needlejuicerecords

[eddie-rifff]

im seeing handsome man again tomorrow :)

[i-ghd]

Pembrokeshire, county of castles, coves and film star sands.

The eye was piercing. The gaze was imperious. The message an unspoken “Do you know who’s in control around here?” Eventually, of course, the human in boots, inching forward as quietly as he could along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, prevailed over the haughty feathered hunter perched on a fence post.

I was no more than 15 feet away, with the summit of nearby Carn Llidi as a backdrop, when the sparrowhawk very reluctantly gave way. It lifted off and, after a few grudging wing beats, alighted again about six posts along.

In the space of ten minutes, as I moved slowly forward, it repeated this procedure: lift off, lazy flutter of wings and perch again, about fives times, before cutting back in a wide arc across the field to roughly where I first met it.

The guidebooks tell you to look down from the cliffs for seals, porpoises, dolphins and to the windy space between land and sea for choughs, those comical blackbird-size birds with red legs. But not a word about this top predator, which had clearly dined so well on the local singbirds that it scarcely needed to move. (The birds sang on, despite the predations.) 

Approach this national trail as you might a long, detailed menu in a restaurant, one with a wide choice of starters, many of them a meal in itself. There are also some main courses, specialities of this county, and you will want to sample one or two of them. However you would need a giant’s appetite to consume the whole 186-miles, still less the entire 870 miles Wales Coast Path, of which this is only a section.

Let’s start with those appetizers. (The sparrow hawk would be in the “today’s specials” section.) I stayed at the county’s western end, on its final thrust towards Ireland. As the chough flies, Waterford is closer than Cardiff.

Hearabouts any three to five mile stretch contains many permutations. The trail twists, it lurches, it plunges, it turns severely back on itself then climbs steeply down into and up out of tiny coves. Little tumbling streams cross your path. Banks dense with foxgloves enclose your way. A flower strewn meadow ends in a sudden sheer drop down to waves boiling over jagged rocks. The view constantly changes. Nothing stays the same on this path for more than a few minutes.

I did an idle measurement on Google Maps afterwards. Made into a straight line the Pembrokeshire Path would stretch here roughly from London, 198 miles away. In 2010, duly impressed, National Geographic Magazine judged this the second best coastal destination in the world, just behind the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada.

Every three or four miles, over much of the western end at least, there is a convenient pause, in the shape of an attractive little harbour, and there’s a fair chance it is served by the coastal bus.

This part of the coast was bristling with unexpected, at least to me, industrial history. We think of the Welsh valleys studded with smokestacks and pit heads, but there is the evidence of long and serious industry in this quiet backwater. The clues that somewhere, such as Abereiddi, was once very busy is in the eroded remains of labourers’ cottages. In other places those that stood up long enough after the decline are now holiday cottages.

We dropped down into Porthgain, an industrial powerhouse  in its day. The roads of England were paved with crushed dolerite processed here. Now gentrification is complete. The main industrial building is now the Shed Fish and Chip Bistro. On our visit no fewer than ten Norwegian-registered vintage MG sportscars were neatly parked on the quayside.

The drivers and passengers were in the Shed, where they may well have been enjoying the exquisite if expensive fresh crab sandwiches, sold at prices Chiswick visitors would recognize. We ordered the same at the Sloop Inn opposite. We were perfectly positioned, some time later, to see the MGs set off in orderly convoy on the road to Fishguard.

The coast continues like this for miles, with a spot of strenuous striding, frequent heart-lifting views, tantalising glimpses of islands big and small just off the coast. Here and there an encounter with a profound religious past, in the ruined chapel and well of St David’s mother St Non, for example.

There are other, bigger harbours. In Solva the man in the car park handed out leaflets promoting all the little art craft shops, restaurants and guest houses. The Dutch and German cars underline the county’s appeal to a discerning international market – the drivers were not there for the weather.

And so to those landscape “main courses” I mentioned. On the path from the lifeboat station at St Justinians, heading north, I am suddenly above a wide, flat,  sandy beach where somebody had expertly drawn a vast jellyfish, so big it could only be seen to proper effect from 200 yards up, on the footpath.

Pembrokeshire’s beaches are now an international hot property.  Hollywood could have chosen some enchanted strand on Bali or Hawaii as the location where Kristen Stewart thunders through the surf with 80 muscular extras on horseback in the 2012 movie ”Snow White and the Huntsman”. Instead the studios chose the wide, flat, golden film-star sands, perfectly smoothed by the outgoing tide, of Marloes Sands, on southern Pembrokeshire, even if they did computer-generate an extravagant outburst of fairy-tale towers on the conveniently flat-topped Gateholm Island, which stands just yards off the headland.

Marloes first broke into the movies in 1967 when The  Lion in Winter was filmed here. Whitesands was used in the BBC4 Richard II. 

In 2010 Hollywood came to another Pembrokeshire beach, Freshwater West. Ridley Scott had filmed Robin Hood there, with Russell Crowe. The filmmakers built higgledy-piggledy Shell Cottage there for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The beach is clearly visible in the film. You will find no trace that the scrupulously tidy film makers were ever there. It’s the same at Marloes, left just as they found it.

You could easily construct a week or ten day holday around this sublime coastland, mixing up walks with boat trips to Skomer or Ramsey, dining out in the many harbour pubs on fresh local fish. The coast path has been conveniently cut up into 200 bite-size local walks, some of them circular.

One took us a few miles inland to St Davids, which is Britain’s smallest city, by virtue of the cathedral. We arrived early to benefit from its remoteness. Most day trippers, coming from afar, don’t get there until well on in the morning. We came across the intimate little cathedral, nestling in a green valley, well before the throng.

In the nave we had plently of room for some entry-level surveying, measuring the startling incline on the spirit level app on my daughter’s smartphone. It is almost two degrees.

