#then BOOM mental illness /j

[fantasy-elisa]

guys i'ma be honest I'm ridiculously late to the af franchise, like i'm talking november-december of last year. i never played redux and it was only a few weeks ago that i figured out who verfection was.. oh and would you believe me if i said i haven't played super paper roblox yet

sorry guys i'm actually a fake adventure forward fan /j

[ectobiologistt]

i rlly wish sonic as a whole was more accessible. i promise i would know everything about it if i had a) access to games that are somewhat playable (i have a few games but they’re all on pc without controllers)(they’re all newer), b) comics that are easy to find & easy to understand where to start, and c) someone to help me connect what goes where

[skyler1290]

(Beast Ancients AU belongs to @cuppajj )

(Also, if you're reading this, I love your AU so much. You're an amazing person, and I hope you feel good today /gen! If you don't like the AU or feel uncomfortable with it, just comment it. I'll take it down immediately.)

So... a fun fact about me is that I make up way too many ideas for my own good. A bit too many. And I happened to imagine an AU of the Beast Ancients AU, which is basically fanfiction, once you think about it.

So, I remember the creator of the AU stating that there probably wouldn't be any heroes to come after the beasts, so I imagined up an AU of my own where that does happen.

And the heroes are their own children.

Boom boom bam, plot twist /j.

None of them are OCs, by the way. Instead, they're canon cookies I've chosen that would be their children in this AU, but aren't their children in the actual storyline (except Dark Choco).

Yea... I'm making it work. Basically, here's the parents and children:

Frigid Cacao = Dark Choco

Saint Vanilla = Kouign-Amann

Celestial Cheese = Stormbringer (she's a demigoddess in this AU. I'll explain it all if this AU gets @cuppajj 's approval)

Dragonberry = Raspberry

Midnight Lily = Mercurial Knight

So, basically, the witches are basically done with the cookies. They're like: "Oh my gosh. Why is this happening again? We're way too lazy to trap them into a tree like what we did with the last beasts. So instead, let's recruit their mentally ill teenage children to defeat them for us! Let's give them souljams and make them immortal. Seems like a good idea!"

Also, the children will be in their late teens in this AU (they're chronologically adults, but mentally and physically they are teens), it's a long story.

Here are the souljams (by the way, they'd all be two colors, just to press on the fact that these are new souljams and not fragments of old ones anymore. Though, they do connect to the past ones in concept):

Dark Choco = Balance (connects to Truth)

Kouign-Amann = Ambition (connects to Passion)

Stormbringer = Will (connects to Resolution)

Raspberry = Loyalty (connects to Freedom in an opposite like way)

Mercurial Knight = Detachment (connects to Abundance in an opposite like way)

Yes. My brain's a bit crazy. I don't know how I got these ideas, either. I can't tell if they're genuinely good or horrid.

If this AU gets the green light, unfortunately you aren't going to get any art or drawings. This is because I can't draw to save my life. So this AU will have to drive off of pure writing. 😭

But I'm not diving too deep into the AU for now since I want to make sure the creator is ok with this stuff.

P.S. = The old beasts are already defeated, but their powers and souljams are locked away, so the ancients beasts can't use them.

[madam-kumo]

J-Street Fashion Banners/Moodboards

Kogal Gyaru A street fashion very influenced by 80's - Y2k fashion in the west. This fashion involves bright tans, blonde hair, and doll-like eyes. This specific substyles of Gyaru is extremely common with teens in Japan as it allows them to wear Gyaru but still wear their uniforms. There are many more exaggerated form of Gyaru like Agejo, Tropical Gyaru, and Hime. This style is most commonly known for being the exact opposite to Japanese beauty standards at the time.

Sweet Lollita

A Japanese street fashion most commonly associated with Rococo and Victorian clothing. Its most well known for its very lacy and ruffled trims and extremely ornate patterns (usually ranging from sweets to cute animals). Also, please note that the fashion has no association with the novel of the same name and the same name is merely a coincidence. Other substyles of Lollita includes, from goth to punk to the very ornate Hime Lollita. This fashion style is all about the desexualization of femininity and appealing to your inner fancy princess.

Visual Kei Visual Kei or V-Kei is most well known for its music because of their association and similarities to western goth music. Visual Kei is actually referred to as a branch of the umbrella term "Goth" and its most popular influences are bands like Malice Mizer and Dadaroma. Visual Kei, like Gyaru, has seen a boom in popularity because of the comebacks of 2000's fashion and the acceptance of alternative styles. Visual Kei is most noticeable by the multiple black layers along side dramatic hairstyles and makeup. The most popular substyles of V-Kei are Eroguro-Kei, Tanbi Kei, and Angura Kei. This style is all about visual dramaticism, hence the name, and creative expression.

Decora-Kei

Decora fashion is most well known for its visually bright and very colored style. This style involves kid-like fashion but times ten. Most Decora wear extremely bright or bold colors and eye catching clothing and multiple accessories. Many Decora's describe themselves as "Straight out of a Lisa Frank coloring book" and they show that influence in their extremely bold and flashy style. Decora's generally wear bright tennis shoes or platforms with multiple pieces of jewelry and hairpieces. Common themes are kid's shows, hello kitty, and rainbows. This style is meant to appeal to appeal to your inner child and be as eye catching as possible.

Menhera (Trigger Warning for mentions of Self-harm, suicide, mental illness, and general gore themes.)

Menhera is mostly well known for its art work and media that slowly influenced into a fashion type. Menhera's are usually wear medical related things like bandages, pill themes, and paying a bit of homage to nurse or school girl uniforms. This style is usually colored with hot pinks, pastel colors, white, and lavender. The most noticeable part of this fashion is the implications of self-harm with bandages on the wrists and thighs and a boxcutter; this is seen a lot on a popular character named Menhera Chan. This style's purpose is to bring awareness to mental health and the importance of it because of Japan's high suicide rate.

Mori Kei

Mori Kei is a street fashion centered around cottage living and as if living in a forest. Mori Kei consists of blouses, green ruffled skirts, and general "nature-like" fashion. This style is most commonly associated with "Cottage-Core", which is a western subtype of this fashion as Mori Kei really took off in 2009 while Cottage-Core became popular in mostly the 2020's. Mori Kei focuses on naturality, like a lack of overly expressive makeup and more toned down clothing that less visually eye-catching but no less beautiful. Mori Kei is also centered around hobbies from sewing, to reading, to even photography.

Sukeban

A Japanese style that got incredibly popular in the 70's when a movement started to stop the overly strict school systems for women. Girls began to do the same as males, sitting "unladylike" and making ugly faces in pictures, and began to intimidate teachers. These women first began changing their uniforms, making them longer and wearing unauthorized accessories, as a form of protest. This style was very looked down upon and still is today because of its association with gangs and violence. However, this style has slowly but surely grown in popularity due to social media, manga, and a popular Japanese movie called Sukeban Deka. This style is centered around the empowerment of women and to fight back against social and gender norms.

