#howie the harp

[shadeslayer]

not to harp on abt it but cant get over howard going to the home of jimmy "friend of the cartel as known by everyone who works in criminal law or at the courthouse to the pt its heavily damaged his reputation and credibility among other lawyers and is under investigation for it" mcgill in the middle of the night to scream at him and then acting all cutesy nicey confused when the man who jimmy defended that is getting him investigated in the first place over this all and he got released on a 7 MILLION dollar bail who then left the country Shows Up, and Has A Gun. good critical thinking howie

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

457 of 2022

The Letter H (True or False)

Created by joybucket

You've played Hangman. You've seen the movie Harriet the Spy. 🔍 You like to put honey in your tea. ☕️ 🍯 You've been friends with a Hannah. You've been friends with a Haley. You've been to Hooters. 🦉 You enjoy playing hide and seek. You've told someone you hate them. You like the song "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira. You drew hearts in the margins of your notebooks with you were in school. 💕 You believe in Heaven. ☀️ You believe in Hell. 🔥 You were a fan of Hilary Duff when you were growing up. 👩 You've owned a CD by Hilary Duff. 👩 You've been to Haiti. 🇭🇹 You've been to Hawaii. 🏝 You're Hawaiian. 🌺 You have to wear a hearing aid. 🦻 You enjoy helping people. You have big hands. 🙌 (rather long and narrow) You've never used the hippo emoji. 🦛 You didn't know there was a hippo emoji. 🦛 You've played Hungry Hungry Hippos. 🦛 You like hibiscus. 🌺 You've said "Hi!" to someone today. You've waved "hi" to someone today. 👋 You've tried hula dancing. You owned a hula hoop when you were younger. ⭕️ ....and you are/were good at hula-hooping. You've hit on someone. You went to school with a Heather. You like the name Harper. You have long hair. You know someone who works as a hairstylist. 💇‍♀️ You're holding onto something right now. You've played the harp. You think the harp is a cool instrument. You've met someone named Heaven. You've been to Hell, Michigan. You like the name Harvest. You have a hangnail. You own a hoodie. You enjoy wearing hoodies. You own a hot pad. You prefer to drink your coffee hot. ☕️ You're hot right now. 🥵 It gets very hot in the summers where you live. 🥵 You've ordered Hungry Howie's pizza. 🍕 You're hungry right now. You've shouted, "Hallelujah!" You've ridden a horse. 🐎 You've owned a horse. 🐎 You've lived in a hut. 🛖 You're feeling happy today. 😊 You live in a house. 🏠 You've owned your own house. 🏡 You've rolled down a hill. You're hopeful that things will get better. ....but not too hopeful, because you don't want to get your hopes up and then be disappointed again. You've humiliated yourself more times than you can count. 😳 You've had a friend named Holly. You believe you're holy. You've golfed a hole-in-one. 🕳 You've had a lot of haters. You've had a lot of haters online. You've had a lot of haters in real life. You wish you had horns. 😈 You've recently sent a Hallmark card. You watch the Hallmark channel. 📺 You're a hoarder. You've recently cut something in half. ✂️ You have a lot of hangers in your closet. You'd never heard of "hijacking" before the 9-11 attacks. ✈️ You enjoy testing out life hacks. ....and you've found some that actually work! ....and some that don't. Sometimes you sit in the hallway for no reason. You've been high off of life. You've been high off of a prescription medication. 💊 You've been high off of illegal drugs or marijuana. You know how many sides a hexagon has. You've had your Facebook account hacked. You've had an email account hacked. You've hacked someone else's account. You know someone who calls deviled eggs "heavenly eggs." You've volunteered at a homeless shelter. You've talked to a homeless person. You've given money to a homeless person. You've bought a homeless person a meal. You celebrate Hanukkah. 🕎 You own a Harley Davidson motorcycle. 🏍 You like the song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." You've purchased something at a hardware store. 🔩 You have clothes stored in a hope chest. You've gone hunting. 🦌 You enjoy listening to Hillsong. 🎶 You've heard a hilarious joke recently. 🤣 You've met someone named Hope. You've seen the movie Hocus Pocus. You enjoyed this survey.

[redlyncentral]

“You’ve got to admit, Lily is the stereotypical Disney princess.” Ashlyn observed.

“Ashlyn.”

“No, I get it, I know I nailed my part,” Ashlyn assured her fellow drama kids. “But don’t you guys agree?”

“I mean sure,” Gina nodded. “She may look like a Disney Princess, but she can’t capture the character of one.”

“Apart from Howie and Antoine, most of them really feel hollow when they sing their songs,” Seb pointed out. “Even when Lily was auditioning with us, her voice felt hollow when she sang her songs, even with the warm-up.”

“You noticed that too?” Ashlyn asked. “I thought it was just me.”

“No, she really feels hollow when she sings her songs.” Seb nodded.

“Even Ricky’s awkward ‘Bet On It’ had more heart than her singing Belle.” Ashlyn grinned.

“Oh it’s because that I don’t think she’s all that bad, you’re going to make fun of me too?” Ricky raised an eyebrow.

“Look, Ricky, just because she confessed her undying love to your big round eyes and big brown hair, does not mean she isn’t the Queen of Mean.” Big Red explained.

“Besides Kourtney is definitely dating Howie, and you don’t see us harping on her.” Nini grinned.

“Face it, Ricky, We all think Lily’s bad news.” EJ squeezed the younger boy’s shoulders.

“You definitely could do better than her.” Gina smirked firing his words back at him.

AHH this is so good and so true!! the ricky bet on it part, i am screaming. thanks for sending this to me i love ur writing!

[aquariusshadow]

Live!Blogging HSMTMTS

so...im a day late...i do apologize lmao

lesss gooooo

--

omg i forgot about the misdirect

asdljfhasdkjfasdf

"chocolate gives me heartburn"

i hate how much i relate to that

i miss chocolate...

awwww nini at least shes willing to talk through potential relationship issues

this really is all on ricky huh

"as our head choreographer" gina that look "i think you mean choreographersssssssss"

carlos i think thats why she didnt want to originally be a co-choreographer

oh...ignore me then

thats...a really bad analogy miss jenn

omfg

ricky sir

look at him he's whipped

carlos and gina yall need communication

finally some ej showt----

really

oh my goooooooooooooooooooood

ricky sir what are you doing

yea really funny......

and theres nini

it is nice to see nini back here

ajslfkjsdlfhsd the music when mazarra pokes his head through

this poor man

EJ THERE YOU ARE WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN

yea im not surprised...

its interesting that he's having this convo with nini

so nini was able to tell ej...her ex...that she hasnt talked too in months...that theres something scuff going on with her new school instead of her current boyfriend

im tired lmao

oh no a power outage

whats gonna happen with the plot

*insert power outage cliche stuff here*

look at gina knowing what to do

carlos this is not the time to potentially be annoyed with her taking charge in a situation like this

man gina deserves better at this point

i mean ricky doesnt know shes bothered and hes not going to unless theres communication

but

its a tricky situation

communication is key thats all i got

but ricky has to know something if he was trying to get big red not to ask gina for advice.......?

idk my head hurts hahaha

seriously the convo with miss jenn and nini is very well done

so nini and miss jenn's convo is paralleling ejs and mazarras convo

iiiiiiiiiinteresting

so why do tv shows/media really harp on the "individuality of college essays being the make or break it"

i mean idk what the big ivy leagues are like since that wasnt my college experience

but that seems to be an oddly pushed trope when ive found that its mainly grades and extra curriculars that ultimately help you

maybe im missing something

ignore me ahaha

yaaaaay carlos and gina communication

"you do matter"-carlos to gina everyone remember, gina remember, you do matter

howie(thats his name right?) and kourt are pretty cute hehe

so is this when nini decides to stay orrrr

nini: ricky communicate...speak words...feelings...tell me to stay

ooooooooo another good song nini

you gonna get off the bus?

yup there we go

that was a really good song ahaha

thank god they made sure nini's decision wasnt just because of ricky

i mean to me it was obvious that wasnt the case

but still

nini youre 16 youve already figured out a looooot

--

Gina. You matter. You and Ricky need serious communication. I’m glad to see Nini back but...what’s the rest of her arc for future episodes? I loved her song at the end of the episode. I feel like it’s pretty relatable overall! I guess I don’t have much else to say other than I enjoyed this episode a lot haha. 

[st1ckart1zt]

The Little Merstick Chapter 3

Back at Toppat kingdom, in the royal palace in the Kings's kid's room. "Henry, kiddo, time to come out. You've been in there all morning." Howie spoke. Henry emerges, singing to himself.

"What is with him lately?" Harold asked as they watched their brother being too happy.

"Morning, Dads." Henry says and he kisses Reginald's and Right's cheek and swims off.

"Oh, he's got it bad." Earrings spoke with a small smirk on her face.

"What? What has he got?" Reginald asked, surprised himself at his son's behavior.

"Isn't it obvious, Dad? Henry's in love." Another one of his children spoke from the side lines.

"Henry? In love?" He asked himself, looking in the direction Henry swam off in.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"O.K. So far, so good. I don't think the kings knows. But it will not be easy keeping something like this a secret for long." Sven spoke as he scuttled back and forth next to Henry bas Dave just floated there.

"He loves me . . . hmmm, he loves me not. . . . He loves me! I knew it!" Henry squealed happily as he plucked the last petal off the small flower.

"Henry, stop talking crazy." Sven sassed.

"I gotta see him again - tonight! Ellie knows where he lives." He smiled wider, if that was even possible.

"Henry - please. Will you get your head out of the clouds and back in the water where it belongs?" Sven tried to get the merboy to listen to him.

"I'll swim up to his castle. Then Dave will splash around to get his attention, and then with -" Henry continued, not even remotely paying attention to Sven.

"Down HERE is your home! Henry - listen to me. The human world - it's a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there." Sven spoke, suddenly music played and Sven started singing.

"The seaweed is always greener

In somebody else's lake

You dream about going up there

But that is a big mistake

Just look at the world around you

Right here on the ocean floor

Such wonderful things surround you

What more is you lookin' for?" He spun around, his blue shell a blur.

"Under the sea

Under the sea

Darling it's better

Down where it's wetter

Take it from me

Up on the shore they work all day

Out in the sun they slave away

While we devotin'

Full time to floatin'

Under the sea" suddenly more fish started to join in and start dancing around. As much as a fish can dance under the sea.

"Down here all the fish is happy

As off through the waves they roll

The fish on the land ain't happy

They sad 'cause they in their bowl

But fish in the bowl is lucky

They in for a worser fate

One day when the boss get hungry

Guess who's gon' be on the plate?!" A pause.

"Under the sea

Under the sea

Nobody beat us

Fry us and eat us

In fricassee

We what the land folks loves to cook

Under the sea we off the hook

We got no troubles

Life is the bubbles

Under the sea" Henry didn't look too interested in what Sven was saying, but the music was fun and upbeat and he couldn't help but sway a bit.

