#the iconic sandwich club

[hallowxiu]

all i’ve had in my head has been solomon x mc x barbatos

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Linda holding the Club Sandwich featuring Broad Street 1984🌼💙🌼💙🌼

[mariacallous]

When Liebman’s Delicatessen opened on 235th Street in 1953, the Bronx was still sometimes called “the Jewish Borough.” More than half a million Jews lived between Mott Haven and Riverdale, and according to the 70-year-old deli’s website, they were served by 100 kosher delis. Today, Liebman’s is the last one standing. 

“I ask myself a lot: ‘why are we the one that survived?’” Yuval Dekel, who has owned the deli for 20 years, told The Nosher. “Certainly because we’re in Riverdale, which is still a Jewish community.” 

He surveys the restaurant, where nearly all 60 blue naugahyde seats are occupied by neighborhood regulars over 60, noshing on pastrami to the strains of ‘50s jukebox hits. “We’re a deli that has regular New York City resident customers. We’re not a tourist destination.”

Dekel, one of the youngest people in the room, took a circuitous route to becoming a deli man. Born in Haifa in 1978, he arrived in the Bronx two years later with his father, who immigrated with hopes of becoming an entrepreneur. A business broker helped the family find Liebman’s, which had foundered under a string of owners after Joseph Liebman sold it in the late ‘50s. 

Though Dekel’s father (also named Joseph) was of Romanian descent, he knew little about the Ashkenazi foodways of New York. “I don’t even think he knew about delis,” Dekel said. “In Israel, there’s no deli culture.” Joseph Dekel added Israeli dishes like falafel and hummus to the menu, but took pains to preserve the deli classics, too. 

For his part, Yuval Dekel was a metalhead. He was the drummer for Irate, a well-loved New York City thrash band, touring up and down the East Coast, throughout Europe and Japan, and playing at iconic downtown clubs like CBGB in the ‘90s. 

“It was pretty hardcore,” Dekel laughs. “Very serious moshing going on. Quite a different environment from this.” 

But during his entire stint as a metal drummer, Dekel also supported himself by working as a baker at Amy’s Bread and the original U.S. location of Le Pain Quotidien, developing a serious commitment to artisanal foods. When his father died in 2002 and Dekel took over Liebman’s, his first priority was the quality. He wanted to make sure that every dish on the menu, from sandwiches to stews, got its due.

“One thing that differentiates us from — let’s say Katz’s — is we pay a lot of attention to not just the pastrami,” Dekel said. “Don’t get me wrong, I spent years figuring out how to make our own. But there’s this whole other side to us, which is basically a full-service kosher diner.”

Liebman’s excels in the kinds of homey dishes that tend to be afterthoughts for the best-known pastrami pushers. Stuffed cabbage, stewed in a sweet-and-sour sauce and piled with melting onions and plump raisins, falls apart at the slightest pressure from a fork. On Fridays, Dekel serves cholent, the slow-cooked Shabbat stew. 

That’s not to say the deli classics can be missed. Dekel began curing his own pastrami several years ago, after the number of high-quality suppliers had dwindled. The deli slices it thin so that slivers of the smoked meat’s dark crust are evenly interspersed on a sandwich. On the Liebman’s Favorite platter, pastrami is piled high on an open-faced slice of rye, accompanied by fries — thick-cut, pleasantly greasy shards of potato — and kishke (stuffed derma) slathered with brown gravy. It’s an unbelievably hefty plate of food that reminds you the object of a Jewish deli is excess. 

Daintier deli classics abound. Liebman’s tender matzah balls float in a rich broth slicked with beads of schmaltz. Hebrew National franks sizzle and blister on a foil-lined griddle in the front window, ready to be garnished with sinus-clearing brown mustard, sauerkraut, coleslaw or — a Liebman’s favorite — a scoop of potato salad. Old timers pick at artfully arranged cold cut platters of sliced tongue, corned beef and kosher salami.

Homemade knishes are of the circular variety, bearing little resemblance to the squared-off “Coney Island” knishes provisioned by wholesalers to hot dog carts across the city. Like all knishes, they are dense starch-delivery systems. But a Liebman’s knish is well-seasoned, and its crust is flaky and pastry-like.

With all of his attention focused on food, Dekel says he struggled with the business side of the operation originally. But a loyal base of customers helped him through his mistakes, and the deli has hit its stride again, getting attention from critics and influencers, and even making an appearance on “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” in 2014. Dekel is planning to open a Westchester County location this year, marking the first expansion of Liebman’s in its seven-decade history.

It seems only right that Liebman’s should be the last deli in the Bronx. A mid-century time capsule, it was reinvigorated by Israeli cooking and by Dekel’s do-it-yourself spirit. 

“In some cases, being the last one standing doesn’t mean you were the best,” he says. “But I happen to think that we deserve it.”

[userlando]

i've been listening to 3 by britney spears and it reminds me of the papaya boys so much...

like i can imagine this song comes on in a club and you have oscar to your back and lando to your front and you are just sandwiched grinding on them. then they take you back to your hotel and sandwich you some more

- panty thief anon

3 is such an iconic song and imagining dancing to it sandwiched by the papaya boys is doing my head in 😭 anon, you have my heart forever and ever

[velvetineblue]

CHARACTER INFO SHEET ;

NAME : taiyang theodoré tseng .

NAME MEANING : sun / god-given gift / high, elevated, steep

ALIAS : mostly just 'tai' .

ETHNICITY : taiwanese .

ONE PICTURE / ICON YOU LIKE BEST OF YOUR CHARACTER : hmmmmmm... many options asjjaj but this one is one of my fav graphics i've made !!

THREE HCS YOU NEVER TOLD ANYONE :

a weird, (?) comfort food that he will make is a pb&j sandwich but with strawberry jam or orange marmalade (or both!) and peanutbutter... and he'll add marshmallow fluff if there is some in the pantry, if he wants a sweet treat. : 3

in his vampire verse, he has shadow/darkness manipulation magic, && can shift into a black wolf : 33 he has the capability of shifting into pretty much any nocturnal predatory creature ( yes, including bats asjajj ) but it's a difficult and learned skill, and a wolf is the only one he is practiced at && is good at so far......... he's practicing how to git gud at birds and other creatures of flight because that would be hella useful but. he's not very good at it at the time and can only do it for a short burst jasjajj. these shifting abilities ONLY work at night, though!! only when the moon is out; never in the daytime .

the man who took care of little-tai while his father was in jail ( who is his dad's best friend ) was very frugal, modest in accommodation's, and believed that anything extraneous to be bought for the household, tai had to earn. mostly by doing chores or something else productive with his time. because of this, he grew up without a lot of 'luxuries' that others were accustomed to: for example, there was no internet access in his home; he had to go to the library or his school to use the internet! and he didn't have a cell phone until he was 17, and that's because he saved up money from a summer job to buy his own... and on a similar vein ( perhaps because of this ), he's not as addicted to tech as a lot of other people his age?? he uses social media but in like... low-moderate amounts. he's def not addicted to it and he doesn't use it all that often, comparative to most people in his age/generation group.

THREE THINGS YOUR CHARACTER LIKES TO DO IN THEIR FREE TIME :

jogging / hiking, etc; finding a place in nature that is pretty/cool and hanging out there, enjoying the ambience . . .

he's not extremely mechanically knowledge, but if there is any work he can do himself on his car(s), he rly enjoys when he can do it! the hands-on challenge is fun & it's satisfying to know he did it HIMSELF. he likes cars in general; likes going on drives while listening to music, likes checking out interesting/sEXy/rare models of cars ... even in verses where racing is not a thing he does/did, he enjoys car shows, clubs, shops, etc; he might go them if he's bored and they're around. he luvs his car; it his babie <; 3

pretty much anything to do with animals; he will meet up with someone there so fast!! the zoo, aquarium, dog parks, etc... if there's a chance he can see ( or better yet, inTERACT WITH ) animals, he's on his way— hE'S ZOOMIN!!!!

TWO THINGS YOUR CHARACTER REGRETS :

in his supernatural/SoL verses: he had a very close childhood-friend named Nihat that moved to LA to be in the band: tai half-convinced him to move to LA, but honestly, not really; nihat really wanted to come anyway, he was just waiting for the formal invitation. sadly, nihat ended up becoming deeply entrenched in the vices of the LA music scene and that trouble... ultimately led him to the end of his life ... tai deeply regrets ever inviting nihat to La. the guilt has haunted him ever since. there's a lot more i want to write on that topic but i would accidentally write a novel so i gotta stop there ajsajjj

he regrets not doing more for his mom when she was alive. he was only eight when she passed away, and realistically, ooc, we all know there really wasn't anything he could do for her that could have helped her with her mental health struggles; and even if there was, that wasn't his responsibility to take on; he was a child and should not have had to care for her or worry about her health-- it is the other way around ... but he's never been able to accept that. he has always carried the guilt and regret that he couldn't do more, and couldn't save her... couldn't give her a reason to live, or be enough for her to want to.

ONE PHOBIA YOUR CHARACTER HAS : most of his fears are psychological but... one physical thing that is nightmare fuel for him would be if he was locked in a claustrophobic small space alone, all on his own, for a long time, with no way to exit, and it didn't seem like someone was coming to get him...... . o _ o that would be very near the top in his list of "worst ways to die" asjjajj

[taste-in-music]

taste-in-music’s top 30 songs of 2022

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my annual countdown of my 30 favorite songs of the year. 2022 had a lot of great music releases, and I’m so excited to recount the songs I replayed throughout the year. Now, on with the list!

