Hermit Crab in a house from a sweetwater snail.

It is not the normal blue-legged one. He's got big chelipads.

 

'Hermit Crab on Black

Another working only possible to phot in my area in 'high summer' is the Varamis Rail 1M04 17.34 Mossend Down Yard - Birmingham International. Utilising former National Express East Anglia 321 EMU's purchased initially by Eversholt Rail, stripped of seating and converted to parcels carrying vehicles seen here approaching Golborne Junction @ 20.23 on July 8th 2024.

El Paso, Texas

Moonrise from behind the clouds.

Identificación por favor

...or just the natural rock barrier of the empty pool.

This photo has a very shallow DOF.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton - January 16, 1979 – August 25,

2001)

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MEBi4ejTs

  

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was a multi-platinum recording artist, fashion icon, philanthropist,

 

and burgeoning actress. She left behind a body of work that made an undeniable impact on R&B

 

music and remains a testament to her many talents. Her debut album in 1994, “Age Ain’t

 

Nothing But a Number,” was a hit due to her debut single “Back and Forth.” However, it was

 

her collaboration with a then unknown Missy Elliott and Timbaland for the album “One in a A

 

Million” that blew her career up.

 

Before her death, she also had an up-and-coming acting career in films like “Romeo Must Die”

 

and a role in the “Matrix” sequel. Aaliyah once told VIBE, “Of course, I would love to get

 

into acting and I am talking to a few producers now. That would be really exciting to be a

 

jack of all trades and do music, movies and TV. I love drama and I think I could be a good

 

dramatic actress. I have to ‘act out’ emotions in my videos a lot and I try to seem as

 

realistic as possible.”

 

She continued, “I also would like to make bigger impact on the world by giving back, and

 

using my celebrity to raise money for people who need it the most. What good is having money

 

and being famous if you can’t share it with others less fortunate than yourself? I always

 

felt that you should treat others how you yourself want to be treated.”

 

Sadly, we lost the singer in a plane crash on August 25, 2001 in the Bahamas. She was only

 

22 years old.

  

Biography

  

Aaliyah Dana Haughton - January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer, actress,

 

and model. Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Detroit, Michigan, she first gained

 

recognition at the age of 10, when she appeared on the television show Star Search and

 

performed in concert alongside Gladys Knight. At the age of 12, Aaliyah signed with Jive

 

Records and her uncle Barry Hankerson's Blackground Records. Hankerson introduced her to R.

 

Kelly, who became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her debut album,

 

Age Ain't Nothing but a Number. The album sold 3 million copies in the United States and was

 

certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After

 

facing allegations of an illegal marriage with Kelly, Aaliyah ended her contract with Jive

 

and signed with Atlantic Records.

 

Aaliyah worked with record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott for her second album, One

 

in a Million, which sold 3 million copies in the United States and more than 8 million

 

copies worldwide. In 2000, Aaliyah appeared in her first film, Romeo Must Die. She

 

contributed to the film's soundtrack, which spawned the single "Try Again". The song topped

 

the Billboard Hot 100 solely on airplay, making Aaliyah the first artist in Billboard

 

history to achieve this goal. "Try Again" also earned Aaliyah a Grammy Award nomination for

 

Best Female R&B Vocalist. After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah filmed her role in Queen

 

of the Damned, and released her self-titled third and final studio album in 2001.

 

On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah and eight others were killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas

 

after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat". The pilot, Luis Morales III,

 

was unlicensed at the time of the accident and toxicology tests revealed that he had traces

 

of cocaine and alcohol in his system. Aaliyah's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit

 

against Blackhawk International Airways, which was settled out of court. Aaliyah's music

 

continued to achieve commercial success with several posthumous releases, and has sold an

 

estimated 24 to 32 million albums worldwide. She has been credited for helping redefine

 

contemporary R&B, pop and hip hop,[1] earning her the nicknames the "Princess of R&B" and

 

"Queen of Urban Pop". Billboard lists her as the tenth most successful female R&B artist of

 

the past 25 years, and the 27th most successful in history.

  

Early life

 

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York,[2] and was the

 

younger child of Diane and Michael "Miguel" Haughton (1951–2012).[3] She was of African-

 

American descent, and had Native American (Oneida) heritage from a grandmother.[3][4][5] Her

 

name has been described as a female version of the Arabic "Ali", but the original Jewish

 

name "Aliya (Hebrew: אליה)" is derived from the Hebrew word "aliyah (Hebrew: עלייה)", meaning

 

"highest, most exalted one, the best."[6][7] The singer was highly fond of her Semitic name,

 

calling it "beautiful" and asserting she was "very proud of it" and strove to live up to her

 

name every day.[6] Aaliyah's mother enrolled Aaliyah in voice lessons at an early age.[2]

 

She started performing at weddings, church choir and charity events.[8] When Aaliyah was

 

five years old, her family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she was reared along with her

 

older brother, Rashad.[9][10] She attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where in

 

first grade she was cast in the stage play Annie, which inspired her to become an

 

entertainer.[11] In Detroit, her father began working in the warehouse business, one of his

 

brother-in-law Barry Hankerson's widening interests. Her mother stayed home and raised

 

Aaliyah and her brother.[12]

 

Throughout Aaliyah's life, she had a good relationship with Rashad, who recalled Aaliyah

 

having a beautiful voice as a child.[11] Aaliyah's family was very close due to the

 

struggles of her grandparents and when they moved to Detroit, the Hankersons were ready to

 

take them in if necessary. These same bonds led to ties in the music industry, under the

 

Blackground Records label.[6]

 

Aaliyah's mother was a vocalist, and her uncle, Barry Hankerson, was an entertainment lawyer

 

who had been married to Gladys Knight.[10] As a child, Aaliyah traveled with Knight and

 

worked with an agent in New York to audition for commercials and television programs,

 

including Family Matters; she went on to appear on Star Search at the age of ten.[2] Aaliyah

 

chose to begin auditioning. Her mother made the decision to drop her surname.[12][13] She

 

auditioned for several record labels and at age 11 appeared in concerts alongside Knight.

 

[10][14] She had several pet animals during her childhood, including ducks, snakes and

 

iguanas. Her cousin Jomo had a pet alligator, which Aaliyah felt was too much, remarking,

 

"that was something I wasn't going to stroke."[6]

 

Her grandmother died in 1991. Years after her death, Aaliyah said her grandmother supported

 

everyone in the family and always wanted to hear her sing, as well as admitting that she

 

"spoiled" her and her brother Rashad. She also enjoyed Aaliyah's singing and would have

 

Aaliyah to sing for her. Aaliyah said she thought of her grandmother whenever she fell into

 

depression.[15] Aaliyah's hands reminded her of her aunt, who died when she was very young

 

and whom Aaliyah remembered as an "amazingly beautiful woman".[16]

 

Education

 

When she was growing up, Aaliyah attended Detroit schools and believed she was well-liked,

 

but got teased for her short stature. She recalled coming into her own prior to age 15 and

 

grew to love her height. Her mother would tell her to be happy that she was small and

 

compliment her. Other children disliked Aaliyah, but she did not stay focused on them. "You

 

always have to deal with people who are jealous, but there were so few it didn't even

 

matter. The majority of kids supported me, which was wonderful. When it comes to dealing

 

with negative people, I just let it in one ear and out the other. Those people were

 

invisible to me." Even in her adult life, she considered herself small. She had "learned to

 

accept and love" herself and added: "... the most important thing is to think highly of

 

yourself because if you don't, no one else will".[6]

 

During her audition for acceptance to the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing

 

Arts, Aaliyah sung the song "Ave Maria" in its entirety in the Italian language.[17]

 

Aaliyah, who maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average when graduating from high school,

 

felt education was important. She saw fit to keep her grades up despite the pressures and

 

time constraints brought on her during the early parts of her career. She labeled herself as

 

a perfectionist and recalled always being a good student. Aaliyah reflected: "I always

 

wanted to maintain that, even in high school when I first started to travel. I wanted to

 

keep that 4.0. Being in the industry, you know, I don't want kids to think, 'I can just sing

 

and forget about school.' I think it's very important to have an education, and even more

 

important to have something to fall back on." She did this in her own life, as she planned

 

to "fall back on" another part of the entertainment industry. She believed that she could

 

teach music history or open her own school to teach that or drama if she did not make a

 

living as a recording artist because, as she reasoned, "when you pick a career it has to be

 

something you love".[6]

 

Career

 

1991–1995: Age Ain't Nothing but a Number

     

R. Kelly was introduced to Aaliyah and became her mentor, as well as lead songwriter and

 

producer on her debut album.

After Hankerson signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, he signed Aaliyah to his

 

Blackground Records label at the age of 12.[18][19] Hankerson later introduced her to

 

recording artist and producer R. Kelly,[14] who became Aaliyah's mentor, as well as lead

 

songwriter and producer of her first album, which was recorded when she was 14.[2][19][20]

 

Aaliyah's debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, was released under her mononym

 

"Aaliyah", by Jive and Blackground Records on May 24, 1994; the album debut at number 24 on

 

the Billboard 200 chart, selling 74,000 copies in its first week.[21][22] It ultimately

 

peaked at number 18 on the Billboard 200 and sold over three million copies in the United

 

States, where it was certified two times Platinum by the RIAA.[22][23][24] In Canada, the

 

album sold over 50,000 copies and was certified gold by the CRIA.[25] Aaliyah's debut

 

single, "Back & Forth", topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for three weeks and

 

was certified Gold by the RIAA.[24][26] The second single, a cover of The Isley Brothers'

 

"At Your Best (You Are Love)", peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and was also

 

certified Gold by the RIAA.[24][26] The title track, "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number",

 

peaked at number 75 on the Hot 100.[26] Additionally, she released "The Thing I Like" as

 

part of the soundtrack to the 1994 film A Low Down Dirty Shame.[27]

 

Age Ain't Nothing But a Number received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Some

 

writers noted that Aaliyah's "silky vocals" and "sultry voice" blended with Kelly's new jack

 

swing helped define R&B in the 1990s.[28][29] Her sound was also compared to that of female

 

quartet En Vogue.[28][30] Christopher John Farley of Time magazine described the album as a

 

"beautifully restrained work", noting that Aaliyah's "girlish, breathy vocals rode calmly on

 

R. Kelly's rough beats".[31] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that the album had its

 

"share of filler", but described the singles as "slyly seductive".[2] He also claimed that

 

the songs on the album were "frequently better" than that of Kelly's second studio album, 12

 

Play.[2] The single "At Your Best (You Are Love)" was criticized by Billboard for being out

 

of place on the album and for its length.[32]

 

1996–1999: One in a Million

     

"If Your Girl Only Knew" (1996)

  

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0:00

  

The first single released from her second studio album, "If Your Girl Only Knew" was

 

described as a sassy, organ-infused song.[33] Aaliyah was noted for having "smoother, more

 

seductive, and stronger" singing.[34]

  

Problems playing this file? See media help.

 

In 1996, Aaliyah left Jive Records and signed with Atlantic Records.[14] She worked with

 

record producers Timbaland and Missy Elliott, who contributed to her second studio album,

 

One in a Million.[10] Missy Elliott recalled Timbaland and herself being nervous to work

 

with Aaliyah, since Aaliyah had already released her successful début album while Missy

 

Elliott and Timbaland were just starting out. Missy Elliott also feared she would be a diva,

 

but reflected that Aaliyah "came in and was so warming; she made us immediately feel like

 

family."[35] The album yielded the single "If Your Girl Only Knew", which topped the

 

Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs for two weeks.[26] It also generated the singles "Hot Like

 

Fire" and "4 Page Letter". The following year, Aaliyah was featured on Timbaland & Magoo's

 

debut single, "Up Jumps da Boogie".[36] One in a Million peaked at number 18 on the

 

Billboard 200,[23] selling 3 million copies in the United States and over eight million

 

copies worldwide.[37][38] The album was certified double platinum by the RIAA on June 16,

 

1997, denoting shipments of two million copies.[24] The month prior to One in a Millions

 

release, on May 5, 1997, music publisher Windswept Pacific filed a lawsuit in U.S. District

 

Court against Aaliyah claiming she had illegally copied Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do

 

for Love" for the single "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number".[39]

 

Aaliyah attended the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, where she majored

 

in drama and graduated in 1997 with a 4.0 GPA.[14][40][41] Aaliyah began her acting career

 

that same year; she played herself in the police drama television series New York

 

Undercover.[42] During this time, Aaliyah participated in the Children's Benefit Concert, a

 

charity concert that took place at the Beacon Theatre in New York.[43] Aaliyah also became

 

the spokesperson for Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.[44] During Aaliyah's campaign for Tommy

 

Hilfiger the company had sold all 2,400 of the red, white and blue baggy jeans emblazoned

 

with the Hilfiger name that Aaliyah wore in their 1997 advertisements and they were

 

constantly restocking those jeans.[45] In 1997 Aaliyah performed the Christmas carol What

 

Child Is This at the annual holiday special Christmas in Washington.[46] She contributed on

 

the soundtrack album for the Fox Animation Studios animated feature Anastasia, performing a

 

cover version of "Journey to the Past" which earned songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen

 

Flaherty a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.[27][38][47] Aaliyah

 

performed the song at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony and became the youngest singer to

 

perform at the event.[48][49] The song "Are You That Somebody?" was featured on the Dr.

 

Dolittle soundtrack, which earned Aaliyah her first Grammy Award nomination.[50] The song

 

peaked at number 21 on the Hot 100.[51]

 

2000: Romeo Must Die

 

In 1999, Aaliyah landed her first film role in Romeo Must Die, released March 22, 2000.

