#dad Paul adjacent

[underthecitysky]

Dad Paul adjacent content

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Full doc here

From Beatles and Cavern Club Photos page on Facebook (x)

[stardust-sunset]

i put my playlist on shuffle right and the squip song came on and now im just thinking about a be more chill au. but like adjacently.

walk with me por favor. im thinkin paul would simultaneously be rich and darry's squip simply bc im positive he's an absoulutely horrible influnce and is always telling darry "it's really not that bad, and besides if anything happens, my dad will bail us out" and darry who just wants to fit in with the socs so so bad always ends up going along with it (nvm the fact that 6/10 times paul's dad does in fact not bail darry out)

STOP I JUST HAD AN IDEA WITH MICHAEL IN YHE BATHROOM BEING TWO BIT WHEN DARRY LEAVES HIM FOR PAUL

that sounds so cool tho oh my gosh :( Also I don’t remember who said this but “Good For You” from Dear Evan Hansen is SO the gang when Darry almost goes Soc. (I don’t remember who originally said this but if I find them I’ll tag them) but OUGH the whole Darry almost going Soc thing is soooo much fun because his popularity from when he met Paul (8th grade) skyrockets by the time he’s almost graduating. Except he was seen as just another greaser until Paul befriended him.

There’s so much here that’s unspoken…AGH

[mywifeleftme]

298: Wolf Parade // Apologies to the Queen Mary

Apologies to the Queen Mary Wolf Parade 2005, Sub Pop

Apologies to the Queen Mary is on the short list of ‘00s indie records that I’d consider masterpieces. The funny thing is that my list, as someone who was there (or there-adjacent), is pretty well fixed in time, whereas the consensus among Zoomer critics continues to morph in ways I’d never have figured. (Or maybe it’s not funny, really—just always how time and memory work.) In 2008, I would’ve bet my left pinkie that TV on the Radio (and especially Return to Cookie Mountain) would be the defining band of the era. Meanwhile, in 2024 the Killers are still riding the same five songs to a second greatest hits record and fifty times TVotR’s monthly residuals; the National have tween fans; and I hold a mug weird. Time clowns us all and Wolf Parade are a dad band now, owners of a few anthems from the era before genuinely weird indie bands could near the summits of the pop chart, economically compelled to continue touring small theatres together despite both Boeckner and Krug having been more invested in other, even less profitable projects for some time now.

Wolf Parade is one of those bands with two lead singers who sound indistinguishable before you know the group well, and instantly identifiable thereafter (like John and Paul of the Beatles, or Felix and Will of Chapo Trap House). They’re both yowlers who let their voices crack pubescently as shorthand for the frayed emotional spectrum they traffic in, given to barking and hooting to help drive their bric-a-brac compositions forward. Boeckner is a lanky post-punk looking fuckboy in roughly the Richard Hell mould, given to posing sweatily in torn undershirts and starting projects with a succession of raven-haired keyboard players he’s also dating. He loves motorik dance rock and Wire, but also has a substantial helping of Bruce Springsteen in his songwriting. Krug is a stocky, normal-looking guy who doesn’t really meet your eyes and self-deprecatingly called his solo project Moonface. He writes lyrics that sound like philosophy and love letters translated from an alien language, and prefers his music to both thwack and quaver.

Their similarities give Wolf Parade coherence, but much of their dynamism comes from how the two singers pass the controls back and forth. Backed by electronics tinkerer Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson, a drummer (crucially) capable of serving as a rhythm section unto himself, Krug and Boeckner find the perfect balance between Krug’s experimental art collective predilections and Boeckner’s slyly sexual rock ‘n’ roll heart. Krug leads with the empty warehouse strut of “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son”; Boeckner parries with the hooky acoustic rocker “Modern World”; Krug closes with the brittle seven-minute dirge “Dinner Bells”; Boeckner responds with the pinkly-hued Suicide-Springsteen collab “This Heart’s on Fire.”

Both Boeckner and Krug have made wilder, stranger music elsewhere, and there are plenty of other brilliant Wolf Parade songs to be found across their subsequent records. But Apologies remains the greatest blend of their particular talents they ever managed, a perfect example of two guys pushing each other to do their best work. With luck, a future generation will reconsider Wolf Parade and its many, many satellites (Sunset Rubdown, Operators, Handsome Furs, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Divine Fits…) as one of the most interesting micro-scenes the whole post-alternative rock era produced. And if not, I’ll still be here spinning the record a few times a year, believing in it all all over.

298/365

[popculturebuffet]

Christmas in July: Jingle Belle: Ring a Ding Jing (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hohoho all you happy people. Christmas in July is almost done and i'm almost out of here. For now though we have some more presents to plop down your chimeny

No no we're not there yet. Get back in the cage mickey rooney. No today's present is another look at Jingle Belle, a character created by DCAU legend Paul Dini.

Since it has been a few years, a quick recap: Jingle Belle is santa's 20 something but actually pretty dang old daughter who gets into trouble and stuff. That's... pretty much it.

Okay THAT'S pretty much it. He's done occasional stories with the characters at a bunch of diffrent indie comics companies. Kev's a fan so he asked me to cover some more.

So with that we can get to today's story which involves casinos, the mafia, the rat pack and jing becoming a mob boss. You know christmas! Under the cut!

Ring a ding jing is a two issue story from a 2004 mini series done by dark horse.. which the image above lets you know, the previous two being the previously covered special christmas special.

Now that's out of the way we begin with a letter to santa: An old friend of his is asking for help, Bud Coleman, a kind old man who's been running a santa theme park in lake tahoe since 1962 which santa came to see open himself. I do like this bit, that santa took the time to help an adjacent park open and gave it his blessing. Feels very santa. He writes back he unfortunately CAN'T hlep but before he can provide presumibly some advice.. our heroine comes in

I hate to take sides.. but Rusty.. you brought this on yourself. He was trying to borrow her snowboard.. without asking her and when again she put a keep out sign. Immature.. yes. Clear as fuck? Yes. Implies Rusty does this shit a lot? Also yes.

So santa in his "infinite wisdom" decides to send jing to help this poor old man.

Seriously just... this whole story is at least 20% Santa's fault for sending Jing down there, knowing both what she's like. Granted I can't completely fault him for not thinking this goes where it goes, it's a bit chesnuts and not roasted on an open fire, but he still should've known this wouldn't end well. IT's why the ending dosen't sit right with me but we'll get to that.

For now Jing flies in and is unimpressed with what's left of the park, if nice to bud. Sadly the parks in deep disrepair, the rides busted, the reindeer replaced with a very good boy, and Bud's wife having been seriously injured in a fruit cake accident and really needing a doctor but not getting one because Trauma is funny right? I mean if it happens to a house cat named tom sure

But in this case meh. Jing needs twelve million dollary doos for her plan to save the park, but hears bud's friends joking about him being part native american and that gives her an idea: GAMBLING. She plans to turn part of the park into a casnio. Bud's not sure but Jing's got the charisma to talk him into this. She then gets busy grabbing some of her dad's staff specifically

Well a wolverine that fights a robot to test it for santa, but he acts like logan so he counts dammit. She grabs a few menehunes, some slot machine parts, paul anka and some cocaine. you know the things you need for a good casino.

So naturally when Bud gets back, he finds his park has been turned into a nightmare

Bud is naturally.. horrified by all this. Except the house band, they fucking rip. But wolverines as bouncers, lemmings as servers and something called

Ah yes the most iconic of x-men, texas murder alligator. Side note ask Gail Simone to add Texas Murder Alligator to her run. He really needs the work.

Bud is horrified with Jing wondering if she screwed up.. but he's pacificed a bit by the profits since it's more than they've made in 20 years. Jing naturally has let the success go to her head but soon has to deal with the greatest monster in gambling

But since that all happens in a tie in issue we instead see her get abducted by the mob. Specifically Leo Gatch, who runs all the casino's in the area and is impressed with her work.. but wants his cut. Jing refuses and he responds by telling her "Join up or get your legs broken" We end the issue on that cliffhanger.

So naturally she escapes.. by summoning a giant reindeer named thrasher. Or goat. Whatever he is he's got the poots and poots on gatch as jing runs away

So Jing comes back and Bud about dies when he finds out who Jing just pissed off wanting to apologize. We soon find out naturally letting a teenager telling a mob boss to go jerk off in a lake has consequences, as Gatch has cut off the food and entertainment. Jing being responable and entirely likeable.. decides not to. I like this panel of her going beetlejuice over her frustration at the situation before deciding to fight dirty

So she fights back. She has wolverine deliver a message telling Gatch

Has him eat his whole buffet and then invite him to see their new act

Yes Jing has brought in toy versions of the rat pack who are loyal to her and help throw gatch out, though she did skimp on the accuracey a little what with frank going AGAINST the mob, but ey creative lisesnce and all that. She also clearly hates Dean martin as he's the only one to get a joke at his expense. Or paul dini does and that sir I just don't understand.

Meanwhile Bud has to turn some kids away and realizes "maybe this giant casino war with anamatronic dean martin has gotten jus ta wee bit out of hand. "

Anyways Gatch heads back to fly in some muscle to break her legs and kidneys, but finds his casnio is super paying out. Turns out the people he told to fix the machines> He then passses out and awakens. Jing has taken over and plans to become queen of lake tahoe and then the rest of the world.

Sadly she forgot about her dad... who i'm suprised she dosen't just throw out as he found out about the scheme. And here's that part where I don't like him... he outsourced this to his michevous daughter, didn't bother to look into what she'd just requested when she came back and grabbed a bunch of his pepople for her scheme and didn't think to do ANY followup till bud called him. I'm not saying Jing's out of the clear, she lied to a man, turned his park into a casino without his consent, got into a war with someone very clearly part of the mafia, and then planned to become queenpin. She done fucked up, but multiple people can fuck up and it's hard to feel bad for santa when HE SENT HERE THERE. He sent her to his friend and while as I said at the top, he couldn't of seen THIS coming, he should've seen something going horribly wrong coming and maybe sent one of his elves to look after her.

Bud is closing down the casino part, so the war with gatch isn't an issue: he got enough to renovate the park and that's all he really wanted. Him calling santa in is a nice touch: it's one thing to make money they badly need to remodel, the rides were out of date and needed to be refurbished or replaced. That's fine. It's another to turn his place into casniopolis.

Gatch and Jing don't get off the hook though just because this solved all his problems: Gatch is let go, having claimed to learn his lesson.. but is told by santa to donate to several charities. Which is a slap on the wrist but given what Jing's put him through, I doubt he wants to piss off Santa as he won't play as dirty but he will play to win. Jing is left.. handing out fruitcake.

This two parter is.. decent. The idea isn't terrible, but Jing feels very one dimensional mostly either being manipulative or angry in the first half and the setup is nonsenical. Again Santa, why did you think sending your teenage daughter fresh off nearly murdering her cousin would work?

But honestly the jokes do help: from a wolverine refrence, a cheap pop for yours truly, to the rat pack, the picked up screwball pace of the second half really helps the story and the ending does mostly work. I just would prefer if th efirst half had more jokes than "Jing thinks starting a santa casnio is a good idea" as a santa themed casino isn't that shocking to me or over the top. It probably exists. Now elves fixing machines, a wolverine eating his buffet and anamatronic rat pack that's my forte.