"Under the sea

Since life is sweet here

We got the beat here

Naturally

Even the sturgeon an' the ray

They get the urge 'n' start to play

We got the spirit

You got to hear it

Under the sea

The newt play the flute

The carp play the harp

The plaice play the bass

And they soundin' sharp

The bass play the brass

The chub play the tub

The fluke is the duke of soul

[Yeah]

The ray he can play

The lings on the strings

The trout rockin' out

The blackfish she sings

The smelt and the sprat

They know where it's at

An' oh that blowfish blow

Under the sea

Under the sea

When the sardine

Begin the beguine

It's music to me

What do they got? A lot of sand

We got a hot crustacean band

Each little clam here

know how to jam here

Under the sea

Each little slug here

Cuttin' a rug here

Under the sea

Each little snail here

Know how to wail here

That's why it's hotter

Under the water

Ya we in luck here

Down in the muck here

Under the sea" Sven was finally down, breathing heavily as he looked around for Henry, only to discover that he and Dave were no longer around.

"Henry? Henry? Oh . . . somebody's got to nail that boy's fins to the floor." he shook his head.

"Sven! SVEN, I've been looking all over for you. I've got an urgent message from the sea kings." A seahorse swam quickly over to Sven.

"The sea kings?"

"They wants to see you right away - something about Henry."

