#granny smith is my favourite for sure

[markatoto]

Picked some pears. U want any?

thank you so much for the offer! this might be a particularly mild take but i dont care much for pears. they're like weirder apples. the mouthfeel is also bad for me. i think i will eat apple instead.

[ilovecheese42069]

Have my autism

This is based off the song Too Sweet By Hozier

Okay so the song can be interpreted in a few different ways.

The song is about a person who prefers the realest things that people tend to dislike for just how blunt the flavours are and in their rawest form(||Neat whiskey|| and black coffee) and there lover is fasley sweet (You treat your mouth as if it's Heaven's gate - The rest of you like you're the TSA) Heaven's gate is a cult and the TSA is the tsa

The song is about a man who feels his lover is too good for him, naturally sweet while he feels naturally bitter

Both would have goat cheese as it is a very pungent cheese and not liked by many at least not without something sweet to go along. Fresh goat cheese, florette goat brie, maybe Humboldt fog because it's still a goat cheese with a strong flavour but it's not as strong and it's a bit more fudgy in texture. Possible some smoked cheese as well because it's a strong flavour and "Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?", so possibly some smoked cheddar and or Gouda.

For the Partner(1) cheese Possibly some Goat Gouda because it's sweet but also kinda tangy? Like maybe to represent that they aren't quite authentic to themselves even tho the cheese if a favourite of mine. Or for partner 1 there is a cheese called caramel cheese that's debated if it's even cheese and more cheese by product because of how it's made and it would fit the theme. For the pairings of Partner(1) Blackberry Jelly because jelly is made from juice and has a lot of sugar added, and it pairs well with the goat cheese.

For the singing partner for fruit- Strawberries as they aren't what people tend to think of them ass, they aren't always sweet and can be kinda bitter, Maybe some unripe dragon fruit as it doesn't have much of its own taste and not many people like it Green grapes because they're a bit sour Granny Smith apples because they're extra tart

For Partner(2) fruit - Red grapes, cosmic crisp apples and Oregon blackberries, they're all exceptionally naturally sweet and the apples are especially soft.

For carbs Partner 1: would be butter crackers, unhealthy but delicious tasting and the next thing you know you've eaten the whole sleeve and it leaves you feeling like garbage Singing Partner: Whole wheat crackers, healthier, easier to ration and not many people like them Partner 2: Crusty bread, while ultimately in a similar vein to partner 1 they're more filling allowing you to ration them and not just fill up on carbs causing you to miss out.

For Meat: Partner 1 - Possibly sweet summer sausage, its obviously processed and a bit weird texture wise and very sweet. Singing Partner - Probably Sospressta because of the black pepper in it and not everyone likes getting black pepper stuck in their mouth and it can be abrasive because of it and Maybe Prosciutto because it's an uncooked nor is it smoked dry cured meat and especially salty so you can't have it beyond a slice or two for your health Partner 2- Prosciutto and Genoa Salami because Prosciutto is also pretty well-loved and decently mild in flavour same for the Genoa but it's sweeter almost, I'm not sure how to describe the taste

Chocolate: Partner1: White chocolate because it's not even chocolate Singing Partner: Dark chocolate because it's bitter and has very little sugar, probably 70 percent cocoa Partner2: Dark chocolate but probably closer to 40-50 percent because it's still a good chunk cocoa and while not naturally sweet would still fit the theme of the board

[jmflowers]

What are your thoughts on Red Delicious? I feel like they're similar to honeydew in that people either love them or find them bland. I’m in the first camp for both fruits, personally

Oh anon, what a dangerous box you’ve just opened! Ahahaha

The history of the Red Delicious apple is a bright and colourful one (pun intended). Back in the 1870s, when the crop was first discovered, it was a delicious apple. It also looked nothing like the apples we recognize today; comprised instead of a red and gold-flecked exterior similar to modern-day Gala or Honeycrisp.

In fact, it was so delicious that it became a predominant crop in the United States, worth about $12 million by the 1920s. However, people are people and naturally occurring mutations gave way for cross-breeding. In the pursuit of making something more beautiful and more easily transported for the masses, growers went a little too far.

Those bumps along the bottom of Red Delicious apples were bred into them to make them easier to pack. The thicker flesh was to help protect them from bruising during transport. The crimson red colour was to make them noticeably different from other apples. But you know what was forgotten during this process? Taste.

By 1980, Red Delicious apples made up about 75% of the apple crop in Washington, USA. And Washington was supplying about 2/3rds of the country’s apples. But even then, they were no longer delicious. In fact, when consumers caught on around 2000, the Red Delicious apple resulted in the largest apple bailout in history as farmers attempted to escape the crop. (And honestly, that’s super expensive to do – about $50,000 per acre.)

Red Delicious apples are still grown in North America, but they’re mostly used for exports as the general consensus is… they’re a terrible apple. Ask any apple grower and they’ll probably tell you the same. They are really good for exporting, though, because of all those taste-ruining things they bred into them. In fact, one farm in Washington exports Red Delicious apples to 50 different countries. (Sorry, y’all.)

All that to say, I’m gonna side with history here and believe that it was good once but that it isn’t anymore. Not to say that it can’t be – it looks beautiful on display, for sure. It lacks the things that make an apple enjoyable, though. I want the crunch and the sweet and the juice. And having worked in such close proximity to apple orchards, I want that just-picked experience that will honestly spoil you for life.

My top apples are probably:

Ginger Gold (as they’re the first apple of the season at “my” orchard and biting into one of them at the very end of August, knowing there are weeks of apples ahead… nothing like it)

Ambrosia (everyone goes crazy for Honeycrisp apples for their sweetness, but honestly an Ambrosia packs just as much punch and crunch for a fraction of the price)

Red Fuji (a cheeky choice, they’re literally just fun and usually ripen in Ontario right around my birthday)

There are more than 7,500 apples on planet Earth, though, and each area of the world has different regional specialties. Like, we all know Granny Smith, but they don’t even grow in my province – they’ve just been exported out to the masses like Red Delicious. And every apple has their own special things that make them great for specific tasks. There are ones that are great for snacking, ones ideal for baking, ones that rock in a fruit salad, ones that make the best apple sauce. Some have even been bred to brown slower!

And some just defy the rules. The best apple crumble I ever had was made with Granny Smith. My mother swears by Macintosh for homemade apple sauce. My favourite time to buy cider is always later in the season, when the sweetest apples have ripened because it just tastes different. I worked with a baker for years who would recommend Cortland for anything involving an oven.

Anyways, apples are a miracle and I’m so glad there are so many of them to explore.

You do you, anon. But like… maybe try some other apples, too, just to see? As for Honeydew Melon, I’ve never had a bland one in my life. Promise to research their history next, though.

[ebiemidnightlibrarian]

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 20 blogs you are contractually obligated to get to know better.

Tagged By: @chronic-ghost my beloved, you are AMAZING!

Name: Eloah :3

Star Sign: Aries (no, I'm not the rl incarnation of 'anger' from Inside Out lol)

Height: last time I checked I was 5'6", so yeah, Father Paul would easily pin me to a wall.

Time: 22:01 pm

Birthday: March 24th

Favorite Bands/Favorite Solo Artists: Humm what a hard task, it changes sometimes, but I'll keep my all-time favourites; David Bowie, Bauhaus, The Smiths, Joy Divison, She Wants Revenge, Queen, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Edith Piáf, Al Bowly, Vera Lynn, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina, Cauby Peixoto, IAMX, Florence + The Machine, Aurora, Queens of the Stone Age, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Weekend, The Lumineers, Cage The Elephant and Coldplay. (yeah, my music taste it's quite unusual, but like the olds would say; Call wine, wine.)

Last Movie: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — Sam Raimi gave me a full meal of fun, horror, drama and dark humour.

Last Show: AHS: Hotel — revisiting one of my favourites gothic atmosphere and Lady Gaga was *chef's kiss* as the Countess. The soundtrack for that season is also fucking incredible.

When did I create this blog: Ahn, I'm sure of the year, but not of the exact date. It was around January 2017.

What I post: Mostly, moodboards and aesthetics, dark academia and gothic academia; LOTS of fandom stuff and since May of the last year I'm posting fanfiction for a couple of people. Writing keep me sane… well, mostly sane, lol.

Last thing I googled: the word "hermenêutica".

It's a feminine noun (in portuguese we have genre to words). It means science, technique whose object is the interpretation of religious or philosophical texts, especially the Holy Scriptures.

Lmao, this was a bit didactic, sorry.

Other Blogs: None, just this lil one =D

Do I Get Asks?: I DO!! Please, I get so excited when I receive one, it's like Christmas morning!

Why I chose my url: it used to be a quote from the 1976 film 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' — everything begins in eternity —, one of my favourites for a very long time. But I started to think the url was too long, so I decided to change to 'ebiemidnightlibrarian' — ebie because it's the first letter of each word from the quotation above;(and also my nickname here bc my real name sounds odd in english, lol); midnight bc Midnight Mass fucking changed my life as a huge cathartic experience, and librarian bc it's my profession lmao.

Following: 459

Followers: 220 

Average hours of sleep: 3-7 hours, usually, but on my day off maybe 12 straight hours. None of them are healthy, but I'm working to fix this.

Instruments: Ohh, if I had the money to pay for the classes, I would TOTALLY play the piano. (However, I love cello too.)

What am I wearing: a terribly old nightdress that used to be pink, sandals, my granny's old jumper and a pair of workout pants from high school, it's really cosy.

Dream job(s): own a small bookshop with a small café and whole lots of first editions, where my manager it's a cute English grandpa (very specific, but I always wondered how it would be to live in England); a research colleague of a really hot literature professor (stealing this one from taylor, bc with some luck this one will become true within the next five years, lol); a guide from an old history museum.

Favourite Food: TEA, LOTS AND LOTS OF TEA! If I can make tea of it, it's great to me. Summer rolls humm I LOOOVE summer rolls; lasagna from almost any type, and specifically my grandmother's wedding cake (she was a full hand baker, once you ate her cakes every other becomes instantly shit.)

