#FUCK MIKE POSEY

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Athena my GIRL, NEVER STOP

[slightly-more-awake-salamander]

Yesterday there was a far-right protest outside the Dail (Irish parliament) acting as a blockade to prevent people from using the street and politicians from leaving the building. Thirteen people were arrested. People were decked out in Irish flags and chanting slogans like "Ireland for the Irish" and "Ballybrack says no" (a reference to the fucking evil response there was to housing migrants in the area). It was a vile mix of anti-vax spear shaking, racism, and transphobia a This all is happening just days after Posey Parker, queen of the Terfs, held a rally.

Central to the ""protest"" was a non-specific effigy of a politician hanging from a gallows, likely influenced by the 'Hang Mike Pence' gallows of January 6th, surrounded by pictures of politicians from across the spectrum. Because currently this wave of Irish fascism does not have a rallying point, no one has stepped up to lead them or take advantage of the bubbling far-right. But someone will. It may be the Irish Freedom Party, it might be Gemma O'Doherty, it might even be Renua, but it is no longer an option to just sit back because 'fascism happens to other countries'.

It is here, it has always been here, and we must fight back.

[magnificentbearvoid]

Shawn wants to fuck these 2 girls in the pussy Make their pussies wet make their pussies Juicy make their pussies delicious. Mike third, Posey's pleasure inside them. Fill up their pussit feels so good to fill up her pussies with my juicy little penis inside her. Both of them, 2 girls, 2 fuck toy girls.

[ask-idv-modern-hastur]

Have you ever had to teach Mike. If so, how did it end?

"Mike yes? Ah~ I'd always remember our first class together. I admire him, I still am now, he's smart and hardworking and is living his life to the fullest!"

"Mike is deaf, so he had to take a private class with me. When he came in, he had that nothing matters and bored look on his face. As his teacher I must assure that he enjoys his study with me. I learned some basic sign language, illustrate the war and write a lot."

"I was glad that he seemed to be lighten up and focused more on the lesson."

"Everything went well that day, but when I did the 'Thank you', he just wheezed. I don't know why, but since he had a good laugh, that wasn't a big deal anymore."

[stilinskiderek]

just gonna jump the gun on the ask game - 01 for our favorite teen wolfs

OH LETS GOOOOO this took me a while to answer because i have been formulating . i've been ideating. none of this will be a shock . but i have so much to say.

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

Favorite character: DEREK HALE completely unsurprisingly. Literally from season 1 episode 1. I love him so much.

Least Favorite character: THEO RAEKEN Even in my rewatch I didn't like him, which makes him okay as a villain but I don't even really like him as a villain. also started my teen wolf rewatch when i was rewatching pll and kept calling him mike.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): STEREK literally from day 1 also. The only fic i read for teen wolf is sterek. SCISAAC also from the first time i watched the show. there's something so special to me about scott and isaac together i love them so much STALIA i didn't actually like them together when i first watched the show but rewatching it??? holy shit. they were so so so so good for each other and it broke my heart when they broke up. one of the scenes in s5 where malia says she knows stiles had to kill one of the chimeras but 'it didn't matter' /didn't affect how much she cared about him so she didn't bring it up??? holy shit. that paired with 'i would never leave without you' GOD I LOVE MALIA TATE STYDIA spoilers for a show that ended in 2017 but i did in fact cry when they ended up together. dont forget i love you?? bitch im going to scream ALLYDIA i got one of my friends to start teen wolf and they sent me a message like midway through season 1 and said 'do people ship allison and lydia?" and the answer is yes. me. i'm people.

Character I find most attractive: DEREK HALE also 'character most frequently covered in blood' and 'character most likely to be in distress'

Character I would marry: DEREK HALE i mean. come on.