[idlespright]

They said MS (Multiple Sclerosis) was psychosomatic because they couldn't find a biomarker. The patients, they hypothetisized, had trauma from not being cared enough in their childhood and now subconsciously paralyzed themselves with their unmet needs even to death (see e.g. Münch J. Psychosomatische Aspekte der multiplen Sklerose [Psychosomatic aspects of multiple sclerosis]. Ther Umsch. 1995 Feb;52(2):142-5. German. PMID: 7892676.). Then they invented a way to measure the demyelinisation and -boom- MS was no longer psychosomatic.

At least one Psychoanalyst (Casper G. Schmidt, 1984) insisted, that AIDS was psychosomatic. Patients, he said, became depressed because they internalized the homophobia of the society they lived in. That made them die in a "mass hysteria" event. He later died of AIDS himself (in 1994).

PCOS was considered a mental health issue of women.

Other diagnoses show, that you don't even need a lab test or medical imaging to accept, and treat, a physical illness without inventing psychological factors:

Asthma and Parkinson are two well known chronic illnesses without a biomarker. In both cases the clinical diagnosis (e.g. going by symptoms and excluding other probable health issues) is well established.

Doctors aren't gods. They are specialists with a quite narrow field of expertise. Sometimes they forget that fact. Especially when confronted with systemic illnesses like ME/CFS.

There is a plethora of physical abnormalities in ME/CFS that can be measured. Reduced anaerobic threshold, impaired oxygen uptake, mitochondrial damage, higher counts of GPCR autoantibodies, and much more.

Don't let doctors guilt trip and gaslight you.

[alizalayne]

books of year ‘23, but only the ones that weren’t rereads and that I had something to say about. Text is written out below the cut. Please recommend books to me!!

Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis

when i saw this being recommended to me on scribd i sent it to my friends along with the word YESSSSSSSSS about 80 times. This has palpable Diana Wynne Jones insanity which is very exciting to me. The romantic lead is so boring but he’s not important; what’s important is the main character’s batshit physical transformation and its consequences. This book also triggered a personal ephiphany that i’d been setting myself up for for years, which is a little bit happenstance but I’m glad it happened while listening to this as an audiobook on a hike.

___

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

I’ve read a few books with a similar tone and goals but most of them do not feel as sincere, or they get preachy in a way this does not. I am a massive sucker for narratives about going and coming back to magical worlds (pre-isekai boom), like coville’s unicorn chronicles or barker’s abarat. they’re the most effective to me when they do what this is doing: telling an empathetic human story. One thing I really appreciate about this book as a mental illness narrative for younger people is its willingness to tackle the idea that someone’s terrified inner voice can be incorrect, or it can reflect reality accurately— some people do have a reason to be excessively scared. I think there’s a tendency when tackling this concept, especially for child readers, to tell them that their anxieties are silly and illogical, that of course no one is trying to hurt them. But that’s not always true. I appreciate that this story is able to question the main character’s assumptions about other people’s evil intentions while not questioning that her feeling of fear is real, while simultaneously acknowledging that similar pain is felt by kids going through abuse. I think I would have preferred a smaller cast or a longer book with more exploration of the other kids.

___

Earthlings: A Novel by Sayaka Murata

another very empathetic mental illness book, but much more disturbing. the main character’s worldview is alluring because the narrative paints reality in such a bleak way. If it didn’t force a sense of perspective on you, it could be a document that starts a cult. It’s very accurate to some experiences that I have had and things i have heard people say while in dangerous situations that involve religious behavior.

It’s very difficult to challenge the type of thinking this explores because each brick that builds a wall between someone’s mind and the rest of reality can seem like a reasonable brick. but when you look at the whole wall you can’t understand how such small and normal things as bricks could seal someone up inside and swallow them. This does a good job of showing you its challenge without being cruel. I’m glad I read it.

___

What Once Was Mine: A Twisted Tale by Elizabeth J. Braswell

official goth retelling of disney’s tangled, I had to see what was going on in there but it was pretty boring, worth the $0 price of library admission for rapunzel having evil moon hair that fucking kills you

___

Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker

NO EXPLANATION FOR WHY THE TODDLERS STARTED TO CRAVE BLOOD. WAS HOPING DRACULA WAS BURIED UNDER THE PRESCHOOL BUT NOBODY LETS ME HAVE ANYTHING AROUND HERE

___

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I’d never read this before. Soooooo fun

fucking GET HIMMMMMM GIRLLLLL YESSSSSSSS!!!!! KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!

___

Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex by Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, edited by Albert Rabil Jr. 2007 edition

I cannot recommend this text enough if you are insane like me in pain like me (english literature major). Imagine that you are the princess of Austria and you’re bored of mummifying your husband’s heart and you decide to buy the man who would become arguably the world’s most famous wizard. this happened in real life. And what he decided to do was kiss her ass with his entire mouth. To that end, he wrote a torturously funny ted talk about how god made women better than men. Here are some reasons: women don’t drown in water because they’re fatter than men, but when women DO drown they do it face down so no one will see their boobs. Menstrual blood cures epilepsy and depression and can extinguish fires (????). all eagles are female (?????) and god created women last so he had tons of practice by then. This is the holy grail of bitchy footnotes. So many of these are just “he made this up”. It’s so fun!! And it’s helpful to remember that people have always been making shit up.

___

honorable mention: I read through the letters of Saint Hildegard of Bingen and I have to recommend this to everyone alive. I think she was in lesbian love so hard that that’s why she she wrote that shitty letter to the pope. but what do i know. she is also about 80% of the reason we know anything of what medieval medical knowledge was among women in europe. She also documented a ton of natural science.

___

The Crone Wars by Lydia M. Hawke

Now i have to admit i didn’t read all these. I did read the first one but this author’s priorities just don’t really align with mine, since these are ultimately straight romance novels. However, I wanted to show how long the series goes and what the titles are because I think they’re really fun. It was very cool to see what YA sensibilities look like with a 60 year old protagonist. This main character really reminded me of Usagi from Sailor Moon, which as a massive freak about sailor moon is not something I give out lightly, and I kept imagining events from this book as drawn by Riyoko Ikeda. After spending a little time with it, the manga panels just sort of happened in my mind and i recommend the experience. I do still want to draw some scenes from it sometime.

[elijah-loyal]

actually now that i think about it, both of the two major Mentally Ill™ periods of my life involved me coping by living inside of my head with pieces of media that really meant a lot to me.

Like, the first time, when I was very young, it was Star Wars, which makes sense because I was raised on it, and it didn't really pertain to anything relatable; it was just comfort because i'd always had it.

The SECOND TIME, i was older, and there was so much happening that it was easier to phase into Supernatural, which did weirdly match up sometimes. Equate my mother to j*hn winchester, change spending vast amounts of time in the impala to a toyota corolla and bada bing bada boom two particularly relatable moments for me. And then because the Second Time™ was so huge for me and developed me as a person, it never went away.

Like literally, when I was stressing out during the start of one of my AP exams, I rebooted myself by pretending Sam Winchester was just waiting outside to take me home when I was done. I calmed down, tried to think of what he would do, and worked through the questions. Then, I walked an hour and a half down the highway from my school to home having an imaginary celebratory conversation with him.

I got a 4 on that test. only a single point away from being the highest I possibly could have gotten. It was a history course too; colleges in the uk are super interested in your AP scores, preferring 4's and 5's in relevant fields.

