#top 10 hotels in the world 2018

[fandomtrumpshate]

Listed fandom fun

A bit of random data before we jump into the rankings for listed fandoms …

Since the numbers post yesterday we've had signups for nearly 60 new auctions, bringing the current total to 779. That beats the number of signups for 2016/7, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, and puts us withing spitting distance of our record last year of 819. Can we do it? Will we do it? Signal boost FTH posts and encourage others to participate. More money raised for good causes, more fanworks in the world — it's a win/win!

We posted yesterday about the state of our unlisted write-in fandoms (we've had nine new ones since then!). Time to check in with the rankings for the listed fandoms.

At the top of the pack we have:

87 K-Pop * 66 Good Omens 50 Sherlock Holmes * 44 Harry Potter * 37 Marvel * 32 DC * 31 Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed 27 Red, White, & Royal Blue 25 Star Wars * 23 Scum Villain's Self-Saving System

Our first tie is for 11th place -

22 Avatar The Last Airbender 22 Teen Wolf

And after that, nearly every other place is a tie. And which ones are ties for which places can be shifted slightly with just one signup. Or completely upended with two. Where will your fandom land?

Remember that if your fandom isn't here (or in the rest of the list below the cut), you can write it in. Signups are OPEN through Monday!

19 Supernatural 18 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star 18 Locked Tomb Trilogy 18 Stranger Things 17 All for the Game 16 Our Flag Means Death 16 Tolkien * 16 The Witcher 15 Boku no Hiro Akademia (My Hero Academia) 15 Original Work 15 Percy Jackson and the Olympians 14 Baldur's Gate 3 14 Hockey RPF 12 The Old Guard 12 Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing) 11 The Magnus Archives 11 Star Trek * 10 Check Please! 10 Dungeons & Dragons 10 Haikyuu!!! 10 Hazbin Hotel 10 Jujutsu Kaisen 9 A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon 9 One PIece 8 Doctor Who * 8 Hades (video game) 8 Heartstopper 8 James Bond 8 Kingsman 8 Merlin 8 Naruto 8 Suits 7 Dragon Age * 7 Justified 7 Raven Cycle 7 Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast 7 The Sandman 7 Shadowhunters 7 SK8 the Infinity 6 Captive Prince 6 Critical Role 6 Final Fantasy * 6 Fullmetal Alchemist 6 Hannibal 6 Kinnporsche 6 The Maze Runner 6 Queen's Thief 6 Stargate 6 Steven Universe 6 Top Gun Movies 6 Yuri!!! On Ice 5 Alex Rider 5 Grishaverse 5 Interview With The Vampire 5 Malevolent (Podcast) 5 The Murderbot Diaries 5 Nirvana in Fire 5 The Owl House 5 RWBY 4 Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (The Husky & His White Cat Shizun) 4 Genshin Impact 4 Les Misérables 4 The Magicians 4 Pokemon 4 Witch Hat Atelier 3 Arcane 3 Disney's Descendants 3 Elder Scrolls 3 Hetalia 3 Hunger Games 3 Legend of Zelda 3 Spy x Family 3 Tian Ya Ke / Word of Honor 3 Trigun 3 Welcome to Night Vale 3 Wheel of Time 3 Young Royals 2 Benoit Blanc Mysteries (Knives Out, Glass Onion) 2 Disco Elysium 2 Encanto 2 Gundam Wing 2 The Last of Us 2 Leverage 2 Miraculous Ladybug 2 Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 2 Mysterious Lotus Casebook 2 Schitt's Creek 2 Super Mario Bros. 1 Assassin's Creed 1 Attack on Titan 1 Diamond no Ace 1 Fire Emblem Three Houses 1 Homestuck 1 Stellar Firma 1 Wednesday / The Addams Family

[black-swan-slaps]

Top 10 Sus Jikook Moments

There are way too many moments to possibly list, but my friend and I thought it would be fun to compile a list of sus jikook moments. 

10. 2021 Jimin Birthday Live

Cute and flustered Jimin calling Jungkook? Jungkook coming immediately to spend time with his boyfriend? Hobi calling out why Jimin was in Jungkook’s studio? So many questions.

9. 2015 Award Show Back Hug

Let’s be real, there are plenty of questionable back hug moments, but this one is particularly interesting. The fact that it was so early in their relationship. The fact that it took place at a public award show. The way Jungkook held onto Jimin and how they swayed together. The questionable looks from the other members. I see you jikook, I see you.

Honorable back hug mention is the BE live and the way Jungkook caged Jimin for an incredibly long time with their matching hair. Exuding boyfriend energy to the max.

8. Cute Feet During PJ Run

Honestly, this is just one of my favorite moments that makes me feel giddy. How comfortable they are resting on one another. The way they’re playing with their feet. Jimin’s surprised laugh when Jungkook plays along. And let’s not forget the special photo of Jungkook spooning Jimin.

7. “Let me give you a hug” Dance Practice

Am I the only one who has watched this clip over and over? We get to see how even during work they are always having fun together. But how can we not swoon over Jungkook’s smitten face as Jimin fails to lift him, and the way his smile grows brighter when he lifts Jimin like it’s nothing. Jimin tries to lift him one more time, but fails and instead hugs Jungkook and nuzzles into his neck ever so slightly. 

6. Jungkook’s Snow Gift

We should all know this moment. Bon Voyage season 4 in New Zealand. This is the beginning of Jungkook really doing whatever the hell he wants, and he disappears one morning to go on a mountain hike and returns with a chunk of snow, much to everyone’s confusion. He specifically waits for Jimin to wake up and excitedly shows and gives it to him. Jimin is, understandably confused, but we all understand the intent.

5. Malta Room Sharing

I’ll be honest, finding out about this speculation was what thrust me into the world of jikook. (It doesn’t seem to exist anymore, but I had wandered across an analysis video a few years ago). Obviously, we don’t know anything for sure, but there are enough clues here, as well as in many other occasions, that make it possible jikook were room sharing.

(And let’s not forget their cute Malta date)

4. Osaka Live

Similar vibe to number 5, but cranked up to 100. I don’t need to go in depth into this, because we all know, but my two cents is that Jimin was in that room. (Just as he hid in Jungkook’s room during the 2019 NJ live). What were they doing in a dark hotel room with sensual music playing? Eating bread, of course.

3. GCF in Tokyo

Enough said.

2. MAMA 2018

What I would give to hear everything the man sitting next to them heard. Something was truly in the air that day. They were all over each other and incredibly lovey dovey. While we can’t know for sure what they actually said to each other, the look in Jungkook’s eyes speaks volumes.

1. Rose Bowl

Are we surprised this is my number 1? There are so many moments that exist, but all jikookers come back to this one. There are so many questions about why. Why nibble the ear? Why confess his love? Why give a kiss? (We all know why). But the emotions are palpable, as they would be at the end of a high intensity concert. Jimin was emotional, and Jungkook went to console Jimin, as we know he usually does. Hanging onto Jimin’s back isn’t out of the ordinary, but Jungkook took it a step further. And put Jimin’s ear in his mouth. My assumption is that he was saying something, but ultimately decided actions would speak louder than words. To be clear, he says something first, pulls back, and then goes back in, catches Jimin’s ear, and then delivers a clear kiss to Jimin’s head. There’s no mistaking it. Jungkook was taking care of his baby. 

Honorable Mentions:

Rainy day fight

“I was with Jungkook [at 4AM on his birthday]”

That award show moment where Jungkook is singing a love song to Jimin and Jin is staring at them lovingly. (There is a video somewhere, but I can’t find it. Please, someone find it. I think it’s from the melon music awards)

Jungkook waking Jimin up on In the Soop season 2.

Jimin breaking Jungkook’s mosquito net on In the Soop season 1. (And the spooning that occurred the next day.) 

Black Swan Lift

Honestly, there are too many moments to mention. Please share your top sus moments!

[slavghoul]

Full article from Metal Hammer 12/2022 that I posted an excerpt from in the previous post. BTW, Impera landed #1 on Metal Hammer’s list of best albums of 2022!

--

It was January 2022, and we found ourselves sitting in the empty lobby of a snug Seattle hotel, overlooking the sunset over Puget Sound while soft rock wafted through the PA system. Across from us was Ghost frontman and mastermind Tobias Forge, and we spent nearly two hours talking about music, family, dogs and the steady ascension of Ghost from spooky Swedish underground band to arena filling titans. But mostly we were there to talk about Impera – their fifth album, then still two months away from release.

In the run-up to an album coming out – particularly one with a highly acclaimed predecessor, like 2018’s Prequelle – artists tend to convey palpable anxiety as they prepare to relinquish control of their work to the world. Not so with Tobias, who radiated ease and comfort. Impera had not yet seen the light of day, but he had already moved on. Looking back at that period today, he explains, “As soon as I am done making a record, I’m pretty much fed up with it. I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to know about it, I just want to forget about it. Once it hits the ears of people, depending on how it’s being received, that’s where you start from scratch again.”

Following Ghost’s North American tour with Volbeat and Twin Temple, Impera was released on March 11. It seamlessly blended pop-savvy songwriting with elaborate arrangements and steady torrents of anthemic pop metal riffage that created a wormhole back to the lighter-raising, arena-rock majesty of the 80s. From the glass-shattering scream that opened Kaisarion to the synth-rock squall of Watcher In The Sky, it delivered one guitar-powered banger after another.

It was enough to land Ghost their first No.1 position on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart – their fourth Top 10 overall. Even bigger, in terms of vinyl and CD sales, Impera scored 2022’s biggest first-week sales for any album, of any genre. With more than 62,000 copies sold in the US alone, it easily bested The Weeknd’s February CD release of Dawn FM. In fact, Impera claimed the biggest first sales week for hard rock vinyl since Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy in 1994.

Critics united in swift and lusty praise. It might have felt heretical at the time, but many early reviews rated Impera as besting Prequelle on all fronts. Our very own Dave Everley wrote: ‘Impera wins on bolshiness, bravado and skyscraping songs alone. Ghost have turned in a modern metal classic with an arena rock heart. It turns out the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes. Tobias Forge does.’ It’s safe to say any plans of “starting from scratch” were shoved to the back burner.

Ghost’s official Imperatour headlining run took them back across North America and then to Europe. Despite the lingering ravages of Covid across the live music industry, they thrived. “I am very happy that we managed to orchestrate a somewhat functioning but very successful album launch”, says Tobias. “We managed to nail 70 shows with just one cancellation. I think in this day and age in this year, that’s fucking great!”

Across the globe, stages were filling up with shows that had been booked many years prior. “We had to cut and paste a little with our touring schedule, because this past summer was basically filled with 2020’s line-ups,” says Tobias. “That made our scheduling a little… I wouldn’t say sparse, but we had breaks that were longer than normal. There are so many bands that are doing these weird dances. The last year of releasing an album into the void, with no touring and cancelling here and there and everywhere, and people having to rethink their lives, basically… We’ve been blessed not to have done too much of that.”

