#I saw 1 clip and went on a whole tangent | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

indistinct-echo · 5 years ago

Text

my memory is shit but it’s better than stereo

1. Ghosts

a viewer suggested they make their topic “stereo 101″ so that viewers will chime in with helpful info since they’re new but phil was basically like no, ghosts

phil said that a painting that’s been hanging for years suddenly fell so it must be a ghost

he also told the same story that he’s mentioned previously about the woman at the end of the bed, having a guest sleep there and have the same experience, and the subsequent exorcism (there was a brief divergence into foot-fetish territory when rosie made a comment about the ghost specifically hanging out at the foot of the bed)

rosie is also onboard the ghost train / ghost boat (actual quote)

highlight was when a listener sent a clip about a ghost experience where they saw a 6-foot shiny-smooth bat in their room and both phil and rosie were uh... very into that person’s voice (phil called it smooth as the bat, I believe)

2. Animals

(this actually wasn’t all at once but i’m combining it into one topic)

part of the transition from ghosts to animals was when a listener said he had a dog that just stared at a wall the whole time, phil suggested that he check to see what’s behind the wall

tangent into if animals can be ghosts, phil seems to think yes but says they’d be more chill and just hang out as opposed to trying to get revenge on ex-boyfriends (does phil have a ghost ex that’s been giving him trouble?)

phil spoke about being afraid of horses, especially at night (I think?) and also seemed to project the horse fear onto rosie but she agreed horses are scary, said he once got to go see horses as a treat (??) given the previous foot convo, we got to hear the phrase “hoof-fetish”

phil was trying to express varying magnitudes of “goose-bump-ness” and in the end the three tiers ended up being: goose-bumps, swan-bumps, and ostrich-bumps (the last one was contributed by a listener and phil thought it was brilliant)

a listener requested they make the sound of a stressed cow. they did. i don’t quite remeber phil’s whole backstory but the cow in his story was very stressed. the moo was traumatic. rosie said it gave her goosebumps. rosie’s backstory was about a cow giving birth (she’s never given birth)

they spoke about how long various animals live (phil really doesn’t trust the ones super deep in the ocean) and phil spoke about the regenerating jellyfish. he said he’d want to live forever if he could (though he thinks the tech won’t be out until he’s like nintey).

parrots apparently live for ~70 years to which phil said that if he got one now it’d outlive him :( and they spoke about having to pass parrots down

out of the blue, rosie was like, ok but pigeons certainly cant live that long and you can hear the lightbulb going off in phil’s head bc he’s googled this and he starts to talk about his pet pigeon called steve (that’s definitely always steve and not just random pigeons), rosie is like “whoa whoa whoa” gotta explain that, she affirms that they have a really strong bond once phil mentioned that he took him to the vet. phil says that he eats from a bird feeder and not out of his hand and says that when it rains steve put his beak up against the glass and it’s really hard for phil not to let him in but he doesn’t want him to poo on the sofa (tangent into a rosie story about an accidentally-trapped pigeon getting poo all over her childhood home)

they transition into chameleon talk and a listener asks about creating a chameleon domino chain

phil was a big tomogatchi person (he calls himself the tomogotchi pro) and calls himself a cool kid

3. Embarrassing Moments

they are asked by a listener about their most embarrassing moments and they discuss how hard that is to come up with on the spot but obvs phil has plenty

he speaks about how once he was one a train from london to manchester and there were no seats, he was looking through the cars and eventually he found one next to a lady that was sleeping. he didn’t want to startle her so he sits down with a proper thump (so she knows he’s there) and is trying to give her space so he sits with one butt-cheek only. the woman then puts her hand on phil’s thigh and phil panics. rosie suggests the woman was faking but phil was like, no: worse; turns out her bf/partner/etc was in the bathroom near them and came out to find phil in his seat and the woman had thought it was her partner, a laugh is had at phil’s expense

rosie talks about how when she was making out with a guy in her exploring sexuality years (her words) she once was just in a bra and heard her bf’s mother(?) come home but she couldn’t find her shirt so she just covered herself completely in a blanket on the couch and was like “can you give us a minute?” and then instead of waiting for them to go sheepishly find her, the mother comes back in the room for 30 minutes and chats with them

a listener sent a voicenote saying they had an embarrassing moment when he was flirting with some guy (you could see phil’s avatar open it’s mouth like phil was almost going to jump in and be like ‘yay, another gay!’) at a karaoke bar and guyB said to guyA that he was going to sing “your song” and guyA was like awww you’re going to sing my song? and guyB went “no, ‘your song’ by elton john” whoops, rosie couldn’t immediately remember how it went so phil kind of sings it a bit for her (not his best work) and then she starts singing too

phil then talks about the ass tweet with the typo that he doesn’t remember typing so it was probably an ass tweet from his ass and it was funny bc everyone else was saying happy new year, but he just said ass. he laughs about how the tweet is still up

that’s pretty much all I can remember at this point! maybe my brain will plonk out some more memories later but here’s what I’ve got for now :)

#amazingphil #phil lester #stereo phil #phil and phriends

8 notes · View notes

migleefulmoments · 5 years ago

Note

The speculation that the tinhats have been tossing around the last couple of days (Darren ghost-writing music for big pop artists) is exactly how their new “facts” get added to their list. They spend a few days making up some BS and then later they will refer back to it as if it’s a proven fact.

Anonymous said: What is this new nonsense about Darren ghostwriting for Mariah Carey and others? What did I miss? Are they high?

Anonymous said: Oh Abby, when will the lies stop? You're making up bullshit about Darren ghostwriting songs now? Where did this come up from? Must have been from the drinks you and your friend had the other night. A drunken conversation of 'What if's and How about's' that will keep your little coven hanging on to your every word for weeks. You're a liar, Abby. You have mental issues. You need help. At least this is fairly harmless, I mean, you're not saying anything Anti-Mia, but still you're lying. Ugh.