Me imagining sam winchester during a test will have gotten me into a college that I desperately want.

So yeah, I just think it's kind of funny how during the worst times of my life, obsession with media has probably saved me, and at the very least, helped me.

[starryoong]

I was tagged by @abiaswreck, @juiceofmoons and @starrgaziinggg <3 thank you my lovelies

fav colour: green and brown!! especially sage hihi

currently reading: six of crows by leigh bardugo (reread), the book of form and emptiness by ruth ozeki, be my mistake by @staytheword (reread) and insomnia by @j-0ne25 ♡ you can find more of the fics I read over on @sstarryreads (there are a lot..)

last song: minimum by charlie cunningham, one of my all time favourite songs

last series: young royals season 2 hehe, it's really fun seeing scandi series doing well

last movie: either tick tick boom (for the 9273626th time) or the first halloween movie

currently working on: portraits of minghao and felix, a minsung fic (my first time writing fiction since I was 13 or so, help) and a photography project on growing up queer/trans and mentally ill called du kan sove mens jeg kjører (you can sleep while I drive) (which I've ironically enough been too depressed to properly start lol)

I honestly don't know who's already done this, but I'd love to see @where-is-innie @snow-pegasus @ggthydrangea @bbyquokka @ballelino @j-0ne25 's answers 🤎 anyone else who wants to do this, consider yourselves tagged too!

[ajokeformur-ray]

Hmm, speaking of the current global situation we’re facing against, how about a HC between Arthur and the reader, who is a frontliner. There was an outbreak in Gotham and the reader has to join the other doctors and nurses to treat the infected patients. Of course Arthur would be very worried for her, but she comforts and assures him that she will come back to him safe and soon. They would exchange letters and couldn’t stop thinking of each other. Angst, but with some fluff too. How about that?

This is a request based in reality so I reference disease, deaths, illness, social distancing, depression and suicidal rates increasing (just one line on the last two things listed). Please skip this one if you need to, because I had to take breaks from writing this and I almost cried at several points.

I also kind of feel like I’m being disrespectful of the current global climate by writing this; please know that I do not view this situation through a purely fictional lens. I am aware of myself and of the world and I wrote this as respectfully as I could. If this is viewed as offensive or anything like that (I’m really anxious about posting this so I’m sure I’m overthinking) then it’ll be taken down immediately and no more will be said about it.

WC: 1, 284.

The unthinkable had happened.

There had been an outbreak of illness in Gotham City and it was so virulent, so aggressive, that you and Arthur would have to be separated while you pulled back to back shifts at Gotham Central Hospital.

People were contracting the disease like it was going out of fashion. There had been no warning, no inkling that this would happen, and as such (and also due to the government’s poor funding and organisation), little had been done in the way of protection.

Everything was happening so fast. No one knew what was happening, no one knew what to do.  People were panic buying, people were freaking out. Some people were preparing and being cautious... and then there were the people like you.

Essential workers, who didn’t have the luxury of going into quarantine to wait out the disease. People like you, who had to find alternate living arrangements for the time of the pandemic because you couldn’t risk the people you lived with getting sick.

People like you, who had to leave behind their loved ones for a time for safety, to help others. It was your job and you loved your job... but for all of your training, you could never have foreseen this.

Arthur was worried out of his mind; worrying about bills (he had been laid off from work due to the pandemic), how he would get food (you told him that you would get everything), how you would get fresh clothes...

A laughing attack was always on the back of another and it was all you could do to keep Arthur calm enough to have a proper conversation with you.

In the end, it was decided that you would call each other as often as you could, and you would exchange letters left in the crevices of freshly washed clothes (from Arthur to you) and on top of piles of clothes which needed to be wash and groceries which were essential (from you to Arthur).

It was a huge inconvenience and oh, how desperately you missed each other, but it had to be done. 

This was no joke. There was no punchline. 

A sentiment Arthur knew well, a bit too well, and he took this in stride just like he did everything else which happened to him. 

The process worked pretty well, all things considered, and both of you adored receiving letters from each other.

hi beutifull. i miss you so so much. your the lite of my life. i hope your drinking enuf and eating dsintly. i love you - a.f.

Hi, baby. Make sure to take care of yourself for me, okay? I’m real, I’m here for you and I love you. I’ll be home soon, angel. - Y/N.

Exchanges stretched across the weeks, which bled agonisingly into months...

Every single day people were dying. There weren’t enough medical supplies, beds, the funeral industry was booming... it was terrifying and in the midst of all the chaos, you most needed your clown.

There was nothing either of you could do, though, but to hold on. Arthur had touched these letters; his cool hands had worried over them, his face had undoubtedly been pressed into the clothes, inhaling your scent before he washed them and folded them... the sweet man even ironed them for you.

It was the hardest thing you’d ever had to do. Nothing was improving but nothing was changing.

Soon, the disease peaked but you knew that there would be a second wave. People would get complacent and so it’d kill more people than the first.

Even when the social restrictions were lifted and your job slowed the tiniest amount, you stayed away from Arthur knowing that complacency would have devastating results.

You called each other every day, both of your voices thick with unshed tears.

Arthur always greeted you with a barrage of questions. “Hi, angel. Are you feeling okay? Any fever? How’s work? Are they looking after you, are they - “

“Hey, Arthur, shush, honey. I’m okay, it’s - it’s hectic but it’s not forever. Can you hang on for me, just for another day?”

That was how the both of you had to take it - just a day at a time. That was all anyone could do in circumstances such as these.

Depression and suicide rates were increasing too, as were rates of other social atrocities... it was maddening but Arthur was your one constant, just as you were his.

“Yeah, I can... yeah. It’s just... a day, isn’t it, Y/N?”

“It is, Arthur. I’m so sorry, honey. I’ll be home as soon as it’s safe.”

“I know. Just - don’t ever forget I love you. Please.”

A sad smile from each of you, separated by the city, “I love you too, darling. Don’t you ever forget. I have to go, Arthur, but I’ll phone you before bed, okay? I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“I love you too, Y/N. You’re the best part of all of this, the best part of me.”

Tearful goodbyes, reluctant spaces as each of you held onto the others’ silence for as long as you could. Neither of you wanted to end any of the phone calls you had every day. 

Death hung over your heads; any phone call could be the last, any letter could be the last...

It took a large toll on your mental healths but you had to keep going. You had to, there was no other way.

Months bled into each other, and everything was just one long today with snatches of sleep in between. Your soul became as worn as your body but soon, soon, it was safe enough for you to go home.

You were going home.

You phoned Arthur to tell him the good news first, knowing as you did that if you just turned up at home unannounced, he would think you were a hallucination. 

“I’m coming home, Arthur. I’ll be home at my usual time. I’ll see you soon!”

“Wha - what? Y/N, do you - do you mean that?”

“Yes! I’m coming home, so just wait for me. I love you.”

You didn’t give Arthur a chance to say it back before you hung up the phone in the office at the Hospital, grabbed your bag and took care of all the extra measures at the entrance of the Hospital before you were on your way home.

Your physical exhaustion was overridden by your desperate desire to see Arthur for the first time in almost three months.

