#Imogen Byron

[speakinginsimlish]

Gaming is no joke in this household! Imogen shows off her skills to her cousin, Janae, and brother, Byron.

[bluseum]

also why is everyone in the skellington book called [place name] [latin word] [adjective]

Derek very evidently names characters like any good lazy D&D player, random name generators and dictionaries. He doesn't seem to see a problem with

Abyssinia

Adam Brate

Adedayo Akinde

Adrasdos

Adrian Sykes

Adrienna Shade

Ajuoga

Alan

Alan (Boyle Solutions)

Alan Brennan

Alena Metz

Alesha Walsh

Alexander Remit

Alexander Slake

Alice Edgley

Aloysius Vespers

Amalia

Amity

Amity's Wife

Anathem Mire

The Ancients

Anguish

Anna

Annie Brennan

Anton Shudder

Arabella Wicked

Argeddion

Argento

Argus

Armiger Fop

Arthur Dagan

Ashione

Ashley Hubbard

Aspen

Assegai

Category:Assistants

Audoen

Auger Darkly

Aurnia

Auron Tenebrae

Aurora Jane

Category:Australians

Avatar

Avaunt

Axelia Lukt

Axle

Azzedine Smoke

Badstreet

Bagatelle

Baritone

Baron Vengeous

Bartholomew

Basher

Batu

The Beast

Bennet Troth

Benzel Travestine

Bernadette Maguire

Bernard Sult

Bertrand Solus

Beryl Edgley

Billy-Ray Sanguine

Binder Firm

Bison Dragonclaw

Black Annis

Boiler

Brennock

Brides of Blood Tears

Bridget

Brobding

Brock

Bruno

Bubba Moon

Burgundy Dalrymple

The Butcher

Byron Grace

Cadaver Cain

Cadaverous Gant

Caelan

Caisson

Caius Caviler

Cameron Light

Cark

Carol Edgley

Carol Edgley (Reflection)

Cassandra Pharos

Caste

Cathy

Cathy (The Button)

Category:Cats

Cerise

Ceryen

Cerys

Charivari

Charlie Smith

Child of the Faceless

China Sorrows

China's Assistant

China's Grandmother

Chrissy Brennan

Christophe Nocturnal

Civet

Clagge

Clarabelle

Cleaver

Clement Gale

Clerihew Montgomery

Coda Quell

Colleen Stint

Collup

Colm Muldoon

Conor Delaney

Corrival Deuce

Cothernus Ode

Crab

Craddock Sirroco

Crasher

Crepuscular Vies

Creyfon Signate

Crystal Edgley

Cu na Gealaí Duibhe

Dacanay

Daffyd Maybury

Dai Maybury

Daisy

Damocles Creed

Danny

Darian Vector

Darquesse

Dasher

Daveth Maybury

Davina Marr

Davit Maybury

Davon Maybury

Deacon Maybury

Death Monkey

Dedrich Wahrheit

Delafonte Mien

Desmond Edgley

Destrier

Detective Harris

Devoted

Dexter Vex

Dicer

Dima

Dionysus Pertinax

Doctor Whorl

Donegan Bane

Doran Purcell

Dragunov

Dreylan Scarab

Dubhóg Ni Broin

Duenna

The Dullahan

Dusk

Eachan Meritorious

Eamon Campbell

Eamon Pearce

Ed Stynes

Eddie Sullivan

Edgley Tempest

Edwina

Eliza Scorn

Elsie O'Brien

Elwood Satchel

Emmeline Darkly

Emmett Peregrine

Category:End of the World characters

Category:Energy-Throwers

The Engineer

Ephraim Tungsten

Erskine Ravel

Esryn Vanguard

Etta Faulkner

Evoric Cudgel

Faceless Ones

Father Reynolds

Fergus Edgley

Ferrente Rhadaman

Filament Sclavi

Finbar Wrong

Fintan Muldoon

Flaring

Fletcher Renn

Flint

Forby

Frightening Jones

Gall

Gary Price

Gavin Praetor

Ged

Category:Generals

Geoffrey Scrutinous

Gepard

Gepard Voke

Geraint Mizzle

Gerontius

Ghastly Bespoke

Ghastly Bespoke's father

Ghastly Bespoke's mother

Gladys

Glass

Gleeman Shakespeare

Gordon Edgley

Grace Kelly

Gracious O'Callahan

Graft

Gratio Erato

Gregory Castallan

Gregory Day

Greta Dapple

Griff

Grim

The Grotesquery

Gruesome Krav

Habergeon

Hansard Kray

Hapathy

Harmony

Hayley Skirmish

Hidalgo Bolt

Hieronymus Deadfall

Hoc

Hokum Pete

Hollow Men

Hopeless

Horts

The Hound

Hrishi

Hutchinson

Ian Moore

Ieni

Illori Reticent

Imogen

Infected

Isara

Isidora Splendour

Ivy

Jack Irons

Jackie Earl

Jajo Prave

James Hubbard

Jaron Gallow

Jason Randal

Jasper

Jenan Ispolin

Jeremiah Wallow

Jerry Houlihan

Jerry Ordain

Jethro

The Jitter Girls

Johann Starke

Joost

Kaiven

Kallista Pendragon

Kalvin Accord

Karrik

Kase

Kathryn Ether

Keir Tanner

Keith

Kenny Dunne

Kenspeckle Grouse

Keratin

Kes

Kierre of the Unveiled

Kiln

Kimora

Kitana Kellaway

Korb

Kribu

Krull

Kumo

Laken Cross

Lamour

Lapse

Larks

Larrikin

Lenka Bazaar

Levitt

Liam Muldoon

Lightning Dave

Lillian Agog

Lily

Lord Vile

Lorenzo Mult

Lorien

Luciana

Luke Skywalker

Madame Mist

Madcap Fenton

Magenta

Mahala

Maksy

Mandat

Mantis

Martin Flanery

Master

Maverick Reels

Melancholia St Clair

Melissa Edgley

Mellifluous Golding

Memphis

Mercy Charient

Merriwyn Hyphenate-Bash

Metric

Mevolent

Midnight Blue

Militsa Gnosis

Minion One and Minion Two

Mirk

Misery

Miss Nuncio

Moloch

Moribund

Mortal

Morven

Morwenna Crow

Mr Chou

Mr. Bliss

Mr. Fedgewick

Mr. Jib

Mud

Mulct

Murder Rose

Muriel Hubbard

Myosotis Terra

Myra

Myron Stray

Nathanial Quiver

Nefarian Serpine

Nero

Nestor Tarry

Never

Nixion

Nj Maverick

Noche

Noonan

Nye

Oberon Guile

Oblivious

Obloquy

Octa Gregorian Boona

October Klein

Odetta

Ogre

Oisin

Omen Darkly

Operative

Oscar Nightfall

Owen

Palaver Graves

Parthenios Lilt

Pat Hanratty

Patrick Slattery

Patrick Xebec

Paul Lynch

Paulie

Peg Muldoon

Pennant

Persephone Grief

Pete Green

Petrichor

Phil Lynott

Philomena Random

Ping

Portia

To name a few

[thestageyshelf]

SOLD 🎭 Les Miserables @ Queen's Theatre 2004 (#90)

Title: Les Miserables

Venue: Queen's Theatre

Year: 2004

Condition: Creasing

Author: Based on the Novel by Victor Hugo. Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original Text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Additional Material by James Fenton

Director: Adapted and Directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird

Cast: Joanna Ampil, Gillian Budd, Amanda Jane Callaghan, Vivien Care, Neil Dale, Mark Dickinson, Daniella Gibb, Tim Godwin, Kelly-Anne Gower, Lydia Griffiths, Siubhan Harrison, Matt Harrop, Adam Jones, Richard Kent, Sean Kingsley, Andy Mace, Eve Macklin, Michael McCarthy, Nicolas Pinto-Sander, Daniel Reeves, Annalisa Rossi, Katy Secombe, Ian Sharp, Wendy Somerville, Troy Sussman, Stephen Tate, Oliver Thornton, Gary Tushaw, Martin Scott Warden, Gemma Wardle, Emma Westhead, Paul Westhead, Jonathan Williams, Jenny Huxley Golden, Danielle Kerley, Anna Rose O'Sullivan, Imogen Byron, Sophie Mannering, Shannon Wake, Mitchell Alderton, Drew-Levi Huntsman, Charlie Salvage

FIND ON EBAY HERE

[bluemoontarot]

Youtube wanted my honest opinion...and so they shall receive it

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

this april fools day im NOT apologizing for thinking that frank faylen and jean byron have sexual tension

[hatchetandtom]

(via Clementine Creevy x Dazed - imogenebarron.com)

[nellygwyn]

BOOK RECS

Okay, so lots of people wanted this and so, I am compiling a list of my favourite books (both fiction and non-fiction), books that I recommend you read as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, I’ll be pinning this post to the top of my blog (once I work out how to do that lmao) so it will be accessible for old and new followers. I’m going to order this list thematically, I think, just to keep everything tidy and orderly. Of course, a lot of this list will consist of historical fiction and historical non-fiction because that’s what I read primarily and thus, that’s where my bias is, but I promise to try and spice it up just a little bit. 

