#I think its more evans than morse

[jessieren]

Repeat HNW content alert

Do any of you care when its this hot?

Didn't think so...

[kigiom]

Hi hello, I’m very much enjoying your endeavour posting with no context whatsoever! But what’s it about?

(I know I could google but personally I love explaining things I love, so I thought I’d ask😊)

hi! so! well! thank you that's very kind of you <3 very long post incoming.

endeavour is a crime drama that stands on its own, but it's also a prequel to a pretty well known earlier show called inspector morse (that I haven't actually seen) and features the titular character of endeavour morse as a much younger man (played by shaun evans), first as a constable and then a sergeant under the mentorship of one inspector thursday (roger allam). it's set in the 1960s and then early 1970s, which is executed very well! it's nine seasons long of about 3/4 episodes a season, each of them an hour and a half, which I find serves the show well in allowing more freedom for plot development and character dynamics.

I have enjoyed it very much and am currently mildly (extremely) obsessed with it, because it has a stellar combination of a) exemplary acting b) fantastic cinematography and atmosphere setting and c) adherence to the narrative.

in more detail:

morse himself is very much a character who cannot escape his own tragic fate because he brings it about himself, which is of course like catnip to me (love a character who brings his own doom!).

that, and the mildly codependent "we can't seem to part" relationship he has with thursday? delicious. initially of course the relationship is settled in a more mentor-mentee dynamic, though they instantly take a shine to each other (they just genuinely seem to like each other as people, despite their rank difference! they're two of a kind!) with morse as the mouthy, headstrong young man committed to justice and thursday as the experienced world war two veteran who tries to bring him in line while also fighting for that same cause: justice.

I'd argue they lose that dynamic pretty quickly (certainly by about S3), (though it was never particularly strong, given morse's sheer bloody-mindedness) establishing a much more equal footing with each other that's evident in the push and pull between them that starts becoming evident in S4 (ft. bickering) as morse comes into his own. I'll save any spoilers just in case you do decide to watch it, but! they aren't master and pupil — they're equals, and that adds so much more to the dynamic, I find, than a simple reading of them as teacher and student. there's the element of loyalty — thursday in his willingness to defend morse to superiors and morse in his...well, everything. he acknowledges thursday's faults and sticks to him despite his own iron morality. I'll add receipts to posts I made about this that sum it up better than I can manage typing this out sitting in a heatwave.

(here's the post concerning their devotion)

(and this textpost was also about them but it broke containment and now everyone thinks it's about hannibal)

further concerning the exploration of their morality intersecting with their loyalty:

anyway! it's a very good show! allam and evans have a spectacular dynamic as their respective characters, and both of them are incredible actors (evans in particular is of the precise facial expression journeys school, and manages to convey incredible depth and range of emotion, conflicting or not, in two seconds by the look on his face and body language. allam has a somewhat stage trained spin to playing thursday but he's equally brilliant at bringing depth and enormous complexity to a character that could so easily have become flat).

so, if you like to see:

- a miserable uppity twink growing up and becoming a middle aged man in spirit if not body

- said miserable little bastard being doomed from the start (he also gets progressively more miserable as the show goes on) (this will hurt) (it'll hurt a lot.)

- a deuteragonist straight out of a noir film; a family man who's seen the war and who comes to embody the violence he experienced against what he perceives as wrong

- protagonist and deuteragonist are basically textually the most important people in each other's lives and have the power to hurt each other like no one else (👍)

- the enormous ironies of the 1950s "family man"

- great atmosphere setting, wildly varying plots (for better and for worse, but it largely stays in the IMDB 8+ mark), brilliant supporting characters and cast

- acknowledgement of police corruption and brutality (the latter a complex issue, the former the main overarching plot of the show)

- constant parallel drawing and running threads of the narrative that you go "oh my GOD" at during the rewatch

...then this show is for you!

(...and thank you for reading all that)

[iloveyoudie]

Morse and Max in Series 4

[madamewriterofwrongs]

my sweet darling - how about an armed forces 911 AU? Maybe Eddie meets Navy Seal Buckley overseas? Maybe they meet back stateside at the VA?

You, my darling, always send me such fun and interesting prompts. I promise I didn’t forget. 

Ooh, okay. Let’s see...

Prompt Me with AUs

Delta X-Ray (I am Sinking) 

Read on Ao3

Eddie first sees him as he’s getting off the plane in Washington. He’s going to receive a medal. Apparently his work in Bagram made him a hero and not a broken, shell of a man. Who knew. And really, it’s just a glance because he has other things to worry about besides a Navy man getting dressed down by his captain. He doesn’t need to hear what’s being said to know that’s exactly what’s happening. He’s seen that look too many times, felt the hot breath of his superior as they spat harsh words meant to ‘toughen him up’.

As he passes the sailor, he hears something to the effect of “if it happens again, you will be dismissed.” And Eddie wonders how many times this particular man has received this exact lecture. It doesn’t really matter, anyways. He just wants to get his medal, shake a few hands of politicians who think they had anything to do with his ‘accomplishment’ and go home to his wife and child – ex-wife, he reminds himself. Shannon had the papers shipped to Afghanistan. Couldn’t get away fast enough, his mind bitterly supplied. All he would have at the end of the day was his son, and a medal to replace the wedding band he’d worn since he was 19.

Before he knows it, he’s standing on a small stage, a million lights flashing in his eyes as cameras and stage lights practically blind him. His shoulder aches – out of the sling for the afternoon so he can at least look more put together than he feels – and he’s dizzy from the attention. That’s his excuse for why he doesn’t recognize the man standing beside him.

“Seaman Petty Officer First Class Evan Buckley.” A blond man steps forward and Eddie catches himself staring at the dress whites and stone expression for longer than is strictly necessary. He seems a far cry from the officer being scolded less than an hour ago, but it is definitely him. And he was standing on stage beside Eddie, about to receive a medal of his own.

“For distinguishing oneself by heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy of the United States, Petty Officer Buckley is awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.”

As he watches the stripes being pined on the officer’s lapel, he lets himself wonder what crime the man could have committed to be dressed down and rewarded in the same afternoon.

He’s so curious, in fact, that he nearly misses his own name amongst the titles thrown around.

“Staff Sergeant Edmundo Diaz.” He steps forward, holding his breath until the entire ordeal is finally finished. “For gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States, Staff Sergeant Diaz is awarded the Silver Star.” The medal is heavier than he anticipated, but he supposes that makes sense. It is quite a burden he’ll be carrying around, and now he has a gold star to go with it – he wants to chuckle at the irony of his ‘Silver Star’ actually presenting as a golden one.

It seems everything about his life is a life.

There were a lot of reasons Eddie hated attending events like this: The politics, the bravado, the crowds of people ‘thanking him for his service’. Mostly, though: he never knows anyone. Sure, he can charm a senator or two for a few minutes, swap stories with other officers from other divisions about where they were and what they saw. But those are fleeting relationships, meant to get him through the day. He’ll go back to his hotel room at the end of the night with no more friends than when he’d stepped off the plane in this awful, awful town. Eddie is tired of ‘schmoozing’. With any luck, today will be the last time he has to tell the governor’s wife how lovely she looks in her dress.

That’s when he spots the man sitting at the edge of the bar like he’s trying to hide from the world, and he decides to make his way over.

“Do you mind if I join you?” He asks, even as he sits down.

The other man’s eyes light with recognition – and damn, are they as blue as the sea. “Not at all. Diaz, right?”

“Eddie.” He supplies, raising a finger to the bartender to snag his attention. If he is going to make it to the end of the evening, he’s going to need one, good drink. “And you’re Buckley.”

“Actually, it’s Evan but you can call me ‘Buck’.” His amusement must be evident because his new drinking buddy supplies the answer. “There are a surprising amount of ‘Evan’s in the Navy.”

It had never occurred to him to check how many ‘Eddie’s were in his squadron. Maybe he should ask his CO if that’s why he always called him by his full first name.

“Congratulations, by the way.” Buck looks somewhat nervous even as the words leave his mouth. “On your medal. Good job.”

“Oh.” Is all Eddie can bring himself to say as he stares into the bottom of his glass. “Thanks.”

“You don’t look too happy about it.”

He really isn’t doing a good job of hiding his emotions if this relative stranger ca read him so easily. “No, I-” he takes a deep breath to recalibrate his thoughts and paste his best fake smile. “It is a great honour.”

“Bullshit.” Buck laughs in his face but for some reason, Eddie doesn’t bristle nearly as hard as he expected. It almost feels playful. The rest of Buck’s response is cut off by his buzzing phone on the counter. The man quickly grabs it long enough to check his notifications, returning it to its place at the bar with a disappointed look.

“Are we keeping you from something?”

“Uh, no.” It’s Buck’s turn to look caught out and in need of recalibration. His expression changes much slower. “I’m just waiting for a call from my sister. I sent her an invitation to this thing but she never responded.”

Eddie has experience with family not coming to big social events like this one. Of course, in his case, he never invited them in the first place.

“Family ain’t easy.” He shrugs as he takes a long sip of whatever burning liquid he’d ordered – it really doesn’t matter so long as he can stay sitting here and not mingling with the crowds of vultures.

“It’s more than that.” Buck looks worried, and the way he bites his lip is… Eddie shouldn’t be focusing on that. “It’s just…” The man shakes his head, dismissing whatever feelings were eating at his gut. “I don’t want to bore you.”

“Please.” Eddie leans into his space with a playful smile. “It can’t be any more boring than this event. Please try to bore me to tears, if you dare.”

When Buck smiles, Eddie’s heart flutters out of his chest and sits beside him as they listen to Buck begin to speak. He tells Eddie about his sister, how she cared for him growing up, how she went away with her asshole of a boyfriend – now her deceased asshole of a husband – leaving him to fend for himself. He talks about travelling the country, trying every odd job he could get his hands on, until a buddy of his suggested he join the Navy. And he loves the work, he really does, but he hasn’t seen his sister in over a year. Their last conversation ended in a fight about some family secret that Buck is reluctant to talk about. Even Eddie can tell that the man just misses his sister. No matter what the argument was about.

Eddie finds himself talking – in less detail – about Shannon and the divorce and his son at home. At Buck’s prompting, he shows off his favourite photos of Christopher (avoiding the one burning a whole in his shirt pocket, torn and bloody, which never leaves him). The man’s face positively lights up when he sees the kid, offering an appropriate amount of sympathy for his divorce without pushing him for more emotions.

It’s easy talking to Buck, he realizes after a few hours. Because suddenly, the venue rental is nearly up and he’s still sitting at the corner of the bar, talking to Buck. Sure, a few people have passed by and shaken their hands, thanking them for their service – Eddie cringes every time and Buck has to hide his laughter once he realizes – but for the most part, it’s just the two of them, sitting and talking.

