royal wedding celebration

It's interesting in real life how many people seem to suit their names and how quickly people make snap judgements about someone just hearing their name. Some names seem to reflect a particular status, others a religion, others - especially diminutives - even suggest something about a person's physical appearance.

Dickens, the master of memorable names, knew this so well. How many of his characters' names say a lot more about the person than any long description: the hypocrite, Pecksniff; the slimy Uriah Heap; miserly Scrooge; the hard-hearted Murdstone, Headstone and Gradgrind....and of course the Artful Dodger.

Dickens' brilliance in creating the apt-name is now so legendary that it lends itself to satire; episodes of 'French and Saunders' to 'Blackadder' have used similarly, if exaggerated names that in one word capture the idiosyncrasies of a character. Writers now surely, then, have to be less obvious than Dickens but there is still a great deal to be said for choosing memorable and appropriate names....if, indeed, the writer actually 'chooses' the name. It seems that very often, the moment a character is 'born' into a story in the writer's mind, he/she comes with the name in place already. It sometimes feels as though the character, name and all, already exists on some other plane, and the writer merely records what is already there....

Who decides what people want to read or what kind of music they want to hear? Who has the right to make a judgement about what kind of art, literature or music people appreciate?

An established publisher once told me that my biography of one of the most remarkable members of Queen Victoria's family - Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, whose life led her from the glittering Romanov Court, to the slums of Moscow, to being murdered by the Bolsheviks - would not appeal to people because (a direct quote!): "it lacks sufficient scandal for the public taste". Beg your pardon?? For whose taste?
More recently I was told by someone that readers want only to read about 'the dark side of life'. How very odd!

If, as Marcus Aurelius said, "life is what our thoughts make it" or, to quote Robert Shuller, "You are what you think about all day long", is it any wonder that so many lives are steeped in dissatisfaction if we are being fed a diet of scandal and 'the dark side'?

My belief is that none of these assumptions about what people want, is true. This is the philosophy behind giving school children dross that passes for poetry ( http://christinacroft.blogspot.com/2007/11/poetry-and-dross.html ).

Is this the result of a few huge companies monopolizing much of the publishing market, and those companies being led not by people with an interest in literature, but rather by marketing and sales departments, and perhaps even by people with a very cynical view of the world. Is this the same philosophy that says only horror stories and scandal sell newspapers?
Do we really want only to dwell on unpleasantness? Don't we have enough of that from the news? What a low opinion of people, those who make these decisions must have!
People are, by nature, always striving for something better, something more beautiful, something more real and uplifting. Literature isn't meant to drag people down, but rather to raise them up, to entertain and to lead to a deeper understanding of what it is to be human.
Well...if some people believe that to be human means dwelling on the dark side and wanting to be fed only scandal, it is a great pity for them.
To return to Marcus Aurelius, if life is what our thoughts make it, and we all have a responsibility for the life of the world, then we surely have a duty to write and read and fill our minds with what is noble, good and beautiful.

Today is the 146th anniversary of the death of the greatest king we never had. Prince Albert, Consort of Queen Victoria, was not only a gifted artist, musician, composer, politician, diplomat and scientist, but also one of the most forward-thinking men of his generation. In an age where royalties had little direct contact with their children, he personally thought up so many brilliant schemes to educate his 9 children giving them both a social conscience and a well-rounded education. At Osborne House he allotted each child a garden, like an allotment, where they grew flower or vegetables which he then bought from them. In the quaint Swiss Cottage, the young princes and princesses learned to cook and to live independent lives, regardless of their royal status. Unlike, too, most princes of the day, he was forward thinking enough to place as much emphasis on his daughters' education, as that of his sons.
He was a man with a social conscience, too, never tiring of discovering how workers lived and the conditions in which they worked, so that he might make suggestions to parliament in improving their lot. His belief that with the privilege of royalty, came responsibility, was one he instilled in his own children too.
There was never a prince more deserving of all the monuments erected in his honour and his untimely death at the age of 42 was not only a tragedy for his widow and children, but also for the whole country.

Ive just bought this t-shirt from Threadless - Flowers in the Attic. Its running out of stock though as they are having a $10 sale. This shirt seems totally emo. I bought several other shirts while waiting for this one to be reprinted (it was so popular, I knew it would be eventually). Fortunately it only took two weeks before the magic reprinting notice! I'm wearing it now. One of those designs that just sticks in your mind forever. I love it so much. Visit Threadless for a bunch more wonderful tees.

"The pen is mightier than the sword" in that ideas always outlive violence or force, but it's a pity sometimes that the pens of the victors are those who write history. Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, are perhaps two of the most maligned people thanks to the pens of those who wanted to justify their murder. Nicholas and Alexandra have been presented and misrepresented for so many decades that even now he is so often seen simply as 'weak' and she as 'obsessive'. Nicholas' strength of character, his absolute loyalty to his allies (who showed far less loyalty to him) and his country (which led to his abdication) and the extreme pressure under which both he and Alexandra lived is often overlooked.
The same is true of the hugely maligned Richard III, whose character was blackened beyond recognition first by the usurper, Henry Tudor, and then by Shakespeare's portrayal of him.
Historical fiction is often closer to the truth than what is deemed to be historical fact. If the historical fiction writer is able to capture the essence of a person, there is far more room for an accurate portrayal rather than what the propaganda of the victors would have us believe.

Some of the greatest classics are written in the 1st person - Dickens' 'David Copperfield' and Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' spring to mind immediately.
Writing in the first person makes the thoughts, emotions and motivation of a character more immediate and accessible but there are many disadvantages to it. The central character has to be in every scene so unless the story is character-led rather than plot-led it could slow the pace of the novel. It is difficult to portray the admiration or love others feel for the central character without having him/her sounding arrogant and consequently becoming unattractive. Of course, through dialogue it is possible to overcome some of these difficulties and also, through flashbacks to switch scenes for variety. Perhaps one way to create the immediacy felt in a novel written in the third person, is to original write each scene in the first person from the viewpoint of one of the characters and then to rewrite it in the third person.

What a mystical and complex person Emily Bronte was! Totally tongue-tied in the company of strangers, so absorbed in her own inner world and so deeply connected to nature that whenever she was forced to be away from the Moors she became physically ill. To all outward appearances she must have seemed to have lacked any real experience about which she could write, and yet not only "Wuthering Heights" but also her poetry is filled with such inner passion that must have startled the people of Haworth who saw her every day as the quiet daughter of their parson. Hour upon hour as she trudged through the 'wild and windy moors' speaking to the characters that populated her inner world and were far more real to her than the everyday people she passed on that cobbled road up to the parsonage, she must have reached depths of understanding that can only be found in silence and following her 'inner guides' until out of a short life came one of the most passionate and memorable novels ever written.

Just goes to show that it's not necessary to have a vast experience of travel or society or anything else, to create a masterpiece! It all must come from within.