This year was so jam-packed I have ten honorable mentions to share before we get to the list proper: tears in the club by FKA Twigs ft. The Weeknd, Destination l’amour by Pi Ja Ma, Little Freak by Harry Styles, Fast Times by Sabrina Carpenter, EMPATHY 4 BETHANY by Saya Gray, Be Cool by Maggie Rogers, This Hell by Rina Sawayama, Heavy Heart by Bartees Strange, Karma by Taylor Swift, and Shotgun by Soccer Mommy

F2F by SZA: “F2F” was a fast favorite that came late in the year, mostly for how pleasantly surprising it was. The 2000s pop-punk revival has been percolating for the past few years, and SZA’s entry into the genre suits her frighteningly well. She’s written on the complications of revenge sex and missing an ex before, but the area-ready bombast of the guitar-driven instrumental elevates it to the next level. It may have looked to the past for sonic inspiration, but it feels fresh.

君に夢中 (Kimini Muchuu) by Hikaru Utada: I didn’t know what to expect when I clicked play on J-pop icon Hikaru Utada’s new album on a whim, but when I heard “君に夢中,” which translates to “crazy about you” in English, I was immediately struck by a feeling of familiarity. It may be because the opening synth riff reminds me of “Boys Of Summer,” it may be Utada’s impassioned delivery, it may be the rattling hi-hats that instate an undeniable groove on the song’s back end. Whatever it is, Utada managed to capture something ethereal on this track, and I can’t wait to explore more of her catalogue in the future.  

Flower (In Full Bloom) by Luna Li ft. Dreamer Isioma: Romantic angst never sounded so damn dreamy. On “Flower (In Full Bloom),” Luna Li pleads with a lover that refuses to put in the effort in a relationship, while Dreamer Isioma provides the opposing perspective speaking about how the spark has already died. As the song progresses, the cushy soundscape of twinkling keys escalates to a bitching guitar solo that makes for one hell of a final moment.

Kissing Lessons by Lucy Dacus: If nothing else, “Kissing Lessons” is a marvel of concision. Each detail Dacus compiles, bracelet charms, hair tosses, dreams of buying a three-story house, all come together to form a rich vignette about a young girl’s budding sexuality and growing inculcation into gender roles in just under two minutes. Place those details over a rollicking rock instrumental and you’ve got on special sucker punch of a song that gives you just enough to want to know more. The only choice, then, is to hit repeat.

It’s Raining by Superorganism ft. Dylan Cartlidge and Stephen Malkmus: For Superorganism, there is no sample too silly, no instrumental flourish too strange to throw into their melting pot. Describing “It’s Raining” from their sophomore album World Wide Pop means describing the barrage of baffling moments it throws at warp speed. Frontwoman Orono Noguchi sings about a “cyborg grilled-cheese-sandwich machine” over thunderclaps. English rapper Dylan Cartlidge spits bars about Elon Musk over a backing chorus of what sounds like demented Muppets. Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus’s lyrics about riding a horse-drawn carriage are ushered in with clip-clopping hooves and a sample of a neigh. These moments come together to form a loopy, loping confection that’s as absurd as it is addictive.

Superfan by Chelsea Jade: On “Superfan,” Chelsea Jade navigates the blurred lines of talking to a crush, a situation where you’re trading adversarial jabs and confrontational quips and you can never tell if you’re flirting or fighting. Ultimately, Jade reveals the obsession lying beneath the surface, identifying herself as a “superfan” trying to play it cool. Driving home the playful awkwardness is Jade’s use of vocal samples throughout, whether they’re narrating along to her conversation or splicing through the chorus with hiccup-y clips of harmonization. It’s a song that cuts through the guise to reveal the vulnerability at its core.

Holding Back by BANKS: In the years since her debut, BANKS has become my go-to artist for electropop bangers that conjure emotional vulnerability and goddess-level confidence alike. “Holding Back” may be an outpouring of memories in the wake of a doomed relationship, but the hard-hitting electronic groove and boosted bass breathe new life into a familiar concept. As BANKS switches between vulnerable coos and full-chested belts, she unleashes the innermost desire for her care to be reciprocated. “I wrote you a melody,” she sings in the chorus, “can’t you see that?”

Whatever Fits Together by Skullcrusher: Skullcrusher has perfected the art of weaving immersive tapestries from whispy sonic fragments, a strummed guitar here, a gossamer synthesizer there, a lyrical fragment about leaving home to tie it all into a single package. “Whatever Fits Together” pulls disparate pieces from their distinct places in the ether to form something transient and melancholy, the mournful tone of Helen Ballentine’s voice balanced by a sunny tambourine. It’s ephemeral, it’s beautiful, it all fits together perfectly.

Another Man’s Jeans by Ashe: Ashe may have broken onto the pop scene with brokenhearted ballads, but there’s always been a confidence and cleverness to her delivery that’s made her stand out. On her comeback single “Another Man’s Jeans,” she douses her witty songwriting with pure funk concentrate and struts through a kiss-off to a situationship with more swagger than she’s ever showcased on tape before. It makes for one of the most fun party jams of the year.

girlfriend by hemlocke springs: I first encountered hemlocke springs via an Instagram Reel where she posted a video propositioning “do u wanna hear the weirdest bridge you’ll ever hear in ur entire life?” The subsequent bridge shows springs hurling her voice up and down the scale with reckless abandon over a spritely synth groove, and wile it might not be the “weirdest bridge” I’ve ever heard, it certainly was one of the most memorable the year had to offer. The rest of the song, a blasé kiss-off to a potential suitor, pulls of the rare achievement for a viral song and lives up to the catchiness of the initial clip.

Spitting Off the Edge of the World by Yeah Yeah Yeahs ft. Perfume Genius: “Spitting Off The Edge of the World” is awesome in the archaic sense, encapsulating the simultaneous awe and terror that comes from facing something so much bigger than yourself. It’s a song that earns it galactic sense of scope from the quiet moments it provides to contrast it, as Karen O and Perfume Genius trade demure, flitting verses before the chorus kicks in on the heels of a larger-than-life barrage synths and guitars. It’s titanic, it’s triumphant, it’s just awesome, (in that it’s also just damn great.)

The Loneliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen ft. Rufus Wainwright: I remember when this song was released just ahead of The Loneliest Time album and questioning how this collaboration could possibly work. As soon as I heard it, the answer was clear: never question Carly Rae Jepsen. At this point, Jepsen has boiled pop music down to a science, but that doesn’t mean it’s sterile or forced. The string-adorned, disco-inflected groove on “The Loneliest Time” is the perfect landscape for Jepsen and Wainwright to trade verses about giving an old flame a second chance. It all culminates in that excellent bridge where Jepsen enthusiastically declares “I’m coming back for you baby / I’m coming back for you!” I, too, will continue coming back to this song, and Jepsen’s catalogue as a whole, when I need a pick up from my own personal loneliest times.  

fairy song by beabadoobee: Throughout her second album Beatopia, beabadoobee’s jaunty melodies and sugar-sweet vocals just barely cover a greater desperation for care and connection percolating beneath the surface. The best demonstration of this is “fairy song,” where a running list of self-care tasks atop perky pianos slowly cracks apart until it fully breaks into a buzzy whirlwind of distortion and beabadoobee’ screams just barely audible in the background. Then, just as the pandemonium reaches its peak, the song pulls itself back together and returns to the chipper atmosphere it began with. Ignoring one’s distress will only take you so far before the weight becomes too much to bear. Sometimes, drinking water and going outside isn’t enough. Letting the mess fly free every so often might just be the key to moving forward.

Cardigan by Sophie Cates: “Cardigan” is my silly pop song of the year, the track I turned to when I needed an instant sugar rush of endorphins. Sure, Sophie Cates rhymes “again” with “again” with “cardigan” with “again” again on the hook, but when it's set against the most instantly catchy melody of 2022, I hardly even notice. That’s not a slight against Cates’s writing though, the other choice details she employs throughout the song paint a vivid picture of a romance that’s lost its sparkle, and the wistful desire for the magic to return. It’s that undercurrent of longing that elevates “Cardigan” from being just a silly pop song to a great silly pop song, one that sticks around long after the initial rush has passed. 

Bump by Dora Jar: Dora Jar’s music captures the dark whimsy of a fairy tale, but the real fairy tales where the pixie dust and glass slippers come with a hungry wolf or vengeful witch lurking in the shadows. It’s a musical world that’s a little spooky, rife with curiosity, and lit up with a flicker of excitement. “Bump” is one of the best demonstrations of this quality, with Dora Jar describing the wonder of a chance encounter that may escalate into something more. The song is accented with astonished gaps, a swampy chorus of backing vocals, and an air-tight beat. It’s sweet and wondrous and a little claustrophobic, sonically capturing that tight-throated, heart-hammering anticipation to see what comes next.

In The Eyes Of Our Love by Yumi Zouma: “In The Eyes Of Our Love” is good in a way that just feels obvious, providing a breezy yet danceable energy that’s poised to play out the romantic climax of a teen movie from the 90s. Beneath its cheery surface, though, is a tremor of anxiety. Lead vocalist Christie Simpson signs of crumbling walls, splitting lips, and looming storms, worries that accelerate and melt away over the song's duration. Every great pop song grows all the greater with a sense of urgency, and “In The Eyes Of Our Love” threads that needle effortlessly while still being danceable as hell. What more could you want?

Part Of The Band by The 1975: Over the past few years, The 1975 have twisted the anthemic pop-rock that put them on the map to reveal the absurdity and anxiety at the heart of modern life. On “Part Of The Band,” the band’s first single off their 2022 album Being Funny In A Foreign Language, frontman Matty Healy’s musings on social upheaval are equal parts hilarious and insightful. After stuffing the song full of dizzying rhymes, (“vaccinista tote bag-chic baristas” with “communista keisters” especially comes to mind,) Healy finishes on a searing moment of self-reflection: “am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke / calling his ego imagination?” With a twitchily elegant backdrop crafted from plucky string swells, chopped-up vocal samples, and quivering synths, it’s a song whose catchiness, cleverness, and creativity lives up to the critiques on display.