Anonymous said: Did the tinhats seriously imply that maybe Darren wrote Taylor Swift’s “Out of the Woods” song? And then when someone pointed out that Taylor writes her own songs (including that one) they decided that Darren used the phrase “out of the woods” because he relates to that song. Sometimes I think they have reached the pinnacle of insanity and then they make these absurd reaches out of nowhere. They truly do believe that the entire world revolves around Darren.

Anonymous said: "I have always wondered how D got out of his record contract and this just might be an explanation." Ok I can't make sense of what the heck she's even trying to say in the rest of this post but Naya, Kevin and Amber were all dropped by their label (I think it was Columbia) because execs didn't expect their albums to make enough money. I suspect the same happened to Darren. I really doubt that there's anything more to it than that.

1. This IS EXACTLY HOW batshitcrazy cc lies get turned into facts. Roughedreconteur is nuts- their posts are always insane with tangents that nobody else would ever imagine. Abby used to disagree with them as they don’t seem to actually like Darren but lately, they are coming in with things that don’t offend her and she plays along, pretending that Rouged’s nutjob ideas are valid- it’s the US media pretending that when Trump makes a statement that is an outright lie it’s ok to repeat it likes it true or makes sense instead of calling him out. This time Abby really got swept up in the idea that Darren said on his Text message that he was almost “out of the woods”. Those of us who live in reality know that “out of the woods” is a commonly used saying that many people use to contact they are almost done with the worst of it- whether that is an illness “Dr, is he out of the woods yet?” or work-related projects like Darren did or just like what Trump thinks is happening now that McConnell already said he was “lock-step with Trump” because he doesn’t understand that he has already been impeached and that won’t go away, ever or literally you are coming home from a hike and you almost “out of the woods"ba-dum-pa. It wasn’t a reference to Taylor Swift’s song. Taylor does actually write her music, she started out as a writer when she was 15. Ironically, one of the tinhatters mentioned that Darren went to a Taylor Swift concert and her mom hugged him- that may have happened but I know for sure he went to a T.Swift concert and Taylor was walking down the aisle from her outer stage back to mainstage and she saw him and hugged him and I know this becuase I was there. This is the sum total of the evidence they going on to arrive at “Darren wrote ‘Out Of The Woods” and was referencing it.

2. One only needs to spend 4 min with Wikipedia to realize that Taylor and Jack Antanoff wrote the damn song- not Darren Criss.

3 Taylor’s Label was Big Machine Record, not Columbia

4. I am also pretty sure that Columbia dropped Darren’s album because they believed it wasn’t commercially viable. Record labels don’t care if the singers like their albums. Lots of people have had music they didn’t like released anyway. Record labels are out to make money and they will do whatever they can to recoup expenses they spent on making the album but putting out a nonviable album is even more expensive and sometimes they cut their loses. Darren certainly didn’t have the power to shelf his own album or to cut some drug deal with the company to ghostwrite to what? Pay them back for the expense or to Ghostwrite until he’s paid off some arbitrary debt? But as you pointed out- the Taylor and Mariah weren’t on Columbia when Darren was (Mariah was at some point)

5. As for how they got to Mariah Carey- Darren sang Mariah Carey on Lip Sync Battle and “he has no known connection to her” and according to Abby and Rouged, people always sing songs connected to them (I don’t watch it much but I’m pretty sure that isn’t true). It looks to me like Darren was slotted into a show that was clearly just a Mariah tribute. I suspect it had to do with timing and nothing more. Lots of people battle someone they are connected to but that isn’t a requirement. Rouged claimed the star he battled was LA Reid (It was Jermaine Dupri). Jermaine co-wrote and produced many of Mariah's biggest hits although Heartbreaker written by Mariah and Jay-Z and produced by DJ Clue. Rouged argued that LA Reid is connected to Mariah Carey (he was- he was her label head for many years). When someone pointed out that it was Jermaine, not LA Reid, Rouged’s excuse was she can’t tell the difference between LA Reid (who is 63 years old), Jermaine Dupri (who is quite short and 47 years old), and P Diddy (who is 50). Dude, those 3 men look nothing alike.

6. Nobody even mentioned Rouged’s nonsense about how Ryan Murphy wanted to get song rights quickly so he had the cast themselves work their magic to obtain those rights WTAF? I am quite sure that the process for obtaining rights was something the legal department did and it wasn’t like Ryan called up the singer and asked- it would have been something official done through their representatives. Clearly, Chris Martin said “no” so we know they had input but it still wasn’t Ryan called Chris and Chris said “no” but later he said “yes” and that was that- no legal papers were signed.

7. Abby claims there us a “Mia figure’ in Royalties, not sure what the hell that means

8. Abby and Flowers are trying to make Mariah’s butterfly thing and Chris’s Butterfly IGs into something so Abby claimed Chris posted a pic of himself in front of the butterfly mural “before the battle”. Well, yes he did...it’s dated August 2018 which is before Darren’s Jan 24, 2019, Lip Syn Battle...on that, she isn’t wrong LOL.

This is honestly one of the most harebrained theories I’ve read to date as it relies entirely on multiple things that aren’t even real

The actual posts under a cut because they are looong

rougedraconteur asked: Whenever something really strange happens like the “cough hacking “cough” of an ENTIRE site to the point of shutting it down, that has had only minimal action from a questionable enterprise that has failed in most ways and has had at least one party sending desperate signals and the other acting like they had cut them off already, that means something, but probably not exactly what it looks like on its face. I think D’s response, saying HE, not WE, is “almost out of the woods,” is telling.

ajw720 answered: Look at that song again. Look how specific some of it is. Lying on your couch. The feel of your necklace around my neck. You put on the brakes too soon, 20 stitches in a hospital room. All the wolves, the ice and snow of being frozen out, attacked by the enchanted forest itself and caught by vines just when you had almost made it to the ocean. You get there, and find…yourself. Or just someone like you? The mirror image, what that journey made you into, or something else, more real?

