#(saying this as a film major) to deduce what that means and what its calling back to. it’s pretty easy to put 2+2 together there

[edwinisms]

banging my head against the wall every time I see someone reblogging a post of mine with tags mentioning the ‘unrequited confession’. we have been OVER this it is NOT a case of unrequited romantic love it is completely canonically up in the air as a possibility. listen to jayden revri himself and be enlightened i am begging you

[alltingfinns]

The Hounds of the Baskerville

Holding a phallic object, splattered with a body fluid and breathing heavily.

“Well that was tedious!”

And as if that was too subtle, he keeps playing with the harpoon even after it and him has been cleaned off and he’s switched to one of his robes.

John taking just two seconds to pretend considering to give in, just to be a little shit.

Also I am pretty sure that John has a secret scrapbook just for pictures of Sherlock in the hat.

Oh look, begging for mercy. Twice.

I just really love this scene, the manic energy of Sherlock and the calm sass of John gives us some of the funniest moments of the entire show. Also Ben needs to do more physical comedy.

Here he mentions a blog entry on perfume identification which plays out in HLV, so I’m a bit disappointed that the blogging on textile tensile strength in TEH didn’t feature in s4. Maybe some shirts get ripped in s5?

It’s so mean, but my favorite bit really is the mocking of the little girl asking for help finding her rabbit.

The wagging from side to side “please please please can you help?”

“Like a fairy!” with accompanying high pitch and hand motions.

Followed by a look from John that suggests he doesn’t think a lack of substance is Sherlock’s present issue.

And then suddenly he’s like “wait this actually does sound better than nothing”

And Cluedo. “It was the only possible solution”

Trivia note: the Swedish name for the game is also Cluedo, except we pronounce each vowel seperately. Clu-e-do.

It’s so domestic how they say “client” together. Apparently there’s a certain way frequent callers would ring the doorbell that differentiates clients.

Sherlock’s mainly looking at Henry looking at the video, don’t think I’ve noticed that before.

John’s irritated already when Sherlock begins listing things he noticed. Maybe he feels it is a bit too similar to when they first met, meaning he might be jealous that Sherlock does it with others or irritated at his past self for being as mesmerized as Henry is.

Sherlock inventing aggressive passive smoking.

Sherlock is so annoyed that Henry keeps thinking he’s in a horror story rather than a detective story.

I wonder what kind of poetry John wrote. He probably tried to use his feelings for Sherlock to simulate the romance his girlfriends wanted, which is why it is extra exasperating that Sherlock found it “funny”. Although that might be because he’d find the poetry mismatched to the girlfriends and/or the emotional investment John showed them.

“Childhood trauma masked by an invented memory. Boring!”

The parallel has been pointed out before but it bears repeating. Even if they hadn’t planned ahead by the time this episode was written, why go ahead and use an already discarded plot device they themselves called boring?

Interestingly the plot of the episode does more or less lead to this being the solution but not quite. The memory was invented and masking the real events, but it wasn’t Henry’s childhood brain doing it (at least not without aid). Might be worth comparing these plots. If only for the meta moment of it wasn’t you who imagined what you saw, someone made you see it. And then they tried to drive you into fear and doubt to keep secrets hidden.

“The vanishing glow-in-the-dark rabbit! NATO is in an uproar.”

That :( face is so funny every time.

Hound is a bit tricky in Swedish as the Swedish word for dog is hund. So the subtitles just go with spökhund. (Ghost dog)

“It’s cold.” John doesn’t even say anything but he still makes Sherlock self conscious.

Wonder why they showed us the therapy session?

John standing by the counter looking at Sherlock just looking very soft.

Doesn’t even complete his denial. And was that a single key, or were two keys just so closely held together? I’ve never been fully sure if they shared a single room or had one each. John’s incomplete denial would suggest separate rooms (it’s okay because they’re not actually a couple).

John showing his detective skills. And for once it won’t play out like the cats in TGG. It’s an important reminder that John is a smart man overshadowed by a genius, instead of the common enough Everyman and/or bumbling oaf that some believe of Watson.

“And the ruddy prisoner” probably the full extent of the subplot from the novel.

“Is yours a snorer?” “Got any crisps?” Pretty high pitch there, John.

There is sort of a running theme of characters waxing poetically in vague spookiness and Sherlock just scoffing at it. Reminder that the novel is a horror story starring a detective outside of his normal trappings.

“We’ll get caught.” “No, we won’t. Well not right away.”

More exact words from John as he pulls rank and activates Sherlock’s military kink.

The timer doesn’t start ticking at the gate but at the building itself, wonder why. Or maybe it has been ticking, but now there’s atten paid to it?

“Enjoy it?” Just something to file away in the John wing of his mind palace.

I halfway expected one of the elevator buttons to be key activated for the really tippy top secret secrets.

I see one monkey has seen Raiders of the Lost Arc. That or it’s still upset that it didn’t get the part.

“Stapleton?” He may have mocked little Kirsty, but he still remembered her name.

“People say there’s no such thing as coincidences. What dull lives they must lead.” But the universe is rarely so lazy? Of course rarely does not mean never, and looking at the forebears website Stapleton is a 1 in 3600 name in Devon. So the only question is if Kirsty listed her whereabouts on the forum. Not in her message but maybe in the profile she made.

The dramatic reveal of BLUEBELL.

Sherlock deducing the inside job while John just repeats “the rabbit?” is as good a summary of the show as anything, honestly.

Mycroft’s exasperated “goodammit, Sherlock!” look is almost too loud for the Diogenes club.

I think I read on tvtropes that the Major’s beard isn’t regulatory. Acceptable breaks of reality for the sake of original reference.

“It wasn’t my hat.” I love how the hat is used as a summary of the artifacts attached to the character. The trappings that come from adaptations and parodies and whatnot. Like Igor, who apparently wasn’t even in the original Universal Horror film but its sequel.

Exactly how does John expect Sherlock to turn off his cheekbones? Also the idea that Sherlock is turning up his collar to “play cool” as they’re leaving Baskerville kind of shows that it’s mainly for John’s benefit. Like his later choices to wear the hat. Sherlock starts off wanting to impress John, and by s3 it is about playing a specific Sherlock Holmes role. And again, John betrays his real thought by mentioning the cheekbones. “Stop being so attractive, dammit!”

“Has she been working on something deadlier than a rabbit?” “To be fair, that is quite a wide field.” Cue the killer rabbit jokes.

John’s awkward “are you... rich?”

In the original story the wealth was far more plot relevant, here it’s just a bit of dialogue fodder.

Not spelling out “in” this time?

Pretty sure those are IKEA mugs.

The plan sounds bad, but it is perfectly sound. They have done as much preliminary research as they can at the moment, and by going all three of them they do stand a decent chance should the beast be real. Of course Sherlock still doubts it’s real, which is the main plot for his character.

With the exception of this episode and episodes of Midsumer Murders I hadn’t really heard fox screams before. Imagine not knowing that’s what it is and just hearing this almost ghostly screech specifically when watching English mystery shows.

John just wandering away from the others without alerting them, and then he’s surprised that Sherlock and Henry has continued on without him. If he has a survival instinct it is in a coma.

Umqra. John knows Morse, which I honestly have found tricky trying to learn.

Taking a break here.

[agentxthirteen]

The “Sharon Carter Is Just A Love Interest” post (to cut & paste when necessary)

Ways in which Sharon is NOT just a love interest:

When we first meet Sharon, she’s an undercover agent directly across the hall from Steve. We don’t know how long she’s been there, or how well they know each other, but Steve feels comfortable badly flirting with her. We find out the next time we see her, when Fury’s been shot, that he assigned her to protect Steve. So we know she’s capable enough that Fury - Director of SHIELD - trusts her to protect him. The movie implies that she’s there to protect him from external threats, and that’s possible, too, but it’s also likely that she’s there to protect Steve from himself. Tie-in materials mention Steve’s depression and potential for suicide. Sharon is undercover as his neighbor instead of someone across the street (as Winter Soldier was) because she needed a reason to interrupt him if SHIELD or herself were ever seriously worried about his mental state. She could break his thought process.

It’s also important to note that Fury only warns Steve that “they’re” listening. It makes sense to have video - at least in some parts of the apartment - to make sure Steve isn’t hurting himself. But there aren’t any. Why? Probably because Sharon was across the hall. She didn’t just protect his mental state - she protected his privacy. She doesn’t say Fury assigned her to a team to protect him, he assigned her to protect him. It’s likely she’s the one who insisted on giving Steve as much privacy as possible.

Fury was assassinated by the Winter Soldier but lived 1) long enough to make it to surgery and 2) he’s still alive, actually. He says he did it with the help of a drug, but Sharon was the one who stayed with him after he was shot. Steve went in pursuit of Winter Soldier. Sharon stayed to keep Fury alive long enough for emergency services to get there.

When Steve goes in to talk to Pierce, he sees Sharon. Upset that she deceived him (Tony was a bit miffed when he found out Natasha had deceived him), he only greeted her with “Neighbor.” Instead of fawning over him or looking hurt or ashamed at doing her job to protect him, Sharon half-rolls her eyes and keeps walking.

Sharon is the only one to question why SHIELD is hunting down Captain America. She likely got into SHIELD because her aunt, Peggy, founded it, and she believed in its ideals. She’s the only one in the room not to blindly follow along with orders and question them instead.

Sharon is also the first one to pull a gun on Hydra. After the - at the time, nameless - tech refuses to comply with orders for Hydra and they pull a gun on him, Sharon gets over her shock at Hydra infiltrating SHIELD and goes to defend him. It’s only after she reacts that other SHIELD loyalists do, too. Maybe she isn’t a leader to them (although she is seen in a supervision role helping multiple tables instead of just her one), but her action is what galvanizes them to act. She takes on Rumlow - an elite member of one of SHIELD’s elite fighting forces - and not only does she survive, but if he hadn’t run behind bulletproof glass, she would have killed him.

Her final scene in Winter Soldier is when she joins the CIA. Does she join because that’s all she knows? Does she join because she’s hunting down Hydra on her own? Does she join because Fury asks her to? We don’t know. But we know from Agents of SHIELD that SHIELD agents are all considered terrorists after the Trisk falls until it’s proven otherwise. This scene shows, once again, that Sharon is a skilled marksman.

Time on screen: ~2 minutes, 30 seconds.

We next see her attending Peggy’s funeral. Given how many enemies Peggy likely had, this puts a huge target on Sharon’s back. She does it anyway. This is also where Steve first realizes who, exactly, Sharon is. And it’s important to note that Sam is the one who recognizes Sharon first, even though we’ve never seen them interact in canon before. Does this mean they’ve met? Does this mean Sam has seen her through some other means, like Steve’s sketches? We don’t know. But we know that Sam recognizes her and knows that Steve needs to see this ASAP from how Sam nudges Steve and stares at Sharon. Keep in mind that at this time, everyone knew about the Accords. And Sharon’s stories about Peggy help inspire Steve to stick to his ideals and fight for them when he has to (kind of a major part of the film).

Steve and Sharon talk after the funeral as he walks her to her hotel. She reminds him that she was just “doing her job.” He seems to accept it. She tells him that she didn’t tell Peggy because she didn’t want Peggy to have to keep a secret from him. Is it true? Or was Sharon concerned that a dementia-ridden Peggy would spill the beans? Or did Peggy remember Sharon at all at that point? We don’t know. This is all we have to go on.

Again, their flirtation comes to nothing. They’re interrupted by Sam when he comes to tell them of the bombing at the UN. Sharon helps organize the investigation and then goes to Berlin and supervises others. She’s only been with the CIA for two years - possibly a little less - but she’s already supervising.

Later, she joins Steve and Sam at a bar and gives Steve the folder on where to find Bucky. She makes a point of telling them about the “shoot on sight” order. At this point, multiple people - even Avengers - had been looking for Bucky for years. And Sharon, with her resources, finally helped Steve find him. Not only that, she helped Steve save his life. Why? Some people think she did it just to get in Steve’s pants, but we know from storyboards that it’s a calculated decision on Sharon’s part. She knew that the Winter Soldier could kill everyone sent after him - except for Steve. As she says in the storyboards, she called the right man to do the job. (source) But she also must have known that Steve would NEVER kill Bucky, whereas an Interpol sniper could have taken out Bucky, so her intention must be to keep Bucky alive. We know that she has ideals - perhaps that includes an actual investigation and fair trial. Or perhaps she thinks Bucky may be brainwashed. We don’t know. But her actions to keep Bucky alive arguably save his life.

We see this intelligence on screen shortly thereafter as she and Steve deduce that the goal was to bring Bucky into the UN facility (assuming he wouldn’t be killed, at least). Just then, Bucky is triggered and goes into Winter Soldier mode. Sharon is the one who tells Steve and Sam where to find him - because she knows that Steve has the best chances of stopping him before Winter Soldier kills people.

She then teams up with Tony and Natasha and tells them to follow her. Even though she isn’t an Avenger, Sharon is already acting as support for the Avengers on site to help them do their jobs and save lives. And she doesn’t refrain from joining in the fight, either. There’s fear on her face as she fights Bucky, but she still does so. The implication is that if she can’t stop him, she can at least slow him down and buy other people time to get away.

She’s only in one more scene in the movie, the one where she gets Steve his gear, Sam his wings, and possibly a change of clothes for Bucky. Again, people have tried to skew this as Sharon just doing it to get in Steve’s pants, but remember - at this point, the group there’s a group of winter soldiers that Zemo is going to release and control. She’s not getting him his shield because she’s trying to seduce him (hell, he’s the one who asked her out two years before, and also the one who first pulls her into the kiss. He’s the instigator). She’s getting him the shield because it will enable him to save people. She doesn’t even seem to hold a grudge against Bucky - she seems more amused that he tried to kill her and is currently in the back of a Volkswagon Beetle than mad.

She’s also the one who leaves. We don’t know where she went. We only know she didn’t join in on the fighting because Marvel got to use Spider-Man (without him, Ant-Man would have been on Tony’s side, and Sharon on Steve’s to even things up). Before she goes, though, Steve tells her they’ll be coming after her, and she replies that she knows.

Time on screen: 5 minutes. (Yep! If you do the math, she did all of this in 7 1/2 minutes on screen)

That’s the thing, though. It was never about romance for Sharon. It was always, always, about doing what she thought was right. She went into SHIELD because she wanted to save people. Questioned orders because she didn’t trust the orders. Gave Steve info on Bucky because she thought even a brainwashed assassin deserved saving. She got Steve and Sam their gear because she knew it was the best way to save people. And what does she get for it? Multiple hard-earned careers destroyed and a fugitive status.

Sharon is, ultimately, a good person. Not just a love interest. Fandom loves to reduce women to love interests, but no woman is ever ~just~ a love interest. Kissing someone, being loved by someone, does not erase a woman’s character, personality, and accomplishments.

So what can you do if you’re worried, after all this, that Sharon will still be reduced to “just” a love interest?

ACTUALLY SUPPORT HER.

Tweet @MarvelStudios, send in emails, write letters, get buzz going about how you want to see Sharon as a fully-rounded character. Ask questions about Sharon’s story that we haven’t gotten. Where did she go when she was on the run? Why did she join the CIA? How much did she help Fury? Why have we seen so little of her?

If you claim to “support women characters” and all that jazz, actually do it. Stop putting women down for finding love/being loved. Start propping them up by demanding more screentime and development for their characters.

If you’re really bold and want to put your actions where your words are, you can also follow Sharon fanblogs and reblog fanfic and fanart that doesn’t put her down. It’s alarming how many Sharon “supporters” only support her when it comes down to her needing to be independent and not “just” a love interest, but their blogs are devoid of any actual support.

(Oh, and in case this post isn’t enough, there’s another essay with things I missed about how she isn’t reduced to a love interest here.)

[theparanormalperiodical]

The True Story Behind The Amityville Horror (1979) And The 9 Other Times Paranormal Evidence Was Used In Court

I can hear the birds singing.

I can see a brilliant blue sky as it bathes my small Kentish town in the year’s first rays of light.

And I can feel the first thawe of February.

F*ck off winter, and hello spring!

As I sit on my bed, looking outside my window at the resurrection of the once-green landscape of my hometown, I am reminded of the true meaning of this season: life.

The mating season begins for most small, furry creatures, daffodils stand proudly as the first flower to mark their territory, and, like, there’s something about Jesus but I don’t think that had that much of an impact on the world, did it?

But I’m not the first person who was eager to turn their back on winter - the season of death - and look forward to a brighter year.

I’m sure the Lutz family, having fled their family home in mid-January, were just as ready to quash their terrifying experiences that were only darkened by the brutal winter months.

“Lutz… I know that name.”

Unless you were only until recently within a cult and decided to turn your back on Almighty Zarp Goddess Of Destruction, you’ll probably have heard that surname before. But who were they?

Well, to jog your memory, they were a small All-American family who lived in a small All-American town known as Amityville.

Yeah, there you go, now you know where I’m heading with this.

(Or you read the title of this post.)

Amityville is a town in New York which set the scene for probably the most famous haunting the world has ever witnessed. And with several families undergoing intense happenings - from murders to manic paranormal activity - this house has earned its place in the history books.

Oh, and on the big screen, too; 16 feature films have retold the story, including one film which featured Mr Pool himself, Ryan Reynolds.

So, as your favourite paranormal blogger, I thought I’d devote an article to the insanity that was Amityville, and dissect how real the reality shown in the films was for the 2 families that once lived at 112 Ocean Drive.

And I’m not stopping there.

What made this haunting so iconic was how it planted its paranormal feet into the legal system as a result of the murder case the hauntings are linked to. But the thing is, Amityville is far from alone when it comes to legal courts having to deal with the supernatural.

There are actually 9 other prominent legal cases from which the courts have had to debate and discuss the paranormal.

And I’m gon’ tell you all about ‘em.

*Bangs gavel*

Before We Get Spooky, Let’s Summarise What The Films Had To Say About This Haunting

(And they’ve got a lot to say.)

Like I said, there are 16 films that claim they document the events witnessed by the Lutz family in their short stay. No, really, they were there for less than 28 days.

From 1979 all the way up to 2017, we have a variety of films that explore what went down in that house, and, given they are horror films, we also get a few laughs along the way.

Like the 1992 classic Amityville: It’s About Time, which sounds like it might star Vin Diesel in a Fast and Furious crossover.

Or maybe how in the same year Amityville: Playhouse and Amityville: Death House hit the theatres.

And even the rendition of the Amityville Horror from which the realtor having shown the new occupants around the house died in the driveway when he attempted to leave the property!

So, to cut out that crap, I’ve decided to just recap what occurs in the 3 most popular movies of this franchise:

The Amityville Horror (1979), The Amityville Horror (2005), and Amityville: Awakening (2017).

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Sharing the same title as the book supposedly based on the real events witnessed by the Lutz family, this film was the first to share the story of the DeFeo family and the following inhabitants of the house. . The film starts by showing us the final moments of the DeFeo family, from which some bloke kills all of ‘em. From there we bear witness to a new family moving into the home.

And things get spooky quickly.

A visit from a priest gives us the first signs of the supernatural as he  experiences a variety of attacks from beyond the grave, whether its swarms of flies to a blistered hand when trying to warn Kathy, the mother of the family, about. An angry spirit then tells him to ‘get out’, triggering his complete mental breakdown.

The paranormal forces then encroach on the patriarch of the famalam - George - leaving him to split firewood to keep the constant cold at bay. Unexplained events begin to haunt the entire family:

The young daughter of the family mentions an imaginary friend, and a pig with glowing red eyes is seen by her bedroom window. The doggo then becomes cray-cray about the basement which is later revealed to conceal a small, hidden room that has red walls.

Things then get weirder. George begins to wake up at 3.15am every morning to check on the boathouse, and Kathy has nightmares which reveal details of what down in the first scene of the movie. A quick trip to the archives later, and she deduces that this house is built on a Shinnecock (Native American) burial ground, and that a satan worshipper - John Ketchum - once lived there.

If that wasn’t enough, she discovers the story of the DeFeo family, and notes that Ronald DeFeo - the murderer - looks uncomfortably similar to George.

It all comes to a head when blood oozes down the staircase and Jody (you know, the sweet adorable imaginary friend who is actually a pig) is seen through the window. Oh, and George tries to kill everyone with an axe.

Kathy brings him out of his trance, and they both get the f*ck outta the house.

We are told that they didn’t return for their belongings.

The Amityville Horror (2005)

For this modern retelling of the original film, the scenes are re-arranged, the hauntings are more minimalist, and just a dash of Ryan Reynolds is added.

And is he playing Ryan Reynolds? ‘Course.

But the major difference between the OG and this icon is that the basis for the hauntings is explored in a much more artistic and developed way:

We see the Native Americans that were supposedly tortured and killed by some guy called Ketchum, and we even see Ketchum himself! Well, for a very brief moment; he simply recreates his suicide and spews blood over Ryan Reynolds George.