ALIEN SUPERSTAR by Beyoncé: It was difficult to pick a favorite track from RENAISSANCE, an album so consistently excellent in its delivery of dancefloor euphoria. In the end, I had to go with the self-love celebration “ALIEN SUPERSTAR.” Every element of this song oozes self-assurance, from the spacy disco instrumental to Beyoncé’s vocals, which switch from sensual cooing to a British accent-inflected declarations to braggadocious belting at the drop of a hat. The result is a track poised to dominate dancefloors across the galaxy for years to come, and who’s surprised? She’s one of one. She’s number one. She’s the only one.

Nothing Gives Me Pleasure by Girlpool: I clicked play on Girlpool’s fifth album Forgiveness without any clear expectations. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be blasted with a wave of distorted synths followed by the most memorable opening line of the year: “Do you even want me if I even have to ask? / Break it to me gently with your fingers up my ass.” It’s an unforgettable one-two punch that immediately establishes the core themes of the album, trying to reconcile the desire for emotional and physical intimacy, and how those desires often conflict with and contradict one another. “Nothing Gives Me Pleasure” walks the power balance in a relationship built on mismatched expectations, trying to sate yourself with sex and coming up short. The soundscape skitters and heaves, the distortion ratcheting up as Harmony Tividad reiterates the title line over and over: “Nothing gives me pleasure like the words I know you won’t say.” 

cool by Uffie: Uffie made a name for herself in the bloghouse scene of the early 2010s, a musical moment defined by glitchy earworms, a punkish dedication to keeping the party going as long as possible, and lots and lots of glitter. For her 2021 comeback single with Company Records, “cool,” Uffie evolves the quirky maximalism of her past into something slick, modern, and effortlessly, well, cool. On “cool,” Uffie digs for gold in moments of stillness amidst chaos, chronicling moments of reprieve during a night out: sleepy Uber rides, poolside kisses, eating cereal with her partner. The best demonstration of this comes when, at the precipice of each chorus, all the music cuts out for a moment before Uffie ushers in the razor-sharp groove with a simple utterance of the song’s title, delivered with a blasé surety of someone who’s seen it all. As she sings in the song’s third verse, she’s “got nothing left to prove.” 

HENTAI by ROSALÍA: Amidst the raucous genreclash that makes up the rest of the MOTOMAMI tracklist, the gentle pianos of “HENTAI” may initially feel a bit out of place. But if you listen closely, there’s much to discover beneath its deceptively simple surface. First off, the lyrics are filthy as hell, (I know, big surprise for a song literally called “HENTAI,”) but the cheeky references to bike riding and tape making are balanced out by a tender backdrop that knows when to up the bombast. Whether it be the barely-there string flourishes, fluttering vocal runs, or the skittering blast of drums that drives the song’s closing moments home, “HENTAI” provides just enough off-kilter details that make the song transcend from mere sexy piano ballad into only “La ROSALÍA” could provide.

Simulation Swarm by Big Thief: Despite Big Thief’s fifth album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You dropping all the way back in February, I found “Simulation Swarm” shamefully late in the year. But as soon as I heard it, I knew it would be on this list, and pretty high up too. Adrianne Lenker crafts songs that are immediately familiar, like I must have been listening to them from childhood. The details she employs throughout "Simulation Swarm” balance beauty and malice, painting the dark fairy tale and casual terror of modern life “crystal blood like a dream true,” “swallows in the windless field,” “river of light who I love / That I sing to in the belly of the empty night.” Set against a locomotive folk instrumental, “Simulation Swarm” feels like a gentle hug from the abyss, voicing the ability to face danger and walk forward with hope. 

Till We Run Out Of Air by Hatchie: I thought I knew what to expect going into Hatchie’s sophomore album Giving The World Away. Early singles like “Quicksand” and “This Enchanted” delivered another helping of the joyful shoegaze pop she’s been delivering for years. It’s a sound I’m always willing to gobble up, but there was an echo of something greater hovering right beneath the surface. With the final song on the album, Hatchie delivered a falcon punch of a finale that transforms that spark into a fireworks show. With its susurrus of swirling, watery synths and arena-ready chorus, “Till We Run Out Of Air” plows right through me with each repeated spin. It’s a song enraptured in the fine line between destruction and exhilaration, tracing the final moments in a romance with larger-than-life bombast. Perhaps the best encapsulation of this euphoria comes at the precipice of the chorus. “Open the curtains and let in the light,” Hatchie sings, before a glowing blossom of synths barrels the listener right into the song’s most anthemic refrain. It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel finally breaking through the darkness at just the right moment.

doomsday by Lizzie McAlpine: On her second album five seconds flat, Lizzy McAlpine elevated her personal songwriting with a cinematic scope. This approach is immediately introduced on the album’s opening “doomsday,” a slow-burning ballad chronicling a breakup though the lens of hindsight. McAlpine circles through deathly metaphors throughout the song: pulling the plug, violent ends, her partner as a “murderer” initiating their split on Halloween, the sample of a bone being split in half. This ghoulish gravitas of is backed up by an orchestral swell that makes the melodrama feel earned. These compounding elements build up the song’s momentum until McAlpine’s final revelation slams into you at full force: “I would’ve married you / If you’d stuck around / I feel more free than I have in years / Six feet in the ground.” The relationship may be dead and gone, but McAlpine makes it clear that she’s only getting started.

Lullabye by Grace Ives: Throughout Janky Star, Grace Ives concocts idea-stuffed soundscapes that vacillate between the anxieties and thrills of young adulthood. The earworms come so casually that they even materialize in the album’s moments of brevity. “Lullabye” is a perfect example of this. As the album’s closer, it shows the chaos winding down, giving way to moments of reflection. Ives’s breathily narrates the “lovely mess” of her life: watching movies on repeat, casually attempting gymnastics moves in the kitchen, and swapping confessions with a loved one late into the night. Set against gauzy landscape of synths, skittering drums, and chirpy backing vocals, I turned to the casual wisdom of “Lullabye” all the times this year when life got overwhelming. “No it’s nothing to be sad about,” Ives sings in the song’s closing moments, “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about.” It’s a welcome reminder of the power ruminating on small joys can hold.

Say It by SASAMI: On her latest album Squeeze, SASAMI took to flipping white male-dominated genres like punk and metal to articulate her own rage. One of the best examples of this is “Say It,” an unapologetic frenzy of glitchy rock scuzz. In an Apple Music interview, SASAMI stated that the song was “about the pain of someone not communicating with you,” carried out as she trades places with a bassy, distorted mirror of her own voice. Situated atop a strutting groove concocted of squealing guitars, grumbling bass, and booming drums, it all comes together to form something equal parts cathartic and terrifying. “Say It” might be one of the best rock songs the year had to offer, but amidst the ruckus, it’s first and foremost a call to throw your repentance to the wind and speak your mind. 

Yuck by Charli XCX: If you’ve been on TikTok for the past year or so, odds are you’ve come across the idea of “the ick,” the moment in a romantic relationship where something as simple as watching your beau chase a ping-pong ball across the floor flips your feelings of adoration into disgust. It only makes sense that one of pop’s most forward–thinking artists would capture this cultural phenomenon with masterful specificity and simplicity. Over a bouncy synth-heavy beat, Charli XCX lays out the moment when her love interest’s gooey romantic devotion starts to drive her away. Throughout “Yuck,” she takes romantic tropes like puppy dog eyes and bouquets of roses and flips them on their head. The result is the definitive song to throw on when the candy hearts get cloying. After spending the last few years of her career pushing pop to its very limits, her latest album Crash was a welcome reminder that even without all the hyperpop flourishes, she can still write damn good and effortless catchy bangers like this.

Free by Florence + The Machine: How do you persevere in the face of suffering? seems to be the question Florence Welch fixates on most throughout her projects with Florence + The Machine. She’s turned to several places in the past: making a break for freedom on her breakout hit “Dog Days Are Over,” self-destructive love on rock bangers like “Ship To Wreck” and “Shake It Out,” and reconciliation on her previous album, High As Hope. While the definite answer for such a question may never materialize, Welch has recognized how music can be one of the most potent salves for such woes. Her 2022 album Dance Fever provides several welcome additions to Welch’s growing catalog of musical catharsis, but it was “Free,” a free-spirited banger co-written by Jack Antonoff, that ended up hitting me the hardest. “Free” taps into something primal yet graceful, a raucous recognition that sometimes, the most inspiring feelings of freedom come hand in hand with singing at the top of your lungs. “For a moment, when I'm dancing,” Welch declares with titanic vocals over a propulsive drum beat and glittering keys, “I am free.” This relief may be temporary, but for the moment, it’s nothing short of magical.

