#Nick Jonas’ wedding details

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

I would like to know more about your opinion on Priyanka and her whole marketing game and friendship with the Duchess. i always found it strange that people said she is world famous, when i only met her after the relationship with nick

She was super famous in South Asia. I am not sure where else.

But she was famous. It was very similar to Shakira, who was a huge Lat Am star before crossing over to the US. No one in the US knew who she was, but she was super famous.

Priyanka tried to pull a Shakira and cross over with her music first. Rumor was she got blacklisted in Bollywood for having an affair with a major actor, but I don’t remember the details. Anyway, she supposedly had to reinvent herself outside the country. She had a song with Pitbull during a Super Bowl, but it didn’t catch on. Then she got the Quantico series, which didn’t make her a household name either.

So in 2016 she was in a similar position to Meghan, at least as far as the US market was concerned. She had a tv series, she did charity work for the UN and she wanted to be more famous. I guess that’s why their publicists got them together. At the time Priyanka was more famous and established than Meghan so the “friendship” gave Meghan a lot of social credibility. There were a lot of articles about their common interest in philanthropy and such. There was also a lot of talk about Meghan’s interest in and connection to the Commonwealth and her “friend” Priyanka was cited as “proof” of that. The relationship was very useful to Meghan. Less useful to Priyanka, imo, although I think it showed her what a relationship could lead to if properly leveraged.

Then they both married famous people and had huge weddings. Meghan did not attend Priyanka’s wedding and the “friendship” never recovered. They finally broke up when Archie was born and Priyanka leaked that she had visited FrogCott and given the baby a present. Meghan made her deny the leak. She was now hanging out with Oprah and Amal and felt she was above Priyanka.

At that point their paths diverged. Priyanka got a big fame bump from the Jonas relationship but she focused on her work and she made movies, produced films, and did charity work. She now has restaurants, housewares lines and who knows what else (I think there’s a hair care line?). She’s also very successful as a Unicef campaigner.

She’s everything Meghan pretends to be. There’s a lot of PR involved but there is substance behind her PR and she works crazy hard. Her wedding was also insane. Check the Vogue articles about it.

[cinemapremi]

How Bollywood Celebrated Christmas 2023? Alia, Kiara, Priyanka, Ananya Photos Went Viral!

This Christmas, our favorite Bollywood stars shared their festive joy, giving us a sneak peek into their celebrations. From cozy family moments to glitzy gatherings, the holiday season sparkled with the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Sidharth Malhotra, and more. Merry Christmas 2023! Wishes, Quotes, and Images to Share with Your Friends and Family Salman Khan’s Special Christmas Surprise for Malaika Arora Amid Arbaaz Khan Surprise Wedding!

1. Priyanka and Nick's Cozy Dinner

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas kept it simple with a quiet dinner, sharing their warmth and love in an intimate setting. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1LKkLdPICO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

2. Shraddha Kappor Celebration With Cake

Shraddha Kapoor wrote on Instagram "Cake bhi koi share karne ki cheez hai??? Merry Christmas 🎄♥️" https://www.instagram.com/p/C1RrTkwIiZt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

3. Ananya's Playful Charm

Ananya Panday, in her pink-and-red sweater with reindeer horns, showed off her playful side, capturing the youthful joy of Christmas. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1PZTniRwZe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

4. Kiara and Sidharth's First Christmas

Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani celebrated their first Christmas as a married couple. Sidharth planted a kiss on Kiara's cheek, making it a heartwarming moment. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Q7kH3NGIY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

5. Raashii Khanna and Diana Penty

Raashii Khanna and Diana Penty added a touch of artistry by decorating Christmas trees, bringing the festive spirit into their homes. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1PQmCtshbe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg== https://www.instagram.com/p/C1PvVg9y0DF/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

6. Soha Ali Khan's Cozy Family Fest

Soha Ali Khan, with husband Kunal Kemmu and daughter Inaaya, celebrated in matching pajamas, creating a cozy family affair. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1PDZXQBWAn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

7. Malaika and Amrita's Christmas Hairdos

Malaika Arora and sister Amrita flaunted Christmas-themed hairstyles, proving that festive fun extends to even the smallest details. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Q3XLHKL_q/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg== Arbaaz Khan’s Surprise Wedding With Shura Khan: Arhaan, Salman Khan, Raveena Tandon Attended!

8. Rasika Dugal's Festive Frame

Rasika Dugal shared a festive frame with husband Mukul Chadda, capturing the magic of Christmas. She wrote "I went looking for a Christmas cap and found a bag full of props! Merry Christmas everyone! 🌲 May the coming year give you more than you had imagined. And may you improvise it in the most fun way ❤️" https://www.instagram.com/p/C1QthJrLx2e/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

9. Sara Ali Khan Celebration With Her Mother

She celebrated Christmas with her mother. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1RlMWyI-YQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

10. Sonakshi Sinha

https://www.instagram.com/p/C1R6yGsIwUm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg==

11. Alia and Ranbir's Stylish Christmas

Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor added a dash of style to their Christmas celebration. Captured by paparazzi, they brought glamour to the festive season. https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Q91jcrv95/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MjM0N2Q2NDBjYg== In conclusion, Bollywood celebrated Christmas with joy, blending simplicity, family moments, and a touch of glamour. FAQs: How do Bollywood celebrities typically celebrate Christmas? Bollywood stars celebrate with a mix of family gatherings and stylish parties, showcasing their unique styles and traditions. Any new couples celebrating their first Christmas together? Yes, couples like Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani celebrated their first Christmas after marriage. Which Bollywood star had the most extravagant Christmas celebration? Celebrations varied, but each star added their flair, from cozy dinners to glamorous parties. Any special moments captured during the Christmas celebrations? Yes, special moments included Sidharth Malhotra's kiss to Kiara Advani and Alia Bhatt's heartwarming snapshot with Ranbir Kapoor. How did Bollywood stars incorporate fashion into their Christmas celebrations? Stars like Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor showcased their fashion flair, adding glamour to the festive season. Also Checkout: Read the full article

[weddingsbyneerajkamra]

Love stories that transcend boundaries often capture our imagination, especially when they involve two individuals from different worlds of stardom and politics. The upcoming wedding of Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra and politician Raghav Chadha has created a buzz, with the picturesque Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur being the chosen rumoured venue, according to sources. Let's dive into the enchanting love story of Parineeti and Raghav, their engagement, and the excitement surrounding their wedding in the grand setting of Oberoi Udaivilas

A Love Story for the Ages

Parineeti Chopra and Raghav Chadha's love story is one that transcends boundaries. At the intersection of Bollywood and politics, their paths crossed, and they found solace and happiness in each other's company. The couple got hitched in a traditional roka ceremony in April 2023 in front of close relatives and friends. The engagement photos captured their beaming smiles and shared happiness, leaving fans, media, and B-town buzzing around the power couple.

Rajasthan, Where Bollywood Romance Blooms

When it comes to dreamy Bollywood weddings, Rajasthan steals the show! This majestic state is a beloved destination for star-studded celebrations. With its enchanting palaces, vibrant culture, and breathtaking scenery, Rajasthan sets the perfect stage for love to unfold. Celebrities like Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, Kiara Advani and Sidharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif, and Vicky Kaushal have already tied the knot here, adding to the charm and fascination of Rajasthan's Bollywood wedding saga.

Exclusive inside photos and details

While the couple has remained tight-lipped about their wedding plans, social media has been buzzing with speculation and snippets of information. Photos of Parineeti Chopra in Udaipur surfaced online, fueling excitement among fans.  As per the reports, the power couple is planning their grand weeding in Udiapur, Oberoi Udaivilas. The grand affair is expected to attract a star-studded guest list, including A-list celebrities and influential politicians. With such esteemed attendees, the event is set to be a mesmerising fusion of glamour and power.

Oberoi Udaivilas: A Palace of Grandeur

When it comes to fairy tale weddings, the Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur reigns supreme. This majestic palace, nestled on the banks of the serene Lake Pichola, is a symbol of opulence and grandeur. Its regal architecture, adorned with intricate carvings and exquisite details, transports you to a world of luxury and romance. The breathtaking views of the lake and the surrounding Aravalli hills create an ethereal ambiance that sets the stage for an unforgettable celebration of love. With its impeccable hospitality and attention to every detail, Oberoi Udaivilas ensures that every moment of your special day is filled with magic and splendour. From lavish wedding ceremonies to enchanting receptions, this iconic venue is a haven where dreams truly come true.

Specialty of Oberoi Udaivilas

1. Stunning Location: Situated on the banks of Lake Pichola in Udaipur, Oberoi Udaivilas enjoys a breathtaking setting with panoramic views of the lake and the surrounding Aravalli hills.

2. Royal Architecture: The palace showcases exquisite Rajasthani architecture with intricate domes, arches, and courtyards, transporting guests to a bygone era of grandeur and opulence.

3. Luxurious Accommodations: Oberoi Udaivilas offers lavish rooms and suites adorned with traditional Indian decor, luxurious amenities, and private courtyards or terraces, providing a regal and comfortable stay for guests.

4. Picture-Perfect Gardens: The hotel boasts meticulously manicured gardens featuring lush lawns, colourful flowers, and serene water bodies, creating an idyllic backdrop for relaxation and events.

5. Fine Dining Delights: Guests can savor culinary delights at the hotel's renowned restaurants, offering a blend of traditional Rajasthani, Indian, and international cuisines, all prepared with the finest ingredients and served with impeccable service.