This possesses him, and causes him to try and kill the rest of his family as they try to escape the house.

Kathy knocks Ryan Reynolds George out and takes him off the property to release him from Ketchum’s control.

Aside from the greater detail regarding Ketchum - that is, we discover that he was in a cult and was a reverend - we also see Jodie for the first time. No, she’s not the demonic pig we see in the first film. She’s a young creepy-ass girl instead.

What a trade!

The film ends just like the OG, with a title card explaining that they pissed off and never returned to the house. But once again, a divergence with the 1970s version is revealed. 

No, not the questionable hairstyles and cinematic style that looks like it was filmed with a toaster:

The final scene shows Jodie scream in terror inside the house as the furniture rearranges itself. She is then dragged beneath the floorboards by two hands, and the screen fades to black…

This confirms that this movie - alongside the later renditions of the story - don’t necessarily point to a specific haunting, but rather look at the house as the source of the haunting. In fact, they just skip out the DeFeos altogether!

This is down to the fact that the movies are directly based on the book of the same name which was released in 1977. Based off 45 hours worth of tapes from the Lutz family, this book wasn’t necessarily written with the family, but clearly had enough information to brew this highly controversial book.

The events charted in the book will be discussed later in this post.

Amityville: Awakening (2017)

The latest film in this franchise swaps out one famous face for another - Bella Thorne stars as a teen that moves into the infamous house with her family and brain-dead brother.

But instead of retelling the Lutz’s story yet again, it explores the power of the house as it slowly begins to possess the brother until he begins to carry out the murders that plague the house.

It is even revealed that the mother brought them to the house in the hope that the demonic energy would help the brother. But, with a gaggle of friends who know the story of the house - and even show the main character the 2005 film - they help her defend against the powers of the house.

The film ends with the sister dragging her brother out of the house and beyond the magic circle she drew, ending the power of the house over the brother after he begins murdering various family members.

The final scene notes that the main character is being questioned by the police, bringing us back to the main point of this post:

This haunting set itself apart by roping in the legal courts.

But how true were these films to the real claims made by the family? And what really happened on November 13th 1974?

What Really Happened At 112 Ocean Avenue?

Whenever someone mentions Amityville, someone gets sued.

Some guy writes a book? They get taken to court. Another bloke makes a film? Lawyers get pissy about the new details added in.

But obviously, this all started in 1974, when Ronald DeFeo killed all 6 members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue. The courts definitely got involved then, and they are still are - he is currently serving time having been convicted of second degree murder in 1975.

The DeFeo’s deaths were rather peculiar though, mirroring an almost ritualistic scene; each victim was found lying in their bed, face down. At first he ran out of the house and reported that his family had been shot, only confessing days later that he was the killer.

The family had lived in the house since 1965, and thus spent a decade in what many presume to be a haunted due to the experiences of the Lutzes. Could this have caused the murders?

According to some, the paranormal forces could’ve been at the house before the DeFeos moved in as the insanity defense pedalled by DeFeo’s lawyers claimed that he heard the voices of his family plotting against him.

"Once I started, I just couldn't stop. It went so fast" - Ronald DeFeo 

I’m sure this mirrors the beliefs and actions of most murderers, but this sense of being out of control or maybe even not yourself certainly fits the bill of possession that the movies always pin on George Lutz.

The isolation of the George figure we see in the film and the voices heard throughout suggest this, but the DeFeo story is often skipped in the films and the books.  

Yet despite DeFeo’s confession, the murders are still bathed in mystery. The police were puzzled by the fact that the corpses showed no sign of struggle, and were confused by the sheer scale and speed that the killings would have required. On top of this, neighbours didn’t hear the shots despite the gun not having a silencer.

Even the motive was uncertain.

Sure, DeFeo did ask about his father’s life insurance very quickly following his death, but many didn’t think that was reason enough to kill one’s entire family.

DeFeo’s story has twisted and turned overtime, but one thing is for sure: no haunting is ever mentioned in this side of the story. 

None. Nada. Zilch.

This is why any retelling of Amityville focuses on the murders that took place there, but also tries to trace back the haunting to a satanic cause buried in the history of the house.

To this day the question still stands: what really caused the haunting of Amityville?

The book The Amityville Horror (1977) tries to answer this question, and charts each claim of the Lutz family. And unfortunately, it confirms that the films portray an uncomfortably accurate haunting.

The hauntings noted by the Lutz family are nothing short of incredible - however you interpret my use of that word..

The spooky goings-on reported include:

A priest being told to ‘get out’ and his subsequent telephone call warning the family to stay out of a room being cut short

George would wake up at 3.15am an check the boathouse - this was the estimated time of the murders

Flies would swarm the house despite their arrival in mid-winter

Kathy would have violent and detailed nightmares about the murders

The family members all began to sleep on their stomachs

Missy, the daughter, made an imaginary friend called Jodie, a pig with red glowing eyes

Green slime oozed from walls

Hoof prints similar to that of a pig were spotted in the snow

However, the most intriguing piece of the paranormal discovered at Amityville was that small room with red walls that was found in the basement - a room considered to be the source of the evil in the house. And, just like in the films, the family dog had severe reactions to it such as cowering and refusing to go near it.

It was only when they fled to a relative’s house and saw slime coming up the stairs towards them that they decided that they would not be returning to 112 Ocean Avenue.

Evidently the silver screen tapped into the nature of the hauntings, but the possession of George Lutz? According to the Lutzes, it only went as far as George noticing that he bore a resemblance to Ronald.

What about Reverend Ketchum? And the Native American burial ground?  

Doesn’t exist and didn’t happen. 

Well, okay, some bloke called Ketchum would have existed - this was a popular name for settlers from England. But there’s no evidence that he spent his spare time in a cult or murdered Native Americans there. And the Shinnecock Native Americans? Sure, they exist, but leaders claimed this was not a burial ground.

In reality, all we have is a chaotic level of activity.

Or do we?

The book has encountered a fair share of controversy, with most major details being overturned.

Hoof prints in the snow? It didn’t snow that day.

The red room? It was a closet, and it wasn't concealed.

The claims by the priest? He never said they were of paranormal origin.

"Nothing weird ever happened, except for people coming by because of the book and the movie." - The couple that lived there after the Lutzes.

The 9 Other Cases Of Evidence Of The Paranormal Being Used In Court

I love me a ghost.

The problem is, there’s a lot of ‘em.

You’d think Amityville was like the only case where the paranormal made their way into court cases, stamping the supernatural into legal files and sending shivers down the jury’s spine…

But unfortunately, that is not true.

It turns out that tales of haunting are actually clogging up legal archives. And no, I don’t mean cases where a woman would sneeze in the 16th century and they would legally have some right to burn her cause clearly she was a witch.

In fact, some of these mysterious mentions have founded laws!

“Alexa, play the Legally Blonde soundtrack.”

#1 - The Greenbrier Ghost

Woman dies. Husband acts suspicious. Husband acts more suspicious. Ghost tells mother the husband did it. Case closed.

No, seriously - that’s what happened.

Elva Zona Heaster was murdered in 1897 at the hands of her husband. Having broken her neck, he claimed complications with pregnancy killed her, and dressed the corpse to prevent people seeing the real cause of her death.

The grandmother was the first to become unsure of his story having washed the scarf that was tied around her daughter’s definitely-not-f*cked-up neck and being unable to wash out a blood stain. She began to pray, and her daughter’s spirit explained to her what occurred.

She even did an Exorcist and twisted her head round to confirm just in case her mam didn’t get the message.

She reported the sighting, and the deputies immediately questioned people of interest. The body was reinvestigated, and the husband arrested.

Boom. Ghosted.

#2 - The Hammersmith Ghost Murder

You’d expect most cases mentioned here to involve someone being murdered and their ghost being the problem, right?

This bad boy bucks the trend.

Its 1803, and we are in fair London town. A ghost is on the loose from, I don’t know, hell, and is wandering the streets. An armed patrol is in the area to protect the citizens when a figure emerges, wearing all white.

“Looks pretty ghosty to me, must shoot ghost” thinks one of the armed patrol guys. They shoot ghost, but ghost is actually a bricklayer.

F*ck.

The British courts thus debate whether attacking or killing someone out of a misunderstanding counts as a crime. It officially becomes a part of UK law that stands to this day that such an act is not worthy of a sentence as if the crime was intentionally committed.

#3 - Stambovsky vs. Ackley

Also known as The Ghostbusters Ruling, this takes us to the other side of the Pond, all the way to New York. Oh, and this time we aren’t in the 19th century, it's 1991, instead.

The story goes a buyer bought a house that was widely believed to be haunted, but they weren't aware of these claims. Thus, they asked for a recission of the contract and claimed that this sale was fraudulent as they concealed the haunting to avoid lowering the sale price.

The courts - after much mocking and deliberation - finally came to the conclusion that legally the house was haunted, and therefore houses that are supposedly haunted must be presented in this way.

#4 - The Devil Made Me Do It Case

This case does what it says on the tin, and is even set to be the basis for the next instalment of The Conjuring franchise.

The trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson has already been covered by this blog (that awesome post about The Conjuring 3),  but for those not up-to-date on all the amazing articles I do, I guess I’ll just have to fill you in:

The story goes that whilst clearing out a house they just rented, David Johnson encountered an old man - who we now believe to be a demon - that began to slowly possess him.

David was only 12 years old, so, to protect him, Arne (his father) asked for the demon to possess him instead.

However, it was during an altercation with their landlord, Alan Bono, that the demon reportedly influenced Arne’s actions and assisted in his murder. In fact, it was Lorraine Warren that was the first to go to the police and make the initial claim that it was the demon that caused the murder.

The legal team roped in lawyers who had worked on similar cases abroad, and exorcism specialists were encouraged to speak up and defend Arne.

Their efforts did not prove successful, however, and Arne was handed a sentence of 20 years. He only served 5.

#5 - Booty vs. Barnaby  

No, this isn’t the title of the next Cardi B album. Instead, it's another historic tale from my homeland.

Our story starts in 1687, when some bloke called Captain Barnaby is on holibobs in Stromboli. When he’s not busy shooting innocent animals, he’s watching his next door neighbour from London Town getting chased by a phantom into the mouth of an active volcano.

No, I’m serious.

The neighbour’s wife thought the story sounded ridiculous too, which is why she had him arrested for slander. But then 30 of his crew supported his claims, clearing his name, and leaving a rather peculiar tale clogging up our court records.

#6 - The Haunting Of Lowes Cottage, Derbyshire

For some reason, every person buying a house in the ‘90s was using the hottest new way to bag a bargain: just say it's haunted or somethin’!

And that’s exactly what happened in fair Derbyshire. The Smith family were keen to move into their new cosy ‘lil cottage, but the oozing walls, ghostly hands sexually assaulting family members, the pig faced boy and other strange occurrences were a cause for concern.

(Obviously.)

Having withheld payment for the property due to the events noted, they took the sellers to court, saying it should be reduced by £50,000. Even the vicar threw in his two cents, offering up the evidence which sounded a lot like a little house in a place called Amityville.

Ever heard of it?

The case was eventually thrown out of court by the judge.

#7 - Reed vs. King

Before the DeFeos were murdered, and before the Lutzes even made the mistake of telling their furniture movers to head to 112 Ocean Avenue, a court case regarding a haunted house first hit the legal scene.

Our story starts in Grass Valley. A family moved into a new home, but the estranged husband paid a visit one night, and murdered 5 of the family members and injured 2 others.

Many years passed, and the Reed family shacked up here. However, it was only when they were told of the true events that transpired that the new residents became concerned. Sure, no one mentioned a haunting per say, but they claimed that the house “retained an echo”.

Small bloody footprints, blood stains smeared on the walls - no, it's not the bathroom after I’ve emptied my Diva Cup - it’s what Reed began to see throughout the house.

Reed thus decided to sue the sellers of the house, claiming that they tried to conceal the murders to avoid a wowcher.com-esque deal. But, when the case went to court, Reed didn’t mention hide nor hare of potential ghosts - instead, the potential haunting was used against them to prove how ridiculous the claims were.

#8 - The Death Of Estefania Guitterez Lazaro

It’s been discussed, dissected, and even given a Netflix contract - the death of this Madrid teen in 1992 is  officially one of the most prominent cases of possession to date.

Despite slipping under the radar, this tale is known not for its rather simple story, but because it was the first modern-day haunting that was verified by police reports.

The story goes that Estefania died following a session using a Ouija board with her friends in school. When interrupted by a teacher for trying to contact the dead, Estefania became possessed. A strange vapour began to enter her mouth and nose, and from there her seizures and hallucinations began.

After her death in hospital, the family claimed there was a variety of paranormal activity occurring throughout the family home. From the picture of Estefania catching fire of its own accord, to unexplained noises and a rather slimy, broken crucifix, the police had seen enough.

A report was filed citing the unexplained events and confirmed it was the paranormal.

#9 - The Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel

This is one of the most tragic tales I’ve ever had to write about.

Anneliese Michel’s story has been detailed on this blog many-a-time, and has received its fair share of attention in popular culture, including in the film The Exorcism Of Anneliese Michel.

But the main reason it’s been recognised as possibly the most famous case of possession is because it brought the paranormal firmly into the legal courts. Due to Michel’s extremely weak state at the time of her death - including weighing only 68 pounds at the time of her death - the priests that carried out the exorcisms were charged with negligent homicide.

However, it's not the fact that they were charged that puts the supernatural spin on this case.

To fight their corner, the priests used tapes that recorded Michel’s exorcism to bolster their claims of her possession and had her body exhumed.

Their mere 6 month stint in jail was down to the jury’s beliefs that they didn’t intend to harm her, nor neglect her. And the suspension of their time behind bars confirms that their case was backed up by their claims.

But let it not be mistaken: the jury weren’t convinced that Michel was in fact possessed - they were convinced that Michel’s belief in her possession could only be alleviated by the priests’ actions.

*Bangs gavel* What’s your verdict?

Is the jury out? Are you pissin’ on my leg and telling me it’s raining?

Or are you still awake at 3am and waiting to see the glowing red eyes of little Missy’s childhood bestie?

If so, why not fill the rest of your evening with the rest of my awesome articles on real paranormal activity just like this... Don’t forget to hit follow, too, to get a new ghost story in your feed everyday!

[spaceorphan18]

Finding Kurt Hummel: Dreams Come True

Masterpost

6x13: Dreams Come True

Wow.  Here we are.  The end of the story.  There’s something bittersweet about reaching this point.  I’ve been doing this meta series for over four years now, and it’s kind of fitting that I’ll end it around the original airing of the series finale.  I can’t believe it’s been so long.  I can’t believe I’ve made it through 121 episodes of the show.  (Okay, technically 116 - Kurt wasn’t in five of them.)   

And, I’ll be honest - I have some mixed feelings about the actual finale.  There was a lot more in the script, and a lot that I’m sad that was cut.  Not to mention, by season 6, production values were a little on the low side - and there are some glaring errors, and awkward editing, throughout the episode.  

But looking past that - it’s been a fantastic journey, and amazing to look so in-depth at a story that’s made its way firmly into my heart.  I will miss writing about Kurt Hummel (though it’s not like I’ll never write anything about him again!) but it is time to close the book on his story.  

And thank you to all of you who came with me on this journey.   Even as I let go of the story myself - I’ll always cherish it, and all the discussions and conversations and friends I’ve had and made along the way.  This has been something special - and I’m glad you’re here with me - here at the end of all things.  

So here we go... 

Final Competition

We open with our three remaining main characters.  Ah, I see what you did there, show!  And it’s time for Nationals 2015!  I’m not going to go too deeply on the time line here - because of a bunch of weird edits and costume changes, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  

But I will deduce this -- in the 2015 time line - Kurt (and Blaine) have already been back in New York for a while, and have come home to help the group go to Nationals.  Or at least that’s how I’m explaining it in my head.  

And we get New Directions winning Nationals again.  Whoo!  I’m actually glad they didn’t make us sit through another set of songs and use this episode as a way to send of the original characters.  I do appreciate that Glee.  

I will say - one thing that I am frustrated by is this idea that McKinley gets turned into a fine arts school - and they do away with sports entirely.  **sigh** This show just never understood balance, did it.  Or the fact that you can enjoy music, have it be a good part of your life, and still do other things in your life. That is my one major gripe with the end of this show - is that it kind of takes the message too far the other way.  One reason I really liked the 2009 episode - is that it brought back the reason as to why they were there in the first place - so kids can be together in an activity that they liked despite their differences.  This episode -- to a fault -- zeroes in on the ‘arts education’ platform a little too hard - and, dare I say, to the detriment of some of the characters.  

But ah well - I shouldn’t be complaining too much about the ending here.  I mean - at least the characters do get happy endings, and this finale isn’t a travesty the same way How I Met Your Mother was.  

Last First Day

So, apparently this is the first day of Glee Club as Will says in his dialogue.  So...  Kurt and Blaine have come back for this, too, and then head off to New York - for good (the subtext says).  

The thing that gets me about this scene is that it was the last day of filming for the actors, and the last thing shot on the show.  Everyone getting teary eyed was real - because it was the last time they were all ever going to act together - and there’s something really poignant.  There’s a message some where in here from Will about moving on and moving forward, but interestingly, this is more about saying goodbye and being okay with that.  

I think adding to that is that this scene is a throwback to the end of season 1 - when the glee club listened to Will on his ukulele singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  There’s nothing that special about this scene or even this song.  But it’s such a touching moment because it’s another final one.  

And I’m glad we get a nice shot of Kurt and Blaine together, being close together, being reminded about all their times in high school - the good, the bad, and the crazy.  And it’s weird - cause they’re happy in their life, and they’ll be even happier moving forward.  But sometimes you do just need to take a step back and reflect, and be grateful that you got the chance to be a part of something special. 

Blam and Hummelberry

Alright two things I need to point out before we continue on.  

1. There’s a cute little Blam scene where Blaine and Sam effectively get to say goodbye to each other.  And it’s super sweet.  But also - Blaine let’s us know that marriage is agreeing with he and Kurt.  I’m sad we never really get to see this play out post-Wedding episode, but I’m glad it’s at least mentioned if only in passing.  But the thing is - I do think marriage would agree with them - because it is a commitment that they both are secured in making, and they don’t have the fears and insecurities they did before.  But also, because they are more grown up than they were when they were in a high school.  And yes - while I always wish we had seen more, I’m glad they at least allude to the fact that they’re living a happy life in New York.  

2. Something you may notice about this episode (okay I didn’t until I was told later) there’s no Hummelberry in it.  Crazy, right?? I mean, as much as I complained about Hummelberry over the years - it does seem weird that one of the major friendships on the show doesn’t have a final nod to it.  (And in fact - there’s a lot more Kurtcedes throughout this episode than Hummelberry.)  

Well - the reason is that the two final Hummelberry scenes were cut. The first one was supposed to be before the Blam one - where they talk about Finn, countdown their top Glee songs, and Rachel calls Blaine Kurt’s husband and Kurt gets all giddy from that (man I wish I could have seen that).  The scene is far too long to be in the episode (I still say they should have made the full script - there’s a ton cut out and more than enough for a two hour episode), but I wish it had been in there.  

The other scene takes place right before Rachel sings This Time - and isn’t much other than Kurt saying that he and Blaine are taking off for New York - but Rachel needs another moment.  Again - I see why they cut it.  Still - weird that I don’t get a final moment to dissect.  

So -- I’ll say this... it’s my own headcanon that Kurt and Rachel will always be, in a way, bff - but they become more like Kurt and Mercedes - living their own lives and doing their own things.  Sure, this entire group of kids will always be in each other’s lives, but as you grow up - you move on and meet new people - a lot of whom you just click better with.  

I do think when Hummelberry was good - it was good, and I do see the purpose of it on the show.  And while I think I’ll always resent (a little) the stuff in the middle seasons - I’ll always recognize it as a major friendship on the show.  Take a bow Hummelberry - and good night... 

Mercedes Jones Has Left The Building

So - Mercedes announces she’s going on tour and there’s a lot going right for her, so this is where she’s saying goodbye.  And, I kind of love her speech here.  Because she admits that this might be the last time she sees them for a very, very long time.  And it kind of hits the nail on the head about moving on.  

Something I do like about this episode is this idea that things change.  They can’t always stay in glee club forever - you have to grow up, you have to move on, and your life is better for it.  But you can always remember and cherish the people and memories you make along the way.  Mercedes gets it.  The rest of the cast gets it.  And so we get Mercedes singing Some Day We’ll Be Together as she makes her exit stage left.  And it’s really powerful and sad.  Because it is an ending.  

No words are said as Mercedes leaves.  No words are needed.