American Teenager by Ethel Cain: On her debut album Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain chronicles a journey of adolescent ennui and religious turmoil through sprawling, atmospheric ballads. Before she gets into all that, she also proves that she can write a teen pop anthem for the ages. “American Teenager” is the first official song on the album, and while it may be shorter and more immediate than its predecessors, it’s no less deftly crafted. Cain harnesses the larger-than-life, anthemic synth pop of the 80s, accenting the soundscape with shining synths, booming drums, and a bright saxophone solo. While the song relishes in altruistic Americana imagery of crying on the bleachers and whiskey-fueled rebellion, Cain also acknowledges the darkness lurking beneath the jubilation on the surface. The opening verse describes her neighbor’s brother being shipped home in a coffin, “another red heart taken by the American dream.” Still, despite this darkness, there’s a hope at the core of “American Teenager” that catapults it into the stratosphere, that suggests that maybe someday, those promises might come to fruition.

touch tank by quinine: I first came across “touch tank” as a fragment on TikTok, a looping clip of quinnie lip synching along to the first few lines of the chorus: “He’s so pretty / when he goes down on me.” And what an attention-grabbing set of lines they are, it’s not everyday that you stumble across a sweet, unassuming bedroom pop song explicitly discussing cunnilingus. But it isn’t just the refreshingly matter-of-fact  references to sex that make “touch tank” stick in the memory, it’s the atmosphere of intimacy quinnie builds around those lines. In its final form, “touch tank” builds an aqueous wonderland of small yet palpably intimate moments, freshly laundered t-shirts, discovering new tattoos, choosing to be gentle. “touch tank” is a tribute to those early stages in a relationship where you’re poking and prodding with care, trying to reach tender places without drawing blood. Rounded out with warm guitars, cooing flutes, and just a twinge of vocal distortion, it’s a song that feels lived in, welcoming, drawing you deeper into its depths with each repeated spin. 

What were your favorite songs from this year? Did I miss anything? Leave a comment or tag some in the reblogs and let me know.

This year has been an absolute whirlwind, and I hope you all have some good memories from it. Here’s to a safe, healthy 2023! 

[rainbowtheequartz]

the templeton family

we met matriarchs marissa and marisa in my last post, now let's meet their kids. to keep her own name in the family, both daughters have tracey as a middle name.

the eldest child is marysah tracey. marysah is a bit of a supersim. her ambition has made her a force to be reckoned with within the family, having completed all of her aspirations as a kid. her current goal is to graduate top of her class to choose any degree she wants to.

next is marisza tracey. a performer through and through, marisza isn't far behind her sister in completing aspirations. the bold kid, marisza is already the type to be voted most likely to start a cult be president one day, though her commitment to drama club suggests a future as a silver screen icon is likely.

trey and trace were very unexpected twins when the marissa's decided to have one last science baby. trace feels like he has middle child syndrome being sandwiched between the bold marisza and trey, and plays music to make up for his feelings. in fact he can usually be found at his keyboard or the family piano. trey is a born prankster, getting away with his tricks since marisza is usually a participant and you can't fight how confident they both are together.

the marissa's have talked about maybe having another science baby, but maybe not until the twins are at least teens.

[offbookkeeping]

21. Murder on the Picturesque Express with Scott Aukerman

Plot summary:

A murder takes place on a picturesque old timey train. Paints McSpectrum, an artist/detective is tasked with solving the crime. He meets a rich blind little boy named Specs and a poor little girl named Janely who are best friends. A grandfather and his two grandsons, Griseldo and Greg, get in the way of the train detective Detective Montgomery and his apprentice Fiffle Mplopple. They discover that the floor of the caboose is coated with blood and red blood paint and that Specs' parents have been dismembered. Specs says that the body parts couldn't have belonged to his parents because his father's penis was bigger than that (how would he have known, he's blind). Eventually he accepts that his parents are dead. Griseldo and Greg try to solve the murder on their own to appease their Daddy Grandpa but they're scrappy kids and don't succeed. They meet a german knife salesman and a mexican maraca salesman. Janely talks about how there are no laws protecting her and how she has to work on the factories and gets one free club sandwich a month. She gives it away to another child worker. She asks Specs how many sandwiches he gets and realizes she'd have to work for 11 years just to get the same amount of food. Specs gets paranoid and assumes he killed his parents. Griseldo and Greg are told that they can call their grandfather Daddy Grandpa if they saw the crime. Specs is murdered immediately after being accused of murder. Fiffle and Detective Montgomery break up after Detective Montgomery fires him. He jumps off the train to his death I assume. The detective is accused of murder and is then murdered. Daddy Grandpa is also murdered, leaving Greg, Griseldo, Marco Rodriguez, Janely remain. Marco is killed. The knife salesman is also murdered. Greg and Griseldo are then murdered. Janely is the only one remaining and she's accused of murder but she denies it because she's just a poor dining cart girl. Fiffle reveals that he didn't kill himself and that he's actually the murderer because he got tired of his lover Detective Montgomery solving boring crimes. Janely sings a song about she's going to try to kill Fiffle with a maraca but he kills her. He stabs Paints immediately after. It turns out the knives were fake and everyone's alive. Fiffle is taken to prison and then hell.

Best quotes:

• "Seems like you've been pretty horny for sandwiches this whole time"

Best songs:

• Knives und Maracas

Thoughts Overall:

HELL YEAH PAINTS MCSPECTRUM! Arguably the most iconic Off Book character besides Peter the fire duck (whack whack!) and Syntrax. I adore Zach's German accent. Also he's terrible at math and it's very endearing.

[upupandawcy]

(ALBA BAPTISTA, CIS-FEMALE, SHE/HER) - is LUZIA OLIVEIRA late to class again? how does the 21 year old FRESHMAN expect to get their degree in ART? professors say that they are QUIRKY but i heard that they are IMPULSIVE. hopefully they’ll make it to graduation! - gray, 30+, est, she/they

SPORTS & CLUBS: lgbtqia+ club. art club. theatre ( prop/set design )

STATS;

name: luzia isabela oliveira nicknames: luz, lilo pronouns: she/her age: 21 birthdate: apr 11th zodiac sign: aries sun. cancer moon. pisces rising sexuality: pansexual major: art major positive traits: romantic. creative. bold. compassionate. volatile. temperamental. sensitive. self-centered. sports & clubs: lgbtqia+ club. art club. theatre ( prop/set design )

DETAILS;

Luz comes from a warm and loving family of nine. yep. Nine. she’s the fifth of seven kids and is sandwiched between two sets of twins. 

She’s adopted, but it wasn’t something that was kept from her. Her mother died of complications just after childbirth and Bruno, her mother’s brother, and his wife, Angelina, took her in and raised her as their own. She’s never felt othered by her parents though there is some discourse between her and her “siblings” from time to time. 

Being the first girl, she was spoiled quite a bit. Sort of. It became clear the older she became the less she wanted to be treated differently than her brothers. She was the embodiment of the ‘one of the boys’ tropes. She loved being outside, fishing, getting dirty and fighting. Whatever the boys could do, she could do better. 

It wasn’t until the second set of twins came along that Luz began to settle a bit. She stopped worrying about keeping up and started going at her own pace. 

She’s a handful. Everything she feels, she feels deeply and sometimes suddenly. Her attention span typically falls on the short side or she’s so engaged in something, she loses herself in it. 

Art is a major outlet. Painting, sculpting, dance, poetry, you name it, she’s dabbled in it. She is always always drawing, if only to keep her hands busy. If you’ve been in the commons, library or quad the same time as her, you’re probably in one of her sketch books.

School wasn’t as difficult for her as one might think. She got the grades, it just took a looooot of refocusing. Lots of turning in work late or doing the bare minimum only to bring it up at the very end. Teachers either love or hate her. 

Actually most people love or hate her. And she’s ok with that. She’s not out here trying to make everyone like her. She doesn’t believe in liking everyone either. But she tries to at least be respectful/amicable. Until you piss her off. In that case, it’s not great.

She can get loud, her anger coming in the form of saying shit she doesn’t mean, throwing things, storming off and most iconically tears. She’s gotten a better hold of her temper in later years, developed a longer fuse, but every now and then….

Boxing and martial arts helped. And you know, regular art.

She’s sold some paintings in her home town and some around the globe. Not anything insane but it was enough that she didn’t head off to college right away. Instead she traveled around the states, living out of her car or motels, creating.

She chose Timber Creek because of its art program, though she really doesn’t know what she’ll do with an actual degree. She just kinda wanted to see what she was missing and she doesn’t hate it. She hopes to kinda figure out some sort of ambition here. Though to be honest, she’s not sure she’ll last long enough to actually graduate.

WANTED CONNECTIONS;

can I say everything?

a best friend. artist buddies. unlikely friends. drinking buddies. muses. positive influences. a tutor.

annoyances. frienemies. oil & water. bad vibes

flirts. one night stands. fwbs. crushes. ewb. make out buddies. dates. once you have her attention it can be intense but she falls in and out of feelings quickly. wants to find that person though and isn't afraid of trying on every shoe till one fits

like this and i'll come to you for some plotting.

[mywifeleftme]

179: Elvis Presley // The Sun Collection

The Sun Collection Elvis Presley 1975, RCA Victor

Is there anything left worth writing about Elvis? Well, people still find smart things to say about Jesus. Getting through all the muck around him took some doing for me, and it was probably the mythic intensity of Nick Tosches and Greil Marcus’s writing on his career (and particularly the Sun Sessions) that gave me a framework for understanding what made him so electric, something more than the pancake-foundationed Engelbert Humperdinck- or Wayne Newton-type Vegas tchotchke he seemed to be. I don’t have a ton to add to the conversation around Presley, but I was curious about how people think about him these days, whether they still have any strong opinions at all. I asked a bunch of friends (and my grandma) to give me their impressions of the King, and their thoughts follow.

18 Takes on the King

“I guess he's like a sexy (not as in attractive, but more like assuming the affectation of sex) Gumby who was the perfect conduit for music producers looking to extract culture from Black communities, can it, and sell it to white America like tinned fish. It's like if Hank Hill had a verbal aphasia and could only stutter vowel sounds, but it somehow still slaps despite the odds.”

“The quintessential model for a pop star who is overtly sexualized but also somehow innocent or naïve. This presentation can range from cool to creepy. Elvis didn’t do it first, but he did it the best to that point and his version came off on the cooler end of that spectrum.”

“Elvis isn’t my thing, but without him I don’t know what ‘90s independent cinema would even be.”