You ran up those stairs, lungs and the backs of your legs burning alike, but you used the physical pain to push yourself around the corner, into the foyer of the apartment complex and, not trusting the lift, you ran up the eight flights of stairs separating you from Arthur.

Arthur Arthur Arthur Arthur Arthur I’m coming home I’m going home Arthur Arthur Arthur - 

You fumbled with the keys, wrenched the door open and yelled out his name.

The quick padding of bare feet on the worn carpet, your name almost shouted, and you caught a blur of Arthur before he crashed into you, arms around you, lips anywhere and everywhere he could reach... oh, but it felt like heaven as he sobbed and laughed against your skin, so emotionally drained and overwhelmed was he.

You weren’t much better off but that was okay. There was time now, for the both of you, to reunite and to find yourselves and each other again.

The danger had passed. You were safe and loved by each other and you felt your souls, tortured by the others’ continued absence, click back home.

AF/J @impulsiveclown @notyourlittledoll @astheworlddturns @fluffedstar @jokersqueenofchaos @germansarechill @tsukiakarinobara @d-dreemurr @lynnesm @sagyunaro @sgtsavoytruffle @docsportello @ezziesworld @flowerglitterwoman @ben-solos-writing-avenger @jokers-doll @jokershyena @arthurjokersgirl @antonija89 @lilliryth @hotpacino

[snakeeater17]

hi here are my thoughts as I listened through evermore for the first time. some people record themselves, some people just listen through, and I just write all my thoughts. enjoy :)

willow — immediate speak now vibes !!!!! also so fucking catchy W O W… the bridge !!!!!! “I come back stronger than a 90’s trend” yes you do ms swift yes you do.

champagne problems — NEW YEARS DAY IMMEDIATELY STOP THE PIANO I AM CRYING. her voice…. wow. “You had a speech, you’re speechless, love slipped beyond your reaches” ...”I was never ready so I watch you go” i literally have no words holy shit this was beautiful and I loved it

gold rush — J A C K. “I call you out on your contrarian shit,” !!!! 1989 meets folklore. mirrorball of evermore.

’tis the damn season — the BASS !!! “The road not taken looks real good now,” the ultimate hallmark type movie where the main character comes back to the small town and sees the one person who is the only person who has ever understood them but they are too scared to love so they allow it to happen just for the weekend, because hey, we could all use one weekend. “And wonder about the only soul who can tell which smiles I'm fakin’” ….my heart

tolerate it — that piano is familiar as fuck? …I have no words. my tears ricochet is her most heartbreaking song but this…holy shit this is a new heartbreak this is a dagger to the heart, heartbreak

no body, no crime — HAIM!!!!! Ummm HELLO goodbye earl by dixie chicks but make it Taylor and Haim. I LOVE THIS. Where’s the tv show/film/music video, give it to me nOW. country tay is alive and well. the whisper of “died” whqjehq

happiness — this is a very powerful song. Gatsby reference “beautiful fool” ? !!! I fucking love how she attempts to belittle the woman who comes after her as that’s a normal coping mechanism in our society for women but she quickly takes it back knowing it’s not the other woman’s fault. “no one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you.” Another Gatsby reference !!!

dorothea — title alone gives me Lumineers vibes, aaaaand yep sounds like it too :) the “ooh’s” give me life !!! “Ooh, from you I’d buy anything.”

coney island — NATIONAL !!!! I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE. Also a song about New York? Yes pls. MATT FUCK ME UP BRO. “But when I walked up to the podium I think that I forgot to say your name” could be Calvin reference?? ….”sorry for not making you my centerfold”

ivy — “Oh, goddamn, my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand” ummmm this song? I am not mature enough to understand LOL

cowboy like me — Tim McGraw vibes !! Also omg MARCUS MUMFORD SIR !! The B R I D G E… “locked..it..down..” country Taylor girl I see you.

long story short — this beat uhhhh yes. very strong national vibes. going off getaway car??? “Long story short, it was the wrong guy…now I’m all about you.” peace reference :’) wonderland reference :’) hoax reference :’) girl has been through it but long story short she sur-vi-ived.

marjorie — “never be so polite you forget your power, never wield such power you forget to be polite.” my heart ….. “I should’ve asked you questions, I should’ve asked you how to be.”

closure — MY MOUTH DROPPED WOW I LOVED THE INTRO. “I’m fine with my spite, and my tears, and my beers and my candles…” YES !!! main character doesn’t need the closure, it’s unnecessary and fake.

evermore — the piano…I’m not ready. I’m not ready. I’m not ready. “Hey December…” JUSTIN COMING IN. ummmm. Is this what heaven sounds like? justin’s part was SO FUCKING GENIUS. The beat change? Signaling what depression/mental illness feels like? It’s all slow and then bOOM ALL AT ONCE, and then slows back down…”whether weather be the frost” EHFWKJHREKJ

final thoughts: ...I still am processing. I — I just wow. she never misses. she never disappoints. I’m sure I missed little clues and references which I cannot wait to discover later on but for now, I’m just going to sit in awe of her mind. T, I say it every time but you kill it every.single.time and I truly hope you sit back and enjoy what you’ve created here. simply put, evermore is folklores big sister and I’m here for it.

[nightcoremoon]

here's some controversy that has nothing to do with social issues.

a lot of people hate the band five finger death punch. saying those words provoked a visceral response in half the people reading this, and a "who?" in the other half. they're a groove metal band; similar to slipknot, mudvayne, disturbed, all that remains, system of a down, korn, and killswitch engage. they're one of those really controversial bands that are hated because they're ~not real metal~ by dumbshits who think that NWOBHM is the only valid metal genre. even though england ruined metal and punk but that's a conbfetsation for another day.

now, if you just don't like metal, that's fine. I don't expect everyone to like every genre. so obviously you won't like them, or any band in the genre. obviously. and these are not the people who are being targeted with this post. no, this goes to those who love metallica, ozzy, megadeth, slayer, pantera, testament, opeth, tool, manowar, meshuggah, children of bodom, cannibal corpse, fear factory, mercyful fate: this is to the people who love metal. now, I say this as one of us, but metalheads are one of the most judgmental groups of people in history. and frequently I find that metalheads make the same remarks in regards to their opinions on five finger death punch.

they do nothing but covers. they just yell and cuss. forty year old men with teenage angst. bad musicianship. they look stupid. they fuck their sisters and daughters. they sold out to the military. they're gay. they do too many ballads. they're redneck bait. they're toxic masculinity and macho personified. they rely on guest stars to carry their songs. they're talentless hacks.

these are all complaints I've heard multiple times from multiple people. and frankly I'm sick of it. I'm sick of hearing the bullshit complaints rather than the ACTUAL REASONS why they aren't the best band in the world. which I'll go through now.

