#[thread: 'babes in toyland?']

[cleversteel]

Babes in Toyland?

fangedjustice​:

Despite his display of nonchalance, Colm handles Lloyd’s redirect quite well. Several of the younger children seem interested in toys of the green-skinned people that also live in these lands, while another child wistfully spoke of joining the many street performers that brought music and dance to the city to Lilina.

While they weren’t responsible for the more complex musical instruments in the shop, they had whistles that might tide the child over until they could get something better to practice on.

And then, there was the heckler from before. He didn’t at all seem interested in actually getting a toy of any kind, and was content to park himself somewhere he could jab and brood from. He was the eldest of the lot, from a quick glance through all the little faces here, so Lloyd couldn’t exactly say he was surprised by the behavior. It was a difficult age to be at, and with the looming threat of a war…

“War has not yet begun,” Lloyd spoke, his earlier child-friendly tone now toned done. This boy was not looking for a friendly face, nor was he at an age where he could not recognize being spoken to as a child. “If you have such little faith in diplomacy, than a sword will do you little good. You cannot end a war or conflict soundly by mere force. An understanding must be made, ties built, ideals for the good of all harmed in the fighting brought forward so that it doesn’t happen again. If you do not have the will to do better, victory through strength of arms will only delay more fighting.” He passed off the little cow he’d picked up to one of the younger kids in the gaggle, shifting his full attention to this angsty pre-teen.

“Do you demand to know why the baker does not pick up a blade, or why the tailors continues to hone their craft instead of join the army?” he posed, gaze steady as he made eye contact with the boy. 

“We have seen what comes with conflict, and we chose to put our efforts towards bringing something good into the lives of children I can only hope will never have to endure the things I have seen and done. If you are so bothered by our perceived cowardice, by all means, you are free to leave whenever you wish.”

The boy sputtered and seethed for a moment, cheeks going a bit red underneath his smattering of freckles. “You are cowards! Who would want to sit in a dusty old shop, fiddling with kids’ toys when they could be fighting for honor and glory?! Maybe you’re sympathizers to those sub-humans, huh? My Pa never trusted ‘em to start with, and who knows what they’re up to where we can’t see!”

@cleversteel​

When he accepted the offer to make one toy, Colm hadn't expected a whole bunch of kids to ask for the exact same thing. He was getting to work pretty quickly keeping track of who wanted what, especially with customizations. (Sometimes, folks want opposable thumbs, you know?)

But his perceptive nature doesn't leave him — Lloyd's conversation isn't exactly quiet, and then the kid he's talking to gets all shouty? Ugh...

And he has the nerve to call us 'cowards'.

"You know, that's a pretty childish way to think about it, kid," Colm starts, attention split in two between toys and idiot. "First, you think war is glorious — okay," — he shrugs, — "I can sort of get that. You can get medals and awards and stuff if you perform well, — and don't die, — but come on!" (Here, the boy smirks.)

"You think some folks are bad just because your parents said so? What kind of 5-year-old mentality is that?" Turning to the children, he adds. "No offense to any 5-year-olds here by the way. You guys are much smarter than he is anyway."

The older kid definitely seems bothered by it, but Colm doesn't really care. If what he said upset him, then the kid just had to learn to cope. Nothing more to it than that.

"Don't go treating me like a kid!" the kid shouts. "When those aliens show up and destroy your stupid shop, then you'll realize who the smart one is!"

"Ok." (Unamused, Colm goes back to the toys.)

@higaneion

[spnscripthunt-inactive]

Scripts for the following films:

12 Monkeys (1995)

American Psycho (2000)

The Apartment (1960)

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Babes in Toyland (1934)

Bad Santa (2003)

Batman Returns (1992)

Black Christmas (1974/2006)

Better Watch Out (2016)

Brazil (1985)

Carol (2015)

Catch Me if You Can (2002)

A Christmas Story (1983)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Cobra (1986)

Die Hard (1988)

Diner (1982)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Elf (2003)

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Four Christmases (2008)

Fred Claus (2007)

The French Connection (1971)

Go (1999)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Green Knight (2021)

Gremlins (1984)

Gremlins 2 (1990)

The Holiday (2006)

Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

In Bruges (2008)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Jingle All the Way (1996)

Krampus (2015)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Last Holiday (2006)

The Legend of Hell House (1973)

Lethal Weapon (1987)

The Life of Brian (1979)

Little Women (1994/2019)

The Lodge (2019)

Love, Actually (2003)

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Mean Girls (2004)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Phantom Thread (2017)

The Polar Express (2004)

The Preacher's Wife (1996)

Prometheus (2012)

Rent (2005)

Rocky IV (1985)

The Santa Clause (1994)

Scrooged (1988)

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Spencer (2021)

Tangerine (2015)

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Trading Places (1983)

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

For some TV episodes/specials, click here.

[rawsgaydad]

yellowjackets season 2 wishlist/predictions:

- jackie is eaten or canonized

- laura lee comes back as a vision and she’s like badly burned and talking about god

- misty takes phantom thread to another level and ends up eating ben with the cult

- shauna and jeff tomshiv era divorce arc

- javi is alive and adult him is like completely insane

- shauna gives birth to a monstrous baby eraserhead titane type of shit

- lottie and van have a psychosexual master and servant by depeche mode type of relationship (let them fuck)

- taissa eats someone let her eat someone

- mother by babes in toyland needledrop

[higaneion]

[ January Activity Check ]

Status: Pass / Fail / Hiatus

Skill Points:

Earned: 2

Previous: 7

Current: 9

Skill point(s) allocated to authority and reason: D+ → C,  C → C+ (1/2)

Completed / dropped threads:

Grief is just love with nowhere to go / completed; word count: 440 Hip-hop / completed; word count: 1,148 Babes in toyland / completed; word count: 809 Caeda looks different than I remember / completed; word count: 600 Pray for victory / completed; word count: 261 Obtain the grain / completed; word count: 1,053 Rockin’ it / dropped

Prizes to be claimed on 2/5-2/6

Personal skill

Knowledge gem (skill point) to apply to reason

Ex-captain’s hat & vacuum slice

Village fragment

-

Prayer ring to be claimed as part of monthly skill claim

[circussoul]

You’re deadmeat motherfucker You don’t try to rape a goddess 

Apparently Kat Bjelland is suffering, and likely dying, from stage 4 liver failure and no one is fucking talking about it except for a tiny thread on Reddit, and Jennifer Finch and Courtney Love on IG . And they’re not even talking about it. They’re just paying tribute to her like she’s already dead. I get that she’s a pretty private person, but god damn, I though that with all the 90′s obsessions these days that people would be properly talking about it. Every time something happens to one of the old grunge boys, the music world falls all over itself.

This is so fucked up. Her being sick. The silence. Death coming for my cult heroes. All of it.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: His Name Is Alive

While Warren Defever’s name is perhaps less recognizable than that of his band His Name Is Alive, he’s also been connected with a seemingly endless array of other projects: Princess Dragon-Mom, Elvis Hitler, ESP Beetles, Control Panel, and far more. This doesn’t get into his recording and production credits for the likes of Michael Hurley, Iggy and the Stooges, and Mdou Moctar. Forever associated with Michigan’s weirdo-underground music scene, Defever has recently been issuing a series of long-buried recordings as His Name Is Alive. In February, the Disciples label released Hope Is a Candle, the third and final volume in the "Home Recordings" trilogy exploring Defever's teenage tape experimentation as well as A Silver Thread (Home Recordings 1979 - 1990), a four-volume collection of many of Defever’s solo home recordings prior to His Name Is Alive releasing their debut album Livonia on 4AD in 1990. In his review of A Silver Thread, Tim Clarke writes “For a collection of home recordings, what’s most striking about this music is how fully realized and carefully executed it sounds, comparable at times to contemporary artists such as Grouper, Benoît Pioulard and Tim Hecker. This is not the 1980s that I remember.”