Logistics aside, somewhere along the line, that cultish little band from Sweden – the one with the creepy frontman singing about Satan and plagues and empires – went mainstream. Propelled by Impera’s momentum, the band tapped into new levels of cultural saturation thanks to appearances on mainstays such as Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“TV always brings you in front of new people”, says Tobias. “We did [The Late Show With Stephen] Colbert a few years ago, and every time you do something like that, you obviously expose yourself to a new scene of viewers. And that’s always great, unless you completely shit the bed on the air. Ha ha ha! I think we did do a few things this year that brought in a whole slew of new people into our fanbase.”

But ever the realist, he adds, “You might have a spike of people checking you out… but you don’t really notice if things like that had any effect. It’s not like the day after, all of your shows are now sold out and there’s a double night booked into every show you’re doing. It’s such a slow process that you don’t notice until a half year later when new fans come in and say, ‘I saw you on Kimmel’ or ‘I saw you with my dad.’ I wouldn’t say that being on Kimmel changed everything. It’s been slow, step-by-step, but it builds new branches onto the same tree and you keep growing higher.”

And higher they grew. In July, Mary On A Cross – originally released on the 2019 EP, Seven Inches Of Satanic Panic – was used in a Tiktok tribute to the show Stranger Things. The ripple effect was staggering. The song landed in the Top 10 of Spotify’s Viral 50 Global chart. As of this issue, the hashtag #Maryonacross has notched up well over one billion views. Ghost eventually released an official, slowed-down version of the song and the two versions combined now claim more than 180 million Spotify streams and counting. “For us, the Tiktok thing was or is just a giant bonus”, he explains. “That was never something that we planned.”

Surely the unplanned waves of publicity will ferry over legions of new fans, for whom an embarrassment of riches awaits. “One thing that I felt proud over, was the fact that we’ve been around for 12 years,” says Tobias. “We’ve made five records, a bunch of EPS, and I am glad that there seems to be a song that has a way to suck people in. And if they go into our world and like it, there is plenty to find. If you like Mary On A Cross, you can just jump on the train and go where we already are heading.”

It’s been an uncommonly good year for heavy music, but for Ghost it’s been more than a success – it’s been a coronation. Despite their demoniacal appearance and transgressive lyrical themes, they have negotiated the near-impossible task of attracting mainstream audiences while holding fast to the diehards in metal who have been there from the start. It creates the enviable problem of facing a new year with new pressures and heightened expectations. But Tobias has a plan.

“We’re doing a lot of touring again”, he explains. “On previous album cycles we’ve done four legs in America and two or three in Europe and repeated. We’re going to go into every territory next year, but there’s going to be one European tour, one American tour. We are going to do a little bit of everywhere. There’ll be a little bit of something up in upper Asia, on the far end there – a very well-established country with a lot of pop cultural fascination, and the home of videogames. And there’s going to be something in the Oceania world, and there might be something south of Panama, and there might be something slightly north of Panama. It feels pretty solid.”

He cryptically adds, “We’re going to come out with a little bit of change before that – good change. We’re not going to go silent. Some things are public, other things not in public view, but there are a lot of things brewing.”

We are journalistically bound to inquire about the next album and, unsurprisingly, Tobias remains mum. In January, he told us, “Everything I’m doing now is for the next record. I have a vague idea what that will be like and a vague idea of the title and the colour scheme.”

For now, that will have to do, but rest assured that as we all continue to enjoy the masterpiece that is Impera, Tobias is already hard at work, figuring out dramatic new ways to blow our minds. But he still allows himself the odd moment to stop and take it all in.

“To be able to make all of the shows that we’ve done, and to have a record that did fairly well, I think the sum of it is pretty fucking awesome,” he smiles. “I’m very thankful. It was a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.”

[atzupdates]

[230303] ATEEZ are showing the world another side of K-pop by Taylor Glasby of i-D

Going stratospheric despite their small agency beginnings, the arena headliners discuss manifesting success and their secret ambitions.

ATEEZ have just played a raucous show to 20,000 fans at London’s O2 Arena. Backstage, with the adrenalin still pumping, Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yeosang, Mingi, San, Wooyoung, Yunho and Jongho are talking about football. Mingi, deep-voiced, his cropped hair cotton candy pink, is a Chelsea fan. Jongho, the band’s youngest at 22, follows Spurs. “Which is better?” asks Mingi. My tentative, uninformed guess (“Spurs?”) yields triumphant hoots and disappointed groans, as Jongho reaches over for a fist bump and hi-five. This exchange isn’t so much about football, as it is a reflection of ATEEZ wanting to make everyone they encounter feel welcome – a habit unchanged despite their stratospheric rise through the global pop landscape since debuting in late 2018.

During their week-long stay, they meet fans (known as ATINY) at a signing event, make late-night TikToks beneath the glow of Big Ben, go live on YouTube from a cosy corner of a hotel room, and watch South Korean forward Son Heungmin score at a Tottenham Hotspur game. The club’s home stadium (soon to host Beyoncé’s five London concerts) leaves a lasting impression on Yeosang: “When I saw how big it was and how loud the people were, I thought about how I want to be an artist that can play there,” he says in his slightly raspy voice. Wooyoung’s thoughts, however, linger Stateside in the wake of their most recent EP, Spin Off: From The Witness, earning them a second Top 10 entry on the Billboard 200 in early January. “I don’t know if it’s a team goal or my own,” he admits, “but I do want a #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hoping for it to happen is the easy part, but what’s necessary is the confidence and bravery in the belief that it will happen.”

ATEEZ’ ambitious nature is an overarching constant to their rapid growth as individuals and artists, useful as both a touchstone of their success and a beacon for their creative output. It was present on their first record, Treasure EP1: All To Zero, which set up a rebellious narrative (now a complex and sprawling alt-world storyline) just as much as it drives their meteoric singles and the exploratory genre-overlaps of their B-sides. As a result, they’ve become a prolific and landmark group. The World EP.1: Movement (their ninth EP, out in July 2022) was ATEEZ’ first platinum-selling release, a major accomplishment for an idol group from a relatively small K-pop agency.

Hongjong, the band’s leader, thinks and talks fast (today, in English) but he pauses to take a moment to muse over their trajectory. “Many people say that I can be proud of being a group from a small company that has made their own way. So if we continually do it like this with ATINY, then in the future people might agree that ATEEZ have made a change in K-pop. I think for now though, we haven’t done enough.”

They hope, notes Seonghwa (the band’s eldest member at 24), that their achievements will eventually be on a broader scale. “We’d love to be the people behind that movement,” he says. Hongjoong nods in agreement: “I want for us to provide people with a better understanding of K-pop worldwide. There are people who continue to say that K-pop is so technical and manufactured but K-pop isn’t just a single genre; each group has a different type of art and I want to show how we express our art to everyone. When I look into the crowd at concerts, I can see so many people of all ages and backgrounds yet stereotypes against the artists and the fans still exist.”

In the early days of ATEEZ, it was evident that Hongjoong and Mingi played a key role alongside their music production team, Edenary, and that a sense of individualism seemed to be encouraged in the group’s performances. These are both now acknowledged as strengths in their arsenal. The Fellowship: Break The Wall, their third world tour, serves to highlight their unified stance while showcasing the members’ idiosyncrasies — from dance style to sense of humour — but also how comfortably they inhabit the stage.

“During our 2019 Expedition tour, we learned a lot about how to perform with every show we did,” says Yunho, an effortlessly impressive dancer. “Then during the pandemic, we studied and developed how to really make the performance; working on the stage configuration and synchronisation of moves amongst ourselves. When we came back to Europe and the US last year for the Fellowship: The Beginning of the End tour, we were able to see how everything we’d worked on and our personal growth came together on that stage.”

For some members, the process has involved looking beyond the stage in order to feel more at home on it. Yeosang’s regimented program of working out put him physically and mentally in a stronger place: “I relieve my stress while exercising, but my breathing got better and my muscles also got better, so overall it connected into a great result on stage.” San and Seonghwa also turned inward, sifting through mental libraries of borrowed or imaginary traits to build and inhabit new characters for their performances.  

“I always have a lot of imaginative thoughts,” says Seonghwa, whose general serenity is replaced by a lightning-strike energy on stage and sparks of playfulness when you least expect it. “Even before sleeping, I tend to think about fantastical things,” he continues. “I use these to decide on how I’m going to be on stage and make sure the atmosphere matches with elements like my outfit.”

“For San, it’s movies and dramas [that inspire his performances], he takes those characters on,” explains Wooyoung. San, widely lauded for having an explosive stage presence, makes his creative choices the day of. “If there’s something I think of that I want to do that day, I share it with everyone to see if it will be okay. Then we create that image together and I simply express myself.”

Wooyoung, who is both mischievous and magnetic, looks to those he admires for guidance. “I mostly look at videos of our seniors – Jimin (BTS), Taeyang (Big Bang), Hoshi (SEVENTEEN), there’s so many – I get inspiration from them and make it my own on stage.” It’s a process also adopted by Yunho. “There are artists that I can pull from, like Rain, learning from them in order to realise my own style,” Yunho says. “On stage, it’s just me, I’m myself, but I have all this in the back of my mind.”

The title of their current tour, The Fellowship: Break The Wall, is derived from last summer’s single, “Guerrilla”, on which the phrase “break the wall” is chanted with increasing ferocity, culminating in a screamo-style vocal outro. It’s one of the show’s many high points, with ATINY putting their everything into screaming along with the band. The atmosphere grows feverish, the stage bathed in red light as the giant screens flash through the dystopian city of their storyline. It’s unbridled to the point of being transcendental. San grins, reflecting on this moment. “It’s difficult to explain,” he says of the experience, while Hongjoong sees in it the removal of cultural barriers through music. “I see ATINY during ‘Guerrilla’ singing along really loud and really tough,” he says. “They come to our show, they memorise our lyrics, they shout. That’s how they’re breaking the wall, by coming together.”

Since last October, ATEEZ have been playing arenas across Asia, the US and Europe, adding extra nights as they go in order to accommodate the demand, and garnering rave reviews — even from broadsheet media, for whom K-pop remains a confusing phenomenon — in the process. But their feet, heart and heads remain earthbound. “Nothing in this world is guaranteed,” says Wooyoung. “We’re always grateful for everything. It’s something we’ve discussed as a group, but it’s all thanks to ATINY’s love and support that we’re where we are now. To become global artists and a good influence on even more people, we have to hold a sense of responsibility to give our all on stage and deliver our truth. Honestly, it’s less about dreaming of an unknown future and more about how we have to work harder so we can go even higher and pave our own path.”