they have an overreliance on breakdowns as if they were a post-hardcore band but they're not. breaking benjamin also skirts the line between post-grunge metal and post-hardcore and have many breakdowns, but the difference is that BB's breakdowns have math rock roots and use different patterns that syncopate well. five finger's breakdowns are... eighth notes. it's the difference between, say, black veil brides- who have excellent syncopated breakdowns- and as I lay dying, who have shitty and boring breakdowns. the only difference is that AILD has blast beats (and is fronted by an abusive asshole), and five finger has... ivan growling threats or whatever because they think that it sounds cool to have metal blaring while he says shit like "you wanna disrespect me? I will slap you so fucking hard you'll feel like you kissed a freight train, fuck you," or "if there was ever a time for you to back the fuck up it's right fuckin here and right fuckin now" or "it's not the size of the dog in the fight it's the size of the fight in the dog," or "in the end we're all just chalk lines on the concrete, drawn only to be washed away; in the time that I've been given, I am what I am", etc, all preceding screams. and no these are not exaggerations, these are literally exact quotes. there's also one that plays radio chatter from the military while he goes "hut hut oorah", which is different slightly. and in any case, they have done nearly a hundred different solos over their career, there is NO REASON for them to have such a ridiculous amount of breakdowns. they rival memphis may fire in that regard, but MMF actually has great breakdowns. churko is a metal producer, NOT a hardcore producer, and they sound empty when you strip out the vocals.

sometimes they will overuse a chorus, and hit the pop music pitfalls of having a song that's over half chorus. I'm sure they did this so the label would be happy with singles because the music industry is a commercialized garbage fire and holding it against the artists would be so fucking stupid especially since tool (the best metal band in existence) fucking said it best, "all you know about me is what I sold you, I sold out long before you ever knew my name, I sold my soul to make a record, dipshit, then you bought one; I've got some advice for you little buddy, before you point your finger you should know that I'm the man and if I'm the man then he's he man and you're the man as well so you can take that fucking finger and shove it up your ass". translation; the fact that you know a band at all means that they sold out to even exist in the first place because that's what selling out is. so even this complaint I have that sometimes they have repeated chorus is more of a complaint about a music industry which dumbs things down to sell radioplay to the lowest common denominator, which EVERY SINGLE ARTIST IS GUILTY OF. so moving on.

sometimes they'll have songs which are fairly simple from a harmonic/mechanical standpoint. opening verse chorus verse chorus solo bridge chorus chorus ending. verse goes some mix of eighth and quarter notes and rests in 4:4, solo is just the vocal line of the chorus, bass and drums are nonexistent and only serve to be a melodic backbone, and the music only exists to serve the lyrics... oh wait I can make the exact same arguments about metallica, rage against the machine, pantera, disturbed, and a hundred other bands. those guys aren't hated as much as five finger. hmm. wonder why.

the lyrics are often angsty. namely that they deal with honor, government corruption, mental illness, we live in a society, religious corruption, abandonment issues, recovering from toxic relationships, hey wait a minute these are all just insanely common topics for metal songs!

they usually play in the same key- wait shit every band has a favored key.

they do a lot of covers- wait shit they have literally more ALBUMS than covers.

(yeah that's weird to me too, but they only did a new level by pantera, from out of nowhere by faith no more, bad company by bad company, mama said knock you out by LL cool J, house of the rising sun by the animals, gone away by offspring, and blue on black by kenny wayne shepard... that's 7. they have 8 albums now.)

so shut the fuck up forever about the cover songs. metallica and the deftones and a perfect circle all had fucking cover ALBUMS, van halen only has a career because of the kinks, and every single rock band in the world is just ripping off the beatles, pink floyd, black sabbath, the who, led zeppelin, and cream. pick a legitimate reason to hate on a band, hypocrite.

alright what else...

"they're gay"

I'm not gonna dignify that with a response.

"they suck"

so does your favorite band. boom roasted.

"they're bad at music"

I'd like to see you do better then.

"they sold out to the military"

no they support the veterans and the troops; they fucking hate the military if you pay any attention at all. they believe in the good parts of the military that the government pays half our taxes to make us believe. you're not better than anyone else just because you see through one specific piece of propaganda because odds are you're blinded by another dozen. they write songs about how war is hell and how when vets come home they should be treated better. and anyway when you're in the dog eat dog world of the music industry hey guess what you need a market to sell to or else it's back to baskin robbins. I don't blame them for one second. if I had the option of endorsing cops to pay my bills you bet your ass I'll fly a blue lives matter flag and sell my soul to make money, and then donate shit to the black lives matter movement. flying a flag is worthless if I can do actual good with the money that those dumbasses send in. and name better irony than fighting to abolish a group that pays me to do it go on I'll wait.

"you're just a fanboy"

a) it's fangirl but metal elitists don't give a shit about the LGBTQ and b) just because I like a band doesn't in any way diminish the validity of my statements and any bias I might have is easily countered by whatever bias you might have and c) they're not even my favorite band you idiot I just think there's way worse out there just like I think it's unfair to say nickelback is the worst band in existence when drunk mom rock like hinder buckcherry savingabel and kidrock exists, and limp bizkit is standing right there, and d) they're not even the worst groove metal band, just look at fucking lamb of god, and e) if I was a fangirl I wouldn't have pointed out the flaws you fucking brainless troglodyte, and f) even if they were my favorite band in the world it doesn't matter if you think they suck because music taste is subjective anyway you goddamn moron. those guys write their own music, play their own music, perform their own music, and they love their fanbase more than most other bands. andrew biersack and kellin quinn and pepper keenan and glenn danzig and liam gallagher and axl rose and van halen and ted nugent and kurt cobain HATE their fans, or at least are huge fucking assholes. but not five finger. jeremy played until he literally broke his back; he's as devoted as phil collins, and if he made like atreyu and sang while drumming he'd be singing from a wheelchair, or like dave grohl when he broke his leg right in the middle of a concert, went to the hospital and got set and put in a cast, THEN CAME RIGHT BACK TO THE FUCKING SHOW AND PLAYED GUITAR AND SANG IN A CAST AND WHEELCHAIR. oh but wait, people say phil collins and dave grohl suck too, and turn around and suck mustaine's dick even though he's the biggest asshole in thrash metal behind tom araya and drunk james hetfield. point being, just because x doesn't like y doesn't diminish z's opinion.

"the singer fucked his daughter lol lol his grandchild is his son too lol lol his daughter is his wife lol lol it's funny because rednecks and incest lol lol" he's from colorado not alabama you dumb motherfuckers, and all the lol incest in georgia jokes are rooted in good ol yankee classism. also the guitarist is hungarian so the american redneck jokes don't even fuckin work. shut the hell up, you have all of the intellectual capacity of a common bog leech.

you can dislike the band. you can say you don't like it. you can say that you'd rather listen to different music. that's fine! that's okay! listen to justin bieber if you like him, listen to taylor swift if you like her, listen to new kids on the block if you want! I don't care! but stop expressing your opinions that you stole from someone else as fact. all you're doing is meme bandwagoning so you can find a community because you don't have the social skills necessary to meet people through the things you love so instead you try to pull serotonin out of making other people feel as miserable as you do.

with that being said, fuck all of the annoying dudebro douchebags who listen to the band and show 5FDP next to the confederate flag, blue lives matter flag, don't tread on me flag, punisher skull, trump sticker, and the crossed assault rifles on the back of your truck. you're all shit for reasons other than your music taste.