Defever gives us his “What Else Is New” list, a set of personal snapshots, memories of a life spent in music, warning the reader that “the descriptions don’t always have an obvious correlation to the video, but welcome to my nightmare brain.”

In The Line of Fire

I started performing when I was five. My grandfather was a self-taught musician from Saskatchewan in Western Canada and he showed me and my brothers how to play banjo, guitar and fiddle. One of my earliest memories is having a full size 127 lb. accordion placed onto my lap and my grandmother voicing her disappointment when I refused to play. I did learn slide guitar from her later though. I have many, often terrible, memories of performing at square dances with his band and we would play old timey country music, folk songs, polkas and waltzes. There were also gigs at the trailer park, old folks homes and a convent. Although my grandfather believed that popular music died with Hank Williams in 1953, he still found room in his heart for Lawrence Welk and Slim Whitman.

Meet Me By The Water

By age ten I had a tape recorder and was using it to capture the sounds of nearby lakes, thunderstorms, and my older brothers LP collection played at the wrong speeds. I recently found the cassette, Echo Lake (1983) which features waves crashing onto the beach on the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair but it was recorded right after I got an echo pedal so it’s got a heavy dose of dreamy delay. Tape loops of the next door neighbor raking leaves and shoveling the driveway would be repurposed a few years later as rhythm tracks on the first His Name Is Alive LP, Livonia (4AD, 1990). Detroit in the late 70s and early 80s had totally insane radio and one of the highlights was Met-Ezzthetics, a late night show on WDET hosted by Faruq Z. Bey who also played saxophone in Griot Galaxy. Shortly before his death he played with His Name is Alive and we had a chance to formalize our student-teacher relationship.

Search For Higher Energies

In high school I was studying Bach Chorale harmonization and counterpoint during the day but recording and touring with the band Elvis Hitler at night. The other guys in band were older but at 16 I was a familiar sight at shitty Detroit punk clubs and Hamtramck dive bars, the nerdy teenager reading a book or doing homework sitting at the bar waiting ’til midnight or 1am for our slot to play our hellbilly hits, “It’s A Long Way From Berlin To Memphis,” and “Hot Rod To Hell.” I was still trying to make sense of the post 1953 music scene and when I met the guy with a giant afro and shiny super hero outfit complete with shiny cape I had no idea he was Rob Tyner of the MC5. We released three records before I was twenty one and played shows and toured with Devo, the Dwarves, the Dead Milkmen, Reverend Horton Heat, the Beat Farmers, Helios Creed, Babes In Toyland, the Cro-Mags, Corrosion of Conformity, the Frogs, the Gories, Pussy Galore, the Unsane and way more I can’t remember I was just a kid. It was some kind of education.

You Don’t Have To Go Home But You Can’t Stay Here

When I signed with 4AD I thought I was a composer and they let me write my own bio, so I called His Name Is Alive the work of a “fucked up, irresponsible teenage composer.” I had only been writing music for three years. When I heard “Tom Violence” by Sonic Youth I thought for the first time in my life, “I think I could do that.” In 1988 I made a mixtape with Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car, Leadbelly and some of Big Star’s third album and I tried to arrange it like it was an album, then I made my own album in that same shape, it was called I Had Sex With God and I sent it to 4AD. Our first album contained three of the first five pieces of music I had ever written. Within a few years I was playing festivals for contemporary classical composers and new age artists who were thirty or forty years older than me. His Name Is Alive played the Musicas Visuales Festival in Mexico with Harold Budd, Paul Horn and Jorge Reyes. The mayor of the city presented me with a guitar but then dramatically walked out of the theater during our performance realizing he had made a terrible mistake. I remember the surreal moment when from across the room Harold Budd walked in and greeted me as “Mr. Defever.” He had a cold and was sniffling during his set, the audience thought he was crying. I recorded his show and when I got back home to Livonia I added my own guitar to some of his songs and then edited the tapes, looping my favorite parts and editing out the parts I didn’t like, also adding additional layers of reverb and echo. More recently I did a concert in a five hundred year old temple in Japan where the unamplified meditation music never rose above a whisper and the monk had to turn off the furnace because the heat molecules were too loud. The show was recorded and released under the name Mountain Ocean Sun and features Ian Masters and Hitoko Sakai.

Energy Dealer

Both my parents were born in Canada, my mother in Saskatchewan, my father in Ontario. I have dual citizenship as my father was American and my mother had Canadian citizenship. I spent summers, holidays and weekends in a tiny cottage on Lake St. Clair that did not have a telephone and had curtains instead of doors separating the two rooms. Myrt Fortin who lived next door would receive phone calls for my mom, walk over to our place and yell into the window, “Hey wake up your ma, your dad’s on the phone.” My mom took a lot of naps, so she was always asleep when something important was happening. I remember always getting cut on broken glass while swimming in the lake or getting stabbed by one of the neighbors and having to go wake up my mom to take me to the hospital.

Lord I Don’t Believe You Exist

When I was ten my parents sat me down and told me it was time that I got a summer job. There were only two businesses in town, a gas station and a hardware store so I walked up to the hardware store and asked the owner for a job and immediately fell to the ground crying. Completely fell apart. He asked me why I wanted to work in hardware. I didn’t know what to say, I was only ten but I knew not to tell the owner that his store was stupid and I didn’t think he could handle the truth. It turned out he also owned the gas station so that didn’t really work out. Later that summer, I began working for the Pickseed Corporation as corn de-tasseling season was just beginning. All the moms would drop off their kids in the church parking lot in Tecumseh, just outside of Windsor, around 4:30am where an unmarked windowless cargo van was waiting that had cinderblocks and 2'x4' boards instead of benches so they could squeeze in the maximum amount of children. There were three job requirements to work in a cornfield, the child (it was only children, no adults) needed to show up with a baseball hat, a thermos with water and a large black plastic garbage bag. I think this was before sunglasses were invented. Upon arriving at the cornfield, we were separated into pickers and checkers, younger kids each taking a row of corn (a row could extend a mile or more) and a slightly older kid would organize and manage several of the younger kids. In the morning we were instructed to poke two arm holes and a head hole into our garbage bags and put it on like a raincoat because the corn was covered in dew and kids wearing wet clothes would walk slower than dry kids. So almost every day there was a point, usually around 11am when the dew would dry and we would be roasted alive from the summer sun coming down on our ridiculous shiny black plastic outfits. We worked from sun up until sun down. I received three dollars and thirty five cents an hour. For all you city folks, corn is planted in alternating rows of types of corn so that when the top part of the plant is removed, or “de-tasseled,” it can seed or cross-pollinate easily. It’s a terrible job with a high turnover rate and every day I would hear the sound of kids in nearby rows that had given up hope, sat down in the middle of the field and crying for hours. The following year, at age 11, I was promoted from picker to checker, and was put in charge of a group of about ten sixteen year old’s.