ATEEZ’ success is holistic in form: personality, performance and music. A harmonious but intriguing balance of authenticity and polish. Their impressive discography features recurring motifs (waves, moon, light) and ideologies (power, truth, rebellion, movement), yet Mingi and Hongjoong — who have written lyrics on every ATEEZ track so far — admit they’re still learning how best to combine what’s on their minds with what’s conducive to furthering their storyline. It is, they agree, not always an easy task.

“It’s absolutely hard to focus on so many themes,” says Hongjoong. “Sometimes my brain stops, so I watch movies or our music videos again. I think too much when I write but, after that work, the lyrics have more power for the fans who know our storyline; they get different emotions and a different effect when I’ve done that work well. It’s really hard but it’s important to do.”

Hongjoong had an epiphany when he picked up a camera while touring last year. “There's such fierce competition – not just in music but all industries – so if there’s no purpose, I’ve always found it really hard to create freely. We have continuous deadlines. I do the first album, then the second, and once I complete the second album I have to start on the third. I’ve found my hobby with a film camera. I walk around taking photos and I can see that even if I have no immediate purpose, I can create something.” It’s something that’s changed his approach to songwriting. “These days, when I write lyrics or produce a song, I just start from zero,” he explains. “Before, if we had a pirate theme, for example, I would start with that as a topic. That’s why I found it so hard.” He now works backward, getting down exactly what he wants to say before connecting it to the narrative markers. “It’s quite different but it’s more comfortable for me and the results are better than before.”

Hongjoong and Mingi, the group’s rappers, point to last year’s "Halazia” as the hardest storyline track to pen. “The atmosphere of the song is already quite difficult and complex,” Hongjoong notes, looking over to Mingi, who explains his process of cataloguing his many thoughts to later draw from. “I write down a lot of them as memos on my phone, so I always go back to them to see if they match what we’re going through (as a group); that’s how I write my lyrics,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll think of it as writing a script, to really get into that persona."

Mingi and Hongjoong are not the only collectors and creators in ATEEZ. “In my case,” says Seonghwa, “I always memo whenever I hear a line from a song or a line from a poem that I like, just for me to look back on. I’m the type to jot down my feelings if I experience something special. These help me when I write letters or want to say something to ATINY because I’m able to better word my feelings.” San, meanwhile, cites legendary South Korean poet 나 태주 (Ra Tae-joo) as an influence. “I love poems too — I’ve been writing my own but I keep them to myself,” he says. “They can be about my feelings on a certain day, the weather, objects or characters. I’m able to lay out my feelings like this.”

Now in their fourth year, ATEEZ remain as set on the idea of constantly challenging themselves as they were when they were hungry rookies. Take Jongho for example, whose rich, gut-punching vibrato forms the backbone of many of their songs. When he listened back to The World EP.1: Movement for the first time, he admits that he was “worried because my voice was used in ways that I hadn’t tried before, and I wondered how my vocal colour was going to fit”. He sat down with their producers and worked through “how we could still make it still an ATEEZ song and match my tone, while trying something new. I’ve gained more confidence — it makes me want to do better for all the albums to come.”

Hongjoong laughs. “It means our next albums are, uh, a big thing,” he reveals, knowingly. “There are so many good K-pop and pop stars that if we want to go higher, we have to have more good songs and try other genres, too.” But even as he muses on ATEEZ’ continuing expansion, the idea of one day becoming ‘too big to fail’ doesn’t appeal to him. “No, absolutely not that,” he says, gaze steady. “I want ATINY to be able to tell us if something is bad. I like it when they do this because we don’t want to just give them our popularity. I want to give them good quality, not just a song or a video or a performance.” Does the fact that music is subjective; that no single song can please everybody, bring some comfort? “We try to find the middle ground,” Hongjoong says. “The first thing to note is that if we think it’s really great but someone else says that they think it’s trash, then we don’t really care what they think. But when we’re unsure and questioning and someone says, ‘Yeah, it’s bad’, then ok, we go back to square one.”

The thought of ATEEZ honing their creative output through repeated baptisms of fire might well upset some fans, but the band are not only accustomed to the fame game’s highs and lows but wholly pragmatic in the face of its shadows. So when Wooyoung says he’s aware of “many people” who openly disparage their music, Hongjoong shrugs a little as he responds. “Yeah, there are. We talk about this a lot together, but if there are many more haters than before, it just means we’re more popular than before,” he reasons.

The group finds positive equilibrium via a heartfelt focus on ATINY, and all that comes with being an idol group who are years into a very successful career. “When we look at line-ups now, we’re closing the show,” says Wooyoung. “And as we perform, we see the other artists watching us, and we realise we have more responsibility. Firstly to ATINY, who have been loving us and supporting us from the start, but there’s also a responsibility to spread K-pop and Korean culture because we’re travelling around the world as Korean artists.”

One of ATEEZ many dualities is that while they have big, burning aspirations — Billboard charts, Grammys, performing at the Super Bowl — that make them look at each other starry-eyed, some of their ambitions are precious in a different way: they’re simpler, more immediate. “I’d like to be happier than the day before,” says Mingi. “And I want for us to never change our sincerity toward music and gratitude to our fans,” adds Seonghwa. This is echoed by San, who adds that ultimately, “I’d be satisfied if ATEEZ’ name came up when someone asks who the coolest artist is at the end of the year.”

“I want to make more events with ATINY,” says Hongjoong. “That’s a goal for this year because we always miss them and they always miss us.” Jongho, sitting in the middle of the group, is smiling. He’s been manifesting a more personal ambition. “By next winter I want to be able to snowboard,” he says. “I want to buy my own board, go down the mountain and not fall.”

[iwanthermidnightz]

As Taylor Swift rolled into Los Angeles this week, the frenzy surrounding her record-breaking Eras Tour was already in high gear.

Headlines gushed that she had given $100,000 bonuses to her crew. Politicians asked her to postpone her concerts in solidarity with striking hotel workers. Scalped tickets were going for $3,000 and up. And there were way, way too many friendship bracelets to count.

These days, the center of an otherwise splintered music world can only be Taylor Swift.

The pop superstar’s tour, which is now finishing its initial North American leg with six nights at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles, has been a both a business and a cultural juggernaut. Swift’s catalog of generation-defining hits and canny marketing sense have helped her achieve a level of white-hot demand and media saturation not seen since the 1980s heyday of Michael Jackson and Madonna — a dominance that the entertainment business had largely accepted as impossible to replicate in the fragmented 21st century.

“The only thing I can compare it to is the phenomenon of Beatlemania,” said Billy Joel, who attended Swift’s show in Tampa, Fla., with his wife and young daughters.

In a summer of tours by stars like Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Morgan Wallen and Drake, Swift’s stands apart, in numbers and in media noise. Although Swift, 33, and her promoters do not publicly report box-office figures, the trade publication Pollstar estimated that she has been selling about $14 million in tickets each night. By the end of the full world tour, which is booked with 146 stadium dates well into 2024, Swift’s sales could reach $1.4 billion or more — exceeding Elton John’s $939 million for his multiyear farewell tour, the current record-holder.

Swift has now had more No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 over the course of her career than any other woman, surpassing Barbra Streisand. With the tour lifting Swift’s entire body of work, she has placed 10 albums on that chart this year and is the first living artist since the trumpeter and bandleader Herb Alpert in 1966 to have four titles in the Top 10 at the same time.

“It’s a pretty amazing feat,” Alpert, 88, said in a phone interview. “With the way radio is these days, and the way music is distributed, with streaming, I didn’t think anyone in this era could do it.”

But how did a concert tour become so much more: fodder for gossip columns, the subject of weather reports, a boon for friendship-bracelet beads — the unofficial currency of Swiftie fandom — and the reason nobody could get a hotel room in Cincinnati at the end of June?

“She is the best C.E.O., and best chief marketing officer, in the history of music,” said Nathan Hubbard, a longtime music and ticketing executive who co-hosts a Swift podcast. “She is following people like Bono, Jay-Z and Madonna, who were acutely aware of their brands. But of all of them, Taylor is the first one to be natively online.”

Before Eras, Swift hadn’t been on tour since 2018. And her catalog has grown by seven No. 1 albums since then, fueled in part by three rerecorded “Taylor’s Versions” of her first LPs — a project hailed by Swift’s fans as a crusade to regain control of her music, though it is also an act of revenge after the sale of Swift’s former record label, a move that, she said, “stripped me of my life’s work.”

“Folklore” and “Evermore” expanded her palate into fantastical indie-folk and brought new collaborators into the fold: Aaron Dessner from the band the National and Justin Vernon, a.k.a. Bon Iver, rock-world figures who helped attract new listeners.

The other major tour this year that is enticing fans to book transcontinental flights, and to show up costumed and in rapture, is also by a woman: Beyoncé, 41, whose Renaissance tour is a fantasia of disco and retrofuturism. Like Swift, she is also a trailblazing artist-entrepreneur, maintaining tight control over her career and fostering a rich connection with fans online. Together with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” a critique of the patriarchy told in hot pink, they are signs of powerful women ruling the discourse of pop culture.

But in music, at least, the scale and success of Swift’s tour is without equal. Later this month, after completing 53 shows in the United States, she will kick off an international itinerary of at least 78 more before returning to North America next fall. Beyoncé’s full tour has 56 dates; Springsteen’s, 90. (Recently, Harry Styles wrapped a 173-date tour in arenas and stadiums, grossing about $590 million.)

Outside Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, fans posed for selfies and shared their ticketing ordeals. Esmeralda Tinoco and Sami Cytron, 24-year-old former sorority sisters, said they had paid $645 for two seats. A stone’s throw away, Karlee Patrick and Emily DeGruson, both 18 and dressed as a pair in angel/devil costumes after a line in Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” sat “Taylorgating” at the edge of the parking lot; they said they had paid $100 for parking but couldn’t afford tickets.

As Swift’s opening acts finished, the crowd rushed in. Glaser, the comedian, later said that of the eight shows she had been to, her favorites were the ones where she had brought her mother — and converted her to Swiftie fandom.

“Everyone is in love with her,” Glaser said her mom told her after one show in Texas. “Now I get it.”

[rabbitcruiser]

Drive Your Corvette to Work Day

Many Corvette owners own other cars as well, and often only drive their Corvettes on special occasions. Corvettes are regularly driven on beautiful days or are taken to car shows, but usually aren’t used as commuter cars for work. But, today is different—today is Drive Your Corvette to Work Day. Sponsored by Mid America Motorworks, a supplier of aftermarket Corvette parts and accessories, the day has taken place since 2001. The goal is to get as many Corvette owners as possible around the world to drive their car, in order to show how popular the car is. It takes place on the Friday closest to June 30, the day in 1953 when the first Corvette came off the General Motors assembly line.

