Narnia's Cornucopia of Charms and Gifts - Thanksgiving 2021

 

As we have entered the fourth quarter of 2021 and celebrate the American-observed day of Thanksgiving, we at Narnia thought we would seize the opportunity to reflect and remind ourselves of the little quirks and unique charms of our faves for which we are forever thankful.  What do you say?   Some may surprise you, some are not that serious, one or two may be, some may generate a raised toast of agreement or an Amen!  But let's have a moment, please, and mention our collective gratitude for an amazing group of men.

 

• Narnia is thankful for Adam Lambert's interviews.  Have you watched any interview of Adam's?  He's simply a delight and comes off as genuine as you could imagine.  That's the best word that comes to mind.  

This interview is phenomenal. It was uploaded in 2015 and Adam talks about growing up and realizing he was gay, what it was like for him in grade school and then high school. He talks about American Idol and how everyone knew; he was totally open.  It seems like the biggest key for Adam was having accepting, supportive and loving parents - the confidence and ease with himself comes from that and it is never more apparent than as you listen to and watch him in this clip.   What a fantastic interview.   Thank you, Adam.

 

 

"You've gotta let that go.  That's the thing that's in your way." -  Adam Lambert.

Here he was on The View in a lighter setting, but I loved the story that he shared of a tradition in his family for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Fantastic and very fun idea!

 

 

• Narnia is thankful for Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce's loudness.  Let me tell you right now - Travis, Adam Lambert and Louis Tomlinson could fill not only a room, but a gymnasium.  Here's Travis being awesome with some young people at an Operation Breakthrough lab and a robotics tournament.  Operation Breakthrough is a program that Travis works with through his own 87 and Running non-profit organization.  Look how terrific he is with kids. 

 

 

Shopping with kids at Christmas time:

 

 

Travis = FUN

 

• Narnia is thankful for Austin Nichols' love for books.  He's always talked about his love for watching movies, but more so back in the day, Austin let it be known more often that he loved books.  Here he was talking about who he says is his favorite author, Joan Didion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a tweet from a fan giving Austin a heads up on a You Tube of Tyler Hilton's where at 07:20, he showed a book which Austin had at one time recommended to him to read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, who can forget...😉 😍 🕮   The Friday nite Borders trip!

 

 

 

• Narnia is thankful for Zayn's clear, melodic vocals.  This fan captured some spectacular clips highlighting Zayn in live performances.  Beautiful!

 

 • Narnia is thankful for Patrick Mahomes' competitiveness.

 

During a tour of Treyarch, the developer that created the “Call of Duty” series, Mahomes talked about why he loves video games.

“It’s the competition,” Mahomes told the Los Angeles Times. “You have to really work to get good at it. When you’re a competitor and play sports, you’re competing every single day, and when you play against each other in ‘Call of Duty’ or any other game you want to show that you’re the best at whatever you do so you compete and try to win as much as possible.” – KC Star, Aug 17, 2020

 

 Aaaah yes, if you've ever watched Patrick play for the Chiefs or watched him play golf, you can see the competitiveness in him. 

 

• Narnia is thankful for Jared reciting the 50 United States in alphabetical order.  Here he was in 2012:

 

 

Just for fun, here he was 8 years later in 2019, reciting the same song.  Jensen still showing his guy off.

 

• Narnia is thankful for Jensen's facial expressions concerning Jared, whether it's adoration or in this case, open-faced 'where are you going?' and realizing that you cannot contain Jared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Narnia is thankful for Kevin McHale and Austin P. McKenzie's relationship through which they share small windows of via their Instagrams. It's obvious that they love doing all kinds of activities together with many, many friends.  Additional mentions for Kevin's sauciness and Austin's music!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Narnia is thankful for Harry Styles' self awareness and determination to use his artistic platforms for self expression and to amplify who he is proud to be within the restrictions of his closet. Sometimes he shares his messages quietly and sometimes he expresses who he is at the top of his lungs. Either way, he is communicating some very real truths about the Music Industry as well as himself.  All that is needed is for people to listen. It's not a coincidence that when Harry has the people in his audiences sing the lyric, "Do you Know Who You Are?" from his song, Lights Up, that he chimes back with an emphatic, "Yup!"