But that’s okay.  Not to be overly cheesy and go ultra 90s, but like the song Closing Time - Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Porcelain

The next stop on the Goodbye Tour is Sue.  

And they’ve actually come to thank her.  

And as crazy as it is - I’m actually really grateful that we have this little scene because it does tell us a couple of things.  First of all -- Kurt says if she hadn’t meddled (and I’m still not condoning the meddling) they’d still be apart and miserable.  This is a big thing - because for as much as Kurt tried to down play it for a while there - he was pretty miserable for a majority of season 6.  So was Blaine, for that matter.  But now they’re married and happy and heading back to New York - and this time probably will stay in New York for a long, long time.  

I also like it because throughout the entire series, there’s been a strange connection between Sue and Kurt.  No need to recap - feel free to read all the other meta - it’s actually there, lol.  But out of all the students - Sue didn’t connect with many of them - but she did with Kurt. 

This scene also gives us a moment to reflect on Kurt’s story as whole.  Sue recounts everything Kurt’s been through - coming out, bullying, growing up and finding his way, and yeah Sue’s speaking for all of us here -- because she’s reminding us the importance of Kurt’s story.  That it did mean something to a lot of people - and it gave a new generation of people a story to latch on to if they needed it.  

To me (and for me) Kurt’s story has been one of the most powerful - and that’s not to say people can’t latch on to other things.  I mean - if you really felt pull to Ryder - than you go Ryder fan!  But a lot of us were here - especially in the beginning, for Kurt’s story.  And Kurt - and his uniqueness represented so much of the audience through the years.  It’s kind of remarkable when you take a step back and think about it.  

Sue thanks him - for giving her the chance to be a part of that story - and for giving her the chance to see things in a new perspective.  It’s incredibly touching.  And Kurt himself is touched.  It’s kind of crazy when you think that it’s a moment where the creators are able to give a voice to the fans to tell a fictional character - I’m glad you existed.  

And I have to say myself - thank you Kurt Hummel.  It’s been a true pleasure documenting your life over the years... 

Time Capsule

And here we are - our final (real) Klaine scene of the series.  Do I wish there could have been something a little more? Something that held a tiny bit more weight? Sure...  

But this scene is sweet.  We get confirmation that the Box Scene happened, a run down of Kurt’s greatest hits from season 1-3, Blaine looking adoringly at his husband.  It’s a nice, quiet moment for the two of them to just remember and reflect and be happy that they’re past all of the high school shenanigans as they shut the door on their past.  

We get our final ‘I love you’, final kiss, final hug, final time hearing the Klaine theme.  And a final time for that ridiculous sweater.  

And I am currently laughing and crying right now... thank you boys, it’s been a wonderful journey... 

Back to New York

And... with that Kurt and Blaine are magically transported back to New York where they belong - still holding hands, fearlessly and forever.  

Daydream Believers

Five years later - and Kurt and Blaine are still happily married, still lovingly holding each other’s hands.  

We find out what they’ve been up to -- doing an all male showing of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  I assume (since they are 26 at this point) that they’re still the younger couple of that play -- but it’s a hard piece about relationships, and I’m glad they decided to do perform something that would test their relationship - go boys! 

In case you are wondering what else they were up to -- according to the script -- Kurt’s won an Obie award and has his own line on QVC called Hummel Brag while Blaine is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who has written St. Elmo’s Fire the Musical and Trapped in an Elevator: A Love Story.  

Now (semi-)celebrities, they’re invited to sing at the Harvey Milk school - where they’re considered inspirations.  And while I do wish this song had been sung with Blaine’s kindergarten class or two their own child, I do understand what they’re doing here.  They’re showing that a new generation of kids should feel safe being who they are and not hiding it from the world, as well as accepting the role of music (and creativity) in their lives.  It’s sweet and fun and I’ll go along with it, even if it’s not everything that I wanted. 

I do appreciate Kurt’s little throwbacks to the Single Ladies and Bad Romance performances from season 1. 

I also think Kurt and Blaine being with the kids is a nod to the fact that they are about to become dads and that they’ll probably make great dads.  

This song - though - means quiet a lot.  First of all, Daydream Believer is one of my favorite songs of all time - and I’m just thrilled at the fact that Kurt and Blaine get to sing it.  More so, this is the third to last song on the show, the final song sung by a couple, and the last Klaine duet that we get.  And there’s a lot wrapped up in that.  I mean, Kurt started out as a character not on the show - and to end with having one of the most iconic TV relationships of all time and the show full on acknowledging that by the end (I mean they are literally lying on a rainbow flag) is kind of huge.  

The lyrics are incredibly fitting, too - 

Cheer up, sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean To a daydream believer and a homecoming queen?

I mean, it’s a simple and sweet song - and I like that it shows what they are -- dreamers and believers and a special nod to Kurt being the Prom Queen.  It’s a beautiful sentiment to end on, and I’m glad this is the final Klaine duet.  

Yeah, I do wish they had sung it a little more to each other and less to the kids, but it’s fine.  They sound great together and the song holds weight to their story - being a perfect one to end on. 

This Time

I want to do a quick shout out to This Time - the song Darren Criss wrote for the finale.  It is so touching and moving, and is amazing in its way of putting into song what it’s like to be here at the end.  To cherish the feeling you had about being apart of the thing but knowing that it’s time to move on as well.  Y’all know I’m not the biggest fan of Rachel solos - but this time, it’s perfect.  

Alright - then we jump into our final little coda.  And, you know, I know that this ending is a bit much on the happily ever after quota.  But - I’m fine that they did this.  The show started in some well grounded satire - but at the end, managed to be a fairy tale for all of us who are awkward and weird and didn’t fit quite in.  I’m glad my favorite fictional characters are all right. 

This whole ending bit does seem a little rushed - but we learn that Rachel has agreed to be a surrogate for Kurt and Blaine’s child.  Fwiw - I don’t believe it’s her eggs, especially when she doesn’t seem to mention anything about co-parenting and Jesse saying he’d like to start a family of his own.  She also mentions that they’ve given up a lot of their lives for her, it’s time she gives back - and I know a lot of people said this didn’t make much sense, but you know what - I believe it.  So much of Kurt’s story was sacrificed at the Rachel-story alter, I’m totally cool with her carrying the kid for them. 

And I know that a lot of people didn’t need or want them to have children.  And that’s totally cool! I do think it makes sense for their story.  I mean, it’s about these gay kids getting the traditional love story and everything that comes with that - including marriage and children.  But also - Kurt’s story started out being about him and his relationship to his dad.  I’m glad it kind of ends full circle being a dad himself.  

While it would have been really nice if Kurt and Blaine’s last lines were to each other - and I love you at that - their last lines are in this scene and, not surprisingly, about Rachel.  Ah well...  Lol.  

However, there was a bit more to this scene that was cut out.  First of all, we learn that they’re having a daughter (yes - this is perfect to me...) 

It also has Mercedes wondering who the biological father is - basically it doesn’t matter. Blaine makes a joke about whether it comes out with a bowtie or an ascot then they’ll know.  Kurt explains the process, and here you go - the last scripted line for one Kurt Hummel: 

Kurt: We mixed the spermies together so we’ll never know.

Yup - there ya go.  We were robbed from Chris Colfer saying the word ‘spermies’.  Whatever writers, lol - I love it.  

Also - there’s a tiny moment as Rachel goes off, where Kurt bounces against Blaine.  Idk - it’s just kind of a small, cute moment for the two of them. 

There’s a line earlier in the episode where Blaine comments that Sam is right where he’s supposed to be - but it’s really the showing that the characters are right where they’re supposed to be.  Rachel wins her Tony, just like she was always going to do.  Kurt and Blaine get married and have a happy life together.  Mercedes gets and album, Artie and Tina end up together in the background.  Sue continues world domination.  And Will is, well, still Will.  

The point being, as we close on out - is that as these characters are living happy and good lives.  High school sucks, college can suck, even adulthood can suck, but for one moment in time, they were all joined together and survived it as a group.  And now, everyone is on their own path - and that’s fine.  Moving on is fine.  Change is fine.  

But since this is a story, and a story of characters we care about deeply.  This is their happily ever after.  

Kurt and Blaine might not get much -- I’ll always wish they had more - but I’m grateful for what I did get.  Because I love this perfectly imperfect story, and it’ll forever be deeply etched into my heart - even as change and move on to different things. 

Final Bow

The Klaine moment goes by too fast to still, in case you’re wondering.  

The context of this final performance is that it’s now Fall of 2020 - and the auditorium is being dedicated to Finn.  Everyone’s come back for one last final bow.  

I love I Lived as the final song.  It’s a song about life being hard and sucking and getting hurt but reflecting and saying -- well at least I lived my life to the fullest.  This, tied in with Sue’s final speech about glee club meaning something - about the arts and music and finding a place in the world meaning something, is the show’s final lesson.  And as we close out - the show wants to remind us that despite the bizarre choices made throughout the show, through the ups and the downs and the questionable editing.  

This show meant something to a lot of people - and for the characters, well, at least they lived.  

When the show was first conceived - Kurt Hummel wasn’t even a character in the script.  Eventually, he became one of the fullest - if not the most complete - character on the show.  We got to see him grow up, and come out, struggle with identity and bullying and heartbreak and Rachel Berry, and become a remarkable young man - happily married with a child of his own.

It’s an amazing, amazing story - and I can’t believe I’ve now reached the end of documenting it.  

This is the story about a boy who, with every broken bone, lived.  

Thank you, Glee.   

Thank you, Chris Colfer.

Kurt Hummel changed my life - and I’ll forever be grateful for that.  <3 

[dulma]

On the circle jerk of the art world

Tom Wolfe, author & journalist, is good at being scathing. Case in point: The Painted Word a brief diatribe against what he perceives to be the falseness and pretension of an elitist art world in a capitalist society.

I don’t know enough about art or the art world to agree or disagree with what Mr. Wolfe claims, but I do care deeply about art and its role in civilization. How it can help us, fix us, express us, or how it can’t. 

His ideas, though, strike me as useful departures for my own future research, especially w/r/t Abstract Expressionism, my new obsession. Also—God knows I love a good contrarian, so here are some key points I’ve synthesized from his spirited lambast. For my own reference, mostly. Thanks, Tom.

Art must have its theory, i.e. the dictum du jour. “modern art has become completely literary” 

Realistic 19th century painting dubbed “literary” thereby spawning its rebellious successor movements, i.e. l’art pour l’art

Braque: aim of art is not to reconstitute but constitute “a pictorial fact” 

Artists left the royal courts & salons and by 1900 aimed to shock and subvert the bourgeois 

Now the artists had to be boho & avant garde (sincerely) but also in le monde

“Public? The public plays no part in the process whatsoever. The public is not invited” 

(This question is of importance to me. Art as public artifact vs. art as private commodity/investment—note to self: explore the ethics and utility of these roles, and whether they are conflicting or mutually generative)

The art world is a mere 10,000 souls 

“a mere hamlet!” restricted to les beaux mondes of eight cities 

Modern art enjoyed a huge boom in the States in the 1920s because that’s when the cultured bourgeoisie began to love it 

Imported from Europe to the US not in a bohemian rebellious spirit but institutionalized by the Rockefellers via the establishment of the MoMA in late 1920s 

Art theory used to be something that enriched conversation 100 years prior but now it was “ an essential hormone in the mating ritual” 

(Touché, Tom Wolfe.)

The bourgeois art world needed theory to understand the direction of modern art 

Why did theory blow up? 

1. the art world is tiny

2. le monde always looks to the bohemian artists for the next thing

3. the artists are made up of “cénacles” where if one dominates art and has one core theory, that theory comes to dominate all of the art world during that period 

This is what happened post WWII during Abstract Expressionism & when NY replaced Paris as center of the art world 

Greenberg’s theory of flatness and Rosenberg’s Action Painting became big theories picked up by le monde. Peggy Guggenheim then discovered Pollock, beloved of Greenberg, and gave him a place and money and set him off 

“First you do everything possible to make sure your world is antibourgeois, that it defies bourgeois tastes, that it mystifies the mob, the public, that it outdistances the insensible middle-class multitudes by light-years of subtlety and intellect — and then, having succeeded admirably, you ask with a sense of see-what-I-mean outrage: “Look, they don’t even buy our products!””

Pop Art was then a reaction against Abstract Exp. 

It was even flatter. Jasper Johns chose flat real life objects and made them look super flat. Like the flag. 

“Wasn’t there something just the least bit incestuous about this tendency of contemporary art to use previous styles of art as its points of reference?” 

(What else would you use? All major art forms are institutionalized in some way—literature, film, etc.—and draw upon its predecessors, are in conversation with lineage and history. I don’t see this as inherently “incestuous” but in practice in the art world perhaps it’s extreme or problematic... explore further)

Pop Art succeeded not because it rejected Abst. Exp’s premises of moving away from realism, but because it did AE one better: even higher level of not realism. Somewhere that was not abstract nor realistic but based on signs 

Abstract Expressionists were too grim and antibourgeois, too bohemian. The Pop artists were right at home in the cultured world of the bourgeois 

Steinberg: Modern art always “'projects itself into a twilight zone where no values are fixed'” and “'it is always born in anxiety'” and its function is to “'transmit this anxiety to the spectator'” to provoke “'genuine existential predicament'” 

“If you hated it — it was probably great." 

Pop Art was full of cultural and literary ironic commentary and allusions. Op Art, which came after, was also very literary in that it was heavily grounded in theory. Theory was taking idea of painting as real object and turning it into object of pure perception 

Greenberg made a comeback with a new theory/style: against the brushstroke. 

All of these movements were a movement towards reduction, stripping away - first of 19th century realism, then representational objects, then the third dimension towards flatness, then brushstrokes. 

Is that enough? Hardly. 

Minimalists came and stripped away the “sentimental” colors and used gritty or ugly ones 

Got rid of the frame, the hanging up of pictures, the square canvas 

Rosenberg & Greenberg (though sort of rivals) and others were against this - new style was “‘too much a feat of ideation.. something deduced instead of felt and discovered.’” 

Then we got rid of the very idea of wall. 

Moved into installations. Then museums (Earth Art). 

What about idea of a permanent or even visible work of art? so next came Conceptual Art where they said it wasn’t about permanence and materials but the process 

And then they took away idea of visual imagination altogether - piece called Vacant by David R Smith 

My thoughts on this (provisional):

Art movements destroy to create. This is also true in literature, in everything. I find this a natural human impulse. We are meaning-making animals, and art is our way of exploring/expressing this process, and meaning is made inevitably by a destructive-creative process. Learning—and thus growth—is by necessity an act that displaces the dictums of yesterday to make room for the new. So I question Wolfe’s implicit resistance to the deconstruction of every assumption inherent to “art,” but I’m willing to challenge the “destroy for destruction’s sake” imperative, insofar as it is what drives the movements of art today. It sure seems that way, but I assume there’s more there, and the “more” is perhaps as varied as the people who further it.

To ask a naive question that probably Real Art has long since abandoned or mocked until it breathed its last, what about beauty???? As a layperson who wants to believe that art has a public role and some inherent value where beholding it can do something good, even by disturbing us, I often find myself lamenting the un-beauty of contemporary art. That this is probably because I don’t “get it” only further entrenches my sense of alienation from this world of art. Is there respite to be sought in, for example, outsider art? 

Perhaps the answer is as simple as a simple comparison: take music. There is no possibility of defining “beautiful” music; we like what we like, and different people like different things. There are ways to get into a piece and understand what it’s trying to be and to judge it on that basis (also like a book) but no absolute criteria are possible because of the infinite variety of creative possibility. But even so, music and literature seem to me more accessible, somehow, than art. Less conceptual in the way art can be, more inclusive in terms of the gap between what the gatekeepers would deem worth canonizing and what we would claim to enjoy as outsiders.

To what extent do artists themselves (as if it’s a homogeny) want the “public” to “get” or “like” their art? A lot rides on this question I guess.

The beauty of the disturbing and the disturbing of beauty. Would this summarize where we find ourselves today?

(I suppose you could say beauty is taken out of the equation, but you could also reframe that as the expansion of the territory of the beautiful to encompass all, exclude nothing. Ironically. The murder of beauty and the expansion of it to include everything is the same thing, conceptually speaking.)

What I wish existed and whose absence consumes me to no end every time I enter a museum: a summary (impossible) of the timeline of the canon and what/who gets included and what/who gets excluded and why. Note that I’m not issuing the ignorant layperson’s tired old challenge of “My 5-year-old could do that.” I don’t mistake technical skill involved or duration of labor for the Good, but I do want the implicit curatorial values to be made legible, because I’m in a capitalist system that more often than not exacts a price from us to view or own art but I am then paying to engage with something whose value I don’t understand and am expected to receive fully by merely looking at something without the language or conceptual framework to understand its value, all while contributing to that value, reinforcing it. That seems like a scam to me (forgivable) but also like intellectual hypocrisy (unforgivable).

All of this is a rambling record of first impressions re: the art world and my access to an understanding of its values & criteria. Obviously a way to answer my own questions is to examine the world itself, anthropologically, and dissect its political/cultural/social/financial underpinnings. To learn the common answers, debates addressing these small questions of mine. Which I intend to.

But that these are the questions begged when one confronts the whole system as an ignorant layperson is worth noting in itself, I think, because it draws out some assumptions that are contradictory. Assumptions that imply that art is good and we should look at it and pay to look at it. Assumptions that also imply that beauty is not art and skill is not art and accessibility is not art. 

So then what is art? And who gets to decide? We spend our lives taking for granted the fact of a museum, of an art history curriculum, of a canon of famous men and (sometimes) women who have made what we consider “Great Art” without ever being satisfied with a good explanation of why, how come, who says? Especially today?

[informalrevue]

“‘The bee, of course, flies anyway:’ Social Protest and Critique of Global Capitalism in Dreamworks’ Bee Movie”

In his 2011 feature Marx Reloaded, a documentary which uses animation to parody the Matrix series and the 20th century revolutionaries who famously claimed to carry on Marx’s theoretical legacy but who did so with violent means, Jason Barker explains that after the 2008 global financial meltdown and following Great Recession, many economists and philosophers are returning to Marxist critiques of the capitalist market to find ways of reimagining the future so as to prevent another global catastrophe. At its opening, the narrator, voiced by Barker, asks “Is capitalism destroying itself and the wealth of the planet with it” (Barker)? The documentary goes on to explicate Marx’s critiques of capitalism, define contemporary capitalism, and feature contemporary Marxist philosophers as well as detractors of Marxist ideology in finding solutions in the global financial market.

Marx Reloaded was not the first film to use animation in its featuring of Marxist critique. Four years prior to Barker’s film release, at the exact same time as the financial crisis, Dreamworks animation studios released a new comedy featuring the voice talents of Jerry Seinfield, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, and John Goodman. Bee Movie features two young best bee-friends Barry and Adam who are to be assigned their jobs for the hive after graduation. Barry, contemplating which job to take up for the remainder of his short life, flies away from the hive, meets a woman and discovers humanity is stealing honey and making profit on it. He sues humanity, wins the case, and stages a bee strike but quickly everyone realizes the importance of bees in maintaining the global ecosystem. Finally, after seeing his crush (the woman he met during his first flight away from home) will have to close her flower shop and find income elsewhere without the important job of pollination that bees do, Barry decides bees must end the strike for the sake of camaraderie and because bees were meant to make honey. The bees work together to re-pollinate the world’s flowers and go happily back to their jobs. The film moves quickly, maintaining the ninety-minute norm for animated feature made for children. However, its relevance to the market meltdown happening outside of the theaters makes this film uniquely positioned to stage important an critique of the imbalance of labor that exists in the global market.

Bee Movie attempts to situate itself within narratives of Marxist protest and critiques of global capitalism, particularly that of the exploitation of labor. Yet, the film ultimately falls short of being a truly Marxist film because it suggests that reparations and royalties be paid in exchange for surplus labor. The film also fails to follow through on the critiques it poses to the capitalist structure by ultimately suggesting that profiteering capitalists, as represented by the humans in the film, garner sympathy while laborers, as represented by the bees in the film, essentially have a duty to be exploited. Bringing this argument about in the context of ecological studies that recognize the need for bees to continue to pollinate flowers and produce honey may seem morbid, but what is perhaps just as morbid is the misguided critiques of capitalism staged at the beginning of Bee Movie that are completely forgone by the end, as if to say those critiques do not have merit or, worse, should be ignored. If anything, this film appearing at the exact moment when the financial crash occurred in late 2007 and early 2008 is evidence that the critiques at the beginning of this film need to be given a closer look. This essay seeks, therefore, to explain the connection between Bee Movie and the Marxist critique of capitalism, particularly that on the exploitation of labor. As well, this essay will situate its argument within a chronology of criticism (a) using animated film, (b) about animation, and (c) on Bee Movie specifically. Finally, this essay looks at the afterlives of animated film and its significance as a popular medium directed at children.