So overall a solid story just not a lot to talk about. You'd think they'd have more but i'm wrong.

[streetlights-all-turn-blue]

About the things Paul writes feeling true - that was what I meant, you put in into better words. It's relatable. My dad had the Sounds of Silence album too! I remember going through his records and seeing that one. I might have listened to it, but it's been so long since I've been able to listen to any vinyl. (And the marrying thing ... I might not have honestly thought I would marry him but my friend and I were still super into The Monkees and dreamed about being with Peter and Mike, so ... I feel that, haha.) As far as Beatles albums ... my favorites are Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Abbey Road & Let It Be. I have good memories of all of them. Abbey Road & Let It Be were on the same tape someone made for our family when I was growing up, and we played it a lot when we were doing chores, so whenever I hear those albums I feel like I want to clean up ... do you have any music like that? Albums or songs that make you feel like you have to do something in particular?

Do you have any favorite holiday albums/songs or films? My mom was obsessed with Christmas stuff growing up so I'm kind of burnt out on a lot of it. I like chill instrumental holiday music for the most part, but I also like some of the rock/oldies songs. My stepmom used to do a thing where everyone in the house picked a movie that would get packed away with the Christmas decorations, so we could only watch it at that time of year. She and my dad even put their own movies in there. Mine was Yellow Submarine! They even put a yellow sub ornament on their tree for me every year.

Hope you've had a good Thursday! 🌼

I love that your family had Sounds of Silence on vinyl when you were growing up! Do you feel like your musical taste was very influenced by your parents? I feel like there are threads of my parents’ preferences in my taste, like my dad loves The Who and The Beach Boys and we had the soundtrack to American Graffiti playing on the record player constantly. My mom is a big classical/classical adjacent fan and I still listen to that music a lot and grew up doing violin and piano and singing in chorus.

Abbey Road and Rubber Soul i think are my favorite Beatles albums but I also really love A Hard Day’s Night and Help! I definitely have albums that remind me of doing specific things - when one of my friends from growing up got her drivers license we drove around blasting REM and so I always feel like i should go on a drive when i hear them.

I like holiday music a lot and particularly holiday music that’s on the more classical side. Pop holiday music is fun but i don’t really choose to listen to it - do the holiday songs that Simon & Garfunkel did count here? I really love listening to them and their songs Comfort and Joy and Star Carol, and their Silent Night layered over the news clips. My favorite holiday album is probably one called Songs of Joy and Peace by Yo-Yo Ma. He plays the cello with some popular artists like James Taylor and does several versions of Dona Nobis Pacem with the various instrumentalists that are all unique and pretty. I also like listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons a lot during the holidays for some reason! I like your holiday movie tradition! I think we watched The Sound of Music a lot at the holidays while growing up? I am not sure if it was just playing or whether my parents picked this!

Thanks for chatting - hope you had a good weekend!

[lonniemachin]

1, 4, 8, and 12?

“What about comics do you love” ask game

1. Who's your favorite character and why?

most obvious answer in the world if you know me or follow me anywhere but anarky the first/moneyspider/lonnie machin. i’d say “i couldn’t even tell you why” but i think there are a lot of little answers. he’s a very endearing character who initially aligned well with my personal beliefs and as Cringe as it may sound helped me find a label for those and through talking about him i’ve met some wonderful friends. he’s got a lot of depth that is very fun to analyze, a lot of potential that you could do so much with, a good and fun personality, and a lot to say if in the hands of a writer who’s willing to say it and do it respectfully. he plays off of other characters very well (i personally think he’s good at standing alone too) and his creators loved him very much. plus, when an anarky story is good, it’s *good*. i could get into how interesting i find both the in-text and the meta adjacency to the mythos of batman and robin he resides in and like anything else about how he actually is as a character because this isn’t even everything but that’d make this paragraphs long. i’m like a proud dad showing my coworkers (comics tumblr users) pictures of my kid. and despite him being dead and his characterization put through the blender i am still here.

4. What's your favorite comic book friendship?

since i already answered booster gold and ted kord for another comics ask game i’ll switch it up this time and say, out of the comics i’ve read so far, i really love dick and donna’s. they aren’t my favorite but they’re certainly up there. they’re practically siblings, dick walked donna down the aisle at her wedding, they’re there for each other and support each other through smaller tough times and bigger tough times. they’ve been so close for so long and mean the world to each other and it’s very sweet. 🥹✌️some other character dynamics i’ve been really into friendship wise lately are the kate kane, luke fox, and JPV trio from Rebirth TEC (and cass, babs, and JPV from no man’s land. all of jean-paul’s girl besties are lesbians) and of course the entirety of the JLI and YJ teams (plus some of those friendships distinctly, like Ted and Tora, Booster and Bea, Bea and Tora, Kon and Bart, Kon and Cissie, Cassie and Anita, etc…)

8. Who's your favorite artist (fanon or canon)?

for actual dc artists i have quite a few i like! not one favorite, but i enjoy norm breyfogle, todd nauck, rick burchett, tim sale, dan mora, and adam hughes to name a few! in terms of fanartists, too many, but i really love finalgirljasontodd, starfiretruther, bigturtl, and wiihtigo, to name another few :) go check ‘em out!

12. Share a sweet comic panel.

starts sobbing

[fbfh]

what are your height hcs for the hoo boys??

THANK YOU FOR ASKING ANON BC I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ON THIS!!!!!!!

First of all, it's established early on that "demigods are usually tall" which makes reasonable sense and I think it's safe to assume they're not ALWAYS tall yk. but I also would like address the whole gods don't have genetics thing real quick:

most of the demigods we've seen look a lot like their biological mortal parent, and since gods don't have genetics, its safe to assume they're just a genetic shuffle of their mortal bio parent (I'm sure I'm not the only one who's wondered if that would make them a genetic clone of their mortal parent but I think it would be more like genetic siblings, the same genes just mixed up a little) that also means there's room for recessive genes or stuff that skipped a generation on the mortal parents side. Not directly relevant but my thoughts adjacent to the topic at hand.

Also while I'm sort of on the topic, we all know hair color (specifically blonde, brunette, red, and black hair) is a state of being and not what hair you're given at birth. I could never bleach my hair again and I'd still be blonde yk. That being said most children of athena are ABSOLUTELY bottle blonde, and whenever someone new shows up that's not already blonde they're like "hey do you wanna dye your hair"

"...yes"

"you've wanted to for years right"

"...yes" new child of Athena has never felt more at home.

Actual answer to your question

Percy - 6'1, looks and acts like it too. Sally's family are average/tall ish so its not unreasonable, Sally is the shortest in her family at 5'4 (and Paul is around 5'9 if you were wondering)

Annabeth - 5'5.5 but says she's 5'6. Percy is the only one who knows and will not correct her ever. Her dad was 5'8 or so the last time he measured but he hasn't checked since before college and always forgets to check, kind of doesn't care that much. Her stepmother is 5'2 and she feels a little weird about being taller than her.

Grover - 5'6 - 5'8 depending on how stretched his legs are, a little bend at the hoof is comfier yk

Juniper - 5'6, the exact same height as her bush, her favorite trait about herself

Jason - 6'0 exactly, mans is already perfect and when people find out hes exactly 6' they get even more pissed. He looks exactly 6' too.

Thalia - was 5'4 now 5'5, seems taller. Big scary dog privelages. Gained an inch somehow after the tree incident. Freaked out /pos when she came to and saw lil Annabeth is now slightly taller than her. Annabeth feels weird about that too.

Piper - 5'7 with long ass legs. Has been BEGGED to model by so many agencies because she's physically incapable of taking a bad picture and looks gorgeous in everything (thanks aphrodite). Always refuses and has made it her mission to find the ugliest aesthetics but they always become microtrends because she's an involuntary nepotism baby. Her dad is 5'11 but his publicist will sue if you say he's shorter than 6'0.

Leo - 5'7 during the books, 5'9 by the time he graduates MIT. The perfect height for hugs and cuddles but I might be a little biased. His mom's 5'4.5, says she's 5'4.

Nico - 5'10, cried when he was 13 and realized he was taller than Bianca. Lowkey wishes he was shorter than Will so he could be the little spoon easier. Will does not give a fuck.

Bianca - 5'2, would have been 5'3. Their mom was 5'3 too.

Will - 5'8.5, when asked Nico interjects that he's "doctor height". Doctor height has become code for 5'8.5 specifically

Hazel - 5'2, doesn't know why Nico likes resting his head on her shoulder but she doesn't mind. Thinks it's just the bees knees when Frank picks her up and spins her around or gives her piggy back rides. She doesn't quite remember how tall her mom was, but she was around 5'4.

Frank - 5'7 pre blessing, 6'0.5 post blessing, 6'3 by the time he's done growing. Beefy build too. Definitely didn't know how to process the fact that he's taller than THE Jason Grace. His mom was 5'3 and his grandma was 5'1. Says he's 5'10 to mess with assholes who claim to be 6'.

Rachel - 5'3, The only person Annabeth likes being taller than.

Reyna - 5'4, memorized that she was 7 inches shorter than Jason when they worked together. Either he grew or she did, but she feels a little weird about it now.

C*lypso - asshole height. Jk little bitch height. Jk heinous shitlord height. Jk 5'7.5, made fun of Leo for being "short" when he was on Ogygia. She's gonna be half that height after I steal her kneecaps.

[runwithwolvcs]

You Know I'm No Good - nine

prove them right

Warnings: none

I have a happy personality with a heavy soul, it's very tiring.

Waking up the next day, Tallulah was more than confused. She remembered Paul driving her home, but not getting home. She must’ve fallen asleep, but that wouldn’t explain how she got into her house, let alone her bed. There was a throw blanket draped over that she quickly tossed to the side. She was still in her jean shorts and tshirt from the night before, which were the last of her clean clothes from her duffle bag, she groaned out loud, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, her stuff from Seattle still hadn’t arrived. She left her room, and knocked on the door next to hers, Lennas answered, clearly getting ready for work and raised one eyebrow at her half-sister, “Yes?”

“Can I borrow a hoodie, please.” She asked quietly, she's never had to ask to share clothes with anybody before, and only hoped this would go in her favour. Lenna sighed, and opened the door further, nodding her head in the direction of her closet.

Tallulah made quick work of the many hoodies Lenna owned, selecting an oversized red hoodie that had their school name on it. “Thanks, Lenna.”

“No problem. But, I get to borrow that brown flannel you own”

“Deal.” Tallulah agreed, throwing on the hoodie before leaving her to finish getting ready. She walked downstairs to the kitchen where she knew her dad would be, deciding there was no time better than now to ask about the Port Angeles trip with her friends from Seattle. She smiled at him as he looked up when she entered the room, “Good Morning, Tal.”

“Morning Dad.” She chewed her lip, before spitting out nervously, “Can I visit with my friends next friday? They’re going to be in Port Angeles.” she looked at her dad expectantly as he mulled over the idea, before ultimately shaking his head no, “I don’t think that's a good idea, Tally.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance, “What do you mean it's not a good idea!? They’re my friends who I have known since I was a kid! You let me go out with pretty much strangers just last night!” She nearly yelled, she was angry and annoyed that the level of control she had in current life felt like it was at zero. “These same friends that got you into all this trouble are the reason you are not going to see them.”Her dad's voice now raises slightly too, clearly she gets her ability to stay calm from him, or lack of.