Nationality: Brazilian (things are pretty shitty around here, but, hey, it's election year, there's still hope!)

Favorite Song(s): Holy moly, okay, these are all-time favourites from whom I never get sick of:

slow burn — david bowie

tempo perdido — legião urbana (en.: lost time - urban legion, i highly recommend)

blueberry hill — louis armstrong

marian — sisters of mercy

cool cat — queen

stardust — iamx

villains of the circumstance — queens of the stone age

Currently playing on repeat:

janitor of lunacy (demo) — nico

mary on a cross — ghost

heaven is here — florence + the machine

blood in the wine — aurora

young american — the vaccines

animal impulses — iamx

big bad wolf — in this moment

Last book I read: I have just finished reading A Roda de Deus (The Wheel of God) and O Criador da Morte (The Creator of Death). They're the two parts of O Evangelho do Exorcista (The Gospel of the Exorcist), both written by Leonel Caldela.

Those books are an expansion of a Call of Cthulhu RPG tabletop, inspired by various historical events that took place in Europe over the millennials. The first part follows a novice and a priest in 1989 divided Germany who are hunting the minions of the Messenger God of Cthulhu, Nyerlathotep. The second part follows the only surviving character from the original role-play table, he's living the WWII and ALSO another war, one for our souls! Following him gave me a lot of nostalgia, and have great easter eggs for anyone who followed the main campaign. The two parts range from Charlemagne's empire to a dystopian future full of horrors. A terrifying adventure filled with mysteries, exorcisms and extremely immersive historical fiction. (I better stop now or this is going to get GIANT.)

Top 3 fictional universes I'd like to live in: Uhh, I never really thought about that. I would probably try my luck into the Lord of the Rings universe, Crimson Peak's or in Maleficent's, I have a weakness for dark fantasy/gothic worlds lol. Although I ADORE the aesthetic of Wes Anderson's 'The French Dispatch' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. Ugh hard choices.

tagging: @i-was-ok-then-i-saw-hamish @mutt-thingy @rothko-mirror @sallyragdoll @everythingbutresolved @jakegwyllinghall @pegplunkett @littleredwritingcat @hamishlinklaters @plainlo-inthemorning @turbulent-protagonist @fatherpaulsimp @choosekindly @johntylersgirl @girlwiththenegantattoo @raraenocteses @sleepswithvillains @aherdofbees @p-e-r-s-e-p-h-o-n-e @babelincolns @upstartgeek @supplanther @to-taste-your-beating-heart @the-redheaded-league @agirlinherhead @meownsignor @ashton-slashton @apbajs @mysoftboybensolo @mybisexualheartbeatsforzemo @norabrice1701 @jyngerpeach @johnspruitt @lovepollution

(definitely not 30 ppl here, but think if you saw this consider yourself tagged :)

(fun fact, I almost accidentally tagged neil gaiman on this, lol)

[capsicletho]

Sledding Away

​

a reader x tony stark and morgan stark one shot by @beaubatns

gif credit: @marvelgifs​

trigger warning: Get ready for a whole bunch of fluff!

word count: 1.3k

summary: It’s snowing at the cabin and Tony and Morgan loved spending time in the snow, but when dad has to help mom prepare for dinner, Morgan has other mischievous ideas.

author’s note: This my first time rewatching Endgame after I first watched it in theatres and I choose to focus on Tony’s happy domestic life instead of the sad ending. I don’t know if this has been done before, but here’s my take on this little headcanon! 

“Alright, Little Miss, Daddy’s gotta go help Mommy make dinner,” Tony groaned, his own weight straining him as he pushed himself off the ground. “Are you gonna be okay here for a while?”

“Yeah,” Morgan grinned, comfortably sitting on the little bean bag chair Tony had fit inside the igloo they built while watching an episode of Doc McStuffins that was projected on the wall.

“Okay. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” Tony reminded her before hunching out of the cramped igloo.

From the kitchen, you could see Tony crawl out of the igloo he had made with Morgan. Well, Tony did all of the work with the help of Dum-E and U; Morgan mostly just sat on her little chair for moral support with some snickerdoodles and the hot cocoa that Tony had poured into a small thermos cup lid. Then again, Dum-E mostly knocks holes into the walls while U records the whole thing, so really it’s just Tony.

You smiled as he spotted you staring out into the playground from the kitchen. Tony glanced back one more time into the igloo to make sure Morgan is safe before heading into the house.

“She’s having fun,” he chuckled, immediately washing his hands and then checking the oven where a pie crust was blind baking.

“Is she gonna be okay there alone?” You asked, placing sliced Granny Smith apples into a bowl to start the pie filling. 

“Yeah, Dum-E’s feeding her snickerdoodles as we speak,” Tony eased your worries by placing his phone on the countertop which displayed your daughter lounging on her tiny bean bag chair with blankets and dolls watching her favourite show and drinking some cocoa while Dum-E held a small plate of snickerdoodles right next to her.

You smiled, your worries assuaged because of course Tony knew to put his surveillance cameras as baby monitors inside the igloo before leaving his daughter alone there to help you out in the kitchen. 

“Where do you want me?” He asked.

“Get started on the pasta for me,” you said. Tony was not exactly the best cook, but the chances of burning pasta is minimal and all he has to do was get them out of the box and wait for 8 minutes, so you knew it was a task you could trust him with. 

“Alright,” Tony obeyed and began to work. Once a while, he glanced at the monitor displaying Morgan and then out the window at the igloo.

You continued with the apple pie filling, combining all the ingredients in a pot. “Oh, I walked by the tower the other day,” you told him. Although you were living the quiet life now, you still come to work every now and again just to make sure things are in order and you happened to walk past the Stark Tower. “People were coming out dressed as Elvis Presley, I think they’re having a contest or something,” you laughed.

“What?” Tony looked at you, incredulous. 

“Maybe there’s a lookalike contest or something,” you giggled.

“Jesus Christ,” Tony shook his head. “That tower used to be where a puny deity from outer space gets his face bashed in, but sure, Elvis Presley is a legend,” he remarked sarcastically.

You and Tony very invested in the Elvis Presley lookalike contest and laughters that the two of you missed the scurry of little snow-boots-clad feet leaving the igloo and making its way into the garage. You turned around as the oven dinged, signalling that your pie crust was done and took them out, placing them on the counter when you noticed the flash of a familiar red and blue against the white snow.

You looked up to see Captain America’s vibranium shield floating on tiny little legs. The scene did not register to you until Morgan set the shield down on the snowy ground, star spangled-side down.

“Oh my God, Tony. Babe!” your right arm flailed around to catch Tony’s attention from across the room and pointed out the window. Abandoning the strained pasta on the countertop, Tony looked out the window with you to see Morgan sitting on the concave of the shield and pushed herself down the little hill of your cabin.

You yelled her name and Tony cursed, immediately running to the door and ignoring the fact that neither of you were wearing anything thick enough to keep you warm against the freezing weather. It was too late, however, because the little Stark spawn was already zooming past you and Tony with her gleeful giggles echoing across the property. U was right across from the two of you, recording everything as the two of you ran after Morgan. It would have been comical if it was not for the fact that you are getting a heart attack over your daughter’s antics.

“Tony, do something!” You pleaded in panic, but he was already one step ahead of you. Red and gold flashed right next to you, enveloping Tony’s form and he flew off in high speed to catch Morgan before she could make it to the barriers of the property.

You slowed down and stopped running as soon as Tony caught up to Morgan, floating right in front of her and putting his hands on the rim of the shield to overcome the inertia as smoothly as he could.

“Where do you think you’re going? Didn’t I tell you to wait in the igloo?” Tony reprimanded her with the gentlest warning tone a parent would ever use. It is part of the reason why Morgan was as mischievous as he was, because not only did she inherit the trait from him, but she also knew that her Daddy did not have the heart to be stern with her.

“Hehehe, hi, Daddy,” Morgan giggled as Tony lifted the shield off the ground, carrying her back towards you in it. 

Tony landed in front of you as you put two hands on your hips. God, you were turning into your mother; you always hated when she did that because you knew what was coming, and Morgan did too. She put on the best puppy eyes and little pout that she could muster to get into your good graces.

“Morgan H. Stark, what did you think you were doing?” You lifted her off the shield and onto your hips.

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” she hid her face in the crook of your neck. Tony’s suit disappeared to reveal a smirking and proud father as he brushed the snow off the shield. You shot a look at him, not wanting his proud smile to encourage the behaviour.

“Do not do that again, okay? Not when there’s no one to watch you, because you might have been hurt,” you told her, brushing her hair back in order to look her in the eye.

“Does that mean I can do it again now?” Morgan reasoned now that the two of you are there to supervise her.

It took all your strength not to laugh. “No, because dinner is almost ready,” you said and Morgan pouted, leaning her head on your chest to look away from you. No matter how hard it was, you had to let her know that what she did was not okay and letting her do it again would only encourage her more. 

You turned around and trudged back into the house, Tony right next to you, gently poking on the girl’s waist to catch her attention. Morgan’s head did not move, but her eyes were trained at him.

“Tomorrow,” Tony mouthed quietly and Morgan’s face lit up with a smile. You looked at the two of them and shot them a warning look, but your lips could not hide the smile you have been holding any longer. Tony pressed his index finger to his lips and Morgan stifled a giggle as the two of you entered the house.

[biinarysttars]

Okaaaaaay here they are!! My Mane 6 redesigns! I’m definitely happiest w/ Pinkie Pie!

Design notes and links to the images I edited under the cut!

If you like these designs, please consider reblogging this post! Likes really do nothing at all for me, but reblogs will allow more people to see my work! Thank you so much <3

General notes: First, I wanted to make them a rainbow! So each one of them represents one ROYGBV colour! Seemed like it would make more sense, that way. I also wanted to give them more noticeable hooves, since they ARE ponies!