Sleep It Off

Mostly I like to record – His Name is Alive has over a hundred releases and I’ve done another fifty records under various names, Control Panel, Warren Michael Defever, ESP BEETLES, ESP SUMMER, Forest People, Infinity People, Jeepers Creepers, Layla al-Akhyaliyya, Mirror Dream, Princess Dragon-Mom, the Dirt Eaters, the Fishcats, the Whales, plus way more I can’t remember probably because the names were so dumb. I’ve recorded about four hundred records for other bands at my house or other studios. I’ve worked on records with Danny Kroha, Ida, Fred Thomas, Elizabeth Mitchell, Wild Belle, Michael Hurley, and when I was a teenager I helped record the first Gories album which was especially unique as I was the junior assistant engineer who helped move their equipment into the dirt floor garage next to the studio where it was decided the acoustics would be way worse. Also, I helped collage about a hundred Destroy All Monsters tapes from the 70s for a couple of their releases which led to remastering a bunch of tapes from the John Sinclair White Panther Party archives. I’ve done remixes for Thurston Moore and Yoko Ono and when Iggy and The Stooges started touring again I got a phone call from Ron Asheton seeing if I would help them record demos for their reunion album with Mike Watt on bass. They wrote the songs together while they were recording in Niagara’s basement sort of simultaneously. Iggy didn’t have a notebook with all his lyric ideas, instead he just sang about whatever happened that day – one song was about the airline losing his luggage, one about ATM machines and another was about reading in a newspaper that Ray Davies of the Kinks had been shot in New Orleans. In the end they weren’t terribly excited by my suggested song titles including “No Shirt” (you know because it’s like “No Fun” plus you know Iggy never wears a shirt) and they didn’t seem to love the mixes that I did that sounded kind of like those crappy Raw Power bootlegs.

Cost Of Living

Two summers ago I recorded an incredible concert by Mdou Moctar live at Third Man Records in Detroit. They’re wild hypnotic Hendrix style jammers who live in the desert. The band didn’t speak much english but I think I was able to communicate to them how excited I was about their amazing fingerpicking and hot guitar solos after the show by screaming and replaying the best solos over and over again and then screaming the word fuzz and pointing at their fingers. It’s insane and having seen them a few times since then with a different drummer and the addition of a bass player, I’m convinced it’s their best album. It’s wild but it’s still not Tchin-tabaraden wedding wild.

Licked By Lions

Jonathan Richman walks into Ethan and Gretchen's studio and asks if I can remove all the rugs, take the acoustic treatments off the walls and strike the baffles which normally separate the instruments, drums and amps, so the room will have the most echo possible, he has also invited about ten friends including Johnny Bee Badanjek the drummer from Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels and Mary Cobra from the Detroit Cobras to dance, sing and play percussion in the studio while he records. He has two vocal microphones set up at either end of the room and has brought his own microphones for the drums along with his own desired placement for them. He notices a tamboura near the control room and asks if I know how to play it or if I know how to tune it. Within seconds he’s tuned it and proceeds to sing Indian classical music accompanying himself on tamboura drone for about thirty five minutes. It’s beautiful and very surprising. He asks me if I recorded it, I lie and say no. Later he asks me not to play it for anyone. We record for hours. Some songs are quite long – ten and fifteen minutes, some are medleys of oldies or soft rock hits from the seventies segueing into new songs of his. It’s a confusing session as it’s not clear when songs are starting and ending and he often plays guitar and sings nowhere near a microphone. The distance between him and the microphone seems to have some meaning, there’s some formula to when he chooses to walk away in the middle of a verse but I am unable to determine the secret code. At the end of the session three or four songs are deemed usable, edited and mixed, although, sadly, an attempt at a completely insane and unexpected fuzz guitar solo is left unreleased. (The Harold Budd piece is at the opposite end of this spectrum.)

Calling All Believers

Shortly after Tecuciztecatl was released, I received an email from Dr. James Beacham at CERN inviting us to perform at a series of concerts that would combine experimental music with experimental science at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. He didn’t contact our booking agent, which would be how we generally receive offers for gigs, instead he sent an email to me, which would be how we generally receive crazy messages from our completely insane fans (murderous, delusional, poetic, threatening messages usually). I assumed the invitation was fake or a prank and replied that we would prefer to wait until they had successfully opened a pathway to interspatial dimensions and we’d play on the other side or that if that was unlikely to happen at a convenient time then perhaps we could set up our equipment right on the edge of a mini-black hole and perform as the Earth is being destroyed so we could release the concert film “Live At The End Of The World.” After a few messages back and forth, it was clear that he was legit and I apologized for being such a jerk. Soon I discovered poetry within the language of particle physics as well as a certain beauty in the idea that these scientists have devoted their lives to dreaming, searching and discovering basic principles that connect all things in existence. The song “Calling All Believers” refers to this devotion. “Energy Acceleration” compares the scientists to monastic life in medieval times and mystics trying to find and define the line between this world and the next and at the same time invoking the incredible amounts of energy needed to create the collisions experiments. The Patterns of Light LP was released in 2016 on London London Records and is about interpreting visions of light, trying to find universal truth with whatever tools available, it’s about the search for how everything works, why it works and how it got that way but also about being inspired on a basic level by the way a thing looks and how all your senses take in a thing. A thousand years ago Hildegard Von Bingen was writing about this same thing in letters, songs, medical texts, and had even developed her own language to use in her mystical writings, similar to Magma drummer Christian Vander using his own language for their concept albums or French black metalists Brenoritvrezorkre and Moëvöt.

The Light Inside You

We get a lot of letters from fans, mostly weirdos though. I think it started when we released Song of Schizophrenia, that sort of connected us to a certain demographic I suspect. Here’s a recent typical message we received. “Growing up in Panama City, Mouth By Mouth and Livonia were like passages to other realms. I drank a ton of cough syrup at the time but those albums helped make life more livable. I was about to go to art school for sculpture and graphic design and the textures I heard on those records had actual shapes to them. Most music I knew at that time was flat or linear. I got them on cassette via mail-order from an ad placed in a bmx magazine. Mouth By Mouth arrived just before going to work at the amusement park and I was able to listen to it twice on the way thanks to the never-ending beach traffic. As luck would have it, I worked on “The Abominable Snowman” ride, basically a tilt-a-whirl inside a dome with lots of fog machine action, blue lights, mirrors, and lots of air conditioning. It took about 10 listens that day before it wasn’t as weird as when I first put it on. Maybe it was my bubblegum flavor/robitussin combo slushie on top of no-doz that pulled it all together, but it was probably a weird ride for a lot of vacationing beach tourists and townies when all they really wanted to hear was “Naughty by Nature” by O.P.P. I had no business running those rides at the age of 17 but I really loved how disorienting that ride could be with all the mirrors, the fog, the cold and for the final 90 seconds the ride would go in reverse. I had a buddy named Kevin that did acid at work and would repeatedly run the mini-train off the tracks and all the riders had to walk back through the woods for about a half mile that summer.”

[the-perfect-scientist]

((I just realized that not everyone might understand the context I’m using in that thread Secrets and Babes with @raysofsinshine

It’s in the context of Babes in Toyland, which means basically Children in Toyland.

There will not be babes in this thread... unless you think Carlos and Pharma are attractive (do not even LOOK at Angela! Or I’ll stomp you to death with my hooves!)