 

Aaliyah starred opposite martial artist Jet Li, playing a couple who fall in love amid their

 

warring families. It grossed US$18.6 million in its first weekend, ranking number two at the

 

box office.[52] Aaliyah purposely stayed away from reviews of the film to "make it easier

 

on" herself, but she heard "that people were able to get into me, which is what I

 

wanted."[53] In contrast, some critics felt there was no chemistry between her and Jet Li,

 

as well as viewing the film was too simplistic.[54] This was echoed by Elvis Mitchell of The

 

New York Times, who wrote that while Aaliyah was "a natural" and the film was conceived as a

 

spotlight for both her and Li, "they have so little chemistry together you'd think they're

 

putting out a fire instead of shooting off sparks.[55] Her role was well received by Glen

 

Oliver by IGN who liked that she did not portray her character "as a victimized female" but

 

instead "as a strong female who does not come across as an over-the-top Women's Right

 

Advocate."[56]

     

Aaliyah in 2000

In addition to acting, Aaliyah served as an executive producer of the film's soundtrack,

 

where she contributed four songs.[57] "Try Again" was released as a single from the

 

soundtrack; the song topped the Billboard Hot 100, making Aaliyah the first artist to top

 

the chart based solely on airplay; this led the song to be released in a 12" vinyl and 7"

 

single.[26][58] The music video won the Best Female Video and Best Video from a Film awards

 

at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.[59] It also earned her a Grammy Award nomination for

 

Best Female R&B Vocalist.[60] The soundtrack went on to sell 1.5 million copies in the

 

United States.[61]

 

2001: Aaliyah

 

After completing Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah began to work on her second film, Queen of the

 

Damned. She played the role of an ancient vampire, Queen Akasha, which she described as a

 

"manipulative, crazy, sexual being".[19] Filming both Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned

 

delayed the release of the album. Aaliyah had not intended for her albums to have such a gap

 

between them. "I wanted to take a break after One in a Million to just relax, think about

 

how I wanted to approach the next album. Then, when I was ready to start back up, "Romeo"

 

happened, and so I had to take another break and do that film and then do the soundtrack,

 

then promote it. The break turned into a longer break than I anticipated."[62] Aaliyah

 

enjoyed balancing her singing and acting careers. Though she called music a "first" for her,

 

she also had been acting since she was young and had wanted to begin acting "at some point

 

in my career," but "wanted it to be the right time and the right vehicle" and felt Romeo

 

Must Die "was it".[61] Connie Johnson of the Los Angeles Times argued that Aaliyah having to

 

focus on her film career may have caused her to not give the album "the attention it

 

merited."[63] Collaborator Timbaland concurred, stating that he was briefly in Australia to

 

work on the album while Aaliyah was filming and did not feel the same production had gone

 

into Aaliyah as One in a Million had. He also said Virgin Records had rushed the album and

 

Aaliyah had specifically requested Missy Elliott and Timbaland work on Aaliyah with her.[64]

 

During the recording stages for the album, Aaliyah's publicist disclosed that the album's

 

release date was most likely in October 2000.[65] Ultimately she finished recording the

 

album in March 2001; after a year of recording tracks that began in March of the previous

 

year.[66] Aaliyah was released five years after One in a Million on July 17, 2001,[2] and it

 

debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 187,000 copies in its first week.[67]

 

The first single from the album, "We Need a Resolution", peaked at number 59 on the

 

Billboard Hot 100.[26] The week after Aaliyah's death, her third and self-titled studio

 

album, rose from number 19 to number one on the Billboard 200.[68] "Rock the Boat" was

 

released as a posthumous single. The music video premiered on BET's Access Granted; it

 

became the most viewed and highest rated episode in the history of the show.[69] The song

 

peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop

 

Songs chart.[70] It was also included on the Now That's What I Call Music! 8 compilation

 

series; a portion of the album's profits was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund.[71]

 

Promotional posters for Aaliyah that had been put up in major cities such as New York and

 

Los Angeles became makeshift memorials for grieving fans.[72]

 

"More than a Woman" and "I Care 4 U" were released as posthumous singles and peaked within

 

the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100.[70] The album was certified double Platinum by the RIAA

 

and sold 2.6 million copies in the United States.[24][73] "More than a Woman" reached number

 

one on the UK singles chart making Aaliyah the first female deceased artist to reach number

 

one on the UK singles chart.[74][75] "More than a Woman" was replaced by George Harrison's

 

"My Sweet Lord" which is the only time in the UK singles chart's history where a dead artist

 

has replaced another dead artist at number one.[76] In July 2001, she allowed MTV's show

 

Diary behind-the-scenes access to her life and stated "I am truly blessed to wake up every

 

morning to do something that I love; there is nothing better than that." She continued,

 

"Everything is worth it – the hard work, the times when you're tired, the times when you are

 

a bit sad. In the end, it's all worth it because it really makes me happy. I wouldn't trade

 

it for anything else in the world. I've got good friends, a beautiful family and I've got a

 

career. I thank God for his blessings every single chance I get."[77]

 

Aaliyah was signed to appear in several future films, including Honey,[78] a romantic film

 

titled Some Kind of Blue,[79] and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film

 

Sparkle.[4] Whitney Houston recalled Aaliyah being "so enthusiastic" about the film and

 

wanting to appear in the film "so badly". Houston also voiced her belief that Aaliyah was

 

more than qualified for the role and the film was shelved after she died, since Aaliyah had

 

"gone to a better place".[80] Studio officials of Warner Brothers stated that Aaliyah and

 

her mother had both read the script for Sparkle. According to them, Aaliyah was passionate

 

about playing the lead role of a young singer in a girl group.[81] The film was released in

 

2012, eleven years after Aaliyah's death. Before her death Aaliyah was cast in the sequels

 

of The Matrix as the character Zee.[14][82] She had filmed part of her role in The Matrix

 

Reloaded and was scheduled to film and reprise her role in The Matrix Revolutions as Zee.

 

[36] Aaliyah told Access Hollywood that she was "beyond happy" to have landed the role.[83]

 

The role was subsequently recast to Nona Gaye.[82] Aaliyah's scenes were included in the

 

tribute section of the Matrix Ultimate Collection series.[84]

 

In November 2001, Ronald Isley stated that Aaliyah and the Isley Brothers had discussed a

 

collaboration prior to her death. She had previously covered the Isley Brothers' single "At

 

Your Best (You Are Love)".[85] Prior to her death, she expressed the possibility of

 

recording songs for the Queen of The Damned soundtrack and welcomed the possibility of

 

collaborating with Jonathan Davis.[66] By 2001, Aaliyah had enjoyed her now seven-year

 

career and felt a sense of accomplishment. "This is what I always wanted," she said of her

 

career in Vibe magazine. "I breathe to perform, to entertain, I can't imagine myself doing

 

anything else. I'm just a really happy girl right now. I honestly love every aspect of this

 

business. I really do. I feel very fulfilled and complete."[54]

 

Artistry

 

Voice and style

     

"Are You That Somebody?" (1998)

  

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Timbaland's stuttering, idiosyncratic productions challenged Aaliyah to reveal her artistic

 

personality more than she had on R. Kelly's smoother musical settings.[30]

  

Problems playing this file? See media help.

 

Aaliyah had the vocal range of a soprano.[14] With the release of her debut album "Age Ain't

 

Nothing But a Number", writer Dimitri Ehrlich of Entertainment Weekly compared her style and

 

sound to R&B group En Vogue.[86] Ehrlich also expressed that Aaliyah's "silky vocals are

 

more agile than those of self-proclaimed queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige."[86] In her

 

review for Aaliyah's second studio album One in a Million Vibe magazine, music critic Dream

 

Hampton said that Aaliyah's "deliciously feline" voice has the same "pop appeal" as Janet

 

Jackson's.[87] Aaliyah described her sound as "street but sweet", which featured her

 

"gentle" vocals over a "hard" beat.[88] Though Aaliyah did not write any of her own

 

material,[14] her lyrics were described as in-depth.[89][90] She incorporated R&B, pop and

 

hip hop into her music.[10][91][92][93][94][95][96] Her songs were often uptempo and at the

 

same time often dark, revolving around "matters of the heart".[97] After her R. Kelly-

 

produced debut album, Aaliyah worked with Timbaland and Missy Elliott, whose productions

 

were more electronic.[98] Sasha Frere-Jones of The Wire finds Aaliyah's "Are You That

 

Somebody?" to be Timbaland's "masterpiece" and exemplary of his production's start-stop

 

rhythms, with "big half-second pauses between beats and voices".[99] Keith Harris of Rolling

 

Stone cites "Are You That Somebody?" as "one of '90s R&B's most astounding moments".[30]

 

Aaliyah's songs have been said to have "crisp production" and "staccato arrangements" that

 

"extend genre boundaries" while containing "old-school" soul music.[100] Kelefah Sanneh of

 

The New York Times called Aaliyah "a digital diva who wove a spell with ones and zeroes",

 

and writes that her songs comprised "simple vocal riffs, repeated and refracted to echo the

 

manipulated loops that create digital rhythm", as Timbaland's "computer-programmed beats

 

fitted perfectly with her cool, breathy voice to create a new kind of electronic

 

music."[101] When she experimented with other genres on Aaliyah, such as Latin pop and heavy

 

metal, Entertainment Weekly's Craig Seymour panned the attempt.[97] While Analyzing her

 

eponymous album British publication NME (New Musical Express) felt that Aaliyah's radical

 

third album was intended to consolidate her position as U.S.R&B's most experimental artist.

 

[102] As her albums progressed, writers felt that Aaliyah matured, calling her progress a

 

"declaration of strength and independence".[90][103] ABC News noted that Aaliyah's music was

 

evolving from the punchy pop influenced Hip hop and R&B to a more mature, introspective

 

sound on her third album.[104] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described her eponymous

 

album, Aaliyah, as "a statement of maturity and a stunning artistic leap forward" and called

 

it one of the strongest urban soul records of its time.[90] She portrayed "unfamiliar

 

sounds, styles and emotions", but managed to please critics with the contemporary sound it

 

contained.[90] Ernest Hardy of Rolling Stone felt that Aaliyah reflected a stronger

 

technique, where she gave her best vocal performance.[100] Prior to her death, Aaliyah

 

expressed a desire to learn about the burgeoning UK garage scene she had heard about at the

 

time.[98]

 

Influences

 

As an artist, Aaliyah often voiced that she was inspired by a number of performers. These

 

include Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Sade, En Vogue, Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Prince,

 

Naughty by Nature, Johnny Mathis, Janet Jackson[105] and Barbra Streisand.[106] Aaliyah

 

expressed that Michael Jackson's Thriller was her "favorite album" and that "nothing will

 

ever top Thriller."[105] She stated that she admired Sade because "she stays true to her

 

style no matter what ... she's an amazing artist, an amazing performer ... and I absolutely

 

love her."[105] Aaliyah expressed she had always desired to work with Janet Jackson, whom

 

she had drawn frequent comparison to over the course of her career, stating "I admire her a

 

great deal. She's a total performer ... I'd love to do a duet with Janet Jackson."[105]

 

[107][108][109] Jackson reciprocated Aaliyah's affections, commenting "I've loved her from

 

the beginning because she always comes out and does something different, musically." Jackson

 

also stated she would have enjoyed collaborating with Aaliyah.[105]

 

Image

 

Aaliyah focused on her public image throughout her career. She often wore baggy clothes and

 

sunglasses, stating that she wanted to be herself.[110] She described her image as being

 

"important ... to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack".[111] She often wore

 

black clothing, starting a trend for similar fashion among women in United States and

 

Japan.[14][112] Aaliyah's fashionable style has been credited for being an influence on new

 

fashion trends called "Health Goth"[113][114] and "Ghetto Goth" also known as GHE20 GOTH1K

 

[115][116] Aaliyah participated in fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger's All America Tour and

 

was featured in Tommy Jean ads, which depicted her in boxer shorts, baggy jeans and a tube

 

top. Hilfiger's brother, Andy, called it "a whole new look" that was "classy but sexy".[112]

 

Carson Daly A former VJ on MTV's Total Request Live commented on Aaliyah's style by saying

 

that she was "cutting edge" ,"always one step ahead of the curve" and that "the TRL audience

 

looks to her to figure out what's hot and what's new".[117]

 

When she changed her hairstyle, Aaliyah took her mother's advice and covered her left eye,

 

much like Veronica Lake.[118] The look has become known as her signature and been referred

 

to as fusion of "unnerving emotional honesty" and "a sense of mystique".[119] In 1998, she

 

hired a personal trainer to keep in shape, and exercised five days a week and ate diet

 

foods.[120] Aaliyah was praised for her "clean-cut image" and "moral values".[121] Robert

 

Christgau of The Village Voice wrote of Aaliyah's artistry and image, "she was lithe and

 

dulcet in a way that signified neither jailbait nor hottie—an ingenue whose selling point

 

was sincerity, not innocence and the obverse it implies."[122]

 

Aaliyah was viewed by others as a role model. Emil Wilbekin, described by CNN as "a friend

 

of Aaliyah's" and follower of her career, explained: "Aaliyah is an excellent role model,

 

because she started her career in the public eye at age 15 with a gold album entitled Age

 

Ain't Nothing but a Number. And then her second album, One in a Million went double

 

platinum. She had the leading role in Romeo Must Die, which was a box office success. She's

 

won numerous awards, several MTV music video awards, and aside from her professional

 

successes, many of her lyrics are very inspirational and uplifting. She also carried herself

 

in a very professional manner. She was well spoken. She was beautiful, but she didn't use

 

her beauty to sell her music. She used her talent. Many young hip-hop fans greatly admire

 

her."[123]

 

She also was seen by others as a sex symbol. Aaliyah did not have a problem with being

 

considered one. "I know that people think I'm sexy and I am looked at as that, and it is

 

cool with me," she stated. "It's wonderful to have sex appeal. If you embrace it, it can be

 

a very beautiful thing. I am totally cool with that. Definitely. I see myself as sexy. If