Favourite fiction books of all time:

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock // Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen

Slammerkin // Emma Donoghue 

Remarkable Creatures // Tracy Chevalier

Life Mask // Emma Donoghue

His Dark Materials // Philip Pullman (this includes the follow-up series The Book of Dust)

Emma // Jane Austen

The Miniaturist // Jessie Burton

Girl, Woman, Other // Bernadine Evaristo 

Jane Eyre // Charlotte Brontë

Persuasion // Jane Austen

Girl with a Pearl Earring // Tracy Chevalier

The Silent Companions // Laura Purcell

Tess of the d’Urbervilles // Thomas Hardy

Northanger Abbey // Jane Austen

The Chronicles of Narnia // C.S. Lewis

Pride and Prejudice // Jane Austen

Goodnight, Mr Tom // Michelle Magorian

The French Lieutenant’s Woman // John Fowles 

The Butcher’s Hook // Janet Ellis 

Mansfield Park // Jane Austen

The All Souls Trilogy // Deborah Harkness

The Railway Children // Edith Nesbit

Favourite non-fiction books of all time

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman // Robert Massie

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King // Antonia Fraser

Madame de Pompadour // Nancy Mitford

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach // Matthew Dennison 

Black and British: A Forgotten History // David Olusoga

Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court // Lucy Worsley 

Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Katherine Howard, the Fifth Wife of Henry VIII // Gareth Russell

King Charles II // Antonia Fraser

Casanova’s Women // Judith Summers

Marie Antoinette: The Journey // Antonia Fraser

Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King // Claire Tomalin

Jane Austen at Home // Lucy Worsley

Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames // Lara Maiklem

The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth // Anna Keay

The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill // Christopher Hibbert

Nell Gwynn: A Biography // Charles Beauclerk

Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters // Patricia Pierce

Georgian London: Into the Streets // Lucy Inglis

The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart // Sarah Fraser

Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match // Wendy Moore

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from the Stone Age to the Silver Screen // Greg Jenner

Victorians Undone: Tales of the Flesh in the Age of Decorum // Kathryn Hughes

Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey // Nicola Tallis

Favourite books about the history of sex and/or sex work

The Origins of Sex: A History of First Sexual Revolution // Faramerz Dabhoiwala 

Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris // Nina Kushner

Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore // Julie Peakman

Courtesans // Katie Hickman

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in mid-Nineteenth Century England

Madams, Bawds, and Brothel Keepers // Fergus Linnane

The Secret History of Georgian London: How the Wages of Sin Shaped the Capital // Dan Cruickshank 

A Curious History of Sex // Kate Lister

Sex and Punishment: 4000 Years of Judging Desire // Eric Berkowitz

Queen of the Courtesans: Fanny Murray // Barbara White

Rent Boys: A History from Ancient Times to Present // Michael Hone

Celeste // Roland Perry

Sex and the Gender Revolution // Randolph Trumbach

The Pleasure’s All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex // Julie Peakman

LGBT+ fiction I love*

The Confessions of the Fox // Jordy Rosenberg 

As Meat Loves Salt // Maria Mccann

Bone China // Laura Purcell

Brideshead Revisited // Evelyn Waugh

The Confessions of Frannie Langton // Sara Collins

The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle // Neil Blackmore

Orlando // Virginia Woolf

Tipping the Velvet // Sarah Waters

She Rises // Kate Worsley

The Mercies // Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit // Jeanette Winterson

Maurice // E.M Forster

Frankisstein: A Love Story // Jeanette Winterson

If I Was Your Girl // Meredith Russo 

The Well of Loneliness // Radclyffe Hall 

* fyi, Life Mask and Girl, Woman, Other are also LGBT+ fiction

Classics I haven’t already mentioned (including children’s classics)

Far From the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy 

I Capture the Castle // Dodie Smith 

Vanity Fair // William Makepeace Thackeray 

Wuthering Heights // Emily Brontë

The Blazing World // Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Murder on the Orient Express // Agatha Christie 

Great Expectations // Charles Dickens

North and South // Elizabeth Gaskell

Evelina // Frances Burney

Death on the Nile // Agatha Christie

The Monk // Matthew Lewis

Frankenstein // Mary Shelley

Vilette // Charlotte Brontë

The Mayor of Casterbridge // Thomas Hardy

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall // Anne Brontë

Vile Bodies // Evelyn Waugh

Beloved // Toni Morrison 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd // Agatha Christie

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling // Henry Fielding

A Room With a View // E.M. Forster

Silas Marner // George Eliot 

Jude the Obscure // Thomas Hardy

My Man Jeeves // P.G. Wodehouse

Lady Audley’s Secret // Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Middlemarch // George Eliot

Little Women // Louisa May Alcott

Children of the New Forest // Frederick Marryat

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings // Maya Angelou 

Rebecca // Daphne du Maurier

Alice in Wonderland // Lewis Carroll

The Wind in the Willows // Kenneth Grahame

Anna Karenina // Leo Tolstoy

Howard’s End // E.M. Forster

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 // Sue Townsend

Even more fiction recommendations

The Darling Strumpet // Gillian Bagwell

The Wolf Hall trilogy // Hilary Mantel

The Illumination of Ursula Flight // Anne-Marie Crowhurst

Queenie // Candace Carty-Williams

Forever Amber // Kathleen Winsor

The Corset // Laura Purcell

Love in Colour // Bolu Babalola

Artemisia // Alexandra Lapierre

Blackberry and Wild Rose // Sonia Velton

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories // Angela Carter

The Languedoc trilogy // Kate Mosse

Longbourn // Jo Baker

A Skinful of Shadows // Frances Hardinge

The Black Moth // Georgette Heyer

The Far Pavilions // M.M Kaye

The Essex Serpent // Sarah Perry

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // Taylor Jenkins Reid

Cavalier Queen // Fiona Mountain 

The Winter Palace // Eva Stachniak

Friday’s Child // Georgette Heyer

Falling Angels // Tracy Chevalier

Little // Edward Carey

Chocolat // Joanne Harris 

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street // Natasha Pulley 

My Sister, the Serial Killer // Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Convenient Marriage // Georgette Heyer

Katie Mulholland // Catherine Cookson

Restoration // Rose Tremain

Meat Market // Juno Dawson

Lady on the Coin // Margaret Campbell Bowes

In the Company of the Courtesan // Sarah Dunant

The Crimson Petal and the White // Michel Faber

A Place of Greater Safety // Hilary Mantel 

The Little Shop of Found Things // Paula Brackston

The Improbability of Love // Hannah Rothschild

The Murder Most Unladylike series // Robin Stevens

Dark Angels // Karleen Koen

The Words in My Hand // Guinevere Glasfurd

Time’s Convert // Deborah Harkness

The Collector // John Fowles

Vivaldi’s Virgins // Barbara Quick

The Foundling // Stacey Halls

The Phantom Tree // Nicola Cornick

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle // Stuart Turton

Golden Hill // Francis Spufford

Assorted non-fiction not yet mentioned

The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World // Deborah Cadbury

The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History to the Italian Renaissance // Catherine Fletcher

