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[efficientmovingservices1]

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[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #18

May 10-17 2024

The Justice Department endorses lifting many restrictions on marijuana. Since the 1970s marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive classification for drugs that are highly addictive, dangerous and have no medical use, like heroin. Schedule I drugs are nearly impossible to get approval for research studies greatly hampering attempts to understand marijuana and any medical benefits it may have. The DoJ recommends moving it to Schedule III, drugs with low risk of abuse like anabolic steroids, and testosterone. This will allow for greater research, likely allow medical marijuana, and make marijuana a much less serious offense. President Biden welcomed DoJ's decision, a result a review of policy he ordered. Biden in his message talked about how he's pardoned everyone convicted of marijuana possession federally. The President repeated a phrase he's said many times "No-one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,"

The Department of Interior announced no new coal mining in America's largest coal producing region. The moratorium on new coal leases has been hailed as the single biggest step so fair toward ending coal in the US. The Powder River Basin area of Wyoming and Montana produces 40% of the nations coal, the whole state of West Virginia is just 14%. The new rule is estimated to reduce emissions by the equivalent of 293 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the same as taking 63 million gas powered cars off the road.

Vice-President Harris announced that the Biden-Harris Administration had broken records by investing $16 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Harris, a graduate of Howard University, is the first President or Vice-President to have gone to a HBCU. The Administration's investment of $900 million so far in 2024 brought the total investment of the Biden-Harris administration in HBCUs to $16 billion more than double the record $7 billion. HBCUs produce 40% of black engineers, 50% of black teachers, 70% of black doctors and dentists, and 80% of black judges. HBCUs also have a much better record of helping social mobility and moving people out of generational poverty than other colleges and universities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $30 billion dollars in renewal funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. The program supports 2.3 million families that are in need of housing with vouchers that help pay rent. This funding represents a $2 billion dollar increase over last year.

The Department of Agriculture announced $671.4 million in investments in rural infrastructure. The money will go to project to improve rural electric grids, as well as drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure. The money will go to 47 projects across 23 states.

HUD announced a record breaking $1.1 billion dollar investment in Tribal housing and community development. HUD plans just over 1 billion dollars for the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program. This is a 40% increase in funding over 2023 and marks the largest ever funding investment in Indian housing. HUD also is investing $75 million in community development, supporting building and rehabbing community buildings in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.

The Department of Transportation announced $2 billion in investments in America's busiest passenger rail route, the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston. This is part of a 15 year, $176 billion plan to rebuild the corridor’s infrastructure and prepare for increased ridership and more trains. So far investments have seen a 25% increase, 7 million riders, over figures last year. a fully funded plan would almost double Amtrak service between New York City and Washington, D.C., and increase service between New York City and Boston by 50%. It would also allow a 60% increase in commuter trains.

HUD announced plans to streamline its HOME program. Currently the largest federal program to help build affordable housing, the streamlining of the rules will speed up building and help meet the Biden Administration's goal of 2 million new affordable housing units. HUD announced last week $1.3 billion dollars for the HOME program, which built 13,000 new units of housing in 2023 and helped 13,000 families with rental assistance

The Department of Interior announced $520 million in new water projects to help protect against drought in the western states. The funding will support 57 water related projects across 18 western states. The projects focus on climate resilience and drought prevention, as well as improving aging water delivery systems, and improving hydropower generation.

The Departments of Agriculture and HHS have stepped up efforts to wipe out the H5N1 virus prevent its spread to humans while protecting farmers livelihoods. The virus is currently effecting dairy cattle in the Texas panhandle region. The USDA and HSS are releasing wide ranging funds to help support farms equipping workers with Personal Protective Equipment, covering Veterinary costs, as well as compensating farmers for lost revenue. HHS and the CDC announced $101 million in testing an monitoring. This early detection and action is key to preventing another Covid style pandemic.

The Senate confirmed Sanket Bulsara to a life time federal judgeship in New York and Eric Schulte and Camela Theeler to lifetime federal judgeships in South Dakota. This brings the total number of judges appointed by President Biden to 197. For the first time in history the majority of a President's judicial nominees have not been white men.

Bonus: The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that transgender health insurance exclusions were illegal. The ruling came from a case first filed in 2019 where an employer refused to cover an employee's gender affirming surgery. The court in its ruling sited new guidance from the Biden Administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that declared that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects trans people in the work place. These kinds of guidelines are often sited in court and carry great weight.

[ladykailitha]

Royal Pain Part 10

Hello! So I’m wondering if people aren’t seeing my posts, I got someone on one these (don’t remember if it was this one or Roads...but they said that somehow they had missed the last three). I also noticed that a couple of the writing tags *I* follow didn’t update when they put out a new part of their story, I only noticed that they put it out because I dig through the #steddie tag several times a day.

So let me know if you’re still seeing my tags or not.

The application process has begun! Just a note on Argyle’s last name. The fandom doesn’t have one for him and they usually don’t give him one. It took a lot of research (the character looks Native American but the actor is an American born to two Mexican parents.) So after some seriously thought I landed on Rivera.

Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3  Pt 4 Pt 5 Pt 6 Pt 7 Pt 8  Pt 9

***

The first guy’s name was Keith Langston and he had been learning to tattoo through buying large swaths of pig skin. The guy’s portfolio was entirely of pig skin tattoos.

“Have you ever tattooed human skin or on a live person?” Steve asked looking over the portfolio turning each page slowly. “It can even be yourself. Or even just drawing on yourself?” He added, because that’s how he got into tattooing.

Keith scoffed. “That’s what I’m here for. To tattoo other people. I only go to the best to get my body tattooed.”

Steve smiled. “And who are your favorite artists?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Like only the greats. Leonard Killgrave, Ollie Peterson, Trent Sullivan. You know, those guys.”

How Steve managed to avoid wincing, he could only attest to years of customer service. Because he had never heard of any of them. And Hopper was no slouch in the social aspect of being a tattoo parlor owner. He knew most of the shop owners and good portion of the artists under them. They weren’t from Indy that was for sure.

And then it hit him. They weren’t from Indy. They were probably from Chicago or New York, maybe even Boston. This prick was traveling out of state to get his tattoos.

“I see,” was all Steve said. They talked some more about Keith’s abilities and where he hoped to be in five years.

“Well, you got to where you are in five years,” Keith sneered. “I fully expect to world renowned in that time.”

Steve’s eye twitched. “Thank you so much for your time.” He handed back the portfolio and didn’t even bother to stand.

Keith stormed off muttering about asshole douchebags who thought they were still in high school.

Yeah, Steve was not hiring Keith.

The next one was Eden Bingham. She was the Goth chick with the fluffy black hair and the piercings.

“Hello,” she greeted as Steve stood up to shake her hand.

“Hi,” he said, “tell me about yourself.”

Turned out she was Suzie’s older sister. She had moved out from Utah to get away from her strict parents and to be closer to Suzie after she married Dustin. Suzie was the one that had told her that he was looking for an apprentice and to try for it.

During the course of the interview, Steve was a little disappointed. Eden was good. Damn good in fact. And had been tattooing her friends and roommates for the last year, indie style. But he knew their personalities would clash so hard. And it wasn’t about the aesthetic. It wasn’t.

But he knew where she would flourish though and made a note to have Robin call Hop. Hop’s most recent apprentice had moved up to a chair and chose to move to Chicago to purse their career there and needed a new apprentice.

He thanked her for her time, stood up and shook her hand.

“Hey, look,” he said gently. “I don’t think you would be happy apprenticing under me.”

She smiled. “Probably not.”

“But I know someone who’s just barely had a spot open up,” Steve explained. “He hasn’t had time to put out feelers yet. I think you’d two would be a better fit.”

Eden’s eyes went wide. “Really? You’d do that for me?”

Steve nodded. “And not just because you’re Suzie’s sister, either. Because I think you’re good and deserve a shot. Even if it isn’t with me.”

“Thanks!”

He walked out with her to get Hopper’s number and address. She walked out talking excitedly to Suzie on the phone.

Robin bumped his shoulder. “That was nice of you.”

Steve blushed. “Hop will love her.” He looked at the remaining two. “Who’s next?”

“Argyle Rivera,” she murmured.

Steve turned to him. “Argyle, come on back.”

Argyle leapt to his feet. “Brochacho! I’m super excited.”

Steve smiled and led him to the back room. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Argyle handed him his portfolio. “I think it’s so cool you asked for a physical portfolio, dude. Most cats only want a link to some website.”

Steve grinned. “I don’t mind those, it’s just harder to talk while scrolling.”

Argyle grinned back. “Yeah.”

Steve opened it up to see the most beautiful Mexican styled tattoos he had ever laid eyes on in his life. Growing up in Hawkins made for a very thin Latino or Hispanic population so he didn’t see much of this kind of work, but he had always admired it.

“This is amazing,” he breathed. “How long have you been doing this?”

Argyle blushed. “I haven’t really done much. I used marker for the most part because permanent isn’t really my style, bro. But I’ve done a couple stick and poke stuff that was fun. And I am all about the fun. So a friend suggested I should try for this.”

“So you’ve never used an ink gun?” Steve asked.

Argyle shook his head. “Nope!”

Steve and Argyle talked for a bit longer and Steve was really impressed with how open and outgoing he was.

“How do you feel about doing tattoos not in your usual style?” he asked. This was the kicker for most artists.

Argyle lit up. “That would be awesome to learn how to do, dude! I love my style but branching out is what life is all about.”

“And how would you feel about starting off only doing simple tattoos, like the small ones or basic designs?” Steve asked.

Argyle’s face spread out into the biggest grin. “Everyone’s got to start out somewhere, my man!”

Steve was really leaning towards Argyle now. Which was too bad, because he really liked the spunky blonde. No, no, not like that.

He led Argyle back to the reception area and then Robin called the last out. “Chrissy Cunningham.”

Steve smiled at her. “Come on back.”

She jumped up and followed him. “You aren’t going to murder me for the no tattoo remark, are you?” she asked with a grin and a wink.

Steve burst out laughing. “If I killed everyone that thought that, Indy would be down three-fifths of its tattoo artist population.”

She laughed too. “Fair enough.”

“And since we’re on the topic,” he said, indicating for her to sit down, “you don’t look the type anymore than I do.”

She grinned. “I got my first tattoo when I sixteen. My mom didn’t want me cutting my hair so much so that I told her either let me cut my hair or let me get a tattoo, she let me get the tattoo.”

Steve’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit! I’ve never heard of that. It’s hair. It grows back.”

Chrissy grinned. “Her words were ‘At least a tattoo could be covered up, I’d have to look at the terrible hair cut!’.”

“That is fucking insane!” Steve said. “Can I see it?”

She nodded and pulled up her shirt sleeve. Steve could see the nine (yes nine, Pluto counts) planets and at the top was a howling fox.

“That’s cool,” he said. “Can I see your portfolio?”

She handed it over and Steve looked at it. She didn’t seem to have a firm style yet.

He found out they had both gone to Hawkins High. “Wait, no way.”

She nodded. “We all knew who Steve Harrington was. The basketball players all wanted to be him and all the cheerleaders wanted to be with him.”

Steve blushed into his hands. “Oh god that’s awful.”

Chrissy laughed. “Well, most of the cheerleaders anyway.”

“Not you?” he guessed.

“Kind of a large lesbian,” she said with a grimace. “Makes it a tad difficult.”

Steve laughed. “Fair enough.”

He talked with her a bit and then led her out like he had done with Eden and Argyle. He said goodbye and locked the door up behind him.

He turned to Robin. “What did you think of them? Be honest. They probably said a whole lot while they were waiting their turn.”

Robin nodded. “Argyle got Eden’s number.”

Steve burst out laughing. “Yeah, okay I needed that. Did he really?”

“Oh yeah,” Robin said. “It was mildly hilarious how well they hit it off. You couldn’t find a weirder couple.”

Steve put his hand over his heart in mock protest. “Have you supplanted our relationship as the weirdest ever? I’m hurt. Hurt I say!”

Robin laughed so hard she snorted. “All right you drama queen, weirdest romantic couple. How’s that?”

Steve beamed at her. “Perfect!”

She laughed again, shaking her head. They talked about the two candidates and both were really good.  

“I don’t want to pick between them,” Steve whined, hitting his head on the desk.

“So don’t.”

Steve lifted his head. “What do you mean?”

Robin licked her lips slowly. “Steve, I’ve been doing the numbers, if we add in the potential of what they can bring in, by the time school starts back up again not only will we have enough to pay for both of them to stay on, but Erica too, and the new receptionist.”