Pinkie Pie: I really didn’t need to alter Pinkie Pie’s colour scheme at all! I thought it spoke for itself. That being said, it was still very, very plain compared to the entire rest of her personality. I wanted it to look busy, but the business comes from patterns so you really don’t need to look very hard! I also gave her symmetrical piebald spots, and symmetrical hair buns. I thought it might make more sense for her curls to be a lot tighter! All of that symmetry is supposed to represent the controlled chaos of her personality!

Rainbow Dash: I had a lot of issues with RD’s colour scheme. She’s a very show-off-y character, and the thing she tries to show of the most is her flying! So WHY did they make her THE SAME COLOUR AS THE SKY? I made her orange so that she would be bright and obvious! I also stole some inspiration from G3 Rarity with her mane and tail-- warm colours for her mane, and cold for her tail! When she’s flying really fast, it all comes together to look like a rainbow!  And! What colour do you get when you mix every colour (pigment theory, not light theory)? It’s brown! Making her orange allowed me to outline her mane and tail in brown.

Then for her markings, I wanted to give her socks! They look like those long, athletic-wear socks (they’re supposed to, anyways)!

Finally, her earrings! Those are not just part of her design, but I like to picture that she takes them out when she’s about to go flying. Someone needs to hang on to them, though, because she can’t just leave them lying on the ground! Looks like she’s got an audience member for these craaaazy stunts she’s about to practise.

Rarity: I didn’t think there was anything wrong with Rarity, but hell, I was doing the other five, and there was an idea I wanted to try...

She was the last one I designed, and I knew she had to be yellow, but I didn’t want to throw away the royal violet mane and tail! That seemed crucial to Rarity’s design. I thought it would look interesting if they were maybe lined with violet, and boy!! That certainly turned out very well! Then, I eliminated the blue from her design, since it didn’t seem like it added anything, anymore. I’m not super clear on what her special talent actually is, but I figured she needed more references to her passion: sewing/dressmaking. The light gold strands in her hair are supposed to look like golden threads!

Applejack: I might not be the happiest with Applejack’s design-- in fact, I’ll probably redo it at some point! That being said, there are a few core ideas at play here:

First off, almost the entirety of the Apple family is green, or red, or some mixture of both; even those who are yellow/brown have green or red hair to balance them out! And sure, there are golden delicious apples! But Applejack is orange. Which bothered me.

I originally tried to make her red, but I couldn’t find something that didn’t end up with her just looking like Big Mac. Plus, Apple Bloom is already the inversion of Big Mac! Not that siblings can’t look alike, but it felt unoriginal to do something like that. Not to mention, I’m PRETTY sure AJ’s talent will be to take over the role of head of the Apple family after Granny Smith, so I wanted her to look a lot like Granny Smith!

I was originally going to have her lose the hat, because of all the ponies that were going to accessorize, Applejack seems like the least likely one (except for when it’s actually practical, like when she’s actually working the farm), but then there wasn’t enough red to tie it all together.

Fluttershy: The base idea around Fluttershy’s recolour was simple: give her colours to make her stand out less. As a pegasus, she’d probably benefit from blending in with the sky, in theory! So, blue. A green mane to tie together that more natural feeling.

The pink accents are there to soften her. Fun fact: the gradient on her legs was how I was going to originally do socks! It just didn’t look quite right on RD. I wanted to do gradients in her mane/tail, but it didn’t end up looking the way I wanted it to.

I didn’t want to lose the pastel vibes of her original design, otherwise I might have tried a more earthy palette! 

Twilight Sparkle: Twilight was the first pony I redesigned! I am very happy with her!!

I wanted to make her seem more magical; it’s really not the darker colours that do this on their own, but the very bright secondary colours against them! Her yellow eyes also really add to this effect, I think! I also made her cutie mark match the new colour scheme.

Violet is already a colour associated with magic, so I knew I wanted to keep that! Blue is associated with wisdom, and while I didn’t get to keep any of it in this new design, I think her gala dress would still be blue! Something can be your favourite colour without it being part of your body! For example, mine is also blue, but I have brown eyes! Guess I’ve gotta stick to blue clothes!

Her diamond is very large, and stretches up and around her horn. I considered giving her glasses, but I have experience with being an avid reader with no friends! I myself do not have glasses. This is a classic case of projection and also not knowing how to draw glasses in this style.

If you read all that, please feel free to let me know what you think! If there’s anything you disagree with, or if you have any advice for future edits, let me know and I’ll keep it in mind for next time!

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

For @foxy-voxy who needs some fluffage right now. I don’t have the spoons to write a new fic at the moment, but here’s some bits and bobs of the sweetest or funniest moments in the one I’m working on right now. Please feel free to reblog with some sweet and happy excerpts of your own.

A

“Our client plays the lead surgical doctor who is also apparently a paediatrician, an obstetrician, and an oncologist depending on the needs of the plot. Dr Honey Crisp-”

Sherlock let out a bark of laughter and nearly sprayed a mouthful of crackers before he gulped them down. “Honey Crisp? You can’t be serious. What, does she live with her Granny Smith?” 

“Yes,” John said, his voice utterly emotionless despite the agony in his expression. “She does. I’ll give the writers credit. They decided on a theme, and by god, they stuck to it. The whole main cast is like that. Nurse Cherry Cordial is the main love rival, with the orderly-” he winced. “Kale Sprout.”

B

He opened the door at the top of the steps to find their client stubbing out a cigarette against a wall. She waved smoke away from her face and adjusted her handbag. The bag rustled then barked in distress until a teddy bear appeared. It took a second glance for Sherlock to correct himself. It wasn’t a plush animal, but he still hesitated to call the creature a dog.

C

John wrung his hands as he watched her standing there, knowing that if either of the directors made her cry he’d spoil the entire case, because there would be no play. Because he’d put the man in a coma. 

The casting director was obviously used to working with children though, because with a kind, patient voice he asked her name and what she would be performing for them. 

Rosie hesitated and hummed then jumped with surprise when the sound of her humming boomed out of the speakers on either side of the stage. “I’m Rosamund Watson, but everyone calls me Rosie, except Uncle Scotty.” She shot a quick look into the wings to make sure she’d gotten Sherlock’s false name correct. “He calls me Watson and Daddy calls me Princess, but that’s just what Daddies do.”

The stage lights made it impossible to see the directors, but John could hear amusement in his voice. “It certainly is. And will you be singing for us today?” 

“Yuh huh, but I need Uncle Scotty to come out.” 

“It’s all right if you’re nervous, dear. But your uncle won’t be able to be with you if you get the part. You understand that, don’t you?” 

Scowling, Rosie twisted her fingers into the sides of her overalls. “I know that. But the song I want would be silly if I was doing it by myself. And Daddy says we tag team on him so much that it just makes sense that he would be the one singing with me.” There was an unspoken Obviously at the end of the sentence that even the directors heard.

D

Bowing again, Rosie held her hand out to Sherlock to take him off stage. 

“Did I do okay?” she asked once her headset was removed. 

John knelt and hugged her tightly, cradling the back of her neck. “You were amazing, Rosie. I am so proud of you.” Leaning back, John blinked rapidly. It was one thing to listen to his daughter belting out songs in the back of the car along with the radio, or watch her prancing around the living room in a homemade tutu, but seeing her on stage, really performing, it was incredible. 

She had shone. 

“Do you think I’ll get the part?” 

“I think you have an excellent chance of it.” 

“Do you think I’ll get a big star with my name on it? In lights?” 

“It’s entirely possible.” 

“Do you think there’s any animal crackers left?”

E

Two call backs and a shriek of delight later found Rosie getting the part of Gretl von Trapp. At each of the call backs she demonstrated a different skill that was asked of her. She performed a brilliant monologue by reciting a passage from one of her favourite books, showed that she could memorise a dance routine, and sang some other songs to give an example of her range. By the end of it, Rosie was already making plans as to where she would display her future award statues. 

Sherlock’s process was not much different. He was asked to read with different actors, given a song to perform, and a choreographed number to dance. And if he bellowed with delight as well when he was given the part of the Captain, he insisted it was because it meant he could continue the case undercover. And if his eyes became over bright when Rosie declared that the best part of it all was that he would be playing her father, he managed to blink tears back before they spilled over.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Young Justice Outsiders Part 1 (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: The first part of Young Justice Outsiders is finally all available for viewing so I thought I would give my thoughts on Season 3 thus far, it won’t be in depth because for me this season hasn’t been but there are light spoilers so be warned.

General Reaction:

I have been a fan of Young Justice since I found out about the series, I love it. I love taking these sidekicks and putting them in the spotlight. It’s why I loved Teen Titans and Young Avengers. I guess because I discovered them while I was a teenager myself, season 1 aired in 2010 when I was 19 so technically that counts, that I relate to them but also the first two seasons of the show were so well done and made for gripping binge-worthy viewing.

So you can imagine that I, like many other fans of the show, was thrilled when after an injust cancellation it returned 5 years. The only problem is Young Justice: Outsiders lacks the spark and somewhat originality that the first two seasons had.

These first 13 episodes of season three lack centric main characters, a strong A-Storyline and, until the last 4 episodes, that gripping binge-worthiness I mentioned the first two seasons had. Instead we have an Easter-Egg season crammed with characters who are splintered into different groups who each have their own storylines that, again until near the end of the 13 episodes, don’t really tie-in with each other and feel like they each need their own shows to develop fully.

Also, there is another time jump between Season 2 and 3 which makes more sense here than it did between 1 and 2 because in real-time 5 years has passed since the end of Season 2 whereas there it seemed to be done to push ahead the story and give the franchise a Star Wars feel of making it a multi-media experience with the comic-book tie-in series filling in the space between 1 & 2.

What’s Good:

Alright so I want to be fair to the season because it does have some good aspects which I actually liked.

Fan Favourites:

I will get into the sheer volume of characters introduced to this season further down but for now I want to talk about the fan-favourites introduced who were somewhat fleshed out rather well.

Firstly Lady Shiva. I have never seen Lady Shiva before but I know she is a fan-favourite character and, considering the underwhelming performance of Talia al Ghul recently, a favored replacement for her. I still think Nyssa al Ghul is a good replacement particularly in Arrow but here I understand why people like her. I thought the fact she is the trainer of the new League of Shadows recruits as well as an Enforcer for The Light to be quite good, although I do find myself thinking that, as mentioned, Deathstroke was exactly in that position in the second season and he was barely used, I hope that’s not the case here.