The musical "Branwell" * opens when Rev. Bronte, following the death of all his children, opens the little books in which they wrote their stories of Angria and the Great Glass Town. He sings:

"Do impassioned souls find relief in dreams
Creating roles and enchanted scenes?
Of hidden worlds little fingers write
To ignite secret stars making their darkness bright.
A childish script on a tiny page
A pretty play on a paper stage
Was I too old?
How could I understand
The secret games, the names the dreams carved by their hands?

Theirs was a world that I barely saw
Like a glimpse of light
Through a half-closed door;
Like a whispered word that I almost heard
That faded with the echo of a sigh.
Theirs was a world that I could not know,
A trail of footprints in the snow
Once deep and clear then they disappear
And I am left alone to wonder why.

Was their loneliness so intense, so bleak,
That only dreams gave them tongues to speak?
Of secret scars their spirits write
To dispel hidden wounds haunting their sleepless nights.
A fairy tale or reality?
A children’s game or a desperate plea
I should have heard?
How could I ever know
The secret fears, the tears of years so long ago?

* (c. Croft & Croft 2005)

Very cute Nick here needs some help. Lets help him become an emoboy. Post your thoughts on the comment section.

Hi my names Nick. I saw your advice on emo hair.
I am guessing your emo. Or whatever.
I want to look like that.
I just don't know what to do.
I don't know if this matters at all but heres my description along with pic.
I am 5'5 (short I know) i have about to my top of my eyes (when straight) brown ungodly curly hair. I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT. I wear hollister (not emo I know but what the heck idc its clothes) I have an awesome studded belt. I want to look emo. I also am a little like pudgy. I don't like it I want ab's. I am 14. I am NOT a kid and I know what I want.
I'd really appriciate your help.
Thanks

A script writer creating the dialogue for a film about the real war time experiences of a living person, recently described the difficulties she encountered when the real person looked at the script and repeatedly said, "I would never say that!" "I never did such a thing!"
This is surely the difficulty, too, in writing real characters into historical fiction. Is it alright to attribute thoughts and feelings to people, which they might never have thought or felt? In writing a factual biography, on the other hand, the writer - unless he/she is to come in for a load of criticism - is limited to expressing only what the primary sources show their subject to have thought, felt, said or done. How much allowance is made for the biographer to interpret the motives behind the subject's actions? Unless it comes 'straight from the horse's mouth' with a mountain of footnotes to support it, critics often object to a biographer expressing the subject's feelings without the cautionary 'perhaps', or 'maybe' which makes for very stilted reading.
Those authors who succeed in weaving authentic fiction - grounded in historically verifiable facts, with the added dimension of humanity, emotion and thought which is often lacking in biography - seem to me often to create a truer picture of real historical characters than can be found in factual biography. Sandra Worth's beautiful "Rose of York" trilogy, for example, brings the real Richard III alive again on the page in a way that a factual biography could never do.
Perhaps the writer of 'true' historical fiction has a harder -and far more exciting and rewarding - task - than a biographer, in that he or she must capture not only the events, reactions and interaction of the subject's life, but also capture the very essence of the person so that by the end of the book the reader feels he/she has truly become acquainted with a real person, and not just a two-dimensional character from history.

Temple Newsam House, birthplace of Lord Darnley, is a Tudor-Jacobean mansion set in the most glorious grounds. Long before the present house was built, the land - as the name suggests - was the property of the Knights Templar. Local street names: Knight's Hill, Baronsway etc. still bear witness to this. Being a law unto themselves, before they were banished from England, the properties they owned were marked with a Templar Cross and the inhabitants of houses with this mark were exempt from taxes, since they owed allegiance only to the pope not the king. It's interesting that several 18th century houses in the area of Temple Newsam still bear that cross and I wonder if - despite the banishment of the Templars - that right still holds (unbeknown to the residents) today.

"Beckford House" in "The Fields Laid Waste" and subsequent novels in the trilogy, is loosely based upon Temple Newsam House. The gardens, the rare breeds farm and the beautiful lakes and landscapes provide such a perfect background. The woods, even now, have a mystical feel about them...does this come, I wonder, from the ancient rites of the Templars...

How well film makers understand the power of music to arouse emotions! Would 'Psycho' or 'Jaws' have terrified audiences or built up such suspense without music? Would a tragedy be half so tragic without the heart-rending score? Shakespeare knew it, centuries ago, 'if music be the food of love' and isn't music still necessary to create the ambience of parties, restaurants or socials gatherings. A supermarket manager once told me that when the shop is empty, slow music is played to encourage customers to browse the shelves more carefully. When they want to hurry people through the check-out, a faster tune is played. (It's fun to try to walk against that music...to go slow to the fast tunes and vice versa!). Music can communicate so much, so quickly like a scent or facial expression.

Perhaps the closest that words can come to music, is through poetry. T.S. Eliot wrote that "Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." Children learning the beautiful rhythmic echoes of The Lady of Shalott grasp the essence of the poem long before they understand all the vocabulary; Lear's "The Courtship of the Yongy-Bongy Bo" or Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky make no sense at all, yet the sound of the words is like a kind of memorable music and there is beauty in the language which natural appeals to the deepest, finest feelings within us, in much the same way as beautiful music. As Coleridge wrote, "poetry is the best words in the best order". Isn't the purpose of poetry to express in the most beautiful way possible, the most beautiful and deepest emotions, or to capture the most beautiful moments, scenes or experiences - to put music and art into words, and in this way to elevate the thoughts to the aesthetic and profound.

Why is it, then, that many a school syllabus compels students to study so-called 'poetry' of violence, of ugly language creating ugly impressions? It has been said that some of these poems -describing family disputes, crime, joyriding (what joy??), unpleasant relationships - are supposed to be more accessible to children and because they reflect real life experience they are easier for students to understand and empathise with. What arrogance it is to assume that children lack the ability to appreciate beauty or to understand the meaning of a poem because the language is unfamiliar; or to assume that ugliness is more appealing to young minds than the aesthetic and profound. What even greater arrogance it is to suppose that if someone grows up among violence, hearing only ugly language he/she is incapable appreciating beauty! When poetry, like music, can raise us to our highest self, our best thoughts, and our deepest feelings and our sense of empathy with, rather than separation from, the rest of humanity, and when there is such a wealth of beautiful literature available to us, it seems a sacrilege to feed young minds on dross.

Emo hairstyles are similar to the hairstyles of music artists in the 1980s and the punk hairstyles in the past decade. Commonly, emo hairstyles include straight black hair with long bangs or fringes styled to one side, covering part of the face and eyes. However, the emo hairstyle is not limited to this anymore; styles have evolved so that anybody who wants to have an emo hairstyle can get one.

CHECK THE SHAPE OF YOUR FACE

The shape of your face is important when choosing a specific emo hairstyle. For people who have longer faces, a longer emo haircut would fit. For those with rounder faces, long fringes and short hair at the back would look best.

FIND A PICTURE

Now that you know what kind of emo hairstyle would look good with the face of your shape, the next thing to do is find a picture with the kind of emo hair you want. There are numerous sources of emo hairstyles from the Internet, especially musicians. Bring this along when you go to your hairdresser, and have your stylist cut your hair the same way.