All the King's Women: Love, Sex, and Politics in the life of Charles II // Derek Jackson

Mozart’s Women // Jane Glover

Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and His Court // R.E. Pritchard

Matilda: Queen, Empress, Warrior // Catherine Hanley 

Black Tudors // Miranda Kaufman 

To Catch a King: Charles II's Great Escape // Charles Spencer

1666: Plague, War and Hellfire // Rebecca Rideal

Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen // Alison Plowden

Catherine of Braganza: Charles II's Restoration Queen // Sarah-Beth Watkins

Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses // Helen Rappaport

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 // Stella Tillyard 

The Fortunes of Francis Barber: The True Story of the Jamaican Slave who Became Samuel Johnson’s Heir // Michael Bundock

Black London: Life Before Emancipation // Gretchen Gerzina

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815

The King’s Mistress: Scandal, Intrigue and the True Story of the Woman who Stole the Heart of George I // Claudia Gold

Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson // Paula Byrne

The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England // Amanda Vickery

Terms and Conditions: Life in Girls’ Boarding School, 1939-1979 // Ysenda Maxtone Graham 

Fanny Burney: A Biography // Claire Harman

Aphra Behn: A Secret Life // Janet Todd

The Imperial Harem: Women and the Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire // Leslie Peirce

The Fall of the House of Byron // Emily Brand

The Favourite: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough // Ophelia Field

Night-Walking: A Nocturnal History of London // Matthew Beaumont, Will Self

Jane Austen: A Life // Claire Tomalin

Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton // Flora Fraser

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the 18th Century // John Brewer

Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant // Tracy Borman

City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London // Tom Almeroth-Williams

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion // Anne Somerset 

Charlotte Brontë: A Life // Claire Harman 

Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe // Anthony Summers

Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day // Peter Ackroyd 

Elizabeth I and Her Circle // Susan Doran

African Europeans: An Untold History // Olivette Otele 

Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives // Daisy Hay

How to Create the Perfect Wife // Wendy Moore

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough // Hugo Vickers

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn // Eric Ives

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy // Barbara Ehrenreich

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie // Kathryn Harkup 

Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II // Linda Porter

Female Husbands: A Trans History // Jen Manion

Ladies in Waiting: From the Tudors to the Present Day // Anne Somerset

Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country // Edward Parnell 

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles // Ned Palmer

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine // Lindsey Fitzharris

Medieval Woman: Village Life in the Middle Ages // Ann Baer

The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York // Anne de Courcy

The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex, and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc // Suzannah Lipscomb

The Daughters of the Winter Queen // Nancy Goldstone

Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency // Bea Koch

Bess of Hardwick // Mary S. Lovell

The Royal Art of Poison // Eleanor Herman 

The Strangest Family: The Private Lives of George III, Queen Charlotte, and the Hanoverians // Janice Hadlow

Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football; How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment // Lee Jackson

Favourite books about current social/political issues (?? for lack of a better term)

Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power // Lola Olufemi

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Worker Rights // Molly Smith, Juno Mac

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race // Reni Eddo-Lodge

Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows // Christine Burns

Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism // Alison Phipps

Trans Like Me: A Journey For All Of Us // C.N Lester

Brit(Ish): On Race, Identity, and Belonging // Afua Hirsch 

The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence, and Cultural Restitution // Dan Hicks

Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living // Jes M. Baker

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot // Mikki Kendall

Denial: Holocaust History on Trial // Deborah Lipstadt

Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape // Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman

Don’t Touch My Hair // Emma Dabiri

Sister Outsider // Audre Lorde 

Unicorn: The Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen // Amrou Al-Kadhi

Trans Power // Juno Roche

Breathe: A Letter to My Sons // Imani Perry

The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment // Amelia Gentleman

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You // Sofie Hagen

Diaries, memoirs & letters

The Diary of a Young Girl // Anne Frank

Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust // Renia Spiegel 

Writing Home // Alan Bennett

The Diary of Samuel Pepys // Samuel Pepys

Histoire de Ma Vie // Giacomo Casanova

Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger // Nigel Slater

London Journal, 1762-1763 // James Boswell

The Diary of a Bookseller // Shaun Blythell 

Jane Austen’s Letters // edited by Deidre la Faye

H is for Hawk // Helen Mcdonald 

The Salt Path // Raynor Winn

The Glitter and the Gold // Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough

Journals and Letters // Fanny Burney

Educated // Tara Westover

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading // Lucy Mangan

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? // Jeanette Winterson

A Dutiful Boy // Mohsin Zaidi

Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler // Christine Keeler

800 Years of Women’s Letters // edited by Olga Kenyon

Istanbul // Orhan Pamuk

Henry and June // Anaïs Nin

Historical romance (this is a short list because I’m still fairly new to this genre)

The Bridgerton series // Julia Quinn

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover // Sarah Mclean

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake // Sarah Mclean

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics // Olivia Waite

That Could Be Enough // Alyssa Cole

Unveiled // Courtney Milan

The Craft of Love // EE Ottoman

The Maiden Lane series // Elizabeth Hoyt

An Extraordinary Union // Alyssa Cole

Slightly Dangerous // Mary Balogh

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance // Jennieke Cohen

A Fashionable Indulgence // KJ Charles

[eydika]