[a-broader-sensibility-blog]

Music for Radfems

A lot of people enjoyed the resource post I did on radical feminist literature, so I thought I would come back and do a second resource list, but this time for radfem music! Not all of these songs are specifically radical feminist, but I deliberately exclude artists that like to “reclaim slurs” or sing about how sexy they are or how they’re empowered because they’re different from other girls. I also stay away from the YAS, QUEEN/slay/goddess type music about how women are so amazing because they’re beautiful and glamorous. Also, some of the artists on this list are not people who identify themselves or their music as explicitly feminist, but I find feminist threads in how they make music and in their lyrics, in particular. This list is not exhaustive or necessarily as diverse as it should be; it’s just composed of some artists and songs that I personally have enjoyed.

Just some background info: I absolutely love making playlists (of all types) and I’ve made a number of playlists with feminist themes but this list is not a playlist, but more of a directory. If you end up discovering any songs or artist you love from this list, please let me know and share your own radfem playlists.

P.S. Bikini Kill is left out because everyone already knows Bikini Kill.

Artists

Ani Difranco

Ani has made a ton of powerful music with explicitly feminist themes, as well as devoting her life to activism . Also, she STARTED HER FUCKING RECORD LABEL AT THE AGE OF 18, LIKE IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT “INDIE” MUSIC, THIS IS IT. Her music is also really beautiful, just in terms of unexpected rhythms and guitar riffs and yeah, I just love her. You’ve probably heard of “32 Flavours” but seriously, go beyond and explore her gigantic catalogue.

Teaser : And Lucille, your voice still sounds in me/Yeah mine was a relatively easy tragedy/The profile of our country looks a little less hard-nosed/But you know that picket line persisted and that clinic's since been closed

(”Lost Woman Song,” from Ani DiFranco, 1990.)

Bratmobile

I can’t possibly list every riot grrl-era punk band as this list would simply become copy-pasta from Wikipedia. However, I do feel the need to recommend Bratmobile, a quintessential riot grrrl band, because their lyrics explicitly reject liberal pablum and demand something more substantial not only from men, but from other women as well. They’re a good band to listen to when you’re feeling exasperated at how many women will expend so much effort defending their Nigels and making excuses for men.

Teaser: What do you mean against the feminine form/It’s girls like you who are always torn/Between salvation and one of the boy toys/Give them what they want, but I want more

(”What’s Wrong With You?” from Girls Get Busy, 2002.)

Dory Previn

Dory is a lesser-known folk artist, similar in style to Joni Mitchell. After her husband Andre Previn left her for Mia Farrell in the 1970s, she turned her attention from writing music for movies to writing incisive, deeply personal music. Sometimes she sings more explicitly feminist lyrics, (see “When A Man Wants A Woman,” for example) but what I find really powerful in her lyrics is in the ways she subtly highlights the unequal power dynamics between heterosexual men and women in the context of “loving” relationships. She’s also a good artist to listen to if you are interested in how aging and older women are treated in our society. Finally, she’s super sly at taking digs at “sexually liberated” left-wing dudebros of the ‘70s.

Teaser:

Whatever you give me I'll take as it comes/Discarding self-pity I'll manage with crumbs/I'll settle for moments, I won't ask for life/I'll not expect labels like lover, or wife

(”Lemon-Haired Ladies, from Mythical Kings and Iguanas,1971.)

Joan Baez

Joan Baez doesn’t consider herself a feminist per se, but she’s been an activist on the front lines of progressive politics for over 50 years. Aside from women’s rights, she sings about labour rights, civil rights, and anti-war activism. While Baez is most famous for her covers of classic folk songs, she has also written a lot of her own music, which is super underrated. “Diamonds and Rust,” which is quoted below, is kind of her fuck-you song about Bob Dylan.

Teaser: And there you stayed /Temporarily lost at sea /The Madonna was yours for free /Yes the girl on the half-shell/Would keep you unharmed

(”Diamonds and Rust” from Diamonds & Rust, 1975)

Le Tigre

Le Tigre is fronted by Kathleen Hanna, the most famous face of the Riot Grrrl scene, but also includes JD Samson a visibly gender-nonconforming lesbian artist who unabashedly identifies as lesbian and female. Le Tigre’s music is some of the most explicitly, directly feminist, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say that the band as a whole allies itself with radical (rather than queer) feminism, they’re still feminists. The music itself is electro-pop, VERY early 2000s sounding computerized instrumentals but somehow super catchy and polished anyway.

Teaser:

Carol Rama and Eleanor Antin/Yoko Ono and Carolee Schneeman/You're getting old, that's what they'll say, but/Don't give a damn I'm listening anyway

(”Hot Topic,” from Le Tigre, 1999.)

Sleater-Kinney

Probably every punk fan follower I have is already of a fan of them, but in case you don’t know, Sleater-Kinney is an all-female punk rock band that formed in the mid 1990s a little bit after the height of the riot grrrl movement. They were inspired by the earlier riot grrrl bands, but (in my opinion) their music has grown more sophisticated and rich melodically and lyrically than most of the Bikini Kill/Babes in Toyland stuff you would associate with riot grrrl. The two lead singers, Carrie Brownstein and Corinne Tucker are bisexual (I don’t know about the drummer, Janet Weiss) and briefly dated, continuing to perform side by side during and after their breakup. (The song “One More Hour" is a really searing, painful song that they wrote together about the dissolution of their own relationship.) Anyways, they have a really unique sound that’s a result of both Brownstein and Tucker playing lead guitar and lead vocals, with no bass or rhythm guitar. Rather than harmonizing, they sing overlapping lyrics in a really dissonant way and basically, if you love punk rock like I do, you MUST listen to them right now.

Teaser: Find me out/I'm not just made of parts/Oh you can break right through/This box you put me into

(”Heart Factory” from Dig Me Out,1997.)

Songs

“You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore (Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts, 1963)

Pretty much the classic oldies proto-feminist song. You’ve probably already heard and love it. Years later, Lesley came out as a lesbian. We love her.

Teaser: You don't own me/I'm not just one of your many toys/You don't own me/Don't say I can't go with other boys

“In Your Shoes” by Sarah McLachlan (Shine On, 2014.)

I saw her perform this song live, and she explained that it was inspired by and dedicated to (in her words) “the most badass teenager in the world,” Malala Yousafzai. The song does not reference Yousafzai directly, but it is very explicit in addressing young women (not men.)

Teaser: Say what’s on your mind with pride/‘Cause you are your own woman

“Stupid Girls” by P!nk (I’m Not Dead, 2006.)

This song came out when I was in middle school, which was shortly after the absolute peak (around 2004/2005) of “stupid girl” culture, when Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and their ilk were still really popular. (I do love Britney though.) This song really touched me and it felt like such a breath of fresh air to see a female pop star at that time who was also bothered by the way porn culture had created only one infantilizing and sexualized path to female stardom.  Later on, I started to feel bad about liking "Stupid Girls” as liberal feminism made me feel guilty because, y’know, some women like being porn stars and getting plastic surgery and fake tans. Anyways, fuck that and this song is super amazing, especially when you’re a 12-year-old proto radfem in the year 2006.

[jobinterviewghost]

Hogs, chickens and horses

Composed by Robert Brokenmouth on 18 November 2019.