Steve jerked back. “Wait, what?”

She nodded. “I’m not lying, dingus. I’ll swear on it. In fact, we could probably hire the new receptionist by July.”

His eyes went wide. “Really?”

Robin took his face in her hands. “You are open and friendly. First timers and people who are just nervous in general love coming to you because you put them at ease. People who just want to get a tattoo as memorial or just as a one-time thing, love coming to you. There is this whole untapped market that you accidentally slid into and made it your own. We just need more people so you and I can enjoy our lives for a change.”

Steve blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Robin said. “You are so good at this. Don’t sell yourself short. You deserve this.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay. Let’s do it. Call them both and have them come in tomorrow at nine so that we can go over a few things and have them learn how to open.”

Robin nodded. “Sounds good.” She picked up the phone and started doing just that.

Steve watched her with a growing smile on his face. He had a really good feeling about this summer.

***

Part 11 Part 12  Part 13 Part 14  Part 15  Part 16  Part 17  Part 18 Part 19  Part 20  Part 21   Part 22  Part 23  Part 24  Part 25 Part 26  Part 27  Part 28  Epilogue

I figured as controlling as Chrissy’s mom was in the show about her weight, she would be controlling about the hair too. And ngl this is exactly what my oldest sister did to my youngest niece. It’s hair. It’ll grow back. Nope. The tattoo on my niece’s arm is the one I described here.

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk​ @renaissan-vvitch @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @justforthedead89 @emly03 @bookworm0690 @aizawa-emma @redfreckledwolf @thesuninyaface @bookbinderbitch @yikes-a-bee @littlewildflowerkitten @scheodingers-muppet @archermightbegay @hallucinatedjosten @ellietheasexylibrarian @anne-bennett-cosplayer @cinnamon-mushroomabomination 

[billthedrake]

NO PROFILE PIC

I wasn't sure I wanted to move to Chicago, but the company that was flying me there for the interview was one of the better places to work for and even as a holder of a newly minted Harvard MBA, I knew this would be an incredible job to land. Executive leadership track, and high-paying in a medium cost of living city.

It wasn't like I was eager to leave Boston, either. I'd had a good bit of luck as a younger man into topping older, exec types. Between the middle-aged professional gay men and the straightish dudes looking to play with a guy, I had achieved a nice mix of regular fuckbuddies and new conquests over two years. Some provided oral service only, and that was great, while some let me fuck them. I didn't think of myself as a shallow asshole, but maybe with sex I was, getting off on the fact these older, successful men would drop things for me to take care of my needs.

Maybe the only drawback was that New England reserve. During my college years at Clemson, I'd gotten very used to a needy, hungry type of Southern daddy. I wouldn't say those years turned me onto older bottoms, but they cemented my love of a 40- or 50-something masculine man with a submissive side. I found my share of bottom dads in Boston, but few really wanted to embrace or indulge the kind of submissiveness that really got me going.

When I started my MBA program, I had my sights set on New York, of course. Even if less than 1% of those hot Wall Street types were bottoms, that was still a lot to have fun with. About once every couple of months, I'd take the train down and line up a couple of hot hookups that put those Boston execs to shame.

But I was starting be realistic. I sent some applications to a number of New York companies and had some initial interviews, but I wasn't going to land an opportunity like William Blair.

So I bought a new interview suit, on the conservative side of conservative business dress, and a new, equally conservative, tie, and I flew out to Chicago. They were putting me up for two nights in a hotel in the Loop, and I decided to tack on a third night to enjoy the city and do a little reconnoissance.

After a delayed flight, I thought maybe I'd just keep that first afternoon and evening low key. Walk around downtown a little, grab a bite somewhere, that kind of thing. As a Southern boy, I'll admit I wasn't keen on the idea of Chicago weather, but spring had sprung in the best way for my arrival. I checked in to my hotel and freshened up. When I stepped out again, the city's energy gave me a second wind. Best of all there were a fuck ton of hot guys walking around, some in business casual, some in suits. A lot with that cornfed Midwestern look that I decided I liked.

That's why I pulled up the apps. I knew I'd love have a hot older guy sucking me or bending over for me that evening. Perfect way to see what Chicago was about, I figured.

Of course, there's often that disconnect between the hotness you see walking around and the guys available on the apps. Don't get me wrong: some other dude would have been happy enough with what I saw. But there was a sea of regular "jocky" gay men that didn't push my buttons, and a good majority of the older guys who did listed total top or top vers. I had a profile that was specific in who I was and what I wanted: total top, very verbal, into fit/regular professional/executive men 40+, love submissive guys, but newbies/DL guys OK. In reality, if the guy was hot enough, I'd ease back on the dom talk, and in Boston that seemed to happen a lot, but that was on a case-by-case basis.

I checked out Sniffies for a few prospects. But either I didn't hear back from them or nothing clicked. I got a few hits myself. Two were not my type at all, one was more a "not now but maybe later" groundwork chat.

I grabbed some dinner in a restaurant bar. The happy crowd was still lingering and I had a good sightline to a couple of middle aged businessmen at the other end of the bar. Blond, beefy, tall... Chicago certainly gave me some welcome eye candy.

I enjoyed the surreptitious bone I was forming sitting at the bar. Maybe I had a libido that could spill over into sex addiction, but it had been a solid week since I'd had a business daddy suck me, and the number of hot business guys in the airport and walking around downtown Chicago had my imagination running wild.

I opened Grindr again. Nothing caught my eye, but as I browsed Sniffies I got a message. The profile was a shell that had no picture, showing up about 4 blocks away, but the stats listed sounded up my alley: 58, 6'2" 195# bottom, corporate/clean cut married looking for corporate/bro/jock/son. Not hosting.

His tone was perfect, too: "Hi man. Fucking hot profile. Long day in meetings and I need to let off some steam..."

I didn't have pictures of him to go by, but was willing to engage. "How would you do that?" I asked.

The response was immediate. "It's been too long since I sucked a cock."

OK, I wanted pictures. "Pics?"

He sent me a few. No face, but there was one framing a chin/mouth shot and the top of a shirt/tie combo, all drenched in dripping cum. Very nice jawline and, I dunno, he had a hot mouth. The other was a mirror selfie of his body. He might be 58 but had that fit-daddy look, like a man who lifts and runs and plays racquetball regularly. He had my attention a big way.

"Hot profile yourself," I typed back. The man was about two blocks away. "I can send you more pics if you want," I typed.

"Feel free," he wrote. "But your cock is enough man. I wanna take care of that."

OK, I was rockhard beneath the bar ledge. I'd have to think of something unsexy to be less obscene when I left. I had more than a prospect, I had a pretty sure thing.

"I don't recripocate," I clarified. As much as I put on my preferences and expectations on the profile, some dudes had reading comprehension problems, or liked to play cute by pushing their luck.

"I just like being on my knees for a guy like you." Goddam. "I just can't host."

"I'm staying at a hotel," I typed back. "When can we make this happen?"

"Give me 45 minutes? I still have some work bullshit to tend to."

"Sounds great," I typed him my hotel and room number, then flagged the bartender to pay my check.

I was getting so turned on by the time I got back to my room. Maybe I shouldn't let it go a week between blowjobs, but even with the apps and overall having the goods that attracted men, it wasn't always feasible to get the service I wanted. I'll be honest: the more luck I had, the pickier I got about the kind of older men I wanted.

I told myself not to get too excited for this hookup. Maybe the guy was a bullshitter, or maybe he wouldn't be as hot as the corporate daddy in my mind. Still, I was feeding off his submissive vibe and wanted to set the tone for the encounter. Once in my room, I stripped down naked.

I took a look in the mirror to check my appearance. I had an athletic build, from years of playing tennis, including on the Clemson men's tennis team, and in my last couple of years I'd kept up my game and a regular gym routine. Maybe it helped being into older men, but that's just how I was wired. My first time with another guy was with my high school tennis coach, and I hadn't looked back.

A knock came at the door. I went and peeked through the peephole to make sure it wasn't housekeeping or anyone else. Indeed, a suited handsome daddy stood outside. I didn't get a great view of him that way, but I opened the door, and let him in.

Up close, he was just incredible. Executive cut brown hair showing some wisps of gray at the temples, upright posture, a trim but muscular body that filled out a clearly expensive and well tailored suit.

His eyes widened and he laughed a little when he saw I was completely naked.

I took the initiative though. "You said you were here to take care of me, right?"

He nodded, looking down at my erection. "Definitely," he said. Then without fanfare the exec got onto his knees and started to kiss and nuzzle my dong, while letting out a soft, deep grunt.

I actually loved this give and take. When an older man so clearly is there to service me. But I also loved for a cocksucker to enjoy my dick in the way that turns him on. Exec Daddy liked the slow approach, working me to steel hardness with his tongue and fingers before actually taking me in between his lips.

I was curious how long it had been for the guy, he was just attacking my bone like an addict getting a needed fix. Deep descent onto my cock with each bob, and getting deeper. He gagged a little before settling into the pace. That was hot as fuck.

He took the liberty of running his hands along my hairy thighs and curling around the hamstrings for leverage and balance as he really got into it. It was starting to feel real good. This was gonna be a blowjob to make me forget my last five. There was just no comparison.

Exec Daddy spit out my dick. He swallowed the spit and cleared his throat. "I forgot to ask," he said. "You like to get off fast? Or you prefer me to take my time?"

Both sounded great. But I knew my answer. "Fuck... take your time."

He smiled and muttered, "thanks," before going down on me again. I could tell he was excited to blow me. Maybe excited to blow any guy, but I was the right dude at the right place and time. And though I didn't have his full story, I seemed to fit his type or what he was looking for. Young, bro-jock type in spades.

His sucking now was exquisite torture. Glacial-slow down my hardon, taking in my girth and running his tongue along the tube of the underside. Maybe he was showing off for me, maybe he was just enjoying the opportunity to worship a cock. He neared the base of my prick, then pulled up just as slowly. The third time down he was kissing my pubes.

From there, Exec Daddy worked me up with precision. Even if this guy's technique was lousy, he would have pushed my buttons big time. I ran my fingers through his hair as he picked up speed, keeping the deep throating with each swallow.

The man spit out my dick again, licking up the spit to make sure none got onto his tie. "God, this is a big cock,"" he muttered, not even taking his eyes off it.

"You know how to take it," I hissed. My dick twitched in front of him.

That made the executive smile as he looked up at me. "It takes a good bit to trip my gag reflex, actually."

"Yeah?" I asked, excitedly.

He nodded, reaching forth to gently stroke my hardon. "I mean, I definitely have one and this bad boy would be enough to do it.... fuck...!"

He took the initiative now in sucking me back in. All in one go. I'd never get sick of this view, his expensive suit framing that fit-dad body. I don't know Executive Daddy's story, but he was the real deal all right. And he was giving me some primo head.

I got greedy though. I head onto his skull and started thrusting. It had been too long since I'd used a mouth. I might be putting Exec Daddy's skills to waste but this is what I craved at the moment. My dick can do some damage if I'm not careful, and I heard some choked grunts, then Exec Daddy pushed against my hips to signal a break. I gave it to him.

He swallowed his spit and caught his breath. "If you're gonna do that, let's try on the bed. The angle's better that way," he hissed.

"Fuck yes," I said. I watched excitedly as the man got onto the bed crosswise and lay back with his head over the edge. I gave him a second to get settled then I stepped up. His tongue darted against my cock head, then I felt the warm wetness of his mouth enclose my dick.

I wasn't rough but my entry was direct and insistent. Pushing in to bottom out in one go. Exec Daddy moaned around my cock, but in a good way. I tapped his cheek as a signal I was about to start.

Then I did it. I looked down on this suited middle aged stud and just began fucking his throat. I had restraint in keeping from shoving in too hard but I was deep and steady in my thrusts. It had been too long since I'd found a man who'd let me do this, who was capable of letting me do this.

My height meant I wasn't at the perfect level so I leaned forward to allow me to fuck his mouth like a fleshjack. The noises were obscene, with wet slick moans and a little light gags, but mostly Exec Daddy took it. The angle meant I was penetrating his gullet more deeply, and the wet snugness was gonna milk me off, quick.

The trigger though was his reaction. He was throwing hard in his suit trousers, his spike forming a tent in the wool. Exec Daddy arched his back to accommodate my thrusting. That action made me blast. Six, maybe eight, hard spurts of cum right into his stomach. The man was only going to taste the dribbles on the withdrawal.

His face was red from the blood rushing to his head and he had some spit on his face. The man caught his breath and kissed my wet dong as I slipped out. I let him enjoy this, but it was clear he wasn't going to get off in this session, so I stepped back and gently patted his face.

