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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 03/04/2021 (Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO”, Mimi Webb, Russ Millions & Tion Wayne)

So, we have a #1 debut, and that’s pretty much the only story here in the UK Top 75 as we get a filler week before Demi Lovato, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Tjay run in and cause havoc. As for now, “Wellerman” is replaced at the top by Lil Nas X’s controversial “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)”, spending its first week at #1 after making pretty sudden gains assisted by the video and alternate versions – the mid-week projection had this at #15. Elsewhere, we just see the fall-out from Bieber. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

It’s a quiet week – only seven new entries, and none from Rod Wave, 24kGoldn or AJR as I had predicted. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some stuff to talk about within the chart, or particularly off of the chart, as we have a fair few drop-outs switching their places with returning entries. In particular, we have Justin Bieber’s “As I Am” featuring Khalid being swapped out for “Anyone” at #25, as well as drop-outs for “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence – slightly premature, I’d think – and all of Lana Del Rey’s songs from last week. We also “Anxious” by AJ Tracey, “Heat” by Paul Woodford and Amber Mark and “Toxic” by Digga D exit the chart, but the only real notable loss was “34+35” by Ariana Grande ending its 21-week run on the chart. Returning to the Top 75 in its place – which I cover – we have “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers of course at #73, as well as “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #72, “You’ve Done Enough” by Gorgon City and DRAMA at #70 (really hope this one becomes a hit) and “Don’t You Worry About Me” by Bad Boy Chiller Crew at #66. In terms of climbers and fallers, we do have some notable gains and losses. For songs travelling down the chart, we have “Patience” by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G tanking a sharp drop in its third week to #18, “Streets” by Doja Cat shaking off the video gains at #22, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo continuing to collapse at #27, another sharp drop for HVME’s remix of Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps” down to #34 probably due to ACR, which was probably the fate for “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd at #46. The same probably can’t be said for Drake’s losses, as “What’s Next” is at #40, “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross is at #41 and “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby stalls at #55. We also see falls for “Money Talks” by Fredo and Dave at #50, “Bringing it Back” by Digga D and AJ Tracey at #51, “Sweet Melody” by Little Mix on its way out at #57, “Headshot” by Lil Tjay featuring Polo G and Fivio Foreign down to #61 off the debut (although it’ll rebound thanks to the album as soon as the next week rolls around), “Ready” by Fredo featuring Summer Walker at #62, “You’re Mines Still” by Yung Bleu featuring Drake at #63 and “Day in the Life” by Central Cee at #69. Where it gets interesting are our gains, such as outside the top 40 with “What Other People Say” by Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer which could very well get even higher next week thanks to the album. We also have “Track Star” by Mooski at #53 off of the debut and a couple of tracks entering the top 40 for the first time, those being “Heartbreak Anniversary” by Giveon at #39 and Majestic’s remix of “Rasputin” by Boney M. at #38. Elsewhere in the top 40, we have “Let’s Go Home Together” by Ella Henderson and Tom Grennan at #13 and two songs marking their first week in the top 10, those being “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #10, a song continuing to sour on me, and “Your Love (9PM)” by ATB, Topic and A7S, an EDM song at #8 that I initially mocked for its soulless repackaging but has honestly got me pretty hooked since. I’m excited to see how this one does. For now, however, let’s get on with our new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#64 – “Cloud 9” – Beach Bunny

Produced by Joe Reinhart

Beach Bunny is a power pop band who last year released their album Honeymoon on Mom+Pop and it’s basically a modern r/indieheads staple in that it’s an accessible, airy pop-rock record fronted by a woman. It’s not anything unique, really, or different if you look further into it but that’s fine because there’s a lot of vaguely “indie” or music snob releases pushed out every year that miss the charts entirely. It’s a different story, however, when a year later, it gets viral on TikTok and streams its way onto the chart. In that case, we have “Cloud 9” by Beach Bunny, a pretty simple but sweet love song about a guy who just makes her feel a lot better about herself in times where she can’t pick herself up from the rut she’s in. Again, it’s a simple track but enhanced by the wonderful and unique vocal performance from front-woman Lili Trifilo and some pretty great production making sure no guitar lick is missed in this mix, especially in that chorus which is such an ethereal blend of the electric guitar dubs. I would argue that this actually should end at that second chorus even if it ends feeling abrupt as the transition to the final chorus feels a lot less cathartic than it does awkward, especially if the bridge is going to be a simplistic, quirky instrumental meander that doesn’t go far enough to be a guitar solo and hence feels kind of like a worthless addition. As is, this is a pretty great song still, just not the most fully realised once it loses that initial tight surf groove, though I’ll let it pass if we’re going to get rock this good on the charts again. I know this won’t really get more traction for Beach Bunny – or power pop for that matter – but more of this, please.

#52 – “You All Over Me” (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) (Remix) (feat. DaBaby) (Part 2) (Radio Edit) – Taylor Swift featuring Maren Morris

Produced by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner

Sadly, this does not feature DaBaby and is not the remix, radio edit or sequel to any previously released song. Jokes aside, I guess brackets are the next big comeback for pop music, which goes hand-in-hands with remixes and re-releases, hence why Taylor Swift is dusting off this leaked Fearless-era cut for a new recording with country singer Maren Morris, who you probably know from her contributions to Zedd’s “The Middle”. Now whilst Swift is a great songwriter, I do often find myself frustrated by how she treads common ground all too frequently without establishing much different with how a song is structured or how it emotionally connects. This is true not just lyrically but especially sonically as of recent, as despite being written in 2008, it has too much in common with the less interesting cuts off of folklore for me to really care that much. That’s especially if Taylor’s going to undercut the clean acoustic guitars with flourishes of harmonica and crow sound effects, showing some genuine intrigue here before refusing to let any of that develop past a couple stray melodies or notes further back in the mix. I’m trying really hard to be compelled by these re-recordings and re-releases of her back catalogue as I do consider myself a fan, but it’s tough to pay attention when any new compositions we get sound like folklore leftovers with Maren Morris only put to use as decoration, much like HAIM on “no body, no crime” – and we already got an album full of folklore leftovers. I’m not a fan of this, sorry – I can see the appeal, and I do think this has enough of a country tinge to it to make it at least somewhat interesting – but this goes in one ear and immediately out of the other.

#48 – “Tonight” – Ghost Killer Track featuring OBOY and D-Block Europe

Produced by Ghost Killer Track and Kenzy

Screw the formalities and screw the analysis because D-Block Europe are back to add another D-Block to their EU collection – and since they’re Londoners, their only – and that’s Paris, and contrary to the British nature, we’ve let French rap chart in the top 50 out of the fact that they collaborated with two of the most comical rappers in British history. They’ve also linked up with producer Ghost Killer Track, also from France, as this is ostensibly his song even if he intends not to prove himself with this dull piano-based beat and oddly-mastered bass and percussion, which are really just DBE staples. Unfortunately, past the initial comedy of that first line in the chorus, neither Young Adz or Dirtbike LB deliver any stupid lyrics or funny inflections, instead just resorting to being as boring as they can in their constant flexing as possible. I guess the French guy here, OBOY, commands a higher energy in his verse if only through his comical “no, no, no” ad-libs, but he’s the only French speaker in an otherwise basic British trap song that I just cannot see the appeal in when we’ve had song after song from these guys for three years now. This won’t be the last we see of cookie-cutter UK rap this week though so brace yourselves for that.

#47 – “Last Time” – Becky Hill

Produced by LOSTBOY

It’s almost as if the charts are trying to send me off to sleep as here we have Becky Hill, a singer hedging the line between a non-presence and mildly annoying, which is arguably more frustrating than downright infuriating as her slightly smokier voice does not sound bad, just lacking in texture in every way, especially if the multi-tracking is going to be this minimal on a royalty-free deep-house beat produced by Getty Images with a pretty worthless drop, a generic and simple melody of piano stabs for major chords, and a whole bunch of reverb on the vocal take... but it still ends up feeling dry as there’s nothing here to quench that thirst for a tighter, bass-heavy house banger or even a more ethereal, dreamy trance track, deciding to stick to a healthy medium of boring and utter garbage. Yes, that was a singular sentence. I’m not awake enough to form a cohesive sentence less than 40 words long, and this new Becky Hill track is just worsening that if anything. Speaking of...

#21 – “Body” – Russ Millions and Tion Wayne

Produced by Gotcha Bxtch

Who’s Russ Millions? He’s Russ. No, not that Russ. British Russ – or Russ Splash, stylised as Russ splash on Spotify and nowhere else. This confusingly-named fellow appeared on the charts a couple times and possibly most famously with “Keisha & Becky”, a song also featuring Tion Wayne that is referenced on this very track. Sigh, I usually like Tion Wayne but even he can’t be bothered to delivery his usual brand of suave charm or sinister menace, instead opting for a more growling but ultimately completely monotone cadence that doesn’t flatter him or Russ, who one of my friends described as sounding like one of the aliens from Toy Story. This is a pretty by-the-numbers drill beat too, and it’s pretty safe to say that neither Russ or Tion Wayne here are going to bother with wordplay, even when they start pretty smoothly trading bars and Tion Wayne goes for a more unique chopper flow in the second verse. This is just not of any note. Once again, speaking of...

#17 – “Good Without” – Mimi Webb

Produced by Freedo

I assumed Mimi Webb debuted this high because of a talent show she won or something because I’d never heard her name but instead, she just happened to have a major label deal before her unreleased song just happened to go viral on TikTok and just happened to be supported by one of the women who just happened to be the biggest creator on the platform. Yeah, and this song just happened to be garbage, suffering from every possible millennial pop trope and then some, from the mix dressed rather too overtly in reverb, the ugly guitar pluck, a generic indie-girl voice that you swear you’ve heard before in one of those dreadful piano covers of popular songs they use in adverts, as well as this ballad being undercut by badly-programmed trap percussion. I can tell this label is trying to create somewhat of an Olivia Rodrigo phenomenon from this and I for one am terrified of the Poundland knock-offs to come. Screw this.

#1 – “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” – Lil Nas X

Produced by Roy Lenzo, Omar Fedi and Take a Daytrip

At least Lil Nas X will bring some passion into this chart week? Well, not really, as when I hear this I recall that Pitchfork review of his EP, a much-maligned critique that featured the ever-so pretentious questioning if Lil Nas X really enjoyed making and listening to music. It reminds me because I think I now fully get it – at least when Lil Nas X was making slap-dash pop rock with Travis Barker or meme-worthy country rap with Billy Ray Cyrus for less than two minutes apiece, there was something invigorating in the execution or at least in concept. That 7 EP is still not a bad debut at all, but this new single “MONTERO”, a long-anticipated record that went from constantly-teased demo to Super Bowl commercial to Satanic-panicked videos of Lil Nas giving Satan a lap-dance to own the conservatives, has the same remote dreariness to it as “HOLIDAY” did late last year. The acoustic, Latin-flavoured guitar loop reminds me of his much better track “Rodeo” from that aforementioned EP that used its energy for similarly lighthearted subject matter but with some genuine energy, a Cardi B feature and a lot less subtle moombahton creeping in. With that said, I can’t say Lil Nas X didn’t try, as his vocal performance, whilst largely insufferable and strained, gives some energy to an otherwise aggravatingly stunted beat, and makes it a lot more infectious than it has any right to be. Content-wise, the song is essentially about a full circle where Lil Nas X becomes increasingly desperate for a man who starts off lonely and in a bad place, and the irony is that Lil Nas gets more explicitly sexual and crazed due to a combination of the LA life-style surrounding him and the fact that he’s simply, for lack of a better term, “down bad”, despite the fact that this guy doesn’t seem particularly desirable. Lil Nas knows this, though, and acknowledges it in the pre-chorus where he outright says that this guy is living the cocaine-addled celebrity life, but not living it right without Mr. Bullriding and Boobies in his life. I’m happy about the video and the outrage it seems to cause not just within conservative spaces but also amongst the hip-hop community, particularly Joyner Lucas, and I’m pretty happy with how out and proud Lil Nas X is about his sexuality, even if it leads to lines like “Shoot a child in your mouth while I’m ridin’”. I’m just really not a fan of this song past its content, which could really be interesting but falls flat with this plucking production that wastes time in barely two minutes with humming interludes. It’s not bad at all, just not for me.

Conclusion

And that concludes our week, and wow, what a bad week this was for new arrivals. Admittedly, it’s a filler week so only “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” will probably last – or at least we can hope as even if I don’t like the song, I still have to give out an Honourable Mention to someone, and it may as well be Lil Nas X trying to put the effort in. Best of the Week easily goes to Beach Bunny for “Cloud 9”, far and away the only good song here, with Worst of the Week also going out pretty easily to Mimi Webb’s “Good Without”, which is the type of soulless, unmemorable garbage that makes pop music look uninspired, and as a person who writes about the charts constantly, it’s a misconception I don’t want proven or revisited. Dishonourable Mention is a toss-up but I guess I’ll give it to Russ Millions and Tion Wayne for that sprinkle of drill disappointment that is “Body”, and that’ll be it for this week. I predict some impact from Demi Lovato, Lil Tjay and especially Olivia Rodrigo next week, but for now, here’s our top 10:

Thank you for reading – sorry for the grouchiness on this one – and I’ll see you next week!

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alj4890 · 4 years

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Prompt Request/Rachel Green Friends Quote/Kiss Prompt

(Thomas Hunt x oc*Amanda) with the quote,"Do you have to do that? Today is Saturday!" as requested by @krsnlove and an almost kiss as requested by Anonymous.

(Thomas x Amanda) in a preview to the series that will begin after And Then I Met You finishes.

A/N: This idea for the new series was requested a while back (sorry for taking so long Nonny!) It will show what would have happened if Amanda had left Thomas after completing the screenplay and participated in the social season to find Liam a bride. *On a personal note these songs are in memory of my aunt who passed away in April of 2013. She would always play songs from the 50′ & 60's whenever we were togethers 💙

@lxaah11 @alleksa16 @penguininapinktuxedo @blackcoffee85 @stopforamoment @hopefulmoonobject @krsnlove @annekebbphotography @hopelessromantic1352 . @sunflowergirl05 @desireepow-1986 @greywitchyshots @lilyofchoices @moodyvalentinestories @emceesynonymroll @my-heart-beats-for-ya @aworldoffandoms @ab1901 @flyawayboo @i-bloody-love-drake-walker . @trappedinfandoms @kate-mckenzie @cordoniaqueensworld @everythingmarvelsherlockspn

Masterlist

Songs: Midnight Confessions by The Grass Roots and These Arms of Mine by Otis Redding

Yearning

Thomas turned his TV off and looked up at the ceiling. He knew Amanda was most likely still in her room, typing at an alarming pace.