So, I think it is possible that “Royalties” may spoof some very famous “songwriters.” That IS the premise, and D has set him and an M type “just ugh” up as a “songwriting team.” One that is, in THAT clip, not so great, and in fact terrible. But, D is in deep with the professional songwriters guild. THAT, is fact. But why, exactly? Is he “ghostwriting” for someone famous for writing ALL their own songs? Mariah just got into their Hall of Fame, gossip is she wrote nothing much, all ghosted.

So, Royalties? Will it make fun of that type power pop star? Will they be credited, or “ghosted” so the star gets all or most of the credit? Mariah is not the only power pop star D has been associated with, in strange but oddly significant ways. It is very telling that most celebs on Lip Sync Battle compete against a former co-star, “significant other,” or old pal. Not D, and that meant something. L.A. Reid has a long connection with Mariah. To the public, D has no connection with either.

So, when you do a Mariah tribute on a show as kitschy popular with superfans of celebs as Lip Synch Battle, you would OF COURSE pick L.A. Reid, who is a power producer of more than a little questionable reputation and no real entertainer on his own, really, but well connected as her long-time producer/rumored former lover/long time cheerleader and friend. And D. Who is WHAT to them both, exactly? That whole thing NEVER made sense, except that D BECAME Mariah, and stole that show. Hmmmm…

Who else does D know that is a huge star that writes their own songs? In fact, is known for that, even critically praised, well above her singing abilities? Tay/lor. He was at one of her concerts, and was greeted in the crowd by her mom. He has been behind her in another venue, they have crossed paths. At this point, she has certainly been managed, or managed herself, much better than Bieber, her male counterpart. IF she has ghostwriters, they would be well-hidden and tightly secured.

**************************************************

Hello @rougedraconteur. Cough, cough, hack indeed. I will never believe some random person went and deleted posts and blocked people from a band’s SM that most people have never heard of. In my opinion, inside job, meant to send a direct message, which to us is unclear, but the recipient received it, of that i have no question (I have wondered if D has tried to withhold the new EP, nothing else much makes sense especially in light of his brother seemingly struggling to pay the bills).

Really interesting on the song reference in the tweet “once I’m out of the woods”, I have never heard that song, but wow, how close is this to what i perceive as reality? This could BE D and now that i understand the reference, just like i think he wrote the tweets from NYE when he said “and here we are now, I made it, we made it. I’ve been looking forward to to this for a long time…the Soaring Twenties…seeing clearly in 2020”, I am starting to lean he wrote these tweets that indicated he was “tending to some other obligations” (which include a fake wedding, endless promotion for Swiller, Fashion Shows, Family Honeymoon in the Philippines, TB commercials and other endless adds, and promoting SK). Far too smart for the Jumping Jackass or PBB. And well, in combination, an interesting series of tweets.

For those other who don’t know the song:

Looking at it now It all seems so simple We were lying on your couch I remember You took a Polaroid of us Then discovered (then discovered) The rest of the world was black and white But we were in screaming color And I remember thinking

Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? In the clear yet, good

Are we out of the woods

Looking at it now Last December (last December) We were built to fall apart Then fall back together (back together) Ooh your necklace hanging from my neck The night we couldn’t quite forget When we decided (we decided) to move the furniture so we could dance Baby, like we stood a chance Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying And I remember thinking

Are we out of the woods?

Remember when you hit the brakes too soon Twenty stitches in a hospital room When you started crying baby, I did too But when the sun came up I was looking at you Remember when we couldn’t take the heat I walked out, I said, I’m setting you free But the monsters turned out to be just trees When the sun came up you were looking at me

You were looking at me

Oh! You were looking at me

Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? (I remember) Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? (Oh, I remember)Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? Are we in the clear yet? In the clear yet, good

Dare I hope that perhaps D is really optimistic about the year ahead? Because add in the HW stuff (on 2 most anticipated queer shows of 2020 lists, the reference to SB being leaked, what we know about the other characters, what we don’t know about Raymond, and the otherwise silence about the show), things are, shall we say, interesting.

On R/oyalties, a/k/a the show that is used to pay out every user/leach in his life (SK, RR, PBB, Algorithm Winners, etc), my understanding, and it is limited, is that they are in fact writing songs for popular, mainstream artists. Unclear if they are named songwriters or if they will be “ghosting” for people and based on the fact that the first artist is played by CT, I would venture to guess that they talent isn’t that amazing, so yes in many ways, making fun of the talent and pointing out that behind most of these mainstream acts are writers we never know or see.

On D himself ghosting, quite possible right? It could explain a lot. Including, if he bought it, being pushed to buy a $3 million home for his beard (which could possible be an agreed upon pay out). I have always wondered how D got out of his record contract and this just might be an explanation. Perhaps he agreed that instead of releasing his own music that was not authentically him, he agreed to write music for other artists that may or may not include the above reference individuals? No question, his spot on Lip Sync Battle was odd if there is no association to MC and yes, she has a clear and obvious connection to to L.A. This is no question, something to think about and ponder. He is an incredibly talented songwriter who, to date, has not released, that we are aware of, a ton of material. It would make sense if he is writing for others and I would guess ghosting would pay well. You definitely made me think.

mmack062. 1Just a quick correction, it was Jermaine Dupri (Janet Jackson’s former fiance) not LA Reid on LSB with D.

ajw720 Thanks @mmack0621!

flowersintheattic254 Only 2 things spring to mind here. 1. Was the run of butterfly posts from C prior to and after D’s lipsynch performance so maybe he has ghost written for MK and 2. Once ‘he’s out of the woods’. It may be a reference to a TS song, but considering the location for the sham was in the woods I would like to hope he’s near to escaping and out of the woods soon 😉.

ajw720 @flowersintheattic254 perhaps a double meaning then?

C posted this before the battle.

rougedraconteur. I like this, and I like Tay/lor, although that is a recent development, on my part, but I think she is coming more into her own with more near total control over HER mammoth “overnight” breakout career than she ever had before. Remind you of somebody? Getting there, anyway. And yeah, some folks have to write under another name, for various reasons.