Then there’s Cyborg. It’s about god-damn time they brought this guy in. Just when I thought this season was not going to get graphic or gory they give us Cyborg’s Post-New 52 origins and that imagery of Victor’s body after the explosion was so good for me. I also liked how they’ve updated the Cyborg look and now given him mood-lighting with Father Box control which causes an interesting relationship between him and new character Halo.

Finally there’s Terra. I am excited for what has been teased with Terra so far. The fact she was part of the Markovian Royal Family which was introduced in the first couple of episodes and then herself being properly introduced in the last episode with her Geokinetic powers, while not yet fully realized I am sure will be great.

Beast Boy:

So again this is very much a light spoiler review but what I will say is watch out and be patient for Beast Boy because he does not have that much to do at the start of the season and only really appears in snippets as the opening scenes of the episodes but in the penultimate episode of Season 3A it is all about Beast Boy and it’s probably my favourite episode despite one glaring aspect of it which is an Easter-Egg within the DC Multiverse.

What’s Bad:

Shifting Allegiances:

There is a big shake-up in how our heroes are affiliate themselves with in the first episode alone.

Not only do Batman and Black Lightning quit the Justice League, Batman taking other members with him for his own team, but the original Aquaman Arthur Curry, who has just had his own billion dollar movie released, is no longer in the League and instead his protege Aqualad has not only become the new Aquaman but the leader of the League.

Then there’s the Team which this series is supposed to focus on. Again there’s a shake-up in the roster and the team that is shown in the promotion is pretty much the team for this season but...because of all the other characters introduced this season we do not spend enough time getting to know the new team, the new members on the team or the reasons why the members of the team who were there at the end of last season aren’t there now.

For instance, it is kind of explained why Tigress and Superboy are no longer on the team as they’re part of Nightwing’s new team and therefore in that promo image not this one, but Guardian and Lagoon Boy all have left without explanation. We know what has happened to Beast Boy and Bumblebee has a kid and is pregnant again so that probably explains their reasoning. Guardian aka Mal Duncan and Lagoon Boy weren’t very interesting characters which maybe explains their absence in terms of production but in-canon that can’t be the only reason.

Arsenal was expelled from the team during Season 2 so his appearance in this line-up raised curiosity, but he only appears in one episode but not with a single member of this team and instead with his fellow Roy Harpers.

Then new team members Arrowette, Spoiler and Thirteen who were promoted are barely used. Yes Robin II aka Tim Drake leaves the team and takes Arrowette and Spoiler under his leadership to form their own team with new character Orphan, but Arrowette and Spoiler were both introduced as civillians in Season 2 yet nothing is done to reference that. In fact many people thought Arrowette was Artemis in a new suit at first.

Thirteen remains on the team but I do not think has a speaking line and if she does it’s forgettable. All I know about this character is she is the protege of Zatanna but she has her own problems this season apparently and so this completely new character is barely utilized properly.

Also Blue Beetle, Bart Allen as Kid Flash, Static and Wonder Girl are all returning characters yet hardly either seen, utilized or developed in this season. Static loses Black Lightning as a mentor and Wonder Girl is seemingly dumped by Tim Drake when he quits the team due to Batman leaving the League, but Blue Beetle and Bart Allen who were focal characters last season are blink and miss them characters this season...glorified cameos at best.

Too Many Characters:

This brings me on to my biggest issue with this season, there are way too many characters introduced and involved in this season. There are 13 episodes but it feels like they have a combined total of 130 characters introduced. We have new characters that we are supposed to focus on and new ones that seem to be there just to be there.

For instance, new characters like Cyborg, Forager, Halo and Geo-Force I get we are supposed to focus on, but Cyborg isn’t introduced until Episode 10 and then heavily focused on for 4 episodes, while the latter three are all introduced at the start of the season and slowly and organically developed.

Then there are characters like Steel and Katana who I almost forgot were introduced at the start of Episode 1 until Episode 10 when there were slightly more prominent.

Speaking of that Episode 1 Easter-Egg hunt, once Batman announces he is leaving the Justice League he makes it clear that four members of the league are resigning to join him, Katana, Plastic Man who was introduced in Season 1 and again to this day I cannot say if he’s actually had any speaking lines, Hardware who I have no clue as to who that is and Batwoman...Batwoman! You had probably the best LGBT superhero and yet she’s only seen in two images and that’s it. What, the, hell!

Then Episode 9 “Home Fires” is an episode full to the brim with Easter-Eggs, I can’t even call them characters because aside from maybe three of them none of them are focused on. Along with Bart Allen who actually has something to do here, Iris West-Allen actually has some comedic moments and then Karen aka Rocket who has some speaking lines and Lynn Stewart-Pierce who is the ex-wife of Black Lightning but isn’t as good here as Christine Adams portrays her on Black Lightning aside from the fact that in this continuity she is the sister of John Stewart aka Green Lantern.

Aside from them, there’s the introduction of Lois Lane with son Jonathan, the reintroduction of Red Tornado’s human-looking form John Smith with daughter Traya Sutton, a pregnant Bumblebee, Iris and Barry’s twins Dawn and Don, Mera and son of Aquaman Artur, Rocket’s sassy son Amisted and the re-introduction of Black Lightning and Lynn’s daughter Anissa and Jennifer Pierce.

Away from this storyline in the episode is the reintroduction and death of Ocean-Master along with the introduction of Lady Shiva who kills him and the introduction of Granny Goodness. All this was just in the one episode.

Then we have Ra’s al Ghul and his followers, I can’t say League anymore because Ra’s has left both the League and The Light and Deathstroke seems to have taken his place in both, we are reintroduced to his followers such as Ubu and the Sensei but also introduced to the cameos of Talia al Ghul, Damien Wayne and a mysterious Red-Hooded Ninja...

Also when we are finally reintroduced to Batman and his new team, the only one we see return is Katana along with new character Metamorpho...I don’t know who this character is but I like him.

Wonder Woman said it best in Episode 8 when there’s a meeting of all the leaders of these hero teams and says that between her, Batman, Aquaman(lad), Nightwing, Robin, Miss Martian and Oracle. they do in fact have 5 teams at their disposal. That is way too many teams to focus on in one season, particularly when 3 of those teams haven’t been properly established yet and the other two have had massively unexplained shake-ups.

Missed Opportunities:

As mentioned before, there is another time jump between Seasons 2 and 3, here it is two years rather than five as it was Between 1 and 2 which makes no sense because less real-time has passed in each gap but I digress.

However, once again due to this time jump, we miss out on some major development. The biggest crime being that one of comics most famous stories, The Killing Joke is seemingly told as Barbara goes from Batgirl to Oracle and able-bodied to wheelchair bound.

Now maybe Young Justice creators took inspiration from the only time that story has been told in film or television and thought just to skip it but then why not have a spin-off series centred on the Bat-Family, which has grown this season not just by Batwoman and Spoiler but also Orphan and Harper Row who in the comics becomes Bluebird to make a grand total of 10 Bat-Family members, so you can flesh out these characters and iconic stories.

What’s Teased:

Alright to end this review on a somewhat positive note I want to talk about what  is hopefully teased for the back-half of this season coming in June.

Terra:

Firstly we have Terra aka Tara Markov. Introduced at the start of this season but then formally introduced in Episode 13 as the Geokinetic Metahuman who is apparently enslaved on Bialya and later rescued by Nightwing’s team. However, the ending tease for the season shows Terra being taken in by the Team and secretly messaging Deathstroke who is now the leader of the League of Shadows having never apparently left the League apparently.

The only issue with this is it seems they’re playing out The Judas Contract which has also recently been told recently in the animated films. I mean it is clear at this point that they’re making the team in this series their version of the Teen Titans without calling them that but we shall see if we actually get to see this played out.

Red Hood and Damien Wayne:

Two Robins for the price of one. Jason Todd as an in-canon character was never physically shown on screen in the second season as he was apparently introduced and killed in that 5 year gap. However, with the introduction of this Red-Hooded Ninja who is under Ra’s al Ghul’s leadership with the exact same hairstyle as Jason Todd...it stands to reason that we will soon meet Red Hood in Season 3b.

Now as for Damien Wayne, Talia is introduced as a cameo this season as she watches Nightwing’s team flying away standing besides her father Ra’s holding a baby boy in her arm. It stands to reason that this is Damien and so unless we have a time-jump of 10 years I doubt we’ll see him again in any major capacity but the fact he has been introduced is big if the show reaches that 10 year gap.

Baby Sidekicks:

So as well as Damien, we have the infant forms of Don & Dawn Allen aka the Tornado Twins and Jonathan Samuel Kent aka a future Superboy. Also this season we meet Anissa and Jennifer Pierce who in the future become Lightning and Thunder respectively.

These pose as great teases but much like Damien, unless there’s a jump by 10 years I doubt they’ll be heavily focused on.

Apokolips Now:

Alright so Apokolips is DC’s hot topic at the moment, not only did they try to push it and Darkseid in the movies until Justice League fell flat but also the end tease of Season 2 showed Darkseid meeting with Vandal Savage and they are now apparently associates just as The Light were with The Reach in Season 2.

Now while any sort of Apokolips influence is minimal this season thus far, we do get an episode on New Genesis, a reintroduction to the Forever People as well as Mother Boxes and an introduction of Forager.

All this I feel is gearing up for Darkseid to either be the big bad of Season 3 overall or the overall villain of Season 4. Either way they are currently teasing Darkseid like they teased Thanos and that tease paid off in Infinity War so allow a series with those stakes.

Recommendation:

So overall I have to say, this season has a gripping ending but it took a very long time getting there. It never felt like a chore but at the same time the other two seasons gripped me from the start. I am still looking forward to Season 3b but I will be curious to see if the 5 month wait is worth it or not.

I will give this part of Season 3 a rating of 6/10, it was an okay start with a dragged out middle and an exciting ending. Hopefully the excitement will run the way through the rest of the season.