The question from the opening sequence of Barker’s documentary, whether capitalism is destroying itself and the wealth of the world, echoes into the viewing of Bee Movie. The outline of the Barker documentary mimics that of the Bee Movie as well. After the Matrix parody, Barker defines contemporary capitalism and then moves to asking philosophers and economists what is wrong, given that something is, with contemporary capitalism and what a future without it may be like. Bee Movie’s opening tour of the characters features each job that goes into the production of honey within the hive, which has been metaphorized into a factory called Honex. After realizing the exploitation of the bees is when Barry decides to sue the human race and go on strike. This moment in the film is crucial because it is the moment at which Barry’s story intersects with Marx’s most famous prediction, the creation of the proletariat.

However, before understanding the significance of the social protest Barry stages based on his critiques of the exploitation of the bees’ labor, we must consider how the film mimics the entirety of Marx’s critique of capitalism. In much the same way as Barker parodies the mishaps of the 20th century revolutionaries who used vulgar interpretations of Marx to commit crimes against humanity in their quest for absolute power, it would be parody (and dangerous) to ignore the ways Bee Movie stages Marx’s argument in favor of jumping to the conclusion that Barry is the proletariat revolutionary every viewer should aspire to be.

Understanding Marxism begins with understanding the material conditions for the creation of the proletariat, the body which Marx predicts will revolt against the capitalist exploitation of labor. Prior to the scene in the grocery store, when Barry gets his first look at the human consumption of the bees’ product, Bee Movie establishes these material conditions. It is understood, for example, that each bee carry out their entire life doing the same job. When Barry and Adam discover they will be stuck doing the job they choose for the remainder of their lives, they are on a tour of Honex. In the tour guide’s words, “You...have worked your whole life to get to the point where can work for your whole life” (Smith and Hickner). Marx may pre-date the assembly line setup used in Honex, but one of his primary explanations of the conditions under capitalism is about alienation. The theory of alienated labor comes from his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, in which he writes that workers under capitalism suffer four types of alienation (Wolff). The monotony of doing the same job for one’s entire life may be understood as the third type of alienated labor, the alienation of oneself from her species-being, the essential complex qualities and talents of the self. While the tour guide claims that “every small job, if it’s done well, means a lot,” Barry recognizes the weight of the choice of a single job for an eternity. Adam wants to work the Krelman, a device which collects “that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it,” but its very existence points to the ubiquity of small, monotonous jobs at Honex (Smith and Hickner). The species-being is interrupted by such monotony because of the simplistic nature of monotonous work.

It is also worth noting that each type of alienated labor is deducible from the one before it. As the third type of alienated labor, alienation from species-being is deducible from type one and type two of alienated labor. The first type of alienation is from the product itself, something the viewer may not recognize in the bees’ existence until Barry realizes what bees do not know about honey: that it is stolen, packaged, marketed, and sold for profit that the laborers never see. However, the very nature of monotony can be understood as alienating from the product. The second type of alienation is work as torment, something also implicitly understood in the nature of monotony, hence the creation of the phrase ad nauseam. One might argue that torment is not felt by the workers in Honex, Adam visibly excited to work on the Krelman forever both at the beginning of the film and at the end. Yet, Marx is clear in stating that alienation is not just subjective discomfort but the fashioning of a distraction, a true and complete alienation, from the exploitation of one’s labor. Alienation is essential to understanding surplus labor, the impetus for profit under capitalism according to Marx, because without alienation, one may simply trade just the amount of labor needed to survive for the products needed to survive. Alienation acts as an important material condition for the exploitation of labor because it acts to break down what makes humans human: connections with other humans and connections with oneself. The self that is Adam is broken down by the monotony of work on the Krelman. In a sense, it does not become ‘Adam’s job’ to work on the Krelman, Adam becomes a “small job...done well” (Smith and Hickner). Adam’s species-being empties out into just being another job carried out by a bee. Understanding this is essential to understanding the exploitation of the bees, which is foreshadowed by Barry’s anxiety over choosing the same job for eternity. Despite the majority of the bees being content, accepting of their part in a wider Honex project, their alienation from their species-being and the product they produce becomes apparent when Barry sees the humans selling honey.

In the grocery store scene, Barry’s anxiety about choosing a single job for his life transforms into a heated explanation of the laborious process of creating honey. He says, “it’s hard to make it. There’s heating and cooling and stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing!” to which Vanessa (Barry’s human crush) replies “It’s organic” and Barry finishes with “It’s our-ganic,” bringing in ownership to the product. This is an essential Marxist point, as well. The labor used to produce a product is what gives it value, meaning that those who put in that labor have part-ownership of that product. This is why laborers are to be compensated for their labor. It is a pay-out for their ownership of the product they produce. The problem as Marx sees it is that this pay-out is uneven for the amount of labor most put in, hence the term ‘surplus labor.’ For Barry, this is even more so because the bees in Bee Movie receive none of the profit made on their honey, no pay-out for their labor. The concept of surplus labor is Marx’s explanation for how profit is made under capitalism:

In setting up conditions of production the capitalist purchases the worker’s labour power — his ability to labour — for the day. The cost of this commodity is determined in the same way as the cost of every other; i.e. in terms of the amount of socially necessary labour power required to produce it. In this case the value of a day’s labour power is the value of the commodities necessary to keep the worker alive for a day. Suppose that such commodities take four hours to produce. Thus the first four hours of the working day is spent on producing value equivalent to the value of the wages the worker will be paid. This is known as necessary labour. Any work the worker does above this is known as surplus labour, producing surplus value for the capitalist (Wolff).

The surplus value is created for the owner of the factory, not the worker. In exchange for the surplus labor, the factory owner lets the laborer keep her job the next day. However, Marx defines this as an exploitation of her labor because, as she does not see the profit of all of her labor, the exchange rate is no longer balanced. In the film, the humans exploit the bees completely because the bees never see the profits on the honey. Their labor is not exchanged for anything. They produce a product that is stolen by humans and therein lies the crux of the bees’ exploitation: all of the stolen honey is of surplus value, value only seen by the humans. In Barry’s words, “This is stealing, a lot of stealing!” (Smith and Hickner).

Once Barry realizes the exploitation of the bees’ labor is when the creation of the proletariat, Marx’s most famous prediction, seems to occur in the film. The Marxism in the film, however, ends at the recognition of this exploitation in the grocery store. While the implicit critiques of Honex and Barry’s anger at the humans profiting off of the bees’ honey align with Marxism, the strike that happens in the film is not in the service of Marxist ideology. In his plan to sue the human race, Barry is seeking reparations for the already stolen labor. This, again, may seem to be aligned with a form of Marxist protest, but in saying “When I’m done with the humans, they won’t be able to say ‘Honey, I’m home’ without paying a royalty,” Barry proves that his scheme does not uproot or even protest the capitalist structure, it actually takes place within it (Smith and Hickner). The film illustrates the material conditions for the creation of the proletariat according to Marx’s historiography and in the staging of a strike by the bees, it seems to follow through on the critiques it presents. However, because Barry is suing the human race for reparations and royalties, his act of protest is in vain because his process for seeking profit for the bees does not actually protest or do away with the material conditions that created their exploitation in the first place: the alienation of the bees and the imbalance of the burden of labor on the bees. Not only that, by the end of the film, the bees decide to return to their jobs and make honey for the humans and give up their honey and pollination labor willingly. The radical critiques from the beginning of the film are met with a deus ex machina end that not only seems to negate the primary critiques but actively work against their recognition for the sake of working together. In fact, the film suggests in its ending that laborers, regardless of their exploitation, have a duty to provide for consumers no matter how much they are exploited or how much they carry the burden of labor for production. In other words, the bees in their bee-ness have a duty to continue to produce honey for the humans without critiques.

As aforementioned, the use of animation to stage Marxist critiques is not exclusive to Bee Movie. Films like Marx Reloaded (2011), Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), and Requiem for the American Dream (2015) all use animation in discussing the 2007-8 financial crash and following Great Recession in Marxian terms. Therefore, Bee Movie exists in a chronology of animated films that take up Marxism; though, of those mentioned above it is the only one that is not documentary.

Bee Movie is also the only one which is directed toward children as an audience, the only one that uses fantastic elements (anthropomorphic bees) to stage Marxist critiques, even if it does not follow through on them. Bee Movie is a critical and unique film in its availability to young viewers, which Robin L. Murray and Jason K. Heumann recognize in their book That’s All Folks? Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features. The film is significant within an ecocritical perspective in the sense that it “asserts a message of interdependence between human and nonhuman nature that calls both to action for mutual survival” (Murray and Heumann 188). By the end of the film, the call to action is has been transformed from recognizing the anxiety brought on by alienation and exploitation into the significance of ecological interdependence. While it is not the project of Heumann and Murray’s to discuss the Marxist themes during the first half of the film, they do recognize the strike’s impetus is Billy’s realization of the “humans’ exploitation of bees through honey theft” (ibid 197).

The significance of this to a child audience may seem negligible, but as Navjeet Sidhu points out in his essay “High-Ho It’s Off To Work They Go: What Children Learn from Popular Media About the World of Work,” “according to researchers, children form a basic understanding of economic principles as early as age three” (Sidhu 32). He points out that in a 1978 study of U.S. students in grades 3 through 12, many had already begun to prefer the principles of corporate capitalism (ibid 33). Sidhu even talks on Bee Movie, saying that Barry’s anxiety about working in the same job forever is something felt by many contemporary workers and the market has largely scaled back single-careers in favor of temporary jobs and multiple career choices for each person. The film, he notes, “present[s] a biased and glamorized portrayal of work,” portraying the workers of Honex as happy, devoid of “job stress, boredom, and alienation” despite their jobs being “menial and repetitive” (ibid 35-6). While Bee Movie insists everyone be “an equally contributing member” of society, it does not balance this with an equity of wealth (ibid 36).

The afterlife of this film, then, is not only one that misappropriates and lacks follow-through on Marxist critique, but one that actively reinforces the capitalist structure of exploitation and argues for its ignorance, a dangerous thing to teach children.

Bibliography

Barker, Jason, director. Marx Reloaded. Films Noirs, Medea Film, ZDF, 2011. <http://fod.infobase.com.nuls.idm.oclc.org/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=52228>

Murray, Robin L., and Heumann, Joseph K. “8. DreamWorks and Human and Nonhuman Ecology: Escape or Interdependence in Over the Hedge and Bee Movie.” That’s All Folks? Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features. Univ of Nebraska Press, 2014, pp. 183-200. <https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/detail.action?docID=915035>

Ray, Kaustubh. “Capitalism and the ‘Animated Image’: Politics of Morphing on the ‘Culture’ of Animation.” IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, vol. 3, no. 1 (2014), pp. 81-91. <http://journals.sagepub.com.nuls.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdf/10.1177/2277975214529142>

Sidhu, Navjeet. “High-Ho It’s Off To Work They Go: What Children Learn from Popular Media About the World of Work.” Our Times, vol. 32, no. 6 (Dec 2013-Feb 2014), pp. 32-37.

Smith, Simon J., and Hickner, Steve, directors. Bee Movie. DreamWorks Animation, 2007.

Wolff, Jonathan, "Karl Marx", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/marx/>.

[otnesse]

I actually WATCHED Beauty and the Beast as a kid, and have an eidetic recall of the movie, enough to actually play it in my head. And Belle was NOT honorable even in the animated version (or have you completely forgotten that when she walked into the West Wing and was driven off, she yelled "promise or not, I can't stay here another minute!" and a day hadn't even passed that time). And she was specifically modeled after the 1970s women's liberation movement, and I wouldn't call book worms strong people even mentally, not when I had to deal with terrible college professors who if anything were very weak minded. And BTW, I NEVER bought the idea that Belle had stockholm syndrome (her behavior in the first night alone would destroy that argument as no stockholm syndrome sufferer would EVER act like she did). You of all people ought to know, since I earlier posted a reply outright agreeing with you that she definitely didn't suffer from Stockholm syndrome. Also, she constantly bashed her peers at the village, denounced them as little people and provincial in the beginning and overall acted very little different from the likes of Gaston regarding arrogance in the beginning (the only real difference is that she didn't buy into physical appearances). Oh, and when she ended up learning Gaston was the one who orchestrated the arrest of her father by a mob in order to blackmail her, she stupidly exposed the Beast to said mob, INCLUDING him, despite very obviously deducing what Gaston as truly like, meaning the entire climax was essentially her fault. Though I will admit she at least owned up to it actually BEING her fault there, compared to the wolf incident where she refused to actually own up to her role in that disaster (which, BTW, was a lot more major than Beast's tantrum even if that was the bit that immediately set it off). In fact, aside from squealing about the Beast, her humanizing him was also responsible for his rather disgraceful handling in the climax where he couldn't even fight to defend himself, or for that matter defend his servants from the impending lynch mob, unless Belle was physically present. Did I also mention a couple of scenes showed her with almost Kryptonian strength (lifting Beast up twice, one of which was on-screen, as well as Maurice off-screen, both of whom would have realistically been much heavier than Belle) which ironically went underutilized when it would have mattered most?

As far as Maleficent, that was a character assassination of the character from the original Sleeping Beauty (who in the original story was more comparable to the likes of Frieza than someone like, say, Broly if we were to make DBZ comparisons, or even DBS comparisons), and her film was notorious for basically making everyone else bad, including Stefan, who in the original movie was one of Disney's best fathers and let Aurora be adopted by the fairies (who actually drove the plot to the extent that they acted as the closest thing to actual protagonists in the story rather than being incompetent rubes like in that movie), and even Phillip (who was made into Mr. Wrong in the film). In fact, did you know that Maleficent being made more heroic was done WITHOUT Angelina Jolie's volition? Woolverton herself made that clear in the making of documentary for the film. And BTW, its direct ties to Beauty and the Beast, which Woolverton bragged about in Time Magazine, is one of the reasons I stopped being fond of that movie (the others being a terrible college experience where I was nearly the victim of brainwashing by leftist professors, two of whom were literature professors, and also doing a deep dive into the French Revolution around that time). Oh, and a lot of people hated how Maleficent was depicted in that movie especially compared to in Sleeping Beauty. I'll admit I haven't watched Maleficent other than promos, but I DID read the summary for the movie as well as wiki articles, and what I read in there disgusted me with what they did, by making Maleficent into an up and out hero which was against her very nature (and for the record, I actually WATCHED Sleeping Beauty, so I actually WOULD know what the characters were like in the original. Maleficent in particular was a quintessential Complete Monster, and that was in fact why she was so loved by audiences, as she was as evil as they come and didn't hide it, if anything was dang proud of it.). Heck, her name "Maleficent" literally meant evil-doer, which meant it shouldn't have been her birth name ESPECIALLY if she wasn't evil from birth but forced to become that (the very least Woolverton could have done is have her adopt the name after Stefan's betrayal, sort of like how Tom Riddle adopted the name Voldemort, or how Anakin Skywalker adopted the name Darth Vader).

Actually, want examples of actual strong characters as you described them? Try Cinderella or Ariel. They came across as naturally strong, and didn't require actually tugging people down just to prop them up. They came across as genuinely strong and well-rounded while the other characters also embraced their own strengths as well.

Thinking you know the whole story from a headline...

Guys, please… read the articles before commenting.  Don’t just assume something based on a clickbait headline and think you know enough to comment. 1.   A childhood friend just took the headline “Angelina Jolie feels hated by Hollywood?” at face value and mocked her for being upset.  When in reality that very article was debunking claims that she was upset and feeling unwanted since Maleficent  2 failed. Maleficent 2 didn’t fail.  It under-performed domestically but earned back more than triple its cost to make and somehow (believe it or not) became the highest earning fantasy film in Russia… for some reason.  And the article debunked another site’s claim (Business Insider) that Angelina Jolie felt hated.   2.   A Facebook friend thought the article about Linda Woolverton not liking the term “Strong women” was anti-feminist when in reality she was just tired of Hollywood execs using the term as a lazy blanket term rather than actually describing how a female protagonist is well written.  Linda wrote the animated Beauty and the Beast and Disney’s Maleficent.  She’s not afraid of strong women, guys.

[swanderful1]

A Cold Awakening: Ch 7/?

Modern crime AU. Twenty years have gone by since Storybrooke was shaken to the core by a gruesome crime that went unsolved. Sheriff David Nolan and his partner, daughter Emma are forced to revisit the crime. At the same time, Killian Jones and his older brother Liam have been drawn back to the town they had longed to never see again, struggling to find their own answers. As taunting notes and clues show up they are taken on a journey to finally bring justice for the Jones family. And Emma Nolan finds herself caught in a situation more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. 

Notes: Another one, a little over 7200 words so it’s the longest one so far. The whole thing can be read on AO3  and now ffnet so enjoy!!!

Emma waited for Killian in the hotel bar of the place he was staying. The place was luxurious, to say the least. All high ceilings and dramatic pillars. In a way it reminded her of the Jones mansion before it began to crumble. He had agreed to meet her when she called him not even an hour ago. But it was late and probably inconvenient so she offered to come to him.

 The bartender was a middle aged man with graying hair and wore a black vest. She felt very out of place in this world. His world. Any of the scenarios Emma had encountered Killian in recently had been on her territory... but this. This was different. She wore jeans that had holes up and down the legs and brown leather boots that reached her knees. Her long blonde hair fell loose around her shoulders because she hadn’t bothered to brush it that day. And she was absolutely certain that the little makeup she had put on that morning, nearly twelve hours before, had worn off.

 A couple at the other end of the bar was dressed to the nines probably coming back to the hotel for a drink after an extravagant night in the city. They sat facing one another in an act of intimacy you can only have with someone you undoubtedly trust. The woman with long black hair elegantly framing her face. The man with lighter hair kept back to reveal the adoring eyes with which he gazed at this woman. Emma wondered if she would ever know that kind of intimacy with someone. She shook her head and went back to her drink. A rum and coke she had ordered but barely nursed it. She honestly just wanted to tell Killian what she knew and go home. Emma was a bit wary after their last interaction, him rushing out of the coffee shop without so much as a wave good bye. Why was she dumbfounded each time that man left her presence?

 “Time change is bloody awful.” He mumbled when sat down at the bar stool next to her. “I’ve been here weeks and I still can’t seem to feel awake when I’m supposed to.”

 She looked to him. He appeared rather ragged. His hair wasn’t perfectly styled, it was in fact messy. He wasn’t donning a tailored suit or designer jeans. The scruff on his chin was longer and unkempt. He didn’t come off as manicured as he had before. His blue eyes were red rimmed, she felt bad for even calling him this late. She should have just waited.

 “I have some news for you. I’m sorry for calling so late I just didn’t know if you would want me to wait.”

 “It’s all right.” He started, she watched him shift in his seat to get comfortable. He raised his hand slightly and the bartender nodded in his direction before setting to work on making a drink. “I would have wanted to know.”

 “There isn’t necessarily a polite way to say this, Killian.”

 “I think you and I did away with polite a long time ago, love.”

 It irked her. Every time. The use of that word as if it were such a casual endearment for someone. He would just throw it out there whenever he pleased. Emma wasn’t entirely sure if the fact that he used it bothered her or that he used it on other women bothered her.

 “Do you use that term with everyone?” her voice came off more annoyed than she had initially intended.

 “No, come to think of it I don’t believe I’ve ever used it with your father.” A lighthearted smirk. He seemed to become amused when she was irritated. Especially when he was the cause of it. “Does it bother you?”

 “It just catches me off guard when you say it.” She tried not to give anything else away, sitting rather stiff-like on the bar stool, very aware of how close he was to her. She took a sip of the rum and coke to busy her hands.

 “It’s a habit of speech, so I apologize. I most certainly don’t mean it to offend you.” She could almost see him smiling out of the corner of her eye. “Unless of course you like it.”

 “Let’s just… let’s just talk about what I came here for. Okay?” She licked the light dusting of alcohol on her lips and inhaled a few quick breaths to calm herself down. Irritation, or was it something else, building within her belly. She flipped a long lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. “Inside the mailbox was the key to a motel room.”

 “Oh?” The bartender brought Killian’s drink and placed it in front of him. It was also a rum and coke but Emma was certain he had ordered a higher shelf liquor than her.

 “So my suspicion is that one of your parents was having an affair.” She turned toward him and lowered her voice, not sure she wanted anyone else in the room to hear their conversation. “Given what you’ve told me about his track record… my money’s on your father.”

 “Ah, yes. That does sound like dear old dad.” He was staring straight forward now, not meeting her eyes, he took a sip from his glass. The ice rattling against the sides as he set it back down on the bar with a loud ‘thunk’. She felt the urge to reach out and touch his shoulder, something to offer him comfort. The circumstances they were under were not light, and it was clearly weighing on him.