Not As Bad As It Could've Been- Scarth Hog( self-released) Mystery Train- Chickenstones:( Crankinhaus Records) Away from the Sun- Majestic Horses( Kasumuen Records )Yes, dear reader, I too questioned what a scarth was. Well, Scarth is a family name, and 'is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when the household resided in the county of Yorkshire, where they held the manor of Scarborough. This place-name was initially originated from the Old English Skaroisburg, which was brought into England during the Norman Conquest of 1066.' Scarth is also Yorkshire dialect for a rough, bare rock. No-one ever said Costs Bostle (whose band this is) ever lacked a sense of humour.

I utilized to know Bill a little, in the pasts when 205 was a combination of interweaving bands instead of a street number, and when Bill played (drums) in King Snake Roost with, to name a few fascinating active ingredients, the late Charlie Tolnay. I recall one check out to his home (in a peaceful inner Adelaide 'burb) throughout which he boasted of being "the loudest bastard in the street" which, offered that he had the Grateful Dead on 11, was patently apparent.

Despite his rather odd taste in music, I have actually always been rather keen on Expense. Mind you, a few of the bands he's remained in: skronk as hell. An afraid racket, and an excellent outlet for the frustrations of real life. Scarth Hog ain't as loud as I anticipated. They're favorably groovy (rather delighted in the punnily called instrumental "A Minor Detour"). Wikipoopoopants has this to state:

King Snake Roost (also known as KSR) was among a variety of Australian and Worldwide guitar-based bands who emerged from within the punk rock and post-punk scene of the mid-1980s that became specified as sound rock. King Snake Roost formed in 1985 in Adelaide and in 1987 the band moved to Sydney. The band separated in 1990 after a two-month trip of the USA. In Australia and the USA the band played with some of the most prominent noise rock bands of the 1980s, consisting of Sonic Youth, Big Black, Mudhoney, Helmet, Babes In Toyland, Lubricated Goat, feedtime and The Mark of Cain. KSR dipped into some prestigious 1980s US places, including, CBGB and Maxwell's.

The album press flyer discusses even more: "Adventurous originals three-piece band stirring the swampy pot of rawk, blues, jazz, metal and punk loosely known as sound rock. Based at Canberra, Australia. Have snouts will take a trip." Enough of Costs, for the moment. His bass guitar case increases to 12 (yes, he's on bass). Phil Gemmell plays guitar, and is a veteran of the Christchurch punk and metal scene ... but here, he "returns to fuzz, valves, personalized humbucking jeans and slicing out runs and power chords". Mark Woods is on drums and "more cowbell", and used to play in "Canberra's Detroit-metal tearaways Hell Yes", who I have, normally, never ever heard of. ( ED: Likewise house to a young Costs Gibson, later on of The Eastern Dark, Lemonheads and New Christs.) And the CD? It's terrific fun, as it takes place. They're loud (and for finest effect, you require to annoy the neighbours) with a distinct early '70s feel that manages to be easygoing and urgent at the same time. Expense's on bass and he's actually maintaining the timing; his lyrics are bluntly political with a dark humour - you can virtually see his understanding laugh in '2 Dollar Dream' - deadpan faux-cocktail blues mixed with time changes and sensibility. Costs's vocals are exactly what you wouldn't get out of somebody with his background, by the way; clearly audible words provided sharp focus. "Cable television Street" - I do not understand if you learn about this, however it's a well-known (or infamous) incident in the history of London politics, so when I hear Bill's gritted-out line "My old man held Cable television Street and I will hold this ground" ... numerous threads of history mesh. It's likewise a difficult tune. Look, I'll leave it there. We have one groovy, loudly rock album here, a number of various styles played damned well. Plenty to listen to, songs which go someplace rather than constantly repeat the very same message. When I see Bill next I want to have a beer-fuelled argument about several things and add to reducing the tone of Canberra (as if that were even possible). On the other hand, I'm damn grateful "Not As Bad As It Could've Been" is such a great disc, and I truly want to see these buggers live. Either get it here or bother the band on their Facebook page.

* * * * * Due to a cancellation and a realisation that I needed a vacation of sorts, just recently I was able to see Chickenstones at the Collaroy Beach Club in Sydney. The majority of the set came from their brand-new LP, "Secret Train". The 'Stones are a band that flourishes on gigging and rehearsal, playing, playing and playing some more. When the women dance at the front ... that's what you desire, not some crinkly critic banging on. Now, then, "Secret Train" is also a damn fine LP. Rather apart from the title track (the mystery is, as Phil Van Ruin explained from the phase, where we're going.) There are a variety of dark threads running through the bedrock here. Andy's brush with the hyena of cancer triggered, as you would expect, a re-consideration of the truths of the folks around him, their and his function and so on. And yet, what might have been a horrendous triple LP set of meandering solos and pompous mumbling is instead a splitting, relentless rock 'n' roll LP. You don't require to know the backstory. How many of you understand what "Midnight Rambler" is about? (hint: it's not about choosing blackberries along a country lane at 12.01 am). No. From the first 2nd, 'Mystery Train' is an ideal fuzzball twin-guitar hoot, a revelatory breathing churn chockas with the twist of 2 unique singers - Van Ruin's voice has a white wine clearness with a hurt lilt which makes me thirsty, while Doc Temple's voice has a dirty blues lustre that makes me think about sticky carpet at the back of the mouth. Paul Worth and Jim Kelly are the ideal rhythm area, definitely in-sync, tuff and ruff and do not fuck with them, not foreseeable but permitting the vocals and guitars to shine. Bloody big noise they all have too. Mal Gillies lends some perfect blues harp, and Russell Parkhouse some bar-room pianner. Manufacturer Russell Pilling's done a fine job of capturing this tight-cat's- arse band - the Stones think they're heading into acid rock area. I guess it may seem like that. However nah, they're heading into gloriously muscular pop area. Take that slight squealy riff in "You Got a Right".

I ought to mention that there's no lost space here. Every worthless area is taken control of, you hear new things all the time. There's also a great deal of stress, worry, muffled rage and frustration here. "Fuel", for example. By "Leave", we're drenched in adrenaline and taken in heavy riffs. We understand with a jolt that lots of, numerous better-established bands would kill to have a noise like this, never ever mind any among these songs. That "Mystery Train" came out of such grim, un-nerving scenarios is a testament to a number of things: pig-headedness and/or determination, take your pick; and the love and pleasure of making music. The Barman is right when he describes the title track, "Secret Train", as the centrepiece; until then the songs have actually been increasing fast in intensity; now they peak, splinter and we're left with the rest of the LP ... which tosses us around in a different way. Phil's glorious voice is to crave, and while I normally loathe "sweet" blues, this one had me destroying. Transcendent. And I'll say this, too, "Mystery Train" is the type of track which would not sound out of location on mainstream FM between the adverts for panel-beaters and wifebeaters on special. Then we head into deep r 'n' r area ... "Ball and Chain" - well, I don't understand what the fuck is happening with that guitar but it seems like a sax, it's that fuzzed up. This one has me dancing, much like it will you. All these fucked-up relationships.:

Come on honey, turn me loose/ I'm gon na enjoy you like a ball and chain

Fucking dazzling. "First Light" remembers Chickenstones' origins with the stand-up bass and the huge hairdos. Today, they reek menace and pace like tigers, and most likely bring flick-knives in their boots. " Crawling King Snake" is another tour de force. In context, it strikes out of a hole like a funnel-web onto a bug. (That's us). I simply like the groove these males take out of no place, a strong stoner drive but set to a nastier speed and with a far, far nastier vibe. I think it's Phil's vocal, by god it's remarkable. Then there's "I Got ta Move" (" the method you treat me darlin', is a criminal activity"), Child Jane' and 'Hooks In Me'. Groovy? The Stones are setting a criteria upon standards here. And I'll agree with The Barman again: the Stones explain those tortured male vs female relationships without assuming it's one-sided. There are clearly two sides. "Child Jane" (" Take an appearance in the mirror/ Infant Jane things are looking grimmer") ... Oh, and. The reason I keep calling the Chickenstones "the 'Stones" is because as far as I'm worried, the Rolling Stones might be good, however give me this bunch of Sydney scruffians any day. More genuine, sincere, more power, great songs ... (also, their Tee shirts are more affordable). "Mystery Train" is heavily addictive and on heavy repeat at Bunker Brokenmouth. There's not a duff or slightly crap track here, it's all the excellent stuff you want and more. Wan na know something else? Right now you can picture the band playing in an Islington bar circa 1966, or an Austin bar in the 1970s and blowing the location apart, any Sydney joint in the '70s and 1980's and embarrassing Midnight Oil, and ... you understand?