"Fuck, thanks," I hissed. After a good cum, I generally become more easy going, even after more dominating sex.

He got up and washed his face at the sink. He was still hard as he stepped back, adjusting his shirt in his suit to look presentable. I was naked still, and enjoying his eyes on me. "Glad I logged in today," he said. "It's been a long time since I've played."

I still had to square the words and easygoingness about sex with his boardroom-ready looks. Maybe he was fibbing to assure me he wasn't a slut, but given the quality of the suit, I could very much picture him as the kind of man who indulged his need to suck cock only occasionally.

"Glad you did, too," I said. "You're an incredible cocksucker," I added. Friendly in tone but also asserting his submission to me. "I don't know if you ever do repeats but I'm in town for a few days...."

I could his battling thoughts. But he hadn't gotten off just now and maybe was letting his dick think for him. "I gotta be careful, man," he said. Which was basically a yes.

"Absolutely," I assured him. "I'm totally discreet. I just want your mouth on my dick again, before I head back home."

He asked if I used a certain message app, and I did. We swapped contact info. Part of me wanted to kiss him but felt it wasn't his thing. So we bumped fists at the door as I showed him out.

Fifteen minutes later I got a message. "Thank you for that," he wrote. "You pleased and all drained?"

I felt my dick chub up. "Pleased. Probably could go again to be honest."

"I wanna suck you again. Maybe first thing tomorrow?"

"I have a meeting to go to 8:30," I wrote. "But if before 8 that works.

"Yeah, I'm an early riser." Then, "want your cum to start my work day."

"Well hit me up first thing. I'll be up early to hit the gym." Chicago was only one hour behind, but that meant I'd easily be up before 6.

"I will man. You're so fucking hot."

***

I didn't fuck Exec Daddy's face the next morning. Instead, I let him show off his skills on me. I'm a morning guy when it comes to sex, so it took maybe 3 minutes from the time he came in till the time he left, my cum as his breakfast.

I felt happy and relaxed and I wondered if the experience had tipped the scales in favor of moving to Chicago. I mean, there were hot men everywhere, but Exec Daddy was my type to a frickin T. Even if he was just an occasional thing, I'd be very into establishing something regular with him.

But that was putting the cart before the horse. I hadn't been offered a job, and hell I had no idea if the middle aged corporate guy was up for anything more than a couple of times.

Still, the experience had me ready to do my best for the interview. I made sure everything was perfect for my suit and tie combo and that my black dress shoes were polished, then made my way across the river to William Blair. I met with HR then had a round of VP interviews. I think I did pretty well, but you never really know. I'd been overconfident in one job interview already. I learned and adapted.

They took me to lunch. Even if I didn't end up landing the job, it was nice to be courted.

At 1:30, they took me to meet the new director of global wealth management, who'd basically be my boss's boss and someone I'd be working with as a member of the leadership mentor program.

It was a nice office with a great view of the river and the Chicago high rises. But as the man stood up, I saw the fear and shock and embarrassment on his face. It was Exec Daddy, who'd blown me just six hours earlier. Robert Lyman was the only member of the leadership team whose photo I hadn't seen; his hire was very recent and his profile page on William Blair's website still lacked a photo.

I knew my own face betrayed a million emotions, too, but I played it cool. "Cole Edwards," I said, extending my hand to shake his. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Lyman."

"You can call me Robert," he said, recovering without too much slipping. "Nice to meet you." He turned to the HR specialist who was my guide for the afternoon. "Give us 30 minutes, Dan?" he asked. The HR guy nodded and backed out, shutting the office door behind him.

I was wrapping my head around the fact that I'd blown my chances at the job. No way would this guy hire me now. At least I'd gotten some hot sex out of it.

"Of all the cocks in Chicago to suck," he laughed, face blushing some.

I leaned back in my seat. Even now, I was getting hard, looking at the man and remembering him going down on me. "Don't worry Robert," I said. "I meant what I said about being discreet."

I wasn't fishing for anything, but after seeming to think things over he said softly. "You texted earlier you'd be up for another blowjob at the end of the day."

I was incredulous. "You still offering?" The man must really be cock crazy. Or Robert realized he'd already cross the line, so why stop?

He grinned. "I have plans I can't get out of," he replied. "But if you want one now..."

My cock made it all the way to erect in my new suit. "God yes," I hissed. Reaching down to undo my belt.

"Let me lock the door," he said as he bounded up. I liked his suit yesterday better, but this one was equally expensive and perfectly tailored. I unzipped and hauled out my cock and watched him walk back, a naughty grin on his face.

Right there, in his own office, he got down on his knees on the carpet and scooted in between my spread legs. This was just about the best sex I'd ever had. The emotional power of having this subservient exec going down on me, the fucked up situation, and the amazing cocksucking technique. Blowjob #1 had been about me fucking his face, #2 about him doing all the work. Blowjob #3 was a mix, him bobbing and me assertively pressing his head down on each downstroke. He was probably getting some spit on my trousers, and I hoped to hell I'd be able to pat it dry before my next appointment.

"Shit!" I growled in a whisper as I fed him his second meal of cum in a day. He slurped and suckled and licked my dick as I rode the aftershocks.

He finally pulled back, a proud smile on his face. I still couldn't believe a man that powerful and handsome had made me cum three times in less than 24 hours. He got up and walked back to his desk as I did my best to tuck in.

"You need a napkin?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. Then tried blotting the spit wetness from the charcoal gray fabric.

"We have about 20 minutes," he finally said. "Let's talk about why you think you'd be leadership material at William Blair."

***

I still didn't know where I stood. Robert Lyman could kill my application with the lift of his finger, I knew. If I were him, that's what I'd do. I was an HR nightmare waiting for him to step on if I joined the firm.

So as I got to my hotel room that night, I was a little moody. But I still replayed those blowjobs in my head. Especially #3. Feeling I'd already done the best - and worse - that I could for the interview, I typed Robert a message.

"My only regret was that I couldn't fuck you." I normally felt a guy out longer or waited for him to bring it up. At least if he was a married with kids type like Robert. With gay daddies you didn't have to be so coy. I was now feeling like I had nothing more to lose.

I expected radio silence, actually, but got a reply within ten minutes. "It's been a long time since I've done that."

I was hard again. "I'd go easy on you. Scout's honor."

"LOL. I think I prefer cocksucking, but you would be the kind of man to persuade me otherwise."

"What kind of man is that?"

"Jock next door type. Hung. Horny," he wrote. Then, "Your accent drives me wild, too."

I smirked. "I look forward to the chance to let you hear it again."

He took a minute to reply. I wondered if he was with his family, maybe having a late dinner, or watching TV. "You still trying to interview for the job?"

"I'm more interested in interviewing you for a good sub dad," I answered truthfully.

He didn't reply.

***

"May I speak to Cole Edwards?" the woman said. I had gotten so used to not answering phone calls, because of the spam robocalls, but the area code was a Chicago one.

"Speaking," I said. I'd just gotten back from the courts where I'd played a game of tennis one of the finance professors. He wasn't a sub daddy, and was even on the younger side of what I normally went for at 38. But he was extremely handsome and extremely open to giving me head. He sucked me off in the seat of his SUV before dropping me off at my apartment building.

"I am calling with good news, Mr. Edwards. William Blair was very impressed with your interview and would like to offer you the position."

The rest of the conversation was short but sweet. She gave me the basics of the offer - compensation, expected hire date, and the next steps. I'd have a week to give my decision. I thanked her and hung up. I was thrilled. I'd been going over the pros and the cons of the job and of Chicago, and I'd practically talked myself into thinking I didn't even want it. But now the offer was there, I realized how amazing this opportunity would be.

I wondered if Robert had pulled some strings, or if I'd gotten the position on my own merits. I thought of texting him, but figured now that I would actually be working at the company, I'd have to play it safe.

But within an hour I got a message from him. "Did I pass the interview?" was his message.

I smirked and typed back. "It's a start." I set down my phone and stripped down to shower up.

Fuck, I was gonna love Chicago.

[dwellordream]

“At the end of the 19th century, when slightly more than half of all working people were still engaged in agriculture and the nation’s population was still concentrated mostly in the Eastern states, the statistically and geographically average American woman would have been a 38-to-40-year-old white farmer’s wife with four or five children, living in southwestern Ohio. Like 98 percent of married white women in 1890, this “average” American woman did not work for pay outside her home. In addition to housekeeping, cooking, and child care, though, she probably performed a great deal of farm labor and may have sold eggs and butter to make a little cash.

She may also have been involved in local church work, or a temperance (anti-alcohol) group, or a ladies’ auxiliary of the county Grange, an organization that encouraged farmer cooperatives and agitated for farmers’ political rights. Our typical mid-continent woman was probably not an immigrant, but she might well have been the offspring of German or Scandinavian immigrants, the groups that had dominated the settlement of the Midwest after the Civil War. Her own daughter, coming of age in the 1890s and educated in a local township school, might have more opportunities than her mother. Unless she married a farmer, or her parents needed her labor at home, she could move to Chicago or some other large city and take up work in a factory, shop, or office.

This picture of the statistically average American woman and her daughter does not tell the whole story. In fact, the typical, if not the average, white American woman in 1890 was just as likely to be a young working-class woman--a Russian-Jewish or Italian garment worker in New York City, a Polish meat packer in Chicago, or an Irish domestic servant in Boston--as she was to be a farmer’s wife in Ohio or Nebraska, because immigration was changing the population so rapidly in 1890. The waves of British, Irish, and German immigration had ended in the 1880s. Now the immigrants, who arrived each year in the hundreds of thousands, came mostly from eastern and southern Europe--Russia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, and Italy.

…The picture of women’s lives in the South at the turn of the century differed in several significant ways from that of their Northern counterparts. Southern society had been all but destroyed in the Civil War, along with Southern cities and much of the Southern landscape. Recovery had been slow and incomplete, and the South did not share the industrial prosperity of the North. Society was sharply divided along racial lines, and white racism had become steadily worse after Reconstruction ended in the late 1870s. Confined largely to jobs in agriculture, African Americans worked as laborers on vast cotton or tobacco plantations, or as sharecroppers, paying for the fields that they leased from white landowners with a share of their crops. Few black families owned farms of their own.

Although many black women dreamed of a life in which they could devote full time to family cares and household responsibilities, most had to work full days for white landowners or toil in the fields alongside their husbands in order to maintain even a minimum family income. The few jobs available to black women outside agriculture were in domestic service--working for white families--or in laundries, or in segregated mills and cigarette factories. Black families made enormous sacrifices to keep their daughters in school, with the expectation that they might become teachers or small-business owners. African-American parents could hope that the next generation of black women might escape sharecropping or working in white men’s houses, where they were subject to insult and frequently in danger of sexual assault.

…Western coastal states were especially attractive to Asian immigrants, though the influx of Chinese laborers had slowed to a trickle after the Chinese Exclusion Act became law in 1882. Filipino immigration increased significantly after the Spanish-American War in 1898, and by the end of the 19th century, Japanese immigrants had established substantial communities in California. Although the Chinese and Filipino immigration was at first mostly male, Japanese immigration was more evenly balanced between men and women.

The Asian groups tended to remain isolated from the larger, white society, which regarded their different physical characteristics, as well as their languages and customs, with deep suspicion and contempt. Like women in other immigrant cultures, Asian women remained more isolated and less assimilated than men, remaining homebound or working in restaurants, laundries, or small industries run exclusively by members of their community. Many new brides went straight from the boat to the farms of central California, where they picked fruits and vegetables alongside their husbands by day and cooked meals and cared for their children and living quarters the rest of the time.”

- Karen Manners Smith, “Woman’s World in 1890.” in New Paths to Power: American Women, 1890-1920

[ri-kin]

Chapter Two : Cheers to New Beginnings

PAIRING:Witch!Reader x Rival!Yeosang

GENRE:Enemies to lovers, Academic rivals (?),yeosang is a douche.

WC: 1.3k (a record🙌🙌)

WARNINGS: None that i know of.

REQUESTED: nope (please request !!!!!)

A/N: Heyyy,Thank you for the support on my last chapter!! This is chapter 2 of my series and i hope you like it! don't be shy to correct any mistakes you see and don't forget to read chapter 1 before this!!

You sigh as you wave to your parents one last time before going to the big city. New York , Boston specifically. It had been a dream of yours for as long as you could remember , moving to another state , attending a prestigious university , Harvard University of Witchcraft and Wizardry, away from your parents with infinite things to do , not having to rely on your parents again. It was like a breathe of fresh air after being underwater all your life.

