#Brian Lowry

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The Truth Is Out There: Dispelling the Lingering Mysteries behind Chris Carter

OBSERVATIONS

To better understand the dynamics behind-the-scenes of The X-Files set, I invested in a six-part book series, the first of which is "The Truth Is Out There, The Official Guide to The X-Files" (written by Brian Lowry.) Well. More accurately, I wanted to delve deeper into the motivations of Chris Carter.

Even more particularly, I wanted answers to a few remaining questions. What was the point CC lost interest in and passion for The X-Files (because his perfectionistic, hyper-focused, workaholic drive drifted away from his first love to greater and grander things.) How could a man so woo the studios that he was given unparalleled control, without question, for nearly eight years? And how was this same man so beloved by everyone he came across, yet turned his own fans (and Nic Lea and Gillian Anderson) against him? If you want the answers to those, skip to the CARTER’S PHILOSOPHY, AND GUARDING THE VISION and FINAL THOUGHTS AND ANALYSIS sections.

**Note**: Most of this post will be directly quoting the book-- cutting out all but the most necessary context, of course (go read it)-- and, thus, will be fonted in italics.

ONCE UPON A TIME: CARTER’S JOURNEY UPWARD

Context: Lowry's book was written while "The Blessing Way" was being filmed.

As with most Hollywood success stories that don’t involve flat-out nepotism, the labyrinthine journey that resulted in The X-Files is almost as twisted as an X-File itself….

Carter began dating his wife, Dori Pierson, four years after leaving college…. Pierson prodded Carter to write movies, and his work caught the attention of Jeffrey Katzenberg, then Disney Studios chairman, who signed Carter to a writing deal. There he was put to work writing such Disney TV movies as "B.R.A.T. Patrol" and "Meet the Munceys". 

A pickup softball game in Brentwood, California, provided another inning in Carter’s career, since that was where the writer met Brandon Tartikoff, the president of NBC Entertainment…. After Tartikoff had a chance to read some of Carter’s work he brought him over to NBC, where Carter developed a number of pilots. “Chris wrote a good script,” Tartikoff says, adding that, to a degree, he was victim of NBC’s success, since the network was riding high at the time and didn’t have a need for a family series. 

…Tartikoff left NBC to become chairman of Paramount Pictures and says he tried to bring Carter there, but it wasn’t to be. In recent years, the relationship has been mainly of a social nature, and as Tartikoff puts it, “He’s too busy to play softball now.” 

Still, Tartikoff wasn’t Carter’s only admirer. His writing also impressed Peter Roth, the president of Stephen J. Cannell Productions. …”I loved his feel for dialogue,” Roth remembers, shortly thereafter trying to bring Carter in as writer-producer on a CBS drama series called Palace Guard. 

That show was canceled, but Roth kept Carter in mind when he moved from Cannell to Twentieth Century Fox as president of TV production. In 1992, he took a chance by signing a few relatively unknown producers, among them Carter….

Despite his association with comedies and family-oriented Disney fare, Carter had been kicking around for years a darker concept stemming from his childhood love of programs like "The Twilight Zone", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", and, in particular, "The Night Stalker"…. 

Roth expressed some enthusiasm for that notion, indicating that vampires, which were at the heart of the original movie, might indeed be hot given that a big-screen incarnation of Interview with a Vampire was in the works at the time. Carter wasn’t interested in vampires per se, saying his vision had more to do with UFOs and, more broadly, the paranormal. 

…Various ideas were batted around, but Roth and Carter felt they were on the right track in trying to do a contemporary variation on "The Night Stalker". “It was just something that had been lying there sort of dormant since I was a kid,” Carter says…. 

In retrospect, Carter clearly sensed a void-- and thus a window of opportunity-- in the crowded primetime marketplace…. “You look at the TV schedule,” he told Roth as they munched on their entrees, “and there’s nothing scary on television.” 

…Carter didn’t remember many specifics about "The Night Stalker", other than how the show made him feel as a teenager. “I just knew that I couldn’t get enough,” he says. When he revisited the show he realized that it had a confiding premise: Carl Kolchak, an unlucky newspaper reporter, kept stumbling upon vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Starring as Kolchak was Darren McGavin, who Carter considered to play Mulder’s father in homage to the series, but schedules couldn’t be worked out.  

…The Oscar-winning movie The Silence of the Lambs had just been released, which helped spur the idea of using the FBI as a natural means of entry into this world of the paranormal. 

With some further modification and research, Carter had his foundation-- namely, that there must be somebody at the FBI investigating unexplained cases. The show, then, would focus on two FBI agents-- one a believer, the other a skeptic-- investigating cases involving paranormal phenomena. One of the main characters would be driven by personal experience, having witnessed the abduction of his younger sister, Samantha, when he was 12 years old. 

The cherry on top for Carter came when a friend who happened to be a research psychiatrist at Yale showed him a Roper Organization survey saying, essentially, that three percent of the U.S. population believes they’ve been abducted by aliens. Whether those results were valid or not, Carter felt he’d found a potential well-spring of interest in a topic getting short shrift elsewhere. “I thought, ‘This is too good to be true,’” he recalls. 

…Delving into his own skeptical nature, Carter also planted seeds for what was to become an integral part of the show….

CARTER’S FOCUS FOR THE SHOW

Though he was still a teenager at the time of the Watergate hearings, those events clearly left their mark on Carter, who admits that coverage of the scandal and President Richard Nixon’s subsequent resignation was “the most formative event of my youth.” Small wonder that he named a key character Deep Throat after the Watergate reporters’ shadowy source, and that he came up with lines like “Trust no one” (“My personal philosophy,” he says with a laugh), “I want to believe,” “Deny everything,” and “The truth is out there”-- the last in that series a double entendre, he suggests, nicely summing up the atmosphere he wanted the show to convey. Given his acumen for sloganeering, Carter muses, “I guess I’ve got a bit of the advertising man in me.” 

THE PITCHING PROCESS 

According to Greenblatt [Fox’s vice president of dramatic series development], those initial meetings in late summer and fall of 1992 were somewhat awkward because "The X-Files" concept was so difficult to pitch verbally. Roth also remembers Carter being somewhat uncomfortable during the pitching phase, network and studio executives second-guessed the elements within each show. “Chris and I mixed it up pretty good during that process,” Roth adds.

…”I pitched it once and they said, ‘No thank you,’” Carter recalls. “I pitched it again and they finally said, ‘Okay, we’ll buy it, leave us alone.’” 

…Carter didn’t quit there, becoming, as he puts it, “my own public-relations agency.” He created visual aids-- charts that looked like little TV screens-- as a means of selling Fox executives on the show. 

Certain frustrations nevertheless continued to dog Carter, among them questions as to just how “real” the show was going to be. Reality programming like "Cops", "Unsolved Mysteries", and "Rescue 911" was popular…. “Everyone thought this has got to be as real as possible,” Carter says. “No one could understand why someone would want to watch a show if it weren’t true.” 

…According to Greenblatt, the fact that the production company is also part of Fox probably helped the network make the decision to take a gamble with the show, even if there was still considerable doubt regarding its viability. “It’s easier to take a flier with your sister company,” he admits. 

CASTING CHALLENGES AND PRODUCTION HURDLES

…As is usually the case, various actors read for each part before the field was whittled down to a few contenders. The decision on Mulder came down to David Duchovny…. And one other actor. The alternative was “cooler, and a little more tortured” than Duchovny’s take on the character, says Carter. Though Fox officials maintain Duchovny pretty much walked away with the role thanks to his wry sense of humor, which came across in the audition and meeting, Carter says he had to steer them a bit toward his preferred choice. 

A more rigorous wrestling match ensued over Scully. …If some Fox officials were looking for the equivalent of Baywatch’s Pamela Anderson, however, Carter and Twentieth Television’s casting chief, Randy Stone, immediately locked in on Gillian Anderson…. 

“When she came into the room, I just knew she was Scully,” Carter says. “I just felt it…. She had an intensity about her: intensity always translates across the screen.” 

Anderson had her own misgivings about doing television but circumstances had softened her reluctance-- having found film work scarce and her bank account dwindling. The actress hoped a few weeks working on a television show might increase her profile, at least, when she next came calling for film roles. 

What Anderson didn’t fully realize was the battle taking place behind the scenes over casting her. Carter maintain that he “had to put my career on the line to put Gillian in the show,” still taking some delight in “proving the naysayers wrong.” 

“They didn't see the package,” Carter says. “There was one actress who did an okay job, but she wasn’t, in my mind, Dana Scully.” Finally, Carter recalls saying, “‘Look, this is the person I want. This is Dana Scully.’ And everybody looked at me and said, ‘Okay.’” 

Even so, there was still some head-shaking, and Carter clearly felt as if it were “me versus the world” in that room. Millions of dollars were at stake, and at this point the pilot was only days away from shooting….

Still, doubts about Anderson didn’t end with her casting. Even as footage started to come back from the pilot filming there was, Roth says, “tremendous negativity toward Gilliam” from some quarters-- questions as to whether the character was too cold, or if she was likable enough. Carter remembers hearing qualms about Anderson, in fact, even after the pilot was completed.  

Another point of contention involved the nature of the relationship between the leads. Carter insisted that they stay clearly platonic despite those urging him to establish more sexual chemistry. 

Filming began in March 1993, and the first scene… involved the sequence where Dana Scully first meets Fox Mulder…. The actors had only been able to rehearse at what’s called a table reading, not on the set, and Carter knew those first dailies… would be closely scrutinized-- in part because of the haggling that preceded Anderson’s casting, in part because the nature of the actors’ relationship would be central to whether the show itself would work. 

That first meeting, Carter says, was “all-important” to not just the show but to the future of the project….

The actors, however, had an immediate rapport (Anderson has joked that Duchovny has a pretty good rapport with most women…) despite difficult conditions. Duchovny, in fact, was taken with Anderson’s grit and determination as they filmed on scene in the face of freezing rain….

The two-week shoot completed, Fox received the pilot that spring just as dozens of other contenders streamed in hoping for a slot on the primetime lineup…. Postproduction, which includes adding music, sound effects and editing, wasn’t completed until early May….“Each step of the way,” Carter says, “until that day in May when the pilot was seen by Rupert Murdoch and the Fox brass, they really did not know what they had.” In fact, when the rough cut came in, someone at Fox who’d seen it told Roth simply, “Nice try.”  

…During the screening for Fox executives, [Greenblatt] recalls, “There was some nervous laughter in the room, and I though, ‘Oh, we’re dead.’” The conclusion, however, was met with applause-- a rare occurrence…. 

…Hands shot up immediately when he asked what everyone thought. People spoke over each other to get their opinion in, which was unusual in such sessions. 

…when Fox saw how the audience responded to "The X-Files", the network quickly increased promotion for the show, which lagged at the outset….

…Fox was equally pleased to discover "The X-Files" could play as more than just a one-note concept. “The first year we analyzed the show a lot,” says Greenblatt. “We didn’t want to become ‘The UFO Show.’” 

By the second season that issue [lack of closure], at least, had almost entirely subsided, as the network began to realize that the cryptic, spooky endings served as an integral part of the show’s appeal…. 

