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justforbooks · 4 years

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Michel Piccoli obituary

Stalwart of French cinema whose prolific career included films with Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol

By Ronald Bergan

For more than half a century, there seemed to be one constant in French cinema – the actor Michel Piccoli. With his death at the age of 94 something vital has disappeared from the screen.

Never young looking – he was prematurely bald – Piccoli grew in maturity and power over the years, with directors such as Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Marco Ferreri and Claude Sautet seeking his services more than once. He also worked for directors of the stature of Alfred Hitchcock, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jacques Rivette, Costa-Gavras and Louis Malle.

Even when he was a big name, Piccoli was never too proud to play small supporting roles or even bit parts if he liked the screenplay. But whatever the size of the role, whether playing a goody or a baddie, Piccoli would bring to the character a gravitas (with a tinge of humour) and an ironic detachment, simultaneously revealing a real, recognisable human being beneath the surface.

Piccoli was born in Paris to a French mother and an Italian father, both of them musicians – his mother was a pianist; his father a violinist. At 19, he made his screen debut in a walk-on part in Sortilèges (1945), directed by Christian-Jaque.

After several roles in the cinema and theatre, he met Buñuel. “I wrote to this famous director asking him to come and see me in a play. Me, an obscure actor! It was the cheek of a young man. He came and we became friends.” Piccoli appeared in six of Buñuel’s films, usually cast as a silky, authoritarian figure.

His first performance for Buñuel was as a weak, compromised priest trekking through the Brazilian jungle in La Mort en Ce Jardin (Death in the Garden/Evil Eden, 1956). In Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), he was the idle and lecherous Monsieur Monteil, sexually obsessed with Jeanne Moreau as the maid Célestine.

Just as louche was his smooth bourgeois gentleman who persuades a respectable doctor’s wife (Catherine Deneuve) to spend her afternoons working in a high-class brothel with kinky clients in Belle de Jour (1967). Piccoli reprised the role charmingly almost 40 years later in Manoel de Oliveira’s Belle Toujours (2006).

He was discreetly charming as the Marquis de Sade in Buñuel’s La Voie Lactée (The Milky Way, 1969), subtly overbearing as the home secretary in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and sinister as a prefect of police in Buñuel’s penultimate film, Le Fantôme de la Liberté (The Phantom of Liberty, 1974).

In the 1950s, apart from his one film with Buñuel and his appearance as María Félix’s jealous lover in Jean Renoir’s French Cancan, Piccoli was cast mainly in run-of-the mill “policiers”. During this period, Piccoli was part of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés set in Paris, which included the writers Boris Vian, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the café singer Juliette Gréco, to whom he was married from 1966 to 1977. He was also an active member of the French Communist party.

The 60s was his most creatively exciting and varied decade. His first leading role (with Serge Reggiani and Jean-Paul Belmondo) was as an unscrupulous gangster in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos (The Finger Man, 1962).

This led to one of his best remembered parts, as Brigitte Bardot’s husband in Godard’s Le Mépris (Contempt, 1963), in which he plays a screenwriter, willing to sell his wife to a producer (Jack Palance) in order to get his script filmed by Fritz Lang. In a homage to Dean Martin’s character in Vincente Minnelli’s Some Came Running, Piccoli wears a cowboy hat in the bath.

As memorable as this image was the name of the character he played in Jacques Demy’s Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967). As Simon Dame, he is continually being greeted as Monsieur Dame (a joke that works only in French), and is rebuffed by Danielle Darrieux, who cannot bear the thought of being called Madame Dame.

It was in 1968 that Piccoli met Ferreri, who starred him in Dillinger È Morto (Dillinger Is Dead), a bleak study of alienation, in which a man’s life is laid bare. Piccoli is brilliant as an industrial designer who, while spending an evening at home, making himself a meal, watching TV and seducing the maid, decides to kill his wife and go to Tahiti.

It was the first of seven films the actor made for the Italian-born director, the most infamous being La Grande Bouffe (Blow Out, 1973), an excessive film about excess, where Piccoli as a TV personality, along with a pilot, a judge and a chef, all bored with life, literally eat themselves to death.

Piccoli’s few roles in English language films were less than challenging: they included his secret agent in Hitchcock’s Topaz (1969) and the suave card dealer in Malle’s Atlantic City (1981).

He was much happier in France, where his talents were not only respected but revered. His several films for Sautet showed him as a complex and flawed hero, starting with Les Choses de la Vie (The Things of Life, 1970), in which he played a man who, although having an affair, finds himself still attached to his estranged wife, his son and friends, and consequently unable to make the absolute commitment his lover requires.

In 1973, Piccoli formed a production company which kicked off with that year’s Themroc, directed by Claude Faraldo, in which he played a factory worker, living in a squalid flat with his mother and sister, pursuing an existence of repetitive routine and urban grind, before he rebels. What made this biting social satire particularly unusual was that language was abandoned completely, with the characters having to communicate in a series of formless noises, something Piccoli does particularly effectively.

Piccoli then returned to his speciality – the urbane bourgeois – in Chabrol’s blackly comic Les Noces Rouges (Blood Wedding, 1973), where he played a mayor’s deputy having an affair with his boss’s wife. In Godard’s Passion (1982), he was a factory owner whose wife is having an affair with a film director.

He gave three of his largest and most impressive performances in his late 60s and 70s. In Malle’s Milou en Mai (Milou in May, 1990), he is the ideal repository of all the director’s sympathies, the upholder of the best of traditional country values, unambitious, unacquisitive and a lover of nature, in contrast to his greedy middle-class family gathered for a funeral.

Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse (1991) cast him magisterially as a famous artist trying to capture a new nude young model on canvas. In Oliveira’s Je Rentre à la Maison (I’m Going Home, 2001), Piccoli struck a personal and poignant note as an actor trying to deal with old age, and refusing to compromise his principles.

He shone in what amounted to almost a cameo as the courtly but bumbling elderly relative of the Duchess of Langeais (Jeanne Balibar) in Rivette’s Ne Touchez Pas la Hache (Don’t Touch the Axe, 2007), a version of Balzac’s novel on erotic obsession.

For the English language The Dust of Time (2008), Theo Angelopoulos’s last film, Piccoli joined such stalwarts of European art cinema as Bruno Ganz and Irène Jacob in a love triangle that covers the latter part of the 20th century. Despite some of the stilted dialogue, Piccoli bares the soul of a character whose sufferings include his internment and escape from a gulag.

He dominated every moment as a reserved and modest cardinal who panics when elected pontiff in Nanni Moretti’s semi-satire Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope, 2011). The first close-ups of him, when he realises he has been appointed the new pope, suggest, with subtle expressions, emotions ranging from surprise, humility, ambivalence, excitement and then horror.

In Vous N’avez Encore Rien Vu (You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, 2012), Alain Resnais’ intriguing, self-reflective examination of actors and acting, film and theatre, Piccoli, playing himself, is the doyen in a cast of leading French actors of the day.

He directed the features Alors Voilà (1997) and La Plage Noire (The Black Beach, 2001), the former winning the Critics’ prize at Venice, to add to the many prizes he had won as an actor. It was appropriate that when Agnès Varda filmed One Hundred and One Nights for the centenary of the cinema in 1995, she cast Piccoli as Monsieur Cinema.

He was married three times. His first two marriages, to Eléonore Hirt and to Gréco, ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, the screenwriter Ludivine Clerc, whom he married in 1978, and by his daughter, Anne-Cordélia, from his first marriage.

• Michel Piccoli, actor, born 27 December 1925; died 12 May 2020

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#JUST FOR BOOKS #Michel Piccoli

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thisguyatthemovies · 5 years

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Why so quirky?

It took more than 14 years to get around to it, but the other night I watched the 2005 Cameron Crowe train wreck “Elizabethtown,” a film that sometimes shows up on Worst Movie Ever lists. It’s bad, but its “worst” status is more about disappointment, given the writer-director’s previous track record {“Say Anything…,” “Almost Famous,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”). Still, did I mention it’s bad? A ridiculous premise, plot lines that go nowhere, obvious and heavy-handed symbolism, multiple and sickeningly sweet (and annoying) “meet cutes” and quite possibly some of the worst casting in a major motion picture ever all add up to a movie that deserves much criticism.

“Elizabethtown” also is notorious for inspiring the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (or MPDG). The phrase usually is credited to Nathan Rabin, who wrote a piece about the movie, “The Bataan Death March of Whimsy Case File #1: ‘Elizabethtown,’” for AV/Film nearly 15 months after its release. In it, he describes Kirsten Dunst’s character, Claire, the inexplicably bubbly love interest of suicidal-but-handsome protagonist Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), as the embodiment of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Rabin describes the type as such:

“The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.”

By that definition, applied retroactively, Dunst’s Claire isn’t the first MPDG in movie history (some include Katharine Hepburn’s early roles on MPDG lists), nor is she even the best example of one (think Natalie Portman in “Garden State,” or Zooey Deschanel in “Yes Man” or the TV show “New Girl”). And the term, which Rabin reportedly now regrets coining, has become better defined with attributes that don’t necessarily fit Claire, even though she will forever be considered the epitome of the trope.

In case you have not seen “Elizabethtown” (and you’ll probably be just fine never seeing it), Bloom plays a shoe designer who works for a company not unlike Nike. Somehow, he is saddled with all the blame for a shoe that is so bad that it is recalled and will cost the company (somehow) nearly a billion dollars. Bloom’s Drew Baylor is fired and decides to off himself, but a phone call about the unexpected death of his father interrupts him during his first attempt. Drew, a West Coaster, is enlisted by his family to travel to Elizabethtown, Ky., his father’s hometown and where the elder Baylor has passed away, to bring the body home for cremation. Relatives in Kentucky have other plans for his final resting place.

Drew takes a flight to Kentucky and – wouldn’t you know it? – is the only passenger on the plane. That’s where Claire comes in. She apparently is the lone stewardess, and she is a talkative one at that. She won’t leave Drew alone from the get-go, and she (somehow) senses Drew is troubled and needs help because, for a guy who had a relatively important position with an internationally known shoe maker, he has no idea how to live this thing we call life. She does what any upstanding MPDG would do – she makes the repair of his damaged soul her sole purpose in life.

Claire would seem to vary from the standard trope in that she has a life of her own, at least when she and Drew meet. Her career would afford her at least a modest independent existence. She seems to have a nice place. She even has a boyfriend, though it is not clear if the guy really exists or, if he does, he is all that into her. But Claire quickly becomes a genie let out of the bottle; Drew’s every wish is her command. She just happens to show up wherever Drew is so much that if the roles were reversed, Drew would be accused of stalking. She says all the right things, even as Drew continues to hint at ending his life. She even (somehow) has the availability to, within a brief period of time, piece together a scrapbook (including hand-drawn illustrations) that will help Drew navigate a soul-discovering solo cross-country road trip AND (this being a Cameron Crowe movie) has provided the soundtrack via mix CDs that are (somehow) timed perfectly to coincide with landmarks during Drew’s travels. So omnipresent, so magical is Dunst’s character that some have suggested she was written to be a guardian angel sent to save Drew’s life. That interpretation at least makes some of Claire’s story semi-plausible and almost tolerable.