Character I would be best friends with: ISAAC LAHEY he is SO important to me and i loved him even more with rewatching the show. someone please be nice to him.

a random thought:

An unpopular opinion: I FUCKING LOVE SCOTT MCCALL . i know a lot of people dont! i understand! but i love him so much. scott is probably my second favorite character in the show. he is . chefs kiss. a lot of that also comes from loving tyler posey. + i am GENUINELY excited for the movie. I know most people are not! i am. if you ask yourself 'who asked for this movie?' the answer is tumblr user stilinskiderek. i asked.

My Canon OTP: STALIA not a ship that lasted but my favorite canon ship ever. i loved them together so so much and i missed their dynamic in season 6

My Non-canon OTP: SCISAAC HEAR ME OUT i know i have a sterek url i also love sterek BUT i think Scisaac could've been made canon so easily whereas sterek couldn't have. I GENUINELY think if Isaac was a female character he would've ended up with Scott. Their personalities worked so so well together and I really think they could've been canon!!!

Most Badass Character: DEREK HALE like for the sheer number of times this man has brushed death and survived. jesus CHRIST.

Most Epic Villain: VOID!STILES the other characters having to fight with a person they were FRIENDS WITH?? stiles is scott's BROTHER like holy SHIT. god. the emotional turmoil. dylan obrien killed it. the divine move is one of my favorite episodes of the entire show.

Pairing I am not a fan of: DRAEDEN it just felt...out of nowhere? and kind of weird? i think because season 4 was when hoechlin wasn't a series regular anymore so derek wasn't a key character in every episode it felt like their relationshp was super rushed and just. didn't fit either one of their characterizations.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): DEREK HALE i could talk about this until the cows come home. i think that derek was not treated with any sort of importance despite being a main character, and i don't think the literal trauma and abuse he suffered at the hands of kate argent was ever properly addressed. a lot of his actions and the way he treats people are obviously based in that experience but there was absolutely NO attempt at resolving it or even really acknowledging it. It should've been something, especially in season 4 with kate coming back, but it wasn't. i'm never going to not be mad about it. in that same vein, i think derek and isaac's relationship could've been way more impactful if the writers gave a fuck about derek. with the other hale betas in s2, jackson, erica, and boyd all have 'real'/biological families they can go home to. jackson's might not be great but he still has somewhere else to go. the only person isaac had was derek, which puts derek begrudgingly into this older brother/dad role for isaac that could've been incredible HAD THE WRITERS DONE ANYTHING WITH IT!! clearly isaac is living in the loft with derek but ?? that's all we ever get. what could've been a really great found family moment was absolutely nothing, and watching the scene in s3 where derek is terrified of the alpha pack coming for him TO THE POINT WHERE HE SENDS ISAAC AWAY TO KEEP ISAAC SAFE makes me so mad because if that relationship had been developed that scene would've been even MORE heartbreaking. isaac is being sent away by the only person he has in the world and that hurts but derek should've also been hurting because he's trying to protect this kid he took in but he can't explain it to him and i just. it could've been the bella/charlie scene in twilight but it wasn't!!!

Favourite Friendship: SCOTT/STILES stiles has scott's back through literally everything and god the scene in motel california with the flare breaks me every single time.

Character I most identify with: LYDIA okay this was hard for me to answer because i identify with a lot of them but in different ways?? then i remembered one time my friend sophie asked me to pick a teen wolf sun/moon/rising sign which i think fits this question. my rising sign is Scott, my moon sign is Lydia, and my rising sign is Malia. I think out of all of them I identify the most with Lydia!! i love her.

Character I wish I could be: DANNY I just want to be adjacent to all of the chaos and observe from afar. the way he knew about the werewolves because nobody can whisper in beacon hills is so special to me. i also love that he's the singular side character who was not made supernatural and did not die, just vibed the entire time.

[dammitrussellwhy]

as soon as he said the episode was about public libraries i said "oh goody i wonder if they'll talk about my town's!" and sure enough they did. Huntington Beach city council decided they should explore privatization, held a city hall meeting for public comment (tho the first three items of the meeting were addressing the three lawsuits our dipshit council have incurred from the state of california) on whether or not it should be put on the november ballot, and they've still decided the decision on who manages the library should be theirs and not ours.