Carter did agree to come conciliatory modifications… and even he says some of those changes have been for the better. The idea of a Scully voice-over while typing up her field report notes, for example, was tacked on to the first regular episode, “Deep Throat,” to mollify Fox’s desire to provide resolution to the story-- “bringing closure,” as Carter puts it, “to a non-closed case.” While he resisted the idea initially, Scully’s narration “became a kind of a staple through the first season,” he says, “and I think it actually added to the show.” 

Carter also notes that the Cigarette-Smoking Man was a mysterious figure in the pilot and was supposed to remain that way. “I never anticipated that he would be speaking as much as he is,” the producer notes, “but I don’t care who you are, you can’t think that far ahead. The show takes on a life of its own, and you sort of have to be true to it and ride it into the sunset…” 

Indeed, any casual glance at the Nielsen standings provides a misleading appraisal of the show’s first-season performance. "The X-Files" finished the 1993-1994 season ranked 113 out of 132 primetime series broadcast in terms of the number of homes tuning in; however, that ignore the fact that she show aired Friday-- a night when fewer people in general, and younger viewers in particular, are apt to be home watching television…. 

CARTER LEARNS TO DOMESTICATE THE SHOW… ON HIS OWN TERMS

Another unplanned event in the show’s evolution involved Anderson’s real-life pregnancy, which came at a critical time in the show’s cycle and sent panic running through executive suites in regard to what it might mean for the series’s production schedule, particularly on such a two-character concept. “As an executive, if you weren’t concerned about that then you didn’t have a pulse,” Grushow laughs. “At the time, the real question was how do we turn a potential liability into first, a non-liability, and second, a possible asset.”

“I think we were all very upset,” says Roth, noting that various scenarios were tossed around-- down to having Scully give birth to an alien baby-- before settling on the story arc, told in the memorable episodes “Duane Barry,” “Ascension,” and “On Breath.” 

The actress herself feared that she might be dropped from the show, first confiding in Duchovny about her condition, then Carter. Whatever angry rhetoric might have greeted the news from executive suites, replacing her, apparently, was never seriously considered, though her pregnancy was kept secret from the crew and press for several months….

Ultimately, Anderson’s grit and dedication impressed everyone involved, with Roth calling her “a real trouper,” in the old-time show-business sense of the word, as she filmed up to and just six days after the birth of her daughter, Piper….

Again, Carter admits he didn’t initially intend to head down that path [Scully being abducted, resulting in emotional resonance between the lead characters.] “I think it actually forced us to make choices that helped the show,” he says. “It proved to us that people wanted shows about characters and their lives. 

“It was a way for me to do what I had resisted doing, which was to domesticate the show. I don’t want to know what Mulder does with his softball team. I don’t want to know what Scully does with her friends. It’s just of no interest to me.” Their breakup and reunion at the start of the second season, he says, provided “an interesting way to explore the characters that I hadn’t anticipated doing.” 

Fox immediately renewed the show for a second season….. Certain episodes actually drew bigger audiences for repeat airings than their first showing, and that snowball effect was evident in the second-season premiere: a 10/3 rating (which translates to more than 9.8 million households) and 19 percent of the audience, a 17 percent jump over the season finale. Still nervous about Anderson’s status, Fox breathed a sigh of relief, as "The X-Files" had clearly established its credentials as a bona fide hit. 

…To its credit, Fox’s patience allowed the program to reach that plateau, and Carter says he “never got a sense that there was any fear” about the show’s ratings, even at its Nielsen nadir…. “I always said that we would have to create an audience on Friday nights, not steal one, and that I think that’s what we have done,” Carter notes. 

CARTER’S PHILOSOPHY, AND GUARDING HIS VISION

Not surprisingly, the arduous trek that took "The X-Files" from his boyhood memories to the television screen has made Carter both protective of his vision and secure in his belief that he knows what’s best for it. Asked about maintaining the quality of the special effects, he says, “Part of the job-- and I’ve learned this in the process-- is never accepting ‘No’ for an answer. There will be a final ‘No’ if the answer is ‘No,’, but ‘No’ is always the first answer you get, and you’ve got to make sure that the final answer you get is ‘Yes.’ That’s really the way I proceed.” 

…”I was really the lone voice saying we cannot have these people romantically involved. There cannot be real TV sexual tension here or else the show won’t work. As soon as you have them looking googly-eyed at each other, they’re not going to want to go out and chase these aliens. The relationship will supplant or subvert what’s going to make the show great, which is the pursuit of these cases.” 

…Even so, Fox still harbored various creative concerns, not the least of them being the issue of closure, or how completely and neatly the episodes would be resolved. Carter remembers having a shouting match with a Fox programming executive who wanted the endings to be more explicit, helping the audience make sense of what happened. “There’s no sense to make!” Carter told him angrily. “You make the sense yourself.” 

…”I feel like Lewis and Clark: I know where I’m going, but I don’t know what the hills and valleys and streams that I have to cross are.” 

The producer has no qualms about letting his star [Duchovny] in on that [contributing] process. “He’s got good ideas for the show,” notes Carter. “Why not use them?” 

“Everything else I do past this is a big question mark to me,” he says thoughtfully. “I don’t know if it’ll be a hit or miss. It’s a business of failure mostly. While I’ve got this garden growing, I want to make sure that I tend it and that it represents my best efforts.” 

Carter, for his part, remains vigilant regarding over-exposure while still submerged in the series itself, spending about 12 days each month in Vancouver during production. Although some executive producers create a series and then segue in the second or this season to new projects, Carter has stated that he made a commitment to the actors to stay with the program as long as they do…. 

…“You can lay on really thick if you lay on a good scientific foundation,” notes Carter. “The show’s only as scary as it is believable. Everything has to take place within the realm of extreme possibility.” 

Carter himself takes pride in "The X-Files" never settling for routine, even as he tries to manage the equivalent of juggling and tap-dancing at the same time. As for his attention to even the smallest elements in each episode, Carter-- his desk awash in material from past and future episodes-- simply considers that a responsibility that comes with the territory. “If you don’t know what every frame is going to look like,” he says, “you’re not doing your job.” 

Carter’s role is not unlike the side-show act of spinning plates, a task that requires keeping an eye on various objects simultaneously, lest one of them spin out of control. “You’ve got five shows going at once,” he explains. “You’re writing a show, prepping a show, shooting a show, editing a show, and adding the sound and music to the show.” In fact, he adds, the show runner (a Hollywood term that applies to the main executive producer) really has to have his head in seven shows at the same time. 

Seven shows and at least two places, since Carter, the writing staff and selected crew members spend most of their time in Los Angeles while production takes place nearly 1300 miles away in Vancouver. The L.A. contingent includes a visual effects supervisor Mat Beck and postproduction whiz Paul Rabwin, who oversees the sound, editing, Mark Snow’s evocative music composition, and other measures required before raw footage can achieve broadcast quality.

A DAY-IN-THE-LIFE, ON THE SET: ULTIMATE FREEDOM

I decided to include this section to give a broader scope of CC "at work"-- another link in the chain of repeated compliments his friends, cast, crew, coworkers, and overhead gave him over the years.

…The Los Angeles office, housed in its own bungalow, is nicely appointed but relatively spare. 

The [Los Angeles] office itself is bustling this particularly morning, as writers move in and out--- occasionally invading the space of researcher/officer manager Mary Astadourian, where various drawers full of research material are kept. In there, the scribes will find literature on the paranormal, diseases, viruses, and various monsters, with folders that carry labels like “Roswell” or “Loch Ness.” 

…Part of the morning is devoted to the regularly scheduled writers’ meeting, with the entire staff… assembling to go over that week’s script, blocking out the teaser and all four acts….

The other writers question each nuance, throwing out suggestions to refine the story and make sure it’s clear…. Despite the need for exposition, Carter also stresses not letting the pace drag, wanting to spread action within the hour (or more precisely, 44 minutes or so minus commercials) allotted them. “Make sure you keep it hoppin’,” he says. 

…Eventually, it’s suggested they shift some action from the second act into the first in order to achieve the proper sense of pacing. The move requires some reconfiguration of other plot elements, but once those are blocked out the producer and other writers seem content. “That works for me,” says Carter, sending the show’s writer off to do another rewrite. 

Carter’s daily schedule, however, is just beginning. The writers’ session is followed by what’s known as a concept meeting-- a teleconference with the staff in Vancouver to grapple with various production issues before the begin filming a new episode…. 

Other issues involve the number of extras they can use….

Because money is always an issue, and time a luxury the crew usually doesn’t have, compromise and ingenuity remain key….

The producers also pride themselves on finding means of scavenging resources, then developing different ways to capitalize upon them. A prime case involves the crew getting access to a Canadian Navy destroyer that was then used in three different episodes, including “Dod Kalm”... and “End Game”.... “It’s fun,” Carter says, “to make something out of nothing.” 

Episodes must be plotted down to the most minute details-- in part because Carter is a perfectionist, and in part because the show is under a microscope now, with fans picking and nitpicking every conceivable aspect. Issues raised include what sort of garb Native Americans depicted should wear, with an emphasis on being as faithful as possible to tribal customs. (A Navajo group has complained because a character wore his hair down, something the elders in that tribe wouldn’t normally do, in the episode entitled “Anasazi.” Carter subsequently visited a Navajo reservation and attended one of their ceremonies.) 

From a more practical standpoint, the Vancouver team wants to know whether they can wardrobe the actors in blue jeans because some postproduction special effects shots use blue-screen, which essentially eliminates that color. 

The L.A. staffers are also assured that a shoot-out sequence will be top-notch, with bullet hits and ricochets plus a movie-style car explosion. Can it be done? “The answer’s yes… with disclaimers,” quips Beck good-naturedly adding, “One big disclaimer: How much money you got?” 

…The crew clearly takes enormous pride in the series, which presents them with such challenges on almost a daily basis and allows them to put their skills to the fullest possible use. Some freely admit, in fact, that they’ve been spoiled by their involvement with "The X-Files" and would have a hard time working elsewhere. “They’d have to drag me kicking and screaming off this show,” Gauthier says. 

The same goes for makeup special effects supervisor Toby Lindala…. Still, Lindala has proven up to most any task, with the Flukeman-- a costume his crew created in 10 days that had to weather water and other shooting ordeals-- still his proudest accomplishment. “That was probably the most insane undertaking for a time period,” says Lindala, who worked a 28-and 28-hour day during that stretch to get the suit ready in time. Even so, Lindala grew up watching monster movies and isn’t complaining, relishing the opportunities the show has provided to fool around with such projects. “I love making ‘em,” he says. 

Goodwin, a veteran producer who has worked on such series as "Life Goes On" and "Mancuso FBI", now tries to provide more lead time to prepare such major undertakings, but in most instances Lindala and his team (four people, including Lindala, work full time in that area) have just seven days’ notice to put a makeup effect together, and his services are needed in virtually every episode. 

…Careful planning remains the main hedge against both cost and time crunches, with Goodwin pointing out that in television time essentially translates directly into money. “The quicker you have to do it, the more it costs,” he says, adding that while some in the industry are tempted to cut corners, “My motto is, ‘Quality, whether they want it or not.’” 