Claire is selfless to a fault, and she certainly is strange, maybe unstable. But, if anything, Manic Pixie Dream Girls lost even more sense of self and picked up more strangeness as the stock character turned into a full-fledged trope. Think Deschanel as Allison in the 2008 Jim Carrey vehicle “Yes Man.” As is always the case in these things, Carrey is a cynical, disillusioned man looking for meaning in life. He happens upon Allison, who hits a lot of stock MPGD notes. She zips around town on a moped. She wears mismatched clothing from vintage stores. She performs avant garde (and awful) music. Her primary means of supporting herself (?) is by teaching a class that combines jogging and photography. She is everything Carrey’s Carl Allen is not, mostly carefree. They, of course, engage in romance, even though Carl is notably older than Allison (that’s the case in many films, not just MPDG movies).

In 2010’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” two characters combine for the role of MPDG. The titular character, played by Michael Cera, is a slacker musician a few years removed from high school. That doesn’t stop him from dating a high-schooler, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), whose sole purpose is as a superfan for Scott’s band. Then Scott meets the girl of his dreams (literally), Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is at least older than Knives but still is quirky (she works delivering packages while on roller skates) and impulsive (she often changes her hair color) but is too aloof and serious to be a full-on MPDG. She does, however, end up being a sort-of trophy, to be won if Scott can defeat her seven evil exes. So, her existence still is minimalized.

Some movies have addressed the MPDG thing head-on. Though sometimes cited as a MPDG, Kate Winslet’s Clementine in 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is actually the anti-MPDG. Sure, she wears orange hair and gloves with the fingertips cut off, and she’s impulsive. But she also is flawed, sometimes dark and independent (MPDGs typically don’t get any of those traits). And she says this, which seems like a direct response to the trope, even though the term didn’t yet exist, as written by Charlie Kaufman: “Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a fu**ed-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.”

Those are sentiments Claire in “Elizabethtown” never would have expressed, her focus being on a lost, sensitive young man and his happiness, not hers. Nor would she be allowed to even think such, given she and MPDGs like her are the products of writers and filmmakers who want to believe that this idealized version of young women is out there. That will probably be the case as long as men are writing movies, just as the male equivalent of the MPDG – the ridiculously handsome man with washboard abs who manages to accumulate much wealth despite always being around to tend to a woman’s needs and whisk her off to beaches on his private jet – will always exist as long as women are fantasizing about them and flocking to see them in rom-com-drams and reading about them in romance novels.

A little healthy fantasy is fine, but movie tropes and stereotypes are not, if we believe they can shape how we live in real life. Manic Pixie Drew Girls, though not totally a thing of the past (Joi, the A.I. girlfriend in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049,” comes to mind as an updated version), are becoming outdated as more and more females are having their voices heard in Hollywood. MPDGs are being replaced by independent women who are the focus of the story and don’t have to be bubbly if they don’t feel like it, who aren’t required to be quirky and can chase their own happiness. These characters, unlike Manic Pixie Dream Girls, are multidimensional. They give a movie depth, not just gloss.

Imagine if that’s the kind of character Dunst’s Claire could have been. “Elizabethtown” wouldn’t show up on so many Worst Movie Ever lists. And it wouldn’t have been forever linked to a tired movie trope and the terminology to describe it.

#movies #movie review #movie tropes #manic pixie dream girl #elizabethtown #kirsten dunst #eternal sunshine of a spotless mind #kate winslet #yes man #zooey deschanel #ramona flowers #scott pilgram vs the world

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benhaardy · 6 years

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king of my heart || b.h.

(i apologize i do not know where this gif is from i found it on weheartit but im not sure thats who made it but here is the post. if you are the owner please let me know so i can credit or take it off at your request. thanks!)

Summary: Ben takes you to the Bohemian Rhapsody premiere and you reminisce of his accomplishments and your years-long friendship.

Request: Can you do a fluffy first kiss imagine with Ben? Thanks!

A/N: so uhhh the request was literally the simplest thing EVER but my extra ass had to put some Extra Sass™ upon this lol. idk why i wanted to go big for such a simple prompt but its ben and its his birthday today so HE DESERVES IT!

gotta add in that S H E E R D R E S S S H I R T because i’m still not over it, thank u, next.

the outfit i had in mind: dress (the one in the middle) shoes necklace earrings, though obviously you can imagine your own outfit.

song that the title/some of the fic is based off: king of my heart by taylor swift

obviously, i am a huge fan of the longtime best friends to lovers cliche and idk if anyone else thinks this but i write my characters as super affectionate in the first place so i hope it isn’t weird to anyone to have like the really touchy-feely best friends or friendships in my stories ig? idk, just a thought cause i literally just noticed how affectionate my characters are ANYWAYS here's wonderwall

thank you for sending a request in! hope you enjoy it!

also happy birthday to our king i hope he has a beautiful day

Wordcount: 1.7k

Warnings: a few frick words (2). fem!reader. mention of nudity. fluffy!! not proofread, but beta’d

“Ready, Y/N?” Ben called from downstairs

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

You put the final touches of your outfit on. Perfume on your wrists, Tiffany necklace on, you went down the stairs carrying your nude Louboutins and adjusting your earrings. It wasn’t really your style to do any of this, really, but your best friend Ben had wanted to take you to the Bohemian Rhapsody premiere. Go big or go home, you figured. At his asking, you didn’t see or know what he was going to wear so you played it safe with a black dress.

You went down the stairs and got to the bottom floor. Ben was standing in the middle of the living room, back turned to you. He was looking down at the cat weaving in between his legs. As far as you could see, he was wearing an all black suit. “Ben?” you said. He whipped around to see you as you were putting on your shoes.

“Oh, wow, Y/N,” he beamed. Ben put his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide with surprise. “You look so good!” You opened your arms to embrace him, to which he stepped into, his arms around your waist.

After a few seconds, you both pulled away but his arms still stayed in their place and your hands lingered on his biceps. “I could say the same about you, Benny! Everything looks great!” He let you go fully. You looked up and down at his outfit. Sheer black dress shirt, black blazer and trousers, everything was tailored perfectly to his body. You grinned. He cleaned up very well, but it wasn’t like he didn’t dress nice in the first place.

“Ready to go?” he asked. “Car’s waiting outside.”

“Ready.”

You watched from the side of the carpet as the main cast were getting photographed together. That was your best friend! Standing next to Roger fucking Taylor and Brian fucking May. Everything still felt surreal, though he had been in the public spotlight for the past few years, this felt different. Your senses just felt heightened. The flashing lights, the hues of purple and pink and gold all around, surrounded by people you either knew well or were complete strangers to you. Your eyesight was crisp, noticing everything you could, taking it all in. You did musical theatre, you hadn’t really dealt with something as big as this, even with Apocalypse.

And here your best friend was, in the middle of all of this. Your mind played back all the memories of you two in drama school with his all-nighters, monologue after monologue, script after script. You couldn’t be more proud of your closest friend, all of his hard work going to this. You could remember Ben’s shifty eyes backstage the very first show of Judas Kiss and the blush on his cheeks after the show when he remembered that you had watched him perform and there was that one scene of full frontal; he figured it was worth the embarrassment, it’s not as if you hadn’t seen worse.

Back to Eastenders and its countless shirtless and kissing scenes. You thought back to the countless nights that you spent up with him when he was weighing leaving the show or becoming Archangel. At your own urging, Ben left Eastenders, ready for the next chapter, ready for the next big thing. One of the best memories of your life was traveling to the United States with him for Comic-Con and driving up and down the west coast a week before he had to attend it. He took you to Disneyland and Universal Studios after everything with the convention was said and done.

Now, Bohemian Rhapsody! You laughed at the memories of Ben scrambling to find a good drum teacher close by and how he turned up in the middle of the night to your flat to tell you he got the part. You couldn’t ever forget his embrace in the dark of your living room, his face buried in your shoulder and his arms, tight and strong around your waist. Your happy tears wiped away by Ben’s hand as you drew apart. Though you both were excited, it was still the middle of the night, so you both just slept in your bed once more with the cats.

Ben would always invite you over to watch him play and give your input. You had to admit, he had gotten pretty good over all the lessons. Though you discouraged his lying about playing the drums and seeing the consequences in his clamber to learn as much as possible, it paid off in the best way possible. They started the process of making the movie. Though you couldn’t really be by his side throughout filming, you were basically there, his perpetual FaceTimes keeping you in the loop with everyone. You even “met” the guys and Lucy, who you hit off with very well. Ben made sure you were always by his side and he was always by yours.

So when you saw him here, at his biggest premiere surrounded by even more amazing actors and actresses, you couldn’t help but shed a tear. This role of Roger had basically brought him into the light.

You watched them take pictures until Ben beckoned you over, the group disbanding and walking over to their families and significant others to pose for their own photos. You came over and he put his arm around your waist, hugging you close. Your hand was on his back and you both posed for pictures, the flash basically blinding you, the sounds of the shutters all around. “Smile,” Ben whispered into your ear.

Everyone was at the rooftop restaurant that you were all going to eat at after the premiere. You were sitting in between Roger and Ben, having been introduced to all of the people around the table. Never in a million years, you thought, never in a million years did you think you’d be here, conversing with the real Roger Taylor or getting along with his daughters, or telling Lucy Boynton and Anita Dobson where you got your necklace and earrings.

“If you’ll excuse us, Y/N and I are going to go out to the balcony,”

You scooped another spoon of food in your mouth before saying, “Oh, okay we are? Okay.” You gave a polite smile to Roger, who you were talking to before Ben got your attention. Standing up, you followed Ben out of the tall, ornate door, out to the terrace where you could see all of London. The view was breathtaking.

“What is this all about?” you inquired as you came over to Ben standing with his hand on the glass, observing the scenery in front of him, the various coloured lights illuminating London.

“How do you feel about all this, Y/N? The whole shazam,” he questioned, wanting to know your true feelings about everything.

You shook your head, “What can I say?” You looked out along with him. “If you had told me in the first year of uni when we met that we would be here right now. Eating dinner with two freaking members of Queen and their families and being around some of the best actors and musicians in the world!” You said, your voice breathy. It was crazy what your best friend had been able to accomplish. “I would’ve slapped you and called you mental. This is all so... wow.”

“I couldn’t have made it here without you, Y/N. I’d be a complete and utter trainwreck. I wouldn’t even, like, survive without you, you know?”