[papermoonloveslucy]

IT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT: LUCY & THE BOMPS!

by Earl Wilson, August 19, 1950

Lucille Ball wanted to keep Desi home and off the road so she petitioned for him to play her husband on radio’s “My Favorite Husband”.  The network balked and Richard Denning got the role instead. When it came time to transfer the show to television, Lucy made the same demand. Now a radio star in her own right, she was able to convince the network - nervous about America believing an ‘All-American girl’ like Lucy would be married to a Latin bandleader - to give them a chance to prove it!  The Arnazs’ built a comedy and musical act and took it on the road. When the show got to the Roxy in New York City, syndicated columnist Earl Wilson tagged along and wrote the following feature, which appeared on August 19, 1950.  Coincidentally, the Roxy was also the theatre where Desi Arnaz was performing when he wed Lucille Ball in 1940. 

[NOTE: Although the text of Wilson’s article is repeated below verbatim, the photos and footnotes were added for editorial consideration.]

Lucille Ball has been one of our most appreciated movie actresses for quite a while, but it was seeing her do a bump on the stage that made me really come to realize how talented she is.

It was after she’d done her clever act with husband Desi Arnaz at the Roxy that I talked to the flamin’ redhead about it.

“Wasn't that a bump?” I asked her, as we got into a cab and pulled away from the stagedoor. I wanted to be sure, because some snooty actresses wouldn’t want it thought that they ever did a bump.“That was a married woman’s refined version of a bump.”

Lucille was sitting back in the cab, exhausted from several shows that day, and clamoring to be taken somewhere to see a show. She said she had been entertaining all day and now she wanted to be entertained for a change.

“Did you say refined?” Desi looked across the cab at her. I was between them. “Any harder you do it and you will knock my hot off,” he said in his charming accent. (1)

At Desi’s urging, she told me a story showing that doing the bump is for her not new. It seems that once she made a picture for Eric Palmer called Dance, Girl, Dance. (2)

“He was telling me, ‘Those bomps. Don’t do those bomps bad or the sansors will keep the picture.’

“So I was doing a very tame dance, not bumping at all. I had on a 27-pound dress, silver lame, with bugle beads, and it rolled from side to side when I shook.

“Durin’ a scene, Palmer jumped up and said, ‘Oh, oh, that was a bomp. I told you no bomps.’

“I went up to him and I said, ‘Mr. Palmer, that was not a bomp. THIS is a bomp.’  “And I bumped and I wrapped those 27 pounds of beads right around his neck!”

It’s a pleasure to talk to two such honest, earthy people after listening to some others who are always posing. A lot of people are astonished that they are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary because, as Desi points out, “Everyone said it wouldn’t last a month.” “And WE didn’t think it would last a week,” Lucille said. (3)

Being romantically inclined, I asked for the details which most everybody must have forgotten by now but the participants themselves.

“Where did you get married?” I asked Desi.

“The Byram River Beagle Club, at Greenwich, Conn.,” Lucille said. (4)

“Thank you, I can never say that,” said her Cuban husband.

“Yes, you can. Try it,” Lucille said.

“The By-ram River Bee-gul Club,” Desi said dutifully and slowly.

“Faster!” commanded Lucille. (5)

“The Byver Regal Civer Club,” responded Desi.

“Oh, my,” said Lucille, “We were married by Judge John J. O’Brien. He’s the one who married Tommy Manville so many times.” (6)

Although Desi missed a show at the Roxy, where he was then appearing, to get married, he remembers, just as vividly, how on his wedding night he woke up the bride about 5 A.M. and demanded that she get him a glass of water. The funny thing is that she did.

“About 9 o’clock she woke me up,” Desi recalls, “and she said ‘Listen, you—, the next time you want a glass of water you get it yourself!’” (7)

Desi explains that he’s never made such a request since.

Desi and Lucille have formed their own company which they call Desilu Productions, this being a combination, of course of their two first names. “First time I ever got top billing,” Desi says.

They plan to do concerts, radio, television and movies together. Lucille comes from Butte, Mont., and, as everybody knows, has red hair. (8)

Lucille made up a description of herself around which a movie will be made. The title which describes her so accurately is "Blazing Beulah From Butte," and we figure it ought to get the money. (9)

Never underestimate that Desi.

When they were getting married it appeared that she might not be able to because of a commitment to Harold Lloyd.

Desi called Lloyd from New York and defiantly announced to him that Lucille couldn’t be available that week, as he was marrying her. “Y-yes, D-desi, c-can she be back next k-weeek?” stammered Lloyd, who never does. (10)

Desi is pretty masterful; when he speaks, to Lucille he is her master’s voice.

FOOTNOTES

(1) The ‘bomps’ discussed are undoubtedly from the “Cuban Pete / Sally Sweet” number, where Lucy gyrates her hips while singing “Chick-Chicky-Boom Chick-Chicky-Boom.” The routine was repeated (with ‘bomps’ included) on “I Love Lucy” in “The Diet” (ILL S1;E3) in October 1951. 

(2) The article consistently mis-spells Erich Pommer as ‘Eric Palmer.’  Pommer was the producer of Lucille Ball’s 1940 film Dance, Girl, Dance at RKO. 

(3) Lucy and Desi’s marriage lasted twenty years, from 1940 to 1960, although Lucille divorced Desi in the mid-1940s, Lucy never signed the paperwork. After their second divorce was final, Lucy revealed that Desi was unfaithful and a drinker, and that they were no longer compatible. Lucy charged “mental cruelty” and told the court of Desi’s temper tantrums. Some years later, she described the reason for the split as “the same old booze and broads.” Both Ball and Arnaz remarried, although they stayed friends and later admitted that they had always loved one another. 

(4) Lucy and Desi married in Connecticut due to its shorter waiting period on licenses and blood tests. The Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich was originally a Hunt and Kennel Club that became a speakeasy during Prohibition and after that a supper club. It was a favorite hangout of baseball great Babe Ruth. A single-family home now stands on the property.  In April 1952, “I Love Lucy” aired an episode called “The Marriage License” (ILL S1;E26) that was largely set in Greenwich and mentioned The Byram River Beagle Club, although no scenes were set there because Lucy purposely left Ricky’s wallet at home and they ran out of gas! 

(5) In “The Marriage License” Ricky also had trouble pronouncing the name. On “I Love Lucy” making fun of Ricky’s English was a usual source of comedy - mostly by Lucy - just as it appears to be here - in 1950.  

(6) Thomas Franklyn Manville, Jr., known as Tommy Manville (1894-1967), was a Manhattan socialite and heir to the Johns-Manville asbestos fortune. He was a celebrity in the mid-20th Century due to both his inherited wealth and his record-breaking 13 marriages to 11 women, which won him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. At the time of this interview, however, Manville was only on his 6th wife!  The termination of his marriages usually resulted in gossip, widespread publicity, and huge cash settlements. At the time of his death it was estimated that Manville spent more than $1.25 million on divorce settlements.

(7) This exchange (with slight variation) was later worked into “I Love Lucy”! 

(8) At the start of her career - and apparently well into 1950 - Lucille Ball purported to have been born in Butte, Montana, despite her actual birthplace being Jamestown, in upstate New York.  Ball (who then went by the name Diane Belmont) thought it sounded more interesting and exotic.  