[flash-fresh]

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra is one of the most popular celebrities globally, and she has struggled tremendously hard to achieve this status. Priyanka began her career in Indian cinema before moving to Hollywood, where she is now the first Indian actress to gain a global reputation. Thus, In this article, we will cover more aspects of her life in detail.

Early Life

Priyanka Chopra was born on July 18, 1982, in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.Her home town is Bareilly, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Due to her father's job, she lived her life in many different cities of India, such as Ambala, Chandigarh, Delhi, Lucknow, and Pune. She is also recognized by different nicknames among her family members and friends, includingMimi, Piggy Chops, and Sunshine.

Education

Priyanka Chopra moved to the United States when she was just 13 years old. There she was enrolled and attended two American schools as well. Priyanka's relatives resided in the United States way before she moved there. Priyanka stayed at the same relative's residence for three years while studying in America. Priyanka Chopra began her education in a foreign school in Newton, Massachusetts. And then, she eventually transferred to Cedar Rapids, Lowa's John F. Kennedy High School. When Priyanka arrived back in India at the age of 16, she enrolled at the Army School in Bareilly. Priyanka decided to enter Jai Hind College in Mumbai and Basant Singh Institute of Science in Mumbai after finishing her early education. However, Priyanka had to interrupt her education owing to her modeling activities.

Marriage

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are some of the cutest celebrity couples. They wedded inDecember 2018.It was quite interesting, the way they met for the first time. Priyanka met Nick on Twitter, and shortly after, both began texting each other. They first met in 2017 at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party. They later met in Los Angeles, where they attended a screening of Beauty and the Beast at the Hollywood Bowl. They married in Jodhpur's Umaid Bhawan Palace in December 2018. They arranged two big wedding ceremonies, one as per Hindu tradition while another as per Christian tradition, in the presence of all of their family members and friends.

Philanthropy Work:

Priyanka is very much involved in philanthropy, especially in her own country. Every year, she donates at least 10% of her earnings to a number of organizations, including The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education. Her charity focuses on India's underprivileged children and specifically young women. She has also been heavily involved with UNICEF since 2006. She gave $70,000 to a New Cancer Center in Nanavati in 2013, which has now been named after her late father.Read more on..

[lehrennetworks-blog]

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas’ wedding details are out and the dates are almost confirmed along with the venue.

[steampunkforever]

Coming out of The Invitation (yes, I saw it in theaters) I will admit that it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, further retrospectives really rub in how dismal and ultimately forgettable the movie really was.

in his Seminal film Get Out, Jordan Peele cast a black main character alone in a family of rich white socialites who then turn on him. It’s a poignant criticism of racism in America and a downright elegant use of horror to highlight racial inequalities. The writer and the director of The Invitation got together one night, snorted lines of whatever makes people with twitter checkmarks deserve the death penalty, and said “we can make something magnitudes worse, right?”

One striking detail was the racial politics of the film. And by that, I mean that I’ve seen Turkish propaganda with more nuanced approach to caricatured racial allegories. Y’know, from Turkey, the ethnic-cleansing-ing Neo-Fascist dictatorship.

Simply put, the racial dialog was not focused on racism, systemic or otherwise, but on a strawman concept of a “white person” that the writer decided to pummel with buzzwords harvested from a twitter antiracist. This would’ve been cutting commentary in 2015 maybe, but considering that the recently departed queen doesn’t even qualify as a colonizer, it’s simply bad writing parroting racial essentialism. Side note: If you talk like this or think like this narrative, you are likely to fall for ethno-nationalism (you know, as if we didn’t have enough fascism right now), and furthermore you are an asshole and I want nothing to do with you.

The actual racism within the film is so badly written it feels gauche even for the author of My Immortal. The writer (whose previous films garnered a 0% and a 37% on rotten tomatoes) even went so far as to trot out that treasured phrase all fanfiction authors use: “Your Kind.” Every attempt at showing a microaggression was offensive in how overdone it was. This is a genre steeped in racial anxiety since day one and all you thought to do was whitewash Dracula of all people and also make one of the maids asian? I had to stifle a laugh in several places during The Invitation, because for as much as I wanted to razz the film, laughing at what’s been set up onscreen as a Serious Racist Offense isn’t great optics, no matter how wattpad-esque the writing.

On the subject of fanfiction, this is basically what the plot of The Invitation was. The entire setup is My Parents Sold Me To 1D, except it’s just a weird abstraction of Dracula. The plot revolves around our Singular Black Character (An orphan!) finding long lost british ancestry with landed gentry who invite her out to a wedding where she, a broke college student artist with a dead end job, is whirled away to a world of lavish beauty and servants who keep disappearing (WHERE do they find replacements and are the benefits just that good?) She then falls in love with bad boy Zayn The Impaler who woos her by not being like other rich titled british moneyed heirs, only for the twist to be that he just wants her to join his vampire harem that needs three wives from three royal houses or whatever.

It gets a bit murky after that and I went to the bathroom a couple times to have a panic attack because the movie wasn’t scaring me enough I guess, but the point I’m making here is that I’ve written higher concept Nick Jonas/Shrek fanfiction. I’m surprised the script didn’t have the main character listed as “Y/N” to be quite honest.

Even as I write SO many words on a film I’m begging you not to see, (Blair Butler, if you’re reading this I want to collaborate and make your next film worse but in a fun way), I’m noticing a trend in larger B-movie cinema as of late. Marry me, The Lost City, and now The Invitation all have absolutely fanfiction-level premises and writing. I say this in a manner that is neither charitable nor pleased.

This isn’t a Netflix original, nor is it name-swapped fanfic adaptation drivel like 50 shades (unique market segment of enticing female versions of guys who think Joker and Harley are couples goals) or After (unique segment of women who already read the 1D fanfic this was based on). This is supposed to be a B movie for goodness sake, why is it this bad! “No Fighting, this is the war room!”

Oh yes, this is about vampires. Sunlight doesn’t hurt them but they still sleep during the day. Also your dracula needs to be married to three of them for some reason. It keeps the houses of parliament balanced or something. Racism stops mattering at some point here, probably around the fifth keybump or so, but one of the vampire wives is Slavic Elvira and the other is implied to be Lucy Westrena. The Harkers show up as an older couple devoted to Dracula’s service--a little fanfic-style cameo--and I laughed louder than I should’ve at the pure hackery of it all. I once wrote a steampunk avengers fanfic on the Lego Dot Com Message Boards with more nuance than that.

This whole movie had such a promising basic framework (old world vampires force an inexperienced American woman into a shotgun/stakepoint wedding at an isolated estate, commentary on systemic issues to follow) and fell so hard and disappointed me more that any B movie should.

One thing this movie did, even with flat and uninspiring camerawork, was manage to look very pretty. Partly set design and partly gorgeous colorwork, I think we’ve finally hit the point that B movies of the past did, where they can end up very pretty even with no artistic ambition, but this time it’s not the natural beauty of film stock, it’s a top notch colorist. I really hope this trend continues, but not the careers of the director and writer. Go see Nope instead, I think it’s still in theaters.

[slimlastforskolins]

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Amazon Wedding Series Details

Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Amazon Wedding Series Details

Wedding bells are ringing againfor Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra because they’ve just signed on to executive produce their own wedding-inspired TV show on Amazon — so please consider my schedule completely booked from here on out. The unscripted series, which is currently casting, will focus on the Sangeet, a traditional Indian ceremony that takes place the night before a wedding. The…

[yaz-the-spaz]

Do you think Joe Jonas and Sophie are really together and really have a baby? I’m curious what you think since you have followed three fake 1D pregnancies and I think you said you were a Jonas Brothers fan. Sorry if I’m mixing you up with another blog! I’m not in the JB fandom but I occasionally read about them and I like Joe and Sophie as people. But the way their relationship and Nick & Priyanka’s relationship have been portrayed in the media seems PR/bearding to me.

i am indeed an og jobros fan (been so since about '07) and i agree with you about the way both brothers' relationships have been weirdly pushed to the fandom and portrayed in the media (esp inserting all their wives into the music vids and whatnot and making most early comeback promo all about their marriages/wives, ugh no thank you). but i have to admit i've kinda tuned most of the relationship stuff out the same way i often do for ot5, though that tuning out is prob on a much heavier scale for the jobros these days cause 1) i just don't have the energy lol and 2) i've first and foremost ALWAYS been here for the music above everything else when it comes to any musicians i like. (my paying as much attention to personal lives or relationships like i have for ziam/ot5 was a novelty tbh, and probably a standalone from any other music/artist-related fandoms i have been or will ever be in)

that said, from the little i've seen/heard of things, nick's is absolutely a pr relationship and i believe that with my whole soul. i don't feel like i need a lot to go on to see that they don't really have much chemistry or seem compatible as people. ofc i could always remain to be surprised but i don't think i will. they'll probably get quietly divorced in another couple years/whenever the contract becomes less advantageous or they get tired enough of each other.

as for joe & sophie, it's harder to tell...again, possibly cause i just haven't paid close enough attention to things. but on the surface i will say they seem genuinely very compatible and warm/cute and friendly together so even if it isn't legit, i think there is some degree of friendship (or some sort of positive working relationship and some common interests/personality traits) there at least. although like i said, i could be wrong and just be being fooled by the few surface interactions i've seen and my not paying closer attention.