November 20, 2021 - Love on Tour, The Forum, Night 3

 

 

Vogue Photo shoot November 13, 2020

•  Gratitude can't even begin to express Narnia's respect and admiration for Mr. Louis Tomlinson. The list truly does go on and on.  His leadership, perseverance, and just plain intransigence in the face of the retaliatory, dirty dealing corruption at the homophobic core of the music industry, is truly something to be grateful for every day of the year.

 

Louis wearing his "H" shirt on October 22, 2021, accompanied by the reverse peace sign

 

A special message truly designed for the likes of Sony and Simon Cowell.  Just like Harry with his blue bandana, Umbro vintage sweatshirt, and banana penis necklace, Louis can be very loud and subversive in all kinds of ways. And, we love him all the more for his guidance, which truly dates back to the early years of One Direction.  Niall once said that the group would have lost the plot, if not for Louis. No truer words have been spoken.

Louis being interviewed by Elvis Duran, October 25, 2019, NY

 

 

•  Narnia is thankful for Niall Horan's wonderfully expressive facial reactions in interviews.  When asked where band mates Harry and Louis were,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and when they were asked "What is the rainbow bear?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 and his salty tweets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Narnia is thankful for former Royals' first baseman Eric Hosmer still keeping tabs on the Royals' happenings and former teammates.  He's had a rough time for the most part in San Diego for a fan base who has never appreciated him and this particular fan wishes he were back here in Kansas City.  He was a classy and professional act while here.  This was Hos' post in April when he reached 10 years of service in the MLB, which is a huge deal.

• Narnia is thankful for Liam Payne's bravery, his caring, giving nature and those crescent moon eye'd smiles. Liam has been through a lot and yet has maintained a remarkable professionalism, regardless of  what he has been made to do or say. (Remember the December 2020 transatlantic FaceTime tale about how a three-year old Bear and a five-year old Freddie Reign allegedly stay in touch with one another?)  *rolls eyes*  You're a good friend and a good man, Liam Payne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Narnia is particularly thankful (?) for Jake Gyllenhaal's Laffy-Taffy stretching, and Paul Bunyan'ing ways of maneuvering through the months and years during most of his professional life. He, in fact,  has zigged and zagged so much that no one genuinely knows what his true self and everyday living situation are like.  At some point, one really has to appreciate the stamina and resources needed to sustain this level of subterfuge and slipperiness.  😉  That's Jake though - the king of privacy and concealment.   He lets the public think that they are privy to his life, his personality and his personal preferences.  But, that impression would be a false one. Fortunately for Narnia, we have followed this scamp since he was a mere lad and know better than to follow so many of the others over the cliff!  😉

can you spot him?  *eyeroll*

 

 

And this wraps up our thankfulness and gratitude.  Wishing those in America a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

 

 

pic sources:  justhilarrieous, Daily Fail, orrisgallery, tumblr, YouTube, 2tiedships2

our playlist:  You Make Christmas Complete - Luke McMaster and Arun Chaturvedi

                     Christmas is Coming - Jason Gray

                     With a Christmas Heart - Luther Vandross

                      Christmas in Our Hearts - downhere

                      Christmas Spirit - Hennie Bekker

 

Sunday Musings Part II: Dropping, Splitting Up, Letting Go, and Other Glorious Words

 

Sunday Musings Part I was right here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You're outta here!"  "You're fired!"  "This isn't working out."  "We think it'd be best if we parted ways."

Normally, no one wants to hear these words, right?  It means you're out on your caboose.  Time to hit the pavement.  Re-do that resume.

UNLESS, you're one of the members of One Direction, that is.  And Narnia firmly believes that over these past couple of weeks, Zayn Malik and Liam Payne could not have heard better words.  

First, Zayn was suddenly and noisily being accused of physical assault against Gee Gee "Gigi" Hadid's mother, Yolanda in an alleged domestic dispute.  Next, came the dreaded lightning bolt.

And this was followed by...the drop kick by RCA record label, which is owned by Sony Music.  Could this twitter have not chosen an older picture of Zayn, for pete's sake?  👀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And then on Wednesday, November 10?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narnia isn't going to spend time getting aggravated over BS fiction written by the likes of The Sun, Daily Fail, and others, all who are being fed nothing but hatchet jobs by a music company who has had one goal in mind since the #HiatusFromHell™  began - divide and conquer One Direction and their fandom.

We're celebrating these two men, Zayn and Liam, and their release from companies that never had their best interests at heart and in Liam's case in particular, abused him in many ways that in most companies, would bring on lawsuits from affected employees.