Mike Posey, former Huntington Beach mayor and now sales executive of the country’s largest public library outsourcer Library Systems and Services (LS&S), had submitted an unsolicited bid to provide “managed library services”

LS&S has a history of contracts being cancelled due to poor performance; Santa Clarita City Council bought their library back from LS&S, and Fullerton Library Board rejected a proposal from them.

Seeing as privatizing the library is just a big part of the anti-lgbtqia+ culture war, i can't see a way that a private equity firm could meet the fascistic wishes of the maga homophobes without being blatently, openly homophobic: if the library is to be profit-driven, and lgbtq books are in demand, then wouldn't the profitable thing to do be carrying the same lgbtq books these fucks wanted to ban? and if non-fascists know the firm running their library is choosing to be homophobic, then there goes a large base of library-users.

i've heard that multiple HBPL staff, including the head librarian, have resigned over this horseshit. Straight up disgraceful

[bthenoise]

Q&A: Tyler Posey Talks New Travis Barker-Featured, John Feldmann-Produced Solo Single “Shut Up”

Today officially marks the start of a brand new era for actor and musician Tyler Posey. After years spent in various bands, the outgoing singer/songwriter is officially stepping out on his own to showcase his distinct brand of pop-punk-inspired music. 

Front and center for the very first time, Posey is treating listeners to his bold new single “Shut Up” featuring alt-indie artist phem and none other than blink-182′s Travis Barker. 

Discussing the new John Feldmann-produced track, Posey said, “From start to finish, this song really did feel like something special. I wrote the verses on a trip in an RV with my dogs and my friend and felt like it was progressing so naturally in a perfect way.” 

He added, “I took those bones to John Feldmann and phem and when she went into the vocal booth to record her vocals, I was so stoked. I had been wanting her on a track but was too nervous to ask. It was an emotional session and then finally to get Travis to play drums on it is just literally a dream come true. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”

Diving further into the moving new song, the passionate performer spoke with The Noise all about working with an idol like Barker plus what he thinks the future of pop-punk will look like. To see what Posey had to say, be sure to look below. Afterward, make sure to stream “Shut Up” here.     

How hard was it to keep it a secret that you made a song with Travis Barker?

TYLER POSEY: Fuck man, I mean, I've got blink-182 tattoos, they've been my favorite band since I was a kid and I've got posters of them on my wall that I'm looking at right now. It's such a big deal for me. But like, I think in some way, it was easier to keep it private because it's one of those things that you want to keep sacred. But at the same time, I’m super fucking stoked to release it. So it's like, it hasn't been that hard to keep it a secret because I'm just relishing in the fact that I got to play with him before anyone else knew. It's just so fuckin’ cool.

How did the collaboration come together? Guessing John Feldmann had something to do with it?

Yeah, exactly. I've always been piquing his interest in getting like my favorite people to collab with us. You know, I'm like, “Hey? What is Mark Hoppus doing today?’ if I’m ever at the studio with him. So this kind of came about like that. I was like, “What’s the possibility of Travis getting on the track?”  

And [Jonh's] like, “Maybe the next album” because for some reason he thought sense this album I'm debuting just my name and kind of going solo, he thought [we should] keep the focus on that. But then, he hit me up one day after we recorded “Shut Up” and he FaceTimed me and he was in the studio with Travis. He's like, “Hey, so you want Travis to play on a song?” I was like “What!? Yeah, of course but I thought you said no.” [laughs]

So Travis was like right there and he's like, “What's up, dude?” And I was like, “Hey man! Yeah, so ‘shut up.’ If you dig that track then please I would love for you to feature on it.” And he loved it so that's how it started, kind of unconventional.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tyler Posey (@tylerposey58)

Had you met Travis prior to this?