HOWEVER

the pics i've seen of them out and about with the baby were indeed what caught my eye and made me more genuinely start wondering if there was something a little odd there as it rings a little too closely with z's "family outing" pics wherein joe looks about as interested to be there as eleanope at a louis concert lol. which is to say he's often on his phone/looking away/standing or walking like 500 feet away with around 2 feet of space from sophie or the stroller when he's not looking bored af pushing it (or looking like he could care less about having to be out with them on a pap walk), and from what i could see never actually holding the kid himself. it definitely looks odd, but again i'm not as up on the details and from what bits i did see of sophie's pregnancy and their relationship beforehand from dating to the marriage things def looked a lot more "normal" than they ever did w/ z*gi or ch*am or laya (though ofc normal is relative lol, esp in the world of pr dating and closeting. but like at least joe&sophie had actual freaking baby bags and blankets while out, didn't take their newborn out in the middle of fucking snowstorms in the middle of the night where literally zero other grown adults even felt safe enough to be outside, and sophie got photog'd with a legitimate pregnant belly out and about multiple times and not weirdly trying to hide it, etc.). i will admit the vegas wedding was a tad weird and out of left field but at the same time still felt very much in character for joe's rather eccentric personality (and sophie who seems like a bit of a weirdo in a fun way too from what i've seen of her lol). so all that in mind i'm still inconclusive on them (the pics could just be happenstance cause maybe he just didn't want him or his family being dragged through obligatory pap walks by whoever greenlit it and that was his way of getting through it, or was genuinely just killing time while they walked, or maybe there really is something larger there idk)...i'm keeping a very tiny corner of an eye on it, and an open mind to multiple possibilities, but just don't have enough info (or motivation) to dive into it enough to really say anything conclusive for sure 🤷🏽‍♀️

[taylortruther]

Nick Jonas and Pryanka Chopra announced they just welcomed a baby and some swifties are telling me Taylor can’t be engaged/married without us knowing?! Like yes they had a surrogate but the birth certificate has their names on it.

idk if nick and priyanka have the same media interest as taylor, especially because they're already married. taylor is kind of like today's jennifer aniston, don't you think? other celebrities are very famous too, but taylor's love life specifically is of VERY high interest to tons of people/magazines/etc. which is why an engagement or wedding would be hard to keep under wraps.

that said, if any super-famous human is going to pull off a secret engagement or wedding, it's taylor. she knows how thinks work, she's ambitious and detail-oriented enough to make it happen, and her inner circle is tight. it would be difficult but i think she could pull it off... with some luck on her side, too.

also i do think the fandom overestimates how much taylor would care if people found out about a wedding, specifically. i think she'd work harder to keep an engagement under wraps.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust, Volume 7, Number 7

What are Grandbrothers doing to that piano?

Greetings from under the heat dome, where shipments of vinyl are melting mid-journey and even the coolest of cool jazz sounds a little wilted by the time it reaches your ear. We are sitting in the shade. We are drinking lemonade and iced tea. We are looking for the window fans and lugging old air condition units up from the basement. We are, perhaps, headed to the community pool for the first time since our kids were young, though also, perhaps not. In any case, we are still getting through piles of recorded music, even in this heat, and finding some gems. Here are dispatches from the furthest reaches of Japanese psych, European free jazz, self-released indie folk, Irish lockdown angst, Moroccan raging punk and lots of other stuff. Contributors included Mason Jones, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Tim Clarke, Bryon Hayes, Jonathan Shaw, Arthur Krumins and Chris Liberato. Stay cool.

Yuko Araki — End of Trilogy (Room40)

End Of Trilogy by Yuko Araki

These 16 tracks whoosh past in just 35 minutes, with most of them clocking in around two minutes in length. Many don't reach a conclusion: they simply end abruptly, and the next one starts. Araki manipulates electronics to create whirling, sizzling atmospheres of confusion, sometimes fast-moving burbles of percussion and synths, at other moments pushing distorted hissing and confrontational tones to the front. The aptly-named "Dazed" begins with a cinematic feel, then its galactic drones give way to static and metallic scrapes. "Positron in Bloom" is like a chorus of machine voices shouting angry curses into space, and "Dreaming Insects" sounds as if the titular creatures are being pulled downstream in fast-moving rapids. Oscillating between menacing and humorous, End of Trilogy's bite-sized pieces of surrealist electronics are never boring.

Mason Jones

 Alexander Biggs — Hit or Miss (Native Tongue Music Publishing)

Hit or Miss by Alexander Biggs

Alexander Biggs blunts sharp, stinging lyrics in the sweetest sort of strummy indie-pop, working very much in the Elliott Smith style of sincerity edged with lacerating irony. “All I Can Do Is Hate You” finds a queasy intersection between soft pop and tamped down rage, Biggs murmuring phrases like “I want you to fuck me til I can’t say your name,” but melodically, over cascades of acoustic guitar. “Madeline” is the pick of the litter here, a dawdling jangle of guitar framing knife-sharp lyrics about romantic disillusionment. “Miserable,” sports a bit of lap steel for emotional resonance, demonstrating once more, if you had any doubt, that very sad songs can make you feel better somehow. Biggs is good at both the softness and the sting, and for guy-with-a-guitar albums, that’s what you need.

Jennifer Kelly

 Christer Bothén 3 — Omen (Bocian)

Omen by Christer Bothén 3

Dusted’s collective consciousness has spent a lot of time considering Blank Forms’ recent publication, Organic Music Societies, which considers Don and Moki Cherry’s convergence of artistic and familial efforts during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the two archival recordings by Don and associates, which shed light upon his Scandinavian musical activities. All three are worth your attention, but their liveliness is shaded by the awareness that almost every hopeful soul involved is no longer with us. But Christer Bothén, who introduced Don to the donso ngoni and subsequently played in his bands for many years, is not only among the living, he’s got breath to spare. This trio recording doesn’t delve into the African sounds that bonded Bothén and Don. Rather, the Swede’s bass clarinet draws bold and emphatically punctuated melodic lines, driven by a steaming rhythm section that takes its cues from Ornette Coleman’s mid-1960s trio recordings. This music may not sound new, but it’s full of lived-in knowledge and vigor.

Bill Meyer

Briars of North America — Supermoon (Brassland)

Supermoon by Briars of North America

New York-based trio Briars of North America take patient, painterly, occasionally cosmic approach to folk music. With “Sala,” Supermoon sounds like a backwoods Sigur Ros. A falsetto voice intoning a made-up language arcs elegantly over sustained waves of electric piano. Soon after, the album touches down into more grounded guitar-and-cello territory on pieces such as “Island” and “Chirping Birds,” which bring to mind Nick Drake, albeit less contrary or withdrawn. At the album’s midway point, the listener is carried into the aether with the eerie sustained brass and wordless vocals of the eight-minute “The Albatross of Infinite Regress.” A similar space is explored at the album’s end with the 12-minute “Sleepy Not Sleepy,” as strings and warbling synthesizer tones intermingle with the return of the made-up language. Though the band’s more conventional vocal-led songs, such as “Spring Moon,” are decent enough, Briars of North America touch upon something expansive and ineffable when they explore their more experimental side.

Tim Clarke

 Bryan Away — Canyons to Sawdust (self-released)

Chicago-based actor, composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliot Korte releases music under the moniker Bryan Away. His new album, Canyons to Sawdust, begins with what feels like two introductions. “Well Alright Then” is a Grizzly Bear-style scene-setter for wordless voices, strings and woodwinds, while “Within Reach” sounds like a tentative cover of Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” that runs out of steam before it had the chance to build momentum. The first full song, single “The Lake,” gets the album up and running in earnest with its melancholy piano and string arrangement spiked with pizzicato plucks and bright acoustic guitar figures. Half Waif lends her vocal talents to “Dreams and Circumstance,” another highlight featuring some lovely interplay between guitar arpeggios and drum machine. One pitfall of exploring romantic musical territory is the risk of sounding a tad saccharine, and the weakest links in the album, companion tracks “Scenes From a Marriage” and “Scenes From a Wedding,” have the kind of performative tone you’d expect to find on the soundtrack of a mainstream romantic comedy. Elsewhere, though, Korte’s judgment is sound, and there’s plenty of elegant music to be found. Fans of Sufjan Stevens will no doubt find a lot to like, and it’ll be interesting to see where Bryan Away ventures next.

Tim Clarke

 Jonas Cambien Trio — Nature Hath Painted Painted The Body (Clean Feed)

Nature Hath Painted the Body by Jonas Cambien Trio

On its third album, the Jonas Cambien Trio has attained such confidence that it’s willing to mess with its signature sound. The Oslo-based combo’s fundamental approach is to stuff the expressive energy and textural adventure of free jazz into compositions that are by turns intricate and rhythmically insistent but always pithy. This time, the Belgian-born pianist Cambien also plays soprano sax and organ. The former, stirred into André Roligheten’s bundle of reed instruments, brings airy respite from the music’s tight structures; the latter, dubbed into locked formation with the piano and jostled by Andreas Wildhagen’s restlessly perambulating percussion, expands the music’s tonal colors. The tunes themselves have grown more catchy, so much so that their twists and turns only become apparent with time and repeat listening.

Bill Meyer

Ferran Fages / Lluïsa Espigolé — From Grey To Blue (Inexhaustible Editions)

From Grey To Blue by Ferran Fages

When discussion turns to a pianist’s touch, it’s tempting to think mainly of what they do with their fingers. But it must be said that Lluïsa Espigolé exhibits some next-level footwork on this realization of Ferran Fages’ From Grey To Blue. Fages is a multi-instrumentalist who functions equally persuasively within the realms of electroacoustic improvisation and heavy jazz-rock, but for this piece, which was devised specifically for Espigolé, he uses written music and an instrument he doesn’t play, the piano, to engage with resonance and melody. The three-part composition advances with extreme deliberation, often one note at a time, turning the tune into a ghostly presence and foregrounding the details of the decay of each sound. This music is so sparse that the shift to chords in the third section feels dramatically dense after a half hour of single sounds and corresponding silences. The elements of this music have been sculpted with such exquisite control that one wonders if Catalonia has looked into insuring Espigolé’s feet; her way with the piano’s pedals is a cultural resource.