“They didn’t get me into anything! I did that myself! Those were my choices. And maybe I shouldn't have. But I did, and now I’m here and you're refusing to let me move past them. It’s not fair!”

“You’re not going, Tally and that's final.” She spoke with such authority that she knew better than to argue.

“Fine!” she fumed, turning on her heels and heading for the front door. Grabbing her car keys as she did so. She slammed the front door as she made her way to her car, climbing in and slamming that door too. She rested her forehead on the steering wheel as she took a few deep breaths to collect herself.

After figuring she was calm enough to drive, she started the engine and pulled away from her house, following random roads with no destination in mind.

Turning right, a mix of stand alone stores came into view, Uley's BookStore amongst them. She could see Paul's blue truck sitting outside of it. She didn’t know exactly why, but she wanted to see him and before she could stop herself she was parking her car next to his and climbing out.

She walked into the store wearily, a small chime alerting that someone had just walked.

She spotted Paul almost immediately as he lifted his head up from his spot at the counter that he was occupying, pen in hand and papers all laid out, ‘Hey, you didn’t tell me you were going to stop by today.” he said, his smile mirroring her own. All anger from 15 minutes prior had left her mind, just from being in his vicinity. “Last minute decision.” Tallulah admitted,

“Do you work here?” she asked as she marveled at the petite shop, its painted a forest green colour with dark wooden bookcases. Some were already lined with books, others were bare. Tallulah assumed those were recently put together. There's a bright red spiral staircase that leads to the second floor in the corner of the room, adjacent to the door she had previously walked through. It felt so cozy and welcoming.

“No. I’m just helping Sam and Emily out.” he said, setting down whatever he had been working on before she had walked in.

“Oh. What do you do then?” she spoke as she continued to look around the store, “Did you build these yourself?” she asked, thoroughly amazed as she looked at him. Paul nodded, “I do lots of things.”

Tallulah tilted her head, clearly looking for more clarification.

“I, uh, fixed up Chief Blacks wheelchair ramp a while back and kind of just stuck with odd jobs like that around the rez. I liked to do something else eventually. When I’m able to settle down.” Paul spoke, watching her as she ran her index finger down the spine of a book. “Settle down?” she asked curiously, looking over her shoulder at him. He nodded in return, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, “I work for Sam mostly, but I don’t want to be doing that forever.” Tallulah held back the urge to roll her eyes, “Right, his little protection squad he’s got going on.” she turned back to the bookshelf she was looking at, picking a book up off the shelf to read the synopsis. “Is that what they’re calling it these days'' She nodded her head while still looking, “Yeah, and from what I’ve gathered you guys are a real pain in everyones ass.” she teased, thinking about the night before when he had showed up with Sam in the clearing. Paul laughed before saying, “I’ll tell you more about it another day. Can you help me with this?”. Tallulah nodded and walked to him, he was holding a wooden shelf against the wall, but it wasn’t quite centered. They traded places and began to adjust it, stepping back to make sure it was centered before marking the wall so that he could drill the wall studs. She could feel the heat radiating off of him, making her want to be closer than they already were. She shook the thought from her and handed him the shelf before making her way to another bookshelf that had already been set up and filled.

She found a book on Quileute legends that she had yet to hear about and plucked it off the shelf before making her way to the counter and hopping up, and reading the first few pages.

“Here. You’ll like this one.” she heard him say, looking up as he brought a book over to her. She placed the one she was currently holding beside before taking the one from his hands, reading the name out loud, “The Wolves Are Back”, Tallulah looked up at Paul amused, “Very funny.” Paul laughed lightly at her reaction, “You’re the one who wanted to know if there were wolves here,”nudging her teasingly, “And you said there are wolves in the forest!” she exclaimed, “and if a bear could wander close to the rez so could the wolves, plus I heard one earlier this week” she stated, and he nodded his head, no doubt. “You’ll hear them all the time, but they're deep in the woods. They don’t come anywhere near civilization.” he assured.

Tallulah and Paul stayed at the bookshop until dark. The more she got to know him, the more she realized she had misjudged him. They way he talked about his group of friends, especially Sam made her realize just how similar they were. Loyal to a fault.

It also made her realize how she could in fact go visit her friends with just a simple white lie. And sure, she was supposed to be spending her time in LaPush bettering herself, but clearly after what her dad said, they don’t think she can. That she will always be no good. She’s not going to change their opinions of her, so she might as well live up to their expectations of her.

Tags:@cperry0516 , @bhasbhabiessss, @fuzzyfingersandcavier

[burlveneer-music]

Woodford Halse - WF 38 - Undulating Waters 6 & 7 - just catching up with this label and their slew of releases in Hauntological and adjacent realms; 30 tracks between these two simultaneously-released original compilations

Suddenly aware, I became afraid. My surroundings became oppressive, dangerous. Streetlights glared down at me; crossings dared me to try my luck; a telephone box shook unendingly with the clanging bell of a call I dared not answer. I felt that I could not place my feet down too heavily or too permanently, somehow anxious that a snaking tendril might encircle my ankle, or the very concrete of the pathway open and snap around my boot like an animal trap. As I skipped nervously across the various graduated surfaces of what was once my domain, I must have looked like a demented Astronaut, or a Water Boatman in the last few frenetic days of its busy year of life. Hector, my companion and leading light, perhaps embarrassed by my uncoordinated perambulations, had disappeared. So much for canine loyalty. Without a guide, and increasingly apprehensive, I decided to head for the one place in Woodford Halse that might ostensibly provide me with some comfort, some quietus, perhaps, even, a cup of tea: my parents house, my house - Home. Paul Bareham

WF 39 - Undulating Waters 7 by Various Artists

When I left Woodford Halse twenty years ago, I did so without rancour, but also entirely without regret. It wasn’t the sort of place anyone lived in. It lacked scope, space, possibility. It was to the world what a model village is to a real city: small, staged, sterile - a facsimile of life. I hadn’t meant the break to be so definitive. Caught up in my own life and self-importance, I hadn’t been back more than three times in twenty years, never in the last decade. I kept in touch with my parents, of course, calling them once a week and occasionally meeting them at some equi-distant pub / restaurant for a mixed grill or Sunday Roast. It was a sad state of affairs. They deserved more. Perhaps this could be a turning point? At last, I came to my family home, the place I was raised, nurtured. I would be safe here. I put my hand on the familiar yellow gate. I didn’t even hear the retort of the rifle until the bullet hit me, slamming into my right shoulder like an angry bee. Dad was clearly home. Paul Bareham

[harpyloon]

“how’d we get so deep from just talking about bubble tea?" / f.w

Pairing: Fred Weasley x fem!OC

Warnings: Angst, mentions of food... also fluffy and cute!

Summary: Fred Weasley and OC Female character fight about bubble tea and it gets kinda angsty but not too much

A/N: Was supposed to be a Fred x Reader thing but i'm not too confident with my 2nd person writing skills yet. Viktoria is my Fred Weasley simp friend 🤪 but she can also be you! 

Also wanted to incorporate a bit of how Hermione mentioned the twins slightly affecting Ron's confidence in canon HP. Testing out the waters so let me know what you think! Hope there wasn't too much angst on here.

WC: 2.4k+

This is for you @weasleyclaw​

Read on AO3

"What in Merlin's pants is this supposed to be?"

Viktoria giggled enthusiastically against a wide-rimmed straw stuck between her teeth, watching Fred Weasley's perplexed face as he struggled to ingest the contents in his mouth.

"Swallow," she commanded.

Fred quirked an eyebrow, pausing his chewing. "Well, that's what I sai—

He grunted as she took a swipe to his shin.

"Swallow," Viktoria said again, attempting a glare this time, but mirth was swimming around in her eyes.

Frowning and chewing with performative haste, Fred swallowed loudly and obediently (to Viktoria's delight) and stuck out his tongue like a good schoolboy, displaying an empty mouth.

She smiled cheekily, "Well? How is it?"

Instead of answering, Fred brought his wand out and pointed it to his tongue.

"Aguame—“

“NO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Viktoria snatched Fred’s wand immediately, sneaking frantic glances around and shoving it inside her coat.

“Are you mental?!” she whisper-yelled to her boyfriend who had a frown on his face.

“But I'm parched,” grumbled Fred as Viktoria pushed him towards a fairly deserted alley adjacent to the main street.

Covent Garden was bustling with Muggles. Seeing as Easter was fast approaching, boutiques were filled to the brim with shoppers queuing for last-minute holiday hauls, and everyone was out and about, basking in the spring breeze.

A good-looking pair of lovebirds sipping on matching bubble tea beverages, walking down James Street hand-in-hand was nothing close to unusual on a cheerful sunny day such as today. What would've been unusual was if one of the pair suddenly shot out cold, freshwater into his mouth from a wooden stick. That would've stirred some heads.

"You're parched?" Viktoria's eyes were wide and exasperated. "How many times do you have to pull something like that in the middle of a bloody Muggle street—"

"It was you who made me swallow it!" said Fred defensively.

She scoffed, "Oh please. You're being dramatic."

"Dramatic? These things taste like Dungbombs!" he waved his still-full cup of bubble tea, shoving it up his girlfriend's face as if it's committed some horrendous crime. Black little pearls were swimming around between Viktoria's eyes.

She shoves him off, offended.

"Excuse me? Dungbombs? Have you actually eaten Dungbombs?"

"Well, no, but these sure look like 'em."

Viktoria gasped.

"You did not," she glared threateningly at Fred.

"Also," his face frowned in disgust, "who—in their right mind—would put ice in tea? Barbaric is what this is!"

Viktoria's mood was getting fouler by the second. She had been excited. So incredibly excited to have Fred finally try one of her favorite drinks in the world. Her mother was a muggle, and her father a Curse Breaker—where the job came with travelling; when they had lived briefly in Thailand when she was thirteen, they couldn't get her to stop drinking bubble tea every single day.

"I can't believe you said that," she said.

"What? The truth?"

"The entire world doesn't drink tea the same way the British do, Fred!"

"Well too bad for them then! No one makes tea like Mum does."

"This is different. This is about trying something new!"

"Well, I don't want new!"

"UUUUUGRRRH."

With a loud groan, she snatched the cup being dangled in front of her face and stomped away angrily.

"HEY— Where are you going?" Fred called to her retreating back.

The good-looking pair of lovebirds were no longer a subject of longing stares as passersby dodged the now bitter-looking woman storming down the Muggle street, sipping from two cups of bubble tea simultaneously, her boyfriend running to keep up with her.

"Viktoria," Fred called out as reasonably projected as possible. They were making a scene and he knew it. He didn't mind the attention when he was being funny or when people stared at him and Viktoria hand-in-hand. He loved showing her off. Not like this though. Not when she was walking away from him.

"Viktoria," he was jogging next to her now, "slow down."

"Sod off and go drown in your Mum's tea, Fred Weasley," she growled without so much as a glance in his direction. "I hate you so much right now."

"Will you stop walking for one second?"

She brisked even faster.

"Okay, okay, I'm sor—," he dodged running into a stroller and an angry mother who chastised him. After apologizing profusely at the woman who was immediately charmed by the Weasley smile, he glanced up and saw that Viktoria was nowhere to be found.