 

you are comfortable with it, it can be very classy and it can be very appealing."[124] The

 

single "We Need a Resolution" was argued to have transformed "the once tomboy into a sexy

 

grown woman".[125] Aaliyah mentioned that her mother, during her childhood, would take

 

pictures of her and notice a sex appeal. She reinforced her mother's belief by saying that

 

she did feel "sexy for sure" and that she embraced it and was comfortable with this view of

 

her.[54]

 

Personal life

 

In her spare time, she was mostly a homebody, which dated back to her younger years, but on

 

occasion went out and played laser tag. She reasoned this was due to her liking "the simple

 

things in life".[54] Despite having a prosperous career that allowed her to purchase the

 

vehicle she wanted, Aaliyah revealed during her final interview on August 21, 2001 on 106 &

 

Park that she had never owned a car because she lived in New York City and could hire a car

 

or driver on a regular basis.[126]

 

Family

 

Aaliyah's family played a major role in the course of her career.[54] Aaliyah's father

 

Michael Haughton served as her personal manager. Her mother assisted her in her career while

 

brother Rashad Haughton and cousin Jomo Hankerson worked with her consistently.[127] Her

 

father's illness ended his co-management of Aaliyah with her mother Diane Haughton. She ran

 

all of her decisions by Rashad.[54]

 

Aaliyah was known to have usually been accompanied by members of her family and the "Rock

 

the Boat" filming was credited by Rashad Haughton as being the first and only time her

 

family was not present. In October 2001, Rashad stated: "It really boggles everyone [that]

 

from Day One, every single video she ever shot there's always been myself or my mother or my

 

father there. The circumstances surrounding this last video were really strange because my

 

mother had eye surgery and couldn't fly. That really bothered her because she always

 

traveled. My dad had to take care of my mom at that time. And I went to Australia to visit

 

some friends. We really couldn't understand why we weren't there. You ask yourself maybe we

 

could have stopped it. But you can't really answer the question. There's always gonna be

 

that question of why."[128] Her friend Kidada Jones said in the last year of her life her

 

parents had given her more freedom and she had talked about wanting a family. "She wanted to

 

have a family, and we talked about how we couldn't wait to kick back with our babies."[129]

 

Gladys Knight, who had been married to Aaliyah's uncle Barry Hankerson, was essential to the

 

start of Aaliyah's career as she gave her many of her earlier performances. One of their

 

last conversations concerned Aaliyah having difficulty with "another young artist" that she

 

was trying to work with. Knight felt the argument was "petty" and insisted that she remain

 

being who she was in spite of the conflict.[130]

 

Illegal marriage

 

With the release of Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, rumors circulated of a relationship

 

between Aaliyah and R. Kelly,[14][131] including the allegation that they had secretly

 

married without her parents' knowledge,[132][133][134][135] Vibe later revealed a marriage

 

certificate that listed the couple married on August 31, 1994, in Sheraton Gateway Suites in

 

Rosemont, Illinois.[14][133] Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time, was listed as 18 on the

 

certificate; the illegal marriage was annulled in February 1995 by her parents.[20][133]

 

[136] The pair continued to deny marriage allegations, stating that neither was married.

 

[131]

 

Aaliyah reportedly developed a friendship with Kelly during the recording of her debut

 

album. As she recalled to Vibe magazine in 1994, she and Kelly would "go watch a movie" and

 

"go eat" when she got tired and would then "come back and work". She described the

 

relationship between her and Kelly as being "rather close."[137] In 2016, Kelly said that he

 

was as in love with Aaliyah as he was with "anybody else."[138] In December 1994, Aaliyah

 

told the Sun-Times that whenever she was asked about being married to Kelly, she urged them

 

not to believe "all that mess" and that she and Kelly were "close" and "people took it the

 

wrong way."[139] In his 2011 book The Man Behind the Man: Looking From the Inside Out,

 

Demetrius Smith Sr., a former member of Kelly's entourage, wrote that Kelly told him "in a

 

voice that sounded as if he wanted to burst into tears" that he thought Aaliyah was

 

pregnant.[140]

 

Jamie Foster Brown in the 1994 issue of Sister 2 Sister wrote that "R. Kelly told me that he

 

and Aaliyah got together and it was just magic." Brown also reported hearing about a

 

relationship between them. "I've been hearing about Robert and Aaliyah for a while—that she

 

was pregnant. Or that she was coming and going in and out of his house. People would see her

 

walking his dog, 12 Play, with her basketball cap and sunglasses on. Every time I asked the

 

label, they said it was platonic. But I kept hearing complaints from people about her being

 

in the studio with all those men." Brown later added "at 15, you have all those hormones and

 

no brains attached to them."[141]

 

The 2019 documentary Surviving R. Kelly revealed new details about their relationship and

 

marriage. Jovante Cunningham, a former backup dancer, claimed to have witnessed Kelly having

 

sex with Aaliyah on his tour bus[142][143] while Demetrius Smith again recounted the time

 

Kelly feared that he had impregnated her.[142] Smith also described how he helped Aaliyah

 

forge the necessary documents to show she was 18 and that the wedding was short and

 

unceremonious, as neither was dressed up and Aaliyah looked "worried and scared" the whole

 

time.[142] Smith states that he is "not proud" of his role in facilitating their illegal

 

marriage.[142]

 

Aaliyah admitted in court documents that she had lied about her age. In May 1997, she filed

 

suit in Cook County seeking to have all records of the marriage expunged because she was not

 

old enough under state law to get married without her parents' consent. It was reported that

 

she cut off all professional and personal ties with Kelly after the marriage was annulled

 

and ceased having contact with him.[144] In 2014, Jomo Hankerson stated that Aaliyah "got

 

villainized" over her relationship with Kelly and the scandal over the marriage made it

 

difficult to find producers for her second album. "We were coming off of a multi-platinum

 

debut album and except for a couple of relationships with Jermaine Dupri and Puffy, it was

 

hard for us to get producers on the album." Hankerson also expressed confusion over why

 

"they were upset" with Aaliyah given her age at the time.[145]

 

Aaliyah was known to avoid answering questions regarding Kelly following the professional

 

split. During an interview with Christopher John Farley, she was asked if she was still in

 

contact with him and if she would ever work with him again. Farley said Aaliyah responded

 

with a "firm, frosty 'no'" to both of the questions.[146] Vibe magazine said Aaliyah changed

 

the subject anytime "you bring up the marriage with her".[147] A spokeswoman for Aaliyah

 

said in 2000 that when "R. Kelly comes up, she doesn't even speak his name, and nobody's

 

allowed to ask about it at all".[148] Kelly later commented that Aaliyah had opportunities

 

to address the pair's relationship after they separated professionally but chose not to.

 

[149] In 2019, Damon Dash revealed to Hip Hop Motivation that Aaliyah didn't even speak of

 

her relationship with Kelly in private; she tried multiple times to discuss it with him, but

 

was only able to find the courage to say that Kelly was a "bad man".[143] She told him that

 

she could only possibly discuss the relationship with a professional counselor.[143] Dash

 

said he was unable to watch Surviving R. Kelly because its interviews with visibly

 

traumatized girls struggling to discuss their encounters with Kelly reminded him of how

 

Aaliyah behaved when trying to recount her relationship with Kelly.[143]

 

R. Kelly would have other allegations made about him regarding underage girls in the years

 

following her death and his marriage to Aaliyah was used to evidence his involvement with

 

them. He has refused to discuss his relationship with her, citing her death. "Out of respect

 

for her, and her mom and her dad, I will not discuss Aaliyah. That was a whole other

 

situation, a whole other time, it was a whole other thing, and I'm sure that people also

 

know that."[150] Aaliyah's mother, Diane Haughton, reflected that everything "that went

 

wrong in her life" began with her relationship with Kelly.[139] Damon Dash also noted that

 

lasting trauma from her relationship with Kelly negatively affected their relationship.[143]

 

However, the allegations have been said to have done "little to taint Aaliyah's image or

 

prevent her from becoming a reliable '90s hitmaker with viable sidelines in movies and

 

modeling."[32]

 

Engagement

 

Aaliyah was dating co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records Damon Dash at the time of her death

 

and, though they were not formally engaged, in interviews given after Aaliyah's death, Dash

 

claimed the couple had planned to marry.[151] Aaliyah and Dash met in 2000[152] through his

 

accountant and formed a friendship.[153] Dash has said he is unsure of how he and Aaliyah

 

started dating and that the two just understood each other. "I don't know [how we got

 

involved], just spending time, you know, we just saw things the same and it was new, you

 

know what I mean? Meeting someone that is trying to do the same thing you are doing in the

 

urban market, in the same urban market place but not really being so urban. It was just; her

 

mind was where my mind was. She understood me and she got my jokes. She thought my jokes

 

were funny."[154]

 

Dash expressed his belief that Aaliyah was the "one" and claimed the pair were not

 

officially engaged, but had spoken about getting married prior to her death.[155] Aaliyah

 

publicly never addressed the relationship between her and Dash as being anything but

 

platonic. In May 2001, she hosted a party for Dash's 30th birthday at a New York City club,

 

where they were spotted together and Dash was seen escorting her to a bathroom. Addressing

 

this, Aaliyah stated that she and Dash were just "very good friends" and chose to "keep it

 

at that" for the time being.[147] Just two weeks before her death, Aaliyah traveled from New

 

Jersey to East Hampton, New York to visit Dash at the summer house he shared with Jay Z.

 

[129]

 

The couple were separated for long periods at a time, as Dash recalled that Aaliyah

 

continuously shot films and would be gone for months often to come back shortly and continue

 

her schedule. Dash was also committed to "his own thing", which did not make matters any

 

better. Despite this, they were understanding that the time they had together was special.

 

Dash remembered they would "be in a room full of people talking to each other and it felt

 

like everyone was listening but it would be just us. It would be like we were the only ones

 

in the room". Dash always felt their time together was essential and Aaliyah was the person

 

he was interested in being with, which is why, as he claimed, they had begun speaking about

 

engagement.[153] The relationship was mentioned in the lyrics of Jay-Z's remix to her song

 

"Miss You", released after her death.

 

Death

 

Main article: Death of Aaliyah

 

On August 25, 2001, at 6:50 p.m. (EDT), Aaliyah and the members of the record company

 

boarded a twin-engine Cessna 402B (registration N8097W) at the Marsh Harbour Airport in

 

Abaco Islands, the Bahamas, to travel to the Opa-locka Airport in Florida, after they

 

completed filming the music video for "Rock the Boat".[156] They had a flight scheduled the

 

following day, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to

 

return to the U.S. and made the decision to leave immediately. The designated airplane was

 

smaller than the Cessna 404 on which they had originally arrived, but the whole party and

 

all of the equipment were accommodated on board.[157] The plane crashed shortly after

 

takeoff, about 200 feet (60 m) from the end of the runway and exploded.[156]

 

Aaliyah and the eight others on board—pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman,

 

Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, family friend Keith Wallace, make-up stylist

 

Christopher Maldonado, and Blackground Records employees Douglas Kratz and Gina Smith—were

 

all killed.[158] Gallin survived the initial impact and spent his last moments worrying

 

about Aaliyah's condition, according to ambulance drivers.[159] The plane was identified as

 

being owned by Florida-based company Skystream by the US Federal Aviation Administration

 

(FAA) in Atlanta. Initial reports of the crash identified Luis Morales as "L Marael".[160]

 

According to findings from an inquest conducted by the coroner's office in the Bahamas,

 

Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head", in addition to severe shock and

 

a weak heart.[161] The coroner theorized that she went into such a state of shock that even

 

if she had survived the crash, her recovery would have been nearly impossible given the

 

severity of her injuries.[162] The bodies were taken to the morgue at Princess Margaret

 

Hospital in Nassau, where they were kept for relatives to help identify them. Some of the

 

bodies were badly burned in the crash.[163]

 

As the subsequent investigation determined, when the aircraft attempted to depart, it was

 

over its maximum take-off weight by 700 pounds (320 kg) and was carrying one excess

 

passenger, according to its certification.[164] An informational report issued by the

 

National Transportation Safety Board stated, "The airplane was seen lifting off the runway,

 

and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway

 

27."[165] It indicated that the pilot was not approved to fly the plane. Morales falsely

 

obtained his FAA license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have

 

falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk

 

International Airways.[166] Additionally, toxicology tests performed on Morales revealed

 

traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system.[167]

 

Aaliyah's funeral services were held on August 31, 2001, at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral

 

Chapel and St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan. Her body was set in a silver-plated

 

copper-deposit casket, which was carried in a glass horse-drawn hearse.[168] An estimated

 

800 mourners were in attendance at the procession.[20][169] Among those in attendance at the

 

private ceremony were Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Gladys Knight, Lil' Kim and Sean Combs.