Bill Meyer   

 Grandbrothers — All the Unknown (City Slang)

All the Unknown by Grandbrothers

The duo known as Grandbrothers hooks a grand piano up to an array of electronic interfaces, deriving not just the clear, gorgeous notes you expect, but also a variety of percussive and sustained sounds from the classic keyboard. In this third album from the two—that’s pianist Erol Sarp and electronic engineer Lukas Vogel—construct intricate, joyful collages, working clarion melodies into sharp, pointillist backgrounds. The obvious reference is Hauscka, who also works with prepared piano and electronics, but rather than his moody beauties, these compositions pulse with rave-y, trance-y exhilaration. If you ever wondered what it would sound like if the Fuck Buttons decided to cover Steve Reich, well, maybe like this, precise and complex and shimmering, but also huge and triumphant. Good stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

 id m theft able — Well I Fell in Love with the Eye at the Bottom of the Well (Pogus Productions)

Well I Fell in Love With the Eye at the Bottom of the Well by id m theft able

Al Margolis’ Pogus Productions imprint has cast its gaze toward the strange happenings in Maine, netting a mutant form of electroacoustic wizardry in the process. Scott Spear is the one-man maelstrom known as id m theft able, an incredibly prolific and confounding presence in the American northeast. He draws influence from musique concrète and sound poetry, but adds a whimsical spirit, a tinker’s ingenuity and the comedic timing of a master prankster to his compositions. Sometimes this leads to the bemusement of his audience, but he tempers any surface madness with an endless curiosity and a playful sense of the meaning of the word music. Well I Fell in Love with the Eye at the Bottom of the Well ostensibly came to be via Spear’s desire to create a doo-wop tune. Only Spear himself knows whether this is fact or fiction, because it is clear from the opening moments of “Shun, Unshun and Shun” that this disc is full of sonic non-sequiturs, amplified clatter and delightful mouth happenings that are as far removed from doo-wop as possible. The madness is frequently tempered with beautiful moments: a broken music box serenades a flock of chirping birds in the middle of a mall, Spear hypnotically chants at a landscape of crickets, flutes pipe along to the patter of rain on a window. As one gets deeper into the record, the sound poetry aspects become more and more pronounced, such as on “The Curve of the Earth” and the closing piece, “Purple Rain.” Those seeking a humor-filled gateway drug into that somewhat perilous corner of the sonic spectrum would be wise to pop an ear in the direction of this frenetic assemblage of sound.

Bryon Hayes

Mia Joy — Spirit Tamer (Fire Talk)

Spirit Tamer by Mia Joy

Mia Joy turns the temperature way down on gauzy Spirit Tamer, constructing translucent castles in the air out of musical elements that you can see and hear right through. The artist, known in real life as Mia Rocha, opens with a brief statement of intent in a one-minute title track that wraps wisps of vocal melody with indistinct but lovely sustained tones. The whole track feels like looking at clouds. Other cuts are more substantial, with muted rock band instruments like acoustic and electric guitars and drum machines, but even indie-leaning “Freak” and "Ye Old Man,” are quiet epiphanies. Rocha sounds like she is singing to herself softly, inwardly, without any thought of an audience, but also so close that it tickles the hair in your ears. Rocha closes with a cover of Arthur Russell’s “Our Last Night Together,” letting rich swells of piano stand in for cello, but tracing the subtle, undulating lines of his melody in an airy register, an octave or two higher. Like Russell, Rocha sets up an interesting interplay between deep introversion and presentation for the public eye; she’s not doing it for us, but we’re listening anyway.

Jennifer Kelly  

 Know//Suffer — The Great Dying (Silent Pendulum Records)

The Great Dying by KNOW//SUFFER

It’s not inaccurate to describe The Great Dying as a hardcore record. You’ll hear all the burly breakdowns; buzzing, overdriven guitars; and grimly declaimed vocals that characterize the genre, which since the mid-1990s has moved ever closer to metal. But Know//Suffer have consistently infused their music with sonic elements associated with other genres of heavy music. Most of the El Paso band’s 2019 EP bashed and crashed along with grindcore’s psychotic, sprinting energy. The Great Dying is a longer record, and it slows down the proceedings considerably. There are flirtations with sludge, and even with noise rock’s ambivalent gestures toward melody: imagine Tad throwing down with a mostly-sober version of Eyehategod, and you’re more than halfway there. As ever, Toast Williams emotes forcefully, giving word to a very contemporary version existential dread. But there’s frequently a political edge to the lyrics on this new record. On “Thumbnail,” he sings, “I swallow what must be hidden / Hoping assimilation makes me whole / The whole that everyone thinks I am / Smiling under this mask knowing / I’m not hiding my face in public.” “Assimilation” is a loaded word, especially on the Southern Border, and it’s no joke walking around in public as a proud black man anywhere in Texas. Wearing a mask as you walk into Target? P.O.C. stand a chance of getting shot. Know//Suffer still sound really pissed off, but the objects of their anger seem increasing outside of their tortured psyches, located in the lifeworld’s social planes of struggle. That gives their grim music an even harder charge, and makes Williams’s performances of rage even more powerful.  

Jonathan Shaw  

 Heimito Künst — Heimito Künst (Dissipatio)

HEIMITO KÜNST by Heimito Künst

The debut album from Italian experimental instrumentalist Heimito Künst, recorded over several years in his home studio, uses an array of electronic and primitive instrumentation to create an overall woozy, dark atmosphere. From groaning, atonal slabs of organ, like a detuned church service, to murmuring field recordings and scrapings, these seven tracks are less like songs and more like unsettling journeys through sound. Pieces like "Talking to Ulises" blend quiet Farfisa tones and a wordlessly singing voice in the distance. Ironically, although the final track is titled "Smoldering Life", it's unexpectedly brighter, with major-key synth notes over the cloudy sound of a drum being bashed to pieces before ending with an almost gentle, summertime feel.

Mason Jones

Jeanne Lee — Conspiracy (moved-by-sound)

Conspiracy by JEANNE LEE

Lots of 1960s and 1970s jazz reissues offer beautiful music, but few redefine how liberating improvised music can be. Conspiracy, originally recorded in 1974 by Lee on vocals with an ensemble that includes Sam Rivers and Gunter Hampel, falls into the latter category without feeling forced. It combines sound poetry, the conversation of spontaneity, and grooves that don’t stay on repetition but still get ingrained into your brain somehow. Best digested in a contemplative sitting, the album demands you give your whole attention to the direction of the music and words mixed with extended vocal techniques. The sound shifts from a full-on medley of flutes, drums, bass and horns with voice, to more minimal experiments. The recording is clean and uncluttered, even at its busiest. A lushly enjoyable listen.

Arthur Krumins   

 Sarah Neufeld — Detritus (Paper Bag)

Detritus by Sarah Neufeld

Sarah Neufeld’s third solo album grew out of a collaboration with the Toronto choreographer Peggy Baker, begun before the pandemic but dealing anyway with loss, intimacy and grief. The violinist and composer works, as a consequence with a strong sense of movement, underlining rhythms with repeated, slashing motifs in her own instrument and pounding drums (that’s Jeremy Gara, who, like Neufeld, plays in Arcade Fire). You can imagine movement to nearly all these songs. “With Love and Blindness” rushes forward in a wild swirl of strings, given weight by the buzz of low-toned synthesizer and airiness in the layer of denatured vocals; you see whirling, bending, graceful gestures. “The Top” proceeds in quicker, more playful patterns; agile kicks and jumps and shimmies are implied in its contours. “Tumble Down the Undecided” has a raw, passionate undertow, its play of octave-separated notes frantic and agitated and the drumming, when it comes, fairly gallops. This latter track is perhaps the most enveloping, the notes caroming wildly in all directions, in the thick of the struggle but full of joy.

Jennifer Kelly

Aaron Novik — Grounded (Astral Editions)

Grounded by Aaron Novik

Aaron Novik is a clarinetist with an extensive background in jazz, klezmer, rock and in-between stuff, but you wouldn’t know any of that from listening to this tape. Its ten numbered instrumentals sound more derived from the sound worlds of 1970s PBS documentaries, Residents records of similar vintage, and Pop Corn’s fluke hit, “Pop Corn.” Recorded during the spring of 2020, when Novik’s new neighborhood, Queens, became NYC’s COVID central, it manifests coping strategy that many people learned well last year; when the outside world is fucked and scary, retreat to a room and then head down a rabbit hole. In this case, that meant sampling Novik’s clarinets and arranging them into perky, bobbing instrumentals. The sounds themselves aren’t processed, but it turns out that when recontextualized, long, blown tones and keypad clatter sound a lot like synths and mechanized beats. There’s a hint of subconscious longing in this music. While it was made in a time and place when many people didn’t leave the house, it sounds like just the thing for outdoor constitutionals with a Walkman.

Bill Meyer  

 Off Peak Arson — S-T (Self-released)

Self Titled by Off Peak Arson

Presumably named after the Truman's Water song — a fairly obscure name check, indeed — Off Peak Arson hail from Memphis, TN. Their debut EP's five songs are less reminiscent of their namesakes than of heavier, noisier bands like Zedek-era Live Skull, Dustdevils and Sonic Youth. Which is not a bad thing at all. The four-piece leverage the dual guitars to nicely intense effect, and with all four members contributing vocals there's a lot going on, at times blending an interesting sing-song pop feel with the twisty-noisy guitar. The band have a way of finding memorable hooks amidst sufficient cacophony to keep things challenging while also somehow catchy. Keep your ears open for more from this quartet.