(9) Despite the alliterative title, "Blazing Beulah from Butte” was never made, perhaps because shortly afterwards Ball admitted her true birthplace. “Blazing Beulah from Jamestown” doesn’t have quite the same ring. It’s also likely that this was a clever bon mot on Desi’s part to create a more colorful interview. 

(10) Comic actor and director Harold Lloyd had put Lucille under contract for his film A Girl, A Guy, and A Gob, to be filmed in 1940. There was some speculation that marrying Arnaz would interfere with the shooting schedule. 

TRIVIA

While Lucy and Desi were at the Roxy, the theatre was also showing Night and the City, which had premiered there on June 5, 1950. At this time it was common for a larger entertainment venues like the Roxy to present both a stage show and a first run film. Night and the City starred Richard Widmark, who Lucy and Desi later convinced to guest-star on “I Love Lucy” in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30) in May 1955. 

In “Return Home From Europe” (ILL S5;E26), Ricky gets a long-distance telephone call from the manager of the Roxy, Mr. Rothafel, offering him a job, if he can get back to New York immediately. In reality, Rothafel was the name of the founder of the Roxy, Mr. Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel. Rothafel died in early 1936, however, so this was probably Desi’s way of honoring him. 

Earl Wilson was mentioned on “I Love Lucy” in “The Fox Hunt” (ILL  S5;E16). While trying to wangle an invitation to Sir Clive’s country manor, Lucy makes up a story about the Mertzes meeting an Earl in the hotel lobby. When Sir Clive rattles off the names of some Earls to jog her memory, she fibs that he was just promoted from Assistant Earl, the Earl of Wilson, who canceled because he’s got the gout! Lucy’s imaginary Earl is actually a reference to Earl Wilson (1907-87), a journalist and television panelist of the time. His nationally syndicated column frequently mentioned Lucy and Desi. 

In 1974, Lucy strikes a pose for Wilson during her promotional tour for Mame.

[lucyloowales-designmarketing]

It's finally published! An emotionally raw book about mental health and illness, bullying in middle school, and very human. I am the official artist of the J. Peters boom series, the 4th cover coming soon! This illustration is lemon cake with cigarettes stubbed in it and a base of Lexapro pills.

Good to universityonwatch.com to purchase and read these amazing memoirs.

[corinnebean]

2019 Archive Post

Last year, at the end of 2018, I was preparing my end. 

I wasn’t suicidal, no more than usual. But I realized that medically, no one was going to help me and I didn’t have the energy to put one foot in front of the other. I didn’t want to fight the cardiologist who after seeing my heart rate go over 200bpm for 3 minutes (after immediately spiking to 180 from standing up and then dropping to 50 randomly before jumping up again) who said my stress test was “normal” (after the tech was alarmed as fuck).

I had spent several years trying to spin plates and I was exhausted, so I spent time doing life reflection and quietly began “signing off” to people. I was beaten down and was relieved to know I had a condition that has the ability to off me without notice. It didn’t help that making it “official” that I was drawn to people’s peopleness and not their genital arrangement was met with extreme hostility and turmoil in my closest relationships and family. They said every possible after-school special, clichéd, hate-filled response imaginable. Really. I even got “what will the neighbours think?” 2018 was like shedding a very heavy shell and being exposed to the elements. You just are ready for it to end.

I logged out off social media and chose to follow things that felt like “me”. There has never been a me. Not really. I wasn’t accepted growing up for one label or another or all of the above. And they are like a braid. They all intertwine and I spent 30 years working to make those parts of me not visible to make other people happy. Now I’m pretty casual about dropping that I’m bi/pan, autistic, and have mental illnesses that require lifelong upkeep. Online, all these things are greeted with “me too, bitch; you ain’t special” (and I love that about this hostile plain). 2019 started with me going “I’ll do what is asked of me, no more, no less.’ And I lived water. Water is something I have used to survive. I recognize that the water that will drown me is also the water that hydrates me. That will cleanse me but will pour out of me when I am filled with sorrow. The water that sustains me is also the water that hinders me. And to experience floating I need to relax when I am surrounded. Nothing that has happened to me is exclusively negative or exclusively positive. Most people would disagree so hard with that assessment if they saw moments and not arcs.

With that, 2019.

The year began quiet. Julian and I shared a passion for Schitt’s Creek which turned out to be one of the worst things about this year. Where doing the right thing made me feel like the bad guy. I can’t go too much into it because it’s being taken out of my hands. But a certain national Canadian network was really great at breaking laws and relying on my niceness to not make waves for a very long time. The few that know know only portions.

May came and the storms came crashing. At the same time as the above began, my landlord evicted me (illegally) (new landlord, same reason).

And it was there that every remaining twig and branch crumpled, snapped, and cracked open. I could no longer take having everyone and everything I tried to trust push me under. I was still hoping the ticker would boom in all this, but clearly it did not. I decided to throw everything I owned away (well, charity, friends, people in need, etc.) and start new. I needed a place where I had access to medical care; J needed a place to develop community that would accept Julian. It was obvious a city in Canada was going to be the move. We started in Vancouver (priced out), Calgary (not good for J), Edmonton (that’s too cold, and I like cold), Winnipeg (child, you will not fare well), Toronto (priced out), Montréal (mais oui!), and then a cluster of the Maritimes including Halifax. Montréal was the next closest city that fit our needs.

Two months later, Chewy, two bags, and I were in Quebec rushing to set up a home for Julian and I. It’s quite a bit of Ikea furniture, but the whole life reset cost under $10,000. My home has wonderful owners who are ready to cover the costs of upgrades and upkeep. Which is good because I’ve been drinking lead, the wall in the front entry has a stress fracture and is crumbling, the balconies and fire escape are disintegrating, my bathroom sink was chipped and became shattered because of a faulty shelf, and I caught two mice--it’s been quiet since but I am not quitting the hunt and am considering a cat again (ehhhhn). The contractors here are impossible to pin down, so it’s a bit of a jumble still. I know this all sounds like “bad water”. The things that are meant to destroy. And I feel it often. But in dealing with the legalities of the national broadcaster, I stumbled into a pool of beautiful people. The worst part was I was trying to swim and trust when everyone else around me was pouring more water on me. I was out there trying to look like I knew how to be around people and I knew I had to trust everyone or no one. And when my trust got chiselled again in September, I locked myself out from people again. Absolutely aware this was not a good decision, but it was the best one I had at the time. Being alone is the only time I feel truly at ease in my mind. I have found people over my life to be at ease with, but so many of them have broken fundamental trusts; I am uneasy about everyone. I am still capable of giving unconditionally, and normal social interactions. Just letting people close to what breaks me is going to be hard for a long time to come.

I live in a beautiful city, I am relearning another language, Julian and I both won major contests this year, I’ve made new friends who are really awesome. I feel free to be me and pursue a relationship with whomever I am attracted to without worrying about really horrible feedback (not ready, obvs.). Julian and I are figuring it out here. Julian is learning what J’s expectations of me require of me and what I sacrifice to do so, so that’s been really good for Julian’s empathy. Julian has amazing friends who are all older (Julian has always connected with older kids and being the youngest by skipping a grade here has been great), some understand implicitly who Julian is. And is thriving. I love the weather. I love the freedom.