The (Chicken) Stones are a band for perpetuity, and you 'd be a mug not to have them burning a hole in your collection. Dig the clips:

Now get yer wallet out and go * * * * * I was talking with my dealership (Mark at Streetlight Records, in Adelaide) a few days ago, and said that there is merely no other way to stay up to date with the enormous quantity of material being released, rereleased, and all the amazing things you lost out on first time around, which existed way, way before you were born. It's madness. The large range of choice, the problem in detecting sparkle among the range of mountains of indifferent filth ... So, when I check out Kasumuen's description of Majestic Horses, "the brand-new band for members of Screamfeeder/ Deafcult, The Holy Soul and The Uncertain", I felt rather irked with myself. Have I heard of these attires? Yes. Have I heard them? No. Not one of them. ( ED: Must be an Adelaide thing.) Kasumuen continues: "Kellie Lloyd (Screamfeeder) is competently backed by Kate Wilson (The Holy Soul, previously The Laurels) and Andrew P Street (The Unsure, Career Girls)." Well, one thing is that I need to have no preconceptions today. And you, dear reader, will understand more about Screamfeeder than I do. Kasumuen encourages, "pedigree musicians schooled from record collections likewise filled with '90s shoegaze, indie and dream-pop". Oh, bugger. I shouldn't have checked out that. Dammit, terms like "shoegaze" constantly aggravate me ( ED: Me too) - for instance, I loved Flight's first EP, but then ... I bought the 2nd EP, and LP, and ... no. And ... I even saw Flight live, too. No. Did not get me. And again, when I saw Sonic Youth in 1989 I went straight off them (I had all their records up until then). And I have actually never ever listened to them given that. Charming individuals, so I collect. And maybe I was extremely extreme (I was 26, FFS). ... you see what I indicate. A mountain range of choice. And don't get me started on "indie", hell, from the mid '80s when that term was trumpeted as a virtuous badge of honour it always seemed to me to be code for "songs not quite sufficient". The idea was crucial in 1976, however by 1986, I hated it. Oh, shit, prejudgments. Well, let's put "Majestic Horses" on and have a listen. I immediately enjoy the swirling, measured guitar, and the vocal. I'm presuming these are Kellie Lloyd; she's extremely gifted. The title track, "Away from the Sun" is terrific and gets my attention, as does " Scene of the Criminal offense". Do bear in mind that while these folks - particularly Kellie-- have considerable cred and history, I can just hear this out of that context. Production worths are high, the sound is cool. On my first listen, I believe that this is excessive genric ... That said, you might fairly say that of The Meanies, The Johnnys or any one of numerous popular attires. That's not much of a criticism. And you'll have thought by now that I initially had trouble here. Yet there's a lot to like here; former "Db" writer Street's bass is frequently interesting and appealing (" Signal"), Kellie's marvelous vocals (with fine lyrics to match) ... in reality the appeal here is an ill, nauseating thing (see 'Damage Whatever'). It appears I may have a concern with the style. ... ... and then ... I got it. Took me a while. Not the first time I couldn't see the wood for the trees, and I expect it will not be the last. Majestic Horses are a sonic rollercoaster, a slow ice-cream scream, the quiet bulk who are happiest when offering you tinnitis. Honestly, I presume Majestic Horses are one of those bands you need to see live to truly get them. They'll remain in Adelaide in a number of weeks - they're on tour at the moment - so I'll see for myself. I dug a little and discovered that Majestic Horses supported Swervedriver on their current tour, and went down well with the audience - and this only their second or third gig. Nevertheless ... "Away from the Sun" grows on you, in the exact same method that, possibly, that while some folks warbled about the newest fad ('80s Bowie, for instance, or New Romantics) you were falling down a Cohen or Velvets or Fugs rabbit-hole. So much for prejudgments-- I shouldn't have read the Kasumuen blurb, should I? Perhaps "dream-pop" put me off more than I realised. But, no, carefully crafted tunes, backed with strong, strong rhythms and ripping, seething guitar constantly triumphes. There's that voice ... yeah nah yeah Majestic Horses are magical, like a winged chimpanzee is magical. One last thing: if this lyric doesn't make you identify our immediate world and the continuing impending crisis of our types ... the voice of her generation?

Yesterdays divide messed up all the static in the air, on the radio. It comes as not a surprise, The garbage you walk by today is the garbage we accept tomorrow., The trash we choose up tomorrow, the garbage we expect tomorrow, The garbage we accept tomorrow. Statues sit inside, whatever is old and dead and dirty, Old and dead and dusty. it's comfy regardless of your custom-mades and conditioning, no requirement to dispose of anything. i'm here to ruin whatever. We need to destroy, We're here to ruin everything.

Last week 4ZZZ made 'Far from the Sun' their LP of the week. They were right. Buy it here or her. Catch the Majestic Horses:

November 29: Major Tom's (Kyneton) November 30: The Old Bar (Melbourne) December 1: Tramway Hotel (City of Yarra) December 14: The Crown and Anchor, Adelaide

" 4" > - Scarth

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[papermoonloveslucy]

Lucy Gets the Bird

S3;E12 ~ December 7, 1964

Synopsis

When Mr. Mooney's home is being painted, he lets Lucy and Viv birdsit with his prize cockatiel.  When the bird flies away, they climb to the roof to find him. When that fails, they try to replace it with a similar bird, but Mr. Mooney is on to their scheme.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney), Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael)

Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) and Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael) do not appear in this episode.

Guest Cast

Tim Herbert (Sam) was born Herbert Timberg in 1914.  In 1944 he appeared on Broadway in the Jackie Gleason revue Follow the Girls. This is the first of his three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” He also did one episode of “Here's Lucy” in 1968.  

John J. 'Red' Fox (Charlie) makes his second appearance on the series.  He was best known for playing policemen, which is what he did on five of his eight appearances on “The Lucy Show” as well as three of his five episodes of “Here’s Lucy.”

Ginny Tyler (Bird Voices) previously voiced Clementine the sheep in “Lucy Buys a Sheep” (S1;E5).  She did the voice of the sheep in Disney’s 1964 hit Mary Poppins. She started out on radio before hosting a children’s TV show in Seattle. By the late 1950s, she had moved to Hollywood and was narrating record albums for Disney, including “Bambi” and “Babes in Toyland.” She returned to do a 1974 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  Although she died in 2012, her voice can still be heard in the chorus of birds outside The Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Mr. Mooney's cockatiel (and all the other budgies in the pet shop) are played by live birds.