Mason Jones

 Barre Phillips / John Butcher / Ståle Liavik Solberg — We Met – And Then (Relative Pitch)

We met - and then by Phillips, Butcher, Solberg

In 2018, ECM Records issued End To End, a CD by double bassist Barre Phillips which capped a half-century of solo recording. You might expect this act to signal the winding down of the California-born, France-based improviser’s career; after all, he was born in 1934. And yet, in 2018 he played the first, but not the last, concert by this remarkable trio, which is completed by British soprano/tenor saxophonist John Butcher and Norwegian percussionist Ståle Liavik Solberg. Recorded in Germany and Norway during 2018 and 2019, this CD presents an ensemble whose members are strong in their individual concepts, but are also committed to making music that is completed by acts of collective imagination. The music is in constant flux, but purposeful. This intentionality is expressed not only through action, but through the conscious yielding of space, as though each player knows what openings will be best occupied by one of their comrades.

Bill Meyer

Round Eye — Culture Shock Treatment (Paper +Plastick)

“Culture Shock Treatment,” the lead-off track from this unhinged and ecletic album, swings like 1950s rock and roll, a sax frolicking in the spaces between sing-along choruses. And yet, the gleeful skronk goes a little past freewheeling, spinning off into chaos and wheeling back in again. Picture Mark Sultan trying to ride out the existential disorder of early Pere Ubu, add a horn line and step way back, because this is extremely unruly stuff. Round Eye, a band of expatriates now living in Shanghai, slings American heartlands oddball post-punk into unlikely corners. Frantic jackhammer hardcore beats (think Black Flag) assault free-from experimental calls and responses (maybe Curlew?) in “5000 Miles, “ and as a kicker, it’s a commentary on ethno-nationalist repression (“Thank…the country. Thank…the culture”). “I Am the Foreigner” hums and buzzes with exuberance, like a hard-edged B-52s, but it’s about the alienation that these Westerners most likely experience, every day in the Middle Kingdom. This is one busy album, exhausting really, a whac-a-mole entertainment where things keep popping out of holes and getting hammered back, but it is never, ever dull.

Jennifer Kelly

 So Cow — Bisignis (Dandy Boy)

Bisignis by So Cow

This new So Cow record is a mood. Specifically, that mood during the third and “least fun” of Ireland’s lockdowns, when you head to your shed and bash out an album about everything that’s been lodged in your craw during a year of isolation — including, of all things, the crowd at a Martha Wainwright show (on “Requests”). And while sole Cow member Brian Kelly might have dubbed the record Bisignis, the Old English word for anxiety, it’s his discontent that takes center stage. “Talking politics with friends/Jesus Christ it never ends” Kelly sings on early highlight “Leave Group” before employing a guitar solo that could pass for some seriously fried bagpipes to help clear the room. This album takes the opposite approach of The Long Con, the project’s 2014 Goner Records one-off where So Cow made more complex moves towards XTC and Futureheads territory but obscured its greatest weapon: Kelly’s deadpan wit. And while a couple of these songs overstay their welcome with their sheer garage punk simplicity, others like “Somewhere Fast” work in the opposite way and win your ears over with repeat listens. “You are the reason I’m getting out of my own way,” Kelly sings, and in doing so has produced the project’s best full-length in a decade. So what? So Cow!

Chris Liberato 

 Taqbir — Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Victory Belongs To Those Who Fight For A Right Cause by Taqbir

In our super-saturated musical environment, another eight-minute, 7” record of scorching punk burners isn’t much of an event. But the appearance of Taqbir’s Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause (the title is almost longer than the record itself) is at the very least a significant occurrence. The band comes from Morocco and features a woman out front, declaiming any number of contemporary socio-political ills. So there’s little wonder that the Internet isn’t bursting with info about Taqbir; you can find a Maximumrocknroll interview, some chatter about the record here and there, and not much else. It must take enormous courage to make music like this in Morocco, and even more to be a woman making music like this. The long reign of King Mohammed IV has edged the country toward marginal increments of cultural openness — if not thoroughgoing political reform — but conservative Islam and economic struggle are still dominant forces, combining to keep women relegated to submissive social roles. And the band is not fucking around: their name is a Moroccan battle cry, synonymous with “Alu Akbar!” Their repurposing of that slogan in support of their anti-traditionalist, anti-religious, anti-capitalist positions likely makes life in a place like Tangier or Casablanca pretty hard. The songs? They’re really good. Check out “Aisha Qandisha” (named for a folkloric phantasm that ambiguously mobilizes the feminine as murderous and rapacious monster): the music slashes and burns with just the right dash of melody, the vocals go from a simmer to a full-on rolling boil. Taqbir! y’all. Stay safe, stay strong and make some more records.

Jonathan Shaw

 TOMÁ — Atom (Self-Release)

Atom by TOMÁ

Tomá Ivanov operates in interstices between smooth jazz and soul-infused electronics, splicing bits of torchy world traditions in through the addition of singers. You could certainly draw connections to the funk-leaning IDM of artists like Flying Lotus and Dam-Funk, where pristine instrumental sounds—strings, piano, percussion—meet the pop and glitch of cyber-soul. Guest artists flavor about half the tracks, pushing the music slightly off its center towards rap (“A Different You featuring I Am Tim”), quiet storm soul (“Outsight featuring Vivian Toebich”), falsetto’d art pop (“Catharsis featuring Lou Asril”) or dreaming soul-jazz experiments (“Blind War featuring Ben LaMar Gay”). Thoughout, the Bulgarian composer and guitarist paces expansive ambiences with shuffling, staggering beats, roughing up slick surfaces with just enough friction to keep things interesting.

Jennifer Kelly  

 The Tubs — Names EP (Trouble In Mind)

Names EP by The Tubs

“I don’t know how it works” declared The Tubs on their debut single, but they’re diving right in anyways on its follow-up, Names, with four songs that explore the self and self-other relationship. Their cover of Felt’s “Crystal Ball” tightens the musical tension of the original in places but still allows enough slack for singer Owen Williams to stretch the lyrical refrain — about the ability of another to see us better than we see ourselves — into a more melancholy shape than Lawrence. Of the EP’s three originals, Felt’s influence is most obvious in George Nicholls’ guitar work on “Illusion,” especially when the change comes and his lead spirals off Deebank-style behind Williams while he questions his connection to his own reflection. “Is it just an illusion staring back at me?” “The Name Song” is the longest one here at over three minutes, and in a similar way to The Feelies, it feels like it could go on forever, which might prove useful if Williams adds more names to his don’t-care-about list. “Two Person Love” is the best track of the bunch, though, with its classic sounding riff that swoops in and out allowing room for the chiming and chugging rhythm section to do the hard work. The relationship in the song might have been “pissed up the wall,” as Williams in his Richard Thompson-esque drawl puts it, but The Tubs certainly seem to have figured out how this music thing works.

Chris Liberato

 Venus Furs — S-T (Silk Screaming)

Venus Furs by Venus Furs

Venus Furs sounds like band, but in fact, it’s one guy, Paul Krasner, somehow amassing the squalling roar of psychedelic guitar rock a la Brian Jonestown Massacre or Royal Baths all by himself. These songs have a large-scale swagger and layers and layers of effected guitars, as on the careening “Friendly Fire,” or hailstorm assault of “Paranoia.” A ponderous, swaying bass riff girds “Living in Constant.” Its nodding repetition grounds radiating sprays of surf guitar. You have to wonder how all this would play out in concert, with Krasner running from front mic to bass amp to drum kit as the songs unfold, but on record it sounds pretty good. Long live self-sufficiency.

Jennifer Kelly

 Witch Vomit — Abhorrent Rapture (20 Buck Spin)

Abhorrent Rapture by Witch Vomit

Witch Vomit has one of the best names in contemporary death metal (along with Casket Huffer, Wharflurch and Snorlax — perversely inspired handles, all), and the Portland-based band has been earning increasing accolades for its records, as well. They are deserved. Witch Vomit plays fast, dense and dissonant songs, bearing the impress of Incantation’s groundbreaking (gravedigging?) records. Does that mean it’s “old school”? Song titles from the band’s previous LP Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave (2019) certainly played to traditionalists’ tastes: “From Rotten Guts,” “Dripping Tombs,” “Fumes of Dying Bodies.” And so on. This new EP doesn’t indicate any significant changes in trajectory or tone, but the songwriting makes the occasional move toward melody. See especially the second half of “Necrometamorphosis,” which has a riff or two that one could almost call “pleasant.” If that seems paradoxical, check out the EP’s title. Is that an event, a gruesome skewing of Christianity’s big prize for the faithful? Or is it an affective state, in which abject disgust somehow builds to ecstatic transport? Who knows. For the band’s part, Witch Vomit keeps chugging, thumping and squelching along, doling out doleful songs like “Purulent Burial Mound.” Yuck. Sounds about right, dudes.

