Diamonds are traditionally thought of as being super-sparkly and technically transparent, with the facets cut in them by master jewelers transforming light into a glittering, dazzling display.
You may also be aware of the existence of diamonds of different colors, which can be beautiful on their own or even more impactful when combined with other precious gems.
But what about the elusive, seemingly impossible black diamond? This mysterious stone sounds like a contradiction in terms, but is actually a gorgeous and personality-packed alternative to white diamonds.
Here is a deeper dive into the secrets of the black diamond, so you can expand your horizons on your next jewelry buying spree.
All about the inclusions
Surprisingly enough, black diamonds are found in nature, so while they can be made in a lab, the highest quality and most expensive examples available for decorative purposes will be mined in much the same way as other precious minerals.
The thing which makes them look black is the prevalence of graphite inclusions. Almost all gemstones have inclusions; those little flaws which can be seen if you look closely that were left there as the mineral deposit was formed. But while in most cases these are undesirable, they are entirely necessary to give black diamonds their signature look.
The trapped graphite within black diamond stud earrings and all other jewelry made with this gem gathers together to create the dark tone that is so desirable to certain customers.
Treatment options
Naturally occurring diamonds that are packed with enough inclusions to appear inky-black as soon as they are pulled from the ground are relatively rare, and thus the most valuable example of this type of precious stone.
In order to meet demand, and also make black diamonds more affordable as an option, leading jewelers will take advantage of treatment techniques to transform white diamonds into black equivalents.
This might sound like trickery, but it is entirely standard practice in the industry; so long as this treatment is disclosed to customers, it is all above-board.
In fact, treating diamonds to turn them black through irradiation and other methods is actually a means of minimizing waste, because the only white diamonds which are subjected to this are those that have too many natural inclusions to make them saleable on their own, but not enough to be truly black without a little bit of help.
Aesthetic appeal & versatility
The humble black diamond has exploded in popularity in recent years, as a new generation of customers has arisen, seeking out alternatives to established jewelry styles and trends that are still easy on the eye.
From engagement rings to necklaces and beyond, black diamonds have an edgier aesthetic to them, and still give you that much needed bling and shimmer when the light catches them.
Because they are fundamentally identical to white diamonds, they can also be cut in whatever shape suits the tastes of the buyer; from round and pear-shaped stones to hearts, cushion-cuts and everything in between, it is easy to see why black diamond jewelry is gaining traction at the moment.
In May of 2020, Netflix announced the second season of Summertime, the original Italian series produced by Cattleya (Part of ITV Studios). With many months gone, Netflix has finally revealed a forty-three second teaser trailer for the second season.
The second season of the series will be directed by Francesco Lagi, the co-director and co-writer of the first season, and Marta Savina. Each episode will be written by Enrico Audenino and Francesco Lagi with Daniela Gambaro, Luca Giordano and Vanessa Picciarelli working alongside them on the scripts of various episodes.
21-year-old Rachel Lu (moniker: LVRA, pronounced loo-rah) was born in Edinburgh to Chinese parents. Her musical journey began as a teenager, writing angsty songs at the piano in her parents’ home. In her creations, LVRA braids an electro-pop/R&B base with traditional Chinese instruments and her soft but intoxicating vocals, and her music speaks to anyone navigating identity and relationships as a young adult, regardless of background. With the pandemic bringing about a spike in racist abuse towards Chinese students in the UK and beyond, her debut EP LVCID, released in June 2020, sought to “paint a positive image of Chinese culture in the wake of COVID-19,” as she put it in a press release. The EP encapsulates unexpectedly reciprocated love, thirst for adventure, and the difficult but worthwhile choice of prioritising your own happiness. The up-and-coming singer recently gave fans a first taste of her second EP, set for release this summer, with the vibrant new track ‘Dead’. The single marks a transformative moment in LVRA’s sound, the heavy bass foundation and unapologetically bold lyrics demonstrating the singer’s successful foray into the darker, more experimental corners of pop.
We caught up with LVRA for our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her creative process and sources of inspiration, the struggles and rewards of self-production, memorable travel experiences, and more.
Hi LVRA, how have you been doing lately? Where are you currently based?
Hey! I’ve been doing pretty fine thanks, things are moving slowly but surely. I am literally just about to move from my family home in Edinburgh to London, so that should be fun.
Tell us a little bit about your background. Has your sense of national/cultural identity fluctuated over time?