“The flag signalling we use now was established in 1855.” Buck explains as he leans further into Eddie’s space. “And while Robert Morse invented Morse Code in the 1830s, the International Morse Code that we use didn’t come out until the 1850s.”

“How do you know all of that?” Eddie was fairly certain he hadn’t had to study the history of communication when he was in training. But he’d also been very focused on his medical textbook.

Buck was incredibly cute when he blushed, Eddie decides – though he opts to keep that opinion to himself for now. “I get bored and I read.” The man shrugs nonchalantly, as though he hasn’t been entertaining Eddie with stories of Naval history and his own dumb-ass mistakes all evening. Honestly, Eddie wants to sit here all night and listen to Buck tell him stories of the world. It seems like he’s lived a lifetime already. And what has Eddie done? Gotten a girl pregnant, joined the army, gotten shot, and now he doesn’t even have a wife to go home to.

“Can I ask you something?” Eddie realizes too late that Buck looks nervous. He thinks he probably wouldn’t have said yes if he’d noticed. “How did you get your medal?”

Now he knows he doesn’t have to answer – and his initial instinct is to close out his tab and see if he can run to El Paso on his still-injured leg. But he also realizes that he hasn’t told anyone since it happened. Not the full story. Even now, he might not have the words. But he tries.

“Our helicopter got shot down while transporting wounded. I could still move so I got everyone out. Or I tried to get them out.” The echo of gunfire is not as distant as the others told him it would be. He can still smell it. “Support finally arrived and they decided to give me a medal for holding down the fort.”

Buck places a gentle hand over his and Eddie gasps, reminded that it has been a very long time since anyone has touched him. God, how he misses it.

“You saved wounded soldiers in the middle of the desert while being fired on. And you think you were just doing your job?”

“I’m an army medic.” He reasons with the bottom of his glass. “It’s my job to save people.”

“Maybe. But I don’t think that’s why you do it.” Without elaborating, Buck smiles at him and Eddie forgets the question.

“What about you?” He asks instead. “What’s yours for?”

Unlike the enthusiastic, bubbly personality he’s been talking to for the last few hours, Buck melts into the face he saw up on that stage. The stoic, professional.

“We were on our way back from an escort mission when we encountered some rough seas. I happened to be on deck with the chief mate when he had a stroke. I tried to tend to him but the storm was getting worse and no one could find the captain, so I just took over navigation. It was rough, I had no idea what I was doing, but we all made it out safely and the chief mate was okay.” As Buck shrugs, memories of an overheard conversation come flooding back to Eddie’s mind.

“Wait, were you on the USS Angelo?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Eddie can’t believe it. He has to laugh. “You were the cadet who sailed out of Hurricane Ida?”

“I am a petty officer first class, I’ll have you know.”

“Buck, you navigated a 2,000 ton ship out of a hurricane and all they gave you was a lousy medal?”

“I should get that printed on a t-shirt, or something.”

“That was incredibly reckless but also incredibly brave. Buck, you’re a hero.”

“I was just doing my job.” The smirk tells Eddie he knows exactly what he’s doing but it still hits him that he’s throwing Eddie’s words back in his face. Cute and cheeky.

He doesn’t know why he asks – well, he does, but it’s incredibly stupid and impulsive, and he definitely can’t blame it on the alcohol but he sure would like to.

“How long are you in town?”

Buck looks pleasantly surprised by his question but answers with regret in his eyes. “I head out with the Fifth Fleet in the morning.”

Wow. “You just got a medal, and you’re headed out to earn another one?”

“Something like that.” Buck laughs and Eddie wishes he was braver than he felt. “But I won’t be gone forever. And I’m really good at telegraphy if you wanted to send anyone a message.”

He’s so grateful that Buck has the good sense to be everything he needs right now. Because asking the next question is easier with someone standing next to him. “I suppose I’ll need a way to get in touch with you, then.”

Buck winks and Eddie has never been gladder that the concept of ‘standing’ was only metaphorical. The man should not be so irresistible after only a few hours, but Eddie can’t help but watch him push off his barstool and walk around the side of the bar.

“Hey, Diaz!” The spell is broken long enough for him to look across the room at where his name is being called. He waves at old friends – well, Senior Airman Han and Space Force First Sergeant Wilson are the closest things he has to old friends but in actuality, he’s not sure he knows their first names. “We’re going to the afterparty, want to join?”

On a normal night, Eddie would decline on the basis that he doesn’t want to go, and would rather lay in bed and watch reruns of ‘Murder She Wrote’. Tonight, Eddie wants to decline on the basis that he doesn’t want to go, and would rather stay up all night talking to someone who makes me feel curious about the future.

“Not tonight.” He shouts back across the room. “I’ll catch you at the next ceremony.”

They wave him off because they know it’s the same excuse he makes every single time but the only thing that matters is getting back to Buck.

“So.” He turns to the bar only to find it empty. The seat beside him is also unoccupied, as is any of the space surrounding him.

Had he dreamed up Buck? Had he been imagining this person who made him feel like divorce wasn’t his last chance at happiness? Was he truly so desperate and lonely?

“Hey.” Eddie looks up with too much hope in his eyes to only come face-to-face with the bartender. “He left this for you.” The man – who is not Buck, no matter how much Eddie hopes to see those eyes again – slides a napkin across the counter and walks away before Eddie can ask anymore questions.

He picks up the napkin and reads the blue ink-stained note written in messy scrawl.

Kilo

--... .---- --... ..... ..... ..... -.... --... ----. .----

The dots and dashes he recognizes as a series of numbers – a phone number, he hopes – but the word above? He tries to recall his academy days.

Kilo. Short for Kilogram. Used in the International Code of Symbols to represent the letter ‘K’. In Maritime Signal Flags, it indicates: I wish to communicate with you.

He’s pretty sure the bartender hates him for how late he stayed and how loudly he laughed at Buck’s note, but he can’t bring himself to care. Instead, he spends his energy memorizing the napkin’s contents long after he’s input the number. It’s more than just a piece of paper: it’s hope.

[weekendwarriorblog]

Review: TURNING RED is Way Funnier and More Fun Than Anything I Was Expecting

I might have been a wee bit of a late-comer when it comes to Pixar movies – Monsters Inc. was my first, and no, I will not reveal my age when I first saw it. While there are definitely Pixar movies and characters I love more than others, I’ve definitely become more of a fan of their one-offs that don’t necessarily require spin-offs or sequels - Ratatouille, Up, Inside Out are three good examples. Turning Red is just such a movie from Domee Shi, director of the 2018 Oscar-winning short, Bao, and boy, did I enjoy this one quite a bit more than expected.

It circles around 13-year-old Mei-lin Lee, voiced by Rosalie Chiang, who lives in Toronto and is particularly enthusiastic about, well, everything, including math, drawing, boys, but especially boy group 4-Town, whom she swoons over with her three besties. Her family runs a temple, more like a museum really, dedicated to their elders and the family legends about the legendary red panda and its magical powers. One day, Mei-lin wakes up, and she actually has transformed into a red panda herself, though she soon learns that’s only the case when she’s excited or angry… which is pretty much all the time!

I have to say that right off the bat, I loved how this fairly high concept comedy introduces Mei as this bright and positive young person, who isn’t necessarily popular but also isn’t the sad and dowdy nerd we’ve seen in far too many movies set during middle school or high school. In other words, it’s more like Eighth Grade or Book Smart than Dear Evan Hansen – though I do feel the need to remind some of you that I actually liked all three of those movies. It’s just really nice to see a young person who finds things she loves and is able to surround herself with similar kids, which I feel is just part of what make Turning Red quite inspirational, regardless of your age. Sure, Mei has a vocal naysayer in Tyler, your typical snarky school bully, who just wants to feel better than someone as confident as Mei.

With a script co-written by Shi with Julia Cho, Turning Red alternates quite readily between being adorable and being hilarious. Sure, there may be concerns that Mei’s entire situation might just be an analogy for a young girl menstruating for the first time, and yeah, it does totally go there as Mei tries to adjust to “the change” with her parents being fully aware of this “blessing.” Those obvious euphemisms aside, the movie addresses the obvious and then quickly moves on. While I (a non-parent, mind you) think it’s important for kids – both girls AND boys – to eventually be made aware of the cycles of their mothers and older sisters, maybe that’s not so appropriate for a movie that will be shown to kids under 6? They have enough to worry about with not having a COVID vaccine yet (probably one of the reasons why Turning Red is still going to primarily be on streaming this weekend, despite the aggravation of many of my peers).

Chiang is quite an amazing voice find for this movie, her Mei Lee quickly becoming one of my favorite human characters in a Pixar movie since Russell from Up. I’d probably compare her more favorably to Auli'i Cravalho in Moana than Stephanie Beatriz in Encanto, even if this role doesn’t involve much serious singing. In general, all the voice actors cast by Ms. Shi are great, led by the inimitable Sandra Oh as Mei’s mother, Ming, who has her own mother issues, but she brings so much weight in terms of all the film’s many feels. I don’t think the humor would have worked quite as well if not for the terrific young actors voicing Mei’s besties – Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Hyein Park – all of whom play off her energy. The same can be said about the actors voicing Mei’s grandmother and her aunties, who introduce another entirely new level of humor to the proceedings. And of course, you can’t have a distinctly Chinese movie like this without the great James Hong providing his unmistakable voice!

After last year, it’s kind of nice to have an animated movie that doesn’t feel the need to be a Disney musical, but the movie does include songs written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell, the latter who makes up one fourth of the five-member 4-Town boy band, who have some great catchy tunes. The movie also includes another wonderful score by Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson, who instills the movie with the necessary Asian references, and some suitably heroic moments but never losing sight of the film’s overall playful attitude and emotions.

Turning Red isn’t perfect, as it does go into a few obvious places and definitely lags a bit in its second act as Mei and her friends try to monetize on the adorableness of her red panda alter ego. Fortunately, it leads into a terrific last act involving the girls' anticipated 4-Town concert, and a few “giant monster” moments that helps kick the movie back into high gear.

Turning Red is quite wonderful, my favorite animated film since last year’s Raya and the Last Dragon, mainly because it just feels so natural as an extension of the filmmaker’s own interests without feeling like there’s a ton of modern animated tropes shoehorned into the simple story merely to appeal only to the kiddies.

Rating: 8.5/10

Turning Red will stream on Disney+ starting Friday, March 11 BUT if you’re in New York or L.A., you can still see it in theaters during its one-week run for Oscar qualification!

[rivet-ing-titanic]

April 26th, 1912 - American Inquiry Day 8

The Evening Star of Washington DC, April 27. 1912, shows Ernest Gill, right, in opposition to his Captain, Stanley Lord, left. 