“Ben,” you shook your head vigourously, “Don’t…don’t. This is your thing. This is your work. This is your doing. I was just there along for the ride and you were there with me,” you reasoned. “It’s just...just that simple.”

He shook his head but smiled. “None of this is that simple.” Ben turned to face you, still looking down. You moved to look at him yourself. “You mean everything to me, really. It’s not just the support. It’s the little things. It’s how you never fail to put your jumper sleeves over your hands and bury ‘em in your face. It’s how you look at me when you’re adjusting my suit and doing that little,” he paused and did little sweeping movements in the air, “that little sweepy thing on my lapels and you look back up at me and smile. The way you smile, the way you look at me, love, it just- it drives me crazy in the best way. You’re always there for me, yes, but that is not the only reason that I love you.” Ben took hold of your hand and held it close to his heart, his hand encapsulating yours entirely. “I want you, Y/N.”

You leaned forward and an abundance of holy shit holy shit did I just do that did I really just do that did he reeeallly just say those amazing things about me?’s rang through your head, echoing and echoing. You kissed him. His plump lips were upon yours finally. At first, Ben was stiff, taken by surprise at your sudden action but he softened quickly with the feeling of you on him. Your hand stayed on his chest while his moved down to your hips. As the kiss deepened, you laced your hands around his neck.

He pulled away. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted that, love,” he said, breathless, his lips swollen and pink.

“Me too, Ben.” You smiled and cupped his cheek in your hand, to which he kissed your palm and held your wrist lightly. He looked down at his shoes, blushing.

“We should—“ he started, his thumb pointing back to the inside. “We shoul—“

You exhaled. “Y-Yeah, yeah we should, we should.” Ben grabbed your hand and led you inside. He pulled your chair out for you and you sat in it. You brushed imaginary dirt off your dress, trying to act casual.

“Looks like you two had fun out there!” exclaimed Roger, a bellowing laugh coming from him.

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lewishamledger · 6 years

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A colourful life

With its bright paintwork, eccentric plasterwork and front garden overflowing with flowers, the home of former Loampit Hill resident Mr Pink was a much-loved local landmark. Helena Appio tells how she came to make a short film about its owner

Words by Colin Richardson; Photos by Lianne Harris

When I was young, growing up in Lewisham, there was one place that was so mind-bogglingly exotic, so other-worldly, that every time I passed it I could only stare in silent wonder.

It turns out that I was not alone. Countless numbers of people – and maybe you’re one of them – have gone past and wondered. All except one person, that is. Helena Appio stopped and knocked on the door.

Close to the top of Loampit Hill, on the corner of Somerset Gardens, stands a house quite unlike any other in the neighbourhood. It is a large, red-brick Victorian mansion. It has a flight of stone steps up to the front door in front of which is an ample porch, its stone roof supported by several sturdy columns.

So far, so standard-issue. But then the eye is caught by the corner tower, which rises a full storey above the rest of the house and things take a different turn. You start to notice the plasterwork. It is as if a pastry chef, driven mad by years of decorating wedding cakes, has run amok with a giant piping bag full of liquid plaster.

Swags of grape-laden vines are draped around the massive windows. Strange faces peer out from the foliage. A thousand flowers bloom under the eaves. Scrolls and twirls and curlicues run riot. Rococo would be one word for it.

But what made this already remarkable house so utterly arresting was that someone had attacked the eccentric plasterwork with a paintbrush, a brush dipped in shades of pink and blue and green and red, which brought it to the fore in eye-popping detail.

The same hand also painted the columns in vertical candy stripes and the steps to the front door a bright, pillar-box red. In monochrome 1970s Lewisham this house was full-on Technicolor. And the person who made it so was a truly extraordinary man by the name of Brenton Samuel Pink.

In the late 1990s, Helena Appio, a producer and director of documentaries at the BBC, decided to strike out on her own and try her hand at independent film-making. Her first project, for Channel 4, was The Windrush Years, 12 three-minute portraits of people who came from the Caribbean to the UK between 1948 and 1971.

Then she saw the Arts Council was inviting submissions for short films about local artists and she wondered who might fit the bill.

“At that point,” Helena recalls, “I was living in Brockley, in Montague Avenue, and Mr Pink lived literally minutes away. I passed his house every day and I thought, ‘Who lives here?’ so I went and knocked on the door.

“He opened the door about two inches wide and peered out and said hello. I said, ‘I wonder if I could talk to you about making a film’, and he said, ‘Come back in a week or so.’

“I went back and took a bottle of rum with me. He opened the door a little wider this time and took the rum and said to come back later. I went back a third time and he let me in. He started talking and I realised he was very interesting, an amazing character. Then we went back and filmed.”

The result is a touching and, at times, elegiac 15-minute film, A Portrait of Mr Pink. In it, Mr P explains that he was born in Jamaica in 1925 and came to the UK on July 11, 1957, just shy of his 32nd birthday.

He had already established himself as a singer and musician, but although he continued to perform and make recordings, he spent his working life as a refuse collector and street cleaner for Lewisham Council.

He loved his job, he says in the film. On the day that he retired – August 28, 1988 (he is very precise about dates) – he was, he says, “very upset, terribly upset. If I was younger,” he adds, laughing, “I’d go back there right away, right away.”

Mr Pink bought the house on Loampit Hill in 1967 and lived there until he died last year. He seems to have shared it with his wife and eight children, most of whom had left by the time the film was made.

He devoted much of his time to putting his stamp on the place. “I like beauty and I like prettiness,” he says in the film. “When I just bought it, well, it was not beautiful. But since I take it over and added myself towards it, I developed it to have a lightness. My additions make a difference, brighten it up.

“I’ve created a part of Jamaica here. Some like this house and some may not like it, I don’t know. But I know a lot of people like it and I like it myself.”

In the film, Mr Pink points proudly at a large plaster face, with long, flowing tresses, which adorns the front of the porch. He thought it ugly, so he set about “prettying it up and chiselling it down”.

He painted the face a pinky brown, the tresses sea green like seaweed and added a blue moustache and beard. “It looks like Jesus,” he says approvingly.

He continued the religious theme inside, where the colour scheme was, if anything, even more startling. A framed copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper was hung on a mustard yellow wall.

Wonky plaster mouldings had been applied to the bedroom walls by Mr P’s very own trowel, creating an intricate and slightly bonkers latticework, the spaces in between painted with bright colours so that the whole resembled a somewhat woozy stained-glass window.

Outside, Mr Pink created a beautiful garden that was intended as a reminder of Jamaica. He was often seen tending to it while wearing one of his many hats, some of which were adorned with greenery. “I always wear a hat,” says Mr Pink to camera. “It makes me feel good and feel lovely.”

Mr Pink created his dream of Jamaica against a less than dreamy backdrop. In 1977, riots broke out on Lewisham High Street when a march by the racist National Front (NF) was confronted by the Anti-Nazi League.

In local elections that year for the Greater London Council, the NF took a third of the vote in Lewisham. The following year, Mr Pink himself, returning from a “fantastic” holiday in Jamaica, was detained for some hours at Heathrow airport.

“It made me feel very sick, very dirty, very nasty, very ugly, not a pretty, happy person at the time at all,” he says in the film. He never went abroad again.

And while, arguably, Lewisham and the UK as a whole have changed for the better in so many ways since then, for people of the Windrush generation like Mr Pink, it seems that much has stayed the same.

Today, a year after Mr Pink’s death, his house is a shadow of its former glorious self. The colours have faded, the paint is peeling, the garden is unkempt. Jesus has lost his blue moustache and beard and now looks more like Ann Widdecombe. There is something of Bates Motel about the place; it is more English gothic than Caribbean rococo.

For all that, it remains an arresting sight. People still stop and look and wonder. The magic that Mr Pink wove has not entirely dissipated.

Earlier this year, Helena was contacted by two people who had heard about her film and were interested in seeing it. So she posted it on Facebook “in memory of Mr Pink, who died last year”. Then she went to bed and thought no more of it.

The next morning, she checked her phone and said to her husband, Tom, “That’s weird. I’ve got an awful lot of Facebook notifications.” The film had gone viral. It went from 1,000 views first thing to 4,000 after breakfast. By lunchtime, it was over 6,000.

“It just continued,” says Helena. “I think it’s now 530,000.” And that’s just the Facebook viewings. After Time Out put it up on their website and Helena posted it to YouTube, “there were something like a million views in about a month”.

“It had obviously touched people,” Helena says. “It was really lovely.”

Watch A Portrait of Mr Pink on YouTube at tinyurl.com/mrpinkfilm. The Windrush Years, directed by Helena Appio and Petal Felix, can be viewed on Vimeo at tinyurl.com/windrushfilm

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sanabakkoushisanangel · 7 years

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Heeey. Sorry if I disturb you by something or anything but could you maybe list some good shows? (It's not a must that LGBT couples are included) thanks a lot ❤️❤️💫

Hi, Anon!

You’re not disturbing!

So I’m the type of person that watches a pretty random variety of shows so I’m not sure what your taste leans toward exactly.

If you have any suggestions, make a comment or drop me a message with the show and why you like it! And if you want, make a suggestion on how to make this list better!

** Is for shows other people suggest to me. I’ll comment if I’ve heard of it or seen any of it.

*I’ll try to put if it’s LGBT friendly. And also I want to put down if it’s diverse or not and a note if you suggest a show is diverse…I’m looking for either the main character that is a POC or more than 1-2 minor characters that show up often enough to make a difference to the plot. Don’t tell me a show is diverse if it’s 3 black characters are just window-dressing…👀

***UPDATE*** (8/11/2019)*** SO I'm finally getting around to updating this list. As always let me know if y'all have any suggestions! This thing is getting insanely long! I might try to make it a link on my page (which is in serious need of renovation lol). Oh Lord, I still have so many shows I didn't add. I might have a problem...

Enjoy!!

Derry Girls: Man I hope you all get to see my recommendation for this show!!! It's truly a gem! I can't say it's diverse but it's also based off a small town in Northern Ireland so not really faulting them. Very LGBT friendly!! Spot the tiny rainbow pins our main 5 wear in the entirety of the second season!! It's like the cutest, most wholesome unspoken way of showing support! I literally watched the second season, went back to rewatch the first season and then rewatched the second season again. They're so loveable!

Four Weddings and a Funeral: I surprisingly haven't watched the 1994 film that was one of the best movies of the 90s apparently. But Mindi Kaling is producing its remake that's now a TV show on Hulu. Features a much more diverse cast (TWO main characts being Black, the main love interest being Muslim, actually portraying Muslim character seamlessly without making it campy or oversimplified!). There's a lack of LGBT characters (Tony 1 and Tony 2 don't really count since that feels slightly degrading to me...). I'm hoping they'll get better at that in future episodes!