Both my parents are Chinese and moved here before I was born, so I grew up in Edinburgh in a suburban area and the schools I went to were very white-dominated. It’s so funny that the question of identity has kept popping up throughout my life. I remember being like 8 years old in the playground and the kids would ask me whether or not I was Scottish or Chinese, being born here and all, and I used to say I was Scottish – because I thought, or wanted, to be like the other kids, I guess. And for the most part, I felt like I was like them. But it was leaving Edinburgh and moving on to university, growing closer to people with similar experiences to me, growing apart from others, that made me realise how naive my younger self was. I feel like through my music I can embrace the side of me I think I neglected for a long time.
You finished writing ‘Wall’ in China and have expressed that the natural beauty and generous locals you encountered there left you in a state of awe and wonder. Which places that you visited in the country left the strongest impression on you?
My favourite place on earth is Guilin, Guangxi Province, which is known for its beautiful karst mountains. I took footage there which ended up in the visualiser for ‘Wall’. We were riding through long and empty roads between these huge, green peaks that looked straight out of a movie. It was getting really dark and we stopped by a local family’s house and asked for water – they ended up inviting us in for a drink and food, and then guided us back down the mountain to the nearest town. They were so interested in our experiences because of their isolation from the rest of the world, and their kindness along with many others deeply affected me.
Wow, that sounds like a really special experience. You’ve mentioned you used to write songs at your parents’ house. Was there a specific moment you realised you wanted to share your pieces with wider audiences, or was it more of a gradual process?
I was always too scared, as a kid, to get up on stage and sing. It was producing that really unlocked my confidence to release music, and a positive reaction from a few things I released on Soundcloud led on to other things. I have a lot of individual people in my life to thank for that.
What artists have recently been on repeat and/or influencing your own music style?
I’ve been listening to a mixture of alt-pop and electronic music, lots of female artists and producers like Grimes, SOPHIE, Yaeji, Rina Sawayama, Park Hye Jin, FKA twigs. But I also like a lot heavier electronic breakbeat/techno/bass music – my playlist ‘east goes hard’ on Spotify is filled with some awesome eastern producers from the Chinese underground scene.
On a similar note, what’s an album you think is underrated?
Mura Masa’s first album, Soundtrack to a Death, is less well known than his bigger collaborations, but was really the first time I’d heard such strong east-Asian influences in Western music. Similar case with Flume’s self-titled debut studio album that came out in 2012. I grew up with those two albums, and I still listen to them regularly for production inspiration.
You’ve released several music videos to accompany your songs. Do you have a favourite?
It’s got to be the video we just released for ‘Dead’ – I felt like the video and song were meant for each other. Super happy with the result thanks to the amazing work of Oscar, who basically solo filmed and produced the whole thing, start to finish.
That’s lovely, the song and video for ‘Dead’ really do complement each other. I was hoping you couldtalk us through the creative process behind the new single. How did it all come together?
‘Dead’ began as a pretty experimental demo where I wanted to create heavier sounds whilst using traditional Chinese instruments – the main hook of the song – “off with his head – huh – dead” – kind of came first and then I built the rest of the song from there, adding that really meaty bass sound you hear in the chorus. The bridge was really the last part of the song that I added, because for a while I didn’t really know what direction to take it, but I really like the idea of taking on multiple personas and bringing different kinds of characters and voices into the mix, and so I ended up with something a bit messed up and creepy. This was heavily inspired by the theatrical nature of artists like Lady Gaga.
I also find the video for your live version of ‘u should be in love with me’ insanely beautiful. What was the atmosphere like on set?
Thank you! It was super chill – we recorded it in the back room of a big warehouse! It’s always fun to play around with the arrangement of songs for live versions.
How did it feel to release your debut EP LVCID? Was the process complicated and tiring or exhilarating – or maybe a mix?
Yeah, it was both to be honest. I recorded LVCID over the span of two years, so to finally have it out there was more a relief than anything. Because the EP was self-produced, it gave me a lot of freedom with creative decisions, but there was added pressure to create something that lived up to my own expectations. It was a shame that it ended up dropping during lockdown and I wasn’t able to perform it live, but I’m super happy with how it turned out and my growth as an artist and producer during the process of creating it.
You’ve described LVCID as “a documentation of the process of learning while navigating through those important young years of self-discovery; realising the mistakes you make, finding the people you trust, discovering what really makes you happy”. Do you feel the EP you’re working on now has a different vision and mission, or will that only become clear when everything’s wrapped up?
The upcoming EP is something pretty different, and whilst it definitely still documents a period in my life of self-discovery, it’s a whole new kind of energy. The production takes a lot more from my influences in electronic music and more experimental pop. This change is a reflection of my becoming a more confident person and artist, freeing myself of judgement from others and exploring the darker side of the human condition in my writing.