Day 8: The subcommittee returned to their normal way of conducting the inquiry, although later than normal due to how late testimony was being given the night before. Notable among the witnesses today is Captain Stanley Lord, and Marconi Operator, Cyril Evans, both of the SS Californian. Both men will spend the rest of their careers, and lives with the shadow of that Sunday night, and their actions, or lack there-of. Before testimony is heard, Senator Smith reiterates that “everything that transpires in connection with this inquiry is public, and no attempt whatever to suppress any part of the testimony, or the circumstances surrounding it; will be made.” 

Witnesses:

Philip Franklin, Vice President, International Mercantile Marine Co.;

Ernest Gill, Donkeyman, SS Californian;

Stanley Lord, Captain, SS Californian;

Cyril F. Evans, Marconi Operator, SS Californian;

Frank O. Evans, Able Seaman, RMS Titanic (recalled);

Notable Quotes/Lines of Questioning or Summarized Testimony:

Philip Franklin starts the morning off by explaining the circumstances that had transpired in order to subpoena the captain, Marconi officer and several crew of the SS Californian in Boston on April 25th. Consideration was given for their arrangements to travel to Washington working around the ship’s next planned sailing on the 27th. When the Inquiry started this morning, Lord and C. Evans are on their way by train from Boston to Washington, and would arrive later that afternoon to testify.

Senator Smith also questions Franklin again about the official and non-official communication regarding the accident, when he first heard and from whom, who he communicated with, and what was communicated. Franklin is very forthcoming and had already provided the subcommittee all relevant telegrams, but Smith continues to query him about it.

There is very interesting conversation between Franklin and Smith regarding the Titanic operator’s conduct in the matter of the ice report around 5pm Sunday from the Californian that he originally ignored but picked up about 30 minutes later from the Baltic. I appreciate and would support Mr. Franklin’s testimony, and essentially arguments made against what Smith has been saying, in regards to timing and conduct, and whether the operator should be employed by Marconi or the ship owner. LINK to the second half of Franklin’s testimony which I believe is worth the read.

At the end of what seems like a tense back and forth between the two, Senator Smith and Mr. Franklin discuss how he and his employees have been treated through-out the inquiry. While Franklin understands the position, he emphasizes how he would desire to send non-Americans home, but Smith digs his heels in. Smith reiterates why them being there is so important, and that until he is satisfied that they have been completely thorough in this inquiry, he will not allow anyone to be sent home.

Senator Fletcher asked if it would be practical to run ships in pairs across the ocean, to which Franklin replies that he does not think it practical, and continues to insist as Fletcher inquires more into his reasoning.

Ernest Gill, second donkeyman (person in charge of a ship’s engine room) of the Californian¸ is read his own personal statement  by Senator Smith, and affirms all that was read to be true. READ THIS WHOLE THING!!! 

In Gill’s statements, he tells of what transpired on the night of Sunday April 14th. He recounts that he had seen “a big vessel” from the deck around 11:56. He states that “They could not have helped but see her from the bridge and lookout.” Then, unable to sleep he comes back on deck around 12:30 and sees the rockets, saying to himself, “that must be a vessel in distress.” It wasn’t his duty to notify the bridge “but they could not have helped but see them [the rockets],” so he turned in with the belief that the ship would go to the distressed vessel’s aid.

“The next remark I heard the second pass was, ‘Why in the devil they didn't wake the wireless man up?’ The entire crew of the steamer have been talking among themselves about the disregard of the rockets. I personally urged several to join me in protesting against the conduct of the captain, but they refused, because they feared to lose their jobs.” – Gill

“I am quite sure that the Californian was less than 20 miles from the Titanic, which the officers report to have been our position. I could not have seen her if she had been more than 10 miles distant and I saw her very plainly. I have no ill will toward the captain or any officer of the ship, and I am losing a profitable berth by making this statement. I am actuated by the desire that no captain who refuses or neglects to give aid to a vessel in distress should be able to hush up the men.” – Gill

 Seriously, read Gill’s statement, it isn’t very long and its got juicy deets.

“From the position we stopped in to the position at which the Titanic is supposed to have hit the iceberg, 19 1/2 to 19 3/4 miles; south 16 west, sir, was the course.” – Lord

When they finally did go to Titanic’s aid, Lord estimates (per the Californian log book) it took them 2.5 hours to get to her location at full speed in the morning. When asked had they received the C.Q.D. from Titanic, Lord estimates at least 2 hours. Gill saw the rockets at 12:30; Titanic went under at approximately 2:20; going full speed, based on estimates the Californian, that night of the sinking could have gotten there right as Titanic potentially saving those in the water, and almost 2 hours before the Carpathia. This is if they went when they saw the rockets later after the wireless operator had turned in. Had they received the Titanic’s initial C.Q.D. which was sent at midnight, the Californian could have been there when the Titanic was not yet fully foundered, and potentially saved a lot more lives. (This is my own trail of thinking based on testimony, NOT fact.)

” I saw several empty boats, some floating planks, a few deck chairs, and cushions; but considering the size of the disaster, there was very little wreckage. It seemed more like an old fishing boat had sunk” – Lord

In regards to the distress signals, Lord tells a short story about how things played out. He claims to have seen a “peculiar light” coming along, however they “could not distinguish where the sky ended and where the water commenced. You understand, it was a flat calm” and another officer told him he thought it was a star, so Lord went below. “A quarter past he [the officer] said, ‘I think she has fired a rocket.’ He said, ‘She did not answer the Morse lamp and she has commenced to go away from us.’ I said, ‘Call her up and let me know at once what her name is.’ So, he put the whistle back, and, apparently, he was calling. I could hear him ticking over my head. Then l went to sleep.” - Lord

“We could not have seen her Morse code; that is an utter impossibility.” –Lord who also claimed the distress rockets could have been mistaken as a shooting star or not seen at all. Interesting though, because according to Gill, multiple people saw them.

The Californian’s chief officer (Stewart) woke C. Evans at 3:30 saying "There is a ship that has been firing rockets in the night. Please see if there is anything the matter."  At that point he got word from the Frankfurt(German liner) that the Titanic had sunk and her location. This was followed up with an official message from the Virginian, with the same details.

There was lots of talk, as they headed towards the Titanic’s location, between the crew members of the Californian, regarding seeing rockets and informing the Captain of said rockets earlier in the night.

According to C. Evans, Gill had mentioned “I think I will make about $500 on this” in regards to telling the press about the rockets.

“I should think between 150 and 200. We had great difficulty in getting through them to get to the wreck” – F. Evans (regarding bodies in the water, they passed through them to get to the overturned collapsible boat)

“The first child was passed over, sir, and I caught it by the dress. It was dangling. I had to swing it, and a woman caught it. The remainder of the children - there was a fireman there and with the assistance of a young woman they caught the children as they were dropped into the boat. There were none of the children hurt. That was the only accident, with this woman. She seemed a bit nervous. She did not like to jump, at first, and then when she did jump she did not go far enough, and the consequence was she went between the ship and the boat.” – F. Evans

Evans says she parted between the third and fourth funnel. 200ft. of the stern left visible, sitting horizontally for about 4-5 minutes after the forepart went down. Stern then plunged forward perpendicular.

  SEE American Inquiry Day 7 here.

[daggerzine]

You Gotta Lose? Hell, Some Of Us Ain’t Dead Yet by Mary Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0fz3FVBlOE

NRBQ has done so many amazing songs. I never thought much about “Roll Call,” from Tiddlywinks - for one thing, it has a lighter, almost Billy Joel sound that’s more about latter day Terry Adams style than what I think of as the classic Q. Yet just as Adams’ work has grown on me, this track has made its way into my consciousness. The lyrics speak to me more in 2020 than they did when Tiddlywinks was released in 1980, before the D.C.-area music scene had lost Robert Goldstein (Urban Verbs), Kevin MacDonald (brilliant visual artist and scene stalwart who helped me design and layout [The] Infiltrator), Danny Gatton disciple/guitar maverick Evan Johns, bassist Michael Maye from the original H-Bombs, Rick Dreyfuss (Half Japanese/Chumps/Shakemore), Libby Hatch and Michael Mariotte  (Tru Fax and the Insaniacs), Sally Be/Berg - REM/Egoslavia/SHE/Robert Palmer), Nurses member Marc Halpern (heroin, 1982), Lorenzo (Pee- Wee) Jones (Tiny Desk Unit) and hybrid rocker Jim Altman (HIV, 1990s).  Goldstein, Dreyfuss, Maye and MacDonald succumbed to cancer, while Evan Johns’ deterioration followed years of touring, hard drinking and pushing himself past the limit.

(Top to bottom: Tommy Keene, Kevin MacDonald, Susan Mumford)

Those named above have been joined by Tommy Keene (the Rage/the Razz/solo/Paul Westerberg/Matthew Sweet - cardiac arrest at the age of 59; 2017), TDU’s Susan Mumford (cancer, 2018), David Byers (Psychotics/H.R./Bad Brains), and Skip Groff (Yesterday and Today/ Limp Records/Dischord - seizure, 2019).  This is just an imperfect/incomplete naming of D.C.-area losses - I’m sure journalists from other cities could make lists. A horde of New Wave and early alternative musicians have died within the past few years. Whether through the stress of hard living/poverty, substance abuse, cancer or Covid-19, we’re seeing artists pass much earlier than I, anyway, expected them to.

(Top to bottom: Fred "Freak” Smith, Michael Maye with Evan Johns, Tru Fax and the Insaniacs)

We’re already past the loss of all the original Ramones. All the Cramps less Poison Ivy. Joe Strummer. Robert Quine. Hilly Kristal. Lou Reed. As of July, 2020, since 2018 we’ve also lost Andy Gill, Ivan Kral, Genesis P-Orridge, Adam Schlesinger, Danny Mihm, Ric Ocasek, Daniel Johnston, Kim Shattuck, Lorna Doom, Mark Hollis, Keith Flint, Ranking Roger, Mark E. Smith, Glenn Branca, Randy Rampage, Hardy Fox, Pete Shelley, Matthew Seligman, Bill Rieflin, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider,  Ian Dury, Benjamin Orr, Kirsty McColl and David Roback.