For now, we're not spending time on Sony-driven negative, because the negative isn't over from them.  Ignoring the "angsty" Instagram selfies, "begging to be taken back", "cohabitating" and "spiralling" phony headlines, and other lies.  No doubt, there will continue to be slime-covered headlines because Sony isn't going to let them go without additional dragging of the bottom of the barrel with their reputations and images.   

But, Narnia hopes with all our hearts that this is indeed the beginning of the separation and road to freedom from Sony for at least some these men, which they all so richly deserve.  What a long, anguishing road it has been for them.  None of us could ever know what they have been through over the years.  

We here at Narnia are not sad for the "firings".  We aren't fretting.  Yeah, the headlines are aggravating and I don't hesitate to periodically put some of these rags on social media blast in their defense.  But for Zayn and Liam?  We are happy for them.  

 

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

And speaking of One Direction, this isn't the first case of an alleged "fan" who seems to have obtained unusually close access to one of our OTP members.   Her twitter name was @Ieathersuit.  She not only attended the Connecticut Love on Tour concert stop, but continued to follow Harry on to Boston and (last I had read) was trying to get tix to Harryween.  Very noisily too, one might add.  Her tweets and replies were full of self-promotion and boasting based on Harry's attention paid to her coming out request.  In other words, following Harry's stage assistance, all that ever followed in the discussion was a heavy dose of heterosexuality. 😉

 

 

Amazing, wasn't it?  It's a cool thing that Harry does.  But in this particular case, the notoriety continued; there were even online articles about Harry's assistance and well, something began to smell a bit odd, let's put it that way.  But we've seen this kind of OTT behavior before from the various fandoms themselves and our suspicion sniffer has usually not failed on a trail.

Remember there was Cockles/Destiel fan, AbiChristineee who had a "casual drop" from Jensen Ackles during the charity soccer match in 2019, one which helped to set off all kinds of verbal warfare against Jared. The tweet helped to continue a narrative that Jared is some kind of uncaring, selfish individual.  So no, sorry, this was an easy, hard pass from Narnia.  This particular account has also attended other conventions and San Diego Con, but the kind of "information" shown below?  It was not typical chatter to pass along to a regular Joe Blo fan, as though they were suburban neighbors talking over a fence with their coffee cups. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then, there's been "Amy", who has "bumped" into Jake multiple times.  Remember, she had some kind of letter for him and then, she even met Jake at the stage door in NYC...it goes on and on.  Jake has historically run from fans, unless it's at the stage door and he has body guards around, or the fans are 50 feet away, behind a barrier.  😂 🏃  So, this was an easy hard pass as well.

hard to forget ol' "Amy"

I mean, come on...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also the purple haired girl who had this (following) kind of close access to both Jake AND Austin at Banger's in Austin, TX, that fateful day in 2016 during SXSW.  In exchange for her tweeting activity, she got to take a photo with Austin (this is not the photo, but it is the one which captured both men in the same frame, the last time they've been in the same photo to the public).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know these kinds of fans, right?  The ones who seem to have an endless cash flow and attend convention after convention?  Concert after concert?   They just happen to be in the right spot at the right moment to capture or "witness" a piece of classic fandom folklore?  Not to mention oftentimes, there's hardly anyone else around!  Where did everyone go?

Maybe there's a reason why they were in the right spot at the right moment, right there within touching distance.  Or they have an endless stream of photo ops.  Could be they're intended to be fandom famous for the overheard words, for example a quote of "I live it," which is what Jensen Ackles was alleged to have told a casual fan at an autograph table at the Charlotte NC Supernatural convention as discussed in Part 1.

Anyhow, it seemed to be an organic moment on October 23 when a fan asked Harry Styles to help her come out.  Harry singled her out and she became twitter famous, with oodles of mentions and squees.  There was even an article written about it, "Harry Styles Helps Fan Come Out at Connecticut Gig", - a fan who asked for Harry's help in coming out as bisexual to her mother, who was also in attendance at the concert.  Fans didn't find anything unusual about the request because Harry has done this many times before, beginning with his first tour in 2018.

Except in this particular case, the attention lasted more than 15 minutes of fame, extending to Harry's next concert, and then the one after that.  Quickly though, during the initial event, it was discovered that "Lexi" also happened to be an anti-Larrie.  What a coincidence.  And so she turned off her social media access because fans had found some mean content in her twitter past.  The tweets in the black screen are old tweets of hers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..."over a dead ship".  And with those words, Lexi unwittingly sent up a red flag that she wasn't just a "casual" fan.  She had been used for a purpose, Narnia has no doubt.  