And for some reason, her dedicated work ethic to their screenplay was getting on his nerves.

He wondered why she was in such a hurry to finish. The past three months proved they could live together with no problems at all.

Well. Almost. There was that one little, minuscule, shouldn't really be examined too closely problem.

The sparks.

Time had only made them worse. Or more noticable. Or something that the two had seemed to silently agree to never discuss.

Ignoring it had only made the sparks of attraction between them multiply faster than the speed of light.

He wasn't going to focus on that. He also wasn't going to focus on the fact that he had begun to try and think of a way around his no dating someone you work with policy.

Thomas knew he had to get his mind actively engaged before he did something he would later regret.

He got up and went into his office. There was nothing there that demanded his attention, which meant that his thoughts would immediately revert the lady upstairs typing.

He glanced around, hoping for a miracle and noticed his old LP albums.

"Hmm?" He pulled them out and began to categorize them in alphabetical order.

This still wasn't enough to keep him from thinking of Amanda. He decided to play some albums he had not listened to in a while.

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

"I need a break." Amanda muttered to herself. She rose from her chair and groaned as her muscles cramped from sitting in one position for so long.

Her eyes were burning from the many hours spent staring at her laptop's screen. All this work had to be done for two purposes: (a) Keep her mind from dwelling on the director downstairs that she was desperately in love with, and (b) Complete this screenplay before she had to return to Cordonia and participate in the search for Liam's queen.

Everything had seemed so perfect when a month earlier, Thomas had taken her to Lake Tahoe for a weekend away. She sensed that they were on the very precipice of either falling in love or would strictly remain friends. Then fate decided to throw a cruel twist in her way.

Liam called with the news that Leo had abdicated. Amanda would have to return for the social season. She would be forced, as a single Cordonian noble, to put herself up as a potential bride.

Her princely friend had also swore her to secrecy. The Royal family was waiting until the last moment to announce Liam being the new heir to the throne.

It took all her courtly training to keep a pleasant smile on her face throughout the conversation. She knew this meant that she (a) Couldn't tell Thomas how she felt, (b) Had to rush and finish the screenplay, and (c) Was going to be miserable at home.

She could still picture Thomas' surprise when she suggested they write up some scenes while away.

Do you have to do that? Today is Saturday!" He grumbled later that day when she persisted in going through more in-depth ideas for the love scenes.

Thomas tempered his tone when he noticed her shock at his irritated outburst. "This was supposed to be a break for us."

She bit her lip, then spoke the lie that she simply couldn't turn her mind off. The screenplay was consuming her.

But that wasn't true. Only one thing kept her thoughts so easily fixated: Thomas.

She had been so open with Thomas, that hiding this cursed situation from him seemed like a lie. Like she was cheating on him.

Perhaps she felt the latter so acutely because she had already given him her heart without his knowledge.

Amanda could definitely use a break. She sighed and left her room. She paused halfway down the stairs when she heard the music. The beginning chords caused her mind to go back to her life with her late uncle.

With a smile forming, she went toward the room that seemed to be the source of the memorable sound.

After quietly approaching the open doorway, she let her eyes touch on Thomas. He was surrounded by albums. His turntable sat before him as he considered what to play next.

Amanda thought he looked so handsome. The heather gray long sleeved t-shirt conformed over his chest and arms. His stubble that had formed throughout the night had yet to be shaved, making him appear even more sexy in her opinion.

She wasn't quite certain what her favorite look on him was. She loved how handsome he was in formal wear. His typical dressy casual matched his personality. Seeing him like this in such comfortable clothing made her smile. She had come to learn this was his look for the days he had no intention of working or going out.

As he picked up yet another album to debate playing, she cleared her throat.

His head jerked up in surprise. "I didn't disturb you, did I?"

She grinned. If he only knew..."Not at all. I heard the music as I came downstairs."

He relaxed some at that. "Does this mean you are done for the day?"

Amanda knew she should say no, but she wanted to spend time with him. She knew it would hurt horribly when she left, but she didn't care. She needed to be near him if even for an hour or two.

"I am." She stepped over the stacks of albums and sat down beside him. "Are you taking requests?"

His lips curved. "I usually do not." He cut his eyes to her. "But I suppose for you, I could make an exception."

That one dimple appeared with her smile. He knew he should not be held enthralled with a lopsided smile. Yet, he had come to find it endearingly her.

"The Grass Roots!" She exclaimed. "My uncle used to play their albums whenever he thought we needed a dance break."

Thomas quirked an eyebrow. "A break from dancing?"

Amanda laughed. "No, a break to dance." She leaned over and set the record down, placed the needle at the edge, and pulled Thomas off the couch.

His eyes widened. "What are we doing?"

She began to move. "We are dancing."

He stood transfixed. "You know the dances from the 1960's?"

Amanda bobbed her head in answer. She did the Frug, the Shimmy, and the Swim.

Her smile grew flirty. "Come on, Mr. Hunt. Show me what you can do."

He slowly shook his head. "I don't--"

She placed her hands on his hips and had him move with the beat.

His cheeks darkened under his stubble. "I'm not--this type of dance--" his breath caught when she moved behind him. Her hands moved him like a puppet.

Her smile was glowing when she came back around. "There you go."

He snorted and tried to mirror her movements. If something like this made her look at him with such warmth, he might have to take dance lessons.

Her eyes lit with excitement when the next song began. "Midnight Confessions! This is one of my favorites!" She took his hands and kept him moving.

They were both caught up in the moment. As if on cue they sang along with the chorus while keeping their body moving to the beat.

In my midnight confessions

When I tell all the world that I love you

In my midnight confessions

When I say all the things that I want to

I love you

When the song ended, the two collapsed on the sofa, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

Thomas wasn't quite ready to let the moment pass without finding the answer to a question that had plagued him at some of the parties they had attended together.. He flipped through his albums and found just the one he was looking for. This song would allow him to finally find out how it felt to hold her in his arms.

She watched him curiously when he set the needle down and took her hands.

With a quick jerk, he had her in his arms. Her breathless oh made him smile.

Otis Redding's song of These Arms of Mine began.

Thomas held her pressed to his body as he slow danced with her to the song. He thought the lyrics were hitting a little too close to home, especially

These arms of mine, they are yearning

Yearning from wanting you

And if you would let them hold you

Oh, how grateful I will be

The feeling of each other moving in sync made those sparks flare to life. The moment seemed perfect for lips to touch. To discover what would happen when the match was finally struck.

His eyes had settled on her mouth. One quick glance up had revealed she was staring at his own lips.

Thomas knew the time was at hand to finally feel how her lips felt under his...submitting, urging, demanding...

As if they were of the same mind, the two moved even closer. Amanda's eyelashes fluttered closed as her head slightly tilted back and to the left. Thomas dropped his head down. They could feel the other's excited breath.

Their lips barely touched, sensations along their skin danced with the near completion.

They jerked apart when they heard Addison and Holly coming through the front door.

"Hey!" Addison yelled out. "We have been knocking forever out there." She came in the study and turned the music down.

Holly noticed the awkward stance of the couple and the flushed cheeks. "Everything okay?"

"Yes." Thomas answered quickly. "We were merely going through my albums."

"That's what we came over for!" Addison exclaimed. "Matt is throwing a party next week and we talked him into making it a sixties theme."

Amanda nervously tucked her hair behind her ear. "Sounds fun."

Addison placed her hands on her hips. "You two are going to come, right?'

"Yes." Thomas abruptly replied at the same time Amanda said, "Of course."

"Can we borrow some of your albums?" Holly asked.

Thomas waved toward the stacks. "Help yourself."

Addison hugged him. "Thanks professor!" She knelt and began to shift through the selections. "We need some we can easily dance to."

Amanda and Thomas shared a look. Both smiled softly.

"You're in luck." Thomas said. "Amanda happens to not only be a connoisseur of this music, she is also an excellent teacher of the era's dances."

Holly slowly smiled. "Were you two dancing when we walked in?"

"That's why no one answered their phone or the door." Addison concluded with a teasing grin.

The couple blushed and quickly found reasons to be anywhere else in the house than with the two matchmakers.

"I think something almost happened." Holly whispered.

"Good. Then Matt's party can make something even more happen between them." Addison whispered. Her voice was filled with determination. "We have to get them together."

#Thomas Hunt #thomas hunt x amanda #rcd thomas hunt #choices thomas hunt #and then i met you #and then i left you #rachel green prompts

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earnest-jumping · 4 years

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For the asks— do all the even numbers!

107.58

That’s so long, fuck- ok here we go!

2. I am outgoing until I can’t mask anymore, or I have a sensory overload.

4 I like to think I am easy to get along with!

6 ,,,Attracted as in romantically? I have no idea. But in a platonic way, similar interests, concern for my wellbeing and happiness, understanding and knowing of my limits and able to compromise!

8 Real life, no one. But Drake Mallard lives rent free in my mind

10 My roommate! We are very similar in many ways and we have some similar backgrounds, so we talk often about them and everything going on right now as well.

12 current 5 favorite songs: Vices by Mothica, Garden Song by Phoebe Bridgers, A Letter To Time by Livingston, Peace by Taylor Swift, and Cherry Wine by Hozier!

14 I believe in miracles. This world is too random and spontaneous for things people deem miracles to not be, ya know? But I don’t believe in luck. Circumstance plays into it, as well as pure chance.

16 Oh, fuck no. I would not kiss them again

18 My guy I can’t even tell you what was really a crush and what was heteronormativity forced on me from grade school onward. So... no?

20 I live in a dorm and I fuckin love my neighbors rn. On one side they’re both enby like me, and on the other they’re super sweet and polite!

22 I really want to visit Europe. Classic american answer, yeah, but I love history and theirs is so much more interesting than ours

24 My favorote part of my daily routine (that is consistent, student teaching and classes are nuts) is spending time doing homework and hanging out with my roommate at the end of each day, before she goes in to work the night shift. It’s calm and gives us a chance to catch up!

26 When I wake up I usually groan and fall back asleep for another ten minutes. I make sure to have a few alarms set so I don’t sleep through the morning!

28 My roommate. We’ve known each other for three years and she doesn’t judge me or make me feel uncomfy- it’s really nice as someone with autism to be able to live in close, constant contact with someone who you trust and are comfortable around!

30 Hmm...maybe? Marriage isn’t something I’ve ever truly thought about in a realistic sense- sure, I’d imagine a wedding and what mine would look like if I had one. But I’ve never imagined actually GETTING married to someone.

32 I will not have a threesome with celebrities because I am ~traumatised~ and do not like sexual intimacy

34 I don’t play sports, but when I was little I was part of a gymnastics class!

36 I have indeed liked someone and never told them. It was honestly for the better lmao

38 I don’t think I can really describe a dream person? I’m not very keen on having a list to check off when looking for a partner. If anything, though, I’d say trustworthy and caring.

40 I’m already out of high school lol. I’m in my junior year majoring in Early Childhood/Special Education!

42 Being extremely quiet for me usually means sensory overload, depressive thoughts, or my rejection sensitive dysphoria rearing its ugly head. Most of the time its a mix of the three.

44 Trip to puter space > bottom of the ocean, any day. DEEP SEA SCARES ME!

46 I’m paranoid that everything I’ve ever done in my life is all for naught, and I’ve faked everything about myself subconsciously.

48 I have been drunk before! My seven year old self accidentally drank a full margarita instead of the kiddie version my grandma made with sprite instead of alcohol.

50 The color of the last hoodie I wore was grey!

52 One thing I wish I could change about myself is I wish I didn’t have so much weight. It’s not fun trying to navigate the world as an afab nonbinary person with people telling you it’s “just because you don’t like your body”.

54 My favorite store is Walmart for groceries (broke college students holla) and Torrid for clothes! (They have cuter stuff than anywhere else, and carry my size always)

56 My favorite color is Blue! Kind of a dark sky blue, like sky blue 3 or 4

58 I just had some Hershey’s candy drops as the last thing I ate!

60 In fourth and fifth grade I won two school writing competitions and got a trophy for it 😌 I wrote about the Titanic (thank you special interest)!

62 I have never been arrested, and I’m not planning on it any time soon lol

64 My first kiss was a dare and I hated every second of it cause the guy was an ass about it until it happened (he’d been badgering me for weeks)

66 Uhh I’m gonna be honest and say no? As much as I love my tumblr friends (ayy hi guys) I’ve known my friends in real life for longer and those bonds are just, amazing and so strong.

68 Tumblr > Twitter, any day.

70 my best friends’ names are: Emili, Autumn, Maggie, and Erin

72 My towels are grey

74 I have many stuffed animals- uh probably seven or eight.

76 Not answering this one lmao

78 My favorote ice cream clavor is Graham Central Station from this place called Bruster’s! It’s really good.

80 I am wearing blue pajama pants because ~comfy~

82 My favorite movie is Coraline! I watch it repeatedly

84 Mean Girls > 21 Jump Street

86 Nemo is my favorite character from Finding Nemo!

88 The last person I talked to today was my roommate

90 I love my baby brother Reid!

92 I am not currently in a fight with anyone.

94 I own three sweaters/hoodies- I need to get more!

96 My favorote actress is and always will be Kiera Knightley.

98 I do not tan a lot- naturally or artificially. I just burn #whitepeopleproblems

100 I am feeling *tired*. A bitch is exhausted today

102 I regret everything from my past

104 I don’t tend to miss people that much? I’m not good with emotional connections to people that last after they’re gone.

106 I feel like I’ve broken my mother’s heart- for coming out, for rebelling, etc.

108 I should be working on homework but I am not.

110 I have indeed liked someone so much it hurt- in the sense that liking them was not good for me and led to a lot of heartache.

