunter green, the grass browned from the cool weather and the paint of the white front door chipped from years of neglect. She knocked.

A woman with a black lacquered cane opened the door with widened eyes, pale, as if she had just seen a ghost.

“Hi, I’m looking for Calliope Torres-”

“She doesn’t live here.“

“My name is Gabriella Torres. Aria Torres is my mother—was—my mother.”

The woman sighed and eyed the young woman. “You're a spitting image of your mother. Come in.”

The sunroom of the house was clean, sterilized. It still smelled of cleaning products and polish; it was well tended to, unlike the exterior of the house.

“Can I get you a coffee or a tea?” the woman asked.

“Water, please, if you wouldn’t mind,” Gabriella answered. She took the glass the woman offered her and took a generous sip.

“What did you say your name was again?” the woman asked, taking the seat in front of her guest and leaning her cane against the side table.

“Gabriella.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

The woman paused in thought.

“I’m sorry to come out of the blue, but I thought you would prefer meeting in person rather than starting a paper trail…  Aunt Calliope.”

Calliope nodded in agreement and cleared her throat. “So how did you find me?”

“I just started grad school at the University of Washington, I’m doing my masters in library studies-”

“Impressive,” Callie nodded, glad and relieved to learn her niece was educated.

“Thank you. I was in foster care my whole life, you see, I knew nothing but my mother’s name. I swore to find her one day and I searched for her for years and years. Then, finally, I came across her obituary and I found out she lived in Miami… and, well, my research led me to you.”

“So you know who I am…” Callie cleared her throat and picked at the cotton of her pants.

“You’re Calliope Torres. You were the head of the Torres Crime family. You were responsible for the Miami Mob Massacre of 2013 when all of the heads of the city’s crime families were murdered.”

“Allegedly,” Callie corrected.

Gabriella nodded in agreement. “Early in 2014 the Feds gathered enough evidence to put you on trial-”

“Alex Karev and George O’Malley came forward and turned themselves in, in an attempt to put me away,” Callie informed. “Even after I paid them a very generous amount of money to leave town. It seemed that it wasn’t enough for two men who felt overpowered by a single woman.”

“You were on trial for 21 days,” Gabriella continued. “Until you were proven not guilty. After 21 days they were going to let you walk free, you were free—then you were showered with bullets on your way out of the Miami courthouse. A man named Robert Stark was arrested; he claimed you destroyed his life over unsettled debt.”

“And yet he’s still in jail and I am not,” Callie couldn’t help but smirk.

“My mother perished that day, and you were airlifted to Miami General with life-threatening injuries,” Gabriella added. “Some articles reported that you wouldn’t make it out alive, while others rumoured you would never fully recover. You were mentioned in the papers for months, until suddenly you weren’t. New leaders of the other crime families began to take their place, and new gang wars plagued Miami. By the time you walked out of the hospital a free woman, you were old news and the Torres empire had crumbled. You’ve been laying low ever since.”

Gabriella was nothing but correct in her explanation. The Torres empire crumbled, and it crumbled hard. In Callie’s absence, and Alex and George’s incarceration, other members of the corporation fought for themselves, fought amongst themselves, stole for themselves, until there was nothing left but a few skids of canned peaches scattered across the city. The Torres mansion was looted and then destroyed by opportunistic rival families. The Torres name became irrelevant. A name no longer feared. A name no longer remembered, despite the damage it did in the past decades. Bigger crimes flooded Miami, and though grudges still existed, seeking revenge against the Torres family was no longer a priority. 

Callie remained silent. It had been years since she lived that life, it was hard to believe its vibrant contrast to the life she lived now.

“Sorry,” Gabriella brushed. “I was just searching for my mother, I didn’t mean to uncover so much more about you.”

“You’ve done nothing wrong,” Callie reassured. “That was my past, and I will take what I did to my grave.”

Gabriella remained silent.

“So what do you want to know about your mother?” Callie asked.

Gabriella released a sigh with both grief and relief. Grief of the loss she had held in her heart for so long, and relief that she was finally going to get some answers.

“I want to know why my mother left me at the hospital that day, knowing she had the means to raise me.”

“I can’t answer for the dead,” Callie shook her head.

“I know that, but you at least knew her…”

“And I know giving you up was probably the best decision she could have made for you.”