St David’s has an understated nobility, because of its size and unusual position. On a scale of conspicuous cathedrals, Lincoln would be a 10. St David’s would be a 1. It was a steep climb up to the city, in reality a pleasant little town, where we gave in to the Italian charms of  the Bench cafe for coffee and ice cream.

Until the early 1800s Pembrokeshire would have been as remote by land as some European cities were for a traveler starting out from London. Railways opened the county up, and oil at Milford Haven and the Irish boat traffic through Fishguard Harbour ensured the rail links survived even in the bleak post-Beeching era.

The trains helped build Tenby into as gracious a Victorian resort as Whitby or Ilfracombe. Novelist George Eliot was inspired enough by her visit to this perfect little resort in 1856 to take up writing. It has been a destination of rare distinction ever since.

A cordon of high, narrow Georgian and Victorian town houses in delicate pastel colours still wraps around Tenby’s sea front. To dodge the wind you either head to the sandy beach on the town’s north flank, or, if it’s blowing from the other direction, seek out the little harbour to the south.

Praise, then, for frequent services direct from Manchester deep into Pembrokeshire, connecting with services from London and the west and south.

It’s still the case, of course, that most visitors drive here. They will find the car necessary for visiting the centre of the county where the excellent bus service doesn’t reach.

Pembroke, is technically on the coast. The tide probes almost under the walls of the castle where  Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII, was born in 1457, (It was restored to its formidable Norman pomp after a crumbly, ivy-covered interlude in the 1900s.) But it feels like an inland town.

The castle, proud and imposing above this ancient town, is just one the county’s rich crop of citadels, The list includes Manorbier, Cilgerran, Haverfordwest, Lamphey, Llawhaden, and Picton castles. There are over 50 all told, if you include forts and the reconstructed 600 BC Iron Age citadel Castell Henllys. Leading the list is Carew Castle. It overlooks a serene millpond, with a 11th century Celtic Cross and Wales’s only restored Tidal Mill. Narberth is another appealing little castle town. If you buy the Welshcakes in Waitrose, they come from here.

[the1975hqs]

The Flask, a 17th-century former coaching inn at the top of Highgate Hill in north London, has seen its share of poetic outsider figures. Dick Turpin purportedly hid out in the stables. Byron, Shelley and Keats dropped by after visiting the opium-addicted local resident Coleridge. Now Matt Healy, leader of the pop interlopers the 1975 and cutting a Byronic dash himself with a wayward thatch of curls and rose-painted leather jacket and jeans, is in the Flask’s cellar-like back room.

He’s explaining how the Wilmslow band’s heavy presence at this year’s Brit awards — nominations for best British group and album of the year, plus a live appearance — is proof that rank outsiders can upset the mainstream.

“It’s an important moment for us because we’re a subversive act to have broken through on such a level that the Brits would want us to perform,” says Healy, 27, staring intensely over the weathered wooden table. “I’m not from the Brits’ world. I shouldn’t be there and everyone needs to know that. I couldn’t get arrested until I was 23.” He thinks about this for a moment. “Actually, I did get arrested when I was 23, but you know what I mean. I suffer massively from impostor syndrome.”

A cynic might point out that as far as impostors go Healy is an unusually well-connected one. His mother is Denise Welch, alumna ofCoronation Street and Loose Women, and his father is the actor Tim Healy of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

“I answered the phone to Harold Pinter once,” Matt Healy offers. “My parents did make following a creative pursuit seem like a viable life choice, but Coronation Street doesn’t buy you currency in rock’n’roll. It’s a curse, actually. When people say my parents bought my connections I think: ‘Yeah, the best person to get you a record deal is Curly Watts. Mention Gail Tilsley to Universal Records and you’ve got a No 1 album in America.’ ”

Forming the band during lunch breaks at Wilmslow High School in 2002 when they were only 13, Healy, guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald and drummer George Daniel went under a variety of names before settling on the 1975. They vowed to reflect a young, internet-bred generation’s relationship with music where there are no guilty pleasures any more, just an endless world of choices from which to cherry-pick. This approach — of combining everything from shiny pop and gothic introspection to overblown stadium rock, and aligning it all to the terminal oversharer Healy’s emotionally wrought lyrics — led to such glorious moments as playing a concert in Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, to an audience of one.

Full interview under the cut

“We were a band with an identity crisis,” Healy says. “I was going around telling people we were the ambassadors of a generation who approach music in a non-linear way, who don’t think in terms of genre. The only problem was nobody was interested.”

Gradually, word got out. The 1975’s self-named debut from 2013 was a hit. When the preposterously titled I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It went to No 1 in 2016, the 1975 became Britain’s biggest cult band. Now here we are on a rainy January lunchtime and the wildly entertaining Healy is grappling with his conflicted feelings on stardom.

“Can you even be a rock star today?” he asks, talking as much to himself as to me. “The only way I can be a rock star is to be a humble egomaniac. I am saying: love me, with no top on, in a pair of leather trousers, but that obnoxiousness comes with genuine fragility and fear because it’s important for people to feel personally addressed when it comes to art. I’d rather talk about a part of myself that I have a profound distaste for than paint myself in a good way.”

What part of himself does he have a distaste for? “I’m constantly apologising for being pretentious and egotistical,” he says. “And I don’t like it that I can’t have platonic relationships with women. I don’t know why that is. I don’t sexualise women and I’m not misogynistic, but perhaps I’m such an atheist that the closest I can get to divinity is the feeling you have when a woman likes you . . .” He puts his hands over his mouth. “Oh no! This is all going a bit Ron Burgundy!”

Healy does tend to let his mouth run away from him in a way not dissimilar to Will Ferrell’s portentous character in Anchorman. In an interview with The Times in 2014 he pondered on whether he might actually be the Messiah. Last year he got into hot water after recalling Taylor Swift coming to one of the 1975’s concerts. Reflecting on the hysteria surrounding her, he wondered if it would be emasculating to be her boyfriend. The celebrity blogger Perez Hilton picked up on it and interpreted it as an insult against Swift. It also started a rumour that Healy was Swift’s boyfriend.