“I have conflicted feelings about Elvis—while I think there's something truly timeless and unique about the timbre of his voice and the way he sings (my family plays his Christmas record on Christmas Day without fail every year), I also recognize that he is overrated in that his material is neither original nor is it particularly revolutionary in any way, and if anything is just a glossed, whitewashed version of music that already existed previously that white audiences couldn’t handle. But ultimately, I do legitimately like listening to his music.”

“I’m not a major Elvis person, but early rock dude who combined gospel/blues with the developing genre of rock. Don’t think he ever claimed to be THE GUY who created the genre and from the little I know, he acknowledged the importance of Black artists in inspiring what he did. Particularly known for his cover of ‘Hound Dog.’ There we go.”

“Elvis Presley, the hip-shaking maestro of rock 'n' roll, could make even a hound dog blush with envy. His voice was smoother than peanut butter on a hot skillet, and his hair was so iconic, it had its own fan club. If music be the food of love, then Elvis was the chef who cooked up a whole lotta heart-throbbing tunes! (ChatGPT lol, sorry, busy day at work!)”

“A bejewelled sex wizard.”

“Elvis Presley allegedly came in his all-leather flight suit during his iconic ‘comeback’ special. He is one of a select few celebrities with a fervently believed rumour of being not-dead. People dress as him and marry other people together. Also, he invented a sandwich. — King Status”

“Mediocre singer who abused women and whose signature sandwich is overrated.”

“His career ate him up, then he ate everything else.”

“The King of Ripping Off Other Artists. My earliest memories of Elvis are my family listening to the Christmas album ad nauseum, but they’re good memories nonetheless. Regardless of how you feel about Elvis, you must admit ‘Jailhouse Rock’ fucking RIPS.”

“White as winter snow pills jam and peanut butter A king on his throne”

“A lot of people dismiss Elvis because of an opinion they've been told to have and have never really critically assessed, and I imagine a lot of people you ask about this will give you the standard take; I'm not going to fault them that, I think a lot of us have opinions like that, it's not really efficient to assess the validity of every single one of our received assumptions.

There's an absolutely dogshit short story by Alice Walker about an Elvis stand-in character and a Mama Lou Thornton stand-in character, which seems to imply that Thornton wrote ‘Hound Dog’ herself and was effectively exploited and that Elvis isn't a real artist because he can't write his own songs, which is a crock of shit because: two Jewish white guys wrote the song for Thornton; she made it a #1 record; and performance IS real artistry and Thornton, like Elvis, was a real artist and interpreted the song in a very powerful way.

The fact is, you listen to that Ed Sullivan ‘Hound Dog’ performance, and it doesn't take much to see how different it is from the original—not ‘better’ or ‘worse’ but very obviously distinct, and if you tell me otherwise you are absolutely approaching it in bad faith and there's no reason for me to even waste my time explaining that to you.

Elvis absolutely kicks the doors down in the opening bar of his version of ‘Hound Dog,’ it sounds extremely dangerous and you can immediately see why he scared parents—he was wild and in-your-face, an extremely prescient innovator who sounded totally unlike anything that came before him no matter what the haters mindlessly repeat, and he WAS a true contender for the title of King of Rock & Roll.”

“My ability to produce an opinion here was contaminated by the Baz Luhrmann movie.”

“apparently influential in bringing some sort of music (maybe it’s dance hall music) to white America but I dunno really

also he died on the toilet

or maybe aliens got him

not sure”

“A man with a good heart, in a physique of timeless beauty that comes along once in a civilization. True to his roots, and the foundation of his time, he kept his focus on God. However, his body and mind went wayward to a decadence not uncharacteristic of the chapter unto which he was born. His Spirit shone through regardless, right to the end.”

“Elvis is America in the sense that his impact was so seismic and society changed so rapidly while he was active that he basically had to become a nostalgia peddler for like, his own vibe in his own time. He went from Little Richard to Michael Bublé in like a year and a half.

He’s a perfect representation of suspended youth in that I think a lot of what makes him so iconic is that all his excesses (Graceland, the Outfits, the Karate, the Sandwiches) are basically a broke 12-year-old boy’s version of what being rich and famous looks like, which objectively rocks.

His best record is a Christmas album which I think is an appropriate celebration and condemnation of his legacy.”

“He was my youth. 😊 He was my exam study music! I loved him and his music and his movies. I still love him!”

179/365

[abookishdreamer]

Character Intro: Pan (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- The Lost God, The Great Pan by the people of Olympius

Mr. Reed by Hermes

The Pipe by Dionysus

Age- 56 (immortal)

Location- Arcadia, Olympius

Personality- Despite the gossip for being known as an amorous frenzied drunk, he's actually extremely wise, calm, respectful, & benevolent. Above all else, nature is extremely important to him. He's polyamorous.

He's the only god in the pantheon that's a satyr.

He has the standard abilities of a god. As god of the wild, satyrs, shepherds, & rustic music his powers/abilities include his most powerful one- the panic cry (which induces frenzy & madness in others), chlorokinesis, being able to summon/control all wild animals, dendrokinesis (controlling wood & trees), geokinesis, vounókinesis (mountain manipulation), vitakinesis (healing), hydrokinesis (as it pertains to fresh water sources), limited atmokinesis (weather manipulation), woodland magic, and pan flute magic (when he plays his sacred instrument he's able to curse others by putting them in an uncontrollable dancing trance).

His natural scent is that of musk and frankincense.

Pan's favorite colors are green & brown.

Throughout his godly career he was involved in many things like Zeus' battle with Typhon, the Gigantomachy, and the not-so serious talent show-off with Apollo (god of the sun, music, poetry, healing, medicine, archery, plague, light, & knowledge).

Pan didn't mind that he was put on a pedestal being the unofficial spokesman for the Satyr race.

After a few hundred years living in the modern world, he bagan to feel anxious & restless. Pan couldn't quite put his finger on it, but several things he noticed about modern society he now found repulsive- especially beings' relationship with nature. He quickly deleted his Fatestagram profile and with little resistance from the King, Pan slowly and quietly walked away from the public eye & official duties of the pantheon. He still had control over his businesses in the country. Before he left, he was a mentor twice- to Hermes & Dionysus (god of wine).

Pan thought it was hilarious when there was months long news coverage of his "disappearance." A mortal sailor Thamus achieved notoriety during his press tour- being interviewed by many journalists and going on talk shows with his unbelievable tale of recieving word of the god's death. His iconic line, "The great god Pan is dead!" has been printed on T-shirts. It was even more funnier when a blurry photo of Pan taken by the paparazzi made its way on the cover of The Oracle Scoop!

After abandoning most of modern society, he retreated to his sacred place (the state of Arcadia) where Pan has now established a commune that's two thousand strong. The commune is situated on his MASSIVE woodland estate, hidden away under the cover of mountains. There has been a school built for the kids, a library, his juice shack business, a yoga studio, & a holistic health center. There's also a huge farm filled with horses, cows, sheep, and goats. A major rule of the commune is not using any modern technology (mainly TVs, computers, laptops, smartphones, & tablets). Clothes are often washed by hand and there's no Wi-Fi.

When he's feeling nervous or anxious he'll sometimes chew on tin cans.

Pan's favorite drinks include coconut water, aloe vera juice, roast coffee, grapefruit soda, carrot-ginger-tumeric smoothies, mango juice, beer, coconut milk, matcha tea, oatmilk, assam tea, orange juice, sweet tea, & green tea. He even makes his own moonshine!

His businesses in Olympius include his weed dispensaries and The Lytêrios Oasis, an adult nudist resort. earnings from those businesses go toward various charities & projects like his Green Grove Project- to combat deforestation and repairing homes for people in woodland & mountainous communities.

Pan loves Deipneus' garlic bagles (with a vegan cream cheese spread). He also likes the vegan tempeh club sandwich from The Bread Box.

He (much like the residents in the commune) is vegan.

Pan frequents shrooms, weed, lotus tiles, and chewing tobacco. He also ironically likes nicotine gum!

He can play the pan flute, lyre, acoustic guitar, ukulele, & other woodwind instruments like the clarinet and oboe.

His favorite dessert is the hummingbird cake from Hollyhock's Bakery. He also likes the oatmeal brownies his daughter brings for him when she visits.

In the pantheon Pan's good friends with Demeter (goddess of the harvest & agriculture); though they haven't seen each other in many years, Nyx (goddess of the night), Erebus (god of darkness), Karmanor (demi-god of the harvest), The Ourea (esteemed mountain gods), Agathodaemon (Daemon) (god of vineyards, grainfields, & luck), Chiron (the immortal centaur), Pherusa (goddess of substance & farm estates), Livádi (goddess of meadows), Paean (goddess of physicians), The Nesoi (sister isand goddesses), Hydros (god of water), Priapus (god of fertility, vegetable gardens, livestock, sexuality, & masculinity), Elpis (goddess of hope), Triptolemus (god of farming), and Trochilus (god of the mill wheel).

Former lovers of his include Selene (Titaness of the moon), Karme (demi-goddess of the harvest); they're now friends, Evimería (goddess of prosperity), Kéfi (goddess of mirth), and Hesychia (goddess of quiet, stillness, rest, & silence). There are even rumors swirling about that Pan & Gaia (goddess of the earth) got together a few times! Current lovers are Nárkosi (goddess of sedation), Damia (goddess of naturalness), and Eupheme (an oread); they share a son Krotos. The only romantic relationship that Pan ever considered marriage was with the naiad nymph Syrinx. They share a daughter Physis (goddess of nature). They used to be in a folk band called Chapters of Lore. The band traveled & performed everywhere (even in the Underwater realm), managed to perform at the Summer Solstice Music Festival, and even snagged five Golden Laurels!