“What?” Gabriella asked with furrowed brows. She spent her life in poverty. She was alone. She moved from foster home to foster home. The closest thing she has to a family is an old college roommate.

“My sister Aria was… impulsive. Especially when it came to money. She and my father would always clash on her irresponsible spendings. I believe she had you the year she just about had it with our father and so she disappeared for a year to travel across the country in a van with some friends. She was in no state to raise a child, even if we had the money.”

“But I grew up poor, without a family-” Gabriella began to argue.

“Do you think a crime family would have been any better?”

“Maybe,” Gabriella shrugged.

“It cost us your mothers life,” Callie reminded. “It nearly cost me mine.”

Gabriella remained silent.

“A life of riches is far from a fairytale when it’s funded with bloodmoney.”

Gabriella avoided her aunt’s eyes.

“So if it’s money you want from me I no longer have much of it,” Callie admitted.

“I don’t need money,” Gabriella promised. “I just wanted answers.”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer anymore than that,” Callie replied. “I didn’t even know my sister had you until this morning.”

“Would you have stepped in if you knew back then?” Gabriella asked.

Callie paused in thought. “Probably not,” she answered honestly. She believed the mob was no place for a child.

They sat in silence for a moment. Then Callie glanced at the clock.

“Then I won’t take up much more of your time,” Gabriella promised and stood from her seat. “Thank you for your time.”

Callie simply nodded.

“Can I ask how you found out where I live?” Callie asked before the younger woman could leave.

Gabriella signed. “Seattle Grace held a Gala last week. I was sorting the newspaper section of the library when I saw your face. Your hair is much shorter now but I had studied the family so much I recognized you right away… it wasn’t hard after I ran a search for you in Seattle.”

“What newspaper published that article?” Callie needed to know: if her niece could recognize her, how many more people could.

“Seattle Local. Don’t worry, I’ve already shredded as many copies of the paper as I could find,” Gabriella reassured.

“Thank you,” Callie sighed in relief.

“Can I ask you one last question before I go?” Gabriella asked.

“You just did.”

“Do you think there are people out there who still want you dead?” Gabriella proceeded to ask.

“I know there is,” Callie nodded. “Dozens of them.”

“How do you bear it? How do you live in fear?”

“I don’t,” Callie answered confidently. “Knowing my life could end at any moment is what makes every day so worth living.”

000

There was one part of Gabriella’s story that was missing; one part of the Calliope Torres story that was very private and protected from the public eye. Down a long hallway, two feet and a cane dully tread across grey terrazzo floors. The door at the end of the hall held a plaque, yielded the Seattle Grace Hospital logo and the title Chief of Surgery. She opened the door.

Large windows letting in lights from the Seattle Skyline also enclosed the spacious and personalized office. The walls were decorated with various frames, some with photos, others with accomplishments and awards. One of which was the 2014 Carter Madison Grant and a photo of a small clinic in Mawali. 

Arizona Robbins glanced up from her laptop and over reading glasses arched a single eyebrow.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Callie apologised.

Arizona smirked and motioned for her lover to come closer with finger.

Callie rounded the cherrywood desk and gave her wife a kiss.

“Hmm,” Arizona hummed with satisfaction.

“Missed you.” She said this every day.

“Missed you too,” Arizona replied with a smile. “How was your day?” she asked, pushing her chair back to make room for her wife.

“Well…” Callie leaned her cane against the desk and pushed the laptop back to sit on her wife’s desk, “I had a visitor at the house today.”

“A visitor?” Arizona repeated, intrigued. “We haven’t had a visitor in a very long time. Who was kind enough to send you a hitman this time?” she asked sarcastically. 

“Not an assassin,” Callie informed with a small smirk. A very small part of her missed when an assassin or two would shake up their home. It had been so quiet the past few years since they moved to Seattle, Callie could almost say she was starting to get bored. She and Arizona had become so good at silently putting hitmen away; they made great fertiliser for the flowers in the back garden. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, it turns out I have a niece. It looks like Aria forgot to mention she had a kid twenty-two years ago.”

“No way…”

“She looks just like her, Arizona, if she’s a con artist she sold it really well.”

“How’d she find you?”

“She saw a photo of me in a local paper, from the Gala.”

“Oh, Calliope… I didn’t know you’d be photographed.”

“It’s fine,” Callie shrugged. “I’m sort of glad she found me. It was nice talking about Aria again.”

“Are you going to keep in touch?”