Butterfly IS a Mari/ah Car/ey Trademark, but it is for Tay, too. She posted a giant butterfly on a wall in Nashville with her most recent album. Not saying we are right, in either case or with the connections, but I believe you should look at everything and how it might connect, as a possible piece of this puzzle. Mar/iah was recently inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame, as a recent piece of gossip I saw stated, though she was unqualified for it. Ghostwriters who CAN’T be revealed because the celeb and management won’t allow it, as detremental to the Big Star who is a MoneyMaker.

Can anyone verify that D’s old roomie Je/ff Jerni/gan, who went with D to Ka/tyPer/ry’s western bday party, around 2012 or 2013 maybe, during THOSE years, was with ASCAP in some “official” capacity, and that his sister worked in a big-sounding job with F/ox At that time? Connections. I know JJ has moved on now, but D has always been involved with ASCAP and recognized as a SONGWRITER, even by Gl/ee and RIB, and hung around with other songwriters and big pop stars kind of above his pay grade at the time, if you get my drift.

Think of the swiftie songs both D AND C have sung or lipsynced to in their online posts. They connect to at least some of her stuff in SOME way. And that’s a fact.

ajw720 Just adding a few significant facts. The Human EP was released on my birthday in 2010 (July 20) a few months prior to rocketing to stardom, seemingly giving him an even bigger platform to have his music heard. Since that time, D has released very few original songs (almost 10 years) even though we know he was signed to a record deal with Columbia for several years and he has told us that he wrote and recorded many songs for an eventual album that was never released. He even spent an entire summer in the UK writing songs with people like B/runo M/ars. And Columbia funded a summer tour to test his songs and popularity. A tour that sold out. So what has D released?

1 Solo EP with 4 original songs, one of which he claimed was written many years ago when he 1st performed it (untrue written during LU) and 1 of which he has given his brother credit for writing the chorus.

1 EP with his brother with 4 original songs, which he claims were mainly written by his brother

1 SK show back in 2011

2 original songs performed on G/lee

And 4 or 5 songs for the LU tour, none of which were released (I don’t count IDM as that wasn’t specifically written for the tour and only performed once). And ONE of those songs was “ghostwritten” by wa/tsky (either Pheromones or PPG)

The songs he wrote for R/oyalties yet to be released

In 10 years, he has released FOUR solo tunes, FOUR, despite being signed to a huge contract. FOUR, on an indy label. And I believe he only released them because he was forced by contract as he owed it to the Jumping Jackass (hence the name H/omework, a chore that has to be done). And a total of, not including R/oyalties, maybe 30 including a musical for his theater group that was performed 9 years ago. Where has all his music gone? Now, I am certain he is holding back on solo tunes because he does not want them associated with PBB. But still, it is a least worth questioning.

10 notes · View notes

hexalene · 7 years ago

Note

So i uh. Was scrolling through, and found the florist stories? And was wondering if there were any more? Cause they're great, and i love them.

There are always more, my dear anon (・ω・)ノ

So this story is about three particular interactions I had with one of the regular shoppers at our store! I want to clarify that these three interactions weren’t sequential, but over the course of about eight months, which will hopefully make sense by the end :)

—

A tiny old lady comes up to me and asks if any of the plants we have are good for coughs, like natural cough drops?

Well, as far as I knew, no. But! We did have tea, locally produced honey, and ginger root. As I’m walking her over to the shelf, I notice she’s not looking me in the eye, but at my hair.

My hair is fairly long, and dyed bright ass purple. I love it. Most older people do not. So I keep talking, hoping to get through this interaction without a lecture about jobstobbers.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Tea, ginger, and honey in hand, this tiny old lady smiles and thanks me, and says,

“But sweetheart, whatever did your poor mother say when she saw what you did to your lovely hair?”

Truthfully, I respond: “She started buying me purple clothes that match the color of my hair.”

—

Around thanksgiving, we’re looking for fresh basil to season her tomato soup with.

About this time, she’s gotten used to my dyed hair, sort of (we’ve had many many many conversations about “my poor mother” who she genuinely cannot believe likes my hair).

“But don’t you worry what the boys your age must think of you?”

I’m holding two potted basil in my hands, and we’d just been talking about how this plant will keep growing if she cares for it, which she was very excited about. This foray back into The State Of My Hair is a little out of nowhere, although I could tell she was distressed over the new pink tips that had faded in.

My first impulse is to tell her that the girls I’m into have way crazier hair than me, but while she’s never said anything homophobic, I wasn’t up to that battle. Besides, I do like this woman. “Well, ma’am, I don’t think I’d want to date someone who couldn’t love me over something as shallow as my hair color…”

That seems to give her some thought, because she nods. She also sighs and says, “Jennifer wants to color her hair.”

Jennifer is her eleven year old great-granddaughter. Jennifer has also recently discovered the pop-punk scene and thinks I am some sort of pop-punk god. This is an adorable misconception that I AM going to go on a tangent about, so buckle up:

—

Jennifer usually accompanies her great grandma to the grocery store, so we’ve met a few times. This time, I’m wearing a Panic! At The Disco shirt, and we get to chatting about Fall Out Boy, when I happen to mention going to see them in concert back in 2007.

Jennifer’s eyes go HUGE and she whispers, “You got to see them in concert in 2007?? I wasn’t even alive back then!”

…the story ends here because I promptly crumbled into ash and died, leaving my florist station unmanned, my shop abandoned, and my youth draining into the gutters with the fragile remains of my ego.

“I wasn’t even alive back then!” Christ I’m getting old. This is only going to get worse as I get older too, god I remember when you could only watch anime by pirating it off of old VHS tapes and all of the cool anime merch had to be bought in a shady ass adult video store with curtains separating the kids from the dildos. My mom came in with me exactly once, and saw Inuyasha playing in shitty quality on a tiny TV and would you BE-LIEVE it had to be one of those bathing scenes. Took me years of swearing up and down that anime wasn’t synonymous with porn before she would let me buy Spirited Away on DVD, much less deign to watch—

Wait, too much tangent, back to grandma.