“Imagine what it is like being Taylor Swift,” says Healy now. “A guy you met for five minutes gets so badgered by questions about you, he inevitably says something that can be misheard as a shade. It made me realise how mental her world is.”

Healy is like your loudest, silliest friend who became famous by mistake and is still working out what you’re meant to do. When he tells of sharing a Saturday Night Live green room with Larry David, Ben Stiller and Bernie Sanders or recalls Dolly Parton calling him a cutie, you sense his awe.

“Mate, I’m just a snot-nosed teenager from Wilmslow and I’ve taken that world with me. The guy who used to do our merchandise is now my assistant, but I can’t call him my assistant because it’s Dan from maths who I used to sit next to. I’d like to say that backstage is like a meeting of Ginsberg, Blake and Lennon. Actually it’s more like The Inbetweeners with us playing Fifa and calling each other dickheads. Put me in a room with famous people and I’m rubbish. When David Byrne was in the dressing room next to ours I was the most uncool person in the world. I was lingering by the door, waiting for David Byrne to come out. Then he appears just as I’m opening a bag of Haribo, I’m shocked, they split open and go everywhere, he walks past me without saying anything and I’m just a dick with a bag of sweets.”

Then there are the fans, who are for the most part teenage girls who identify deeply with Healy while also finding him extremely attractive. “I do take my artistic responsibility seriously because with some of my fans it gets heavy,” he says, looking serious for a moment. “Someone sent me razor blades she tried to kill herself with. She was giving them to me to make sure she never did it again. Kids draw me all the time. I used to have my own emotional baggage. Now I have to buy a suitcase on every tour just for all the emotional baggage I get sent.”

Is that a burden? “No because I totally get it. Fundamentally what people want is human connection. Regardless of religion, or whether the world will come to an end, or what worlds may have come before, the only thing that will actually, definitely happen is interaction with another human being.”

All of this fed into I Like It When You Sleep . . . , its title an expression of Healy’s desire to make an album as over the top and emotionally unchained as possible. The funky, Prince-like Love Me is his response to becoming an icon of sorts; Ugh! is an expression of disgust at his former cocaine excess; The Ballad of Me and My Brain is a depiction of being driven insane by fame; and Loving Someone is a celebration of companionship that has become something of an anthem for the LGBT community. Healy says the album is the product of a band facing up to the crisis of finding themselves, after years of indifference, very popular indeed.

“We freaked out!” says Healy, excitedly, of their sudden success. “We spent ten years in my dad’s garage without anyone caring who we were. Nobody would sign us, so our manager formed a label and signed us for 20 quid in his kitchen, while making pasta and pesto. And then it happened. We were on tour for two years, suddenly it was time to make the second album and we didn’t know if we could do it. George had a breakdown and had to get help. And what was there to write about? I knew I couldn’t release a single called God, Aren’t Threesomes a Nightmare?”

He considers this. “Not that I was having threesomes, but nobody else was sharing our experiences so I had to go deep. What are the fundamentals? Fear, religion, struggles with addiction, my relationship with my mother, dealing with death . . . And I can’t change who I am. When it comes down to it I’m a gaunt, insecure person who is writing about being young and doing drugs.”

You can’t help but like him. He may be completely self-obsessed, but at least he has the grace to acknowledge it. (“I don’t think I’m Marc Bolan, but I like the fact that you might think that I think I’m Marc Bolan.”) And there’s something generous about the way he wants to give you everything he has to offer, whether you are a fan watching him preen on the stages of the world or a journalist wondering if, after an hour and a half of non-stop chat, he might feel like stopping soon. He is a rock star born in an age when being a rock star without a degree of irony is no longer viable.

“I started out in a band because it made me happy,” he concludes. “Then all this stuff happened, I got scared and I didn’t know why I was doing it any more until I remembered: because it makes me happy! This is my life. I would be selling flowers on Brent Cross roundabout if it weren’t for the 1975.”

[reyeshatmaker8-blog]

Read Propulsion By Victoria Ashley Free.

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At our car dealership in Dallas, our company market every thing coming from reputable family cars and trucks to custom Jeeps and unusual high-end finds that lovers scour the world for. The one I steered was tomato reddish, which really did not help, creating me look like the kind of person that will purchase a cars and truck to ruin people's early mornings.

[nobiscuits]

kpop blog sample (best of 2016 - incomplete)

(paragraph now irrelevant) Don’t worry, I’m aware that this is a bit late and that we’re almost a whole month into 2017. I’m aware that every other best-of-2016 list was published weeks ago (months ago, for those people who don’t count the last two weeks of a year as being in the year for some reason – which is ridiculous: what if the historically acknowledged BEST THING EVER comes out on December 29th and it’s NOT recorded in your best-of list for that year and you’re ostracized from the Annual-Best-Ofs-List-Writers Association and you lose all your ranking street cred and have to move back in with your parents, huh? Was it really worth all that just to reach a deadline or whatever?)

Taking that all into account, I’ve decided that January 20th is the perfect day to write this list (I’ve been deliberating over the winners for a grueling few weeks) because a new person is currently being sworn into the most powerful position in the world and my office is dealing with this by serving liquor at 9AM and then marathoning the Harry Potter movies, so as far as I can tell, no one is particularly concerned that I might be thinking and writing about Korean Pop music instead of putting together another competitive power point. Not that I’ll announce it, but considering the VP just spilled beer on her computer watching a Quidditch match, I think whatever I’m doing is probably fine.

I’m of the opinion that it’s borderline impossible to rank songs and releases concisely, so my system is in no actual order from best to MOST BEST or anything like that. Instead, these are my favorite 10-ish releases/singles in 2016, why I think that, and a superlative about them that made them stand out to me. So if your faves aren’t number one, please don’t send me death threats (side-eyeing you here, ARMY) because I’m nobody important and there isn’t even a number one and I didn’t even write them in a particular order. Now that it’s in writing that I’m scared of ARMY, without further ado: The Most Best of 2016.