Dark: A German TV show that's like a mystery time travel thriller. Not really diverse? It does feature a deaf supporting character and some minor supporting characters are LGBT but other than that...It IS a good story that's really interesting and gripping to watch.

3%: A sci-fi post-apocalyptic story based in Brazil that's Hunger Games ish in that young people fight for their right to live in the ideal land of plenty. But because it's a show, you get to explore the ethical aspect of it a little more. I have a beef with how this show treats its PoC character to be honest. But it does have a lot of PoC characters and there's I think an LGBT plotline in a later season. But, I feel like the first season may have been its peak. Definitely still a good show and y'all might enjoy the later seasons more than me.

Patriot Act: Not really a story obviously but I have to plug this show because for once I'm seeing a nonproblematic Indian Muslim man (side-eyeing Kumal and Aziz) that's actually doing great episodes highlighting a lot of important issues that we're totally not getting informed about that we should really be paying attention to more.

Kim's Convenience: A Canadian sitcom based on a Korean family's convenience story. Really cute wholesome show with a great cast that really tries to be diverse and thoughtful and respectful of its PoC. I don't think they have an LGBT main character but it's friendly to it!

-Shadowhunters: I love this trash show. It’s actually not all that great but it’s got some absolute gems of characters you end up watching it for anyway. I def recommend but S1 was watched with a ton of skip Clary/Jace scenes for me. This is LGBT friendly and diverse.

-Eastsiders: One of my Netflix finds. So super LGBTQ friendly because it revolves around a gay couple. The revolving door of characters includes many people at different spectrums of sexuality. It’s unapologetic and fun to watch. Our main couple is self-labeled slutty mcsluttersons but they’re committed to each other. The diversity of race is meh but it does have the Constance Wu from Fresh off the Boat in it and she’s lovely.

-Riverdale: I tried man, I used to read Archie comics when I was younger but um, this show…I think it’s supposed to be ironically pretentious? It just falls flat for me tbh. It’s popular though so you can check a couple of episodes out to see if it’s your thing. There’s an openly gay character in this that should get more story than he does. Also, kind of LGBT baits too at times so not sure if I trust them completely.

-Narcos: One of my recent shows. Very very intense show. Just really well done. It’s male-centric in that most of its main characters are male and its portrayal of women isn’t varied or flattering or significant in any way so that definitely sucks. But I don’t watch all my shows through that lens. For a show about Pablo Escobar and the drug wars it’s a really gripping watch. Beware of heavy subtitles because it’s set in Columbia.

-The Expanse: My sci-fi pick. I love this show. It’s a gorgeous, diverse, rich story, funny without trying too hard. I just get sucked into every character. It had one older married gay couple that was really minor characters but I don’t recall any current mains that are. But It’s an inclusive show so I don’t think it’s particularly averse to the idea. Based on books I haven’t read yet!

-Veep: This is like a completely meant-to-be-offensive comedy show with the amazing Julia Louis-Dreyfus. While I wasn’t in love with the last 2 seasons, the first 4 are amazing. No clear-cut character you root for in particular but it’s so close to politics you can’t help but laugh/cry. Watch it for the absolutely unapologetic legendary burns. Also, has a lesbian couple in it although it’s offensive comedy so prepare for that.

-Archer: Also another meant-to-be-offensive show that’s hilarious but so terrible and inappropriate. I don’t usually like that kind of comedy but I binge-watched this when I was sick and got hooked.

-Vikings: I love this show. If you like Game of Thrones, you’ll like this one only it’s got less nudity and more idgaf fight scenes. It’s got brilliant characters, beautiful battle scenes, really interesting storylines, and just good snarky humor. Watch it! Also, they’re not shy about same-sex couples even if they don’t explicitly say it.

-Mr. Robot: Really good show, very different and…I actually don’t know how to describe it? The main has mental health issues. It’s a sociopolitical commentary type show. It’s about hacking and network security and corporation conglomerates in control of our everything and the fight against it. Also from @cherryrebel : Mr robot has a shit ton of diversity in both race and LGBT, the lead is mixed race but the actor is Egyptian, Tyrell is bisexual, Gideon is gay, Angela, Elliot, and Darlene are implied being lgbt+, I think I’m forgetting about someone but watch that show, it’s the shit

-Legion: A superhero show that’s so incredibly NOT like the other superhero shows. You'll find yourself in a serious mind trip thinking you’re the one that’s crazy. But it’s really really good. Go watch.

-Mozart in the Jungle: About a bunch of musicians and a crazy conductor you absolutely love. It’s really good. LGBT friendly! And diverse-ish.

-Luther: One of the best crime shows in my opinion. Idris Elba just does things and you will want to watch him do it. Anything he does is beautiful and brilliant. But the show actually IS brilliant and amazing and go watch!!

-This is Us: one of those, where-the-hell-did-you-come-from?? shows. Really heartfelt stories that make you laugh, cry, and go aww a million times.

-Killjoys: Another sci-fi show I love. It’s got diversity and great characters and great action and story. It's a complicated plot though and if you skip episodes you're really going to struggle with the story. But if you don't care, it's still fun to watch ladies being brilliant and kicking ass. Also LGBT friendly and diverse!!

-True Detective: Crime detective show. It’s great, very gritty and serious but good stories and character-driven. I actually really enjoyed the third season despite my reservations of this show. Definitely needed subtitles! Also, I got major unspoken LGBT vibes from the characters (3rd season) here but I feel like they didn't go the distance with it.

-Humans: Sci-fi show about android robots that are part of normal life- they look human and are basically live in maids. Only five of these have consciousness. Really good UK show. Diverse AND LGBT friendly!

-Broadchurch: Another good UK crime show. David Tennant and Olivia Colman are brilliant and bicker in the most endearing way! And Jodie Whitaker is so amazing! Slow and gripping and bingeworthy. @iamacolor mentioned a lesbian character in this one too. Wouldn't say it's LGBT friendly but there is diversity in the characters.

-The Americans: Russian sleeper spies in America that lead normal lives, have American children, and are like totally Russians carrying out secret missions. It's fantastical and exaggerated and sometimes I side-eye it like really?? But it's a fun casual watch. Not really diverse or LGBT friendly even if there might be some peppering in there.

-The Get Down: Great show that was recently canceled :( has about 1 season out. I’m not sure how to describe it and do proper justice. It’s lovely though with amazing characters. Also, LGBT friendly and clearly diverse!

-Stranger Things: Great show sci-fi mystery thriller type show. Diverse cast, wholesome even with a dark and violent plot. LGBT friendly but it's got a list of problems in my opinion. But still a fun watch.

-Dear White People: Black college students from all kinds of backgrounds dropping truth bombs all around and being amazing. Go watch. It's definitely a smart show with a lot of humor. It’s balanced with amazing depth to its characters. LGBT friendly! *so while it's definitely diverse in that the entire main cast except one is Black- I do find it weird that in an ivy league college there aren't many Asian students? Like it seems like they tried to fix that in the third season but it could definitely stand to do more in terms of its recurring supporting characters*

-Brooklyn Nine-Nine: an Amazing funny cop show that manages to be winsome, hilarious, endearing, quirky, diverse, balanced, and just amazing all around. Very LGBT friendly and diverse! It's a consistent show.

-Fresh Off the Boat: An Asian family comedy show that’s endearing and hilarious. (Also check out Jane the Virgin for crazy telenovela-esque antics that are hilarious and cute).

-Orphan Black: Sci-fi show about clones. A really amazing show, LGBT friendly. Great story AMAZING characters…most of which is played by one woman. Diverse and LGBT friendly.

-Preacher: Great show based on the graphic novel…uhh not sure how to describe it but it’s good. Reth Negga is in it!!

Also adding Sense8 for its LGBT and diversity. Good show but I’ve heard something about the directors/producers being racist? Not sure so I’m recommending with caution because the show itself esp s2 where the nonwhite characters got a better fleshed out plot is good. But since I don’t know what the producers/directors have done, I’m giving a heads up for someone else to fill me in.

Poldark: I just started this one 2 days ago. 2 episodes in I’m really enjoying it. It’s from PBS’s Masterpiece series. Aiden Turner as a Cornishman is delicious. So far I adore his wife and immensely enjoying yet another period show.

Grantchester: Adding this to the list after I discovered it on my prime account. I’m only one season in and I love Sydney Chambers and his gruff buddy cop Geordie? This isn’t a show that is going to have you sitting on the edge of your seat. It’s totally a procedural type of show. But it’s characters are likable, its story feels comfortable, and honestly, if it’s a shitty day for you and you just want something that’s easy? This is it. @iamacolor :)

Entourage: So I binged 8 seasons and a movie in a week so let’s just say I fell into this gaping manhole…So it has one very prominently gay character on this show that gets a fair amount of screentime and a plot considering he’s a side character. He’s a fairly loveable character you really enjoy watching develop and grow. However, I should warn people that this show has really colorful language that is quite frankly really sexist and homophobic. For those of you that don’t know, it’s essentially a show about a popular actor from Queens that makes it big in Hollywood and brings along his 2 best friends and older brother to live with him and share in his wealth. If you can get past the language and inherent sexism, it’s actually a decent show about 4 guys with an extremely tight unbreakable, ride or die friendship. Lots of cameos by famous actors and directors, etc. I admit I might have a thing for Kevin Connolly and Adrian Grenier…

Jane the Virgin: Okay firstly, I LOVE this show. I wasn’t caught up because I had too much on my plate but like this show is so tongue in cheek and has great Latino rep! Including a character that speaks like 98% in Spanish so it’s great. AND they have LGBT rep so there you go. Enjoy and thank me later!

Superstore: Almost disappointed no one reminded me to recommend this show?? It’s basically centered around a store much like Walmart where you have a colorful cast of employees. It’s funny, it’s cute, it’s very socially aware. A disabled character (of color!), a gay character, and a smattering of all sorts. PLUS America Ferrera whom I adore!

The Good Place: Great show, great diversity, really funny. I binged it aaaallllll. Seriously go watch this show!!

Cable Girls: Netflix Original from Spain. Do yourself a favor, watch it in Spanish with subtitles. The dubs feel so off. So the music choices for this show are the biggest con. Like it’s modern English songs in a show set in the 20s. Whoever chooses the music really doesn’t read the tone of the scene because it always throws me off. BUT, it’s a show about women gaining their independence through working as operators. You don’t have a diverse cast (so another con) but it’s LGBT friendly. There’s an exploration of sexuality minus the harmful abuse of it. It’s got its own set of flaws for sure but there’s a lot of potentials for it to be a good watch.