112 The last person I cried in front of was my parents, and it was not on purpose lmao

114 I’ve been out of my state lots- Florida, South and North Carolina, West Virgina, Delaware, Massachusetts.

116 Nope, not currently listening to music.

118 I fuckin LOVE chinese food

120 I used to be afraid of the dark, not anymore. I love it now.

122 Cheating is NEVER okay.

124 I do not believe in love at first sight- I barely believe in love 🤷🏼

126 I am indeed currently bored

128 I would love to change my name- legally and personally. I’m not sure “Ryn” is suitable anymore

130 I don’t like subway. Not a fan of sub sandwiches

132 The last person I had a deep conversation with is my roommate

134 Pfft, no. I can’t count to one million my brain wouldn’t focus that long

136 Due to the fact I live in a community dorm hall, I sleep with my door closed and ~locked~

138 Straight hair

140 Winter > Summer

142 My favorite month is October! Atlanta Pride, my birthday, and Halloween! Plus it starts getting colder!

144 Dark>Milk>White chocolate, in that order

146 Since it’s now morning, yes today has been a good day so far

148 My favorite quote is anything that has to do with being a decent fucking human being

150 The first line of the page is “You were right”.

#ryn tags #ryn talks #about me #ask me #ask ryn #anon ask #ask game #ask meme #anon

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rapuvdayear · 5 years

Video

youtube

2000: “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” 50 Cent (Trackmaster Ent./Columbia)

It’s been over a year since I teased the idea of doing a post about my favorite 50 Cent tracks, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to get around to it!

With the exception of maybe Kanye, I can’t think of another rapper with more raw talent whose career has been more disappointing. Obviously both Ye and Fiddy have been monstrously successful, but IMO they either burned brightly before descending into white supremacy apologia (Kanye) or never achieved their best possible trajectory (50). It’s not an accident to put them together in this way, either; just 12 years ago next month they faced off in what turned out to be a very underwhelming battle over whose album would sell better (this was back when album sales, not streaming numbers, still meant something). In many ways, it was a crossroads for each artist: Kanye dropped what I believe was his magnum opus, then followed it up with his fourth-best album, third-best album, and second-best album, before dropping off a cliff, while 50′s release basically removed him from the conversation about who was relevant in rap (“My Gun Go Off” and “I Get Money” are honorable mentions for the list below, but otherwise Curtis is entirely forgettable).

These days, 50 has gone the Ice Cube route and is probably more recognizable as an actor than as a rapper. So, it’s hard to remember that once upon a time he was the savior of gangsta rap and (co-)author of one of the 25 greatest albums of all time. He beat the odds to survive a shooting, link up with the two heaviest hitters (at the time) in the rap game, and even be included on some GOAT lists. He also essentially established the “flood the streets with mixtapes before your album drops” strategy of self-promotion that Gucci, Weezy, and even Drake would follow in the days before Soundcloud was the go-to resource for building a rep. He singlehandedly destroyed a rival’s career, launched a clothing line, video game, and music label, and made a halfway-decent biopic. And then... he just sort of petered out.

But! 50 is also responsible for some of my all-time favorite raps, which is why it’s so frustrating to me that he never lived up to the buzz surrounding him back in 2003. These are my five favorites, listed chronologically, with some commentary:

1) “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” (2000) Before the G-Unit days and before Eminem and Dre helped launch him to superstardom, Curtis Jackson was an up and coming rapper from Queens who had attracted the attention of another rap legend, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay. A mutual friend introduced 19 year-old 50 to Jay back in 1996, and the veteran producer/DJ gave him a crash course in how to write songs and signed him to his fledgling label. The business relationship didn’t work out, but it helped lead 50 to Columbia Records’ Trackmasters imprint where he recorded Power of the Dollar in 1999. However, this debut album would never see the light of day after 50 was shot nine times while sitting in a friend’s car and subsequently dropped by Columbia. In the wake of the shooting--and then later, after 50 blew the fuck up in 2003--it became a sort of “lost cult classic” among rap fans. “How To Rob” got the most attention at the time, a funny-yet-vicious song demonstrating 50′s hunger through fantasies about sticking up famous rappers and R&B stars (the song was also clearly an homage to Biggie’s unreleased “Dreams,” and provoked an oblique diss from Ghostface). But “Ghetto Qu’ran” has had a more lasting impact, primarily because of how it was rumored to be the source of 50′s shooting, Jam Master Jay’s murder, and the Ja Rule/Murder Inc. beef. While all of that intrigue is important to rap lore, it distracts from the fact that it’s a near perfect rap song from a technical perspective: a catchy hook, a fantastic beat and sample, an effortless flow, and a well-crafted story that is equal parts celebration of the Queens underworld and subtle shots at street legends. Seriously, this is akin to what traveling bards used to do in medieval Europe, what poets in Ancient Greece wrote, what west African griots did/do, and what narcocorrido artists do now. If you want to learn about the Supreme Team, Pappy Mason, the Corley Family, and the Rich Porter/Alpo crew in Harlem, then this is a good place to start; as 50 puts it, “consider this the first chapter of the ghetto’s Qu’ran.” The secondary title to this track--“Forgive Me”--has a double meaning now. It was initially a plea to forgive 50 for the pain he caused in his criminal life but in retrospect an appeal to the figures whose names he drops. Also, it’s interesting to listen to this first and then compare 50′s voice with the next four tracks: this was recorded before the shooting, which left a bullet fragment lodged in his tongue that affected his speech and gave him his now-distinctive flow.

2) “Heat” (2003) There are several standouts on Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (“Many Men,” “Back Down,” “What Up Gangsta,” “Patiently Waiting,” and “Poor Lil’ Rich” spring to mind, and I will always love “21 Questions” for the “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” line alone) but this one has always been my fave. It’s a perfect distillation of the image that 50 was trying to project when he burst onto the scene: a hood-hardened gangster who wouldn’t hesitate to do his enemies harm. And given his recent history, you could believe him, too! There’s really nothing about this song that should be praised in any way, but I’ve been thinking about the gravity of the following line a lot in the past month or so: “The summertime is a killing season/ It’s hot out this bitch, that’s a good enough reason.” Also, 50′s boast “the DA can play this motherfucking tape in court” *has* to be one of the inspirations behind this great Key & Peele sketch, right?

3) “A Baltimore Love Thing” (2005) The Massacre was incredibly disappointing on the whole. I can remember clearly sitting around with my friends in a dorm room at the Shoreland listening to it all the way through the day that it dropped, wanting to love it but slowly realizing that it wasn’t going to live up to our expectations. “Ski Mask Way” could be an honorable mention on this list, and “Piggy Bank” is kind of funny, but otherwise it’s a steaming pile of shit. “Baltimore Love Thing,” though, is a masterpiece. It’s incredibly dark, rapped from the perspective of heroin itself (sort of like what Nas’s “I Gave You Power” does for guns) in order to detail the destruction that addiction--and, by extension, drug trafficking--leaves in its wake. Even more fucked up, 50-as-heroin voices an abusive partner addressing a woman, threatening her should she ever try to leave him. For my money, “You broke my heart, you dirty bitch, I won’t forget what you did/ If you give birth, I’ll already be in love with your kids” is one of the coldest lines in the annals of rap, full stop. In the second verse, he switches to the flip side of an abuser’s mindset: “I never steer you wrong, if you hyper I make you calm/ I’ll be your incentive, your reason for you to move forward.” All in all, it’s a great concept song that shows off 50′s range as a rapper... and is a testament to what he could have been.

4) “Hustler’s Ambition” (2005) Goddamn, I fucking love everything about this song! The beat is fantastic (great sample, btw), prefiguring the sound on a future great mixtape from the G-Unit crew. 50′s flow here is flawless, arguably the best, smoothest he’s ever been. This was basically the “theme” for 2005′s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ film, and tells the story of his come up in the drug game (or, at least, 50′s version of his carefully constructed hagiography). The lyrics are the true gems here, so I’ll just let a few of the standouts speak for themselves:

“Check my logic: fiends don’t like seeds in they weed, shit/ Send me them seeds, I’ll grow ‘em what they need”

“I sell anything, I’m a hustler, I know how to grind/ Step on grapes, put it in water, and tell you it’s wine”

“I made plans to make it, a prisoner of the state/ Now I can invite your ass out to my estate”

“Pour Cristal in the blender, make a protein shake”

and finally

“The feds watch me, icy, they can’t stop me/ Racists pointing at me, ‘Look at *****race’: Hello!”

5) “Ghetto Like A Motherfucker” (2011) I remember first encountering this track on a Tumblr compilation (I think?) called Don’t Fuck This Up, Curtis! and allowing myself to get excited that the old 50 was back! As the compilation’s name implies, around that time 50 had been releasing a string of online-only singles that were better than anything he’d put out in five or so years, and so there was some hope that he’d soon be making a triumphant return to the rap game. Sadly, this was not to be. But I still bang this track every month or so. The idea here was that 50 had written something, set it to a very sparse, stripped-down beat, and posted it online as an invitation for DIY rap producers to play with it and layer their own compositions on top of it. In that sense, it represented a melange of rap’s earliest roots--dudes spitting over vinyl cuts in basements and parks, just fucking around and having fun--and the possibilities afforded by the digital age and rap’s embrace of online platforms for mixing and remixing material (on a side note, I like to think of this as part of 21st century rap’s “punk rock” aesthetic, and would argue that this genre has done it better than any other). As with “Hustler’s Ambition,” “Baltimore Love Thing,” and “Ghetto Qu’ran,” this track gives 50 a chance to really showcase his talents as a writer and a rapper. The lyrics are as grimy as the beat, painting a picture of urban poverty and pre-fame 50, and 50 switches up his flow at multiple points throughout. Here are some of my favorite lines:

“Slim chance I’ma go back to killing roaches/ Be quiet, you can hear the rats in the wall/ Make you wanna pump crack ‘til you stack racks”

“Dice game, shake ‘em up, praying’ for a 6/ The wolves out there hungry, they lookin’ for a lick”

“****** pissed on the staircase, in the elevator/ Now I’m pissed cuz I’m starting to smell like piss, player”

and

“All a ***** need is a block and a connect/ And a box of 9 MMs to load in the TEC.”

50′s last two studio albums--Before I Self Destruct and Animal Ambition--honestly weren’t half-bad; I would venture so far as to say that they were both better than The Massacre and Curtis. But for 50 it was too little, too late, really. Too many rappers had come along since then doing what he did, only better and fresher. This is a Migos world now; we’re just living in it. And so, I’m left to ponder what could have been.

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summerrrluvvv · 4 years

Text

Chapter 2

Music featured in this chapter:

Bitch from da south (remix) by Mulatto ft Saweetie and Trina

Bartier Cardi by Cardi B

Wild Thoughts by DJ Khaled

No Guidance by Chris Brown ft Drake

Hot Girl Summer by Meg Thee Stallion ft Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla$

Confidence by Chris Brown

Day 1 of Miami Trip:

The girls all meet up at Tye’s house and get a lyft to go to the Airport. The girls took shots before they got on the plane, so everybody was lit. When they arrived in Miami, they picked up the rental cars. 2 Jeeps. Melody felt like they should ride around bad girls’ style. After they left with the rentals they finally pulled up to their Airbnb. It had 6 bedrooms and 5 baths. Each girl had they own room and bathroom. They had a huge pool and sauna in the back yard. The girls explored the house and went swimming then each got ready for the night. They were going to Cameo Night Club, Tye got a text from Samar letting her know he was doing amateur night there and could get them in free.

Zion:

“Ayeeee, fuck it up sis!” My girls yelled as I was twerking, holding on to the stripper pole we had in our party bus. Samar hooked us up with connections in Miami, so we had rental cars to cruise with his friend drove the party bus. We had so much liquor on this bus, we were going to be fucked up tonight. “I’m real as rich ass bitch from the south” I sang to Mulatto “Bitch From Da Souf (remix)”. “Aight ladies we here” P-Wall said. Tye handed him a $20 dollar bill. “Thanks P!” She yelled as we got of the bus. We showed our wrist bands to the bouncer and he brought us to a section near V.I.P. “Tye Samar really hooked us up!” Ariana said taking some more shots. Tye smiled and nodded. “I know right, speaking of I’m going to go say hey to him up in the booth really quick, yall get us a pitcher or something” She said before leaving. “Please me baby turn around and just tease me baby, you know what I want and what I need baby” I heard start playing. Melody and Ariana wear dancing on the couch we had in our section. I took a shot. “Ari! Mel! I am going to go get us a pitcher sent up here. I’ll be back”. I told them as I walked out of our section. I went downstairs to the bar. I danced my way through the crowd feeling the liquor in my system. I got up to the bar and just waited for a bartender to acknowledge me, the club was packed so I just looked on IG. “Beautiful can I help you!?” I heard someone yell over the music. I looked up and it was this fine ass nigga. I smirked at him this was about to be interesting cause I was Lit. “Yes, how can I get us a pitcher sent up to my section?!” I asked looking him up and down. He looked at me in a mesmerizing way. I waved my hand in his face. “Hello?” I said. He smiled at me. “What drink yall want, Ill bring it up” He said. I smiled, and blushed. “Mmm a Blue Motherfucker!” I said before turning around, I felt him gently grab my arm. “But first you got to chill with me down here. My shift gets boring after while and it would be nice if for a minute you kept me company” He said. I tried to hide my smile. “Okay cool. My name is Zion by the way” I said extending my hand. He shook my hand and smiled that fine ass smile. “Kyrel, you from here?” He asked. I shook my head. “Nah just on Vacation” I said. He nodded as he looked and seen someone calling for a bartender, he held his hand up to give me one minute. I danced in my seat to “Bartier Cardi” played by Cardi B. I looked up at my girls in the section. They were drunk as fuck talking to niggas in the section next to ours. Kyrel came back and we talked for what seemed like 30 minutes. “Afterwards I’m going to waffle house if you want to join me, no funny play no trying you I promise, and I will make sure you get home” He said to me. I hesitated but then I nodded. “Okay”.