 

[168][170][171] After the service, 22 white doves were released to symbolize each year of

 

Aaliyah's life.[172] Aaliyah was initially entombed in a crypt at the Ferncliff Mausoleum in

 

Hartsdale, New York; she was later moved to a private room at the left end of a corridor in

 

the Rosewood Mausoleum.[173] The inscription at the bottom of Aaliyah's portrait at the

 

funeral read: "We Were Given a Queen, We Were Given an Angel."[174]

 

After Aaliyah's death, the German newspaper Die Zeit published excerpts from an interview

 

done shortly before her death, in which she described a recurring dream: "It is dark in my

 

favorite dream. Someone is following me. I don't know why. I'm scared. Then suddenly I lift

 

off. Far away. How do I feel? As if I am swimming in the air. Free. Weightless. Nobody can

 

reach me. Nobody can touch me. It's a wonderful feeling."[175]

 

Posthumous career

 

Immediately after Aaliyah's death, there was uncertainty over whether the music video for

 

"Rock the Boat" would ever air.[176] It made its world premiere on BET's Access Granted on

 

October 9, 2001. She won two posthumous awards at the American Music Awards of 2002;

 

Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B/Soul Album for Aaliyah.[177] Her second and

 

final film, Queen of the Damned, was released in February 2002. Before its release,

 

Aaliyah's brother, Rashad, re-dubbed some of her lines during post-production.[178][179] It

 

grossed US$15.2 million in its first weekend, ranking number one at the box office.[180] On

 

the first anniversary of Aaliyah's death, a candlelight vigil was held in Times Square;

 

millions of fans observed a moment of silence; and throughout the United States, radio

 

stations played her music in remembrance.[181] In December 2002, a collection of previously

 

unreleased material was released as Aaliyah's first posthumous album, I Care 4 U. A portion

 

of the proceeds was donated to the Aaliyah Memorial Fund, a program that benefits the Revlon

 

UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program and Harlem's Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.[182] It

 

debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, selling 280,000 copies in its first week.[183]

 

The album's lead single, "Miss You", peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and

 

topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[70] In August of the following year, clothing

 

retailer Christian Dior donated profits from sales in honor of Aaliyah.[184]

 

In 2005, Aaliyah's second compilation album, Ultimate Aaliyah was released in the UK by

 

Blackground Records.[185] Ultimate Aaliyah is a three disc set, which included a greatest

 

hits audio CD and a DVD.[185] Andy Kellman of AllMusic remarked "Ultimate Aaliyah adequately

 

represents the shortened career of a tremendous talent who benefited from some of the best

 

songwriting and production work by Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and R. Kelly."[185] A

 

documentary movie Aaliyah Live in Amsterdam was released in 2011, shortly before the tenth

 

anniversary of Aaliyah's death. The documentary, by Pogus Caesar, contained previously

 

unseen footage shot of her career beginnings in 1995 when she was appearing in the

 

Netherlands.[186]

 

In March 2012, music producer Jeffrey "J-Dub" Walker announced on his Twitter account that a

 

song "Steady Ground", which he produced for Aaliyah's third album, would be included in the

 

forthcoming posthumous Aaliyah album. This second proposed posthumous album would feature

 

this song using demo vocals, as Walker claims the originals were somehow lost by his sound

 

engineer. Aaliyah's brother Rashad later refuted Walker's claim, claiming that "no official

 

album [is] being released and supported by the Haughton family."[187] On August 5, 2012, a

 

song entitled "Enough Said" was released online. The song was produced by Noah "40" Shebib

 

and features Canadian rapper Drake.[188] Four days later, Jomo Hankerson confirmed a

 

posthumous album is being produced and that it was scheduled to be released by the end of

 

2012 by Blackground Records.[189] The album was reported to include 16 unreleased songs and

 

have contributions from Aaliyah's longtime collaborators Timbaland and Missy Elliott, among

 

others.[189] On August 13, Timbaland and Missy Elliott dismissed rumors about being

 

contacted or participating for the project.[190] Elliott's manager Mona Scott-Young said in

 

a statement to XXL, "Although Missy and Timbaland always strive to keep the memory of their

 

close friend alive, we have not been contacted about the project nor are there any plans at

 

this time to participate. We've seen the reports surfacing that they have been confirmed to

 

participate but that is not the case. Both Missy and Timbaland are very sensitive to the

 

loss still being felt by the family so we wanted to clear up any misinformation being

 

circulated."[190] Elliott herself said, "Tim and I carry Aaliyah with us everyday, like so

 

many of the people who love her. She will always live in our hearts. We have nothing but

 

love and respect for her memory and for her loved ones left behind still grieving her loss.

 

They are always in our prayers."[190]

 

In June 2013, Aaliyah was featured on a new track by Chris Brown, titled "Don't Think They

 

Know"; with Aaliyah singing the song's hook. The video features dancing holographic versions

 

of Aaliyah. The song appears on Brown's sixth studio album, X.[191] Timbaland voiced his

 

disapproval for "Enough Said" and "Don't Think They Know" in July 2013. He exclaimed,

 

"Aaliyah music only work with its soulmate, which is me".[192] Soon after, Timbaland

 

apologized to Chris Brown over his remarks, which he explained were made due to Aaliyah and

 

her death being a "very sensitive subject".[193] In January 2014, producer Noah "40" Shebib

 

confirmed that the posthumous album was shelved due to the negative reception surrounding

 

Drake's involvement. Shebib added, "Aaliyah's mother saying, 'I don't want this out' was

 

enough for me ... I walked away very quickly."[194][195]

 

Aaliyah's vocals were reported to be featured on the T-Pain mixtape, The Iron Way, on the

 

track "Girlfriend", but were pulled after being met with criticism by fans and many in

 

attendance at a New York listening session that he hosted for the project. In response to

 

the criticism, T-Pain questioned if Aaliyah's legacy was driven by her death and claimed

 

that were she still alive, she would be seen as trying to emulate Beyoncé.[196] According to

 

T-Pain, he was given her vocals from a session she had done prior to her death after being

 

approached to work on a track for a posthumous Aaliyah album and completing the song,

 

calling the exchange "just like a swap."[197]

 

She was featured on the Tink track "Million", which was released in May 2015 and contained

 

samples from her song "One in a Million".[198] Collaborator Timbaland was involved in the

 

song's creation, having previously claimed that Aaliyah appeared to him in a dream and

 

stressed that Tink was "the one".[199]

 

In August 2015, Timbaland confirmed that he had unreleased vocals from Aaliyah and stated a

 

"sneak peek" would be coming soon.[200][201]

 

In September 2015, Aaliyah by Xyrena, an official tribute fragrance was announced.[202]

 

On December 19, 2015, Timbaland uploaded a snippet of a new Aaliyah song title "He Keeps Me

 

Shakin" on his Instagram account and said it would be released December 25, 2015, on the

 

Timbaland mixtape King Stays King.[203] On August 24, 2017 MAC Cosmetics announced that an

 

Aaliyah collection will be made available in the summer of 2018.[204] The Aaliyah for Mac

 

collection was released on June 20 online and June 21 in stores, along with the MAC

 

collection, MAC and i-D Magazine partnered up to release a short film titled "A-Z of

 

Aaliyah" which coincided with the launch.[205] The short film highlighted and celebrated the

 

legacy of Aaliyah with the help of select fans who were selected to be a part of the film

 

through a casting call competition held by Mac and i-d magazine.[206] The Aaliyah for Mac

 

collectors box was sold at $250 and it sold out within minutes during the first day of its

 

initial release.[207]

 

Legacy and influence

 

Aaliyah has been credited for helping redefine R&B, pop and hip hop in the 1990s, "leaving

 

an indelible imprint on the music industry as a whole."[1][89][208] According to Billboard,

 

Aaliyah revolutionized R&B with her sultry mix of pop, soul and hip hop.[209] In a 2001

 

review of her eponymous album, Rolling Stone professed that Aaliyah's impact on R&B and pop

 

has been enormous.[210] Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote Aaliyah ranks among the "elite" artists

 

of the R&B genre, as she "played a major role in popularizing the stuttering, futuristic

 

production style that consumed hip-hop and urban soul in the late 1990s."[211] Bruce Britt

 

of "music world" on Broadcast Music, Inc's. website stated that by combining "schoolgirl

 

charm with urban grit", Aaliyah helped define the teen-oriented sound that has resulted in

 

contemporary pop phenom's like Brandy, Christina Aguilera and Destiny's Child.[212]

 

Described as one of "R&B's most important artists" during the 1990s,[213] her second studio

 

album, One in a Million, became one of the most influential R&B albums of the decade.[33]

 

Music critic Simon Reynolds cited "Are You That Somebody?" as "the most radical pop single"

 

of 1998. Kelefah Sanneh of The New York Times wrote that rather than being the song's focal

 

point, Aaliyah "knew how to disappear into the music, how to match her voice to the bass

 

line", and consequently "helped change the way popular music sounds; the twitchy, beat-

 

driven songs of Destiny's Child owe a clear debt to 'Are You That Somebody'." Sanneh

 

asserted that by the time of her death in 2001, Aaliyah "had recorded some of the most

 

innovative and influential pop songs of the last five years."[101] Music publication Popdust

 

called Aaliyah an unlikely queen of the underground due mainly to her influence on the

 

underground alternative music scene, which consists of heavy sampling and references to her

 

music by underground artists. Popdust also mentioned that the forward-thinking music Aaliyah

 

did with Timbaland and the experimental music being made by many underground alternative

 

artists are somewhat cut from the same cloth.[214] While compiling a list of artists that

 

take cues from Aaliyah, MTV Hive mentioned that it's easy to spot her influence on

 

underground movements like dubstep, strains of indie pop, and lo-fi R&B movements.[215] With

 

sales of 8.1 million albums in the United States and an estimated 24 to 32 million albums

 

worldwide,[216][217][218][219][220] Aaliyah earned the nicknames "Princess of R&B" and

 

"Queen of Urban Pop",[221][222] as she "proved she was a muse in her own right".[223] Ernest

 

Hardy of Rolling Stone dubbed her as the "undisputed queen of the midtempo come-on".[19]

 

Aaliyah has been referred to as a pop icon and a R&B icon for her impact and contributions

 

to those respective genres.[224][225] Japanese pop singer Hikaru Utada has said several

 

times that "It was when I heard Aaliyah's Age Ain't Nothing but a Number that I got hooked

 

on R&B.", after which Utada released her debut album First Love with heavy R&B influences.

 

[226][227] Another Japanese pop singer Crystal Kay has expressed how she admired Aaliyah

 

when she was growing up and how she would practice dancing while watching her music videos.

 

[228]

 

Aaliyah was honored at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards by Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott,

 

Timbaland, Ginuwine and her brother, Rashad, who all paid tribute to her.[229] In the same

 

year, the United States Social Security Administration ranked the name Aaliyah one of the

 

100 most popular names for newborn girls.[230] Aaliyah was ranked as one of "The Top 40

 

Women of the Video Era" in VH1's 2003 The Greatest series.[231][232] She was also ranked at

 

number 18 on BET's "Top 25 Dancers of All Time".[233] Aaliyah appeared on both 2000 and 2001

 

list of Maxim Hot 100 in position 41 and the latter at 14.[234][235] In 2002 VH1 created the

 

100 sexiest artist list and Aaliyah was ranked at number 36.[236] In memory of Aaliyah, the

 

Entertainment Industry Foundation created the Aaliyah Memorial Fund to donate money raised

 

to charities she supported.[237][238] In December 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Aaliyah at

 

number 70 on its Top Artists of the Decade,[239] while her eponymous album was ranked at

 

number 181 on the magazine's Top 200 Albums of the Decade.[240] She is listed by Billboard

 

as the tenth most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years, and 27th most

 

successful R&B artist overall.[241] In 2012, VH1 ranked her number 48 in "VH1's Greatest

 

Women in Music".[242] Also in 2012, Aaliyah was ranked at number 10 on Complex magazine's

 

100 hottest female singers of all-time list[243] and number 22 on their 90 hottest women of

 

the 90's list.[244] In 2014, NME ranked Aaliyah at number 18 on NME's 100 most influential

 

artist list.[245] Aaliyah's dress that she wore at the 2000 MTV Video Music Award's was

 

featured in the most memorable fashion moments at the VMA's list by the fashion publication

 

Harper's Bazaar.[246] In October 2015 Aaliyah was featured in the 10 women who became Denim

 

Style icons list created by the fashion publication Vogue.[247] In August 2018 Billboard

 

ranked Aaliyah at number 47 on their Top 60 Female Artists of All-Time list.[248]

 

Aaliyah's music has influenced numerous artists including Adele,[249] The Weeknd,[250]

 

Ciara,[251] Beyoncé,[252] Monica,[253] Chris Brown,[191] Rihanna,[254] Azealia Banks,[255]

 

Sevyn Streeter,[256] Keyshia Cole,[257] J. Cole,[258] Ryan Destiny[259] Kelly Rowland,[260]

 

Zendaya,[261] Rita Ora,[262] The xx,[263][264][265] Arctic Monkeys,[266] Speedy Ortiz,[267]

 

Chelsea Wolfe,[268] Haim,[269] Angel Haze,[270] Kiesza,[271] Naya Rivera,[272] Normani[273]

 

Cassie,[274][275] Hayley Williams,[276] Jessie Ware,[277] Yeasayer,[278] Bebe Rexha,[279]

 

Omarion,[280] and Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander.[281] Canadian R&B singer Keshia

 

Chanté who was said to play as her in her pending biopic back in 2008, complimented the

 

singer's futuristic style in music and fashion.[282] Chanté backed out of the biopic after

 

speaking to Diane Haughton, but has expressed a willingness to do the project if "the right

 

production comes along and the family's behind it". Chanté also mentioned that Aaliyah had

 

been part of her life "since I was 6."[283] R&B singer and friend Brandy said about the late

 

singer "She came out before Monica and I did, she was our inspiration. At the time, record

 

companies did not believe in kid acts and it was just inspiring to see someone that was

 

winning and winning being themselves. When I met her I embraced her, I was so happy to meet

 

her."[284] Rapper Drake said that the singer has had the biggest influence on his career. He

 

also has a tattoo of the singer on his back.[285] Solange Knowles remarked on the tenth

 

anniversary of her death that she idolized Aaliyah and proclaimed that she would never be

 

forgotten.[286] Adam Levine, the lead vocalist of the pop rock group Maroon 5, remembers

 

that listening to "Are You That Somebody?" convinced him to pursue a more soulful sound than

 

that of his then-band Kara's Flowers.[287] Erika Ramirez, an associate editor of Billboard,

 

said at the time of Aaliyah's career "there weren't many artists using the kind of soft

 

vocals the ways she was using it, and now you see a lot of artists doing that and finding

 

success," her reasoning for Aaliyah's continued influence on current artists. She argued

 

that Aaliyah's second album One in a Million was "very much ahead of its time, with the bass

 

and electro kind of R&B sounds that they produced", referring to collaborators Timbaland and

 

Missy Elliott and that the sound, which "really stood out" at its time, was being

 

replicated.[288]

 

In 2012, British singer-songwriter Katy B released the song Aaliyah as a tribute to

 

Aaliyah's legacy and lasting impression on R&B music.[289] The song first appeared on Katy

 

B's Danger EP and featured Jessie Ware on guest vocals. In 2016, Swedish singer-songwriter

 

Erik Hassle released a song titled "If Your Man Only Knew" which serves as a tribute to

 

Aaliyah's 1996 single "If Your Girl Only Knew".[290]

 

There has been continuing belief that Aaliyah would have achieved greater career success had

 

it not been for her death. Emil Wilbekin mentioned the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and

 

Tupac Shakur in conjunction with hers and added: "Her just-released third album and

 

scheduled role in a sequel to The Matrix could have made her another Janet Jackson or

 

Whitney Houston".[291] Director of Queen of the Damned Michael Rymer said of Aaliyah, "God,

 

that girl could have gone so far" and spoke of her having "such a clarity about what she

 

wanted. Nothing was gonna step in her way. No ego, no nervousness, no manipulation. There

 

was nothing to stop her."[292]

 

On July 18, 2014, it was announced that Alexandra Shipp replaced Zendaya for the role of

 

Aaliyah for the Lifetime TV biopic movie Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B,

In his ongoing effort to shine in Palpatine's eye, Stormtrooper Bruce has come up with an idea he hopes to perfect before the holiday contests begin... because you never know. And after the prank they just paid on Fett, he wants to keep things as normal as possible... because you never know.