Thinking back to a time before lockdowns… Do you have a favourite venue you’ve performed in? What made it special?
I loved performing at the Bullingdon in Oxford, it’s just such a sick venue and I’ve had so many incredible nights there listening to some talented artists and DJs, so performing there felt great.
What are some live concerts you hope to see once the coronavirus crisis is over?
I really want to see Rina Sawayama and Lady Gaga whose tours were both postponed last year! But also would love to see Grimes do her thing.
Finally, do you have any tips for young musicians worried about getting started?
Show your music to people who are both supportive and helpful in giving pointers and constructive criticism. Reaching out and making contact with other musicians who are similar to you is also a great way of working out where exactly you want your sound to fit into what’s out there already. Also having a basic understanding of production is really helpful even if you are a writer. The earlier you start the better – it takes time to grow into your sound and develop your skills, so just go for it and don’t really give a shit about trying to make music the ‘right’ way, just make what makes you feel good!
Dirk Bakker has a special eye for detail and pays attention to everything that makes a sight stand out: texture, colours, brightness, symmetry. Dirk’s pseudonym Macenzo, with which he branded himself in 2007, also serves as his identification on Instagram, where he celebrates 419k followers. Based in Amsterdam, the photographer and influencer has a background in art and graphic design. As Dirk explains it, this education helped him fall in love with the ‘lines of the city’ and gorgeous abstract patterns. His successes don’t stop there – Dirk is also a founding member of See My City, an international marketing initiative aiming to share the beauty of various cities through unique, eye-catching mobile photography.
Dirk captures aesthetically pleasing, playful patterns wherever he notices them: bright apartment blocks, majestic theatre halls, elegant stairways… It’s hard to believe he shoots all his work with a simple iPhone camera. The results are truly impressive. See for yourself!
2019’s hauntingly beautiful Ghosteen may have been the final installment in what Nick Cave has described as a trilogy of albums, but the glimmers of hope that seeped through its serene, ethereal soundscapes gave way to no real conclusion. Once again eschewing narrative conventions for a more impressionistic style of writing, Cave’s new album with longtime Bad Seed and close collaborator Warren Ellis is similarly if not more amorphous as he circles back to familiar images and motifs that have been prevalent throughout his career. On Ghosteen he was “a lonely rider across the sky,” and here he keeps referring to “that kingdom in the sky,” some eternally bright light we’re all ceaselessly pursuing. Even the album’s title seems to harken back to the lurid horror of his work in the 1980s. Far from a nostalgic release, however, Carnage reckons with themes of death, suffering, and the apocalypse through a lens that’s more suited to both Cave’s personal and artistic trajectory and the current state of the world.
Written during the early stages of lockdown and surprise released last week, Cave and Ellis’ first non-soundtrack album as a duo leans into the stark minimalism of their recent material while pushing their sound – sometimes tentatively, sometimes more aggressively – into bold new territory. As a result of their relatively freeform approach, Carnage may lack the sense of cohesion and progression that has defined even some of Cave’s more recent output, but its unpredictability has a way of not only reflecting the uncertainty of the past year but also creating some gripping contrasts. Sonically, the record careens from the ominous strings and industrial electronics of opener ‘Hand of God’ to the menacing synth bassline of ‘Old Time’ and the droning ambiance of ‘Shattered Ground’. But none stand out as much as ‘White Elephant’, the album’s centerpiece and also its most harrowing moment. Propelled by subterranean bass and rumbling percussion that mirrors the deranged state of its elusive, white supremacist protagonist, the track soon explodes into a transcendent sing-along equal parts hopeful and unnerving: “The time is coming, the time is nigh/ For the kingdom in the sky.”
Even at its most autobiographical, Cave’s writing is often infused with spiritual and poetic elements, but here it also bleeds into the collective. “I am […] well acquainted with the mechanics of grief — collective grief works in an eerily similar way to personal grief, with its dark confusion, deep uncertainty and loss of control,” he recently wrote in The Red Hand Files. The most compelling contrast that Cave’s lyrics explore on Carnage isn’t that of the personal and the collective, however, but rather comes through in the tone and vision he adopts: the way he oscillates between the surreal and the ordinary, drawing attention to the points where the two intersect. As he put it in a press release, these are songs that emerged from a period of “sitting on my balcony thinking about things,” but they also just “fell out of the sky.” On ‘Old Time’, he sings of “a strip of ordinary sun, a biblical sun/ A colonial sun, an enlightened sun/ The same sun/ Made always glorious at your head.” He sums up what the record is about – or rather, where it takes place – on the final track, ‘Balcony Man’: “Where everything is ordinary until it is not.”