So that’s my review of Young Justice: Outsiders (Part 1) what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more TV Reviews as well as other posts.

[quonit37]

somebody on DEVIETART tagged me for one of those ask games. I had no IDEA you could do that. I’m gonna put it on Tumblr instead because idk how devietart works despite having used it for 2 years.

Questions they sent me:

1. Your favourite fruit?

I’m pretty good with most fruit. I like granny smith apples, a bunch of berries, really standard stuff. 2. What is your favourite memory?

I have some pretty good ones I think. It’s hard to judge them though because a lot of ‘good’ memories I have weren't just my happiest moments but just stuff that brought me good things later. For example ‘OH so not everyone draws? weird. so apparently I'm an artist.” I’ll just go with that one.

3. Favourite gaming platform? (For example, Laptop, Playstation, xBox, etc.)

PC/Computer. If that doesn't count then the Wii.

“WHAT TF WHY THE WII???”

See I had one while growing up and it was a hacked Wii we got off craigslist (I still have it!) so it had nearly EVERY game that was ever released on the Wii (And two different emulators so also everything on the NES and I think it was gameboy? I forgot) and also had a looooot of movies on it. It is the console that brought me the most joy has a kid. 4. If you could be one character from any game or tv show for a day, who would you be?

If I can’t be my own self insert hmm... that’s a good question. I’m gonna limit this question more to it HAS to be a fictional character from a trademarked/copyrighted property instead of somebody’s OC. And I’m still not sure. Because sure there are characters I LIKE but the ones I like the most all are grounded characters with struggles n shit but if I were to swap bodies with one of them for a day then I’d rather do a character with power and stuff for a day because it’s supposed to be fun. 5. What would your life as an anime be like? Would you be a protagonist, or an antagonist? Or maybe even just a neutral character?

I already made the anime and it’s called Gaynote. To answer the question, I’m the protagonist on it. 6. Do you agree that toes should be called foot fingers? XD

No not really. 7. Do you have any siblings?

Two. I’m the oldest. I have a little brother and a little sister. The sister is the youngest. 8. Do you prefer drawing your own art to put up or buying posters?

I have a wall next to my bed of art I’ve drawn. Every year I redraw some of the art on it so that you can flip through the pages on the wall to see progress. The posters I put up though aren’t posters they are prints I bought from artists I like. 9. Who is your favourite celebrity?

I really couldn’t give two shits about who’s famous. Uhhh Zarla the person who made Handplates because she’s a great person, and inspired my art a lot. 10. Music or youtube?

I don’t think I even have accounts on stuff like spotify. I use youtube instead. I don’t use my phone enough at all to make purchasing Youtube Red or whatever the fuck they changed it’s name to. So yeah youtube I have a few playlists on songs on there. 11. How do you think time travel works? What is the law behind it for you?

Not exactly how I think it works in real life but I like the idea of not being apple to change what’s happened. If you go back in time and change something you just cause what happened to happen. You always went back in time. You were actually there in that part of history. 12. What is bound to make you cry every time?

This video. But only because of my headcanons. I cry about fictional stuff RARELY but that video, despite me not even speaking the language and there being no translations available, really reminded me of why those characters are so sad and why I like them. 13. SMASH OR PASS: Frisk from undertale (lmao sorry, I couldn't think of anything else)

Depends on the au lol. I’m demiromatic/sexual so I actually cannot be attracted to somebody unless they’ve been my friend for like 5 years and I absolutely know them that well. If it’s original frisk undertale uh lol why tf is the bby flirting at me aaaa undertale is broken I need to record this.

@this-is-an-error is being tagged. For the last question, I’ll put Error sans there instead lol.

[johnabradley]

Exclusive: Carole Middleton's first interview: 'Life is really normal - most of the time'

‘Two things you need to know. Carole’s very, very nervous, and she doesn’t do sofas,’ the Telegraph’s team on the shoot warned me the night before I went down to Bucklebury in west Berkshire to interview her. ‘When we asked her to perch on one,’ they continued, ‘Carole’s response was, “Who sits around on a sofa?”’

Sure enough, a couple of days after the shoot, when Carole, clutching a soya latte (she’s recently gone vegan/flexitarian) and slightly late, sweeps into the boardroom at the HQ of Party Pieces, the business she set up in 1988, she doesn’t sit down but immediately takes me on a tour of her empire. Just like that. I don’t quite know what I expected – not trumpets, but perhaps some sense of ceremony – but then I don’t think she knew what to expect either. She’s never done an interview before.

The tour goes on so long that at one stage I wonder whether she’s planning to do the entire interview on the hoof as part of a cunning ruse to get it all over and done with before I’ve had time to press record. It does, however, give me time to adjust my retinas to the life-size Carole, inevitably smaller, but also more youthful, than the version the world has become accustomed to. This, lest we forget, is the future British king’s grandmother – arguably the second most famous granny on the globe.

In one sense, empire, as Carole Middleton would be the first to point out, is far too pompous a word for the collection of brick sheds and barns that Party Pieces has, over the years, colonised on a country estate in Berkshire, a 15-minute drive from the Middleton family home. There are a couple of large warehouses with radios blaring pop music and shelves of pre-filled party bags, fancy-dress costumes, table runners, Let’s Be Mermaids garlands, rose-gold team bride plates and much, much more. ‘And this is just a small part of it,’ says Carole.

There are around 7,000 products in total on the Party Pieces website. She’s seen the cactus, llama and fern trends come and, in some cases, go. But there will always be dinosaurs and princesses. The largest part of the business – at least half – remains children’s party accoutrements, but now there are also accessories for baby showers, 30th and 50th birthdays.

The subtext of all this is that Party Pieces is a serious business that was successfully operating a long time before what Carole later refers to as Catherine’s ‘impact’. It’s a private company and they won’t release figures, but during their busiest periods, they dispatch around 4,000 orders a week.

The beamed open-plan office is where most of her 30-strong admin team (none of whom seems given to hat-doffing in her presence) sit. As does Carole. ‘It’s better to be with everyone so you can see what’s going on,’ she notes. ‘They say it’s a bit like a hurricane arriving when I come in.’

The many Americans who order from Party Pieces would be charmed to know that chickens ran through central HQ until the Middletons moved in. But the décor is more Ryman than Soho Farmhouse. The beige carpets are worn, with several threadbare patches, and there are MDF desks and swivel chairs. The walls in the small boardroom are banana yellow.

Carole herself, however, is a vision in a khaki Ralph Lauren blazer and black T-shirt, black skinny M&S trousers (her legs are phenomenal) tucked into Russell & Bromley riding boots, and minimal jewellery – small drop earrings, a couple of gold rings and a thin gold chain with which she constantly toys. It is classic Middleton style, although Carole tells me she far prefers dresses (‘not ones that are tight round the middle though, my shape’s changing’). Maybe it’s the hair. She gets it done locally and it’s shorter and glossier than in recent pictures. The fact that it seems slightly darker emphasises how alike she and her daughter Catherine, the future Queen of England, look. Perhaps it’s the golden tan or the light-touch make-up – the kind where you can’t see the edges. But whereas Catherine and her sister Pippa look much the same on camera as off, Carole, all flashing, watchful hazel eyes and fluttery, girlish nerves is, at 63, far more striking, delicately boned and simultaneously softer-looking in real life than in pictures.

But the voice is what everyone wants to know about. Is it stewardessy (in her early 20s she worked for British Airways)? Elocutioned? Lynda Snell? None of the above. The best description is probably modern posh – not affected, not mockney. If we’re on a scale of BBC presenters, I’d say Mishal Husain. In terms of warmth… maybe Martha Kearney.

Although she hardly ever looks me in the eye, she is very cosy once she gets going: smart and interested. On the shoot, she asked everyone about themselves and dispensed breastfeeding tips to the make-up artist. I don’t think the solicitude towards others is forced, though it does take her a while to warm up (not in terms of temperature, she’s obviously got terrific circulation as there’s a bracing chill in that boardroom). But she does seem like a lot of fun.

You can see why the Middletons remain such a close family (Catherine texted her on the shoot to wish her luck) and why they all, spouses in tow, gravitate towards Granny Middleton. ‘I do love a good party,’ she says later. ‘I’m definitely a night owl and a real chatterbox. My children look at me sometimes…’

Obviously we’re not here to discuss the children, and certainly not their spouses (Pippa is married to James Matthews, a former racing-car driver, hedge-fund manager and heir to the Scottish feudal title Laird of Glen Affric; James, after an on-off relationship with TV presenter Donna Air, is currently single; their oldest daughter, we know about). Carole and her husband Michael have been commendably discreet during the 13 or so years since Catherine began dating the Duke of Cambridge. As Carole says, ‘Over the years, it’s proved wise not to say anything.’

But Party Pieces, her one-stop-solves-all business, has been going for more than 30 years, ‘and I just thought I should celebrate a little’. And it is a good story, part Catherine Cookson, part careers manual for would-be entrepreneurs, as well as being a business that, says Carole, has been flagrantly copied. Her own role model she says, was Laura Tenison, founder of kidswear brand JoJo Maman Bébé, whom she went to watch at a few conferences in the early days of her own company.

Carole Goldsmith, as she was, seems to have had a strong work ethic from the start. Her father Ron was a painter and decorator. Her mother Dorothy, aka The Duchess (because she always looked so impeccable), was a character. ‘Everyone adored my mother,’ she says when I relate how the taxi driver who picked me up from a local train station and drove me to the Party Pieces HQ, told me she’d been a close friend of The Duchess.

Ron and Dorothy moved to Berkshire from west London 10 years after Carole and Michael. Carole’s own closeness to her children and grandchildren is an echo of the relationship she had with her own family, which was ‘small but tight’. Her younger brother, ‘Uncle Gary’ of Maison de Bang Bang fame (at the time of Catherine and William’s wedding, the press had a joyful time detailing Gary Goldsmith’s party reputation), is also an entrepreneur.