(Top to bottom: Sally Be/Berg, Ranking Roger, Danny Mihm)

Talking about the deaths of talented, gifted creatives is a helluva way to start a column. But here we are. Older performers don’t always get the attention afforded newer, so the rest of this piece shares and celebrates artists from the original New Wave/punk scenes who are still around and active. Many are from the D.C.-area cornucopia I know best, while others have just come to my attention, or seem especially noteworthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED9_XK_JVQ

The Zeros’ Javier Escovedo has been steadily emitting tasty Americana-ish rock while occasionally dropping some Zeros sturm-’n’-drang - most recently with Munster Records single “In The Spotlight” and a track on Burger Records’ Quarantunes compilation. Quarantunes is a seven-album affair featuring 140 alternative/punk performers old and new, all of whom wrote songs between March-April 2020. A cursory listen to Volume 2 reveals the recorded version of a good night at a very wild bar, with Zeros still handily kicking ass of all ages.

https://velvetmonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/legacy-of-success?fbclid=IwAR0lJyS0YDE4e3o7LJiITEtw1lhBWMkUX47Vuag1Lf9fs2QozJJKD1lwkes

Velvet Monkeys/B.A.L.L. player and Sonic Youth/Teenage Fanclub producer Don Fleming reports, “We’ve put out new tracks ‘Theories of Rummanetics’ and ‘Legacy of Success.’ Jay has written a few ‘modules’ and Malcolm and I are having fun doing the music,” adding, “I play some electric six string on the new Rob Moss album - it’s fun to be on, with lots of guitar slingers from the DC daze.”

Yup, Rob Moss of Skin-Tight Skin has solicited contributions from Fleming and from Marshall Keith (Slickee Boys), along with a pile of talent including Stuart Casson (Psychotics/Dove/Meatmen), Franz Stahl (Foo Fighters/Scream), Billy Loosigian (Nervous Eaters, the Boom-Boom Band), Nels Cline (Wilco) and Saul Koll (the guy who made guitars for Henry Kaiser and Lee Ranaldo). The set is called We’ve Come Back To Rock ‘n’ Roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdIB8a_0Q4c

Chumps/Workdogs/Jam Messengers player Rob Kennedy apparently has too much energy to throw in the towel - he’s kept recording, performing and making various sorts of lo-fi, DIY mischief that never loses that fresh, ‘70s feeling. Jam Messengers released Night And Day on vinyl in 2017. One of my fave Kennedy tracks, “A Low Down Dirty Shame” speaks to this moment as well as any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-CRBEGVLE4

Former Tiny Desk Unit/Fuji’s Navy/Rhoda & the Bad Seeds members Bob Boilen, Kevin Lay, Michael Barron and Bob Harvey have released a new Danger Painters joint, Thank Speak Love This Record. Lay joked, “I have a voice made for Morse Code” before revealing his recent work with Rhoda and the Bad Seeds material, released June 30 as Live at Nightclub 9:30. Boilen continues to introduce artists both vital and obscure via Tiny Desk Concerts and All Songs Considered/NPR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQ1GajwfB0

I’ve seen David Arnson play recently and can attest to his proclivity for unfettered growth via Insect Surfers, the instrumental group that originally had some trouble establishing cred. with younger D.C. punks. The Surfers’ most recent release was Living Fossils (2019). Arnson celebrated the band’s 40 years of existence with a European tour in 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SkIuWIZVkM

Jad Fair says, “Half Japanese will have a new album released in November on Fire Records.” Jad’s art was recently featured at the Hiromart Gallery/Tokyo, while David has created a Facebook page where fans can pick up his colorful images for, well, mere bags o’ shells, as far as we can see -  https://www.facebook.com/David-Fair-Painting-107055447700859/

Despite health issues for several members, Bad Brains has collaborated with Element to make BB themed skate wear https://www.elementbrand.com/mens-collection-bad-brains/ and added some killer live tracks to its YouTube channel.  

Former WGTB programmers John Paige and Steve Lorber have been presenting Rock Continuum on WOWD-LP FM 94.3 since 2017.

Mike Stax continues to give excellent motivation for hunting down a pair of Beatle boots - Munster released the Loons’ 7” EP, A Dream In Jade Green, last year. The latest issue of Ugly Things, said by Stax to be heavily focused on the Pretty Things’ Phil May, was reported in early July to be nearing publication.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jSc7gEAv0

Razz (the) Documentary will tell the story of how an uncommonly combustible rock band - especially with the Bill Craig/Abaad Behram line-up - helped spread the Flamin’ Groovies gospel while throwing down oddly compelling originals and taking the two-guitar thing up several notches - the producers are purportedly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether anyone can ever recreate the experience of being in an altered state via obsessive, sometimes conversational repetition of certain chords, anchored by Ted Nicely rethinking just what can be done with a bass guitar, given girth by Doug Tull’s intuitive drumming; with Mike Reidy the heat-seeking missile somewhere near the center... well, I doubt it. ‘Cause at this point you’re feeling no pain and it’s not about drinking; there is no room for anything but water - the beer will be knocked over when you’re this busy matching David Arnson’s other-side-of-the-front-line’s leaps into joydum while PCP’d out yahoos from the sticks learn the hard way that hugging Marshall amps can lead to lifelong repercussions. There (in case nothing I want to say about [the] Razz makes it into the film) - I’ve said it.

Discussions among old friends have confirmed that I’m not alone in being happily surprised at this development - we never expected our actions - which led to the hardcore explosion that’s received a lot more attention... would ever make it into any history book. Yet coverage of many of the D.C.-area musicians featured in this piece also comes with Punk The Capitol, A History of D.C. Punk and Hardcore, 1976-1983. Spring 2021 is the projected date for streaming/DVD release.

Ivan Julian came back from a scary 2015 bout with cancer to do a show in New York in 2016. The cancer has returned. Friends have organized a GoFundMe to raise money for surgery and basic needs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDB_3by-xkI

The Shakemore fest also refuses to fade, promising “eight hours of streaming steaming video” on August 1. Sounds will be provided by R. Stevie Moore, Velvet Monkeys, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Half Japanese, Johnny Spampinato, Weird Paul and the Chumps, among many, many others.

Despite having played at CBGB and other alternative venues in 1979, at the height of the New Wave, Gary Wilson’s work is so distinctive, he’s rarely been included with any musical genre other than the oft-vague “experimental” category. Folks were too unmoored by his visceral performances to get behind him. Wilson’s 14th album, Tormented, was released by Cleopatra in February.

Paul Collins recently published a book that he wrote with Chuck Nolan; I Don’t Fit In: My Wild Ride Through the Punk and Power Pop Trenches with the Nerves and the Beat (Hozac Books).

As “Heath,” Michael Layne Heath, a journalist who contributed to (the) Infiltrator and many other ‘zines, published My Week Beats Your Year: Encounters with Lou Reed in May (Hat & Beard Press).

In April, X released its first album in 35 years; Alphabetland.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ1I-laItPI

As exciting for me as any of the above is Richard Hell with the Heartbreakers’ 2019 release of Yonkers Demo 1976. Hell’s “You Gotta Lose” is one of my picks for best punk/new wave singles of all time. The Heartbreakers version is, predictably, messier than the Robert Quine guitar-spiked classic. Its more excessive charms are growing on me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QnsysCN_A

This piece could go on and on - compiling it has been exhausting. The best part has been the response to my social media call for any info I didn’t have re: the D.C.-centric scene I left for New York in 1983. Musicians anxious to keep their compadres’ names alive have hammered that post with 138 comments to date. Urban Verbs percussionist Danny Frankel, who’s played with a colorful spread of artists including Beck, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed, John Cale and k.d. Lang, made a point of being sure I knew about the passing of Marc Halpern, a source of obvious pain. People were worried I wouldn’t mention John Stabb (Government Issue - 2016), rockabilly player Billy Hancock (2018), Fred “Freak” Smith (Strange Boutique/Beefeater - murdered in Los Angeles, 2017), John Hansen (Slickee Boys - 2010), record store owner/Wasp Records starter/music supporter Bill Asp, Jimmy Barnett of The Killer Bees, and David Byers.

One of the hardest for me to write about is Chris Morse, whose 1984 passing from a drug overdose wrenched so many - I managed to get an obituary into, I think, The New York Rocker (that physical trek was part of a long-ago blur; a very hot day of traipsing over steaming concrete in a narrow-skirted dress to deliver the copy). Chris popped up in my dreams for years - one “visitation” pushed me to write a poem about it in the ‘90s. Morse, who played in Rhoda & The Bad Seeds and worked as a doorman at The Pyramid after moving to NYC in the early ‘80s, was on one of the Urban Verbs’ early flyers. I’m on another.

(Top to bottom: Me in an early Verbs flyer/photo shot at the Atlantis; Chris Morse on another Verbs flyer)

I ended up getting so burnt out on the responsibility of populating this sad roll call, I’ve started a memorial page for them all on Facebook. The nature of truly alternative music is such that many of its lights still fail to fill the pages of major publications. Many of these lights gave a great deal of their lives, if not everything, for the art they believed in. It’s good to remember them, and those heady early days. It’s good to enjoy what we still can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA3IfK76mmI

[21ate]

CLARIFYING PRINCETON

[google docs version]