…Kim Manners, also one of the show’s pool of directors, lauds Carter for treating each installment like a mini-movie. The process gives the individual directors-- who in episodic television, which is dominated by executive producers, are often viewed as transient guns for hire-- the opportunity to truly ply their trade. “He insists that you go out and be a filmmaker,” Manners says. “He doesn’t want you just go out and be a traffic cop.” Because of that freedom, he adds, the show is “the zenith of my career.” 

…Unlike most television shows that shoot on location, on "The X-Files" whoever scripted that particular episode goes to Vancouver to scout out locations and do other preparatory work. “To make sure,” as story editor Frank Spotnitz puts it, “everything is in sync with what the writer had in mind,” from casting to production design. In the cryptic vernacular of the show, the process stems from commitment to “purity control.” 

…For the episode in question, that means co-executive producer Howard Gordon, the only member of the writing staff other than creator Chris Carter who has been with the show virtually since the beginning, has made the sojourn to Vancouver. “As a writer, you don’t get that experience on any other show,” says Gordon. 

…Other matters have also arisen, some remarkable in their degree of minutia. Gordon’s script for the episode being prepared, for example, contains a seemingly innocuous reference to being “in the mood for some Quarter Pounders,” and Fox’s legal department wants them to clear the wording with McDonald’s…. “That’s a great line,” says an only slightly exasperated Manners…. Hours later, it’s decided to change to a more generic term rather than hassle the legal issue. 

…A later shot involves disposing of the [dead] cow, and Gordon-- a city kid from New York-- has actually researched the matter…. …But in light of McDonald’s headache, Carter has another suggestion. “How ‘bout if we just have a truck with golden arches on the side?” he jokes, spurring laughs from everyone in the room. 

…The attention to detail, again, proves remarkable, driven by Carter’s commitment to perfection. 

The entire process involved in shooting an episode of "The X-Files", from the first day of preparation to the last day of postproduction, usually takes six to eight weeks, with the seven days of preparation key to ensuring that the eight days of production that follow go smoothly-- though even the enormous effort that goes into planning can never account for every detail that can delay filming and raise blood pressure rates all around. In the middle of the season, as time grows shorter, there’s occasionally been as little as five weeks from prep to air. 

Just two days before shooting is to begin, Manners, Gordon, Carter, and co-executive producer R.W. Goodwin cram into a small audition room, where they’re scheduled to see more than 20 actors in just over an hour….

Manners, Gordon, and about 15 crew members, including special effects ace Dave Gauthier, production designer Graeme Murray, and others from various departments, later embark on a technical survey. They pile into an air-conditioned bus to scout out all the locations that will be involved in the upcoming shoot, usually a six-to-eight hour pilgrimage. “And this is the easy part,” laughs set decorator Shirley Inget. 

Carter follows the group to the door but has too much work at the office to come along. “I’m gonna miss this one, you guys,” he tells them, which is met with a collective “Aw” from the bus. 

…The bunch straggles back to the studio around 7:30 P.M., almost eight hours after their departure. On a near-by soundstage, meanwhile, Bowman is directing stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, trying to keep the level of enthusiasm up with another long night of work to do. Shooting is frequently a tedious process, with long lapses between the action as shots are set up. The two stars carry out an emotional scene in front of an elevator that isn’t really an elevator, with a crew member behind the soundstage wall sliding a wooden door closed to approximate the effect. “I love it!” Bowman proclaims as the scene ends, watching the shot through a monitor and lauding his star as “One-take Duchovny.” 

Outside, Anderson’s baby, Piper… plays with various staff members as well as her father, assistant art director Clyde Klotz, who’s just returned from the technical survey. Piper shows off her mother’s piercing eyes and frolics later with Duchovny’s dog, Blue (his constant companion on the set), both seemingly fascinated with and a bit perplexed by the other. "The X-Files" is, indeed, a family affair, underscored when Goodwin brings his 10-year-old son and a friend into the production office the next morning, the latter collecting autographs from everyone on that week’s script. 

A short time later Duchovny and Anderson arrive, enjoying a few quiet moments while Piper plays nearby in a small red tub, watched carefully by her nanny. …Though he isn’t shooting that day, actor Mitch Pileggi (who seems to create quite a stir among the female office staff) also pops by to look over dailies, or raw footage, of a fight sequence featuring him shot earlier in the week.  

…Bowman has to deal with five actors (Anderson, Duchovny, and Gunmen Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood, and Braidwood) in a relatively confined space, so the staging will be critical. After Bowman aligns them one way, Duchovny suggests an alternative in handling the shot, and various configurations are tried. As they begin rehearsing, everyone still seems a bit punchy, and the mood is light. Haglund keeps wanting to call a Nazi scientist “Kempler” instead of “Klemper”, and Duchovny has a hard time not laughing each time Braidwood (who comes up roughly to the actor’s chin) approaches him, with Frohike supposed to act relieved to see Mulder alive after the events that closed the second season. “Did you ever see the Star Trek where Spock thought that Kirk died?” Duchovny tells him with his trademark deadpan delivery. ‘That’s what you want to be doing.” 

Production ultimately won’t conclude until near 2 A.M. that morning…. 

FINAL THOUGHTS AND ANALYSIS

A few key points stand out.

Chris Carter miraculously won the trust of Fox, and maintained that trust (and an ability to be creatively liberated, by and large) until Season 8 (upper-left corner of the screenshot here.)

Carter has a perfectionistic, remembers-every-detail brain: he was, in essence, the show bible. ...Unfortunately, his memory (like anyone's) is faulty; and that began the slow, gradual collision that marked later mytharc entries.

Chris was at his best when he was hyper-focused on and passionate for the show. As Brian Lowry notes, Although some executive producers create a series and then segue in the second or this season to new projects, Carter has stated that he made a commitment to the actors to stay with the program as long as they do…. The problem became: his aspirations towards a movie franchise turned his focus away from "The X-Files"; and that, along with compounding projects (i.e. Millennium and The Lone Gunmen), further scattered his attention. By the time Season 7 rolled around, there was no mytharc, no movie franchise, and no other successful venture that was equaling the show's former height.

CC learned that 'No' is not the concluding answer in show business. Like Lowry wrote earlier: Not surprisingly, the arduous trek... has made Carter both protective of his vision and secure in his belief that he knows what’s best for it. Asked about maintaining the quality... he says, “Part of the job-- and I’ve learned this in the process-- is never accepting ‘No’ for an answer. There will be a final ‘No’ if the answer is ‘No,’, but ‘No’ is always the first answer you get, and you’ve got to make sure that the final answer you get is ‘Yes.’ That’s really the way I proceed.” To Carter, the initial 'No' often proves to be a first, but not final, hurdle (which explains his self-righteous anger at Gillian Anderson post Revival.)

Chris Carter had an idea where the show was going-- the feeling he wanted it to evoke, the journey he wanted to take himself and others on-- but not the important markings along the way. Mulder and Scully were created to have unspoken chemistry (we'll get to that), Scully was coded to have a maternal interest (we'll get to that), and Mulder and Scully's final coming together (a kiss) was planned for the last scene of the series.

CC planned MSR from the beginning (post here) but on his OWN terms.

Chris thought that character exploration was "domestication"-- that exploring Mulder's life outside of work or Scully's friends or motherhood aspirations in any depth would distract from the show. Why?

Carter always envisioned Scully as someone who wants children (noting in the Pilot's script The hour closes with Mulder calling Scully after the evidence relating to their case has disappeared, saying he’ll see her the next day. As the description in Carter’s original script eloquently puts it, “...there’s no doubt from the unsettled tone in her voice that it is much more than work. It will become the defining event of her life. Nothing that comes now-- religion, motherhood, anything-- will not pass through the filter of this experience"; and bringing back her interest in "a normal life" and families and dogs repeatedly throughout the show, i.e. [The Jersey Devil] subplot shows Scully trying to balance having some semblance of a personal life against the dedication (bordering on obsession) that Mulder has toward his work. She meets with a married friend, Ellen, who has a child and asks her if Mulder is someone with whom Scully might get romantically involved. Though she does go on a date, Scully opts to pursue cases with Mulder instead of that path. The purpose of those scenes, Carter says, was “to show the life she’s passing on. I just wanted to open up Scully a little bit for the audience.”)

However, he envisioned that "domestication" in the same realm as her and Mulder's romance: a hypothetical, post-series conclusion-- the happy ending as both leads ride away from the files and into the sunset. "The X-Files", to him, does not coincide with "domestication"-- therefore, Mulder and Scully must be free of it in order to have their happy ending.

However, again: CC is easily distracted.

These are my four key takeaways:

Chris Carter consciously linked Mulder and Scully as a couple from the start-- giving him a transitional goal (finding his sister) and her an end goal (settling down and enjoying a "normal" life) for their journey. He tied up the possibility of a relationship and the conclusion of their hopes in the files-- which were to take precedent over the accomplishment of each character's aspirations-- and used "the work" as the vehicle (and sole focus) to "reach" those "happy endings". In effect, the show is wired around "the truth" because it is the ultimate tease: we are teased about Mulder and Scully's relationship, we are teased about Samantha's return, we are teased about Scully's hopes to be a mother, and we are teased about a resolved mytharc and final ending.

Chris Carter is easily distracted from his own vision. He'll try anything once, then backtrack to his original "vibe". He remembers how he felt, as a boy, watching "The Night Stalker", but not the details of how bad the plot sometimes was. He remembers that Mulder and Scully became partners in the rain, that Mulder lost a sister, that Scully was abducted and returned; but not that Samantha's abduction story changed, not that you can't give Scully a daughter on a show that eschews domestication, and not that Mulder and Scully can't kiss until the last episode of his show (especially when his crew tempts him to have a big, grand, once-in-a-century kiss on-screen.) He then projects that distraction onto others, and scolds those others for bringing up abandoned plot threads and character arc trails.

Chris Carter doesn't believe in anyone-- he quite literally trusts no one-- not their praise, and not their "no". So many times in Hollywood, 'No' is the default until backs are scratched and concessions made; and when Gillian Anderson said "No" after Season 10, then changed her mind and did Season 11, he saw that as just another stepping stone to a "Yes" after Season 11. She had, many times, changed her mind in the past-- signing on for Season 9 after his wheedling, for example-- and he (assumed (wrongfully) that this would be exactly like other "No"s. When GA publicly flamed his finale episode, that shocked, angered, and mortified him, because--

Chris Carter is chronically afraid of failure. As he says: “Everything else I do past this is a big question mark to me. I don’t know if it’ll be a hit or miss. It’s a business of failure mostly. While I’ve got this garden growing, I want to make sure that I tend it and that it represents my best efforts." When that garden begins to fall apart (due to neglect), he panics, and rushes back to rehydrate, prune, and fertilize it. When it wilts and dies, he blames other sources-- Fox (who gave him unlimited creative freedom, within reasonable limits), the fans (who "didn't understand" his vision), and Gillian Anderson (who publicly pronounced My Struggle IV as a failure.) Anyone who forces him to face reality-- boiled down: the reality of his failures-- causes Chris to protectively lash out, blame others, and shift goal posts to distract himself from facing that fear.