—

Jennifer is tip-toeing around Granny’s conservative sensibilities by gingerly applying small streaks of chalk color to her hair. Easing grandma into the idea of colored hair. I suspect I’m also being used to desensitize granny somewhat, as I’m CLEARLY employable, healthy, and sane. It’s a process.

At this moment, Jennifer is sporting one (1) streak of pink in her bangs. So rebellious. I tell them honestly that I think it looks cute, and besides, the schools around here allow it now, so it can’t be that bad, right?

Grandma purses her lips, and takes the basil plants from my hands. “Well, I suppose this chalk stuff is okay, since it washes out. But could you imagine such a thing on a woman my age?”

“Hey, why not?” I tell her. “You’ve got pure white hair so it would take the color really well, you’re married, you’ve got two generations of grandkids…why not have some fun?”

She looks absolutely gobsmacked. “Me! With colored hair! Oh, that’s ridiculous, dear.”

—

You can probably guess where this is heading.

As much as I would LOVE to say that this nice grandma went whole hog and dyed her hair bright neon pink or something, this customer isn’t that wild lmao.

Instead, around last Christmas, this happened:

The poinsettias are in, which is both blessing and curse. They come in a MASSIVE variety of boxes, with traditional poinsettia arrangements and the endless string of strange novelty poinsettia ornament vases. They’re TINY, half of them are BROKEN, and the Christmas trees will be arriving in like, ten minutes, and the early birds and prudent customers are all swarming us like VULTURES.

Among these vultures is grandma, Jennifer, and Jennifer’s father (?). They catch my eye, and break out of the kettle to speak to me. I’ve never met the man, but he just stands there on his phone looking vaguely annoyed, so for our purposes, he’s not there.

Jennifer points to her grandma’s head and whispers, “Look!”

Two locks—barely a fourth of an inch each—have been colored red and green. A strand between them is still white. All three have been tied into a red, white, and green braid. The braid is carefully clipped into a bun with a tiny gold icon of the manger scene.

As I’m gasping and congratulating grandma for her rebellion, she’s giggling with excitement and tells me, “I made sure to talk to Father Ben about it first, and he promised me that the Lord would see this as a lovely way to celebrate His son’s birth.”

She paused, then said, “It’s temporary, of course.”

“Oh, of course.” I tell her. “You can’t go too crazy right out the gate.”

And she nods, “Exactly. That’s what I told Jennifer. You know, I’ve never done anything like this in my life? Can you believe that? My husband was so surprised!”

(Last I heard, grandma has not dyed her hair again, although she is still very very proud of herself for doing so. I haven’t seen her lately, but I’m hoping she comes around this Christmas with more dyed braids)

#anecdotes #florist stories #asks!

796 notes · View notes

hcafilm · 4 years ago

Text

SILVER ARTS AWARD

Silver Arts Award Unit 1 Part A: Identify and plan an arts challenge

What art forms are you interested in/do you like? I am in interested in both literature and the dramatic arts. I enjoy reading poetry, such as that of Wordsworth and Ovid. At an Oxford lecture, I was told that Wordsworth’s The Prelude can be regarded as antechamber and the rest of the work like a church. That amazed me, as I did not know beforehand that a poem could be as well structured as a play (e.g. Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author).

What arts/creative skills do you already have or feel confident in? I studied English literature at A-level and used to take acting classes at YATI. Thus, I feel most confident in acting and writing, rather than painting or sculpting. I have looked into pursuing an English Literature degree at a Russell Group university and the future and so something involved with writing or acting out a script might interest me best.

What arts/creative skills would you like to develop or try out? I would like to work on directing. While at YATI, I attended a film-making course, which I very much enjoyed. However, the course was only temporary and I was disappointed when it ended. I feel it would be beneficial for me to boost my leadership and teamwork qualities, so perhaps another acting or film-making course which involved me taking more of an active role now that I am older would be good.

Do you have any ideas for possible challenges you could set yourself? You could discuss this with your adviser and record notes here. I am very enthusiastic but I am not used to leadership experiences. I think it would be good for me have a go at giving whichever group I am working in some good ideas. It would also be useful for me to learn how to better deal with criticism. I feel I respond appropriately to criticism, but there is always room for improvement.

Your challenge

I will be extending an arts skill I already have (film-making).

Describe your arts challenge here: It is a film-making project with the Holborn Community Association (HCA) and it involves a group of young people making a film about transportation in London. The project is done in association with the London Transport Museum and will get the opportunity to visit their depot in Acton, which is normally open to the public only three times a year. Once complete, we will have the opportunity to screen our film at a local festival.

Why have you chosen this as your arts challenge? I am already familiar with the HCA, as my mother works there and I know one of the people who is running this course (Chloe). As well as developing my film-making further, I also want to make new friends, who may have similar interests to me, as they will likely also have ‘creative’ personalities.

What will the outcome of your challenge be? (E.g. an end product, a performance, a demonstration?) The outcome of my challenge will be a finished product which has been edited and made ready to present to an audience. Our on-screen performances will be shown to an audience. A previous film this group did in 2019 was a protest piece in support of Black Lives Matter. Perhaps our piece will incorporate similar themes but explore them in relation to public transport.

Arts challenge plan

What steps will you have to take to achieve your challenge? I am planning to document my progress using an online blog and I am planning to do extensive related to transport in London. I also plan to visit other relevant locations and to try and include some form of transport memorabilia in our film. I will also research other things that will help our group, such as relevant music and how transport relates to the lives of Cockneys or other old-fashioned Londoners, something I take interest in.

Who or what will you need to help you? (E.g. other people, materials, resources) I will need a film camera, editing software, a large sheet of A4 on which to plan with my group and a Google Docs document with which we can keep a diary of all our ideas and chart our progress for our Arts Award. I will need the help of the transport museum organiser who is helping us, as well as Jack (a filmmaker) and Chloe (HCA) who are involved in our project. In terms of resources, I will need to look up relevant online information. I will also need to take accounts given to be me by older members of my community in the Clerkenwell area, as well as those in adjacent working-class areas like Shoreditch, Southwark and King’s Cross.