I have, yeah. So Feldy lets me fill in on bass for Goldfinger whenever Mike Herrera can't -- which is like the coolest thing to put on my resume, like I’m the fill-in bassist for Goldfinger. So, [John] has this Christmas party (or he used to before COVID) and he does it at his house and he has this huge fucking Christmas party where Goldfinger and all these other bands usually play and he sets up a stage. And one year, Travis was playing drums [for Goldfinger] and there's this one moment in “Superman” where it's just bass and drums and I like locked eyes with him for as long as I could before he cracked a smile [laughs]. So yeah, we’ve met a couple times before. He was super stoked to be a part of this song and he's just killing it with collabs lately so I was just honored that he wanted to work with me.

Speaking of Travis’ collabs, are you a fan of some of his recent crossover stuff with artists like Machine Gun Kelly and Trippie Redd?

Yeah, absolutely dude. Like, I grew up in the punk scene so, for some reason, when I was a punk kid going to Warped Tour all the time I was really headstrong about maintaining being “punk” and I didn't listen to anything outside of the genre. I was like, “Fuck everything else! I’m punk!” So it kind of took a little while to kind of break that. But that was like years ago so I love what [Travis] is doing with them. I think it's fucking cool too that it's putting -- so like I've been in the punk scene forever and I've always played punk music, no matter what I write, it just comes out punk -- so it's cool that pop-punk is now making a resurgence with Barker and Machine Gun Kelly and Trippie and all these other people. I think it's setting a cool precedence for punk bands that have been really trying to make it for years. So hopefully that happens.

It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for pop-punk music thanks to people like Travis Barker and yourself who have a big platform and use it to help bring pop-punk music to a wider audience.

Yeah, dude. That's kind of how I met and got involved with all these punk bands. I was kind of vocal about them on Twitter like a long time ago, when I used to use Twitter a lot. I would just be listening to punk music and would just post a picture of it 'cause I wanted the kids to know about it so that's kind of how my involvement got started. Like State Champs hit me up and I got in good with them and rode with them on Warped Tour. Then I met Knuckle Puck and Neck Deep and just all these huge punk bands kind of brought me into the world and then it was kind of an easy transition once I started releasing my own shit. So I'm super thankful that they welcomed me with open arms and that I am, you know, part of this like, showing people the way of the punk [laughs].

So going back to “Shut Up,” how would you say this song differs from your previous projects like PVMNTS and Five North?

I think with every album, every artist says “we try to evolve” and for me it's just always been this progression. It hasn't really been anything that I've been trying to have happen, it’s just sort of happened naturally. So I think anything that I put out will always have that element of it sounding a little bit different, a little more mature [and] grown up. So I really like the song, it's polished. I love that phem is a part of it. I think it adds this kind of dynamic that I used to think my music writing was missing lately. I just think that it's more mature. Like I said, I can't really step out of like pop-punk world 'cause it's in my blood, that’s how I write. So it's not too different, it's just a more sort of mature vibe than I guess I was doing before. But like, with my last band Five North with Feldy, we really tried to experiment and kind of push the envelope a little bit. So we had like weird synth sounds but it all kind of worked because we always kept it like this pop-punk melodic sort of drive with driving verses and vocals. So it's kind of like the same vibe but just, you know, more mature. Long story short [laughs].

Is it nerve wracking for you to to put your name strictly on things now as a solo artist as opposed to having a band? 

No, I don't think so. I think I've always sort of viewed myself as a solo songwriter. It's just, like, growing up in the punk scene, you know, you always had a band name and for the longest time I was part of bands that everybody, sort of, had an opinion and we all would song-write. But for what I've been doing lately, it's just been me so it felt right. It's more of like an experiment at this point. You know, I don't know how it's gonna be received, but it kind of frees me up to be a little bit more creative artistically. Whether it's writing, filming something. I just feel like it's the right move. 