 

STB: What are you two doing here? Didn't you get my wave movie night was changed to tomorrow. I'm working on a project and can't afford any interruptions or distractions. And no offense, but that's what you two are.

 

TK-1110: Well, pardon my interruption but what, for the love of the P, are you doing?

 

STB: Practicing.

 

TK-432: Well, pardon my distraction but ... again? After last time you still want to do this? So, what are you practicing this time?

 

STB: If you must know I'm working on a cheese sculpture.

 

TK-1110: Doesn't look like anything I recognize. What's it supposed to be?

 

STB: I haven't started yet. I'm still deciding. And I need some peace and quiet!

 

TK-432: Can we help?

 

STB: You mean help eat it, don't you?

 

TK-1110: No, of course not. Real help. Why not just slice a big chunk off on this side to get started.

 

STB: Guys! How am I supposed to get inspired with all this chatter?

 

TK-432: Chatter shmatter. If you carve off a sliver on THIS side that might inspire you.

 

TK-1110: Why not make a tribble, or Sorting Hat? Just take a little off the top.

 

TK-432: Or a Christmas tree. Or a wampa in a Santa hat.

 

STB: *sigh* This really isn't working. You two are NOT helping. What you did to Fettl's quarters was helpful. This isn't.

 

TK-1110: So... this is an epic fail?

 

TK-432: No way, it's a whopping success! All we need now is a box of crackers, and this might become a night we won’t ever forget!

 

TK-1110: So... are you going to cut the cheese or not?

 

STB: I know a lost cause when I see one. If I throw in a cooler of cold ones maybe this will become a night I won't ever remember.

 

____________________________________________

Viewing Large is alwasy fun. Just click on the image.

Titian -

Allegory of Time governed by Prudence [~1550]

London NG

wikipedia

 

Here you will find an exhaustive article on possible interpretions:

www.artinsociety.com/titian-prudence-and-the-three-headed...

********************************************************************************

Connected to Titian's late portraits is the Allegory of Time governed by Prudence. This is an exceptional portrait which depicts the aged Titian on the left above a wolf's head, his son Orazio in the centre above the head of a lion, and his nephew Marco above a dog's head. The wolf, the lion and the dog, symbolize the past, present and future. In the upper part of the painting there is an inscription which is the key to the complex allegorical meaning of the work: "EX PRAETERITO PRAESENS PRUDENTER AGIT, NI FUTURUM ACTIONE DETURPET" ("From the (experience of the) past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoil future action").

 

Though it was common enough during the Renaissance to use three human heads to symbolize the ages of man, and to use three animal heads to symbolize prudence, it was very unusual to use them as the theme of a painting. As Titian used personal motifs, it can be assumed that he chose the subject matter himself.

 

ttps://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/tiziano/10/3/5allegor.html

*******************************************************************************

 

The Allegory of Prudence (c. 1550–1565) is an oil-on-canvas painting attributed to the Italian artist Titian and his assistants. The painting portrays three human heads, each facing in a different direction, above three animal heads (from left to right, a wolf, a lion and a dog). It is in the National Gallery, London.[1]

 

The painting is usually interpreted as operating on a number of levels.[2][3] At the first level, the different ages of the three human heads represent the three ages of man (from left to right: old age, maturity and youth), a subject that Titian had depicted 50 years earlier in his The Three Ages of Man. The different directions in which they are facing reflect a second, wider concept of time itself as having a past, present and future. This theme is repeated in the animal heads: an animal with three heads (wolf, lion, dog) to represent the passage of time (past, present, future) is associated with Serapis in Macrobius's Saturnalia, and associated with Apollo by Petrarch, and the iconography is repeated for example in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna (1499), the Hieroglyphica of Pierio Valeriano (1556), and the Iconologia of Cesare Ripa (1643). The third level, from which the painting has acquired its present name, is suggested by a barely visible inscription above the portraits: EX PRÆTE/RITO // PRÆSENS PRVDEN/TER AGIT // NI FVTVRA / ACTIONĒ DE/TVRPET (Latin for "from the experience of the past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoil future actions".)

 

It has been argued that the human faces are actual portraits of the aged Titian, his son Orazio, and his young nephew, Marco Vecellio, who, like Orazio, lived and worked with Titian.[4] Erwin Panofsky, in his classic exposition, suggests that the painting is specifically associated with the negotiations associated with the passing on of Titian's property to the younger generations, in the light of his approaching death. The painting therefore acts as a visual counsel to the three generations to act prudently in the administration of the inheritance. Nicholas Penny is, however, highly sceptical of this, and points out discrepancies between the human heads and other evidence of the individuals' appearance. He doubts it was a personal project of any sort and feels that is "surely more likely that the painting was commissioned".[5] Others are also of the opinion that the three heads are not Titian and his family. One reason is that there are no portraits of Orazio or Marco, so confirmation that they are the figures is difficult.[6]

 

More recently the painting has been explained in quite different ways. Instead of an allegory of prudence, it has been seen as an allegory about sin and penitence. On this view, it amounts to an admission by Titian that his failure to act prudently in his youth and middle age has condemned him to lead a regretful old age.[7]

 

At the other extreme, the painting has been explained as asserting that the prudence which comes with experience and old age is an essential aspect of artistic discrimination and judgement. On this interpretation, the painting therefore acts as a rebuttal of the view that old age is the enemy of artistic achievement. On a more general level, the painting's depiction of Titian with his assistants Orazio and Marco is also intended as a defence of the prudence of the continuity of the Venetian workshop tradition.[8]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_Prudence

********************************************************************************

  

My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd

 

Last weekend I organised three 'time for images' shoots with Purpleport models. This portrait of Bella is from the first which took place in St Dunstan's ruined Church and Leadenhall Market in the City of London.

 

More to follow........

 

More from modelshoots here : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/50305793616

 

© D.Godliman

Ursula is a member of the Eastern Counties Heavy Horse Association (ECHHA) Display Team that was displaying at the 2022 Strumpshaw Steam Engine Rally.

 

Originating from the Brabant region of Belgium, it is theoretically possible that the Belgian may have had ancestors that were 'destriers' (war horses) in the Middle Ages, although no independent evidence supports this claim. The foundation stock for the Belgian was originally known as the Brabant, other names for essentially the same breed include the Cheval de trait Belge, Brabançon, and Belgisch Trekpaard. Until the 1940's, the Belgian and the Brabant were essentially the same breed but following World War II the Brabant in was selectively bred to be thicker bodied and heavier, while the Belgian was bred to be somewhat taller and lighter bodied.

A male Belgian stands between 16.2 to 17 hands (66 to 70 in. - 167 to 178 cm) and a female stands 15.2 to 16 hands (62 to 66 - 157 to 167 cm). On average a male Belgian grows to weigh slightly over 2,000 lb. (900 kg) with a female weighing 1,550 lb. (700 kg).

The breed is compact and muscular, powerful and strong. The head is relatively small and well shaped, its body is heavy, it's back is broad and the legs are short and strong.

Belgian horses are intelligence and they are also known for being docile, kind, quiet, and willing to please. They are hard working animals that are loyal, easy to handle, and friendly to their human companions.

The number of Belgian horses declined after World War II, thanks to industrialization and mechanization, but their numbers have been increasing in modern times. These animals are still often utilized for draught work that includes pulling carts, carriages or sleighs as well as logging. The horse is also suitable for riding.

   

Iphone Digital

 

WEBSITE.

INSTAGRAM. @hollographic

 

7.9.20

Funny how one day can change your life. I have big things that are possible and even just knowing the possibility gives me hope for the future.

I don't know how the game will end, but I think that Elizabeth's death is an option.

I think this moment should be beautiful and peaceful to some extent, because Elizabeth still gets the freedom : )

Possible outcomes revealed

After building a Soviet version, I thought I needed an original US version as well. Read the full write-up on The Brothers Brick.

 

I also challenged myself (for my own amusement) to pack in as many custom elements as possible -- the rarer the better:

 

* BrickArms M2HB .50 caliber machine gun (prototype)

* BrickArms M1917 .30 caliber Browning machine guns (x2 prototypes)

* Citizen Brick torsos

* BrickArms brodie helmets

* BrickArms M1 Garand rifles (x2 overmolded "Reloaded" version)

* BrickArms M1917 printed crate

* Citizen Brick diamond plate tiles

I've been trying to find a shorter way to include this canopy, and it's been kind of annoying. I like it, but it's difficult to get it into a really small space to make it look like some of my sketches.

 

I'm still not totally happy with this solution, so I'm putting it out there to see what you guys can come up with.

 

The goal is to get it to sit with as little 'kibble' out the back as possible, and maybe even studs out to have room for greebles and such.

So I honestly think Gale is one of the best male dolls Mattel has produced in the last 5 years since his sculpt is pretty nice and the screening is great too so I’m pretty chuffed @elizabethplaid gifted him to me. But for some reason his head just looks really big on the pivotal Ken body. So I’m trying to see if he looks good on other bodies or not.

 

He’s currently on my Declan Wake’s body since I find Declan’s head to be too small for the neck, but I’m not sure if I’m really feeling Gale on this body. It’s definitely more expressive and proportional for Gale but…. yeah.

 

This is an inverted Black and White frame showing Milkyway, Zodiacal Light, and Gegenschein. There looks to be a faint blob of light just south to Gegenschein on the frame. It looks bigger and fainter than Gegenschein. It may be backscattered sunlight at concentrated dust on the orbit of Moon around Earth, though I am not sure on the existence, origin, or mechanism. Is this merely an illusion due to surrounding dark nebulae? North is up, and east is to the left.

 

equipmnent: EF8-15mmF4 fisheye zoom and Canon EOS R-sp4II, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200FG-Temma 2Z-BL with tracking without autoguiding

 

exposure: 3 times x 20 minutes, 3 x 4 min, and 3 x 1 minute at ISO 1,600 and 8mm f/4.0

 

site: 2,430m above sea level at lat. 24 39 52 South and long. 70 16 11 West near Cerro Armazones Chile

SQML was 21.85 at the night.

#4 with quite possibly one of the ugliest P42s on the roster flies past the 849 Intermediates on NMDOT Sub. Yeah the lead locomotive sucks, but these signals are not long for the world if they haven’t fallen already.

I love this fabric so much I wanted to use as much as possible. So I turned my spring ruffle top into a sundress! Here is what I did: I made the length 26" rather than 20" as described in the tutorial. I did the optional waist shaping, trying to taper out to the full width at the fullest part of my hips. The finished width of the band of trim at the bottom is about 2.5." Other than that, I just followed the directions!

Пара интервью с вокалистом Felt.