His favorite snack are plantain chips and cashew string cheese.

Pan uses the sulfate free aloe vera shampoo and the almond & castor oil loc elixir from Glory's Crown for his long dreadlocks.

His favorite frozen treat is cinnamon oatmilk ice cream.

In his free time Pan enjoys archery, horseback riding, gardening, canoeing, hiking, mountain climbing, music, acupuncture, aromatherapy, swimming, basketball, surfing, football (soccer), writing (songs or entries in his journal), pottery, yoga, reading, cooking, spending time with his children, painting (mostly landscapes & nude portraits), and lovemaking.

Some of his favorite meals include cabbage stir fry with buckwheat soba noodles, vegan shepherd's pie, miso tofu wraps, butternut squash stuffed pasta shells, curry lentil soup, & vegan rasta pasta.

"When you are looking for peace, nature is always the answer."

[trekhopsusa123]

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[hayashidayuki]

Fill La Fill (Pregnancy)

“Two bagels, please. And a short coffee.”

A ruffled newspaper in hand, Michael sat down on one of the rather unkempt velvet chairs that riveted the empty cafeteria of the school. Usually bustling with sighing cooks and lively teenagers crashing onto each other to reach for the last ham and cheese sandwich left in the pantry, the room was almost completely empty, its white, hermetic walls seeming even more quiet and cold. The only movement came from one of the chefs, scribbling away at a notepad while nibbling on a piece of fruit.

Taking a small bite out of his buttered bagel, the investigator opened up his paper.

So, Honno City. A strange place from the moment he had arrived. An artificial island, a gigantic amalgam of thousands of rickety buildings and state-of-the-art technology, pulled together in nonexistent harmony forming mounds upon mounds of nestled houses and establishments, a rarity of hyperpopulation crammed like rats in a cone-like shape of slums and luxury, crowned with the shining and glittering icon that was the mythical Honnouji Academy.

The entire socio-economical system of the estate was built on cruel hierarchies, casts organized by literal star levels, those further than the first level, those without stars, being blessed with emblazoned, silvered uniforms that both grant a symbol of undeserved status, and grant inhuman powers right out of the most poorly written power fantasy manga. Unsavory rumors pointed towards it being some sort of sick testing ground for the might of Life Fibers, sentient, and unknowable threads that emulate cotton, the origin of those bizarre uniforms.

Michael glared outside, seeing the massive, impolitely white concrete slabs that conformed the entrance of the school, a colossal arch decorated with red lines delineating a caricature of angry eyes. As of then, the entirety of Honno City had been set under a strict quarantine.

The causes were left unclear, as unveiling them was the outsider’s job, but a puzzling condition had sailed over the entirety of the island like a plague.

Perhaps it was a mishap of these weird Life Fibers, an explosion of power that had morphed into unforeseen effects that matched with the events. Perhaps one of the higher-class students had decided to mess with what their superhuman abilities were capable of doing, and conjured unexplainable happenings. Or even maybe it was some sort of stupid prank. Judging by how bonkers that place seemed to be from what little time Michael had spent walking through its back alleys, nothing was out of bounds. But no matter the reasoning, one thing was clear as day, and bearing in every single young lady the detective saw pass with waddling steps up and down the halls:

Every single woman in Honno City had suddenly woken up pregnant.

Overactive groups of students with chirpy voices marveled at the size of each other’s plump abdomens, shyly asking each other questions about how had they managed to dress that morning. The girls’ tennis club stubbornly decided to continue their tournament, huffing and panting as their full stomachs weighed them down, their usually loose white shirts now affixed tightly to their inflated bodies, making it hard to jump around comfortably. A ditzy girl with a brunette bowl cut had tried to offer him a packet of her mother’s croquettes earlier in the morning, unaware of how her astoundingly large, squirming belly was bumping onto him, almost toppling him over.

Every single female with the capacity of becoming gravid was carrying at least one child within her, waddling around as they did their daily chores; some of them reacted accordingly and promptly freaked out, as plenty of absent students had been recorded in the last few days, and others were apparently quite used to the wacky hijinks that often took place there. In a… Curious twist, upon a few events of girls complaining that their skirts got uncomfortably tight as their bottoms fattened slightly, the Student Council obliged, and produced a new batch of wider, more loosely-fitting skirts for all of the girls… Except for No-Stars. So all of the outcasts were waddling around with their panties out for everyone to see. Huh.

Michael sighed softly, finishing up a few doodles on the side of the newspaper. While he was barely above school age, of course, a grown man with a job and a half-paid mortgage dressing up as a student and snooping on young pregnant ladies to obtain information on a weird case would always look questionable. But he couldn’t keep himself from having his hands all over this puzzle. In his few years of detective work, no mystery had brought out the same fascination out of him such as this. An artificial island chock full of controversies and rumors, overtaken by a sudden wave of unexplained pregnancies in every single female of fertile age? Who wouldn’t want to take part in uncovering such a mystery-?

“Oi.”

The sound of a female voice suddenly took him out of his reverie. His golden eyes fastly darted upwards, spotting a tomboyish girl poking into the room.

Before him stood a young woman, hands stuffed in her pockets with an inquiring expression in her face. Her scruffy navy blue hair was interrupted by a streak of bright red, contrasting deeply with her dark blue stare, her eyes sporting a peculiar gear-like pattern around her pupils. Although originally quite thin, her body had become a bit chubbier thanks to the pregnancy, her massive breasts and hips as wide as canyons barely contained by her strained, seemingly customized sailor fuku uniform, which out like a sore thumb thanks to its sea blue and red colors and its motifs of an eye and an eyepatch, although it was lacking a skirt and revealing plain white underpants, pointing towards the girl being a No-Star.

Her uniform left her midriff bare, a perfect gap for her humongous gut, easily one of the largest Michael had seen in his life, to poke out and crown the avant-garde composition of her character design. Her tummy waltzed into the room seconds before she did, a tender and unblemished beach ball of taut flesh, crowned with a perfectly shaped outie belly button like the peak of a gigantic, rounded mountain, that didn’t fit her body at all, no matter how it changed to fit; and inside which Michael had already managed to spot a few kicks, even from that afar.

“You’re not from around these parts, are ya?” Her lips part to inquire once again, her attitude ever so slightly tense yet with the friendly tinge of someone who does not want problems. Perhaps she thought he was an exchange student, considering he had fit himself with a counterfeit version of one of their No-Star attires. Now the thing would be his Japanese, as he was quite rusty with the pronunciation.

“Well… No. I’m an exchange student, I arrived last week.”

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence accompanied, only slightly broken by the boiling chatter of the school halls.

“… Yeah, of course.” The girl’s impertinent grin didn’t seem quite convinced.

“What’s wrong with that? I come from America.” Michael gave her a confused stare, taking another bite out of his bagel. “It’s not because I’m black, is it?”

“No, it’s ‘cause I saw you change into that uniform this morning in the bathroom.”

“… Oh.”

More uncomfortable silence.

“For some sort of creep or something like that, you ain’t very sneaky.” She chuckled, tilting her head as she gave him a quite sarcastic V-sign with her free hand, the other clasping the belt of a long metal box that she carried around like a backpack.

A drop of sweat ran down Michael’s forehead. All his strength went into avoiding blushing in embarrassment, as that would only further accuse him of being a peeping tom. Maybe he would have to tell her about the reason he was here, although he was supposed to keep it confidential. With a big sigh, he stuck his hand into his jacket, and pulled out his presentation card.

“W-Well then… I’m Michael J. Haussman. Detective.” He looked at her from his seat, his eyes conveying a quiet discomfort. “Please, don’t tell anyone, or I could get in trouble.”

“Oh!” The woman smiled in surprise, yanking the card out of his hand and taking a good look at it like the time was going to run out. “You’re like one of those Sherlock Holmesy types of guys I see all the time on TV, right?” As she spoke, she clumsily heaved herself down onto the opposing chair, placing a hand on top of her stomach.

“Uhm, quite less glamorous, but kinda, yeah.” Michael chuckled, swirling the coffee a little with a small spoon. The newspaper was set aside, next to the plate with the half-eaten bagel and the other intact. “I’ve come to investigate this weird… Pregnancy pandemic, to give it a

name.” His eyes went down to her belly, budging a tad onto the table, as she absentmindedly rubbed it with her thumb, skin shifting as the babies inside her wriggled and swam. “I take it you’re one of the victims, yes? What’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

The girl tapped her chin with two fingers, eyes drifting to the ceiling. “Hurm, I don’t know, should I tell you…? Nah, what the hell. I’m Matoi Ryuko. Nice to meetcha.” She stretched her hand towards him, inviting a handshake, which he cordially obliged.

Pulling out his little notepad and grabbing his pen again, Michael looked at Ryuko with a sympathetic glare. Imagine suddenly waking up like a completely normal day was about to take place, only to find your own body swollen and massive beyond belief, with squirming life swimming constantly inside your sore and burdening midsection. Some of the girls had been taking it more lightly, and even some of the grown women he had seen in the city while he walked along the streets were delighted with the idea of finally becoming mothers. Still, he couldn’t keep himself from feeling a little bit of pity for some of the less than pleased students. “So… First of all, do you have any rememberan-“

As he was about to formulate his first question, Ryuko’s belly suddenly gurgled loudly, the fierce growl of a hungry beast filtering itself through her thinly pulled skin. The student blushed lightly, snickering a bit in reply. “G-Gimme a moment.” She pointed down at her tummy, somehow even larger when seen up close, then pointed at the idle chef surrounded by untouched food, as it was common for pretty much everyone to bring their own packed lunch. “They’re hungry…”

With an adorable waddle, Ryuko left the table and reached for the counter, dumping a bunch of coins on the bench as she ordered a decently long list of items; sandwiches, chips, sweets, drinks, and pretty much every kind of thing that could fit in both her mouth and her belly, all with a childishly cheery sparkle in her eyes. Strangely, Michael could have sworn he saw her speak to her uniform for a moment, but her whispering volume was not enough to understand her words. A few minutes later, arms in handles carrying a myriad of morsels, she once again heaved herself onto the chair with a big smile in her face. “Here, we can continue now, these three are happy!” She said, snapping her chopsticks separate and clasping one of the beef and shrimp gyoza she had in one of the plates.