Jonathan Shaw

 yes/and — s-t (Driftless Recordings)

yes/and by yes/and

This collaboration between guitarist Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and producer Joel Ford (Oneohtrix Point Never) is an elusive collection of shape-shifting instrumentals. Each piece is built around Duffy’s guitar, yet the timbre and mood tends to switch dramatically between tracks. The album’s run-time is fairly evenly split between dark, atmospheric pieces, such as “More Than Love” and “Making A Monument,” and hopeful, glimmering miniatures, such as “Centered Shell” and the wonderfully titled “In My Heaven All Faucets Are Fountains.” “Learning About Who You Are” looms large at the album’s heart, as nearly eight minutes of hazy, wind-tunnel drone pulses and reverberates across the stereo space. Despite the variation in tone, each track stakes out its own territory in the tracklist, and it’s only “Tumble” that comes across as an unrealized idea. While it’s only half an hour, yes/and feels longer, its circuitous routes opening up all kinds of possibilities.

Tim Clarke

[tabloidtoc]

Star, December 28

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: The Kardashians in ruins 

Page 1: Fans jumped to conclusions when Taylor Swift who is known to drop hints about her personal life in her music videos posted a teaser shot for her new clip for Willow of herself in a lacy dress and floral headpiece looking very much like a blushing bride -- Taylor and boyfriend Joe Alwyn have been talking weddings and they initially discussed throwing a big bash in Joe’s native England but they’ve reconsidered since holing up in Taylor’s farm outside Nashville so now they’re just going to go ahead and get married in a small romantic ceremony and forgo the church wedding and elaborate reception since they are super private and prefer to do things out of the spotlight 

Page 2: Contents, Heather Rae Young scoped out wedding dresses with Chrishell Stause by her side 

Page 4: Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio are heating up the Boston set of their movie Don’t Look Up where their chemistry is off the charts even though both are seriously taken: Jennifer is wed to Cooke Maroney and Leo’s been dating Camila Marrone since 2017 but Jennifer and Leo have always had a flirty rapport whenever they bumped into each other at awards shows and other industry events -- Jennifer’s husband Cooke could be annoyed with all the flirting even if the actors are keeping things professional and as for Camila she finds his connection with Jennifer pretty intimidating 

Page 5: There’s plenty of tension on the set of The Morning Show now that Julianna Margulies has joined Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston on the series -- Jen wasn’t in on the decision to add Julianna to the cast and is miffed she wasn’t consulted and doesn’t understand why Reese insisted bringing Julianna on board and she’s just plain hurt that the new arrival has been getting so chummy with her BFF and Julianna and Reese are whispering behind everybody’s backs and barking orders like they own the place and they’re not even inviting Jen to lunch 

* Olivia Jade Giannulli addressed her part in the $500,000 bribe that ensured her entrance into USC and sent her parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli to prison and reactions to her appearance were harsh with a typical commenter calling her smug but she thinks she did well and figures this will be good for her career as a social-media influencer 

* Martha Stewart has been flourishing during lockdown and a new photo shows her looking beyond refreshed leaving some to wonder if she’s doing more than nibbling her new CBD gummies to look so good

Page 6: Kelly Clarkson’s divorce from Brandon Blackstock may be getting ugly but her ex-mother-in-law Reba McEntire is standing by her side even though it can get a little awkward at time but nothing is going to get in the way of Kelly and Reba’s relationship 

* A slew of A-listers are about to be dragged into Johnny Depp’s defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard as shocking new court papers allege that Johnny had affairs with a bevvy of his costars including Angelina Jolie and Keira Knightley and Marion Cotillard and must submit all responsive communications with them -- the women are mortified and embarrassed they’re being pulled into Johnny and Amber’s tawdry split while for his part Johnny flipped out when he learned he needed to produce his communications with these women and he’s calling the tactics lowdown and disgusting 

* Star Spots the Stars -- David Beckham, Chrissy Teigen, Carrie Underwood, Gal Gadot, Floyd Mayweather, Nick Offerman, Hilaria Baldwin 

Page 8: Star Shots -- Audrina Patridge and her daughter Kirra out in Beverly Hills, Pete Wentz let his bleached hair down during a tennis game in L.A., Joe Jonas and wife Sophie Turner walking with their daughter in a stroller in L.A. 

Page 10: Steve Martin took his meal to go during a break from filming Only Murders in the Building in Central Park, Josh Duhamel and his son Axl enjoyed a playful romp in the grass, Paris Hilton and Carter Reum celebrated their one-year anniversary in Bora Bora 

Page 11: Diane Keaton jokingly flirted with the men watching on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in Burbank, Sir Michael Palin brought the laughs during his appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show in London 

Page 12: ‘Tis the Season -- Kristen Taekman left a nursery in Encino, a decked out Lil Nas X and Ellen DeGeneres opted for a safe season’s greetings by bumping elbows on the talk show 

Page 13: Brooke Burke was all smiles shooting content for her fitness app in Malibu, Niecy Nash and wife Jessica Betts kicked off their first holiday season as a married couple in plaid pajamas 

Page 14: Kylie Minogue performing on The Jonathan Ross show in London, Irina Shayk out and about with daughter Lea in NYC, Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld and a canine costar filmed scenes for Hawkeye in NYC

Page 15: Selling Sunset star Christine Quinn showing some major skin during a photoshoot in L.A., Antonio Banderas and journalist Maria Casado posed for photos at a presentation for their new Spanish television series Escena en Blanco y Negro in Malaga, Spain 

Page 16: Beach Babes -- Chantal Jeffries and boyfriend Drew Taggart in Miami, Mark Zuckerberg showed off his gliding skills on his $12,000 eFoil electric surfboard in Hawaii 

Page 17: Chris Pratt used his hoverboard as a weight after hitting the sand with his son, Julia Roberts enjoyed a solo stroll in Hawaii 

Page 18: Normal or Not? Vanilla Ice headlining the drive-in Winterfest concert in West Palm Beach -- normal, Demi Moore wearing big boxing gloves -- not normal, James Franco couldn’t go without his phone during a getaway in Mexico -- not normal 

Page 20: Fashion -- stars look timeless in black -- Sofia Carson, Nicole Richie 

Page 21: Taylor Hill, Vanessa Kirby 

Page 24: Like so many Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are putting their future on hold amid the global health pandemic and Gwen revealed that the two won’t even set a date for their nuptials in order to avoid a COVID situation that would require restrictions -- they have already nailed down a few details like the location which is Blake’s Ten Point Ranch in Oklahoma where he proposed inside a chapel Blake built for Gwen on the 1300-acre property

Page 25: Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox are embroiled in a bitter custody war over their sons Noah and Bodhi and Journey -- Brian responded to Megan’s divorce filing by requesting joint custody and spousal support and he’s in a non-negotiating mood and if she tries to take his kids it’s going to get ugly really fast 

* James Franco is ready to pop the question to girlfriend Isabel Pakzad and he’s been looking at rings -- dating since 2017 the two overcame a difficult time in 2018 after James was accused by multiple women of misconduct -- surviving that scandal and enjoying their time in lockdown has convinced James he’s found The One 

* Kristin Cavallari and comedian Jeff Dye who were first linked in October jetted off to Mexico for a fun getaway with friends where the couple smooched and danced and enjoyed cocktails and had a wonderful time in Cabo but Kristin isn’t looking for anything serious following her divorce from Jay Cutler 

Page 26: Cover Story -- the Kardashian empire crumbles -- with their show leaving the air early next year the Kardashian-Jenner crew could stand to lose it all -- ratings for Keeping Up With the Kardashians reached a new low before they pulled the plug and it’s obvious fans are losing interest and they spend money like it’s going out of fashion 

Page 30: A Spy at the Palace -- after a staff member steals more than $200,000 worth of her personal keepsakes Queen Elizabeth no longer feels safe in her home 

Page 33: Gone Too Soon -- a look back at the celebrities we lost in 2020 and the legacies they leave behind -- Naya Rivera, Kelly Preston, Regis Philbin 

Page 34: Kobe Bryant, Chadwick Boseman, Alex Trebek 

Page 40: Beauty -- pretty pout -- sparkly, shiny and matte lipsticks to rock this New Year’s Eve -- Rihanna 

Page 42: Entertainment 

Page 48: Parting Shot -- Vanessa Hudgens as host of the first MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time 

[unfortunate-arrow]

For the HPHM/HPMA ask : 4 and 7 for the Quadruplets ! 😊 I don't know if I already said but I love your blog and your dedication to your characters, it is seriously so amazing all the details 😍

Oh thank you! Very much! (Now I wanna make a bigger more detailed profile for Tadhg.) 

4.) Hogwarts house: Why did you choose that house? How did it influence their personality? 

Ryan is one of my two game characters. I’m pretty sure I chose Gryffindor at random. Gryffindor influenced his personality because he’s rather extroverted, bold, and kinda chaotic. It definitely made me make him rather loud and impulsive.

Sara is the other game character. I chose Hufflepuff for her because I’m a Hufflepuff. For Sara’s personality it was influenced by Hufflepuff by the fact that she’s a giant sweetheart. She embodies the idea that softness is not a weakness. She’s tough, but kind and has a really big heart. 

For Cara & Conor, who do not have game avatars, I decided that I’d rather have one of each gender with each of the more popular houses (because let’s face it, Gryffindor and Slytherin are the more popular houses), and one with the less popular houses. 

Slytherin influenced Cara’s personality by making her very ambitious and cunning. She’s willing to do some things that her other siblings aren’t. It’s also made her tougher in a way. (Slytherin has also endeared her, to a degree, to her uncle.) 

Ravenclaw influenced Conor’s personality by making him a tad quieter and reserved. It’s always been baffling to a larger portion of the Hogwarts student body how someone who can’t speak properly and well, the wizarding world wouldn’t really understand stuttering. It also helped me decide to make him the  only introverted O’Donnell kid. 