 

• их главный хит Primitive Painters спродюсировал Робин Гатри из Cocteau Twins, и на бэк-вокале с его подачи там спела Elizabeth Fraser;

 

• сингл Primitive Painters попал на вершину UK Independent Singles Chart, чего не удалось достичь ни The Smiths, ни Cocteau Twins;

 

• когда песня взлетела в топы МакГи из Creation и Cherry Red решили снять видео на этот сингл, но МакГи (был на мели) не заплатил ребятам (Cherry и Creation изначально договаривали разделить расходы пополам), поэтому они смогли снять только полклипа (!), из-за этого Lawrence собирался уничтожить видео, к счастью копия была не только у него (группа как раз перешла из Cherry на Creation);

 

• Робин очень любил эту группу и старался им помочь по мере сил, но для сведения альбома они заставили их вокалиста (по имени Lawrence Hayward) подписать бумажку, что он никаким образом не будет вмешиваться в сведение записи, потому что были наслышаны о его характере, он очень страдал что не может повлиять;

 

• видео сняли спустя пару лет после выхода альбома, в доме Фила Кинга (в будущем басиста Lush и The Jesus and Mary Chain) в Hammersmith, он тогда играл в Felt; штатным басистом Felt был Marco Thomas, так что Phil King даже не отмечен ни на одной их пластинке, хотя и снялся в их самом популярном видео;

 

• Martin Duffy сыграл на клавишах на этой пластинке, когда ему было всего 18 (а пришёл он в группу вообще в 16 лет), после распада Felt он примкнет к Primal Scream (на днях скончался /RIP);

 

Felt discography

 

1982.01 — Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty (Cherry Red)

1984.02 — The Splendour of Fear (Cherry Red)

1984.10 — The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories (Cherry Red)

1985.09 — Ignite the Seven Cannons (Cherry Red) - Primitive Painters отсюда

1986.06 — Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (Creation)

1986.09 — Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (Creation)

1987.06 — Poem of the River (Creation)

1988.05 — The Pictorial Jackson Review (Creation)

1988.07 — Train Above the City (Creation)

1989.11 — Me and a Monkey on the Moon (Creation)

 

compilation

 

1987.09 — Gold Mine Trash [Cherry Red]

1990.04 — Bubblegum Perfume [Creation]

1992.04 — Absolute Classic Masterpieces [Cherry Red]

1993.10 — Absolute Classic Masterpieces Vol. II [Creation]

1993.10 — Felt Box [Cherry Red]

2003.05 — Stains on a Decade [Cherry Red]

 

singles

 

1979 — Index

1981 — Something Sends Me to Sleep

1982 — My Face Is on Fire / Trails of Colour Dissolve

1983 — Penelope Tree

1984 — Mexican Bandits / The World Is as Soft as Lace

1984 — Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow

1985 — Primitive Painters

1986 — Ballad of the Band

1986 — Rain of Crystal Spires

1987 — The Final Resting of the Ark

1988 — Space Blues

 

• Уникальный саунд Felt — заслуга гитариста Maurice Deebank (Lawrence его друг детства) и он покинет группу сразу после альбома «Ignite the Seven Cannons», 1985, он говорил в другом интервью, что на первых альбомах учил всех играть на инструментах, там все самоучки кроме него (и даже после его ухода, они играли так как он их научил), Maurice признавал что Lawrence великий поэт, но они разошлись т.к. парни перестали слушать его советы по поводу саунда, плюс им вскружил голову успех Primitive Painters — Джон Пил и все остальные там подпрыгивали от радости когда её включали и они реально остановились в полушаге от глобальной популярности, но эта же песня стала их последним большим хитом;

 

Phil King играл в группах:

 

The Servants (1986)

Felt (1986-1987)

Apple Boutique (1987)

Hangman's Beautiful Daughters (1987)

Biff Bang Pow! (1988-1989)

See See Rider (1989-1992)

Lush (1992-1997, 2015-2016)

The Jesus & Mary Chain (1997-1998, 2017-)

(удивительно конечно, что я посмотрел живьём и Lush и JAMC хотя даже и не мечтал о таком!)

 

Felt одна из самых недооценённых британских групп, как и McCarthy.

 

...

 

An interview with Lawrence: “‘Primitive Painters’ was this great big statement, Felt were going to be massive.”

— Michael Bonner @ Uncut, 24.07.2015

www.uncut.co.uk/features/an-interview-with-lawrence-primi...

 

— Where were Felt just prior to Ignite the Seven Cannons?

— Honestly there’s so much. I don’t want to blab on and on. Originally I wanted to continue with John Leckie after The Strange Idols Pattern. He didn’t want to do it. I was writing these trademark pop songs at the time, short 3-minute things. Leckie said, “They’re all the same, they just seem to start and then stop, there’s no beginning.” Things like that. He was reluctant to get involved. But I said, “These are just a few rough demos that you’re listening to, the songs are nothing like that really. They’re quite expansive, there’s a lot going on.” But he wouldn’t give it a chance. So he passed on it anyway. We were trying to get Tom Verlaine as well.

 

— Did you approach Verlaine?

— We did, yeah. He said – oh God, his quote was classic – he said he didn’t want to get involved himself because he felt the guitars were playing all the way through the songs. That’s the gist of it. They would start and continue, like a long solo. The songs, they weren’t arranged. Like most would start and then continue all the way through the song. That’s a lot to do with me, because Maurice [Deebank] is such a great guitarist that I encouraged him to play from beginning to end, especially on my songs. That’s something Tom Verlaine picked up on. It was a good criticism, I suppose, in a way, if you were trying to write conventional songs. But we weren’t. At the beginning of this chat my point would be that these people didn’t give us a chance to see what could happen in the studio with this.

 

— How did Robin Guthrie become involved?

— Cocteau Twins had approached us to play with them live because we were Robin’s favourite band. We didn’t know them, they got in touch with us, and Robin said they were doing a small UK tour – well, for them it was a massive tour. It was 5 days on the trot I think, or 6 days. They took us with them in their mini bus and they paid for everything. They were very kind to us, and we became great friends on this tour. So, I thought, “Maybe I’ll ask Robin because he seems to know what he’s doing in the studio.” He wasn’t known as a producer then, he’d only produced Cocteau Twins. Now he’s known as more of a producer. I wanted to work with a musician. Robin liked us a lot, and he agreed to do it as long as I wasn’t at the mixing. I had to sign a contract to say that I wasn’t allowed to be at the mixing, because he thought my presence was too overpowering. There could only be one person mixing the record, and that would be him.

 

— Is that just how he works or was that about you personally?

— That was about me personally, absolutely. Because I was in control of every asset of the band. I had a comment on everything, even a shoelace, for example. I was in to everything, and I was completely obsessed. I think he thought, if he was going to produce, he’d want to produce it his way. He’d probably heard stories of me in the studio before anyway.

 

— What sort of stories?

— I don’t know, the usual. You always hear stories about people in the studio that are kind blown up out of all proportion. I don’t know what he could have heard, there are so many. He’d probably heard that it’s very hard to work with me. I signed this piece of paper anyway. There was a production contract and there was an extra contract for me to sign saying that I wouldn’t be there at the mixing. I can’t go into the whole thing, we’d need a whole book. But, what happened was, as we were recording the album, I was more and more reluctant to go along with this. I wasn’t sure that I shouldn’t be there. It got to the point where we had 11 days to record and five or six days to mix. We did it in Palladium studios in Edinburgh. Robin knew the engineer, the guy who owned it. Jon Turner I think his name was.

 

— Do you remember when this was?

— Let’s remember the weather… I reckon it was spring. It was coldish but there wasn’t any snow or rain. I’d say spring we did it. Definitely spring, yeah. Loads of Eighties bands went to Palladium, especially Scottish bands. Paul Haig and people.

 

— What was it like?

— It was residential which is the first time I’ve done that, and I didn’t like that at all, being away from my own surroundings, and sharing a room, we were all sharing a room. Like a dormitory it was.

 

— Who did you share with?

— I had my own room. I think that was part of it. I had to have my own room. I think we threw someone else in together, three of them together, so that I could have my own room. I think that was my one diva moment. It was awful for me, it was in the middle of nowhere. About a 45 minute bus ride into Edinburgh. It was awful, in a country lane, there was like a tiny little village down the lane. I got attacked by a dog, had to go to hospital. Like a wolf it was. It attacked me one day.

 

— Why did it attack you?

— I don’t know, just saw I was scared. It didn’t attack anybody else. I was on my own. Had to go to hospital. I hated it. And also I hated the food, and the whole day was geared up to “Is he going to eat or not tonight?” It’s all like that.

 

— What kind of food did they serve, if you don’t mind me asking?

— I can’t remember. But I didn’t eat anything. I didn’t like any meals, it was always a big deal. His wife was cooking the meals for us, of course, and you tend to be polite in those situations, but I couldn’t eat the food. Robin, he thought it was wonderful that all this was going on, and he’d make a big show of it to the wife, “He’s not eating it again, he doesn’t like your food.” All this kind of stuff. He’s quite the joker, Robin is. Everything’s based around a joke and japes with him. He sort of revelled in my idiosyncrasies.

 

— I want to talk more about Robin in a minute. But this is Duffy’s first record. How did he come into the picture?

— He joined late ‘84, straight from school. When we did Ignite… he was probably 16.

 

— How did you find him?

— I put an advert in Virgin for a guitarist. This was during one of the periods where Maurice left. This guy who worked there came up to me and said, “Look, you’re in Felt aren’t you? I know this great keyboard player.” That was Martin. I rang him and it was as simple as that. That was it really. Very lucky. I was thinking about a keyboard player anyway, because Maurice is so hard to replace. I got Martin in, we worked on all songs that were on Ignite the Seven Cannons – apart from “Primitive Painters” and Maurice’s solo song. In between then and starting the album, Maurice rejoined. He’d always leave, then he’d rejoin. Me and Gary [Ainge] would carry on on our own for a few months, and then we’d come to a low point, go round to Maurice’s house and beg him. We’d stay up all night with him and plead with him to come back. He took a lot of persuading, he wasn’t bothered about being in a group at all. So anyway, the next time we got Maurice back, Martin was with us. One of the reasons Maurice was quite happy to come back was the fact that we had a keyboard player. He thought it would be better for the arrangements.

 

— This was Maurice’s final record, though?

— Every record he came in and left really. That’s why he’s never in a lot of interviews, because he’d left straight after recording. But what happened this time was he’d got married to a girlfriend, and what should have been his honeymoon was spent recording Ignite the Seven Cannons. When we delivered him back to his flat in Birmingham, he got out the van and said “I’m finished now, yeah that’s it, I’m finished.” I knew he meant it that time. He left soon as we’d finished recording.

 

— When did you start writing “Primitive Painters”?

— When Maurice rejoined, he bought the music for “Primitive Painters”. It wasn’t like a fully formed song, it was like a cyclical riff. We arranged it together, and I put the verses in so it was a joint collaboration. But he wrote all the music to that and he brought his instrumental track, “Elegance of an Only Dream”. I wanted there to be lots of Maurice songs on that record. But he wasn’t interested, or he just found it too hard to work on his own, I think. When we wrote the songs together, we would sit opposite each other, parallel to each other, in my bedroom or flats that we subsequently got, and we’d just sit there and work on them. I’d play the chord sequence while he’d work out his guitar parts. I think he liked the camaraderie of that better than sitting on his own in a cold room trying to come up with songs, which I didn’t have a problem with. The poet in the garret was made for me. I was quite happy to be on my own composing and writing the words and writing the music, just waiting for fame. I was very prolific, but Maurice wasn’t. He wrote I think one on the first album, “I Worship The Sun”, and he wrote a song called “Spanish House” on the third album, and “Primitive Painters” and the “Elegance…” song. I was quite happy for him to present a whole album worth of stuff. We were partners and it didn’t matter who wrote what bits. We were songwriters’ together, joint songwriters. And of course, he came up with the best song, “Primitive Painters”.

 

— Where did the lyrics come in, do you have books of lyrics?

— I was sitting in my kitchen in Moseley doing it. The lyrics, I don’t know how they come about. That would’ve been the last song on Ignite the Seven Cannons, because I had all the others written. So that would’ve been the last lyric I wrote. I can’t say there was any special moment that made me come up with it.

 

— Can you explain the song?

— “Dragons blow fire, angels fly, Spirits wither in the air/It’s just me I can’t deny I’m neither here, there nor anywhere”. It’s about wanting to be in a select group. “Primitive painters are ships floating on an empty sea, gathering in galleries”. Imagine groups of really cool kids hanging out in galleries, not pubs. That was my sort of conception.

 

— Was that you?

— Yeah, that’s me. I’d always find myself in a gallery on my own, y’know.

 

— Can you talk us through how you worked on the song in the studio?

— We’d work them up in a practise room. There was no improvising going on, so we knew exactly what we were doing. Then we set up like a band in the studio. They were layered afterwards. They were very simple, very traditional big group concepts, just like everyone did. You’d set up live and you’d get the bass and the drums and the keyboards down, and the rhythm guitar, and you’d layer it from there, adding lead guitar and vocals afterwards. It’s quite boring, that aspect of it. But it was done really quickly because we didn’t have enough time to ponder, so we just did them all live.

 

— What was Robin like in the studio as a producer?

— While I was there, he was capturing it all with the engineer. He didn’t make any arrangement suggestions because it was all set in stone before we got there. I was very pedantic like that. But he put effects to tape, which is something you don’t do.

 

— Could you explain what you mean?

— You should record everything dry, and then you decide what effects to put on afterwards so you have the choice. That’s why that album sounds so impenetrable and dense because all the effects went down, so by the time of the mixing there was nothing to change. I suppose that was the way he recorded the Cocteau Twins. It was a massive mistake, and I’m sure he would never do that now. Over the years I’ve collected some of the master tapes and on the reissues that are coming out, I’ve tried to extract the Cocteau Twins from my record. You can’t really hear Maurice’s guitar leads. Okay, skip forward to the end of the mixing when I finally got my tape. I was horrified, I would never have made a record like that. I was like beside myself with anguish. The thing was in those days, you couldn’t remix an album. But Robin quite rightly said “Primitive Painters” has to be the single. He went on and on about it, and he went to Cherry Red and he told them, he persuaded everyone. I didn’t think it was a single, I thought it was too long. I went with him to a studio in London and we remixed it together. And that’s why that’s the best song, ‘cause I was there in that mixing. I went with him to Barry Blue’s studio in Camden. Remember that guy Barry Blue? He had some hits in the ‘70’s? He was like a teenybopper. His studio in Camden was by the Roundhouse. We spent an afternoon there and we remixed “Primitive Painters”. I think we should’ve done an EP with Robin; that would’ve been the best outcome. It would’ve been a different story. But, anyway, we were lumbered with a whole album. And it was 11 tracks as well. That’s something I could never get my head around because I like everything symmetrical. That hurt me a bit, straight away, before I’d even listened to it.

 

— How did Liz Fraser come to be on the record?

— Liz came with Robin to work on her own lyrics and songs and that, so she’d be upstairs in the bedroom, in their room, working on her lyrics. She had a bed full of books that she was poring though, reading and writing. Anyway, when we’d recorded “Primitive Painters” and we listened back, Robin said “I’ve got a good idea.” He ran upstairs and he said to Liz, “I want you to sing this song.” He just played her the end section. I wrote the lyrics out for her on a piece of paper, she went in, listened to it once on headphones, and then just improvised around it. It was as real as that. It was a remarkable moment. When you listen back to something like that, we knew we’d got it.