And now that she fulfilled her purpose, what has happened?   Ol' Lexi has gone bye-bye.

 

 

I'm shocked, I tell ya!  Shocked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The account deletion happened recently this past week and judging by replies wishing her well and to take care, it sounds like Lexi used a reliable, garlic necklace reason of needing to take a social media break.  

Pfft!  Gone.  Everything deleted.  Easy clean-up - another red flag of something deceptive and nefarious having gone on.

 

 

Aaah yes.    Jeff, Jeff, Jeff....

 

🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬🔬

 

Just a few more kibbles or questions we were pondering...

 

•  Based on a recent viral twitter thread about a male video coach for the NHL Chicago Blackhawks having sexually assaulted a male player we have to ask: Is someone trying to slip this one by, that there was explosive news which occurred on a team and that Chicago Blackhawks' player Jonathan Toews knew, but did not share with his longtime, we're-a-package-deal-when-it-comes-to-contracts, eternally close friend and teammate Patrick Kane?  That Jonny held onto that news, didn't ask Patrick if he knew? "Hey, did you hear?"...

 

“I didn’t know anything at the time,” Kane said. “Even today, when Kyle came out as John Doe, that’s the first time I knew it was him. So as far as the bullying and different comments, I don’t remember any of that either.”

Toews also said that, contrary to other former teammates’ statements that “everybody knew,” he didn’t hear about Beach’s alleged abuse by Aldrich until the next season, a stance Toews took earlier this summer. - Chicago Tribune, Oct 28, 2021

 

I don't think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• You know, I sent my 35mm camera to a donation place because frankly, my phone takes better photos.   If you're on Instagram, you're the owner of a cell phone.  So, are you trying to tell me you can't take a better picture than this?   Shame on us if we are to buy into photos like these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• What career reward awaits closet-enabler Dylan O'Brien for taking a role in Tay's music video that even had a red carpet premiere (appropriately the photos from which, were relegated to the Kiddie Table, aka Just Jared, Jr.)?   We'll wait and watch here at Narnia, but in the meantime, our disappointment in Dylan's participation is immense. 

• And the latest runway shots of Liam Payne for Hugo!!  We've been waiting to see Liam doing some of the work he does best (besides music!) which is promoting for his endorsements, and something else he does best, which is flashing his smile.  We love to see Liam's smile.  LOVE the pleated slacks.

•And finally, even from the rubbish pile that Tay's money grab released this past week, something good can come forth, and it came in the form of a shiny diamond of a tweet.  It's one of those Oh-my-lord kind of tweets that come from the depths of what-in-the-hell-where-did-this-person-come-from.   And bless Mr. Eric Gagnon because this was pure gold.  The first tweet from Jenny Nicholson is the parent tweet.  So, she tweets out an enabling, eye-roll worthy piece of waste about Jake.  But in the middle of all the silly, clueless replies which followed?  Came Eric Gagnon with the tweet of the year.   Heck, past several years.  Let's blow this sucker up.

LOL!!!   Look at that!  

What does he know?   You know where his twitter profile location is?  Massachusetts.  That's old Jake stomping grounds because of its proximity to Martha's Vineyard, which is where Jake spent so many childhood times and befriended Chris Fischer, Amy Schumer's merkin.  

That's exactly what Jake does.  This tweeter nailed it.  Jake disappears during the fourth quarter at some point and we rarely see him until Spring.   But look at what else he says.

 

"...he may emerge from his burrow with a new litter."

As in, a mama bear emerging from hibernation with her new litter of cubs.  

And this has also described Jake to a T, who with Austin, have had many of their kiddos in the last quarter of the year because that way, they could disappear over the holidays and no one wondered about it too much because why?  Because they're too busy shopping and eating and visiting with family themselves. 

What a gold nugg-ito.  (another interesting aside - the parent tweeter Jenny Nicholson's name reminded us of Margie Nicholson, who tweeted the infamous #Congras tweet) 

 

And we're going to leave the room on that unexpected note.  It doesn't end any better than that.  Leo D, please lead the way!

😏

pic sources:  bananadome, criminal element, gfycat, notthebee, Chicago Tribune,

                     Just Jared, ziamsbookshelf

our playlist:  Waiting to See You - Dan Hartman

                     Wait - The Jacksons

                     All I See - Kylie Minogue