"Shite."

Running down James Street, he paused through every alley, searching, passing by the boutiques they've previously visited earlier in the day. Skidding to a halt in front of the bubble tea shop, he entered and scanned the small space.

"Back for another already?"

The woman who had served them earlier was smiling at Fred behind the counter, "Original Bubble for your lady?"

"Uh," he was still panting, "er—no thank you, madame. I was wondering if—"

The woman laughed.

"Just one for her today then? That's a first. On her best days she can do three!" she seemed to laugh at a memory.

"Er—sorry?"

The woman shook her head in amusement, "Your little lady would swell her digestion herself if she could, only if it meant she could drink pints of these devils!" she gestured to the gallons of ready-made tea behind her. "It's a sight. She practically inhales it. I'm lactose-intolerant you see. Watching her, I live vicariously!"

The woman laughed again and pointed to a window in the corner of her shop, "Sits over on that cushion every Sunday when she's back from school."

Fred's breathing was calming down, but his heart was thumping faster.

"She nicked yours 'in't she?" she asked. "That why you're back for another?"

Eyes glued to the small corner booth by the window, Fred answered with a question, "She likes bubble tea then?"

"Likes?" the woman almost scoffed, "Darling, I could say she's a shop benefactor with the number of cuppas that girl downs! She told me once that our tea is the closest thing to those authentic ones you find in— where was that? Taiwan? Anyway—"

"Thailand," breathed Fred, and dread was closing in on him. Remorse slowly working its way to his erratic heart. "She—she lived there for a while. Told me all about the..."

The tea.

"I'll take you I swear," she told him as they walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, "it's almost as good as the ones in Bangkok. NOT AS AMAZING, but good enough!"

Viktoria had moved to Hogwarts when they were in their fifth year, straight from Thailand; carrying stories of her Curse Breaker father, speaking fluent Gobbledegook in Charms that made her a Flitwick favorite, and going on and on about how the school kitchens didn't have black squishy pearls swimming in cold tea...

Sighing, Fred turned to the woman who was still beaming at him.

"One Original Bubble please."

 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

 Viktoria watched churchgoers walk past her from the bench where she sat near St. Paul's Chapel, nibbling on her straw mindlessly.

The two cups of bubble tea were long empty. Her stomach was rumbling quietly from the aggressive intake of lactose, and her foul mood dulled into a solemn ache.

She remembered when she was still back in Hogwarts a few days ago, packing for the Easter holidays. Recalling her long list of "must-dos" with Fred that she had planned out. This was their second holiday as a couple, after getting together right before Fred and George decided to drop out mid-year of their sixth. They wrote together all summer long, and she had spent the following Christmas at the Burrow.

With You-Know-Who back in the picture, nowhere was safe to spend anything these days. But a Muggle area gave a supposedly wider berth from danger. This was why the two had planned to meet her family this time, introduce Fred to her mum and dad, and bring him around Muggle London.

"She's lovely," he whispered in her ear as her mother stood up to refill all their bowls with her homemade Sheperd's Pie.

Viktoria smiled, "She is when she's full."

"Just like you then," said Fred with a smirk.

Her foot met his toe and he coughed out a sharp grunt.

"Say that again?"

"You are as lovely as your mother, my sweet," he mumbled back and gave a strained smile to her Curse Breaker father when he peered at them curiously.

"Lovely my big fat foot," Viktoria grumbled under her breath, poking the bottom of her empty cup with the straw aggressively. "Stupid, insensitive, red-headed git. Can't even pretend. Can't even try to pretend to like it. I'm supportive, aren't I? I even offer to be a guinea pig for the Wheezes. Remember when I grew a stubble because of that potion?" she was talking to her cup now, remembering being the human experiment for Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow.

"AND (poke) TO THINK (poke) I WAS SO (even more aggressive poke) EXCITED!"

A straw-shaped hole peered up at her from the bottom of the cup.

"UGH, I don't even know why I'm mad!"

Someone cleared their throat gently behind her.

Huffing haughtily and knowing exactly who it was, Viktoria ignored the sound and continued to glare at the throng of Muggles walking past. She would not give in. She won't.

A long shadow loomed over her and sat on the bench, giving them a respectable amount of space in between.

The small square they were in was rumbling with activity. But there was nothing but silence in their own little bubble.

Sluuuurp.

She won't look. No. Spiting her, he is. Making fun. Always making fun—

SLUUUUUUUUUURP.

Chancing upon him at the corner of her eye, Viktoria saw Fred sipping on a cup of Original Bubble, frowning as he maneuvered his straw to catch the pearls that were swimming away.

"You don't have to do that."

Fred looked up, straw in mouth, "Well, how am I supposed to catch them then? Sneaky little gorgons—"

"No," sighed Viktoria, "I mean you don't have to drink that. I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't want to."

"You're not forcing me at a—"

"Cut it out, Fred."

Silence.

Children were running around nearby, feeding Pigeons with small pieces of bread from their lunch helpings. A little girl slipped. There were no tears though. She continued to roll around the pavement, shrieking with delight, to her mother's chagrin.

She heard him sigh beside her.

"I'm a git."

Silence.

"You kept going on about this all year last. Never stopped. It—it slipped my mind."

Silence.

"I'm a git and I deserve to be trolled."

Silence.

"I'm a filthy pile of dung and I subject myself to eating toadstools for the rest of my life."

"You are not eating toadstool," Viktoria glared at Fred who held his breath as she finally spoke. "I will not snog a toadstool eating wizard."

Fred's eyes turned misty, "You still wanna snog me?"

"When you're not being an absolute arse, I do."

Closing the gap between them the tiniest bit, Fred said, "I'm sorry, Viktoria."

It took a few breaths before she gave a defeated sigh, "This is stupid," she muttered. "This is stupid, I don't even know why I'm mad—"

"I do," interrupted Fred. "I know and I deserve it. I was a git. I wasn't paying attention and I was completely insensitive. You always," he was struggling, "you always feel things around you, even people. You read rooms clearly, you keep me in check. My mouth— I— I can't control it sometimes I— I say hurtful things to people I love without meaning them."

Viktoria was looking at him now, observing Fred's shameful downcasted eyes.

He blinked a couple of times before continuing, "Hermione confronted me once about it, about how the small things I say affected Ron loads. And I— I didn't want to believe her at first. Shrugged her off-quite rudely to be honest. But when I saw him play for Keeper I..."

There was a snitch-sized lump down Viktoria's throat and it was preventing any form of speech. She knew this. They had both sat down and talked about each other's flaws and hubris awhile back, after getting into a massive fight before Christmas at the Burrow. She was familiar with Fred's difficulty with words, his teasing getting too far at times. But he was good. She knew this as well. His affection coursed differently. And this was precisely why she loved him.

Words failing her, she grabbed his bubble teacup and took a long sip. His eyes held hers and she took his hand.

"Go on," she encouraged.

He took a deep breath, "Well, you know what happened. He was all over the place, Ron. Couldn't save a single Quaffle, quite unlike our matches in our backyard. George and I knew he was good. Merlin, even Ginny knew. But he wavered on the pitch. He didn't have the guts. And I had a lot to do with that."

Fred brought Viktoria's hand to his lips, "I'm doing better. You said so yourself," she gave him a teary smile, "but I— I slip and I'm sorry. I'll have more tact. I know it's the little words I overlook, and I'll work on that now. I swear I'll be more careful and— I just don't want to drive you away. You most of all."

Silently and without preamble, Viktoria stood. Fred blinked up at her, and from where she gazed, she saw the mist and remorse swimming all over his enchanting brown eyes.

"Oh, Fred Weasley," she smiled shyly down at him, brushing strands of red away from his forehead. "How'd we get so deep from just fighting about bubble tea?"

He gave a hearty guffaw, the signature Fred laughter that made her heart leap. "Because I'm a drama queen is why."

Pulling her to his lap, she settled on his chest, her head propped against his cheek.

"You're a good man, my Freddie," said Viktoria. His arms tighten around her. "You're the sweetest, most handsome, and you snog me so well."

Fred's laugh was contagious, his chest vibrating against her back. She grinned.

"And you were right. You are doing so well. I forgive you. And I'm sorry too."

She turned her head and rested it below his chin, her nose propped against his jaw, inhaling while her eyes fluttered shut. The sweet, gun-powdered scent of Fred Weasley. All bruised and perfect for her and her only.

"You know," started Fred, breaking their small silence as he stole a sip from the cup, "these aren't half bad."

Viktoria rolled her eyes, "Oh stop."

"I'm serious! I should've given them more teeth. I reckon it's all in the chew."

"Yeah?"

"Mhmm. We could make something out of this for Wheezes."

"No."

"Edible Dungbombs?"

Viktoria groaned.

Unbelievable.

[marmalodi]

John Lennon and Yoko Ono Interview: St. Regis Hotel, 9/5/1971

When we turned up at the St. Regis for our first interview, John and Yoko were still in bed. It was nearly afternoon and there was a flurry of activity in the adjacent rooms. May Pang was much in evidence, bustling about, her long black hair swirling around her. (This was a year or two before her affair with John.) She told us that our interview would have to be interrupted by a fitting for Yoko, which turned out to be to our advantage, because in Yoko's absence John was prepared to go back into the past and talk about Hamburg and the role of Brian Epstein.

We were served tea on a silver tray. John chain-smoked Gauloises, and the interview proceeded. It was obvious from the start that he was still angry at Paul, but when I played the tapes back later, I noticed he did not say anything negative about Paul's music. He attacked Paul for being bossy, arrogant, chauvinistic, etc, but in the next breath he would be telling us about Hamburg and about Paul having to be onstage for an hour and a half playing 'What'd I Say,' and you could hear the affection in his voice.

I have listened to these tapes many times, and I have always been struck by the contradictions within John Lennon. He tended to see the world in terms of black and white, and people were either on his good list or his hit list, and often subject to being switched from one to the other, according to which way the conversation turned. He was always outspoken, yet the charm of John's outspokenness was not only his way with words, but also that he was as critical and candid about himself as others. In the end it was this that made him endearing. He bared his soul about everything -- his insecurities, his mistakes -- and when he did so, even when he appeared ridiculous, he was a breath of fresh air in the entertainment world.

One moment I remember during the interview was when John and Yoko were leaning toward the microphone, each jostling the other to tell the story of how they met and fell in love. No one could have been in their presence for those minutes and not have been affected by it.

Neil Aspinal, the Beatles' longtime friend, said, 'The Beatles' world was an unreal world... a war zone.' It surely was. In a way I think Yoko brought John home. He found comfort, love, and understanding with her. He had a son by her and devoted himself to his child. I have no doubt he was a happier man in 1980 than he was in 1967 when he walked into that London art Gallery. - Peter McCabe (1984)

Q: "Let's talk about the Beatles' breakup, and the falling out between you and Paul. A lot of people think it had to do with the women in your lives. Is that why the Beatles split up?"

JOHN: "Not really. The split was over who would manage us -- Allen Klein or the Eastmans -- and nothing else really, although the split had been coming from Pepper onward."

Q: "Why, specifically?"

JOHN: "Paul was always upset about the White Album. He never liked it because on that one I did my music, he did his, and George did his. And first, he didn't like George having so many tracks. He wanted it to be more a group thing, which really means more Paul. So he never liked that album, and I always preferred it to all the other albums, including Pepper, because I thought the music was better. The Pepper myth is bigger, but the music on the White Album is far superior, I think."