CONCLUSION

It's hard to dislike the guy when you read about his sacrifices, easy nature, and complete dedication. But that history and those qualities and my charitability are, unfortunately, then consumed by Chris's most recent escapades-- a shame, that his past isn't his lasting legacy.

Still, one question remains: at what point, exactly, did CC lose interest in The X-Files?

Final note: this took an absurdly long time to type (and there are more parts still coming), so future installments won't be as... extensive. But it was important to lay the foundation, here; and so, it's been done.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[veryslowreader]

The Truth Is Out There by Brian Lowry

Goodnight Sweetheart: "Careless Talk"

[thecraggus]

Brian And Charles (2022) Review

Brian and Charles explores and entirely unconventional and utterly beguiling friendship. #Review

[albatris]

here are the books I'm getting rid of

please let me know if you'd like any :3 most of them I haven't read but some are double ups or just things I've inherited from others..... they are free to a good home!

I will have to ship them and I don't wanna ship a whole crate though so you can't just say "I'll take all of them"! just take the ones you'd like please

I'm in australia so depending on where you are I might ask you to toss me some dollars for shipping but then again I might not. I'm a mystery wrapped in an enigma

any that no one wants will be donated or going in my little free library, so no loss either way, I just thought some folks might want dibs haha

and yes I'm finally getting rid of Horrorstör my beloathed. you can take it but be warned. it's one of my least favourite books in the world

hey @albatris! you can reblog this post but no one else can

full list under the cut!

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

• All The Rage by Courtney Summerd

• Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

• Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

• The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

• Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

• Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

• Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

• The Imaginary by A F Harold

• Terrier by Tamora Pierce

• The Magic in the Weaving by Tamora Pierce

• Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

• The Giver by Lois Lowry

• Samurai Champloo Vol 1 by Masaru Gotsubo

• Ouran High School Host Club Vol 1 by Bisco Hatori

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

• Valiant by Holly Black

• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

• Wool by Hugh Howey

• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

• Next by Michael Crichton

• Wildwood by Colin Meloy

• The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly

• The Three Secret Cities by Matthew Reilly

• The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

• There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake

• A Small Madness by Dianne Touchell

• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

• The Underdog by Markus Zusak

[warningsine]

Earlier this year, TIME wrote, "'Yellowjackets' — like so much recent TV about young women, matriarchy, and the mixed blessing of personal empowerment — also forces us to consider whether its girls might have been better off in the off-grid society they created for themselves." And given those themes, the friends I mostly discuss the show with, trading theories and memes over long message threads, are women. Some men I've tried to share the Showtime hit with have been less than enthusiastic, which has occasionally been mirrored in critics' responses, especially when the show first aired. 

It's unclear if their reticence is old-fashioned sexism, an unwillingness to engage with trauma and its aftermath, or something else perhaps related to the show's centering of women, girls and violence. Matthew Jacobs called the show "inessential" in his review for TV Guide, while Brian Lowry of CNN described it as "a disappointment" though its "stars still merit a look." 

Good news, men. A hero has arisen from the ashes of Flight  2525 (well, technically he arose from the smoldering home fires back in New Jersey, where he was left). He's ordinary and he's awesome. It's Jeff! And he's here to elevate white man mediocrity. Look out, guys. There's someone new, supportive and extraordinary just by being ordinary in town. 

"Yellowjackets," now in its second season, follows the high school girls of a champion 1996 soccer team whose plane crashed in the Canadian wilderness. The survivors turn to desperate measures to make it through the harsh winter, and the show follows two main threads: the 1996 woodsy trauma and what happens to all the survivors later as adults. Spoiler alert: they don't feel or do so great.

As the husband of our main Wiskayok star, Shauna, Warren Kole is Jeff. He runs a furniture store. He married his high school sweetheart. Well, technically he married the girl he was cheating on his high school sweetheart with. But he did marry the mother of his (possibly multiple) children. He married young and has stayed married in the face of difficulties. He has the floppy hair of a YA love interest (perhaps a nod to Shauna's teenage dreams), despite being in his 40s. Jeff is the definition of peaked in high school, the golden boy who never left town and never did much. He's also done everything. 

Jeff is every man. Specifically, he's every man in a TV show led by women. He's Dean Boland to glamourous criminal mastermind Beth Boland of "Good Girls," Rob to mayor Margot in "The Power." Jeff is not the main attraction. He doesn't get the teary, intense, Emmy-worthy speeches (that's Melanie Lynskey's Shauna). He doesn't get to wave the gun around (OK, that's Shauna too). He's not the action star or any star. His attempt to do crimes ended badly, and with him covered in glitter. Shauna thought he was cheating on her (Jeff would never), but he was simply fumblingly trying to blackmail her friends. It didn't end well. Nothing Jeff does ends well but he keeps on trying, the Energizer Bunny of husbands.

Jeff is a simple man. He works out at the gym. He's excited about making sales at work. When he gets upset, he deals with his anger by listening to Papa Roach alone in his car and violently air drumming. He enjoys eating dinner with his family, and when the women in his life, Shauna and defiant teen daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) tell him things, he believes them. Jeff is a believer. His exterior of tanned, floppy commonness conceals a steadfast heart of gold. He's pure. If you tell him you're going to book club, he believes you're going to book club. Why would you lie to him? Why would you murder? (If you do, though, he's got you.)

Jeff supports his wife through an avalanche of devastating revelations. She had an affair. She murdered a guy. Not only does he not leave Shauna upon the news of her cheating, he doesn't leave after the killing either. He does what he can to support his family. He's read her teen diaries, trying to understand the most difficult and life-altering trauma of her life, which not every man would do or care to know about. That trauma includes Shauna eating his high school girlfriend. Again, not every man is going to get over that.

But Jeff's got Shauna's back. And in doing so, perhaps he understands more than any male character in recent memory: trauma changes you. Violence is forever. Shauna is the way she is (secretive, hypervigilant, occasionally violent and cold) because of the past, and the past is always with her. Jeff accepts her for who she is, not the idealized way she could have been if only those terrible events hadn't happened, if only that plane hadn't crashed and everybody got real hungry. Jeff is the evolved man, the ally who has done the work (reading the diaries! Burning the diaries! Cleaning up the murder/affair evidence!). 

He's willing to try new things, like strawberry lube. He's amendable to change, to doing the work. He wants it all to work out, and he loves Shauna because, as he says, she's the smartest woman he's ever met. Jeff is a blueprint for a way to be a good man. Rise himbo, rise. Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them wear sleeveless hoodies. 

[tsunflowers]

In middle school i was obsessed with this disney channel sitcom, lab rats, it was during this weird time wherr they were trying to make sitcoms aimed at boys so they were like. half silly laugh track and half action hero show

the main kid leo's mom marries. essentially elon musk, narcissism and all, and finds out that he has been secretly raising three bionic teenagers in his basement laboratory (he hid this from his new wife. she only found out because the kid got down there.) and he was not giving them holidays or birthdays he was just training them to be secret soldiers

uh and then leo's like WELL THEY SHOULD GO TO HIGH SCHOOL. so they go to high school

anyways at one point I think the props department got lazy because in one episode elon musk (I forget his character's actual name. but seriously it's just elon musk) pulls out a device from a box and it's the KUUGA ARCLE?

It's only shown for a second and I don't think this was meant to be an easter egg. but yeah kuuga arcle in my high stakes disney sitcom was unexpected

I have to say this show has a killer premise. love the idea of a guy keeping some superpowered teens in the basement and his stepson is like no they have to go to high school

brian lowry seems like a real buzzkill

love that it's specifically bionics and they use the word bionic? I thought we left that behind in the 70s

and I love that the arcle was there randomly

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@thealmightyemprex

"Fox TV and Marvel Comics decided. By summer of 1993, the show had been a runaway No. 1 hit for six months and we had completed writing the second season of scripts, bringing the total stories to 26. At that point, Fox committed to three more seasons (39 more episodes), and I, executive Sidney Iwanter, producer Scott Thomas, and director Larry Houston visited Marvel’s New York offices to brainstorm and discuss various characters and bits of storyline we would all like to see in the next 39 half-hours.

“Phoenix” and “Dark Phoenix” were at the top of Marvel’s list.

The only direct adaptation we had made so far was “Days of Future Past,” which we had suggested, and it and the two Phoenixes were the only direct adaptations we ever committed to. Every other story used bits and pieces from the books, but these were the “big three.” 

Primarily we focused on Jean Grey (who was going through the Phoenix transformation) and on those people who cared most about her. Secondarily, we focused on Xavier, whose connection to Lilandra brought the worlds beyond Earth into our stories for the first time.

When we looked at the many subplots in the books, we trimmed them away or bolstered them, depending on how they helped support these two central through-lines.

We were excited to do it because we had felt that we had underused her in the first two seasons and this gave us a chance to give her more screen time. Second, by now we had established that she was a kind of emotional center for the team–someone who could talk honestly with any of the others, who understood them–so we knew she would sustain a good story focus for our team of X-Men.

As a “children’s show for Saturday morning TV,” we were always aware of the tight limits we had on sex and violence–limits far tighter than the comics had.

Luckily, since we were focused on Jean/Phoenix and Xavier and Lilandra, adjusting secondary characters wasn’t a big worry for us. Also, we believe we got the intensity of Jean’s Black-Queen sensuality across in her dialogue and in Catherine Disher’s performance. Jean-as-Phoenix is so much bigger, more dramatic, in animation than Jean-as-Black-Queen that we never felt the loss.

First, we knew from the beginning we couldn’t have Dark Phoenix destroy an inhabited planet, so we worked with that disappointing limitation from day one. We hope we got across how deadly she could be. Second, we very much believe that killing Jean off would have been the proper heroic sacrifice for the story.

We didn’t for two reasons. First, we needed her for the remaining 20 stories–a problem in all comics and serialized TV.

And second, we’d had a convincing seeming-death in “Phoenix,” which was then revealed to not be Jean’s end after all. We didn’t want to repeat that.

We thought up the shared sacrifice of the rest of the team (10% of their lives–a handy cheat) as a way around it.

I wish I knew (and that they had asked us to help). Animated TV comics-adaptations and live-action feature comics-adaptations are similar but not the same.

The great TV critic Brian Lowry thinks animation suits super-hero-comics adaptations better than live action–something about suspension of disbelief. Mutants with super-powers are hard enough–then in these cases you add space aliens. You can get lost in the spectacle.

I believe that the recent Spider-Man animated feature was better than any of the live-action movies, most of which I enjoyed a great deal. When in doubt, keep the story simple and trust in the characters to propel the story (the movie Logan is a good example).

She asserted herself. As writer Mark Edens and I laid out the first, then the second season of stories, we kept coming back to needing to use her in scenes, often to reveal depths of other characters.

She was an emotional center, trusted, a glue that helped keep the disparate team together. Luckily, she was a true legacy character, so no one ever felt we were being intrusive by featuring her."