 

— It was on the cusp between the 7-inch culture of the late ‘70’s and the 12-inch culture of the Eighties.

— Yeah, I wanted it to be a stand alone release like Wild Swans’ “Revolutionary Spirit” and Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” which were 12-inches. “Atmosphere” was on 7-inch, but that was that French label so it didn’t count. Songs that were too big to hold on 7-inch, they were big. Cherry Red wanted to do a 7-inch edit of “Primitive Painters”, but I wouldn’t let them.

 

— Talking of Cherry Red, what was your relationship like with them at that point?

— Michael Alway was the A&R guy who signed us to Cherry Red. He formed a new label with Geoff Travis and they went to Warners and they started Blanco Y Negro. He always promised that he’d take us with him. He took most of the Cherry Red rock stuff, and he left us behind, because Warners just wouldn’t entertain the idea of having Felt. So we were on a label that we didn’t want to be on. But we all made friends and we had two albums left to deliver so we did Strange Idols Pattern, and then Ignite the Seven Cannons. I’d been speaking to Alan McGee at this point so I knew we were going to Creation after this last album. There was no animosity there, we were all friends and I’ve never fallen out with them, we’d been friends for years and it was just business.

 

— You made a video with Phil King a couple of years later. How did that come about?

— We were on Creation when we did it. What happened was, I don’t know why but it was mooted that we should do a video for “Primitive Painters”. It got half made. Cherry Red and Creation were meant to pay for it together, pay half each. Cherry Red came up with their half because they initiated the project, and McGee didn’t pay his half. So we did half a video with Phil’s friend Danny. What you see on YouTube is half a video. We were meant to do another half and join it together, have stuff superimposed over the top, have extra scenes. But all you can see really is me and Phil in Phil’s house in Hammersmith, just standing around. It’s ridiculous. I was so embarrassed when it leaked out. So we put it to bed, and it lay there until somebody scooped it up and put it on YouTube or leaked it on a VHS probably first, it was probably a leaked VHS first.

 

— Yeah, it’s got that slight tracking wobble you get every now and again on VHS…

— I should’ve been more attentive and got hold of it and cut it up or something. I was very meticulous about ‘there’s no extra tracks’ and things like that, no demos or extra tracks hanging around. But with this for some reason it went wrong. I can’t remember why it was resurrected I’d say about a year and a half later. Maybe together McGee and Cherry Red were going to do something.

 

— Where do you think now the song fits into your body of work? Is it a song you still feel proud of?

— Oh yeah, oh wow. It was great that we went back – at that time you never went back and revisited anything – and we spent an extra afternoon getting it right and perfecting it. It was this great big statement, Felt were going to be massive. I was prone to short pop songs. My thing was, I’m going to break in to the mainstream by doing a short pop song. I was totally off the mark. We nearly had a hit single with a six-minute track that was not a traditional pop song, let’s put it that way. I reckon that if it would’ve been in the ’90s, it would’ve been a Top 10 song – because the independent movement was ready to promote songs like that. In 1985, there was no apparatus for a song like that, to take it to the mainstream. Even The Smiths would only get to 23, and the Cocteaus would only get to 38. I’m really proud of the song, I’m really proud that Maurice got his moment. I’m proud of the fact the Cocteaus are on it. I suppose it was the high point of the first days of Felt wasn’t it?

 

...

 

Trash ascetic. The minimally-monikered Lawrence - driving force behind Felt, Denim, and now Go-Kart Mozart - lives like a monk but dreams of pop stardom, drawing inspiration from the 'middle-of-the-road underground'

 

• The Guardian, 8 Jul 2005

www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jul/08/1

 

When the cult pop star Lawrence was 12, he saw a film of Gary Glitter disposing of his old life as Paul Gadd by putting all of his possessions on to a boat on the river Thames and floating them downstream. "I said to myself, 'I'm going to do that one day,'" says Lawrence, who began the process by disposing of his surname. "I'm going to put one life away in a box and start a new one."

 

Although he hasn't quite reached Glitter's levels of fame or infamy, Lawrence has succeeded in reinventing himself several times. For most of the 1980s, he was the sensitive leader of the influential indie band Felt. Then he re-emerged in the 1990s with Denim, whose wry wit and celebration of 1970s pop culture proved too far ahead of its time for commercial success. Now he is back with Go-Kart Mozart, and a roster of perfectly formed pop songs that he hopes will be recorded by some of the biggest stars of the day. He's setting his sights on Charlotte Church, but whether she will add Um Bongo (about the Rwanda genocide), and Transgressions (about a trend for spraying Lynx body lotion on to your tongue for a cheap high) to her repertoire remains to be seen.

 

"I got a letter from a fan the other day who said that I was the only true talent left, now that Stephen Duffy is writing for Robbie Williams," says Lawrence, who lives in near poverty in a featureless flat in Victoria. "But I'd love to write for Robbie Williams! I think I write hit singles anyway; it's just taken me a long time to master them because I'm a slow learner. I couldn't tie my own shoelaces until I was 12."

 

Lawrence manages the unlikely feat of existing as both pop star and monkish hermit. He eats as little as possible because he believes that creativity comes from being hungry - if pushed, he will admit to pigging out on the occasional sausage roll from a stall on Victoria station - yet he is in love with glamour. He likes the Norwegian singer Annie because "she's a gorgeous girl and I'm into beauty. I could never listen to that big fat oaf from Pop Idol [Michelle McManus] because she's over-indulged herself. My whole thing is about not doing things, about being as thin and as minimal as possible. Ideally I'd like to wear brown robes, eat a bowl of rice a day, and go into a trance as I stare at beautiful album covers."

 

Then there are the records. In the corridor of the tiny flat Lawrence has a shelving unit with his French pop and 1970s glam albums. He's heavily into what he calls the underground middle-of-the-road scene. He has two copies of his favourite ones in mint condition "just in case", and visitors are only allowed to touch them once they have donned special protective gloves. "I don't want fingerprints on the laminated covers," he explains. Asked about his prized albums, he presents the solo debut by the 1960s/70s Israeli pop star Abi and 1973's Aquashow by obscure glam rocker Elliot Murphy.

 

Lawrence plays an emotional version of David Bowie's Life on Mars by British choral group the King's Singers and follows it with 1973's Dee Doo Dah by the actress and singer Jane Birkin. "And get ready for this," he says, unsheathing a poster of Michel Polnareff depicting the flamboyant French star proudly displaying his bottom. The poster was banned in 1972 and Polnareff was fined 10 francs for every copy printed. "I go mad on Polnareff. In the 1970s, he moved to the penthouse suite of a hotel in Los Angeles and as far as I know he's still there."

 

His only other significant possession is a book collection, shelved under a durable polythene dust cover and containing true-life accounts by heroin addicts, a few cult novels like Hunger by Knut Hamsun and Ask the Dust by John Fante, and an entire set of the Skinhead novels; the violent pulp books written by Richard Allen in the early 1970s. "I would say that real accounts by junkies are my favourites, and I'm not into fiction. I have everything by Jack Kerouac but his novels are about real life anyway."

 

Lawrence does dream of riches, despite currently living as an ascetic. "I love prison cells - if I had the money I would definitely build one of those cement beds that extend from a wall - but I'd really love a circular penthouse flat in Mayfair," he says. "I have a jewel case full of hits ready for ransacking, but I'm also in the market for a rich wife. She can be late 20s to early 30s and if her dad's in Who's Who, that's a bonus."

 

...

 

‘I’d rather be a tramp than reform my old bands’: Lawrence on life as British music’s greatest also-ran

 

• The Guardian, 27 Jul 2022

www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/27/lawrence-interview-...

 

His fans range from Charlie Brooker to Jarvis Cocker, yet the auteur behind Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate never found fame. He explains why it was all Princess Diana’s fault

 

The most uncompromising figure in British pop has an urgent question: “Do you need the loo?” This is Lawrence (no surnames, please), the mastermind responsible for the coruscating beauty of Felt, the knowing glam-rock of Denim and the bargain-bin ear-worms of Go-Kart Mozart, now renamed Mozart Estate. As we walk to his high-rise council flat in east London, I promise him that my bladder is empty. “Are you sure?” he persists in his Midlands lilt. “Do you want to try going in the cafe?” No one is allowed near his toilet. “A workman was round the other day, and he used it without asking. Oh God, it was ’orrible!”

 

Lawrence is wearing his trademark baseball cap with its blue plastic visor and a vintage-style blue Adidas jumper. His skin is pale and papery, his eyes small but vivid. He is 60 now and has been dreaming of pop stardom since he was a child. “I used to sit in the bath and pretend I was being interviewed: ‘So what’s it like to have your third No 1 on the trot?’”

 

Only one of his songs has ever charted: Denim’s It Fell Off the Back of a Lorry, straight in at No 79 in 1996. Summer Smash, a BBC Radio 1 single of the week, might have made good on its lyrics (“I think I’m gonna come / Straight in at No 1”) if its release in September 1997 had not been scrapped following a certain Parisian car crash. As Lawrence shows me around his ramshackle flat, which he has been decorating for the past 12 years or so, I spot a grotesquely bad portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales stowed in one corner. “My story is pinned to hers forever,” he says glumly.

 

We perch on wooden stools in the cluttered, dimly lit living room. Around us are piles of books and vinyl, assorted knick-knacks (feather duster, magnifying glass) and a mustard-coloured Togo chair – a rare extravagance – still in its plastic wrapping. The white blinds are pulled down; a leak has stained them urine-yellow like a child’s mattress. “I don’t think anyone’s had as much bad luck as me,” he says. “It just goes from one disaster to another.”

 

And yet Lawrence of Belgravia, the 2011 documentary about him which is now being released on Blu-ray, remains stubbornly inspiring. It’s the story of a born maverick who refuses either to abandon his dreams of success or lower his standards to make them a reality. “You see so many musicians reforming their old bands,” he says. “I can’t do that. You’ve got to move forward.” He knows what it’s like to be disappointed by your idols – “I couldn’t get over it in the 1980s when Lou Reed had a mullet” – and is determined never to sully his own legacy, no matter how much cash he is offered. “I’d rather be a tramp than reform Felt or play my old songs,” he says.

 

He has put his lack of money where his mouth is. “There came a point where I learned to live on nothing. I’d have two pence in my pocket, and I’d find a bench on the King’s Road hoping someone would sit next to me so I could ask for a cigarette. No one ever did because I looked so rough.”

 

Lawrence of Belgravia alludes to addiction issues and legal woes: we glimpse bottles of methadone and piles of court letters. At the start of the film, he is evicted from his previous flat. But it is still a fond and hopeful study of someone for whom fame – as symbolised by limousines, helicopters and Kate Moss – has never lost its allure. “It’s such a shame it hasn’t happened to me,” he says. “I’d love to try fame on for size, see what it’s like.” How close has he come? “There was a period in the 1990s when I could get a taxi. That was as good as it got. There’s a fame ladder and I’m near the bottom. I always have been, and I accept that.”

 

The documentary has helped a bit. “It’s a proper film, and that took me up a couple of rungs,” he says. “It legitimised me.” He has rarely wanted for respect: he counts Jarvis Cocker and Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch among his fans; Charlie Brooker chose Denim’s The New Potatoes, with its Pinky & Perky vocals, as one of his Desert Island Discs. He has also started being recognised in the street – “which shows you’re getting somewhere”. But he has a little grumble: “The people who come up to me are all listening to my stuff on Spotify. I tell them: ‘Buy a bloody record!’ Some of them haven’t got a turntable, so I say, ‘Put it on the wall.’”

 

His hard-luck story began when Felt failed to win favour with the DJ John Peel. “If you were an indie band in the 1980s, you couldn’t make it without Peel’s support,” he says. When Lawrence formed Denim in the early 1990s, he seemed ideally placed to ride the incipient Britpop wave. “Except I made one super error,” he points out. “I thought live music was over, so we didn’t play live at first.’” He believed it would add mystique if fans couldn’t see Denim in the flesh. “I wanted to be a cartoon band. But it turned out to be the beginning of the live boom. Indie suddenly went mainstream. I didn’t spot that coming.”

 

If the hard-gigging likes of Blur stole a march on Lawrence, it was another Damon Albarn outfit that pipped him to the post with the “cartoon band” idea. “I couldn’t believe it when Gorillaz happened,” he splutters. “I was like, ‘That’s what I wanted to do!’”

 

Soon after the Summer Smash debacle, Denim were dropped by EMI. “We had to go down to making records for nothing, getting favours from friends.” Go-Kart Mozart was intended as a stop-gap but the songs, many of them musically upbeat and lyrically harsh (When You’re Depressed, Relative Poverty, We’re Selfish and Lazy and Greedy), have kept on coming for more than two decades. The name-change to Mozart Estate reflects, says Lawrence, “the tougher times we live in”.

 

Even he was taken aback while checking the lyric sheet for the new Mozart Estate album Pop-Up, Ker-Ching and the Possibilities of Modern Shopping, which is to be released in January. “Every song has something ’orrible,” he says. One track features the line, “London is a dustbin full of human trash.” Another is called I Wanna Murder You. “I’m never going to get any PRS money for that,” he says. “Still, it’s very catchy. Breaks into a lovely chorus.”

 

It’s all too much for some people. When the first Go-Kart Mozart album came out, he received a call from Alan McGee, his Creation boss from the Felt days. “Alan said, ‘What’s this song Sailor Boy, then? Jean Genet going down on you? I don’t get it, Lawrence. I don’t get what the fuck you’re doing!’” He looks pleased as punch.

 

Paul Kelly, the director of Lawrence of Belgravia, thinks the singer is in a healthier and more optimistic state now than during the making of the film. Production took eight years, largely because Lawrence kept disappearing for months on end. “First I’d be frustrated, then I’d worry,” says Kelly. “When he finally turned up, he’d act as though nothing had happened. He has that disarming personality so you always forgive him. I think he had a fear that when we were finished, there’d be nothing else. He didn’t want to let the film go.”