Sid Gould (Voice on the Telephone) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. Gould was married to Vanda Barra, who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on “Here’s Lucy.”

The title puns on the slang expression “give/get the bird,” meaning to make a rude gesture by raising your middle finger to show that you are angry with someone.

In real life, Lucille Ball is said to have had a bird phobia.  When she was four years old her father died of typhoid fever.  That same day, a bird got trapped inside their home.  Other recollections say that the wallpaper in her room was of a bird pattern. 

The episode opens with Lucy and Viv collecting trading stamps.  Viv wonders if they have enough to get to Hawaii.  Lucy says they have enough to get to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trading Stamps were small paper coupons given to customers by merchants in loyalty marketing programs. When a customer accumulated a number of them, they could be exchanged for premiums, such as toys, personal items, housewares, furniture and appliances. The stamps were generally pasted into a booklet by licking the back, much like a postage stamp.  Although they were first introduced in 1891, they were most popular in the USA between 1930 and 1980.  Today they have been replaced by digital customer loyalty cards. There were several companies responsible for sponsoring trading stamps, the most popular being Blue Chip, S&H Green Stamps, and Plaid Stamps.

Mr. Mooney's pet bird is a female cockatiel named Greenback for its coloration. “Greenback” is also a slang word for US paper currency due to its dark green color; an ideal name for a miserly banker's bird!  

Mr. Mooney has taught the bird to say “E pluribus unum” (latin for “out of many, one”), the de facto motto of the United States of America, appearing on the presidential seal and on many denominations of US currency.  Lucy teaches it to say, "Give Lucy more money." Greenback calls Mr. Mooney “Poppsy-Whoppsy.” 

Lucy finds a "Vote for Dewey" button under her couch and says she needs to clean more often. Thomas P. Dewey, was a Republican who lost the US presidential election of 1948 to Democrat  Harry S. Truman. This episode was broadcast right after the 1964 election. Dewey was a Republican, while Lucille Ball was a liberal Democrat. This discovery also implies that Lucy may have lived there (or owned the sofa) at least 16 years, ten years longer than she and Viv have lived together.

When Lucy is on the telephone man's zip line, Greenback says “It's the only way to fly!” This was the advertising slogan for Western Airlines, a US carrier that was in operation from 1926 to 1987, before merging with Delta Airlines. In 1965 R&B singer Jewel Akens (“The Birds and the Bees”) released a song titled “It's the Only Way to Fly.”  

Mr. Mooney says that leaving his precious Greenback with Lucy was like leaving General Custer with Sitting Bull. George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) was a United States cavalry commander in the Civil War and the American Indian Wars.  Sitting Bull was a Sioux chief who rallied his tribe to defeat Custer and his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876), known as “Custer's Last Stand.” Jerry celebrates Sitting Bull's birthday in “Lucy and the Good Skate” (S3;E1).  

A working phone on top of a telephone pole was also a running gag on the TV series “Green Acres” (1965-71).  

Sam at the pet shop refers Mr. Mooney to pet psychiatrist Dr. Marshall Belson PhD (parrots, horses and dogs). The doctor's name is a combination of the name of the two writers of this episode, Gary Marshall (right) and Jerry Belson (left).

Sam tries to sell Lucy a mynah bird that says “rat fink.”  “The Rat Finks” was the name of Jerry and Sherman's group at camp in “Lucy, the Camp Cook” (S3;E6).  

Viv guesses that Greenback is “halfway to Capistrano.” This is a reference to San Juan Mission in Capistrano, southern California.  It is there that the American cliff swallow migrates to every year from its winters in Argentina, making the 6,000-mile trek in springtime. The Mission's location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest.  The expression “when the swallows return to Capistrano” has entered common usage.  

Speaking of Hawaii and birds!  (The red one is Lucy, naturally!)

Callbacks!

Little Ricky had two parakeets Alice and Phil (“molting buzzards” to Fred Mertz) in “Little Ricky Gets a Dog” (ILL S6;E14), who were named for husband and wife performers Alice Faye and Phil Harris. In that episode, voice artist June Foray did the bark of Fred the dog, much the same way Ginny Tyler voices the birds here.  

Lucy Ricardo contended with pigeons on the ledge outside her apartment in “Lucy and Superman” (ILL S6;E13), one of the ten colorized episodes, and....

...500 baby chicks loose in her Connecticut living room in “Lucy Raises Chickens” (ILL S6;E19).  

Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz wanted to go to Hawaii on “I Love Lucy” (inset) but never got any further than the Ricardo living room!  

While on the roof, Viv mentions that the last time she was up there was when the two put up the TV antenna in “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (S1;E9).  This is one of the most direct callbacks to a previous episode thus far in the series. Lucy and Mr. Mooney were also on the home's roof to break into Viv's bedroom in “The Loophole in the Lease” (S2;E12).  

Fast Forward!

In “Lucy is a Bird Sitter” a 1974 episode of “Here's Lucy” Lucy Carter is enlisted by Harry (Gale Gordon) to care for a rare Tongan Weewawk, a fictional creature made up by the writers. That bird looks a lot like a common white pigeon, which makes finding him difficult when he flies away.

On a rare two-part episode of “Here's Lucy” (1971) Lucy Carter and Vivian Jones cruise to Hawaii.  Hawaii was a favorite get-away destination for the Arnaz family (inset).  

Blooper Alerts!

Logistics! Even though it's the same house as in “Lucy Puts Up a TV Antenna” (S1;E9), in “Lucy Gets the Bird” the antenna is in a different location, the background landscape has more buildings, and the design of the roof is slightly different.

Too Close for Comfort? Close-ups of Greenback sitting on the electrical wire reveal that the wire is not metal, but rope. Stray threads of hemp can be seen.  

“Lucy Gets the Bird” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

[cleversteel]

Babes in Toyland?

fangedjustice​:

Lloyd was somehow not surprised that Colm, the student thief he’d had a brief run in with some time back, was taking a more…cavalier approach to this. It wasn’t the worst thing; his antics had already garnered some laughter, and he might seem easier for the kids to approach than himself. Some were shy, after all, it could take a while for them to actually speak up about what sort of toy they wanted–

The thought is so subtly intrusive, it takes a moment for him to mentally remind himself that this was not the ultimate point. It was just the scenario they were given by the dream. Playing their part was good, yes, but he couldn’t get lost in it.

“Lilina is correct,” Lloyd says from over his shoulder, the sound of the pop-up toy making his shoulders twitch slightly at its suddenness. “And I suppose you’re right on that as well. Unlike a game with set rules, or a toy with a specific theme, a doll can be whatever its imagined.” He wouldn’t really know, personally; dolls aside, he didn’t have the imagination to come up with personalities or stories for a toy to inhabit.

One of the older children bemoaned the doll talk, and Lloyd glanced around to see what might possibly grab their interest. There was what looked like an unfinished puzzle box, some sort of stuffed…reptile? Dragon, it was definitely a dragon, but it was soft and brightly colored so perhaps not that. A set of knights on horses sat unpainted, rough and lacking detail.

“Interest is something found in the eye of the beholder…If you’ve an interest in magic, then perhaps a staff that can bring forth colorful lights when you twirl it the right way. There are knights and soldiers a plenty in the city now, a sword and shield to have your own adventure, then? Or…if you run towards the gentler things, we have little wooden animals to start a small farm with,” Lloyd listed off, picking up one such cheerily round cow from off one of the shelves. “Or…if none of those intrigue you, maybe you could…offer a suggestion to our idea man over there,” he added, gesturing towards Colm with the button shaped snout of the cow in his hand.