“I didn’t want her to feel obligated to keep in contact. She’s a smart girl, she’ll come back if she wants to.”

Arizona gave her wife a sympathetic smile.

“Anyways, tell me about your day…” Callie encouraged her wife.

“I think I’d rather save the talking for later,” Arizona said with a smirk.

“Oh…” Callie chuckled and moaned when her wife pressed their lips together. Arizona’s hands were on her waist and they slowly made their way up her shirt as they kissed.

“You called for me, Doctor Robbins?” Callie teased, between kisses.

“I did, and you’re late,” Arizona played along. She loved her wife for a hundred million reasons, and one of them included how ungodly good she was at getting her off.

“I’m awfully sorry,” Callie apologised in her bedroom voice.

“Y-you’d better be,” Arizona gasped when her wife’s mouth wrapped around the skin on her neck and began to suck. “D-don’t leave a mark…” she scolded, “again.”

Callie smirked and slipped her hand into the white lab coat and down the navy blue scrub top. She cupped her wife’s breast; soft, warm, and a bit more plump than she remembered.

Arizona felt wetness begin to grow between her legs. Slick. Heat. Then a gush of fluid like the breaking of a damn.

“Callie!” Arizona shrieked.

“Arizona...” Callie gasped when she felt the wetness run down her leg, “was that?”

“I think my water just broke,” Arizona said with widened eyes.

“It’s a good thing we’re already at a hospital,” Callie chuckled and took her wife by the hand before leading her towards the maternity ward to have their baby.

Callie and Arizona rushed down the aisle, hand-in-hand, away from the altar where Elvis stood to officiate. With no family left between the two of them, they spent their wedding night celebrating their rather spontaneous wedding with a rather expensive bottle of wine and room service.

Overlooking the city of Las Vegas, a city also once ruled by crime families such as the Torres’s, Callie held Arizona in her arms as they watched the night lights.

“I never pictured myself getting married,” Arizona admitted softly.

“You’re telling me this now?” Callie arched her eyebrow, taking hold of Arizona’s hand that was now weighed down by a wedding band. 

“No, Calliope, I mean… I never pictured myself getting married in the white dress and large crowd. But this… this was perfect.”

“Oh…” Callie smiled mischievously and planted a hot kiss on her wife’s neck.

“Callie!” Arizona squinted her eyes and stopped walking.

“Breathe…” Callie coached.

“I am breathing,” Arizona gritted through her teeth, freezing for a couple of minutes before gathering up the strength to walk again.

“We’re almost there,” Callie reassured.

Arizona puffed air out of her cheeks and followed her wife’s lead. Moments later, she found herself on a hospital bed, monitors attached to her belly and her wife by her side.

“Push,” Arizona encouraged.

Callie let out a long grunt as she pushed against the resistance band that Arizona was holding behind her. She took three bullets in her arm, two in the gut, and one in her femur which left her with a permanent limp. She had accepted her fate of the cane, but she had yet to give up on rehabilitating her dominant hand.

“Good,” the physiotherapist praised. “You’re really motivated today!”

“Motivated to use my good hand in bed again,” Callie pushed against the purple band again.

“Callie!” Arizona gasped, not impressed with her lover’s vulgarness in front of the physiotherapist.

The therapist couldn’t help but chuckle, “It’s good to have goals.”

“Let’s see how your baby is doing…” Doctor Carina DeLuca snapped on a clean glove and placed herself between the patient’s legs. “Oh…” 

“What?” Callie and Arizona said in unison.

“When did you say your contractions began?” Carina  asked.

“I guess, this morning…” Arizona thought out loud.

“This morning?” Callie repeated with disbelief. Her wife had been in labour all day and she didn’t receive a single text of mention.

“I thought it was just a stomach ache from all the poundcake I ate for breakfast.” Arizona admitted. 

“Did you eat the whole coffee cart too?” Callie teased.

“I only had three...” Arizona defended, “this time.”

“Move to Seattle with me,” Arizona said, her head nestled on her wife’s chest. Las Vegas streets were loud but she could still hear Callie’s pounding heartbeat.

“Seattle?”

“They’ve offered me a job as an attending… if I accept it, we can have our own life there. Just you and me, far away from the craziness in Miami. You don’t belong there anymore, we don’t belong there anymore. We both need a new start, somewhere we can raise a family.”