GET YOUR HAIR CUT

Before you can get an emo haircut, you need to grow your hair a little first. This allows your stylist to cut in the emo style into your hair. Ask your stylist to cut the sides and the back of your hair in layers. The bangs should be made choppy. Although emo bangs usually have one side longer than the other, some emo styles can also have bangs cut straight across, covering the forehead. The hair at the crown should also be cut short, keeping it spiky with hair products.

HAVE YOUR HAIR COLORED

Have your entire hair dyed black or dark brown. If you want to add highlights, you can do so in a variety of colors. Emo hairstyles tend to use unusual hues in order to create a glaring contrast to the black hair – white, blue and even bright pink, for the more outrageous, are typically used. Highlights are usually added under the bangs and at the nape.

STYLE YOUR HAIR

Having emo hair is high maintenance. Styling emo hair typically involves the use of a lot of hair products. You can choose to either straighten your hair with a hair iron or create a messy, unruly look. For those with curly hair, try straightening even just the front part of your hair. When ironing your hair, remember to do so in small sections so that you go through all the parts. If you are a guy, you can also spike up the back of your hair, while keeping the front pat down. You can also use funky accessories and clips to style your hair.

CONCLUSION

Getting an emo haircut is an important part of living the emo lifestyle. Although these are simple guides on how to get a basic emo haircut, it is important to incorporate your personal ideas to create your own one-of-a-kind emo hairstyle. Try it!

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon called England 'a nation of shopkeepers'. If he saw us today, I think he might call us 'a nation of museum curators/theme-park operators'. Where once there were thriving manufacturing industries, there are now theme parks and museums - exciting, interactive, educational, museums, but museums all the same: the railway museum, mining museum, mills museums, whole villages turned into museums. What is it about the past that attracts so much interest? Is all this simply a way of making money from a defunct manufacturing industry, or is it that, in the throw-away age where so many of our goods are imported and when they stop working we don't have them mended but buy another, we look back to a time when people took pride in their creations and things were made to last? Strange how, in the days before bulldozers, steam rollers, cranes and petrol/diesel driven vehicles etc. such care was taken in building beautiful edifices with mosaic tiles, giant arches, columns and carvings. Stranger still how, what might have been an opportunity to create something as memorable and lasting as Marble Arch, the Tower of London, the countless castles and abbeys of England, the best we could do to mark the millennium was the ugly and ridiculous dome! Wasn't that just the epitome of the throw-away age?
Of course, it is easy to look back through rose-coloured spectacles and to forget that so much of what we see around us today was built on the back of the countless child and adult workers, whose bodies now lie now in the unmarked pauper graves of Victorian cemeteries (which, incidentally, are also tourist attractions). I like to think when I look at some of the beautiful architecture in the city of Leeds, that somehow these things are a monument to all those forgotten people, and especially to the children whose names are lost in oblivion. Sometimes, when I pass the old mill buildings (now luxury apartments) along the banks of the River Aire, or see the fronts of the most exclusive shops in the Victoria Quarter and Briggate, I think back to all those forgotten children and workers who first brought wealth to Leeds. Beneath these flag stones there are probably relics of the old slum dwelling, a dropped penny, a clay pipe, an empty bottle dropped by a real person from another era, and it might be my imagination but I almost hear their clogs on cobbles, the boom of the looms and cries from the squalid tenements and I want to say, "Thank you. I remember you so you're not forgotten."

"The Fields Laid Waste" - both a love story and, I hope, a tribute to all those children - follows the effects of enclosure on a rural village and the migration of one particular family into the town at the height of the Leeds cholera epidemic. In this scene, Will Harding, an engineer, has been invited by mill owner, Mr. Brandwith, to visit his factory with a view to designing more powerful looms:

"Will...followed him into another yard that echoed with the regular beat and clatter of the looms.
“If there’s owt you want to know, you’ll have to ask me after. I’ll not be able to hear you in here,” Proctor warned.
He opened a door and it seemed to Will that a thousand horses had been let loose to gallop across a wooden plateau. Hammering, rattling, clicking and pounding! Shuttles flew from one side of the vast hall to the other as the inexorable looms churned out their cloth. Along the rows between the machines, other foremen paced, their hands like Proctor’s fixed to their straps, their eyes like eagles in search of slackers. As the heavy frames relentlessly chugged to and fro, small children, crouching on the floor, hurried in and out between the shuttles, brushing the fluff from the looms. Despite their adroitness, Will could hardly bear to watch as the great weights swung so close to their tiny bodies that should one of them fall or take a fraction of a second too long, the results would be too horrific to imagine. The rumours he had heard in the village ran through his head: children dead of exhaustion, starvation or gangrene from mutilated limbs; eight-year-olds skinnier than the runt of an old sow’s litter; and the factory fever that wiped them out by the dozen.
The noise was so deafening that he thought his head might explode and he hurried back to the door and the relative peace of the yard, where he stood with his hands pressed to his ears until his guide reappeared.
“Engine house is this way, sir.”
Proctor began to walk away expecting Will to follow but he didn’t move.
“Wait,” he called, “there’s more I want to see here.”
“Mr. Brandwith said you were familiar with the looms and it were just a matter of showing you the size of the place.”
“I want to speak with some of the workers.”
“I don’t know about that. Mr. Brandwith didn’t say owt about that.”
“If we wants me to design new looms, I need to discover the disadvantages of the old ones. The only people who can tell me that, are the ones who work on them.”
Proctor ran a long finger over his lips, pensively sucking in his cheeks before replying, “I’ll fetch one of the foremen.”
“No, not a foreman. One of the women, or better yet, one of the children. A child, yes, I want to speak with a child.”
Proctor vacillated, “It i’n’t good for them to be brought from their work. They lose their momentum, see? They’ve to be kept going or they grow sleepy and start slacking.”
“Are you going to do as I ask, or do I have to find Mr. Brandwith? I don’t think he’ll be too pleased at being brought from his business for something so trivial.”
Proctor’s thin lips twitched and, with no hint of having surrendered, he said, “Wait here, sir, if you please. I’ll fetch a child.”
The child whom he brought was a thin, wasted girl whose age Will couldn’t determine. Her pale skin and pink eyes gave her the appearance of a mouse, and when Proctor pushed her forward with the end of his strap, she cowered and stared at the ground.
Will crouched to her height, “What’s your name?”
“Lily, sir.”
“Lily, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
Clearly at a loss as to how to respond, she looked up at the foreman who hovered behind her, twirling the strap between his fingers and staring over her head.
“She’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“How old are you, Lily?”
“I’m not rightly sure. I think I’m eight, sir.”
“Ten,” Proctor said, “we have no one here under ten.”
“Ten,” Will nodded, certain she was younger. Her frame was so slight that her ragged dress hung loosely from her shoulders as though made for someone twice her age.
“How long have you worked for Mr. Brandwith?”
“I came last spring to the apprentice house.”
Will looked up at Proctor, “Apprentice house?”
“In his kindness, Mr. Brandwith takes the little bastards from the workhouse and sees they’re taught a good and useful trade. Isn’t that so, child?”
“Yes, Mr. Proctor.”
“And how should you repay him for his kindness?”
“I should work very hard, Mr. Proctor, and be grateful to my betters for all they’ve done for me.”
“That’s right, because they’ve done a great deal for you, haven’t they? If it weren’t for Mr. Brandwith providing you with food and clothes and a bed to sleep in, where would you be?”
“I should probably have starved to death in the gutter by now.”
Every line she spoke, she spoke without hesitation as though reciting a chant she’d recited a thousand times before. Will, still crouching before her, tried to look into her eyes, but she kept her head down as though too frightened to look at him.
“What time did you start work this morning?”
“Six o’clock this morning, sir.”
“And what time will you finish?”
“Seven o’clock tonight.”
The sound of the loomshed rattled across the yard and Will thought how his head might have exploded after only two minutes indoors.
“Thirteen hours,” he whispered, “thirteen hours every day!”
“With a break of twenty minutes for breakfast and forty minutes for lunch,” Proctor said.
Will reached for the little girl’s hand but she flinched from his touch, “Do you like your work, Lily?”
She looked up at the foreman again, “Yes, sir. It’s very good of Mr. Brandwith to give me work.”
Will stood up, folded his arms, and walked around her in a circle, “How many children work here, Proctor?”
“Eighty-eight pauper apprentices and about a hundred more come with their families.”
Will looked at the child, silently shivering in the cold yard, “I want to talk to her alone.”
“Beg your pardon, sir?”
“Leave us, please.”
Proctor started in shock but Will met his eyes and stared at him determinedly until, after a moment’s hesitation, he yielded. He turned to the child, placed the handle of his strap beneath her chin, and jerked her head to look at him, “You answer the gentleman’s questions good and proper, do you hear?”
“Yes, Mr. Proctor.”
“Right then. I’ll wait in the loomshed.”
When he’d gone, Lily stood as he’d left her; her hands clasped in front of her waist, her eyes staring straight ahead and her shoulders trembling with cold. Will smiled at her but she didn’t respond.
“Is there somewhere warm we could talk?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
He stooped to her height, “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Lily. Look,” he opened his arms, “I don’t have a strap. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She seemed no less afraid.
“I don’t work for Mr. Brandwith or Mr. Proctor so you can speak to me honestly, Lily. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
He looked around, “Where’s the apprentice house?”
She pointed to a high black building in the shadow of the giant mill tower.
“Is it warm in there?”
“No, sir.”
“It must be warmer than out here. Come on,” he took her by the hand, “show me.”
Through a series of passages, alleys and yards she led him to the dismal building. In the windowless entrance, the only light came through the door revealing bare brickwork and a rickety staircase leading up to a landing.
“Do you have a dining room?”
“No, sir. We generally eat at the loom or in the yard except on Sundays after church, then they give us our dinner in the main hall.”
“So what’s down here then?” Will said, moving along the passage and trying handles, but each door was locked.
“Overseers’ rooms and offices. We don’t go in there.”
Without being asked she set off up the rickety staircase, leading Will to a landing where she pushed open one of the doors.
“I sleep in here, sir,” she whispered.
Will looked through the crack. On two beds with a thin piece of sacking for a blanket, he counted twelve children huddled together for warmth, their thin, wan limbs piled on top of one another like bones in charnel house. He stepped back in shock, “Who are they?”
“Night shift, sir. We take it in turns. We get up and they have the beds, then they get up and we have the beds. We change over each week.”
“So the factory never stops working?”
“No, sir.”
He peeped into the room again. Most slept, though one or two coughed and stirred but all seemed too weary to open their eyes. He stepped back onto the landing, closing the door on their dreams. He sat down on the stairs and looked at the child who stood patiently at his side.
“Do you ever have lessons? Can you read or write?”
She shook her head.
“But you’re apprentices, so what have they taught you?”
“To clean the looms, sir. I think the older ones learn weaving and dyeing.”
“How do you clean the looms?”
“With a brush. When the shuttle flies back we run in for the fluff.”
“And if you’re not quick enough?”
She didn’t answer.
“Are there many accidents?”
“There was a boy last week, he got his arm fast in the threads and the ladies that were weaving told the foreman to stop the loom but he wouldn’t and when the frame came back along…well his arm came off, right off. They had to stop it then. Foreman was angry because he’d ruined all the cloth with his blood.”
Will leaned back against the walls and half-closed his eyes against the bare bricks, “What did Mr. Brandwith say?”
“I don’t know, sir. I think he sent for the surgeon but it didn’t do any good. He bled to death before he got here.”

An interviewer on a radio programme once asked a writer how she reconciled the maxim "write what you know", with all the horror described in her novels and which she clearly hadn't personally experienced. She replied that she took her own experiences which inspired emotion, magnified the emotion slightly and put it into whatever situation her novel required. I thought that was rather wonderful!
Basically, no matter what the external events, humans run the same gamut of emotions so, perhaps, every novel is to some extent autobiographical of the writers' experience and all humanity's experience.
I would like to include some excerpts from my novels, over the next couple of days, beginning with "The Counting House."
This is autobiographical only in as much as it tries to describe the emotions, fears, joys, anger and love of a child, which I believe are common to everyone's childhood. I have often felt that children, struggling into roles allotted to them by society, go through so much angst because they have not yet learned to voice or understand their deepest feelings and there is often no outlet for them to express these emotions. So often, confined by the mores of the family or school or society, children are compelled to hide their anger, their fears and their love. How many of us grow to adulthood with the unhappy, unexpressed child still lost somewhere inside and acting out childhood fears and anger in grown up bodies.

Georgie, the central character of "The Counting House", thinks in black and white when the novel begins. Everything is good or evil, heroic or weak, brave or cowardly. She feels terrible guilt for having 'stolen', from a cemetery lodge, a candlestick which she believes has led to her being cursed by the devil and condemned by God, When tragedy strikes the family that evening, she believes she is to blame and embarks on a bizarre quest to appease God and rid herself of the devil. As the book progresses she gradually comes to understand the 'shades of grey' in defining the nature of good, evil and accident.