Tye:

I sipped my 4th drink of henny and coke as I danced near the booth where Samar was DJing. I was lit not too drunk but I was up through there. “Aye Mami you want to dance?” I heard in my ear. It was some fine ass Cuban man. I nodded my head. He brought me to dance floor and was feeling all on me as we danced to “Wild Thoughts” By DJ Khaled. “What’s your name?” He asked. I turned to him “Tye” I simply said. “Ahh I like that, my name is Julian” He told me. “You on vacation?” He asked. I nodded. He turned me back around towards. “Maybe we should link, while you’re in my city” I smirked at him. “Okay. That’s a deal” I told him. I looked over towards the DJ booth and seen some bitches up in his section. I was already drinking so I was annoyed. “What’s your number?” I asked. He pulled out his phone and we exchanged numbers. “Ima be right back” I told him. He smirked and nodded at me. I went over to the booth. “Samar!” I yelled over the music. He was not paying me no mind. “Samar!” I yelled again. He looked over at me. “What’s up?” He said. I placed my hand on my hip mugging them bitches probably talking shit about me. “You supposed to be at work nigga, why you kee kee with them bitches?” I asked. He laughed. “Yo Tye chill go back over there with that little lame ass nigga and dance stop sweating me” He said smiling, shaking his head. “We homies, stay off the liq”. I rolled my eyes at him and walked back over to Julian. I needed some serious attention before I flipped the club over. “You good Mami?”. Julian asked. I smiled “Yes now what were we talking about?”.

Ariana:

“I don’t want to want to play no games, play no games fuck around and give you my last name I know you tired of the same damn thing, that’s okay cause baby you got it girl” Mel and I sang drunk as fuck. Zion was at the bar talking to some fine ass nigga and Tye was on the dance floor. “That’s my best friend right there!” I yelled as Melody was giving this random guy a lap dance. “Hey, come here” Some regular ass nigga said to me. He grabbed my waist and I started grinding on him. I feel my phone buzzing multiple times. I get up from the guy and look at my phone. It was Marlon blowing me up, leaving me crazy ass I miss you messages. I wobbled my drunk ass to the bathroom, with Melody right behind me. “What’s going on Ari?” She asked. I started whining cause my ass was drunk and no tears were coming out. “Fucking Marlon leaving me crazy ass messages and shit sending me dick pics” I told her. “Eww give me the phone, we going to block his stank ass” She said. She grabbed my phone, and then handed it back. “Done now let’s get some more liquor” She said laughing. “Bitch I’m drunk as fuck right now” I said staring at myself in the mirror. In walked these stank face looking ass girls. One had on a snakeskin jumpsuit and the other had on a neon pink two piece. I mugged the fuck out of them. “Is there a problem honey?” Snakeskin said. Melody turned around quick. “Excuse you?” She said. “Bitch I said is there a problem with you and you little ass friend posted up in here like you trying to fight or something?” The girl in the neon said. I was on one, so I was with whatever bullshit they was on. “We just up in here like you” Melody said. Tye busted in the bathroom and read the room and immediately posted up. “We got a problem?” They looked at all three of us. “No, we straight” Snakeskin said. We all walked out of the bathroom. “Ariana what the fuck was that?” Tye asked. Melody sucked her teeth in. “Them bitches been mugging all damn night that’s what fuck them hoes” She said. “Why yall even in the bathroom posted?” She asked. I handed her my phone. “Oh, this nigga is wildin, fuck him” Tye said. I nodded. “Mel blocked his ass anyways” I told her. “Ari just hop on some new dick stop stressing about the dumb ass nigga” Mel said. Now where the hell I’m find another fine ass nigga in Miami?” I asked. “Oh, nah let me go back on the dance floor this bitch acting like she not in Seaquarium full of fine ass men”. Tye said strutting to the dance floor. Mel and I followed behind her. “Hey yall” We seen Zion. “Bitch we ain’t seen you all fucking night” Tye said. “Sorry I met some dude, I’m bout to leave with him really quick I will meet yall back at the house” She said. Mel shook her head. “Nah see cause I seen Crime Watch Daily” She said. Zion laughed. “Girl trust me I’m good” She said. Mel shook her head still. “If you end up on the news, I’m going to say I told you so” She said. “Girl bye go have fun” Tye said.

Melody:

“I can't read your mind, gotta say that shit, Should I take your love? Should I take that dick? Got a whole lot of options 'cause you know a bitch poppin' I'm a hot girl, so you know ain't shit stopping” Hot girl summer was playing. Ari, Tye and I was drunk as hell damn near bout to be on the floor. The club was still packed, and it was 2:30 am, in Atlanta clubs be dying down by then. “Real ass nigga gives a fuck 'bout a bitch. It is what it is, this some five-star dick, she a big ol' freak, it's a must that I hit. It's a Hot Girl Summer, so you know she got it lit Real ass bitch, know she got it lit” I sang dancing on the stripper pole they had near the DJ booth. “Aye yo baby?” I heard. I looked down and seen a crusty nigga drooling at me. “Bye sirrrr Byeee” I said drunk. “Can we talk? Can I get your number baby?” He asked. “Nah my nigga crazy and he got his friend in here as disguises to blend to watch who try to talk to me and I’m warning you niggas be going missing after I talk to them they end up on the news” I said smiling still twerking ass out and all. He started throwing money and feeling on my ass. Ari and Tye were not paying attention. “I’m take yo money cause you shouldn’t have been throwing at me in the first place so if you give me $100, I will give you my number on the low and give you my panties” I said jokingly. His face lit up this damn ass crusty ass bum ass nigga handed me two $50 bills. I looked out into the club scared. “You should probably go now, you been spotted” I told him. He laughed at me. “Quit playing baby” He said. Security winking at me walked over towards us. The crusty nigga jumped at his voice. “We have a problem here?” Security asked. “No No sir” He said scared. He tried to grab his money he through. “Uh uh this my money now honey” I said laughing as I danced seductively to Chris Brown’s “Confidence”. “Fifty Shades, ooh Tie your hands properly, I'm loving it. It's your confidence, oh woah Your confidence” The song played. I swung around the pole and closed my eyes. “Please don't tell nobody 'bout this affair. Baby, go and dutty whine it out, thank you, baby. We might not make it to the room, from right here I love it when you tell me what to do, like sit right there. Yeah, I need that” I opened my eyes, and almost fell off the pole. “Isaac” I said to myself. I looked up in V.I.P, to see if I was tripping. I was lit but I know I ain’t hallucinating. We locked eyes, he got up from his seat. I could see he was with his home boys, Trey and Freddie. “Oh nah, we got to go” I said, as security helped me down. “Ari! Tye!” I yelled through the crowd of girls. I accidently bumped into the bathroom bitches, and shit went down. I do not know who it was, but somebody pushed the fuck out of me into Ari. “The fuck?” Ari said looking from me to the bathroom bitches. “She pushed you?” Tye asked. I nodded. “Yes, that bitch did” I said. They walked up on us, and Ari as usual threw the first punch and we followed. “Fight!” Somebody yelled. I could feel somebody pry my hands-off Neon bitch and pick me up and take me out of the crowd. I seen it was security. “Thanks homie” I heard. I seen it was Isaac. I felt my stomach churning. “Fuck” I ran out of the club and onto the curb to throw up. Soon after I seen Ari and Tye get nicely put out by security. “Sorry beautiful but no fighting” He said to Tye. “Fuck them hoes” Tye said. “Get yall hands off me!” We looked and seen security toss them bitches out. Ari laughed at how fucked up they looked. “Bitch don’t let me see yo ass out in these streets” Snakeskin said. “Or what sis? You gone get jumped again dumb ass” Ari said. Tye started laughing so hard. “We just had free shit all night start a fight and get kicked out of nice club, we going to have sooo much fun here” She said leaning on me.

Supporting Characters:

Julian: (Malik Bomaniallah)

0 notes

kidsince95 · 8 years

Text

I was bored

Ask Me Stuff 😉 1.Full name Lizbeth Edith Soloache 😌 2.Zodiac sign Pisces 4eva👌🏾💕 3. 3 Fears Spiders, heights , and love 4. 3 things I love Ice cream , my dog , the park by my house ❤️ 5. 4 turns ons Cologne, big arms , messy hair annnnd knowledgeable 👌🏾 6. 4 turns offs Cocky, intimidators , bad breath and boogers 7. My best friend My mom❤️ 8.Sexual orientation Straight ... I think .. who knows 9. My best first date I don't think I have one . Obviously it wasn't the best if I can't remember . 10. How tall am I 5'2'' 😌 11.What do I miss His smile . 12. What time were I born I think it was 11:45pm ?? 13.Favourite colour Omg I think it's a very dark musty pink 14. Do I have a crush Yea I do actually ☺️ 15. Favourite quote No matter how you feel , get up , dress up , show up and never give up ❤️ 16. Favourite place The park 17. Favourite food Chineeeeeeese 18. Do I use sarcasm Whenever I do people can't tell lol so I just don't 19.What am I listening to right now The sound of someone moving around in their bed 20.First thing I notice in new person Their eye contact 21.Shoe size 7 22.Eye colour Really dark brown 23.Hair colour Really dark brown but I have highlights rn 24.Favourite style of clothing Baggy pants with a crop top and sandals 25.Ever done a prank call? Wooo back in the day 26.What colour of underwear I’m wearing now? Teal 😌 27.Meaning behind my URL Idk there's one really I was born in 1995 lol 28.Favourite movie Damn , it has to be the great gatsby with Leo 29. Favourite song Of all time ??? Hmm, we belong together by Mariah Carey haha 30. Favourite band Lincoln park 31.How I feel right now Mm nothing really . I've got the bubble guts :( 32.Someone I love My dad my sisters 33.My current relationship status Single 34.My relationship with my parents Great 👍🏽 35.Favourite holiday Halloween , if that's even a holiday 36.Tattoos and piercings? 3 tatts, 2 piercings 37.Tattoos and piercing i want My belly button , and a back and wrist tattoo 38.The reason I joined Tumblr I forgot it was sooo long ago 39.Do I and my last ex hate each other? I use to hate him , not anymore . Idk if he hates me tho . 40.Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? Yes I do 😊 41.Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? No 42.When did I last hold hands? A week ago with Alyssa ❤️ 43.How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? Mmmm maybe 3 hours if I'm doing my makeup very well. 44.Have I shaved your legs in the past three days? No actually 😬 45.Where am I right now? Sitting on the floor at work 46.If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? Uhhh I hope whoever I'm with lol 47. Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? It's either blasting or where I can hardly hear it . Yea it's blasting lol 48.Do I live with my Mom and Dad? Yes I do :) 49.Am I excited for anything? Foam wonderland on feb. 17 50.Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? No 51.How often do I wear a fake smile? I don't . I can't fake it I've tried 52.When was the last time I hugged someone? An hour ago . My co worker gave me a Valentine's Day candy :) 53.What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? It wouldn't matter cause he didn't really matter . 54.Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? Ummmm no ? 55.What is something I disliked about today? It was hard for me to go to sleep before work 56.If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Hmmm....I think it'd be Lana del Rey . 57.What do I think about most? Julian .its getting less and less tho . Or dancing 58.What’s my strangest talent? I don't think I have one lol or I can't think of it rn 59.Do I have any strange phobias? Arachnophobia 60.Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Both haha 61.What was the last lie I told? I don't remember 62.Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? On the phone I guess 63.Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Both . I'm not too sure about aliens tho . At least not how they make them out to be in the movies 64.Do I believe in magic? I do actually . I hope I have a gift that's waiting to be discovered 65.Do I believe in luck? Yes I do 66.What’s the weather like right now? It's raining 67.What was the last book I’ve read? The secret 68.Do I like the smell of gasoline? Ew no 69.Do I have any nicknames? Liz or boregos 70.What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? Breaking my neck and the bass stage 71.Do I spend money or save it? Spend 72.Can I touch my nose with a tongue? No:( 74.Is there anything pink in 10 feets from me? My charger 75.Favourite animal? An orangutan 76.What was I doing last night at 12 AM? Texting mark 77.What do I think is Satan’s last name is? Trump 78.What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? Take care by drake . And the acoustic version by Florence and the machine 79.How can you win my heart? If you travel with me 80.What would I want to be written on my tombstone? I don't want a tombstone. I wanna be cremated 81.What is my favourite word Well. 82.My top 5 blogs on tumblr I forgot 83.If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? The whole world??? ... I hope everyone's having a good day lol 84.Do I have any relatives in jail? Probably 85.I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? All the powers lol 86.What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? Why didn't you love me back then .. 87.What is my current desktop picture? My sister at the airport 88.Had sex? Not lately 89.Bought condoms? Not lately 90.Gotten pregnant? Um no 91.Failed a class? Yea just one 92.Kissed a boy? Yes 93.Kissed a girl? Yes 94.Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? Idk I don't think so? 95.Had job? Yes 96.Left the house without my wallet? Ugh yea 97.Bullied someone on the internet? I don't think so 98.Had sex in public? Haha yea 99.Played on a sports team? Yea volleyball and softball 100.Smoked weed? Yea don't like it 101.Did drugs? Yea loved it 102.Smoked cigarettes? Yes 103.Drank alcohol? Yes 104.Am I a vegetarian/vegan? Nope 105.Been overweight? No 106.Been underweight? Yes think so 107.Been to a wedding? Yes 108. Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? Long time ago 109.Watched TV for 5 hours straight? Yea lol 110.Been outside my home country? Yes 111.Gotten my heart broken? Oh yea . 112.Been to a professional sports game? Baseball 113.Broken a bone? Yea :/ 114.Cut myself? Yea 115.Been to prom? Yes 116.Been in airplane? Yea 117.Fly by helicopter? No:O 118.What concerts have I been to? Haven't. 119.Had a crush on someone of the same sex? Yes once 120Learned another language? French . Kinda haha 121.Wore make up? Yeup 122.Lost my virginity before I was 18? Nope 123.Had oral sex? Yaaaaa 124.Dyed my hair? All the time 125.Voted in a presidential election? No 126.Rode in an ambulance? Yes 127.Had a surgery? Yes 128.Met someone famous? No not really 129. Stalked someone on a social network? Uh no lol 130.Peed outside? Yea 131.Been fishing? Yea 132.Helped with charity? No 133.Been rejected by a crush? Yea 134.Broken a mirror? Eee yea 135.What do I want for birthday? Nothing 136.How many kids do I want and what will be their names? I don't want any 137.Was I named after anyone? No 138.Do I like my handwriting? It's coo 139.What was my favourite toy as a child? Winnie the Pooh bear 140.Favourite Tv Show? Power puff girls 141.Where do I want to live when older? Burbank 142.Play any musical instrument? No 143.One of my scars, how did I get it? I had surgery 144.Favourite pizza toping? Chorizo and jalapeños 145.Am I afraid of the dark? I use to be 146.Am I afraid of heights? Yes ma'am 147.Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? Yea all the time 148.Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? Think so . 149.What I’m really bad at Idk 150.What my greatest achievements are Loving myself 151.The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me You need to shave your vag 152.What I’d do if I won in a lottery Save it . Probably not . Probably go shopping 153.What do I like about myself Everything . 154.My closest Tumblr friend Alyssa 155.Something I fantasise about my ex Him coming back and apologizing to me

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thesnhuup · 5 years

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Pop Picks – January 2, 2020

What I’m listening to:

I was never really an Amy Winehouse fan and I don’t listen to much jazz or blue-eyed soul. Recently, eight years after she died at only 27, I heard her single Tears Dry On Their Own and I was hooked (the song was on someone’s “ten things I’d want on a deserted island” list). Since then, I’ve been playing her almost every day. I started the documentary about her, Amy, and stopped. I didn’t much like her. Or, more accurately, I didn’t much like the signals of her own eventual destruction that were evident early on. I think it was D. H. Lawrence that once said “Trust the art, not the artist.” Sometimes it is better not to know too much and just relish the sheer artistry of the work. Winehouse’s Back to Black, which was named one of the best albums of 2007, is as fresh and painful and amazing 13 years later.