“You want kids?” Callie asked, surprised. With all the commotion, they forgot to talk about having children.

“I want a family, whatever that may look like. I’ve never had one and I want one with you.”

“You can start pushing on your next contraction,” Doctor DeLuca instructed.

“Callie, I’m scared,” Arizona told her wife.

“You’ve made it this far, Arizona, I believe in you.”

“What if we lose this baby too?”

“We can’t think like that right now, Arizona, you need to focus on having this baby, okay?”

Arizona nodded her head and grunted as she pushed as hard as she could.

The house was so quiet.

With Lucy’s passing, there was no longer pitter patter of paws against the hardwood as she played around the house. Now their house filled with the noise of Arizona turning the page of her newspaper, and Callie watching car review videos on her phone.

“You think it’s too soon to get another dog?” Arizona asked.

“I don’t know if I want another dog,” Callie admitted.

“Can I finally have my chicken coop, then?”

“No…” Callie slowly shook her head.

“Well, we’re certainly not getting a ferret, Calliope-”

“I’ve been thinking… it’s a good time to have a baby.”

Arizona’s face brightened into a smile. “A baby?” she breathed out.

Callie nodded, “A baby.”

“Your baby is almost here…” Carina announced.

“Really?” Arizona phanted.

“Do you want the mirror?”

“Oh god, no,” Arizona shook her head in denial.

Callie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t you dare laugh,” Arizona scolded her wife. “You owe me a new vagina after this!”

“I’m sorry…” the doctor repeated herself. “Please stay and use the room for as long as you need to.”

“Thank you,” Arizona nodded at the doctor and continued to console her wife.

Callie watched the doctor leave with blank eyes. The news hurt her more than she thought it would. She didn’t even know she wanted kids until she married Arizona, and now that she found out she couldn’t, she was heartbroken. Her life of crime, the bullets of revenge, had already taken her sister from her; she was saddened to learn it also took away her chance of having children of her own.

“What do you need from me?” Arizona said softly.

“I don’t know,” Callie shook her head.

“I’ll have them, Calliope, I want to have them,” Arizona offered for the hundredth time.

“I…” Callie gulped to rid of the dryness in her throat, “I thought we could have some of yours and some of mine too.”

“Oh, Calliope…” Arizona sighed in defeat. “It would have been amazing to have a little you running around the house, but I promise you they will be our babies no matter what.”

“She’s here…” Carina announced.

“It’s a girl?” Callie asked with surprise, relief and excited butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

“It’s a girl,” Carina confirmed.

Callie and Arizona smiled at the crying infant. Carina placed the child on Arizona’s chest and Callie wrapped her arms around her family. She was so little yet so loud, and mighty. Her hands were bronze like a Torres and her eyes were blue like a Robbins. She was there and she was theirs.

“I love you…”

“What?” Callie said past dry lips. She thought she would never see Arizona Robbins again, let alone have her visit her hospital room every day for the past three months. 

“I love you,” Arizona nodded her head. She had known, deep down, for a long time. But she was at the airport, ready to leave for Africa, ready to truly move on from her tango with the mob and start a new life, a new clinic, for children in a new land, Malawi, when she saw the Torres heir fall to the ground in front of the courthouse. She hated that she had to see Calliope Torres get shot multiple times on television to realise it. She loved the notorious boss and she couldn’t leave Miami without her.

“Arizona, you can’t-”

“You’re not my boss, Calliope, you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do anymore-”

“No, Arizona, you need someone... normal,” Callie defended her stance. “Someone who can give you the easy life you deserve. Someone who doesn’t have a past-”

“I know your past, Calliope, and I know the kind of woman you are deep down. Do you think it was easy to let someone else run my clinic in Africa, to turn down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I can spend three months in this hospital with you? I know love isn’t easy, but I choose it because—because life without it is dull and cold.”

Callie eyed her lover.

“I know there are people who want you dead...” Arizona continued, “that danger will follow you, but—why live in fear when we can take our chances at being happy?”

“Jeez, okay, enough with the dramatics,” Callie teased.

Arizona gasped, offended, then laughed. Her speech was quite cheesy.

“I love you too. I’ve known for a while,” Callie admitted. “But I want what’s best for you. That’s why I let you go...” 

“And I know what I want,” Arizona countered. “That’s why I came back...”