eydika’s name list 2.0

more... names because the first name list I made isn’t enough anymore

A

Abaddon

Abbey / Abbie

Abel

Ace

Ada

Adam

Adrien

Agnes

Aiden

Akari

Alaska

Alchemy

Alec / Alex / Alexa

Alessi / Alessia

Alexis

Aliana / Alianna

Alice

Alison

Alistair

Alivia

Allie / Ally

Alpha

Alya

Amber

Amelia

Amity

Amos

Amy

Andie / Andy

Andrew

Andromeda

Angel

Anita

Anna / Anne

Annabelle / Annie

Apollo

Apple

Apricot

April

Archer / Archie

Arden

Ares

Argus

Ariel

Aron / Aaron / Auron

Arrow

Artemis

Arthur

Artis

Arya

Ash / Asher

Aspen / Aspyn

Astrid

Athena

Atlas

Atticus

Aubrey / Audrey

Audio

Auger

Auggie

August

Aurelia

Aurora

Austin

Autumn

Ava / Avaline / Avalon / Aveline

Avery / Avrey

Aya

B

Baby

Barbie

Basil

Bea / Bee

Bean

Beatrice / Beatriz

Bébé

Beck / Beckett

Beetle

Bella / Belle

Beryl

Betty

Bijou

Billie

Birdie

Bishop

Bitter

Blair / Blaire

Blaise

Bloom

Blue / Blu

Boheme

Bonnie

Bowie

Briar

Bridget

Brina

Brody

Bryson

Bunny

Byron

C

Cade / Cadea / Caden

Cairo

Cal / Calum

Caleb

Callie

Calliope

Calvin

Cameron

Candace

Canopy

Carly / Carlie

Carol / Caroline

Carter

Casper

Cassandra

Cassius

Catherine

Celia

Cetus

Chance

Charlotte

Cherry

China

Chip

Chloe

Cian

Cinnamon

Civet

Clara / Clary / Clarabelle

Claire

Clementine

Cleo

Clover

Cobalt

Colby

Colt / Colten

Constance

Cooper

Cora

Corey

Corvus

Cosmo

Cricket

Cynthia

Cyra

Cyrus

D

Dacre

Daisy

Dakota

Dalia

Dallas

Damien

Dana

Dandelion

Dandy

Dante

Daphne

Darby / Darcy

Darius

Darla

Davina / Divina

Davos

Dawn

Deacon

Deb

December

Deja

Delaney

Delta

Demi

Denim

Denver

Desmond

Dexter

Diego

Digit

Dion / Dior

DJ

Doe

Domino

Donna

Doran

Dorothy / Dot / Dottie

Douglas

Dune

Dusk

Dylan

E

Eachan

Ebele

Ebony

Echo

Eden

Edris

Effi / Effie

Egan

Elijah

Eliza

Ella / Ellie

Elliot

Ellis

Elodie

Elsbeth / Elspeth

Elsie

Elyse

Embla

Emily

Emlyn

Emma

Emmett

Emory

Erica

Erin

Ernest

Ernie

Esryn

Estelle

Ethan

Eugene

Eva / Eve / Evie

Evan

Evangeline

F

Fae / Fee

Faith

Fawn

Fawke

Felix

Fenris

Fergus

Ferris

Fig / Figgy

Finbar

Fizz

Fletcher

Fleur

Flint

Flora / Florence

Forrest

Fox

Frankie

Freya

G

Gage

Gaia

Gavin

Gemma

Gene / Genesis / Genevieve

Gigi

Gil

Giselle

Gladys

Gloom

Gloria / Glory

Goldie

Grace / Gracie

Greta

Griffin

Gus

H

Hadley

Hailey

Hana

Harlow

Harmony

Harper

Hawk

Hayden

Hazel

Hector

Henley

Henry

Hera / Hero

Honey / Honeydew

Hope

Hunter

I

Ian / Ion

Idris

Ieni

Iesha

Illori

Ilya

Imelda

Imogen

Imp

India

Indira

Ingrid

Irina

Iris

Isaac

Isara

Isla

Ivory / Ivy

Izzy

J

Jack / Jackie

Jade

Jake

Janice / Janis

Jason

Jasper

Jay / Joy

Jenan

Jericho

Jerry

Jibo

Jill

Jinx

Joan

Jude / Judith

Juleka

Juli / Julip

June / Juno

Juniper

Jupiter

Justice

K

Kaiven

Kale

Kappa

Kayla

Kellen

Kelly

Kes

Kimber

Kitana

Kitty

Kiwi

Knox

Kris

Kristy / Kirsty

Krull

Kumo

L

Laken

Lana

Lapse

Lark

Laurel

Lavender

Lemon

Lenka

Leo / Leon / Leonie

Levitt

Liberty

Lilac

Lilith

Lima

Lindsey

Locus / Lotus

Lottie

Luca / Luka

Lucia / Lucie / Lucy

Lucille

Lucky

Luis

Luna / Louna

Luther

Lux

Lynn

M

Mabel / Mable / Maple

Madison

Mae / May

Maeve

Magnolia

Mango

Mantis

March

Marcia / Marcy

Margaux / Margo / Margot

Marina

Marion

Marley

Marmalade

Mars

Martha

Mary

Mason

Maude

Maura

Maxine

Maya

Meadow

Medea

Melancholia

Melba

Memphis

Mercedes

Mercy

Mick

Milan

Milla

Millenia

Milo

Mina / Mona

Minerva

Minnie

Minnow

Miron

Misery

Mona

Monday

Montgomery

Monty

Morrigan

Morwenna

Myrtle

N

Nana

Nancy

Nasira

Nate

Nathaniel

Naveed

Navy

Ned

Nefarian

Ness

Nestor

Never

Newt

Nikki

Noah

Nora

Norma

Nova

Nutmeg

Nye

Nyx

O

Octa

October

Odessa

Olive / Olivia

Ollie

Omega

Omen

Onyx

Opal

Ophelia

Oriana / Orion

Oscar / Oskar

Otis

Owen

Ozzy / Ozzie

P

Paige

Paisley

Parker

Pat / Pattie

Paula / Paola

Pea / Peach

Pebble

Penelope

Pepper

Pepsi

Percy

Petrichor

Philippa

Philomena

Phoebe

Phoenix

Piccolo

Pip / Piper

Pixie

Poe

Pollux

Pomeline

Poppy

Portia

Primrose

Q

Queen

Quentin

Quibble

Quincy

Quinn

R

Rachel

Radian

Ransom

Raven

Ray

Razzia

Rebus / Remus

Reverie

Rhubarb

Rick

Rider / Ryder

Rigby

Rilla

Roach

Robin

Rory

Rosa / Rosalie

Rose

Roux

Rowan

Roxanne / Roxie / Roxy

Ruben

Ruby

Rune

S

Sabina / Sabine / Sabrina

Sable

Sadie

Saffron

Sage / Saige

Salem

Sam / Samantha / Sammie

Savant

Savian

Scarlett

Scotty

Scout

Sean

Sesame

Shea

Skye / Skylar

Sloane

Solomon

Spencer

Sprout

Star

Stella

Sunny

Sybil

Syc

Symphony

T

Tabea

Tabitha / Tabs

Tali / Talia

Tasha

Tate

Tau

Temper

Tharan

Theodora / Theodosia

Theros

Thimble

Thirteen

Thorn

Tia

Tilda

Tina

Topaz

Tora / Torian

Trinity

Trixie

Trope

Tulip

Turnip

Twig

U

Ukiyo

Umara

Umbra

Ursa

V

Valentin

Valerie

Valora

Vargas

Vaughn

Vector

Vega / Vegas

Velvet

Venus

Vera

Vernon

Vesper

Vinette

Violet

Vivek

Volt

W

Waverly

Wednesday

Wendy

Wes

Whisper

William

Willow

Winnie

Winona

Winter

Wish

Wren

X + Y + Z

Xena / Xenia

Xeno / Xenos

Yuki

Yuri

Zafira

Zaria

Zephyr

Zero

Zoe / Zoelle

Zona

Zyra

LAST NAMES

Abbot

Abernathy

Alton

Arcanum

Ashe

Astor

Badger

Balker

Bass

Bennett

Benton

Blake

Bleu

Blunt

Blythe

Cable

Cabot

Cain

Carter

Carver

Castillo

Choi

Clemonte

Coldwell

Collins

Colt

Craft

Craven

Crimson

Croft

Dabney

Danvers

Dayholt

Delpy

Driver

Dyer

Eades

Edge

Epithet

Epps

Evert

Farley

Fell

Fenner

Fig

Finch

Findlay

Fletcher

Foley

Fowler

Fray

Freud

Frost

Geller

Gill

Guest

Hale

Hapley

Harp

Hart

Hearst

Hooper

Hunt

Hyde

Ivy

Jinx

Keller

Kersey

Kingsley

Knight

Knox

Kraft

Krav

Laveau

Lecter

Lock / Lockwood

Lowell

Lush

Marr

Mills

Mist

Morgan

Morrison

Murray

Myers

Oaks

Patel

Pierce

Pike

Powell

Price

Pruitt

Quint

Quiver

Random

Ripley

Ryder

Sears

Sloane

Sparks

Stele

Strom

Sutton

Talbot

Tate

Thorne

Twig

Twist

Tycho

Utley

Valentine

Vance

Vaughn

Vos

Walker

Wallow

Weaver

Webb

Wiley

Wilkes

Winston

Wreath

Wright

Wrong

York

Zella

Zepeda

[speakinginsimlish]

A little close-up of newest addition to the family, Jude. Like his siblings, Byron and Imogen, he has Mildred’s eyes.

[marylovettpostgradblog]

1. IS IT BECAUSE I AM A GIRL?

Too Few Women in Audio 

My work to date has been weighted more towards working with people in a therapeutic way rather than music technology. I have a ”Freelance portfolio career” which loosely translated means juggling different projects simultaneously to pay the rent. Most of which have been in community music and theatre. The work consists of, performance, commissions for music for immersive site specific theatre and directing community choirs.

My rationale for choosing to study Creative Music Production is to develop the technical skills be able to produce my own music to an industry standard. (whatever that means) To to accurately translate compositional ideas and in turn do justice to them. Despite having used Logic as my preferred DAW for over twelve years, I still feel like I have only just dipped my toe into the program, and its capabilities.  I enjoy working in my own small home studio and the security it provides.  I am currently confronting my feelings of overwhelm with the studio desk at the University.

During my experience of music technology education over the last 16 years, women have definitely been in the minority.  Reflecting on my own feelings embarking on Masters study, I really notice how a lack of self confidence rises within me particularly around technology.