Sitting in your seat, You watch people file into the aircraft ,and as the very last person sat in their seat you realized that you had the whole row to yourself . God, how it felt refreshing , as though the farther you were from your parents , the more you felt a heavy burden get lighter and lighter until you landed.

Your life was just about to begin. And no one was stoping you.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊. ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊ ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

You sat in your seat as everyone hurried out of the plane to avoid getting smushed, as you walk out of the airport , you pull out your phone in hopes of calling an uber. To your sheer horror, you find 13 missed calls from your mom and 5 from your dad and it had to be over a hundred text messages asking why you weren’t picking up the phone.Shoot! you forgot to tell her that you would be landing later than scheduled because of some delay. Your fingers tremble as you hit the call button and put the phone to your ear. Ring Ring Ring. She picks up on the fourth ring.

“Hello mom? why’d you call me so much, is everything alright ?” You questioned.

“Where were you? Why didn’t you pick up? Why were you ignoring me? Did you land?”Your mom asked.

She bombarded you with questions yet she avoids the one question you asked? You roll your eyes at the realization. Your mother was always stuck up and thought of herself as someone much more superior than you . You try and respond calmly while arguing? How dare you talk back to her?!? You hold her wrist to stop her from slapping you ? How dare you hit your own mother?!?

To you she was never really a mother more like one who does the bare minimum and calls you lucky to have her and anyone would want her as a mother. In other words, she’s the most narcissistic person you’ve met and probably will ever meet.

“Relax mom,I was on the plane, there was no cell service no I would never ignore you , I know better. And I did in-fact land” You Replied.

“That’s right you do know better than to ignore me. Now you should call an uber and go on campus to see the dorm , call me when you unpack, bye” She ordered.

“B-” You were cut off by the sound of your mother hanging up. You sigh as you change apps and call an uber to go to your dorm.

You paid the transportation fee to the driver and rushed inside the main building since you were late to orientation. “i’ll unpack after orientation” you thought to yourself. You went into the lecture hall where orientation would be held and took a seat at the second row.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊. ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊ ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

God how orientation was exhausting. It was too much socializing for one day. The sheer  amount of people you were forced to hold a conversation with was more than you had ever met in your life. You carried your suitcase up several flights of stairs to your dorm.

“Hey, I saw you at orientation ! What’s your name?” A voice in front of you asked.

 You were panting and out of breath as you braced yourself, slapping your hands on your thighs as you take in a few deep breaths. Your breathing didn’t seem to get better as your chest kept heaving up and down.It felt as though somebody around it and hasn’t stopped squeezing.You opened your bag , rummaging through it in hopes to find the inhaler you so desperately needed, but your vision kept blurring.

“Hey! Calm down, are you looking for an inhaler or are you having a panic attack?” The same high pitched voice questioned. You looked up to find a hazy figure  standing in front of you , eyebrows furrowed in worry. The girl had chest length straight hair and bangs , framing her face beautifully. In the haze, you could make out a mole under her eye.God was she angelic.

“Inha-haler”You managed to squeak out in between wheezes

The girl in front of you nodded as she took your bag and pulled out your inhaler

“Here you go” She said as removed the cap she put the inhaler to your mouth.

You went through the motions, and your breathing becomes easier as the medication makes it’s way through your system. When you had finally calmed down you thanked the girl and introduced yourself to her

“By the way, What’s your name?” You asked, seeing as she hasn’t said anything about her.

“Myoi Minari ,but you can call me Mina” She replied a smile creeping up on her face. God she looked like an ethereal being ; you were so very jealous.

You both exchanged numbers and you thanked her once again as she left to go to her own dorm. As you opened the door to your dorm, you remembered that, an hour or so ago, You were informed that your roommate would be coming next week so that meant that you’ll get the whole room to yourself this week. God , what a dream for an introvert, you thought.

The dorm was spacious enough for two people and had tons of storage space , which you were extremely thankful for , since you had over packed.It was a traditional dorm room with light brown flooring and white walls with two twin beds on either side of the room.The bed had drawers built into the side , making up for the lack of dresser or closet ; in front of the bed was a desk and a chair , all made of wood. You sighed , getting ready to sit in that god forsaken chair all day , wether you were studying or watching netflix. You made a mental note to yourself to go to the store later and get a more comfortable chair so that ,whatever you were doing , would be a bit more bearable.

You plopped onto the bed and your eyelids felt heavy as you drifted off to sleep.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊. ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊ ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

Ring!Ring! you sighed as your alarmed sounded in hopes of waking you up. You opened your eyes just to press (More like smash) The stop button and throw your phone across the dorm room, not caring wether your screen gets cracked or your phone gets broken ; You just wanted ten more minutes of sleep.

Around 12 minutes later, you were forced to get up from your perfectly fine bed and get ready for the first day of school - No – University.

You practically dragged yourself across the room ,Aiming to go to the bathroom so you could freshen up.As you were brushing your teeth, An idea popped into your head.

“What if I treat mina to a meal to thank her for her help!”

You instantly reached for your phone, toothbrush still in your mouth,and unlocked it to text mina. You put your phone down, excited for your dinner with mina tomorrow ; You couldn’t say the same for your lectures though.

A sigh escaped your mouth as you put on the last bits of perfume and grab your bag as you head out the door.

Your lectures were done for the day and you were exhausted from waking up early and several hours sitting your seat. You were excited to be done with today and all you wanted was to just lay down.As you put the key in the keyhole and unlock the door, You were greeted with a sight you couldn’t forget. Yeosang, sprawled out on your supposed roommate’s bed.

“why are you here?”you asked sternly.

“Hello to you too roomie” he answered

HIM?!? Yeosang is your roommate???

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊. ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊ ＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚　　˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

a/m: Thank you for reading and i hope yall will like this!!! Next chapter will (hopefully) be released in the next 3 weeks !

Taglist (for this series only , comment if you wanna be added): @nstarqueen @huachengsbestie01 @eyesonlyformingi

[runwayrunway]

No. 6 - jetBlue Special Livery Extravaganza

My relationship with the paint jobs of the various jets blue has been an intense whirlwind for the past few days, but there was always something else about them I wanted to cover. Like many other airlines, jetBlue has a fair few special liveries, and I'd like to talk about them. Consider it a cleanse and an opportunity to rest your eyes.

So, upfront, I'm not going to talk about all of jetBlue's special liveries. There are a lot, and many of them are just sports team logojets or the like, and I don't feel like that's something worth commenting on too much. Seriously, so many sports liveries. They generally double-dip on NY and Boston teams, except they've firmly placed their hat in the ring by being the official airline for the Red Sox but not the Yankees, so...your move, New Yorkers. The only other thing worth mentioning is that their Bruins jet, N632JB, has the absolutely brilliant name "Bear Force One".

I'm admittedly honestly a bit exhausted at this point - this is my fifth jetBlue post - but I sincerely do want to cover these and have planned to from the moment I made this blog. So here's a handful of jetBlue's single-plane creations - at least, the ones I want to talk about.

Binary Code Fly-Fi - N709JB "Connected to 01000010 01001100 01010101 01000101"

The binary code says 'blue', predictably. This plane was painted in a custom livery to celebrate jetBlue's introduction of their in-flight "fly-fi" service. I've used it. It's totally adequate internet and they don't charge for it, can endorse. That's irrelevant to my opinion of the livery.

I can actually endorse the livery too, though. I like the way it looks like it's spreading out to envelop the plane, I really like the shade of blue they chose, and it looks absolutely gorgeous with the sun lighting it up. The design is pretty simple, nothing too galaxy-brained, but it works. It's a notable improvement over the default livery.

The airframe has since been repainted with the spotlight tail variant and renamed to "My Other Ride Is A JetBlue A220", seemingly the first stage of setting up the My Other Ride Is A JetBlue E190 loop with their new A220s, which are set to phase out the E190s in the next couple of years. (The E190 being considered an older plane now is so surreal to me. Time is truly a bizarre thing. It hasn't even been that long, though. jetBlue was literally the launch customer and they're younger than me.)

Grade: B(blue)

Inspiring Humanity - N598JB "Bluemanity"

I love this. This might be my absolute favorite type of awful cloying soulless corporate design. Slap a bunch of words on it and call it a day.

The words are actually their motto - Safety, Caring, Fun, Integrity, Passion. Not in that order, but I don't care enough to look up the proper one. To be fair, they are a very safe airline (no-fatality-no-hull-loss club 23 years in) and they are also fun. But this looks like the wall I swear I've seen on every public library I've ever been to that just says 'welcome' in a bunch of different languages.

I think my favorite thing is the name itself. "Inspiring Humanity". They have like less than 200 destinations. Change it immediately to "Inspiring New York And Boston And Like A Couple Other Cities". I literally can't stop laughing. This is so stupid.

Grade: D(umb)

Blueprint - N304JB "Blueprint"

I think it's obvious why I chose the above picture despite it being useless for showcasing the livery.

I've actually had the pleasure to see this lovely girl parked on the apron in person. She's very hard to miss. I mentioned her earlier - I do think this is jetBlue's bluest plane, and I love her.

Okay, here's what she actually looks like. This is a livery that requires a bit of zooming in to fully appreciate, but the general idea is that it's a cross-section of the plane. In each section you can see depictions of what's inside the plane, be it luggage, the pilots' chairs in the cockpit, or even the inner workings of the engines. It even shows off the divide between the vertical stabilizer and the rudder.

I also think it was a good choice putting it on an E190, which has a nose that borders on being a regular polygon, instead of negotiating the adorable little round stub that Airbus puts on the tips of their planes. Despite the little details being what make it great, the basic concept is visible from a distance. It's exactly as complex as it needs to be and no more. Almost flawlessly executed.

I love this livery. It's creative, it's fun, it uses a combination of two visually pleasing shades of blue, and it's very, very memorable. They make a scale model of her and to be entirely honest I really really want it. (Again, I will edit jetBlue's website and accept scale models instead of money as payment. All they have to do is ask.)

Grade: A( very blue plane indeed)

jetBlue For Good - N809JB

Astoundingly, this is the only jetBlue plane I can find that isn't named. Why? Why couldn't you name her? Do you hate her specifically? Why doesn't she get to be anthropomorphized and also funny? Could you not come up with a pun? Here's one for you: Bluegooder. That's off the dome. Can you imagine what I could come up with if I actually workshopped this?

I'll pull from their website for the description of this livery.

This design depicts a curtain being pulled back to show what is always underneath—JetBlue’s culture of doing good.

If you zoom in pretty close you actually can see a couple small people pulling back a curtain. From any distance it's invisible, though. This livery just doesn't communicate what it set out to. The images feel like nonsense and I think nobody would ever make these connections if they happened by this jet on the tarmac.

Also, that orange out of nowhere. It looks downright yucky with the light blue shades which predominate this design and, more importantly, draws all the attention to the front of the plane and away from the design.

Grade: D(o the right thing. Give her a name. Name her. Name your daughter.)

New York Jets (2017) - N746JB "I Love JetBlue / NY"

I don't care about American Football. I mean, you should see that coming, I run a tumblr about airplane graphic design. The only New York sports team I support are the Mets. This is sort of just a sports airplane. So why am I bothering to mention this livery?

Because she's my favorite color. Yep! That's it.

These exact shades of green are my favorite colors. And I like how they look. I'm not sure I like how the plane looks overall. I think I maybe just don't like the Jets logo. The engines being the same color as the fuselage is also something I hate, though the little silver rim mitigates it a little. What I'd really like to point out is the little American Football field distance markings (if they have a real name I don't know it) on the bottom of the plane. That's neat! I enjoy that.

Also, painted nose always a plus.

Grade: C(an more airlines please use these shades of green I am starving)+

I ♥ NYC - N586JB "I ♥ Blue York"

According to their website, they are

proud to be New York's Hometown Airline®.

That's right. Registered trademark! Fancy.

Okay. Just a few notes®:

Wouldn't it make more sense to name this one "I Love JetBlue / NY" and the Jets one something like 'Blue York Jets' or 'Let's Go Blue York' or something else related to the Jets? I can't help but feel like opportunities were missed here.

I'm glad it comes off the tail a bit. But why did you have to put it on the engines?

The I ♥ NY logo is iconic. The epitome of tacky chic. You couldn't have put it more out of the way if you tried. If you got the okay to use that logo on your airplane, you might as well use it on your airplane.

I know I normally complain about the engines being the same color as the fuselage, but if they're the only thing that's a different color, and the main color is white, and the engines are dark blue, it does actually look pretty bad.