What I’m reading:

Alan Bennett’s lovely novella An Uncommon Reader is a what-if tale, wondering what it would mean if Queen Elizabeth II suddenly became a reader. Because of a lucked upon book mobile on palace grounds, she becomes just that, much to the consternation of her staff and with all kinds of delicious consequences, including curiosity, imagination, self-awareness, and growing disregard for pomp. With an ill-framed suggestion, reading becomes writing and provides a surprise ending. For all of us who love books, this is a finely wrought and delightful love poem to the power of books for readers and writers alike. Imagine if all our leaders were readers (sigh).

What I’m watching:

I’m a huge fan of many things – The National, Boston sports teams, BMW motorcycles, Pho – but there is a stage of life, typically adolescence, when fandom changes the universe, provides a lens to finally understand the world and, more importantly, yourself, in profound ways. My wife Pat would say Joni Mitchell did that for her. Gurinder Chadha’s wonderful film Blinded By The Light captures the power of discovery when Javed, the son of struggling Pakistani immigrants in a dead end place during a dead end time (the Thatcher period, from which Britain has never recovered: see Brexit), hears Springsteen and is forever changed. The movie, sometimes musical, sometimes comedy, and often bubbling with energy, has more heft than it might seem at first. There is pain in a father struggling to retain his dignity while he fails to provide, the father and son tension in so many immigrant families (I lived some of that), and what it means to be an outsider in the only culture you actually have ever known.

Archive

Posted on November 25, 2019

My pop picks are usually a combination of three things: what I am listening to, reading, and watching. But last week I happily combined all three. That is, I went to NYC last week and saw two shows. The first was Cyrano, starring Game of Thrones superstar Peter Dinklage in the title role, with Jasmine Cephas Jones as Roxanne. She was Peggy in the original Hamilton cast and has an amazing voice. The music was written by Aaron and Bryce Dessner, two members of my favorite band, The National, with lyrics by lead singer Matt Berninger and his wife Carin Besser. Erica Schmidt, Dinklage’s wife, directs. Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play is light, dated, and melodramatic, but this production was delightful. Dinklage owns the stage, a master, and his deep bass voice, not all that great for singing, but commanding in the delivery of every line, was somehow a plaintive and resonant counterpoint to Cephas Jones’ soaring voice. In the original Cyrano, the title character’s large nose marks him as outsider and ”other,” but Dinklage was born with achondroplasia, the cause of his dwarfism, and there is a kind of resonance in his performance that feels like pain not acted, but known. Deeply. It takes this rather lightweight play and gives it depth. Even if it didn’t, not everything has to be deep and profound – there is joy in seeing something executed so darn well. Cyrano was delightfully satisfying.

The other show was the much lauded Aaron Sorkin rendition of To Kill a Mockingbird, starring another actor at the very top of his game, Ed Harris. This is a Mockingbird for our times, one in which iconic Atticus Finch’s idealistic “you have to live in someone else’s skin” feels naive in the face of hateful racism and anti-Semitism. The Black characters in the play get more voice, if not agency, in the stage play than they do in the book, especially housekeeper Calpurnia, who voices incredulity at Finch’s faith in his neighbors and reminds us that he does not pay the price of his patience. She does. And Tom Robinson, the Black man falsely accused of rape – “convicted at the moment he was accused,” Whatever West Wing was for Sorkin – and I dearly loved that show – this is a play for a broken United States, where racism abounds and does so with sanction by those in power. As our daughter said, “I think Trump broke Aaron Sorkin.” It was as powerful a thing I’ve seen on stage in years.

With both plays, I was reminded of the magic that is live theater.

October 31, 2019

What I’m listening to:

It drove his critics crazy that Obama was the coolest president we ever had and his summer 2019 playlist on Spotify simply confirms that reality. It has been on repeat for me. From Drake to Lizzo (God I love her) to Steely Dan to Raphael Saadiq to Sinatra (who I skip every time – I’m not buying the nostalgia), his carefully curated list reflects not only his infinite coolness, but the breadth of his interests and generosity of taste. I love the music, but I love even more the image of Michelle and him rocking out somewhere far from Washington’s madness, as much as I miss them both.

What I’m reading:

I struggled with Christy Lefteri’s The Beekeeper of Aleppo for the first 50 pages, worried that she’d drag out every tired trope of Mid-Eastern society, but I fell for her main characters and their journey as refugees from Syria to England. Parts of this book were hard to read and very dark, because that is the plight of so many refugees and she doesn’t shy away from those realities and the enormous toll they take on displaced people. It’s a hard read, but there is light too – in resilience, in love, in friendships, the small tender gestures of people tossed together in a heartless world. Lefteri volunteered in Greek refugee programs, spent a lot of interviewing people, and the book feels true, and importantly, heartfelt.

What I’m watching:

Soap opera meets Shakespeare, deliciously malevolent and operatic, Succession has been our favorite series this season. Loosely based on the Murdochs and their media empire (don’t believe the denials), this was our must watch television on Sunday nights, filling the void left by Game of Thrones. The acting is over-the-top good, the frequent comedy dark, the writing brilliant, and the music superb. We found ourselves quoting lines after every episode. Like the hilarious; “You don’t hear much about syphilis these days. Very much the Myspace of STDs.” Watch it so we can talk about that season 2 finale.

August 30, 2019

What I’m listening to:

I usually go to music here, but the New York Times new 1619 podcast is just terrific, as is the whole project, which observes the sale of the first enslaved human beings on our shores 400 years ago. The first episode, “The Fight for a True Democracy” is a remarkable overview (in a mere 44 minutes) of the centrality of racism and slavery in the American story over those 400 years. It should be mandatory listening in every high school in the country. I’m eager for the next episodes. Side note: I am addicted to The Daily podcast, which gives more color and detail to the NY Times stories I read in print (yes, print), and reminds me of how smart and thoughtful are those journalists who give us real news. We need them now more than ever.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead has done it again. The Nickel Boys, his new novel, is a worthy successor to his masterpiece The Underground Railroad, and because it is closer to our time, based on the real-life horrors of a Florida reform school, and written a time of resurgent White Supremacy, it hits even harder and with more urgency than its predecessor. Maybe because we can read Underground Railroad with a sense of “that was history,” but one can’t read Nickel Boys without the lurking feeling that such horrors persist today and the monsters that perpetrate such horrors walk among us. They often hold press conferences.

What I’m watching:

Queer Eye, the Netflix remake of the original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy some ten years later, is wondrously entertaining, but it also feels adroitly aligned with our dysfunctional times. Episode three has a conversation with Karamo Brown, one of the fab five, and a Georgia small town cop (and Trump supporter) that feels unscripted and unexpected and reminds us of how little actual conversation seems to be taking place in our divided country. Oh, for more car rides such as the one they take in that moment, when a chasm is bridged, if only for a few minutes. Set in the South, it is often a refreshing and affirming response to what it means to be male at a time of toxic masculinity and the overdue catharsis and pain of the #MeToo movement. Did I mention? It’s really fun.

July 1, 2019

What I’m listening to:

The National remains my favorite band and probably 50% of my listening time is a National album or playlist. Their new album I Am Easy To Find feels like a turning point record for the band, going from the moody, outsider introspection and doubt of lead singer Matt Berninger to something that feels more adult, sophisticated, and wiser. I might have titled it Women Help The Band Grow Up. Matt is no longer the center of The National’s universe and he frequently cedes the mic to the many women who accompany and often lead on the long, their longest, album. They include Gail Ann Dorsey (who sang with Bowie for a long time), who is amazing, and a number of the songs were written by Carin Besser, Berninger’s wife. I especially love the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the arrangements, and the sheer complexity and coherence of the work. It still amazes me when I meet someone who does not know The National. My heart breaks for them just a little.

What I’m reading:

Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of Homer’s Iliad through the lens of a captive Trojan queen, Briseis. As a reviewer in The Atlantic writes, it answers the question “What does war mean to women?” We know the answer and it has always been true, whether it is the casual and assumed rape of captive women in this ancient war story or the use of rape in modern day Congo, Syria, or any other conflict zone. Yet literature almost never gives voice to the women – almost always minor characters at best — and their unspeakable suffering. Barker does it here for Briseis, for Hector’s wife Andromache, and for the other women who understand that the death of their men is tragedy, but what they then endure is worse. Think of it ancient literature having its own #MeToo moment. The NY Times’ Geraldine Brooks did not much like the novel. I did. Very much.

What I’m watching:

The BBC-HBO limited series Years and Years is breathtaking, scary, and absolutely familiar. It’s as if Black Mirrorand Children of Men had a baby and it precisely captures the zeitgeist, the current sense that the world is spinning out of control and things are coming at us too fast. It is a near future (Trump has been re-elected and Brexit has occurred finally)…not dystopia exactly, but damn close. The closing scene of last week’s first episode (there are 6 episodes and it’s on every Monday) shows nuclear war breaking out between China and the U.S. Yikes! The scope of this show is wide and there is a big, baggy feel to it – but I love the ambition even if I’m not looking forward to the nightmares.

May 19, 2019

What I’m listening to:

I usually go to music here, but I was really moved by this podcast of a Davis Brooks talk at the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/david-brooks-quest-moral-life. While I have long found myself distant from his political stance, he has come through a dark night of the soul and emerged with a wonderful clarity about calling, community, and not happiness (that most superficial of goals), but fulfillment and meaning, found in community and human kinship of many kinds. I immediately sent it to my kids.

What I’m reading:

Susan Orlean’s wonderful The Library Book, a love song to libraries told through the story of the LA Central Library. It brought back cherished memories of my many hours in beloved libraries — as a kid in the Waltham Public Library, a high schooler in the Farber Library at Brandeis (Lil Farber years later became a mentor of mine), and the cathedral-like Bapst Library at BC when I was a graduate student. Yes, I was a nerd. This is a love song to books certainly, but a reminder that libraries are so, so much more. It is a reminder that libraries are less about a place or being a repository of information and, like America at its best, an idea and ideal. By the way, oh to write like her.

What I’m watching:

What else? Game of Thrones, like any sensible human being. This last season is disappointing in many ways and the drop off in the writing post George R.R. Martin is as clear as was the drop off in the post-Sorkin West Wing. I would be willing to bet that if Martin has been writing the last season, Sansa and Tyrion would have committed suicide in the crypt. That said, we fans are deeply invested and even the flaws are giving us so much to discuss and debate. In that sense, the real gift of this last season is the enjoyment between episodes, like the old pre-streaming days when we all arrived at work after the latest episode of the Sopranos to discuss what we had all seen the night before. I will say this, the last two episodes — full of battle and gore – have been visually stunning. Whether the torches of the Dothraki being extinguished in the distance or Arya riding through rubble and flame on a white horse, rarely has the series ascended to such visual grandeur.

March 28, 2019

What I’m listening to:

There is a lovely piece played in a scene from A Place Called Home that I tracked down. It’s Erik Satie’s 3 Gymnopédies: Gymnopédie No. 1, played by the wonderful pianist Klára Körmendi. Satie composed this piece in 1888 and it was considered avant-garde and anti-Romantic. It’s minimalism and bit of dissonance sound fresh and contemporary to my ears and while not a huge Classical music fan, I’ve fallen in love with the Körmendi playlist on Spotify. When you need an alternative to hours of Cardi B.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel Washington Black. Starting on a slave plantation in Barbados, it is a picaresque novel that has elements of Jules Verne, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad. Yes, it strains credulity and there are moments of “huh?”, but I loved it (disclosure: I was in the minority among my fellow book club members) and the first third is a searing depiction of slavery. It’s audacious, sprawling (from Barbados to the Arctic to London to Africa), and the writing, especially about nature, luminous.

What I’m watching:

A soap opera. Yes, I’d like to pretend it’s something else, but we are 31 episodes into the Australian drama A Place Called Home and we are so, so addicted. Like “It’s AM, but can’t we watch just one more episode?” addicted. Despite all the secrets, cliff hangers, intrigue, and “did that just happen?” moments, the core ingredients of any good soap opera, APCH has superb acting, real heft in terms of subject matter (including homophobia, anti-Semitism, sexual assault, and class), touches of our beloved Downton Abbey, and great cars. Beware. If you start, you won’t stop.

February 11, 2019

What I’m listening to:

Raphael Saadiq has been around for quite a while, as a musician, writer, and producer. He’s new to me and I love his old school R&B sound. Like Leon Bridges, he brings a contemporary freshness to the genre, sounding like a young Stevie Wonder (listen to “You’re The One That I Like”). Rock and Roll may be largely dead, but R&B persists – maybe because the former was derivative of the latter and never as good (and I say that as a Rock and Roll fan). I’m embarrassed to only have discovered Saadiq so late in his career, but it’s a delight to have done so.