For years I have been more interested in the process of composition rather than  mixing and production. Preferring to leave this to other more technically skilled people.  This has often resulted in being unsatisfied with the end result. 

I thought that being able to speak the language of the studio and understanding what things did would help in communicating ideas about the mix. While this certainly helps, I have come to the conclusion that there is no substitute for learning to do this my self. Having to overcome this reluctance was something I wanted to investigate.  Why the reluctance? What is the difficulty? Surely it's not because I am a girl?

fig 1: Leslie Gaston-Bird

I began to look at texts about women in the music industry and in particular production and engineering. My interest was piqued when looking into gender within the music industry as a whole and examining the technical roles of women. Exploring this opens a whole world of historical, sociological, systemic, and complex reasons as to why this has been the case and remains present today.  

Women in Early Audio

Fig 2: Ada Lovelace 1840

Ada’s place in history was not only for her outstanding work but also assisted by her lineage. Her Father being Lord Byron, the famous poet and politician and her Mother, Annabella Milbanke, ensuring that she was tutored in Mathematics, logic and science. She worked alongside Charles Babbage who was developing a machine called the “Analytical Engine.” James Essinger in his book “Ada’s Algorithm” says that  “With her definition of the word “operation,” she is giving birth to the science of computing and computer programming and is in fact now regarded to be the inventor of computer programming. (Gaston Bird 2020)

In relation to music Ada wrote, “Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent” (Essinger, 2014).

Sophie Germain a French Mathematician. Answering an “open call” call in 1808 from the Academy of Science for Mathematicians, (A place where girls were not allowed to study) to build on the work of Ernest Chladni. He had described the resonant frequencies of vibration with the patterns made from sand on a metal plate. Germain’s work was to develop the formulae to mathematically predict what the resonances would be. This was not acknowledged at the time. Even when she had won the grand prize at the Institute of Science in France (on her third attempt.) She was not invited to the Grand Prix ceremony and not allowed to publish her work. She self-published in 1821. 

Fig 3: Patterns of sand on a metal plate with the vibration from a violin bow

Historically Women’s achievements in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) have been hampered by not being able to access this type of education.  Those that have broken through are have been uncredited and their work not recognised, or excluded. Sophie Germain's formula was used in architecture to measure that stresses on metal. This contributed to the building of the Eiffel Tower. “However, you will not find Germain’s name on any of the four sides of the Tower, which was built between 1887 and 1889 and upon which are inscribed the names of 72 scientists who contributed their intellect to its construction.” (Mozans 1913)

Woman were actively excluded from education and  professions deemed (by men) to be unfit for Women. Today, the door is not so blatantly closed as it was for Sophie Germain back in 1802.  

Perhaps more subtle barriers are at play? Audio Engineering is a profession open to all genders, yet we never hear the term “Male audio engineer.” When women in the same profession, they are described with her gender as the prefix. 

“Gender-based designations such as these have been the case throughout history; perhaps more so in science, technology, engineering, and math, where women are underrepresented. In contemporary discussions in the media, we hear the phrases “women in medicine” or “women in physics.”(Gaston-Bird 2020)

 The ratio of male to female producers is estimated to be 47-1 (Smith et al 2020) 

The question of why this might be continues to be asked. Singer songwriter and producer Rosina Ncube says that her experience at school could be described as “character building”, being the only female in the music technology class.  Not being chosen to collaborate in group work, and having to speak louder to be heard. She also recollects, being crowded away from the mixing desk whenever there was a demonstration. “Suggesting an idea, having it rejected, then when a guy suggests exactly the same thing 20 minutes later, everyone loves it. Frustrating? You bet, and it's just one in a string of similar experiences that I have had as a woman starting out in the world of music production.” (Ncube R 2013)

fig 4: Rosina Ncube 

The comedy sketch from the “Fast Show”posted beautifully illustrates what Rosina Ncube was saying. See fig 9 below

In 2004 I accidentally discovered Imogen Heap when she was playing solo supporting Rufus Wainwright. This was inspiring and influential to me to have a female role model using tech and playing live. She wrote, recorded and engineered her music. Winning a Grammy for best Engineered non classical album in 2009. What is it that young women and girls need to be encouraged into audio? Female role models to aspire to? Women teaching and leading workshops in music technology in schools and colleges? Programs specifically for girls and women? I began to look at how these questions are being addressed. 

Organisations across the world have developed specifically to encourage women into the industry. The Yorkshire Sound Women Network is one of these, founded in 2015 by Dr Liz Dobson. 

“We have to be in an environment which is lower risk, which – in this case – means not being the only woman in a world which associates masculinity and technology; to remove that risk to be in a community of peers; and to have a chance to put your hands on and use equipment. To make mistakes and learn from that” (Dobson 2019).

fig 5 Yorkshire Sound Women Network

fig 6 Yorkshire Sound Women Network Workshop Video 

Thoughts and Musings:

Digging in to gender disparity has the potential to enrage, dishearten and become a cul-de-sac that could distract from my main objective of being better at production! Heartening though, are initiatives like the YSWN. Watching the video and seeing the excitement and enthusiasm of the girls taking part in the workshop was an absolute joy. It seems that throughout my studies gender and audio are intrinsically entwined. This topic once explored, impossible to ignore and yet I’d like to be able to ignore it and get on with being a creative music producer. Much like Leslie Gaston Bird would rather just be called an audio engineer, but that’s not how she is represented.

“I am not a woman in audio. I am an audio engineer. Nor am I a “Black woman audio engineer.” I am an audio engineer who happens to be a Black woman.” (Gaston-Bird 2019)

fig 7 The Incredible Invisible woman

References:

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/sounding-why-so-few-women-audio

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

http://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/id/eprint/334/1/SaltMusic-Research-Report.pdf 

Images: 

Fig1: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 2:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 3:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 4:www.soundonsound.com/people/sounding-why-so-few-women-audio 

Fig 5: https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/

Fig 6: https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/

Fig 7:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE3r_CgScms&ab_channel=Lizallinos

[ofyearnings-a]

okay, here’s my to-do list. i’m pretty sure i got everyone, but please let me know if i’ve missed anything !

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[loosealcina]

VINCENZO BELLINI’S IL PIRATA AT LA SCALA, JULY 17, 2018

There's no doubt Il pirata (created by Felice Romani and Vincenzo Bellini in 1827) qualifies as a seminal work, on a number of levels. It's the opera that turned Bellini into Bellini. (He was 25). It originated the Italian Romantic tenor. It culminates in a mad scene that predates (and actually became a model for) many celebrated mad scenes. (It's impossible not to think of Lucia di Lammermoor here). It was the breakthrough act for a whole set of properly Romantic items into Italian opera: hostile nature, castles by the sea, gloomy anti-heroes, gloomy arch-enemies, etc. As for what happened with this new production, I think I'd better begin with a quick rundown on the storyline. After a lost battle and a brutal shipwreck, a famous pirate (Gualtiero) and his crew find some aid, then food and shelter in the very castle of Gualtiero's lifelong nemesis (Ernesto). Of course, nobody is aware of their true identity there. However, Gualtiero himself is in for a shocker: he soon discovers that his former lover (Imogene), whom he has been desperately searching for over the last ten years, is the lady of the castle. She got married to no other than Ernesto; and they have a son together, as well. My first observation is that for an opera whose title is Il pirata, the amount of pirate action was decidedly small. Still, it must be noted that Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island—which is altogether essential to the way pirates exist in our imagination—was only published in 1883, hence there's no disgrace in falling a little bit short in this respect. In fact, maybe you can just erase that observation; I'll replace it with this one: Il pirata made me think of Gaetano Donizetti's La Favorite (1840). Apart from a certain similarity between the two plots, there was something specific about melody-making. Both narratives are fueled by tunes that are unpredictable, multi-layered, constantly enriched with nuances. They can tell stories.