Carole spent her first six months in a council flat in Ealing. She initially left school at 16, got a job with the Prudential in Holborn and hated it. ‘It was one of those massive offices with rows and rows of desks.’ So far, so early 1970s. But Carole knew she could achieve more and asked Ron if she could return to school to do her A levels. She got four: art, economics, English literature and geography, which she wanted to teach. ‘But my parents couldn’t afford to put me through college, so I thought I’d see if I could get a bit of money together and fund myself.’

While she’s recounting this, she suddenly remembers she got a job – she can’t remember the year – on the John Lewis A level trainee scheme. This has always been considered the gold standard in retail and was extremely hard to get on to. Carole is bemused by her own memory lapse: ‘Gosh… how did I forget? I can’t even remember when it was. I’ll have to check with Mike.’

This is a woman who clearly spends even less time navel-gazing than she does lounging on sofas. Too busy cooking. She adores cooking. ‘I probably have more cookery books than anything.’ At the moment her favourites are Mary Berry (‘she does use a lot of cream, though’) and Amelia Freer. The combination of the nation’s favourite baker and the fashionable nutritional therapist, who helped singer Sam Smith lose 3½st, seems very Carole.

The John Lewis gig was a dream, particularly her stint in china and glass at Peter Jones, which is where she realised how interested she was in finding out what kind of merchandise sold. But then they told her she had to do a spell on the shop floor as a sales assistant. ‘I thought, blow that. I’m not doing that for six months – it was really boring.’ So she got a secretarial job (she can still do Pitman shorthand) at BEA (before it merged with BOAC to become British Airways in 1974), but didn’t think much of secretarial work, either, so brushed up her French and got a job as ground staff.

‘It’s not like it is now,’ she explains, coming over momentarily a touch Mrs Bennet. ‘You had to be able to speak another language. It was almost like being at university.’ I think from all this we can conclude that Carole Goldsmith was pretty clear she wasn’t going to be fobbed off with also-ran situations.

The newly formed BA had trained too many pilots, so it was redeploying them on the ground and Carole found herself working alongside them as well as other senior staff.

Enter Michael Middleton, six years her senior, ‘rather shy’ but very handsome… A year after they married, she had Catherine; 18 months after that Pippa and then the Middletons moved to Jordan for three years, where Michael worked as a aero manager for an international air station (he was never a pilot). Jordan life sounds comfortable. There was a lot of socialising at the British Embassy, some help at home and the girls were in nursery school. But, says Carole, ‘I wasn’t convinced I wanted to be an expat mum and Mike’s job there was coming to an end.’

By the time they returned to the UK in 1987, Catherine was four and a half, Pippa 18 months younger and Carole, now 32, was pregnant with their third child, James. ‘I thought, “Oooh, bills to pay.” But I also had this strong feeling that I hadn’t achieved anything. I got married at 25, had Catherine at 26…’

Party Pieces launched the same year her son was born, in 1987, with a simple idea about a one-stop place where you could get everything you need for a children’s party. Carole visited the Birmingham Spring Fair, where she sourced some suppliers of paper plates and cups, stuck up a self-designed flyer at Catherine’s local playgroup in Bucklebury, and began stuffing bags from her kitchen table.

Business was steady if unspectacular – this was pre-internet, so responses weren’t always immediate. But then she had the brainwave of advertising with The Red House, a children’s book club she’d subscribed to once her brood began to read: 10,000 flyers to begin with and then 100,000. That’s when Party Pieces really took off.

She moved from her kitchen to a small business unit in nearby Hungerford – Mike built the packing benches. ‘That’s when Michael gave up his job at BA and came in. My mother thought that was big, because at that stage he probably wouldn’t have got employment again, but we could see this was a business that could scale up.’

When I ask about struggles or disasters she more or less shrugs off the notion. ‘We were pretty much the only ones doing this sort of thing when we started. It was really clear almost from the start that this was going to work. I got help from other mums – paperwork and that kind of thing… I think it’s easier to start a business when you’re young. You’re less aware of the pitfalls and maybe you have less of a lifestyle to lose.’

Listening to Carole talk about those early years, what comes across is her resourcefulness and stoicism. She feels they were lucky. ‘Running a business is really very simple: you buy things and sell them for a profit.’ Mike’s decision to quit his job was, she says, their wild card. She is very clear that the business was her idea. ‘And it was a good idea or it wouldn’t have taken off.’ Were there no sleepless nights over the financing? ‘We never took really huge risks. We had to fund our own growth,’ she replies. She doesn’t get stressed, she says, although she was clearly anxious about this interview. Maybe that British Airways training ingrained the necessity of appearing serene while paddling furiously below the surface.

When I ask about juggling a fledgling business with three small children, particularly when working mothers were not as common as they are now, she responds instantly. ‘It was my business, so I could work around the holidays.’ She makes it sound straightforward. She understands the tussle, though, but in the end, she’s a boss. ‘In this office, I see the challenge of working mothers – but if I need them here…’

There was spillage into their home life, ‘Mike and I often talked about work in the evenings or on holiday, but we enjoyed it. I never really felt I was a working mother although I was – and the children didn’t either. They grew up with it.’

The girls were at school till 6pm. That’s a long day: someone who observed them from a distance says Catherine and Pippa were always hard workers at school and encouraged by Carole to hone accomplishments that would serve beyond academia, such as skiing. ‘James would get picked up – very occasionally by someone else – and come back to the office and be here with me,’ continues Carole. ‘I was often finished by 6pm and I didn’t have a long train journey. I think it’s really good to work. It was part of the children’s lives – it still is – and they’d come and help. They did a lot of modelling. Catherine was on the cover of one of the catalogues, blowing out candles. Later on, she did some styling and set up the First Birthday side of the business. Pippa did the blog. I still value their ideas and opinions.’

There was never any doubt in the Middletons’ minds that they would base their family and business in Bucklebury. ‘Do you live in London?’ Carole asks me, looking sympathetic when I nod. Later, when she drives me to the train station, scooping a pile of papers and a plastic cup from the passenger seat of her Range Rover, to save me phoning for possibly non-existent taxis, she shows me the spot she and Michael first fell in love with.

She loves this tiny pocket of remoteness – the fact it’s only an hour from London, that she can take their four spaniels and one golden retriever (James, who lives with them when he’s not in London, shares two of the dogs) for a long walk straight from their house, and the solid, picturesque red-brick architecture. ‘We really fell on our feet moving to this area,’ she says. Their first home was ‘a very sweet semi-detached cottage. We stayed there until Catherine was 13, so the children spent a lot of their youth there.’

There were two more moves – Oak Acre, a detached house where Prince William famously landed his Chinook helicopter in 2008, and the more secluded, seven-bedroomed, Grade II- listed Bucklebury Manor. She’s good at nesting, she says. ‘If you choose your house wisely, you don’t have to do too much. We almost just replicated what we did before. Farrow & Ball Cord and Hay [both shades of beige] – you can’t go wrong.’

In photos, Bucklebury Manor is what estate agents would call impressive, a description that must set Carole all ajangle. She’s on a mission to appear as unaffected and normal as possible. Later, when we’re discussing her love of Christmas trees and how she likes to have as many as possible in the house, including one in the grandchildren’s rooms, ‘so that they can decorate it themselves’, there is one of many long pauses, while she ponders the consequences of a seemingly innocuous exchange. ‘That makes me sound as though I live in a mansion, doesn’t it?’ Erm, you’re the future king’s grandmother, I think. Would a mansion be out of the question?

Maybe she’s right to be cautious. Over the years it has been she, rather than Michael, who has caught the full beam of the Middleton-focused attention, much of which fixes on the idea of her as a pushy arriviste. She stopped reading the stories about herself online over a year ago. I’m surprised it took her so long. ‘Well, I thought it was better to know what people thought. But it doesn’t make any difference. I’m not really sure how I’m perceived now,’ she says. ‘But the thing is… it is really normal – most of the time.’

When I ask her where she most likes to shop, there’s another pained pause. ‘How’s this going to make me sound?’ I half- expect her to confide that her secret vice is Harrods’ personal- shopping department, but only if she can get it closed to the public. But no. Peter Jones is her happy place. ‘The staff are lovely and they all know me.’ She also loves Burford Garden Company in the Cotswolds, where she and Pippa will happily spend the best part of a day.

More Middle England you cannot get. She even loves Michael McIntyre. She could be protesting too far when she later opines that Jigsaw is a bit pricey. She loves Samantha Sung’s shirt dresses and Goat, but likes to shop in the sale. She finds the music in Selfridges a bit overwhelming and she only very occasionally patronises Catherine Walker, but I suspect this is how the Middletons really are.

Carole is known to drive a hard bargain when she negotiates – she’s not a businesswoman for nothing. She seems genuinely concerned that if I take the train back to London from a different station, I’ll have to buy another ticket (all of £22). There are things they spend money on – property, children’s education, holidays – and things they consider to be a waste of money. Fashion is definitely a bit suspect. ‘Do you think it’s important?’ she asks me. When I say it’s a huge UK success story, that first impressions are clearly important and that style, rather than fashion, is worth cultivating, she nods. ‘Now you put it like that, I see what you mean.’

In some ways, there’s a touching naivety about Carole. I don’t think any of the family, with the possible exception of James (and this is based solely on pictures; I’ve never met him) give one iota about being cool. She’d rather be doing other things than clothes shopping. Party Pieces remains a full-time job for her.

‘I don’t see myself stopping [work]. If I did I’d have to have so many projects on. I’d have to redecorate the house. I’d love to travel, but then I’d miss the grandchildren. No,’ she ponders, as if just deciding this, retirement is not on the cards. ‘I’ve got a billion ideas I still want to do.’

[the-peachtrees-system]

hi guys!! red and orange emojis for ask memes?

// Vi, Ghost, and Hux are answering this one //

🧣: How much Discourse is there, if any, over clothing?

Vi: so much I wanna look like a mismatch scruffy goblin and everyone else is like stopping my main goal in this ya know?

Ghost: I just want to be COMFORTABLE. And also like an ethereal void being.