7.) Music: What kind of music does your MC like? What’s their favorite group/singer? Do they have a favorite song? What song(s) do you think would be their theme song? 

Conor in particular likes groups/singers. He doesn’t have any specific genres, except maybe alt rock. His favorite group is The Who. He likes the album Who’s Next the most, favoring “Bargain,” “Love Ain’t For the Keeping,” and “Behind Blue Eyes” the most. His theme song would be Johnny Cash’s cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” 

Sara prefers pop or alt rock. She likes Duran Duran, R.E.M., U2, and The Cure, but doesn’t really care as long as it’s not screaming music. Her favorite song is “New Moon on Monday” by Duran Duran. Two of her theme songs would be “Rose-Coloured Glasses” by Blue Rodeo and “Who I Am” By Nick Jonas and The Administration. (Sara also has a giant soft spot for Elvis Presley after June 30, 1997 because he became her and Barnaby’s music thing.)

Cara prefers rock. She likes The Weird Sisters and The Rolling Stones the best. Her favorite song is “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones. One of her theme songs (that can also apply to Sara) is Speechless from the live action Aladdin. 

Ryan also likes rock. He likes The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. His favorite song is “Love is Strong” by The Rolling Stones. He also is partial to “In My Life” by The Beatles, as it is also his and Penny’s wedding song. One of Ryan’s theme songs would be “Unsteady” by X Ambassadors. 

HPHM/HPMA asks

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #287

“keep him tied - it makes him well / he’s getting better, can’t you tell?”

What are you favorite things to watch on YouTube? I like a pretty big variety now. I’d say I’ve been mostly into pet YouTubers lately, especially reptile ones. Oh, and WoW stuff. Can you pick out any constellations in the sky without looking them up online? Besides the Little or Big Dipper (idk which is which), nope. Are you religious? If so, what influenced you to start believing God? If you’re not religious, what convinces you there is no God? I wouldn’t call myself religious, no. I do believe there’s some kind of ultimate power, but hell if I know what it is, and I don’t actually worship it. I don’t believe any “good” god would demand kissing its feet in order for you to end at peace, among a billion other reasons. I believe there is something though because the odds of life and everything is just… too perfect. Plus I believe in the paranormal, so to me, there is obviously something beyond the mortal form. Is there any animal out there that genuinely terrifies you? Is this an animal you’re worried about coming across in daily life? I am terrified of ticks and parasites in general. They’re fucking disgusting. Maggots will also make me scream. Oh, and then there’s whale sharks. In my daily life, I wouldn’t say there’s any that I actively worry about crossing paths with. When was the last time you wore make-up? Around Halloween when Summer, me, and another of her friends did a witch-themed photoshoot. It really fucking sucks that it was so dark by the time we were done that the pictures came out absolutely awful. You can’t see shit, and of course on camera, I look absolutely awful. Have you ever worn colored contacts? No, but I’m totally not opposed for a cool photoshoot. Have you seen any of the Disney re-makes (eg. Aladdin or The Lion King)? What do you think of them? I’ve seen a good number, and I really like them. I think The Jungle Book remake was the best of them. How long did it take you to pass your driving test once you started learning how to drive? Ha, I still haven’t tried. When was the last time you went out for a formal occasion or event? Do you remember what you wore? Uhhhh… I have zero clue. Well, does my last job interview count? I just wore black sweatpants and some kind of formal top. How often do you have the TV on? is it more background noise or are you actually watching things? Y’all know by now that I don’t watch TV. Do you like any songs by Elvis Presley? Well of course. “Devil In Disguise” is my favorite. Do you ever answer the phone to unknown numbers? Nope. Do you eat anything special for breakfast on Christmas Day? Nah. When you go to theme parks, what’s your favorite type of ride? I haven’t been to a theme park in beyond forever, so idk. Are you afraid of falling in love? Ohhhhh yes. Expecting something to change in the next month? No. e_e What is your biggest worry in life right now? That Mom’s cancer will come back. Well, it IS going to eventually flare somewhere else, but no one can estimate when. Could be tomorrow. Could be years. Do you give up easily? It depends. With a lot of things, honestly, yes, because I get upset with my incompetence. What are you listening to? "Going To Hell" by The Pretty Reckless just came on. Is anything bothering you right now? Always. Were you ever made fun of? Yes. Are you currently jealous? I’ve been having episodes of it. Do you find piercings attractive on the opposite sex? I find them attractive on almost all people. Who was the last person you yelled at? I don’t know. Probably Mom. What do you say a lot? “Mood,” “lmao,” “can’t relate,” “same,” “oof,” “yikes,” shit like that, haha. What is your favorite place you have traveled? Chicago. Do you like ice cream? Yeah, that’s my comfort food. Do you like bananas? Yeah, but I don’t dare to eat one if I haven’t had my heartburn medication, because otherwise I get it BADLY. Do you like Paramore? A handful of their songs, yeah. I don’t know a lot though, honestly. Do you plan on getting married? It’d be nice. Ever been given a promise ring? No. Sexual orientation? Bi. Who do you text the most? Definitely Sara. Do you still talk to the person who hurt you most in life? Why or why not? No, because he wants nothing to do with me. I don’t blame him. Have you ever given your number to a complete stranger? Um, no. Well, besides in like, job applications. What color is your keyboard? Black. Your mouse? Mostly black, but it does have this crackled pattern that can glow blue or red. Desktop or laptop? I prefer laptops for mobility’s sake. Do you like sweet tea? I hate tea. How much sugar do you put in your tea? ^ Have you ever called someone useless? Wow, no. Do you have a wood or glass dining room table? Wood. Do you tend to get attached easily? HOLY GOD OF FUCK, YES. Is Joe Jonas really hotter than Nick? I haven’t seen either in god knows how long, but I remember I thought Nick was very cute. Favorite flavor pudding? Chocolate is the only kind I’ve enjoyed. Not that I’ve tried a lot. What are three words used in your area/dialect that many other areas/dialects wouldn't be familiar with? Oh, there are most certainly some, but I can’t think of any right now. How do you feel when your partner is talking to an ex? This would depend on a lot of things. What is the most expensive gift you have ever given? Received? Given, I’m really unsure. I answer enough questions sharing that I don’t have my own source of income, so a lot of times, my mom lets me use her money, but there is obviously a ceiling to how much I can use. Received, definitely my Sager laptop Jason got me one year. Do children like you? I’m always surprised that kids seem to… I don’t know how the hell to interact with kids, but parents tend to tell me that they do like me. If you found your child's diary would you read it? What if you found the diary of one of your parents? Hell no would I read that shit. Both deserve privacy. Have you ever stalked or killed a wild animal? Fuck no. Name something you are now prepared to reveal about yourself that you weren't ready to talk about in the past? The state of my virginity. Name a talent someone has of which you are jealous: I am soooo envious of talented and actually successful photographers. What would you most likely complain about in a hotel? Probably if the bed sheets seemed dirty. Is it possible to be in love with more than one person at the same time? Probably. I’m monogamous though, so I really can’t say because I haven’t experienced this. Do you often feel pressured by others? Society, yes. Should couples live together before marriage? I feel that it’s the better decision, yes. You may not blend well actually sharing the same house. You learn things about your partner. How would you feel attending the wedding of an ex? It would depend on the person. Girt or Sara? I would love to. As a matter of fact, I better be invited lmao. Jason? I couldn’t in ten trillion years. Fiction or nonfiction. I strongly prefer fiction. Can you can lie with a straight face? Yes, if it’s something little. Name three things you have experienced that would shock your parents: Probably just sexual stuff. Do you believe in using the silent treatment? No. I’ve sure done it before, but I’d like to think I’ve grown out of this. Communication is where it’s at. Your most embarrassing thought: *shrug* Your most prejudiced thought: I don’t know. I don’t think I’m very prejudiced. A shameful moment for you: The situation w/ Joel. The biggest gamble of your life: Deciding to drop out of college the last time. Who knows if that was a good choice or not… It’s too early to tell. What is your greatest weakness as a friend? Idk off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s something. Do you feel better when you have a tan? Nah, I like being pale. I did go through a period in HS of using tanning lotion on my legs though because I was self-conscious of JUST how pale they were. Do you sometimes enjoy being mean? ”I don’t think so. Maybe like... in certain contexts. Like being mean in video games can be really fun sometimes, haha. And being a little mean in a kink setting can be fun too.” <<<< This. Are you high maintenance? Definitely not. Has anybody ever told you that you’re too young to be in love? I think my dad has, just indirectly. Did you learn anything from the last BIG mistake you made? Yes. Do you have a favorite brand of shoes? Yeah, Converse. Do you like rollercoasters with big drops? I’m afraid of rollercoasters so have never been on one. Do you have any inside jokes with your parents? Not really. Have you ever thrown a surprise party for somebody? I don’t think so? Do you know who your mom’s favorite singer is? Oh, she’s totally obsessed with James Hetfield/Metallica. What year were you born in? 1996. What is your favorite card game? Magic: The Gathering, even though I was never great at it or totally understood all the rules. I just adore the artwork, and I like the detailed tactics behind it. Have you ever tried to surf? Nah. Do you want to learn? Nah. Have you ever had a song dedicated to you? What was it? Let’s not with this. What color eyes does your best friend have? Brown. Have you ever been on a blind date? Nah. Which one of your family members do you wish you could see more often? My brother and his son. I got really close to my nephew the last time they visited for a few days. What room in your house is the messiest? Right now, the extra bedroom that I want to make my dayroom. A lot of our “extra” stuff is just shoved into there. Have you ever requested a song on the radio? No. Are you proud of your parents? Yes. Have you ever (accidentally or not) set off a car alarm? I think I accidentally have before. Do you have dimples when you smile? Yes, way more prominently on my left cheek though. Do you find graveyards scary? No. They’re peaceful to me. Have you ever carved anything into a tree? I don’t think so. Do you read those celebrity gossip magazines? Ew, no. Celebs deserve privacy. Do you give or get advice more often? Well considering I’m in therapy, probably get. Did the last type of shoes you wore have laces? No. Do you like the picture on your license/I.D. card? FUCK no. When was the last time somebody hit on you? Idr. Which one of your friends do you feel most comfortable around? Sara. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food? Just pass me the rolls lmao. Who did you last spoon with? My cat lmao. What was the last video game you played? I don’t recall the last console game I played, so does World of Warcraft count, even tho it’s a computer game? When you’re in trouble, do your parents ever “middle name” you? Ha, my mom will sometimes. Does getting sweaty or dirty bother you at all? If so, has it ever put you off doing exercise? Very much so. I suffer (and I DO mean “suffer”) from insane hyperhidrosis, so I sweat my ass off if I so much as twitch, if even that. I just hate feeling gross. Have you ever thought about how you want to spend your retirement? No, honestly. It’s hard for me to imagine even *getting* to retirement. Would you describe yourself as healthy? Why or why not? No. I’m physically and even more mentally not okay. Do you miss anything about being a teenager? If you are a teenager, what’s your favorite thing about it? Yeah, some things. Though I really don’t even want to think about it. I look back on me being a teen with both wistfulness as well as bitterness. I don’t know which is stronger.