The album’s formlessness can have the effect of diluting its impact, particularly towards the album’s meandering second half, but Cave and Ellis offset any lack of direction by heightening both the emotional immediacy and immersive atmosphere of the songs. As Cave sings “I’m going to the river/ Where the current rushes by,” a wave of synths ushers in, as if to embody the religious figure at the center of the song and establish the power the music holds throughout the album. Cave himself shifts perspectives multiple times, but it’s the moments where he’s the most direct that strike a deep emotional chord: the meaning of the songs may be up to interpretation, but the intimacy, loneliness, and romantic idealism that ballads like ‘Albuquerquee’ and ‘Lavender Fields’ communicate are more resonant now than ever.
A woman waves goodbye on the penultimate track, ‘Shattered Ground’, but this is far from the end. Cave leaves us with one final scene, in which a domestic setting becomes a source of fantastical joy: “Where everything is amazing that stays in bed/ I’m a two hundred pound octopus under a sheet.” The unrelenting forces of death and destruction loom as large as ever, but Cave allows himself to capture the moments of peace in the midst of – and borne out of – the madness around and within him.
Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has recently come to an end after four successful seasons on the streaming platform. The somewhat abrupt conclusion does a hasty and haphazard job of wrapping up its storylines in a very un-Sabrina-like fashion. The fun, rompy series is known for its deliberate pacing and well thought out plots, but the final episodes feel like an abandonment of whatever original plan its creators had.
Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, Katy Keene) and based on the Archie Comic of the same name, Sabrina begins when Sabrina Spellman is faced with a big decision: on her sixteenth birthday, she must forsake her ties to the mortal world and follow the Path of Night to become a witch. Whilst this path is not as dark as it sounds, she will have to worship Satan and give up her sweet mortal boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle.
Sabrina does indeed become a witch, but she decides to keep her ties to the mortal world. She divides her time between cheerleader duties at Baxter High and running for Top Boy at the Academy of Unseen Arts. As the show progresses, the stakes increase, and Sabrina feels torn more between her two worlds. She must shoulder more responsibility in the celestial world, but she also knows that her powers can help save her mortal friends. Naturally, Sabrina decides to split herself in two and inhabit both worlds.
This causes a world of problems and plenty of opportunities to show off how capable she is to her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, who aren’t quite so approving of her second self becoming the Queen of Hell in season 3.
Hilda Stands Up to Zelda
For as long as she can remember, Hilda has been living in terror of her sister. She often seems like a shy, innocent introvert, except for her rare flashes of witchy temper. Zelda has been the bully from a young age, always getting what she wants at Hilda’s expense. Still, the two sisters love each other, but after having had enough of being murdered by Zelda at every petty disagreement, Hilda puts her foot down.
In the first season, Hilda’s big moment is to move out of their shared bedroom. Zelda is heartbroken and immediately regrets her bitter words to Hilda when she vacates the single bed standing beside her own. Later in the show, Hilda takes things a step further and moves out of the Spellman Sisters Mortuary. Soon to be married to Dr Cee, Hilda moves to live with him and works with him in his shop. Of course, Hilda still visits Zelda regularly, but she becomes her own woman and no longer needs Zelda to shield her from the world.
Madam Satan Mentors Sabrina
Though their relationship is flawed in many ways, Madam Satan is still one of the best role models Sabrina has in the show. She’s manipulative, sure, but she’s more of a comic relief than a real threat. She’s first introduced to viewers as Mrs Wardwell, Sabrina’s favourite teacher at school, who is killed and possessed by Madam Satan in the pilot episode. She turns up at work the next day with a new look, but nobody questions it too much in typical Sabrina fashion.
Madam Satan subtly leads Sabrina down the Path of Night, coaxing her into committing the acts necessary to sign away her name over to Satan. Sabrina eventually learns of her true identity. At first, she’s outraged but soon realizes that the two can help each other. They end up teaming up regularly, and Madam Satan never passes up an opportunity to remind Sabrina of her power as a woman.
She’s such an empowering icon for the witches that in season 3, they choose to worship her over Lucifer. They pray to Lilith and help her when she seeks their protection from the oppressive Lucifer. In the end, she succeeds in usurping Lucifer and ruling Hell.