“I’m a bit old and dusty, so perhaps you kids can inspire something better in him, hm?”

The children didn’t seem all that bothered by the soldiers or the rumors of war. Was it that they felt safe and removed from it all, or were they simply hiding fears?

@cleversteel​

"Yeah, that's a good point..." They have to know what they like in order to sell things. That makes sense. (Naturally.) He forces shut the box in his hands and places it back on the shelf.

What do kids like? (As a certified not-child, this was indeed a question he needed to ask himself.)

Dolls and stuff were obvious, but it didn't seem like that's what these kids wanted. Food also generally works, but this is a toy shop, not a food stand.

What do kids like?

At Lloyd's suggestion (he admits he's old, hah), one of the smaller children steps up, patting the countertop with small hands. The toymaker steps forward, looking down at the child.

"Um, sir...," they begin quietly, drawing their hands back, "...could you make a figurine of one of the green folks?" (As they speak, they sort of fiddle with their thumbs.) "My folks say we might have to fight them, but I just want to be friends."

Some kids agree with their sentiment, while others don't see the point, but Colm? Well, that was a nice wish, and considering he knew how bad war could be, well...

"Sure," he agrees, a smile on his face. "We'll get you a green friend!"

@higaneion

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: XETAS

XETAS, out of Austin, are a rabble-rousing three-piece, whose second album, The Tower, recalls the melodic aggression of SST-post-punk. In her review for Dusted, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “The hooks bristle with barbed wire abrasion, putting this band more in line with Hüsker Dü than the Wipers, but they’re in there, glinting out of a cyclone of broken glass and diesel smoke.” Members of the band have, to date, gone mostly by their initials, but we are excited to report that they used their real (first) names for this listed.  David, the guitar player, and Kana, the bassist, pick their favorite things for this listed.   

David’s picks

The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson (1944) 

I read this book towards the beginning of XETAS and the end of my career as a drunk. It’s the story of a man hitting rock bottom, and it really shook me because I saw so much of myself in it. There’s a part where the protagonist gets to the point that “one drink was too many, and a hundred drinks weren’t enough” or something to that affect, and that really struck a chord. I believe this book and getting this band together were huge factors in my decision to put the bottle down. Plus, this book was written before there was much research being done into the psychology of addiction, and Jackson’s novel helped shed light on the mentality of the hopeless alcoholic.

Public Enemy — Fear of a Black Planet (1990) 

This is one of the most important records ever made in any genre, full stop. Chuck D is among the best lyricists to pick up a pen. To quote the man himself, “when I get mad, I put it down on a pad/ give you something that you never had.” Such a huge influence on my approach to writing lyrics, trying to find a clever way to address important issues. The Bomb Squad’s production is so layered, I swear I find something new going on in these songs almost every time I listen. Phenomenal.  

Big Country — The Crossing (1983) 

Like many, I had written Big Country off as one hit wonders for most of my life. Then, somehow or other, I heard the rest of The Crossing. Some of the most unique guitar playing in pop music, equally indebted to the folk music of Scotland and the post punk coming out of England. This album doesn’t get nearly the amount of respect it should. Can’t recommend it highly enough!   

Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) 

This movie is very hard to explain. It’s a three-hour Russian art film about three men trying to find a magical room in the forest that makes your greatest wish come true But it’s so much more than that. A meditation on what it is to be an artist, what it is to be human, what it is to “want”. Stunning visuals, thought-provoking dialogue, excellent use of sound. Don’t let the runtime deter you, this is a must-watch film!  

Black Marble — It’s Immaterial (2016) 

This is my favorite record to come out in a while. Very 1980’s without being cheesy. The cold, lo-fi production coupled with unshakable hooks gives me a feeling of nostalgia for a past that never was. They’re on tour this summer (2017), go see them! 

Kana’s picks

Arrington de Dionyso’s Malakait dan Singa live @ What the Heck Fest 2011

I was a huge Old Time Relijun fan as a teenager, and I’ve followed Arrington de Dionyso’s career pretty devoutly since then. I found this video online around the time I was going through a very depressed period, where my first “real” band had just broken up — you know, the one you pour your heart and soul into and eventually goes nowhere and makes or breaks your desire to keep playing in music? Anyways, this video made me happy at a time when nothing else did.

Bar-B-Que Killers @ Uptown Lounge (from Athens, GA: Inside/Out)

Yo can we please talk about Laura Carter from Bar-B-Q Killers changing my life? I’m a huge music documentary junkie —I’ll watch anything about a band or music biz person, so while I was searching for threads to follow to fuel my Pylon obsession, I got a tip that they were in a documentary about the 1980s Athens punk scene. After seeking it out and watching it six hundred million times I can officially say I love this movie start to finish, but I gotta say the two and a half, maybe three minutes of Laura Carter on the screen was something that A) blew my mind B) haunted my dreams C) made me feel that elusive “I want to BE her” feeling that can drive one to do insane things. She was like a real life Candy Slice (a rock star persona portrayed by one of my idols, Gilda Radner) but like, REAL and actually COOL. I think about this footage a lot when I watch bands with a front man and I think few people will ever come close to making me feel what I feel when I watch this footage.

Los Hijos del Sol — Carinito 

This is one of my all-time favorite songs. I first heard a version of this song performed by Reynosa, which was a project of She Shreds’ founder and editor Fabi Reyna. Fast forward a couple years, and my dear friend Andres Sanchez, who lives in McAllen, TX (about 5 hours south of Austin, on the border of Mexico and Texas) and I are swapping music with each other. We are both multicultural and often share music we are discovering as we explore our roots so we were trading — I show him Enka style music and we compare it to Tejano ballads, etc. He totally trumped me for life tho by turning me onto Chica style music, and helping me learn more about this song I love so much. I probably listen to this song once a week, at least!

Babes in Toyland — Dust Cake Boy (1991: The Year Punk Broke) 

I literally cried the first time I saw this. My friend Jenny (who is a fantastic drummer and someone I love and look up to very much) found out I had never seen 1991: the Year Punk Broke and made it a priority for me. I was so overwhelmed by Kat Bjelland’s vocals and the giant crowd of people freaking out to music played by women that I CRIED. I was so freaked out and moved at the same time, like both instantaneous lightning bolts of: i want to go play guitar like NOW I need to go learn how to scream like this right this second!!! And also like, a huge wave of relief that this sound I knew could happen in my mind wasn’t a stupid dream. It existed!!!!! I just had to seek it out to be a part of it. 1991: The Year Punk Broke was like my personal Sex Pistols-level awakening. Between the clips of Kim Gordon and these three minutes I was ready to get in the van and make rock-n-roll history ASAP.

Osamu Tezuka — Tales of a Street Corner 

My mother is Japanese, (making me first-generation American on her side of the family) and was really concerned about American culture poisoning my brain as a child. She would have VHS tapes of Japanese TV shows and cartoons shipped over so my brother and I would have Japanese TV shows and cartoons to watch (the only way to do it before computers and the internet) and a compilation of Tezuka short films was one of them, and I became obsessed with it. A lot of the themes in his films have to do with WWII and post-war Japan and exist to serve as a warning against the tragic aspects of the nature of man, and I feel especially connected to it these days with the current political climate.