What I’m reading:

Just finished Marilynne Robinson’s Home, part of her trilogy that includes the Pulitzer Prize winning first novel, Gilead, and the book after Home, Lila. Robinson is often described as a Christian writer, but not in a conventional sense. In this case, she gives us a modern version of the prodigal son and tells the story of what comes after he is welcomed back home. It’s not pretty. Robinson is a self-described Calvinist, thus character begets fate in Robinson’s world view and redemption is at best a question. There is something of Faulkner in her work (I am much taken with his famous “The past is never past” quote after a week in the deep South), her style is masterful, and like Faulkner, she builds with these three novels a whole universe in the small town of Gilead. Start with Gilead to better enjoy Home.

What I’m watching:

Sex Education was the most fun series we’ve seen in ages and we binged watched it on Netflix. A British homage to John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink, it feels like a mash up of American and British high schools. Focusing on the relationship of Maeve, the smart bad girl, and Otis, the virginal and awkward son of a sex therapist (played with brilliance by Gillian Anderson), it is laugh aloud funny and also evolves into more substance and depth (the abortion episode is genius). The sex scenes are somehow raunchy and charming and inoffensive at the same time and while ostensibly about teenagers (it feels like it is explaining contemporary teens to adults in many ways), the adults are compelling in their good and bad ways. It has been renewed for a second season, which is a gift.

January 3, 2019

What I’m listening to:

My listening choices usually refer to music, but this time I’m going with Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast on genius and the song Hallelujah. It tells the story of Leonard Cohen’s much-covered song Hallelujah and uses it as a lens on kinds of genius and creativity. Along the way, he brings in Picasso and Cézanne, Elvis Costello, and more. Gladwell is a good storyteller and if you love pop music, as I do, and Hallelujah, as I do (and you should), you’ll enjoy this podcast. We tend to celebrate the genius who seems inspired in the moment, creating new work like lightning strikes, but this podcast has me appreciating incremental creativity in a new way. It’s compelling and fun at the same time.

What I’m reading:

Just read Clay Christensen’s new book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty. This was an advance copy, so soon available. Clay is an old friend and a huge influence on how we have grown SNHU and our approach to innovation. This book is so compelling, because we know attempts at development have so often been a failure and it is often puzzling to understand why some countries with desperate poverty and huge challenges somehow come to thrive (think S. Korea, Singapore, 19th C. America), while others languish. Clay offers a fresh way of thinking about development through the lens of his research on innovation and it is compelling. I bet this book gets a lot of attention, as most of his work does. I also suspect that many in the development community will hate it, as it calls into question the approach and enormous investments we have made in an attempt to lift countries out of poverty. A provocative read and, as always, Clay is a good storyteller.

What I’m watching:

Just watched Leave No Trace and should have guessed that it was directed by Debra Granik. She did Winter’s Bone, the extraordinary movie that launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career. Similarly, this movie features an amazing young actor, Thomasin McKenzie, and visits lives lived on the margins. In this case, a veteran suffering PTSD, and his 13-year-old daughter. The movie is patient, is visually lush, and justly earned 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (I have a rule to never watch anything under 82%). Everything in this film is under control and beautifully understated (aside from the visuals) – confident acting, confident directing, and so humane. I love the lack of flashbacks, the lack of sensationalism – the movie trusts the viewer, rare in this age of bombast. A lovely film.

December 4, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spending a week in New Zealand, we had endless laughs listening to the Kiwi band, Flight of the Conchords. Lots of comedic bands are funny, but the music is only okay or worse. These guys are funny – hysterical really – and the music is great. They have an uncanny ability to parody almost any style. In both New Zealand and Australia, we found a wry sense of humor that was just delightful and no better captured than with this duo. You don’t have to be in New Zealand to enjoy them.

What I’m reading:

I don’t often reread. For two reasons: A) I have so many books on my “still to be read” pile that it seems daunting to also rereadbooks I loved before, and B) it’s because I loved them once that I’m a little afraid to read them again. That said, I was recently asked to list my favorite book of all time and I answered Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. But I don’t really know if that’s still true (and it’s an impossible question anyway – favorite book? On what day? In what mood?), so I’m rereading it and it feels like being with an old friend. It has one of my very favorite scenes ever: the card game between Levin and Kitty that leads to the proposal and his joyous walking the streets all night.

What I’m watching:

Blindspotting is billed as a buddy-comedy. Wow does that undersell it and the drama is often gripping. I loved Daveed Diggs in Hamilton, didn’t like his character in Black-ish, and think he is transcendent in this film he co-wrote with Rafael Casal, his co-star. The film is a love song to Oakland in many ways, but also a gut-wrenching indictment of police brutality, systemic racism and bias, and gentrification. The film has the freshness and raw visceral impact of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. A great soundtrack, genre mixing, and energy make it one of my favorite movies of 2018.

October 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We had the opportunity to see our favorite band, The National, live in Dallas two weeks ago. Just after watching Mistaken for Strangers, the documentary sort of about the band. So we’ve spent a lot of time going back into their earlier work, listening to songs we don’t know well, and reaffirming that their musicality, smarts, and sound are both original and astoundingly good. They did not disappoint in concert and it is a good thing their tour ended, as we might just spend all of our time and money following them around. Matt Berninger is a genius and his lead vocals kill me (and because they are in my range, I can actually sing along!). Their arrangements are profoundly good and go right to whatever brain/heart wiring that pulls one in and doesn’t let them go.

What I’m reading:

Who is Richard Powers and why have I only discovered him now, with his 12th book? Overstory is profoundly good, a book that is essential and powerful and makes me look at my everyday world in new ways. In short, a dizzying example of how powerful can be narrative in the hands of a master storyteller. I hesitate to say it’s the best environmental novel I’ve ever read (it is), because that would put this book in a category. It is surely about the natural world, but it is as much about we humans. It’s monumental and elegiac and wondrous at all once. Cancel your day’s schedule and read it now. Then plant a tree. A lot of them.

What I’m watching:

Bo Burnham wrote and directed Eighth Grade and Elsie Fisher is nothing less than amazing as its star (what’s with these new child actors; see Florida Project). It’s funny and painful and touching. It��s also the single best film treatment that I have seen of what it means to grow up in a social media shaped world. It’s a reminder that growing up is hard. Maybe harder now in a world of relentless, layered digital pressure to curate perfect lives that are far removed from the natural messy worlds and selves we actually inhabit. It’s a well-deserved 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and I wonder who dinged it for the missing 2%.

September 7, 2018

What I’m listening to:

With a cover pointing back to the Beastie Boys’ 1986 Licensed to Ill, Eminem’s quietly released Kamikaze is not my usual taste, but I’ve always admired him for his “all out there” willingness to be personal, to call people out, and his sheer genius with language. I thought Daveed Diggs could rap fast, but Eminem is supersonic at moments, and still finds room for melody. Love that he includes Joyner Lucas, whose “I’m Not Racist” gets added to the growing list of simply amazing music videos commenting on race in America. There are endless reasons why I am the least likely Eminem fan, but when no one is around to make fun of me, I’ll put it on again.

What I’m reading:

Lesley Blume’s Everyone Behaves Badly, which is the story behind Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and his time in 1920s Paris (oh, what a time – see Midnight in Paris if you haven’t already). Of course, Blume disabuses my romantic ideas of that time and place and everyone is sort of (or profoundly so) a jerk, especially…no spoiler here…Hemingway. That said, it is a compelling read and coming off the Henry James inspired prose of Mrs. Osmond, it made me appreciate more how groundbreaking was Hemingway’s modern prose style. Like his contemporary Picasso, he reinvented the art and it can be easy to forget, these decades later, how profound was the change and its impact. And it has bullfights.

What I’m watching:

Chloé Zhao’s The Rider is just exceptional. It’s filmed on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which provides a stunning landscape, and it feels like a classic western reinvented for our times. The main characters are played by the real-life people who inspired this narrative (but feels like a documentary) film. Brady Jandreau, playing himself really, owns the screen. It’s about manhood, honor codes, loss, and resilience – rendered in sensitive, nuanced, and heartfelt ways. It feels like it could be about large swaths of America today. Really powerful.

August 16, 2018

What I’m listening to:

In my Spotify Daily Mix was Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman, one of the world’s greatest love songs. Go online and read the story of how the song was discovered and recorded. There are competing accounts, but Sledge said he improvised it after a bad breakup. It has that kind of aching spontaneity. It is another hit from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the GREAT music hotbeds, along with Detroit, Nashville, and Memphis. Our February Board meeting is in Alabama and I may finally have to do the pilgrimage road trip to Muscle Shoals and then Memphis, dropping in for Sunday services at the church where Rev. Al Green still preaches and sings. If the music is all like this, I will be saved.

What I’m reading:

John Banville’s Mrs. Osmond, his homage to literary idol Henry James and an imagined sequel to James’ 1881 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady. Go online and read the first paragraph of Chapter 25. He is…profoundly good. Makes me want to never write again, since anything I attempt will feel like some other, lowly activity in comparison to his mastery of language, image, syntax. This is slow reading, every sentence to be savored.

What I’m watching:

I’ve always respected Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but we just watched the documentary RGB. It is over-the-top great and she is now one of my heroes. A superwoman in many ways and the documentary is really well done. There are lots of scenes of her speaking to crowds and the way young women, especially law students, look at her is touching. And you can’t help but fall in love with her now late husband Marty. See this movie and be reminded of how important is the Law.

July 23, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Spotify’s Summer Acoustic playlist has been on repeat quite a lot. What a fun way to listen to artists new to me, including The Paper Kites, Hollow Coves, and Fleet Foxes, as well as old favorites like Leon Bridges and Jose Gonzalez. Pretty chill when dialing back to a summer pace, dining on the screen porch or reading a book.

What I’m reading:

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson tells of the racial injustice (and the war on the poor our judicial system perpetuates as well) that he discovered as a young graduate from Harvard Law School and his fight to address it. It is in turn heartbreaking, enraging, and inspiring. It is also about mercy and empathy and justice that reads like a novel. Brilliant.

What I’m watching:

Fauda. We watched season one of this Israeli thriller. It was much discussed in Israel because while it focuses on an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist, it was willing to reveal the complexity, richness, and emotions of Palestinian lives. And the occasional brutality of the Israelis. Pretty controversial stuff in Israel. Lior Raz plays Doron, the main character, and is compelling and tough and often hard to like. He’s a mess. As is the world in which he has to operate. We really liked it, and also felt guilty because while it may have been brave in its treatment of Palestinians within the Israeli context, it falls back into some tired tropes and ultimately falls short on this front.

June 11, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Like everyone else, I’m listening to Pusha T drop the mic on Drake. Okay, not really, but do I get some points for even knowing that? We all walk around with songs that immediately bring us back to a time or a place. Songs are time machines. We are coming up on Father’s Day. My own dad passed away on Father’s Day back in 1994 and I remembering dutifully getting through the wake and funeral and being strong throughout. Then, sitting alone in our kitchen, Don Henley’s The End of the Innocence came on and I lost it. When you lose a parent for the first time (most of us have two after all) we lose our innocence and in that passage, we suddenly feel adult in a new way (no matter how old we are), a longing for our own childhood, and a need to forgive and be forgiven. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll understand. As Wordsworth reminds us in In Memoriam, there are seasons to our grief and, all these years later, this song no longer hits me in the gut, but does transport me back with loving memories of my father. I’ll play it Father’s Day.

What I’m reading:

The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin. I am not a reader of fantasy or sci-fi, though I understand they can be powerful vehicles for addressing the very real challenges of the world in which we actually live. I’m not sure I know of a more vivid and gripping illustration of that fact than N. K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award winning novel The Fifth Season, first in her Broken Earth trilogy. It is astounding. It is the fantasy parallel to The Underground Railroad, my favorite recent read, a depiction of subjugation, power, casual violence, and a broken world in which our hero(s) struggle, suffer mightily, and still, somehow, give us hope. It is a tour de force book. How can someone be this good a writer? The first 30 pages pained me (always with this genre, one must learn a new, constructed world, and all of its operating physics and systems of order), and then I could not put it down. I panicked as I neared the end, not wanting to finish the book, and quickly ordered the Obelisk Gate, the second novel in the trilogy, and I can tell you now that I’ll be spending some goodly portion of my weekend in Jemisin’s other world.

What I’m watching:

The NBA Finals and perhaps the best basketball player of this generation. I’ve come to deeply respect LeBron James as a person, a force for social good, and now as an extraordinary player at the peak of his powers. His superhuman play during the NBA playoffs now ranks with the all-time greats, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, MJ, Kobe, and the demi-god that was Bill Russell. That his Cavs lost in a 4-game sweep is no surprise. It was a mediocre team being carried on the wide shoulders of James (and matched against one of the greatest teams ever, the Warriors, and the Harry Potter of basketball, Steph Curry) and, in some strange way, his greatness is amplified by the contrast with the rest of his team. It was a great run.

May 24, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I’ve always liked Alicia Keys and admired her social activism, but I am hooked on her last album Here. This feels like an album finally commensurate with her anger, activism, hope, and grit. More R&B and Hip Hop than is typical for her, I think this album moves into an echelon inhabited by a Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or Beyonce’s Formation. Social activism and outrage rarely make great novels, but they often fuel great popular music. Here is a terrific example.

What I’m reading:

Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad may be close to a flawless novel. Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer, it chronicles the lives of two runaway slaves, Cora and Caeser, as they try to escape the hell of plantation life in Georgia. It is an often searing novel and Cora is one of the great heroes of American literature. I would make this mandatory reading in every high school in America, especially in light of the absurd revisionist narratives of “happy and well cared for” slaves. This is a genuinely great novel, one of the best I’ve read, the magical realism and conflating of time periods lifts it to another realm of social commentary, relevance, and a blazing indictment of America’s Original Sin, for which we remain unabsolved.

What I’m watching:

I thought I knew about The Pentagon Papers, but The Post, a real-life political thriller from Steven Spielberg taught me a lot, features some of our greatest actors, and is so timely given the assault on our democratic institutions and with a presidency out of control. It is a reminder that a free and fearless press is a powerful part of our democracy, always among the first targets of despots everywhere. The story revolves around the legendary Post owner and D.C. doyenne, Katharine Graham. I had the opportunity to see her son, Don Graham, right after he saw the film, and he raved about Meryl Streep’s portrayal of his mother. Liked it a lot more than I expected.