There is so much good in the water, if you’re willing to risk drowning.

[sattamatkasattamatka]

Eddy Bosnar's bullet vs satta Kyoto Sanga

Australian defender Eddy Bosnar continues to impress with his whole-hearted displays at the centre of the Shimizu S-Pulse defence, with the lanky Australian one of the star signings of the new J. League season.

Bosnar has also earned plenty of plaudits for his thunderous free-kicks, and many are now calling for Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek to call up the tall stopper for Australia's World Cup campaign in South Africa.

With dead-ball delivery like this, Bosnar may just be a bolter for selection in Australia's preliminary 27-man squad.

Political footballs

The English football season reaches its climax in the same satta king week as the British General Election campaign reaches the finish line.

Like the annual Premier League toss-up between Chelsea and Manchester United, the General Election is usually a straight fight between the reds and blues, but this year the election has seen an orange team appear from nowhere in the form of a congenial and assured televisual image named Nick Clegg.

There is no orange interloper in football however, where Hull City fell out the Premier League and Wolves struggled, although Blackpool may yet make it to the promised land via the play-offs.

Football and politics have generally taken different roads in Britain, perhaps as a testament to the social delineation of the working class in industrial regions from the ruling class in the Westminster village. But the sport's booming popularity in recent years has dragged the suits into the grounds, or at least forced them to pay lip service to the people's game from the lofty perch of the executive box.

Although overseas leaders had been doing it for years, such as when Benito Mussolini shamelessly hijacked the 1934 World Cup, it was Huddersfield FC man Harold Wilson who first twigged that football's popularity could rub off onto British politicians, when England won the World Cup during his Premiership. As comic creation Alf Garnett quipped, it must have been Wilson who made England wear Labour red for the final.

Wilson's populist move backfired when he closely identified himself with England's 1970 squad, whose painful elimination's proximity to the election cost him his job, he later claimed.

The Prime Minister had himself photographed with the team in front of No. 10, Downing Street, setting a precedent repeated every four years since. In the 1980s, a PM virulently hostile to football held sway but even the Iron Lady found her swinging handbag unable to put soccer in its place and she grudgingly went ahead with some winsome photoshoots with Emlyn Hughes, Kevin Keegan et al.

Margaret Thatcher saw no connection between her economic policies and the growth of spectator violence, and was taken aback when FA Secretary Ted Croker told her pointedly, "Not our hooligans, Prime Minister, but yours. The products of your society." Her magic wand was an ill-conceived plan to force fans to carry an I.D. card, which would be withdrawn from the miscreants.

It was an unnecessary endeavour, which would have failed to stop fights outside grounds and was obviated anyway by the arrival of CCTV inside them, but was enthusiastically trumpeted for too long by the shrill Colin Moynihan, aka The Miniature for Sport, until the Hillsborough tragedy sank the soccer ID ship for good.

The Thatcher years did foment some form of politicisation among fans and legacies of her general disconnection from the industrial regions who breathed football strongest included the Football Supporters Association, the start of supporter involvement in clubs and a burgeoning fanzine culture rejecting the official face of the game and the authorities.

The grassroots were very green in the late 1980s as Thatcher's reign tottered towards its inevitable end, but football remained very much a minority interest in Britain as a whole. The fences, the strict policing, the labeling of fans as hooligans by the largely right-wing media had created a siege mentality among die-hards constantly challenging the public consensus that football belonged in the gutter. The enlightenment of Italia '90 and the seismic year zero of Sky TV's Premier League in 1993 lay in an unimagined future.

Thatcher's successor John Major was less abrasive than his predecessor towards everything, and immediately said he was a Chelsea fan, making sure he was filmed attending games with fellow Tory David Mellor MP, although interestingly his sporting interests were listed as 'cricket and rugby' before he became PM.

Pavarotti, Gazza and all had brought a spring-cleaning no-one had expected, but the after-effects in England of that summer in Italy were too powerful and popular to ignore at the highest level again. Engaging with England's football culture was now de rigueur for its top politicians.

[petalmrk]

Abc Tag

rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 10 blogs you would like to know better ♥(ˆ⌣ˆԅ)

Hello everyone!! I was tagged by @baekbunniee and @veroshi0704 to do this tag, thank you for tagging me!!! 

(a)ge: 16 but turning 17 in June *IM SO HYPED FOR THIS*  im a 01 liner

(b)irthplace: Brazil *I MISS THE HEAT* - I live in england now

©urrent time: 20:58

(d)rink you had last:  water ( It’s good to be hydrated kids)

(e)asiest person to talk to: myself lol , but I got my mum and good friends on here and of course outside of tumblr

(f)avourite song: I dont have one but will Shinee’s View ever be topped I dont think so ( the best song ever made) I also like whiplash and other songs.. too many to write on here

(g)rosset memory: Anything involving real life chickens I have phobia of birds 

(h)ogwarts house: OKAY I thought I was a hufflepuff this whole time but then I done a quiz and turns out im a Ravenclaw

(i)n love: Not right now at least not with people that I actually know in real life but yeah... ( I have the biggest crush on Jaehyun and Johnny and every nct member shhh dont tell anyone) Jaehyun *smiles* Me *blushes like crazy and cry over his existence*

(j)ealous of people: I guess I wish I was less shy and not have anxiety, IM JEALOUS OF PEOPLE WHO ALSO HAVE JOBS

(k)illed someone: No but mentally yes

(l)ove at first sight or walk by again: walk by again I fall in love with personality first lol

(m)iddle name: MADALENA (yep thats it)

(n)umber of siblings: Only one sister and we have 12 year gap (IM OLDER)

(o)ne wish: to achieve my dreams and travel ( @ anxiety pls CHOKE)

(p)erson you called last:  my mum but I dont make phone calls usually

(q)uestion you’re asked most: How are things , when are you going to get a boyfrienddd ( LITERALLY SHUTT UPP IM NOT INTERESTED)

®easons to smile: NCT 2018, EXO, CBX , IDOL Producer , my lovely friends on here!! and my bday is approaching!

(s)ong you last sang: Lazy by CBX ( GO LISTEN TO IT IF YOU HAVENT WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOOOR)

(t)ime you woke up: 10:00 am

(u)nderwear colour: abvhjkl this question omg idk 

(v)acation destination: Is this somewhere I want to visit ? Japan , New york, Korea, Florida

(w)orst habit: Leaving things for the last minute

(x)-rays: IDK i think I had to do an x-ray on my arm once

(y)our favourite food: PIZZA, BURGERS, SUSHI, Lasagna, CHOCOLATE, PASTEL ( this is in portuguese I cant be bothered to translate it)

(z)odiac sign: GEMINI ( I GOT TWO SIDESSS LOOOLL) *OKAY IM OUT*

I’m going to be tagging: @definitelydaisy @kiungsoo @renjunchokingnct @boom-kaka-laka and yeah I DONT HAVE 10 PEOPLE IM SORRYYY