 

These days, Lawrence has fingers in umpteen pies (Felt reissues, a limited-edition folder of collectible bits-and-pieces and a 10-inch EP, all ahead of the new album). He is bubbling with ideas: he wants to write a play for the Royal Court, collaborate with Charli XCX, be directed by Andrea Arnold. “Do you know her?” he asks hopefully. “I want to be in one of her films and write a song for it.”

 

His greatest enthusiasm is reserved for the larger-than-life-sized pink marble bust which the sculptor Corin Johnson is making of him: “He came up to me at a gig and said, ‘I’d like to do a statue of you.’” A month’s worth of sittings later – including one spent with straws in his nostrils while his head was encased in plaster of Paris – and it’s almost ready. Nick Cave, one of Lawrence’s heroes, has been working in the same yard on a ceramics project about the devil. “He keeps saying, ‘When are you going to bloody finish that?’”

 

Even on Lawrence’s rinky-dink, old-school mobile phone, which is no bigger than a Matchbox car, the pictures of the bust look imposing. A hood is yanked up over his baseball cap, sunglasses are clamped to his face, his expression is surly and defiant: it’s a literal monument to his artistic purity. “This should push me a few rungs up the fame ladder,” he says, marvelling at his marble doppelganger. I think he’s in love.

 

...

 

📼 Felt - Primitive Painters [feat Elizabeth Fraser] (1985)

 

Producer: Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins)

 

video 1987 - Lawrence Hayward & Phil King (in Phil’s house in Hammersmith)

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYHwXtX00E

For the Change project Holly Sky is doing.

 

IF I COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

 

If I could change the world

everyone would have food to eat

no one would be alone

no one would have to suffer

no more wars, no more deaths, no more injustice,

no more abuse, no more suicides

but one person can not change the world

by themselves

but you can change the outcomes of others

every moment, every grace

every step you take

can relfect and change someone's

life and outlook on life

maybe one smile a day

can brighten there whole day

that one word you say

might just be that pick up they might need

to see a brighter light

to change the world

can only be like foot prints in the sand

everyone person has to take a stand

say what you feel

do what you must

this is how we will bust

to be able to change the world

one minute at a time

By: heavens Angel

 

* NO LOGOS in comments please.

Bigger? At joe's

A shot ive wanted for ages, now possible with the pole.

www.arthodstudio.com

Leslie : www.01casting.com/books/evasion/galeries/56858-flavia-rad...

 

Possible?

Sunday we had nice weather with interesting clouds.

Possible herts comp entry

Oh no, that's not possible, they can't get on the plane and disembark in San Francisco without warning. Since I started studying applied art, as advised by my teachers, I have discovered my inner self, and the shy college boy has grown into a splendid, talented woman artist. How am I going to explain to my parents, my long pink hair, my nail extensions, my tattoos, my laser hair removal, and that I am on hrt ?

 

Oh and shit, I’m doing my part of the deal, I’m super good at college, they’ll just have to endure the shock of the outing !

   

A new cold day dawns full of possibilities

Annual Transgender festival @ Koovagam, Viluppuram, Tamilnadu, April 2013

  

Of the many bizarre and strange customs and festivals observed in India, the Koothandavar festival of Koovagam is one among them. The very basis of the festival, its associated rituals and the people involved make it the weirdest possible celebration on earth. A celebration of love and death, of sacrifice and life.

 

The small hamlet of Koovagam is present in the Vizhuppuram district of Tamil Nadu, making it virtually a ‘nothing’. However, once a year this tiny village turns into the biggest camp for transgenders from all over the country. They gather in flocks to take part in the rituals of the festival which lasts for 18 days, culminating on chitra pournami (april-may).

 

Story behind this

A festival which has its base rooted into the depths of the Mahabharatha war, Krishna’s cunningness and the noble nature of a very valiant young man.

 

War between the Pandavas and Kauravas was imminent. There was no way that a war could be averted, thus saving millions of innocent human lives. Krishna, as the protector of the universe was worried about the outcome of the war. It was true that he could intervene with his divine powers and avert catastrophe, but humans are required to decide their own fates. That’s what the vedas and shastras say. But still, he wanted the Pandavas to win the war, for he was on their side and their doings were just and moral. This would be the ultimate “Good wins over Bad” story if it went along as he desired.

 

Having no choice, he goes to Sahadeva who is blessed with the talent of accurately forecasting the future and reading horoscopes, Sahadeva rolled his Shozhi (shells used to help in prediction) and after several calculations looked up and said “To attain victory in the upcoming war, you need to sacrifice a man filled with all the good qualities of Valor, strength, bravery, beauty and such, to the goddess of war, Kali. He who first performs this sacrifice will gain the blessings of Kali and win the war”,

 

All along his way back his mind was filled with a single thought, “Is there anyone… Anyone else, other than Arjuna who can match the requirements of sacrifice? Anyone at all?” He pleaded, only to be met by a stunning silence. Krishna’s heart shattered at the thought of losing a dear friend. He felt light headed and started to sway with dizziness, when a voice cut through his haziness.

“Am I eligible to be sacrificed?” the voice asked. Looking for the source of the voice, Krishna’s eyes land on a very handsome man, dressed as a warrior and bearing resemblances to Arjuna. “Who are you, may I know?” questioned Krishna, as hope revived in his heart.

 

“I am Aravaan, the son of Arjuna, born to the Naaga princess Chithrangadha, through an illicit wedlock. I have come here to help bring victory to my father and his brothers. And if I can indeed help them win by sacrificing myself, then I am ready to die.” he proclaimed.

 

Krishna is flooded with relief. Using his divine powers, he comes to know that Aravaan is indeed a warrior par excellence, full of good qualities and excellent character. “He would make the perfect sacrifice to Kali”, Krishna thought and he beckoned Aravaan to come with him. He introduced Aravaan to the Pandavas including to Arjuna, his father (what weirdness!!!) and praised the sacrificial qualities of Aravaan. “So you will be sacrificed to the Goddess at the dawn of war, tomorrow. Purify yourself mentally and physically and prepare for the day. Long live your sacrifice”, Krishna told Aravaan and turned to leave.

 

“One moment my lord, I have but a few wishes to be granted before I die. Will you grant them?” Aravaan asked Krishna. “Why don’t you try me?” Krishna winked mischievously at Aravaan.” My lord”, began Aravaan,” I have had the good fortune to enjoy much in life, but before I die, I would like to enjoy the heat of a woman. I wish to die a married man, my lord.” Krishna is stunned. Which woman would marry a man who is going to the sacrificial altar the very next day? Probably none. No woman is crazy to throw her life away.”We will manage that”, he assured Aravaan, “Anything else?”.”Yes my lord, I would like to witness the entire war unfold, in my physical body and I would also like to fight on the Pandava side for a minimum of three weeks. Is that agreeable?”

It was here that the jealousy of Krishna kicked in. He knew that Aravaan was an excellent warrior and if he was allowed to fight there would be no need of any of the Pandavas or Krishna himself. “ParthaPuthra, what is ‘three weeks’ to a man like you? You can probably crush the entire enemy forces in three and a two third minutes. You will be able to fight on the Pandava side for those three and a two third minutes.” Aravaan agreed, charmed by Krishna’s flattery and speech. “If that is all, you can follow me to meet your bride, who will be your wife tonight and your widow in some days.” Krishna commanded.

 

Aravaan followed Krishna to the interiors of the palace. There, in the presence of the Pandavas and a few close friends, Krishna did the unbelievable. He transformed himself into Mohini, a form so beautiful that even Shiva had fallen for it, and in the presence of the elders, married Aravaan. That night Aravaan got his first wish fulfilled. Mohini seduced him with all her sexuality. All through the night, Aravaan was confused if he was with a man or woman. The smell of butter and milk reminded him of Krishna, but at the same time he couldn’t come out of Mohini’s clutches. The night passed and the day of the war dawned.

 

Aravaan was taken to the battle field and was made to stand at the center. There he tore off his skin from his arms and offered them to Kali. Kali, ever thirsty for blood, pounced on it and gave her blessings to Pandavas. The war began. Over the course of the 18 days, Aravaan kept Kali satisfied, stripping pieces from his body and offering it to her. On the final day when his allotted 3 and a two-third minutes of time came up, he realised that he had been tricked. He just had his head and his skeleton intact. A fat lot of use they would come to.

 

Conetemplating, he assumed his Vishwaroopa form and with his head as a large stone, he rolled over the enemy forces killing millions and badly hurting himself. The war was over. The Pandavas had won and the cause for it all, Aravaan, was lying, all alone on the Kurukshetra field. During his final moments on earth, when his life was ebbing away, he heard the high pitched wail of a woman. Turning towards the source of the wail, he sees Krishna, as Mohini, beating her breasts and wailing, the very picture of a widowed woman grieving her husband. With that final sight, his spirit soared heaven-wards and joined the other immortal heroes in warrior heavens, forever shining upon the brave warriors of yore. Aravaan had passed on, a happy man.

 

This chapter in the Mahabharatha forms the central theme of the 18 day festival at Koovagam. The small shrine at Koovagam is dedicated to none other than Aravaan himself and he is worshipped as Koothandavar. The 18 day festival celebrates the final days of Aravaan’s life, right up to his brave sacrifice on the 18th day. The highlight of the festival happens to be the marriage of Aravaan. The transgenders who gather here are the self-proclaimed brides of Aravaan. They claim themselves to be incarnations of Krishna, who was a man trapped inside a woman’s body, when he seduced Aravaan, just like the transgenders themselves. The first 15 days of the festival pass in dancing, singing and merrymaking, the transgenders putting up colourful and lively performances. All through the 18 days, a gigantic head of Aravaan is made and painted with the greatest care within the temple precincts

 

On the 17th day, the priest does special poojas to the idol of Aravaan and bringing upon the power of Aravaan on himself, he ties the mangalsutra (the sacred marital thread) around the neck of all the transgenders present there. They are now the wives of Aravaan, just for the night. A gala feast is organised which is followed by a night full of merrymaking, laughter and dance. The gigantic head of Aravaan is mounted on a chariot and taken around the village.

 

At the dawn of the 18th day, the air is ripped by sharp wails, as Aravaan is beheaded, widowing all his one-day-old wives. Following the traditions, the widows of Aravaan rip the Mangalsutraa from their necks, tear flowers out of their hair, throw away ornaments, and remove all cosmetics from their faces, wailing loudly, beating their chests, just like Krishna mourned for Aravaan long, long ago. They did a holy dip and wear a white saree (widow costume). And till that day arrives, they have to rely on the grace of Aravaan to take them through the rough times to come.

  

Apidae- Megachilidae-Sharptailed Bees (Coelioxys sp) nectarine Clasping Heliotrope (Heliotropium amplexicaule), 8/4/2024, The Landings Sparrow Field, Skidaway Island, Savannah, Ga.

 

Genus Coelioxys - Sharptail Bees. Is it possible to reach an ID from an examination of the wing venation of this submission?

  

What is incredibly interesting about this photo is at first thought you wonder what is such a generous church doing on a prison property. then you realize that being in the shadow of the tower no one could contemplate escape. but thats exactly what happened in 1995. On January 2nd 6 inmates escaped from a tunnel underneath this church that they were digging for who knows how long while they were helping construct this church , one was immediately caught when a guard saw them running, they split up but one by one they were all caught, the longest one on the loose Juan Flietas captured in Mexico august 3d 1997 shot by police after someone recognized him from Americas most wanted. much more to this story but Ill keep it short and sweet. As much as I dislike Arista EDU film it did a good job rendering the gritty detail in this brick building.

Lomography color negative 100, Mamiya M645

#heylomography #lomography100 #abandonedplaces #urbanexploration #mamiya645

about 2.5 mm long but a mature male

The WINCHESTER !! 10K supporters! We did it !

Oh my, what a ride it has been…, I cannot thank enough everyone who made this possible.

Come what may you made my dream come true, thank you!!!

 

Some special thanks…

 

Simon Pegg, you are my hero.

Edgar Wright, we need more people like you in the world, seriously.

 

Craig Chenery, you have been my supporter #1 since day one… Thank you for everything you’ve done.

Craig is the author of a book every Shaun of the Dead fan should own (actually the book should be included in the Winchester’s box!) it’s called “Blood Splatter”, check it out here.

Eloise from Z Magazine, thank you Eloise for your generosity and help in promoting the project.

Dave and Zombie Mutts from Bricks of the Dead, you guys gave me the inspiration to do this.

Tim Chipping, reporter at Holy Moly and a Zombie in the movie!, thank you Tim for your continuous support!

Erik @ Lego Zombie Apocalypse, your support was instrumental, thanks for everything.

Emma from the French Magazine “Cinema Teaser”, thank you for believing in this insane project.

Geoffrey from Desperate Zombie, awesome French Zombie blog.

Eurobricks and Tom in particular, I owe this community to be back into the LEGO hobby today.

Brick Pirate, and in particular Oliv’ from the French LEGO fan forum, merci à tous pour votre soutien dans cette aventure.

Silva Shado from thebrickblogger, thank you for your support.

Will Chapman from BrickArms, thank you for your support and for helping us make better MOCs!

Harmony and everyone on Peggster, official Fan page of Simon, you guys rock!

Pixel Fox – dude, I’m starting to believe that there’s nothing we can’t achieve together.

 

All the people who commented and supported the project on CUUSOO.

 

Every blog and site who talked about the project, I cannot list you all here but you have my gratitude.

 

Conan O'Brien, for showing this to the world!

 

Last but not least, thank you to my wife for still being at my side and supportive despite the craziness of all this!

 

Building instructions for the WIN:

 

Here is the download link.