Atypical: Autistic boy on the cusp of adulthood that’s navigating how to grow into it and live as normally as possible despite his limitations. Diverse characters, funny stories, and most importantly, endearing af. I think it handles the touchy topic wonderfully and allows people in this show to both be good people and also make mistakes both big and small. What I really enjoyed about this show is that it feels unafraid to let it’s characters just be. It doesn’t fall into tropes and it just has really well-written characters. Can’t wait for Season 3. Also, def don’t want to spoil but LGBT friendly.

Lovesick: If nothing else, watch this show for Antonia Thomas. I’m lowkey in love with her so I will watch anything she’s in. But it’s one of those shows that might not be for everyone. It’s about three great friends where two have been in love with each other at different parts of their lives and keep missing each other’s feelings. It plays via flashbacks quite a bit so your story isn’t quite linear but it doesn’t make it difficult to watch. I personally loved it but I’m biased because well Antonia Thomas…

Santa Clara Diet: So I confess I dropped this show mid first episode when I first watched it. Its pilot was so strange and bonkers I was just so incredibly confused. I think the projectile vomiting just turned me off. But boredom is a great motivator and I came back to it later. And man, I am so so so glad I did. It’s just such a lovely show. I love every character to bits. LGBT friendly for sure. It’s so incredibly far-fetched so you just go with it and enjoy the ride.

On my Block: Four friends transitionally into high school and navigating changing dynamics in their lifelong relationships while also dealing with real life, high school, gangs, and growing up. It’s a good watch. Really hoping for a second season.

Sisters: Aussie show about a woman caring for her ailing elderly father who finds out he used his own sperm in his fertility clinic in order to help parents struggling. Now she has new half-siblings all over the country and gets to navigate dealing with that shitshow. This is a good show. Flawed people being selfish, good people getting the short end of the stick, people being real, things getting ugly. It gets interesting and awkward but it’s a good watch. LGBT friendly.

Homecoming: Really gripping show about soldiers that return stateside wanting to return to society, join a program to help them do so, turns out things aren’t as they seem. Check it out on Amazon Prime. Diverse…umm one of the main supporting characters is black?

Bodyguard: Richard Madden from GoT plays a completely different role in this show about a bodyguard that finds himself part of a bigger conspiracy plot that forces him to face his own demons. Overall the story is good. Intense, gripping, intriguing in all the right places. But the ending has you rolling your eyes at how cliche they made it out to be. My biggest gripe being romanticizing characters that really don’t deserve it without highlighting their problematic behavior. It sweeps a lot of questions under the rug and concludes what would have been a highly conflicting plot with some really shoddy tropey shortcuts. Still it’s definitely a bingeworthy show. Diversity is for shit though all things considered.

Recommendations by Other Blogs:

-**Shameless: Based on the UK show I believe. Has an openly gay character in a really complicated loveline that’s one of the major draws of this show. Very good show but definitely not for everyone. Expect LOTS of cursing, nudity, etc. But it’s hilarious, weirdly heartwarming, really fun to watch. Adding based on an anon suggestion- I haven’t watched the seasons in full but I love popping in to catch up. LGBT friendly and also somewhat diverse.

-**Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: I have not watched this show myself but @blueberrysenpaii suggested this and said: Should add CEG. There’s a veeeery proud bi guy! So LGBT friendly! Someone tell me if it’s diverse?

-**Stitchers: Another show I haven’t watched but it’s been recommended a few times so it’s probably worth a watch. LGBT friendly! Someone tell me if it’s diverse? From Anon: There is a lesbian couple (Camanda) and they’re happy and healthy. It’s a great interesting storyline, it’s funny, super loveable characters, there’s some mystery and suspense in every episode, I love it so much, and it’s so underrated

**Black Sails: Have not watched this show either. LGBT friendly and diverse cast! But here’s @foolbrite ’s recommendation: black sails!! its an AMAZING story plus there is such good lgbt rep in that show

**One Day At a Time: So I have watched a couple episodes of this. It’s so cute! Diverse and LGBT friendly! But here’s the recommendation from @jcarizma : One Day At a Time is really good. Has an LGBT main character and most of the characters are Hispanic as well and the show actually talks about topics that are importantes and it still manages to be hilarious. It’s on Netflix. and also @onyourleftbooob : one day at a time is INCREDIBLE and i loved how they dealt with their lgbt character

**Black Mirror: San Junipero: Again never watched this show but I have seen gifs of this episode?story arc? Diverse and LGBT friendly! Anywho another rec from @onyourleftbooob : black mirror’s san junipero is great *Update: I did watch this myself so I can definitely say it was really nice!*

**How to Get Away With Murder: I actually was a little reluctant to recommend this show. Mainly because *spoiler* one of my favorite main characters got killed off in a way and point in the story where it was pure shock value and I’m forever upset. *end spoiler* I personally dropped the show at that point. However, it was great until that point and it does have an great LGBT rep and just as important a very diverse cast! Also recommended by @onyourleftbooob

**The Bold Type: I have not yet seen this show personally but I have seen lots of mentions of it on my dash and it seems like it’s really good. Good diverse and LGBT friendly show! @im-the-trashqueen-of-my-fandoms recommends this: One of the 3 leads is black and discovers that she’s not really straight when she starts developing feelings for a lesbian Muslim photographer :)

So I think I got most of the ones I really enjoy. Not including like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones because those are hugely popular. I hope you enjoy! If I think of more, I’ll add them here.

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allenmendezsr · 4 years

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Play Worship Guitar

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/play-worship-guitar/

Play Worship Guitar

Buy Now

Hi, I’m Aaron Anastasi,

I am a musician and worship leader who lives in beautiful sunny Southern California.

Since I began leading worship almost 20 years ago I have had countless numbers of people approach me asking if I would teach them guitar and more precisely worship songs.

It seemed that everyone asking me to teach them just wanted to learn so they could learn the songs that I was playing during church or at youth group.

At first I was a little hesitant because I’m not a traditional music teacher…I can barely read a lick of music!

So I sat down and thought, “how can I teach someone to play guitar in the most practical way so that they can start playing songs as soon as possible?”

Eventually I realized that I had a knack for teaching because all of my students were picking up the guitar really quickly and within just a couple weeks were playing worship songs along with me!

After teaching privately for awhile, a light bulb went on in my head and I thought why not use the power of the internet to teach all of these people my system of learning guitar and worship songs.

A Truly Step-By-Step Guitar Learning System For Aspiring Christian Guitarists…

The one thing that I spent a lot of time developing was the actual system that I was teaching people so that they were getting the most out of their time.

My goal was to create a system that speeds up the learning process so you see immediate results

I didn’t want anyone to have to sit in their room practicing boring scales for 5 hours a day.

Because most of my students want to start playing actual worship songs as soon as possible rather than practicing guitar scales all day long.

Rather than having to put your head in a book and memorize music theory I wanted everyone I taught to be able to play a song within a day or two of picking up the guitar.

Easily Learn Guitar And Worship Songs With Follow-Along Video Lessons

If you have ever tried to learn a worship song on your own, you know it can be frustrating.

What chords do I play?

How do I strum the guitar and keep good rhythm?

How do I hold the chords?

How do I do those cool little guitar tricks that David Crowder or Tim Hughes or Martin Smith do?

Almost every guitar player I know got started playing guitar so they could play songs and I’m sure you are the same way…so why do most guitar learning programs take all the fun out and just make you practice scales all day?

Since I was teaching all of my students to play all the songs I was playing during worship at church I eventually decided to film my teaching sessions so that everyone could learn all of these songs…and learn worship songs on your own time right from home!

Play Worship Guitar gives you absolute everything you will ever need to start learning guitar and to play popular worship songs by your favorite Christian artists…exactly how I play them at my own church where I lead worship!

The great thing about Play Worship Guitar is that it is designed with the student in mind.

With a lot of guitar courses, or dvds, or even with private teachers you are required to practice for at least an hour a day and there is sometimes a lot of pressure to go at the pace of your teacher instead of your own pace.

With Play Worship Guitar, whether you practice 5 minutes a day or 2 hours is totally up to you because you can go at your own pace.

You have access to all of the videos and training 24 hours a day…7 days a week…from any computer.

I am sure you would rather spend your time with your friends or family than doing guitar exercises all day and night…I know I would…

Play Worship Guitar gives you everything you’ll ever need to start learning guitar, and show you exactly how to play songs by your favorite Christian artists. You don’t need any knowledge of how to play the guitar at all. This course works for everyone of all ages and is perfect for absolute beginners.

Learn the ins and outs of the guitar and all the parts of the guitar…what to do and why each is important

How to hold the pick, hold the guitar, and posture…developing proper fundamentals will get you playing guitar faster and with less frustration

Warmup Exercises that will help you loosen up your muscles and play longer without fatigue and help your solo hand learn to play twice as fast.

Learn Beginner Chords…these are the backbone of every song you will ever play. Watch and play along with me as I teach you how to hold each chord properly

Muscle memory exercises to skyrocket your ability to play and recall chords with ease

Chord changing exercises will ensure that you never get stuck trying to get your fingers to go where you want them to…these step-by-step exercises will make chord changes simple

Bust out rhythm guitar riffs, easily perform walks and add unique flair to your chords…no need to practice endless hours before enjoying the “best parts” of playing

Explode over the learning curve with my “cheat chords” system…start playing in minutes rather than days or weeks

Learn dynamic strumming patterns that will have you sounding like a seasoned guitar player almost instantly

Master barre chords…with these chords you can literally play all over the guitar neck

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Guitar accuracy exercises designed to develop you into a more precise and skillful guitarist in a fraction of the time

New Chord Voicings that will allow you to effortlessly cruise up and down the guitar neck. Don’t get stuck with a stale repetitive sound.

Dynamic Guitar Techniques that you can use to transform any song or chord progression from dull to exciting and impressive.

Dictate The Mood You Convey By the Chord You Play allowing you to guide your playing (and audience) in the emotional direction you want to go.

Find Any Note On The Guitar with a simple system that will keep you from having to waste days trying to memorize every note on the guitar neck.

Discover Octaves and how you can apply them to any song…and even use them to learn how to play any song.

Learn Power Chords and how you can combine them with open chords to “break open” the song and make it 10 times easier to play any song.

Guitar Accuracy Exercises designed to develop you into a more precise and skillful guitarist in a fraction of the time.

Fingerpicking patterns so that you can make any chord or song sound beautiful with easy to follow fingerpicking lessons.

My goal for you with the Play Worship Guitar system is to get you playing guitar as fast as possible so that you can begin playing worship songs quickly. You will get new worship song video lessons every month.

Here’s just some of the songs you will learn inside the Play Worship Guitar member’s area:

I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever – Martin Smith

Here I Am To Worship – Tim Hughes

One Thing Remains – Jesus Culture

Nothing Holding Me Back – Bryan and Katie Torwalt

Everlasting God – Brenton Brown and Ken Riley

Our God – Chris Tomlin

Hungry – Kathryn Scott

We Are Hungry – Brad Kilman

Bones – Hillsong United

Burning Ones – Jesus Culture

I Am Set Free – All Sons and Daughters

Plus brand new songs every month

Everything in Play Worship Guitar is based on a building block approach.