How will you arrange this? I will write an action plan which has mini-goals for my own personal research for the project, as well as goals relevant to the overall group project and also an overall target. I will also include a schedule for each day, although that will be subject to change based on the wishes of the group. I will write a schedule for myself in my own time to make sure I meet all the requirements of my Arts Award and keep track of my development as it progresses.

What targets will you set to achieve throughout your challenge and how will you show you are working towards them? Firstly, I will aim to have a movie idea which is ready to put into action and which our whole group likes and agrees upon. I will write a brief summary of this idea in this Silver Arts Award Booklet. Then I will aim with my group to put this idea into practise immediately. I will document the early stages of our filmmaking process to show this and I will write a list of the various film techniques (whether related to camerawork, plot, structuring, style, script or acting) and provide links or footnotes to the websites or books in which we found them. I will continue to chart the filmmaking process in my booklet and how our ideas changed along the way. I also aim to have a finished film, which I will show in my booklet and I aim to show this cohesive, well-structured film to an audience and will document this by writing a brief summary/memo/’manifesto’ of what the film will entail and why (and if there is a political message behind or not, and if not, the reasons why). Essentially I will detail the reasons for everything in the book and I will collect audience feedback to put on the blog I have created. The blog will be updated weekly, as well as at the end. I will make important signposts in the blog (at the beginning, halfway through and end of the project) so that a clear structure can be seen and my progress can be noted. I will use relevant images, as well as reels/clips from the film which show my developing film knowledge and teamwork.

How will you collect feedback about your arts challenge? I will collect feedback by asking the mentors and those associated with TFL what they think of our project and if it relates directly to the theme of transport. This is necessary to ensure I do not go on a tangent, as before starting this project, I was unfamiliar with the ins-and-outs of the London transport service. I will also talk to people who work for TFL to see what they think of the direction I am going in and see if they think I am being faithful to the work they do and their daily lives. Also, I am going to collect audience feedback after the screening of the film. I hope to have the opportunity to screen the early drafts of the film prior to the private screening we do for our parents, as I want to see what people and think and how I can improve. I will take notes and then write a new plan using these notes of what to do to improve my film in all aspects (e.g. camerawork, acting, dialogue, editing, scenery, colours). I will ask for specific subject-related/arts-related feedback (e.g. symbolism).

Silver Arts Award Unit 1 Part B: deliver your arts challenge

Write your arts challenge here: My arts challenge is to make a well-edited, finalised and polished film related to the theme of Transport to be screened in front of an audience of people. I need to make this film with a group of other young people and respect their ideas. I am doing it for the Holborn Community Association (HCA) in conjunction with TFL.

SIlver Arts Award Unit 1 Part C: review arts events

Where did you go? I went to two places. The first place I went to was the London transport museum in Covent Garden. Here I went on a tour of the museum in which I learnt about its history. I also went to the London Transport Museum’s Depot in Acton, which expanded on what we learnt in the Covent Garden Museum in terms of the different vehicles and designs present in its history and the characters who drove these buses, but also gave us new insight into what goes on with the Museum behind the scenes.

What did you see/do? At both events I saw old London buses, as well as trains, trams and even carriages (horse-drawn and electric) from times gone by. I asked questions about interesting people such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and collated information on him from the LTN. In Acton, we learnt about the first black female bus driver and how groundbreaking this was. We also learnt that women could not drive underground trains until 1973, which shocked female members of our group.

When did you/go? I went in late June to both places and am continuing to visit them for filming work throughout early July. I went on a Saturday several times and will continue to do so until shooting stage in Holborn House later in July, which will be during the week.

What happened at the arts event? We made films using the vehicles. We filmed in train carriages and made use of the sliding door of the carriage, as that created a spooky transition between shots which looked villainous and ominous in the dark carriage and was inspired by the short horror films Jack and Chloe showed us. We also planned our films around transport and we came up with a movie based on a time-travelling train.

Describe which art forms were involved Film-making was involved and we were artistically inspired by the way museum was laid out, as it felt like the interesting objects were each leading on to the next one, thus pulling us through the chronologically ordered museum. We used film-making and saw the design art form used in curating the museum, as well as the Moquette of TFL (textile design). We also saw the graphic design on old TFL maps, which inspired us in making our movie poster.

Have you seen or done something like this before? What was similar to things you’ve seen or done in the past? I have previously been on a filmmaking course and this was similar, as we took inspiration from short films and learnt about plot and different types of shot. We also went on a tour of the museum of london transport, which is like the museum of london (which I have been to) in the sense that it uses the ordinary people of London to evoke a strong, living sense of London history.

Was there anything unexpected about what you saw/experienced? Yes, I was surprised by how beautiful the designs of the various TFL signs (and map booklets) were and how much thought, creativity and love went into making them. I was also surprised by the various types of seats used in the trains, as not only would they be aesthetically pleasing for a film shot, but they were also designed to look beautiful and to provide comfort for passengers, perfected over decades (their design changed very music).

What did you think was good and why? I think the tour by TFL was good, as it let me understand the design aspects better and how they related to the history of London and TFL, which I would not have been able to work out on my own, as previously I had no idea about design or how something could connect so deeply to the people of London and they transport they used. The tour of both places was interesting and brought the old vehicles to life and made me imagine the sort of people who went on them.

Is there anything about the arts event you didn’t like ? Why? I did not like that we did not get to link the design of the TFL logo, seats etc. more to how our films looked, as the design of these logos and vehicles was and is so beautiful that it would be a shame not to include these obvious sources of inspiration in our film-making process.

What have you learnt from this arts event? I have learnt that one must not forget the role of transport in making a city work. Transport functions beneath the surface (sometimes quite literally) and so those who use it can take it and maybe even its staff for granted, when in fact it has played a vital role in expanding London and creating the modern culture of our city.