Q: "That's your favorite, of all the Beatle albums?"

JOHN: "Yeah, because I wrote a lot of good shit on that. I like all the stuff I did on that, and the other stuff as well. I like the whole album. But if you're talking about the split, the split was over Allen and Eastman."

Q: "You didn't like Lee Eastman (Linda's father), nor John (Linda's brother), and the Eastmans didn't like Allen Klein..."

JOHN: "The Eastmans hated Allen from way back. They're from the class of family... like all classes, I suppose, they vote like Daddy does. They're the kind of kids who just think what their fathers told them."

Q: "But for a while you didn't get along with Linda."

JOHN: "We all got along well with Linda."

Q: "When did you first meet her?"

JOHN: "The first time was after that Apple press conference in America. We were going back to the airport and she was in the car with us. I didn't think she was particularly attractive. A bit too tweedy, you know. But she sat in the car and took photographs and that was it. And the next minute she's married him."

YOKO: "There was a nice quality about her. As a woman she doesn't offend you because she doesn't come on like a coquettish bird, you know? So she was alright, and we were on very good terms until Allen came into the picture. And then she said, 'Why the hell do you have to bring Allen into it?' She said very nasty things about Allen."

Q: "Yoko, you weren't with John the first time he met her?"

YOKO: "No. The first time I met her was when she came to the EMI studio. And you know, when Beatles are recording, there's very few people around, especially no women. If a young woman comes into the room, everybody just sort of looks at her. So I was there, and the first thing Linda made clear to me -- almost unnecessarily -- was the fact that she was interested in Paul, and not John, you know? She was sort of presupposing that I would be nervous. She just said, 'Oh, I'm with Paul.' Something to that effect. I think she was eager to be with me and John, in the sense that Paul and John are close, we should be close too. And couple to couple we were going to be good friends."

Q: "What was Paul's attitude to you as things progressed?"

YOKO: "Paul began complaining that I was sitting too close to them when they were recording, and that I should be in the background."

JOHN: "Paul was always gently coming up to Yoko and saying, 'Why don't you keep in the background a bit more?' I didn't know what was going on. It was going on behind my back."

Q: "So did that contribute to the split?"

JOHN: "Well, Paul rang me up. He didn't actually tell me he'd split, he said he was putting out an album. He said, 'I'm now doing what you and Yoko were doing last year. I understand what you were doing.' All that shit. So I said, 'Good luck to yer.'"

Q: "So, John. You and Paul were probably the greatest songwriting team in a generation. And you had this huge falling out. Were there always huge differences between you and Paul, or was there a time when you had a lot in common?"

JOHN: "Well, Paul always wanted the home life, you see. He liked it with daddy and the brother... and obviously missed his mother. And his dad was the whole thing. Just simple things. He wouldn't go against his dad and wear drainpipe trousers. And his dad was always trying to get me out of the group behind me back, I found out later. He'd say to George, 'Why don't you get rid of John, he's just a lot of trouble. Cut your hair nice and wear baggy trousers,' like I was the bad influence because I was the eldest. So Paul was always like that. And I was always saying, 'Face up to your dad, tell him to fuck off. He can't hit you. You can kill him (laughs) he's an old man.' I used to say, 'Don't take that shit.' But Paul would always give in to his dad. His dad told him to get a job, he dropped the group and started working on the fucking lorries, saying, 'I need a steady career.' We couldn't believe it. Once he rang up and said he'd got this job and couldn't come to the group. So I told him on the phone, 'Either come or you're out.' So he had to make a decision between me and his dad then, and in the end he chose me. But it was a long trip."

Q: "So you think with Linda he's found what he wanted?"

JOHN: "I guess so. I guess so. I just don't understand. I never knew what he wanted in a woman because I never knew what I wanted. I knew I wanted something intelligent or something arty. But you don't really know what you want until you find it. So anyway, I was very surprised with Linda. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd married Jane because it had been going on for a long time and they went through a whole ordinary love scene. But with Linda it was just like -- boom! She was in and that was the end of it."

Q: "So if the falling out was essentially with Paul, what made you decide not to participate in the Bangladesh concert with George?"

JOHN: "I told George about a week before it that I wouldn't be doing it. I just didn't feel like it. I just didn't want to be fucking rehearsing and doing a big show-biz trip. We were in the Virgin Islands, and I certainly wasn't going to be rehearsing in New York, then going back to the Virgin Islands, then coming back up to New York and singing. And anyway, they couldn't have got any more people in, if I'd been there or not. I got enough money off records and I don't feel like doing two shows a night."

Q: "Do you have any regrets about not doing it?"

JOHN: "Well, at first I thought, 'Oh, I wish I'd been there,' you know, with Dylan and Leon... they needed a rocker. Everybody was telling me 'You should have been there, John,' but I'm glad I didn't do it in a way because I didn't want to go on as 'The Beatles.' And with George and Ringo there it would have had that connotation of Beatles -- Now let's hear Ringo sing 'It Don't Come Easy.' That's why I left it all. I don't want to play 'My Sweet Lord.' I'd as soon go out and do exactly what I want."

Q: "John, you said you 'get enough off records,' but you used to say you weren't as rich as people thought you were. Are you rich enough finally?"

JOHN: "Well, I do have money for the first time ever, really. I do feel slightly secure about it, secure enough to say I'll go on the road for free. The reason I got rich is because I'm so insecure. I couldn't give it all away, even in my most holy, Christian, God-fearing, Hare Krishna period. I need it because I'm so insecure. Yoko doesn't need it. She always had it. I have to have it. I'm not secure enough to give it all up, because I need it to protect me from whatever I'm frightened of."

YOKO: "He's very vulnerable."

JOHN: "But now I think that Allen Klein has made me secure enough, it's his fault that I'll go out for free."

Q: "You mean tour for free?"

JOHN: "Well, I thought I can't really go on the road and take a lot more money. What am I going to do with it? I've got all the fucking bread I need. If I go broke, well, I'd go on the road for money then. But now I just couldn't face saying, 'Well, I cost a million when I sing.'"

YOKO: "It's criminal."

JOHN: "It's bullshit, because I want to sing. So I'm going out on the road because I want to this time. I want to do something political, and radicalize people, and all that jazz. I feel like going out with Yoko, and taking a really far-out show on the road, a mobile, political, rock and roll show."

YOKO: "With clowns as well."

JOHN: "You know what I was thinking -- when Paul's going out on the road, I'd like to be playing in the same town for free next door! And he's charging about a million. That would be funny."

YOKO: "Our position is -- I come from the East, he comes from the West -- a meeting of East and West, and all that. And to communicate with people is almost a responsibility. We actually are living proof of East and West getting along together. High water falls low, you know. And if our cup is full, it's going to flow. It's natural for us to give because we have a lot. If we don't give, it's criminal, in the sense that it's going against the law of nature. In order to go against the law of nature you have to use tremendous energy."

Q: "Let's talk about Allen Klein. He has a reputation as a tough wheeler-dealer in the music business. What made you decide to have him as your manager?"

JOHN: "Well, Allen's human, whereas Eastman and all them other people are automatons. And one of the early things that impressed me about Allen -- and obviously it was a kind of flattery as well -- was that he really knew which stuff I'd written. Not many people knew which was my song and which was Paul's, but he'd say, 'Well, McCartney didn't write that line, did he?' I thought, anybody who knows me this well, just by listening to records, is pretty perceptive. I'm not the easiest guy to read, although I'm fairly naive and open in some ways, and I can be conned easily. But in other ways I'm quite complicated, and it's not easy to get through all the defenses and see what I'm like. Allen knew to come to me and not to go to Paul, whereas somebody like Lew Grade or Eastman would have gone to Paul."

Q: "Did Klein hope to get Paul back into the group?"

JOHN: (laughs) "He came up with this plan. He said, "Just ring Paul and say, 'We're recording next Friday, are you coming?' So it nearly happened. Then Paul would have forfeited his right to split by joining us again. But Paul would never, never do it, for anything, and now I would never do it."

Q: "There was a lot of negative publicity about Klein. Didn't that bother you?"

JOHN: "Well, he's a businessman. He's probably cut many peoples' throats. So have I. I made it too. I mean, I can't remember anybody I literally cut, but I've certainly trod on a few feet on the way up. And I'm sure Allen did also."

Q: "How does Klein compare with Brian Epstein as a manager?"

JOHN: "Well, Brian couldn't delegate, and neither can Allen. But I understand that. When I try and delegate it never gets done properly. Like with my albums and Yoko's, each time I have to go through the same process -- Get the printing size right. I want it clear and simple. I have to go through the same jazz all the time. It's never a lesson learned."

Q: "Let's get back to something we were talking about earlier. The attitude of the other Beatles toward Yoko."

JOHN: "They don't listen to women. Women are chicks to them."

Q: "What about George?"

JOHN: "George always has a point of view about that wide (he holds his hands close together), you know? You can't tell him anything."

YOKO: "George is sophisticated, fashionwise..."

JOHN: "He's very trendy, and he has the right clothes on, and all of that."

YOKO: "But he's not sophisticated, intellectually."

JOHN: "No. He's very narrow-minded. One time in the Apple office I was saying something, and he said, 'I'm as intelligent as you, you know.' This must have been resentment. Of course he's got an inferiority complex from working with Paul and me."

Q: "John, what did you think of Yoko's work when you first saw it?"

JOHN: "Well, her gallery show was a bit of an eye-opener. I wasn't sure what it was all about. I knew there was some sort of con game going on. She calls herself a concept artist, but with the 'cept' left off, it's con artist. I saw that side of it and that was interesting. And then we met."

Q: "Was it love at first sight?"

JOHN: "Well, I always had this dream of meeting an artist woman I would fall in love with. Even from art school. And when we met and were talking I just realized that she knew everything I knew -- and more probably. And it was coming out of a woman's head. It just sort of bowled me over. It was like finding gold or something. To have exactly the same relationship with any male you'd ever had, but also you could go to bed with it, and it could stroke your head when you felt tired or sick or depressed. Could also be Mother. And if the intellect is there... well, it's just like winning the pools. So that's why when people ask me for a precis of my story, I put, 'born, lived, met Yoko.' because that's what it's been about.

"As she was talking to me I would get high, and the discussion would get to such a level that I would be going higher and higher. And when she'd leave, I'd go back into this sort of suburbia. Then I'd meet her again and my head would go off like I was on an acid trip. I'd be going over what she'd said and it was incredible, some of the ideas and the was she was saying them, And then once I got a sniff of it I was hooked. Then I couldn't leave her alone. We couldn't be apart for a minute from then on."

YOKO: "He has this nature, and I'm thankful for it. Most men are so narrow-minded. Somebody once told me, 'You don't make small talk, and that's why men hate you.' I mean, I have so many male enemies who try to stifle me. What the hell."

JOHN: "I did the same, of course. I found myself being a chauvinist pig with her. Then I started thinking, 'Well, if I said that to Paul, or asked Paul to do that, or George, or Ringo, they'd tell me to fuck off.' And then you realize -- you just have this attitude to women that is just insane! It's beyond belief , the way we're brought up to think of women. And I had to keep saying, 'Well, would I tell a guy to do that? Would I say that to a guy? Would a guy take that?' Then I started to get nervous. I thought, 'Fuck, I better treat her right or she's going to go. No friend's going to stick around for this treatment."