April 27, 2018

What I’m listening to:

I mentioned John Prine in a recent post and then on the heels of that mention, he has released a new album, The Tree of Forgiveness, his first new album in ten years. Prine is beloved by other singer songwriters and often praised by the inscrutable God that is Bob Dylan. Indeed, Prine was frequently said to be the “next Bob Dylan” in the early part of his career, though he instead carved out his own respectable career and voice, if never with the dizzying success of Dylan. The new album reflects a man in his 70s, a cancer survivor, who reflects on life and its end, but with the good humor and empathy that are hallmarks of Prine’s music. “When I Get To Heaven” is a rollicking, fun vision of what comes next and a pure delight. A charming, warm, and often terrific album.

What I’m reading:

I recently read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, on many people’s Top Ten lists for last year and for good reason. It is sprawling, multi-generational, and based in the world of Japanese occupied Korea and then in the Korean immigrant’s world of Oaska, so our key characters become “tweeners,” accepted in neither world. It’s often unspeakably sad, and yet there is resiliency and love. There is also intimacy, despite the time and geographic span of the novel. It’s breathtakingly good and like all good novels, transporting.

What I’m watching:

I adore Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth, and while I’m not sure his Shape of Water is better, it is a worthy follow up to the earlier masterpiece (and more of a commercial success). Lots of critics dislike the film, but I’m okay with a simple retelling of a Beauty and the Beast love story, as predictable as it might be. The acting is terrific, it is visually stunning, and there are layers of pain as well as social and political commentary (the setting is the US during the Cold War) and, no real spoiler here, the real monsters are humans, the military officer who sees over the captured aquatic creature. It is hauntingly beautiful and its depiction of hatred to those who are different or “other” is painfully resonant with the time in which we live. Put this on your “must see” list.

March 18, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Sitting on a plane for hours (and many more to go; geez, Australia is far away) is a great opportunity to listen to new music and to revisit old favorites. This time, it is Lucy Dacus and her album Historians, the new sophomore release from a 22-year old indie artist that writes with relatable, real-life lyrics. Just on a second listen and while she insists this isn’t a break up record (as we know, 50% of all great songs are break up songs), it is full of loss and pain. Worth the listen so far. For the way back machine, it’s John Prine and In Spite of Ourselves (that title track is one of the great love songs of all time), a collection of duets with some of his “favorite girl singers” as he once described them. I have a crush on Iris Dement (for a really righteously angry song try her Wasteland of the Free), but there is also EmmyLou Harris, the incomparable Dolores Keane, and Lucinda Williams. Very different albums, both wonderful.

What I’m reading:

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on Christopher Steele presents little that is new, but she pulls it together in a terrific and coherent whole that is illuminating and troubling at the same time. Not only for what is happening, but for the complicity of the far right in trying to discredit that which should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. Bob Mueller may be the most important defender of the democracy at this time. A must read.

What I’m watching:

Homeland is killing it this season and is prescient, hauntingly so. Russian election interference, a Bannon-style hate radio demagogue, alienated and gun toting militia types, and a president out of control. It’s fabulous, even if it feels awfully close to the evening news.

March 8, 2018

What I’m listening to:

We have a family challenge to compile our Top 100 songs. It is painful. Only 100? No more than three songs by one artist? Wait, why is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” on my list? Should it just be The Clash from whom she samples? Can I admit to guilty pleasure songs? Hey, it’s my list and I can put anything I want on it. So I’m listening to the list while I work and the song playing right now is Tom Petty’s “The Wild One, Forever,” a B-side single that was never a hit and that remains my favorite Petty song. Also, “Evangeline” by Los Lobos. It evokes a night many years ago, with friends at Pearl Street in Northampton, MA, when everyone danced well past 1AM in a hot, sweaty, packed club and the band was a revelation. Maybe the best music night of our lives and a reminder that one’s 100 Favorite Songs list is as much about what you were doing and where you were in your life when those songs were playing as it is about the music. It’s not a list. It’s a soundtrack for this journey.

What I’m reading:

Patricia Lockwood’s Priestdaddy was in the NY Times top ten books of 2017 list and it is easy to see why. Lockwood brings remarkable and often surprising imagery, metaphor, and language to her prose memoir and it actually threw me off at first. It then all became clear when someone told me she is a poet. The book is laugh aloud funny, which masks (or makes safer anyway) some pretty dark territory. Anyone who grew up Catholic, whether lapsed or not, will resonate with her story. She can’t resist a bawdy anecdote and her family provides some of the most memorable characters possible, especially her father, her sister, and her mother, who I came to adore. Best thing I’ve read in ages.

What I’m watching:

The Florida Project, a profoundly good movie on so many levels. Start with the central character, six-year old (at the time of the filming) Brooklynn Prince, who owns – I mean really owns – the screen. This is pure acting genius and at that age? Astounding. Almost as astounding is Bria Vinaite, who plays her mother. She was discovered on Instagram and had never acted before this role, which she did with just three weeks of acting lessons. She is utterly convincing and the tension between the child’s absolute wonder and joy in the world with her mother’s struggle to provide, to be a mother, is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. Willem Dafoe rightly received an Oscar nomination for his supporting role. This is a terrific movie.

February 12, 2018

What I’m listening to:

So, I have a lot of friends of age (I know you’re thinking 40s, but I just turned 60) who are frozen in whatever era of music they enjoyed in college or maybe even in their thirties. There are lots of times when I reach back into the catalog, since music is one of those really powerful and transporting senses that can take you through time (smell is the other one, though often underappreciated for that power). Hell, I just bought a turntable and now spending time in vintage vinyl shops. But I’m trying to take a lesson from Pat, who revels in new music and can as easily talk about North African rap music and the latest National album as Meet the Beatles, her first ever album. So, I’ve been listening to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy winning Damn. While it may not be the first thing I’ll reach for on a winter night in Maine, by the fire, I was taken with it. It’s layered, political, and weirdly sensitive and misogynist at the same time, and it feels fresh and authentic and smart at the same time, with music that often pulled me from what I was doing. In short, everything music should do. I’m not a bit cooler for listening to Damn, but when I followed it with Steely Dan, I felt like I was listening to Lawrence Welk. A good sign, I think.

What I’m reading:

I am reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Leonardo da Vinci. I’m not usually a reader of biographies, but I’ve always been taken with Leonardo. Isaacson does not disappoint (does he ever?), and his subject is at once more human and accessible and more awe-inspiring in Isaacson’s capable hands. Gay, left-handed, vegetarian, incapable of finishing things, a wonderful conversationalist, kind, and perhaps the most relentlessly curious human being who has ever lived. Like his biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, Isaacson’s project here is to show that genius lives at the intersection of science and art, of rationality and creativity. Highly recommend it.

What I’m watching:

We watched the This Is Us post-Super Bowl episode, the one where Jack finally buys the farm. I really want to hate this show. It is melodramatic and manipulative, with characters that mostly never change or grow, and it hooks me every damn time we watch it. The episode last Sunday was a tear jerker, a double whammy intended to render into a blubbering, tissue-crumbling pathetic mess anyone who has lost a parent or who is a parent. Sterling K. Brown, Ron Cephas Jones, the surprising Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia are hard not to love and last season’s episode that had only Brown and Cephas going to Memphis was the show at its best (they are by far the two best actors). Last week was the show at its best worst. In other words, I want to hate it, but I love it. If you haven’t seen it, don’t binge watch it. You’ll need therapy and insulin.

January 15, 2018

What I’m listening to:

Drive-By Truckers. Chris Stapleton has me on an unusual (for me) country theme and I discovered these guys to my great delight. They’ve been around, with some 11 albums, but the newest one is fascinating. It’s a deep dive into Southern alienation and the white working-class world often associated with our current president. I admire the willingness to lay bare, in kick ass rock songs, the complexities and pain at work among people we too quickly place into overly simple categories. These guys are brave, bold, and thoughtful as hell, while producing songs I didn’t expect to like, but that I keep playing. And they are coming to NH.

What I’m reading:

A textual analog to Drive-By Truckers by Chris Stapleton in many ways is Tony Horowitz’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning Confederates in the Attic. Ostensibly about the Civil War and the South’s ongoing attachment to it, it is prescient and speaks eloquently to the times in which we live (where every southern state but Virginia voted for President Trump). Often hilarious, it too surfaces complexities and nuance that escape a more recent, and widely acclaimed, book like Hillbilly Elegy. As a Civil War fan, it was also astonishing in many instances, especially when it blows apart long-held “truths” about the war, such as the degree to which Sherman burned down the south (he did not). Like D-B Truckers, Horowitz loves the South and the people he encounters, even as he grapples with its myths of victimhood and exceptionalism (and racism, which may be no more than the racism in the north, but of a different kind). Everyone should read this book and I’m embarrassed I’m so late to it.

What I’m watching:

David Letterman has a new Netflix show called “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” and we watched the first episode, in which Letterman interviewed Barack Obama. It was extraordinary (if you don’t have Netflix, get it just to watch this show); not only because we were reminded of Obama’s smarts, grace, and humanity (and humor), but because we saw a side of Letterman we didn’t know existed. His personal reflections on Selma were raw and powerful, almost painful. He will do five more episodes with “extraordinary individuals” and if they are anything like the first, this might be the very best work of his career and one of the best things on television.

December 22, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished Sunjeev Sahota’s Year of the Runaways, a painful inside look at the plight of illegal Indian immigrant workers in Britain. It was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize and its transporting, often to a dark and painful universe, and it is impossible not to think about the American version of this story and the terrible way we treat the undocumented in our own country, especially now.

What I’m watching:

Season II of The Crown is even better than Season I. Elizabeth’s character is becoming more three-dimensional, the modern world is catching up with tradition-bound Britain, and Cold War politics offer more context and tension than we saw in Season I. Claire Foy, in her last season, is just terrific – one arched eye brow can send a message.

What I’m listening to:

A lot of Christmas music, but needing a break from the schmaltz, I’ve discovered Over the Rhine and their Christmas album, Snow Angels. God, these guys are good.

November 14, 2017

What I’m watching:

Guiltily, I watch the Patriots play every weekend, often building my schedule and plans around seeing the game. Why the guilt? I don’t know how morally defensible is football anymore, as we now know the severe damage it does to the players. We can’t pretend it’s all okay anymore. Is this our version of late decadent Rome, watching mostly young Black men take a terrible toll on each other for our mere entertainment?

What I’m reading:

Recently finished J.G. Ballard’s 2000 novel Super-Cannes, a powerful depiction of a corporate-tech ex-pat community taken over by a kind of psychopathology, in which all social norms and responsibilities are surrendered to residents of the new world community. Kept thinking about Silicon Valley when reading it. Pretty dark, dystopian view of the modern world and centered around a mass killing, troublingly prescient.

What I’m listening to:

Was never really a Lorde fan, only knowing her catchy (and smarter than you might first guess) pop hit “Royals” from her debut album. But her new album, Melodrama, is terrific and it doesn’t feel quite right to call this “pop.” There is something way more substantial going on with Lorde and I can see why many critics put this album at the top of their Best in 2017 list. Count me in as a huge fan.

November 3, 2017

What I’m reading: Just finished Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, her breathtakingly good second novel. How is someone so young so wise? Her writing is near perfection and I read the book in two days, setting my alarm for 4:30AM so I could finish it before work.

What I’m watching: We just binge watched season two of Stranger Things and it was worth it just to watch Millie Bobbie Brown, the transcendent young actor who plays Eleven. The series is a delightful mash up of every great eighties horror genre you can imagine and while pretty dark, an absolute joy to watch.

What I’m listening to: I’m not a lover of country music (to say the least), but I love Chris Stapleton. His “The Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” is heartbreakingly good and reminds me of the old school country that played in my house as a kid. He has a new album and I can’t wait, but his From A Room: Volume 1 is on repeat for now.

September 26, 2017

What I’m reading:

Just finished George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. It took me a while to accept its cadence and sheer weirdness, but loved it in the end. A painful meditation on loss and grief, and a genuinely beautiful exploration of the intersection of life and death, the difficulty of letting go of what was, good and bad, and what never came to be.

What I’m watching:

HBO’s The Deuce. Times Square and the beginning of the porn industry in the 1970s, the setting made me wonder if this was really something I’d want to see. But David Simon is the writer and I’d read a menu if he wrote it. It does not disappoint so far and there is nothing prurient about it.

What I’m listening to:

The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast. I love this band. The opening piano notes of the first song, “Nobody Else Will Be There,” seize me & I’m reminded that no one else in music today matches their arrangement & musicianship. I’m adding “Born to Beg,” “Slow Show,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Runaway” to my list of favorite love songs.

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marcusssanderson · 5 years

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100 Best Rap Quotes and Lyrics about Life, Love and Success

Our latest collection of rap quotes that will inspire the way you look at life and success.

The world loves rap. The most popular culture in the world is Hip-Hop.

Rap and Hip Hop are everywhere due to the music and cultures representation of confidence, boldness, and celebration of individuality.

Rap is defined as “a type of popular music recited rapidly and rhythmically over an instrumental backing.”

Although the rap music industry might have some questionable characters in the mix, there are a lot of rap artists who inspire us with truly spectacular lyrics and life lessons.

Rap quotes are powerful and enjoyable.

There is a lot of wisdom and inspiration to be found in the words of famous rappers.

Let’s look at some great rap quotes and rap lyrics about life, love, and success.