This excerpt from the beginning of the third chapter, describes her fear not only of retribution from God, but also of her terrifying teacher, Miss Keppel:

"I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage.”
While the boys made Plasticine models with plastic knives on small square boards, we sat like ladies-in-waiting around Miss Keppel’s desk, clicking our needles and quietly chanting the steady rhythm,
“In, wrap it round, pull it through, slip it off. In, wrap it round, pull it through slip it off.”
Miss Keppel moved among us uttering words of wisdom, “The devil finds work for idle hands. Always keep your hands and your minds busy!”
Her huge nostrils quivered as she surveyed the class, “Gerard Taylor, what is the first commandment?”
He answered without hesitation, “Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.”
“Go on,” she said.
We carried on knitting, “In, wrap it round, pull it through slip it off, in, wrap it round, pull it through, slip it off.”
“Nor any fish or,” he looked down and stuck his thumb into the squashy pink snail, “bird or graven image or any insect or anything.”
Miss Keppel’s great nose came down above him until his neck shrank into his shoulders. A swift hand clipped the top of his head, “For I, the Lord am a jealous God and I punish the father’s guilt in his sons!”
She spun around like a whirlwind, “Catherine Gould, the second commandment?”
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
“In, wrap it round, pull it through, slip it off. In, wrap it round, pull it through, slip it off,” faster and faster, building up speed like a train.
I said the words but my hands were out of time. I said, ‘Slip it off,’ when I was wrapping it round and I knitted a hole where there should have been wool. Catherine Gould’s scarf grew longer and longer in a rainbow of bright colours. I wriggled the wool through my fingers, tying the loose ends in knots on the needles. The two rows that Miss Keppel had knitted to start me off grew greyer and greyer but the scarf never grew any longer.
Miss Keppel moved on, calling names at random, “Michael Donnelly, the fifth commandment.”
This week she was bound to come to me; I guessed that she would reach me with the seventh. She always omitted the sixth and the ninth and Gerard Taylor said they were rude. I looked them up in the Bible.
“Jessica,” I said, “what’s adultery?”
“Being cheeky to grown ups.”
“That’s not rude.”
“Being rude to grown ups then.”
Miss Keppel’s shoes squeaked over the wooden floor and her flowing skirt made a breeze as she passed. My fingers were damp and slipped over the huge plastic needles. I gathered the grubby grey wool on my lap and buried the scarf in my hands.
“Georgina Meadows, the seventh commandment?”
I felt the blood rush out of my face and my hand began to shake. I opened my mouth but no words would come.
“The seventh commandment, Georgina?”
She was standing in front of me, her long bony fingers entwined before my eyes. Her knuckles were red and inflamed and brown spots covered the skin.
I screwed the wool into a ball, “Thou shalt not steal.”
One by one her fingers untwined and stretched themselves like an eagle about to swoop on its prey. Her hand was cold when her skin touched mine, pulling the woollen ball from my knee. When she lifted it up her nostrils flared and her thin lips sank into her mouth.
“What,” she said, pausing between each word, “is this?”
I didn’t know if she wanted an answer so I bent down and pulled up my socks.
“Well?”
“Please may I do Plasticine next week?”
“Plasticine?” the word burst out like an oath.
“I can’t knit. My Mum can’t knit either. None of us knits in our family.”
Her dull eyes widened and her lips disappeared. She took the end of a thread in her finger tips as though it were an insect she could hardly bear to hold and with one sudden movement of her wrist, unravelled the whole creation and dropped it in a heap on my knee.
“You can’t knit? Then it’s time you learned. You’ll stay in at playtime this afternoon and every afternoon until you can.”

Congratulations on the the launch of the Blog. I hope it helps to bring pre-eminence to your excellent work.

What's the correct answer to the greeting, "Alright?" ? I don't know if this is a Yorkshire colloquialism or in worldwide usage, but far from the genteel, "Good morning, Lady Harley-Farley, how are you?" of another era, it seems that in the age of speed in all things, we do not like to waste time with words and reduce the greeting to "Alright?" You walk along the road, pass an acquaintance and he/she nods, "Alright?" What do you say? "I am very well, thank you, how are you?" sounds too verbose. A simple, "Hi!" or "Morning!" (omitting the 'good', of course)? Or perhaps just a nod and a smile?

When L.P. Hartley wrote, "The past is another country, they do things differently there..." he might have warned that they speak another language there, too, and what a challenge this presents in writing historical fiction. In order to find the authentic voice of a particular era, is it necessary to check every word for its usage at the time? For example, 'naughty', in Shakespeare's time, was far more derogatory than it is nowadays. The word 'sick' - I believe - came to England from America some time in the mid-19th century, and I recently discovered (from Stephen Fry's brilliant book), that 'Hello' only came into usage as a greeting after the invention of the telephone. So do I check every word that the characters speak, or is better to capture the essence of the age by using language which is more familiar today? After all, some local phrases of 'old speak' would make no sense whatsoever to anyone born outside of Yorkshire or after 1970. I never understood my grandmother's greeting, "Why don't you come like yourself?" Things didn't break, they 'went west', angry people, 'played Hamlet', to 'make love' was a mild flutter of eyelashes and 'to screw' meant to look or watch and spices were sweets, and sweets were meat. Combine that with all the Yorkshire grammar of nowt, sommat and replacing 'our' with 'us' ('we're having us dinner'), changing 'the' to 't' followed by a sort of guttural 'er' (going t'er shops) and local vocabulary of ginnels and snickets for alleyways, the 'coarser edge' for the kerb...
Perhaps it would be much easier to set the novel in a community that had taken a vow of silence...

Got this tru email. Another hot emoboy with a really nice emo hair. His name is Charles Brindle. Visit his myspace profile and be inspired.. He also cut his own hair and do the same for his friends.. talented..

I'm a fairly extroverted person who enjoys reading, hanging out, poetry, artwork, and computers. I spend a lot of time working on artwork and reading particularly. You'll find me in coffee shops most of the time, probably working on one of these things. I absolutely love coffee and without it I probably wouldn't get as much done as I do. Starbuck's frapicinos rule 2, along with BK Joes, and Sheri's coffee. Helps to curve my ADD anyway (at least that’s what I keep telling myself.)

Right now I'm running a small business and trying to make my way through college. Life for me is usually crazy but I've been living in a mad world so long I find it more enjoyable then a boring life. Better to live your life as an adventure then not live it at all. I also really like to help people out however I can. I personally think that the greatest way to spend your time is to be spending it helping others.

If you feel like you ever need someone to talk to, send me a message and I'll do my best to get back to you. The time I spend here is not to judge people, just here to help them out as best as I can.

I've got a lot of problems and I'm far from perfect. Actually I'd say I'm a pretty screwed up person and I'm trying to rebuild my life from the ashes of other people’s mistakes. But God is there to help me along the way, and I believe I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today without Him. If you don't believe in God or share this view that’s okay. I think people should have the choice to believe in what they want (shouldn't everybody have the right to that?)

They've turned the song emo.

Jes Rickleff is the "winner" of VH1's "Rock of Love". She lives in Kearney, Nebraska and works at a salon called "Bang". Jes Rickleff is not really emo but she got this really nice pink highlights and thats worth mentioning her on this blog. It takes an enormous amount of self confidence to wear pink hair and she's just oozing with it.

A wise choice of haircut- I think it'll look fabulous!

Okay, firstly let's focus on your face shape.

It you have a longer face, and a squared jaw, then you'd suit the hair being as long as it is in those pictures. However, if you have more of a round face then I suggest going slightly shorter at the back to counter-balance the long fringe. For example, this pic.

Find out what hairdressers you will be using (I use Toni And Guy as they do 'emo/scene' styles really well) and go and talk to one of the hairdressers that'll cut your hair for you. Explain to them what they think is best for you hair, whether the style will suit you etc. Print off the photographs and show them. Doing this will let your hairdresser know exactly what you want it like- but do bear in mind, these hairstyles are high maintenance and it'll cost a fortune on hair products.