Harley J. Earl was no stranger to designing cars. He redesigned the LaSalle in the late 1920s, designed the Buick Y-Job—which is seen as being the first concept car, and also designed the GM Le Sabre. He then began working on “Project Opel,” which would turn into the Corvette. In its design, he took inspiration from the Jaguar XK120. On January 17, 1953, the Corvette was introduced at GM’s traveling Motorama display, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Later that year, on June 30, the first Corvette for consumers came off the assembly line at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan. Tony Kleiber, a worker at the plant, drove the first car off the line. The Corvette had been named by Myron Scott, a photographer for Chevrolet. After looking in the dictionary for a word that started with a “C,” in order to give the make and model phrase an alliterative effect, he found “corvette,” the name for a small warship that was fast and easy to maneuver.

At a time when most cars were built out of steel, the Corvette was the first sports car with a body made completely of fiberglass. There were only 300 built the first year, all of which were white convertibles with red interiors and black canvas tops. They otherwise used standard Chevrolet parts, such as the “Blue Flame” six-cylinder engine, and the two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission. Still, they could go from the speed of 0-60 in 11 seconds and could reach a speed of 110 mph. They had no exterior door handles, and no windows as well, just plastic curtains. They had a sticker price of $3,513, which is $32,979 in 2018 dollars. All were equipped with a $91 heater and $145 AM radio, which was added to the sticker price. 1953 models are worth much more now: the third Corvette produced was sold for 1.06 million dollars in 2006.

As of 2018, there have been seven generations of Corvettes (C1-C7). V8 engines were an option beginning in 1955, and 9 out of 10 buyers selected the option that year; all Corvettes have since been equipped with V8s. By the 1960s, the Corvette was known as America’s favorite sports car. The second generation (C2) of the car was produced from 1963-1967 and was known as the Sting Ray. One of the most popular Corvettes of all time is the 1963 model, which is unique for having a split rear window.

Corvettes have been produced in Flint, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and since 1981, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where the National Corvette Museum also is also located. There were issues when making the 4th generation of the car, thus only one 1983 model exists, and production was continued with the 1984 models. The lone 1983 model can be seen at the Corvette Museum. Years after the first Corvette rolled off the assembly line, they still are towards the top of the pack for speed and acceleration. They have also been continually produced longer than any sports car or passenger car in the world.

Drive Your Corvette to Work Day is being observed today! It has been observed the closest Friday to June 30th since 2001.

Source

[apureniallsource]

Ahead of new album, The Show, Niall Horan on how he 'lives' for touring, his desire to connect with fans through his songs, and the challenge of going out for chips in his Irish hometown

It’s almost a cliché to call Niall Horan a “super-nice guy”, but really, there’s no getting away from it. He may have named his new album The Show, but Horan feels no need to put one on for a journalist. In fact, the Irish singer-songwriter is so laid-back and likeable when we meet at a smart London hotel – fresh flowers everywhere, bottled water waiting on the table – that I ask how he’s stayed so well-adjusted. “It’s probably a combination of the upbringing I had and the fact I already had enough character at 16 [to deal with it],” he says. “It might have been a different story if I’d started doing this when I was 10.”

Now 29, he has been scarily famous for almost half his life. After auditioning for The X Factor in 2010 as a solo artist, 16-year-old Horan was eliminated at the boot camp stage, then given a spectacular second chance as one fifth of a hastily assembled group called One Direction. He and his new bandmates – Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – didn’t win that year’s show, but still used it as a springboard to become a chart-topping global phenomenon. By the time One Direction announced an indefinite hiatus in January 2016, they had sold 70 million records and debuted at number one in the US with their first four albums – something not even The Beatles achieved. When asked what he would say to his pre-1D, 16-year-old self, Horan replies: “Get ready. Your life’s about to change on a level that most of the world can’t even quantify.”

Horan says he still speaks to “the lads” on a regular basis, but like all of them, he has worked hard to carve out an identity as a solo artist. If Horan’s individual achievements still feel slightly underrated, that’s probably only because his flashier bandmate Styles is now a stadium-filling superstar. Released in 2017, Horan’s debut album Flicker was a deft blend of soft rock, folk and country that debuted at number one in the US and Ireland. His 2020 follow-up Heartbreak Weather added a dash of swagger to the mix – particularly on the Brit-poppy single ‘Nice to Meet Ya’ – and became his first UK chart-topper. Because it dropped in March 2020, just as Covid-19 was taking hold, Horan never got to take the album on the road. “I haven’t toured since 2018 – that’s wild,” he says. “I love live music and I love touring – I live for it. So, it’s sad that I haven’t done that.”

Happily, a few weeks after this interview, Horan announced The Show: Live on Tour, a 50-date trek across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand that will keep him busy from February to July of next year. When Horan last toured five years ago, he mainly played large theatres, but now he is aiming to pack out arenas from Birmingham to Brisbane. During our conversation, he hinted that he was ready for the step up. “In my eyes, the bigger the venue, the better, because I fucking love looking out at an ocean of people,” he says. “For me, it feels like the bigger the venue, the better the show is gonna be.”

Horan also makes no bones about wanting The Show to become another UK number one after it drops on 9 June. “There’s nothing better than getting that little statue sent to your house,” he says with an impish grin. At the time of writing, he seems well on course for another express delivery from the Official Charts Company. The album’s breezy lead single ‘Heaven’ cracked the UK Top 20 in February, and its sprightly follow-up ‘Meltdown’ is now climbing the charts. A few hours before this interview, I watch him perform both songs in the Radio 1 Live Lounge. Horan is just as relaxed with his band during rehearsals, but when he spots that his vocals are getting buried in the mix, he quickly and calmly gets it corrected.

Horan began working on ‘The Show’ while holed up at home during the summer of 2020. The album title had come to him earlier in the year, but he “didn’t really know what it meant until the pandemic”. When he sat down at the piano that August, the lyrics that came out seemed to capture the confusion of the Covid era: “If everything was easy, nothing ever broke / If everything was simple, how would we know? / How to fix your tears? How to fake a show?” At this point, Horan says he realised ‘The Show’ was both “a metaphor for life” and an overarching concept he could run with. “When there’s no heartbreak [to write about], you have to come up with a different concept,” he says. “I realised quite quickly that what I wanted to talk about was the ups and downs and good and bad of life. That’s ‘The Show’.”

Having “no heartbreak” is about as much as Horan will say about his personal life. “Keeping that stuff quiet”, he believes, is one reason he remains so grounded. Since 2020, he has been dating Amelia Woolley, a designer shoe buyer who never appears on his work-focused Instagram. But when we discuss ‘You Could Start a Cult’, an idiosyncratic folk ballad from the album, Horan does offer a teasing glimpse into their home life. He says the song’s eye-catching title was inspired by the true-crime series they like watching. “I always try and write weird stuff like that, then see if I can flip it on its head and make the song [itself] not as dark as the title,” he says. In this case, Horan flipped it into a “love song, effectively”, albeit an intense one. “It’s about… not the desperation feeling, but the ‘I think you’re the best fucking thing in the world’ feeling,” he explains. “And if you started a cult, I’d follow you into the fire. You know, that kind of angst, though I don’t know if ‘angst’ is the word I’m looking for!”

Horan spends a lot of time in LA because his record label and producers are based there. His main collaborators on The Show were Joel Little, who he brought in because he liked his work with Taylor Swift, indie artist Noah Kahan, and long-time co-writer John Ryan, a veteran of four One Direction albums. “I think it’s really important first of all to be loyal,” he says of his enduring partnership with Ryan. “And you know, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Still, working with Little felt just as comfortable, partly because they could pick things up at a moment’s notice. “If I get the green light at the top of my street [in LA], I can be at Joel’s house in less than a minute,” Horan says. “It’s a fucking dream!”

But during the pandemic, Horan was grounded at his main base in southwest London. “I’ve never been fitter in my life because I was cycling 80 or 90 miles around Richmond Park every week – it’s gorgeous out there,” he recalls. Like many of us, Horan has conflicting feelings about the way Covid placed our lives on hold. “I don’t want to say I enjoyed it because I didn’t – it was such a horrible time,” he says. “But I got to a point about two or three months in, where I was like: ‘This is the longest I’ve ever had off.’ He particularly appreciated having to stay in one place for a sustained period of time. “Normally, I’m packing a suitcase every three or four days,” he says. “At Heathrow Airport, the guards at the [security] desk just laugh when they see me coming. They’re like, ‘How do you do this?’”

Having lived in London since he was 16, Horan says “it’s definitely the best city on the planet”. But at the same time, he still regards Mullingar, the Irish market town where he was born and raised, as home. His debut solo single ‘This Town’, a UK top 10 hit in 2016, was incredibly charming because it harnessed his ineffable longing for the place. Horan reckons he returns to Mullingar “seven or eight times a year”, although walking down the high street is pretty tricky. “I can’t just pull up outside the chip shop, run in and get the chips, then run back to the car,” he says. “Everything has to be thought through. Like, where am I going to park? How many streets am I going to have to cross? What am I going to wear?” Horan says all this with no hint of frustration: by now, he knows what is expected of a homecoming hero.

Horan knew he wanted to be a musician from a young age and says he “tried to make this as clear as possible” to his parents. They were “supportive up to a point”, but because the family didn’t have much money and Mullingar wasn’t a creative hub like Dublin, his mother urged him to “get some sort of qualification”. “I still don’t have any,” Horan says with a laugh, “I didn’t do GCSEs or anything like that because I didn’t finish school.” At 16, Horan made the 50-mile journey to Dublin to audition for The X Factor and grabbed hold of the One Direction rocket with both hands.

Did his parents come up with any ideas for a Plan B? “We didn’t get that far. Honestly, I just packed my bag and never came back – that’s the way they look at it,” says Horan. “My father worked in Tesco for 35 years and my mother worked at a pewter genesis company making little bits and pieces – clocks and things like that. They both had very regular jobs.” Horan notes astutely that some kids from a working-class background “like to spread their wings and leave the nest” – as he did, quite spectacularly – whereas others “like to stay in their hometown, or maybe can’t get out”. Horan pauses for a second, perhaps to ponder what might have been. “I don’t know what they would have wanted me to do, but I’m sure it would have been a good life,” he continues. “Like, my parents are having a good time.”

Thirteen years after he left to become a pop star, Horan’s own ambition remains undimmed. “I’ve achieved a lot in my young life, but I’m still fired up to do as much as I can,” he says. “My career has felt so good because it reminds me of everything I thought the music industry would be when I was a kid. I got the good end of the stick [in terms of] travelling the world and playing to millions. And I still want more of that.”