Best rap quotes and lyrics about life, love and success

1.) “Next time you see a brother down Stop and pick him up, Cause you might be the next one stuck.” – Grand Puba, Mind Your Business

2.) “Never become so involved with something that it blinds you. Never forget where you from; someone will remind you.” – DMX, “It’s On

3.) “Life without knowledge is death in disguise” Knowledge Of Self” – Talib Kweli

4.) “The purpose of life is a life with a purpose. So I’d rather die for a cause, than live a life that is worthless.” – Immortal Technique

5.) “You’ve got to realize that the world’s a test, You can only do your best and let Him do the rest. You’ve got your life, and got your health, So quit procrastinating and push it yourself.” – Cee-Lo, “In Due Time

6.) “My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.” – Kendrick Lamar

7.) “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.” – Tupac Shakur

8.) “People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.” – Eminem

9.) “I’ve done a lot of work to get where I’m at, but I have to keep working.” –Wiz Khalifa

10.) “Living life is a choice. Making a difference in someone else’s isn’t.”– Kid Cudi

11.) “Every day is new. It’s just a new day. I look at six hours at a time.” – Wiz Khalifa

12.) “Everybody’s at war with different things…I’m at war with my own heart sometimes.” ― Tupac Shakur

13.) “Be careful what you say to someone today. Because tomorrow they might not be here, and you can’t take it back.”– Wiz Khalifa

14.) “Jump regardless of the consequence, cause even on the night of the apocalypse, everybody’s an optimist.”–Tonedeff, Optimist

15.) “I’d shoot for the moon but I’m too busy gazing at stars.”–Eminem, Not Afraid

16.) “Without order, nothing exists. Without chaos, nothing evolves.”–Jedi Mind Tricks, Heavy Metal Kings

Best rap quotes and lyrics about life

17.) “You know it’s funny when it rains it pours They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor” – 2Pac

18.) “Rap is something you do Hip Hop is something you live.” – KRS-One

19.) “You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.”― Jay-Z

20.) “Don’t fall for fake people. They’re often disguised as people close to you.”― Big Les

21.) It’s only human to express the way you really feel, but that same humanity is my Achilles’ heel. A leopard can’t change his spots and never will; So I’m forever i’ll, now I can never chill. – Black Thought

22.) When you’re a little kid, you don’t see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. It never became an issue until I was a teenager and started trying to rap. -Eminem

23.) I’m also not going to explain something just because I said it in a rap. Take what you want from it. – Azealia Banks

24.) “You gotta be able to smile through the bullshit.” – Tupac

25.) No one can identify the uninformed until they voice their ignorance about a topic. Silence is a fool’s best friend. Sadly, he is often too foolish to realize it. – Carlos Wallace

26.) “Life is a wheel of fortune and it’s my turn to spin it.” – Tupac

27.) “Life is too short to live the same day twice. So each new day make sure you live your life.” – Machine Gun Kelly

28.) “Life without dreaming is a life without meaning.” – Wale

29.) “‘Cause whatever you love can be taken away, so live like it’s your dying day.” – Machine Gun Kelly

30.) “Living well eliminates the need for revenge.” – Kanye West

Best rap quotes and lyrics about love, family and relationships

31.) “Once in awhile, I’mma cheat and get dome, But best believe that I’mma always come home. Shorty, I luv you.” – Meyhem Lauren, “Let’s Hold Hands

32.) “If you admire someone, you should go ahead and tell them. People never get the flowers while they can still smell them.” – Kanye West

33.) “The question isn’t do he love ya the question is, do ya love yourself? You give the best advice to your friends and not take it for yourself.” –Big Sean, Jump Out The Window

34.) “Last night I saw you in my dreams, now I can’t wait to go to sleep.”–Kanye West, Hey Mama

35.) “People will love you and support you when it’s beneficial.”– Nicki Minaj, Pills and Potions

36.) Love yourself and your expression, you can’t go wrong. – KRS-One

37.) “Forgive but don’t forget girl, keep ya head up. And when he tells you you ain’t nothing don’t believe him, and if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him.” – Tupac

38.) “One day you’re gonna remember me and how much I love you… then you’re gonna hate yourself for letting me go.” – Drake

39.) “Trust your own judgement, live with it and love it.” – Nas

40.) “Jealousy is just love and hate at the same time.” – Drake

Rap quotes about music and motivation

41.) Music just ain’t what it used to; We used to have songs that you could shoplift or boost to. – Jadakiss, “Hip-Hop (Remix)

42.) “You could name practically any problem in the hood and there’d be a rap song for you.”― Jay-Z, Decoded

43.) Sometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism. – Eminem

44.) Rap for me is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way. – Jay-Z

45.) I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap. – Drake

46.) I love country music, but I also love gangster rap. – Anderson East

47.) I don’t even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in. – Kanye West

48.) I am obsessed with rap music – it’s such a big part of my life. – Randall Park

49.) Although rap is about boasting, it’s also about honesty and expressing your emotions. – Keith Stanfield

50.) My girlfriend is rap. Music and albums and records and my kids. – Mystikal

51.) Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock. – Kurt Cobain

52.) It’s bad poetry executed by people that can’t sing. That’s my definition of Rap. – Peter Steele

Best rap quotes and lyrics about friends

53.) “Me and my people break bread, sit and smoke The conversation rich, but that depend on what you consider broke” – Talib Kweli

54.) “It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none. ”― Snoop Dogg

55.) “Pay attention to whom your energy increases and decreases around. That’s the universe giving you a hint of who you should embrace and who you should keep away from.” – Diddy

56.) “I can see you’re sad even when you smile, even when you laugh I can see it in your eyes.”–Eminem, Mockingbird

57.) “Cherish these nights, cherish these people. Life is a movie, but there’ll never be a sequel.”–Nicki Minaj, All Things Go

58.) I’m on the pursuit of happiness. I know everything that shines ain’t always gold. I’ll be fine once I get it, I’ll be good. – Kid Cudi

59.) Forget yesterday, live for today. Tomorrow will take care of itself. – Rick Ross

60.) “You’ve got enemies? Good, that means you actually stood up for something.” – Eminem

Rap quotes and lyrics about respect

61.) “How far must you go to gain respect? Um… Well, it’s kind of simple: just remain your own. Or you’ll be crazy sad and alone.” – Q-Tip, “Check the Rhime

62.) “Only God can judge me.”― Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete

63.) “No law’s gonna change us, we have to change us.”–Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Same Love

64.) “Kept breaking promises you said you would keep, so you can leave a message at the beep.” – Mac Miller

65.) “The sooner you realize things will never be the same, the sooner you can move on.” – Kid Cudi

66.) “I’m going to always rise above the doubt that may exist about me.” – T.I

67.) “Everyday is a new opportunity to reach that goal.” – Rick Ross

68.) “Never assume you know what’s going on in someone’s life unless you heard it straight form the source.” – Chris Brown

69.) “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Because your character is what you really are. While your reputation is what others merely think you are.” – Jay Z

70.) “I’ll be your best friend if you promise you’ll be mine.” – 50 Cent

Rap quotes and lyrics about fame

71.) “Some seek fame cause they need validation, Some say hating is confused admiration.” – Nas, “Stay”

72.) “‘I am happy’. That’s just the saddest lie.”–Kid Cudi, Soundtrack 2 My Life

73.) “Reach for the stars so if you fall you land on a cloud.” –Kanye West, Homecoming

74.) “Rappers wear diamonds to compensate for a lack of fashion sense.” – A$AP Rocky

75.) “They say a midget standing on a giant’s shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders, they trying to see further than I am.” – Jay-Z

76.) “Why do we try so hard to fit in, when we were born to stand out?” – Machine Gun Kelly

77.) “Good things come in good time.” – Wiz Khalifa

78.) “What I wanna know is why I never fit in right, like a fat dude getting on a packed flight.” – Childish Gambino

79.) “Well, hip hop is what makes the world go round.” – Snoop Dogg

80.) “Even the genius asks his questions.” – Tupac

Rap quotes about money and hustle

81.) “Money will brainwash you and leave your ass mindless Snakes slither in the grass spineless” – Eminem

82.) “I’m a hustler, baby; I sell water to a well!”― Jay-Z

83.) “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!”― Jay-Z

84.) “Never stop fighting no matter what anyone says. If it’s in your gut, your soul, there’s nothing, no worldly possession that should come between you and your expression.” –Kanye West

85.) “Even though you’re fed up, you got to keep ya head up.”–2Pac, Keep Ya Head Up

86.) “I like when money makes a difference but don’t make you different.”–Drake, From Time

87.) “If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.” – Eminem

88.) “They’re gonna try to tell you no, shatter all your dreams. But you gotta get up and go and think of better things.” – Mac Miller

89.) “Take the first chance that you get, because you may never get another one.” – Lil Wayne

90.) “You might not have a car or big gold chain, stay true to yourself and things will change.” – Snoop Dogg

More rap quotes and lyrics

91.) “I don’t like thugs, I don’t like nerds, I don’t like myself and I hate bein’ disturbed.” – Sean Price, “Critically Acclaimed

92.) “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone After you who’s last, it’s Doom, he’s the worst known” – MF DOOM

93.) “I never sleep ‘cuz sleep is the cousin of death.” – Nas

94.) “Same kid’s went to Catholic school is dealers And same n_gga’s had no heart is now killers” – Ma$e

95.) “Telling my business to kids I don’t even know, You’re like a daytime talk show…and that’s low.” – Guru, “Take it Personal

96.) “We always ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us.” – Drake

97.) “Never apologize for what you feel. It’s like apologizing for being real.” – Lil Wayne

98.) “Only God can judge me, so I’m gone, either love me or leave me alone.” – Jay Z

99.) “For every dark night, there’s a brighter day.” – Tupac

100.) “How many people you bless, is how you measure success.” – Rick Ross

Which Rap quotes were your favorites?

Despite all the funny characters that might exist in the rap music industry, there are plenty of rap artists who inspire with their powerful and enjoyable words and lyrics.

Hopefully, these rap quotes and lyrics have inspired the way you look at life and success.

Did you enjoy these rap quotes? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Tell us in the comment section below. We would love to hear all about it.

The post 100 Best Rap Quotes and Lyrics about Life, Love and Success appeared first on Everyday Power.

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usuallyrics-blog · 6 years

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Man Of The Year (Remix)

New Lyrics has been published on usuallyrics.com https://usuallyrics.com/lyrics/man-of-the-year-remix/

Man Of The Year (Remix)

(feat. Lil Wayne)

[Verse 1: Drake] Damn! I done walked in here Lookin’ like the mothafuckin’ man of the year Think I had the mothafuckin’ plan of the year Which was simply to make groupie fans of my peers And I get my girl whatever she desire And my niggas get whatever they require These rappers old, I’m the reason they expire Plus I got a city that I Carey like Mariah Damn! That punch line was predictable I still got you shittin’ bricks, homie, quit the bull And we don’t need new members To me the clique is full And I be getting’ the same women that tip the pool Believe or not I receive a lot So, I be wearing the same Gucci that Jeezy got And I be buyin’ the Louie that Kanyizzy cop And I be rippin’ the same reords that Weezy rock This shit is east pot That’s why I’m ready, man I’d never copy Norbit like eddie, man Did you get it? Eddie Murphy was in Norbit Or was it way over your head? Did you forfeit? Yeah, I take a woman shopping in a store quick Her ass big, she just tryin’ to make a four fit Yeah, they need ot issue out a recall I’m goin’ up and they headin’ into a freefall The fundamental are needed, you playin’ street And I was out at BET, but I didn’t see ya’ll These skee-low rappers wishing they could be tall Lettin’ all their fake friends use them like a free stall Yep!

[Chorus: Lil’ Wayne] Damn! I done walked in here Lookin’ like the mothafuckin’ man of the year My shades so dark And my ice so bright My buddies and my fans wanna fight your right Like, round one, round two, round three I told you not to ever bring a bitch ’round me ‘Cause, ain’t no nigga like a young money nigga No, ain’t no nigga like me Ya dig?

[Verse 2: Drake] I said I know you see me chillin’ Super low key If I’m with the right niggas, you can scoop a O.Z. All the hustlers and the bouncers And the groupies know me Fresh denim, fresh shades In a group with no kids It start up when I touch the door And I encourage ladies to touch the floor As soon as we finish cuttin’, we can cut some more Then after you get high, make ’em, get ’em, girl you finna get low Lights dimmed down Got alota dough Plus a hit sound What you mean you ain’t heard? I come highly recommended Everybody my friend, even if they been offended They ain’t really got a choice, it’s an obvious decision You tryna make a come up in my city, it’s a given Plus a nigga famous Plus I got a vision Not to mention havin’ bars like a mothafuckin’ prison They takin’ too long Their records on hold They threatened by my presence ‘Cause I make them feel old Guaranteed if they drop, they braggin’ ’bout what they sold Just remember where I lived at, 50, 000’s goin’ gold Holla at me when you see me, make yourself known ‘Stead of hatin’ on my music in the comfort of your home Nigga, be a man You actin’ like a bitch I ain’t actin’ like I’m rude I’m just actin’ like I’m rich, rich Yeah, uh! Ridin’ with Weezy Fuckin’ Baby Are you the type of girl that me and Weezy fuckin’, baby? ‘Cause I don’t waste time, can’t yo see a nigga lazy? And I might need some help But, you know, Weezy’s fuckin’ crazy

[Spoken: Lil’ Wayne] Y.M., bitch! Everybody! Two time on Sunday! Spit ’em! Check ya blinkers, baby! Check ya blinkers, baby! ‘Cause, to me, look like you’ve been turning right all day! Yeah! Right my way! Ha ha! I got a boulevard, baby! That’s right! Cash Avenue! Wall Street gangsta! Carter, ya’ll! Heh heh! Why would I lie? Yeah! I ain’t rich, bitch, I’m wealthy! Young! I talk shit ’til I die! Come kill me, nigga! Fuck you! No homo! She like it! Heh ha ha! Yeah! Boy, these mothafuckin’ glasses I got on right now, are so mothafuckin’ cold!

[Chorus: Lil’ Wayne] I’m feelin’ like… Damn! I done walked in here Straight up lookin’ like the mothafuckin’ man of the year My shades so dark And my ice so bright My buddies and my fans wanna fight your right Like, round one, round two, round three I told you not to ever bring a bitch ’round me ‘Cause, ain’t no nigga Ain’t no nigga Ain’t no nigga like a young money nigga

Damn! I done walked in here Lookin’ like the mothafuckin’ man of the year My shades so dark And my ice so bright My buddies and my fans wanna fight your right…

Who is Drake

Aubrey Drake Graham – Canadian actor and musician. Degrassi: Jimmy Brooks from the next generation. As a rapper, Drake uses his stage name.

#Drake - Man Of The Year (Remix) Lyrics #Drake Comeback Season Album #Drake LyricsArray

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thesnhuup · 5 years

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Pop Picks – November 25, 2019

With both plays, I was reminded of the magic that is live theater.