Now, for the descriptive part.

You'll need your hair reasonably long before you get your hair cut, so you can have the shape 'cut in'. From the pictures, your hairstylist will be able to get a good idea of what they'll be doing. A sweeping, choppy fringe across one side is important. Remember to tell them to keep one side longer and shorter as you go across, so you get that 'flicked' look. Keep it longer along the sides and at the back, razoring layers into it. Then, at the crown of the head, the hair should be cut really short so it can be 'spiked up' with wax or gel.

Have a go with some colour if you're feeling brave- white blonde highlights, a creamy blue or perhaps even pink or orange if you're really going for it. Get them sliced in under your sweeping fringe and at the nape of your neck. There are a few links at the end of my post which suggest some good colours which would work well with that haircut. Take a look.

If you need any styling tips after you get your hair cut, send a message to Demixxdinosaur from Yahoo Anwser and she'd love to help you guys. His boyfriend has exactly the same haircut and she does his hair often and watch him style it all of the time.

Source:
Personal Experience of Demixxdinosaur from Yahoo Answer.

Dyed dark brown, long hair with lots of layers. This emogirl hairstyle is great if you have an oval face and want soft bangs. As you can see this is a very nice style accompanied with dark eye makeup that emphasize your eyes. Wear it any way you want.

Wicked Stuff! Totally amazing. Watch this vid!

Lyrics...

Now my mate Geoff
I've known him for years
He loves his Madonna and his Britney Spears
Then one day I noticed a change
He went all moody and he didn't look the same
His eyes looked black
I said have you got a shiner?
When I looked closer he were wearing eyeliner
He'd straightened his hair
And combed it over his eyes
And all at once I realised

Oh no!
He's turned Emo
He's dressing like a Goth
and he's let himself go
He used to be a listening to Simply Red
Now he's listening to Fall Out Boy instead!

Well he weren't at the Labour Club for our regular line dance
He just stayed at home and listened to My Chemical Romance
I said you're not an Emo let's forget this misdemeanor
Come with me and see Cliff Richard at the MEN Arena
He said
'I'm feeling all emotional, I don't know why?'
I said
It's those tight trousers that are making you cry
Come and have a pint of mild and you'll feel fine
And listen to Abba not Bullet For My Valentine

Well I saw him yesterday when I were walking to the station
I could tell from a distance he were wearing foundation
He's painted his finger nails black, it looks quite poor
Looks like he's caught his fingers in a car door
He were wearing a man-bag that say's Jimmy Eats World
I said they wants to be eating chippy tea
You great big bloomin' girl!
He said
'I just want my emotions to be exposed'
Oh emotions thas from Lancashire
Thas not got none of those

With his silky, shiny, straight emo hair!

There is a recurring conversation at school, at home and here on the net over the differences between these various people. How can you tell the difference between the two? I have some friends that consider themselves scene kids. They are really nice people. The idea of being "scene" is usually knowing a lot about the local bands/music scene. "Emo" is as always "Emotional" were as scene kids, I believe is more of the style and looking like an emo without the personality of it all. People who only follow the fashion and style, while emo kids follow the fashion, the style and the lifestyle.

Girl, your hairstyle is seriously cool. Dark Blonde to Light Brown highlights without the brassiness.

Dang Emo Hair is so cool..

Brendon Urie - lead vocalist of Panic! At The Disco, one of the best new bands.

Nice emo hair gallery. Its on a myspace group but you don't need to be a member to view the album. Check it out here.

Some really nice scene kid hair images. Visit the gallery here.

The band "Refused" popularised the emo hair with their uniform appearance in this music video for the "New Noise" single.As with clothing, the hairstyles of emo kids vary depending on the individual and on his/her music influences. However, there are several common aspects of emo hairstyles.

For one, because the emo scene is very DIY-oriented, hair that is not professionally cut is considered to be more scene than hair that is. Emo kids have their friends cut their hair, or they cut it themselves. Jet black, bleached blonde, or dark hair with a reddish or purplish tinge are all very emo, as is hair with distinct sections of contrasting colors (all-over black hair with a section of bleached blonde in the undermost layer of the back is quite common).

Emo hair is short-ish, and does not differ much from gender to gender. It is common for boys and girls to have oily and/or shaggy hair that covers the eye and reaches the shirt-collar. Boys usually wear theirs unkempt and girls may wear clips on the front. It is common for both to have bangs cut straight across their browridges, and swept to one side.

The most common emo hair

What is most commonly implied by the term "emo" in reference to hair is dyed jet-black hair that is sloped to cover, or partially cover, one of the eyes (usually the right eye). Sometimes this is known as the "emo comb-over", because the way the emo hair sweeps from the back of the head looks like the way an old man would grow a patch of comb-over hair to hide a bald spot. The popularisation of this hairstyle is often attributed to the band Refused, whose members had uniform jet black hair sloped to partially obscure the right eye. The uniform dress code of the band has also been an influence of emo fashion — especially the fashioncore strand — in general.

As the term "emo" has become more and more ingrained in the popular conscience, "emo hairs" have come to include a much wider array of styles. These more complex styles are largely associated with the fashioncore style of emo fashion and are most commonly sported by scene kids.

The Scene/Devilock haircut

AFI frontman Davey Havok with what is commonly referred to as the Havok Devilock. The origins of one of the most popular emo hairstyles are largely attributed to The Cure, The Misfits and AFI. Robert Smith of The Cure had his long hair drooping over his eyes, but had the back slightly shorter and spiked out. Jerry Only of The Misfits invented a haircut in the late 1970s/early 1980s known as a "devilock" which involved the hair to be cut short, but leaving the fringe to grow very long and to be combed forward over the eyes. Only, guitarist Doyle and former lead singer Glenn Danzig all wore the style and dyed their hair black. Most members of The Misfits have sported the style or one similar at one point or another. During the "All Hallows EP" and "The Art of Drowning"-era, AFI frontman Davey Havok used to have a haircut that mixed these two styles together, cutting his hair short by way of the standard hardcore punk shirt and spiky haircut, but left only his immediate fringe to grow long, at least down to his chin. He also dyed his blond hair black from a very young age. Since the appearance of this variation of the devilock, the two have been given names: The Only Devilock and The Havok Devilock. These two, and in particular Havok's variation, are an obvious precursor to what has become known as "scene" hair.

The neo-mullet

Lostprophets guitarist Mike Lewis sports a neo-mullet. Also referred to as a skewed mullet or 90-degree mullet, this is an updated version of the much-derided classic mullet haircut. The basic "business at the front, party in the back" cut is often modified with a longer piece of hair on one side at the back, whilst the front section of the cut often partially obscures one eye (most commonly the "tail" at the back slopes to the left while the fringe slopes to the right). This haircut is commonplace amongst both male and female scene kids. The hair is almost always dyed jet black, and it is then commonplace for sections to be highlighted either blonde or red.

This emo hairstyle is accompanied with dark eye makeup and a light colored face. You can place a temporary tattoo of a teardrop underneath the visible eye.