Kisum – No Jam

Released Jun 22, 2016

“Most Slept-On Song”

Uh, more like Yes Jam?? One of my favorite rappers to come out of UPRS (South Korean rap elimination show, bafflingly called Un-Pretty Rap Star despite most of the contestants looking something like this) , Kisum’s fun and light style of spitting rapid-fire, upbeat and energetic advice like “steal your mom’s car keys and let your friends hop on” fits perfectly with the upbeat piano-driven boogie, shouts and chatting in her track. A repeated, yell-able English hook bumps up my enjoyment of any k-pop song exponentially; having it be in English but make NO SENSE is even better and you’re a liar if you say you weren’t chanting along to “NO JAM NO JAM NO JAM NO! OKAY OKAY OKAY” after the first chorus. “No jam” is a phrase used in Korean slang to indicate someone being no fun, boring, or terrible on variety shows (the greatest of sins). I have actually refused to look up the origin of the phrase because I want to believe it originated from my husband BTS’ Rap Monster telling his group mate, Jimin, that he’s “got no jams” on their way to LA (I also highly recommend watching the video from the beginning to hear perhaps the cutest pronunciation of “extra-terrestrials” ever recorded). But let’s get back to Kisum before I turn this article into “top ten times I wanted to jump Rapmon”. “No Jam” didn’t do particularly well in Korea; Kisum didn’t promote it on music shows (there’s 4 or 5 broadcasts a week where artists perform their recent releases – think Korean TRL if TRL wasn’t the worst), which I understand as the fun of the song (and the music video) is its chant-along, casual, have-a-beer-on-your-rooftop-with-your-attractive-friends summer vibe that wouldn’t be super compatible with the slick-black-stage-and-strobe-lights feeling of music shows. Despite not charting super well domestically, the video only 2million views on youtube, which is still pretty damn good for an un-promoted track from a non-winner of UPRS, but by no means great. As far as I can tell, I’m responsible for about 500k of those views, as even international fans seem to have forgotten about the track, which makes it my “Most Slept-On” award winner for 2016.

Younha – Get It? (Ft. HA:TFELT, CHEETAH)

Released Jun 12, 2016

“Collab of The Year/Girl-Power Of the Year”

Internationally popular power-vocalist Younha sets a new precedent for collaborations and bad-bitches all at once with this incredible song featuring Yenny of the massively popular Wonder Girls (her stage name as a solo artist is the baffling HA:TFELT for some reason, I don’t know) and UPRS Season 1 winner, Cheetah. The song has a killer synth base that plows into a rock-y, poppy and upbeat 80s sound and layers the vocalists’ three unique sounds into a punchy, girl-rock chorus based around the line “you say you’re innocent and I’m fuckin’ crazy”, using the censor sound as a part of the instrumental. In general, actually, this song has probably my favorite English of the year: besides “I’m fucking crazy” and “you better watch out” in the chorus, Yenny purring “just beg for mercy” is overwhelmingly fine, and Cheetah’s rap includes the line “Catch me if you can? Fuck boi, I’m Frank Abagnale”. The music video continues the 80s girl-band feel, where certified bad-bitches Yenny and Cheetah teach tiny, innocent Younha how to be one of them, wear fishnets, apply neon makeup, and disregard men. The song didn’t do particularly well domestically or internationally; the ladies not promoting it and Yenny not using her actual name probably hurt its chances. K-Pop seems to be coming back around on inter-label collaborations after years of sectionalized stagnation, so I’m hoping that other tracks like this continue to be produced, because the world needs more bad-bitches standing together, rolling their eyes and more Yenny holding a lollipop.

Red Velvet – Russian Roulette

Released September 6, 2016

“Best Music Video”

If I’d written a Most Best of 2015, SM’s youngest girl group, Red Velvet, would’ve had the best music video with their incredibly produced and performed colorful, visual stunner and musical banger, Dumb Dumb. If I’d written a Most Best of the first half of 2016, the award would go to Red Velvet’s haunting ballad (and subtle tribute to the Sewol Ferry Disaster), One of the These Nights. BUT I wrote neither of those. Fortunately, ReVel has my back and released ANOTHER visually fascinating, hella aesthetic video along with a 100% certified bop. Musically, I actually prefer some of their earlier tracks and found Russian Roulette’s album a little disappointing, especially compared to their incredibly stacked first full album, The Red, released in 2015. The song is still a blast, and I definitely rock out to it, but what gets this on my list is the music video: the girls are tricked out in the bizarre outfits, geometric hairstyles, and aesthetic makeup that have become associated with Red Velvet and dance and sing to the cutesy, sweet song with their trademarked creepy non-smiles. Compared to Dumb Dumb’s bright, contrasting colors, Russian Roulette is muted and pastel, replacing slap-bands with frills and trippy 90s geometric transitions to Strawberry Shortcake-esque borders and Itchy and Scratchy animations. The video starts out innocuous enough, but within the first minute, it changes from a cutesy 80s-tennis-players aesthetic to a cutesy-80s-tennis-players TRY TO MURDER EACH OTHER aesthetic. The sinister undertone grows and grows as the stone-faced girls’ pranks escalate to fatal: Seulgi drops a fridge on Joy via Rube-Goldberg machine, Yeri feeds her members nuts and bolts instead of cereal, Wendy lights Seulgi’s sweater on fire and pushes Yeri into a drained swimming pool, Joy and Yeri bury Irene in tennis balls, Irene and Seulgi push Wendy’s bed in front of a speeding car, Seulgi and Wendy drop a piano on Joy and Irene, and the four girls team up to knock a row of lockers on Seulgi. You know, normal tennis camp stuff. The girls have stated that the murder-pranks are because they’re all in love with the same man, but in my PERSONAL view, because that’s stupid, it’s just how tennis is played in Korea.