(If you're interested in a captivating example, I'll mention Gualtiero's unreasonably upbeat, and positively dance-like cabaletta «Per te di vane lagrime»). Alas, this specific iteration of Il pirata wasn't consistently great. To me, it was a radical split; the great part was Sonya Yoncheva as Imogene (I'll try and describe that later). The not great part was everything else. The staging—directed by Emilio Sagi, with Daniel Bianco/Pepa Ojanguren/Albert Faura as set/costume/light designers—did nothing but present an extremely static and generic boy+girl+rival situation. (I'd say that the theatrical potential of Gualtiero—a Byronic figure who is both the genuine protagonist and a black-hearted villain who has a taste for spilling other people's blood—got almost entirely wasted). The orchestra conducted by Riccardo Frizza seemed to put an emphasis on the outgoing/cheerful side of the score; their reluctance to play piano and pianissimo (hardly rewarding as far as my listening experience is concerned) was a coherent complement to that approach. Now what can I say about Sonya Yoncheva? Her timbre—imposing, fierce, and at the same time seductive—was gloriously unperturbed anywhere her voice was requested to go (high and low; largo and presto; ppp and fff). Her performance as Imogene was as effortless as it gets. It had the raw power and the irresistible allure of a natural prodigy; and her famed final soliloquy («Ascolta… Col sorriso d'innocenza… Oh, sole! Ti vela») was a veritable gem. Unfortunately (but I really should say: fortunately), no singer is an island. In other words, it's not like you're visiting a group exhibition where you can be like, I love this painting, I don't care for that one, and wander untroubled toward the next room. Everything is connected. And this rare appearance of Il pirata—back at La Scala after a pretty massive sixty-year hiatus—was the definition of a missed opportunity.

[gsujuliegibbs]

Project 4: Artist’s Statement

For this project of Pattern, Color, Texture and Reflection in Nature, I chose the simple subject matter of nature with a focus on some of the principles and elements of design, with a few overlapping within the categories. There is a delicacy in nature and our environment that can be found in some of the most unexpected places and I have tried to capture it. A single dried leaf on pine needles has texture, a leafless branch shows angular patterns, and a variety of colors can be found in berries and flowers. In addition to pattern, texture and color, I have added reflections with an overall goal of achieving interesting perspectives and compositions. Some of the reflection images were in the city, and seeing them with nature reflected provided a peaceful, ephemeral moment. Many of the compositions are close up in order to show natural details.

Artistic inspiration in my work was drawn mostly from the photos of Imogen Cunningham. Even though she presented black and white photographs with seemingly mundane subject matter, she used effective compositions with detail to draw in the viewer. One example of her nature photos is Log on a Beach, 1945. It is simply a log on a beach but she has captured it in a delicate and intimate style. She also photographed reflections from windows, as in Bourget, 1960. The subjects reflected provide a second layer of visual interest to the subject directly in the window. Other inspirations come from the unique botanical studies and photographs of Karl Blossfeldt. Another artist I admire is Byron Jorjorian, a talented contemporary photographer with striking images of nature captured within abstract compositions.

[fuckyesdobiegillis]

i love THEM

[thewidowstanton]

Rhiannon Cave-Walker, hand balancer and hand-to-hand artist: Fauna Circus

Australian Rhiannon Cave-Walker started circus training when she was four in Byron Bay – "a magical part of the world" – with Spaghetti Circus. She trained at DOCH in Stockholm, with her husband, Daniel Cave-Walker, and the other members of Fauna Circus: Imogen Huzel, Enni-Maria Lymi and Matt Pasquet. Musician Geordie Little completes the line-up.

Rhi has been a member of Australian circus company Gravity & Other Myths, and has performed with Dan and Geordie in their own show Cadence. As she prepares for a new run of Circus Fauna’s acclaimed debut show, Fauna, she chats to Adrian Arratoon. 

The Widow Stanton: First off, are you any relation to Nick Cave? Rhiannon Cave-Walker: No… I wish. [Laughs]

How did you start training when you were so young? I was very lucky to have Spaghetti Circus, such an amazing youth circus, in my area from such a young age. I was a very energetic kid. My parents were both artists – my mum a dancer and my dad a musician – so they were very enthusiastic about pushing me into the arts and being active. I started at Spaghetti Circus just as my after-school activity, and continued for up to four times a week until I was 18. I grew up in such a progressive and amazingly arts-supportive community; Spaghetti Circus was not only a great outlet for physicality but it was lovely to be able to be part of such a community and develop stuff from such a young age. It was the family vibe there that taught me a lot; it was just a bonus that I was able to do some flips. There was no competitive level to it; only your own personal competitive desire to get better for yourself. It sounds like a nurturing environment… Without doubt, it was amazing. All the kids that I grew up with are like my brothers and sisters, and Leonie Mills, who’s the founder/owner, is easily my second mum. Then I would have my amazing home to come back to, so it was this pretty loving childhood [laughs]. That's the beauty of youth circus; you are pushed to be creative as well as physical, and find your thing. I did so many forms of dancing when I was a kid, ballet included. I loved that discipline, and thrived on that, but it was more a way of finding a place to go, ‘Hi, I'm Rhi. Look at me!’. [Laughs]

Were you always set on doing circus professionally? I always knew I wanted to be a performer or in the performing arts. There was a turning point when I was 14 or so when I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do dance or circus, because I could have gone down the professional dancing path; it was always those two things. Now as an adult there are other avenues I’d like to go down as well as circus. But as a kid it was always, 'Be on stage. Try to be the centre of attention!'. [Laughs].

In your biog you say you were exposed to circus at a professional level in Europe. In what way? When I was 18 I came with Spaghetti Circus on a tour of Europe. We visited a lot of youth circuses, such as Albert & Friends in London, and went to the International Youth Circus Festival there, then came down to Bristol and worked with Invisible Circus, and went over to mainland Europe as well. Even though in the main these were just youth circuses it was a completely different environment to what I’d grown up with. Just being exposed to different circuses, environments and people was amazing.

Then, after I’d left Spaghetti, it was more the professional culture of the training facilities and the schools that was just so inspiring for me. I was like, ‘Wow, you can push your body and push your level and your professionalism to the next level’, which was really inspiring. It was finding out about the circus universities in Europe that was the most inspiring thing.

Then you went to DOCH. How was it there? Next-level awesome, yet very gruelling. The hardest part was the fact that it was in Sweden, which is just a completely different culture and climate to Australia. I did get used to the cold after a while but it was more the darkness that took some getting used to. I love going out in the sun; it gives me a lot of energy, and when you’ve only got two-and-a-half, three hours of sun each day, and that's in the middle of the day when you’re training, and it's minus 27 outside and you don’t particularly want to go outside…! It's like a life of indoors for four months.  That was very challenging.

But I really loved the intense training – from eight in the morning to half past ten at night – and we'd be exposed to so many different dance choreographers, and be pushed to perform a lot and create a lot. For me at least it was a really great place to develop my personal circus flavour.

What made you choose hand-balancing and hand to hand? I tried absolutely everything as a kid. I'm short – 4ft 11ins – so flying and doing hand to hand, even as kid, being so short, I was obviously put at the top of all the pyramids. So I was exposed to being thrown around from such a young age, and I loved that. And handstands are just something that sort of came to me. I started doing them when I was 16, 17, not super-seriously. It wasn’t until I auditioned for DOCH that I started training really intensely. And I trained in handstands because I didn’t have a base. Then I met Dan just before we went to DOCH, but he was already in a hand-to-hand duo, he was flying, on a bigger base; Ben Smith, who's the musician in Svalbard Company. It wasn’t until Gravity & Other Myths asked Dan and me to join that I really started to experience how much fun it is to fly and be thrown around, and use my handstand knowledge but to do that on someone.

How different is doing hand-to-hand with Dan compared with another partner? You always have to adapt yourself to different partners. I try to keep the same technique so I'm not changing too much in my body. But it's always about the trust and relationship between each person, and I have to say, the major difference between me training with someone else and with Dan is the connection and the trust we have with one another. We have a very special connection on and off stage in terms of training, and supporting each other, as well as our artistic kind of creative outlet.