For this reason, the audience is always at the forefront of his mind. “When I’m writing, I ask myself, ‘Have I gone too specific to the point where it only makes sense to me?’” he says. “And then I try and broaden the thought to make it as relatable as possible.” ‘Never Grow Up’ from Horan’s new album was partly inspired by his girlfriend’s parents, who are “still madly in love”, but its lyrics will chime with One Direction fans who, like him, are close to turning 30. “Hope we still drink like we’re back in the pub,” Horan sings. “Hope we grow old, but we never grow up.”

In Horan’s eyes, the songs that fully stand the test of time – from Simon and Garfunkel to Whitney Houston and Adele – are “the ones that really mean a lot to the people”. It’s this kind of universal connection that he is always striving for. “These are the things that go on in my head when I’m writing,” he says. “I don’t want to alienate anyone, and I don’t want to be introspective to the point where I ruin it for everyone. So, if they can connect to it too, then we all get what we want out of this.”

[metroid-fusion]

I AM TRYING TO IDENTIFY A MEME MASHUP FROM 2018 (or earlier)

aka the mreligion_set01 post

in 2018 someone i knew sent me a song someone they knew made. it was a 12 minute long meme mashup and it was really impressive. ive had this file on my computer for 5 years and ive listened to it so much but the problem is that i have no idea who the fuck made it or whether it's ever been posted online anywhere. i may very well be one of the only people thats ever heard this song. PLEASE try and help me identify it.

unfortunately. i am NOT going to post it here. because it is not mine and i cannot properly give credit. HOWEVER i am going to post a TRACKLIST because it is a distinctive tracklist that will help in identifying it.

this thing is 12 minutes 10 seconds, or maybe 12 minutes and 9 seconds. it's MAYBE associated with siivagunner somehow because it has siivagunner memes in it. i dont know all the songs in it but i listed the majority of them

track list IN ORDER below the cut (sorry for inserting opinions into it i just really like this mashup)

snow halation casin by glue70 (reposted in the wrong neighborhood) we are number one all star boulevard of broken dreams gary come home from spongebob shelter porter robinson accidentally in love from shrek 2 679 by fetty wap closer chainsmokers in the air tonight witchcraft by pendulum live and learn numb linkin park one week barenaked ladies zedd clarity Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection from Kirby Planet Robobot (THIS SONG IS THE BASE FOR SIIVAGUNNER REBOOTED) ocean man take on me blurred lines by robin thicke welcome to the black parade the man by aloe blacc smooth we are number one bonetrousle purple lamborghini from suicide squad [this bridge dates this song heavily] waters of nazareth chip da ripper freestyle with interior crocodile alligator sample of joel saying "GRAND DAD. FLEENTSTONES?" dk rap down with the sickness ghostbusters crank that soulja boy gangnam style i play pokemon go every day (pg song for kids) by misha the nutshack [end of bridge] reeses puffs rap (on top of waters of nazareth) let the bodies hit the floor cruel angel's thesis uptown funk YMCA village people wild wild west will smith rhythm heaven ringside (POSEA FOR THE FANS) tunak tunak tun kahoot theme gentleman psy pen pineapple apple pen feel good inc gorillaz nutshack theme boombastic by shaggy panda swimming pools drank by kendrick lamar forever by drake et al goodbye to a world porter robinson [editors note. this part of this mashup is really fucking good. i need to find out who made this shit because it rules so hard] shooting stars bag raiders, snow halation, carry on my wayward son. 21 guns green day lord of the game death grips ignition remix r kelly cinema (skrillex or whoever) i dont care charli xcx scatman CAAAAAAARRY OOOOOONNN of welcome to the black parade TAAAAAAKE ONNNNN MEEEEEEE space oddity by davie bowie through the fire and flames dragonforce king of carrot flowers part 2 by neutral milk hotel spider-man 2 pizza theme mamma mia abba [reprise of a bunch of songs from the intro <3<3<3] fireflies by owl city

NOTABLE: THIS MASHUP DOES NOT HAVE MEGALOVANIA IN IT

&so with that i say please find this mashup and send it to me and listen to it

[lemon-snickety]

My Top 21 Favorite Movies

21 because it’s my favorite number and more exciting than 10

#21: Booksmart (2019)

#20: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

#19: The Dark Knight (2008)

#18: Tommy Boy (1995)

#17: The Princess and the Frog (2009)

16: Clueless (1995)

#15: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

#14: Wayne’s World (1992)

#13: Barbie (2023)

#12: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018)

#11: Jurassic Park (1993)

#10: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

#9: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

#8: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)

#7: Tangled (2010)

#6: Scream (1996)

#5: Pride and Prejudice (2005)

#4: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

#3: Chicago (2002)

#2: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

#1: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

[freddiemercurydaily]

12 January 1985, Queen Headline the ‘Rock in Rio’ festival held at Barra de Tijuca, Rio, Brazil   This was a 10-day rock festival and the biggest music festival in history to date. Queen raised the bar by setting a record for a paying attendance, playing to 250,000 people each night - the biggest audiences they would ever play for. Some sources say the band played to as many as 350,000 (or even 470,000) on the first night!  Absolutely phenomenal! Due to Queen’s previous successful tours and their special love affair with South America, they were asked to headline the enormous event billed as ‘Rock in Rio.’  This was to be the biggest rock festival ever held in the world!  The band, of course, agreed as, even though they had some pretty traumatic experiences during their own tours there, they considered this festival just too good, and too big to miss. 

 The festival site was the ‘Barra de Tijuca’ in Rio, a specially built site that could hold an incredible, record breaking 250,000 people (sources say the audience for Queen was Past the 450,000 mark ).  The Brazilian television station, ‘Globo’ had set up cameras to record the festival to be televised throughout South America.  It was a colossal event, with local bands appearing alongside the top names.  Queen closed the show as they were set to perform at 2:00 AM!  They couldn’t believe the sight that greeted them - they played to huge audiences before, but never this big.  It was absolutely insane!  People had waited what seemed an eternity for their idols to walk on the stage.  People stretched from the front of the stage way back as far as the eye could see.  Freddie described the experience as “mind boggling.”  Their reception was deafening, and the crowd was with them all the way, singing along and clapping - until the encore, it didn’t matter it was way after 2:00 AM, the adrenaline was phenomenal as was Queen’s set!Since Queen hit the stage at 2am each night, technically the performances are dated the 12th and 19th respectively.The band give very solid performances on both nights, and Freddie sounds especially fantastic in the first night. After singing "I still love you" in ‘Love Of My Life,’ Freddie passionately shouts, "And don't you forget it!"  The fans went over the top crazy! You know they took over the song too.  Brian May used an EBow off the top of his solo spot for the first time since 1978. He last used it on stage in 1982 for ‘Get Down Make Love.’Freddie makes his entrance for ‘We Will Rock You’ holding a giant British flag behind him. Before singing the first verse he turns around and reveals a Brazilian flag embroidered to it, prompting a huge roar from the audience. At the end of the concert, he tosses the flag into the audience. James Taylor played the following night, and his bassist, Leland Sklar, had this to say about Queen's performance in a 2018 Bass Player magazine article: "It took me a day to lift my jaw off the floor. I sat with my mouth agape watching one of the most professional shows I'd ever seen." After the show, EMI threw a party in Queen's honour at the Copacabana Palace Hotel. On the beach outside the hotel, some fans had gathered for a candle-lighting vigil, where 1,500 candles spelled out the word "Queen", as seen in the last three pictures above. Security tried to keep the enthusiastic crowd away from Brian May who was coming out of the hotel, very touched by the gesture of the fans. After he lit the last few candles, he stayed around to sign autographs. Not long afterward he jumped into the pool fully clothed. In 2015 Globo TV aired an hour long special commemorating the 30th anniversary of the festival, including clips of ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Love Of My Life’ - both of which were not seen on the official release. One notable piece of commentary is from Brazilian singer Eduardo Dussek, who remarks (in Portugese) that families, rockers, and the metalhead headbangers all accepted the band."  As mentioned above, a virtually complete video of the show has leaked into collectors' circles, although it is many generations from the master. The picture quality is acceptable, but the audio is far from great. Only a few seconds of ‘Under Pressure’ are missing.mThis concert is iconic and it’s about 6 months before Queen will break records again by stealing ‘Live Aid’ in July of 1985!  Long Live Queen - Four of the BEST MUSICAL GENIUSES !!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I’m coming to the HowTheLightGetsIn festival in HAY-ON-WYE with my novel Red Team Blues:

Tomorrow (May 28), 1130AM: The AI Enigma

Monday (May 29), 12PM: Danger and Desire at the Frontier

I’m at OXFORD’s Blackwell’s on Monday (May 29) at 7:30PM with Tim Harford.

Then it’s Nottingham, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, and Berlin!

#10yrsago Bank of Canada kills editorial cartoon, calls it “counterfeiting” https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/jack-knox-the-90000-duffy-buck-stops-here-bank-of-canada-decides-4592661

#10yrsago Toronto mayoral car-crash: homicide detectives search mayor’s office after tip on crack-smoking video; top staffers quit https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/two-senior-members-of-toronto-mayor-rob-fords-staff-resign/article12168106/

#10yrsago UK Ministry of Justice denies that the court system is to be sold to hedge funds https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/28/moj-denies-privatisation-courts-service

#10yrsago Shambling Guide to New York City https://memex.craphound.com/2013/05/28/shambling-guide-to-new-york-city/

#10yrsago Canada’s business groups wants to hack your computer even more than the creeps at the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property https://www.thestar.com/business/2013/02/08/business_thinks_antispam_law_should_protect_them_not_consumers_geist.html

#10yrsago Disaster porn and elite panic: the militarized lie of savage disaster aftermath https://web.archive.org/web/20130609055535/http://www.ochbergsociety.org/magazine/2013/05/in-haiti-and-beyond-learning-to-look-for-resilience/

#10yrsago Toronto cops hospitalize hotel guest who recorded them arresting another guest https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/05/26/exclusive_toronto_police_arrest_man_take_phone_after_attempt_to_film_takedown_at_sheraton.html

#5yrsago The first cyberattack took place nearly 200 years ago in France https://www.economist.com/1843/2017/10/05/the-crooked-timber-of-humanity

#5yrsago Germany’s scientific texts were made free during and after WWII; analyzing them today shows the negative effect of paywalls on science https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/effects-copyrights-science

#5yrsago 8 years of austerity have turned the UK into a bleak Victorian dystopia, where pensioners without electricity die from fires ignited by their candles https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/world/europe/uk-austerity-poverty.html

#5yrsago Canadian Conservative parliamentarian accuses black rival of “thinking the world revolves around her skin colour” https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bernier-cesar-chavannes-tweet-1.4680467

#5yrsago RIP Gardner Dozois, pioneering, genre-defining science fiction editor who helped launch my career https://memex.craphound.com/2018/05/28/rip-gardner-dozois-pioneering-genre-defining-science-fiction-editor-who-helped-launch-my-career/

#5yrsago Futuristic designs for products the EU’s stupid new copyright law would kill https://web.archive.org/web/20180615000000*/https://futurenotmade.eu/

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Hay-on-Wye, Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[afashionz]

Top Ten Richest Person of Pakistan �� 2024

Are you curious about the richest individuals in Pakistan for 2024 and how they have accumulated their wealth? Here’s a look at the top ten wealthiest people in Pakistan, notable for their significant business accomplishments and political influence. These prominent figures have made substantial contributions to various sectors and have become well-known public personalities.