Callie cradled baby Sofia as Arizona finally fell asleep in her hospital bed. Sofia had that intoxicating new baby smell and Callie soaked in every minute of it. Swaddled in her hospital blanket, Sofia was content and happy to be in her mother’s arms. 

Callie glanced at Arizona and watched her peacefully rest. She deserves it. Arizona let out a soft snore and it made Callie smile. Her mob career started in her father’s hospital room. Her love for Arizona blossomed in her hospital room. Now their middle family had grown by one in the hospital room.

Callie Torres was working in a cubicle, in an office, on a floor, in a building full of cubicles. She was the daughter of a notorious crime boss and she was in an office working a nine-to-five desk job. Despite her upbringing, she went to college. She attended Penn State, the first in her family to go to college. She told herself that she needed space from the mob, but deep down she knew she left home because she resented her father for not being a good husband to her mother. Over a decade later, she still blamed him for making Lucia Torres flee. So Callie moved away, to a city where nobody knew her name, and for four years she studied literature, made an honest living, and lived a modest lifestyle. She was set. She had financial independence from her father and no ties to the life he lived.

Until a single phone call changed her projection. She came back to Miami after years of avoiding the city and the chaos within it. Giovanni sent one of the drivers to pick her up at the airport and she felt helpless in the backseat of the Cadillac. She hated it: the feeling of being the young woman with no independence, thanks to the nature of the family business. There was a reason why she moved out: to be able to do things on her own.

The short car ride felt like hours, but soon she was at Miami General: pushing through a crowd of news reporters hoping to get information and FBI agents hoping to find dirt that will finally warrant the arrest of the biggest mob boss in the city. The FBI were always around—ever since Carlos himself was a child—but they could never find enough evidence to take the family court. Thus, they tried to get close whenever they could. It disgusted Callie. Her father was ill and all people cared about was exposing him. 

She ran to his bedside the moment she squeezed past the door and took his hand into her own.

“Calliope…” he coughed up.

“I’m here, papa.” Callie soothed, combing what was left of his hair with her fingers.

“You came home,” Carlos smiled.

“Of course I did. You take it easy, okay?”

Carlos closed his eyes and nodded his head. He was weak, and he drifted off to sleep shortly.

“Miss Torres?” a soft knock came from the door. “I’m Dr. Teddy Altman, your father’s surgeon.”

Callie turned around and stood to politely shake the woman’s hand. “Call me Callie,” she insisted. “Can you tell me what happened? ”

“Callie…” Teddy sighed, “From the looks of things, your father has had heart failure for years.”

“He’s never mentioned it...” Callie insecurely crossed her arms, “Is he going to make it?”

“He’s responding to the ‘tropes, the medications we’re giving him, but that’s all I can say for now.”

“Is he going to make it?” Callie repeated.

“It’s hard to say…” Teddy trailed off, “But I can tell you that we’re doing everything we can.”

“Is he going to be treated just like everyone else?” Callie asked. She knew the doctor wasn’t oblivious to who she was taking care of. A high-profile man like Carlos Torres drew attention wherever he went.

“We provide treatment solely based on the patient’s clinical needs...” Teddy promised, “without moral discrimination.”

She stayed by her father’s side—only going home to get cleaned up and sleep. When she wasn’t tending to him, she was making sure his casinos were running smoothly. She became a frequent customer at the cafeteria, and even the girl at the coffee cart knew how she took her coffee. She didn’t know if it was love or guilt that made her stay by her father’s side. She felt guilty that she had deserted the family, all those years ago. And if she didn’t keep her head down that day, she would have ran into the blonde-haired blue-eyed surgical resident that stood in front of her while she waited for her coffee.

“How are the casinos?” Carlos asked one day, when he had the strength.

“Don’t worry about them,” Callie insisted, “I’ve made sure Alex and George stay on track; you just work on getting better.”

“You’re getting involved with our operations?”

“Yes, it’s fine, everything is fine.”

“You know, I always thought it would be you that I’d leave the casinos to…”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t cut-out to be a boss,” Callie hung her head in shame.

“Don’t say that, mija, I’m so proud of you,” Carlos admitted.

“You are?” Callie questioned softly.

“Always,” Carlos promised. “My smart, beautiful, girl.”

Callie wiped the tears that trickled down her cheeks and held onto her father’s hand.

Later that evening, Callie was leaving her father’s room to go home when she realized the watchman that usually guarded the door was not at his post. She grabbed her phone to call Giovanni and sighed in relief when he told her that he would fire the man for leaving his post and send over another member of his security team immediately.

In the meantime, Callie waited by her father. It was highly unlikely that any harm would come, but she still had an unsettling feeling in her gut—which amplified when she heard the door open, and she turned her head in time to see a grey-haired man.

“You must be his little girl,” he chuckled.

“What do you want?” Callie asked harshly.

“Well…” he shrugged his shoulders, his hands in his pockets. “I’m here to take him out. I don’t want to hurt anyone else, but now that you’re here... I don’t have much of a choice.”

Callie stood from her seat and took a step back. She was scared—initially— then anger sparked within her. Suddenly, she wanted to get him before he could get her or her father. She quickly weighed out her options. She was unarmed, and had been for years. She knew he had a gun, she could see the outline in his pants. She glanced around the room and in a matter of seconds she had a plan.

She grabbed the flower vase from the nightstand behind her and threw it across the room. Distraction. He lifted his hands to block the glass from hitting his face, and she rammed her right shoulder into his sternum, pinning him against the wall. Attack. The impact caused a couple of his ribs to break, and the noise of the vase shattering onto the floor caused the nurses to start peering into the window. He was able to strike her cheek with the gun, causing the skin to break, but she didn’t feel the pain. Her adrenaline was pumping through her veins and she wanted nothing more than to see him dead.

“Bitch,” he spat, trying to point the gun at her head, but bone-breaking strength pinned his body against the wall. The Torres heir was stronger than he thought.

Callie groaned and struck her elbow against his windpipe. Once. Twice. Three times. The sound of his cartilage breaking from impact. At this point, he was still alive, but the injury to his neck narrowed his trachea and he struggled to take the faintest breath of air. So Callie stepped back, letting him fall to the floor, and she kicked the gun out of his hand. She glanced back, her father was still asleep. She looked forward, the nurses had called security and they were waiting outside the door. She opened it, stepped outside, and a nurse walked to her side.

“You want me to look at that, Miss Torres?” the nurse asked.

“Look at what?” Callie mindlessly asked, still in shock from the events that took place moments ago.

“Your cheek is bleeding…”

Callie took a seat on a nearby chair, exhausted. She couldn’t believe it. She won her first fight.

“What should we do with him?” one of the security guards asked, wanting to be of assistance but also not wanting to get too involved with the mob.

“Leave him. Someone will be here to clean up shortly,” Callie sighed. It was only now that the blood from her cheek trickled down her neck that she realized she was bleeding. “I’m sorry for the noise…” she told the hospital staff, and the few patients that watched the scene unfold, “But nobody saw anything, right?”

All watching eyes turned away and went about minding their own business. Except the nurse who had offered to help, she had gone to get a dressing kit and returned to tend to Callie’s injury.

When Carlos Torres came to consciousness and learned of his daughter’s doings, that Callie was managing the casinos quite well and taking care of business in his absence, he knew what to do before his inevitable death. With her father’s ring on her finger, Callie Torres took her place behind the desk in the office she was forbidden to be in at her childhood home.

“I can’t believe she’s home…”

“I can’t believe she’s ours…”

Callie and Arizona cooed at the sleeping infant in the crib.

“We should go to bed and get some sleep while we can,” Arizona suggested. “She’ll be up wanting a feeding before we know it.”

“You go to sleep before she needs you. I’ll stay up a little longer, just in case she needs anything else...” Callie volunteered.

“We’re across the hall, Calliope, she’ll be okay on her own for an hour or two,” Arizona promised. 

“I don’t mind,” Callie insisted.

“Come to bed with me, please?” Arizona pleaded.

“Arizona, I…”

“What is it, love?” Arizona asked, placing a soft hand on her wife’s arm.

“I think I’m scared…”

“She’s safe here,” Arizona promised.

“What if something bad were to happen to her, to us, to our family? I don’t want her out of my sight. I know you we’ve been safe here but you know my past-”

“I don’t think it has anything to do with your past, Calliope,” Arizona couldn’t help but smile. “That’s called being a mother. We’re going to worry about her for the next eighteen years, at least. We’ll have eighteen years to worry about her so please, can we go to bed for now?”

Callie sighed then nodded her head in agreement. Why live in fear when we can take a chance at being happy? She had chosen happiness these past few years, she took a vow to choose happiness with Arizona. Now she vowed this: if anyone laid a finger on her baby, she would hurt them before they could hurt Sofia.

FIN.

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Bobby Bland who Died: June 23, 2013 in Germantown, Tennessee

Robert Calvin Bland, known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American blues singer. Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B.

He was described as "among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... who created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed." He was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues" and as the "Sinatra of the Blues". His music was also influenced by Nat King Cole.

Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene"

Bland continued performing until shortly before his death. He died on June 23, 2013, at his home in Germantown, Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis, after what family members described as "an ongoing illness." He was 83. He is interred at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis. He is survived by his wife, Willie Martin Bland, and his son Rodd, who is also a musician. After his death, his son Rodd told news media that Bland had recently told him that the blues musician James Cotton was Bland's half-brother.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Gotye featuring Kimbra - Somebody That I Used to Know 2011

"Somebody That I Used to Know" is a song written, produced and performed by Australian musician and singer Gotye, featuring vocals from New Zealand singer Kimbra. The song samples Luiz Bonfá's 1967 instrumental song "Seville", with additional instrumentations of beats and a xylophone playing a melody based on "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". The song was released in Australia and New Zealand on 5 July 2011 as the second single from Gotye's third studio album, Making Mirrors (2011). It was released in December 2011 in the UK, and 20 January 2012 in Ireland and the US.

In Australia, the song won the Triple J Hottest 100 poll at the end of 2011, as well as ARIA Music Awards for Song of the Year and Best Video, while Kimbra was voted Best Female Artist, and Gotye was named Best Male Artist and Producer of the Year. The song came ninth in the Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years, 2013. At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, "Somebody That I Used to Know" won two Grammys for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Record of the Year.

Commercially, "Somebody That I Used to Know" was a global success and became both artists' signature song. It reached the top of the charts in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, as well as 25 other official charts, and reached the Top 10 in more than 30 countries. Globally, "Somebody That I Used to Know" has sold more than 20 million copies, becoming one of the best-selling digital singles of all time. Gotye paid tribute to the overwhelming number of cover versions of the song by personally creating a video remix, released in August 2012, using segments from hundreds of online covers to create a new, unique version of the track, titled "Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra".

"Somebody That I Used to Know" received a total of 87,6% yes votes!

[lboogie1906]

Robert Calvin Bland (Robert Calvin Brooks; January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013) known professionally as Bobby “Blue” Bland, was a blues singer.

He developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B. He was described as “among the great storytellers of blues and soul music... [who] created tempestuous arias of love, betrayal, and resignation, set against roiling, dramatic orchestrations, and left the listener drained but awed.” He was sometimes referred to as the “Lion of the Blues” and as the “Sinatra of the Blues”. His music was influenced by Nat King Cole.

He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame (1981), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992), and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012). He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1997). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as “second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis’ Beale Street blues scene.” #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[famedexclusivearchive]

2021 Seoul Music Awards Nominations

The thirtieth annual Seoul Music Awards will be hosted at Gocheok Sky Dome on January 31.

Note: As usual, the list also includes points claims nominated where applicable. If a points claim was nominated for the award in real life in the year it was released, was released as a single in-’verse during this year’s eligibility period and was able to experience a somewhat similar performance in-character (involves certain considerations like promoted vs. non-promoted, in-’verse charting and music show wins, etc.), it was added. If it wasn’t, it was either was not eligible following those specifications, the category was filled by nominees better fitting those specifications, or another song by the same muse was more qualified for the same category and was nominated. For solos (canon and points claims), a muse cannot be nominated for an award they do not have a matching position for (ex. a muse without a dance position cannot be nominated for best dance performance, a muse without a vocal position cannot be nominated for best vocal performance) and likewise, a song promoted as a solo cannot be nominated in a collaboration category and a song promoted as a collaboration cannot be nominated in a solo category.. If something seems to have somehow been overlooked, please bring it to the admin’s attention.

All categories should also be assumed to have at least one NPC nominee, so being the only nominee listed in a category does not mean an automatic win.

This is all for fun, so don’t take any of it too seriously! Nominations are based purely on the show’s own nomination history and do not involve the admin’s subjective opinion. These are only posted to give nominated muses more ongoing content to write about, but no one is required to write about them or even care about them! All posts related to in-’verse award season nominations and winners will be tagged #excawards, so please feel free to blacklist the tag if you don’t want to see the posts related to awards season.

Legend Rookie Prize (This is a special category to celebrate the 30th SMA, and no real awards will be given. The nominees are previous winners of the SMA Rookie Award, and the year that they won is indicated in parentheses. [source])

Lipstick (2012)

Gold Star Soloist 2 (2012)

Aria (2011)

Femme Fatale (2018)

Origin (2013)

BC Soloist 1 (2019)

Knight (2012)

Impulse (2014)

Alien (2012)

Unity (2016)

Fuse (2014)

CHARM (2015)

Decipher (2008)

BEE (2010)

Legend Grand Prize (This is a special category to celebrate the 30th SMA, and no real awards will be given. The nominees are previous winners of the SMA Grand Prize, and the years that they won are indicated in parentheses. [source])

Origin (2017, 2018, 2019)

Knight (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)

BEE (2010)

Popularity Award

Origin

Gold Star Soloist 1

Unity

Dimensions Soloist 2

Femme Fatale

Knight

Knight Light

Decipher

K-Wave Award

Origin

Gold Star Soloist 1

Unity

Dimensions Soloist 2

Femme Fatale

Knight

Knight Light

Decipher

OST Award

Taeyong - “Aloha” (Hospital Playlist OST)

Hyunsoo - Start Over (Itaewon Class OST)

Suji - “Give You My Heart” (Crash Landing On You OST)

Minjung - “I Knew I Love” (Hospital Playlist OST)

Duri - “Someday, That Boy” (Itaewon Class OST)

Noeul - “With My Tears” (Hospital Playlist OST)

Main Award

Origin - Map of the Soul: 7

Gold Star Soloist 1 - Love Poem

Unity - Unity Zone

Dimensions Soloist 2 - “Pporappippam”

Femme Fatale - Kill This Love

Knight - Obsession

Knight Light - What A Life

Decipher - W, Here

[felipeandletizia]

Felipe and Letizia retrospective: December 2nd

2003: Funeral ceremony for seven intelligence officers who were killed in Iraq at the Madrid headquarters of the secret service CNI.

2004: VIII Edition of ‘the Foundation for Cooperation and Development of Assistential Activities’ awards (CODESPA)

2005: Commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the YMCA in Spain

2007: Funeral for Civil Guard agent Raúl Centeno Bayón

2008: Visit to A Coruña

2009: Inauguration of His Excellency the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sánchez, as Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca

2010: Closing of the 13th State Volunteer Congress

2013: National Sports Awards

2014: Official Visit to Germany

2015: Delivery of Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts 2014 in Sevilla &  Meeting with the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón

2016: “International Symposium: Sustainable Food Systems in Favor of Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition” at FAO’s headquarters in Rome, Italy

2019: Received the presidents of Ecuador and Costa Rica & Offered a reception to Chiefs of State visiting Spain to take part on COP25

2021: Visited Colombia to attend the World Law Congress Colombia 2021 & Event of reopening to the public of the collections of the “Real Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales”

F&L Through the Years: 881/??

[celebritystylesearch]

Lorde @ Aria Awards 2013

[mermaidinthecity]

27th Annual ARIA Awards in Sydney, Australia - December 1, 2013

[atotaltaitaitale]

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You can always find a silver lining if you look for the bright side.

Without the pandemic and the quarantine I would never have been photographed by Jeremy Cowart.

I came across Jeremy Cowart work almost 10 years ago thru the very newly created online plate-form “CreativeLive” by Chase Jarvis. I actually found a lot of inspiring photographers throughout the early years of CL, who I still follow to these days. Some I have even met, such as Zack Arias who I took a lighting class in Dubai back in 2013 and even work with another photographer, my friend Ben Von Wong.

Jeremy Cowart is an award-winning photographer & artist whose mission in life is to explore the intersection between creativity and empathy.

In response to the global pandemic, Jeremy reimagined the traditional photoshoot into a digitally teleported experience. His current projects are the tele-photo series #lovetransported and #separatetogether.

Jeremy projects individuals and families all over the world, one at a time, onto various objects and surfaces in his photo studio in Tennessee and then takes pictures of the scene. The result, he says, "is hopefully a permanent memento of this crazy pandemic we're all living in. We'll all be talking about this moment for the rest of our lives. My hope is that these portraits will serve as a chapter marker for those who participate. For better or worse, we're all in this together."