Q: Did you know anything about rock music, Yoko, when you first met John?"

YOKO: "I didn't know anything about rock music, or anything like it. I thought of rock songs as something a bit lower than poetry. It was like reading poetry that had a definite rhythm to it."

JOHN: "She used to say, "Why are you doing the same beat all the time?' I used to get very irritated."

Q: "What were your feelings about art and the art world at that time?"

JOHN: "Well, I went to art school and I thought that was the art world, virtually. And they're all such pretentious hypocrites. There was no artist I admired, except for maybe Dali or someone from the past. And when I read the art reviews... I couldn't understand why I wasn't being reviewed for my art, because I always felt like an artist.

"So I went to her show. I was thinking, 'Fucking artist shit. It's all bullshit.' But then there were so many good jokes in it, real good eye-openers."

YOKO: "That's another thing, most artists don't have a sense of humor."

JOHN: "And there was a sense of humor in her work, you know? It was funny. Her work really made me laugh, some of it. So that's when I got interested in art again, just through her work."

YOKO: "All the men I met, I felt they were more pretentious than me, hypocritical, narrower than me, and not genuine. And I'm talented. Because I can compose, I can paint, I can be in many fields. Most men that I met were bragging about their professionalism in one field."

JOHN: "They get one idea and flog it to death, and become famous on one idea."

YOKO: "And fucking conservative, you know? And they talk about women not having a sense of humor. I used to despise every man that I met. I was thinking, 'There's something wrong with me, because everybody hated me for it.' And then I met this man, and for the first time I got the fright of my life because here was a man who was just as genuine, maybe more genuine than me. He's very genuine. And he can do anything I can do, which is very unusual. And I got surprised. And that happened at the first meeting."

JOHN: "It took me a long time to get used to it. Any woman I could shout down. Most of my arguments used to be a question of who could shout the loudest. Normally I could win, whether I was right or wrong, especially if the argument was with a woman -- they'd just give in. But she didn't. She'd go on and on and on, until I understood it. Then I had to treat her with respect."

Q: "Yoko, did you have any idea of what the Beatles' life had been like, on tours for example?"

JOHN: "She was really shocked. I thought the art world was loose, you know? And when I started telling her about what our life was like, she couldn't believe it."

YOKO: "I came from a different generation. I mean, my friends didn't want me to know they smoked pot, you know? So I thought 'Oh, he's an artist. He's probably had two or three affairs.' Then I heard the whole story and I thought, 'My God!'"

JOHN: "She was just like this silly Eastern nun wandering about, thinking it was all spiritual."

YOKO: "He once said to me, 'Well, were you a groupie in the art world?' I said, 'What's a groupie?'"

JOHN: "So I said, 'Just tell me. I don't want to go 'round and fucking Picasso or someone comes up and says, 'Yes, I've had her.'"

YOKO: "And I really didn't know the word 'groupie.'"

JOHN: "So anyway, I'd been dying to tell her about the 'raving' on tour. I just wanted her to know what a scene it was. I thought it was silly not to say it. And of course the people with us were living like fucking emperors when we were locked in our rooms. That's why they cling so much to the past."

Q: "Talking of your entourage, do you resent it that so many people take credit for their contributions to the Beatles?"

JOHN: "Well, there was an article on George Martin in Melody Maker -- he's telling all these stories. He says, well, I showed them how to play feedback, or put tape loops together, or some arbitrary little technical thing... Where is the great talent of George Martin and Derek Taylor, and the legacy of Brian Epstein? Where is their talent?"

YOKO: "It's like my ex-husband saying that he sacrificed his talent for me, or something."

JOHN: "Well, I never had anything against George Martin. I just didn't like all the rumors that he actually was the brains behind the Beatles. I can't stand that."

Q: "Let's talk about Brian Epstein, your first manager. What did you think of him?"

JOHN: " I liked Brian. I had a very close relationship with him for years, like I have with Allen, because I'm not going to have some stranger running the scene, that's all. I was close with Brian, as close as you can get with someone who lives sort of the fag life, and you don't really know what they're doing on the side. But in the group I was closest to him. He had great qualities and was good fun.

"He was a theatrical man rather than a businessman, and with us he was a bit like that. He literally fucking cleaned us up. And there were great fights between him and me, over years and years, of me not wanting to dress up. He and Paul had some kind of collusion... to keep me straight. Because I kept spoiling the image, like the time I beat up a guy at Paul's twenty-first. I nearly killed him, because he insinuated that me and Brian had an affair in Spain. I was out of me mind.

What I think about the Beatles is that even if there had been Paul and John and two other people, we'd never have been the Beatles. It had to take that combination of Paul, John, George and Ringo to make the Beatles. There's no such thing as 'Well, John and Paul wrote all the songs, therefore they contributed more.' because if it hadn't been us we would have got songs from somewhere else. And Brian contributed as much as us in the early days, although we were the talent and he was the hustler."

Q: "So after Brian died you made 'Magical Mystery Tour.' You said Paul was acting as if he were going to take charge of everything?"

JOHN: "Well, I still felt, every now and then, that Brian would come in and say, 'It's time to record,' or 'Time to do this.' And then Paul started doing that -- 'Now we're going to make a movie,' or 'Now we're going to make a record.' And he assumed that if he didn't call us, nobody would ever make a record. Well, it's since shown that we managed quite well to make records on time. I don't have any schedule, I just think, 'Now I'll make it.' But in those days, Paul would say that now he felt like it. And suddenly I'd have to whip out 20 songs. He'd come in with about 20 good songs and say 'We're recording.' And I had to suddenly write a fucking stack of songs. Pepper was like that. Magical Mystery Tour was another. So I hastily did my bits for it and we went out on the road. And Paul did the thing for his album -- the big-timer, auditioning directors."

Q: Let's go back for a minute and talk about all the early influences on the Beatles. What would you say had the greatest effect on the group? Was it Liverpool? The Cavern? Hamburg? Did Hamburg really improve the playing?"

JOHN: "Oh, amazingly. Because before that we'd only been playing bits and pieces, but in Hamburg we had to play for hours and hours on end. Every song lasted 20 minutes and had 20 solos in it. We'd be playing eight or ten hours a night. And that's what improved the playing. Also, the Germans like heavy rock, so you have to keep rocking all the time, and that's how we got stomping. That's how it developed. That made the sound. Because we developed a sound by playing hours and hours and hours together."

Q: "You all must have found yourself playing in some unbelievably bad conditions."

JOHN: "Yeah, but it was still rather thrilling when you went onstage. A little frightening because it wasn't a dancehall, and all these people were sitting down, expecting something. And then they would tell us to 'mak show'. After the first night they said, 'You were terrible. You have to make a show -- Mak show!' So I put my guitar down and I did Gene Vincent all night. You know -- banging and lying on the floor and throwing the mic about and pretending I had a bad leg. They're all doing it now -- lying on the floor and banging the guitar and kicking things and just doing all that jazz.

"Then they moved us to another club, which was larger and where they danced. Paul would be doing 'What'd I Say' for an hour and a half. And these gangsters would come in -- the local mafia. They'd send a crate of champagne onstage... this imitation German champagne, and we had to drink it or they'd kill us. They'd say, 'Drink it and then do What'd I Say.' We'd have to do this other show, whatever time of night. If they came in at five in the morning and we'd been playing for seven hours, they'd give us a crate of champagne and we were supposed to carry on. We'd get pills off the waiters then, to keep awake. That's how all that started.

"I used to be so pissed I'd be lying on the floor behind the piano, drunk, while the rest of the group was playing. I'd just be onstage fast asleep. Some of the shows, I went on just in me underpants. I'd go on in underpants with a toilet seat 'round me neck, and all sorts of gear on. Out of me fucking mind!"

Q: When did you get into acid? Did Paul time his LSD announcement to coincide with the release of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?"

JOHN: "No. We'd had acid on Revolver. Everyone is under this illusion... even George Martin saying 'Pepper was their acid album,' but we'd had acid, including Paul, by the time Revolver was finished."

Q: "So why did he make that big announcement?"

JOHN: "Because the press had cornered him. I don't know how they found out about him taking it. But that was a year after we'd all taken it. Rubber Soul was our pot album, and Revolver was acid. I mean, we weren't all stoned making Rubber Soul because in those days we couldn't work on pot. We never recorded under acid or anything like that. It's like saying, 'Did Dylan Thomas write Under Milk Wood on beer?' What the fuck does that have to do with it? The beer is to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on him. The drugs are to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you. They don't make you write better. I never wrote any better stuff because I was on acid or not on acid."

Q: "Did the fact that Sergeant Pepper inspired so many people to try LSD surprise you?"

JOHN: "Well, I never felt that Haight-Ashbury was a direct result. It always seemed to me that all sorts of things were happening at once. The acid thing in America was going on long before Pepper. Leary was going around saying, 'Take it, take it, take it.' We followed his instruction. I did it just like he said in the Book Of The Dead, and then I wrote Tomorrow Never Knows,' which is on Revolver, and which was almost the first acid song -- 'Lay down all thought, surrender to the void' -- and all that shit. Do you remember if Paul's statement on acid came out after Sergeant Pepper?"

Q: "Just as it was released."

JOHN: "I see. He always times his big announcements right on the letter, doesn't he. Like leaving the Beatles. Maybe it's instinctive. It probably is. Anyway, 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' is not about LSD. And Henry the Horse is not about smack on Sergeant Pepper, because I'd never even seen it when we made Sergeant Pepper. But those kinds of stories evolved from it -- people thought if you listened to it backwards it said 'Paul is dead.' All that shit is just gobbledygook."

Q: "Still, many who got into acid might never have followed Timothy Leary but did follow the Beatles."

JOHN: "Well, blame it on Dylan. He turned us onto pot."

Q: "Having written so much with Paul, do you think it's possible for there to be some type of settlement, outside of business?"

JOHN: "Well, there's no way for it to be settled 'outside business,' because it all gets down to who owns a bit of what. It's a house we own together, and there's no way of settling it, unless we all decide to live in it together. It has to be sold."

Q: "Have you missed writing songs with him?"

JOHN: "No I haven't. I wrote alone in the early days. We used to write separately. He used to write songs before I even started writing songs. I think he did. And we'd written separately for years. I wrote 'Help.' I wrote 'A Hard Day's Night.' He wrote 'Yesterday.' They'd been separate for years.

"In the early days we'd write together for fun, and later on for convenience to get so many numbers out for an album. But our best songs were always written alone. And things like 'A Day In The Life' was just my song and his song stuck together. I mean we used to sit down and finish off each other's songs. You know, you could have three quarters of a song finished and we'd just sit together, bring ten songs each, and finish off the tail ends, and put middle eights in ones that you couldn't be bothered fixing, because they weren't all that good anyway.

"We usually got together on songs that were less interesting. Now and then we'd write together from scratch. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' things like that were done like that. But we'd been working apart ever since we were working together. It was only news to the public that a lot of Lennon-McCartney songs weren't Lennon-McCartney. That was something we'd agreed on years ago."

Q: "Do you think it was a mistake in retrospect to have named everything Lennon-McCartney?"