FULLY WHITE FUSELAGE ENTIRELY WHITE PLANE BIG FLYING WHITE THING SHE'S GIVING SMARTLYNX SHE'S GIVING WEIRDLY SHAPED CLOUD GO GIRL GIVE US NOTHING!

Grade®: D(on't ♥ this livery)

10th Anniversary - N569JB "Blues Brothers"

Can I be totally honest? I planned to find a bunch of 10th anniversary liveries (Air Arabia also has one, I think, and there must be others) and review them all as a little 100 follower special treat. I was going to keep doing that for every 100 followers, up to 100-year anniversary liveries as a 1,000-follower special if I ever got there. Before I could do that, I hit 200 followers, and it's only been steadily increasing from there, so that is no longer happening. But I'll still give her a shot while I'm talking jetBlue.

The design is very...modern art museum. I don't like how white the whole situation is. Could be a whole lot worse but could be a whole lot better. Why always with the orange, jetBlue? But at the end of the day I respect the commitment to a visually overhauled anniversary livery instead of just slapping a 10 Years! sticker onto an otherwise regular plane.

Despite being honored with the special livery N569JB was given an unrelated name (more than poor N809JB got), and in 2017 she was repainted to the standard livery with the highrise tail variant.

Grade: C(an't really complain about gaining too many followers, though. I love you all. It's not a bad problem to have)-

New York International - Vintage - N763JB "What's Old Is Blue Again"

Aside from Blueprint, this is probably the most interesting livery jetBlue has and one of the main reasons I wanted to make this post. Logojets and liveries bragging about how you're such an ethical company are a dime a dozen, but this is something a little different.

Well, you might say, retrojets are actually incredibly common. And that's true! But this isn't a 'true' retrojet, because jetBlue started operations in 2000.

That is to say, unlike other 'retrojets', which are heritage liveries - older, retired liveries put on new planes (see my Lufthansa post for an example) - jetBlue's is an actual example of retrospective design, an intentionally fun take on what a 1960s jetBlue livery might have looked like, filtered through their modern brand identity and design sensibilities. From their website:

We dug deep into popular 1960s branding styles and themes to create an old look that is truly original, the Retrojet livery.

And this is definitely original! While it has recognizable features of actual older liveries, it's hard to argue that someone could mistake this for actually being a heritage livery. And I think that's good.

Let's be honest - as much as this blog reads as a puff piece for older liveries sometimes, just putting cheatlines on your planes isn't enough to make for interesting design. One of the main reasons I hate Eurowhite so much is the fact that every plane looks the same, and even back in the cheatline era that was a problem. Dominant industry trends have always been a plague in any sort of visual design, and aircraft liveries are no exception. Liveries like Lufthansa's older ones were actually above average, and a lot of designs from the time were utterly identical white planes with a hockey stick cheatline. It would be so easy to make a 60s livery which is just entirely generic. And they didn't do that.

I'll be entirely honest, I'm far from an expert on the 60s, but apparently jetBlue spent a while hitting the books and looking through old 60s adverts and such. Again, I can't really evaluate it on the basis of period-compliance, but I can surely say if I like it or not. And I do. I do like it.

It might just be me, but this plane looks like she's having such a good time. Hopping around with her little wings outstretched, a small-town girl from Toulouse in the big city of New York JFK Airport for the first time and she's ready to write her name all over it. There is just something about the way the cheatlines are painted on that makes her seem like she's delighted, and that delights me in turn. Plus, always a big fan of the painted nose.

jetBlue seems to have a thing for forcing orange into their liveries, and I nearly always hate it, but I really like it here. It's a nice understated shade which straddles the line between orange and yellow. I think it adds a nice contrast which the typical-of-the-time monocolor cheatlines sorely lacked. Again, it really reminds me of my beloved 1960 Lufthansa livery, which they also liked enough to put on a retrojet.

That said, it's far from a copy. It goes for tramlines instead of the single rule, with one wrapping around the windows and the other looping down under the nose, though not quite as far as Lufthansa's does. The cheatlines take up a lot more vertical space on the jetBlue jet, rendering the text quite small, smaller than was usual for the time, and it creates a unique look.

The initial reason for the popularity of cheatlines is that airlines thought it would mitigate the shortening effect of the many windows breaking up the fuselage and make the airplane look more streamlined, 'cheating' an aerodynamic look. I think it...at least sort of works. At first glance N763JB definitely looked long-ish to me, despite a closer look revealing that to be false. That's impressive considering A320 family planes have always looked sort of cobby to me in general.

Just looking at the plane honestly kind of underscores how much effort was put into jetBlue making their own 60s self-insert OC. To begin with, the "New York International" bit might seem a little confusing at first, but it's the name they've come up with for said self-insert. Since they're New York's Hometown Airline® they based it around that for a full name of jetBlue New York International Airways, I think? Sure, they're technically an international airline, so I'll let it slide. It does stir up a bit of that lofty golden-age emotion, doesn't it? There's a world of difference between Pan Am and Pan American World Airways, so I see where they're coming from and I respect it.

With the help of my in-house font wizard @spirifage I was able to identify the fonts used here as Craw Modern and URW Franklin Gothic. I think these are fantastic choices, both on their own and especially as a set. They're both relatively common to see in period media (well, other variants of Franklin Gothic are, at least) and they pair well together, a widely-spaced narrow sans-serif all-caps font to contrast the staggered heights and snappy serifs of the Craw.

It's a bit hard to read from a distance, but thankfully they chose to make the 'jetBlue' part larger and bolder to maximize legibility. Did it work? At least somewhat. The forward slant also matches airplane design trends of the time.

...why the phone number on the nacelles, though? That's a real 2004 budget carrier move, not so much 1960s international airline. It definitely kills the fantasy for me a little.

My other major criticism is the tail. I love the design itself, all exciting and unconcerned with appearances, unabashedly fun, but all this excitement being limited to the tail is strange. While the cheatlines prevent the jet from looking unbalanced, it definitely feels odd isolating that all to one small part of the jet. Couldn't they have used the nacelles for that instead? Seriously, what a strange choice for the engines.

(At least you know what number to call if you'd like to let jetBlue know about their pilot's flying. And yes, 1-800-JETBLUE actually is their phone number.)

In all, this golden oldie design is a total gas, but wipes out just short of being the best thing since sliced bread. It's a bit of a bummer that such a marvy concept isn't as outta sight as it could be, but I still dig it.

(jetBlue, if you let me edit your website, I will let you pay me in scale figures of Blueprint and the Retrojet.)

Grade: B(ad, a word which here, as in the 1960s, means 'good')+

(oh, wait, I didn't realize until I saw this image that they do the tail pattern on the inside of the winglets too. That's neat. Doesn't change my rating.)

Well, that's it! We're jetThrough with jetBlue, for the time being. Let me know which one of these special liveries you liked the best and why it's Blueprint, and thank you for bearing with me for this wild ride through a whole blue world.

Before I go, I would like to make one final comment on jetBlue's livery:

Bluebirds. Literal bluebirds. It's right there, jetBlue. I know you're reading this and I expect my scale models in the mail as soon as shipping allows for.

[sunburnacoustic]

Rich Costey: Producer

Recording Muse's Absolution

(article in Sound On Sound by Richard Buskin in December 2003)

Photo: Tom Kirk

With their number one album Absolution, British three-piece Muse have established themselves as one of the most ambitious and innovative rock bands in the world — and in Rich Costey, they've found an engineer and producer who understands their aims and encourages them to experiment.

"I believe that anything should be possible at any moment," says Rich Costey. "The records that I'm most fond of are ones where people have taken as many chances as possible in service of the material. The process itself may yield both successes and defeats, but you'll never know unless you're free to explore, and that's something an outfit like Muse is very comfortable with. Those guys have been playing together for a long time, and as a result they are completely fearless and will try anything. That's one of the reasons why we had such a good working relationship."

A guitarist in high school who turned to producing indie bands in Boston and New York, Costey spent three years as the in-house engineer at Looking Glass Studios in Manhattan during the mid-'90s, assisting modern classical composer Philip Glass, and it was there that he steeped himself in the experimental approach to recording that has characterised much of his subsequent work, including the aforementioned Muse's acclaimed new album Absolution.

"My time at Looking Glass was just a thrill for me," he recalls. "I had been a huge admirer of Philip's, and it was no trivial matter for me to be able to work on his records day after day. When you're mixing for him, he holds out the score the whole time to ensure that you can hear all of the parts and are following the dynamics, as he simply composes on paper in the traditional manner. One day I was mixing something for him, and he was describing some of his compositional methods — he would use his motifs in an almost modular fashion, plugging in and reusing different parts of the same material within the same piece — and he told me 'Attempting to exactly repeat a success is bound to seem a failure, whereas if you move forward it's far more likely to seem a success.'

"How that translates to me in terms of making records is that I tend to reject the notion that there's a sort of penned-in area regarding how rock music is supposed to sound. These days there's a certain guitar sound that people think of as the guitar sound, and that's unfortunate. Previously, artists were more comfortable pushing things forward and trying things out, and obviously there are still artists who do that, but not many. That's what I'm interested in doing, though it usually means a bit more effort and occasionally a bit of risk."

Finding The Muse

After relocating to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, Costey teamed up with Jon Brion to produce and mix Fiona Apple's second album When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts... This led to assignments from producer Rick Rubin, which included the mix of Rage Against The Machine's Renegades album in 2000. Since then, Costey has undertaken numerous mixing projects, as well as production and engineering for the likes of Dave Navarro and, most recently, the London-based Muse trio of guitarist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenhome, and drummer Dominic Howard.

Originally hailing from Teignmouth, Devon, the three began playing together at the age of 13, first as Gothic Plague, then as Fixed Penalty and Baby Rocket Dolls, before adopting their current name in 1997, when they released their eponymous debut EP on Dangerous Records. A second EP, 1998's Muscle Museum, led to critical acclaim, a rapidly growing live following, and a contract with Maverick in the US, and in the wake of albums Showbiz (1999) and Origin Of Symmetry (2001), the band have attracted plenty of interest thanks to songs that meld melodic, sometimes unconventional lead vocals with strains of grunge, punk, psychedelia and arena rock. All of these elements are prevalent on Muse's new album, Absolution.

"I had become a fan of theirs, particularly after hearing their last record," says Rich Costey. "This was conveyed to them by some mutual acquaintances and we decided to collaborate. They had worked with the same people for a while, and I think they were interested in mixing it up a bit. By the time that I came into the picture, they had already recorded several tracks for the new album with John Cornfield and Paul Reed: 'Butterflies And Hurricanes' and 'Blackout' were among them. Those had gone very well, but they were interested in trying out some other ideas and seeing what else might be out there."

Costey would end up mixing 'Blackout', which utilised mandolin and real strings recorded at AIR Lyndhurst in north-west London, and recutting the vocal, bass and piano on 'Butterflies And Hurricanes'.

"Initially, we went to AIR just to see how things would work out between us," he recalls. "I did what I normally do, and they sat back and observed me. In retrospect it's kind of funny, because now, having gotten to know them so well, I realise they were a bit coy. There was also something of a continental divide between the American use of superlatives and the more reserved English use of them, but I wasn't aware of this at the time. For instance, soon after we went into AIR, my engineer Wally Gagel and I got what I thought was a great sound for the band to track live, and when I finally rolled some tape and they came in the control room to listen back, I thought they'd be over the moon. However, their response was along the lines of 'Uh, yeah, it's fine. All right, let's crack on...' and I felt deflated. It turned out that they did like it, but they were simply a bit reserved. They loosened up later — and I'm sure I did, too — when we got to know each other better.

Tractors & Water Sports

Grouse Lodge Studios, where much of the tracking for Absolution took place.Photo: Tom Kirk

Opting for a rural residential facility to complete the recording sessions for Absolution, the band members located Grouse Lodge in Ireland via the Internet, and it turned out to be a successful choice. "We just showed up and took our chances, and the place was fantastic," Costey remarks. "We had a great time there. It's the only place I've ever been where there are windows all the way around the control room and tracking room. And it was kind of funny, because at one point Dominic was in the live area while we were sitting in the control room, and just as he was playing a really intense drum part, some guy on a tractor drove by the window that was behind him. You don't see that too often in a studio! Fortunately the isolation was good — there's no tractor on the record.

"Grouse Lodge has a Neve VR, and although it was a good-sized board, we still brought in 14 [Neve] 1073s and several [UREI] 1176s as well as some Pultec EQs. The studio contacted a number of rental companies for additional mic pres, and apparently that was all we could get because Iron Maiden were tracking somewhere and using up all of the other 1073s in the UK.