This song seems to makes sense as a Tyler Posey solo song considering how personal and open it is. Was it challenging for you to be that candid writing these lyrics? 

No, no it wasn't. I've always viewed music as a kind of therapy. You know, it's just sort of been my outlet. As much as fuckin’ everybody says that, it holds true. So I've never really held back when it comes to writing music. Like, I've gone through a bunch of shit. My mom died like six years ago so I've written about that a bunch of times. So I've never really been one to struggle being open when it comes to writing lyrics. But this one, this one definitely is a heavy song. Like I got sober during the pandemic because I was just abusing a little bit too much and going too heavy and couldn't seem to get out of this cycle. So I was sober for a while, but like, I was just kind of dealing with an ex and kind of using that to lean on as sort of a new drug. So it's kind of what the song is about. But yeah, it's just coming together at a really vulnerable time in my life but it’s never really been too hard to be that open. I think that people deserve to know that everyone is going through the same shit that they're going through -- even if it's just one person. 

For people who can relate to this song, is there any advice you can offer to them? Maybe how you felt when you were writing it? 

Fuck [laughs]. My advice for somebody who's listening to this song – I don’t know dude. Life is fucking weird. Sometimes you try to do the things that you think are going to lead you to the right path but it feels like it's not. So I think that everything happens for a reason, as corny as that it. Like, if there’s some bad shit that happens, the reason is [because] you learn from it. So I think that's kind of the model for this song. Whether it's good or bad, you're gonna learn something from it and you're hopefully going to grow. It's just up to you if you want to grow from it. 

That’s a great way to put it. So lastly, not giving away too much, should fans be expecting more solo music from you moving forward? 

Yeah, absolutely! So this is just a sneak peek. I'm going to be releasing two EPs. We were going to do a full album but we just split the album in half and we're gonna do two EPs. The first one is called DRUGS and is all about my experience becoming sober, why I got sober and the shit that happens during that. Then the next EP, they're both going to be 7 tracks, I'm gonna release it later on in the year. So there's gonna be a bunch of shit coming out. This is kind of like the new course of action for releasing music for me, it's all going to be under my name.  

That’s exciting! Guess there really isn’t much else to do during a pandemic so it makes sense to write and release a bunch of music.

Yeah dude, exactly. So I'm going to try and get some visual content out too. Start doing some videos, I’ll be filming the music video for “Shut Up” soon. So just going to keep on that course.  

[kyufiber-moved]

the sexiest songs you know / the ones that get you in 'the mood' :> for scientific purposes

I GOT YOU BRO . U hAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I GOT U . songs below the cut (yea there are that many SJDLFJD)

daddy issues by the neighborhood

undressed by merges

desert rose by lolo zouai

sacrifice (feat. jessie reyez) by black atlass

personal by plaza

a little death by the neighborhood

groupie love (feat. a$ap rocky) by lana del rey

you by jacquees

if you let me by sinead harnett, grades

poison by yas

church by chase atlantic

tidal wave by chase atlantic

the hills by the weeknd

blue madonna by borns

flesh by simon curtis

call out my name by the weeknd

radars by alina libkind

unfold by alina baraz

canadian dubai by always never

headlights by jae stephens

flames by 11:11

eyes on you (feat. d.meanor) by gleam

need you like that by ezi

giveittome (feat. packxday) by twlv

long black by jus2

talk to my skin by stalgia

cold sweat by tinashe

fucked my way up to the top by lana del rey

crazy in love - remix by beyonce

closer by nick jonas, mike posner

my funny valentine by hadassah

suffer - vince staples and andrealo remix by charlie puth

oxygen by jackson wang

unholy by hey violet

247 by david correy

wet (feat. superbee) by jooyoung

19 by stray kids

deep by summer walker

please by posey

mind games by sickick

childish by grvm

you by 11:11

louder than bombs by bts

move by colde

planet girl by jooyong, ph-1

[are-we-really-doing-this]

If y’all been watching my posts you’ll know that I post a lot about Mike Posey, considering you may only know him as that ref Athena likes. I be Posey Posting, but I have a good reason for this.