Each lesson builds off the one before so that you know exactly what to do and when to do it.

No more getting frustrating trying to learn…simply watch and play!

If you follow along with the system that I have created I am 99% sure that you will have a smooth learning process and be playing guitar in no time because of my unique muscle memory exercises…

However, I know that everyone can get stuck at one point or another and that is why I have an open door policy to myself and my support team.

As a Play Worship Guitar member you have FREE and UNLIMITED access to me and my support team so that if you ever need any help getting back on the right track all you have to do is shoot me an email. And either myself or one of my guitar coaches will give you a guiding hand to get you back on track promptly…

I take pride in making sure every single member is completely happy and satisfied…

You will never be lost.

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aliceellablog · 7 years

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I wish...

I wish I could have really enjoyed my single launch gig and not just focused on trying to get through it.

I wish I didn’t have to rest in bed for two weeks after performing for 45 minutes.

I wish I could follow my dream and put everything into it.

I wish I didn’t have M.E.

I know I sound like a right moany Mary, but it just sucks. So a few days before the gig I was feeling really rubbish, but had over 200 people on the guest list including industry, friends, family and fellow musicians, so by that time there was no real option but to power through and do it! Thank god for adrenaline!

I had to head into town for around 4pm for sound check, which went well, but that was basically singing the whole set through before the gig had even begun! Then I went to get my hair and makeup done (Thank you so much Harry and Katie!!) and by the time I got back to the venue it was 8pm, the support acts were on, and I was performing in an hour! AHHH!!! I tried to relax and do some vocal warm ups but I was so freakin’ nervous!!!

I had Nick filming me, who was making a lil’ behind the scenes video (now on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WnqT7RnoAM - Thanks Nick!!!) and I was also trying to be a good ‘host’ and talking to everyone backstage etc…. I should have had a nap or something really!!

Anyway, 9pm came and it was tiiiime!!!!

My god, nothing feels better than walking on stage to a packed out room of people who are there to support you- What an AMAZING crowd too!!! I can’t thank everyone enough who came down and it was SO lovely to see you all!!! I sang my 45 min set with my amazing band and everything went as well as it could have! There were a few times when I really had to stop between songs and have a little drink of water and BREATHE!!! -I was so out of breath and obviously found the whole thing exhausting but it felt like the audience really understood and had my back!

During the gig I did chat a LOT of rubbish but did try and explain my M.E. and what I was going through a little bit. There was a moment where I almost broke down into tears on stage but I pulled it together and probably made a bunch of inappropriate jokes. I shouldn’t be allowed a microphone!!!

I was selling merchandise there too- the money of which is going to the charity I am working with ‘Action for M.E.’ and was so happy at the amount of teeshirts, cd’s, and pens sold and people donated too! - If you would like to buy any just gimme a shout, I still have some left ;)

So the last song we performed was the new single ’24 Obsession’ and it was actually mental… people KNEW THE WORDS!!! I was so overwhelmed that I took one of my friends phones from the front row of the audience and filmed them as they sang along!! MIND BLOWN hahaha - there’s a first time for everything and that moment is something I will never forget!!

So two and a half weeks later and I am finally starting to leave the house again and be up and about a bit more! I don't know what's worse, being given a taste of what life could be like and it taken away from you every time, or just not tasting it at all…

To be honest I think it was all the preparation, admin and pressure that took it out of me so much as well as the gig itself! Putting on a gig completely by yourself takes a lot of work! Especially when you feel like shit!!

From booking support acts, to the band and band rehearsals, ordering merchandise with money you don’t have, and not knowing if you will sell any!! To booking the venue, photographer, hair and makeup, videographers, DJ, host, outfit, invites!!! And then actually getting people to sign up to the guest list and come to the gig!! Advertising the gig, learning the songs, releasing the single!!!!! It all adds up, and was really quite stressful! But I do want to thank EVERYONE involved as you all helped so much!! - Support acts killed it!! - Louise Golbey, Joshua KYEOT and Beat Fox - DJ and Host Nate James was amazing :) - my band were beyond unreal!!! - Manolo, Martin, Matt and Frankie <3 and I even had the amazing Jamie Nichols doing magic on the audience at the bar!! :)

Hopefully one day I will be in a position where I can focus on the music and the performing, but I guess for now its still just lil’ old me tryna get my music heard!

So after the gig I met as many of the audience as I could and was so overwhelmed by the support <3 And then it was home time…. Via McDonald’s with one of my besties Grace!! YAAAASSSS!!! - my god that maccers was probably one of the best of my life!!

I went to bed at around 1am but didn’t fall asleep until around 7am!!! That’s classic Brian for ya!! He can be such an asshole!! (Brian aka my brain)

But then I slept most of the next day and the day after that too…

I knew I’d be knackered afterwards but I didn’t think it would last for two weeks. I shouldn’t complain because I did it and it could have all gone a lot worse but just things like, I had to cancel a video shoot I had planned and that’s now not until October!!! LOOOONG!! So I guess patience is the key here!!

Anyway I am feeling super positive the last few days!! I’ve been REALLY trying to do that Lightning Process thing I’ve written about before and have found it really helpful, and I bought a FitBit but a cheap brand that was like £15 ;) It’s called a ‘VeryFit’ which is so ironic LOOOL!! But I am genuinely loving looking at how many steps I’ve done at the end of each day and seeing the progress that I am making!!

I HAVE to find a way to keep this up!! Plan for now :

1. Don’t over do it

2. Don’t under do it (so even if I feel like death I HAVE to leave the house and go for a walk)

3. Be stupidly positive!! (I have even taken to fake laughing around the house… which then leads to real laughing.. my housemates think I am mental.. they are correct)

4. Eat healthily (well… within reason!!!)

5. Gradually increase my activity level

6. Not put so much pressure on myself

7. Take each day as it comes

Plan?? I think so!!!

So today I have written this!! WOOP! And am gonna start sorting through all the CRAP I have to Ebay!!!! I literally have boxes upon boxes of clothes to sell.. oh the effort! I definitely have some kind of hoarding problem!! But then man needs the moneys!!! Then I’ll walk to Nero’s and get a soy hot choc YASSSS and then have a lovely chilled eve with the loves of my life :) (my housemates - well… best friends!! who have been ridiculously supportive through this whole thing!!!)

Please get in touch if you want to, don’t it you don’t want to ;) Also I went on London Live TV recently and spoke about ME etc a bit on there - heres the link ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOA7zmCQRXU ) :) Sending love and hugs to everyone with this silly bladdy illness and one day we WILL figure all this out!!…or some amazing scientists will… PLEASE!! :) xx

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justanothercinemaniac · 7 years

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Epic Movie (Re)Watch #162 - The Adventures of Ichabod And Mr. Toad

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: No.

Format: Blu-ray

1) During World War II, Disney produced a number of “package films” of which this was the last. The war took a number of Disney animators and put a strain on the studio, meaning they had a lot of half ideas which weren’t short enough for a short nor long enough for a feature. So Disney decided to group them together. The results included Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Melody Time, and this film. It was after this film that Disney would return to full length stories with 1950′s Cinderella.

2) They key to this working as a package film and not some strange double feature is the live action connecting tissue. Scenes in a library with two disembodied narrators (Basil Rathbone for “The Wind and the Willows” and Bing Crosby for “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”) is a simple thing to help the film feel like a total picture.

The Wind in the Willows

3) As with most Disney films, the supporting characters of Mole, Rat, & Badger are well established through initial introduction and design.

4) There is a nice establishment of Toad’s wild character before we even meet him.

Badger: “What good are his promises when these wild manias take him?”

And then “Merrily on Our Way to Nowhere in Particular” is a strong visual introduction to how nonsensical and merry Toad is.

Toad is largely a selfish character bust still likable and charming. As the narrator observes himself at the end of the segment, we all wish we could be a bit more like him. Enjoy life more, have more adventures, and just have a merry good time. Toad is a wonderful introductory character, with moments like the setting in of his mania being wildly enjoying to watch. But there’s always a bit more to him than we expect. A bit more cleverness and later in the film a bit of regret. A fun character who may not be as much of an icon as Mickey Mouse but still a Disney great nonetheless.

5) One of the ways the “Wind in the Willows” adaptation stands out to me among other pieces of anthropomorphic animals interacting with humans is that the animals are their standard size. I’m so used to a Mickey Mouse being the same size as Donald Duck and such but these creatures are all their normal sizes. It was a small thing but it struck me.

6) It was when Mr. Toad defends himself in court that I remembered an old adage I heard from a lawyer: only an idiot defends themselves.

Toad certainly is that. A little too sure of himself, a little too trusting. Having a real lawyer probably would’ve helped his case.

7) The Weasels.

The weasels have become one of Disney’s most prominently reoccuring bad guys, having memorable roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” to start. They might be better remembered for Roger Rabbit than they are for this film, but without the weasels being a standout element in this movie they would not have been in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Narrator: “Yes, once again it was a White Christmas...”

So Rat and Mole must be visiting Scrooge to ask for some charity at this time.

9) Ah, that 2017 feel.

(GIFs originally posted by @fantasia1940)

10)

Rat [after Badger tells him he found evidence supporting Toad]: “Then Toad was innocent this whole time?”

Was that ever in question? This is a Disney movie. Unless you’re Robin Hood, the title character is not going to be stealing a car.

11) I like how Disney could be a bit more “edgy” back in their early years.

Mole [upon seeing the weasels]: “Oh look, they’re all asleep.”

Badger: “Aye lads, they’re DRUNK!”

12) The chase for the deed to Toad Hall through Toad Hall is a fun bit of animation and includes some great classic gags to it.

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(I don’t think the quality of this video is great but it gets across the cartoony slapstick fun I’m talking about.)

13) I find it a tad dissatisfying that Toad ends basically where he started emotionally, but again the narrator observes that we all wish we could be as adventurous as he.

14) This note is less about the film and more about the ride it inspired. “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” is an attraction which first opened in Disneyland in California (it used to have a twin in Orlando but it was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh ride a believe) where you board a motorcar and ride through town hall...before you get hit by a train and go to hell. That’s right: a Disney ride sends you to hell.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

15) The format of the “Sleepy Hollow” segment of the film relies more heavily on Bing Crosby’s narration than “The Wind in the Willows” did on Basil Rathbone’s. In fact, it plays out like Crosby is reading out of a storybook with animation put to it. He even voices all the male characters (since they only speak in song).

16) Ichabod Crane.