Needless to say, such a large amount of food, a literal army of plates and packages that hogged the entirety of the table, took Michael slightly aback. He couldn’t help himself from slowly glaring down to her exposed, ripe and round stomach, silently gurgling and bubbling as she kept stuffing her face with gyozas and rice and buns and sodas. His cheeks turned a dark tone as he mumbled out an unprepared question. “T-Three…? Y-You’re having triplets?”

“Yeah.” She spoke calmly through a mouthful of rice, swallowing it before continuing. Michael would have sworn he saw her midriff expand a few centimeters as she gulped her food, as if the girl’s womb wasn’t already swollen enough. “It’s just, uh, one of these things you kinda know, right? Like…”

Ryuko placed her hand below her tummy, jiggling it slightly and rubbing it up and down like an oracle’s crystal ball being polished, her thin and dainty fingers tracing the fertile curve of her gut and even getting stuck momentarily in her protruding belly button, tum so massively full it had to pop out from sheer lack of room. “Well, my belly’s way too freaking big to be havin’ just one, and I kinda, somewhat somehow feel that I have three. Yeah, it feels like three.”

Michael wasn’t a specialist in pregnancy, but he could tell she was somewhat right. With a midsection larger than the common pool ball, audibly full to bursting with as much water as the common pool, and even with a few swimmers placidly floating around in their own personal walking tank, it was obvious she was carrying multiples, and the number of three didn’t seem far off or unlikely. Still, focus, Michael. You’ve come here to investigate a conspiracy and a pandemic, not ogle ladies with big tummies.

“And… W-Why aren’t you wearing a skirt?” He pointed at her with his pen. “I-I thought it was required in Japanese schools.”

“Oh, yeah.” Munching on a sweet strawberry mochi, Ryuko pulled her belly up slightly, revealing the slightly concealed white fabric of her tightly fitting panties. “Outcasts like us aren’t given shit to cover ourselves in case we can’t wear our skirt anymore, so the Council mandates that we go around exposing ourselves. This place is fucked up, I tell you.”

“Who runs the place?”

“Oh, a katana-toting monster with huge eyebrows named Kiryuin Satsuki.” Her voice took a slightly sterner tone, taking a big and strong bite out of her chocolate cone. “That fiend killed my father. I’m here to take revenge.” She leaned onto the table, digging her elbow on the plastic-like fake wood with a serious expression on her face.

“Uh- S-Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset, or anything like…”

“Don’t worry, it’s okay.” Her expression still quite more callous than her usual snarky but friendly, she rested her back onto the chair once again, placing a hand on her stomach as she continued munching on the cone. “Revenge can be fun if you want it to!” She added, giving him an ironic wink. “And even so, have you seen her? She’s huge!” Ryuko laughed vicariously, extending her arms to the sides to indicate a derogative version of width. “She’s become a fat whale; her belly is bigger than you and me together! You should have seen her trying to give her strong anime woman speech, it was hilarious!”

“Y-Yes, yes, I’m sure it was…” Michael spoke with a kind tone of voice, chuckling softly as he finished up his own bagel. The time of returning to classes would come soon and heck if he was going to once again cross that croquette-wielding kid with no concept of personal space. So he had to hurry a little bit.

A few questions went back and forth. Possible relationships with REVOCS, information about the magic uniforms, or Goku uniforms as they’re apparently called; the Council’s questionable activities, and even some unrequited information about Ryuko’s leaking breasts that Michael hadn’t even asked for. He was called a creep a total amount of thirteen times, a new record.

As he jotted down the results of the last question, Ryuko sighed softly, rubbing her swollen abdomen with both hands after finishing her last plate, now a wasteland of empty plastic packages and scrubbed clean china. Good thing most of the students don’t come here for food, the cafeteria would run out in minutes, and it was sure they’d go for the chef next. Michael’s eyes drifted onto her tummy, resting peacefully on top of her widened thighs as she ran both hands up and down its gigantic, dome-like frame. A few stray kicks formed tiny bumps on the surface of her uterus, accompanied by a little churn or growl. A bit wizened by the mere sight of her stomach, he didn’t even notice she was looking at him.

“Hehehe~…” She giggled mischievously; spreading her fingers wide and around her belly and stroking it in large, slow, deliberate circles. Michael also noticed she puffed her breath ever so slightly, curving her back further and making her midriff look even more otherworldly large. “What’s wrong…? Do you wanna rub it~…?” Her fingers made a little halt around her navel, caressing and tickling it with her nails.

“Uh. N-No, not necessarily, don’t worry…”

“Oh, c’moooon, I’m very sore after eating so much! I need a massage!” Any person with Michael’s experience would tell that her tone of voice was poorly imposted and incredibly fake, but he might as well play along or he wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Carefully, gently, Michael placed his burly hands on the sides of Ryuko’s swollen, taut belly. Although his hands were much larger than her own, they still paled in comparison to the sheer size of the balloon-shaped growth that gurgled and bubbled, the sign of a thoroughly full stomach. He felt his fingers oh so softly dig into the tender and silky skin, plushy velvet thinly veiling an elastic but firm sphere full to the brim, which he treated with the hesitant care of a sculptor working shapes into a Greek statue.

The surface moved slightly, one of the three babies inside her replying to his touch with a small and polite kick, as if not wanting to bother him. His hands traced the curve of her midsection, reaching down to the underside. It was heavy, incredibly heavy.

Not only was the weight of the fluid instantly apparent, but also the three fetuses floating beneath her womb were particularly chunky and hefty (with how much she fed them, it was no surprise), adding to a colossal poundage that he, a grown man, would have a hard time carrying around on his arms. It was nothing short of amazing just how she was able to lug it around without her spine snapping like a twig.

Retiring his touch from the tummy, Ryuko stood up with that snarky and defiant expression, contrasting with Michael’s confused and embarrassed mug. Through what seemed to be a mouthful of food, she spoke with a chuckle.

“Well, you’re happy now, right?”

“… I-I guess so.”

“Heh. Creep.”

Fourteen times. New record, again.

With a wave of an arm, the girl turned back, and began to waddle just as the second bell rang its four chimes, announcing that all students were to return to their classes. However, Michael stopped her, placing his hand on her rather small shoulder.

“Eh?” She inquired, turning her head back at him.

“I’ve got a flat near the Mankanshoku Back-Alley, in the main plaza. If you get any info on the Council or something, hit me up. ‘Kay?”

Flicking her finger at him with a finger gun gesture, and giving him a ready and ensuring smirk, she replied with a strong-willed. “You got it, boss.”

And, with a clamorous waddle that inadvertedly swayed her expansive hips from side to side, the bizarre girl promptly disappeared into the mass of chattering students, once again looking like she was speaking with her own uniform for a second. Michael sighed, taking a quick peek at his notes, still blushing as he once again thought about having touched her belly like he was the one fathering the children inside her. Good grief. At least he got some juicy scoops into some of the Student Council’s more, let’s say, unsavory activities. Perhaps he could now attempt to get an interview on Satsuki, the president of the school?

Well, right after lunch. He had another bagel to go after all-

Aaaaaand his plate was empty.

Ryuko had taken his last bagel while he was absorbed in rubbing her belly.

Huh.

[egyptatours]

Your Best Guide to How to Spend A Night in Alexandria

Explore Historic Downtown Alexandria

Begin your evening by wandering the streets of downtown Alexandria, home to many of the city's most iconic landmarks. Start at Qaitbay Citadel, an imposing 15th century fortress built on the site of the legendary Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Take in the stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea from the citadel's ramparts.

Then, head to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern library and cultural center built to commemorate the ancient Library of Alexandria. Admire the building's striking architectural design before exploring its exhibits on the history and legacy of the original library.

Dinner with a View

For dinner, make your way to the Corniche, Alexandria's waterfront promenade. Here you'll find many seafood restaurants offering stunning views of the harbor and Mediterranean coastline. Some top options include Byblos, Baiano, and Fish Market. Order local specialties like grilled seabream, stuffed squid, and Egyptian molokhia.

Nightlife on Saad Zaghloul Street

After dinner, head to Saad Zaghloul Street, the heart of Alexandria's vibrant nightlife district. Browse the many cafes, bars, and clubs lining the street. Some popular spots include Tarabeza for shisha and live music, Pub 28 for a lively ambiance, and the outdoor terrace at Zahran for views of the illuminated Qaitbay Citadel.

Late Night Snacks

Before calling it a night, stop for some classic Egyptian street food. Try koshari, a hearty mix of rice, macaroni, lentils, and chickpeas topped with a tangy tomato sauce. Or indulge in fresh falafel sandwiches from one of the many late night food carts.