Let's take a look at the man behind the striped polo.

Here he is as an America themed gimp with a penchant for flailing his arms around in 2001.

Here he is in a bow tie and dress shirt that doesn't fit reffing a match in 2002.

Here he is again in 2002 this time wrestling in a ref shirt before fucking dying I assume after the real ref gets bumped and another ref comes out to ref the new match which is the original ref vs Mike's original opponent.

Here he is in 2004 in TNA reffing a match in the getup from earlier before he gets bumped and pulls out his "one good dropkick", and it's fucking beautiful if you ask me, AJ styles ain't got a communion wafer on this shit.

Here he is in 2005 hanging out with a faction called 3 Guys Who Totally Rule. Side note, the gentleman in the glasses is Salvatore Rinauro and yes he is the guy who pulled down Punk's trunks in FIP.

And here he is that same year for CyberFights.

This is him in 2011 as part of a stable called Jimmy Rave Approved infighting with cake in a softball field.

Here he is in 2013 freestyling and then losing a rap battle to my BOY Slim J (who needs his own timeline such as this one, let's be honest) after stealing his gimmick and becoming Slim P.

Here he is rapping again in 2017, this time in a durag for some reason. Important to note that he was getting billed as P Dog at this time.

Here he is getting sweaty and showing off his core muscles in quarantine. 2020 is also the year he wrestled his last real match.

Here he is in 2022 during the FTR/Briscoes double dog collar match after Dax Harwood paid him to take a ref bump so hard that he started bleeding (I'm assuming so he wouldn't be the only one in the ring not busted open).

Aaaaaand here he is on the 2023 Jericho cruise reffing a match between Eddie Kingston and Ryan Nemeth of all people before he takes a bump from Nemeth, tears his shirt off in a rage, and pins Ryan in 5 seconds while Eddie wears his little bitty shirt like a scarf. Then he gets up, catches his shirt which Eddie throws at him, and counts Ryan down for the pin after Eddie knocks his ass out.

So yeah what I'm trying to say is that Mike Posey has probably had a more interesting and varied career than your fav and you should appreciate him every time you see his face on your television.

[gretagerwigarchive]

Interview: Greta Gerwig on "Frances Ha" and Movie Musicals

December 17, 2013

source: http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2013/12/17/interview-greta-gerwig-on-frances-ha-and-movie-musicals.html

I talked to this gifted actress recently about the somewhat arbitrary nature of movie awardage but we quickly moved on to two topics far closer to her heart: creative collaboration and movie musicals. When it came to the latter, her voice lifted with as much energy as her titular character exhibited in those spirited spinning runs down Manhattan streets in Frances Ha.

•

Nathaniel R: Everyone movie fan I've ever talked to about you remembers vividly the first time they saw you in something. I think this is a huge compliment to you.

GRETA GERWIG: That's really nice.  

What do you attribute that to?

I don't know. I think it's sort of "Who let her in the building?" I think it has that effect on people. [Laughter] But I'm glad I'm memorable!

Nathaniel R: You're compared to Parker Posey sometimes... I think you're quite a different actress but it's been such a long time since we had a leading lady who we might reasonably call "Queen of the Indies"

GRETA GERWIG: I loved Parker Posey when I was growing up. Particularly the stuff she did with Christopher Guest, clearly a co-creator, making it her own. She was bringing more than quote unquote just acting. there was something else it seems. I mean she's just terrific. She's one of those people who is just wildly talented. People sometimes forget that about her. My sense is that  she was that person in drama school who was funnier and smarter and better and more creative than anybody. She's got that quality. I kind of think she can do anything.