 “Did you know anyone by the name of Nathan Jones?” she asked, once he had untensed a bit. “That was the name the mailbox was listed under.”

 “My grandfather. Father’s father. But he was long gone by that time.” Killian’s face once again grew more troubled. She didn’t want to press him for information but she also knew he wanted to help. And maybe it was up to her to find ways in which he could. Even if they  weren’t comfortable.

 “So whomever opened it probably did so in your grandfather’s name, and then used it for their own antics.”

 “It would appear so.”

 “If this is too hard for you, we could always just give you a weekly report.” She offered. “It could be sent through your lawyer. It might be easier on you.”

 “As much as I know you’re probably eager to be rid of me,” he turned to look at her now, his face resuming the arrogant glow that it usually had, “I feel my help is more needed than my absence.”

 “If you’re sure.”

 “Positive.” He said finishing what little he had left of his drink. “Is there anything else?”

 “Not at the moment. I haven’t had the chance to go scope out the motel.” She shared. She had wanted to go almost immediately. But her father and Graham were leaving for Boston early Saturday morning to meet with Graham’s chief and give a report on the status of the investigation. Along with them they had taken the security footage from the cameras on the building. The film was too blurry, not leading to anything distinct caught on camera but on one of the tapes there had been a shadow of a figure in a corner of the shot. Nothing the Storybrooke police department had would be able to deduce the figure, but they hoped Boston could help with it. In addition they had a record of the license plate numbers that had come in and out of town for the past six months, records of anyone traveling within the town limits, anything that would indicate someone had come here to send them on this wild chase.

 The case had also regained its media legs. That was a large part of the reason Emma opted out of the trip to Boston. Her father and Graham would be doing interviews with major news stations, newspapers, and the like before they all made their way to Storybrooke to once again swarm the streets to get their story. Emma wanted to avoid that circus as long as she could. They would be back Monday morning, but the curiosity of going to the motel was driving Emma mad. She had wanted to go. Even if it didn’t lead to anything, just to see the place. Retrace the steps of the departed. Find a way to make sense of the thought process. The only way she would solve this case was if she really understood Brennan and Moira Jones. The next step of that understanding would come from going to that motel.

 “I suppose you will not be needing my company on that trip as well?” he asked bringing her back from its wandering.

 She had remembered the day prior. With the mailbox. Him asking whether or not she would be taking him with her to see it. She knew it was stupid and despite her better judgement opened her mouth and let an unwise offer flow from her lips.

 “Actually. If you’re up for it I was going to go tomorrow.” What the fuck was she doing. He wasn’t going to come, of course he wasn’t coming. Who in their right mind would?

 “All right.”

 “What?”

 “I’ll go along.” He said a bit slower now.

 “You really don’t have to Killian. It can’t b-”

 “I want to.” He cut her off. Deliberate in his words. There was no shaking him. She too had met her match.

 “I will see you tomorrow evening then.” She said, tossing some cash down on the bar to cover her one measly drink. A thousand rum and cokes couldn’t prepare her for a slight road trip with Killian Jones to a slimeball motel in the middle of nowhere.

 “Of course.” He raised his glass in her direction before draining the remaining liquid and throwing his own cash down onto the bar. “Good night, Emma.”

 “Good night Killian.”

   That night she dreamt, not of the case for the first time in weeks, something else entirely had made its way in.

 Rough hands exploring her lace-clad body. The cold feel of handcuffs on her wrists, chaining her to the posts of her bed. Silk sheets adorning the mattress. Her body writhed against them, needing something. Anything. That would ease the ache between her legs. She looked down. Dark hair belonging to the head of someone she did not care to admit. Blue eyes piercing right into her soul as he worked his tongue over and over her delicate center. The scruff of his facial hair leaving tiny red marks on her thighs. “Please.” She begged, completely breathless as her core tightened with every last motion of his tongue. Slowly his mouth retreated and he eased something inside of her. She arched her back in response, grabbing onto the posts of the bed before realizing it was not his finger that had worked its way in. But the cool metal of an arched silver hook.

 Saturday morning Emma woke a bit later than usual with a start. She had allowed herself not to set an alarm. But now was regretting it. The contents of her dream fully apparent to her as she sat up and looked around, grabbing her wrists just to make sure there were no handcuffs. There were not. Of course. She picked up her ragged copy of Peter Pan that sat on her bed. She had pulled it out after Henry’s play, reminiscing on the original story she had fallen in love with. Emma threw the book to the floor. The presence of the hook in her dream was only slightly erotic now in the light of the morning.  Not entirely wanting to deal with the fact that someone had infuriatingly worked his way into her psyche.

 “Fuck.” She mumbled as she got out of bed. How in the world was she supposed to be in a car with Killian today. After that. The usual sun that came through her bay windows was blanketed by cloud cover. The day would not be so nice, Emma noticed and climbed out of bed. When she looked in the mirror in her en suite bathroom she saw something in her face. Color. There was a pink hint to her cheeks. It even reached her lips making them a bit plumper than usual. Through her thin white shirt she could see the hard outline of her nipples pressed to the fabric. What in the world had come over her?

 “Mom!” she heard Henry yell from down the hall. Damn it. Hopefully she had at least been quiet during her explicit dreams. “Are you okay in there?”

 “Yeah, kid. I’m fine!” oh my god he had heard her. “Just a bad dream. I’ll walk you to Gold’s in a half hour.”

 “I’m getting my period.” She said to no one but herself, still eyeing her appearance in the mirror. It was an offering of logic in a situation that was turning quite scary for her. Though she knew her time of the month wasn’t the cause of things. She ran cold water in the sink and splashed it on her face to wake herself up. As the water hit her skin untensed a little realizing that it was just a dream. There was nothing to worry about. That was all it had been.

 After dropping Henry off, Emma walked over to Granny’s to meet Ruby for breakfast. Despite working with her best friend they hardly had time together to themselves anymore and Emma felt herself missing having her to talk to. There weren’t many people Emma trusted. She could count them on one hand probably. But Ruby was always loyal. And for the most part understanding. Additionally, she hadn’t disclosed to anyone that Emma had followed Killian out of the office that day, and hadn’t mentioned it since.

 Her best friend already had a booth waiting for them when Emma arrived. Her favorite one. It was right by the front windows and she could see outside while she ate. Immediately she ordered a steaming pot of coffee and told Granny to keep them coming. She was still a little wired from her wake up this morning.

 “Em, you okay?” Ruby asked about halfway into their meal. Emma had opted for an omelette as opposed to a grilled cheese at 10 am.

 “Yeah. Why do you ask?” Emma took a nonchalant sip of her coffee.

 “Because you have sex hair and I know you're not fucking anyone.”

 Emma spit out the dark roast onto her omelette. Completely floored. That was the last thing she had expected to come out of Ruby’s mouth. Especially when her friend had stated it so casually. It wasn’t up for argument.

 “I haven’t been sleeping well.” Emma said as she wiped the spilled coffee from the table. “A lot on my mind lately. Obviously.”

 “Do any of the things on your mind have to do with a very handsome, very tortured Englishman?”

 “Ruby…” Emma looked at her best friend frustrated. They had been having such a nice breakfast why did it have to take this turn. “There’s nothing going on between me and Killian. I just want to help his family get some answers.”

 “You say that but then I don’t see you getting into a car following Liam off into lord knows where.”

 “He never asked.” Emma defended.

 “Well he’s right over there why don’t you just go talk to him.” Emma looked over to where her friend’s head was tilted. Of course. There Liam Jones sat at a booth on the other side of the room. A pretty blonde woman across from him, feeding something on a spoon to a small toddler. A family. A whole family, she thought. He was entirely different from his brother. Even in the way Liam was built. His face had smile lines, his hair was lighter and curly, where Killian’s was dark and straight. He was soft where Killian was hard.

 “Why are you acting this way? What does it matter to you?”

 “I’m just worried about you.” Her friend reached across the table and grabbed Emma’s available hand. “I know you’re tough. I get that. But you’ve always liked the bad boys, Em. And they’ve always liked you.”

 “I’m a smart girl. I’m not going to do anything wrong.” Emma reassured her friend knowing the concern had come out of love. The conversation eased into something else shortly after and it was like the tension had never occurred. Emma was grateful. She wasn’t entirely sure she could take more of that talk. Not after waking up this morning in the way that she did, flushed with emotion and… need. It had been a while since she’d had sex. That was all. Her body telling her it was time to go on another one time date with someone. Have him scratch her itch then send him on his way.  

 After breakfast Emma had gone home to change into running clothes. The day wasn’t great but she needed exercise. She needed a nice long run. She had to get rid of some of her energy before seeing Killian later. So she made her way to the park, popping in her headphones to drown out the rest of the world.

 It wasn’t long before she was no longer on the grounds of the park. She had found an empty stretch of road that turned into a hill and decided to take that on. All she could hear was the music playing from her head phones. She had chosen Beyonce. For obvious reasons. Needing to feel a little more empowered as she took on this particular day. Over the top of the hill she could see the figure of someone walking along the side of the road. She squinted to see it was someone walking their dog. She ignored the person until she was a lot closer and realized exactly who it was.

 “You have a dog?” she stopped running and took out her earbuds when she was close enough that Killian could hear her. She hardly recognized him as he was dressed casually, jeans and a flannel.

 “Aye. She just arrived this morning. Regina returned from London with her.” Emma felt herself flush a little at the mention of Regina. She had wondered if maybe there was something going on with those two. Killian and Regina. Flying overseas to fetch his dog indicated maybe there was something more there. “Emma this is Princess, my dog. Princess this is Emma.”

 She bit back a laugh. Looking at the dog she did not look like a Princess. Nor did he seem the type to give that name to a dog. The dog was some sort of pitbull with a massive head and muscular body, her fur coat a gorgeous gray-blue color. He sensed her amusement and smiled. “Okay lass no need to laugh. I rescued her she came with that name.”

 “I’m sure she did.” Emma knelt down to give the dog the opportunity to come sniff her. She noticed a pink collar around her neck with a name tag that even had a small gold crown on it. She smiled, a bit amused that he not only had a dog named Princess but had given her a collar fit for the name as well. “Hi Princess, you’re adorable.”

 The dog warmed to Emma and was soon sitting on her lap on the concrete, inching every which way so Emma could scratch her more. She was awfully friendly. She wondered if maybe she and Henry might get a dog. Something they could rescue. It wasn’t an awful idea. They had the space.

 “She’s lovely, Killian.” Emma said before standing up. She had probably been sitting on the road for nearly ten minutes, distracted by how precious Princess was.  

 “Glad you think so. She doesn’t usually like everyone she meets.”

 “She’s taken to you quite well.” She noticed the dog’s loyalty toward her owner almost instantly. As soon as Emma had ceased petting her Princess had returned to Killian’s side, sitting demurely next to him.

 “Love at first sight.” He said back looking at Emma, not taking his baby blue eyes from hers. She wasn’t sure what she should do next. If she should put her music back on and keep running or what. But now looking at him, in jeans and a flannel shirt, a hint of chest hair peeking from beneath, she couldn’t get the sight of him in her dream out of her mind. Bent down between her legs. She completely at his mercy. She felt a bit warm and turned her head so he wouldn’t see.

 Luckily she wasn’t the one who would have to make the next move. Princess began grunting and tugging trying to get Killian to walk from his spot he was locked in.

 “Looks like someone would like to continue their walk.” Emma joked looking at Princess making defiant tugs at her bright pink leash. They were quite the pair those two.

 “Care to join us?” he offered, taking Emma off guard. She weighed the option in her mind. They were far enough outside of town that no one would likely see them together. At least not anyone she knew. But then she remembered her conversation with Ruby earlier in the day. She had promised her best friend there was nothing going on. She had promised herself there was nothing going on. Yet here she was, standing a few feet from him, wanting to be just a bit closer.

 “Okay.” She answered before she could stop herself. Before she could come to her senses and run the hell home.

 “We were just headed to this field up here so she can run around. She had a long journey to get back to me.” Killian said as they started walking together. It was nice, Emma had to admit, the closeness of it. She almost forgot the circumstances they were under. Almost.

 “When did you rescue her?” Emma asked once they were in the open field. The grass was tall but Princess was strong and fast. She leapt and bounded over each patch, catching the tennis ball Killian had brought to throw to her. Emma was surprised a dog with that much energy had made it eight hours on a plane.

 “About two years ago. She needed a home and I needed a companion.” There was something behind his words. A touch of regret. Maybe that was why he had only had one serious partner.

 “Bad breakup?”

 “Dreadful.” He did not appear that he wanted to elaborate on the discussion and quickly changed the subject. “She usually travels with me for work. She’s well trained now, but coming back to the states was so sudden I didn’t have time to get her paperwork in order.”

 “I’m sure it’s nice to have her here finally.” Princess brought the ball back but this time dropped it at Emma’s feet.

 Killian leaned down near to Emma’s ear to say, “She wants you to throw it for her, love.” Had he been standing that close this whole time?

 They spent the early part of the afternoon playing with his dog in the field. Princess never seemed to tire. But eventually Killian did and he had to get back to his hotel for a conference call before their excursion later that night. You could almost forget he was an in-demand businessman, with a dark unsolved past when he was scaled back like this. Just a man playing with his dog in a field. She wondered how often he was able to be this version of himself. The version that wasn’t closed off from the rest of the world, the one that smiled at stupid jokes, and neglected trimming his beard.

 They walked back to the road separated by Princess who proudly carried the tennis ball in her mouth. Killian reattached her pink leash.

 “Well, it was a pleasure. I think my dog enjoyed your company.” Looking down the dog now sat at Emma’s feet, not moving in the opposite direction she and her owner were headed.

 “I enjoyed hers.” Emma bent down to pet the dog on the head but she looked at Killian all the while. “Listen, if you would rather stay with her tonight since she just got here, we can cancel. I understand.”

 When she rose from petting the dog she was very close to him but neither one of them moved.

 “It’s quite all right. She’s visiting with Liam and his family tonight anyway.” Had he told his brother where he was going? And that he was going with her? “He thinks I have a date.”

 Emma gulped. She was sure Killian could read her face. It was in the same way she could read his. Two untrusting people appearing as open books to one another.

 “Of course I don’t think this is an actual date, Emma.” He corrected. Clearly he could tell what she was thinking. They were still awfully close to one another and Emma could feel her heart beating a bit faster when he looked right into her eyes and said, “If I thought it was a date, you’d know it.”

 It was a lot for her but she still didn’t move. She didn’t want to be the first to back down. His tongue darted to the corner of his mouth before his face broke into an amused smile. Oh yeah. He knew what he did to her.

 “I’ll see you later then, Emma.” He spun on his heel and began walking away, his Princess right beside him. Emma couldn’t help but notice a bit of a spring in his step as he walked toward the direction of his hotel.

  The late evening sunset was on the horizon, painting the sky an array of pinks and oranges. Emma packed a small bag of things she may need for the little road trip. Her badge, pictures of the hotel key, flashlight, gun, knife, flash drive, a box of poptarts. She was technically off the clock. But Emma needed to keep moving with things. It was for this very reason she was even going on this excursion to see the motel where Killian’s father had been carrying out an affair. She was bringing Killian because…. She would have to provide herself with an excuse later.

 From what Emma could see on the internet, the motel was sleazy. It was the type of place you took someone you didn’t want the world to know you were seeing. It had been closed down for a while because a prostitution ring was being run out of several of the rooms. Not even a year ago there had been a shooting in the parking lot. Despite all of this, the place was still open for business. She doubted there was any kind of record that would indicate who had been occupying room 38 with Mr. Jones nearly twenty years ago but Emma had to go see what she could find. There had to be something useful.

 She picked up Killian just as the sun was setting. He still appeared tired when he climbed into her car. But he carried two steaming mugs of coffee and handed one to Emma. She was shocked when she took a sip of hers and found that it had the barest hint of cinnamon. She looked over at the passenger seat, astonished that he had even known.

 “Did I not do it right?” He looked concerned and then pissed, “I told the man at the coffee bar, a little bit of cinnamon, just a touch. It’s too much?”

 “How did you know?”

 “That day at the bookstore. Your mother brought you a cup but they had been out of cinnamon…”

 “Thank you.” Was all she could say. It was the most subtle and thoughtful thing someone had done for her in a long time. She almost felt guilty for being so hard on him. Deep down maybe he actually was a gentleman.

 She peeled out of the parking lot and set off on the road. There wasn’t much conversation between the two of them but the silence was comfortable. The miles of highway stretched on as the sun was still fully going down. Emma took large gulps of her coffee so she would be fully awake by the time she got to their destination. When they pulled into the motel it looked worse than it had online. Clearly the photo from the website was from years ago. The foundation appeared to be crumbling, the red paint was chipping off of the wood siding, and the surrounding lawn area was completely overgrown. Only a few cars were in the parking lot, none of them too flashy. Emma was glad they had chosen to take her old rickety bug and not Killian’s Audi.

 “What’s the plan, love?”

 “I need to get into their computer to snag any record they may have so I can look at it on my own.” She knew there was a very good chance a place like this had absolutely no concrete record of who came and who went but she needed to try. “I think it would be best if we just paid for the room. And then we can take a look around.”

 “They are pretty steep prices,” Killian joked indicating the sign that said rates per night were around $50. “Is this on the police department’s dime?”

 “No.” Emma said looking at him, hoping he wouldn’t be angry when she said “The police department doesn’t know that we’re here.”

 “Oh.” He chimed, clearly surprised but did not appear upset. If anything the look that came over his face was amusement. “What a naughty little adventure you’ve dragged me into, Miss Nolan.”

 His use of her formal name brought her back to when they had first met that day at the police station. The stiff, rigid way in which he used to deal with her. He was still guarded, they both were. Perhaps that was why she had asked him to come along today. It was just nice to be around someone who didn’t expect her to reveal herself.

 “You follow your own rules don’t you?” he asked after a few minutes of quiet. She could feel herself doubting whether or not it was a good idea to do this. What if her father found out? What would he say? But they were already here. So she took a deep breath and exited the bug.

 Once inside the lobby of the main building, Killian created a diversion with the man at the front desk, allowing Emma to use drive to collect information from the computer. They cut it close, the man almost returning to the main room a few times but Killian managed to be a decent wingman, keeping him distracted until Emma waved that she was done.

 After that, Emma asked the man to rent the room they wanted to see. She assumed it wouldn’t be odd if they did not stay over, being that places like this were typically used for quick trysts masked by the thin walls and tree coverage. It was set back from the highway. She looked at Killian wondering how he felt being here. Knowing this was probably where his father had brought his lover or perhaps lovers. Of that they were not entirely sure. Had there been just one? Or several?

 “Enjoy.” The creepy man said as he gave them the room key, most likely suspecting the two were here for a quick one and done. As they turned to walk away Emma felt the light press of Killian’s hand on the small of her back.. She jumped at the contact. This was only the second time she had felt his touch, but the current that went through her body unmistakeable as something more than just surprise. He looked down at her, somewhat concerned that she had flinched at his touch. Had he felt it too? Of course not. It was an act. For the man behind the front desk. However, his hand did not move away until Emma was slipping the key card into the slot on the door for the room.

 “Lovely.” Was all Killian said when he walked into the room. Emma took survey of the space and could only think of one word. Decrepit. The single queen sized mattress central to the appeared appeared to be sinking into the floor. The wallpaper, which had probably once been white, were stained a faint yellow. A thick layer of cigarette smell hung in the room despite the ‘No Smoking’ sign that sat atop the tube tv in the corner. There was a single lamp in the room that provided the only light because the one window gave a fantastic view of a brick wall. It certainly was private.

 “I suppose if one was going to have an affair this would be the place.” Emma regarded, taking a few steps further into the room. Killian was already ahead of her, surveying the space. With each step he looked more and more disgusted. No doubt wondering why his father would have chosen this life apart from his mother.

 “They were happy once, you know.” He said after a long time, his hand shooting up to scratch behind his ear. “In love, even.”

 “I’m sure.” Emma tried to come off understanding. It never helped her faith in long term relationships when she knew of stories that ended like this. Not necessarily in murder but in the altogether loss of love for someone. So much so that you feel the only way out is to run off and fuck someone else.

 “Have you ever been in love?” he asked, turning his head toward her. He was across the room. His shoulder leaning against the wall, arms crossed in front.

 Emma thought back to the last time she had felt anything more than general boredom for the men she had dated. It felt like far too long ago. The way Neal had once looked at her, and it seemed like her heart would burst into flames if she had to go without him. That feeling had disappeared. And now when she looked at him she was just reminded of the pain that had come along with the loss of that feeling. Truly feeling like you could place your heart in that person’s hand and trust that they would do nothing but guard it. But that had been long gone. So instead, Emma put her walls up and left nothing to the imagination when she replied to Killian, “No. I have never been in love.”