so i wrote some stuff about emh again, but this time i think its actually a very necessary part of the story that needed to be discussed and clarified. this is very...very long. sorry!

~~~

The Princeton iteration of the everymanhybrid timeline is one of the hardest to consume, as dates and the chronological order of events is moreso implied through the context of the dialogue provided in the tapes rather than outright and plainly shown.

We know that the Fairmount era begins in 1971 with the first Corenthal Report, and ends in 1981 with the news that the last child of the mining town 4 had finally succumbed. We know that the Everymanhybrid era begins in 2010 when the youtube channel was created, and ends in 2018 with the deaths of Evan and Vinny.

We know that the Princeton era begins in December of 1987, just before Christmas, as evident in what Vinny tells us throughout the first few entries of the tapes. But...when did Princeton end?

It’s not as simple as just figuring out when Vinny himself died, because he isn’t solely reliable for when iterations begin and end. A big, very important part of it for sure...but Vinny has friends: Jeff and Evan. And to assume they died immediately following their disappearance from Vin’s life as described in TRAILHEAD would simply be jumping the gun a bit.

Why? Well the answer isn’t too hard. It’s because Evan was alive in 2005, and Habit used his body during the confrontation with Corenthal at Baldpate (described in house phone 2005, and referenced in an article from the microfilm collection). So what happened? How had Evan been alive in 2005? What happened to Jeff, Steph, and Vinny during the time period between 1993 (the year Vinny presumably died) and 2010? To answer this, we will need to cross reference between the Tapes, house phone 2005, and -.-. (the morse code video “C”) - as well as take a deep dive into the dates at which entries occur in the Princeton Tapes. In doing so, we will find a coherent timeline of events which will explain many details that before now have yet to really be discussed.

in the princeton iteration, vinny mentions that evan and jeff have disappeared on him (TRAILHEAD), and in the entry following (SHOPPING), he reiterates a sentiment about being abandoned...and ends with stating the Phillies won. if the listening order of these tapes is to be believed as entirely correct, then these two entries MUST take place before MOVIES, which we know was recorded in 1989 because that is the year Pet Sematary was released and when Vinny saw it.

lets take a look at the phillies 1983 and 1989 seasons. in 1983, the phillies won the national league east title. in 1989, it was the phillies 107th season. they did not win the title  - in fact, they placed last. they only played 163 games in the regular season; in the june 5th game against the pittsburgh pirates, the score was tied 3-3...however, rainy weather caused the game to be interrupted. thus, a replacement game was played at a later date. this would mark the last regular season tie game for the phillies as playing rules changed in 2007 allowing tie games to continue from the point of interruption at a later date. on june 8th 1989, against the pittsburgh pirates for the second time, the phillies won.

If the tapes begin in December of 1987, that only leaves a few years time between then and TRAILHEAD/SHOPPING. FRIENDS & GAMING takes place in 1988, which we know from the reference to that year’s presidential election with Dukakis. Thus, its pretty indisputable that Jeff and Evan must have disappeared between FRIENDS & GAMING in 1988 and TRAILHEAD/SHOPPING, 1989. With that being the case, we can then assume that Vinny was indeed referencing the June 8th Phillies win against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1989.

So Jeff and Evan were gone from Vinny’s life before June 1989, but what happened to them?

The short answer: they had to have died at some point, of course. but we can get more specific than that. Let’s take a look at Jeff.

in -.-., jeff says, "nineteen years go by...you forget...for a moment i thought it was all real."

-.-. takes place in 2010 (we know this because evan states its been 5 years since corenthal and habits confrontation which we know for certain takes place in 2005.) 2010 - 19 is 1991. jeff may not necessarily be referencing how long he has been in the candleverse, but there is a connection worth making here. in box 7 there is a labyrinth books bookmark with dates written on the back, written by vinny presumably. 1989, 1990, and 1991 are present

1989 is crossed out, and 1990 and 1991 have a question mark to the side. there could be a few ways to interpret this, but my assumption is that this note was written in 1989 around the time vinny received the zine (explained in detail below:)

1989 is the year TRAILHEAD takes place, as we’ve figured out earlier. later entries will suggest they were recorded in close succession:

in trailhead, vinny's dialogue tells us that he had just sat down at the diner before pressing record, we're listening to his reaction to the zine and the girl in real time on a tape recorded in 1989. he talks about evan and jeff going dark on him, and ends by saying that he's going to find the girl to ask about the zine

in SHOPPING, vinny reiterates his current distress about feeling abandoned by those closest to him, obviously meaning evan and jeff again. he buys his groceries and ends by mentioning the 1989 phillies win (likely the june 8th game)

HOMELIFE is misplaced as entry 15, as the news report recorded on the tape is about hurricane hugo. this storm took place around september 1989.

if we assume the tapes are in order, this creates a discrepancy because in the next entry MOVIES, vinny sees pet sematary which came out in april 1989. shopping takes place around june 8th when the phillies won, and in movies vinny references back to the strangeness from "earlier this week", meaning the zine and the girl. thus, trailhead, shopping, and movies take place in the same week in june 1989 (and homelife, for some reason, is out of place. we can gloss over this though, i dont think it changes much)

So with that said, jeff must have died at some point in order for him to be present in the candleverse in 2010, pre-emh iteration. he could have died anywhere between 1989 to 1991, since we can't say for certain that his death was immediate, or even the direct cause of his absence.

so ev and jeff disappear around 1989. they may not have died immediately, only separated from vinnys life. in 1993, vinny dies and we know it must be around this time because he had been in contact with Davidson, whose law practice only just begun in 1993 (both versions of his death take place in the same time frame, per soft reset rules). in -.-., jeff talks about nineteen years going by. since this takes place in 2010, nineteen years prior would have been 1991. given that 1991 is written on the bookmark and made light of, and given all this concerns the iteration cycle, i think it'd be fair to say jeff died that year and entered the candleverse, two years before vinny bit the dust.

So, what about Evan?

evan was distanced from vinny around 1989 alongside jeff. vinny dies in 1993, and in one version of this event, its habit who kills him at fairmount. of course, habit was not using evans body to do so, instead apparently possessing doctor peters instead. that doesnt mean evan was out of the picture though, he simply wasnt what habit used in this particular instance to get at vinny and have him make the north star. this may be because habit was still ironing out the details of his grand scheme, with this particular method being a test of sorts. or, perhaps separately or in conjunction to this, habit planned to keep evan alive intentionally for whatever reason habit needed him for.

that reason, i conclude, would have been to get to corenthal. with jeff and vinny dead, and steph somewhere being irrelevant, habit and the other monsters all flocked to corenthal and plagued his life wherever he went. 3 deaths described in the microfilm collection, which contain news articles about corenthals activities from 1984 to 2005, match the MO for habit. the victims were described as all having been involved in an intense struggle with the assailant, one case "lasting a few hours, at minimum."

the articles in question are dated october 11th, 2002 and march 2nd, 2003

as far back as 1998, elizabeth was an active player as a psychic solving crimes through her special ability. as i said earlier, i had my doubts about her having been the offender to these crimes through habits actions. until 2005, elizabeth really is just a psychic, or at least she had been gifted her ability by one of the monsters for their own nefarious purposes. regardless though, she was not being controlled...yet. with that being the case, of course habit would have needed another vessel in the meantime.

on june 11th, 2005, elizabeth's place of business burns to the ground. on august 26th, corenthal had been set up by habit using elizabeth to lead him into a trap. we even know HOW habit did it: using elizabeth, s/he had contacted adam roberts. adam then relays the information to corenthal. according to house phone 2005, adam mentions the meeting a month prior to it occurring. thus, in july, elizabeth and adam decide to meet with corenthal in august and of course they do - except corenthal was lead to the wrong place.

corenthal encounters evan on a bench near the meeting place, a diner. This means evan is ALIVE at this point AND being possessed by habit, because in -.-. evan recalls being shot in the face. he recalls the confrontation that occurred, and he knows what year it took place and how long ago it happened relative to 2010, when -.-. was recorded. in true habit fashion, this encounter is brief as corenthal describes evan having been gone like he evaporated into thin air

corenthal gets to the diner and receives a call from elizabeth. this elizabeth is the real deal, and she calls to try and warn corenthal about having been set up. it was too late of course, and corenthal is ambushed by the patrons of the diner all possessed presumably by habit. corenthal struggles but manages to get out, heading towards baldpate now. he could hear sirens as he fled

at this point, elizabeth calls the house phone - now possessed by habit once more. habit mocks corenthal as elizabeth, "missed you at the diner, but you sure as hell bit it with me!", as if to imply corenthal intentionally skipped out on their meeting and had disappointed elizabeth in doing so. however, its pretty apparent the true intention is to mock him for falling for a trap. habit as elizabeth tells corenthal that s/he will see him at the park, obviously meaning balpdate to which corenthal would be currently fleeing to at the time of this call. we know this to be the order of events thanks to the inclusion of the siren detail and the order of habit/elizabeth and corenthals voicemail as they were recorded to the house phone.

we dont know what happened to elizabeth following this last bout of possession. it could be possible that habit brought her along to the park in addition to evan, given habit can and had just proven he could possess more than one body at a time and hop between them. however, i find it more likely that habit only confronted corenthal with evans body alone.

habit may have had company of a different sort, though. corenthal mentions that he felt like he was being watched, and his dialogue implies there being two distinct entities involved. the first, corenthal says, "knew it would end up like this", and corenthal says this shortly after mentioning evan from the bench again - therefore this is habit. the second entity corenthal describes as a "spectre" and the monster that took his children - Man, of course

whether man had any involvement with habit and corenthals confrontation is unknown, but we can at least say that he was around. corenthal and habit presumably have a fight, which for certain results in habit being shot in the face and corenthal ending up in the candleverse/eden

evans body dies there in 2005, leaving habit without him as a vessel in this plane of reality. with evan dead, the candleverse then had jeff and vinny and now evan. this aligns with what we see in -.-., the boys together while steph was nowhere to be seen. however, there is a five year gap between the events of 2005 and the candleverse conversation in 2010. this means steph was still alive, since the next iteration cannot begin until all four of them are in the candleverse...

Therefore, Steph had been alive since the Princeton iteration starting back in late 1987. the reason she lived so long? she never met vinny, evan, or jeff in the princeton iteration. or at least, she was distant enough from them to survive as long as she did. this reflects the nature of her role in that she does not have one, not like the boys do. she is different because she knew how to stay alive through ignorance. while we dont know the specifics of stephs relationship with man during the princeton timeline, it stands to reason that she was aware of him just like before during fairmount and after during the emh iteration. thus, her survival tactic of willful ignorance and aversion kept her alive for two decades.