Hux: those two are ridiculous. Please just let us look presentable, preferably with one of my favourite t-shirts.

🎒: Who fronts at school/work?

Hux: Usually it’s me, sometimes it’s Vi, and on occasion it’s Ellis but that tends to burn Elliot out exponentially so I try to make sure that I am around and that doesn’t happen.

Vi: yeah, and when I’m fronting for classes it usually means we get right I Must Voice My OPINION in class which Elliot loves. Hux just pays attention quietly, takes notes, and writes little messages to Elliot in them.

💃: Is anyone more clumsy or coordinated than the others?

Hux: The body has fibromyalgia and dyspraxia, thus mobility issues so this sort of thing doesn’t change.

Vi: me, Rory and ghost tend to be more active and stuff tho, like wanting to go for walks, pacing about, being silly etc etc

Ghost: in our headspace Vi is the clumsiest person ever

🖍: Does your handwriting/art style change between alters?

Hux: Yes, I write properly, Vi scribbles things down illegiably, and Ghost cannot even seem to write on one line let alone with any consistency or readability.

Vi: I mean, ouch but... fair. Hux can’t draw for shit tho, where as I’m awesome and so is ghost and Rory is wonderful, truly the artist of the system

🔥: Do you have any hot-tempered alters?

Hux: There is Callum, who has been sort of evicted and barred from our house, he wanders around the grounds outside shouting and yelling. During an unstable system day he attacked one of our younger alters so it was decided he was not allowed to share the headspace for everyone’s safety. He had been very aggressive for some time but not violent.

Vi: yeah, other than that I can moody and argumentative but that’s it really

Ghost: there’s also Shriek but he’s trying. And Ellis but I think he’s just not a nice person.

🦊: Any animal alters?

Vi: Deaglan is a fox anthro guy so I’m loving the appropriate emoji, espesh since the host is a fox therian.

🎃: Any spooky alters?

Vi: my qpp Ghost is a literal ghost, and then there’s ya boi Shriek who’s a god damn demon

🍊: Favourite fruits?

Hux: I think it is probably grapes. Especially the black ones.

Vi: Granny Smith apples yumyumyumyumyum

Ghost: Strawberries! They’re sweet but not overly so

🌄: Favourite place outside of the inner world/mindscape?

Hux: Probably the Waterstones in Leeds. I enjoy sitting in the cafe with the host and our partner reading books. No, actually it might be the swimming pool. I do adore the swimming pool.

Vi: the host’s sister’s flat in Glasgow, feels safe and his niece is fun to play with

Ghost: the little reading nook in our living room, I like curling up like a cat in a sun beam 😻

⛺️: Favourite place in inner world/mindscape?

Hux: Strangely enough, possibly Rory’s treehouse. I enjoy looking after him, it’s wonderful getting to give a child such a safe environment, it’s bright and warm.

Vi: there’s a bit in the main communal living room type deal that’s like a pit of cushions and it’s a cosy place to like read and play video games and eat crisps and stuff it’s lit I love it

Ghost: Probably Vi’s bedroom, it’s safe and cosy, especially when they are there.

[sleepyverstappens]

10 FOLLOWERS YOU’D LIKE TO KNOW MORE

Thanks to the lovely @howellobrien for tagging me!

NAME: Daisy

SIGN: Sagittarius

GENDER: Female

HEIGHT: 5′6 (I literally have to google this every single time because I only know my length in cm, which is 168 btw)

SEXUALITY: Straight

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN TEN YEARS? Uhh, not sure. Hopefully in a job I enjoy, whether that’s my current one or something different I don’t know. Maybe someone by my side finally?

IF YOU COULD BE ANYWHERE RIGHT NOW, WHERE? Somewhere sunny probably. Or on broadway watching a musical. 

FAVOURITE ‘90s SHOWS: Uhmmm, I didn’t really watch English tv back then. But I later ended up binge watching all of Charmed. And for Dutch stuff probably Oppassen en Kees & Co, shows like that. 

YOUR LAST KISS: When I was 18? So way way too long ago. 

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN STOOD UP? no

EVER BEEN TO VEGAS? no

YOUR FAVOURITE SHOES: Any Converse basically. Though I do love my brown leather boots as well. 

YOUR FAVOURITE FRUIT: Granny Smith apples

YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK: The Illuminae series

STUPIDEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE: Nothing comes to mind right now :/

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE GIF? This one really makes me laugh still. Other than that I can’t really think of any gifs in particular that are my favouritem because I tend to not really use reaction gifs.

AND YOUR LOCK SCREEN: I literally just changed it to this edit I made of the new Max pictures released today 

I’m tagging: @hypersofts @captainfuu @itsmaxver @maxielislife @theprincessed @jean-eric-vergne @bwoahtastic and anyone else that hasn’t done this yet (yes I know that’s not 10 people shh)

[chainmailpurse]

1:11 pm

yesterday was so funny .I met up with m at the metro n we smoked a wood in a green sitting area and then went to this swanky fancy store with designer stuff n ritzy architecture . favourite things there were the purses for sure. then we got cappuccinos and went 2 drink them at the same spot that we sat the time we took mushrooms together and had a trip in the dirty downtown streets . its a nice bench with a cool view so we drank coffee there n smoked a rosin joint he brought , I ate a perfect granny smith after the coffee + smoke it cured my coffee breath / dry mouth hybrid the apple was divine . before we left this spot we had wood #2 so we could taste the second flavour but it was so veiny and just a bad leaf lol we had the backwood hospital open I was operating on dat bih with my little key knife and had 2 add paper sticky 2 keep it together . . . . </3 good smoke in the end tho. then we hunted for restaurants . we walked for at least an hour or so whilst so high n hungry/dehydrated then both finally found spots we liked and chugged water and had sum food .then smoked a digestif while figuring out where to go and took the metro again 2 a random destination . we chose this white wooden bench with a bright light right over it in front of a closed business that had a nice little place 2 sit with trees and benches so it was quiet (and dark at this point) we got water at a spot next-door and then smoked under the light I felt hot af and the light over us made it look like we were blowing clouds and I loved the vibe here . then i got us 2 more grannysmith apples at a grocery we found and ate them while walking 2 warm up. then we threw the cores into the street after eating em and waited to see them get run over and it was hilarious . then I took the metro home and took a new bus home I liked the ride and the bus was empty which is my absolute favourite . I walked home so fast and was listening to my beautiful dark twisted fantasy the while trip . ate thin sliced apples again ( fav duh ) in bed n watched vamp tv for a while when was so comfy and put on frequencies and fell asleep right away . this morning I watched midnight gospel and ate breakfast with my mum and shared a blunt and ordered 4 books I've been wanting + a pair of white leg warmers and black ones too. so so sooooooooo excited. .

I think I just fell in luv with a porn star . turn da lights on she a born star.

no more drugs for me pu$$y and religion is all I need †

[wd-dreemur]

Tag Meme

Rules: Answer the questions and then tag 20 people you want to get to know better

TAGGED BY @sometimesvillainous (Thank you so much!!) You can find hers here!

Name: Just call me WD thanks

Nickname: A ton, tbh. This includes things like “Dick Dastardly” and “JimJams”

Height: Uhhhhh no clue, sorry. Taller than 5′1′’??

Nationality: British. Scottish?

Favourite fruit: Big fan of Granny Smith Apples. Also a fan of Oranges. They’re Good.

Favourite season: I think winter? I’m always complaining about the weather but at least in winter people don’t keep asking me if I’m hot.

Favourite plant: Forget-Me-Nots are pretty good. Trees are also good. I forget the name but those big ol’ purple flower plants that drop their flowers after a while and are super slippery when you step on them? Good.

Favourite scene: I have no clue tbh?? Like uhh, I guess late at night when it’s just raining enough to make that Rain Smell and everyone else is asleep and I can go about my business in peace.

Favourite colour: Tbh I don’t really have a favourite, but I’m partial to black I’m very Edgy. I tend towards greens, purples, blacks and blues mostly though, but I’m generally fond of anything that doesn’t, y’know, super hurt my eyes.

Favourite animal: Animals are all good and friends. I’m a big fan of snakes, bats, rats, dogs, cats, and foxes though. Also owls. They look like friends.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate: Hot Chocolate is good for a pick-me-up, but just to relax on a good day? Earl Grey tea, 100%. I can’t drink coffee though, the taste just isn’t for me.

Average sleep hours: I’m not... sure? It varies wildly. Like sometimes I’ll get like an hour or two every night for a couple of days and then I’ll sleep for twelve hours straight on the weekend. It varies greatly.

Dog or Cat Person: Why a competition? They’re all so good. Dogs are generally better for if you want Energy and Playfulness and Affection In Spades, and cats are good for calmer, still affectionate, and very curious natures. At least in my experience - I’ve only ever owned dogs.

Favourite fictional character: I can’t really choose one particular character, honestly, but here’s a list of characters I like - Everyone from Villainous (Especially Flug tbh), Mabel Dipper and Bill from Gravity Falls (Tho the rest are also Great), Joey Drew Wally Franks and Henry from BATIM (Love to hate that Joey), Pretty much everyone from HS (But Rose tho, she’s the Gal), and the list goes on. This isn’t even every character I love from these pieces of media they’re just notable additions.

Number of blankets you sleep with: It varies a lot. Right now I only have one though, which is great bc it’s starting to get cold.

Dream Trip: I’ll be honest, I really want to go to Disneyland in Florida just for the Haunted Mansion. Just for that. Nothing else. Love those spooks.

Blog created: Mid-2013, apparently. Dang, that’s longer than I originally thought, impressive. I have a dozen other blogs made at varying times as well.

Number of followers: 699 apparently! Very nice, I appreciate the amount of people who like the things I reblog here. I don’t really post much original content so I’m glad I’m reblogging some kind of content you like.

Random Fact: I own a box set of every Invader ZIM episode, and one holidays spent the entire time watching them day after day, starting over every time I watched the last episode. Of course, I did other stuff at the same time, but it was very fun nonetheless.

I tag, ABSOLUTELY NON-OBLIGATORY FEEL FREE TO IGNORE, @boldly-go-plus-ultra, @haberdashing, @bibliophileap, @shirohichi891, @livesinalibrary, @chickenstab, @pop-punk-ghost-child, @crlven, @varmac, @citrinepalace

[palecolorbouquetmag-blog]

Cosmo Pyke is a skater from South London who’s become known around the world for his unique singing, songwriting and guitar music. His unique sound made such a big noise it was heard by millions of people and many of them quickly became his fans. But in conversation you discover his passion for his music is as strong as his love for skateboarding and making art. Skating and playing the guitar gripped him from a young age and he picked up both naturally. But it wasn’t just his talent to string together well written songs and lines on his board that helped him to be the artist he is today. It’s also the excitement he gets from expressing his thoughts and ideas through them that stokes him out. Inspired to push for perfection with his pursuits and through taking his skills in a creative direction, he was further motivated to make art and his music career moved forward. Cosmo has been a No Comply Network member since the start and to see his meteoric rise as a musician has been immense. Four years since he released his impactful first EP and a week before the release of his latest offering, we had a chat about how he learned to skate and play guitar, shredding South Norwood, Peckham Rye and Bromley Skateparks, Ben Glasser and Max Critchlow, seeing US pros at demos, BRIT School, WITH Section, Slam City Skates, Southbank, street skating, making graff, recording his breakout EP ‘Just Cosmo’ with Fraser T Smith in the same studio as Stormzy, behind-the-scenes stories of all of his music videos, playing the last ever show at The Montague Arms with King Krule, filming ideal skate clips in Birmingham and Barcelona, playing live gigs, why his latest single Piper for Janet is one of his most meaningful to date, making tunes in Lockdown, the release timeline of his new tracks and his favourite skaters, spots, skate videos, art and photos and much more.

Glad to get a hold of you man, it’s been a while!

Yeah, it’s good because I’m releasing my first tune in a while in six days. It’s really good timing, we’re getting to chat now.

So when did you first see skating and think, I want to do that?

I used to skate when I was younger, maybe when I was about 7 years old.

That’s young, where did you get your first skateboard?

I got my first board from Brixton Cycles, which was next to Stockwell Skatepark at the time. I used to skate Peckham Skatepark. But not too much. I was always going to Stockwell and Kennington Bowl with my mate when I was really small. But then I stopped skating and started rollerblading…

Why on earth did you stop skateboarding to rollerblade?

It was my mate that I mentioned earlier. His older brother used to skate in my area and he was like a bit of a king in the graffiti scene. We always used his skates, everybody learned on his skates. We used to rollerblade at Whites Grounds, the skatepark in London Bridge, when Reuben De Haan’s cousin used to run it.

What year was this, 2005-2006?

Yeah.

So you started skating at age 7, stopped for a few years and started again. What motivated you to get back on board?

Yeah when I was 12, in year 7, Louie Dobbs, my boy he got me on it. We used to skate with Max Critchlow as well.

Yeah the day I started skating again I was at Bay 66 Skatepark, on the mini, on blades, with a party of people and at Bay you had to wear a helmet if you’re on blades but not if you’re on a board, it’s still like that. So at the time I was like fuck this!

I tried to drop in on the mini on a board and I was like look, I put my Vans on and went for the drop in on a skateboard and just did it! Dropped in first try on the mini and I was like fuck this! I’m skating from now on. I could always ride into the bank in Peckham but I’d actually never dropped in on a skateboard up to this point.

When was the first time you made your own music?

Well it was from about the age of about 9-10, maybe 11-10. I went to this thing called School of Rock at the Prendergast School in South London. It was called Felix’s School of Rock – run by this guy called Felix. You get put into a band, it was sick. In the holidays you’d do it for 4 days for a £100.

Like a kind of music boot camp for kids?

Yeah. Max Critchlow used to do it so it was really cool. It was sick. We weren’t allowed to bring skateboards and skate in the hall because they were scared we’d break our necks it was funny man.

How did it work?

You’d’ get put in a band with a Jack Black kind of figure and then on the fourth day there would be a battle of the bands type event and you’d do a gig on the stage. There would be like 90 bands, all just like loads of small kids playing  and the winner at the end wins chocolate, whoever screams the loudest wins basically!

Sounds hilarious man

From there, I was put on the stage, those were my first shows and gigs as a kid, just playing guitar, not even singing really, I did that School of Rock like nine times over the course of the next 5 years over the holidays and shit. Then I moved from Prendergast to Thomas Tallis School and then I started working there when I got to the age of like 18.

At the School of Rock?

Yeah, my first gig was there! Playing gigs, I was really scared before I got on stage as well. Because I cared a lot about what I was doing from such a young age. Cared about how I did.

Once you’d finished school and were looking to go to College, were you making music a lot or skating a lot?

I kind of wasn’t even doing anything religiously. Skate one day. Music the next day. Day after that do some graffiti. Never do one thing; I’ve always been juggling three things at a time. Going to school and school was just…school, you know?

For sure. What was it like studying at the Brit School?

It was really cool, I loved it, I was so happy really. I wasn’t at my rubbish school I was at previously. It had a uniform. This had no uniform and liberal teachers.

That’s dope

Yeah BRIT was crazy. It was like Uni as a 15 year old, no school bell, just like be on time.

So it made you be more independent

I didn’t go to Uni. I went to Sixth Form and then just finished school,  recorded my tape when I was in year 13, towards the end of my school, so it all patterned up well. When I finished school. I was touring all around London, South, West, East and North. In all the pubs.

I guess you made such a big impact; you were waiting to make something on that level or better

The way that I do Graff is the same way I do music. My friend even told me the other day. My songs are like the same way I do a piece or skate, just perfected and something I’ve been doing for a long time, so they are all really similar for me.So what stopped you from releasing those other songs?

I went up to Leeds and recorded with this guy, stayed with him there and recorded in his house. It just felt like the act of making music felt forced. I felt mad going up to Leeds sleeping in an Air BnB and focusing solely on just making music. Now I could do it a lot more but at the time I didn’t have the concentration.

Now I know a lot more but then I wasn’t ready. I made some good stuff and I really like it now and at the time I kinda like it as well but I kind of didn’t want to release it because it wasn’t the same process as the first record that I made with a big old studio with live musicians. This was just me on my own with no drummer, my mate, my drummer wasn’t there, it didn’t feel natural.

I tried to do some other stuff, that will come out in the future that I will re-record but I did stuff that I wasn’t 100% happy but this record I’m putting out now. This latest record, I recorded the way I’d done the first one with all live instruments.

Sounds like you needed some inspiration on this one. What music inspires you as an artist?

At the time I was coming up with loads of bands that played in the Montague Arms in New Cross and The Windmill in Brixton. There were loads of bands playing there at the time

Like who?

Horsey, my cousin’s band a cover band called The Bodies and King Krule.

You and King Krule played the last ever show at the Montague Arms in New Cross, what do you remember from that gig?

Yeah, there was a queue down the fucking road. The first person I saw in the queue was King Krule. I was like what the fuck!? why are people coming to see me. I never really had confidence in myself but you know! Yeah that was the first time I experienced people acting weird man, from those days at the Montague.

Yeah, when you get fame people treat you differently. But what was it like for you?

I learned my social skills from skating so I was always just completely…When you do my line of work, you meet a lot of fans. So it’s like when you meet someone and you’re a fan of their skating, it’s just about being nice to people and it was nice at the time and I miss playing.

The last gig I played was in Jakarta and I haven’t played since then. I’ve been dormant for 2 years. It’s such a long time but you know due to Lockdown it’s just extended that really.

Do you have a favourite artist?

Matthew Klarwein.  He did Miles Davis’ album cover artworks and then I really like Peter Green too; he’s a musician from Fleetwood Mac.

I also like John Piper, he’s the artist who’s art I’m basing this next record I’m about to release on. It’s called a Piper for Janet because my granny’s friend drew a John Piper style painting for her, he used a lot of watercolour and collage so the front cover of this record is based on him and he’s a British Painter. John Piper, he’s pretty cool

I like Edward Ruscha; he’s a photographer but he did a lot of stuff like taking photos of carparks and gas station in LA and Route 66 from specific perspectives back in the 60s and stuff like that.

Dope. Lastly when are all your new songs going to be released?

Next couple of months; they should all be out in January

Sounds good, look forward to it. Any last words Cosmo?

For anybody who’s out there reading this thanks for supporting me.

[gearyoak]

Rules: answer 20 questions and then tag 20(ish) people you want to get to know better

(imma put this under a readmore bcuz I get nervous w/ these idk)

Tagged by: @owoblues MY MAN!!

1.Name: connor

2.Nickname: .....connor lmao

3.Height: 5′7″

4.Orientation: ace/aro my fren

5.Nationality: american

6.Favorite Fruit: fuckin granny smith apples with peanut butter

7.Favorite Season: either fall or spring

8.Favorite Flower: uh shit idk dasies bcuz they’re my mom’s

9.Favorite Color: red

10.Favorite Animal: elephants

11.Coffee, tea or hot chocolate: it was a toss up between hot chocolate and tea but it’s gonna have to be tea tbh

12.Average hours of sleep: bitch if I knew

13.Dog or Cat person: dogs for sure but the bean(tm) is my best friend I would die for her

14.Favourite fictional character: boone from fnv, nick and ellis from l4d2, aaaaaaannnddd???? nathan from lis

15.Dream Trip: I’m reading ‘on the road’ by jack kerouac and it made me want to travel the red line starting from ny to cali 

16.Blog created: i used to delete my blogs when they got five followers so when this one in particular was created is a mystery to me, just know that I’ve been here for far too long lmao

17.Random fact: I’ve almost died twice in my life, both involving water, one because of shitty training wheels and another because of a banana boat

18.Zodiac Sign: scorpio

19.Dream Job: making the funny haHAs for money

20.What do you want your future to look like?: I just wanna be left alone lmao

Tagging: uh I’m always nervous about tagging ppl idk why but if you wanna do it, do it and use me as the person who tagged you. I’m here for you you, I support you lmao