Tom actually recently cut his hair off, but in the picture it was a short-medium length shaggy cut. A few layers in the front so it can be swept off to the side. Actually if you go to CIWWAF's myspace, or I think Tom still has some older pictures up on his myspace that show his hair better than my picture does. Like I said he's recently cut it short but I prefer the longer style he had going a few months ago.

As for what I know about him, he's only about 5'5"-5'7", brown hair, brown eyes. He honestly is one of the sweetest guys I've met. He's a bit shy, but if you can find him I highly recommend talking to him. He's incredibly nice and gives the best hugs. Very gracious too.

Another gallery for emo girls with blonde hair shorter than shoulder. The usual emo hair for females: cut short, just above the shoulders. Tips and streaks are the most widely used version. Side bangs is also a common trait.

Thanks Ale00123 from Chihuahua, Mexico for sending us his picture. He is such a cute emo boy and his emo hairstyle looks great on him.

A toned-down version of the famous mohawk haircut popularized by David Beckham. Instead of shaving the side of your head, you just glue up the middle part or make the central strip of hair stand up so that it is in the style of the mohawk. The faux hawk resembles the mohawk when styled but can also, if desired, appear to be a conventional emo hairstyle.

This blog is all about emo hairstyles. If you have an emo hairstyle and would like to be featured on this blog, just send us an email to rockenspiel@yahoo.com with your pictures. It would be nice if you add instructions on how to achieve your haircut but not really required. We would be happy to link back to your myspace or bebo profile. You could also hold a sign saying EmoHairstyle.blogspot.com :) !

The "shag" cut, with the so called "emo sweep" at the front, sloped to cover, so only one eye is visible for most parts. Emo hairstyles does not necessarily have to be short and hidden face sort of thing though it is usually of that fashion.

Does anyone know what brand of hoodies does Pete Wentz wear? Or does he go for customized hoodies from his Clandestine clothing line? I've been searching online but cant seem to find that much info.

The hoodies used to be sold at Urban Outfitters, but no longer is. The hoodie that is almost the exact same is being sold at an H&M store. I have one hoodie and I got it from their men's department. Too bad H&M doesn't have an online store. I want to add more hoodies to my collection.

I dig his hoodies and the guys low rise jeans he wears. I also want to have those guy clothing but I dont know where to buy. If any emo there knows, your comment is highly appreciated.

So far, only got this information:

http://www.clandestineindustries.com/ - You cant buy the hoodies online. Only listings of their stores.

http://www.bbcicecream.com/ - The clothing line of Pharrell Williams (Neptunes), and Nigo from Bathing APE. They cost around $300 - too expensive but feel great.

Emo boy Pete Wentz recently signed a deal with DKNY to make his Clandestine Industries clothing line available to all emos. An emo inspired clothing line - the dark hues and texture of rock and roll with dark denim and leather, but mixing it up with softer fabrics and feminine pops of color. Now we can buy the same hoodies he wear.

Emo or anime? Blue hair on a female emo girl tends to indicate shyness or introversion, a correspondence which seems to have originated with Ami "Sailor Mercury" Mizuno from Sailor Moon. - tvtropes.org

It depends on the style that you want. Basically, Emo hairstyle are unconstructed and unblended look showing lots of texture. If you do a search for Emo Hairstyles, you'll find a ton of pictures to choose your look from. Once you have the cut, blow dry with some gel or a mousse, and then a pomade will give you that broken up grunge look that many of the Emo style have.

Long black hair with splurges of bright red highlight. You can also try blond streaks at the front if you don't like red. Layers would be good to achieve this hairstyle.

The guy with the lip ring.
Cute Is What We Aim For drummer.
The cutest emo boy! :)

Emo music is the boat that brought the term “emo” down the river. Emo music is a type of hardcore punk music. They type of music has slowly evolved over the years. This typic of music is very melodramatic and filled with lyrics of a depressing state. Emo music is said to have began with DC bands like Embrace and Rites of Spring but is in not limited to them, in 1985. Basically, the sound involved a slower and emotional (therefore the name "emo") version of hardcore music. The vocals are generally sung in a whiny sounding voice, or with screams that leave the lyrics indistinguishable.

Emo music today has created many opposite and contradicting combinations that all proclaim to be emo, rendering it somewhat useless. Here are some examples: there's political, scream-and-flail-on-the-floor, emo like Frail, Swing Kids, Impetus Inter, and a slew of San Diego based bands; there's the really slow, discordant, artsy emo like Cap'n Jazz, Joan d'Arc, Evergreen, etc.; then we have the more popular melody/pop-oriented bands like Texas is the Reason, Sensefield, Mineral, Promise Ring, Split Lip (now Chamberlain), etc.; and last but not least we have the slow, stop-and-go, melody-thrash alternating groups like Amber Inn, Still Life, and others I can't think of right now.

The band Cute is What We Aim For was created in Buffalo, NY in 2005. This pop rock band began with four members but currently has three. The members include Shaant Hacikyan on vocals, Jeff Czum on guitar and piano, and Tom Falcone on drums. When the original members decided to take Cute Is What We Aim For to a new level, each had a difficult parting of ways with their other bands. The band got out to a rough start, having negative vibes from their other bands and even accusations of plagiarism. They also had issues with their debut album, The Same Old Blood Rush with a New Touch, when the founder of Absolutepunk.net charged them with using auto pitch/tone correcting software. Nevertheless, the release of their debut album in 2006 debuted at number 75 on the Billboard 200.

by Inyo
For a portion of the summer, I had the opportunity to dye my hair blue. Having blue hair is an enjoyable experience I'd suggest to anyone, it certainly makes life interesting. It helped get through a summer in a very boring town. But I sure did get a lot of weird comments. They ranged as anything from 'is that natural?' to 'did you spill paint on your hair?' Probably the most common questions I got from old people was 'It's just for the summer right?' or 'does it wash out?' Also common was 'Why?'. (it's something you cant really explain to a redneck in a convenience store in Nevada). Most younger people asked me 'whoa, how'd you get that color?' or 'what type of dye did you use?' When my parents saw it they simply said 'Whoa.. it IS blue'. I guess they didnt believe me.

All kinds of other interesting things happened to me when my hair was blue. When I was in the desert visiting Bodie, someone recognized me who had seen me at Rock Creek over 100 miles away. Having blue hair isnt good if you desire anonymity... don't yell things at people out of cars if you have blue hair. Also, part of my tub is now stained blue. Some idiot smacked me over the head randomly with a beer bottle at a show in San Jose and the beer in my hair turned blue and dribbled down on me, turning most of my shirt blue. Throughout the few months I had blue hair, I had to touch it up a lot. If you want to dye your hair use Special Effects brand.. don't use Manic Panic.

Anyway... if you have a job which will allow it, and you get bored, you can always give it a try. It sure did get a lot of girls to come up and talk to me, which is a good thing. It got me funny looks from middle aged people but who really cares what they think anyway? If you live in the boonies you might get pulled over by a cop or something. Also I literally had some cars almost crash when driving by me... which I thought was pretty funny because where I come from, dyed hair is no big thing. But... I would say that everyone should dye their hair while in college.