Simply put, the Princeton iteration did not truly end until 2010, just before the beginning of the Everymanhybrid channel and its iteration cycle…

Making the Princeton era span a total of 23 YEARS. Jeff died in 1991, Vinny was next in 1993, Evan’s death is third in 2005, and around 2010, Steph perishes and the EMH Iteration begins.

Below I have written a more condensed timeline of events based on everything ive broken down here. There are a few details missing date-wise, but for our purposes we dont have to delve into them in order to understand with satisfying accuracy about what exactly happened in the years between 1987 and 2010.

DECEMBER, 1987: the princeton iteration begins.

BEFORE JUNE 8TH, 1989: jeff and evan disappear from vinnys life.

FIRST WEEK OF JUNE, 1989: vinny despairs over the loss of his friends in conjunction to the strange going ons of his life and a peculiar zine. trailhead, shopping, and movies all take place within this week.

AROUND 1991: jeff succumbs and appears in the candleverse.

BETWEEN 1989 AND 1993: tape 3 is recorded

DECEMBER 14TH, 1990: corenthal has a premonition about linnie heading off to find her siblings (noah release 1)

BETWEEN 1990 AND 1993: vinny encounters linnie (tape 3)

SOMETIME BEFORE OR AROUND 1993: vinny speaks to patrick andersen from mlandersen0 (tape 3).

AROUND 1993: vinny dies at fairmount, joining jeff in the candleverse. evan and steph remain alive at this time.

JULY 22ND AND JULY 23RD, 1995: corenthal encounters milo asher.

SOMETIME AFTER 1995: corenthal sends the piece of cloth found by milo’s house to his colleague adam roberts, who then creates the black box device.

BETWEEN 1989 AND 2002: evan is possessed by habit at some point, maybe as the reason for jeffs death in 1991, and go after corenthal alongside man and the rake.

OCTOBER 7TH, 1998: an article is published regarding elizabeth solving her first case.

BETWEEN OCTOBER 1998 AND JUNE 2005: corenthal discovers elizabeth and writes to adam roberts to listen for her name on the news, claiming she can help

MARCH 22ND AND JUNE 11TH, 1999: elizabeth solves two more cases.

OCTOBER 11TH 2002 AND MARCH 2ND, 2003: habits MO is apparent in three deaths following the appearance of corenthal at the homes of two families.

AROUND 2002 :elizabeth starts teaching classes at bucks county community college.

ON JUNE 11th 2005: an article is published regarding elizabeths place of business burning down

JULY, 2005: elizabeth is possessed by habit and using her body, s/he contacts adam roberts to arrange a meeting with corenthal in august. soon after speaking to a possessed elizabeth, adam roberts leaves a voicemail for corenthal telling him of the meeting.

AROUND AUGUST 26th 2005: corenthal heads out to his presumed meeting with roberts and elizabeth - only to find out he has been set up by elizabeth (habit). he sees evan, whose body is still alive at this time. habit has control over evan, and ultimately he and corenthal have a confrontation at baldpate. corenthal shoots him, killing evans body but not habit, and corenthal ends up in the candleverse/eden

AUGUST 2005: evan dies, joining vinny and jeff. This makes steph the sole survivor for the time being.

2010, PRE-EMH: evan jeff and vinny meet around a cluster of candles as seen in the video -.-.. evans dialogue suggests that while he had died in 2005, it hadnt been until 5 years later in 2010 that he has been able to meet up with jeff and vinny together properly since his death. further dialogue in -.-. suggests that steph is still missing from their group. presumably this means she hadnt been killed yet. jeff remarks about having no idea they were even looking for her, which falls in line with the idea that steph was not around the boys much if at all during their time alive in princeton, further solidified by her...well, lack of existence in the tapes.

BETWEEN 2005 AND 2010: before the start of the emh iteration but after evan died and came to the candleverse, evan and jeff work together making trips to a powerline in order to have a chance at making contact with the outside world (as in, us the audience).

this results in the phantom tweet telling us to stop watching, which appears in 2011. vin is of course dead at this point too, but its apparent that meeting up is risky and kept to a minimum. it may not be intentional that vin isnt present here, but jeff and ev WOULD have good reason for excluding vinny from this particular plan of theirs, given that vinny is the cog that powers the emh iteration (and a lot of what happens before too, frankly). perhaps they couldnt trust him, which would make sense since at this point, ev and jeffs recent memories of vinny would be from the princeton era and fairmount + whatever glimpses they get when they bump into one another in the candleverse. vin's involvement with their plan could cause a hinderance, and they wouldnt want that to happen

also note that jeff and evans powerline plan is also something corenthal is closely involved in, at least as shown in the day the world ended (2018). i dont think its too much of a stretch to imagine he was also involved in coming up with the plan years prior, between 2005 and 2010. this further highlights vinny's absence in the general affairs of the candleverse, despite the fact that he had been around since 1993. again, theres credence to believe he was intentionally excluded by jeff, evan, and corenthal

AROUND 2010: steph dies and rejoins the boys, and with all four now in the candleverse, the princeton iteration finally comes to an end.

MARCH 21st, 2010: the everymanhybrid channel uploads their first video - marking the beginning of the emh iteration

MARCH 17TH, 2011: the unsigned phantom tweet sent out by Jeff and Evan from the powerline tower in baldpate finally surfaces

STATS:

FAIRMOUNT: 1971 to 1981 (10 years) PRINCETON: 1987 to 2010 (23 years) EVERYMANHYBRID: 2010 to 2018 (8 years)

Steph lived the entire 23 year period for the Princeton era. Evan lived 18 years. Vinny lived 6 years. Jeff lived 4 years.

Jeff spent the longest amount of time in the candleverse post-Princeton at 19 years. Vinny spent a total of 17 years. Evan spent 5 years. Steph spent less than a year.

[endeavourfiles]

HERE'S WHY ENDEAVOUR CHANGED MORSE'S LOOK WITH A MOUSTACHE

RADIO TIMES - By Huw Fullerton 8th February 2019

Shaun Evans reveals the inspiration behind his new Morse-tache – and just how long the character will be keeping it…

The sixth series of ITV’s Endeavour is full of change, with the former Cowley CID split up between different police stations, Shaun Evans’ Morse back in uniform and the 1970s approaching fast – but perhaps the most notable change of all lies on Evans’ upper lip.

Yes, this year DS Morse has grown a moustache (or Morse-tache) after series creator Russell Lewis encouraged Evans that it was time for a bit of a shake-up.

“It warms your top lip, if nothing else,” Evans told RadioTimes.com on the set of series six, where he also confirmed that the moustache was all of his own making.

“I had a beard so it was just a case of shaving it down to a handlebar…no I’m joking!” he laughed. “It’s not too bad. I’ve had it for nearly six months now.”

However the germ of the idea for Morse’s new look apparently came much earlier in 2014, when Evans grew a moustache for a part in a play and sparked an idea in Lewis.

“I was in a play in Chichester, called Miss Julie,” Evans recalled. “And as we’re all friends, Russ came to see the play. Had a chat afterwards, la la la, forgot about it.

“When it did all wrap up last year, myself, Russell and [executive producer] Damien Timmer got together as we do at the end of every season, and had a chat about what we felt was good and what we felt could be improved upon.”

Lewis’ idea, according to Evans, was that following the death of young officer George Fancy (Lewis Peek) in the previous series there should be a visual shift for Morse’s character to signify his inner change – and a simple way to show that to audiences was to have Evans grow another moustache.

“Russ said to me, ‘I’m thinking to really hit home after Fancy dies, and you’re out in the sticks on your own, that maybe there is a transition that takes place and you are trying to be something different,’” Evans told RadioTimes.com

“‘Or you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and you’re trying to style it out in a new way’. I thought it was a good idea so I said ‘Yeah OK, let’s do it.’

“It was Russ’s idea, not mine, and I was more than happy to oblige,” Evans concluded.

When Evans’ Endeavour Morse is reintroduced in episode one, his new uniformed look combined with the moustache makes for quite the change – but while it doesn’t take too long for the detective to find his way back out of uniform and into CID, fans might have to wait a while longer before they see him clean-shaven again.

RadioTimes.com can confirm that Evans keeps the moustache until at least the fourth and final episode of the new series, which he was filming at the time of our visit. Whether he’d retain the look in another series is less clear, though it’s worth noting that original Morse actor John Thaw always played the part clean-shaven, suggesting that it’s not a style the character remains fond of for long.

For now, though, you’d best get used to the Morse-tache – because for the next few weeks, it’s not going anywhere.

Endeavour airs on ITV on Sundays at 8.00pm

[shaun-evans-fanblog]

(via TCA 19: Endeavour star Shaun Evans on directing an episode & Morse's growth over the years)

“It was an extraordinary experience from start to finish,” says Evans of the opportunity.  “I’d been directing for a few years prior to that, but it was the first time I’ve done anything that I was in. And it was extraordinary because you realize what you can achieve if you’re prepared and if you’ve got a good team around you.  The challenging thing was because we shot it first. We shot my episode, the one that I directed, first. And then I did my edit in the post production over the weekend while we were shooting the next three episodes.  So that was challenging, only in terms of trying to keep a couple of stories in your head at all times and to give every moment its full weight and attention. But it’s, like, an extraordinary opportunity, and I just wanted to make the most of it. And it was an amazing experience.”

On the changes we’ve come to see in Morse’s character over 5 seasons of Endeavour, Evans has this to say, “I think he’s way less idealistic and probably slightly more realistic now about it. I would like to think he is less than a loner and knows that he’s got people who have got his back at work, that you can open yourself to rely upon people. Maybe that’s true for me as well. Perhaps that’s true for me too. But maybe that’s just a thing of growing old, you know, getting older. You realize that it’s not all about you. It’s about a team, and it’s about working together to sort something out and to have a bit of humility, I guess, in it all. I would say it’s probably the same for the both of us.”

[oeuvrinarydurian]

I believe it would be a “‘Tascheification System”.

An ode to the Tache and its many guises

Over the last few months we have tortured @librawritesstuff marvelled in the many and wondrous guises of the wonder that is the Morsetache and so I figured it was time for a summer retrospective

Exhibit 1: The 'single leg stork pose 70s cool cop vibe with added shades' Cool-stache

Exhibit 2: The 'is he pondering the wider questions of the universe or wondering what to have for lunch' Pensive-stache

Exhibit 3: The 'I genuinely can't believe you've been laid with that on your face' Smug- motherfucker-stache

Exhibit 4: The 'Oh shit, I've been caught sleeping with a suspect (again)' Guilt-stache

Exhibit 5: The 'thank you to whoever framed this shot' Fidget-stache

Exhibit 6: The 'Is it stuck on or is it real' Baby-stache

Exhibit 7: The 'don't stop there keep going' Team-get-rid-of-the-tache

Exhibit 8: The 'here's your new cellar basement-of-doom storage cupboard office' Tache-of-Futility

Exhibit 9: The 'I can't believe what I'm hearing' You're-a-complete-fucking-idiot-snark-stache (there were many options for this version of the snark-stache)

Exhibit 10: The look of intense concentration Director-stache

Exhibit 11: The only ever seen behind the scenes Happy-stache (also known as Soft-stache)

Exhibit 12: And of course no tache retospective would be complete without the simultaneously there and not there Shrodinger's-stache

[greenapricot]

morseverse fandom meme thing

I couldn’t bring myself to do the voice thing (it’s too much like talking on the phone which my introvert heart is very much against) so here are text answers to the questions.

Tagged by: @jameshathaways​ URL: greenapricot, you can call me Pri for short. Age: Likely older than most everyone else (I didn’t even properly get into online fandom until I was 26 and that was 15 years ago). Where are you from? The northeastern US.

How did you get into Endeavour/Morseverse? How long ago? Have you watched any Lewis or Inspector Morse and/or read any of the Inspector Morse books? If you’ve watched multiple Morse shows, do you have a favorite?:

My first Morseverse show was Lewis, which I started watching on the recommendation of my chiropractor’s wife (who has impeccable taste), sometime in 2011 (I think after s5 aired in the UK, based on the earliest Lewis fic tag in my pinboard). I quickly devoured all the episodes up to that point and then watched series 6-9 as they aired.