(Eric Lewald)

[goalhofer]

2024 olympics Ireland roster

Athletics

Mark English (Letterkenny)

Andrew Coscoran (Balbriggan)

Cathal Doyle (Bettystown)

Luke McCann (Dublin)

Brian Fay (Dublin)

Thomas Barr (Waterford)

Christopher O'Donnell (Loughborough, U.K.)

Eric Favors (Haverstraw, New York)

Sharlene Mawdsley (Newport)

Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght)

Sophie Becker (Ballykelly)

Ciara Mageean (Portaferry)

Sophie Bideau-O'Sullivan (Melbourne, Australia)

Sarah Healey (Monkstown)

Jodie McCann (Dublin)

Sarah Lavin (Lisnagry)

Fionnuala McCormick (Wicklow)

Philippa Healy (Ballineen)

Kelly McGrory (Laghy)

Nicola Tuthill (Kilbrittain)

Kate O'Connor (Dundalk)

Badminton

Nguyen Nhat (Dublin)

Rachael Darragh (Letterkenny)

Boxing

Jude Gallagher (Newton Stewart, U.K.)

Dean Clancy (Sligo)

Aidan Walsh (Belfast, U.K.)

Jack Marley (Dublin)

Daina Moorehouse (Dublin)

Jenny Lehane (Ashbourne)

Michaela Walsh (Belfast, U.K.)

Kellie Harrington (Dublin)

Gráinne Walsh (Tullamore)

Aoife O'Rourke (Castlerea)

Canoeing

Liam Jegou (Huningue, France)

Noel Hendrick (Dunadea)

Michaela Corcoran (Montgomery County, Maryland)

Madison Corcoran (Montgomery County, Maryland)

Cycling

Ben Healy (Kingswinford, U.K.)

Ryan Mullen (Colwyn Bay, U.K.)

Megan Armitage (Tullamore)

Erin Creighton (Belfast, U.K.)

Mia Griffin (Glenmore)

Alice Sharpe (Cambridge, U.K.)

Kelly Murphy (London, U.K.)

Lara Gillespie (Dublin)

Diving

Jake Passmore (Leeds, U.K.)

Ciara McGing (London, U.K.)

Equestrian

Austin O'Connor (Mallow)

Cian O'Connor (Dublin)

Shane Sweetnam (Cork)

Daniel Coyle (Ardmore, U.K.)

Abigail Lyle (Bangor, U.K.)

Susie Berry (Dromore)

Sarah Ennis (Howth)

Aoife Clark (Dublin)

Field hockey

Kyle Marshall (Markethill)

Peter McKibbin (Belfast, U.K.)

Jonny Lynch (Lisburn)

Peter Brown (Banbridge)

Nick Page (London, U.K.)

David Harte (Ballinspittle)

Tim Cross (Melbourne, Australia)

John McKee (Banbridge, U.K.)

Matthew Nelson (Belfast, U.K.)

Daragh Walsh (Dublin)

Shane O'Donoghue (Dublin)

Sean Murray (Lisburn, U.K.)

Jeremy Duncan (Kilkenny)

Michael Robson (Belfast, U.K.)

Ben Walker (Glenageary)

Lee Cole (Shankill)

Ben Johnson (Waterford)

Golf

Rory McIlroy (Jupiter, Florida)

Shane Lowry (Dublin)

Stephanie Kallan (Phoenix, Arizona)

Leona Maguire (Cavan)

Gymnastics

Rhys McClenaghan (Dublin)

Rowing

Daire Lynch (Clonmel)

Philip Doyle (Banbridge, U.K.)

Fintan McCarthy (Skibbereen)

Paul O'Donovan (Lisheen)

Ross Corrigan (Enniskillen, U.K.)

Nathan Timoney (Enniskillen, U.K.)

Holly Davis (Bollincollig)

Alison Bergin (Cork)

Zoe Hyde (Killorglin)

Margaret Cremen (Rochestown)

Aofie Casey (Skibbereen)

Aifric Keogh (Furbo)

Fiona Murtagh (Galway)

Emily Hegarty (Skibbereen)

Natalie Long (Cobh)

Eimear Lambe (Dublin)

Imogen Magner (Ely, U.K.)

Rugby

Jack Kelly (Dublin)

Andrew Smith (Dublin)

Harry McNulty (Cashel)

Mark Roche (Glenageary)

Zac Ward (Downpatrick)

Chay Mullins (Bristol, U.K.)

Jordan Conroy (Tullamore)

Hugo Keenan (Dublin)

Hugo Lennox (Skerries)

Terry Kennedy (Dublin)

Gavin Mullin (Blackrock)

Niall Comerford (Dublin)

Sean Cribbin (Dublin)

Bryan Mollen (Glasthule)

Kathy Baker (Navan)

Megan Burns (Tullamore)

Amee-Leigh Murphy-Crowe (Dublin)

Alanna Fitzpatrick (Portarlington)

Stacey Flood (Dublin)

Eve Higgins (Kilcock)

Erin King (Wicklow)

Vicky Elmes-Kinlan (Rathnew)

Emily Lane (Cork)

Ashleigh Orchard (Belfast, U.K.)

Beibhinn Parsons (Ballinasloe)

Lucy Mulhall (Wicklow)

Sailing

Finn Lynch (Bennekerry)

Robert Dickson (Sutton)

Sean Waddilove (Howth)

Eve McMahon (Howth)

Swimming

Max McCusker (Harlow, U.K.)

Thomas Fannon (Torquay, U.K.)

Shane Ryan (Haverford Township, Pennsylvania)

Daniel Wiffen (Magheralin, U.K.)

Darragh Greene (Longford)

Conor Ferguson (Belfast, U.K.)

Grace Davison (Bangor, U.K.)

Victoria Catterson (Belfast, U.K.)

Erin Riordan (Whitegate)

Danielle Hill (Newtonabbey, U.K.)

Mona McSharry (Grange)

Ellen Walshe (Dublin)

Taekwondo

Jack Woolley (Dublin)

[ididsomethingbadly]

The fact that you're reading Brian Sanderson + two other people I talked to this month are also reading Sanderson books is probably a sign I need to read one soon. Also love pride & prejudice 1995!

Do you have any recommendations for shorter "easy read" sci fi / fantasy books? I've been in a long book slump and am trying to find something to pull me out.

Sanderson is a fantastic author! I read his Mistborn trilogy last year and I loved it so much! The ending of the second book is incredible and it's one of my all time favorites! His books are really long but they keep my attention through them all (except the first battle/fight scene of each book is always a little boring to me, but once I get past that I'm hooked, lol).

I'm not sure if you'd consider all of these short or not, but they're on the shorter end compared to like the 1000+ pages that some fantasy books can be, lol.

For shorter/easier fantasy or sci-fi books I'd recommend:

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (one of my top 10 favorites of all time)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Farhenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Giver by Lois Lowry

And this last one is a little weird because I'd only recommend part of it, but The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. It's a collection of short stories that all fit together to form an overarching story but can be read individually as well. I don't think I've ever actually read all of the stories because they kind of get less interesting as the book goes on, but I would recommend the first few stories (through April 2000: The Third Expedition) as I love those so much! The other stories aren't bad, they just don't have the same feel as the first ones, I don't think.

Book slumps are so hard! I hope you're able to find a good book to get you out of it!!

[gray-ace-space]

What's the last book you read and why did you (dis)like it?

i said in a previous ask that it was killing for company by brian masters and that i liked it a lot but frankly think it's cringe that it was the last one. so i'll go one book back, which, not counting my 100000 good omens re-reads, was the giver by lois lowry. i only read it cause a youtuber i like (big joel) made a video abt how dumb its movie adaptation is and i was like that actually sounds like a book i would love. and i did! it's what i would describe as hauntingly beautiful, it's so simple and poetic and i really like utopian dystopias so. would recommend

[cellythefloshie]

Random ask: pick one babe from every nhl team -🩵

Okay, not going to lie. I've wanted to do something like this for a while. This will be based on each team's 2022-2023 roster. (Maybe we do this every year after the trade deadline?)

Anaheim Ducks - Anthony Stolarz Arizona Coyotes - Shea Weber (LOL) Boston Bruins - Jeremy Swayman Buffalo Sabres - Alex Tuch Calgary Flames - Blake Coleman Carolina Hurricanes - Andrei Svechnikov Chicago Blackhawks - Taylor Raddysh Colorado Avalance - Gabe Landeskog ( I know he was on IR but he's the only one from that team I can tolerate rn ) Columbus Blue Jackets - Elvis Merzlikins Dallas Stars - Jake Oettinger Detroit Red Wings - Andrew Copp Edmonton Oilers - Leon Draisaitl Florida Panthers - Matthew Tkachuk LA Kings - Alex Iaffalo Minnesota Wild - Brandon Duhaime Montreal Canadiens - Josh Anderson Nashville Predators - Roman Josi New Jersey Devils - Brendan Smith New York Islanders - Matt Martin New York Rangers - Chris Kreider Ottawa Senators - Alex DeBrincat Philadelphia Flyers - Brendan Lemieux Pittsburgh Penguins - Brian Dumoulin San Jose Sharks - Evgeny Svechnikov Seattle Kraken - Vince Dunn St. Louis Blues - Jakub Vrana Tampa Bay Lightning - Ross Colton Toronto Maple Leafs - Ryan O'Reilly Vancouver Canuks - Anthony Beavillier Vegas Golden Knights - Reilly Smith ( this one took me a while, really had to stare at their roster ) Washington Capitals - Tom Wilson Winnipeg Jets - Adam Lowry

[randomfoggytiger]

The Truth Is Out There: David Duchovny, Collaborator and Vancouver Captive

1995 David Duchovny was grimly resigned to five unexpected, grueling years in Vancouver. (Thankfully for philes-- and his pocketbook-- he stuck around and contributed heavily to the series, including the idea which connected Mulder's family to the Conspiracy.) He was also very chatty and very complainy; and, even then, tended to gravitate to lower-stakes projects that put little pressure on him (acting is, after all, something he wanted, even then, to remain "fun".)

Previous parts of Brian Lowry's Book 1 here, here, and here. Transcripts below will be fonted in italics.

BITS FROM THE BOOK

Before the [first] season began, Fox officials were clearly more effusive in praising "Brisco County" and its star, Bruce Campbell, than The X-Files. In that regard, when Grushow commented that he’d “eat my desk” if Campbell didn’t become a star, Duchovny’s competitive spirit was piqued, feeling like The X-Files was being dismissed and slighted. Carter remembers Duchovny returning from an event where Grushow made those comments and joking about serving him the condiments for that meal. The attitude, Duchovny says, was that Fox was touting the other show and treating their entry as an afterthought-- as if it were “and oh yeah, there’s this other little show called The X-Files.” 

The net effect, in fact, turned out to benefit the show on virtually every level-- creating, as Duchovny puts it, “a unique mythology for television.” The complex alien abduction/government conspiracy story that was concocted to explain Anderson’s brief hiatus actually solidified the Mulder-Scully bond, striking an extremely responsive chord with the show’s hard-core fans. As Duchovny points out, there were also parallels between Scully’s abduction and that of Mulder’s sister, giving their relationship even more emotional resonance. 