JOHN: "No, I don't, because it worked very well and it was useful. Then it was useful, so it was quite good fun. I've nothing against it."

Q: "If you got, I don't know what the right phrase is... 'back together' now, what would be the nature of it?"

JOHN: "Well, it's like saying, if you were back in your mother's womb... I don't fucking know. What can I answer? It will never happen, so there's no use contemplating it. Even if I became friends with Paul again, I'd never write with him again. There's no point. I write with Yoko because she's in the same room with me."

YOKO: "And we're living together."

JOHN: "So it's natural. I was living with Paul then, so I wrote with him. It's whoever you're living with. He writes with Linda. He's living with her. It's just natural."

Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from original magazine issue

[nokikissa]

since you listen to so many, any good podcasts? I like fantasy/horror/comedy stuff, if you have any in that genre

Haaa well I'm just gonna list all of them in here (also listing them like generally rather than specifically directed at you as like I know you know a lot of these already but describing them anyways), hope you like McElroy adjacent content or DnD podcasts cos otherwise I don't got much to offer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Misc podcasts:

My Brother, My Brother And Me

welp almost everybody knows this one, a long running comedic "advice" podcasts where the McElroy brothers answer questions and other silly stuff

Sawbones

Justin McElroy and Dr Sydnee McElroy talk about weird medical stuff like how things used to be treated in the past and some more recent weird fake treatments that pop up, tho now in the covid times has been bit more recent and covid related episodes. Usually pretty silly and fun, tho there's been some more serious and somber episodes about like some extremely fucked up stuff people used to do regarding medicine and like some of the recent covid eps are bit heavier as well.

Wonderful!

Griffin McElroy and his wife Rachel McElroy just talk about thing that they find wonderful and they like and so on. Really nice chill vibes.

Til Death Do Us Blart

The McElroy brothers and hosts of The Worst Idea of All Time podcasts watch and then talk about the movie Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 each year during thanksgiving, supposedly continuing this til they die. Absolute madness.

The Besties

Video game podcast hosted by Griffin and Justin McElroys and Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick from Polygon, they just talk about video games, new releases and occasionally some themed episodes.

The Empty Bowl

A meditative podcasts about cereal hosted by Justin McElroy and cereal blogger Dan Goubert, they talk about like cereal news and review new cereals they've eaten in a low chill voice. I don't eat cereal, and wouldn't even have access to the products they talk about in the show, but I enjoy the chill vibe and also I've always been fascinated learning about junk food from other countries. Also my answer to the listener question got used in one episode (59 if I remember right), so I was kinda in one of the episodes that's... something.

MusicalSplaining

Haha this one is weird for me... A musical hater and musical enjoyer watch musicals and then discuss them. Like I don't care about musicals, have not seen pretty much any of the things they talk about it this, but ended up listening to it as I followed one of it's host's other works so was like sure I'll give it a go, and well I do enjoy it, the hosts have very good banter and dynamic so it was enjoyable to listen to it even if I knew almost nothing about the subject matter. Recently went through a bit of a revamp as one of it's hosts left for now and there's a new co-host now, so far it still seems alright but can't say for sure before getting more episodes with the current set up.

Still Buffering

For a long time this was a podcast about teen life from three siblings who one of them was a teenager herself, but now recently they revamped the show as the youngest sibling isn't teenager anymore and I started listening after that revamp. Now it's a show where each week one of the siblings picks a piece of media that's in some way important to them and then they all watch/read/listen/etc. to it and discuss it. I find their conversations quite enjoyable to listen to, and there's bit of a age difference between the youngest and the oldest so it varies nicely what sort of stuff they bring.

DnD Podcasts:

The Adventure Zone

Once again almost everyone knows this one already, the McElroy brothers play dnd or other tabletop rpgs with their dad, very comedic tone which I like a lot. Based on some posts I think some parts of the internet have decided that it is cringe now but idk I still like it, one of my top faves

Dungeons and Daddies

Very funny DnD podcasts about dads from our world who ended up in fantasy realm. One of my top faves.

Not Another D&D Podcast

Haha my opinions on this one are... complicated. At first I gave it a try and gave up after few episodes cos I wasn't getting into it, didn't care for one of the characters which is kinda big when there's only 3 and so on. But then later on gave it another try and when it got to the proper plot stuff it got good, it got really good! And the character I didn't like at the start got better as well, they didn't do the weird jokes and stuff as much that made me dislike them and they got some very good moments. So in general the podcast is very good... but there's still some things that get on my nerves, like god I hate their ad reads so much! There's usually like 3 per episode and they're very direct ad copy reads with the sort of tone of voice that gets on my nerves for some reason, advertising stuff like sex toy shop like wtf I don't wanna hear podcast hosts tell me how to spice up my bedroom life or whatever. And also they thank their patreon supporters every episode, so the last 20 minutes of every episode is like patreon shout outs which is annoying that I gotta do the effort of going to skip all that.

Rude Tales of Magic

Oh this one is... weird. In a good way mostly. But yeah like weird is the best descriptor for it. The world building is bizarre, the characters are bit weird as well like the cast includes a skeleton and a Sasquatch, and the DMs way of describing things is so unhinged and weird and I love it. Tho at the beginning of the cast they had bit annoyingly much of like lowbrow poop humor etc. but afterwards they stopped doing that as much.

bomBARDed

Podcast where all the player characters are multiclassed into bards, and they make like a song every episode as the players are all musicians in a band together, and sometimes they sorta briefly explaing some music theory stuff as well haha? Anyway yeah it's fun, and now the plot is getting quite interesting as well.

The Oxventure Podcast

Podcast version of the Outside Xbox youtube channel's dnd campaign, this one's alright. Like I don't get the "oh fuck yeah new episode is out!" feeling I get for a lot of the other ones but it's still fun and something to listen to at work haha.

Dames and Dragons

It's named that because when it started as it was supposed to be like all women dnd podcast but that turned out to be not correct lmao. But anyway it is very good, it has good balance of like plot heavy stuff and humor. And it has delightful tumblr hellsite energy and humor which I quite enjoy.

Burnt Cook Book Party

Okay this one is Pathfinder rather than DnD but haha close enough. It's a pretty new one, there's only 6 episodes so far but I've enjoyed it so far and am eager to see how it'll go.

Cast Party

Oh Cast Party my new beloved... This one is the newest one I've listened to and definitely made it my top faves immediately. The podcast is like about 5 people who were on the hollywood set of a fantasy movie being filmed that got transported to fantasy realm and gotta now try to figure out how to get back. The characters are all extremely likeable and have good chemistry, and the worldbuilding is quite good as well. Caught up with the last currently released episode like yesterday and now I'm all aww man I gotta wait for more??? :c

Honorary mentions of no longer active podcasts:

History of Fun

This was Polygon's podcast about like stuff that's fun, each episode one of the hosts picked some thing that's considered fun and researched the history of it and shared it in the podcast. No longer active but still worth listening to the backlog of it.

Second Best

I quite liked this dnd podcast, it had fun cast of characters and the plot was getting very interesting.... but then it went on a break during the pandemic and eventually they announced that sadly they wouldn't be continuing it anymore. Such a shame. 😔

[princesstillyenna]

11. (It’s totally ok to say Paul)

So this is from the fandom asks (https://princesstillyenna.tumblr.com/post/671856764571025408/fandom-end-of-year-asks) and is

What is your favourite OC you've met this year

And nonnie it's not Paul. Simply because I met Paul long before the rest of you fuckers did and he's been living rent free in my head for longer than a year.

That being said I don't really read fanfic with oc's in, which is hypocritical I know, since I write it, BUT... I am going to answer this is two slightly adjacent ways

The original hockey boy that I met this year and fell in love with is.... Mike Brouwer. (and/or Liam Fitzgerald because you can't have one without the other). They're not fanfic oc's because they aren't from fanfic works but they are hockeys sooooo yeah. There are other YCMAL verse characters I would absolutely die for (vinny, scratch, recently gritty,) but Mike Brouwer is the original character I fell in love with this year and cried a thousand tears over this year

The second way I'm going to answer this is what OCs of my OWN have I "met" this year and fallen for and the answer is obvious because inside my head is nothing but the Max and Ben show these days. Hopefully next year I will get some of Ben's story written and then some of Max and Ben written but essentially these two have my heart right now. I can't tell you a HUGE amount about them without telling you literally everything butttt

Ben Lucas (hockey nickname Lucy... Pronounced like the girls name, full name Benjamin Lucas) is 6'4" d-man who is built like a brick shithouse and is an absolute sweetheart. He loves hurting people in his spare time and kind of hates himself for this. He is actively feminist and working on being anti-racist too and he played in the NHL for EIGHTEEN MONTHS AS A VIRGIN. his teammates think this is peak hilarious BTW. It really is. We love Ben.

Max Markham (full name Maximilien(spelling undecided) although Ben will swear blind his full name is Amaximus... Its a long story, hockey nickname is Marky). Also a d-man but he's 5'10". He's a second generation NHLer, his dad (Josh aka OG Marky) played in the NHL and was a forward/goon. Max has a big sister Amanda (no nicknames please if you call her Mandy she will gut you) who is 3 or 4 ish years older than him and he adores her and they are super close and a baby sister Amelia ("Meals") who is 5 years younger and he hates her and they constantly wind each other up. Max is most often described as "annoying" by his teammates and every single year he played in the OHL his teammates voted him "teammate I would most like to gag"

I'm not going to tell you how they know each other or even how they see each other because that varies wildly depending on where we are in the storyline but I will tell you this: the fastest way (let's be real here one of the few existing ways) to piss off Ben Lucas is to call Max annoying in his earshot. Max is NOT annoying, he's just exuberant.

[solohux]

honesty hour; is there any adjacent character or ship that you think is underrated or people don’t talk as much about but you want to? 💕

I don’t think Paul/Monty gets as much attention as it should. Their dynamic is really fun. And there are quite a few characters who I think deserve more attention than they get!

Domhnall Adjacents:

- A.A Milne -- Goodbye Christopher Robin -- He’s very broody and dealing with a lot since coming back from the war so there’s a lot of opportunity for hurt/comfort. Not to mention the fact that Domhanll is ethreally beautiful in this movie. He looks like an elf from Lord of the Rings with his sharp cheekbones and his blonde hair. I personally like pairing him with Paterson because of their shared love of writing!

- Andrew Henry -- The Revenant -- Rugged ginger! Captain Henry is a good, decent man with a lot of knowledge of the wild and of medicine. He deserves someone to take care of and someone to take care of him. Some cuddles and some love making in front of the fire!

- Captain Phil -- Unbroken -- Another cute blonde. Domhnall may not be in this movie for very long but he’s really good in it--lots of hurt. Captain Phil is a pilot and obviously has a lot of physical and mental wounds from the torture he endured so he’s a good character to write about, I think!

Adam Adjacents:

- Jude -- Hungry Hearts -- I know this isn’t a popular film amongst fans but Jude is such a conflicted character that the few times I’ve written about him, I’ve liked it! He’s a good dad for his son, protective and strong. Single Dad AU anyone?

- Paul Sevier -- Midnight Special -- The film may be predictable as hell but Paul is a precious sweetheart! Not only does he fulfil the need for Adam to wear glasses but he’s kind, too. What’s better than a soft boy being ruined by a big, bad Gleeson adjacent?

honesty hour! come and ask me anything!