At the end of series 7, when it looked like Lewis wasn’t going to continue, I started watching Endeavour. I watched the whole first series as it aired, but I was in full-on Lewis withdrawal and felt like Endeavour was just kind of okay (mostly just because it wasn’t Lewis). But I liked it enough to watch series 2 when that came out, realized it was an excellent show in its own right, and have been anxiously awaiting each new episode ever since.

I’ve also watched some Inspector Morse here and there but I’ve not gotten as into it as the other two. It suffers a bit from the time period in which it was filmed imo.

Lewis is definitely my favorite Morseverse show, though I think Endeavour is objectively a better show.

And this got super long so I’m sticking the rest under here:

What’s your favorite episode, or one of your faves, and why? Do you have a favorite quote from it? It has to be Fugue and Canticle (I am on board for all the angst and I can’t decide).

Not a quote, but the entire scene on the rooftop at the end of Fugue is just so fantastic. The acting, the dialogue, the roofscape of Oxford behind them (oh how I long to take photos from that roof). It just may be the most beautiful scene in all of television. I also really love the atmospheric shots of Morse walking around in Canticle in the hot sun, looking overheated and a bit sunburnt, and the play of light in the trees. So gorgeous. There seem to be more and more of those lovely atmospheric shots as the show goes on and I’m so there for them.

Favorite relationship(s) on the show? Romantic or not, canon or not. Most favorite, Thursday and Morse (but that seems like kind of a cop out because of course it’s my favorite, it’s the focus of the show). So, less obvious favorite, Morse and Dorothea Frazil. I am very invested in their friendship. Very. I want more of her and more of the two of them together, especially like in Harvest when she gets him into the plant as Snappy Jenkins.

Favorite character? An under-appreciated/under-utilized character you love? Favorite character: Morse. Obvious, maybe, but he ticks all my buttons: too smart for his own good, awkward, complete lack of self-preservation, feels so deeply he totally can’t deal, smart ass, prone to melancholy especially accompanied by drinking and listening to moody music (see also James Hathaway my most favorite Morseverse character).

Underappreciated: I think Dorothea Frazil is plenty appreciated by fandom, but I would dearly love more of her in the show.

If you could hang out with a character for a day, who would you pick? I probably have the most in common with Dorothea Frazil and Max DeBryn, we can drink whisky and grumble about the state of the world.

Say the following episode titles: Arcadia, Canticle, Lazaretto, Cartouche, Icarus. Not doing the voice thing, but I don’t say any of these any differently from any of the voice posts I’ve listened to from native English speakers. So, there is that.

Cheese and pickle: yes or no? Discuss. I was going to say yes to this, I am a fan of both cheese and pickles, but from listening to posts by Brits it seems that pickle is something like a chutney not like a dill pickle, so I think I’m going to have to go with no. (Though, I would be down with cheddar cheese and proper crunchy fresh dill pickles on sourdough.)

Fic recs, blog recs, favorite fandom friends, best thing about Morseverse fandom, mustache opinions or anything else you want to share! Quick and dirty fic recs in the form of my pinboard tags for Endeavour and Lewis.

Morseverse fandom is lovely because everyone in it is lovely. I’ve never been in a fandom so free of wank. It’s just lovely. So, lovely I’ll say lovely again. I assume this is because it is relatively small, but, though I’d like more fic I think that loveliness is worth it. My first thought when I saw the mustache was to wonder if it’s there because Shaun Evans is too damn attractive and keeps getting more so and they were trying to tone it down a bit. I am not a fan of mustaches in general and my feelings about the Morsetache are the same. Except that Shaun Evans is so attractive he almost pulls it off anyway. I hope it goes the way of John’s mustache in Sherlock.

Who are you tagging? I think pretty much everyone who wants to do this has been tagged, but if you haven’t been and you want to do it consider this me tagging you.

[iloveyoudie]

i was just thinking about how important it is to me that while Endeavour is a prequel to Inspector Morse, the portrayal of Morse is actually based on the novels when it comes to performance, as Shaun Evans has only read and pulled from the books. As someone who has read the books (and enjoyed them!! but not recommends for everyone) its really neat seeing little details that you know ONLY came from the novels when it comes to Morse’s personal character but also some of the things that have developed in him - the more UNLIKABLE traits - match the book version of Morse more than the John Thaw portrayal. IMHO John Thaw made him charmingly more soft within his melancholy than he is in the alot of the novels. 

That being said its also AMAZING to think that when John Thaw took on the character, he too only could base his performance on the books. So he and Shaun pulled from the same source and influence and the end result is so UNCANNILY consistent between them....

GAH i love it. 

[soliti]

Triani from Soliti

The good times The removal of Trump. This gave some light in a year of dangerous political manoeuvres. The enduring excellence of Premier League Football. As a massive football fan, the ability to keep that show on the road during the pandemic has kept up my love for the  beautiful game. Realising that even at my age life can still surprise you and you can still teach an old dog new tricks.  In 2021 it hit home how much the art vs commerce battle is real and affecting all parts of our lives, so a reconnection with my post-punk attitudes gave me a new perspective on the important things and how to try to implement them into all parts of my life. For me this means that you shouldn’t compromise your artistic vision. Not sure #punkstoo can be celebrated in a sense, but it was completely necessary. The bravery of the people who came forward to reveal their painful stories was powerful. Tracey Thorn‘s book My Rock n Roll Friend As more women’s voices are heard across the musical spectrum, Thorn’s book becomes essential as it traces not only former G0-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison‘s life (a life often more exciting than her former, more celebrated bandmates.) My Rock n Roll Friend expertly details  how women are written out of narratives and history, often by the men they’re close to and working with. Alan Moore‘s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen omnibus. Everything about this hardback  deluxe edition is wonderful with Moore at the top of his game and Kevin O’Neil‘s artwork often beautiful. I reread Art Spiegelman‘s Maus. The book not only retains its power but also reminds us with direct, simple storytelling why fascism is the evil of all ages.

The Beach Boys “Feel Flows” This re-issue is probably the music I listened to the most in 2021. I’ve never been such a big Beach Boys fan, but the two albums featured in detail here, Sunflower and Surf’s Up, have been favourites through the years. This new reissue just makes them even better.

Self Esteem “I Do This All The Time” is not only my favourite single of the year, but is a rare case of self-deprecating humour and honesty, combined with shimmering pop bliss (not such an easy thing to pull off). The whole album, Prioritise Pleasure is also magnificent.

Other music that was constant: Low‘s “Hey What”, any Nina Simone, a continued  immersion into Bossa/Samba music from Brazil. Digging deeper into early Joan Baez (incredible), Gruff Rhys’  Seeking New Gods, The Weather Station‘s Ignorance, Cory Hanson‘s Pale Horse Rider, Big Thief’s series of singles, Bill Evans, Fairport Convention (surely here every year), Dry Cleaning, Jorge Ben Jor‘s A Tabua De Esmneralda. Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché (documentary) In a year where I watched very few movies, documentaries and TV series became essential viewing. The Poly Styrene doc was not only moving, but another example of how women’s stories are often written out of the canon. Succession season 3 dished out the usual cruelty with a slick panache aligned with incredible writing and acting. Always reminding myself that working with great music everyday is a privilege that I won’t ever take for granted. Having some freedom’s return, even if it has been momentary. Watching concerts again and meeting some people after almost two years has been great. In 2021 I started watching John Thaw as Inspector Morse, having ignored this particular phenomenon my whole life. I’m really into Inspector Morse now. Is it a sign of old age? Peter Jackson’s Get Back. This has been much discussed and polarising in some ways. I loved every minute, with Jackson’s ability to tell a story from dormant footage, the groovy clothes and Macca’s outrageous musiciality.  The rooftop concert was glorious, but mostly this inspired me to start thinking about making music again. Living in Finland. This still feels safer than anywhere else. My family and the support and love I receive from them. This is a low The persistence of Covid-19 and the world’s mixed-up reluctance to deal with it. Can we all get on the same page please? Our response to the pandemic prioritises capitalism over lives. Our true nature is revealed daily. Even sadder is how I easily fall into capitalist tropes. Rampant transphobia which goes unchecked in the media. And aligned to this a sadness in seeing the often great The Guardian newspaper openly pedal transphobia. It wasn’t just the editing of the Judith Butler interview, but the platform the paper regularly gave to transphobic opinions throughout 2021 was genuinely disappointing. The weary sigh at how Finland does not know how to discuss racism on any level (again).  It’s never a good look when you have to explain to white people why using the ‘n’ word is never acceptable. The fact that a POC person is then put through the ringer for objecting to such language  is nothing short of disgusting and embarrassing for a country that prides itself on being progressive. The continued influence of Iskelma in Finnish popular music. Finnish mainstream music has never felt duller than now. The general poor level of Pop Music everywhere. Has there ever been such an uninspiring year? Even Abba couldn’t save it. People in the mainstream playing it safe and making the same record over and over again. Pop music as nostalgic comfort food. If we continue like this, popular music will go the way of the dodo. People saying ‘if it sells it must be good’ Can this really be the critical consensus now?  We need braver voices standing up for the good stuff, not just a general consensus that sales are a sign of quality. Really, it rarely is. The dreadful attitude of the West toward refugees. As more refugees die trying to reach a safe haven, we are all complicit in this endless tragedy. Repercussions of Brexit. Supporting labels, booksellers and any other cultural institutes from the UK seems impossible now that the Brexit red tape delays and blocks everything. DUNE Not a patch on the unappreciated David Lynch version, Dennis Villeneuve’s film was dull dull dull. Future Wishes No more Covid. Is it too much to ask that not only do we take more personal responsibility for ending the pandemic but that world leaders get their act together and actually start working together? More women/trans/ POC people writing about music in the Finnish media. We need diverse voices telling us their cultural opinions. Equality in a true sense needs to be seen. Some new music movement. Anything please – we need it.

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[aion-rsa]

Endeavour Series 8 Episode 1 Review: the Inspector Morse Transition Begins

https://ift.tt/3k3hnAc

Endeavour Series 8 Episode 1 Review: ‘Striker’

Warning: this Endeavour review contains spoilers.

It’s 1971, and Oxford’s finest are, as ever, dealing with all of humanity’s worst impulses. Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) wakes up late from a hangover, leaving DI Thursday (Roger Allam) waiting in vain for his usual morning lift to work from his Detective Sergeant. It’s not behaviour we’d expect from our Morse…except, of course, it is, when you think about it. 

John Thaw’s Inspector was a man who suffered silently, and it’s that version of the character that the sensitive, easily hurt young man we met back in Endeavour’s pilot episode nine years ago is growing into. It isn’t going to be fun to witness, but it’s what we signed up for. The shocking events of series seven’s finale, in which any last vestiges of Morse’s innocence were snuffed out forever, are never discussed directly, but they’re here, nonetheless. As Morse bitterly remarks to Joan Thursday late in this episode, that situation ended how it had to. A master manipulator took away somebody he’d grown to love, and a brief idyll ended in disaster. The worst of it is, we know that it won’t be the last time he’s hit by such despair. 