 He didn’t fight her on it. Didn’t call her out. He took the lie with a grain of salt and continued the peruse the room. He was relatively quiet as he moved. Emma was unsure if it would be better to speak or to just let the silence wash over them. She chose the latter, thinking of what she would want if she were in his position. This dark and confusing man still so shattered by the demons haunting his past. Emma felt silly for even thinking there was something occurring Killian and his lawyer. There so clearly was not. There was nothing between he and anyone. He kept himself alone, save for the presence of his dog. His past far too damaging to proceed with someone new.

 “We can go anytime you like, Killian.” She said, not knowing what else to offer him. “There doesn’t seem to be anything else of value here.”

 “No. There doesn’t.” He looked around the room again before sitting down on the bed and placed his head in his hands, his dark hair peeking through the gaps between fingers. She wanted to offer some sort of comfort to him she really did. But there was nothing she felt she could do that would in any way be appropriate. So instead she settled for sitting on the edge of the grimy mattress next to him. There was more to this than the simple fact of his father’s affair. She knew that when she caught sight of his forearm, the black ink decorating it. She hadn’t noticed before. But now in the dim light of this shitty motel, his sleeve had fallen and she could see. A simple word in delicate script. Grace.

 “Your breakup, the one you rescued the dog after,” she started, remembering what he had said yesterday, knowing she was already walking on shaky ground. “Who was she?”

 He lifted his head up and looked at her, their faces now mere inches apart. Their shoulders were touching but neither one of them moved to correct it. “Someone from long ago.”

 “Grace?” Emma asked, pressing a bit. She recalled the name of the woman she had found in her research of him. The only real relationship the man had ever had. Wondering who this phantom woman was who seemingly made him whole for a time and then re-broke him again.

 “She’s gone.” He was still looking at her. He didn’t bother to ask how she had known the name of his ex-girlfriend. Emma did everything she could to not glance down at his lips, which were a hairsbreadth from her own. “For someone who’s never been in love you’re quite perceptive aren’t you?”

 Her voice was shaky as she looked at him. “Maybe I was. Once.”

   They left the motel, no more progress had been made since they arrived. Other than seeing the actual space where the affair had taken place. But Emma had the information from the computer and that was something she could work with. However unethical it may be. In the case of Killian, it had done more harm than good. Emma felt exceedingly guilty on the car ride back to town later in the day. The only proof he was next to her was when they both went to turn the AC down and reached for the knob at the same time. Their fingers simply grazing over one another but for a touch too long. Electricity shot through Emma. For the second time today. She didn’t bother to look over at him, not wanting to see that his face had returned to the usual smoldering stare he plastered on. When he didn’t want anyone to see beneath his facade. The facade Emma wanted to shatter with all of her might. Because underneath, he was decent to be around. Pleasant sometimes. And she liked that she had gotten to see glimpses of that man.

 “I have to go in and grab a few things. You can wait in the car if you want. It won’t take long.” She offered after she pulled into the parking lot of a nearby Target. Obviously it wasn’t the most convenient time for a trip to the store but they still had a ways to go before they reached Storybrooke and for fucks sake she needed out of the tension between she and Killian that had enveloped her car. She also needed groceries. More importantly the groceries.

 “It’s fine.” He seemed to be weighing his options in his head before saying. “I’ll come along.”

 Inside Emma made quick work of all of the things she needed to get. Mostly she just wanted to make sure Henry had food for breakfast this week when he returned from staying at his father’s. He had been buying breakfast at school and Emma felt like a shitty mother. As the basket grew heavier Killian offered to take it from her, one of the few things to come out of his mouth since leaving the motel. She began to protest then remembered her aching limbs and conceded. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t pissed off about it and he cracked a bit of a smile at her displeasure.

 In line to check out, Emma slid her things down the conveyer belt wanting this process to speed up as fast as it could. Killian had grabbed a few things; some milk, a bag of dogfood, Forbes magazine, and stuck them at the tail end of Emma’s items.

 A woman who appeared behind them in line had been eyeing Killian. There was a small part of Emma that was annoyed. A smart part that grew even larger when the woman had the audacity to place a plastic divider between Emma and Killian’s groceries. To include his in her own. She looked at the woman behind Killian, who was just smiling at him, incredulous at how bold this stranger had been. Granted, he was an attractive man. But still. The nerve.

 Emma was not entirely sure what came over her, perhaps she was inspired by the woman’s boldness to one up her. Emma took the plastic divider, looking the woman right in the eye, and placed it to include Killian’s things in her own again. She felt her face grow hot, flush creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. She was almost entirely sure her face was a bright blush pink as it did when she was flustered. Jesus hopefully he didn’t notice. Before she could return to pay for their things she caught gazes with the man standing next to her. Blue eyes red rimmed with exhaustion but still gorgeous nonetheless. His eyebrows were raised in surprise. The whole exchange had occurred rather quickly but judging from the look on his face he had seen the entire thing.

 By the time they were back in the bug and on the road, neither one of them had said another word to each other. The silence hung thick. Again. They were both clearly thinking about what had happened in line. To Emma, it meant nothing. She wanted it to mean nothing. The wave of defensiveness that came over her was nothing more than a one time thing. Her knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. That’s all it was.

 When they pulled up to his hotel, no more conversation had passed between them. A combination of the events of today, their trip to Target of all places, and general exhaustion had gotten the better of them.

 “Thank you for bringing me along today. I know it didn’t go as you planned.” He started, gathering the grocery bag he had in the back seat. “And thank you for these.” He raised the red bullzeyed bag in front of her with a knowing smirk on his face.

 “Yeah well think of it as a thank you for the helpful information you’ve given me recently.” She could feel a smirk of her own working its way on to her face.

 “Of course, love. You aren’t the only one who wants answers.”

 “I will let you know if anything else comes up. But I’m back in the office Monday and I think Graham has already told your lawyer she wants you and Liam to come in.”

 “Graham?” his face looked a bit puzzled.

 “I mean… Detective Humbert. The man from Boston.” She covered. Perhaps she hadn’t indicated to Killian she was on a first name basis with the man. But then again why would she have needed to?  

 “I will see you then. Good night.” He was getting out of the car now, closing the door as she was just about to say good night he poked his head back in the open passenger side window. “Oh and Emma?”

 “Yes?”

 “Blush looks lovely on you.”

[alexstrick]

Language Learner's Journal: Meaningful Leisure

[This is a continuation of Taylor's blog series where she details some of the week-in-week-out lessons that she learns through her Arabic studies and coaching work together with me. For other posts in the series, click here.] 

If the first phase of my Arabic study in Jordan was intensive textbook fusha and the second was track-switching ammiya classes, this third and current could be called meaningful leisure, or, hanging out around town a lot and making friends. 

When I went to Bombay for an extended stay in 2010, a journalism colleague gave me a piece of advice: "Take everyone up on their offer to hang out with you." It may sound "duh," but over the years living abroad, I've seen how foreigners spend their free time in ways that often diverge from how residents in a given city do so. When we, as gringos in Rio, may have wanted to go to foreign film festivals or paragilding over the beach, many of our Brazilian peers would be going to baby showers, a classmate's thesis defense, or Outback Steakhouse. All of those activities are great ones, and I think the spirit of my colleague's advice was: If you want to get to know a culture, let your host take the lead and show you how they spend their free time.

That means over the past few weeks, I've sat on the sidewalk in front of a gift shop with a delightful young sculptor and a store clerk, my partners in very unstructured language exchanges that break when one of them needs to pop into the shop to attend a client. I went for a 6:30 a.m. workout with two of the fastest runners in Amman, a pair of brothers I met at a sunset race in Wadi Rum as we waited in the dunes watching for headlamps of other runners finishing. I went to a capoeira performance at Jadal cafe that was held in commemoration of the nakba; I was pleased with how accessible the discussion after the performance was for me, particularly when an older man in the audience vigorously questioned the capoeristas as to why they needed to do someone else's sport when they could do dabke.

Alex often talks about "islands" of vocabulary, and I thought about that as I spent more time with the same people and can make good guesses about the words they're using. (As I crossed the finished line at the race, other runners asked me ايش كان مركزك؟ though I certainly hadn't run fast enough to place. It was satisfying, though, to deduce what they were saying.) The store clerk and I talk often about money and salaries, since she hustles to work two jobs to help her family out.

I could be more purist; I speak plenty of English in these interactions. I'm still searching for the point of equilibrium between taking advantage of each opportunity I get to speak in Arabic while (of course!) having genuine friendships with peers with whom I share interests (running, yoga, current events, feminism, vegetarianism, pets). Plenty of the vocabulary and references regarding those topics are in English, not to mention the people who are interested in them often read and speak in English about them. I don't believe every friendship needs to be instrumentalized for one's language-learning goals (though I believe even more strongly that such an attitude should not be a lofty cover for native English speakers kicking back and relaxing). When I told Alex about my happy sidewalk sessions, which qualify more as bilingual shooting-the-shit than a proper language exchange, he said: You're doing the real thing, rather than practicing for it.

Some working notes, now, on practice:

I've been happy with my second time around testing out language exchanges; I've used the website Conversation Exchange, which I had suspected could be out of use by its retro web design but is actually popping. I'm pretty strict about where I meet the person, i.e., it needs to be as quiet as possible (a first exchange at Indoor cafe across from the University of Jordan was really hard to decipher and, from my point of view, turned into disjointed monologues rather than a conversation because I couldn't hear her well).

I think the exchanges, for my current level, are less experimental zones and more consolidation ones. That is to say, I don't risk and try to reach for vocabulary I'm shaky on but work with what I know decently. That's why I like coupling the exchanges with private classes, which I go to twice a week and are a better place for reaching and experimenting. I also think that in a language exchange it is useful to ask my partner "is the way I said that correct?" but not productive to ask "why?" I save those questions for my teacher.

Alex encouraged me to discover certain transition phrases (على فكرة... على كل حال... بالرغم من) and put them into practice in my speech, which give the impression of being more fluent and conversant than I am. This has been a fun exercise with my private teacher, since I take the English phrases I want and try to describe to her a situation that I might use them.

I'm on board with the many lines of criticism telling us that we need to make an active effort to start unplugging our lives before we turn into cyborgs; that said, having a round of friends here I chat with on Facebook or Whatsapp has indeed been great practice for seeing spelled out how people are saying what I hear each day. In conversations, I still feel like I rarely could repeat back word-for-word what someone has said to me, even if I usually get the message through key words and context.

I bought Diwan Baladna, an ammiya vocabulary book organized by subject matter. I really like it – my hope is that it will help me turn a lot of passive vocabulary into active vocabulary. I have a quibble with the audio component (read too fast in long audio files that make it tedious to isolate the word I want. And having sample sentences is far better than English translations!).

And finally, as per Alex's encouragement, I continue to avoid dictionaries and translation apps. I make ample use of Reverso Context, but only after I've read a message or passage several times through, and usually I'm using it to confirm my guess of a word's meaning is true. Especially when it comes to Whatsapp and chatting, the majority of messages I am receiving are ones that involve words I know well (Want to meet at this time? How far did you run today? I have foul and rice my mom made, want some? It's veg.)

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #206: Planet of the Dead

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/timestamp-206-planet-of-the-dead/

Timestamp #206: Planet of the Dead

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (Easter Special, 2009)

  When stingrays attack!

At the International Gallery, a group of armed guards is hard at work protecting a golden goblet. They fire up a fancy security system as they lock up for the night, but the lasers around the perimeter don’t account for an assault from above. A masked figure Mission: Impossibles her way down, exchanges the artifact for a waving Maneki Neko, and runs out. Her accomplice is captured, so she boards a double-decker bus and bribes the driver to help her get away. The Doctor boards right after, sits beside her, and wishes her a happy Easter.

The Doctor muses about various Easters throughout time, including the original event, before a device that detects rhondium particles chirps in his pocket. As the bus traverses a tunnel and a passenger hears screaming voices, the bus leaves Earth and arrives in a vast desert.

The driver declares the bus immobile. True enough, because it’s a wreck. The thief, Christina de Souza, gets to know the Doctor as he analyzes the sand and doesn’t like what he tastes. The passengers blame him for their predicament, but he shows them the wormhole that they passed through. Unfortunately, the wormhole doesn’t allow them to pass through without the bus surrounding them. The driver tries to rush through, but he’s immediately reduced to a skeleton on the other side. The police on Earth immediately call for UNIT to assist.

Christina takes charge of the situation and facilitates introductions all around – Nathan, a young adult with slicked up hair; Barclay, about the same age and the one who confronted the Doctor about their situation; Angela Whittaker, an older blond woman; Louis, who goes by the nickname “Lou”; and his wife, Carmen – before handing the science bits to the Doctor. Carmen has low-level psychic abilities and can hear voices all around them. She also feels death coming.

The Doctor calms the passengers in order to focus them on surviving. He promises to get them all home. They set to work on preparing the bus, including the tools in Christina’s amazing backpack. She’s prepared for everything. While the passengers work on the bus, the Doctor and Christina scout the area. They verbally spar and spot a storm on the horizon. The Doctor borrows a mobile and rigs it to contact UNIT.

UNIT arrives and officer-in-charge Captain Erisa Magambo takes command of the tunnel. She takes the call from the Doctor and makes contact with UNIT’s scientific advisor, one Malcolm Taylor, who completely fanboys out before setting to analyzing the disturbance. The Doctor sends a picture of the storm back to Earth, which Christina says contains sparkling like metal. She also spots an insectile creature that takes them to its crashed ship by gunpoint.

The beings onboard identify themselves as the Tritovores and blame them for crashing their ship. When the Doctor explains that they’re in the same predicament, the Tritovores decide to trust him. In return, the Doctor restores their shipboard power and launches a probe. The sand planet is San Helios, located in the Scorpion Nebula, and the aliens had been on their way to trade with the inhabitants. Unfortunately, the city has been destroyed. All of it, including the 100 billion inhabitants, have been reduced to sand, and Carmen keeps hearing them die over and again.

Malcolm Taylor calls again with news that the wormhole is expanding. The Doctor also gets bad news from Nathan: The bus is out of fuel. Capping the unfortunate circumstances, the probe relays images of the storm. It is full of stingray-like creatures that stripped San Helios and have set their appetites on Earth.

The Doctor deduces that the stingrays, which are made of metal, travel fast enough to rip open the wormhole and travel from place to place. Christina, who is enamored by the Doctor and his alien nature, points the Time Lord to the Tritovores and their ship. The Doctor develops a plan to use the ship to move the bus. While the Doctor tries patching wires throughout the ship, Christina uses her rogue’s rig to dive into the shaft after a much-needed crystal.

While Christina retrieves the crystal, the Doctor muses about her nature (and similarities to Donna Noble) and the stolen goblet (the Cup of Athelstan) in her pack. The Doctor doesn’t approve of her thievery at first but admits that he stole his ship, the TARDIS, to begin his travels. As Christina retrieves the crystal, she awakens a stingray living in the ship’s ventilation system. She successfully evades it, but the rest start tearing apart the ship.

The Doctor and Christina run back to the bus with the storm in pursuit. When they get back, the Doctor orders everybody back to their seats as he discards the crystal and attaches the clamps surrounding it to the bus. He calls Malcolm, requesting a means to close the wormhole, but is stymied by the interface of the bus and crystal systems. They use the goblet, worth 18 million pounds, to bridge the technology. Destructively, to Christina’s chagrin.

On Earth, Captain Magambo orders Malcolm to close the wormhole to save Earth. In the desert, the Doctor gets the bus airborne with the anti-gravity clamps and rockets away from the stingrays. The bus returns home followed by three of the stingrays. Magambo orders her troops to open fire as Malcolm (with the Dcotor’s help) closes the portal.

The UNIT troops and their explosive solutions make short work of the three stingrays. Meanwhile, the Doctor sets the bus down at the tunnel’s exit and gets a kiss from Christina for his efforts. Malcolm meets the Doctor and fanboys all over the place while Christina is taken away. The Doctor recommends Nathan and Barclay for UNIT service and Magambo shows his the TARDIS, retrieved from the gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Christina asks the Doctor if she can travel with him, but he rejects her. She has to face the consequences of her actions and he’s not ready to lose another companion. Never again, in fact. While Christina is taken away, Carmen leaves him with some parting words: His song is ending, it is returning through the dark, and he will knock four times.

Carmen takes her leave and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to free Christina. While she runs for the bus and flies away, the Doctor departs in the TARDIS.

  This tale does wonders for the Doctor’s character development while providing an entertaining and riveting story. The revelation that he stole the TARDIS appears in the revival era for the first time – it had been previously mentioned in The War Games, Frontier in Space, and Logopolis – and does him well on the road to accepting Lady Christina. Of course, he still isn’t over Donna’s tragic departure, so there’s no way that she’s joining him on the TARDIS. Just like Mr. Copper in Voyage of the Damned, the Doctor rejected her.

Christina is a character that I wouldn’t mind returning to the show, particularly given her chemistry with the Doctor. A criminal and a member of the British aristocracy, she would be a fun addition to the show.

The revival era continues linking back to its heritage, this time with the K1 Robot, Quatermass, and UNIT’s general lack of luck with bullets against aliens.

This episode was a major milestone in the franchise, marking not only the 200th storyline but the first to be filmed for high definition. It was also the first to film in a Middle Eastern country.

Finally, the path is laid at the Doctor’s feet for his own demise. The end is coming.

  Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

  Keeping in mind that the Timestamps Project is following the franchise chronologically at this point…

  UP NEXT – Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day One

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

[jimdsmith34]

Martin Landau on His Relationship With Marilyn Monroe, Playing Gay for Hitchcock, and His Oscars Triumph

For Martin Landau, the turning point came when he found himself watching the 1984 Academy Awards, “having a beer in my underwear, saying: ‘I should be there.’”

In 2012, Landau—then 84—recalled this to me in an interview for the Times of London as the moment he knew he wanted to save his career.

Starring roles as a Hitchcock villain or in the TV series of Mission: Impossible were lost to the mists of time. Agents had told Landau he was “finished.”

“It was frustrating. I knew what I was able to do, I was at the height of my powers but no one was giving me the chance,” the charming and wry Landau told me. And so his fightback began, not simply for recognition and glory, but also just to act—his true and abiding passion.

The career of the Academy Award-winning actor—who died Sunday at 89 after unexpected complications during a stay at the UCLA Medical Center—spanned many generations, many peaks and troughs, and many characters on our TV and cinema screens.

Perhaps you remember him as Rollin Hand in the original TV series of Mission: Impossible (for which Landau won a TV Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star in 1968), or—as it is for me—the tunic-wearing silver fox Commander John Koenig in the 1970s drama Space: 1999.

Yet, as that 1984 nadir showed, Landau’s career was uneven to say the least, going from playing the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959)—which he later told me he deliberately played as a gay man—to a role in the 1981 TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island.

The serious movie awards came later in Landau’s life, after he had roused himself from the mid-1980s doldrums.

First came a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination, for his performance as a financier in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau’s second Oscar nomination came for playing a shifty and panicked adulterer in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

He finally won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), and he won the corresponding Golden Globe for that too, as well as many other laurels. Landau also amassed six Emmy nominations, including one for appearing in Entourage.

“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Landau told me of winning the Oscar. There are wonderful pictures of him kissing the statuette and giving a humble salute as he holds it. That humility, and a gentleness, was evident the day we met.

“I felt I knew Lugosi,” Landau told me. “Like him I had worked for good directors and terrible directors. I went thinking I was going to have a nice dinner and probably be miserable at the end of the night.”

“When I win you can see Samuel L. Jackson [nominated for Pulp Fiction] say ‘Shit,’ probably the most honest reaction one can have.”

When I met Landau in 2012, it was connected to Burton’s Frankenweenie, the first black and white animation shot in 3-D, which had just been released.

In what was a remake of a 1984 Burton short film, Landau voiced a science teacher who, by electrocuting a dead frog into life, inspired a 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein in ’60s American suburbia to reanimate his beloved dead dog.

Naturally, chaos of the comic and fairly gruesome kind ensued, all the magnificently weird visions of Burton distilled into a unique format; the 3-D element making it particularly eye-popping for cinema audiences.

Landau was happy: Though he was a well-known name, his fame was not of the supersonic kind enjoyed by his one-time best friend James Dean or his one-time paramour Marilyn Monroe. Landau was a link to old Hollywood, and after a career that zig-zagged around film and TV, in his later years he finally gained critical lionization.

And so, of course, Landau had tales to tell in a nondescript conference room of his agent Dick Guttman’s Los Angeles office, all in his magnificently gravelly voice. He was both warm, wonderful company and a candid raconteur.

Meeting Marilyn

He had met Monroe—she a couple of years his senior—under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.

“She was there because she was dissatisfied,” Landau told me. “People perceived her as a Hollywood blonde bimbo. She was very needy and would go from being on top of her game to absolutely bereft of any self-belief or confidence. She see-sawed between those two personalities.”