…One of those regularly contributing ideas [to the second season] is Duchovny, who’s become personally close with Carter (the two are occasional squash partners) and has shared story credit with him on certain episodes. 

The producer has no qualms about letting his star in on that process. “He’s got good ideas for the show,” notes Carter. “Why not use them?” As for Duchovny, he says that once it became apparent the show would be around for a while, he had an interest as an actor in making his character as interesting as possible to play. 

As for Duchovny, the actor had little enthusiasm about doing a television series at the time-- his feature career having taken a promising turn with "Kalifornia", which cast him opposite Brad Pitt. The X-Files turned out to be the only pilot script his manager decided to send him that year. “I read it, and I thought it was a really good story and that UFOs would get boring after three or four episodes,” Duchovny recalls. ‘I thought I could go to Vancouver for a month and get paid, and then go on and do my next movie.” 

“I love it!” Bowman proclaims as the scene ends, watching the shot through a monitor and lauding his star as “One-take Duchovny.” 

…Bowman has to deal with five actors (Anderson, Duchovny, and Gunmen Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood, and Braidwood) in a relatively confined space, so the staging will be critical. After Bowman aligns them one way, Duchovny suggests an alternative in handling the shot, and various configurations are tried. As they begin rehearsing, everyone still seems a bit punchy, and the mood is light. Haglund keeps wanting to call a Nazi scientist “Kempler” instead of “Klemper”, and Duchovny has a hard time not laughing each time Braidwood (who comes up roughly to the actor’s chin) approaches him, with Frohike supposed to act relieved to see Mulder alive after the events that closed the second season. “Did you ever see the 'Star Trek; where Spock thought that Kirk died?” Duchovny tells him with his trademark deadpan delivery. ‘That’s what you want to be doing.” 

IN HIS OWN WORDS

…By virtue of starring in “The X-Files”, Duchovny also seems destine to have a shot at major feature-film stardom, but again, not via the precise route anyone assumed he’d follow. …Duchovny felt he was on his way and as a result had serious doubts about doing a television series. “It’s like a horse race,” he observes, enjoying a relaxed moment, clad in work shirt, boots, and jeans outside his trailer on “The X-Files” set in Vancouver. “You’ve got fifteen guys who are going to be ‘the next big thing,’ and three of those guys are going to finish.

“I was making a living,” he notes. “It seemed like I would get my shot at some point.”

Duchovny was willing to wait for his chance. He’d done some interesting features, and thanks to the vagaries of Hollywood, he knew a hit movie-- any hit movie-- would move him up to the next echelon of actors. “I always had an abiding belief that things would work out for me,” he says. “I didn’t know how. And then my manager, who was agreeing with me in that I didn’t want to do any television, sent me the script for ‘The X-Files’ because she thought it was a really good script. She read all the pilots, and that was the only one she sent me.” 

Duchovny remembers thinking he could do the pilot-- getting paid to spend a month or so in Vancouver-- and then be off to his next feature. In the midst of another 12- or 14-hour day, he can only shrug at the irony, adding with a sly grin, “It didn’t really work out that way.” 

…Prone to introspection as he is, however, Duchovny feels the weight of the expectations riding on him and wears the mantle of stardom uneasily, having found that sudden celebrity is not without its drawbacks on a personal level. 

…”Year one was just about survival-- am I physically going to survive? It’s what I imagine those triathletes feel: When you first start competing you just want to finish, then eventually you start wanting to get a good time. 

“There were many days the first year when I would just go home and think, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t go back to work anymore.’”

Although that situation didn’t ease much in terms of shooting requirements during the second season-- particularly with costar Gillian Anderson’s pregnancy compelling Duchovny to shoulder more responsibility for a time-- the actor found the show’s creative direction alone lightening the burden. “Last year I just think the work was so much better. That was kind of inspiring,” he says. 

Ever a tough critic, Duchovny felt there were some good episodes the first year and enjoyed doing something that was different from most primetime television shows. As for his contribution, he says he was “occasionally kind of happy with my work.” 

By contrast, in the second season, he believes, “we really became the best show on television,” saying he’s grateful that the series survived so its performers, writers and directors had the opportunity to mature together. The third season will be more of the same, he predicts, with trademark sarcasm, “before we slide back into mediocrity.” 

…Stardom does have some advantages, in that Duchovny has been able to add his stamp to the show creatively, providing story ideas and helping contribute to “The X-Files” mythology….

…Part of Duchovny’s goal has been to flesh out the character of Fox Mulder-- which, he points out, was understandably vague when the show began-- in order to make the part more enticing for him as a performer. “It’s definitely been exciting, just something added to my experience, in terms of being able to guide the destiny of the character,” he explains. “Because the character had no destiny. Like any TV show, you’re forced to eventually create a history for the character that it never had.” 

Once “The X-Files” had survived the initial Nielsen weeding-out process and he and Carter realized the show was going to be around for a while, Duchovny offers, “it became important to me as an actor to make that history as interesting as I could.” 

The second-season finale, entitled “Anasazi,” and revelations about Mulder’s family played out in the two opening episodes of the third season, offer such mythic highlights, exploring Mulder’s character and family history, down to his father���s role in alien experimentation. Those episodes also shed light on the abduction of Mulder’s sister, Samantha, which figured prominently in the character’s motivation….

Those episodes, he maintains, couple with earlier story arcs have “created a unique mythology for television in the character, and I’m really proud of that fact-- that I was conscious enough to say to Chris, ‘Look, I have some ideas, I want to be involved with the creation of this myth.’” 

Duchovny contends that Anderson’s pregnancy and brief absence unwittingly contributed to that emotional resonance. Having Mulder search for her echoed the loss he felt in losing his sister, while Scully’s abduction gave her an experience to draw upon-- all of which, in Duchovny’s eyes, provided “raw material to use in the future.” 

According to the actor, the depth of those episodes stands above “a kind of formula that we were drifting into the middle of last year” with stand-alone installments dealing with whatever monsters and/or paranormal phenomena the writers could dream up….

Now the show can go back and forth, delving into its mythology, then pulling back to do more standard and self-contained episodes. “The intensity’s too much, and it can get melodramatic,” Duchovny says regarding the need to break up the mythology segments, adding that the producers have achieved a “nice balance now” between the two. 

Seemingly as much of a perfectionist as Carter, Duchovny acknowledges that he occasionally bristles when he’s presented with a deluge of gobbledygook dialogue-- those sequences where Mulder launches into remarkably detailed explanations about some event or series of events from the past. “At first it was almost impossible-- it’s kind of a muscular thing,” he says. “You try and make it interesting from an acting point of view…. [But] sometimes it’s just like you memorize… and spit it out.” 

…Duchovny can be equally blunt in elaborating on his views regarding fame…. “Celebrity’s no fun,” he says flatly. 

“There’s really nothing nice about it. Celebrity is being known. It’s no fun to be known. I imagine it’s fun to be known for something good that you did, or for something noteworthy, but unfortunately the kind of celebrity television brings is monochromatic.”

…”I understand that it’s part of the territory,” he allows, “but sometimes it’s hard to be amused when you’re just trying to live your life and you don’t feel like people snickering or pointing. In this culture that we live in, everybody wants celebrity, everybody wants to be famous. If I’m going to be famous, I’d rather be famous ‘for’ something.” With a shrug of resignation, he adds, “I don’t think I have a choice at this point.” 

Duchovny’s comfort level with fame remains low. Asked the worst part about life under the microscope, he simply says, “It doesn’t leave you room to make mistakes, to do something stupid. Everything becomes kind of calculated in the worst way. You’ll have an impulse and you’ll go, ‘Can I do that? Is anybody watching me?’ It’s like being Catholic,” he quips. 

Not that Duchovny would trade in his ‘The X-Files’ experience. Far from it. “This is wonderful, and it affords me economic security” while hopefully creating the opportunity, he says, to do interesting feature-film work either after the series completes its run or during the hiatus period….

The travails of fame notwithstanding, things have certainly worked out, if not perfectly…. After all, how many people get to bring their dog to work with them? Duchovny’s pet, Blue, a well-behaved mutt with some border collie in her, is almost constantly at his side and less apt to complain than her master. “She gets excited to go in the car every morning-- much more excited than I do,” Duchovny says. “This is like her pack.” 

…Born August 7, Duchovny was so quiet growing up in Manhattan that his brother Danny, who is four years his senior, used to enjoy telling his friends David was “retarded….”

Duchovny admits to being shy as a youth, seldom dating during high school. His parents divorced when he was 11, and Duchovny has said in interviews those events may have contributed to both his drive to succeed academically and his personality, which at times can be construed as a bit standoffish…. 

In 1987, just short of gaining his Ph.D. at Yale in English (his dissertation topic was “Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose”), Duchovny began to truly pursue acting….

“It was never really a decision I made,” Duchovny says in hindsight. “I was doing both of them at once”-- teaching while working on his Ph.D. and acting-- “and I guess I just realized that I didn’t want to be a professor.” 

According to Duchovny, “Red Shoe Diaries” proved pivotal, allowing him to exhibit a different side of what he could do. In addition, he began to feel more comfortable as an actor, describing “The Rapture” as “a difficult experience” and “Twin Peaks” as an oddity. After appearing in low-budget films that put little pressure on him, “Red Shoe Diaries” also offered him his first leading role. “To see that I could do that was very important,” he suggests. 

In his customary manner, Duchovny would probably be the first to say the schedule associated with producing “The X-Files” is grueling and at times frustrating, but his faith in and commitment to the series’s quality pushes him along, much as he might like to grumble about the tongue-twisting dialogue and exhausting pace. As he puts it, in characteristically understated fashion, “It’s hard work to make a bad show, too.”

TRIVIA

[Duchovny meeting his girlfriend]: He was shopping for a suit (his first in many years), and asked Perrey Reeves, who had come in to shop for lingerie, which suit he should choose-- the gray one or the blue one? She told him to buy both. 

“Ice”: The Arctic-bound entry featuring a gruesome space-worm, which Duchovny has dubbed “the first really rocking episode.” David Duchovny’s own border collie, Blue, is the daughter of the dog featured in this episode. 

“The Jersey Devil”: The X-Files is filmed in Vancouver, so Mulder was not really in Atlantic City casinos. Instead, Duchovny was filmed in front of a blue-screen and stock casino footage was matted in later-- considerably cheaper than a location shoot in New Jersey would have cost. 

“Fire”: The famous “black silk boxer shorts” scene was originally a “Jockey underwear” scene….

“Genderbender”: During filming of the crime scene at the beginning of Act One, Mitch Kosterman (Det. Horton) flubbed his lines and said “chum chippy” instead of “some chippy.” For the rest of the shoot, David Duchovny joshed him about that line.  

“Miracle Man”: In an interview David Duchovny once said that he would consider Mulder Jewish until told otherwise.

“Darkness Falls”: Shooting in the forest near Vancouver, production was delayed frequently and made more difficult by heavy rains. “It was miserable,” Carter recalls, noting that the actors were soaking wet much of the time…. One saving grace was the casting of Jason Beghe…. A childhood friend of David Duchovny’s, Beghe had prodded him to pursue acting…. Having him on hand (at Duchovny’s suggestion) helped lighten the mood around the set, making the shoot something of a reunion and thus less of an ordeal for the cast. 