Sabrina Repeatedly Chooses Both Light And Dark
Sabrina’s journey begins when she’s forced to decide between light and dark. She’s grown up in half in the mortal realm and half in the celestial. On her sixteenth birthday, she must decide which life she will lead. Her family believes that she will choose the Path of Night, but her mortal friends know nothing about her witch life.
In the weeks leading up to her birthday, Sabrina dedicates a lot of time educating herself about what the choice means. She’s not entirely comfortable with being the Dark Lord’s to use as he wishes, but she also knows that being a witch could give her powers she could use for good. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to abandon her mortal friends, especially when she knows she could help them.
So, on the night of her Dark Baptism, Sabrina asserts that she will not sign her name away. She takes ownership of who she is and her unique ability to live in both worlds. As such, she continues to bring the two sides of herself together, knowing that she can never limit herself to be one thing. She later becomes Queen of Hell, paving the way for Madam Satan to take the throne eventually.
Sabrina’s choice is an assertion that her faith is just as valid as all the other witches’, especially the self-righteous Prudence. She shows the witches that humans are capable of more than they think and that witches don’t have it all right. So, Sabrina brings the best of both worlds together, uniting the mortal and celestial realms on a journey to equality.
Roz And Sabrina Form WICCA
The show combines a ’60s aesthetic with modern-day small town issues (though initially, it was to be set in the ’60s), which explains some of the backwards notions so many of the characters cling to, including the witches. They glorify giving their bodies and souls away to Satan, as well as cannibalism and self-sacrifice, and vehemently agree that women are inferior to men.
At Baxter High, Roz, Suzie, and Sabrina feel the discrimination against women all too often. The school prides itself on the basketball team’s jock culture and restricts student access to books in the library. Roz feels this keenly since she believes she’s about to go blind. Suzie in particular is bullied by the school’s male population, and instead of rectifying the issue, the male principal suggests she moves elsewhere.
Roz and Sabrina ask Mrs Wardwell – who is actually Madam Satan – for help, and she agrees to sanction WICCA, the Women’s Intersectional Cultural and Creative Association. She does this not to show Sabrina that she can be trusted but because she truly stands for the banding together of womxn at Baxter High. She has seen the injustices firsthand, and she wants to help the students stand up for themselves.
Suzie Transitions
From the beginning of the show, Suzie struggles with gender identity. Assigned female at birth, Suzie realizes that this isn’t the identity she has chosen for herself. After facing harassment from the school’s basketball team, Suzie asserts herself and informs her friends that she will now be going by Theo. This makes him one of the first and only transgender characters on television, especially one who’s a series regular.
Theo has been visited by his Aunt Dorothea, who he suspects was also transgender, and chooses his name after her. First, Theo goes through the mortifying experience of going to the male change rooms at school, then trying out for the boys’ basketball team, then telling his dad about his identity:
“I was actually thinking I could maybe wear a suit to the dance. Because … I feel more myself in boy’s clothes. Actually, Dad, I don’t think I’m a girl at all. Even though I look like a girl, even though I have a girl’s name, even though you’ve always thought of me as a girl … I’m a boy. I feel good when people call me “he” …”
Marketing your business online seems like a pricey and challenging undertaking, but don’t discount that amount of eyes that could be on your tiny startup if you start promoting on the web. There are plenty of free or inexpensive ways to attract new clients, grow your business, and achieve more sales. Here are 7 of the most effective ways to do just that.
1. Influencer Marketing
Start reaching out to influencers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote your business via marketing to their already hungry follower base. Influencer marketing platforms such as Humanz, Upfluence and Grin have simplified the process of finding brand ambassadors for social media. These platforms offer features and filters which can be used for finding the specific person who will be relevant to all your requirements. Depending on your product and your market size your choice can vary from nano influencers to macro-influencers. Those who have international brands finding macro influencers and working with them will be a good choice as they have more than 100000 followers from all over the world. Meanwhile, small business owners can work with nano influencers as they have a higher engagement rate because of the fewer followers.Plenty of influencers will volunteer to showcase your product, but if you can’t find one, you can contract a few as freelance marketers. Be sure to use a social media influencer contract to protect state terms like money exchanged and the agreement’s length. Doing so will protect both of you under the law. As an alternative solution the growth services are beneficial to make promotion in front of a wide range of audience. For instance, the Instagram growth service is very popular to the users as it helps to get more exposure for the business.