You haven't always cowritten your stuff but with Frances Ha, you've really proven yourself in that regard. Is that something you'll be seeking out now or will you stay an actress for hire ?

I would LOVE to be an actress-for-hire but I don't think that's going to be what I do. I think I'll probably end up doing some combination of acting and writing and making things. I think it's probably lucky that -- I'm a lazy enough person, my character is lacking enough, that if someone says 'You'll never have to write again or be creative again in that way,' then I would take it! [Laughter]

Creating your own work is really hard. I know that sounds silly because it's joyful and amazing but it is difficult and it takes a lot out of me.   I think I'm been saved from my own laziness by the fact that I haven't been giving everything I wanted. Which is a good thing.

I think one thing people don't say enough about Frances Ha is that the ensemble is really strong. Was it strange to act with people playing characters and saying lines that you created?

I was part of the audition process pretty heavily. A lot of the weirdness of that was beaten out of me during [auditions]. You hear so many people read the lines that they become not yours. It's almost like you  beat out of you what you had heard in your head. It allows you to hear someone else's rhythm in it. When you hear it right -- but it's not your right it's their right -- than it comes back around to you if that makes sense?  By the time we were shooting it felt like long since they weren't my words.

Charlotte D'Amboise, Grace Gummer, Mickey Sumner ...everyone was so good in it.

It was so much fun to cast it out of New York -- all these great New York actors -- whether it was stage actors or people we knew that had been auditioning for other stuff. There's something so great about using actors like that. I think so often casts are put together like "Does this person mean something financially?" and these were just people we thought were  good.

You've used your background as a dancer before and it's a key component of Frances Ha. Do you want to do a pure musical?

[Excited] Yeah! That would be my ultimate thing. I do love dance and I think I love musicals more than plays or movies. I like films that have that element. I respond to them. I love the Gene Kelly movies.

Oh, he's my favorite!

He's the best. They were doing a Jacques Demy retrospective at Film Forum and I watched all of his movies. It's weird when you watch a bunch of stuff by one filmmaker in a row. You realize he shoots some of the same locations in multiple movies. 'We were just in that hallway but it was that other story.' It's a totally modern thing you can do to watch movies so close together!  Not just Umbrellas of Cherbrough, but A Room in Town -- everyone sings through the whole thing which is great.   The only thing I wish would have happened is dancing.

I'm so happy you want to make musicals

I just don't know who wants to pay for that? Unless it's Chicago or something, I don't know. Maybe the world will come back around and the movie musical will be king again?

I wish for that all the time. What director would you like to be a muse for?

Mike Leigh. [Thinking] And Leos Carax and Claire Denis. All the big ones of course but those two. I would like to figure out how to be a lady Denis Lavant. He always seems like he's in a musical to me - his body seems like a dancer's body. I like to make something that's not literal if that makes sense. I think Denis and Carax movies have this not literal quality that I think I'd be interested in being taken away and fucked up by.

Wasn't Holy Motors great?

I'm learning how to play the accordion because of that movie! That accordion scene I just never wanted it to end. 'Holy fuck I didn't know I wanted this!'  

That's another skill for your movie musical.

It's going to be all accordions!

[filmstudiesandshenanigans]

20th Century Women: Punk Rock in the Cosmos

It's fitting that during a scene in which Annette Bening's narrator breaks the fourth wall and ponders the next twenty years of American history, director and writer Mike Mills decided to insert a scene from Koyaanisqatsi. Indeed, this film feels closest to Godrey Reggio's ponderous meditation on the nature of time and how the earth just keeps on spinning, our daily lives a mere blip in the cosmic ballet. But while we're here, Mills thinks we ought to try and make the best of it.

As intensely personal and semi-autobiographical as his previous film, Beginners, 20th Century Women is not just a step forward artistically; it represents a quantum leap. The shift in narrative and thematic ambition to something less precious and more purely empathetic allows Mills to connect the intimacy of this makeshift family of sorts to a vast thematic landscape. What Mills seems to be occupied with isn't as much a conversation with God or the cosmos about the meaning of existence, but rather an interest in our relationship with the passage of time. If we're really only here for a moment, what do with do with that moment? What impact does it have, and how does the flow of time shape who we are?