“One Breath”: The episode also lightly pokes fun at the show’s fans on the Internet, with one of the Lone Gunmen telling Mulder he should join them Friday in “hopping on the Internet to nitpick the scientific inaccuracies of Earth 2.” 

“Firewalker”: Gordon saw Trepkos’s obsession and the toll it exacted upon him in terms of losing someone he loved as a means of exploring the darker side of Mulder’s commitment to his search. “The natural endpoint of this quest for the truth is madness,” he notes, suggesting that Mulder’s decision to let Trepkos go at the end represents the bond in that respect between Mulder and Trepkos-- their shared ‘Heart of Darkness’. 

“Paper Clip”: …[Carter] also points to the mythic elements in Mulder being told that he has in a sense become his father-- one reason Duchovny has likened the narrative course of these three episodes to another trilogy, “Star Wars”, with a touch of “Sophie’s Choice”, perhaps, thrown in for good measure. 

BONUS

An excerpt from Brian Lowry’s second book “Trust No One: The Official Third Season Guide to The X-Files": 

Never one to settle for success, Duchovny-- who continues to play an active role in the series’s creative direction, working in concert with Carter and co-executive producer Howard Gordon on certain episodes-- is pleased with the third season but looks forward to expanding the show’s emotional range even further. Referring to one of the early second-season episodes, he notes, “I think when we did ‘Duane Barry’ the show became a really great show, and we maintained that level for a while, but we haven’t gone beyond it. I’m waiting to go beyond it. We won’t go beyond it technically, but we will go beyond it in terms of character, introducing a personal life of some kind. I think it’s inevitable. You have to do it.”

When it’s pointed out that the show’s most fervent loyalists, as well as Carter himself, have been especially vocal about not wanting to see Mulder and Scully romantically involved with anyone but each other, Duchovny simply shrugs and says the nuances he refers to don’t necessarily have to involved ‘romance’. “Give Mulder a friend. Give him a squash partner,” he suggests. “It’s got to happen. I really don’t care what anybody thinks we should or shouldn’t do.” Anderson remains more sanguine regarding such matters, though she indicates some interest as well in stretching the characters while understanding that such an evolution must occur within the show’s parameters. 

CONCLUSION

It's darkly comedic that Mr. Duchovny signed onto a (wildly successful) show thinking it would fail, only to be effectively held hostage for ten months out of twelve, 12- to 14-hours a day in a place that was completely opposite to the Cali weather he wished to sun bake in.

Also: props to him for contributing to the "domestication" of the show (more on that in future parts.) It's mind boggling just how much he contributed to The X-Files (and how much effort he put into later seasons together, despite his absence-- post here.)

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[eppysboys]

You seem to know a fair amount about visual art as well as the Beatles, and I'm curious if you know any more about the individual Beatles's art collections? I obviously know that Paul is into Magritte and has at least one. I saw that Stella quote recently about Ringo collecting Condo. And I found out today that Paul has some John Bratby in his collection. I've done a bit of googling to try to get more info without much success. Are there any other artists that they are known to collect? And anything particularly interesting about them collecting those artists? Thanks!

Hey anon! Thank you for such a lovely question! This is by no means a complete list, just a starting point. I encourage people to add on to this post. I'll revisit it and add to it when I can comb through books again 👍

John:

(Brian had owned a few of Lowry's works, and encouraged The Beatles + Cilla to collect art as well.)

John had also kept some Stuart Sutcliffe paintings in Kenwood (Many Years From Now + other sources).

Other than that, I can't find too much about specific artists that John sort out just yet.

Paul:

Lots of history and love between Paul and de Kooning, which you can read about here and here.

"Paul's own taste in art and literature veered towards the proto-surreal. In art he was attracted to the dream landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux and Salvador Dali and he admired the paintings of Max Ernst, but it was the work of Rene Magritte that gave him the most pleasure." (Many Years From Now)

"The Scottish-Italian artist Eduardo Paolozzi, one of the leading figures in the British Pop Art movement, had a previous connection with the Beatles: he taught Stuart Sutcliffe painting at Hamburg State Art College in 1961-1962, after Stuart left the Beatles to live with Astrid Kirchherr. Paul is still in touch with Paolozzi, who is occasionally to be seen at Paul's parties." (Many Years From Now)

"The whole of the offices of MPL Communications Ltd was beautiful with fabulous art… I was so taken with the Williem De Kooning tapestries in his inner office… I don’t suffer from envy but here, I have to admit, I was. These tapestries start at 3 million pounds, but I was not so in awe of the cost but in the glory of them. And that this young lad from Liverpool could own so much. But the first piece of art to startle me was a sculpture by the now Sir Eduardo Paolozzi: that was one of the big images that confronted me in Paul’s office, a Paolozzi sculpture, a stainless steel torso." Pauline Sutcliffe

There's also a section of his website: Paintings on the Wall, which have some lovely information about artists Paul is interested in and art history in general.

Ringo:

Ringo seems like a big collector, but I don't think he's really said much on the subject. So, you can look through this auction, which is full of very interesting art that Ringo owned at some point. It seems like he has a real fondness for pop art, obviously. Roy Lichtenstein pieces pop up all the time.

He also owns several of Yankel Feather's works.

And yes, George Condo is a big one. Here's an interview with Condo, where he mentions Ringo (don't yell at me about the 'John and Yoko were arty' tone 😂')

Rail: It would be a fantastic exhibition to put together. Before we conclude I also wanted to talk about your “simulated found objects.” 

Condo: Well, the idea was simple: could I create something so real that it would look like I found it? One day I was having a conversation with Ringo Starr, and we were talking about the song “I am the Walrus” by the Beatles, and I said, “You know there’s always been one thing I wondered about that song. When all of a sudden it sounds like a radio gets turned on, it sounds like 1920s music. It’s obviously the sound of the radio being turned on, and then you hear the orchestra and George Martin come back in.” I said, “Is that a piece of found music that John had and just inserted into this? Because I know John and Yoko were into that kind of thing.” Ringo said, “No, actually, John composed that piece of music to sound like he had found it." (source)

[annemariewrites]

List of all the books I’ve read

just wanted to keep a list of what I’ve read throughout my life (that I can remember)

Fiction:

“Where the Red Fern Grows,” Wilson Rawls

“The Outsiders,” S. E. Hinton

“The Weirdo,” Theodore Taylor

“The Devil’s Arithmetic,” Jane Yolen

“Julie of the Wolves series,” Jean Craighead George

“Soft Rain,” Cornelia Cornelissen

“Island of the Blue Dolphins,” Scott O’Dell

“The Twilight series,” Stephanie Mayer

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee

“Gamer Girl,” Mari Mancusi

“Redwall / Mossflower / Mattimeo / Mariel of Redwall,” Brian Jacques

“1984,” and  “Animal Farm,” George Orwell

“Killing Mr. Griffin,” Lois Duncan

“Huckleberry Finn,” Mark Twain

“Rainbow’s End,” Irene Hannon

“Cold Mountain,” Charles Frazier

“Between Shades of Gray,” Ruta Sepetys

“Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe,” Edgar Allan Poe

“Lord of the Flies,” William Golding

“The Great Gatsby,” F Scott Fitzgerald

“The Harry Potter series,” JK Rowling

“The Fault in Our Stars,” “Looking for Alaska,” and “Paper Towns,” John Green

“Thirteen Reasons Why,” Jay Asher

“The Hunger Games series,” Suzanne Collins

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Stephen Chbosky

“Fifty Shades of Grey,” EL James

“Speak,” and “Wintergirls,” Laurie Halse Anderson

“The Handmaid’s Tale,” Margaret Atwood

“Mama Day,” Gloria Naylor

“Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte

“Wide Sargasso Sea,” Jean Rhys

“The Haunting of Hill House,” Shirley Jackson

“The Chosen,” Chaim Potok

“Leaves of Grass,” Walt Whitman

“Till We Have Faces,” CS Lewis

“One Foot in Eden,” Ron Rash

“Jim the Boy,” Tony Earley

“The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox,” Maggie O’Farrell

“A Land More Kind Than Home,” Wiley Cash

“A Parchment of Leaves,” Silas House

“Beowulf,” Seamus Heaney

“The Silence of the Lambs / Red Dragon / Hannibal / Hannibal Rinsing,” Thomas Harris

“Cry the Beloved Country,” Alan Paton

“Moby Dick,” Herman Melville

“The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings trilogy / The Silmarillion,” JRR Tolkien

“Beren and Luthien,” JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

“Children of Blood and Bone / Children of Virtue and Vengeance,” Tomi Adeyemi

“Soundless,” Richelle Mead

“The Life She Was Given,” Ellen Marie Wiseman

“The Girl with the Louding Voice,” Abi Dare

“A Song of Ice and Fire series / Fire and Blood,” GRR Martin

“A Separate Peace,” John Knowles

“The Bluest Eye,” and “Beloved,” Toni Morrison

“Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley

“The Giver / Gathering Blue / Messenger / Son,” Lois Lowry

“The Ivory Carver trilogy,” Sue Harrison

“The Grapes of Wrath,” and “Of Mice and Men,” John Steinbeck

“The God of Small Things,” Arundhati Roy

“Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury

“The Night Circus,” Erin Morgenstern

“Sunflower Dog,” Kevin Winchester

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Betty Smith

“The Catcher in the Rye,” JD Salinger

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie

“Bridge to Terabithia,” Katherine Paterson

“The Good Girl,” Mary Kubica 

“The Last Unicorn,” Peter S Beagle

“Slaughterhouse Five,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr

“The Joy Luck Club,” Amy Tan

“The Sworn Virgin,” Kristopher Dukes

“The Color Purple,” Alice Walker

“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” Zora Neale Hurston

“The Light Between Oceans,” ML Stedman

“Yellowface,” RF Kuang

“A Flicker in the Dark,” Stacy Willingham

“One Piece Novel: Ace’s Story,” Sho Hinata

“Black Beauty,” Anna Seawell

“The Weight of Blood,” Tiffany D. Jackson

“Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China,” Hualing Nieh, Sau-ling Wong

“The Weight of Blood,” Laura McHugh

“Everybody’s Got to Eat,” Kevin Winchester

“That Was Then, This is Now,” / “Rumble Fish,” / “Tex,” / “Taming the Star Runner,” S. E. Hinton

“Beneath the Moon: Fairy Tales, Myths, and Divine Stories from Around the World,” Yoshi Yoshitani

“Memoirs of a Geisha,” Arthur Golden

“The Best Awful,” Carrie Fisher

Non-fiction:

“Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl,” Anne Frank

“Night,” Elie Wiesel

“Invisible Sisters,” Jessica Handler

“I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban,” Malala Yousafzai

“The Interesting Narrative,” Olaudah Equiano

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Harriet Jacobs

“The Princess Diarist,” Carrie Fisher

“Adulting: How to Become a Grown Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps,” Kelly Williams Brown

“How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Dale Carnegie

“Carrie Fisher: a Life on the Edge,” Sheila Weller

“Make ‘Em Laugh,” Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway

“How to be an Anti-Racist,” Ibram X Kendi

“Maus,” Art Spiegelman

“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou

“Wise Gals: the Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage,” Nathalia Holt

“Persepolis,” and “Persepolis II,” Marjane Satrapi

“How to Write a Novel,” Manuel Komroff

“The Nazi Genocide of the Roma,” Anton Weiss-Wendt

“Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz,” Lucette Matalon Lagnado and Sheila Cohn Dekel

“Two Watches,” Anita Tarlton

“The Ages of the Justice League: Essays on America’s Greatest Superheroes in Changing Times,” edited by Joseph J. Darowski

“Shockaholic,” Carrie Fisher

“Breaking Loose Together: the Regulator Rebellion in Pr-Revolutionary North Carolina,” Marjoleine Kars

[denimbex1986]

'Cillian Murphy delivers a powerhouse performance in Christopher Nolan‘s acclaimed biopic “Oppenheimer.” As J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, Murphy cuts a striking figure in his suit and hat with his piercing blue eyes staring out through IMAX screens and into the souls of cinema-goers.