2. Create a Website
It’s essential for your business and marketing strategy that you have a website, not just a social media presence. A professional-looking website can boost your credibility in your niche and help you get in touch with your customers. Your website also acts as a brochure for your products. Utilizing a website successfully will generate organic traffic and also send traffic to your other marketing efforts. Plus, you’ll have 100% control over all aspects of your business’s policies.
3. Write Knowledgeable Blog Posts
Content creation is extremely important because it helps you rank higher on search engines. Before we get to the elements that make a post appear on the first page of Google, you first need to produce engaging content. If your audience doesn’t connect with what you’re writing, or they don’t think you’re an authority in your industry, like photography, they’re less likely to buy from you. Commit to writing at least 1 blog post a week, so you always have new content.
4. Learn About SEO
Have you ever searched for yourself on a search engine? Do you show up on the first page? If you don’t, it’s likely because you haven’t taken advantage of search engine optimization (SEO). There are a lot of factors that play into whether your web page ranks like keywords, backlinking, non-duplicate content, and meta descriptions. It’s a lengthy and complicated part of promoting your business. If you want a more in-depth article on this topic, check out “What is SEO?”
5. Start an Email List
When your customers go to your website’s front page, does it have a call to action that asks for their email in exchange for a newsletter, a product, or coupon? If not, you’re missing out on a large number of new customers. Building an email marketing strategy with sigparser alternative is essential for growing your business because it cuts the time you need to convert users into customers in half. Just be sure not to bombard people with emails, or they’ll quickly unsubscribe.
6. Guest Post on Blogs
Building an audience takes a lot of work, and establishing credibility takes time. However, there are ways you can get more eyes on your website without ads, such as guest posting on other blogs or working with HARO. To appear on someone else’s blog, send them an email with a completed article that features links back to your website. HARO works similarly, except you answer questions posed by reporters that could appear on blogs, podcasts, or television.
7. Advertise on Social Media
It’s always good to have an active social media presence, but if you don’t, be sure to create one by advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter. Most social media platforms offer cost-effective advertising options that target your audience. Instagram has one of the best retail business resources because it uses the Shoppable tool. When a user clicks a Shoppable linked ad, it directs them to the product page instead of your general homepage.
Into the Wild is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, who on his travels adopts the moniker ‘Alexander Supertramp’, as he abandons his family in favor of a quest for freedom. After graduating from college in 1990, he leaves behind his sister and abusive parents and spends two years traveling, hitchhiking, camping, hiking, and discovering himself.
Chris hopes to discover what makes people happy in life, believing that money and employment make people too cautious. His goal is to make it to Alaska, where he will be able to escape “society” and “just live”. He spends his time reading, meeting new people, and getting in touch with who he really is.
Emile Hirsch gives a raw, touching performance as McCandless, who left behind various writings and photographs that Jon Krakauer used to write a non-fiction book about the young man’s journey, which has inspired many people around the world. The film was written and directed by Sean Penn, featuring an extensive narration from Christopher’s sister Carine (Jena Malone), offering insight into Chris’s childhood and why he’s so adamant to leave his old self behind without a trace.
Best Quotes From The Breakthrough Movie
Apart from the moving storyline, this exceptional 2007 movie also brought compelling life lessons and quotes that one can apply in real-life situations. If you’re a fan of the movie or of its characters, especially Christopher McCandless, their lines and dialogues aren’t only inspiring but remarkable enough to land a spot in your social media feed. Click here for the best selfie quotes ideas.
Christopher is a soulful, introspective, contemplative human. He’s always reading, writing, or trying to learn more about the world around him. Even without narration, the film has a very literary quality. Here are sixteen of the best quotes from Into the Wild.
Christopher McCandless: When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it.
Christopher McCandless: What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?
Christopher McCandless: You are really good. I mean, you’re like, a hundred thousand times better than, like, any apple I’ve ever had. I’m not Superman, I’m Supertramp, and you’re Superapple. You’re so tasty, you’re so organic, so natural. You are the apple of my eye, ha!
Christopher McCandless: The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong.
Christopher McCandless: The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.
Christopher McCandless: Happiness [is] only real when shared.
Christopher McCandless: I’m going to paraphrase Thoreau here: rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness – give me truth.
Ron Franz: There is some kind of bigger thing that we can all appreciate and it sounds to me you don’t mind calling it God. But when you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines on you.
Christopher McCandless: Mr. Franz, I think careers are a twentieth-century invention, and I don’t want one.
Christopher McCandless: My days were more exciting when I was penniless. I’ve decided I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up.
Christopher McCandless: If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.