Jonghyun – She Is

Released May 23rd, 2016

“Best OohAhhs” / “Best Misheard English”

This would obviously be a top 10 release just for being the day before my birthday, but fortunately, it has merits on its own as well. Jonghyun, the lead vocal of K-Pop super group, Shinee (no wait, their name is super cute: like how the person who gives a gift is the gifter and the one who receives it is the giftee, they’re the ones who receive the shine! Come on, that’s cute as fuck.) Jonghyun debuted as a solo artist a few years ago, and is known for his soulful, powerful vocals, powerful abs, and powerfully open-mind. In the past, his solos have been more soulful or ballad style; “She Is” is his first fully fun, fully funky release, and it knocks it out of the park. This song is such an unusual groove that I actually literally have no idea how to describe it. Just watch it. The second reason it’s on the list is that the English in this song is phenomenal. The chorus is “Oh, she is” but sounds like Jonghyun is exclaiming “Oh, SHIZ” before ooh-ahhing like a pro, putting this on level with “I don’t wanna cry, destroy my ass” for innocuous-English-misheard-as-profanity. The other stellar English line is when Jonghyun interjects, “I like this bridge”…not really during the bridge of the song, at all, nor while standing on or near a bridge. It’s wonderful, and the way he sort of purrs the sentence has become an excellent addition to my observations, and I appreciate bridges much more. Thanks, Jonghyun, and I’m sorry I can’t pronounce your name.

Bulletproof Boyscouts – Blood Sweat & Tears

Released October 9th, 2016

“Best ‘Comeback”

A unique and rather confusing aspect of K-Pop for Westerners is that every time a group returns to promote a new release, they refer to it as a “comeback”, despite the group not disbanding or quitting or anything. I’ve decided to recognize BTS for not just their song or their music video or their Rap Monster, but for the comeback as a whole. BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeodan, which means Bangtan Boys, and Bangtan can be translated to “bulletproof” and therefore “Bulletproof Boyscouts” is not only a hilarious name for a group, it is a perfectly acceptable translation. One of my all-time favorite groups (I just spent pretty much ALL of my money buying pit tickets for their show in Chicago), BTS are massively popular both domestically and internationally; this music video is currently sitting at 82 MILLION views on youtube right now since its release 3 months ago, and they’ve sold out multiple shows in the US. Other than making it now possible to watch “a BTS BST BTS”, Blood Sweat & Tears wins comeback of the year for several reasons other than featuring Rapmon repeatedly pronouncing “realm” as “rehl-um” and daring to look at the camera like this. The hype for the comeback started roughly a month before, and featured seven individual short films, each starring one of the members and using samples of their solos from the album. The films included references to their previous trilogy of interconnected music videos, collectively called “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life”, and leading to hundreds and thousands of interpretations and theories shared and postulated among fans as they tried desperately to understand how the two universes connect (although let’s be real HYYH [Chinese title of TMBMiL] is about the boys learning how to deal after Jin dies, adoyee) and what the parallels meant for BST. Instead of a grand connection between the two, BST took its own route and introduced us to a dramatic, sexy, and almost Latin-insfired jam accented by visuals of opulence, temptation, and formal pajamas as it relates car door guy’s descent into temptation to the eponymous character of Herman Hesse’s bildungsroman, Damien, succumbing to the charms of the fallen angel Abraxes. Surprisingly heady stuff for a k-pop video, but what else can you expect from the group whose leader is a mensa member (pictured here far left). Other than the wonderful story and visuals, the era also gave us Jin kissing V and Rapmonster and V recreating it, and there is nothing more perfect and good in the world.

[designproservices]

Best Places and Festivals to visit in Florida.

Hello to my blog. Today I wanted to talk about Florida, its touristic places and its top live music venues. By the way these days Irma took its parting shot at Florida this Monday and yesterday on 11th of September 2017. The monster hurricane with a Category 4 storm was downgraded to tropical storm status as it finally pushed its way out of the state. It was the most powerful Atlantic storm in a decade, and has already caused widespread destruction on several Caribbean islands.

So this natural disasters pushed me to look straight ahead and write about the bright side of Florida like its beautiful nature and cities. This is the the most top places to visit Florida in your holidays like the Panama City Beach, Miami, Disney World,the Keys and the Apalachicola National Forest:

I) Best Places to Visit in Florida:

1) Panama City Beach:

Panama City Beach on the Florida panhandle offers 43 km of white sand beaches on the Emerald Coast.  You can do a lot of activities like, sports fishing on the gulf, plenty of golfing, marine parks including one for alligators, amusement and water parks

2) Miami:

Miami is one of the major center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, arts and international trade. It is a city that manage the world’s largest number of passenger cruise ships that attracting tourists from all over the world.

3) Disney World:

Disney World is Florida's most popular vacation destination. Walt Disney World is twice the size of Manhattan. With four theme parks, two water parks, and countless sporting, shopping, and dining options, it's impossible to see everything in the course of one vacation. 

4) The Keys:

The Florida Keys are sometimes called America's Caribbean. It's not every day you can drive to an island, much less an entire chain. Grab your car, your sunglasses and a road trip buddy, and take a driving tour of the islands of the Florida Keys.

5) The Apalachicola National Forest:

The Apalachicola National Forest is the largest forest in Florida, with an abundance of fresh water streams, rivers, lakes, and natural springs. Make sure to visit Leon Sinks, an unusual geological area of caverns and sinkholes, or the Apalachee Savannas Scenic Byway with its stunning displays of wildflowers in open prairies near the Apalachicola River.

II) Top live music venues in Florida:

Tempted to go to a gig in Miami, Orlando, Gasparilla Music Festival, Anastasia Music Festival or Full Paradise? Florida has rock, indie and punk covered and some great happy hours to enjoy too.

1) Gasparilla Music Festival:

Every year, the Gasparilla Music Festival puts on a concert in the downtown area of Tampa, Florida, to celebrate the continued support for music promotion and education. The festival features a lineup of artists that span multiple genres and spotlights both established and lesser-known acts. Guests can also sample cuisine from a number of local restaurants participating as vendors during this event.