Richest People in Pakistan for 2024

10. Malik Riaz Hussain Malik Riaz Hussain is a prominent Pakistani businessman and investor, known for founding Bahria Town, the largest privately-owned real estate development company in Asia. Born on February 8, 1954, in Rawalpindi, he is currently the seventh richest person in Pakistan with an estimated net worth of 3,000 billion Rupees. His wealth primarily stems from property investments.

9. Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is a well-known Pakistani businessman and politician who has served as Prime Minister of Pakistan three times and as Chief Minister of Punjab twice. Born on December 25, 1949, in Lahore, he is a significant political figure with substantial wealth, accumulated through his business ventures and political career.

8. Asif Ali Zardari Asif Ali Zardari, a former President of Pakistan (2008-2013) and former chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party, was born on July 26, 1955, in Karachi. His wealth comes from various business interests and his influential role in politics. He has been a member of the National Assembly since August 2018.

7. Mian Muhammad Mansha Mian Muhammad Mansha is a leading Pakistani business magnate and billionaire, known for founding and leading the Nishat Group, a major international conglomerate based in Lahore. Born on December 1, 1947, in Lahore, he is also recognized for being one of the highest tax payers in Pakistan. His name appeared in the Paradise Papers in 2017 due to links with offshore companies.

6. Muhammad Anwar Pervez Muhammad Anwar Pervez, a British-Pakistani businessman, is the founder and chairman of Bestway. According to the Sunday Times Rich List UK, his net worth was £3.09 billion in 2018, making him one of the wealthiest individuals of Pakistani origin. Born in Rawalpindi in March 1935, he moved to the UK at 21.

5. Sadruddin Hashwani Sadruddin Hashwani is a prominent Pakistani billionaire and writer, known for founding the Hashoo Group, which operates the Pearl-Continental Hotels & Resorts. Born on February 19, 1940, in Karachi, he is one of the wealthiest people in Pakistan with an estimated net worth of $8 billion.

4. Shahid Khan Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American billionaire, is renowned for owning the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL and Fulham F.C. of the English Premier League. He is also the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an automobile parts manufacturer. Born on July 18, 1950, in Lahore, Khan's diverse investments have made him a prominent figure in both the business and sports worlds.

3. Abdul Razzak Yaqoob Abdul Razzak Yaqoob was a notable Pakistani gold bullion trader who founded ARY Gold and the ARY Media Group in the UAE. Born on May 7, 1944, in Karachi, he passed away on February 21, 2014. His legacy includes significant contributions to the gold industry and media.

2. Nasir Schon Nasir Schon, the owner and CEO of Schon Group, is a major business leader in Pakistan. With a net worth of $1 billion, Schon has made a mark in various business ventures. Born in Pakistan, he was one of the first in the country to own a Rolls-Royce luxury car, highlighting his significant wealth and success.

1. Jahangir Khan Tareen Jahangir Khan Tareen is currently the richest person in Pakistan. A politician and industrialist, he was born in Bangladesh in 1953 and later moved to Pakistan. Tareen holds an MBA from the USA and has been influential in both the business sector, with ownership of sugar mills and farmhouses, and in politics, serving as General Secretary of PTI and a member of the National Assembly. His recent position in the wealth rankings reflects his continued success and influence.

These individuals have played crucial roles in shaping Pakistan's business and political landscape, accumulating substantial wealth through their diverse ventures and influential positions

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Electoral Bond Data Visualised: Transparency & Reports

In 2018, India introduced electoral bonds to enhance transparency in political funding. However, between March 2018 and March 2021, over ₹7,000 crores were funneled through these bonds, with the identities of donors and recipients largely hidden from public scrutiny. This opacity has sparked widespread debate: are electoral bonds truly a step towards transparency, or do they cloak the financial roots of political power? As the largest democracy grapples with this issue, it’s crucial to examine the data behind electoral bond data, understand their impact on democratic integrity, and explore potential reforms. Join us as we delve into the complex world of electoral bond data transparency, uncovering the facts that shape our electoral landscape.

Origin or Electoral Bond The idea of electoral bonds was introduced in India’s 2017 Union Budget by then-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to reform the opaque nature of political funding. Launched in March 2018, these bonds aimed to curb black money in elections and enhance transparency. Individuals and corporate entities can purchase these bonds from authorized banks and donate them to political parties anonymously. Between March 2018 and March 2021, over ₹7,000 crore worth of electoral bonds were sold, significantly changing India’s political funding landscape. The bonds, available in denominations from ₹1,000 to ₹1 crore, can be bought during specific government-notified periods.

The government contends that electoral bonds bring clean money into the political system, with donors using legal banking channels to ensure accountability and tax compliance. Political parties can only encash these bonds through their official bank accounts, creating an ostensible paper trail. However, critics argue that the anonymity feature undermines transparency, raising questions about the bonds’ effectiveness. The ongoing debate highlights concerns about balancing donor privacy with the need for transparency in political funding, questioning the true impact of electoral bonds on India’s democratic process.

Data transparency and SBI reports Since the electoral bond scheme’s inception in March 2018, the State Bank of India (SBI) has been the exclusive institution authorized to issue and redeem these bonds. Handling over ₹7,000 crore in transactions between March 2018 and March 2021, SBI’s electoral bond data is pivotal for assessing the transparency and impact of electoral bond funding. Electoral bonds come in denominations of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore, available during quarterly ten-day purchase windows. Donors buy these bonds and anonymously donate them to political parties.

A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the Centre’s electoral bond scheme which facilitates anonymous political donations for being unconstitutional. It underscored that the scheme violates the right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

Who were the top 20 Electoral bond donors? According to SBI data, lottery king Sebastian Martin’s firm Future Gaming and Hotel Services was the top donor to the scheme, purchasing bonds worth Rs 1,365 crore. Second-ranked Megha Engineering & Infrastructures donated Rs 966 crore, and Reliance-linked Qwik Supply Chain purchased bonds worth Rs 410 crore.

Since the electoral bond scheme’s launch in March 2018, a significant portion of donations has come from a small group of high-value contributors. State Bank of India (SBI) data shows that between March 2018 and March 2021, over ₹7,000 crore in bonds were transacted, with a majority of funds stemming from high-denomination bonds, particularly those valued at ₹1 crore. This indicates that large corporate entities and wealthy individuals are the primary users of electoral bonds, raising concerns about the potential influence of big money in politics.

While the anonymity of electoral bonds was designed to protect donor privacy, it has led to questions about the disproportionate influence of wealthy donors. Despite the government’s claims that these bonds promote clean and transparent political funding, the dominance of large donors suggests a need for closer scrutiny.

FUTURE GAMING AND HOTEL SERVICES PR

₹12,08,00,00,000

MEGHA ENGINEERING AND INFRASTRUCTURES LIMITED

₹8,21,00,00,000

QWIK SUPPLY CHAIN PRIVATE LIMITED

₹4,10,00,00,000

HALDIA ENERGY LIMITED

₹3,77,00,00,000

VEDANTA LIMITED

₹3,75,65,00,000

ESSEL MINING AND INDS LTD

₹2,24,50,00,000

WESTERN UP POWER TRANSMISSION COMPANY LIMITED

₹2,20,00,00,000

KEVENTER FOODPARK INFRA LIMITED

₹1,95,00,00,000

MADANLAL LTD

₹1,85,50,00,000

BHARTI AIRTEL LIMITED

₹1,83,00,00,000

YASHODA SUPER SPECIALITY HOSPITAL

₹1,62,00,00,000

UTKAL ALUMINA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

₹1,35,30,00,000

DLF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPERS LIMITED

₹1,30,00,00,000

MKJ ENTERPRISES LIMITED

₹1,28,35,00,000

JINDAL STEEL AND POWER LIMITED

₹1,23,00,00,000

B G SHIRKE CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY PVT LTD

₹1,17,00,00,000

DHARIWAL INFRASTRUCTURE LIMITED

₹1,15,00,00,000

BIRLA CARBON INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

₹1,05,00,00,000

CHENNAI GREEN WOODS PRIVATE LIMITED

₹1,05,00,00,000

RUNGTA SONS P LTD

₹1,00,00,00,000

electoral bond data Electoral Bond Data Which political parties received the most? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bonds scheme, with donations worth over Rs 6,000 crore in the last four years. Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Megha Engineering (MEIL) was the biggest donor to the BJP, with bonds purchased worth Rs 519 crore. Qwik Supply, an unlisted private company, donated Rs 375 crore, followed by Vedanta with Rs 226.7 crore and Bharti Airtel worth Rs 183 crore.

Since the electoral bond scheme’s inception in March 2018, there’s been a marked disparity in fund distribution among political parties. Data from the State Bank of India (SBI) reveals that over ₹7,000 crore worth of bonds were sold between March 2018 and March 2021. A significant portion of these funds has gone to a few major political parties, primarily benefiting the ruling party and several key opposition parties. This concentration of funds raises concerns about the scheme’s impact on political competition and fairness.

The dominance of a few parties in receiving electoral bond donations suggests that smaller and regional parties may need help to compete financially. This disparity potentially skews political competition, favoring well-established parties and undermining democratic equity. While the scheme aims to promote clean political funding, the uneven distribution underscores the need for greater transparency. Understanding which parties benefit most is crucial for assessing the scheme’s impact and ensuring a fair political landscape. The ongoing debate highlights the necessity for reforms to address these disparities and enhance transparency in political funding in India.