Christopher McCandless: Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, ’cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. – Alexander Supertramp May 1992
Christopher McCandless: I don’t need a new car. I don’t want a new car. I don’t want anything – these things, things, things, things.
Wayne Westerberg: What are you doing when we’re there? Now you’re in the wild, what are we doing?
Christopher McCandless: You’re just living, man. You’re just there, in that moment, in that special place and time.
Carine McCandless: Chris measured himself and those around him by a fiercely rigorous moral code. He risked what could have been a relentlessly lonely path, but found company in the characters of the books he loved from writers like Tolstoy, Jack London, and Thoreau. He could summon their words to suit any occasion, and he often would. I forgot to ask what quote he’d have picked for his graduation dinner, but I had a good idea of who the primary target would be. It was inevitable that Chris would break away. And when he did, he would do it with characteristic immoderation.
Christopher McCandless: I don’t need money. Makes people cautious.
Hailing from Manchester, singer-songwriter Abbie Ozard combines her penchant for indie pop escapism with candid explorations of modern life and coming-of-age. Having toured with the likes of whenyoung and Phoebe Green, she recently followed up her 2017 debut project, the lo-fi-leaning Growing Up, with a new EP called let’s play pretend. It’s an infectiously catchy collection of songs that sees her fleshing out her sound with help from co-producer Rich Turvey (Oscar Lang, Vistas, Blossoms) as she continues to navigate the anxieties of being in your early 20s. From the propulsive, sun-drenched hooks of ‘pink sky (endless summer)’ to the understated yet soaring ‘tv kween’ and the Tarantino-inspired, Avril Lavigne-channelling ‘true romance’, Ozard retains a dreamy aesthetic while radiating a newfound sense of confidence that solidifies her status as an artist-to-watch.
We caught up with Abbie Ozard for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her influences, her new EP, and more.
You’ve talked about growing up listening to artists like The Cure and Mazzy Star, and some of these dreamy 80s and 90s influences definitely come through in your music, but there’s also more of a pop–punk energy on your new EP. What were some of yourreference points while making the record?
I think the sound has just kind of naturally evolved. I don’t think I’ve got anything specific that I’ve taken inspiration from – it’s just kind of happened. I don’t know, the music that I listened to growing up, with my mom and dad listening to all these 80s and 90s bands, and then I’ve got an older sister that was listening to, like, Busted and Avril Lavigne and people like that, so I think it’s all just naturally formed into its own sound.
Do you have any early musical memories that have stayed with you over the years?
Yeah. My parents are big vinyl collectors, so I used to go through old vinyls and play them. And I think as I’ve got older, I’ve kind of become more knowledgeable, and I’m like, “I know that artist! I know that band!” My mom is a huge Blondie fan as well, so we used to dance in the kitchen to ‘Sunday Girl’. I think that was one of my earliest memories of really enjoying music.
How did you become interested in songwriting in particular?
It all started off – I was doing classical music when I was little, and I used to have piano lessons and do like grades and stuff like that. And I joined a church choir for about five years. And then I grew older and kind of grew out of it, so I dropped out of doing that and I got a guitar for my birthday and I started to just write songs from there. I don’t think I’ll ever show anyone the first songs that I wrote.
Do you remember what they were about?
Yeah, they were just about, like, boys and stuff. [laughs] Literally no one can ever see them, I think it was just me trying to be an angsty teenager, trying to be cool.
To get to your new EP, could you talk me through the timeline of writing and recording these songs?
Yeah, so I wrote ‘pink sky’, and then straight after ‘pink sky’ we went into lockdown. And then I wrote ‘tv kween’ and released that. And then we came out of lockdown and I went into the studio and wrote ‘true romance’. ‘breakdowns’ was also written when we when we were allowed to be out of lockdown for a bit, and then it was finished just at home. So they’ve been pretty close together, but I think a lot has changed since when I first started writing the first EP, so it’s kind of gone through the different phases of year and what was happening in my life.
What would you say is the biggest thing that’s changed?
I moved out – I moved away from my parents’ house. I think when I was writing ‘breakdowns’, I was living at my parents’ house and I would feel shit about being, like, twenty-something and not having my own kind of routine and life. All my friends were moving away from my hometown, and I just felt like rubbish and bitter about it, so I wrote a song about it. [laughs] So that’s changed, and like, relationships, that’s all changed. Things are just ever-changing, and I think the EP is just a reflection on how the past year has been.
That leads me to my next question, because I was thinking about ‘breakdowns’ in relation to what you’ve said about the pressure and the lack of direction that comes with being in your early 20s. And you mentioned something specifically in a press release about having “a massive conversation about Generation Z.” Do you remember how that conversation went?