"They knows!" Panic took over Sven's facial features instantly.

~~~~~~~~

In the palace throne room, Reginald and RHM are looking at a flower. "Let's see, now. . . . Oh, who could the lucky merman or merwoman be?" They then notices Sven slowly making his way into the throne room.

"Come in, Sven."

"I mustn't overreact. I must remain calm." He spoke to himself.

"Yes -" his voice went five octaves higher than it would be, but he recovers quickly.

"yes, Your Majesties." He bowed.

"Now, Sven, We're concerned about Henry. Have you noticed he's been acting peculiar lately?"

"Peculiar?"

"You know, moaning about, daydreaming, singing to himself. . . . You haven't noticed, hmm?"

"Oh - well, I -"

"Sven. . . ."

"Hmmm?"

"I know you've been keeping something from us. . . ."

"Keeping . . . something?"

"About Henry?"

"Henry . . . ?"

"In love?"

"I tried to stop him, your Majesties. He wouldn't listen. I told him to stay away from humans - they are bad, they are trouble, they -" Sven started to rant.

"Humans? WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?" Reginald and RHM shouted, angry beyond words.

"Humans? Ho ho ho ho. . . . Who said anything about humans?" He tried to cover his butt and Henry's but dying on the inside. He done screwed up.

[imdoingthismspaintadventure]

In which we close a narrative loop and dave is a tsun

Dave: Get the damn beta and save your friend's life!

Let’s get a move on!!

Finally the betas are easily accesible when we want them to be, instead of spending 40 pages finding them by doing things like throwing cakes out the window

This notion strikes you as nonsensical. You can't imagine how a video game could save someone's life, and in any case, you're quite sure no one you know is in any danger.

.... fucking what

Is this before the other things? Have we gone slightly back in time in terms of the general story? Is this while John was fucking around in his room?

....Does this mean that we will lose these betas somehow in the inmediate future because nothing can ever be easy? Oh no

Anyway, these are your copies of the beta you received in the mail recently. You've labeled them with your name in BOLD RED PRINT to distinguish them from your BRO's copies, who labeled his in kind. Neither of you really gives a shit about this game or has any intention of playing it, but you'll be damned if you'll let that get in the way of your campaign of one-upmanship.

What is it with these kids and weird family relationships?

I predict we will lose our copies and we will have to get Bro’s copies, based on that each kid so far has had their parent/authority figure as an antagonistic force.

Dave: Bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable.

Oh god this is indeed a pattern we are going to be following!

We had the “wrong name” bit, the “find your arms” bit, the “idiotic command” bit....Are we going to do them again for GG when they are introduced? I wonder what this command will be then.

You would never consider allowing any fluid even remotely resembling urine to touch your beloved TURNTABLES. That would risk breaking them, and a world without the gift of your godly science just doesn't sound like a place you want any part of. While you're at it, you might as well wipe out human civilization with a meteor or something ridiculous like that which will probably never happen.

I like that the “on your turntable” part is the outrageous part of “bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable” for Dave. Kid values his raps more than his life. Although it’s probably true that the world would be lesser without those wonderful, wonderful things.

And yeah, nothing to worry about with meteors and such, Dave. I’m sure nothing bad will happen, ever. Just like how those game copies you have are going to be safe and accesible forever.

That sort of thing only happens in stupid idiot movies for stupid idiots.

Oh come on, I’m sure you can find a bit of value in them, even if it’s in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way.

==>

...wait, are you really considering it?

You will however contemplate bleating like a goat for IRONICALLY HUMOROUS purposes at a later date.

...I will keep that in mind in case it comes up later.

If PS has taught me anything is that these comics are Chekhov’s armories

Dave: Examine closet.

So inside the closet there is yet another package (probably a gift from John, judging by the pattern we seem to be having. Seriously, do all these kids send each other presents in the same manner? ) and some sort of drink?

This is your closet. This is where you keep a lot of your crap.

Most accurate description of a closet ever

Like that BOX. And that bottle of... what is that? Is that...?

.....

Is that seriously a jar of piss? I would say “wtf” loudly, but your room is such a weird combination of things (including those weird fetus/ dissecated animals/ weeeeird shit) that I wouldn’t even be suprised

Dave: Check the blue box.

.....WHAT?

W-Why is there the BLACK OILY SUBSTANCE THAT STAINED THE KITCHEN WHERE JOHN IS STRANDED IN THE VOID HERE, ON THE PACKAGE??

Does the oil have multiversal properties? If it stains one’s house it also retroactively stains his possesions?? Or is this package from after those events?? Has it gone back in time??

WHAT??

But first let’s stop for a moment to appreciate the fact that Dave has a signed Stiller poster

This is the package that your friend John Egbert sent you for your 13th birthday a little while ago. It now contains nothing except a NOTE and a CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY vouching for the genuine Hollywood memorabilia which the box originally contained, and which you are now wearing to be IRONIC but also to be INCREDIBLY COOL IN A WAY SOMEHOW INTANGIBLY RELATED TO THE IRONIC NATURE OF THE ACCESSORY. You find it sort of exasperating to explain these subtleties to people.

John gave him the shades!! And they are apparently the real shades Ben Stiller wore in the movie!! That means that they are not *the* universal shades of PS, unless the shades in the Stiller bust were these ones and they somehow ended up there. But isn’t PS a videogame in this universe? But these shades had the universal glow?

Let’s not think too hard about that. It’s probably just an easter egg.

Also Dave please write a thesis on irony, the world needs it please.

The BOX also included a signed photo of BEN STILLER which now proudly hangs above your closet. Proudly and IRONICALLY.

I really like this totally (un)cool hipster kid.

Dave: Take box.

ohwahtthefuck

WHY ARE THE SYLLADEXES GETTING WORSE???

So it classifies things based on the balance of consonants and vocals in the name of the object and assigning an index value like in a hash map.

Oh boy this is a completely useless one in terms of getting shit done quickly, unless you have a godly grasp on words and their composition.

You captchalogue the BOX through your HASH MAP FETCH MODUS. Your modus's current HASH FUNCTION resolves the index by valuing each consonant at 2, and each vowel at 1. The total is divided by your number of cards, and the remainder is the index. BOX = 2 + 1 + 2 = 5 5 % 10 = 5 The BOX is captchalogued in card 5.

Just...LOOK at this

Look at this madness.

Dave: Examine jar of unknown yellow substance in the closet.

I don’t know why, but the combination of the quick turnaround, the fanfare and the fucking apple’s face makes this way more funny than it should be.

So it WAS apple juice after all.

Oh hell yes. It is an unopened container of APPLE JUICE. You thought you were all out. It is like fucking christmas up in here. This is so great. You've got to tell John about this immediately. He'll be so excited.

Oh wait, is this before the first conversation, when Dave and John talked about Little Monsters and Apple Juices? Is this why that conversation was as out of left field as it was?

I see how it all fits together now

Dave: Take juice.

You captchalogue the JUICE into card 7. 2+1+1+2+1 %10 = 7.

Dear god is this system nightmarish

Dave: Access Pesterchum and pester John.

Oh I can see the loop closing!

In addition to letting your buddy know about this outstanding juice windfall, you figure you'll wish him a happy birthday while you're at it. In your own cool, sort of roundabout way of course. Good thing you looked at that box he sent you, or you might have forgotten. You also might as well ask him about that beta. The kid's been harping about it for weeks. It would be cool if it came on his birthday. He'd be one happy camper.

Dave is such a tsundere in his friendships holy shit. You care about your friends a lot you dork

That background is rad

Wtf is “Complete Bullshit” as an app. (Probably some complete bullshit)

Ill beats because the laws of this universe demand it

Hephaestus, isn’t that the god of the blacksmiths and craftsmen? Cool icon. Reminds me of those flash games where the icons all fought each other.

Of course his emote in Pesterchum is  S m o o t h

-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 18:13 -- TG: hey so what sort of insane loot did you rake in today EB: i got a little monsters poster, it's so awesome. i'm going to watch it again today, the applejuice scene was so funny. TG: oh hell that is such a coincidence i just found an unopened container of apple juice in my closet it is like fucking christmas up in here EB: ok thats fine, but i just have one question and then a word of caution. have you ever seen a movie called little monsters starring howie mandel and fred savage? TG: but TG: the seal on the bottle is unbroken TG: are you suggesting someone put piss in my apple juice at the factory EB: all im saying is don't you think monster howie mandel has the power to do something as simple as reseal a bottle? EB: try using your brain numbnuts. TG: why did the fat kid or whoever drank it know what piss tasted like TG: i mean his reaction was nigh instantaneous EB: it was the 15th day in a row howie mandel peed in his juice. TG: ok i can accept that TG: monster B-list celebrity douchebags are cunning and persistent pranksters TG: also fred savage has a really punchable face TG: but who cares about this lets stop talking about it TG: did you get the beta yet EB: no. EB: did you? TG: man i got two copies already TG: but i dont care im not going to play it or anything the game sounds boring TG: did you see how it got slammed in game bro???? EB: game bro is a joke and we both know it. TG: yeah TG: why dont you go check your mail maybe its there now EB: alright.

And they DID indeed have the exact same conversation!!!

We are indeed back in time!!

We are sooooo gonna lose those Betas!!!! : D

[crystalwhitepeacock]

@suchwriting kindly tagged me in this and despite feeling a bit shy I decided to jump in.

1) Nickname. Hmm I have one on other social media sites, but I don't have one on tumblr.

2) Zodiac. Libra -balance is always nice

3) Height. 5'9"

4) Hogwarts House. I'm totally a Ravenclaw.

5) Last song I googled. Some Beetles songs after hearing them in Yesterday that I watched solely for Robert Carlyle.

6) Favorite musicians. I tend to vary a bit in my music. I enjoy Enya, Imagine Dragons, They Might Be Giants, Journey, and score composers like James Horner, John Williams, and Howard Shore.

7) Song stuck in my head. Currently music from Pirates of the Caribbean.

8) Following. Rumbelle, Robert Carlyle, Rumbelle fic, Paul Bettany, Marvel, Chris Hemsworth, old books, knitting, and probably a few others I can't recall.

9) Followers. I think I have about 30. Maybe. I've only been on tumblr a short while. I'm grateful for all of them.

10) Do you get asks? So far no, but I'm open to them.

11) Amount of sleep. About 6 hours a night. Sometimes less, sometimes more. It never feels like quite enough.

12) What are you wearing? Currently black scrubs with a Wolverine t-shirt.

13) Dream job. A full-time author of children's books, young adult, or fantasy books. Maybe a book editor.

14) Dream trip. I would love to go to Greece and Rome and see ancient pieces of architecture and art or Scotland and Ireland for the castles.

15) Instruments. I love hearing the flute, the harp, and the cello.

16) Languages. English, but I am working on learning Spanish and Irish.

17) 10 favorite songs right now. This is a tough one. Collide by Howie Day, The Promise by When In Rome, Take on Me by Ah-ha, several! Gotta think on this.

18) If you were an animal? I like cats and I wouldn't have minded my cat's life, but I think I'd like to be a bird.

19) Favorite food. Pork chops, roast and potatoes, chocolate in almost any form, and pizza.

20) Random fact. Sometimes without realizing it, I'll spell out parts of my thoughts in American Sign Language.

21) My aesthetic. A secret garden of sorts or a vintage library with a hidden place for quiet pondering and reading. Also Robert Carlyle.

I'm tagging @goldenspinner @jackabelle73 @mrs-stiltskin and @lovesthedarkerone for this if they would like. 😊

[flirting-with-psychology]

The Letter H (True or False) by joybucket

You’ve played Hangman. You’ve seen the movie Harriet the Spy. 🔍 You like to put honey in your tea. ☕️ 🍯 You’ve been friends with a Hannah. You’ve been friends with a Haley. You’ve been to Hooters. 🦉 You enjoy playing hide and seek. You’ve told someone you hate them. You like the song “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira. You drew hearts in the margins of your notebooks with you were in school. 💕 You believe in Heaven. ☀️ You believe in Hell. 🔥 You were a fan of Hilary Duff when you were growing up. 👩 You’ve owned a CD by Hilary Duff. 👩 You’ve been to Haiti. 🇭🇹 You’ve been to Hawaii. 🏝 You’re Hawaiian. 🌺 You have to wear a hearing aid. 🦻 You enjoy helping people.