According to the August issue of J-14, America's no. 1 emo boy Pete Wentz owns 730 hoodies.

I have two year' worth of hoodies, wearing a different one every day. A lot of people in the hardcore scene used to wear them. It's also like a comfort blanket. Long after I started wearing them, my manager told me that Bob Dylan would wear hoodies on tour. And when the hoodie was up, you couldn't talk to him. I was like, "That's amazing!"

Here is a gallery of long emo hairstyles for girls. There are 105 pictures overall. May you find the style your looking for.

What can you say about Shaants' hair? This is the perfect example of a shaggy emo hair that hangs over the side of one's face, covering your desired eye in a side bang type fashion. Shaants' hair is long and partially hide his face, sometimes covering his eyes.

Achieving this is very simple. Just grow your hair long enough and employ a hair gel or a wax to keep your bangs right where you want it. A medium hold gel would be the best option to achieve this hairstyle.

More about Shaant
Lead vocalist of Cute Is What We Aim For
His name is pronounced Shawnt
He is turkish from his dad
Last name is haw-sik-ean
He used to smoke but he quit
He used to be an alcoholic
Lives in the BIG Apple
He is 20 something
Single - might be taken by now
HOT

13 Emo Tattoo Photos from EmoStuff.
Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems T-shirt from Threadless.

Emo Videos
How Indie Are You Emo? - sort of funny. "It's a word document! ha ha ha.
Investigators: EMO Music - some sort of documentary. I don't know if you'll like it or not.

Watch this video of Pon and Zi. They are the two cute little emo cartoon characters created by Azuzephre. Very adorable. Too bad they dont sport any emo hair style. They dont have hairs!

Sure, we have all seen the people with the jet black hair, the extremely small, tight-fitting, shirts, and the kids with the cut-up wrists. But do we know who they are exactly? Most people would generally refer to them as “emo” but, what really is emo?

Emo is a slang term derived from the word “emotional”. Emo is also a term for emotionally-charged punk rock. The word can be used to describe the emotional state of a teenage (usually a depressed state), the person in general, or the emotionally-charged type of music.

More often than not, emo is seen as a degrading term, inferring that the person being called emo is depressed, a whiner, and one who cuts their wrist for the heck of it. Wikipedia describes as a style of fashion or music; or a general state of unhappiness or melancholy (as in "to feel emo”) Those stereotyped of emo are often unhappy, think they are misunderstood, and may have mild paranoia. Emo kids or emo boys are often found to be the rejects of society.

In my experience I have heard people use the word emo to describe a variety of things from clothing to music to a way a person is feeling. Some art nowadays is even being referred to as emo! Emo is a new way of life, a way of living, a way to express yourself through music, art, design, style, life. It is a statement, an expression, it’s emotional.

This video is so damn hot. Its full of beautiful emo people. Shaant Hacikyan, the vocalist got the best emo haircut. Love his hair. Its amaizng and super cool. Shaant sings out of the side of his mouth. When he sings, his mouth goes to the side but its hot the way he does it. And oh, the song is awesome too.
Love his hair, love his lips.

This is Poisonthehat. Probably, most of you emo guys would like to have this look. Here is the instruction and the tools you need to achieve this emo hairstyle according to Poisonthehat himself.

In his own words:

"Well, there are a couple of different "emo hair styles" I guess you could say. If you're looking for something like the picture above, then I can pretty much tell you everything I do to my hair, because that's me. I can still help you with whatever you're looking for though, since I've been through a couple of different "emo hair styles". I didn't part my hair in the picture above, but I usually do."

The basics of emo hair:
-A flat iron straightener (a MUST have)
-Black hair dye
-Some sort of hair product, not sure what they're called but I use Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum
-Cut short in the back to prevent mullet-ness
-Conditioning your hair every night
-Combing your hair after you get out of the shower and whatnot helps

On the color of his hair:

"Yeah it's a blue black color but I don't remember what dye I used. I think it was some of that crap you mix up with the other crap and then you use the cap thingy and all that. If you cut the back short and then straighten your hair with a flat iron I'm pretty sure you could get a haircut close to mine. Oh, and make sure to let the sides grow out."

On Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Serum:

"Neutrogena Triple Moisture Healing Shine Serum fixes up ugly "straggling" hair like woah. It's like this oil type stuff, and you put a small dot of it you hand, rub your palms together, and then run your palm through your hair or something like that. I know there are other brands of it out there, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. I always use it after straightening my hair because my hair gets all dry looking after I straighten it, and then this stuff fixes it right up.

I recommend you just ask one of your female friends to straighten your hair, or if your mom has a straightener or whatever, just use hers. I'm pretty sure it would end up looking something close to my hair. As for the part, I'm not really sure how I get that. I just use my hand and push my hair to the side and it works. I'm sure you can figure it out.

The moisture shine stuff keeps it from poofing and fix flyaways and makes it look straighter and thinner. Also, I use the straightener every day."

Final words:

"Just grow it out, use flat iron straightener, cut it short in the back, and you can spike the back if you wish. I usually don't but sometime I get bored and will do it. You don't have to dye it black if you don't want, especially if your hair is already naturally black. Yes it could take a couple of months for your hair to grow as long as mine. It's a long process but if that's what you want then it'll be worth it."

'Emo' stands for EMOTIONAL HARDCORE and not just EMOTIONAL! To call it "emotional" is just listing one of its traits. Besides, ALL music are emotional anyways so that's a pretty stupid definition. Emo is a culture that has its own values, ideals, an emotional investment and of course fashion. They do not believe in conforming to mainstream fashion or trends. Emos want to be different and therefore create their own distinct styles. That is why it’s not surprising that Emo hairstyles break the mold as well.



Probably nothing characterizes the Emo look more than the Emo hairstyle. Typical Emo haircuts are characterized by asymmetrical lines, bold highlights, usually red or white and a jet black hair. An emo girl or an emo boy dye their hair jet black and the bolder the effect the better. You don’t have to worry about the dye looking unnatural and can even shade the edges with frosted highlights, blue, orange, or purple. Emos usually wants to be alone and their haircuts are simply an extension of this belief. An Emo hairstyle is a one of a kind experiment. Its not the type that you can get at an ordinary salon. If you want an emo hairstyle, better bring a picture of Pete Wentz and tell the barber this is the style you want.

It is perfectly acceptable to create your own Emo hairstyle just with a pair of scissors, razor and dye. Emo hairstyles has no set technique. It maybe described as more of a personal art-form, a style of expressing yourself, of one’s deepest emotions. In other words, any style can pass off as an Emo hairstyle as long as it looks different and doesn’t look like one of those “dos” that you might wear to a prom. Being an Emo is all about being true to yourself, being unique and comfortable with one’s self. An Emo hairstyle is also all about the distinct personality of an individual and self-expression. If you feel that you are not one to follow the flock either, then you might just want to consider picking up any pair of scissors and doing up your hair the Emo way!