What was Cadence? That was a show we did for just a few performances at the Adelaide Fringe. Dan and I met Geordie when we were street performing in Edinburgh. We just clicked, and did a few creations to his music when we were back at DOCH. And we all had in the back of our minds that we should create something. He was living in Berlin but there was this moment when we were all in Australia at the same time before the Adelaide Fringe. There were two other musicians too, and we decided to spent two weeks creating something. It was a really amazing organic kind of collaboration that we performed maybe eight times or something there. We won some awards and then it was like, ‘Cool, that was satisfying’.

How long were you and Dan in Gravity for? Just over two years, 300 shows; it was a lot. We actually left DOCH halfway through our third and final year to be a part of that company, because they were kind of at a turning point where they were deciding whether they all wanted to commit to becoming a professional company or move on to different projects. And their producer, which is now ours, Aurora Nova, said they needed to make the show a bit bigger and longer, so they asked Dan and me to join to develop and create a bigger show, and help step up the level of tricks. So we dropped out of school and pursued that, which was a really massive decision, obviously, but it felt like the right decision. All you do in your final six months of school is create an act to then sell yourself and we were like, ‘Done! Great! That went swimmingly!’.

For such a new company, Fauna has done really well… Yeah, surprisingly. It’s just been fantastic. It obviously helps to have a strong group of really lovely humans, and we're all really close friends. We've all trained and nurtured our circus passion and values from the same place, at DOCH. It’s lucky that we all have the same kind of drive and the same vision in what we want to create. And individually, we've all worked with bigger companies or gone off and done our own stuff. So individually, each person had quite a good reputation already in our industry. Then opportunities just seemed to come and I wasn’t afraid to ask people for help. The ball just kept rolling and still is. We're travelling a lot this year, going to places in South America and all through Europe and a bit in England, which is so great.

We are really lucky that we have a really beautiful relationship with both our producers [Follow the Rabbit is the second] and other industry people in the UK. Having nurtured those kinds of relationships means everything seems to have come together really organically; we haven’t tried to push anything, we’ve just been really appreciative of the things we have got.

Do you intend Fauna to be a long-term company? Well, at the moment we're all just loving what we have and are in the moment of just, 'Wow, look at what's happening with all this’. And we're all dedicated to making our own art, and the fact that we've created a platform for all six of us to create our own art is a massive plus. So the answer is yes, we do. At the moment we want to push this show, Fauna, as much as possible definitely for the next two years, then after that we will all question, we don’t want to let a show fizzle out and get so we get sick of performing it. We're all very proactive in terms of creating new stuff, so I definitely think there'll be another creation. Whether it’s all of us in it or not, maybe we'll make a couple of different creations under the umbrella of the company, but that’s yet to come.

What's been the highlight of your career so far? [Long pause] That's… very hard. The actual touring and the places I’ve been able to go; I’ve been able to perform in Zimbabwe and with Gravity we took Simple Space over to the circus festival in Montreal. Being immersed in really amazing environments has definitely been such a highlight. But I actually think the real highlight has been the satisfaction in creating my own show and our own show; knowing that some really passionate and amazing people have created a piece of art and a company that I love.

Rhiannon will be performing in Fauna at: Amsterdam’s Koninklijk Theater Carré from 19-21 April 2018 (for tickets click here); London’s Wandsworth Arts Fringe on 12 May (for tickets click here); and Theatre Royal Brighton from 16-19 May as part of the Brighton Festival (for tickets click here); and then touring. Fauna Circus website; Rhiannon on Facebook

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Read our interview with Fauna Circus’s Imogen Huzel here

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY GOES HAWAIIAN: PART ONE

S3;E23 ~ February 15, 1971

Directed by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Milt Josefsberg, Ray Singer, and Al Schwartz

Synopsis

Harry takes an usual job as a cruise director and recruits Lucy to be his unpaid assistant. Also on board are her kids and her old friend Vivian Jones (Vivian Vance). A shipboard rivalry erupts when Lucy and Vivian are both attracted to the handsome Captain (Robert Alda).

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carter), Gale Gordon (Harrison Otis Carter), Lucie Arnaz (Kim Carter), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Craig Carter)

Guest Cast

Vivian Vance (Vivian Jones) was born Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas in 1909, although her family quickly moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where she was raised. She had extensive theatre experience, co-starring on Broadway with Ethel Merman in Anything Goes. She was acting in a play in Southern California when she was spotted by Desi Arnaz and hired to play Ethel Mertz, Lucy Ricardo’s neighbor and best friend. The pairing is credited with much of the success of “I Love Lucy.”  Vance was convinced to join the cast of “The Lucy Show” in 1962, but stayed with the series only through season three, making occasional guest appearances afterwards. This is the fourth of her half a dozen appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” She also joined Lucy for a TV special “Lucy Calls the President” in 1977. Vance died two years later.

This is Vivian’s sixth cruise. She is unmarried. 

Robert Alda (Captain MacClay) originated the role of Sky Masterson in Broadway’s Guys and Dolls, winning the 1951 Tony Award. He is the father of Alan Alda of “M*A*S*H” fame. He made one appearance on the “The Lucy Show,” and this is his final appearance on “Here's Lucy.” Alda died in 1986.

Jean Byron (Mrs. MacCLay) is probably best remembered as Natalie Lane, mother of Patty Duke on “The Patty Duke Show” (1963-66) as well as well as Imogene Burkhart on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” (1959-63). This is her only appearance with Lucille Ball.

The surname MacClay is a tribute to Lucille Ball's long-time publicist Howard McClay, who also loaned his name to characters on “The Lucy Show.” The end credits, however, spell 'McClay' as 'MacClay.'  

Anita Mann (Wendy) was assistant to the series' choreographer Jack Baker. This (and Part Two) are her only appearances of record on the show. She later choreographed for the Solid Gold Dancers and the Muppets. Mann won an Emmy Award for her work in 1996.  

Mann plays a bikini-clad blonde that Craig befriends aboard ship. Although credited as 'Wendy,' she is not identified by name in the dialogue.

Maurice Kelly (Sailor) was an English-born actor who played a student in “Lucy and Viv Take Up Chemistry” (TLS S1;E26). This is the second of his three appearances on “Here’s Lucy.” He died at the young age of 46 in 1974.

The ship's passengers and crew are played by uncredited background performers:

Nick Borgani appeared with Lucille Ball in the 1937 film Stage Door and in one episode of “The Lucy Show.”  

Paul Bradley made his six appearances on “The Lucy Show” in various roles. This is the second of his two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

George DeNormand appeared in three films with Lucille Ball from 1937 to 1963. This is just one of his many appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.”  

James Gonzales was a popular Hollywood extra who first acted with Lucille Ball in the 1953 The Long, Long Trailer. He was previously seen on “The Lucy Show” as Stan Williams in “Lucy Digs Up a Date” (TLS S1;E2). He was seen in more than 20 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and 3 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Chester Jones makes the last of his four background appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”  

Paul King makes the third of his five background appearances on the series.  

Victor Romito was seen as the Bartender in “Lucy Meets John Wayne” (TLS S5;E10). He also appeared in four episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”  Romito was an extra in the 1960 Lucille Ball / Bob Hope film Critic’s Choice.

Bernard Sell was an English-born background player who made three appearance on the “The Lucy Show.” He was also an extra with Lucille Ball and Bob Hope in their films The Facts of Life (1960) and Critic’s Choice (1963).

This episode was first aired on February 15, 1971, which was Mary Jane Croft's 55th birthday. Although not in this episode, Croft will make her tenth of thirty appearances when the program resumes production for season four.

The final draft of this script is date March 30, 1970. A copy was donated by the estate of writer Milt Josefsberg to the Thousand Oaks Library’s American Radio Archives. 

Coincidentally, March 30, 1970 also saw the first broadcast of an episode of “Mayberry RFD” titled “Aloha, Goober”! In it, Goober’s Mayberry service station is competing to win a trip to Hawaii.  

The title of the episode(s) was doubtless inspired by the 1961 feature film Gidget Goes Hawaiian starring Deborah Walley. Walley would later be a regular on Desi Arnaz series “The Mothers-in-Law” (1967-69). The film also features a character named Lucy (played by Vivian Marshall). 