The movie is Nolan’s first-ever biopic and explores how Oppenheimer went from a troubled, homesick student at Cambridge University to the leader of the Manhattan Project and the creator of the atomic bomb, which was later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Murphy’s Oppenheimer is a supremely intelligent man with political leanings and a brain that could consume anyone in the room with him. But he’s also a troubled man, burdened by the weight of what he is trying to achieve and aware that his creation will change the world — and not necessarily for the better. It’s a complex role and Murphy soars in it.

As such, Murphy finds himself at the top of our list of predicted Best Actor Oscar nominees for next year’s Academy Awards. We think that he will be nominated alongside Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”). This would be Murphy’s first-ever Oscar bid but we think he will go one better than a simple nomination. We think he’ll win on his first try. Here are five reasons why that could happen.

1. Murphy has the support of critics

It’s important to have the support of critics. Sometimes, actors have the support of critics for their performance but not necessarily for the film itself (think Brendan Fraser and “The Whale” or Rami Malek and “Bohemian Rhapsody”). But critics love both Murphy’s performance and Nolan’s movie itself.

Brian Lowry (CNN) wrote: “A Nolan favorite featured in several of his films, Murphy delivers a career-topping performance. Oppenheimer became haunted by the morality of what he had midwifed, and his messy personal life and affairs coexisted with his beautiful mind – a duality the actor conveys in a way that overshadows the bigger names in supporting roles.”

Christian Holub (Entertainment Weekly) explained: “Cillian Murphy rises to the challenge with an absolutely absorbing performance… The actor has proved his leading-man bona fides elsewhere (most recently in the long-running Netflix crime series ‘Peaky Blinders’) and finally brings that side of his skillset home to Nolan. No question, the close-ups on Murphy’s face as Oppenheimer thinks through the 20th century’s thorniest problems are as compelling as the film’s atomic explosions, and as deserving of the biggest screen possible.”

And Dan Jolin (Empire) observed: “At the film’s pulsing nucleus is Murphy as Oppenheimer, and he is compelling throughout. Given the movie’s hefty import, you’d have expected him to infuse every ounce of his talent into this performance, and that is certainly evident from his every moment on screen.”

2. Murphy stars in a biopic

This is the obvious one. Academy voters LOVE biopics. Six out of the last 10 Best Actor winners have won for playing real-life people in biopics, including Will Smith for “King Richard” in 2022, Rami Malek for “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 2019, and DiCaprio for “The Revenant” in 2016. Moreover, voters particularly love actors who take on major historical figures who left a great impact on the world. Daniel Day-Lewis won for playing Abraham Lincoln in 2013 for “Lincoln.” Eddie Redmayne won for playing Stephen Hawking in 2015 for “The Theory of Everything.” And Gary Oldman won for playing Winston Churchill in 2018 for “Darkest Hour.” These are titanic historical figures who shaped the world we live in today. Murphy as Oppenheimer would fit in right alongside that crowd.

3. Murphy fully committed to the role

Murphy’s silhouette in the role of Oppenheimer is one of the most striking cinematic images of the year — and his co-stars have recently revealed that his behind-the-scenes efforts helped to contribute to that. Emily Blunt, who plays his on-screen wife Kitty, claimed that Murphy ate only one almond a day in preparation for the role. While Murphy’s exact diet hasn’t yet been disclosed, Murphy did say this to The New York Times: “I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right. I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes.” That shows a clear dedication to the role. Murphy also explained that he learned 3000 words of Dutch over one weekend for the role, too: “You break it down and say, ‘Alright, we need to work on this today.’ I used to set aside, ‘I’ll work on this for a week and I’ll work on that for a week.'”

Voters will appreciate this level of commitment to the role, as they have done before with past roles. They nominated Cooper in 2019 for learning how to sing and play guitar for his role in “A Star is Born.” They nominated Day-Lewis the year before that for learning how to sew and make dresses for “Phantom Thread.” They gave DiCaprio the win in 2016 for his extreme physical efforts for “The Revenant” and Matthew McConaughey won in 2014 for his weight loss for “Dallas Buyers Club.” And that’s not to mention Murphy’s accent for the role. There are too many performances to list that have included a stunning accent that has helped to lead to an Oscar nomination. Murphy could be next.

4. Murphy fits the bill of past stars who have won on their first try

Winning on your first try isn’t an easy achievement but it has been done before. Malek did it for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Casey Affleck did it for “Manchester by the Sea.” Redmayne did it for “The Theory of Everything.” Murphy fits in with those guys — he’s a respected actor who has been around the block more than most realize and who audiences admire (this is particularly true of Murphy — he is cherished by “Peaky Blinders” fans). Then, all of those performers made a splash in dramatic roles that feel like their first lead roles in major movies and they steal the entire show. People came away talking about Malek when they watched “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Redmayne was the talk of the town after his performance in “The Theory of Everything.” And Murphy is the same. This wouldn’t be a gesture nomination. It’s a major piece of work that the academy might not be able to look away from.

5. It’s an easy way to reward a film they love

...Given the strength of competition this year, it feels like we could be in for one of those years where three, four, or five films are handed one, two, or three Oscars each rather than one picture winning seven, eight, or nine awards. That means that some films will be snubbed in certain areas. Now, “Oppenheimer” will likely garner a hell of a lot of Oscar nominations, including bids for Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Murphy, Best Supporting Actress for Blunt, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr, Best Adapted Screenplay, and a bunch of below-the-line nominations, too.

It remains to be seen how other films will be received but voters might want to give Best Picture to something else...

So, suddenly, 10, 11, 12, or 13 nominations could actually turn into zero wins.

But voters will want to reward “Oppenheimer” in some capacity and the obvious way to do that looks like Best Actor. It’s a powerful performance from a beloved actor breaking out in his first major leading role, it’s a film that is built entirely around Murphy’s central performance, and Murphy is the biggest takeaway from the film. In this early stage, it looks like “Oppenheimer” could be this year’s “Lincoln.” “Lincoln” was well-respected by the academy, earning the most Oscar nominations that year (12), including bids for Best Picture and Best Director for Steven Spielberg. However, the movie only won two Oscars — Best Actor for Day-Lewis and Best Production Design...'

[stratverse]

4/3/13: Mariners Survive In Oakland

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 O.co Coliseum

Final score: Mariners 4, Athletics 3 MVP: 1 Justin Smoak, Mariners: 2-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 runs scored

Seattle and Oakland went back-and-forth in this 3rd game of the season opening series, but in the end it was the Mariners who walked away with a hard-fought victory - just barely. The teams exchanged 2 run home runs early, before starting pitchers Brian Anderson and Joe Saunders settled in. The teams again exchanged single runs in the 7th and 8th innings, sending us to the 9th inning tied at 3 - where the Mariners were able to cash in with a solo home run, whilst the Athletics loaded the bases but went home empty. Charlie Furbush bounced back from his season-opening blown save to record the final out of the 8th inning and pick up the win.

SEA 4/6/0 – WP: Charlie Furbush (1-0) OAK 3/8/1 – LP: Josh Stinson (0-1)

Oak 1st: Jed Lowrie hits a 1-out single to left; after a strikeout for the 2nd out, Yoenis Céspedes launches a shot to deep center. 2-0 OAK Sea 2nd: With 2 out, Jesús Montero walks; Jason Bay follows with a shot to left field to tie the game up. 2-2 Sea 7th: Justin Smoak leads off with a double to right; Josh Stinson comes in to replace Brian Anderson on the. mound; after 2 outs, Robert Andino lines a single off the wall in right, scoring Smoak. 3-2 SEA Oak 8th: Lowrie welcomes reliever Carter Capps to the game with a first pitch, lead off home run to even the score yet again. 3-3 Sea 9th: Smoak hits a deep fly ball to center that just makes it over Chris Young's glove for a lead off solo home run. 4-3 SEA Oak 9th: Closer Tom Wilhelmsen enters the game for Seattle; pinch-hitter Brandon Moss draws a lead off walk; Eric Sogard singles to center; after a strikeout, Lowrie walks to load the bases; Young strikes out for the 2nd out; Céspedes hits a screaming liner, but it is snowconed by Kyle Seager at 3rd on an impressive leaping catch to end the game. SEA 4-3 (F)

Injuries: OF Coco Crisp, OAK - out for 1 game

(Strat note: Brett Anderson, the real-life A's game 1 starter, received the start here instead of Tommy Milone, who received the Strat opening day start [and promptly got injured] because Anderson's card was not part of the initial set. Milone's out for 15 games, and Anderson does eventually become a reliever in the real-life setting, so at some point I'll have to find a way to switch them back to the correct order. For now, though, they'll probably be switched. Crisp received a "ground out to shortstop + injury" roll to begin the game, and had to be replaced [plus out for 1 more game]. The A's bench is very left-handed hitter-heavy, so Seth Smith got the call to replace Crisp as DH today. Also, Scott Sizemore got the real-life start at 2nd for the A's, but does not have a card in the set - probably because he only played in 2 games all season - so left-handed Eric Sogard got the start and did his part, with 2 hits and a stolen base. Finally, the losing pitcher in the game - Josh Stinson - technically did not play for the Athletics ever, as they selected him on March 29 but then had Baltimore select him on April 4th. But with a lack of relievers, especially after having used 5 over the previous 2 games, the Strat-A's figured they might as well give him a shot.

The 9th inning got a bit dicey for Wilhelmsen, as all of the rolls somehow ended up being off of the batter's card [a lot of 1s and 2s on the 1d6], but he was able to survive, just barely. The runs in the 7th and 8 innings, 1 for each time, were likely the result of me leaving the pitcher in 1 batter too long. That remains a weak point for me; I'll have to work on that. Chris Young came up to bat 5 times and walked once, but also managed to strike out 4 times - including as the 2nd out, with the bases loaded, in the 9th - to pick up the golden sombrero. Jason Bay gave chase as well, with a home run in his first at bat followed by 3 strike outs, but avoided the sombrero simply by not having another at-bat.)

Seattle 2-1; Oakland 1-2 Next game in replay: CLE (Jiménez, 0-0) @ TOR (Morrow, 0-0)