I am actually very impressed and very grateful with how close this version of Ichabod Crane is to Irving’s original character. In most adaptations of the story (1999′s Sleepy Hollow, the recently cancelled TV show “Sleepy Hollow”) he is made more heroic. Nothing could really be further from the truth from the original source material. His physical ugliness (not so ugly in animation but it is intended as such from a design standpoint) reflects his internal ugliness in a strange way. Ichabod Crane is a glutton. A man full of greed who bases every decision in life on how it will help him get ahead. Even his wanting to be with Katrina is EXCLUSIVELY based on how rich she is and how a marriage to her would give him stature. There is even a theory out there that says Ichabod is the villain of the peace - as his greed and desire for status reflect many other Disney villains such as Jafar from Aladdin and Ursula from The Little Mermaid - while Brom Bones is meant to be the hero.

17) Brom Bones.

One of the earliest lines about Brom Bones is this:

Narrator: “There was no malice in his mischief.”

If we subscribe to the theory that Brom is the real hero of the peace, you can see how it might work. He is a friendly guy even if he is a bit brutish. And he moves against the greedy Ichabod Crane. However, it’s hard to get past his initial bullying of Crane for just existing in the town or the fact he only moves so hard against Crane just because they’re both interested in Katrina. Either way, he’s a solid addition to the film (and even reportedly inspired some of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast).

18) Bing Crosby’s skills as a vocal musician are well featured in the film, with one of my favorite (and underrated) songs being “Ichabod”. It’s a simple toe tapper elevated by Crosby’s skills and serves to very clearly introduce Crane to the town of Sleepy Hollow.

youtube

19) Katrina Van Tassel.

So Katrina is...pretty much a female shaped object. She never speaks or sings or anything. Her purpose in the film is literally to be something Brom and Ichabod fight over, and she is “written” as a vain manipulative creature who delights in men fighting over her. And that’s it. That’s her “character”. Usually I try to look for the good in older Disney animated heroines, but I can’t really with Katrina. Ah well.

20) “The Headless Horseman” is another strong example of not only Crosby’s vocals but also the best song in the entire film I think.

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According to IMDb:

The song "Headless Horseman" is considered one of the darkest songs written for a Disney film. It, much like "Worthless" from The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and "Hellfire" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), was nearly cut from the film.

I’m not familiar with “Worthless” but I do love some dark Disney songs (with “Hellfire” being one of my all time favorites). The song was originally meant to be sung by Thurl Ravenscroft (“You’re a Mean one, Mr. Grinch”, Fritz in The Enchanted Tiki Room, and the lead singer of the Singing Busts in The Haunted Mansion ride) and you can still hear his version on "Walt Disney Records Archive Collection, Vol. 1". Or it’s on YouTube right here.

21) The build up to the final encounter with Ichabod and the Headless Horseman is great. There is an excellent sense of darkness, dismay, and fear. Strong imagery bleeds through the scene (a cloud blocking out the moon like a hand, all the creatures of the forest seemingly saying Ichabod’s name, the reeds beating out like horse hooves) and creates a wonderfully tense buildup to the climactic finale.

22) The Headless Horseman.

According to IMDb:

The Headless Horseman is often cited as being, along with The Horned King in The Black Cauldron (1985) and Chernabog in Fantasia (1940), as one of the scariest villains in the Disney canon. Disney still receives complaints from parents about the character frightening their children.

You can definitely see how that’s true. The sheer design of the Horseman is brilliant. He is dark, ominous, but towering and powerful. He is someone/something you would not want to run into alone on a dark night. His mad cackle and wild horse - along with the iconic flaming pumpkin - just add to the terrifying design. For a character with such a brief amount of screen time, the Headless Horseman is one of the most iconic characters in Disney’s canon.

23) The final chase with Ichabod and the Horseman is incredible. It is tense, scary, filled with action, but still featuring some of the signature cartoony fun that Disney is known for. This isn’t suddenly an R-rated horror film, it’s a Disney film but what Disney looks like when things start to go haywire! The final image alone is iconic in and of itself.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a fun Disney film. A good way to kill only an hour of your time (seriously, it’s just 68 minutes), it features iconic characters, wonderful visuals, strong humor, and a surprising amount of freights. Particularly good for a Halloween viewing, it’s a wonderful piece of animation all around. Give it a watch if you’re ever looking for some old school animated fun.

#The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad #The Legend of Sleepy Hollow #The Wind in the Willows #Disney #Mr. Toad's Wild Ride #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Movie #Film #GIF #Bing Crosby #Basil Rathbone #Mickey's Christmas Carol

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pettydavis · 7 years

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hey this is me asking for advice: I have horrible depression. within the last 5 years I have been in and out of abusive relationships and lost a friend to suicide and in general just been very low. I came to college and thought I found friends but they told me they couldn't "babysit" my depression anymore, forced me to go to a hospital, and left me there to go drinking because they couldn't deal with me. (continued)

They started telling everyone how crazy I am and lying fiercely about me. My school is small and I feel trapped even though this is college. I got into a serious wreck not far after. I feel isolated and like life is against me and like there’s nothing worth living for. I feel like I’ll never have real friends who care or people who love me and I feel like every aspect of my life will be miserable. I cannot feel hope. Is college hard for some people? Everyone else seems like they’re having lots of fun and going out, and I had a brief period of that but they betrayed me and really really hurt me. I just feel like nothing has gotten better since high school and like I can’t trust anyone. I’m worried life will always be like this and some days I can’t move. I’m scared and needed to tell someone.

i feel really bad about falling asleep on this message now, because it sounds like you really need someone to listen and to talk to.

i think first and foremost, i want to say i’m sorry about you losing a friend, and for what you past relationships have put you through, and i hope you’re okay after your accident!

and secondly, your friends are fucking shit. it’s somewhat reasonable for them to have a difficult time dealing with how your mental illness affects your friendship, HOWEVER, to just dump you in a hospital??? and then go drinking right after???? and then bloody tell everyone you’re crazy???? baby, those aren’t friends, those are assholes. and if this is what they do while you’re feeling this way, sincerely from the bottom of my heart, it’s good that they showed their ass. if they can do this when you’re vulnerable and hurting, they don’t deserve your company.

college is hard for plenty of people. it may not look like it but all around you there are probably people who are struggling too, some are just better at hiding or ignoring it (and for like, a lucky few, they cope. but who cares about those ppl, anyway). i think, most people in college are scared in some way. you’re on the cusp of adulthood, and there’s so many things happening and so many things coming at you, it only adds to the stress of socialising and getting your learning in. it’s normal to feel dread about your future, it’s normal to worry. i can’t exactly tell you what to DO about your worries, only because everyone is different. but what i CAN tell you, is to pay attention to the things that do bring you joy, or contentment, even if in little amounts. what helped me a lot during my lowest points recently, was distracting myself. it’s hard to tell you to get involved in some school activities or clubs, because i know just how difficult it can be to get up sometimes. it’s like i can’t even lift my head off the pillow some days, so i feel you. but college is also about learning yourself, ukwim?

finding new friends may be difficult, but getting involved in a club might help with that. it doesn’t even have to be at school too, actually. there’s lots of places both online and in real life (outside of school) where you can share your interests with like-minded people. i mention online in particular, because it’s really nice for those days where you can’t even get up, to have Somewhere to go, even if it’s virtual. if you don’t feel up to that stuff (which in understand, sometimes even the thought of socialising is draining), what i used to do is watch a lot of films, and listen to a lot of music, or read; i’d use my own art or someone else’s to escape this reality for awhile. that got me through a lot of awful days.

life is miserable sometimes, i won’t lie. and i understand that trust will be something you might not give so easily now. but i think if you can, look for a person or a space where talking about these things IS okay. i’m not sure where you are, but here in the uk we have websites like depressionuk and friendsinneed, who provide support for people like you and me looking for others going through the same struggles (whether it’s support groups in your area, or online, or anonymous phonelines or emails where you can just talk out your feelings). talking about what you’re feeling helps so much, even if it’s just to vent every once in awhile, and get that weight off your chest. and the more you talk, hopefully the better you’ll feel. and eventually you’ll feel comfortable enough to look for a professional to speak to, one who can identify the ways in which your struggling and can give you methods you can use to cope.

don’t worry about the people at your school right now, they literally won’t matter to you in 10 years time. what’s important is you, and getting better mentally/emotionally, and forging your own path. friends will come and go, and come again, and some will even stay for life. but worry about you first. be selfish. treat yourself when you want, if you’re able. try something new if you can. as a musician myself i’d personally recommend learning an instrument, only because it gives you a good thing to structure yourself around while also being casual enough that you can literally just put it down and forget about it when you don’t wanna deal with it. if that’s not up your alley (or you’re already a musician, actually) i’d say just, do what feels comfortable, and do what you feel ready for.

there ARE things out there just for you, okay? depression may be tryna drag tf outta of you and ur life, but just remember that every day, You’ve Made It. you’re here still, and you had the strength to get through yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. and every day that passes, you kicked depression square in the arse.

hopefully i’ve said some things that could help you, but if you ever wanna talk more, you could always inbox/message me on or off anon if you want. my messages are open. hope you’re day is great babs! i’m sending good vibes down the line!