What thoughts or ideas will you take away with you? I will take away with me the thought that transport can serve my local area and various modes of transport in all forms are highly beneficial to London. I will think of how hard the TFL staff work, as well those creative figures who worked on making the logos which are almost equally important in the transport service.

How will you share your review with other people, and how will you evidence this? I will include photos of the transport which I have taken and I will get feedback from other members of my group, as well as our advisors and the museum staff and I will upload all I have written, filmed and photographed etc. online on a blog run by the HCA and used by our group.

SIlver Arts Award Unit 2 Part A: your project & leadership role

What qualities do you think a good leader needs to have? A good leader needs to be able to direct the group they are working in. Such a leader needs to able to be confident and bold at decision-making, but also should not speak over others constantly, as other members of the group may have valuable ideas. A good leader should make all members feel included and everyone should feel listened, but a leader must also make sure that all members of a group know what their roles are and that they are doing what is required (and that they know what the task is).

What leadership skills would you like to develop in your arts leadership project? I would like to be more confident in interacting with others. I want to focus on making my group work as a cohesive team. I want the team members to have a supportive relationship and for us to benefit each other with the work we do. I want to ensure my group has an overall aim for the film once the conceptualisation stage is over, rather than us all having vastly different interests, which could lead to conflict. I want our group to function as one entity and I want to have a hands-on approach in ensuring this.

Describe your arts leadership project. What are you going to do? What will the overall aims and outcome be? My leadership project is social media and marketing. That category has been essentially split in two and another group member will focus more on the technical side of this category, whereas I will focus on the marketing aspect, although this still bears relevance to social media. We have set up our own film company for making this film and I will aim to promote our social media account. I have some past experience in marketing, as I previously had an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook account which I used to promote my rap music. In this, I paid attention to viewer analytics and made sure to target a specific demographic (18-25 year olds from the UK who were fans of Grime music) and I will use these skills in the future to try and get the right target audience. I will talk to people on the street (thus developing my people skills) and target a specifically young demographic, as they will not be that much older than us. My aim will be to get as wide an audience as possible when our film is screened at a festival and I hope the outcome will be that we receive the response that our film really connects with this audience and that they feel they can relate well to it.

What resources will you need? Are there any health & safety considerations? I will need access to social media and a large sheet of paper to do a mind map on marketing on. I will also need an Excel spreadsheet and Microsoft Word. I will need sufficient time, but not much else.

Health and safety considerations are that audience members must be covid-tested and also we must make space for wheelchair users. We must also accomodate people who require dogs, such as blind people or people who have anxiety dogs, as the animals would need enough space to sit down and have somewhere where they would not bark and interrupt our film.

What will your leadership role be? What will you be responsible for doing? My role will be to market our film. I will be responsible for ensuring our film is as popular as possible and that it appears professional, but not overproduced: I want to present our film in a way that will appeal to the audience (as emotional appeals are successful in marketing) and that it will appeal to as wide a range of people as possible.

How will this develop my leadership skills? It will give me a deeper level of understanding in a field where I would like to develop my skills further. Thus, I will be able to deal with potentially stressful situations and long working hours and I will be able to direct other members of my group and be able to contact them in a businesslike fashion about their ideas and how I can market them.

Will you be working with other people? What will they be doing? How does your role relate to the roles of others? I will be working with my teammates, who will be more focused on the actual concept of the film. I will get their feedback on how effective my marketing is and I will try and also get them to make their ideas as marketable as possible to an audience. I will also be working with someone on the social media aspect of the project and I will make sure my marketing of our film and company will be relevant to his social media account and what it reflects about our film.

0 notes

rebeccahpedersen · 7 years ago

Text

Signed, Sealed, &…………..Then What?

TorontoRealtyBlog

Delivered, right? That’s how the saying (and the song…) goes?

But what if that which is signed, and that which is sealed, is not delivered? Then what?

Believe it or not, this is a question that’s raised from time to time in real estate, and it always presents a challenge…

Have you watched “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” yet?

I had high hopes for it.

Through one episode, however, I’m a little disappointed.

I heard great things about “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” although I haven’t watched it yet. I know the whole world loves streaming, but there’s something so unsatisfying about hooking up my laptop to the TV with an HDMI. I’m old-school; I like the remote in my hand. I like to be able to pause, stop, rewind, all without having to get up off the couch, lean over the laptop, and constantly close pop-up browsers with ads for Russian brides…

So, yeah. Until the O.J. series hits Netflix, or Rogers on Demand, I’ll just have to listen to other people talk about it.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace was a bit underwhelming.

It was slow, there was too much character development, and it really just didn’t strike a chord with me.

One scene, however, did.

Although it wasn’t because I liked the show, or what was happening in the scene, but rather because it gave me an idea for a blog post.

I never know where my ideas will come from. After ten years, 2,200+ posts, and a thorough examination of just about every topic you can think of, it’s not like I have a laundry list of topics, ready to be written.

So when I get an idea, I go with it.

And that first episode of The Assassination was so boring that I told my wife “….I’m still listening,” and sat down to write a blog.

The scene in question was after Versace was murdered, and his sister, Donatella, was sitting at a table with a group of lawyers and other figure-heads in the family business.

In front of them were folders of signed paperwork, which Versace had signed “a week earlier,” in Donatella’s words, with the intention of taking the company public.

Even though those documents were signed, and even though Gianni Versace had signed them with the intent on submitting them, the deal never moved forward. Signed documents, and intent, are nothing without follow-through.

And it made me think of a recent experience I had selling a condo, as well as a great “urban legend” real estate story that I’ve probably told on this blog several times. Why don’t we start with that…

For those of you who have submitted an unsuccessful offer on a property, in a competitive situation, you property didn’t find out what the property sold for until the next morning.

Maybe, just maybe, your agent sent you a text message before you went to bed, with the price. It happens from time to time.