[coconuts-on-palm-trees]

Celebrate in Style The Ultimate Guide to Hens Party in Sydney

Planning a hens party in Sydney promises a celebration filled with unforgettable moments and luxurious experiences. Sydney, with its stunning harbor views, vibrant nightlife, and a plethora of activities, offers the perfect backdrop for a memorable hens party. Whether your group is looking to indulge in a sophisticated high tea, enjoy a day of pampering at a spa, or dance the night away at a top nightclub, Sydney has it all. For a unique experience, consider a private yacht cruise around the iconic Sydney Harbour, complete with champagne and a gourmet lunch. Alternatively, a wine-tasting tour in the nearby Hunter Valley offers a more relaxed and intimate setting. For the adventurous bride, why not try a dance class or a themed party that adds a fun and energetic twist to the day? No matter what style of celebration you choose, a hens party in Sydney guarantees a day filled with laughter, joy, and cherished memories that the bride-to-be will treasure forever.

Unleash Your Inner Diva Dance Classes for Your Hens Party in Sydney

Spice up your hens party in Sydney with a dance class that lets everyone show off their moves. Whether it’s salsa, hip-hop, or a classic burlesque session, these classes are a fun and interactive way to get everyone laughing and moving. You’ll learn some new skills and have a blast together, creating memories that will last a lifetime. Dance classes are the perfect icebreaker and a fantastic way to kick off your celebrations.

Sip and Savor Wine Tasting Experiences for a Hens Party in Sydney

Indulge in a sophisticated hens party in Sydney by heading to the nearby Hunter Valley for an exclusive wine tasting experience. Enjoy a day of wine, cheese, and stunning vineyard views with your closest friends. Whether you're a wine connoisseur or just looking for a relaxed day out, this activity offers the perfect blend of elegance and enjoyment, making it a standout choice for your hens celebration.

High Tea Elegance The Perfect Hens Party in Sydney

Treat the bride-to-be to a touch of luxury with a high tea experience for your hens party in Sydney. Enjoy an afternoon of delectable pastries, finger sandwiches, and freshly brewed tea in a beautiful setting. This option is ideal for those who prefer a more refined celebration, offering a chance to unwind and indulge in style. It’s the perfect way to pamper the bride and her guests.

Pamper and Relax Spa Day Essentials for Your Hens Party in Sydney

A spa day is the ultimate way to relax and rejuvenate during your hens party in Sydney. Book a luxurious spa experience at one of Sydney’s top hotels, where you can enjoy massages, facials, and other treatments. This is a great way to unwind before the big day, ensuring the bride and her friends feel refreshed and glowing. It’s a serene escape from the hustle and bustle, perfect for those seeking tranquility.

Harbor Views and Champagne Yacht Parties for a Hens Party in Sydney

Take your hens party in Sydney to the next level with a private yacht cruise around Sydney Harbour. Sip champagne, enjoy gourmet snacks, and take in the breathtaking views of iconic landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. This luxurious option provides an exclusive and memorable experience that will have everyone feeling like VIPs.

Cocktail Masterclass Shake Things Up at Your Hens Party in Sydney

Add a creative twist to your hens party in Sydney with a cocktail-making class. Learn the art of mixology from expert bartenders as you and your friends craft your own signature drinks. This hands-on experience is not only fun but also provides you with new skills to impress at your next party. It’s an interactive and lively way to get the celebrations started.

Nightlife Extravaganza Best Clubs for a Hens Party in Sydney

Dance the night away at some of the hottest nightclubs in the city during your hens party in Sydney. Whether you’re into live music, DJ sets, or simply want to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere, Sydney’s nightlife offers something for everyone. Book a VIP table, hit the dance floor, and make it a night to remember with your closest friends. It’s the perfect way to end a day of celebration.

Conclusion

A hens party in Sydney offers endless possibilities for creating a celebration that perfectly suits the bride’s personality and style. Whether you opt for a day of luxury and relaxation or a night filled with dancing and excitement, Sydney provides the ideal backdrop for a memorable event. With its stunning views, vibrant nightlife, and diverse activities, your hens party in Sydney is sure to be an unforgettable experience. As you plan this special day, remember that it’s all about celebrating the bride-to-be and creating lasting memories with her closest friends. No matter what you choose, a well-planned hens party in Sydney will leave everyone with cherished moments to treasure forever.

[aniket623]

Top Best Cafes in Nainital: A Culinary Journey in the Hills

Nestled in the lap of the Kumaon hills, Nainital is a picturesque town known for its serene lakes, lush landscapes, and charming colonial architecture. While Nainital is often celebrated for its natural beauty, the town also boasts a vibrant café culture that caters to locals and tourists alike. Whether you’re a solo traveler embracing the freedom of travel or on a group adventure, exploring the top best cafes in Nainital is an essential part of your visit. Here, we present a comprehensive guide to the best cafes in Nainital, each offering a unique blend of delightful cuisine, cozy ambiance, and stunning views. If you’re looking for the best café in Nainital with live music, Café Chica is the place to visit in Uttrakhand.

1. Café Chica

Location: Sherwood College Road, Ayarpatta

Café Chica, situated amidst the lush greenery near Sherwood College, is a serene escape from the bustling town center. Known for its tranquil ambiance and beautiful garden seating, this café offers a perfect retreat for those looking to relax and unwind. The menu features a delightful selection of continental and Indian dishes, with specialties like the garden-fresh salads, wood-fired pizzas, and homemade pastries. The aromatic coffee and refreshing herbal teas are a must-try, making Café Chica a favorite among both locals and tourists.

2. Sakley’s Restaurant & Pastry Shop

Location: Mall Road, Nainital

Sakley’s, a legendary name in Nainital, has been serving delectable treats since 1944. Located on the bustling Mall Road, Sakley’s offers a cozy and nostalgic ambiance with its vintage décor and warm lighting. The café is renowned for its wide range of pastries, cakes, and desserts, making it a paradise for sweet tooths. The extensive menu also includes delicious sandwiches, burgers, and pizzas, along with a variety of beverages. Whether you’re enjoying a leisurely breakfast or a mid-day snack, Sakley’s promises a delightful culinary experience.

3. Boat House Club

Location: Mallital, Nainital

The Boat House Club, an iconic landmark on the Naini Lake, is not just a café but a piece of Nainital’s history. This members-only club opens its doors to tourists for dining, offering a unique experience by the lake. The café’s wooden interiors and colonial charm provide a nostalgic ambiance, while the outdoor seating offers breathtaking views of the lake. The menu features a mix of Indian and continental cuisine, with specialties like fish and chips, grilled sandwiches, and traditional North Indian dishes. A visit to the Boat House Club is a journey back in time, complemented by delightful food and serene views.

4. Pots & Stones Café

Location: Bara Pathar, Nainital

5. iHeart Café Himalayas

Location: Mehragaon, Bhimtal (near Nainital)

A short drive from Nainital, iHeart Café Himalayas is a hidden gem located in the tranquil town of Bhimtal. This café is a haven for coffee lovers, offering freshly brewed coffee made from locally sourced beans. The warm and inviting interior, along with the outdoor seating overlooking the mountains, makes it a perfect spot for relaxation. The menu features a variety of healthy and delicious options, including gourmet sandwiches, salads, and homemade desserts. The café’s friendly staff and cozy ambiance make it a must-visit for anyone exploring the Nainital-Bhimtal region.

6. Café de Mall

Location: Mall Road, Nainital

Café de Mall, situated on the bustling Mall Road, is a popular spot for both locals and tourists. The café’s prime location offers stunning views of the Naini Lake, making it an ideal place to relax and enjoy a meal. The menu at Café de Mall is extensive, featuring a mix of Indian, Chinese, and continental dishes. Popular choices include the paneer tikka, chicken momos, and crispy spring rolls. The café also offers a variety of beverages, including fresh fruit juices and flavorful teas. With its lively ambiance and delicious food, Café de Mall is a perfect spot for casual dining in Nainital.

7. Baker’s Hut

Location: Mallital, Nainital

Baker’s Hut, located in Mallital, is a charming bakery and café known for its delectable baked goods. The cozy and inviting interior, along with the aroma of freshly baked bread and pastries, creates a welcoming atmosphere. The menu features a variety of cakes, cookies, and bread, along with savory options like sandwiches and quiches. The café’s hot chocolate and freshly brewed coffee are perfect for a chilly Nainital evening. Baker’s Hut is an excellent choice for those looking to indulge in some sweet treats while exploring the town.

8. Zooby’s Kitchen

Location: Mall Road, Nainital

Zooby’s Kitchen, located on Mall Road, is a vibrant café known for its eclectic décor and lively ambiance. The café’s colorful interior and friendly staff create a welcoming atmosphere for visitors. The menu at Zooby’s Kitchen is diverse, offering a range of Indian, Chinese, and continental dishes. Highlights include the tandoori platters, cheesy pasta, and succulent kebabs. The café also offers a variety of beverages, including mocktails and shakes. Zooby’s Kitchen is a great place to enjoy a meal with friends or family while soaking in the lively vibe of Mall Road.

9. Machan Restaurant

Location: Mallital, Nainital

10. Chandni Chowk Restaurant

Location: Mall Road, Nainital

Chandni Chowk Restaurant, located on Mall Road, brings a taste of Delhi’s famous street food to Nainital. The café’s vibrant décor and lively ambiance make it a popular spot for food lovers. The menu features a wide range of North Indian street food, including chaats, parathas, and kebabs. The café’s signature dishes, like the butter chicken and chole bhature, are a must-try. Chandni Chowk Restaurant also offers a variety of beverages, including lassi and masala chai. For those looking to enjoy authentic North Indian flavors, this café is a must-visit.

Conclusion

Nainital’s café culture is as diverse and vibrant as the town itself, offering something for everyone. Whether you’re a solo traveler looking to embrace the freedom of travel or exploring with friends, the top best cafes in Nainital promise an unforgettable culinary journey. From cozy garden cafés to bustling lakeside venues, each café offers a unique experience, blending delicious cuisine with stunning views. So, the next time you find yourself in Nainital, make sure to visit these top cafes and savor the delightful flavors they have to offer.