The kaleidoscope of experience and perspective is embodied in the surrogate family on display in Mills' exploration of what can be surmised was his relationship with his mother and the people around him. Standing in for the author is Jaime, a 15 year old boy being raised by his single mother, a feminist who yet struggles with the changing world around her, trying to make heads or tales of a post-Nixon America. As William Friedkin once said, the 1970s represented the country having "a national nervous breakdown" following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr, the Kennedy brothers, and the Vietnam war. That nervous breakdown could arguably be seen as culminating in the impeachment and resignation of President Nixon. The Watergate scandal shook the country's faith in democracy like nothing before, and afterwards, we're still picking up the pieces. In fact, the film's use of an omniscient narration by the various characters able to see their own past, present, and 20 year-on future allows this historical perspective to ponder where the fuck we as a people are supposed to go from here. Does it matter?

Surrounding Jaime and Dorothea are their two tenants, a 20-something photographer who "dyed her hair red after she saw The Man Who Fell to Earth" and a 40-something handyman who lived through the 60s but maybe left his heart back there, struggling to reconcile his deep, salt of the earth goodness with his younger free spirit. Add to the list a lifelong childhood friend of Jaime's, a girl he is deeply in love with but unrequitedly so, and you have a strange surrogate family indeed. But Mills is so invested in finding the empathy to treat them all a human beings that it never becomes the precocious, farce it could be in the hands of anyone less insightful and pointed in their observations. If this all sounds a bit weighty and ponderous, rest assured it balances lofty thematic ambitions with an absolutely acidic wit and joyous celebration of life's messiness. It strikes such a balance between these tones that I found myself often laughing hysterically while also literally choking back a good cry.

That deep sense of humanity is embodied beautifully in the performances across the board, but never more so than in the ways Annette Bening and Greta Gerwig's generational gap contrast and compliment one another. Instead of playing either as a stereotype, their ability to project some much emotional complexities in the simplest of gestures and body language is astonishing. That's par for the course with Bening, who has long been portraying that level of devastating nuance in her career, but something of a revelation for Gerwig, who up until now has been the heir apparent of Parker Posey as the indie queen, playing variations of herself throughout. Here, she finally allows herself a level of raw vulnerability that results in a complex, heartbreaking, and passionate portrayal of a young woman just trying to feel sane in an insane world. The scenes she shares with Bening show a level of compassion between two women who have a stronger bond than just friends. There's a real love and understanding that comes off as a mother-daughter dynamic at first, but reveals itself to be something more pure and with less baggage. Two women who just wan tot be there for one another, connecting through shared experience throughout time.

At one point in the film, Bening stumbles upon her son and Gerwig's character listening to punk rock, and says "They're not very good, are they?" Gerwig replies Yea, it’s like they’ve got this feeling, and they don’t have any skill, and they don’t want skill, because it’s really interesting what happens when your passion is bigger than the tools you have to deal with it. It creates this energy that’s raw. Isn’t it great?"

That assessment of the energy and passion pf punk permeates throughout the film, serving as a thesis of sorts on our place in the course of history. Mills seems to assert that without allowing yourself to express that raw feeling and energy, you find yourself stuck in frustration and a life measured only in what you think you have the tools to achieve, rather than finally just shouting "I'm here, and this is who I am!" at the top of your lungs. Such a love for humanity is rare these days, but a film like 20th Century Women is bursting at the seems with it. We're all complicated, messy, strange people, but damned if we aren't going to just try our best to make our mark on the flow of time in whatever way we can. No fate but what you make, after all.

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Hey AEW, if you fire Mike Posey I will fucking notice and I will never forgive you