2) Anastasia Music Festival:

The Anastasia Music Festival is an epic 3-day celebration of bluegrass music featuring some of today's brightest traditional and modern bluegrass stars including the Del McCoury Band, David Grisman's Bluegrass Experience, Sam Bush, the Travelin' McCourys, Mandolin Orange, Elephant Revival, and more!

3) Full Paradise:

For more than two decades, Fools Paradise a funk-fueled destination event have brought a new vitality to classic funk, matching their smooth and soulful grooves with a hip-hop-inspired urgency and mastery of beat.

4) Springing the Blues:

Springing the Blues in Jacksonville, Florida, is a blues bash with performances by legendary and promising cross bearers of the delta torch. Transforming the beach shores of Jacksonville into an authentic blues club, over 50 acts converge on stage at this three-day event.

5) Tortuga Music Festival:

Tortuga Music Festival kicked off in South Florida in 2013, the brainstorm of music executive Chris Stacey. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Stacey wanted to bring a large musical event on the level of Coachella to the Sunshine State to help raise awareness for one of his favorite cause’s, marine life conservation, through his non-profit, Rock the Ocean. In collaboration with renowned marine wildlife artist Guy Harvey, this festival features two days of musical acts heavy on country music, with a dabbling of rock and roots and a conservation village that aims to educate attendees on the plights of the world’s ocean and sea life.

There is of course many other touristic destinations and music festivals in Florida, we have just listed some of them. Which destination do you consider the best place to visit in Florida?

[thoughtfulcupcakesublime]

Virginia Living magazine has released its “Best of Virginia 2017” list in this month’s issue.

The list highlights the best places to eat and shop as well as the top services and events. This year, 50,000 people voted on 105 categories.

In the northern Virginia region, here are the awardees from Prince William County:

Best Automotive Repair Shop

Steve’s Auto Repair & Tire; StevesAutoRepairVA.com: An official Goodyear dealer, Steve’s Auto Repair offers services, including inspections, tune-ups and engine repairs and replacements. The team is committed to community outreach and has opened the shop to help Cub Scouts build Pinewood Derby cars for their annual race, and donated a bus to a local Boys and Girls Club.

Second place: Shannon Auto Repair; ShannonAutoSales.com

Third place: Olde Towne Auto Repair; OTAR.MechanicNet.com

Best Accounting Firm

Third place: DuvallWheeler, CPAs; DuvallWheeler.com

Best Architecture Firm 

Loveless Porter Architects, LLC; LovelessPorterArchitects.com: The 35-year-old firm’s specialty is commercial design – projects have included schools, office buildings and shopping centers. Loveless provides full service design and construction services, including some interior detail work. For a church building, the team helped select wood for the construction of pews. Loveless also performs residential design.

Best Day Spa

Second place: Tranquility Day Spa & Salon; TranquilityDaySpa.com

Best Dental Practice

Third place: Sporting Smiles Pediatric Dentistry and Family Orthodontics; SportYourSmile.com

Best Event Planning Company

Third place: Creations by Brenda; CreationsByBrenda.com

Best Hair Salon

Second place: Curves Hair Studio; CurvesHair.com

Best Interior Design Firm

Third place: Olamar Interiors, LLC; OlamarInteriors.com

Best Orthodontic Practice

Second place: Dunegan Orthodontics; DrDunegan.com

Best Pediatric Practice

Manassas Pediatrics; ManassasPediatrics.com: Featuring a team of five pediatricians, the practice provides sports physicals, same-day sick visits, asthma care and well visits for babies, kids and adolescents. All of the pediatricians at the 25-year-old practice are on staff at Novant Health Systems’ Prince William and Haymarket medical centers.

Second place: Haymarket Pediatrics; HaymarketPediatrics.com

Best Private Air Service

Chantilly Air; ChantillyAir.com: Chantilly Air customers can charter flights from a fleet of seven aircrafts that includes Learjets and Challengers authorized to conduct flights at Ronald Reagan National Airport. The company’s Jet Card program offers discounts for frequent fliers. The service also provides aircraft management services for private plane owners, including scheduling, crew staffing and maintenance tracking.

Best Real Estate Firm

Third place: DePugh Realty; DepughRealty.com

Best Annual Charity Event

Second place: CASA CIS’ Annual Evening Under the Stars; CASACIS.org

Best Art Event

Third place: Historic Manassas Gallery Walk; ManassasGalleryWalk.com

Best Art Gallery 

Third place: Creative Brush Studio; CreativeBrush.com

Best Museum 

Second place: The Manassas Museum; ManassasMuseum.org

Third place: National Museum of the Marine Corps; USMCMuseum.com

Best Performing Arts Company

Gainesville Dance Center; GainesvilleDanceCenter.com: Take in a performance by Gainesville Dance Center students, and you just might be wintessing the birth of a star. Former students have gone on to compete on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance?, and perform with the Radio City Rockettes. More than 100 classes between to locations offer tap, ballet, contemporary and jazz.

Second place: Showcase Dance Studio; ShowcaseDanceStudio.net

Third place: Manassas Ballet Theatre; ManassasBallet.org

Best Bed And Breakfast

Second place: Manassas Junction Bed and Breakfast; ManassasJunction.com

Third place: Bennett House Bed & Breakfast; VirginiaBennettHouse.com

Best “Do Not Miss” Tourist Attraction

Second place: Manassas National Battlefield; NPS.gov/Mana

Best Fishing Outfitter

Second place: Cabela’s; Cabelas.com

Best Hunting Outfitter

Gander Mountain; GanderMountain.com: Gander Mountain sells hunting gear for game big and small from brands like Carry-Lite, Bushnell, River’s Edge and Primos. Inventory includes 2-D and 3-D decoys, tree stands, game and trail cameras, apparel by brands like Under Armour and the North Face, and even shampoos and deodorants for those weekend getaways off-the-grid.