But more often than not, the listing agent will wait until the next morning.

Why?

This urban legend, of course…

About ten years ago, an agent in my office had a property listed, and there were a dozen offers presented on the “offer night.”

The twelve buyer agents came through and presented, one-by-one, to the listing agent and the sellers, and while I can’t recall the exact details about whether or not there were multiple rounds of bidding, or how many offers were sent back for improvement, let’s just say that eventually, there was a winner.

The listing agent told the buyer agent with the highest offer that his offer would be accepted, and to sit tight, while they signed everything up.

The listing agent then told the other eleven buyer agents something to the effect of, “Thanks for your offer, but we’re going with another.”

One of the buyer agents who lost, approached the listing agent and said, “So it’s done then? Over?” to which the listing agent replied, “Indeed. Thanks for your offer, but we’re going with somebody else.”

The buyer agent nodded, and said, “Okay, alright then. So what did it go for?”

The listing agent, unaware that he was about to be the poster child for “why agents don’t give out the sale price until the next morning,” turned to the buyer agent and said, “$870,000.”

The buyer agent nodded, and then left. But he didn’t go far.

The listing agent, back in the conference room with his clients, put the Agreement of Purchase & Sale in front of them, and they signed. He had them sign two copies, and was just about to neatly paper-clip them together, when suddenly the door to the conference room swung open, and it was the buyer agent.

“Eight-hundred-eighty thousand,” he said, as he proudly slammed a revised copy of his offer down on the table.

It seems that after being told the “accepted” offer was $870,000, the buyer agent wasn’t willing to accept that the offer was signed, sealed, and delivered, as the phrase goes. So he went outside to his car, where his buyer-clients were waiting, told them to put a new price and a set of initials on the offer, and then came back inside the building (this was before we had locks on the front doors), made his way up to the conference room, and threw the whole system out of whack.

Having told this story before on my blog, you might recall where this is going.

The listing agent said, “The papers are signed, and we’ve already told the other agent his offer is being accepted. This is over.”

But the sellers, looking at another $10,000 for their home, spoke up and said, “Not yet, it’s not.”

Yes, the listing agent had already verbally communicated acceptance to the buyer agent who had submitted the “winning” bid of $870,000.

Yes, the sellers had already signed two copies of the Agreement of Purchase & Sale, confirming the acceptance.

But the offer had yet to be delivered to the buyer agent. So while it was signed, and there was intent, there was no legally-binding deal just yet.

I honestly can’t recall how this story ended. Perhaps the listing agent offered the original “winning” buyer-agent an opportunity to match. Perhaps he threw that other agent out the window. I don’t remember. But the point is that a deal is never done until all parties are holding copies of the completed, accepted, and executed agreement.

Last week, I submitted an offer on a condo for my buyer-clients, and even though it was in the $1.6 Million range, of course we ended up in competition!

The property was on the market for one day! Just our luck, right?

I could delve into another lesson per se, this time about how being professional, courteous, and respectful when dealing with fellow agents, can go a long way to getting you a deal. But then I’ll run off on one of my patented tangents, and we’ll be here all night.

Let’s just say that the listing agent and I got along swimmingly, and she was not a fan of the agent competing with me.

But like him or not, she still had to work in the best interests of her seller, and get the most money for the property.

When she reviewed the two offers, mine was lower. But as I said, we got along. And thus she asked me to simply match the other offer, and we’d have a deal.

She was honest with me – she said she gave the other agent every opportunity to better his offer. My offer was unconditional, his was not. He refused to remove the condition, and refused to come up in price. So she said, “Match his offer, and the property is yours.” And we did. And it was.

But not without incident, of course.

My phone rang, and she said, “David, you’ll never believe…” and that was all I needed to hear to think I just got screwed.

Like I said, a verbal acceptance is meaningless without paperwork. A promise, a guarantee, a congratulations – nothing matters except the accepted APS.

But she continued, “David, you’ll never believe what just happened, but don’t worry, of course, we accepted your offer.”

Phew! And as she said that, I saw the offer come through my inbox, and now was able to relax and listen to her story.

“We had already signed your offer,” she said. “It was accepted, and we were ready to send it over, but I called the other agent first for some reason, I dunno, just to get it out of the way. So all of a sudden, he’s had a change of heart, and he wants to remove his condition, and add $10,000 to the price!”

At this point, I was scrolling through the accepted APS to ensure that it was fully signed, and that this story was just some fodder for the night. I didn’t like where the story was going.

“I had to tell my clients,” she told me. “I didn’t like his game; I didn’t like him at all,” she said, with a laugh. “But we hadn’t sent the accepted offer to you yet, so I had to tell them.”

How in the world did this turn out in my favour, I wondered?

“I told my clients, and they chewed on it.” she began to explain to me.

She continued, “They said, ‘Didn’t you tell us that he wouldn’t remove his condition, and his price was firm?’ I told them that was correct. And then they said, ‘So it’s only now, after you told him that we had accepted another offer, that he said he would revise his offer?’ I told them again this was correct. So to my amazement, my client said, ‘I don’t like it. I don’t like the game he’s playing. We made a deal. Let’s honour it.’ ”

Wow. Did I run into the nicest, most honourable agent and seller, or what?

Perhaps another topic, for another day, would be how different cultures negotiate in real estate. There are certain cultures where they refuse to accept “no” as an answer, and you could literally show them the accepted APS, and they’d just smile and say, “Okay, so how much do you want?” It’s not until they’ve already lost the deal, that they want to start playing.

In any event, this is what I was up against with my $1,650,000 condo last week, and I was lucky that the sellers didn’t like the agent’s “game.”

The seller went with our offer, the listing agent sent me the paperwork, and the deal was done.

But they had every right to accept the other offer, with another $10,000, even after they had already accepted my offer, and signed the paperwork.

“Signed, Sealed, & Delivered,” the phrase goes.

The absence of one, may as well be all three…

The post Signed, Sealed, &…………..Then What? appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2rOyPiQ