You have big hands. 🙌 You’ve never used the hippo emoji. 🦛 You didn’t know there was a hippo emoji. 🦛 You’ve played Hungry Hungry Hippos. 🦛 You like hibiscus. 🌺 You’ve said “Hi!” to someone today. You’ve waved “hi” to someone today. 👋 You’ve tried hula dancing. You owned a hula hoop when you were younger. ⭕️ ….and you are/were good at hula-hooping. You’ve hit on someone. You went to school with a Heather. You like the name Harper. You have long hair. You know someone who works as a hairstylist. 💇‍♀️ You’re holding onto something right now. You’ve played the harp. You think the harp is a cool instrument. You’ve met someone named Heaven. You’ve been to Hell, Michigan. You like the name Harvest. You have a hangnail. You own a hoodie. You enjoy wearing hoodies. You own a hot pad. You prefer to drink your coffee hot. ☕️ You’re hot right now. 🥵 It gets very hot in the summers where you live. 🥵 You’ve ordered Hungry Howie’s pizza. 🍕 You’re hungry right now. You’ve shouted, “Hallelujah!” You’ve ridden a horse. 🐎 You’ve owned a horse. 🐎 You’ve lived in a hut. 🛖 You’re feeling happy today. 😊 You live in a house. 🏠 You’ve owned your own house. 🏡 You’ve rolled down a hill. You’re hopeful that things will get better. ….but not too hopeful, because you don’t want to get your hopes up and then be disappointed again. You’ve humiliated yourself more times than you can count. 😳 You’ve had a friend named Holly. You believe you’re holy. You’ve golfed a hole-in-one. 🕳 You’ve had a lot of haters. You’ve had a lot of haters online. You’ve had a lot of haters in real life. You wish you had horns. 😈 You’ve recently sent a Hallmark card. You watch the Hallmark channel. 📺 You’re a hoarder. You’ve recently cut something in half. ✂️ You have a lot of hangers in your closet. You’d never heard of “hijacking” before the 9-11 attacks. ✈️ You enjoy testing out life hacks. ….and you’ve found some that actually work! ….and some that don’t. Sometimes you sit in the hallway for no reason. You’ve been high off of life. You’ve been high off of a prescription medication. 💊 You’ve been high off of illegal drugs or marijuana. You know how many sides a hexagon has. You’ve had your Facebook account hacked. You’ve had an email account hacked. You’ve hacked someone else’s account. You know someone who calls deviled eggs “heavenly eggs.” You’ve volunteered at a homeless shelter. You’ve talked to a homeless person. You’ve given money to a homeless person. You’ve bought a homeless person a meal. You celebrate Hanukkah. 🕎 You own a Harley Davidson motorcycle. 🏍 You like the song “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” You’ve purchased something at a hardware store. 🔩 You have clothes stored in a hope chest. You’ve gone hunting. 🦌 You enjoy listening to Hillsong. 🎶 You’ve heard a hilarious joke recently. 🤣 You’ve met someone named Hope. You’ve seen the movie Hocus Pocus. You enjoyed this survey. I hope you have a happy day!🤸‍♂️

[lovemesomesurveys]

The Letter H (True or False) by joybucket

You've played Hangman. You've seen the movie Harriet the Spy. 🔍 You like to put honey in your tea. ☕️ 🍯 You've been friends with a Hannah. You've been friends with a Haley. You've been to Hooters. 🦉 You enjoy playing hide and seek. You've told someone you hate them. You like the song "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira. You drew hearts in the margins of your notebooks with you were in school. 💕 You believe in Heaven. ☀️ You believe in Hell. 🔥 You were a fan of Hilary Duff when you were growing up. 👩 You've owned a CD by Hilary Duff. 👩 You've been to Haiti. 🇭🇹 You've been to Hawaii. 🏝 You're Hawaiian. 🌺 You have to wear a hearing aid. 🦻 You enjoy helping people.

You have big hands. 🙌 You've never used the hippo emoji. 🦛 You didn't know there was a hippo emoji. 🦛 You've played Hungry Hungry Hippos. 🦛 You like hibiscus. 🌺 You've said "Hi!" to someone today. You've waved "hi" to someone today. 👋 You've tried hula dancing. You owned a hula hoop when you were younger. ⭕️ ....and you are/were good at hula-hooping. You've hit on someone. You went to school with a Heather. You like the name Harper. You have long hair. You know someone who works as a hairstylist. 💇‍♀️ You're holding onto something right now. You've played the harp. You think the harp is a cool instrument. You've met someone named Heaven. You've been to Hell, Michigan. You like the name Harvest. You have a hangnail. You own a hoodie. You enjoy wearing hoodies. You own a hot pad. You prefer to drink your coffee hot. ☕️ You're hot right now. 🥵 It gets very hot in the summers where you live. 🥵 You've ordered Hungry Howie's pizza. 🍕 You're hungry right now. You've shouted, "Hallelujah!" You've ridden a horse. 🐎 You've owned a horse. 🐎 You've lived in a hut. 🛖 You're feeling happy today. 😊 You live in a house. 🏠 You've owned your own house. 🏡 You've rolled down a hill. You're hopeful that things will get better. ....but not too hopeful, because you don't want to get your hopes up and then be disappointed again. You've humiliated yourself more times than you can count. 😳 You've had a friend named Holly. You believe you're holy. You've golfed a hole-in-one. 🕳 You've had a lot of haters. You've had a lot of haters online. You've had a lot of haters in real life. You wish you had horns. 😈 You've recently sent a Hallmark card. You watch the Hallmark channel. 📺 You're a hoarder. You've recently cut something in half. ✂️ You have a lot of hangers in your closet. You'd never heard of "hijacking" before the 9-11 attacks. ✈️ You enjoy testing out life hacks. ....and you've found some that actually work! ....and some that don't. Sometimes you sit in the hallway for no reason. You've been high off of life. You've been high off of a prescription medication. 💊 You've been high off of illegal drugs or marijuana. You know how many sides a hexagon has. You've had your Facebook account hacked. You've had an email account hacked. You've hacked someone else's account. You know someone who calls deviled eggs "heavenly eggs." You've volunteered at a homeless shelter. You've talked to a homeless person. You've given money to a homeless person. You've bought a homeless person a meal. You celebrate Hanukkah. 🕎 You own a Harley Davidson motorcycle. 🏍 You like the song "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." You've purchased something at a hardware store. 🔩 You have clothes stored in a hope chest. You've gone hunting. 🦌 You enjoy listening to Hillsong. 🎶 You've heard a hilarious joke recently. 🤣 You've met someone named Hope. You've seen the movie Hocus Pocus. You enjoyed this survey. I hope you have a happy day!🤸‍♂️

[chiefavenuewerewolf]

Bob Dylan Discography

Bob Dylan's discography - We review every Dylan album including his self-titled debut, 'Highway 61 Revisited,' 'Blood on the Tracks,' and more By Bill Flanagan Updated March 29, 1991 at 05:00. Desire is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on January 5, 1976, through Columbia Records.It is one of Dylan's most collaborative efforts, featuring the same caravan of musicians as the acclaimed Rolling Thunder Revue tours the previous year (later documented on The Bootleg Series Vol.

Bob Dylan Discography and Fact Sheet

If you are in a hurry check out the following Bob Dylan Discography and Fact Sheet created to give you a quick overview of Bob's music and career

BORN....

Robert Allen Zimmerman - May 24, 1941 - Duluth, Minnesota USA

BOB DYLAN'S CAREER BEGAN....

In New York City - the fall of 1961...After high school graduation Bob enrolled at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to study art. He began performing in coffee houses and took the name of Bob Dylan from a favorite poet Dylan Thomas. Dylan hitched to New York City in January of 1961, bummed around the coffee houses of Greenwich Village, playing whenever he could and quietly began making a name for himself. In April of 1961 he opened for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City. Later that year Bob was on the bill with the Greenbrier Boys at Gerde's and was given rave reviews in the New York Times folk and jazz section of the paper. John Hammond, a talent scout for Columbia records saw the review, met Bob and signed him to a Columbia Records recording contract.

ORIGINAL GROUP MEMBERS 1966

Bob Dylan is primarily a solo performer, picking up side men to fill out his sound. Early on, Dylan hooked up with the Hawks who became the supporting group on Dylan's 1965-1966 world tour.

The Hawks continued their affiliation with Dylan, changed their name to The Band and went on to a successful recording career of their own.

Bob Dylan on guitar, harp and vocals - Plus...

Band MemberNoise MakerRobbie RobertsonGuitar,VocalsRick DankoBass, VocalsLevon HelmDrums, VocalsGarth HudsonKeyboards, SaxRichard ManeulKeyboards, Vocals

More of Bob Dylan's backup groups and touring artists

In 1975 Bob Dylan took a eclectic group of individuals on the road, over 50 people that included the most legendary and prolific songwriters and musicians of the time. This was the Rolling Thunder Review. The short list of performers included Joan Baez, T-Bone Burnett, Allen Ginsberg, Bobby Neuwirth, Rambling Jack Elliot, Roger McGuinn, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner, Howie Wyeth and Gary Burke.

In 1988 Bob Dylan embarked on what became known as The Never-Ending Tour - a continuous parade of shows that was on tour well into the late 90's. The cast of musicians include...

PerformerNoise MakerTotal ShowsG.E. SmithGuitar218Kenny AaronsonBass75Christopher ParkerDrums263Tony GarnierBass461John StaehelyGuitar22Cesar DiazGuitar43John JacksonGuitar273Ian WallaceDrums172Charlie QuintanaDrums44Winston WatsonDrums106

Over the years some of the most notable guest artist's on the Never-Ending Tour have included...

Neil Young Joe Walsh Bono Ringo StarrVan Morrison Roger McGuinn Jerry Garcia T-Bone BurnettThe Chieftains Bruce Springsteen Elvis Costello Carol KingRolling Stones Sheryl Crow Dickie Betts Stevie Nicks

BOB DYLAN'S MINOR LEAGE BASEBALL CONCERT TOUR - SUMMER OF 2006

In the summer of 06' Bob and his band played their way through shows on the east coast most of August and began with a gig at Fifth-Third Stadium in Comstock Park, Michigan August 12. The tour finished up at Memorial Stadium in Fort Wayne, Ind., September 5. The tour included 17 ballparks in all. This was the 3rd ball park tour that Dylan has completed.

This week (8/30/06) I was in attendance with my wife at Frontier Field in Rochester New York to see Bob and his band. I have only seen Dylan once and that was at Woodstock 94'...I can't remember seeing too much of him then!...but Wednesday's show was awesome. The ballpark shows are a great family event. Catch a future gig if you can... Who knows how long this classic rock icon will continue to tour these historical ballparks.

Here is the set list from that show.

1. Cat's In The Well 2. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere 3. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum 4. Positively 4th Street 5. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight 6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again 7. Masters Of War 8. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat 9. Joey 10. Highway 61 Revisited 11. Sugar Baby 12. Summer Days

--(encore) 13. Like A Rolling Stone 14. All Along The Watchtower

Following is a review of the Frontier Field show (8/30/06) by Jeff Spevak, Rochester D&C staff music critic

'Retro' Dylan Sounds Really Modern

Dylan, who played keyboards the entire show, certainly showed off his roots Wednesday night, with 5,500 folks comfortably spread out on the infield and in the stands at Frontier Field. It remains a lasting thrill to hear the crowd respond with approval on 'Like a Rolling Stone' when Dylan asks 'How does it feeeeeel?'

Although he's on the road with his outstanding new album, Modern Times, just one day old, Dylan's 90-minute set was stuffed with classics. As always, he dramatically rearranged every one of his old songs, often taking them down darkly evil, organ-laden paths. So you ended up with a laconically swinging, director's cut of 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight,' including whirling organ, that you could dance to if you were a funeral-home director. 'Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat' retained its jaunty attitude, while there was an added urgency to the dead-gangster lament 'Joey.' He sang 'All Along the Watchtower' with a curious staccato delivery and 'Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again' was drenched in extended guitars.

It was all so deceptively amiable. 'Masters of War' was a special treat, sung with the cold detachment of disdain, and closing with the chilling line 'I'll stand on your grave until I'm sure that you're dead.' They ain't writing them like that anymore, folks.

Three supporting acts were stellar. Opener Alana James & The Continental Two were joined by Whit Smith, the guitarist in her fabulous former Austin, Texas, band, Hot Club of Cowtown. He helped create a lusty bluegrass quartet that's far from her old western swing outfit.

Jimmie Vaughan has paid his dues and created a body of work that stands on its own. It's no knock on the guy to suggest he really plays and sings a lot like his younger brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan. But that's a Texas thing, a Fabulous Thunderbirds thing, a Freddie King thing. After a few songs, Vaughan brought out Lou Ann Barton, a criminally underheard belter who helped close the argument that roadhouse blues remains a great American sound.

As for Junior Brown, I've seen him lay this trap before. He comes out in his suit and big white hat with his bizarre guitar — a self-designed double-necked 'guit-steel' that's half standard electric guitar and half steel guitar — and starts playing his dust-covered cowboy stuff.

It's great, if you like Ernest Tubb, and wryly amusing songs about the cops looking for you and 'My Wife Thinks You're Dead.' Then, waiiiiiiitaminute ... what's this? Suddenly 'My Wife Thinks You're Dead' bleeds into Hawaiian guitar, hootenanny instrumentals, a Mexican ballad sung by Brown in Spanish, Clapton blues, surf and spaghetti western.

Through it all, he's bending the strings on the guit-steel for a range of sound that goes from rumbling suspension-bridge cables to Sputnik in space peeps.

It was freakin' amazing.

MOST RECENT ALBUMS

YearAlbum1997Time Out Of Mind2001Love And Theft2002Bootleg Series - Vol 5 - Bob Dylan Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Review2004Bootleg Series Vol 6 - Bob Dylan Live 1964 - Concert at Philharmonic Hall2005The Bootleg Series - Vol 7 - No Direction Home, Soundtrack2005Live at the Gaslight2006Modern Times2009Together Through Life2009Christmas in the Heart

BOB DYLAN DISCOGRAPHY TOP 10 ALBUMS

RankAlbum Title and Year#1Blood On The Tracks - 1975#1Desire - 1976#1Love And Theft - 2001#1Planet Waves - 1974#1Modern Times - 2006#1Together Through Life - 2009#2John Wesley Harding - 1968#3Before The Flood - 1974#3Highway 61 Revisited - 1965#3Nashville Skyline - 1969#3Slow Train Coming - 1979#4Self Portrait - 1970#6Bringing It All Back Home - 1965#7New Morning - 1970#7The Basement Tapes - 1975#7Positively 4th Street - 1965#9Blonde On Blonde - 1966#9Together Through Life - 2009#9Christmas in the Heart - 2009#10Time Out Of Mind - 1997#10Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits - 1967

BOB DYLAN DISCOGRAPHY TOP 10 SINGLES

RankAlbum Title and Year#2Like A Rolling Stone - 1965#2Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - 1966#5Knockin' On Heaven's Door - 1973#5Silvio - 1988#6Subterranean Homesick Blues - 1965#7Lay Lady Lay - 1969#7Positively 4th Street - 1965#8Everything Is Broken - 1989#8Slow Train - 1989

ALBUMS SOLD

Determining accurate and reliable U.S. sales is difficult. Determining foreign sales is almost impossible, not to mention the huge amount of bootlegging in many countries of the world. Album sales reported here are based on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Latest data.

Bob Dylan has sold more than 35 Million Albums in the USA

AWARDS

Grammy Awards - The Grammy's are the only peer-presented award to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position.

Bob Dylan Discography 320

ALBUMS

1972 - The Concert For Bangladesh Album of the year

1979 - World Gone Wrong Best traditional Folk Album

1997 - Time Out Of Mind Album of the year

1997 - Time Out of Mind Best contemporary folk Album

2001 - Love And theft Best contemporary folk Album

SINGLES

1979 - Gotta Serve somebody Best male rock vocal performance

1997 - Cold Irons bound Best male rock vocal performance

Grammy hall of Fame - This Award was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old. Winners are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts.

RecordingFormatInductedBlowin' In The WindFolk Single1994Like A Rolling StoneRock Single1998Highway 61 RevisitedRock Album2002Mr. Tambourine ManRock Track2002

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award - This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy's National Trustees to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.

Bob Dylan - awarded 1991

ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

Bob Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988

Inductees: Bob Dylan (guitar, Harp, vocals, born May 24, 1941 - Duluth, Minnesota USA)

BOB DYLAN DISCOGRAPHY LIST POSITIONS

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time

PositionAlbum#4Highway 61 Revisited#9Blonde On Blonde#16Blood On The Tracks#31Bringing It All Back Home#97The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan#174Desire#291The Basement Tapes, Bob Dylan and The Band#301John Wesley Harding#408Time Out Of Mind#467Love And Theft

Ultimate Album list (Not Ranked)

From 'about.com' 2003, the list is now off line as far as I can tell. But..I think this list stands as a current and enduring snapshot of the best classic rock albums out there.

Blonde On Blonde

Blood On The Tracks

Bringing It All Back Home

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Live 1966 - The 'Royal Albert Hall' Concert

Highway 61 Revisited

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time

PositionSong#1Like A Rolling Stone#14Blowin' In The Wind#59The Times They Are A-Changin'#68Tangled Up In Blue#106Mr. Tambourine Man#185Desolation Row#190Knocking On Heaven's Door#203Positively 4th Street#230Just Like A Woman#332Subterranean Homesick Blues#364Highway 61 Revisited#404Visions Of Johanna

INTERNET SEARCHES

Fans have used the major search engines to find Bob Dylan discography, lyrics, tab, stats, CD's etc. over 215,000 times in a recent one month period.

Bob Dylan Discography Chronological

As reported by 'Wordtracker' keywords database. This tool is indispensible for driving targeted traffic to your website. Unlimited FREE trial.

Don't forget to return frequently to the Bob Dylan Discography and fact Sheet for new entries and updates.

Bob Dylan Discography Rar

Return to the Discography IndexHome | Classic Rock video | Discography Index | Poster Shop | Rare Rock Interviews | MP3 Clips | Rating Criteria | Classic Rock Links | Contact Me | Classic Rock Trivia | Classic Rock Blog | Site MapClassic-Rock-Legends-Start-Here.com Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved

Bob Dylan Albums

The following table provides a list of Bob Dylan albums.

Rating

Cover Art

Bob Dylan Album Title

Year Released

Description

Buy

4

Bob Dylan

1962

5

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

1963

5

Another Side of Bob Dylan

1964

4.5

The Times They Are A-Changin'

1964

5

Bringing It All Back Home

1965

5

Highway 61 Revisited

1965

5

Blonde on Blonde

1966

5

John Wesley Harding

1967

5

Nashville Skyline

1969

4.5

New Morning

1970

2

Self Portrait

1970

3

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Soundtrack)

1973

4.5

Before the Flood (live)

1974

3.5

Planet Waves

1974

5

Blood on the Tracks

1975

5

The Basement Tapes

1975

4.5

Desire

1976

2

Hard Rain (live)

1976

3.5

Street Legal

1978

2

At Budokan (live)

1979

3

Slow Train Coming

1979

2

Saved

1980

2

Shot of Love

1981

4

Infidels

1983

3

Real Live

1984

4.5

Empire Burlesque

1985

2

Knocked Out Loaded

1986

2

Down in the Groove

1988

1

Dylan & the Dead (live)

1989

3.5

Oh Mercy

1989

2

Under the Red Sky

1990

3

Good as I Been to You

1992

3.5

World Gone Wrong

1993

2

MTV Unplugged (live)

1995

4

Time Out of Mind

1997

2

Rock Report: Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks

1998

4.5

Love and Theft

2001

4.5

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue

2002

2.5

Masked and Anonymous

2003

4

Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 - Concert at Philharmonic Hall

2004

Biograph (Box Set)Bootleg Series, Vol 1-3Dylan's Greatest HitsDylan's Greatest Hits, Volume 2Essential Bob Dylan30th Anniversary ConcertThe Bootleg Series, Vol. 4

[cadetcama]

“You’ve got to admit, Lily is the stereotypical Disney princess.” Ashlyn observed.

“Ashlyn.”

“No, I get it, I know I nailed my part,” Ashlyn assured her fellow drama kids. “But don’t you guys agree?”

“I mean sure,” Gina nodded. “She may look like a Disney Princess, but she can’t capture the character of one.”

“Apart from Howie and Antoine, most of them really feel hollow when they sing their songs,” Seb pointed out. “Even when Lily was auditioning with us, her voice felt hollow when she sang her songs, even with the warm-up.”

“You noticed that too?” Ashlyn asked. “I thought it was just me.”

“No, she really feels hollow when she sings her songs.” Seb nodded.

“Even Ricky’s awkward ‘Bet On It’ had more heart than her singing Belle.” Ashlyn grinned.

“Oh it’s because that I don’t think she’s all that bad, you’re going to make fun of me too?” Ricky raised an eyebrow.

“Look, Ricky, just because she confessed her undying love to your big round eyes and big brown hair, does not mean she isn’t the Queen of Mean.” Big Red explained.

“Besides Kourtney is definitely dating Howie, and you don’t see us harping on her.” Nini grinned.

“Face it, Ricky, We all think Lily’s bad news.” EJ squeezed the younger boy’s shoulders.

“You definitely could do better than her.” Gina smirked firing his words back at him.

THE LILY SLANDER!!

Are they making points? Yes. Does that mean I have to like it? No!

Lily looks like a Disney princess but acts like a Disney villain.

Listen, Ashlyn's voice is the perfect voice for Belle, but that doesn't mean Lily's not great too!

"Queen of Mean" I see your Descendants 3 reference!

Man, this very nearly almost turned into a RANT about Lily and Ricky who I don't even SHIP but I think they have a fun dynamic.

[brainfoodgp]

Mental Health Issue/2019

“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” -John Green-

Taking a Deeper Look at the Harm Reduction Model in Regards to Food Choices by Sean Brennan

For this Mental Health Awareness Month, Brain Food Garden Project will be taking a deep dive into looking at the Harm Reduction Model and how those that facilitate workshops on this topic often leave out an area of vital importance for consideration in this mental health model...the food we eat and the food choices we make as mental health peers.

I first became aware of Harm Reduction while in school at Howie The Harp Advocacy Center. And while ACSH founder, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan has said, “In a world where so many things are categorized as all-good or all-bad, the concept of ‘harm reduction’—ameliorating certain health risks when it is impractical or undesirable to eliminate them entirely—remains controversial among public health experts.” I learned very quickly that it isn’t just “public health experts” that found the model “controversial”, but several of my fellow peers in class that had reached their sobriety through abstinence models like Alcoholics Anonymous and other such recovery programs were combative toward the concept of harm reduction as well.

For whatever reason, I latched on to the concept. Maybe, it was because I felt like the mission I had created for Brain Food Garden Project was getting to “preachy”. The more I absorbed peer principles each day in class, for example, The Stages Of Change, and other mind expanding principles, the more I realized I wanted to make BFGP a model for truly person centered recovery and wellness. Or, it could have been that I had been using harm reduction techniques myself, regarding my food choices, without even realizing I was using them. For example, I adore pasta! However, when I realized the sugars produced in that lovely starch was ultimately affecting my brain health. I didn’t eliminate the pleasure but started occasionally substituting, spinach and chickpea based pasta instead. Coca-Cola one of my last holdouts, and something so addictive that I was in pre-contemplation for a very long time about quitting even after I had changed my eating habits. I eventually did slowly move from precontemplation into contemplation, and finally transitioned into the action phase of the Stages of Change. However, I didn’t stop cold turkey, cutting out the two to three liters of coke I would drink a day! What I did do to eventually quit was to start diluting the coke with a half to half ratio with water.

That being said, I found it incredibly disheartening that over the course of the entire harm reduction training we were given. Our food choices, and how to apply harm reduction techniques never once came into the conversation. I will also say that after leaving school I looked for other harm reduction trainings to further expand my knowledge, and not one of the trainings I looked into incorporated the food we eat into their curriculum, with the exception of one, that briefly touched on harm reduction in regards to Anorexia and Bulimia.

If you are reading this now and are hearing the words harm reduction for the first time. Let me give you a quick overview.

Harm Reduction is a way of managing behavior that is potentially risky, damaging, or unhealthy by putting in place plans and techniques to reduce the harms of those behaviors. It is often discussed in terms of substance use (for example, someone using heroine would stop sharing needles and get their syringes at a free needle exchange center), but many people have found the framework really useful for other kinds of behavior, such as smoking, unsafe sex practices and cutting, to name the most discussed in Harm Reduction trainings. Harm Reduction is an alternative approach from suddenly stopping a behavior by total abstinence.

Harm Reduction has been proven to work. For example, Globally 19% or 3 million out of 16 million people who inject drugs (pwid) are living with HIV. In the country of Indonesia, having a slow response to implementing Harm Reduction practices has possibly lead to 50% of their intravenous drug using population infected with HIV. While America, where the most rudimentary Harm Reduction practices are used, 9% of our intravenous drug users are HIV positive. And finally, there is Australia, which having fairly good Harm Reduction practices in place has a relatively low 1.5% HIV rate within their intravenous drug using population. It goes without saying that these numbers in regards to Harm Reduction techniques being implemented speaks for themselves.

So, as I’ve previously stated, the refined sugar I was consuming was my “drug” of choice. It lead me to question that with the average American consuming 22 or more teaspoons of sugar a day. And with refined sugar being scientifically linked to over 15 diseases including manic depression, not to mention the fact that processed sugar releases an opiate-like substance that activates the brains reward system. Why weren’t more training programs implementing Harm Reduction discussing food choices?

After I left school and entered the community spreading BFGP’s mission, which now incorporated a harm reduction philosophy. I soon learned that the community as a whole had completely placed food choice as a back burner issue in peer and mental health advocacy. Peer advocates often used medical model jargon and government tools like the USDA Food Pyramid or the redesigned My Plate as their primary tools, using dated language, and creating less than meaningful conversation within our community about food choice and healthier eating.

I was eventually invited back to Howie the Harp Advocacy Center to create and facilitate a new food driven curriculum. The program I developed called “Feeding Our Mental Health” is a six hour course that features: The History of the Food Justice Movement, Food as Medicine, and Budgeting and Shopping for Healthier Eating. Developing this curriculum afforded me the perfect opportunity to incorporate The Stages of Change, and yes, Harm Reduction into the conversation I was having about food and mental health with the HTH cohort. I wanted them to consider their approach on expanding this vital conversation within our community after entering the workforce.

During my last session at HTH, a powerful breakthrough moment occurred with one of the current class members. A peer walked up to me during one of the breaks and shared her lived experience as a cutter. She proceeded to tell me that she was really enjoying the class and that as someone who used to cut themselves as a release from her problems, she began to use food as her harm reduction technique to curtail her habit. She said, that making the food connection during my talk had made her think about how her food choices also affected her mood and mental health. She realized the unhealthy food choices she made to reduce her cutting was hurting her too. She said she could still use eating as a harm reduction tool to help her cutting, but she could also make a change in the types of food she ate as her harm reduction tool. Listening to her find her own answers and make the connection showed me I was on the right path!

The amazing discussions I was having with the HTH cohorts inspired me to want to expand the conversation on Harm Reduction and food choice. And the opportunity to do so presented itself at the upcoming 13th Annual Conference for NYC Working Peer Specialists at New York University’s Kimmel Center taking place on Thursday, July 18th. 

I wanted to partner with a fellow peer advocate equally committed to Harm Reduction Kira Labinger, who’s passion and insight had contributed to shaping and refining my views for the Harm Reduction section of my HTH course. Kira is incredibly knowledgeable in Harm Reduction techniques as they have personally worked for her. Kira says,

“Using ‘willpower’ to avoid eating certain foods feels restrictive. I grew up feeling very restricted - afraid that if I behaved according to or expressed how I really felt, my parents would abandon me. I also experienced my parents as restrictive, in terms of showing love and care and providing safety and nurture.

As an adult, restrictions have felt lonely and scary and have resulted in my feeling angry, depressed, and anxious. What I love so much about Harm Reduction is that it is expressly NOT restrictive. Rather, it is about continuing to do what we have always done, that which has made us comfortable, and then adding things or substituting things in the way we choose and at the pace we choose. It actually feels empowering.”

Kira and I submitted our workshop proposal to the conference titled: The Peer Relationship to Food: A look at Our Food Choices and Mental Health Through the Harm Reduction Model. Our submission was accepted and we both look forward to co-presenting at this year’s conference.

I hope that as we honor Mental Health Awareness Month that each of us will take some time this month to look at Harm Reduction as a fully integrated model in all aspects of our lives, healing, and recovery. There is a lot of information out there on the subject. As Mental Health Peer Advocates we never know who we might meet that might want and need this tool.

Join the NYC Peer Workforce Coalition for their Working Peer Summit this Mental Health Awareness Month!

Your source for information that affects peers NYC PWC Peer Summit is a place to learn what working peers are concerned about today. 

The 2019 Summit will take place Wed May 29th (5/29/19) at the LGBTQ Center (near W 14th Street) from 6-8 PM. Dinner served FREE and all welcome, but RSVP is required! Email OCA@health.nyc.gov and put *2019 Summit RSVP* in the subject line! RSVP NOW *Tickets go quickly!

[flauntpage]

Three and Out: Play Calling, Screen Adjustments, and What-Ifs

Each Monday during football season, I will be breaking down three key facets of the previous day’s Eagles game in my “Three & Out” series. I may look at specific plays and discuss player performances or big moments in the game, but my overall goal is to bring to your attention some really specific, but important, pieces of the game. I hope you enjoy it.

Now that we’ve had some time to digest it, I suppose the loss could’ve been worse. The Eagles weren’t given much of a chance heading into Kansas City, but they really gave the Chiefs a tough game and even looked like the better team at times.

That said, there’s nothing that sucks worse than losing a winnable game.

Let’s get into it!

Don’t Blame the Running Game, Blame the Play Caller

If an Eagles game was played, and there were no issues with the number of times they ran the ball, would it really be an Eagles game?

The storyline this week will probably focus on the Birds’ inability to run the ball. It will focus on the issues along the offensive line and the lack of talent at the running back position. People will harp on the fact that the Eagles failed to acquire a difference making running back in a draft that many said, Howie Roseman included, was ripe with RB talent.

The biggest issue is not the running game, though, it’s Doug Pederson’s refusal to use it. In yesterday’s 27-20 loss, the Eagles ran the ball only 13 times (Carson Wentz’s scrambles excluded) in 63 offensive plays. Considering the circumstances, that is completely indefensible.

The game actually turned out to be much more evenly matched than many had anticipated. At no point, other than the last few minutes, were the Eagles in a situation in which they needed to throw their way back into contention, like they did in Cincinnati last season. When they did run the ball, they averaged four yards per carry. That kind of efficiency isn’t going to win any games, but it’s not like it was completely ineffective.

The offensive line has struggled, but, individually at least, they are somewhat of a known commodity. LeGarrette Blount may not be anything special, but you don’t play nine years in the NFL without knowing how to run the ball. Wendell Smallwood showed flashes last season of at least being a change of pace runner. The point is, the Eagles do actually have the personnel to formulate at least an adequate running game.

The running game doesn’t even have to be that effective to have an impact on a defense. Even a tackle for loss forces a defense to play the run. On running downs, it at least forces the defensive line to check for the run before getting into their pass rush and keeps linebackers down in the box for that one extra second. That might not sound like much, but when you consider that on an average pass play it takes the quarterback only 1-3 seconds to get rid of the ball, then one extra second of delay can have a major pass rushing impact.

Also, you never know what can happen:

Kareem Hunt had 12 carries for 28 yards outside of his 51 yard TD. Keep plugging on the run, sometimes it pops.

— BWanksCB (@BWCrossingBroad) September 17, 2017

Another storyline this week will be Carson Wentz.

In addition to some really nice plays, he also made a handful of bad decisions and poor throws that hurt the team. What should also be noted is the situation he was put into. Wentz was asked to literally be the Eagles’ entire offense while the Chiefs teed off on him for four quarters. It doesn’t matter how many weapons you put on the field, that’s too much pressure to put on a young quarterback. Wentz shouldn’t feel like he needs to force things, especially in a road game against a top defense.

  Building Off of the Swing Pass

Last week, I broke down some of the screen plays the Eagles ran versus Washington and explained why they can be useful for an offense. Kyle and Adam also discussed those plays on Friday’s podcast and mentioned how they’d like to see Pederson use the screen to set up some bigger plays.

While Pederson didn’t build in the deep shot that Kyle and Adam were hoping for, he did add an interesting wrinkle that netted the Eagles a key first down early in the second half. He didn’t use the wide receiver screen against the Chiefs, but he did keep the swing screen in the rotation.

Early in the second quarter, the Eagles throw this swing pass to Darren Sproles, who just barely gains the edge on linebacker Ramik Wilson and skitters down the sideline for 16 yards and first down:

A typical Sproles-ian play.

More interesting than the play itself was the strategy behind it. This play wasn’t run just for the hell of it; its primary purpose was to get Kansas City to reveal how they were going to defend the swing screen, which was having Wilson match Sproles out of the backfield.

When Wilson follows Sproles, he leaves the middle of the field wide open. The Eagles see it and take note.

Later in the game, Pederson calls the play again, this time with Smallwood running the swing. Wentz takes the snap and looks to Smallwood, which helps clear Wilson from the middle of the field. He then turns back and hits Zach Ertz, who is open on a slant across the vacated middle, for a 10-yard gain:

The Eagles run the same play later in the game, and get the same reaction from the Chief’s defense, but Wentz’s pass is batted down:

Even in a loss, it can still be fun to see the game within the game.

  Still A Team of What-Ifs

The 2016 season seemed to be defined by “what-ifs.”

What if Ryan Mathews hadn’t fumbled in Detroit? What if Smallwood didn’t fumble in Dallas? What if Wentz’s game-winning pass to Jordan Matthews against the Giants had been just one foot further inside? A 7-9 season could’ve turned out much differently depending on the outcome of just those three plays. There were plenty of other examples I could’ve used, too.

The NFL’s talent margin is razor thin. The difference between a 6-10 and 10-6 team is often just a few plays. Sometimes, teams can be unlucky, but for the most part, good squads know how to make those plays. Others have to learn.

From a talent perspective, nothing separates this Eagles team from the other average-to-good teams in the league. They have their flaws, but so does every roster. The only thing keeping this team from competing for the NFC East or for a playoff spot is the ability to make those critical, game-defining plays.

Last week in Washington, they made those plays. This week, versus stiffer competition, they couldn’t get it done. Looking back, there were several of those opportunities.

Early in the game, Torrey Smith had two key drops that could have drastically changed the outcome. I don’t want to put too much blame on Smith – he was far from the major issue in this game – but those two drops are exactly the kind of catches that good teams convert:

Although I think there’s a very good case to be made for pass interference on both of these plays, each pass him in the hands:

Scoring a touchdown and taking an early lead could’ve been a big statement and confidence booster for both the offense and defense. Instead, the Eagles came away with four less points and the Chiefs won a moral victory after being walked down the field.

At the end of the first half, newly signed rookie kicker Jake Elliot missed a 30-yard field goal that would have tied the game heading into the half. That’s another three points left on the field and a deflating end to what would have been a great way to end the half.

Last, but not least, one of the more frustrating plays of the game:

If Vinny Curry was able to make this play, he pins the Chiefs back around their 35-yard line and forces a long field goal attempt.

Instead, two plays later, Travis Kelce hurdles the entire Eagles defense for a touchdown. Kelce’s score was yet another four-point swing in the game, but, more importantly, it was the play that essentially signaled the end for the Eagles.

Those four plays, in isolation, don’t win or lose the game. But, in totality, they represented an 11-point swing on the scoreboard. These plays represent the small difference between a playoff and non-playoff team.

Just two games into the 2017 campaign, it’s hard to say what type of team the Eagles will be.

Right now, they’re still the team of “what-ifs.”

Three and Out: Play Calling, Screen Adjustments, and What-Ifs published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA: Jazz Promo Services February 2017 New Releases

Jazz Promo Services February 2017 New Releases

Arthur Lipner – “TWO HANDS, ONE HEART Best Of Arthur Lipner 2 CD Set”

(Malletworks Media)

MUSICIANS: Arthur Lipner-Vibes/Marimba/Educator/Composer

→Street Date: 02/03/2017

Arthur Lipner DVD – “Talking Sticks”

(Living Arts Productions)

MUSICIANS: Arthur Lipner-Vibes/Marimba/Educator/Composer A Documentary by Living Arts Productions Includes interviews with top vibes players and percussionists Gary Burton, Mike Mainieri, Bernard Woma, Vida Chenoweth, Ney Rosauro and others.

→Street Date: 02/03/2017

Chris Rogers – “Voyage Home”

(Art of Life AL1045-2)

MUSICIANS: Chris Rogers: trumpet, keyboards, Michael Brecker: tenor saxophone, Ted Nash: tenor & alto saxophone, Steve Khan: guitar, Xavier Davis: piano ,Jay Anderson: bass, Steve Johns: drums, Roger Rosenberg: baritone saxophone, Art Baron: trombone, Barry Rogers: trombone, Mark Falchook: synthesizer, keyboards, Willie Martinez: congas, percussion

→Street Date: 02/03/2017

Misha Steinhauer – “Dreaming With Eyes Wide Awake”

(self produced)

MUSICIANS: Misha Steinhauer-vocals, Hendrik Meurkens-harmonica & vibes, Glauco Lima-piano, Michal Jaros-bass, Samuel Martinelle-drums 

→Street Date: 02/03/2017

March 2017

Billy Jones – “3’S A Crowd”

(AC Recording AC-49)

MUSICIANS: Billy Jones, drums in a duet setting with East Coast and West Coast players. Acoustical Concepts - John Vanore EAST  COAST SESSIONS: Billy Jones-drums, George Young-Alto Sax, John Vanore-trumpet, Mick Rossi-piano, Tony Micelli-vibraphone, George Genna-piano, Tyrone Brown-bass WEST COAST SESSIONS: Billy Jones-drums, Scotty Wright-vocal, Kenny Stahl-flute, Stu Reynolds-bass clarinet, Gary Meek-tenor sax Note: Not Actual Cover

→Street Date: 03/03/2017

Brad Myers & Michael Sharfe – “Sanguinaria-Hopefulsongs”

(Colloquy Records 13214)

MUSICIANS: Brad Myers - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Bongos (Sanguinaria)  Michael Sharfe - Double Bass, Fretless Electric Bass (Norm’s Ridge), Percussion (Sanguinaria, Great Pumpkin Waltz, and Maria) with special guests Dan Dorff, Jr. - Drums and Cymbals (Norm’s Ridge, In From Somewhere, and Falling Grace) Tom Buckley - Drums and Cymbals (New Moon, Maria, and In Your Own Sweet Way) Marc Wolfley - Percussion (Great Pumpkin Waltz and Maria) Dan Karlsburg - Melodica (Sanguinaria)

→Street Date: 03/03/2017

Doug Munro And La Pompe Attack – “The Harry Warren Songbook”

(GotMusic Records GMR-1004)

MUSICIANS: SESSION NOTES Session #1 June 17, 2016 Musicians: Howard Alden- guitar, Vinny Raniolo- guitar, Doug Munro- guitar, Matt Dwonszyk-bass Songs: Serenade In Blue, Lullaby Of Broadway, Nagasaki (without Howard Alden) Session #2 July 5, 2016 Musicians: Vic Juris- guitar, Vinny Raniolo- guitar, Doug Munro- guitar, Michael Goetz- bass, Andrei Matorin- violin Songs with Vic Juris: The More I See You, September In the Rain, Songs with Andrei Matorin: Chatanooga Choo Choo, Jeepers Creepers, I Only Have Eyes For You Session #3 August 10, 2016 Musicians: Doug Munro- guitar, Ernesto Pugliese- guitar, Michael Goetz- bass, Howie Bujese-violin Songs: Forty Second Street, You Again, At Last, I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo Session #4 August 24, 2016 Musicians: Vinny Raniolo- guitar, Ted Gottsegen- guitar, Doug Munro- guitar, Michael Goetz-bass Songs: We’re In The Money, The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, Blues For Harry

→Street Date: 03/03/2017

HOWARD JOHNSON & GRAVITY – “Testimony”

(Tuscarora Records 17001)

MUSICIANS: HOWARD JOHNSON & GRAVITY “Testimony” (Tuscarora Records 17001) Street Date: March 3, 2017 Howard Johnson - Tuba; Velvet Brown - Tuba; Dave Bargeron - Tuba; Earl McIntyre - Tuba; Joseph Daley - Tuba; Bob Stewart - Tuba; Carlton Holmes - Piano; Melissa Slocum - Bass; Buddy Williams - Drums) Special Guests: Nedra Johnson Vocal (track 2); Joe Exley – CC Tuba (tracks 1, 5, 6, 7, 8); Background Vocals, (track 2) CJ Wright, Butch Watson, and Mem Nahdar

→Street Date: 03/03/2017

The Larry Newcomb Quartet Featuring BUCKY PIZZARELLI – “LIVING TRIBUTE”

(Essential Messenger)

MUSICIANS: Bucky Pizzarelli, acoustic archtop guitar (Tracks #1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10), Larry Newcomb, electric archtop guitar, Leigh Jonaitis, vocals (Tracks #1 and #3), Eric Olsen, piano, Dmitri Kolesnik, bass, Jimmy Madision, drums Note: Not Actual Cover

→Street Date: 03/03/2017

Luke Sellick – “Alchemist”

(Cellar Live: CL092916)

MUSICIANS: Luke Sellick — double bass & compositions, Jimmy Greene — tenor saxophone [2,4,6], Jordan Pettay — alto saxophone [1,3,5,7,9], Benny Benack III — trumpet [1,3,5,9], Mat Jodrell — trumpet [2,7], Adam Birnbaum — piano, Andrew Renfroe — guitar, Kush Abadey — drums [2,4,6,7,8], Jimmy Macbride — drums [1,3,5,9], Andrew Gutauskas — bass clarinet [1]

→Street Date: 03/08/2017 January 2017 Recap

Bob Porter – “Soul Jazz”(XLIBRIS ISBN-10: 1524547867)

New Book Soul Jazz is a history of jazz and its reception in the black community in the period from the end of World War II until the end of the Vietnam War. Previous histories reflect the perspective of an integrated America, yet the United States was a segregated country in 1945. The black audience had a very different take on the music and that is the perception explored in Soul Jazz ISBN-13: 978-1524547868

Brian Kastan – “Roll The Dice On Life Featuring Miles Griffith”

(Brian Kastan Records 1001)

MUSICIANS: Brian Kastan- guitar, Miles Griffith-vocals, Steve Rust-Bass, Peter O'Brien-Drums

→Street Date: 01/01/2017

Brent Gallaher – “Moving Forward”

(V&B Records GAL-B-0003)

MUSICIANS: Brent Gallaher-tenor saxophone, Alex Pope Norris-trumpet and flugelhorn (except track 3), Dan Karlsberg-piano, Aaron Jacobs-bass, Anthony Lee-drums

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Carol Liebowitz / Nick Lyons – “First Set”

(Line Art Records LA1002)

MUSICIANS: Carol Liebowitz – piano, Nick Lyons - alto saxophone

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Carol Robbins – “Taylor Street”

(Jazzcats-109)

MUSICIANS: Carol Robbins: Harp, Billy Childs: Piano/Fender Rhodes, Bob Sheppard: sax/clarinet, Larry Koonse: Guitar, Curtis Taylor: Trumpet, Darek Oles: bass, Gary Novak: Drums, Ben Shepherd: electric bass

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Dave Soldier – “The Eighth Hour Of Amduat Featuring Marshall Allen As Sun Ra”

(Mulatta MUL035)

MUSICIANS: Rita Lucarelli, Egyptology and translation of hieroglyphs to Italian, Sahoko Sato Timpone, Mistress of the Boat, Mezzosoprano, Marshall Allen, Sun Ra, saxophone & electronic valve instrument (EVI), Rebecca Cherry, Horus of Fragrance, violin,  Dan Blacksberg, Wepwawet, trombone, Nick Millevoi, Sia, guitar, Michael Winograd, Nehes, C clarinet, Enrique Rivera-Matos, Hu, tuba, Adam Vidiksis, Conductor, Akhmed Manedov, violin, Juana Pinilla Paez, violin, Olivia Gusmano, viola, Carolina Diazgronados, cello, Dani Bash, harp, Anthony di Bartolo, percussion,   Thomas Kolakowski, percussion, Dave Soldier, water bowls, electronics, Thomas Kolakowski, percussion Choir: Chace Simmonds-Frith, Natasha Thweatt, Sophie Laruelle, Xiaoming Tian, Eugene Sirotkine, Alicia Waller, Melinda Learnard, Sahoko Sato Timpone

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

David Wise – “Till They Lay Me Down”

(Self Produced)

MUSICIANS: David Wise-tenor and baritone saxophone, Bruce Forman-guitar, Alex Frank-bass, Jake Reed-drums w/ special guests: Jason Joseph, vocals (track 1); Laura Mace, vocals (track 1); Josh Smith, guitar solo (track 1); Mitchell Cooper, trumpet (tracks 1, 9); Glenn Morrissette, alto sax (track 1); R.W. Enoch, tenor sax (track 1); Amy K. Bormet, keyboard (track 1); Mikala Schmitz, cello (tracks 2, 8); David Wise, vocals (track 8, 9)

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Laura Dubin Trio – “Live At The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival”

(Self Produced)

MUSICIANS: Laura Dubin – piano, Kieran Hanlon – bass, Antonio H. Guerrero – drums

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Steve Slagle – “Alto Manhattan”

(Panorama Records 006)

MUSICIANS: STEVE SLAGLE: alto saxophone (1-7), flute (8 & 9), JOE LOVANO: tenor saxophone (1 &7), G mezzo soprano (8), LAWRENCE FIELDS: piano, GERALD CANNON: bass, ROMAN DIAZ: congas (1, 8 & 9), BILL STEWART: drums

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

The Sugar Hill Trio – “The Drive”

(Goschart Music)

MUSICIANS: Christian Torkewitz: Tenor Saxophone and Flute, Austin Walker: Drums, Leon Boykins: Bass (tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,11), Dylan Shamat: Bass (tracks 7,8,9,10)

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Zarabande – “El Toro”

(AFlo)

MUSICIANS: Alfred Flores El Toro - Marimba and MalletKat, Joe Caploe - Vibraphone and Percussion,Mark Little – Piano, Pete Ojeda – Bass, Dean Macomber - Drums

→Street Date: 01/06/2017

Baron Tymas – “MONTRÉAL”

(tymasmusic: tmdc003)

MUSICIANS: Baron Tymas, guitar, Joshua Rager, piano, Sage Reynolds, acoustic bass and bass guitar, Jim Doxas, drums, Special guests: Jeri Brown, voice on “And Oui”, Charles Ellison, trumpet on “The Laval Syndicate”

→Street Date: 01/09/2017

For Interviews, photos and general Information Contact: Jim Eigo 272 State Route 94 South #1 Warwick, NY 10990-3363 Ph: 845-986-1677 / Fax: 845-986-1699 Cell / text: 917-755-8960 Skype: jazzpromo  jim@jazzpromoservices.com http://ift.tt/1dvRi4z  

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2lNFbr4

[ricardosousalemos]

Björk: Homogenic

Robed in silver satin, luminous against iridescent grey, Björk stares out as us from the cover of Homogenic. Filigreed flowers crawl across the background like frost crystals, mimicking the embroidery on her gown. The Alexander McQueen-designed garment looks vaguely Japanese, with a kimono-like sash; her elongated neck is wrapped in rings reminiscent of those worn by tribes in Burma and South Africa, while her pursed, painted lips smack of Pierrot. Behind narrowed lids, her eyes glaze like camera lenses. The longer you stare into those enormous black pupils, the more adrift you begin to feel. Beneath two tombstone-shaped slabs of hair, she appraises us coldly, her expression unreadable. She might as well be made of wax—or marble.

After the dewy naturalism of Debut’s sepia-toned portrait and the bullet-train rush of Post’s blurry postcard from the edge, McQueen and Nick Knight’s Homogenic cover showed Björk in a way viewers had never seen her before: at once ancient and futuristic, elegant and severe, part warrior queen and part cyborg—a picture of near-perfect symmetry rendered in colors of ice and obsidian and blood. The album followed suit. Trading the playful eclecticism of Debut and Post for distorted, hardscrabble electronic drums and warm, melancholy strings, it showcased a newly focused side of the musician while embracing all of her most provocative contradictions.

By 1997, when she released Homogenic, Björk had been a familiar face to pop fans for a decade. The Icelandic singer and composer had first appeared on many listeners’ radars in 1987, when the Sugarcubes’ surprise hit “Birthday” made actual stars out of a quintet whose entire raison d'être had been to lampoon pop. (Her countrymen, meanwhile, had been listening to her since 1977, when she recorded her debut album—a collection of covers translated into Icelandic along with a few original songs, including an instrumental written by Björk herself— at the tender age of 11.)

After a few whirlwind years with the band, she struck out on her own with 1993’s Debut, enlisting Nellee Hooper of Soul II Soul and Massive Attack to co-produce the album. It was a clean break, trading the Sugarcubes’ jangly alt-rock for the electronic sounds then coming out of the UK: house beats and basslines, trip-hop atmospheres, and the rippling textures of experimental techno, which she fleshed out with orchestral strings, big-band jazz, and a smattering of world music. Surprising even her record label, which scrambled to manufacture enough records to keep up with demand, it went all the way to No. 3 on the UK albums chart. On this side of the pond, some listeners were less thrilled with her new, electronic direction: Rolling Stone carped that Hooper had “sabotaged a
 ferociously iconoclastic talent with a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry,” adding, “Björk’s singular skills cry out for genuine band chemistry, and instead she gets Hooper’s Euro art-school schlock.”

Björk paid no heed to critics (including fellow Sugarcube Þór Eldon, now also her ex-husband) who were dismissive of her burgeoning interest in electronic music. Moving from Iceland to London, she threw herself into UK dance music, soaking up its club culture and collaborating with 808 State’s Graham Massey, Tricky, Howie B, and Talvin Singh, among others. She may have come to electronic music as an outsider, but she had good instincts: For remixes, she avoided the usual suspects in favor of some of the most adventurous artists on the scene: the Black Dog, Andrew Weatherall’s Sabres of Paradise, the junglist Dillinja, even Mika Vainio, aka Ø, of Finland’s scorched-earth analog noiseniks Pan Sonic. Today, the material gathered on her early remix collections—1996’s Telegram and also the lesser-known, cleverly (if not at all succinctly) titled The Best Mixes From the Album Debut for All the People Who Don't Buy White-Labels—holds up far better than the vast majority of remixes from that era, keenly balancing the songs’ essences with a restless experimental spirit.

Part of that is because Björk never saw remixes as a simple marketing gimmick: Her youthful study of classical music had taught her to think of remixes as a contemporary iteration of the longstanding concept of theme-and-variations. “When I think of that word remix, it’s recycled, like trash,” she told Rolling Stone. “But for me, the word remix means ‘alternative version.’ It is just another word… for a variation. It’s like Bach—his symphonies were not completely written out so every time he played them, they would be different.”

Björk’s unconventional instincts and her keen understanding of the hidden links between classical and experimental electronic music—she had interviewed Stockhausen the year before, in fact—guided her on Homogenic, as strange and uncompromising an album as pop music has produced. From the album’s opening bars, it’s clear that she’s on to something new. Björk’s approach to electronic music had never been conventional, but it had generally been tuneful, and her beats tended to keep one foot tapping in time to house music’s reassuring thump. Not so “Hunter,” which bobs atop fluttering, fibrillating kicks and snares, its reversed accordion glistening like an oil slick. Aphex Twin had toured as Björk’s opener after Post, and you can hear his rhythmic influence across the album: in the filtered breakbeats of “Jóga,” “Bachelorette,” and “5 Years”; the resonant zaps of “All Neon Like”; and the buzzing, headlong stomp of “Pluto.” (The engineer Markus Dravs assisted in the beat-making, as did LFO’s Mark Bell, who co-produced much of the album.) Throughout, drums crunch and sizzle, throwing up little clouds of dust with every impact. And with the exception of the relatively frictionless skip of “Alarm Call,” her beats are far more kinetic than most programmed rhythms, twitching and flexing like fistfuls of cellophane curling open.

After the stylistic zigzags of her first two albums, Björk was determined to create something more focused. “This is more like one flavor,” she told SPIN of the album. “Me in one state of mind. One period of obsessions. That’s why I called it Homogenic.” The working title, in fact, was Homogenous. The Icelandic String Octet, performing Eumir Deodato’s arrangements along with string parts she had written herself, was the glue that held it all together. The result is a strange, captivating mix of impulses, with seesawing drones exploding into lush, neo-classical passages. You can hear the influence of the Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt, whom Björk had interviewed for the BBC the year before, on the slow, elegiac string harmonies of “Unravel”; conversely, the cut-up harp and strings of “All Is Full of Love” faintly mimic the burbling pulses of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. “Even though my arrangements are quite experimental, I’m very conservative when it comes to song structure,” she told SPIN. “So it’s this beautiful relationship between complete discipline and complete freedom."

Many artists have attempted to fuse dance music’s rhythms with classical instrumentation; recently, between events like Haçienda Classical (a pops take on the hallowed Manchester dance-music institution) and Pete Tong and the Heritage Orchestra’s Ibiza Classics, the concept seems resurgent. But endeavors like those, and even Jeff Mills’ more highbrow attempts at orchestral techno, nearly always fail; it turns out that DIY electronic dance music and classical orchestras, a format that has barely evolved in over 100 years, are largely incompatible. Björk succeeded where so many others have failed by weaving the two inextricably together into an undulating fabric as flexible and as durable as Kevlar, processing the strings until it’s impossible to tell where the silicon ends and the catgut begins. You can hear the influence she exerted upon a young Alejandro Ghersi, aka Arca, who would go on to collaborate with her on 2015’s Vulnicura; his own music’s viscous textures and mutating forms would be unthinkable without the example set by Homogenic.

Blanketing the album’s electronic elements like a heavy layer of snow, Homogenic’s strings give the album a somewhat monochrome palette; it’s a dense listen, and in songs like “Jóga” and “Bachelorette” there’s not a lot of breathing room. But those rolling, subtly shaded contours periodically give way to jagged crags and extreme contrasts. This was not accidental: The album was meant as a kind of sound-portrait of her native Iceland. Björk envisioned beats “like rough volcanoes with soft moss growing all over it,” recalls Markus Dravs, whose percussive sketches formed the rhythmic foundation for her songwriting. “I wanted Homogenic to reflect where I’m from, what I’m about,” Björk told MTV. “Imagine if there was Icelandic techno! Iceland is one of the youngest countries geographically—it’s still in the making, so the sounds would be still in the making.”

Many of Björk’s collaborators over the years have discussed her tendency to describe music in unusually synaesthetic terms: Despite her intensive formal schooling in music—she began studying music at five, and was introduced to the work of modernist composers like Messiaen and Cage while still very young—her studio vocabulary, when she’s trying to get a point across, leans toward terms like “more angular” or “pink and fluffy.” So it’s hardly surprising that she would take formal inspiration from Iceland’s steaming geysers, igneous formations, and other geological features that lend themselves especially well to the visceral textures and rhythms of late-’90s electronica.

But there were also more personal reasons for her shift of focus. After years in London, she had become homesick for the land of her birth. She had traded a country with a population of fewer than 265,000 people for a city of some six million; not only that, she had been through hell and back in the years leading up to the album’s creation. A string of relationships with high-profile artists—the photographer Stephane Sednaoui, Tricky, jungle producer Goldie—had all fizzled. A physical altercation with a journalist outside Bangkok’s international airport had landed her in tabloids all around the world. And in September, 1996, a 21-year-old Miami pest control worker named Ricardo Lopez, furious about her relationship with Goldie—unbeknownst to him, they had actually broken up just days before—assembled a sulfuric acid bomb in a hollowed-out book and mailed it to Björk’s management before locking himself in his apartment, putting a loaded revolver in his mouth, and pulling the trigger, all in front of a video camera while Björk’s “I Remember You” played in the background. Police managed to intercept the device with no further casualties, but Björk was left shaken—concerned for her ability to protect those closest to her, including her son, and conflicted about her own openness with her fans. Returning to Iceland for the Christmas holidays, as she did every year, she fell under the island’s sway. Inspired by the country’s landscape, she became determined to make music that expressed a geological essence that was as raw as her own nerves.

You don’t need to know any of these details to connect with Homogenic, however; its emotional impact far transcends the biographical footnotes of its making. Lyrically, the record picks up themes she had already explored on her previous two albums—loneliness; sexual desire; desperate, even defiant love; the feeling of being a fish out of water—but her writing is more vivid than ever before. “I’m a fountain of blood/In the shape of a girl,” she bellows in “Bachelorette,” and later, “I’m a path of cinders/Burning under your feet.” The song is a kind of epic saga, and Björk has explained that it forms the third part of a loose trilogy with “Human Behaviour” and “Isobel”—a sort of Bildungsroman about Björk’s own adventures in the wider world.

Many lyrics take place as internal monologues grappling with her own contradictions. “How Scandinavian of me!” she yelps on “Hunter,” a desperate ode to self-empowerment, chiding herself for having believed she could “organize freedom.” (To Icelandic people, she later explained, Swedes and Danes are hopelessly regimented.) The distorted, minor-key “5 Years” is lovelorn and angry—for anyone who has ever been stuck in a dysfunctional relationship, is there a more relatable lyric than “You can’t handle love”?—while “Immature” channels broken-heartedness into a kind of empowering self-reprimand (“How could I be so immature/To think he could replace/The missing elements in me?/How extremely lazy of me!”). Despite the self-flagellation, it’s a quiet, tender song, with a beat carved out of a sigh; its twinkling arpeggios sound like a dry run for Vespertine.

When love turns up on this album, it is almost always something that is over or absent—a missed signal, a sailed ship. But she makes real poetry out of these small, bitter tragedies, and she occasionally even finds hope in them. In the soft, delicate “Unravel,” she sings of her heart unraveling like a ball of yarn while her lover is away. The Devil promptly steals it: “He’ll never return it/So when you come back/We’ll have to make new love,” she sings, in a strangely affecting conceit about the fickleness and resilience of love.

But the main theme running through the album is the wish to rush headlong into a life lived to the fullest—an unbridled yearning for the sublime. “State of emergency/Is where I want to be” she sings on “Jóga,” a song dedicated to her close friend and tour masseuse, in which churning breakbeats and slowly bowed strings mediate between lava flows and Björk’s own musculature—a kind of Rosetta Stone linking geology and the heart. “Alarm Call,” the closest thing on the album to a club hit (the Alan Braxe and Ben Diamond remix, in fact, is a storming breakbeat house anthem) shouts down doubt with the indomitable line, “You can’t say no to hope/Can’t say no to happiness,” as Björk professes her desire to climb a mountain “with a radio and good batteries” and “Free the human race/ From suffering.”

If you’re looking for catharsis, you won’t find better than the album’s final, three-song stretch: Following “Alarm Call” comes the incensed “Pluto”: “Excuse me/But I just have to/Explode/Explode this body off me,” she sings, launching into an ascending procession of wordless howls as buzzing synthesizers flash like emergency beacons. Finally, the quiet after the storm: The soft, beatless “All Is Full of Love,” a downy bed of harp and processed strings. The title is self-explanatory, the lyrics wide-eyed, nearly liturgical. It is a song about ecstasy, about oneness, about infinite possibility—and about letting go.

Björk’s voice is, without question, the life force of this music. You can hear her finding a new confidence on “Unravel”: The edge of her voice is as jagged as the lid of a tin can, her held tones as slick as black ice. A diligent student could try to transcribe her vocals the way jazz obsessives used to notate Charlie Parker’s solos, and you’d still come up short; the physical heft and malleability of her voice outstrips language.

Videos had long been an important part of Björk’s work, but they became especially crucial in building out the world of Homogenic. Compared to the sprawling list of collaborators on her first two records, she had pared down to a skeleton crew for this album; working with an array of different directors, though, allowed her to amplify her creative vision.

Chris Cunningham used “All Is Full of Love” as the springboard for a tender, and erotic, look at robot love. Michel Gondry turned “Bachelorette” into a meta-narrative about Björk’s own conflicted relationship with fame—an epic saga turned into a set of Russian nesting dolls. Another Gondry video, for “Jóga,” used CGI to force apart tectonic plates and reveal the earth’s glowing mantle below. At the end of the video, Björk stands on a rock promontory, prying open a hole in her chest—a pre-echo of the vulvic opening she will wear on the cover of Vulnicura—to reveal the Icelandic landscape dwelling inside her. In Paul White’s video for “Hunter,” a shaven-headed Björk sprouts strange, digital appendages, eventually turning into an armored polar bear, as she flutters her lids and wildly contorts her expression—a vision of human emotion as liquid mercury. Her use of different versions of her songs for several of these videos also contributed to the idea that the work was larger than any one recording—that these songs were boundless.

Björk’s initial idea for Homogenic was to be an unusual experiment in stereo panning. She imagined using just strings and beats and voice—strings in the left channel, beats in the right channel, and the voice in the middle.

It’s kind of a genius idea: an interactive, self-remixable album, a sort of one-disc Zaireeka, that goes to the heart of the dichotomies that have always made Björk—theorist and dreamer, daughter of a hippie activist and a union electrician—such a dynamic character. And while it’s easy to see why the concept never came to fruition—there’s no way such a gimmick could have yielded an album as richly layered as Homogenic turned out to be—it turns out to have been a prescient idea: the direct antecedent to Vulnicura Strings, which excised the drums and electronic elements of Vulnicura and focused on voice and strings alone.

In retrospect, it’s easy to see the way that Homogenic paves the way for later career triumphs like Vespertine and Vulnicura: In its formal audacity and sustained emotional intensity, it represents a phase shift from Debut and Post, fine though they were. Björk’s personality has seen her seesaw between extremes throughout her catalog, and after the shadowy intensity of Homogenic, Vespertine would end up a softer, gentler record. (Björk has said that she envisions “All Is Full of Love” as “the first song on Vespertine.”) Created in the glow of her nascent relationship with Matthew Barney, it is the domestic album, the comfort album, the beach-house-weekend album. But Homogenic is the one that complicated the picture of Björk, that threw aside big-time sensuality in favor of more volatile forces, revealed a glimpse of her deepest self for the first time.

[alyssa-runaru-blog]

The first step into peer support.

9 November 2015 I started a new chapter in my life. I got accepted to study at the Howie The Harp in The Netherlands. For who do not know who Howie The Harp is, he is one of the biggest inspirations to make peer support a part of our healing progress, and this is acknowledge by many doctors.  For more information see this video about Howie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm5Uo6czoAw

I always wanted to help people who needed it, who deserved it. In my own experience doctors never truly listened to me. All they saw was a young girl with a troubled past. They only helped me what the books said was the right thing to do.

Over the years I had 8 foster families and never felt home. I never felt that I was allowed to be me, and feel what I felt. People kept saying :”You shouldn't dwell in the past, move one.” But a person can't move on when they don't have the tools to do this. I became a ticking time bomb, filled with emotions  that could be triggered by anything. The only thing people around me would see my rage and anger, but what truly laid inside was hidden, even for me.

I was 14 when I got my first therapy. I had to play games, draw and talk about my week. I never felt like it helped me to find answers. I was 18 when I got diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and a few months later with Epilepsy, my world crumbled down. I thought I was just like my parents, a failure, that it was in my DNA to be fail. At the time I was in a relationship with someone who could not understand this, so I had no support at all. I did my therapy to learn how to deal with my Disorder, I took my medication against my epilepsy, but I was empty inside. No one told me how to live with a brain that is mentally en physically broken. In the end I got kicked out of college because of the many times I was unable to go to school.

So there I was no school, no job, a “boyfriend” who couldn't care less… A failure.

After 3 years our relationship ended and once again I felt like I failed. At that time I had no idea that this man was not the support I needed.

I got in a period of :”I couldn't care less”. A dark depression and a family member who abused my weakness at that time got me into a huge depth. “Just like my parents.”

After a year of not really doing much I realised that it was my life and only I could make it worth living for. I asked for help once again for tools so I could climb out of that deep dark pit, back into the light. This was 3 years ago. Now I have my own apartment, 2 lovely cats (who are more like my children) and a loving boyfriend. I'm going to school again and I see a bright future. So here I am happy, strong and independent.

This is why I wanted to learn how I could use my own experience so I could help other people. People who need help to a point a doctor who studied books would fail. I am not saying that doctors who have studied for years can't help, but most of them lack one important thing : Understanding and or experience the pain and loss.

As a peer supporter/provider I know how it is the fall so deep, to lose everything, how giving up is so much easier than fighting back. And that's why Peer Providers are so important in someone's healing progress. “We” can give them what “we” needed but never got. The feeling of being acknowledged and given the right tools by someone who has been there before.

8 weeks has passed since I started and every week I get more motivated! I have met wonderful people with the same vision out of their own experience.

In the next Blog I tell about what I've learned the past 8 weeks!

And remember, Take good care for yourself! Allow yourself to feel your emotions!

-Alyssa