Landau told me that when he and Monroe would go to the theater, she would change her outfits many times. “We’d never see the first act of the play.”

I asked if he desired her. “She was terrific… I don’t talk about those things,” he replied quietly.

Did he have a relationship with her, I asked.

“I had a relationship with her. It was just before Arthur [Miller, the playwright; he and Monroe married in 1956]. It was an interesting relationship, I look at it very differently than the way I did then. She was incredibly attractive but very difficult.”

I asked how he coped with that. “You can’t. That’s why I didn’t.” It lasted “several months,” he said, he not able to negotiate the poles of her personality. “Yeah, you didn’t know which one would show up in the middle of something.” I asked if he ended the relationship. “I did, by becoming more busy.” Was she upset by that? “I don’t know, probably. I didn’t want to upset her.” Because she was fragile? “Yes. I busied myself with other things.”

After the relationship ended, Landau and Monroe saw each other “a couple of times in passing” in New York and Los Angeles, he told me.

I asked Landau if he was in love with Monroe.

“I don’t know if I was in love with her or fascinated by her or flattered by her. She was incredibly attractive and fun to be with much of the time. When she wasn’t she wasn’t. I mean, that was the problem. She could get very withdrawn.”

Did he want to marry her, I asked. “No, no. It was almost a form of purgatory. I never knew who [ie, which Marilyn] I was going to be with.”

Landau told me he had been changing planes in Rome in 1962 when he read that Monroe had died.

“I was heartbroken. As the mystery unfolded I was more and more shocked. It didn’t seem possible that she killed herself intentionally. It was possible she took more barbiturates than necessary, just losing count, or possibly it was foul play. Nobody knows.”

‘Martin, You Have a Circus Going on Inside You’

Landau grew up in Brooklyn: his father had been a machinist; his mother, he told me, took him to the movies. He was sensitive, and loved acting and drawing. When he listened to radio dramas like The Shadow with Orson Welles, it “allowed you to create a set of images and characters.”

Landau studied art at the Pratt Institute and became a cartoonist for the Daily News in New York. (“Tim and I work well together,” Landau said of Burton. “I understand him, we both started as cartoonists.”)

Landau quit that job after seeing a friend act and deciding he could do better. He attended the Actors Studio (Steve McQueen was a fellow student), and later he became its artistic director, tutoring such stars as Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. He headed the Hollywood branch until his death.

Hitchcock saw Landau’s stage performance in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night and cast him in North by Northwest (1959), saying: “Martin, you have a circus going on inside you. Obviously if you can do that part you can play this little trinket.”

In the movie, Landau’s character wants to get rid of Eva Marie Saint’s because, Landau decided, his character “had to be gay; she was interfering with his relationship” with James Mason’s character. “I made it subtle; I knew in big cities they’d get it. Hitch loved it. People told me: ‘Don’t play gay. It will affect your career.’ I said: ‘I’m an actor.’”

He recalled to me meeting his friend James Dean—“he was a farm boy, I was a New Yorker”—at an open casting call. Dean asked him how the process worked, and Landau, observing how different they looked, deduced they would not compete for roles.

Regarding Monroe and Dean’s early deaths, Landau told me: “It’s so hard because everyone else I’ve known who died got old—they’re both frozen in time.”

Landau was married to the actress Barbara Bain from 1957 until their divorce in 1993: a “natural end,” he told me.

They had met at an acting class, and Space: 1999 fans will remember they starred opposite each other in that show. (They had first starred alongside one another in Mission: Impossible.) Landau is survived by Bain and their two daughters Susie and Juliet.

Facing Ageism in Hollywood

Landau cherished his late-career renaissance. “Ageism is something that does exist,” he told Deadline in April. “As a young actor, I was working much more readily, and being offered more things. I don’t like to do what I call ‘the grunters’—a character who sits at a table and grunts, and young people make fun of. I turn a lot of those down. I like a character that is still alive, and is necessarily thinking, and either grows or diminishes, or whatever.”

As for never making the A-list, Landau seemed sanguine. “I think it would have held me back in a certain way,” he told me. “I played a wide variety of roles.” Others had “great careers and became major stars, but I played more things, had more fun, and I’m still doing it.”

Indeed he was. After Frankenweenie came more roles: in The Red Maple Leaf with Kris Kristofferson and James Caan; Remember, alongside Christopher Plummer; and, most recently, The Last Poker Game opposite Paul Sorvino. Three other projects are listed at various stages of production on Landau’s IMDb page: Herstory, Without Ward, and Nate & Al.

‘An Actor’s Actor’

When it came time to say farewell that day in 2012, Landau told me he had greatly enjoyed our conversation. He suggested to me and to Guttman that, should he ever come to write it, would I like to work on his memoir with him?

Nothing ever came to pass, although I was extremely heartened to read tonight, via Deadline, that Landau had been working on a memoir at the time of his death. A documentary, appropriately titled An Actor’s Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is also apparently in development.

Landau was both quite the storyteller and also a true actor's actor, so both projects, should they reach fruition will be fascinating. Landau believed in acting, rather than stardom, passionately—as both craft and vocation. That might explain his longevity and late-in-life triumphs. It certainly illuminates why it was an honor and pleasure to meet and spend time with Martin Landau.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/11/02/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with-marilyn-monroe-playing-gay-for-hitchcock-and-his-oscars-triumph/ from All of Beer http://allofbeer.blogspot.com/2017/11/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with.html

[adambstingus]

Martin Landau on His Relationship With Marilyn Monroe, Playing Gay for Hitchcock, and His Oscars Triumph

For Martin Landau, the turning point came when he found himself watching the 1984 Academy Awards, “having a beer in my underwear, saying: ‘I should be there.’”

In 2012, Landau—then 84—recalled this to me in an interview for the Times of London as the moment he knew he wanted to save his career.

Starring roles as a Hitchcock villain or in the TV series of Mission: Impossible were lost to the mists of time. Agents had told Landau he was “finished.”

“It was frustrating. I knew what I was able to do, I was at the height of my powers but no one was giving me the chance,” the charming and wry Landau told me. And so his fightback began, not simply for recognition and glory, but also just to act—his true and abiding passion.

The career of the Academy Award-winning actor—who died Sunday at 89 after unexpected complications during a stay at the UCLA Medical Center—spanned many generations, many peaks and troughs, and many characters on our TV and cinema screens.

Perhaps you remember him as Rollin Hand in the original TV series of Mission: Impossible (for which Landau won a TV Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star in 1968), or—as it is for me—the tunic-wearing silver fox Commander John Koenig in the 1970s drama Space: 1999.

Yet, as that 1984 nadir showed, Landau’s career was uneven to say the least, going from playing the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959)—which he later told me he deliberately played as a gay man—to a role in the 1981 TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island.

The serious movie awards came later in Landau’s life, after he had roused himself from the mid-1980s doldrums.

First came a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination, for his performance as a financier in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau’s second Oscar nomination came for playing a shifty and panicked adulterer in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

He finally won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), and he won the corresponding Golden Globe for that too, as well as many other laurels. Landau also amassed six Emmy nominations, including one for appearing in Entourage.

“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Landau told me of winning the Oscar. There are wonderful pictures of him kissing the statuette and giving a humble salute as he holds it. That humility, and a gentleness, was evident the day we met.

“I felt I knew Lugosi,” Landau told me. “Like him I had worked for good directors and terrible directors. I went thinking I was going to have a nice dinner and probably be miserable at the end of the night.”

“When I win you can see Samuel L. Jackson [nominated for Pulp Fiction] say ‘Shit,’ probably the most honest reaction one can have.”

When I met Landau in 2012, it was connected to Burton’s Frankenweenie, the first black and white animation shot in 3-D, which had just been released.

In what was a remake of a 1984 Burton short film, Landau voiced a science teacher who, by electrocuting a dead frog into life, inspired a 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein in ’60s American suburbia to reanimate his beloved dead dog.

Naturally, chaos of the comic and fairly gruesome kind ensued, all the magnificently weird visions of Burton distilled into a unique format; the 3-D element making it particularly eye-popping for cinema audiences.

Landau was happy: Though he was a well-known name, his fame was not of the supersonic kind enjoyed by his one-time best friend James Dean or his one-time paramour Marilyn Monroe. Landau was a link to old Hollywood, and after a career that zig-zagged around film and TV, in his later years he finally gained critical lionization.

And so, of course, Landau had tales to tell in a nondescript conference room of his agent Dick Guttman’s Los Angeles office, all in his magnificently gravelly voice. He was both warm, wonderful company and a candid raconteur.

Meeting Marilyn

He had met Monroe—she a couple of years his senior—under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.

“She was there because she was dissatisfied,” Landau told me. “People perceived her as a Hollywood blonde bimbo. She was very needy and would go from being on top of her game to absolutely bereft of any self-belief or confidence. She see-sawed between those two personalities.”

Landau told me that when he and Monroe would go to the theater, she would change her outfits many times. “We’d never see the first act of the play.”

I asked if he desired her. “She was terrific… I don’t talk about those things,” he replied quietly.

Did he have a relationship with her, I asked.

“I had a relationship with her. It was just before Arthur [Miller, the playwright; he and Monroe married in 1956]. It was an interesting relationship, I look at it very differently than the way I did then. She was incredibly attractive but very difficult.”

I asked how he coped with that. “You can’t. That’s why I didn’t.” It lasted “several months,” he said, he not able to negotiate the poles of her personality. “Yeah, you didn’t know which one would show up in the middle of something.” I asked if he ended the relationship. “I did, by becoming more busy.” Was she upset by that? “I don’t know, probably. I didn’t want to upset her.” Because she was fragile? “Yes. I busied myself with other things.”

After the relationship ended, Landau and Monroe saw each other “a couple of times in passing” in New York and Los Angeles, he told me.

I asked Landau if he was in love with Monroe.

“I don’t know if I was in love with her or fascinated by her or flattered by her. She was incredibly attractive and fun to be with much of the time. When she wasn’t she wasn’t. I mean, that was the problem. She could get very withdrawn.”

Did he want to marry her, I asked. “No, no. It was almost a form of purgatory. I never knew who [ie, which Marilyn] I was going to be with.”

Landau told me he had been changing planes in Rome in 1962 when he read that Monroe had died.

“I was heartbroken. As the mystery unfolded I was more and more shocked. It didn’t seem possible that she killed herself intentionally. It was possible she took more barbiturates than necessary, just losing count, or possibly it was foul play. Nobody knows.”

‘Martin, You Have a Circus Going on Inside You’

Landau grew up in Brooklyn: his father had been a machinist; his mother, he told me, took him to the movies. He was sensitive, and loved acting and drawing. When he listened to radio dramas like The Shadow with Orson Welles, it “allowed you to create a set of images and characters.”

Landau studied art at the Pratt Institute and became a cartoonist for the Daily News in New York. (“Tim and I work well together,” Landau said of Burton. “I understand him, we both started as cartoonists.”)

Landau quit that job after seeing a friend act and deciding he could do better. He attended the Actors Studio (Steve McQueen was a fellow student), and later he became its artistic director, tutoring such stars as Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. He headed the Hollywood branch until his death.

Hitchcock saw Landau’s stage performance in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night and cast him in North by Northwest (1959), saying: “Martin, you have a circus going on inside you. Obviously if you can do that part you can play this little trinket.”

In the movie, Landau’s character wants to get rid of Eva Marie Saint’s because, Landau decided, his character “had to be gay; she was interfering with his relationship” with James Mason’s character. “I made it subtle; I knew in big cities they’d get it. Hitch loved it. People told me: ‘Don’t play gay. It will affect your career.’ I said: ‘I’m an actor.’”

He recalled to me meeting his friend James Dean—“he was a farm boy, I was a New Yorker”—at an open casting call. Dean asked him how the process worked, and Landau, observing how different they looked, deduced they would not compete for roles.

Regarding Monroe and Dean’s early deaths, Landau told me: “It’s so hard because everyone else I’ve known who died got old—they’re both frozen in time.”

Landau was married to the actress Barbara Bain from 1957 until their divorce in 1993: a “natural end,” he told me.

They had met at an acting class, and Space: 1999 fans will remember they starred opposite each other in that show. (They had first starred alongside one another in Mission: Impossible.) Landau is survived by Bain and their two daughters Susie and Juliet.

Facing Ageism in Hollywood

Landau cherished his late-career renaissance. “Ageism is something that does exist,” he told Deadline in April. “As a young actor, I was working much more readily, and being offered more things. I don’t like to do what I call ‘the grunters’—a character who sits at a table and grunts, and young people make fun of. I turn a lot of those down. I like a character that is still alive, and is necessarily thinking, and either grows or diminishes, or whatever.”

As for never making the A-list, Landau seemed sanguine. “I think it would have held me back in a certain way,” he told me. “I played a wide variety of roles.” Others had “great careers and became major stars, but I played more things, had more fun, and I’m still doing it.”

Indeed he was. After Frankenweenie came more roles: in The Red Maple Leaf with Kris Kristofferson and James Caan; Remember, alongside Christopher Plummer; and, most recently, The Last Poker Game opposite Paul Sorvino. Three other projects are listed at various stages of production on Landau’s IMDb page: Herstory, Without Ward, and Nate & Al.

‘An Actor’s Actor’

When it came time to say farewell that day in 2012, Landau told me he had greatly enjoyed our conversation. He suggested to me and to Guttman that, should he ever come to write it, would I like to work on his memoir with him?

Nothing ever came to pass, although I was extremely heartened to read tonight, via Deadline, that Landau had been working on a memoir at the time of his death. A documentary, appropriately titled An Actor’s Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is also apparently in development.

Landau was both quite the storyteller and also a true actor’s actor, so both projects, should they reach fruition will be fascinating. Landau believed in acting, rather than stardom, passionately—as both craft and vocation. That might explain his longevity and late-in-life triumphs. It certainly illuminates why it was an honor and pleasure to meet and spend time with Martin Landau.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/11/02/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with-marilyn-monroe-playing-gay-for-hitchcock-and-his-oscars-triumph/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/167043370892

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Conjuring 3 (2020) - Plot, Cast, Trailer, And Release Date - EVERYTHING You Need To Know

We live in uncertain times.

Will Trump be impeached?

Will Boris Johnson win his electoral majority?

Will Brexit actually happen?

As we draw closer to 2020, it is safe to say that we do indeed live in uncertain times. Yet, amongst the confusion and complexity that politics has spat out at the world, there is one thing for sure:

The Conjuring 3 is going to hit theatres on September 11th 2020.

And alas, the uncertainty commences once again.

What’s it going to be about?

Who’s been cast?

When’s the trailer going to be released?

Well that’s why I’m here, Boo. I’ve compiled EVERYTHING you need to know about the 8th instalment in one of the biggest cinematic universes to date.

Today’s post is going to cover what’s been officially confirmed, the rumours swirling regarding this film, the possible plots, and the release date for the teaser trailer and official trailer release.

Settle in folks…

And let’s get spooky.

What Do We Already Know About The Conjuring 3?

As will all films, small scraps of plotlines, cast lists, and release dates have been left tangled up on the internet for us obsessives to unravel.

We know The Conjuring 3 is coming out on September 11th 2020.

We know that filming began in June and took place in Georgia.

And we know that - as with all of the Conjuring’s cinematic universe - this film is once again based on one of the real life paranormal investigations conducted by Ed and Lorraine Warren.

However, we do not know the exact investigation in question. Occasional whispers on the internet and the odd quote from those working on the film have given us hints to two possible plotlines: a werewolf, and a murder which cited possession as a defence. 

The cast list also gives us greater insight into a possible plot!

(And by insight I mean there is very little to make guesswork of.)

Once again Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmigo return to the screen as your favourite paranormal dream team, and are joined by a variety of new faces:

A younger Ed and Lorraine feature in this flick, suggesting a flashback to a previous case or perhaps a more personal reflection takes centre stage of this film.

Acting alongside them is a plethora of characters engaged in law enforcement: prison guards, inmates, judges… All of which point to a murder case which will be discussed later on in this post. 

One the other hand, 2 witches are also cited in the cast list. This instead points to the former rumoured plot that will too be explored in this post.

And finally, we know that James Wan will not be directing this flick.

The mastermind behind The Conjuring’s saga will instead help produce it, and the writer of Orphan and The Conjuring 2 will co-write the latest instalment. 

What Is The Plot Of The Conjuring 3?

In case you can’t read (if so how in the hell have you been reading this post), there are 2 rumours behind the plot of The Conjuring 3. 

But Boo, you know I got you.

I’m going to take you through every single rumour, and then explain the real paranormal backstories to the cases. 

Vera Farmigo was the first to ignite the rumours running since The Conjuring 2 hit theatres: she mentioned the third film will revolve around a werewolf. 

She then followed up this statement by saying that this concept may have been cancelled; nevertheless, the story behind this is worthy of a 2 hour movie bullet holed with jumpscares.

This is the story of the Southend Werewolf.

Just like the original Conjuring film, the story starts with an object found in the Warren’s house. Indeed, it is a book they wrote themselves - Werewolf: A Tale of Demonic Possession. 

It starts in 1952. 

A 9 year old boy, William Ramsay, suddenly felt an icy shiver take over his body, a smell like rotting meat float around him, and an aggression overcome his mind. He was shivering, he was growling, he was intune to his senses.

He had - or so he claimed - become a werewolf. 

He then finished up his transformation by ripping a fencepost out of his garden. 

Super-human strong was often reported whenever this would overcome him, confirming that all these signs bear a similarity to cases of demonic possession. 

Other events of turning into a werewolf bear similar resemblance, including him attempting to attack and kidnap a prostitute and biting doctors attempting to restrain him. After every event, Ramsay would fail to remember the attacks. 

He even checked himself into a mental hospital in an attempt to get to the bottom of his affliction in the 1980s. 

They found no explanation for these events.

And it was following these similar cases of him ‘turning’ - including one that involved the police and splashed his story across the papers - that the Warrens decided to pay him a visit whilst in London. 

They deduced that this was a Demon Animal Spirit. Having been suspicious of his claims prior to their investigation, they then claimed an exorcism was required. 

So, Ramsay was flown out to the USA, and an exorcism performed by Bishop McKenna occurred. 

At first, the exorcism did fuck all. But it was only when the bishop touched his forward and asked the demon to reveal itself that Ramsay once again began to turn. 

That was the final time that Ramsay ever became a werewolf.

And so the book was written and this chapter of his life was closed.

Oh, and at the end of Annabelle Comes Home, a werewolf like demon appears. And given The Conjuring’s love for a closely tied cinematic universe, perhaps this doggo will be returning to a theatre near you...

The next story is The Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson

This was the first case in US history from which demonic possession was used a defence in a murder trial. 

James Wan actually confirmed that this was the centre of the movie’s plot - but a twist is never too far up The Conjuring’s writers’ sleeves…

The story starts with the Johnson family clearing out a house they had just rented.

David - then 12 years old - claimed an old man appeared, and would physically push him and attempt to scare him in a beast-like form whilst he was not muttering Latin. 

The old man also vowed to harm the family and steal David’s soul is they stayed. 

So, just like my second year uni flat?

Alongside noises in the attic, David’s frequent night terrors, scratches and bruises on David’s body were strange behaviours which was deduced as paranormal activity.

So, a catholic priest was called and the house blessed.

Unfortunately, this provoked the activity to then worsen. 

And so they gave the Warrens a ring and waited for their verdict.

Lorraine immediately noted a black mist by David - and if that doesn’t tell you its demonic, I don’t know what will. Invisible hands beating David were also cited by family members, as well as growls, hisses, and him reciting the bible and excerpts from Paradise Lost. 

Convulsions in the night, spasms as he slept… It bears a striking similarity to The Exorcist!

Following 3 exorcisms, David went through phases of levitation, not breathing, and even demonstrated a newfound ability to predict the future. Indeed, he predicted the murder that would be at the centre of this story. 

Due to the danger David was reportedly in, Arne - his father - asked the demon to possess him, instead.

The demon agreed.

Having taken control of his car and causing him to collide with a tree, they then met once again in the rental property. Once making eye contact with the demon - something that was warned against by the Warrens - he was fully possessed.

Fit with behaviour similar to that of a possessed David, he would fall into trances, growling and hallucinating. Once they were over, he would forget they occurred.

It is here that we must note the reflection of this story in The Southend Werewolf.

(Yes, I wrote ‘airport’ first instead of werewolf.)

This would build up towards the murder of their landlord, Alan Bono. The murder that was supposedly caused by the demonic possession is a simple and short story - not to ignore the sheer brutality of it, that is.

A 9 year old relative of Arne’s had essentially been held captive by Alan Bono whilst he was heavily drunk. Johnson in an attempt to save her stabbed Bono repeatedly with a pocket knife.