I was writing it with my friend Ben in Leeds at the time, and we were thinking what to write about, just throwing out ideas. And I was like, “Yeah, the other day I saw someone post on their social media, like, ‘having a break from social media.’” And I’ve literally done it before, like I’ve shared a post like that. And I’m like, “How ironic is that, you post about having a break from social media?” Like, I get it, people are so used to posting every day, and I guess you kind of have to inform people when you’re not in that world, otherwise your followers are gonna be like, “What the hell? Where have they gone? Are they okay?” And it’s just so weird – it’s kind of fucked up that you have to do that.
I think a lot of people have started talking about mental health a lot more the past couple of years and especially this year. And I just felt like, even though they were starting to talk about it more, a lot of people couldn’t cope with what was happening and they were having breakdowns. I kind of think the song has got a sarcastic manner to it, like people might think I’m taking the mick out of people having breakdowns, but that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just talking about how it is to be in your early 20s in this time, and so many people living at their parents’ houses can’t afford to move out because they’ve not got jobs, and there’s so much pressure, like, “What am I going to do in my life?”
You mentioned you wrote the song with Ben – do you feel like making this EP as a whole was a more collaborative process?
Yeah, I think the songs that I write on my own verses versus the songs that I write with other people are really different. This EP has been more collaborative, but with the next few releases I kind of want to make sure there’s a mixture of songs that I’ve written by myself and with other people. I don’t want everything to sound the same because I get bored of the sound so quickly; I just want to go to the next thing and I want to make sure that there’s a variation of soundscapes and lyrics.
It sounds like you’re at a phase where you’re experimenting with a lot of different ideas and going from one sound to the next pretty quickly. In what ways has the pandemic affected your approach?
At the start, there wasn’t much to work with in terms of inspiration. I was like, “Nothing is going on in my life, I’m literally stuck in my room. That’s all there is to write about, the fact that you’re stuck in your room.” And a lot of people were doing that at the time, and you’re like, “Ugh, that’s so unoriginal, I’m writing about corona again.” And then I started doing Zoom sessions – I kind of avoided it a bit for a bit, but I thought, you know, if we’re in this for the long run, then I’ve got to start writing and collaborating with other people, as well as writing by myself, so I pushed myself to do that a bit more. And that was cool, because ‘tv kween’ was written on FaceTime, and that’s my favorite song yet. In a way it’s been a blessing, but at the same time, it’s really hard to find inspiration a lot of the time.
Maybe as a result of that, a running theme on the EP is that’s largely about romanticizing different aspects of your life. And you’ve said as well that that’s something you didn’t realize until after you’d assembled it. How did you think that common thread came about?
I’d released each song individually, not knowing that they were going to be put into an EP, and I thought – each song has its own little separate world, and I wanted to keep it like that. But then I thought, “Wait, all the songs have that running theme throughout them,” and I’m kind of playing ignorance is bliss, ignoring what’s happening and creating little separate worlds to kind of escape from it. And I kind of wanted to just bundle that up into a project, because I think the songs work really well together in that each song has a different form of escapism. And for me, that really helped, and I kind of want other people to realize that could help as well.
With that in mind, where do your ambitions stand at the moment in terms of music?
I just want to carry on releasing music and keep growing through my music with every release. I think it’s nice that people are starting to relate to the songs and the lyrics more, because that’s my main goal, to help people and to make them think, like, “Yeah, I’m feeling the same as her, so that’s okay.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
A new biopic about Jeff Buckley is officially in the works, Variety reports. The film, called Everybody Here Wants You, will star Reeve Carney, who has long been rumored for the part and has appeared in Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, Penny Dreadful, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again. The biopic marks the directorial debut of producer Orian Williams and will be released by Culmination Productions.
According to Variety, Everybody Here Wants You has the full support of Jeff Buckley’s estate and access to his catalog of music. It is co-produced by Buckley’s mother, Mary Guibert, as well as Alison Raykovich, manager of his estate and VP of Jeff Buckley Music. Filming is set to commence this fall.
“This will be the only official dramatization of Jeff’s story which I can promise his fans will be true to him and to his legacy,” Guibert said in a statement. “Thankfully, my determination to assemble all the right participants, no matter how long it took, is about to culminate in the best way possible.”
Buckley released one studio album, 1994’s Grace, and died in a swimming accident in 1997. He was previously portrayed on screen in the 2012 film Greetings from Tim Buckley, starring Penn Badgley in the lead role.