Originally, the two episodes were to be filmed aboard the actual SS Lurline and on location in Hawaii. When costs proved prohibitive, Lucille Ball Productions had a three-quarter scale model of the ship built on the Paramount lot. At the time, it was the second largest ship ever built at the studio. The sets occupied three sound stages. It even included a real swimming pool! 

These two episodes were a single-camera shoot and filmed without a live studio audience. Establishing shots of the ship and some dockside location shots were also used. 

Hawaii was a favorite getaway destination of the Arnaz family. The Season 3 “Here’s Lucy” DVD contains home movie footage of the family (and friends like Mary Wickes) vacationing together in Hawaii. 

In 2007, Lucie Arnaz remembered their trips to Hawaii fondly: 

"It was before my parents were divorced and the time when they were at their happiest. No arguing, no work to take them away, and they just loved being there and with each other.”

The SS Lurline was a real ship sailing from California to Hawaii for the Matson Steamship line from 1932 to 1963, when it was sold to the Chandris Lines and re-christened the RHMS Ellinis. The Matson Line then brought the Matsonia (first known as the Monterey) out of retirement and re-christened it the Lurline, keeping the historic name alive in their fleet. The Lurline sailed her last voyage under this name in June 1970, before being sold to Chandris and re-christened Britanis. During the 1980s it was briefly the oldest cruise ship in service. The vessel underwent one more name and ownership change before being deliberately sunk in 2000 after nearly 68 years at sea.

The episode incorporates some establishing locations shots of the Lurline departing from San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. 

There is also a location shot of Lucy standing on the dock taking photographs, although this is probably a double for Lucille Ball. With the distance, the streamers, and the camera in front of her face, it is difficult to tell for certain. 

The final draft of the script for this episode was dated March 30, 1970, ten months before it was aired in mid-February 1971. Because the Lurline sailed for the last time on June 25, 1970, the establishing shots had to have been filmed during April, May or June 1970.  

Harry pronounces Hawaii as 'Havaii' (with a 'v' sound instead of a 'w'). He also pronounces Los Angeles with a hard 'g.' Harry was a linguistic eccentric!  

Lucy says the ideal candidate for the cruise director position will be a combination of Cary Grant, Albert Einstein, Joe Namath, and Bob Hope. Lucille Ball did four films with Bob Hope and he appeared on both “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.” Football player turned entertainer Joe Namath will guest star in a season 5 episode of “Here's Lucy.” Cary Grant has been mentioned on all of Ball's sitcoms, including the previous episode “Lucy and Carol Burnett” (S3;E22).  

When Vivian burst through the crowd, the production anticipates the home viewers reaction by inserting canned applause!  In previous episodes filmed in front of a live studio audience, this was their natural reaction, so one is used here as well. Even the background actors seem happy to see Viv, a character not seen on the series since “Lucy and Viv Visit Tijuana” (S2;E19) a year earlier. 

Among the many games and sports items that Assistant Cruise Director Lucy carries is Hasbro’s Automatic Bingo, first manufactured in 1969. Bingo is a mainstay of cruise ship pastimes. 

Lucy asks Viv if she is still looking to get married:

VIV: “I dream about orange blossoms so often I sleep with a smudge pot at the foot of my bed.”

Dreams about orange blossoms are said to indicate the search for true love. In orange groves, a smudge pot warms the trees to prevent the fruit from being spoiled by frost and cold weather. 

Lucy convinces Harry to disguise himself as rich southerner Colonel Hamilton Hart to woo Vivian away from the Captain MacClay. Harry's make up and wardrobe are identical to Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame!  

A montage of Lucy being kept busy shows her jogging, shooting skeet, playing tennis, and playing ping-pong.  

Jumping overboard may be the most extreme example ever of ‘getting Harry wet’ at the end of an episode.

VIVIAN: “Let me through! Let me through! There's only one person in the whole world who would board ship that way!  It's gotta be... Lucy!”

Boarding ship via the cargo net was a stunt Lucille Ball also did in “Lucy Takes A Cruise To Havana” (LDCH S1;E1) with Ann Sothern at her side - instead of Gale Gordon under her feet!

Another unconventional boarding was in "Bon Voyage" (ILL S5;E13), where Lucy Ricardo missed her sailing for Europe on the S.S. Constitution and was lowered by helicopter to the deck.

Assistant Cruise Director Lucy briefly plays ping-pong with a young boy, just as Lucy Ricardo did on the SS Constitution with Kenneth Hamilton. She first looked for a ping-pong partner by asking an idle bloodhound!

In 1955, Desilu recreated the SS Constitution on their Hollywood sound stage the same way LBP does the SS Lurline in 1971. Both episodes were filmed with the cooperation of the shipping lines, American Export Lines (1955) and Matson Steamship Lines (1970). Both were the most expensive episodes filmed to that date due to construction costs. 

In “Ricky's Hawaiian Vacation” (ILL S3;E22), Lucy Ricardo pulled out all the stops, including recreating island life in the living room in order to get Ricky to take her along on his booking at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. When Ricky says no, Lucy schemes to go along by winning a TV quiz show with the Mertzes, but in the end they don’t win the trip. We never learn if Ricky actually went to Hawaii or not. 

ETHEL (about the idea of going on a quiz show): “I’d get a pie in my face. She’d get an all-expense cruise.”

It took nearly 16 years, but Lucy and Viv finally got that all-expense paid cruise to Hawaii. But she also did get a pie in the face at the end of the show!  

If being Viv being heroically rescued from a swimming pool while pretending she can’t swim sounds familiar, Lucy Ricardo also did it in “The Hedda Hopper Story” (ILL S4;E21). 

In the 1955 episode, Freddie Fillmore mentioned a former contestant named Cleo Morgan, which was the name of Lucille Ball’s cousin. She was later the producer of these two episodes of “Here’s Lucy” under her married name of Cleo Smith.

On February 18, 1965, the Douglas family on “My Three Sons” planned a "Hawaiian Cruise” (S5;E23), but illness forced the trip to be canceled. Uncle Charley decides if they cannot go to Hawaii, then Hawaii would come to them and he plans a luau in the backyard.  

FAST FORWARD!

In the 1970s and 1980s sitcoms took their cue from Lucy and also traveled to Hawaii. 

Probably the most famous of the shows was “The Brady Bunch”, which aired on ABC in 1972, just a year after Lucy’s trip. It, too, was a two-parter. Coincidentally, Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) also played Lucy Carter’s niece Patricia Carter later on in 1972!  

In 1980, also on CBS, “The Jeffersons” traveled to the 50th state. Instead of two parts, the show increased their stay to four half-hours!  The cast featured an actor named Fred Ball (no relation to Lucille Ball’s brother)! 

Hawaii was mention several times on the short lived “Life With Lucy” (1987). In the first episode, Curtis had just returned from vacationing there and in the second episode guest star John Ritter says that his wife is in Hawaii with the kids. In an un-aired episode, Leonard plans to use his vacation from M&B Hardward to go to Hawaii and lie on the beach. 

“Mama Goes Hawaiian” (1988) was also a two-part episode about a Hawaiian vacation. It starred Lucy’s protege Ken Berry and her pal Carol Burnett’s protege, Vicki Lawrence, as Mama. 

Props! When setting down a large stack of games so she can sit down for a minute, Lucille Ball is so worried that the stack will fall off the deck chair that she keeps her hand nearby to catch them if they do.

Doff Your Hat! When ‘the Colonel’ sits down next to Vivian, he removes his hat and places it on the table. Realizing that this is improper (and that the hat might be in the camera shot) he uses his walking stick to smoothly sweep the hat off the table onto the chair below it. Quick thinking! 

“Lucy Goes Hawaiian: Part One” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

This episode is full of Easter eggs for “Lucy” fans with references to four different episodes of “I Love Lucy.” This feels like a cross between “The Love Boat” and “The Golden Girls.”  The ending with Harry and Viv both jumping overboard into the Pacific Ocean - at night - is a bit far-fetched, even for Lucy!