Recording the introduction to 'Apocalypse Please': Dominic Howard plays a drum fill from the Grouse Lodge swimming pool, with the driver from an NS10 speaker used as a close mic.Photo: Tom Kirk

"Of course, one of the advantages of a residential studio is that you can just kind of take over the place, and so we were able to do things like set up mics in the residences, while for the song 'Ruled By Secrecy' I had this idea that I wanted the drums to be intimate and very close, yet with a unique distant ambience.

"At one point, while we were rehearsing in the smaller Studio B, the band was running through the number with the doors open and I could hear it echoing around the courtyard. It sounded fantastic, so one afternoon while we were tracking I decided to set up the drums outside. We brought out a whole bunch of mic pres to ensure that the mic line was as short as possible, and we spent a number of hours setting this all up.

A less successful experiment: Dominic Howard plays drums outdoors in the Grouse Lodge courtyard. Photo: Tom Kirk

"The kit was backed up into a sort of corner, with brick on one side and stone masonry on the other, alongside a tractor. Directly behind it was open, and it was good that Dominic was close to the wall because that enabled him to get a little more bass out of his kit. We set up a couple of distant mics and ran them through some Neves, and then I sat down in the control room and he started playing... and it sounded terrible. I think we captured one take, but we didn't use it at all. We got a little bit of ambience out of the courtyard, but the overall sound was unbearably thin and it just didn't have the presence that I'd expected.

"Still, one idea that we did try and that was really good found its way onto the tracks 'Apocalypse Please' and 'Time Is Running Out'. The intro to 'Apocalypse Please' has a tom section, and I really wanted that to sound just ridiculous and as epic as possible. So, lo and behold, the studio had a swimming pool, which of course was full of water, and what we did was bring over a couple of kick drums, put them on stands, and miked one of them really close with the disembodied woofer of an NS10 to get a low, thumping sound, while a few C12 ambient mics were placed in the swimming pool area. We also had to bring mic pres into the pool area for all the same reasons, and Wally and I set things up so that Dominic could actually stand in the water while he was playing, just because it looked really good."

So, were there any lapping sounds? "Not during that section, although we did do some hot-tub overdubs later on. We did a couple of takes of the bubbling water, but again we didn't use it. In fact, we did a bunch of stuff. I'd seen a modern classical performance a few years back where there was a whole back line of people hitting gongs and dipping them in water. The water gong is not an unusual 20th-century classical instrument, but as we were gong-poor, we took some samples of doing the same thing with cymbals, hitting them loads and loads of times while dipping them into the water. Of course, cymbals have nowhere near the sustain and heft of an actual gong, and whatever they did have would dissipate as soon as they went into the water, so that was pointless. But it was funny.

"One thing that actually was useful was recording a couple of takes of Chris diving into the pool — we used that on the start to the bridge of 'Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist'. Listen really closely and, right where the bridge hits, you can hear him jumping into the pool. We used rather nice microphones to capture that, so we made sure to keep them clear of the water, and we also had to move really quickly because I was concerned about humidity affecting the mics."

Reaching For The Overheads

"I didn't want to do anything that sounded like their previous records. I liked Origin Of Symmetry quite a lot, but one of the reasons why I thought I might make a good producer for Muse is that I believed I could hear what they were reaching for and felt there were moments where they weren't quite getting there. For example, it struck me that at their basic level they wanted to sound like a colossal, dynamic, epic and powerful rock band, but there were a lot of moments on their past two records when they didn't quite achieve that. So, the first thing I wanted to do was make sure that they sounded pretty damned big and aggressive when they were supposed to, and that was down to the recording methods as well as their performance.

The control room at Grouse Lodge is based around a Neve VR desk. Photo: Tom Kirk

"For their part, the guys had heard some of my mixes for Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave and they were quite keen to get a sound that was just as big and assertive. They play extremely well together and they sound quite powerful on their own, but as usual we needed to explore different drum kits to obtain the right sound. Dominic's very good at tuning his drums and Chris has his own bass tone down really well — he's got three amps with different degrees of distortion coming out of each. I also brought in a Diesel guitar head, which I'm pretty fond of, and Matthew played a bit through that as well as his own custom Marshall, and overall I set them up a bit differently to what they were used to.

"In fact, I spent quite a while trying to sort out the drum sound, because Dominic is a pretty aggressive drummer and he tends to hit his cymbals rather hard. A bit of thought went into how to have the individual drums sounding defined without being washed out by the cymbals, and to that end I did something that I wouldn't recommend anyone doing carelessly, using far too many microphones. For overheads you might use a stereo pair, maybe accompanied by a mono microphone, but we ended up using that for an overall kit sound and tight-miking each of the cymbals. I myself normally use [AKG] C12s, and then for the close mics I use [Neumann] KM84s whenever they can be found, and I'll slightly mix those in to get a lot of attack — that way, the overheads themselves can be fairly low, and you can mix up the attack of the cymbals without the overall sound being too brash.

"Chris's monstrous amp rig consisted of three Marshall bass heads and three different Marshall cabinets, and how much room we had in any given studio basically determined what size of cabinets we set up. One of them produces a cleaner bass tone, while the second amp largely goes through [an Electro-Harmonix] Big Muff [distortion pedal], as well as a few other pedals that he'll occasionally hit. Then his third amp, which is the most distorted, uses an obscure Japanese distortion pedal, which is pretty weird, expensive and apparently difficult to find. It has a real nasally tone that doesn't necessarily make any sense on its own, but when you mix it within the context of the rest of the bass sound it's critical to what Chris wants. He has several bass guitars, and there's a well-worn Pedulla that he's particularly fond of.

"I like to use condenser mics whenever possible on the bass cabinets. They tend to have a much more open sound, the transients come through a lot stronger, and the net result sounds a lot more like you're standing in front of the amp. There certainly is a place for dynamics and I am a fan of them as well, but to me they colour the sound much more than a good condenser. That having been said, I've actually got a fair bit into recording the bass with this mic made by Blue, called the Mouse. Wally Gagel and I used it last year on the Antenna album by Cave In and it was excellent, so I used that on Chris's bass rig and I also used it on the snare, doubled with an SM57 whenever possible. I sometimes use a Neumann FET47 to record the bass, but Chris's rig was so loud that I didn't think we could get away with that — nowadays, I think people play much louder than they did when 47s were introduced, and one of the advantages with a newer mic like the Blue is that it can take a stunning amount of level.

"Aside from that, we used a pretty standard setup on the bass: [Sennheiser] 421s and [Electro-voice] RE20s. We tried a whole host of things while working at different studios, and we used different stuff each time. The full band was set up at AIR in the lead-up to Christmas, and then a couple of months later we set up at a place in Ireland called Grouse Lodge, where we did the majority of the recording over the course of about four weeks. We didn't have exactly the same microphones to choose from there, but we tried to copy the AIR setup as much as possible so that the basic tracks didn't sound totally foreign next to one another."

Learning Reserve

Muse singer Matthew Bellamy hits some pretty amazing vocal notes on the new record, most notably on cuts such as 'Apocalypse Please', 'Time Is Running Out', 'Hysteria', 'Blackout' and 'Butterflies And Hurricanes'. "He has an amazing voice and an amazing range," confirms Rich Costey. "He is completely confident with what he's doing. He'll just get in and, in three takes, he'll have everything he needs. Sometimes, with the vocals, not unlike the rest of the process, we would try out different things, different directions even once we knew we had something great, and while this would occasionally produce improved results, most of the time it wouldn't because Matthew's own first instinct was exactly right.

"In terms of the vocal mics, we would switch between different ones according to the song. I'm a big believer in that as well. For example, he sang 'TSP' into a [Shure] SM7 that I had — one of the advantages for many singers who do a lot of shows is that they can grab hold of the SM7, carry it around the room and do whatever they want without creating very much handling noise. To me, that sounds quite a bit better than your more typical SM58, which a lot of people might use in the studio. The singer can press his face right up against the microphone without any worry whatsoever, so we used that on a few songs, while we mainly used a C12 for Matt on most of the more sedate vocals. Then again, in the case of 'Endlessly', we tried out a few mics — we tried an RCA 44, but that was just a little too dark, so we ended up going with the 77.

"Matthew has tremendous vocal capabilities, and if anything he's still learning what those capabilities are. I think one of the things that he became more comfortable with during this project was the ability to sing in a little more reserved fashion. Like on the verses of 'Sing For Absolution', his tenor voice is very quiet and just beautiful, whereas normally he's pushing himself quite hard. Any time you work with a great vocalist it's pretty exciting.

"Matthew's styling determined, to some degree, what I'd want to do with his vocals. For example, when he's singing loud, part of his sound frequently amounts to clipping the mic pre — I'd deliberately clip the mic pre on 'Time Is Running Out' as he sang louder and louder, adding more intensity and grit to his vocal. Distorting a vocal is so commonplace nowadays that to me it's the same as distorting a guitar or a bass. And much of the time when I'm mixing records for other people I'm distorting the vocal... whether they know it or not!"

Things That Have Character

In the months between the AIR and Grouse Lodge sessions (see box), Matthew Bellamy did more songwriting and Rich Costey took care of overdubbing some of the first-batch songs at AIR: 'Sing For Absolution', 'Stockholm Syndrome', 'Hysteria', 'TSP' and 'Fury' (which would end up as a bonus track on the Japanese release). These were then completed at North London's Livingstone Studios during a 10-day period following the Christmas/New Year break.

"We used the custom vintage Neve console at AIR, and whenever possible I only monitor on ATC SCM20s, which they also had there," says Costey. "Every facility was booked at the last minute, and when you're going from studio to studio it's really a crap shoot as to what you're listening to. On the other hand, the console at Livingstone was an SSL G-series, and it made a big difference switching to that from the vintage Neve. We rented a bunch of Neve 1073s to use as front-end mic preamps, and I also brought my old Universal Audio 1108s with me to warm up the sound. The UA mic pres are Class AB, whereas the 1073s are Class A. I largely only record through vintage Neves, but in this case we couldn't find a UK studio with one at short notice, and while I wasn't able to completely match the sound, I didn't mind that. I find it tedious when records sound the same all the way through. I'm much more interested in things that have character, and so long as they sound good, that's all that matters."

Rich Costey and Matthew Bellamy in debate at the desk in Grouse Lodge. Photo: Tom Kirk

Matthew Bellamy's custom Manson guitars were mostly recorded through the aforementioned Diesel and Marshall amps running into a variety of cabinets. "The band played live together, facing each other in a semi-circle, and Matthew was singing, too, which he apparently doesn't normally do when they're cutting basic tracks," Costey explains. "Still, once we'd created those basics, it was a case of anything goes. I don't really believe in any hard and fast rules after that, and I don't necessarily like to go with one setup for a whole record. So, after we got the basics, we would try to push every single overdub to make it as interesting as possible.

"The way that I and the band chose to work — and I like to work this way, anyhow — was to concentrate on one song at a time for a while. I remember that we did quite a bit of work on 'Stockholm Syndrome' and 'Sing For Absolution' at AIR. We'd just put up a song, see what it needed, and explore it for hours, days, whatever, and then at the point where we felt we were slowing down we'd move on to the next thing. That process continued at Livingstone.

"On 'Sing For Absolution', I had a pretty clear idea as to what I wanted to hear on the chorus: big, broad-sounding guitars with a little bit of echo — it's hardly ever the case that something goes down without getting run through a [Maestro] Echoplex. I'm addicted to them, although recently both of mine unfortunately have gone ill on me. Still, I wanted the big, broad guitars with Matthew's voice just peeking out over them without being too far in front, keeping the chorus kind of subdued and real simple whereas the verses really needed to sound expansive and three-dimensional. We did some basic stuff at AIR on that song, and then when we got to Livingstone we spent time treating different pianos.

One of Rich Costey's much-loved Maestro EP4 Echoplex delays. Photo: Katy Alverson

"The main piano sound on that song was heavily treated. I laid nails, guitar strings and all sorts of metal objects on top of the piano strings themselves so that they rattled, and then I miked all that with a pair of C12s. I had the dry piano coming into the console and I then split the signal so that half of it went to tape and the other half went to a [Digitech] Whammy pedal. In fact, the Whammy pedal also got split, so that half of it went to — no surprise here — an Echoplex and the other half went to a [Lovetone] Doppelganger pedal. That achieved a fake stereo, with a dry attack front and centre, while the Doppelganger with the echo was on one side and the Whammy's echo was on the other. Then we doubled it, so that it wasn't even fake stereo any more; it was two performances, which made a lot more sense.