BHARTIYA JANTA PARTY

₹ 60,60,51,11,000

ALL INDIA TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

₹ 16,09,53,14,000

ALL INDIA CONGRESS COMMITTEE

₹ 14,21,86,55,000

BHARAT RASHTRA SAMITHI

₹ 12,14,70,99,000

BIJU JANATA DAL

₹ 7,75,50,00,000

DMK PARTY IN PARLIAMENT

₹ 6,39,00,00,000

YSR CONGRESS PARTY

₹ 3,37,00,00,000

TELUGU DESAM PARTY

₹ 2,18,88,00,000

SHIVSENA (POLITICAL PARTY)

₹ 1,58,38,14,000

RASTRIYA JANTA DAL

₹ 72,50,00,000

AAM AADMI PARTY

₹ 65,45,00,000

JANATA DAL (SECULAR)

₹ 43,50,00,000

SIKKIM KRANTIKARI MORCHA

₹ 36,50,00,000

NATIONALIST CONGRESS PARTY PARLIAMENT OF India

₹ 30,50,00,000

JANASENA PARTY

₹ 21,00,00,000

ADYAKSHA SAMAJVADI PARTY

₹ 14,05,00,000

BIHAR PRADESH JANTA DAL(UNITED)

₹ 14,00,00,000

JHARKHAND MUKTI MORCHA

₹ 13,50,00,000

SHIROMANI AKALI DAL

₹ 7,26,00,000

ALL INDIA ANNA DRAVIDA MUNNETRA KAZHAGAM

₹ 6,05,00,000

SIKKIM DEMOCRATIC FRONT

₹ 5,50,00,000

RASHTRIYA JANTA DAL

₹ 1,00,00,000

SHIVSENA

₹ 1,00,00,000

MAHARASHTRAWADI GOMNTAK PARTY

₹ 55,00,000

JAMMU AND KASHMIR NATIONAL CONFERENCE

₹ 50,00,000

NATIONALIST CONGRESS PARTY MAHARASHTRA PRADESH

₹ 50,00,000

GOA FORWARD PARTY

₹ 35,00,000

The analysis of electoral bond data offers crucial insights into the financial landscape of political funding in India. The significant contributions received by major political parties underscore the importance of corporate influence in politics and highlight the need for greater transparency and accountability. To maintain public trust, it’s essential to strike a balance between protecting donor privacy and ensuring transparency. Advocating for stronger regulatory frameworks, such as mandatory disclosure of donor identities and limits on contributions, and leveraging technology like blockchain for transparent records, can enhance accountability.

Understanding who receives the most funds through electoral bonds allows us to work towards a more transparent and equitable democratic process. For further insights and detailed analysis of electoral bond data, stay tuned to our blog and engage with our latest posts.

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Taj Mahal same day tour by car from Delhi By Taj Same Day Tour Company

The Taj Mahal is a popular destination for same-day tours from Delhi, and many firms, like Taj Same Day Tour Company, provide this service. Here's a broad outline of what you can expect from such a tour:

Itinerary overview: Departure from Delhi in the early morning.

Pick-up from your hotel or a prearranged location in Delhi. To arrive in Agra by mid-morning, depart between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. The drive takes roughly 3-4 hours, depending on traffic. Visit the Taj Mahal:

Arrive at Taj Mahal at 10:00 a.m. Spend approximately 2-3 hours exploring the magnificent landmark. A guided tour is frequently offered to discuss the historical and architectural significance. Lunch:

Lunch at a reputable restaurant in Agra. Some excursions include lunch, while others may recommend restaurants where you can dine for your own money. Visit the Agra Fort:

After lunch, head to the Agra Fort, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fort is a superb example of Mughal construction, with breathtaking views of the Taj Mahal from some vantage points. Optional Activities:

Depending on your time and interests, you might visit additional attractions such as Itmad-ud-Daulah's Tomb (also known as the Baby Taj) or Mehtab Bagh to get a new viewpoint on the Taj Mahal. Drive back to Delhi:

Depart Agra in the late afternoon. Return to Delhi in the evening, often between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. Inclusions: Air-conditioned automobile with professional driver. English-speaking guide. Entrance fees to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. Bottled water. Exclusion: Meals (unless specified). Personal expenditures. Gratuities. Tips for the tour: There will be a lot of walking, so dress comfortably and wear appropriate shoes. Carry sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat to protect yourself from the sun. Bring your identification for security checks at the monuments. It is best to reserve in advance, especially during peak tourist seasons. For full details, pricing, and booking, please visit the Taj Same Day Tour Company's website or contact them directly. This will ensure that you have the most accurate and up-to-date information when planning your vacation.

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Carlos Alcaraz is a professional tennis player from Spain who has quickly gained recognition in the tennis world. Here are some important details about his career and achievements:

Early Life and Background: Full name: Carlos Alcaraz Garfia. Birthdate: May 5, 2003 Birthplace: El Palmar, Murcia, Spain. Coach: Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world number one and French Open champion. Alcaraz's playing style emphasizes aggressive baseline play, great speed, and athleticism. He boasts a powerful forehand, a strong backhand, and outstanding drop shots. His style is frequently compared to that of Rafael Nadal, another Spanish tennis legend. Career highlights: Junior Career: Alcaraz had a fantastic junior career, winning multiple tournaments and establishing himself early on. ATP Tour: He turned professional in 2018 and rapidly made an impression on the ATP Tour. Grand Slam Performance: Alcaraz has demonstrated promise in Grand Slam competitions, reaching the last stages of numerous majors at a young age. His notable accomplishments include reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals of several Grand Slam competitions. ATP Titles: He has won several ATP titles, demonstrating his ability on a variety of surfaces, including clay and hard courts. Milestones: Alcaraz is the youngest player to reach multiple ATP Tour milestones. Top 10 Ranking: By the age of 18, he had risen to the top ten in the ATP rankings, demonstrating his quick ascent in the tennis world. Breakthrough Matches: His victories over top-ranked players in major tournaments have solidified his status as one of tennis' future stars. Notable Wins: Alcaraz has defeated notable players, proving his ability to compete at the highest level. His matches are frequently distinguished by his resilience, competitive zeal, and tactical understanding on the court. Carlos Alcaraz is considered one of the most promising young tennis players. With his ongoing progress and the direction of his experienced coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, he is projected to achieve even greater success in the years ahead. Alcaraz's professional tennis career is only beginning, and he is positioned to be a major force in the sport for many years to come.

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A timeline of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' recent legal troubles

Diddy’s downfall. Sean “Diddy” Combs went from being on top of the world to being public enemy number one after his ex-girlfriend Cassie accused him of raping and beating her in a November 2023 lawsuit. Since settling the suit with the model, his legal troubles have continued to mount with several people accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct and other illegal activity. Keep scrolling to read a timeline of Combs’ recent legal woes.

Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura v. Sean Combs

In November 2023, Casandra Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of rape and physical abuse. Matteo Prandoni/BFA/Shutterstock On November 16, 2023, Cassie filed a bombshell lawsuit against her ex, accusing him of rape and physical abuse throughout their 10-year relationship. The “Me & U” singer, born Casandra Ventura, revealed in the suit obtained by Page Six that she met the Revolt co-founder in 2005 when she was only 19. He allegedly began a pattern of abuse and control that included allegedly forcing her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed, physically abusing her and supplying her with drugs. Cassie also alleged in the suit that Combs forced his way into her home and raped her toward the end of their longtime relationship in 2018. The “Me & U” singer alleged in the suit that Combs forced his way into her home and raped her toward the end of their longtime relationship in 2018. FilmMagic One day later, they settled the lawsuit and Cassie sought to dismiss the charges. Nina Westervelt/BEI/Shutterstock The exes settled the lawsuit one day later and Cassie asked the court to dismiss the suit with prejudice. Though Combs maintained his innocence, video evidence of one of his physical altercations Cassie described in the complaint was released to the public on May 17, 2024. In the clip obtained by CNN, Combs chased the “Long Way 2 Go” singer in a hotel in March 2016 while wearing only a towel around his waist. As she tried to escape on an elevator, he grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Though Combs maintained his innocence, video evidence of one of his physical altercations Cassie described in the complaint was released to the public on May 17, 2024. CNN The hip-hop mogul kicked the model twice as she lay motionless on the ground. CNN As she lay motionless, Combs kicked her two times and then proceeded to drag her by her sweatshirt down the hallway. After the video surfaced, Combs issued an apology for his actions. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted,” he said in a video posted to Instagram on May 19, 2024. “I went and I sought out professional help, started going to therapy and rehab, had to ask god for his mercy and grace,” he added. After the video surfaced, the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper issued an apology for his actions. Diddy/Instagram In May 2024, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said they could not bring charges against Combs for the “extremely disturbing” video due to the statute of limitations. Diddy/Instagram A source close to the Sean John founder told The New York Post that Combs felt the disturbing video “doesn’t tell the full story about what happened.” “It’s his position that there was an agenda in releasing the video when it was released,” the insider continued. On May 17, 2024, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office released a statement, saying they could not bring charges against Combs for the “extremely disturbing” video due to the statute of limitations.

Joi Dickerson-Neal v. Sean Combs

On November 23, 2023, Joi Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit against Combs, alleging that he raped and drugged her in 1991. GC Images On November 23, 2023, Joi Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit against Combs, alleging that he raped and drugged her in 1991. According to the complaint obtained by the Daily Beast, Dickerson-Neal was a college student at Syracuse University at the time when she “reluctantly agreed to an early dinner with” Combs. “During their date, Combs had intentionally drugged , resulting in her being in a physical state where she could not independently stand or walk,” the lawsuit read. “Driving first to a music studio where she could not get out of the car, Combs proceeded to a place he was staying to sexually assault her.” “During their date, Combs had intentionally drugged , resulting in her being in a physical state where she could not independently stand or walk,” the lawsuit read. Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs Dickerson-Neal claimed she was later approached by Jodeci singer DeVante Swing, who allegedly told her that Combs had been sharing a “sex tape” of the two of them. Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs Though Dickerson-Neal did not notify the police about the alleged incident, she claimed she was later approached by Jodeci singer DeVante Swing, who allegedly told her that Combs had been sharing a “sex tape” of the two of them. Dickerson-Neal said in the suit that she has “suffered a lifetime of injuries from being drugged, sexually assaulted and abused, and being the victim of ‘revenge porn’ that Sean Combs, or ‘P. Diddy,’ created and distributed.” She also claimed in the lawsuit that she dropped out of college and was admitted to a hospital for suicidal ideation. Dickerson-Neal said in the suit that she has “suffered a lifetime of injuries from being drugged, sexually assaulted and abused, and being the victim of ‘revenge porn’ that Sean Combs, or ‘P. Diddy,’ created and distributed.” Getty Images for Sean Diddy Combs Combs’ attorney called the lawsuit a “money grab and nothing more.” Getty Images Combs denied the allegations. “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head. Ms. Dickerson’s 32-year-old story is made up and not credible,” a spokesperson for the rapper told Page Six, referring to the fact that the complaint was filed one day before the cut-off for civil cases for past sexual offenses under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. “Mr. Combs never assaulted her and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more.”