[aion-rsa]

Friday Night Dinner: the Best Episodes

https://ift.tt/3urFJpq

Friday Night Dinner is ten.

That’s ten years of crimble-crumble, humble bumbling, manic misunderstandings, and more lovely bits of squirrel than you could shake a dead fox at. For thirty-seven Friday nights across six glorious seasons the Goodman family – shirtless dad, Martin (Paul Ritter); long-suffering but ever hopeful mum, Jackie (Tamsin Greig), and their visiting prank-wanker sons Adam (Simon Bird) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) – served up a banquet of laughs to a hungry nation, ably assisted by chronically persistent, reality-adjacent next-door-neighbour, Jim (Mark Heap) and his faithful dog, Wilson, and a host of other regulars and monstrously memorable one-offs besides. 

In celebration, then, of one of the most smartly-observed, perfectly-cast comedies of recent years, in chronological order, we count down ten of the show’s best.

The Sofabed

Series 1, Episode 1

Most first episodes – nay entire first series – of new comedies can be scattergun. Maybe the characters haven’t quite coalesced, or their fictional universe doesn’t feel ‘lived in’ yet. Not so with Friday Night Dinner. The show arrived fully-formed, with the Goodmans seeming as real as any family in your street; perhaps even your own family.

All of the gags, rituals and dynamics destined to run and grow and fold back in upon themselves throughout the series’ run are here: Martin’s secrets, conspiracies and hearing difficulties; Jim’s constant interruptions; Adam and Johnny’s brutal one-upmanship; the salt-in-the-water prank; Martin’s fondness for shouting ‘shit on it’.

The first episode revolves around the selling of a sofabed (with a brief sojourn into conspiracy when Martin inveigles his children into helping him hide the old magazines Jackie has ordered him to destroy), a simple enough transaction that turns to tragedy when death comes (quite literally) calling. Martin’s mis-hearing and misunderstanding of a crucial piece of information whilst standing at the bottom of a stair-and-couch-based conga line brings the series first proper belly-laugh, and with it the realisation that Friday Night Dinner is going to be something special.          

Mr Morris

Series 2, Episode 2

Mr Morris, played by Harry Landis, is a marvellous comic creation. With his predilection for getting topless and dressing people down at the dinner table, he’s like a malignant, mirror-universe version of Martin. With the eyes of Mr Magoo and the moustache of Adolf Hitler – and something of the bearing of both – Mr Morris, Granny’s new and very married boyfriend, quickly establishes himself as the dinner guest from Hell.

After crashing into their house and blaming them for the damage, the pugilistic, preening, proud, petty, and pretty much certifiably insane pensioner goes on to engage in horrendously public displays of affection with Granny; shout angrily over the phone at his 95-year-old wife; make Adam and Johnny pay for the, well, johnnies he later planned to use on their grandma; accuse Adam of sexual assault, and then challenge the whole household to a half-naked fist fight. Just another Friday night at the Goodman’s. 

The Mouse

Series 2, Episode 6

‘Mouse’ marks the first time that Jim manages to get his feet under the dinner table of the Goodman home, and it’s everything you could have hoped for. And more.

Normally the family manufactures its own chaos during the weekly meal – with extra helpings of misunderstandings, feuds, schadenfreude, embarrassment and horror – but here the Goodmans are cast as the straight men to Jim’s one-man reality-wrecking crew. While interpersonal connections and rituals are alien to Jim, the Goodmans’ set of mannerisms and catchphrases are his greatest challenge yet. His interpretation of their Jewish faith is equal parts sweet to absolutely bonkers, and only Jim’s anxiety, eagerness to please, incomprehension, and molten naivety keeps things from becoming insulting.

All of the Goodman rituals to which the viewer has become accustomed rain down on Jim in a hail of friendly fire, leading him to gargle on ‘Jewish water’ and scrutinise his dinner plate for hints of squirrel. The moment where Jim briefly considers whether he should eat the episode’s eponymous mouse as it scurries onto his dinner plate is pure comedy gold. 

Christmas

Series 2, Episode 7

This episode features the first appearance of Rosalind Knight as Martin’s mother, or ‘Horrible Grandma’ as she’s known to the family. Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace and celebration, but that’s not an easy ask when your guest of dishonour is a terrifying little lady who’s equal parts Livia Soprano to the Shushing Library Spook from Ghostbusters. Very few Christmases contain the line, ‘Thanks for raping our grandma’s dog on Christmas day’, fewer still see a grandson sharing his grandma’s dog’s oxygen mask, but then nobody does Christmas like the Goodmans. And they’re not even supposed to be doing it.

There’s a surprisingly beautiful moment at the end of this episode, courtesy of resident oddball, Jim, that – like all of the other rare occasions on which the show veers towards sentimentality – is quickly undercut by a well-timed, and very welcome, gag. 

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The Girlfriend

Series 3, Episode 1

Adam finally meets his match: an eight-year-old girl who blackmails him into a chaste but never-the-less irritating and inappropriate ‘relationship’ following the discovery of a racy, unsolicited picture of his girlfriend’s sister on his phone, while his girlfriend is there at the Goodman house for dinner. Thus unfolds an evening of unusual foot-washing, forced transvestism, secrets, lies, panic, and a stunning coup de grace from Jonny, who helps put the final nail into the coffin of his brother’s fledgling relationship.  

The Fox

Series 3, Episode 2

Martin likes to squirrel away a great many things, many of them ridiculous, most of them out of sight of his wife. But Johnny and Adam probably weren’t expecting to discover a dead fox in their father’s chest freezer, much less find themselves enlisted to help move it around town like a hitman’s hairy bounty until the heat died down long enough for their father to have it stuffed. The funniest thing about Martin’s many hare-brained (or, in this case, fox-brained) schemes is the energy he throws at them, the sort of logistical chicanery seldom seen this side of the CIA. Watching the men of the family toddle around hither and thither with a dead fox, hiding it in the dining room, hurling it in cupboards, wedging it through windows, is exactly as funny as it sounds, and – as always – just when you think Martin’s got away with it… he hasn’t.  

The Two Tonys

Series 4, Episode 1

Martin is an exceptionally quick-thinker. Unfortunately, his speed of thought is seldom married with precision, and he usually finds himself blurting something out at the start of an evening and spending the rest of that evening teetering on the edge of oblivion, with his long-suffering wife ready to push him off. His blurt-out in ‘The Two Tonys’, though, is perhaps his most desperate and ill-considered. In a bid to encourage Jason Watkins’ Tony – a loathed associate from years ago Martin had invited to dinner believing him to be another, better Tony – to leave the Goodman home, he forces Jackie to go along with the ruse that her mother has just died. This gambit, like all Goodman gambits, backfires spectacularly, and what follows is a farce worthy of Frasier, everything culminating in a desperate chase and the furious weaponisation of a pineapple. 

The Funeral

Series 4, Episode 5

Friday Night Dinner deals with death incredibly often, and incredibly well, wringing joyous laughter from that most terrifying and inevitable of our shared fates. Here we have another delicious dose of Horrible Grandma, who’s in town to lay to rest her dear departed brother, Saul. Martin is pressured into giving Saul’s eulogy, even though he never really knew or liked his uncle all that much. Cue a day of stress, arrests, tense stand-offs and tantrums, ending with an uninvited Jim appearing at Saul’s graveside clutching four black balloons, while Martin proceeds to recite Saul’s death certificate in lieu of a proper farewell. Immediately following a Grand Prix-inspired coffin malfunction, Jim’s dog Wilson enters stage-left to put a necro-quasi-cannibalistic spin on the ending of Todd Solondz‘s Happiness.      

Dad’s Birthday

Series 6, Episode 4

Horrible Grandma might make for a terrible dinner guest, but she makes for a perfect guest star. This time, we bid her goodbye for good, but not before a great deal of caustic put-downs, cathartic showdowns and perhaps the funniest, most macabre magic trick of all time, courtesy of resident ‘magician’ Jim.

Females

Series 6, Episode 6  

‘Females’ wasn’t intended to be the final episode of the series, at least according to comments made by series’ creator Robert Popper immediately following its transmission. And it still might not be the end. But it’s hard to imagine a better, funnier or more touching swan-song for the show, with or without the tragic death of Paul Ritter.

Adam and Jonny finally have ‘females’ (as their progressive dad has always called their prospective girlfriends) in their lives at the same time, and Jackie is overjoyed to be welcoming them into her home. She thinks the evening is going to be perfect, which is rather naïve of her considering that she’s married to Martin.

Sure enough, Martin manages to contaminate every course of the meal with shards of broken glass, a calamity he’s forced to reveal to everyone but Jackie, going on to enlist their help in somehow preventing the matriarch from choking to death, while simultaneously preventing her from discovering the depths of his dangerous ineptitude. Martin is, of course, thoroughly rumbled, but before Jackie can strike him down with great anger and furious vengeance, two pregnancies are announced in quick and joyous succession.

‘Females’ is solidly, classically funny, but it’s the episode’s smaller, more intimate moments that will linger longest in the imagination: the brothers’ new-found, prank-less affection for each other; the subdued but sincere affection between Jackie and Martin as they discuss their new roles and the future; and the now suddenly larger Goodman family dancing as one in the living room. As codas go, it’s a damn near perfect one.

If Friday Night Dinner comes back, let it be in twenty years when Adam and Jonny are middle-aged. For now, I hope Martin gets to enjoy many long years as a granddad.

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Friday Night Dinner series 1-6 are available to stream in the UK on All4 and Netflix.           

The post Friday Night Dinner: the Best Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[monkberries]

I saw a post saying it was like John was Dad, Paul was Mum, George was the teen and Ringo was the kid. But I kinda disagree. To me its more like they're all kids and Brian is Dad. With Dad gone, Paul tried to look after the others when really he's still just a little kid himself.

MMM. Yes. Talking about the Ray Connolly post, right? I think the two ideas are not necessarily incompatible; I think the dynamics happened at different times. When Brian was alive, from 62 until his death, he was the one keeping the train on the tracks, making sure everyone got to where they were supposed to go, scheduling everything for them, protecting them from leeches who just wanted to be close to fame or wanted money from the boys. I think they loved him in a way that was at least adjacent to the love one feels for a father, and perhaps similar to the way children often can’t see what their parents are doing for them, did not quite understand how much of a shield Brian was for them, how much structure and security he gave them, until he was gone.

Without him, they all kind of floundered at first. I feel like they were able to keep going because Paul had some momentum that propelled them, and then the next year George took over for a while. But when they got back in the studio, I think the “family” dynamic Connolly describes started falling into place a little. Although I totally object to this weird infantilizing of Ringo (he was the oldest and in some ways the most mature of the group - I see him as more of the cool uncle that everyone loves having around but also takes for granted sometimes), I don’t think he’s wrong about the way the other three behaved. Without the structure and security Brian provided, they all kind of fell into their own private traps; John pulling stunts to get attention and going off to do stuff with his new obsession, Paul becoming pushy and inflexible while trying to keep things on the rails, and George turning to his bitterness and hurt and letting it fuel him instead of love. If you’re trying to sum up a very complicated group dynamic in a few words, you could certainly do worse than Connolly did with the family analogy.