Not only did he growl throughout the attack, the 5 stab wounds were so graphic that one even stretched from his stomach to the base of his heart. 

Only 24 hours later, Lorraine Warren informed the police that Johnson had been possessed throughout the event, and made the initial claims that it was the demon that caused the murder.

Arne’s legal team focused on the possible paranormal influences, attempting to involve lawyers who had fought in similar cases in the UK, and even planned to fly in exorcism specialists to encourage a not-guilty result.

They then threatened subpoenas to the priests who carried out the exorcisms is they didn’t serve to defend him.

Yet despite the attempts to clear his name, the jury didn’t accept his claims.

He was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years, and only served 5. 

This will not be the first time that this case has been replayed on a cinematic level.

What Other Cases Of The Warrens Could It Be Based On?

If there’s one thing that Mean Girls taught me, it’s that rumours should always be taken with a grain of salt.

(Oh, and that I’m a mouse, duh!)

That’s why I’ve decided to consider the other possible cases that could position themselves as the plot-line.

And no, I won’t be including the other cases that have featured in previous instalments of this series, such as Annabelle the haunted doll, nor the Perron family farmhouse, or even the Enfield Haunting.

1. The Amityville Haunting

Not only did it feature in the beginning of the second Conjuring, it’s had enough documentation in the media. From documentaries, to horror films, to Ryan Reynolds…

God, just let it die. 

By anyway: the story goes that in 1974 a man shot every single member of his family, murdering them in cold blood.

Once a new family had been moved in, they began to witness paranormal activity, suggesting the former residents - including the murderer - had been led to this violent end. So, could supernatural forces be behind the murders?

2. The Snedecker House

In 1986 a family moved into a house that was previously a crematorium. From personality changes in their son, to sexual attacks and apparitions, the Warrens concluded that this house was haunted.

In fact, they even deemed the house possessed!

However, it was discovered that the son - who was at the centre of the activity - was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And so, bound by conflicting stories and a hostile familial atmosphere, the story was sensationalised to a high degree. Claims of debunking stick close to this case.

3. The Smurl Haunting

A lesser known example of paranormal - or rather, demonic activity - the Smurls was also a family who were tormented by otherworldly forces. 

Sexual assault, shaking mattresses, people being pushed down the stairs, loud noises, bad smells and family pets being through against the wall…

Lord, it’s a messy one.

That is until the Warrens rock up! Wait, it gets worse?

Writing on mirrors telling them to get out, dark masses appearing, knocking and rapping caught on audiotape - this demon was busy.

When’s The Trailer Going To Be Released?

I hate maths.

I hate using a calculator, I hate using excel, and I hate having to add up my grocery bill in my head and consequently praying if I can afford it.

I need to budget goat’s cheese in my bank balance, okay, do you know the struggle?

But I’m gon’ be getting some good karma tonight.

I’ve done the maths, Boo. I know when the teaser trailer is coming out. And I know when the official trailer is coming out. 

I not only deduced the average industry-wide gap between trailer and theatrical release, I worked out the average gap for the Conjuring’s universe.

Pull out your calendars, lads! It’s time to schedule your life around these key dates:

The teaser trailer is out in early march.

And the official trailer will hit YouTube May 8th 2020.

Living For This Post? Then You’ll Love These Ones, Too:

7 Reasons The Nun Is The Best Feminist Film Ever. 

6 Ways Midsommar (2019) is Based on Real Life

[samanthasroberts]

Martin Landau on His Relationship With Marilyn Monroe, Playing Gay for Hitchcock, and His Oscars Triumph

For Martin Landau, the turning point came when he found himself watching the 1984 Academy Awards, “having a beer in my underwear, saying: ‘I should be there.’”

In 2012, Landau—then 84—recalled this to me in an interview for the Times of London as the moment he knew he wanted to save his career.

Starring roles as a Hitchcock villain or in the TV series of Mission: Impossible were lost to the mists of time. Agents had told Landau he was “finished.”

“It was frustrating. I knew what I was able to do, I was at the height of my powers but no one was giving me the chance,” the charming and wry Landau told me. And so his fightback began, not simply for recognition and glory, but also just to act—his true and abiding passion.

The career of the Academy Award-winning actor—who died Sunday at 89 after unexpected complications during a stay at the UCLA Medical Center—spanned many generations, many peaks and troughs, and many characters on our TV and cinema screens.

Perhaps you remember him as Rollin Hand in the original TV series of Mission: Impossible (for which Landau won a TV Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star in 1968), or—as it is for me—the tunic-wearing silver fox Commander John Koenig in the 1970s drama Space: 1999.

Yet, as that 1984 nadir showed, Landau’s career was uneven to say the least, going from playing the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959)—which he later told me he deliberately played as a gay man—to a role in the 1981 TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island.

The serious movie awards came later in Landau’s life, after he had roused himself from the mid-1980s doldrums.

First came a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination, for his performance as a financier in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau’s second Oscar nomination came for playing a shifty and panicked adulterer in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

He finally won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), and he won the corresponding Golden Globe for that too, as well as many other laurels. Landau also amassed six Emmy nominations, including one for appearing in Entourage.

“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Landau told me of winning the Oscar. There are wonderful pictures of him kissing the statuette and giving a humble salute as he holds it. That humility, and a gentleness, was evident the day we met.

“I felt I knew Lugosi,” Landau told me. “Like him I had worked for good directors and terrible directors. I went thinking I was going to have a nice dinner and probably be miserable at the end of the night.”

“When I win you can see Samuel L. Jackson [nominated for Pulp Fiction] say ‘Shit,’ probably the most honest reaction one can have.”

When I met Landau in 2012, it was connected to Burton’s Frankenweenie, the first black and white animation shot in 3-D, which had just been released.

In what was a remake of a 1984 Burton short film, Landau voiced a science teacher who, by electrocuting a dead frog into life, inspired a 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein in ’60s American suburbia to reanimate his beloved dead dog.

Naturally, chaos of the comic and fairly gruesome kind ensued, all the magnificently weird visions of Burton distilled into a unique format; the 3-D element making it particularly eye-popping for cinema audiences.

Landau was happy: Though he was a well-known name, his fame was not of the supersonic kind enjoyed by his one-time best friend James Dean or his one-time paramour Marilyn Monroe. Landau was a link to old Hollywood, and after a career that zig-zagged around film and TV, in his later years he finally gained critical lionization.

And so, of course, Landau had tales to tell in a nondescript conference room of his agent Dick Guttman’s Los Angeles office, all in his magnificently gravelly voice. He was both warm, wonderful company and a candid raconteur.

Meeting Marilyn

He had met Monroe—she a couple of years his senior—under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.

“She was there because she was dissatisfied,” Landau told me. “People perceived her as a Hollywood blonde bimbo. She was very needy and would go from being on top of her game to absolutely bereft of any self-belief or confidence. She see-sawed between those two personalities.”

Landau told me that when he and Monroe would go to the theater, she would change her outfits many times. “We’d never see the first act of the play.”

I asked if he desired her. “She was terrific… I don’t talk about those things,” he replied quietly.

Did he have a relationship with her, I asked.

“I had a relationship with her. It was just before Arthur [Miller, the playwright; he and Monroe married in 1956]. It was an interesting relationship, I look at it very differently than the way I did then. She was incredibly attractive but very difficult.”

I asked how he coped with that. “You can’t. That’s why I didn’t.” It lasted “several months,” he said, he not able to negotiate the poles of her personality. “Yeah, you didn’t know which one would show up in the middle of something.” I asked if he ended the relationship. “I did, by becoming more busy.” Was she upset by that? “I don’t know, probably. I didn’t want to upset her.” Because she was fragile? “Yes. I busied myself with other things.”

After the relationship ended, Landau and Monroe saw each other “a couple of times in passing” in New York and Los Angeles, he told me.

I asked Landau if he was in love with Monroe.

“I don’t know if I was in love with her or fascinated by her or flattered by her. She was incredibly attractive and fun to be with much of the time. When she wasn’t she wasn’t. I mean, that was the problem. She could get very withdrawn.”

Did he want to marry her, I asked. “No, no. It was almost a form of purgatory. I never knew who [ie, which Marilyn] I was going to be with.”

Landau told me he had been changing planes in Rome in 1962 when he read that Monroe had died.

“I was heartbroken. As the mystery unfolded I was more and more shocked. It didn’t seem possible that she killed herself intentionally. It was possible she took more barbiturates than necessary, just losing count, or possibly it was foul play. Nobody knows.”

‘Martin, You Have a Circus Going on Inside You’

Landau grew up in Brooklyn: his father had been a machinist; his mother, he told me, took him to the movies. He was sensitive, and loved acting and drawing. When he listened to radio dramas like The Shadow with Orson Welles, it “allowed you to create a set of images and characters.”

Landau studied art at the Pratt Institute and became a cartoonist for the Daily News in New York. (“Tim and I work well together,” Landau said of Burton. “I understand him, we both started as cartoonists.”)

Landau quit that job after seeing a friend act and deciding he could do better. He attended the Actors Studio (Steve McQueen was a fellow student), and later he became its artistic director, tutoring such stars as Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. He headed the Hollywood branch until his death.

Hitchcock saw Landau’s stage performance in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night and cast him in North by Northwest (1959), saying: “Martin, you have a circus going on inside you. Obviously if you can do that part you can play this little trinket.”

In the movie, Landau’s character wants to get rid of Eva Marie Saint’s because, Landau decided, his character “had to be gay; she was interfering with his relationship” with James Mason’s character. “I made it subtle; I knew in big cities they’d get it. Hitch loved it. People told me: ‘Don’t play gay. It will affect your career.’ I said: ‘I’m an actor.’”

He recalled to me meeting his friend James Dean—“he was a farm boy, I was a New Yorker”—at an open casting call. Dean asked him how the process worked, and Landau, observing how different they looked, deduced they would not compete for roles.

Regarding Monroe and Dean’s early deaths, Landau told me: “It’s so hard because everyone else I’ve known who died got old—they’re both frozen in time.”

Landau was married to the actress Barbara Bain from 1957 until their divorce in 1993: a “natural end,” he told me.

They had met at an acting class, and Space: 1999 fans will remember they starred opposite each other in that show. (They had first starred alongside one another in Mission: Impossible.) Landau is survived by Bain and their two daughters Susie and Juliet.

Facing Ageism in Hollywood

Landau cherished his late-career renaissance. “Ageism is something that does exist,” he told Deadline in April. “As a young actor, I was working much more readily, and being offered more things. I don’t like to do what I call ‘the grunters’—a character who sits at a table and grunts, and young people make fun of. I turn a lot of those down. I like a character that is still alive, and is necessarily thinking, and either grows or diminishes, or whatever.”

As for never making the A-list, Landau seemed sanguine. “I think it would have held me back in a certain way,” he told me. “I played a wide variety of roles.” Others had “great careers and became major stars, but I played more things, had more fun, and I’m still doing it.”

Indeed he was. After Frankenweenie came more roles: in The Red Maple Leaf with Kris Kristofferson and James Caan; Remember, alongside Christopher Plummer; and, most recently, The Last Poker Game opposite Paul Sorvino. Three other projects are listed at various stages of production on Landau’s IMDb page: Herstory, Without Ward, and Nate & Al.

‘An Actor’s Actor’

When it came time to say farewell that day in 2012, Landau told me he had greatly enjoyed our conversation. He suggested to me and to Guttman that, should he ever come to write it, would I like to work on his memoir with him?

Nothing ever came to pass, although I was extremely heartened to read tonight, via Deadline, that Landau had been working on a memoir at the time of his death. A documentary, appropriately titled An Actor’s Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is also apparently in development.

Landau was both quite the storyteller and also a true actor's actor, so both projects, should they reach fruition will be fascinating. Landau believed in acting, rather than stardom, passionately—as both craft and vocation. That might explain his longevity and late-in-life triumphs. It certainly illuminates why it was an honor and pleasure to meet and spend time with Martin Landau.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/11/02/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with-marilyn-monroe-playing-gay-for-hitchcock-and-his-oscars-triumph/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with-marilyn-monroe-playing-gay-for-hitchcock-and-his-oscars-triumph/

[allofbeercom]

Martin Landau on His Relationship With Marilyn Monroe, Playing Gay for Hitchcock, and His Oscars Triumph

For Martin Landau, the turning point came when he found himself watching the 1984 Academy Awards, “having a beer in my underwear, saying: ‘I should be there.’”

In 2012, Landau—then 84—recalled this to me in an interview for the Times of London as the moment he knew he wanted to save his career.

Starring roles as a Hitchcock villain or in the TV series of Mission: Impossible were lost to the mists of time. Agents had told Landau he was “finished.”

“It was frustrating. I knew what I was able to do, I was at the height of my powers but no one was giving me the chance,” the charming and wry Landau told me. And so his fightback began, not simply for recognition and glory, but also just to act—his true and abiding passion.

The career of the Academy Award-winning actor—who died Sunday at 89 after unexpected complications during a stay at the UCLA Medical Center—spanned many generations, many peaks and troughs, and many characters on our TV and cinema screens.

Perhaps you remember him as Rollin Hand in the original TV series of Mission: Impossible (for which Landau won a TV Golden Globe for Best Male TV Star in 1968), or—as it is for me—the tunic-wearing silver fox Commander John Koenig in the 1970s drama Space: 1999.

Yet, as that 1984 nadir showed, Landau’s career was uneven to say the least, going from playing the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959)—which he later told me he deliberately played as a gay man—to a role in the 1981 TV movie The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island.

The serious movie awards came later in Landau’s life, after he had roused himself from the mid-1980s doldrums.

First came a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, and an Oscar nomination, for his performance as a financier in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Landau’s second Oscar nomination came for playing a shifty and panicked adulterer in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

He finally won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as horror movie star Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), and he won the corresponding Golden Globe for that too, as well as many other laurels. Landau also amassed six Emmy nominations, including one for appearing in Entourage.

“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Landau told me of winning the Oscar. There are wonderful pictures of him kissing the statuette and giving a humble salute as he holds it. That humility, and a gentleness, was evident the day we met.

“I felt I knew Lugosi,” Landau told me. “Like him I had worked for good directors and terrible directors. I went thinking I was going to have a nice dinner and probably be miserable at the end of the night.”

“When I win you can see Samuel L. Jackson [nominated for Pulp Fiction] say ‘Shit,’ probably the most honest reaction one can have.”

When I met Landau in 2012, it was connected to Burton’s Frankenweenie, the first black and white animation shot in 3-D, which had just been released.

In what was a remake of a 1984 Burton short film, Landau voiced a science teacher who, by electrocuting a dead frog into life, inspired a 10-year-old Victor Frankenstein in ’60s American suburbia to reanimate his beloved dead dog.

Naturally, chaos of the comic and fairly gruesome kind ensued, all the magnificently weird visions of Burton distilled into a unique format; the 3-D element making it particularly eye-popping for cinema audiences.

Landau was happy: Though he was a well-known name, his fame was not of the supersonic kind enjoyed by his one-time best friend James Dean or his one-time paramour Marilyn Monroe. Landau was a link to old Hollywood, and after a career that zig-zagged around film and TV, in his later years he finally gained critical lionization.

And so, of course, Landau had tales to tell in a nondescript conference room of his agent Dick Guttman’s Los Angeles office, all in his magnificently gravelly voice. He was both warm, wonderful company and a candid raconteur.

Meeting Marilyn

He had met Monroe—she a couple of years his senior—under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.

“She was there because she was dissatisfied,” Landau told me. “People perceived her as a Hollywood blonde bimbo. She was very needy and would go from being on top of her game to absolutely bereft of any self-belief or confidence. She see-sawed between those two personalities.”

Landau told me that when he and Monroe would go to the theater, she would change her outfits many times. “We’d never see the first act of the play.”

I asked if he desired her. “She was terrific… I don’t talk about those things,” he replied quietly.

Did he have a relationship with her, I asked.

“I had a relationship with her. It was just before Arthur [Miller, the playwright; he and Monroe married in 1956]. It was an interesting relationship, I look at it very differently than the way I did then. She was incredibly attractive but very difficult.”

I asked how he coped with that. “You can’t. That’s why I didn’t.” It lasted “several months,” he said, he not able to negotiate the poles of her personality. “Yeah, you didn’t know which one would show up in the middle of something.” I asked if he ended the relationship. “I did, by becoming more busy.” Was she upset by that? “I don’t know, probably. I didn’t want to upset her.” Because she was fragile? “Yes. I busied myself with other things.”

After the relationship ended, Landau and Monroe saw each other “a couple of times in passing” in New York and Los Angeles, he told me.

I asked Landau if he was in love with Monroe.

“I don’t know if I was in love with her or fascinated by her or flattered by her. She was incredibly attractive and fun to be with much of the time. When she wasn’t she wasn’t. I mean, that was the problem. She could get very withdrawn.”

Did he want to marry her, I asked. “No, no. It was almost a form of purgatory. I never knew who [ie, which Marilyn] I was going to be with.”

Landau told me he had been changing planes in Rome in 1962 when he read that Monroe had died.

“I was heartbroken. As the mystery unfolded I was more and more shocked. It didn’t seem possible that she killed herself intentionally. It was possible she took more barbiturates than necessary, just losing count, or possibly it was foul play. Nobody knows.”

‘Martin, You Have a Circus Going on Inside You’

Landau grew up in Brooklyn: his father had been a machinist; his mother, he told me, took him to the movies. He was sensitive, and loved acting and drawing. When he listened to radio dramas like The Shadow with Orson Welles, it “allowed you to create a set of images and characters.”

Landau studied art at the Pratt Institute and became a cartoonist for the Daily News in New York. (“Tim and I work well together,” Landau said of Burton. “I understand him, we both started as cartoonists.”)

Landau quit that job after seeing a friend act and deciding he could do better. He attended the Actors Studio (Steve McQueen was a fellow student), and later he became its artistic director, tutoring such stars as Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. He headed the Hollywood branch until his death.

Hitchcock saw Landau’s stage performance in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night and cast him in North by Northwest (1959), saying: “Martin, you have a circus going on inside you. Obviously if you can do that part you can play this little trinket.”

In the movie, Landau’s character wants to get rid of Eva Marie Saint’s because, Landau decided, his character “had to be gay; she was interfering with his relationship” with James Mason’s character. “I made it subtle; I knew in big cities they’d get it. Hitch loved it. People told me: ‘Don’t play gay. It will affect your career.’ I said: ‘I’m an actor.’”

He recalled to me meeting his friend James Dean—“he was a farm boy, I was a New Yorker”—at an open casting call. Dean asked him how the process worked, and Landau, observing how different they looked, deduced they would not compete for roles.

Regarding Monroe and Dean’s early deaths, Landau told me: “It’s so hard because everyone else I’ve known who died got old—they’re both frozen in time.”

Landau was married to the actress Barbara Bain from 1957 until their divorce in 1993: a “natural end,” he told me.

They had met at an acting class, and Space: 1999 fans will remember they starred opposite each other in that show. (They had first starred alongside one another in Mission: Impossible.) Landau is survived by Bain and their two daughters Susie and Juliet.

Facing Ageism in Hollywood

Landau cherished his late-career renaissance. “Ageism is something that does exist,” he told Deadline in April. “As a young actor, I was working much more readily, and being offered more things. I don’t like to do what I call ‘the grunters’—a character who sits at a table and grunts, and young people make fun of. I turn a lot of those down. I like a character that is still alive, and is necessarily thinking, and either grows or diminishes, or whatever.”

As for never making the A-list, Landau seemed sanguine. “I think it would have held me back in a certain way,” he told me. “I played a wide variety of roles.” Others had “great careers and became major stars, but I played more things, had more fun, and I’m still doing it.”

Indeed he was. After Frankenweenie came more roles: in The Red Maple Leaf with Kris Kristofferson and James Caan; Remember, alongside Christopher Plummer; and, most recently, The Last Poker Game opposite Paul Sorvino. Three other projects are listed at various stages of production on Landau’s IMDb page: Herstory, Without Ward, and Nate & Al.

‘An Actor’s Actor’

When it came time to say farewell that day in 2012, Landau told me he had greatly enjoyed our conversation. He suggested to me and to Guttman that, should he ever come to write it, would I like to work on his memoir with him?

Nothing ever came to pass, although I was extremely heartened to read tonight, via Deadline, that Landau had been working on a memoir at the time of his death. A documentary, appropriately titled An Actor’s Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is also apparently in development.

Landau was both quite the storyteller and also a true actor's actor, so both projects, should they reach fruition will be fascinating. Landau believed in acting, rather than stardom, passionately—as both craft and vocation. That might explain his longevity and late-in-life triumphs. It certainly illuminates why it was an honor and pleasure to meet and spend time with Martin Landau.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/11/02/martin-landau-on-his-relationship-with-marilyn-monroe-playing-gay-for-hitchcock-and-his-oscars-triumph/