Liza Gardner v. Sean Combs

Liza Gardner accused Combs and singer Aaron Hall of raping her and an unidentified friend in the ’90s when she was just 16 years old. Mediapunch/Shutterstock Liza Gardner accused Combs and singer Aaron Hall of raping her and an unidentified friend in 1990 or 1991 when she was just 16 years old, according to a filing obtained by Rolling Stone. Per the lawsuit, the foursome allegedly met at an MCA Records event, with the “I’ll Be Missing You” rapper and the “I Like” singer allegedly acting “very handsy and flirtatious” and “offering drinks” before bringing them to Hall’s apartment. “ was offered more drinks and was coerced into having sex with Combs,” the court documents claimed. “After Combs finished doing his business, laid in bed, shocked and traumatized. As she was in the process of getting dressed, Hall barged into the room, pinned her down and forced to have sex with him.” Per the lawsuit, the foursome allegedly met at an event, with the rapper and the “I Like” singer (pictured here) allegedly acting “very handsy and flirtatious” and “offering drinks” before bringing them to Hall’s apartment. Getty Images After Combs allegedly raped Gardner, “Hall barged into the room, pinned her down and forced to have sex with him,” according to the suit. Getty Images The filing went on to claim that an “irate” Combs assaulted and choked Gardner at her home days later “to the point that she passed out.” A spokesperson for Combs called the claims “fabricated” in a statement to Page Six, writing, “This is nothing but a money grab. Because of Mr. Combs’ fame and success, he is an easy target for anonymous accusers who lie without conscience or consequence for financial benefit. … The public should be skeptical and not rush to accept these bogus allegations.” Hall’s rep did not respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

Jane Doe v. Sean Combs

In December 2023, Combs was accused of gang-raping and sex-trafficking a 17-year-old schoolgirl. US District Court / Southern District Of New York In December 2023, Combs was accused of gang-raping and sex-trafficking a 17-year-old schoolgirl when she was in the 11th grade, according to a new court filing seen by Page Six. Jane Doe claimed in the suit she was 17 when she was drugged and raped by the dad of seven, his longtime lieutenant Harve Pierre and another, as yet unnamed, man back in 2003. The filing included a photo of the accuser, sitting on Combs’ lap when he was 34 and alleged the assault left her suffering “significant emotional distress and feels of shame that have plagued her life and personal relationships for 20 years.” After allegedly boarding a private jet from Detroit to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, she then traveled to NYC to visit Combs’ music studio. Once there, Jane Doe claimed in the suit that she was plied with drugs and alcohol by Combs, Pierre and a third assailant, who had flown with her and Pierre. “As the night wore on, the 17-year-old Ms. Doe became more and more inebriated, eventually to the point that she could not possibly have consented to having sex with anyone, much less someone twice her age,” the lawsuit read. Jane Doe claimed in the suit she was drugged and raped by the dad of seven, his longtime lieutenant Harve Pierre and an unnamed man back in 2003. FilmMagic The filing included a photo of the accuser sitting on Combs’ lap when he was 34. Pichichipixx / MN Images Inc / SplashNews.com Jane Doe claimed in the suit that she was raped first in a bathroom at the studios by Combs, who removed her underwear and forced himself on her as she “hung over” a sink. “While at the studio, Ms. Doe was gang raped by Mr. Combs, the Third Assailant and Mr. Pierre, in that order,” the filing alleged. “While Mr. Combs was raping Ms. Doe, he complained that he could not ‘get off’ unless she pinched his nipples as hard as she could.” The filing alleged: “Mr. Combs then watched on as Third Assailant, who Ms. Doe had not even realized had begun to have sex with her, raped Ms. Doe as she told him to stop. “After Third Assailant was finished, Mr. Pierre took his turn at raping Ms. Doe and then violently forced her to give him oral sex, during which Ms. Doe was choking and struggling to breathe. “When Mr. Pierre finished, he left Ms. Doe in the bathroom alone. Ms. Doe fell into the fetal position and lay on the floor. Her vagina was in pain.” “While at the studio, Ms. Doe was gang raped by Mr. Combs, the Third Assailant and Mr. Pierre, in that order,” the filing alleged. WireImage In a statement to Page Six, Combs wrote: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.” Diddy/Instagram Jane Doe claimed she could “barely stand up” following the alleged gang rape and was helped into a car, which took her back to the airport. She said she has a “limited” recollection of getting back to Michigan. In a statement to Page Six, which he then posted on Instagram, Combs wrote: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.” The “It’s All About the Benjamins” rapper added: “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones Jr. v. Sean Combs

In February 2024, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. filed a $30 million lawsuit against Combs, accusing him of being part of an illegal racketeering enterprise and sexual assault. lilrodmadeit/Instagram In February 2024, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. filed a $30 million lawsuit against Combs, accusing him and several of his employees of being part of an illegal racketeering enterprise. Jones — who worked on Combs’ most recent album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” from September 2022 to November 2023 — alleged in his complaint that he has “irrefutable evidence of: (a) the acquisition, use, and distribution of ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana, and mushrooms; (b) the displaying and distribution of unregistered illegal firearms; and (c) the solicitation of minors and sex workers.” Jones claimed Combs employed Instagram model Jade Ramey, City Girls rapper Yung Miami and 50 Cent’s ex Daphne Joy as sex workers and that a female accountant named Robin Greenhill “ensured the wiring, funds transfer, or cash payments to sex workers were completed.” Ramey denied the allegations brought against her in Jones’ lawsuit against the music mogul. “Dating someone doesn’t directly correlate to any of the false allegations made,” she told Entertainment Tonight in April 2024. Jones claimed Combs employed Instagram model Jade Ramey (pictured here), City Girls rapper Yung Miami and 50 Cent’s ex Daphne Joy as sex workers. jaderamey/Instagram Yung Miami (pictured here) denied the allegations, saying, “I’m not a prostitute. I never sold 🐱a day in my life. & I hate how this is getting spun 😣.” WireImage “Yes, I dated someone. How unfortunate we’ve entered a time where caring for someone or falling in love is worthy of scrutiny in the court of public opinion. What may be amusing for you is real life for others, and my feelings have never been for entertainment, nor are they up for discussion,” Ramey added. “We need to be more conscious as a society when ridiculing people’s lives and relationships merely for enjoyment. I appreciate everyone’s kind messages and support during this time. Thank you.” Yung Miami — born Caresha Brownlee — also denied the allegations, saying, “I’m not a prostitute. I never sold 🐱a day in my life. & I hate how this is getting spun 😣.” Joy claimed Jones’ claims that she was a sex worker are “100% false and character assassination.” Jones also accused Combs of sexual assault in the lawsuit, claiming he was “the victim of constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus by Mr. Combs” and was “uncomfortable with Mr. Combs’ advances.” Jones alleged he complained about the incidents to Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina “KK” Khorram, who allegedly told him, “You know, Sean will be Sean” in response. Joy claimed Jones’ claims that she was a sex worker are “100% false and character assassination.” Daphne Joy / Instagram Jones claimed he was “the victim of constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus by Mr. Combs” and was “uncomfortable with Mr. Combs’ advances.” Rodney âLil Rodâ Jones/Instagram Jones also alleged in the suit that Combs tried to groom him into engaging in sex with fellow producer Steven “Stevie J” Jordan and “promised to make sure that Mr. Jones wins producer of the year at the Grammys if he engaged in homosexuality.” Jones also alleged that Combs once left him alone in a makeshift studio on a yacht with actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who he said allegedly began “touching, groping, and fondling” his upper thighs near his groin. In May 2024, the “Jerry Maguire” actor spoke out about Jones’ claims against him, saying he believed he was an easy target because of his previous cases. (In 2022, Gooding pleaded guilty to a forcible touching misdemeanor charge for non-consensually kissing a woman at a nightclub in 2018.) “This guy who’s suing , is going after the money … I’m sure,” he said on Patrick Bet-David’s “The PBD Podcast.” “And by the way, I don’t know P. Diddy’s life. I don’t know what he’s going through.” Read the full article

[cstewart8]

eSports event(s)

For anyone wondering what eSport is, it is a competitive video game organisation and is short for electronic games, there are different events for eSports such as single player, multiplayer and team format that is usually played by professionally video game players. eSport is lucky that it can host different tournaments and events all over the world for the best to compete against other. There has always been a debate when it comes to eSports and that is it a sport or is it not.

(How Esports Changed the Game: From Media Laughingstock to Media Craze, n.d.)

The eSport industry has gained a lot of money especially over the last 10 years because of how popular video games are these days and during 2020-2021 it went into a different stratosphere because of lockdowns when people were not working at home or school people would play video games. (Pizzo et al., 2018) stated “in 2015 eSport made over $325 million dollars in revenue and two years later eSports made $465 Million dollars in revenue.” The revenue towards eSport is expanding and is just getting higher and higher every year.

(CNBC International, 2019)

The number one key element for eSports is tourism attraction Vegara-Ferri, J. M., Ibáñez-Ortega, D., Carboneros, M., López-Gullón, J. M., & Angosto, S. (2020). Stated “In recent years eSports has developed new ways to make the event and tournament for visible for the spectators.” eSports want to make every event more visible not just for spectators streaming it online but for spectators that have travelled to wear the event and/or tourntament is located.

Thompson, J., Taheri, B., & Scheuring, F. (2022). Stated “in the eSport world there are over 500 million virtual audience around the world.” With eSport growing day by day it is allowing for a social and economic boost for the city that is hosting the event/tournament. eSport having a popular following is allowing fans to purchase flights and hotels to be the eSport is happening and boosts the business that are near the event.

(Esports Charts, 2022)

As you can see from this graph above and this is the list of the top five games being played and streamed from the eSport viewership in 2024. The graph also is showing how much the prize pool is worth for each game in the top five.

‌References

CNBC International. (2019). Esports is growing into a $1 billion industry | CNBC Sports [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0hlP84HeMU&ab_channel=CNBCInternational

‌Esports Charts. (2022). Most Popular Esports Games 2022 | Esports Charts. Escharts.com. https://escharts.com/top-games?order=peak

Funk, D. C., Pizzo, A. D., & Baker, B. J. (2018). eSport management: Embracing eSport education and research opportunities. Sport Management Review, 21(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2017.07.008

How esports changed the game: From media laughingstock to media craze. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 15, 2024, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_GxPXXLc-w&ab_channel=theScoreesports

‌Pizzo, A., Baker, B., Na, S., Lee, M., Kim, D., & Funk, D. (2018). eSport vs. Sport: A Comparison of Spectator Motives. 27(2), 108–123. https://scholarshare.temple.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.12613/7113/PizzoBakerEtAl-JournalArticle-2018.pdf?sequence=1

Thompson, J., Taheri, B., & Scheuring, F. (2022). Developing esport tourism through fandom experience at in-person events. Tourism Management, 91, 104531. https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46438/1/1538660_Taheri.pdf

Vegara-Ferri, J. M., Ibáñez-Ortega, D., Carboneros, M., López-Gullón, J. M., & Angosto, S. (2020). Evaluation of the tourist perception of the spectator in an eSport event. Publicaciones, 50(1), 371-384. https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/publicaciones/article/view/15992