Second place: Cabela’s; Cabelas.com

Best Retirement Community

Second place: Tribute at Heritage Village; TributeAtHeritageVillage.com

Best Bar

Second place: Malone’s of Manassas; MalonesOfManassas.com

Third place: Monza; EatMonza.com

Best Barbeque Restaurant

The Bone; TheBoneBBQ.com: The NoVa-based barbecue chain has five locations and a food truck, and its menu of scratch-made sides and sauces, plus meats smoked daily in house, has a real following, The family-owned restaurant once catered a PGA tournament party for golf pros Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods, Jimmy Walker and Justin Thomas, who called the Manassas location a “go-to BBQ spot!”

Best Breakfast Restaurant 

Ashton Family Restaurant; AshtonFamilyRestaurant.com

Best Farmers’ Market

City of Manassas Farmers’ Market; VisitManassas.org: Operating year-round, 1-3 times each week depending on the season, the market offers fresh, local produce and wares – including meats, cheeses, baked goods, candles, skin creams and handmade clothing – from vendors located not more than 150 miles from the Manassas city center. Last year, more than 56,000 visitors attended the market days.

Best Food Truck

Second place: The Bone; TheBoneBBQ.com

Best Local Gourmet Food Store

Third place: Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.; Wegmans.com

Best Local Ice Cream Shop

Nathan’s Dairy Bar; NathansDairyBar.com: Named for the owner’s son, Nathan’s Dairy Bar has all the charm of an old-fashioned ice cream shoppe, including a walk-up window where you can order soft serve ice cream or sherbert. Special flavors, like salted caramel and chocolate raspberry truffle, change twice weekly , and with the seasons, Its food truck – called Nate Jr. – is available for events.

Third place: Milkberry Yogurt & Bubble Tea; MilkberryYogurt.com

Best Locally Owned Coffee Shop

Third place: Jirani; JiraniCoffeeHouse.coma 

Best Mexican Restaurant

Zandra’s Taqueria; ZandrasTacos.com: Housed in a historic 1920s building, Zandra’s offers a menu of nearly two dozen a la carte tacos. Guests are encouraged to try multiple variations built on soft corn or flour tortillas or with lettuce wraps. The menu includes traditional items like carnitas salsa verde and more inspired options like sesame-crusted Ahi tuna with cabbage and Santa Fe dressing.

Third place: El Tio, Tex-Mex Grill; ElTioGrill.com

Best Outdoor Dining

Second place: Monza; EatMonza.com

Best Pizzeria

Tony’s New York Pizza; TonysNewYorkPizza.com: Naples-born Tony D’Agostino founded Tony’s in 1989 to bring authentic Italian food – such as pasta al forno (or “messy lasagna”), which includes house made meatballs, Italian sausage, beef, ricotta, mozzarella, sauce and ziti – and New York style pizza to Prince William County. Tony’s now has three locations in the region.

Best Place For Brunch

Second place: Malone’s of Manassas; MalonesOfManassas.com

Best Seafood Restaurant

Second place: C.J. Finz; CJFinz.com

Third place: Blue Ridge Seafood; BlueRidgeSeafood.com

Best Creative Cocktail Menu

Third place: Malone’s of Manassas; MalonesOfManassas.com

Best Book Store

Richard McKay Used Books; McKayUsedBooks.com: Richard McKay has been buying, selling and trading used books – including children’s, fiction and non-fiction, graphic novels, textbooks and comic books – since 1983. Over the years, the shop has added vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and games (both board and video) to its inventory, and features a local authors table.

Best Bridal Boutique

Amy’s Bridal Boutique; AmysBridalBoutique.com: Founded in 2008, the boutique moved to its current location in historic Manassas two years ago. It offers gowns from designers, including Stella York and Justin Alexander, and outfits bridesmaids and groomsmen as well. Retro Fans can pick up 1950s-inspired dresses and accessories from the brands Pimp Girl Clothing and Lindy Bop.

Second place: Jeanette’s Bride N’ Boutique; JeanettesBride.com

Best Car Dealer 

Shannon Auto Sales; ShannonAutoSales.com: Shannon Auto Sales specializes in pre-owned vehicles from makers like Audi, BMW, Fiat and Hummer. The dealership provides everything you need for your new wheels right on site: along with in-house financing, it also has repairs, including tire balancing, brake service and repair and safety inspections.

Best Fine Jewelry

Third place: Ashby Jewelers; AshbyJewelers.com

Best Florist

Second place: Flower Gallery of Virginia; FlowerGalleryManassas.com

Best Gift Shop

Shining Sol Candle Company; ShiningSol.com: While on the road touring with Brett Michaels, Pete Evick purchased a candle – and was thoroughly unimpressed. So the rock- and roller embarked on a new career path: Making candles of his own. Five years later, the brand, which hand makes hand pours every candle on site, offers some unusual scents, including officially-licensed candles for Def Leppard (“Pour Some Sugar On Me”) and Aerosmith (“Permanent Vacation”).

Second place: The Things I love; TheThingsILoveManassas.com

Best Independent Home Decor Store:

Second place: The Things I love; TheThingsILoveManassas.com

Best Motorcycle/Scooter Dealer

Second place: Whitt’s Harley-Davidson; WhittsHD.com

Best Women’s Clothing Store

Second place: Allyssa Bryn; AllyssaBryn.com

The post Virginia Living Publishes “Best of Virginia 2017” appeared first on What's Up Woodbridge.

via What's Up Woodbridge

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The Daily Thistle

The Daily Thistle – News From Scotland

Friday 12th  May 2017

"Madainn Mhath” …Fellow Scot, I hope the day brings joy to you…. What a wet day yesterday, it rained torrentially, but on the good side the gardens and parks were watered  and the streets were washed clean … we also had a large thunderstorm for best part of the afternoon which rattled a few windows, Bella for those who like to hear about her, watched the storm with interest, standing and looking over the balcony as the street turned from roads to rivers, several times looking at me as if for some kind of explanation….