"Once we had that down, the song took on a much more melancholy sound, and thanks to the piano it also had kind of a broken sound which, I think, worked well with the lyrics. After that, we did some ambient passes of various synths running through different effects and doing volume sweeps while Matthew played throughout the song. We just wanted things to sweep in and out around the vocals."

Although the songs were all comped, with each of the band members performing a minimum of passes, Costey was keen to guard against too much editing. He typically treats Pro Tools as if it were a tape machine, not because of a retro mindset but simply in order to enhance the music by way of a more human touch, and he'd therefore utilise as much as possible of a single take before editing in parts only where this was absolutely necessary. The same applied to overdubs — he'd use as much as possible of complete takes, and never once was a performance flown into another section of a song.

"I made that mistake years ago," Costey admits, "and what ends up happening is that the record has a real thin veneer to it, almost like a genetically engineered tomato that looks perfect but has absolutely no flavour."

Three People Trying to Sound Like 10

The approach paid off. Absolution boasts a collection of very live-sounding tracks that convey the effect of the band members playing complete performances. Then again, in terms of aural imaging, for all of the reverb and power chords, the manner in which the instruments blend into one another creates a sense of the musicians being bunched close together within a fairly confined space.

"I think that's partly the design of the band," says Costey. "Because they're only a three-piece, Chris's bass tone is engineered from the ground up to go from the low lows of the bass through the bottom end of the guitar. And Matthew, by extension, because he switches quite frequently to the piano, doesn't necessarily feel like he has to carry the brunt of things with his guitar. What you have is three people trying to sound like 10, and they've got it down pretty good, so that their instruments sonically tend to overlap one another, and the way they play off each other tends to overlap more than it does with a lot of other bands. Often you hear bass players who tend to double the guitar roots very low and function as a mere guitar support, but that isn't the case with Muse.

The Grouse Lodge live room. Photo: Tom Kirk"

At the same time, another reason for the tight sound may be that I don't tend to use much reverb on things like drums when I'm mixing. I pretty much just used whatever ambience was to be found on the room mics. Then again, when we were at Grouse Lodge in Ireland, we occasionally augmented things in terms of the drum sound, and this was especially so on 'Falling Away With You'. We ran a couple of Earthworks mics way down to the other end of the building, in the hallway towards the residences, and the track had this ridiculous, cavernous pomposity to it. This wasn't very useful if the drum part was busy, but if it was a simple part then it sounded terrific, and so there were a couple of moments where I cranked those up quite a bit."

One notable aspect of 'Falling Away With You', which starts off as a ballad before seguing into heavy rock, is the prevalent sound of Matthew Bellamy's fingers sliding on the strings of his guitar. "That's simply the sound of a human playing guitar," says Costey. "Matthew was playing his black Manson guitar very quietly through an Overbuilt amp, and all we added was a bit of reverb, so it was fairly clean. However, if you run just a little bit of compression you're bound to enhance those finger noises. A lot of people find them distracting, but for me that's the sound of someone playing an instrument. I have worked with people who play in such a manner that you don't hear any finger noises at all, and in those cases I just defer to the musician, but with Matthew you can hear the sound of his fingers on the strings, and this created a kind of intimacy that perfectly suited the quiet section of 'Falling Away With You'."

On some tracks, Matthew Bellamy didn't want to track his vocals until he really had a feel for where the music was going to lead him, whereas on others he'd record his part and, in so doing, highlight the fact that some more musical texture needed to be developed underneath the vocal. One example of this was the song 'Endlessly', with its loungey-sounding Wurlitzer intro and backwards cymbal and conga during the short instrumental break.

"That song was really a work in progress up until almost the last minute, and we took a different sort of vocal approach with it," Costey recalls. "Obviously, it's too slow to be a dance number, but there is a kind of subdued four-to-the-floor, 909-sounding rhythm going on throughout the track. That's largely due to the fact that Matthew did a couple of demos, and one of them featured him performing on a piano as well as a drum machine that was playing that pattern. There was such an honesty to it and a directness to it that even though we tried it with a full band approach, nothing seemed to work as well as what he had on that demo, which was just a real pure intro and a really heartfelt vocal. We therefore took that approach and built on it, and we had Dominic play loads of different drum patterns within that tempo and then actually cut up ones that had kind of a light jazz feel with a couple of fills."

More Chet Baker, Less Arthur Baker

After the work was completed at Grouse Lodge, the project switched location once again, this time to Cello Studios in Los Angeles, where three weeks were spent overdubbing before the mix then took place. It was here, during the overdubs, that 'Endlessly' really came together.

"Although we were happy with the drumming aspects of the song, we were still dissatisfied with a lot of it," Costey explains. "We were in Studio Three, where the Beach Boys had once recorded Pet Sounds [when the facility was still known as United Western Recorders], so we tried to conjure up the spirit of Brian Wilson by bringing in an old S6 tube monophonic synthesizer. I mostly wanted Matthew to use it to play some arpeggios, but those didn't end up sounding very good, and so he then reached over to these auto-chord figures on the left-hand side of the keyboard, where you can just hit one button and it will play the chord. Underneath it is a button that you can press to control the volume of that note, and while we were running the track down Matthew started playing the chords to the song and using the dynamic button to tap out a rhythm. That ended up being the main thing that the rest of the song was centred about: the real soft, moody, warm keyboard sound that plays in the chorus.

"At that point, we absolutely knew that we wanted the sound more Chet Baker and less Arthur Baker. So, Matthew sang into a big old RCA 77 ribbon mic, and we did a number of other overdubs on the track, but we tried to keep it as sedate as possible even if, by the end of the song, it gets a bit expansive. There's a treated type of opera vocal coming in later in the song, and we tried to be very careful with that, because it's a dangerous area."

Meanwhile, another song that starts off in fairly staid and straightforward fashion before building in force is 'Ruled By Secrecy', on which thundering piano bass notes are interspersed with high notes that ride over the top of the vocal. "A lot of the time we would actually cut the right-hand and left-hand parts separately and treat them separately," Costey remarks. "The beginning of 'Ruled By Secrecy' was all CP80, which is an old Yamaha electric piano, and while that was a left-hand part we also doubled it up with a right-hand part that was actual piano. We also took the CP80 and ran it through a couple of guitar amps only for the left hand, so that the left hand would have a larger tone to it when Matthew hit those notes. Then, by the end of the song, when he was hitting the more sustained left-handed parts, I trotted out the old Echoplex as well."

'Time Is Running Out' was probably the most difficult song for band and producer to nail down, especially with regard to an intro that required mucho experimentation. "We tried out all sorts of percussion ideas," says Costey, "including people clapping their hands and slapping their knees. At one point Wally even miked up Chris and Dominic scratching their heads to produce a shaker track, and that worked suprisingly well, but we didn't end up using it. Eventually, we concluded that the bass would comprise the centrepiece of the intro, so we had to come up with a unique, very characteristic tone, although I wasn't totally convinced about the bass line that we initially settled on. We spent an entire day trying to get the greatest bass intro sound ever created in all humanity, and by the end of that time we went with an acoustic bass guitar running through a ton of pedals and different amps. Then, just as we'd attained a sound that we thought was pretty good, Matthew walked in, listened to it and said, 'Fantastic, you've just spent eight hours on a flanged bass?' He was right of course, not having spent hours on the floor, toying with pedals and cables. We didn't keep any of it. Still, there was always good give-and-take like that, and we trusted each other enough to go with our respective ideas."

The well-stocked gear rack in Cello Sound, where Absolution was mixed, with Rich Costey's own gear on top and in the portable rack to the right.

As most arrangement decisions regarding the songs were made while recording, the overall modus operandi amounted to settling on a direction that would subsequently determine the nature of the overdubs and then the mix. This, in turn, ensured that the mixing process was relatively short and strightforward; about three weeks in all.

"The biggest challenge on Absolution was making sure that the whole thing hung together cohesively," Costey asserts. "We tried out so many different ideas, and in a couple of songs we didn't get the arrangements totally nailed down until it was time to mix. At that point, if you're not happy with something it's too late to go back and change it. So, during the last week there was a certain amount of making sure that all those loose ends were dialled in, and that the songs sounded good next to one another and sounded like the same band. Hopefully, that's what we achieved. By the end, for all of their British reserve and my over-the-top American enthusiasm, the guys were very excited about this record — and so, of course, was I."

[reasoningdaily]

Trump found guilty: Stock markets slide, read investor reaction

https://www.reuters.com/legal/view-jury-finds-trump-guilty-all-counts-hush-money-trial-2024-05-30/

NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) - Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced it had found Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.

The verdict, which came back after the close of the U.S. stock market, plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, when Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden.

Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT.O), opens new tab

, parent of the former president's social media site Truth Social, fell 14% after the verdict.

TOM HAYES, CHAIRMAN, GREAT HILL CAPITAL, NEW YORK

“I think the next step will likely be an appeal. And if he appeals that would get pushed out past the election. So ultimately, the risk is that the rest of the world views this as a political prisoner, which undermines our legal and economic system."

"If the world starts to view it that the last bastion of democracy, free markets, fair legal system, is perceived to be tainted, you could start to see a shift in capital flows. We’ve been a major beneficiary of equity flows and demand for our Treasuries.”

BILL STRAZZULLO, CHIEF MARKETS STRATEGIST, BELL CURVE TRADING, BOSTON

“What I think ... is that the biggest threat to the economy, markets and democracy is Trump. He gets more and more unhinged every day and the fact that he’s convicted on all counts, I assume, will resonate with some people.

"The election will more than likely be a close election because we have a divided country. He has done everything he can to circumvent these various charges. For the American people, there’s no excuse. He’s a convicted felon. Period. End of story. If this is the guy you want in the White House, shame on you and shame on us as a country . . . The fact that today is a serious blow to his reelection chances is a big deal.”

JACK ABLIN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, CRESSET CAPITAL, CHICAGO

“I don’t think there will be a lot of impact.”

“The market will just digest it and move on.”

“We likely know most of (Trump and Biden's) thoughts on economic policy and other crucial questions. Certainly, both seem to agree on running large deficits.”

Ablin said that even looking past the November election date, market volatility – as reflected in options pricing – remains low.

KEITH LERNER, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, TRUIST ADVISORY SERVICES, ATLANTA

“There was a lot of uncertainty about the election before this. This adds to some of the uncertainty going forward, but in the interim is probably not going to be a significant market mover, and the market right now is relatively flat reacting to this news.”

JAMIE COX, MANAGING PARTNER, HARRIS FINANCIAL, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

“I don’t know if it has any effect on markets necessarily. But it certainly has an effect on the recently-IPOed DJT. It’s market-moving news for that. The market has already discounted a guilty conviction in the hush money case because it was widely believed to be more of a side show. I think it would have been much more news for the market had he been not convicted. But at this particular moment, markets have been down all week for other reasons, specifically about inflation. That’s what markets is concerned with and not the theater of the trial of a former president.”

PETER CARDILLO, CHIEF MARKET ECONOMIST, SPARTAN CAPITAL SECURITIES, NEW YORK

“I don’t think it means much to the markets, what matters tomorrow is the PCE report. As we get closer to the election it could make a difference.”

“What does this mean going forward? We’ll have to wait and see if the Republicans even nominate him. Now that (Trump has) been found guilty there’s a good possibility that they’ll have a change of heart.”

“But regarding tomorrow, PCE will dominate the market action.”

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Compiled by the Global Finance & Markets Breaking News team

[efficientmovingservices1]

Why You Should Hire a Professional Long Distance Moving Service?

Moving to a new home can be a stressful experience, especially when it involves a long distance move. That's why hiring a professional long distance moving service is a smart choice. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider hiring a professional long distance moving service for your next move.

Firstly, a professional long distance moving service has the experience and expertise to make your move as smooth and efficient as possible. They know how to properly pack and transport your belongings, ensuring that they arrive at your new home in good condition.

Secondly, a professional moving service can save you time and effort. Moving can be a time-consuming and exhausting process, but with the help of a moving service, you can focus on other important tasks while they take care of the heavy lifting.

Thirdly, a professional moving service can provide you with peace of mind. Moving can be stressful and overwhelming, but when you hire a professional moving service, you can relax knowing that your belongings are in good hands.

Fourthly, a long distance moving service can provide you with additional services such as storage and packing services. This can make your move even easier and more convenient. In conclusion, hiring a professional long distance moving service is a smart choice for anyone who is planning a move. They can provide you with the expertise, convenience, peace of mind, and additional services that you need to make your move as smooth and stress-free as possible.

So, the next time you're planning a long distance move, consider hiring a professional moving service to help you with the process.

[team-sanvich2]

Next is Blu Team's Spy, Gérard.

Today's post might be lacking in details, and like the Medic Post, things might not 100% align with the information presented in the picture above, as these are being made with a gap between them.

The Story is under Read more

Gérard was born in France but immigrated to the States with his mother while he was still a kid. The two ended up in a rather shady part of New York, doing anything that was possible for survival, his mother had become a lady of the night, who would offer services to men who would be found dead by the next day, and the mistress would be seen with her son in some rather expensive clothing, bring him to a nice school and by the end of the year, they managed to move into a nicer apartment, far away from where they were, but Thorned Rose, as she used to be called, refused to stop her business, getting in contact with more rich clients, some took their time to wind up dead, probably trying to get close to her, but she would silence them whenever her little Gérardito would wind up hurt.

The attitude of his mother would sometimes make him question right from wrong, what he was being taught in school was far different from his life at home, where no matter how bad you acted, like when his mother killed her "lovers" and got away with it, as long as it was for good cause, all was well. This would later be applied in his school life, running a small contraband ring inside the building, selling various products to the older students, but also managing to do much more.

The School was a prestigious one, however, with all of its dirt being covered up over a mask of "99% of students managing to go to Havard" when in fact, they were getting bribed by the various rich parents, said students being some of his clients, this went in collision with another issue, students with a less fortunate upbringing were being denied opportunities, and teachers would play favorites with the kids who's parents would be personally add thousands of dollars if their children were to pass their classes.

Gérard gathered and copied what he could find and brought it to an authority figure, his mother, who decimated each one of the parents with evidence but hid the fact that Gérard did most of the digging, and she was very proud of her little "spy".

This cleverness led him through a path of deception, trickery, and lies, but that would build him up to become a detective, one who would not hesitate to gather every information he could about his colleagues, but Gérard had started to work with someone, a fellow French man that had a similar upbringing to his, born in France, had a hard-working mother and was a respected figure in the Station

The two were a wonder duo of sorts, the hardest cases were often entrusted to the two of them, and most would either end in a successful arrest or a shoot-out where the two would walk out of it tired and injured. It was thought that nothing could break the two but, things took a turn once the BLU man met who he thought was the love of his life.

The two met when the woman was working at a diner to help raise her 3 boys, Gérard would often tip the lady before leaving given that she was in a position similar to his mother, who was back in France and would often write to her boy, especially after he said that he and Melinda Delilah started dating and were living together in Boston.

Once there, a wedding ceremony was held and a year later, they had 2 boys together, but things were about to take a turn, Gérard had received a call that he was going to be promoted into a special position in a Secret Services Facility, but it was going to be in Alaska, a desolated place that had become rampant with crime and shady activity, not to mention incredibly dangerous, but now having 5 kids, he took the opportunity and the family moved.

His wife would voice her worries about Gérard being out in the cold often, but he would assure her that everything was okay, and things were going well, the place they were living was nice, and their relationship as a family was going well, but...As a couple? it was a different story.

Perhaps it was due to both being each other's first loves, maybe it was the drastic change in environment, or the jobs Spy was taking for BLU Corp and refused to tell Mell to keep her safe so RED would not target her or their kids, where now 6 at this point with Little Bidwell, but the love between them was deteriorating, in nowadays the man recognizes that perhaps marriage wasn't something neither were seeking or that maybe she wanted something else, and she found it.

Gérard had received an odd visit from his old Detective friend, Gérard was happy to see him and decided to invite him to stay over as no hotel in town was vacant, but it turned out to be a mistake, as Gérard would find his wife absent from their bed, and in his ex-partner's bed.

Matters escalated when Melinda found out she was pregnant, before the men would break out in a fight, the couple simply decided to divorce and go their separate ways. A year after, Gérard caught a strange hooded figure in the front of his house leaving a weird basket, and once he checked inside, there he was, Antonie, a boy who according to a letter inside the basket was his son, Melinda had included in the letter that she sent him there cause she felt horrible, she could not look at the baby without thinking of the man that was her husband through most of her life, but also because he resembled too much the 'other man". Despite her words, Gérard only saw Antonie as his boy, his "faon mignon" (cute fawn from google translate), and his pride and joy.

Unkowst to him, and the RED Spy, Antonie is one of a pair of twins, Jeremy, however, bores more resemblance to Gérard, which causes quite a lot of confusion but, the BLU Father and Son don't care that much, at least...They don't show it a lot.

As for how he meets Yana, this occurs in the events of "Mann VS Machine" in this AU, where RED Heavy's family comes to live with Misha to keep them safe and while the two teams deal with Gray's robots, and Gérard was head over hills for her after she saved him from a nasty fall, and unlike how Jeremy asked Spy for romantic advice, Gérard went to his son who he KNOWS IS DATING and thus asks him for advice.

[justforbooks]

The actor Lance Reddick, who has died suddenly aged 60, played figures of authority with such panache that no matter how many times he was handed such roles, he never seemed typecast. He is best known on film for his part as Charon, the all-seeing fixer in the John Wick movie franchise, but his image was forged playing two ambitious high-level cops on television, Cedric Daniels in The Wire (2002-08) and Irvin Irving in Bosch (2014-21).

In each case he was contrasted with a main character: his anguish at the plight of Baltimore as portrayed in The Wire was expressed with internal restraint, opposed to the knee-jerk reactions of Dominic West’s chronic screw-up, McNulty. In Bosch, he was the politician tormented by Titus Welliver’s relentlessly uncompromising Harry Bosch.

Bosch author Michael Connelly said Reddick “took a character who was paper-thin in the books and made Irvin Irving”. He used his tall, angular frame to express authority; moving his body precisely, deliberately stiff and controlled, his face echoing that pose, covering up the machinations inside his head. Audiences watched as he took in, contemplated, and finally reacted, in a voice pitched with the deep tone of authority. His work in Bosch’s second season, where the death of his undercover cop son opens huge cracks in his closely controlled persona and makes him the centre of the show, is a lesson in transcending ensemble play.

Reddick’s highlights in variations of authority-figure themes came in the TV series Fringe (2008-13), running a unit of Homeland Security; Corporate (2018-20), as a CEO; and Intelligence (2014), where he was head of the CIA. On film he was head of the secret service in Angel Has Fallen (2019), and he played Albert Wesker, boss of the Raccoon Police special tactics unit, in the Netflix TV adaptation of the zombie video game Resident Evil (2022).

He was so good that the star of Wick, Keanu Reeves, given a day off from shooting for his birthday, told his girlfriend he wanted to visit the set, just to watch Reddick in action. Reeves then handed him a note thanking him for “what he brought to the character of Charon”.

Bosch also afforded Reddick the chance to play the piano, thoughtfully improvising at home as if to sort out his thoughts; this might be seen to reflect his own hard path to acting success. Reddick was born in Baltimore to Solomon, a lawyer, and Dorothy (nee Gee), a teacher. His musical talent was apparent at Friends School of Baltimore, and he went on to study at the city’s Peabody Institute, a secondary school specialising in the performing arts. He took a degree in composition at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and moved to Boston, intending, in his words, to become a rock star.

But his style of music, influenced by Miles Davis and Sting, never fitted a rock star template, and having married his college sweetheart, Suzanne Louis, in 1986, and had two children, he found himself working odd jobs, including as a singing waiter on a riverboat. Crucially, on a night shift at a newspaper delivery depot, he injured his back shifting bundles of papers. Forced to lie in bed, he contemplated how he could support his family, and decided to turn to acting, where he noticed there were more auditions available.

He wound up gaining a master of fine arts degree at Yale Drama School in 1994, and two years later landed his first television role, on New York Undercover; he debuted on-screen in 1998’s ill-judged modern-set Great Expectations.

In 2000 he was cast in David Simon’s The Corner, which led to his part on The Wire, while he also attracted attention with a memorable role as an undercover police officer gone bad in the prison drama Oz (2000-01). Recurring parts in CSI:Miami (2005-06) and Lost (2008-09) followed, and he played James Baldwin in the 2004 movie Brother to Brother. He was the voice of the Falcon in the animated Avengers (2012), and of the villain Ras Al Ghul in Beware the Batman (2013), as well as voicing Commander Zavala in the Destiny video game series, and Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) and Horizon Forbidden West (2022).

Along the way he finally got to be a rock star, playing a cop in the music video of Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s ’03 Bonnie & Clyde. In 2007 he released an album of his own music, Contemplations and Remembrances.

John Wick 4 has just been released, and he also leaves behind a store of work that has yet to be seen. Reddick will appear in a remake of White Men Can’t Jump; as Charon in a Wick spin-off, Ballerina; in the Shirley Chisholm biopic, Shirley, and as Capt Blakely in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He also voiced the ultimate authority figure, Zeus, in Percy Jackson and the Olympians for Disney+.

Reddick is survived by his second wife, Stephanie (nee Day), whom he married in 2011, and the two children, Yvonne and Christopher, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce.

🔔 Lance Solomon Reddick, actor, born 7 June 1962; died 17 March 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[film-classics]

Rosalind Russell - The Miracle Woman

Catherine Rosalind Russell (born in Waterbury, Connecticut on June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976) was an American actress known for playing sassy, wisecracking women in 1930s and '40s comedies. Despite going through postpartum depression, the deaths of her siblings, breast cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis, she thrived as a charismatic actress on film and the stage, earning the nickname "The Miracle Woman.”

Raised in a strict Irish-American, Catholic family. She attended  Rosemont College and Marymount College, before graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, unbeknownst to her parents who believed she was studying to be a speech teacher.

Against parental objections, she began her career as a fashion model and took acting jobs in upstate New York, Connecticut, and Boston before eventually appearing in Broadway.

In 1933, Russell went to Los Angeles, where she was hired as a contract player for Universal Studios but did not appear in a movie. Unhappy at Universal, she moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she broke through in the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday (1940), directed by Howard Hawks.

She took a break after giving birth from her career, but made a comeback with RKO Pictures and then with Columbia Pictures. She continued to appear in critically acclaimed movies and Broadway shows through the mid-1960s, including the title role of the long-running stage comedy Auntie Mame (based on a Patrick Dennis novel) as well as the 1958 film version.

After years of battling breast cancer and even getting a double mastectomy, she died at her home in Beverly Hills, California at 69 years of age. Months after her death, she was honored by her acting colleagues with the “Interlude With Rosalind Russell” at the Shubert Theater in Broadway.

Legacy:

Nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and Auntie Mame (1958)

Won all five of her Golden Globe Award for Best Actress nominations: Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), Auntie Mame (1958), A Majority of One (1961), and Gypsy (1962)

Won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Wonderful Town and was nominated for the 1957 for Best Actress in a Play for Auntie Mame

Nominated for the 1959 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress

Won the Golden Apple Award in 1942 for Most Cooperative Actress

Awarded the Look Magazine Award for Film Achievement Award in 1947

Covered Time magazine in 1953

Was the namesake of the Rosalind Russell State Theater in her hometown in 1955

Wrote the story for the film The Unguarded Moment (1956) and adapted the novel, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, into the screenplay for Mrs. Pollifax-Spy in 1971, under the pen name C.A. McKnight

Won the Laurel Awards for Top Female Comedy Performance for Auntie Mame (1958) and was nominated for five more

Presented with a medallion by the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1962

Honored for her distinguished service by the UCLA in 1964

Named the Woman of the Year by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, a student society at Harvard University, in 1964

Is the recipient of the Floyd B. Odlum Award by the Arthritis Foundation in 1971

Appointed by Congress to serve on the National Commission on Arthritis and Related Musculoskeletal Diseases during the 1970s

Received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1972

Awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1973 by the Academy for her extensive charity work

Presented her with the National Artist Award in 1974 by the American National Theater and Academy

Awarded the Life Achievement Award in 1975 by the Screen Actors Guild Awards

Hosted by First Lady Betty Ford at the White House in 1976

Honored with the Rosalind Russell Week in 1977 by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley

Co-authored her autobiography, Life Is a Banquet, in 1977

Is the namesake of the Rosalind Russell Medical Research Center for Arthritis  at the University of California, San Francisco, created by a Congress grant in 1979

Inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2005

Ranked #28 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006 for His Girl Friday (1940)

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for July 2008

Inducted in the Online Film and Television Association Film Hall of Fame in 2014

Was the subject of a 2016 exhibit at the Mattatuck Museum in her hometown

Honored by the Berlin Film Festival‘s 27-movie tribute in 2022

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1700 block of Vine Street for her contributions to the motion pictures