That acid note of disappointment has been present for a while in Morse’s behaviour, but it’s sourer than ever now. The two cases he’s confronted with in ‘Striker’ don’t do a great deal to improve his mood, either. At first glance, they don’t seem to have much in common. A bomb blast rings out through the quads of Morse’s alma mater, Linacre College. A young secretary, Margaret Widdowson, has opened a lethal package and is killed instantly. 

As pathologist Max DeBryn puts it with his usual quiet compassion, she wouldn’t have had time to register what was happening. As we approach the end for Endeavour, time to flag up how great James Bradshaw’s been as Max throughout. An entire life conjured effortlessly through gesture and tone: instantly believable as a younger version of the character played by Peter Woodthorpe in Inspector Morse’s early episodes.

Read more

TV

Endeavour Series 8 Promises 1971 Football Glitz, an IRA Threat and Morse Battling Inner Demons

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Endeavour’s Russell Lewis on the show’s longevity: ‘We’re getting very near the end’

By Gem Wheeler

Similar plaudits are owed to Sean Rigby, who’s also faced the tough task of capturing a man already familiar to us from Morses past. The DS Strange we meet in ‘Striker’ is an altogether more dapper, organised man than we’ve seen him before; someone who, like Morse, is in search of a little more to fill his life than take-home murder cases and dinners for one. At least, that’s what we might deduce from the concerned look on his face as he opens his invitation to a Masonic function, for which a date is most definitely expected. 

It’s Joan Thursday, for whom Endeavour’s carried a torch for years, that Strange settles on as his potential plus one. She’s back home in Oxford again, working at a women’s refuge as part of her employment with Welfare. Joan’s flattered by the unexpected invitation, and – much to Strange’s evident surprise – she accepts. Would you believe me if I say that I called this particular development last year? Probably not, but it always seemed clear that something pretty serious had to happen to disrupt the budding friendship between Strange and his former housemate, given how fractious their relationship in Inspector Morse will turn out to be…

Morse is stuck with this episode’s other case: a phoned-in threat against the life of Oxford Wanderers’ star striker, Northern Irish international Jack Swift (Julian Moore-Cook). Football is entering its baroque phase in ‘71, with rising salaries and glamour girls galore. Morse, for whom sports, money and women are, shall we say, thorny subjects, isn’t exactly living his best life when he’s assigned to act as Swift’s bodyguard. In a world where players are given names like the ‘Doncaster Dynamo’ (your South-Yorkshire-born reviewer might have to pinch that one herself), the glory days of Keegan and Best are conjured, though they’re never referred to here. This episode is full of other old ghosts, however, and when the link between the two cases is revealed, we finally come to understand who really wants Jack Swift dead, and why. 

1971 was a year of great turmoil and loss in Northern Ireland, the consequences of which resonate to this day. That complex political situation was, I thought, handled less sensitively than it could have been in this episode, but viewers from NI deserve the last word on that subject. A shame, as this is otherwise a series with a keen eye for its period. This episode gives us Max Bygraves’ song hailing the virtues of the UK’s new decimal currency (yes, really) and an appropriately jaded take on the seedier side of ‘70s Britain: the land of Get Carter and The Good Life, as much a mass of fascinating contradictions as it is today. It remains to be seen where series eight will take Endeavour Morse, but, on this evidence, a rough road lies ahead. 

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Endeavour series 8 continues on Sunday the 19th of September at 8pm on ITV.

The post Endeavour Series 8 Episode 1 Review: the Inspector Morse Transition Begins appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[lucyreviewcy]

Everything I Watched This Saturday

Weekends are usually busy for me. However, this weekend half of England is snowed in, making saturday the perfect opportunity for some serious TV catchup.

I try and vary what I watch. Some shows really lend themselves to binge watching because they have cliffhangers at every episode (White Collar), some really great will-they-won’t-they action (Gilmore Girls) or sometimes just a really comfortable vibe (Lewis). However, I find that if I binge I get into the rhythm of the show, and stop enjoying it when I can predict exactly when the twist will happen (my brother once figured out that House MD figures out the diagnosis about 37 minutes into every episode.) By changing up what I watch, even when I want to spend a whole day getting some good quality screen time, I enjoy each individual show much more.

This weekend, I watched:

Lewis - S01, E03 “Old School Ties”

I’ve loved Lewis since the show started (which, fun fact, was before the UK smoking ban - hence Laurence Fox lighting up so often in the office.) While Morse unfortunately reminds me of stuffy Sunday afternoons when there was literally nothing else on, Lewis is a show I love to make time for. Kevin Whately and Laurence fox have great chemistry, and the titular inspector’s continued exaspiration with Oxfords academic wankery makes for excellent one-liners.

In this episode, while protecting ex-hacker turned celebrity criminal (and professional geordie - much to Lewis’ chagrin) Nicky Turnbull, Lewis investigates the murder of a young woman at the hotel where Turnbull is staying. I had seen this episode before but despite remembering entire lines of dialogue and plot points, the perpatrator had actually slipped my mind.

This episode doesn’t have the most satisfying reveal of all time, but it gripped me even though this was probably my fourth viewing. Lewis is, in general, fairly easy to follow even if you’re doing fairly complicated knitting while watching.

Overall, the contrast between Hathaway’s aloof synicism and Lewis’ genuine interest in people makes excellent television. The moment at the end with the two sharing headphones makes this one a winner for me.

White Collar - S04, E08 “Identity Crisis”

Watching White Collar directly after Lewis makes for an interesting experience. The shows are very similar. As they are both police procedurals, they share a penchant for unexpected twists and shots of two men in suits approaching a third person and flashing a badge. That’s all fairly run of the mill stuff, but the way that the characters interact is also very similar. While Neal Caffrey is an ex-thief helping Agent Burke investigate thieves, Hathaway is an intellectual Oxbridge graduate helping Lewis investigate intellectual Oxbridge graduates. Both Burke and Lewis have similarly eye-rolling reactions to their partners, creating a certain symmetry between the two shows.

This episode of White Collar was a break from the normal format, with Mozzie leading the team on an investigation into a group of spies - from revolutionary America.

I am always nervous when shows break from their routines, because the results can be hit and miss. Doctor Who has episodes like “Heaven Sent” - a solo performance from Peter Capaldi that is incredible, and then other episodes like “Love & Monsters” which is a crock of shit. However, with “Identity Crisis”, White Collar lands a winner. There are scrapes, japes and character development, as well as mysterious twists. Mozzie is an excellent character, and episodes where he takes centre stage are great fun.

Episodes - S02 E09 “Episode 9”

A nice coincidence from my TV adventures today is that the White Collar episode I watched also featured Mircea Monroe, who plays Morning in Episodes.

This sitcom is always great fun and this series denoument is no exception. This farcical end to a series packed full of dating drama and secret affars was full of awkward silences, forced smiles and Matt LeBlanc being a comical dickhead. His performance in this show has really put the Top Gear host into my good books, as he’s clearly not afraid to take the piss out of himself. A highlight of this episode is a black-tie brawl featuring pretty much every character. Steven Mangan’s “Wallace and Gromit” smile is also a memorable moment.

Nigel Slater’s Middle East E03 “Iran”

Completely switching gears here to my favourite TV chef of all time. Nigel Slater has long been a source of comfort to me when I’m feeling stressed. He has an incredible ability to make all food sound appealing, just by pausing in a sentence, nodding affirmatvely at the camera and saying “and it’s incredible.”

While yes, he has on occasion seemed to live in a dreamworld where people have whole parmesan rinds at the back of the fridge, and half a roast chicken “lying around”, Nigel Slater makes programmes that are deeply relaxing. Considering that the Middle East isn’t an area that a lot of people would consider “relaxing”, this show is a really fresh represetnation of part of the world that I had previously associated only with conflict.

In this episode, the final one of the series, Nigel eats sheep brains, catches pomegranates and has dinner at his taxi driver’s house. While I’m sure there’s a lot of work done by editing and producers and translators, I loved this series because the reactions that my best TV friend Nigel has to all the food he tries seem genuine. His passion for food and flavour are boundless and this show is a wonderful expression of that.

Victoria S01 E08 “Young England”

Look, I started watching this show because I like Jenna Coleman and I missed Clara Oswald. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. This episode especially showcased Victoria’s ability to make history seem dramatic and compelling. Victoria’s pregnancy has reached the “deep discomfort all day every day” stage, and having recently watched a friend go through this stage, I felt like Coleman conveyed this perfectly. I had an overwhelming urge to buy her a McDonalds with extra fries, just to make her feel better.

I had no idea that there had been an attempt on Queen Victoria’s life during her first pregnancy, and I found this episode genuinely shocking. I also found myself crying at random intervals, potentially because I felt so much sympathy for poor pregnant Victoria, who just wants to take a ride in her damn carriage.

This show is excellent and I was gutted to realise that Netflix only has the first season, I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

Top Gear - S25 E01

Having warmed so much to Matt LeBlanc through my viewing of Episodes, I thought I’d give the new Top Gear a go. I hadn’t watched this show since the ill-fated Chris Evans series, and was interested to see how it was faring.

The answer was “eh, it’s alright.”

I must confess that I don’t think I’m quite interested in cars enough to fully enjoy Top Gear in it’s current format. While the specials that the “old guard” of Hammond, May and Clarkson used to make me roar with laughter - I was never fully invested in the show even at it’s peak of popularity.

That being said, there were a few moments in this episode that I thoroughly enjoyed - mainly discovering that figure of 8 chain car racing is apparently a thing. This is possibly one of the most American extreme sports events I have ever heard of, and that section of the programme is genuinely fun to watch.

Overall, yeah - Top Gear’s about cars. I don’t have a car. I used to have a car, but even then I wasn’t that interested in other cars. Unless they were coming towards me. At speed.

iZombie - S04 E01 “Are You Ready for Some Zombies?”

If you want me to take your new season opener seriously don’t give it a title that can be sung to the tune of “Do you wanna build a snowman?”

iZombie is a show I have really enjoyed in the past, but I feel as if it may have escalated beyond its own format. What used to be a fun and twisted police procedural now has too many other strands to cope with. Rather than watching Liv and Clive solve a crime, we have to see this story spliced into small spaces alongside Ravi, Major, Peyton and Blaine’s plot development. Once the zombie world was revealed, the show became messier and less interesting.

In my opinion, this episode was not the most enticing series opener. While I loved seasons 1 and 2, it’s become too hard to keep track of who is and isn’t a zombie, and all their individual emotions about this. The show has always been like a fun, undead version of Veronica Mars, but Veronica Mars wouldn’t have been as good if at the end of one season she’d been involved in “Private Detective High” where everyone else was a private detective. I think this is where iZombie has lost it’s magic for me.

I’ll keep watching but the show won’t be as exciting as it once was.

So there you have it, that’s what I watched this weekend! If you’re trapped in a binge-watching cycle (it happens to all of us, there’s a reason I am only allowed to watch Gilmore Girls on Thursdays), I hope the above inspires you to curate a complicated menu of shows next time you’re having a duvet day!