[geenalovesthelittlethings]

I just watched Nick Jonas and Priyanka vogue wedding video quiz thing. I questioned Priyanka asked nick was ‘what did she wear on their first date’ and Pri just wrote down “tee shirt and pants” and nick went into SO much detail... red lip, hair parted down the middle.... that’s so H

PLEASE THAT’S SO CUTE. YOU’RE RIGHT. He’d have it all down to the jewelry and probably what perfume she was wearing. 

[lisettefoix]

CONSIDER ADOPTING ... the Duke of Debrecen

name: UTP or Vilmos di Savoia Anjou age: 30-35 years old. title: Duke of Debrecen fc: Nick Jonas, Jesse Williams, François Arnauld, Michael Ealy, Chris Evans, Joseph Morgan, UTP connection: ex-husband - bad ending. inspo: XXX trigger warnings: miscarriage

may 2003; The first time they meet Lisette is 13. She’s in a new country, alone for the first time in her life. Her parents sent her over for the summer, to met him and spend time with him. She doesn’t speak a word of Hungarian, or English. They spend most of the summer avoiding looking at each other, their eyes reminding the other of their life sentence. 

2004; By 14 she’s back. She’s made friends with the princess and speaks Hungarian now. Small sentences, thick accent, butchered words. Vilmos would have been flattered when she walked into the great walls of the Budapest castle with decided steps and stopped before the boy and said good morning as if she’d been practiced all year. But he wasn’t the boy she was standing before. 

2006; By 16 no one is really sure how she wormed her way in with the prince - Levente is a figure of court. Stern, unfriendly, intimidating. He respects men who he considers strong. He’s kind to his sisters. Yet he talks with this french girl who smiles to big and laughs too loud and makes cookies and cakes and dances with every boy who asks her even if her feet bleed in the meantime. She’s perfectly lovely to him. The picture of the fair lady of the court. His father says she will make the perfect wife to get him far. Yet he hasn’t managed an actual conversation yet.

2009; They marry when she’s 18. She smiles as they pick the flowers but never says what she would prefer. “Tulips and Iris. Hungary and France” for the colors red and gold. Red that their countries share and gold of aristocracy. Her words are still to perfect. To rehearsed

2011; They struggle to conceive. They’re so young yet everyone expected it sooner. The scrutiny brings them together instead of pushing them apart. They’re both just doing the best they can with the lives they’ve been given. Once it happens they lose the child. He only finds out she prefers daisies because it’s all she receives in the hospital. “It’s my name. Lisette Margarite”. He thinks Daisies fit the fragile girl.

june 2011; she disappears soon after leaving the hospital. She leaves only a note saying she needs time. He doesn’t hear from her for months and once she back she’s different. Holds herself differently. She doesn’t say it but he knows there’s someone else. He knows she can no longer look at him and their life the same way after it. The divorce is brutal for both. Her family stops speaking to her, his makes sure he knows he should have never allowed it to happen. You just don’t end a marriage because you're miserable. 

june 2012; when he sees the picture of her and the prince a lot kicks into place. 

2018; he hasn’t heard of her since the Hungarian news detailed her break up with Prince Levente in 2014. A new wedding is now how he expected to learn from her. Andorra’s old king. She’s Duchess of Foix and annexing a country into her duchy. He can’t consolidate those words with the girl of his memory. 

other possible plots: 

part of the Savoia Clan - Antonia's son. Check family out here (so many family connections in the rp already)

his family is trying to lay claim to the duchy of Transilvania as it was theirs before the separation of the Austrian-Hungarian empire. and they’re not about to sit down and let EVERYONE ELSE get land out of this war. 

he’s unaware but Lis is gay and lowkey still in the closet so a “way you’re ALSO gay? and REPRESSED? that makes so much sense” plot twist.

OR lowkey out to steal @sylvivs to get back at @lcvcntc cause he’s petty.

ohhhhh or maybe @miilenv 👀 pls

bffs with @isvbclv because i’m sure she loves anyone who hates Levente?

[aleckindawrites]

Goodbye Love

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Carol x Reader

Description: request. “ wedding bells by nick Jonas for a carol x reader? angstt “.

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol and alcohol consumption

A/N: I love so much this request, thank u sooooo much. I really enjoyed writing it and I hope you like it too. Also soooooo sorry for the delay

Looking back, maybe things could have gone differently. Carol knew that, as well as Y/N. Even knowing that deep down they both knew it was fate for things to go this way, no matter how hard they would try to change it, how hard Carol tried to change it. Now, she could only hope for a second chance, even when that possibility was way too far gone.

Carol put on a jumpsuit that resembled more to a suit than it would do to a dress. After everything that had happened this past five years, it was nice to think she could have a day off. An Avengers only reunion in which she could finally tell you what she has been keeping from you for a time now. 

...

Kilometres away you were preparing yourself too for the Avenger’s party. Taking from your closet an outfit that it would rarely leave said closet, but you felt like this was an especial occasion. After all tonight you were going to see your friends, almost, altogether after the events that lasted 5 long years. You do the final details in your outfit and hair, making sure you look okay. Taking a last look in the mirror and finally leaving your apartment.

You found yourself at the party quite early. People were already there, of course, but no one seemed drunk or tipsy at least. You go around looking at the familiar faces around you. People arriving slowly. Old and new friends coming in. 

It didn’t take long for you to get tipsy, but it was only after an hour or so that you could say that you were drunk. You could only imagine the hangover you would have tomorrow, but tonight it didn’t matter. After all the events of the past five years, the snap, the time travel, the loss of friends and the final battle, all you wanted was to forget and have some fun. 

At that moment is when you saw Carol, memories flowing back. A smile on your face and a little pain in your gut, those were good times, you don’t regret them, but you wouldn’t go back to them.

...

Carol found herself at the party looking for you. As much as she tried not to. Eventually some 30 minutes after her arrival she found you, sitting at the bar asking for a drink. She made her way through the crowd until she sits next to you and asks for a drink too. 

She takes a sip and looks at you, not sure how to start the conversation. Even though she already had a couple drinks she can only begin to feel how the alcohol is setting in. Not enough yet to do a stupid thing, but here she was, about to talk to you. The one she was sure was her soulmate.

“Hi” that is all that Carol manages to say, but it sure caught your attention. 

You turn to look at Carol and smile. “Hi” you answer simply “Gosh, it seems like ages since we’ve seen each other! How are you?”

Carol cannot help but chuckle a little at the way you speak. She can tell that you are clearly drunk already. Maybe you won’t remember all this tomorrow. Maybe if she tells you now it won’t matter. “Yeah, I’m good, and you?”

“I’m living life! I’m happy, finally after all this time! Can you believe?” Carol cannot help but smile. A warm feeling invading her body. They are happy, that is all Carol could have asked for. She looks at you with love in her eyes and a smile that fills her whole face.

“Hey,” you say almost in a whisper move your chair a little closer to Carol and she can feel your warmth. She can feel you so close to her, that is difficult to keep a steady breath.  "Can you keep a secret? A ceremony set for June” you pause and just for a second, but that is enough for Carol to feel how the warmth in her stomach starts turning into a knot “I know it's a rush but I just love him so much” Your boyfriend, Carol knew that. “I hope that you can meet him soon...” The last part a little hopeful, a little sad.

Even when you were drunk Carol didn’t take long to catch on. The smile that she was wearing just from seeing you quickly fades. The warmth that she felt inside her body getting changed into a fire of jealousy and hate. Not to your boyfriend, not to you, but to her. 

She hated that she let you go in the first place and that she knew that you left because of her. Because Carol was always busy, always working, never giving time to you, never even remembering the important dates that you put so much effort into. It was all her fault. Of course, you had moved on, it had been three years since your break up. Three years. You got your second chance, you got a better life. Her mind was clouded. She was put on the spot, and maybe you had noticed it, maybe not.  Carol could feel something break inside of her. 

 “Would you be there? After all, you are my best friend”

No, I don't wanna love If it's not you I don't wanna hear the wedding bells prove That we can't try One last time