#advice #anonymous #arsebox #long post

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station219records · 7 years

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Interview - Alabama Rose

By Charlie Matthews Last week was kind of crazy for the blog. What started as a few people responding to a previously published blog post, turned into a wave of emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, and blog comments. It seems that the music scene in Birmingham is alive and well! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Image: Alabama Rose One of the many bands that reached out to Station 219 was Alabama Rose. They are a female fronted rock band from Birmingham and they really wanted to add their two cents. So of course we gave them the opportunity to participate in the not-so-standard-interview. Alabama Rose is: Alabama Rose - Lead Vocals Collin Zuckerman - Lead Guitar, Vocals Adam Blevins - Drums Jacob Robertson - Bass The Alabama Rose herself took a stab out our not-so-standard-interview this week! How do you describe your music to people? Our style can best be described as surf, soul, blues and psychedelic riffs with a bit of old west desperado twang. Tell us about your local music scene. Our local scene is incredible. I honestly can’t even count how many original bands we have performing locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally. We have an incredibly inclusive scene, with venues to support every circuit of band, from proper DIY venues and badass dive bars to multi-million dollar venues and more in-between. The people working each one of them are some of the best, most professional and hard-working people I’ve met anywhere in the country. We have a thriving original music market, an in-city record label called Communicating Vessels, who does (among MANY other things) their own SXSW showcases, several record stores, once of which regularly hosts album release shows for local, national and internationally touring bands (shoutout to SEASICK Records, we love you!!). We host multiple annual music festivals per year that bring thousands upon thousands of people to see original music (including local bands), and large annual food, beer, art and film festivals that also provide a wide audience for local original music. We have several local production teams, booking agencies, photographers, writers, screen printing companies and freelance artists that service the music scene here. Our local radio support for original, local music is wonderful, and we have more than one amazing live session series in Birmingham (thanks Spectrasonic and Monotonia!!). We have numerous music schools, a few of which have programs that build entire bands with their students, teach them how to play together, and get them on stage at some of our biggest venues in town. It’s really amazing to watch. We even have a camp just for young female musicians. All of the counselors and teachers for that camp are also females!! We’re home to some AMAZING gear makers, some of my favorite pedals are made right in Birmingham (323 Effects for the win!!). Our scene is diverse, supportive, and most importantly, STILL GROWING!! This place has great resources and bands can easily stand out here and not get lost in the noise. Anyone who wants to come be a part of the love we have for music here is more than welcome!!! It is the weekend, who should we be checking out in your town? Oh man, if you had enough time, here are some of the bands you definitely would NOT want to miss, all of which throw down incredibly hard: The Burning Peppermints (yall, check this band out immediately), The Future Primitives, Heath Green and the Makeshifters, THE DEXATEENS, A New Kind of Hero, Future Elevators, Royal and Toulouse, CAVALEN, HEXXUS, Nowhere Squares, Wray, GT, Lolly and the Pops, Creature Camp, Secret Midnight Band, Dirty Girl (man they rip so hard), Tragic City, Taylor Hunnicutt, Zach & Cheyloe, The Old Paints, if they’re not on tour definitely Banditos and/or St. Paul and the Broken Bones, The Dirty Lungs (so so good), Lady Legs, Riverbend, Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires, The Goddamn Rights, Holy Youth, Me and My Knife, Captain Kudzu, The Essentialists, SKEPTIC?, Zenosyne, In Snow, Beitthemeans, Suburban Love Junkies, Lolas, Asphalt Crown, STONED COBRA (love so so much), Underland Express, The Green Seed, New Devils, Nerves Baddington , Early James and the Latest, Koralyst, NULL, AND MANY MORE. Every single one of these bands are so worth the time and money to see anywhere they are. There’s a lot of competition here as far as talent goes, even though we are a supportive community. You can usually guarantee that a Birmingham local is trying to bring something special when they play. What’s the immediate future look like for your band? Tours, festivals, working with other bands, etc. We’ve had a busy year and are getting ready to head back to Nashville where we recorded our EP live last November. Our next goal is to write more material. We’re sitting on a full album already, but want to really explore the concepts of our LP, so we’re hyper focused on ripping the shit out of our next few shows, and then digging deep into our songwriting skills and creating something elaborate for our listeners and ourselves, then getting it out to people. What's your outlook on the record industry today? I think the record industry is really trying to evolve with the times, and some areas are a lot more up to par in that scope than others. Some labels are still very old-school and DIY oriented, some have mega resources to pump into artists and can literally change what people are listening to at-will. I really love labels who are run by smart music lovers and musicians themselves who want to invest in good music and hard working bands. There are a lot of factors to consider, from the way digital platforms are changing and how easy it is to access new music, the way vinyl is coming back, how bands can create and build their own brand and book their own tours without representation, so much more. All-in-all, I’m really optimistic about the record industry. There’s definitely fresh blood pumping through it. What three bands are you listening to right now? Been listening to a lot of Rolling Stones and ACDC lately, particularly watching live recordings from back in the day. I’m seeing Flamin’ Groovies in Nashville in a few months so I’ve been pumping a lot of that in anticipation. What is that one piece of equipment you can't live without? I’m a nerd for vintage microphones and perform live with a vintage SM57. I’d say that a good cable and a round bottom mic are about all I need personally, but I’m sure the rest of the band could geek out on this subject for days. Collin is partial to his Jazzmaster, Jacob plays a Warwick Jazzman and just got an EQD Fuzz Master General that we’re having a ton of fun with. Adam plays on a wood fiberglass Pearl kit that he got specifically for our blend of throw-back rock n roll. We’re all really partial to our current setup. Follow Alabama Rose Here:

Catch Alabama Rose at the Secret Stages Music Festival August 4th and 5th in Birmingham, Alabama! Click to Post

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usernamefiaren-blog · 8 years

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AmazingPhil

I know I’ve failed to upload the last two weeks. Sorry about that. Anyway before I start this blog I want to tell you a bit about what I’ve done this past week. From Monday to Friday my best friend and his girlfriend stayed in London. On Monday I went to London Zoo with them to catch up which was good fun. On Thursday however, I was going to be in London anyway, because I signed up for the Event Production Show. I really enjoyed seeing all of the companies promoting themselves there. I didn’t stay for too long, because students were only allowed in after 12 p.m. and there was only one panel that I actually wanted to see. It was titled ‘taking on secondary ticketing’ and the panel guests were Adam Webb, Sharon Hodgson, who is an MP and Sam Briggs. I really enjoyed hearing professionals talking about the issues in our industry and what they were doing about it. I probably looked quiet stupid with my notebook on my lap, compared to all the journalists with their recording devices. I really didn’t care though, I just wanted to remember every single word they said.

Because I’ve already talked about the entire biography of Vivaldi I feel like there is not much more that I can add to this series about him. So I decided to cut this series very short and move on to March’s ‘artist’. I know this one is not about a musician, but I will regularly come back to musicians. There are just a lot more forms of entertainment that I enjoy than just music. Therefore this month I will be talking about *drumroll* ………. AmazingPhil!! AmazingPhil So….. needless to say I am really fond of this YouTuber. (Even my mum knows who he is because I won’t shut up about YouTubers in general) ‘This what?!??!’ I hear you say. YouTubers are people that make video’s, usually from their bedrooms, and post them on YouTube for other people to watch. This is an actual job and it’s amazing. This isn’t anything like actors in a movie or on stage. This is just people talking about their lives, making sketches, discussing current events, literally anything you can think of and telling it to their camera as if it is their best friend. Usually they are very honest and authentic and it helps a lot of people that suffer from depression or loneliness, because this way you have a friend that you can turn to whenever you want and they will never be mean to you. Loads of them also support charities to do with mental health and bullying, especially cyber bullying.

The most amazing thing about YouTubers is that all of it is self-produced. From writing the script for their stories, to filming and even editing all of the video’s, they all do it themselves. And because of all of these video’s that AmazingPhil uploads and the two books he and his best friend Danisnotonfire have published I will only use those as sources. Honestly, if you want to know anything about a YouTuber you don’t have to look it up on the internet, it’s all right there on their channels.

Childhood Philip Michael Lester was born at 4am on the 30th of January, 1987 in northern Manchester. Phil’s mum decided to call him Philip, because all of the Philip’s that she knew were really kind. Turns out that was a good choice. Also she thought it would go well with his older brothers’ name who is called Martyn. Funfact: He would’ve been called Fiona if he was a girl.

As a child he loved animal documentaries and wanted to become a vet, zookeeper or a weatherman. None of which came true. He was a very strange kid, in fact he has a playlist on his channel called Awkward Childhood Stories. This playlist includes video’s with titles such as; Why I was a weird kid and Things I thought that were true that are not true (part 1, 2 and 3). There are also several chapters in The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire that discuss the weird things that Phil used to do as a child which include secretly eating fish food, breeding hamsters and trying to sell the babies and sitting in front of the washing machine and watching his teddy bears spin.

High School Phil decided to dye his hair bright yellow the week before going to a new school. Good idea, Phil. During high school his favourite subject was art, because when pretending to sketch something you could secretly talk to people. Just like most people that spend a majority of their time on the internet, *cough* totally not me *cough*, he hated P.E. I think there is a direct link between someone’s physical ability to play sports and their obsession with certain fandoms. At least, I’m guessing that’s why I’m so bad at sports…… Anyway, in his final year of high school he did some work experience as a vet, but he couldn’t handle watching a dog getting surgery and passed out. So that dream could be crossed off his list. Also he dressed as a lion on his final day of school and his prom date was a balloon…..

College and early YouTube career In college he studied art, media studies, English and psychology. Around the end of his college years he discovered YouTube where Lonelygirl15(169.560 subscribers) and Smosh(22.565.525 subscribers) inspired him to start making his own video blogs. He started out with a black and white webcam that he got in a cereal box. 26 March 2007 is when he uploaded his first video. In this video he talks about mother’s day and the present he bought his mum, his exam that he did that day and how he found 10 pounds in his washed jeans. Quality content! It takes surprisingly less time to get a lot of subscribers these days, but Phil’s first milestone of 100 subscribers took more than a year and a total of 30 video’s to happen.

University After college Phil went to York University where he studied English Language and Linguistics. He lived in a house with 5 girls and 4 other boys. The boys in the house decided to start a prank war against each other. After they moved Phil’s entire bedroom into the kitchen, his master plan for revenge was replacing sugar for salt….. I don’t think Phil is capable of being mean. In his last year one of his best friends with whom he lived for three years passed away suddenly. Knowing that he probably wouldn’t want him to stay sad, Phil embraced some of the opportunities he got offered instead of shying away from them like he used to. Because of this he took part in The Weakest Link and had a small role in Faintheart.

After he finished University he moved back home, where he discovered that YouTube was actually a massive community. This is where he met fellow YouTuber PJ(KickThePj 1.254.267 subscribers) and went to a new year’s eve party with him. Inspired by the YouTube community he decided to put more effort into his video’s which then started to get more and more attention. In the same year he met Crabstickz(718.491 subscirbers) and his now best friend Danisnotonfire(6.303.794).

This is where I’m going to end this week’s blog, because when Phil met Dan is when the biggest success of both their careers was born. Even though these days you rarely see Dan or Phil’s name without the other, in my opinion they both have amazing channels of their own. AmazingPhil as of today has 3.989.960 subscribers and together with Dan they share 10.293.754 subscribers. I have never met anyone that knows one of them without knowing the other and I think that is the power and incredible entertainment that is Dan and Phil.

There is so much additional stuff that I want to talk about, but I’ll save that for future blogs, because this one has literally just spilled into a third page on Word and it’s by far the longest blog I’ve written. See you next week!

Sources:

· AmazingPhil https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHUE4ypXKp7ZkmdWbGJNgJg

· AmazingPhil Draw My Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1SLUjDGpA

· AmazingPhil First Video Blog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dsyXzmHFM

· Crabstickz https://www.youtube.com/user/crabstickz

· Danisnotonfire https://www.youtube.com/user/danisnotonfire

· Howell, D. and Lester, P. The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire (2015)

· KickThePJ https://www.youtube.com/user/KickThePj

· Lonelygirl15 https://www.youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15

· Phil Is Not On Fire (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6VevN2mn5s

Smosh https://www.youtube.com/user/smosh

#AmazingPhil Danisnotonfire YouTube UniversityofYork TheAmazingBookIsNotOnFire

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allenmendezsr · 4 years

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Play Worship Guitar

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