US COUPLE HOPEFUL OF U-TURN ON INVERNESS DEPORTATION…. A lawyer has urged a judge to quash a Home Office decision to deport an American couple who run a B&B in Inverness. Advocate Alan Caskie told judge Lady Carmichael that the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, should have allowed Russell and Ellen Felber, from New York, to remain at their home in Inverness where they have invested more than £300,000 in the Scottish economy. The Court of Session heard that the couple originally came to Scotland in 2011 on an entrepreneur visa. The Felbers moved to the Highlands and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds renovating a guest house in the city, which has attracted rave reviews and awards. However, the court heard that the Home Secretary decided not to grant them indefinite leave to remain in the UK last year. Ms Rudd made the decision after applying rules which were made in 2014 regarding the numbers of employees that people on entrepreneur visas had to apply. The new rules were made following a decision to extend the Felbers’ visas. The court heard that the couple had followed the requirements set out in the old rules dictating entrepreneur visas. Mr Caskie argued that the Home Secretary shouldn’t have applied the new 2014 rules when considering the application made by the Felbers to indefinitely remain in the UK.

DUNDEE STREET IS THE ‘LEAST BRITISH’ IN UK….  A quiet residential street in Dundee has a unique claim to fame - it is the least British area in the UK. Analysis of 2011 census returns found that just one resident in Ballater Place out of 99 respondents identified themselves as British, the lowest percentage in the country. More than 90 per cent identified themselves as Scottish. The results were revealed in a study by Electoral Calculus, an independent website which provides analysis and predictions based on survey data and opinion polls.“Only one of the 99 respondents declared themselves to be British or partly British, giving a nationwide low score of one per cent British, with 91 per cent of people identifying as Scottish,” the report noted. “The residents are mildly left-of-centre, strongly SNP-supporting, and mostly UK born. The area voted to leave the EU, and has education and economic indicators significantly below average.” The UK-wide census, held every 10 years, asks respondents to identify their nationality. Options include English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and British. “Our chosen key indicator is the proportion of people who chose British or a combination which included British, such as Scottish-British and Welsh-British,” the report explained. “The national average response was 29 per cent of adults felt British or partly British. Generally UK born respondents were more likely to select English, Scottish and Welsh than non-UK born people.”Ballater Place was built as part of the post-war social housing boom in cities across the UK which saw residents move away from often run-down tenements in central areas to more peripheral estates. “Given Dundee returned the highest Yes vote in the independence referendum, it is not surprising that the residents of Ballater Place reflect that view and I am very proud to have their support for both the SNP and independence,” Shona Robison, who represents Dundee City East at Holyrood, told The Courier.In contrast, the locality which feels the most British is a neighbourhood in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The streets around the junction of Chadderton Way, Ruskin Street and Davies Street have 85 per cent of its residents feeling British or partly British.

COMEDIAN CHRIS ROCK CONFIRMS GLASGOW DATE AS PART OF UK TOUR…. Comedian Chris Rock has announced his first UK tour in a decade, including a date in Glasgow. The Total Blackout Tour will bring the Hollywood star to Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Glasgow, Birmingham and London in January 2018. His two sold-out shows at the O2 Arena in London during his No Apologies tour in 2008 broke the Guinness world record for the largest audience at a live comedy show at the time. The American comedian, who recently divorced his wife Malaak Compton-Rock after 18 years of marriage, has referred to his new show at the alimony tour, telling Rolling Stone: “I wasn’t a good husband a lot of the times.” Rock, who voiced zebra Marty in the animated Madagascar movies, and starred opposite Adam Sandler in the Grown Ups films, will soon reunite with Sandler for the Netflix movie The Week Of.The UK leg of his new tour will kick off at the Manchester Arena on January 11 and will conclude at the O2 Arena on January 27.

POLICE APPEAL AFTER PET PYTHON GOES MISSING IN ABERDEEN…. A pet python has gone missing in Aberdeen, sparking a police hunt. The 4ft 6in royal python disappeared in the Crown Street area of the city, Police Scotland said. The force have stressed that the creature is non-venomous. It is not thought to present any danger to the public. Officers are working to try to trace the reptile.They have urged anyone with information to contact them by calling 101. The royal python is the smallest of the African pythons and is popular in the pet trade. NEW £1 COINS CIRCULATED WITH ‘HOLES AND BLEMISHES’….  New £1 coins are entering circulation with holes and blemishes despite being lauded as the most secure in the world. Consumers have expressed confusion at being handed the recently released 12-sided pound with apparent minting problems. Rolled out last month, the coin was boasted to have a range of high-tech features, including a hologram, which made it hard to counterfeit. The issue was uncovered by The Sun newspaper and has seen some coins lose the silver centre, which features the Queen’s head, entirely. The Royal Mint said such “variances” were always likely to slip past its quality control due to the volume of coins being made at speed. Warped pounds are now being auctioned online with starting prices as high as £5,000. Shopper Tamzin Nye was handed the new coin as change but found it misshapen and with a gap between its gold outer ring and silver core. “I just got confused at how it got out really, even if it is a fake it’s meant to be an unfakeable pound coin for it to come out so quickly, or however it got out of the Royal Mint,” the 18-year-old mother from Deal, Kent said. Early teething problems have hampered the launch of the new design, including incompatibility with coin-operated machines and shopping trolleys. The old coin and the new coin will co-exist together for a period of around six months, until the round pound ceases to be legal tender on October 15. Three million of the modern versions have been made at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales per day. They have a gold-coloured outer ring and a silver-coloured inner ring and are based on the design of the old 12-sided threepenny bit, which went out of circulation in 1971. Last year former chancellor George Osborne claimed it was “the most secure circulating coin anywhere in the world” developed “with ground-breaking technology”. A Royal Mint spokeswoman said: “The Royal Mint produces around five billion coins each year, and will be striking 1.5bn new £1 coins in total.

On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today, 

Our look at Scotland today is of Inverary Castle from an unusual perspective....

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Friday 12th  May 2017 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in ….. Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus