#Nice piece by Clayton Davis

[lokiondisneyplus]

With Tom Hiddleston reprising his beloved character, the six episodes of Marvel Studios’ “Loki,” which premiered on Disney+ in June 2021, were a massive success for the phase four entry. Disney and Marvel are hoping to have a similar success after the limited series “WandaVision” led the Emmy nomination field with 23. After initial plans to submit it in limited series, Variety has learned exclusively that “Loki” will seek Emmy love in the drama categories.

According to the Television Academy rules and regulations, the criteria to compete in limited series: “The program must tell a complete, non-recurring story, and not have an ongoing storyline or main characters in subsequent seasons.”

The Primetime Emmys have been actively trying to crack down on the designations of series, with some that return for subsequent seasons. This has been an ongoing issue, and the Television Academy has been making various tweaks and rule changes over the last decade to address it. After merging limited series and tv movies in 2011, the two entities were separated again in 2014 with the rising popularity of anthology series like “American Horror Story.”

In 2017, HBO’s “Big Little Lies” nearly swept the limited series categories, including three acting wins for Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård and Laura Dern. However, they announced a second season after its awards run, forcing the 2019 sophomore outing to compete in drama series. This is an ongoing issue the TV Academy has been trying to address but hasn’t cracked the code yet.

As the second season gears up for shooting, Disney and Marvel were left with no other choice but to proceed with either drama or comedy submissions, which echoed their decision with “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” last awards season. However, drama is the smarter choice for “Loki” due to the competitive nature of comedies this year that include the returns of FX’s “Atlanta,” HBO’s “Barry” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

So is there room for Hiddleston and others on the drama side of the house?

All six episodes were helmed by Kate Herron, credited with constructing an impressive artisan team and building the audacious sets for the Time Variance Authority. While paying homage to science fiction classics like Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982) and Terry Gillam’s “Brazil” (1985), she could be a strong contender for a nom, even if the series may face an uphill battle in the top category. Per Emmy rules for submitting for outstanding directing in a drama series, a director can only submit themselves for one episode solely, as opposed to limited series, if they helm every episode, the entire show acts as their representation (i.e., Scott Frank for “The Queen’s Gambit” and Barry Jenkins for “The Underground Railroad”). So the question becomes, what episode does Herron submit? Conventional wisdom points towards episode three (essentially “Before Sunset” on an alien planet) or episode five (that introduces the multiple Lokis).

The Creative Arts categories will have plenty to chew on from the series in categories like production design, cinematography and visual effects. Composer Natalie Holt’s aural work has also been a noteworthy highlight. She could be a specific highlight in the campaign for outstanding music composition for a series, especially since a woman has yet to win the category since its inception in 1966. She has one previous nom for PBS’ “Victoria” in 2017.

Aside from “Hawkeye” and “Moon Knight” competing in limited series, Marvel also has the anthology series “What If…?” that was created by A.C. Bradley. However, it will compete for outstanding animated program.

Created by Emmy winner Michael Waldron (outstanding animated program for “Rick and Morty”), the show follows the events of “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), where Loki steals the Tesseract and is now placed into an alternate reality. The series also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, Richard E. Grant, and Jonathan Majors.

“Loki” is now streaming on Disney+.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 4

Guided by Voices just dropped record #30!

We enter April wishing all of you good health and financial solvency, though we know that many of the musicians and artists and appreciators that visit our site are in very dire circumstances. Our own crew is, so far, not infected, though we are coping with varying degrees of success to the new normal. Some are writing more. Others are struggling. Almost all of us are listening hard to the music that sustains us, and hope that you are likewise finding some solace. This edition of Dust is a big one, as a lot of us have the attention span for shorter, but not longer pieces. Enjoy it in good health. Contributors included Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers, Andrew Forell and Tim Clarke.

Aara — En Ergô Einai (Debemur Morti Productions)

En Ergô Einai by Aara

Swiss black metal band Aara offers a very high-concept LP, investigating the European Enlightenment, and the period’s complex and conflicting discourses on human rationality. In some ways, the historical period was enormously optimistic, featuring thinkers like Ben Franklin and Rousseau, who were committed to modes of thought that were scientifically rigorous and grounded in egalitarian ethics. But at the same time, European coloniality ramped up significantly, and capital became a rapacious, world consuming engine, churning out massive wealth and even more massive human suffering. Aara investigate that — or anyways that’s their claim. They haven’t published the lyrics to these songs, and the vocal stylings of singer Fluss are so brittle, so horrendously shrieked, that it’s impossible to decipher the words. The music is suggestive, however. It’s infused with a grand sensibility, and also charged with black metal’s negative intensities. The influence of Blut Aus Nord’s romantic Memoria Vetusta records is strongly present — and Vindsval, Blut Aus Nord’s principal composer, plays guitar on “Arkanum,” first track on this record. Its grandiosity is in tune with the philosophical enthusiasms of the Enlightenment. But it’s pretty cold stuff, like rationality itself.

Jonathan Shaw

 Ryoko Akama / Apartment House — Dial 45-21-95 (2019) (Another Timbre)

Dial 45-21-95 by Ryoko Akama

The one time I saw Ryoko Akama’s music performed, the visual poetry of the concert was at least as compelling as the music that was made. During one piece she, Joseph Clayton Mills and Adam Sonderberg walked calmly up and down a line of tables loaded with instruments and knick-knacks she picked up during her visit to Chicago, making timely sounds that seemed to accent their movements rather than issue from them. While it sounded nothing like the music on Dial 45-21-95 (2019), this album is likewise the work of sympathetic musicians expressing a composer’s impressions of a place and all that comes with it. The source material this time comes from Akama’s visit to the archive of filmmaker Krzystof Kieslowski. Objects she saw, words that she read, and the episodic pacing of his works all became part of this cycle of leisurely, gentle movements of music that is small in scale, but not exactly minimalist. The musicians, in this case the English new music ensemble Apartment House, often seem to be passing phrases from one to another, each recipient conveying a reaction to what they’ve heard rather than the same information. In this way they impart the experience of a story without telling one.

Bill Meyer

 Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis — Invisible Cities II (Karlrecords)

Invisible Cities II by Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis

What better time than when we’re all forbidden by pandemic to spend time in the company of others to listen to some quality sonic landscaping instead? Nadja’s ever-prolific Aidan Baker second duo collaboration with bass clarinetist Gareth Davis follows on the first Invisible Cities with a similar structure; Baker, credited on that first LP with just “guitar”, somehow summons up vast or subtle cloudbanks of hissing ambience, covert drones, even sometimes harsh blares (check out “The Dead” here) while Davis plays his clarinet like he’s carefully picking his way across a perilous set of ruins. Whether elegiac like the opening “Hidden” or more mysterious like the fading pulses threading around Davis’s work on “Eyes”, the result is a vividly evocative set of involving ambient music made using slightly unusual materials. Even though Baker and Davis fall into a set of background/foreground roles, both clearly contribute equally to what makes Invisible Cities II work so well (honestly, a little better than their fine debut as a duo), and although unintentional, the result can serve to give us temporary shut ins plenty of mental fodder as well.  

Ian Mathers  

 The Bobby Lees — Skin Suit (Alive)

The Bobby Lees may be from Woodstock, but they definitely do not have flowers in their hair. Skin Suit, the band’s second album, is a blistering onslaught of garage rock fury, at least as heated as last year’s Hank Wood and the Hammerheads S-T, but tighter, nearly surgically precise. Singer/guitarist Sam Quartin has a magnetic, unflappable presence, whether issuing threats sotto voce (“Coin”), insinuating sexual heat (“Redroom”) or crooning the blues. But everyone in the band is more than up to the job, whether Macky Bowman knocking the kit sidewise in the most disciplined way, Kendall Windall jacking the pressure with thundering bass or Nick Casa lighting off Molotov cocktails of guitar sound. Video (above) suggests that the record isn’t the half of it, but the record is pretty damned good. Jon Spencer produced and makes a characteristically unhinged cameo in “Ranch Baby.” Two covers ought to be a misfire—can anybody improve on Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation,” or add anything further to the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man”? — but instead bring the fire. Helluva a band, probably even better live.

Jennifer Kelly

 Rob Clutton with Tony Malaby — Offering (Snailbongbong Records)

Offering by Rob Clutton with Tony Malaby

Sometimes when one musician gets top billing, that just means they ponied up for the session fees. But on Offering, the words “Rob Clutton with” signal that the Canadian double bassist conceived of a sound situation and procured material suited to that concept. Clutton is well acquainted with the American soprano and tenor saxophonist, Tony Malaby. Their association dates back two decades, when both men were resident artists at the Banff Centre For Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, and they’re both members of drummer Nick Fraser’s band. That common ground gets the nod on “Sketch #11,” a Fraser tune that occasions some of the most swinging music on this wide-ranging and thoroughly satisfying session. But elsewhere the genesis of the material lies in Clutton’s own improvisations, which he recorded, transcribed and analyzed in order to locate nuggets of musical intelligence worth developing into discreet melodies — or further improvisations. Either way, Malaby isn’t just the guy on hand to play the horn parts, but a known musical quantity to be either be written for or set up to set loose. Clutton must have had his tone, alternately ample and pungent on soprano, and his imaginative responsiveness to the melodic, rhythmic, and emotional implications of a theme in mind, for his own purposeful perambulations seem designed to give Malaby plenty to wrap around and climb upon. While the music is ever spare, it’s never wanting.

Bill Meyer

 Pia Fraus — Empty Parks (Seksound)

Empty Parks by Pia Fraus

Empty Parks, the latest album from Estonian neo-shoegazers Pia Fraus, deftly soundtracks crisp, blue-skied, late winter days when buds are emerging on bare trees and the promise of warmer days beckons. The Tallinn based band comprising Eve Komp (vocals, synth), Kärt Ojavee (synth), Rein Fuks (guitar, vocals, synth, percussion), Reijo Tagapere (bass), Joosep Volk (drums, electronic percussion) and Kristel Eplik (backing vocals) traffics in layered harmonies, swathes of synth and roving guitar lines over a solid, propulsive rhythm section. Most of the songs move along at a good clip with a great sense of dynamics and a focus on atmospherics. Sometimes one wishes they would let go a little and explore the hints of noise on standout tracks “Mr. Land Freezer,” “Nice And Clever” and “Australian Boots” which have traces of grit that, if given more prominence, may have elevated Empty Parks as a whole from enjoyable to compelling.  

Andrew Forell  

 Stephen Gauci / Sandy Ewen / Adam Lane / Kevin Shea — Live at the Bushwick Series (Gaucimusic)

Gauci/Ewen/Lane/Shea, Live at the Bushwick Series by gaucimusic

The cultural losses inflicted by the current pandemic situation are so immense that no record review is going to hold the whole story. But this one might clue you in to one culture under unique threat, and also shine a light on the spirit that may bring it back again. Since the summer of 2017, tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci has been organizing a concert series at the Bushwick Public House in Brooklyn, NY. Each Monday starting at 7 PM up to half a dozen individuals or ensembles will play some variant of jazz or improvised music. This album is the first in a series of five titles, all released as either downloads or CDRs with nicely done sleeves, and each documenting a set that was part of the series. Live at the Bushwick Series is a forceful argument for the mixing of aesthetics. You might know drummer Kevin Shea from the conceptually comedic jazz band, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, or Gauci and Lane from the many recordings that showcase each man’s impassioned playing and rigorous compositions. Maybe you know guitarist Sandy Ewen as a started-from-scratch free improviser. But when you hear this recording, you’ll know that they are a band, one that makes cohesive and ferocious music on full of tectonic friction and fluid role-swapping on the fly. When the quarantines expire, there may or may not be a concert series, or a Bushwick Public House to host it. But it’ll take the kind of commitment and invention heard here to get things rolling again.

Bill Meyer

 Vincent Glanzmann / Gerry Hemingway — Composition O (Fundacja Sluchaj)

Composition O by Vincent Glanzmann / Gerry Hemingway

A composition is both an ending and a beginning. It establishes some parameters, however specifically, to guide musicians’ interactions. But the publishing of a piece can also provoke many different interpretations, especially when the composition itself is designed to be a work in progress. Percussionists Vincent Glanzmann and Gerry Hemingway developed Composition O with the intent to revise each time they play it, so that while there is a graphic score guiding them, it is subject to change. So, don’t expect this music to have the locked-in quality of, say, Steve Reich’s Music for Eighteen Musicians, any more than you might expect it to evince the self-creating form of a free improvisation. It proceeds quite deliberately through sections of athletic stick-craft, sonorous rubbing, and eerie extensions beyond the percussive realm enabled by the distorting properties of microphones and the deeply human communication of Hemingway’s vocalizations, which are filtered by a harmonica. The score keeps things organized; the concept means that this music will evolve and change.

Bill Meyer

 Magnus Granberg / Insub Meta Orchestra — Als alle Vögel sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen (Insub)

Als alle Vögel sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen by MAGNUS GRANBERG / INSUB META ORCHESTRA

In a previous review for Dusted, I characterized Magnus Grandberg’s sound world as “unemphatic.” The same applies here, and the accomplishment of that effect is in direct inverse to the size of the ensemble playing this album-length piece. For this performance, the Insub Meta Orchestra numbers 27 musicians, but it rarely sounds like more than four or five of them are playing at any time. The ensemble is well equipped to represent whatever Granberg suggests. In addition to conventional orchestra instrumentation, you’ll find antique instruments such as spinet, traverso and viola da gamba, as well as newcomers like the analog synthesizer and laptop computer. Granberg selects discerningly from centuries of compositional and performative approaches. The piece’s title, which translates to “When all the birds sang my longing and desire,” tips the hat to Schubert, but the way that timbres offset one another shows a working knowledge with contemporary free improvisation. It takes restraint on the part of the players as well as the composer to make a group this big sound so small in contrast to the silence that contains its music.

Bill Meyer    

 Ivar Grydeland / Henry Kaiser — In The Arctic Dreamtime (Rune Grammofon)

If Ivar Gyrdeland (Danes les Arbres, Huntsville) and Henry Kaiser had first met in an airport lounge or a green room somewhere, you might not be able to hold this CD in your hands. They’d have sat down, started talking about strings or pick-ups or their favorite Terje Rypdal records, and who knows where that might have led. But they met in an Oslo studio, and one of them had some means of projecting Roald Amundsen — Lincoln Ellsworth’s Flyveekspedisjon 1925, a documentary of an unsuccessful and nearly fatal attempt to fly two airplanes over the North Pole. So, they set up their guitars and improvised a soundtrack to the film on the spot, which became the contents of this CD. Neither man regards the guitar’s conventional sounds as obligatory boundaries, and much of the music here delves into other available options. Resonant swells, looped harmonics, and flickering backwards sounds alternate with shimmering strums, skeins of feedback, and unabashed shredding, radiating with an icy brightness that corresponds to the unending polar sunlight that shone down on the expeditionaries as they hand-carved a runway out of the ice.

Bill Meyer

 Guided By Voices — ‘Surrender Your Poppy Field’ (GBV, Inc.)

Surrender Your Poppy Field by Guided By Voices

The ever productive Robert Pollard kicks off a new decade with a louder, more distorted brand of rock, his characteristic hooky melodies buzzing with guitar feedback. He’s supported by the same band as on last year’s Sweating the Plague— Doug Gillard, Kevin March, Bobby Bare, Jr. and Mark Shue, who like Pollard are lifers to a man. Songs run short and feverish with only a couple breaking the three- minute mark and the chamber-pop “Whoa Nelly,” clocking in at 61 seconds. And yet, who can pack more into a couple of minutes than the godfather of lofi? “Queen Parking Lot” ramps up the dissonance around the most fetching sort of melody, which curves organically around modal curves. “Steely Dodger,” layers rattling textures of percussive sound (drums, strummed guitars) around a dreaming psychedelic tune. The words make no sense, but tap into subconscious fancies. This is Guided by Voices 30th album. Here’s to the next 30.

Jennifer Kelly

 Zachary Hay — Zachary Hay (Scissor Tail)

Zachary Hay by Zachary Hay

Zachary Hay is an American acoustic guitarist, but please, put aside the associative baggage that comes with those words. If you do so, that’ll put you closer to the spirit that informed the making of this LP’s ten un-named tracks. Like Jon Collin, Hay seems to be intent upon capturing the mood and environment of a particular moment. The sound of the room, or someone turning on a tap while he’s recording — these become elements of the music every bit as much as his patient note choices. Hay likes melodies, but he doesn’t feel bound to repeat them, which imparts a sense of motion to the music. Things change a bit towards the end, when he puts down his guitar and stretches out for a spell on banjo and squeezebox, humming along with the latter like a man who knows that he must be his own company.

Bill Meyer  

 Egil Kalman & Fredrik Rasten — Weaving a Fabric of Winds (Shhpuma)

Weaving a Fabric of Winds by Egil Kalman & Fredrik Rasten

Some music is born out of commercial or communicative aspirations, or philosophical structural prescriptions. One suspects that this music originates from some agreement about what sounds good, compounded by other ideas about the right way to do things. Fredrik Rasten is a guitarist who splits his time between Berlin and Oslo, shuttling between improvised and composed musical situations; he has an album out on Wandelweiser, which should tell you a bit about his aesthetics. Egil Kalman plays modular synthesizer on this record, but he is also a double bassist from Sweden who lives in Copenhagen, and he keeps busy playing in folk, jazz and free improv settings; one hopes that someday, we’ll hear some recordings by his touring project, Alasdair Roberts & Völvur. But in the meantime, give a listen to this record, which patiently scrutinizes a space bounded by string harmonics and electronic resonance. Rasten uses just intonation to maximize the radiance of his sounds and re-tunes while playing to subtly manage the harmonic proximity between his vibrations and Kalman’s long tones. The synth supplies a bit of slow-motion melody. The album’s two pieces were performed in real time, and the effort involved in maintaining precise harmonic distance gives the music a subtle but undeniable charge. The title mentions winds, but this music feels more like a sonic representation of slight but steady breezes.

Bill Meyer

Matt Karmil — STS371 (Smalltown Supersound)

STS371 by Matt Karmil

UK producer Matt Karmil’s latest release STS371 mines a lode of straight ahead acid house and techno laced with enough glitch and twitch to appeal to the head as much as the body. Lead single “PB” is a maximalist concoction of ricocheting hi-hat, blurting bass, the panting of the short distance runner and an undercurrent of soft white noise. Karmil uses just a few simple elements to build his tracks which foreground the beats. Hi-hat and kick drums drop on tracks like “SR/WB” to highlight woozy synth washes. It’s just enough to let you breathe before the high energy tempos return and the strobes flash once more. STS371 touches on Force Inc clicks and cuts and ~scape minimalism beneath the rhythms but most of all Karmil is interested in keeping you on your feet. Mission accomplished.  

Andrew Forell

 Kevin Krauter — Full Hand (Bayonet Records)

Full Hand by Kevin Krauter

Indiana musician Kevin Krauter’s sophomore album Full Hand floats by like a summer breeze. The Hoops bassist plumbs 1980s AOR and coats it in an agreeable fuzz to produce 12 tracks of gossamer dream pop heavy on atmosphere if not always individually memorable. Lyrically Krauter mines his memories and experiences growing up in a religious household, self-discovery and coming of age with poetic grace that his delivers over drum machines, hazy synths, delicate layers of guitar, and low-key yearning vocals.

At his most direct on the title track and “Pretty Boy”, Krauter explores queer identity and his wish to be himself and express his desire. “Green Eyes” and “How” confront the dilemmas of doing just that. The songs are less confessional or revelatory than the sound of Krauter working things out in real time, allowing his audience the privilege of listening as he does so. There are no “big” moments but one comes away inspired by his words and warmed by his music.

Andrew Forell

 Nap Eyes — Snapshot of a Beginner (Jagjaguwar)

Album number four sees Nap Eyes open up to take in broader, sleeker vistas. For the most part, lackadaisical country-rock’n’roll is nudged towards expansiveness by spacey guitars borrowed from My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything. Nigel Chapman steps forward into his front man role with more aplomb than on preceding albums, marshalling his bandmates around him to explore more colorful musical territories. Most successful are the singles, especially opener “So Tired,” plus the canny repurposing of the “Paint It Black” riff on “Real Thoughts,” and the deft guitar work on “Dark Link.” Sometimes there’s a loss of focus, a feeling of stretching for something just beyond reach. But that’s OK; after all, the shrugging acceptance of their shortcomings is right there in the album title.

Tim Clarke

 Peel Dream Magazine — Agitprop Alterna (Slumberland / Tough Love)

Agitprop Alterna by Peel Dream Magazine

On second album Agitprop Alterna, Peel Dream Magazine sound just like early Stereolab, with occasional blasts of shoe-gazey guitar thrown in for good measure. It may come across as reductive, even dismissive, to make such an overt comparison, but there’s no getting round it. With Stereolab’s comeback reminding everyone how beloved the band is, it’s heartening that there are new bands carrying the torch of their glorious aesthetic. To anyone who grew up in the 1990s listening to this stuff, it’ll no doubt be startling how well Joe Stevens has pulled this off. It’s a love letter to the sound of droning organs, guitars hammering away at major sevenths, driving rhythms and zoned-out but tuneful vocals. It’s derivative, sure, but it’s so well done, and the song writing is so solid that the appeal is undeniable. A recording of John Peel’s reassuringly deadpan radio patter even makes an appearance on “Wood Paneling Pt 2,” midway through the album, as if posthumously giving the band his blessing. I can’t argue with that.  

Tim Clarke

 Sign of Evil — Psychodelic Horror (Caligari Records)

Psychodelic Horror by SIGN OF EVIL

Maybe music this astoundingly stupid shouldn’t be quite so fun. But Sign of Evil, a one-man-black-metal-psychobilly-mash-up from Chile, makes a racket that’s so oddly deranged that it’s hard not to be charmed. Imagine if Link Wray somehow managed to walk into a Dark Throne practice session, c. 1995, and decided to jam, and you might conjure some of the strangeness you’ll encounter on the doltishly titled Psychodelic Horror. It’s fitting that the best song on the tape is simply called “Horror.” Nuff said. But check out the whacko piano that Witchfucker (yep) gamely pounds through the song’s first 30 seconds, and then the wheezy guitar tone he abuses your ear with when the metal portion of the song starts. These are not the sounds of a well-adjusted intelligence. Nor are they the sorts of sounds made by jackasses that cynically profess misanthropic allegiance to Satan, even as they enjoy decades-long careers in the music industry. Watain and Gorgoroth and Dark Funeral only wish they could be this legitimately unhinged. It helps that Witchfucker isn’t a loathsome racist. Rock on, you weirdo.

Jonathan Shaw

 Tré Burt — Caught It From the Rye (Oh Boy)

Caught It From The Rye by Tre Burt

Tré Burt has a rough-edged voice and fiery way with the harmonica that can’t help but remind of a certain Nobel Prize winning songwriter, though his words are less oblique. This debut album has a raspy, down-home charm, framed by raucous acoustic strumming and forthright Americana melodies. The winner here is the title track, which glancingly references the J.D. Salinger classic, but mostly reflects a soulful, restless search for meaning in art and life and music. “All my favorite paintings/ they keep on fallin' down/And I need savin' by the grace of god/But I know he's off creatin' /another one like me,” croons Burt with sandy sincerity. It’s a resilient sort of music, where Burt’s yowling voice plumbs emotional depths, but his rambling guitar line maintains a steady cheer. Burt got his big chance from John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, and as that songwriter hovers near death, it’s a good time to celebrate his legacy of leaving the ladder up.

Jennifer Kelly

 Michael Vallera — Window In (Denovali)

Window In by Michael Vallera

Chicago photographer, musician and composer Michael Vallera releases Window In, a four-track album of ambient manipulated guitar and electronic drone. Vallera works in a liminal space between actuality and potential, with continual, albeit almost imperceptible, shifts from the general and the hyper-specific. He brings a photographic eye to his compositions. They are the aural equivalent of seascapes in which one basks before one is drawn to details and the secrets beneath. Vallera’s tracks float by on luxurious oceanic swells with undercurrents of hiss, subaquatic rumbles, the blips and bleeps of luminescent trench dwellers. In the process the source, the guitar, is rendered unrecognizable, erased from the results leaving only disembodied sounds that ironically feel anchored in the real. Fans of Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas project, Fennesz’ guitar based ambient music or Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops will find much to appreciate here. Window In is a meditation on stillness and calm in the eye of powerful natural forces, something we always need but more so now.

Andrew Forell

 Windy & Carl — Allegiance and Conviction (Kranky)

Allegiance and Conviction by Windy & Carl

Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren have been creating ambient space-rock for nearly 30 years now. The couple’s cosmic yet intimate output may have slowed — this is their first album since 2012’s We Will Always Be — but their sound possesses a timeless resonance. Stepping into their river of watery guitar and bass drones in 2020 feels like little has changed since we last left them — and yet, strangely, everything is new. Windy’s voice makes tentative yet emotionally insistent appearances on five of these six tracks, her words hinting at small-scale revolutions (“In the underground, we’ve got a job to do” — “The Stranger”). “Will I See the Dawn” is the only wordless piece, where electric piano and tape hiss manage to speak volumes. At only 38 minutes, this is a short album for Windy & Carl, but one that has enough shadowy depths to qualify as a worthwhile addition to their intimidating discography.  

Tim Clarke

[miahdeas]

Glass Marbles & Paper Fortunes

The day is beautiful. A cool breeze, a few passing clouds and the happy chatter of kids on the playground. A boy of ten sits alone, playing in the grass with some pebbles and watching the other children play. Marching up to him in a dirt stained pink dress, a girl of similar age, plops down next to him.

“Um, hello?” He says timidly.

“Hi.” Her bottom lip is formed into a big pout. A purple, plastic My Little Pony backpack hangs off her shoulders. “What are you doing?”

“Um, well, I’m playing marbles…”

“But those aren’t marbles.”

“I know-“ He begins but is cut off as the girl suddenly pulls off her backpack, digs in it and takes out a small glass jar of marbles. It rattles satisfyingly and catches the light.

“THESE are marbles.”

“Whoa… That’s a lot of marbles…”

“Yeah. But, most of these were collected by my brother and he gave them to me. They’re ok.”

“Ok? They are beyond ok. Look!” And the boy points at a green and blue swirled marble, “That one looks SO cool. Kinda like a trapped ocean.”

“Huh. I never really thought about it like that…” The little girl lifts the jar, examining the marble.

“Yeah! And that one, it looks like a galaxy!”

Looking closer at the jar, the little girl’s frown has transformed into a look of wonder. “You’re right. I never looked at them like that.” Unscrewing the top, she dumps the marbles into the grass amongst his pebbles. “Look at this one!”

“Ooo, yeah, that one is cool.” He plucks a different marble from the pile, “This one looks like a fire is trapped inside.”

“Yeah! This one looks like it has toothpaste trapped inside it!” The two giggle and ogle at the collection of marbles. “I’m Casey. What’s your name?”

“I’m Mark. Did you say that your brother gave you these marbles? That was really nice of him.” The little boy is smiling as he examines more of the colorful marbles. Casey makes a face and starts to put the marbles back into the jar. “Oh…” Mark watches her a moment before speaking up, “What’s wrong?”

The little girl huffs. “Nothing.”

“Then why are you putting the marbles away? I was looking at them.”

“I don’t want to look at them anymore.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. They’re really neat…”

“No, they’re not.” She screws the lid back on the jar and shoves it back into her backpack, then pulls out a notebook and handful of colored pens. “Do you know what a fortune teller is?”

“Um, no?” He watches, quizzically, as the young blonde pigtailed girl proceeds to rip a piece of paper from her notebook and begins to fold it, color and write on it. “What are you doing?”

“Making a paper fortune teller. Well, Milk Face Melissa calls it a cootie catcher, but that sounds stupid.”

“Why do you call her Milk Face Melissa?”

Casey pauses and looks up at Mark, as if he said her hair was brown and not blonde, “Because, ages ago, during lunch, she was drinking her milk and laughed so hard it came out her nose and went everywhere on her face. So they started calling her Milk Face Melissa.”

“Oh.”

“Ask me a question Mark.” She holds out a strange folded square contraption on her fingers.

“Uh…”

“Come on.”

“Um, will it rain?”

“THAT’S what you want to ask the fortune teller?!”

“I don’t know what to ask it!”

Sighing and rolling her eyes, “How about, will we be friends? Pick a color.”

“Blue.”

“Ok, blue. B-L-U-....”

“E.”

“Yeah, I know…” Casey moves the folded paper box on her fingers at the mention of each letter. “Now, pick a number.”

“Hmmm, 15.”

She counts and moves the paper at each number until finally stopping and pulling open the flap of paper. Reading it aloud, “No doubt!” She looks up at Mark, beaming. He too is staring in wonder and grins.

“Ooo! Ok, let me ask it a question!”

The two children giggle and ask the paper fortune teller question after question amongst the grass and pebbles until the recess bell rings.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Mark!” A young girl with ripped jeans and soccer jersey thumps down into the empty cafeteria chair next to a young boy reading a library book, almost spilling his drink.

“Casey! Careful!” He moves his drink away from the overly excited girl.

“I’m sorry, but check out this cool new fortune teller I made!” She shoves a colorful and glittery folded paper in front of him. “Ask a question!”

“Hmmm,” He closes his book, “Will I make millions and millions of dollars?”

“Really Mark?” Casey rolls her eyes, but smirks, “Alright, pick a color.”

“Uh, the sparkly pink color.” Casey moves the folded paper, revealing four numbers of varying ranges. “3.” She moves the contraption again before reading the answer to his question. Clearing her throat dramatically,

“The answer is clouded.”

“Casey.”

“What? The fortune teller has spoken! Here, let me try.” Holding the folded paper respectfully between them, “Oh Fortune Teller made of Paper!”

“Casey,” Mark looks around the cafeteria, embarrassed as they get some glances, “Can’t you be normal?”

She giggles, “No, you have to ask it your question dramatically and purposefully for it to come true.”

He sighs, “You’re ridiculous.”

Quieting down a little, she continues, “Tell me, should Mark Clayton give me--- What did you bring for lunch today?”

“Uh, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some carrots?”

“What kind of jelly?”

“Strawberry?”

“Should Mark Clayton give me half of his sandwich?”

“Hey!”

“Shhhh, the fortune teller is working.” Her fingers move the paper quickly back and forth between positions before opening and revealing the answer. “Ah ha! It would be wise to do so! Pay up, Mark.”

The boy sighs, pulling his lunch bag from his backpack, and Casey does the same. Unfolding neatly prepared sandwiches, Casey and Mark swap halves. “If you don’t like your dad’s tuna salad sandwiches, why don’t you tell him to make you PB&Js? I’d like to have a day where I get my sandwich all to myself.”

“Do you not like my dad’s tuna salad sandwiches?”

“No, they’re fine, but-”

“Then I’m not going to tell him to stop. They’re fine.” Casey takes a bit out of her newly acquired sandwich. Mark watches her a moment, confused, but sighs; he knows better than to start a fight with Casey Davis.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The sun is setting in the sky after soccer practice. Most of the other girls are gone, but one remains, laying in the grass and staring up at the clouds. Her face is wet from a mixture of water, sweat and….

“Casey?”

She rubs the sleeve of her shirt against her face before sitting up. “Oh, hey Mark.”

“You were supposed to meet me fifteen minutes ago at the McDonalds. What happened?”

“Practice ran late. We just got done. Sorry.”

The teenage boy sits down next to her, “How are you doing?”

“Mark.”

He sighs, frustrated, “I can’t ask you how you are? I’m your friend, aren’t I?” She stays quiet, not looking at him. Mark pulls his backpack off his shoulder and unzips it, taking out a paper fortune teller, “I made a new fortune teller.”

“I’m not really in the mood, Mark.”

“Oh, come on. All those times that you forced me to put up with YOUR fortune tellers? Humor me. One last time…”

Casey sniffles, “Fine.”

A moment passes. “You’ve gotta ask a question to find out your fortune, Case.”

“Will we stay friends?” Neither of the teenagers look at one another, staring down at the fortune teller. It is frozen. “Well?” Casey asks softly, risking a glance up at the boy.

“Well, pick a color…”

“Blue.”

Mark moves the paper folds, spelling out the color with each movement. “Which number?”

“15.” The fwap fwap fwap sound of the paper hangs in the air as the toy moves. Casey pulls her knees to her chest, watching intensely as Mark pulls open the flap. “What does it say?”

He sees the words, Don’t count on it. Looking up at his friend who is eagerly, but nervously waiting for their fortune, he smiles, “It’s your destiny.” Her shoulders relax and she tries to reflect his smile. “Don’t know why you’re so worried. You’re not moving to another state! We can still see each other.”

“Yeah. We can…”

“And I’m sure you’ll make the team and you’ll probably play my school, so I will see you when you play against us.”

“Yeah.” Silence stretches. The two teens look everywhere else but each other. A Gremlin pulls into the parking lot, honking twice. “My dad’s here.” Casey gathers her equipment, duffle bag and backpack. Mark watches her quietly. Before leaving, “Oh! I can’t believe I almost forgot, I have something for you.” Casey reaches into her backpack, pulling out a small glass jar filled with marbles. “I want you to have this.”

“What? Why?”

“Ha, what do you mean why? You loved these marbles more than I did.”

“I can’t take all of these, Casey.” He unscrews the jar, digging into the marbles until he finds the one he was rummaging for, “Here.” He hands her a simple clear glass marble with a few purple and blue swirls, “Keep this one. It was your favorite.” Forcing it into her hand, he screws the lid back on and stuffs it into his backpack.

They both force a smile on their young faces.

“Stay out of trouble Mark Clatyon...”

“Kick some butt Casey Davis...”

[maksylmyheart]

Former Dancing with the Stars champion and Olympic figure skater Meryl Davis is embarking on her next adventure with Fedor Andreev: They are now husband and wife!

The couple tied the knot in an “intimate” outdoor ceremony in the South of France on Saturday night, PEOPLE can exclusively confirm.

“We chose each other, and we’ve been committed to each other for a long time,” Davis, 32, tells PEOPLE. “And yet, to be able to celebrate our relationship and what this means for us and our families with our families and our closest friends — and the fact that so many of them are traveling all the way to Europe to celebrate us and this time in our lives — just means so much.”

“We love each other unimaginably,” says Andreev, 37. “So I’m just really excited to make it official, since we know we want to spend the rest of our lives together.”

Andreev and Davis, who have been together about nine years, got engaged in July 2017. He proposed with a square-cut canary yellow diamond ring while they were on a hike in California.

• For more on Davis and Andreev’s destination wedding in France, pick up next week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

With Davis’ uncle Cam officiating, she and Andreev wed in front of some 95 guests in the backyard garden of the Le Mas des Poiriers, a luxuriously renovated 18th-century farmhouse on an island in Provence.

“I really wanted it be like sort of an intimate family [and] friend backyard gathering,” Davis says.

“I have never had a backyard gathering quite like this, but that was the intention was to make it very comfortable, warm, welcoming and feeling as if you’re in your backyard garden pulling out your grandmother’s beautiful treasured china,” she continues. Not unlike “a summer backyard garden party where you invite your closest friends and family.”

Decidedly non-traditional, Andreev and Davis didn’t avoid one another the day of the wedding. (Instead they planned on going for a run together.) In lieu of vows, they each wrote the other a letter they read aloud before exchanging rings — and then “I do”s.

For the wedding, Davis wore a sleeveless white dress by Monique Lhuillier, which was the very first one she put on: “I ended up trying on many other dresses with the styling help of Cynthia Cook Smith but always returned back to this piece.”

“It just felt right,” she says.

Andreev wore a custom-made deep blue suit — but no tie. (“All the men would’ve been sweating” in the heat of the French summer, he explains.)

At Davis’ side was her man of honor, younger brother Clayton. Andreev’s best lady was his cousin Danielle Vincent, a makeup artist and founder of beauty company Kimiko.

Davis’ longtime skating partner, Charlie White, with whom she has won three Olympic medals, including a gold, was of course in attendance.

“It wouldn’t be the same without Charlie there,” Davis says. “[He] has been a huge part of my life since I was about 8 years old — he’s family.”

Dinner afterward was held in an alleyway of plane trees on the farmhouse property, and the evening’s reception was to be set, in part, to a playlist curated by the bride and groom.

Music, in fact, carried throughout the evening: A string quartet played at the ceremony followed by a jazz band at dinner and cocktails and a DJ for the ambling post-dinner reception which was expected to carry into Sunday’s early hours.

The newlyweds danced to a remake of Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love” that “just has a nice warm feeling of happiness and joy,” Andreev says. They danced with their parents to “My Girl.”

The wedding, planned with Luis Otoya and Matthew Robbins, was the centerpiece of the weekend that also included a laid-back welcome dinner on Friday and, to come on Sunday, a brunch and pool party.

“Traveling and seeing the world and going on an adventure, it’s such a part of our lives and who we are as a couple and sort of what makes us happy, and I think a lot of our friends and family identify us as that,” Davis says. “And so that was sort of the deciding factor when it came to whether or not we really wanted to go for a destination wedding.”

Provence, she says, “spoke to us.”

Andreev and Davis plan to stay for a few days with their families after the wedding, with a honeymoon in the fall or winter.

A former figure skater himself, the Moscow-born Andreev now works as an entrepreneur. Though she retired from Olympic competition, Davis continues to skate professionally with White, with whom she tours frequently.

She and Andreev have talked about starting a family but they aren’t in any rush. They have the rest of their lives, starting with Saturday.

“I think for all of us, it’s just a magical experience,” Andreev says.

Says Davis: “How often in life do you get to sort of hit pause and just enjoy an adventure in a beautiful location with the people you love most?”

[eddycurrents]

For the past few years, you could argue that the X-Men franchise has been working on trying to rediscover its identity. Since reality reasserted itself coming out of the Secret Wars event, they’ve been in a kind of flux. The initial relaunch set up the mutants in opposition to the ascendant Inhumans. When that was brought to a head, Marvel’s merry mutants then redefined themselves in part through nostalgic “back to basics”. In the past year and a bit, the mutants through a series of endings in “Disassembled” and Uncanny X-Men, while the Age of X-Man event traumatized them in a loveless utopia. It’s been an interesting ride.

You don’t really need to know any of that, or anything at all of recent or past history of the X-Men, in order to jump into House of X #1. This hits the reset button on the franchise and, while I expect that the past will inform some elements, it can largely be enjoyed coming in blind.

This is arguably the largest, most dramatic change to the X-Men since Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Tim Townsend, Brian Haberlin, and Comicraft took over back in New X-Men #114. Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller kick off a new era that is firmly built on a science fiction grounding. It frames the mutant identity in a new understanding and begins a new conflict with the rest of humanity as human governments and organizations react to the new status quo.

Without going into any details in this section, I can say that House of X #1 takes many of the common themes and elements of decades of X-Men stories and gives them a new spin, both familiar and strange at the same time. All of it is brought beautifully to life through astounding artwork from Larraz and Gracia, taking it to a completely different level. It’s brought together nicely through the design work of Muller, implementing a number of text pieces yielding further information, making it decidedly feel like a Hickman comic. 

The digital edition on Comixology is also another instance of having “Director’s Cut” material, including Hickman’s redacted script for the issue, a wide array of the variant covers, and process pages of line art and coloured pages.

It’s a bold new era starting point for the X-Men and I’m excited to see what else is in store.

There will be spoilers below this image. If you do not want to be spoiled on House of X #1, do not read further.

SPOILER WARNING: Below I’ll be discussing the events, themes, and possibility of what’s going on in House of X #1 and beyond. There are HEAVY SPOILERS beyond this point. If you haven’t read the issue yet and don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading now. You’ve been warned.

PREAMBLE | First Impressions

I had high expectations for House of X #1. 

Jonathan Hickman is easily one of my favourite writers currently working in comics. He’s full of mad ideas that you look at and wonder why no one has implemented them in quite the same arrangement before. He’s great at execution and construction for the long game. While each story usually works on a micro individual story-arc/issue level, they also build a large tapestry that tells an even larger tale. One merely needs to look at his previous outing for Marvel telling one grand story that began in Dark Reign: Fantastic Four (with elements you could say were seeded even in Secret Warriors) and ended in Secret Wars. It was wonderful.

Pepe Larraz has been wowing me with his art since Uncanny Avengers. There’s a fluidity of motion and design that evokes the spirit of Alan Davis, Neal Adams, and Bryan Hitch, while adding what feels like an even more gargantuan attention to detail and sense of design. He elevated that even further with stellar showings on Avengers: No Surrender and Extermination. He’s easily become one of Marvel’s premiere artists to me.

When you combine Hickman and Larraz, and couple it with a marketing machine hyping this as the next big thing in the X-Men evolution, expectations were huge.

House of X #1 exceeded those expectations.

This first issue feels like a sea change for the X-Men, in terms of the team’s status quo and in the approach to storytelling. This is a science fiction story with heavy political leanings. With Xavier pushing the lead, Marvel’s mutants have staked a claim on a new mutant nation on Krakoa, with tendrils through Earth and beyond.

And it’s breathtaking. The artwork from Larraz and Marte Gracia is beautiful. The landscapes and vistas, the designs for the characters, the page layouts, and more, this is a visually stunning book. Larraz has truly outdone himself with the line art, but it’s taken even higher by the sheer beauty in Gracia’s colours. It’s very rich, emphasizing the beauty and wonder of this new world being birthed into existence.

There’s also an interesting choice here in Clayton Cowles’ letters, it’s mixed case. These days it’s not necessarily as unusual not to be in ALL CAPS, but it is different from what we’ve seen in Uncanny X-Men as of late and helps to foster that idea of this being something different. Similarly the text pages scattered throughout from Hickman and Muller that give this the stylistic feel of a Hickman comic and enriches the depth of this new world with more information.

ONE | X Nation

The idea of a mutant nation isn’t a new one. Magneto broached it before and attempted a kind of compound with Asteroid M. Genosha was set up as a mutant paradise for a while. The fallen remnants of Asteroid M served as the X-Men’s home repurposed as Utopia. A corner of Limbo was briefly carved out as a haven for mutants. There was that enclave with Xorn. And Jean Grey kind of set up mutantkind as an amorphous nation within nations given central home in Atlantis during X-Men Red.

More often than not the nation merely serves as a backdrop for the X-Men’s interactions in the rest of the world. I mean, when mutants had their own homeland in Utopia, more stories took place in San Francisco even before the schism that drove half of them off to the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning in New York.

What’s presented in House of X #1 feels different.

Ostensibly, the new mutant nation is headquartered on Krakoa itself, but the implication is that it’s so much broader. The X-Men have seeded Krakoa flowers all over the Earth, on the Moon, and Mars and have grown what feel like embassies and external outposts of the fledgling mutant nation. And it’s the fact that these outposts are within other nations, with the potential of moving a superpowered army unseen and seemingly instantaneously, that has the government representatives met this issue nervous.

While it is a home and a haven for mutantkind, it’s also actively being treated as a political entity. Similar to how Jean argued her case for mutantkind in X-Men: Red, we’ve got ambassadors of sorts checking in with Magneto and two of the Stepford Cuckoos. There are some intrigue elements that sync up with other aspects of the story, but the fact that it’s being used as a tour, a show of force, and an ultimate in order to broker a deal recognizing Krakoa as a nation is an interesting development. It takes it from a place of superheroes playacting at being politicians to actually being politicians. Abrupt as it may be to have Magneto as the face of the operation.

But that’s part of the genius of this play. Like with Magneto siding with Scott upon the founding of Utopia, Xavier and Krakoa is a further fulfillment of Magneto’s dream. A mutant homeland with mutants in control. Every previous time this has happened it’s come to ruin, but it’s always fun while it lasts. 

Also, it’s an impressive show of power to have Magneto as the liaison to the rest of humanity. Where Kitty Pryde or Jean Grey would likely be more diplomatic, that isn’t the intent here. Sending out not only one of the most powerful mutants as your face, but also someone who has been in direct conflict with humanity over the years, pushing a mutant independence angle, is a statement that the new mutant nation isn’t something to be trifled with.

TWO | Who are these X-Men?

With the release of titles, creative teams, and team line-ups for the forthcoming “Dawn of X” reboot following House of X and Powers of X, there have been a lot of questions about what’s going on. Characters who have died during recent issues of Uncanny X-Men are alive and well. Characters who were in different configurations and statuses seem to have been changed to more familiar versions and attitudes. So it raises the question for House of X, who are these X-Men?

This first issue doesn’t answer that. I don’t know if we’re going to get an explicit answer that, but I think we’re given a clue on the very first page.

A key element in this first issue is the utilization of the mutant island Krakoa, both as a new home for the X-Men and as refined and adapted through application as portals, habitats, and medications. But in the opening scene, we see a central tree essentially acting as a birthing matrix overseen by Xavier.

The first born being Jean and Scott, I’d guess, then maybe that’s Bobby on the second page with some others. It’s possible that the one guy is even Gabriel Summers. It could be that they’re being rejuvenated, refreshed, and refined through healing properties heretofore unrevealed of Krakoa, but it may be more sinister. There’s a reaching, a yearning towards Xavier that makes me suspect. Are they the characters that we know? Or are they something else? I don’t even know if that’s a question we’re supposed to be asking.

Other than Magneto working front and centre with the team, they’re also working with a number of other traditional villains/antagonists like Sabretooth, Mystique, and Toad. All three have had their dalliances back and forth between the sides of good and evil, but it’s interesting to see them in the fold here. One the one hand, it reinforces the idea that this initiative of Xavier’s is for all mutants and that they’ve come together. But it also raises the question further, how?

I think it’s worth noting that every X-Men character we see fully interacting in the real world has been a villain at one point. Cyclops included, since the last time the world at large saw him before his resurrection he was “Mutant Terrorist Most Wanted #1″.

With characters seemingly back from the dead, characters changed to different versions, characters rejuvenated and healed as it appears that both Cyclops and Banshee are, characters who’ve previously been at one another’s throats, there’s a lingering doubt of how Xavier achieved this. There’s also a happy Wolverine playing with kids, so just think on that for a bit.

THREE | Master of Puppets

Professor Charles Xavier died (again, but who’s keeping track?) during Avengers vs. X-Men back in 2012. Then was brought back in Astonishing X-Men, first as a disembodied psyche caught in the Shadow King’s web and then through the personality sacrifice of Fantomex, inhabiting his body. He referred to himself as “X”, as something new, despite repeatedly claiming that he is the one, true Charles Xavier. His actions, both in his initial appearances and in the subsequent Astonishing X-Men Annual wherein he reunited with the remaining original five X-Men (Cyclops was dead at this point), could be considered manipulative, possibly even evil, callous, and villainous. We’ve not seen him again until now.

With the uncertainty of the origins of the wide cast of characters on the team, whether or not they really are our X-Men we know and love, doubt is cast on Charles Xavier as well. And it’s not just because we only see part of his face. Larraz’s design for Xavier’s new large, portable Cerebro deliberately distances us from him. It’s alien and off-putting, and I believe that’s the idea. I’m unsure whether or not this was the intention, but it also evokes the memory of another villain that Hickman enjoyed using, The Maker. The visual similarities and implication of another hero turned villain can’t be missed.

Consistent with that idea is the portrayal of Jean here. From a real life perspective, there’s an argument that all of the X-Men in House of X and beyond are taking on the costumes and behaviours of their most popular incarnations. In that regard, it would kind of make more sense that Jean would be in a more Phoenix-inspired get up or something similar to her blue and yellow outfit from the ‘90s.

Instead, we get Marvel Girl. Which seems odd to me. It’s not only regressive, but it represents a time period that in-canon Jean supposedly hates. It was, however, a time where Xavier’s somewhat lustful intentions towards his student were more apparent (creepy and disturbing as they are). It further reinforces that maybe not everything is on the level with what’s going on.

FOUR | A New Religion

Religious symbolism and outright textual substance are rife throughout this issue. From the beginning of Xavier acting as a kind of god to the newly reborn mutants beneath a Tree of Life through to Magneto’s proclamation at the end of the story, this first issue is planting the seeds of a new mythology for mutantkind. It’s something that sets them apart from the rest of the superheroes on Earth, giving them an explicit framing as the overseers of the world, but with it, there’s a tie back to how this new nation feels different.

There’s a definitive feeling from House of X #1 of building an entire society. Religion as an aspect of that, both real and implied, but we also get a new language of Krakoan (the glyphs we’ve seen before and again in this issue) and the idea of a broader organizational structure to Krakoa. It’s not just a school any more.

FIVE | Dangerous Beauty

There’s an interesting dichotomy set up in this first issue as well between the mutants and humanity. Of nature versus technology. It’s one we’ve seen before in mutants being the natural evolution of mankind coming into conflict with the sentinels constructed in order to prolong mankind’s grip on power. It tends to lead to the kind of nightmare scenarios of post-apocalyptic futures as we see in Days of Future Past.

Krakoa is an inspired choice for the catalyst of mutant change in the world, delving into some of what was explored in Wolverine and the X-Men, but going steps even further. Creating pharmaceuticals, creating properties similar to Man-Thing’s ability to transport throughout the world, and the various habitats. It’s like the Weapon Plus application of The World in that everything is grown, organic, nature-based objects all ostensibly pieces of the greater Krakoa entity. I wonder if this gives Xavier and the X-Men effective “eyes” all over the world?

It’s also important to recall how dangerous Krakoa has been throughout X-Men history, acting as an antagonist that kickstarted the all-new, all-different era in Giant Size X-Men #1, built out even in Deadly Genesis with the lost team, and the problems had at the Jean Grey School with the baby Krakoa.

And then there’s the flip side.

Orchis is a new organization introduced here comprised of a number of former agents of Marvel’s intelligence community, good and bad, ranging from SHIELD to AIM. And we’re brought aboard the Forge. There’s a fearful symmetry to it, a station close to the Sun building machines to counteract whatever it is that Xavier is ultimately doing. At the Forge’s heart what appears to be a new kind of Master Mold sentinel, decked out in some of the same colour schemes that we recently saw with the golden sentinels of ONE in Uncanny X-Men.

I can only imagine that this is going to wind up well.

We’re shown a face that we’ve not seen for a while (outside of solicitation covers), since I thought she was an “ordinary” human again, in Karima Shapandar. It’s kind of sad, though, as her Omega Sentinel protocols seem to have been reactivated.

SIX | We Can Be Heroes

The presence of the X-Men within the broader Marvel Universe framework can be problematic at times. It’s one of the reasons why they’ve often been shuffled off to parts unknown, set up as a rag tag band of fugitives, and limited in number to the point where they’re culturally, socially, and politically insignificant. Because the heart of mutant existence within the Marvel Universe is one of intolerance.

Mutants are feared and hated, hunted down, enslaved, or executed. While it works extremely well as an analogy for real life racial and sexual bigotry and prejudices, it takes on a different level of problem in the face of a world filled with superheroes. For superpowered people who aren’t mutants, you wonder about a couple of things, such as why the general populace even makes a difference and why non-mutant heroes don’t seem to care about mutant prejudice.

That latter one has been approached a few times previously, as recently as this latest volume of Uncanny X-Men, and it always seems strange. It’s like the question that you see raised in Swamp Thing and Marvelman and later The Authority of the realistic application of near limitless god-like powers as a force for change; if you’ve got these powers, why don’t you do something to change the world’s ills?

It really undercuts the heroism of teams like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, because it eliminates them as defenders of a universal justice, but merely teams that fight for the status quo. And so eventually the X-Men get shuffled off to Chandilar.

I think it’s great that House of X #1 goes straight for that jugular. Cyclops’ confrontation with the Fantastic Four beautifully displays his integration and friendliness towards the other heroes, that he’s happy for Ben’s wedding, but still at odds with them when it comes to overall mutant rights. Including those of Sabretooth, who admittedly just robbed a place and probably killed a few dozen people. So, it’s not like the Fantastic Four are in the wrong in trying to apprehend Sabretooth, but it’s reinforcing bits of the laws of the state versus possible ethical or moral concerns.

This scene also reminds us that mutants are everywhere. They can be anyone within society, anyone’s husband, wife, mother, father, friend, daughter, family, neighbour...anyone’s son, including Franklin Richards, son to Reed and Sue. It helps underline that compassion, understanding, and fighting for what’s morally right is something that really should be at the forefront here. And that Cyclops and the rest of Xavier’s new nation of Krakoa are making it known that they’re not going to accept the intolerance any more.

It’s also interesting the incorporation of the broader Marvel Universe as a catalyst for this confrontation in that Sabretooth, Mystique, and Toad were stealing information from Damage Control. It’s a neat bit of the shared universe and presents something potentially nefarious about Damage Control appropriating broken Stark and Richards tech. Though, we are left wondering, what did they steal?

SEVEN | Nothing As It Seems

One of the central themes we’re presented with in the ambassadors’ tour through Krakoa as led by Magneto is that nothing is quite as it seems. It’s even mentioned explicitly through the dialogue when the ambassadors are discussing the deal as lain out by Xavier. Worrying about the drugs, but even more about the amnesty. The terms of the amnesty aren’t actually stated here, but the gist seems to be that all mutants, criminal or otherwise, need to be set free (and presumably allowed passage to one of the gateways to Krakoa), if the country is to take part in the life-saving drug aspect.

Now, there’s an in-story payoff to the ambassadors statement, in that they’re all plants of one form or another, working for different organizations in order to gain information or surveillance on one thing or another and in Magneto’s ulterior motive for gathering them, but it feeds back into that tingling suspicion from the first page.

Something feels off. Something feels wrong. But that could well be the point. The seeds of doubt may well be planted intentionally for Xavier’s plan and the appearances of the characters. It could well be that we’re supposed to think that something hinky is going on, just to keep us in suspense. And that everything we’re seeing, everything we’re being told, really is the truth.

CONCLUSION | A More Perfect Union

As I said previously, House of X #1 exceeded my expectations.

Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, Cowles, and Muller came together to produce what is one of the most exciting and intriguing first issues that I’ve read in a very long time. Every single element from dialogue to line art, colour to letters, to cover to design gels into one massive stroke of storytelling. Every single thing within the comic adds another layer to immerse yourself into this brave new world of mutant merriment.

This is an incredible start to this new era and I am very excited to see what comes next week in Powers of X #1. Especially in how it relates back to House of X #1. These issues are apparently meant to be paired, but how exactly remains to be seen. I find that interesting, since PoX is apparently set in a different time frame.

d. emerson eddy is not an island.

[thisiscomics]

There’s a lot of respect given to the past in this ‘50th’ issue (quotes used since Detective Comics reverted to its old numbering, Batman didn’t, for whatever reason), which is an interesting contrast to the significant disruption of the status quo with the Bat/Cat storyline and promise of marriage.

In this panel specifically, I find it both touching and appropriate that Alfred is given his rightful place and the respect he is due- it would be very easy to pick Superman, or a Robin, as the witness to this significant life event, drawing on the World’s Finest or ‘Dynamic Duo’ tags that mark them both as key parts of the Batman’s life. But as Bruce says here, Alfred has always been there, at least in all recent versions of the Batman history- in The Untold Legend of the Batman, for example, he just kind of decides to show up and be the Wayne butler at a point where Dick is already Wayne’s ward. Aside from the fact no English gentleman would be so intrusive, it felt wrong from a contemporary perspective- the idea that Alfred was there from before the death of his parents is what gives him great presence, allowing him to be father figure, confidant, and more. The comment that “I can’t do anything without you” is very true, and puts Alfred right in the centre of the Batman’s life, where he belongs.

As for the rest of the issue, almost every non pin-up/guest artist page is captioned with a location and those that are not famous Gotham sites (such as Arkham Asylum or Wayne Manor) are all named after creators. It’s already been previously established that there are various locations named after past writers and artists, and these are here, along with new ones, expanding the list of creators that get their own piece of Gotham: Finger Tower, Robinson Boulevard, the Englehart Bedroom, the Conway Bedroom, Fox Hall, O’Neil Avenue, the Wein Expressway and Kane Plaza. It’s a little ‘name that creator’ game for fans, and a nice touch for an anniversary issue.

There are plenty names missing from this list, but some of those appear as guest artists- Garcia-Lopez, Miller, Adams & Sale, alongside some more recent contributors (Capullo, Finch, Lee, Daniel etc.). This means that perhaps the writers are a little short changed, since there is only one pair of hands on the typewriter for this story. Alongside those that have bedrooms and streets named after them, I would have liked to have seen- in no real order of preference- Goodwin, Rucka, Moench, Barr, Wagner & Grant, Starlin, Dixon, Morrison and probably several more (artists: Jones, Mazucchelli, Breyfogle, Rogers, Quitely, Davis, for starters). Too many to reference in one issue, certainly. Often people complain about omissions, get overwrought at the injustice done to their favourite creator, but in this case I think it’s part of the fun- shoehorning in 80 years of history would be painful, but taking what’s there and talking about who else you think deserves to be on a similar level is a good way to appreciate those 80 years.

The guest artist pages are also a neat nod to Bat-history, as we see various incarnations of Bat and Cat costumes. One, of course, has been much more prone to change than the other, so it is often Catwoman’s costume that points to an era or artist: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez draws the original purple dress Catwoman, with the extra legs and cleavage that became part of that costume when it resurfaced in the 70s/80s (Andy Kubert’s version is the more demure incarnation). Becky Cloonan draws Catwoman in her Darwyn Cooke costume, while Jason Fabok is very 90s with a Jim Balent based Catwoman. Strangely, not one artist seems to have opted for the strange green fish scale costume that briefly appeared in the 60s:

Or the one that followed it:

Or even her debut appearance look:

But I think these are omissions we can (happily!) live with in light of the general respect paid to the history (both in fiction and reality) of these two characters throughout this issue...

From Batman 50, by Tom King, Mikel Janín, June Chung & Clayton Cowles

[hmhteen]

Find Your Book Soulmate with HMH Teen!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, so we’re turning up the romance with these YA’s that will make you swoon, sob, and smile because you believe in love. 

YOUR ONE AND ONLY by Adrianne Finlay

Jack is a walking fossil. The only human among a sea of clones. It’s been hundreds of years since humanity died off in the slow plague, leaving the clones behind to carry on human existence. Over time they’ve perfected their genes, moving further away from the imperfections of humanity. But if they really are perfect, why did they create Jack?

While Jack longs for acceptance, Althea-310 struggles with the feeling that she’s different from her sisters. Her fascination with Jack doesn’t help. As Althea and Jack’s connection grows stronger, so does the threat to their lives. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?  

Order today at the links below!

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NICE TRY, JANE SINNER by Lianne Oelke

It’s Kind of a Funny Story meets Daria in the darkly hilarious tale of a teen’s attempt to remake her public image and restore inner peace through reality TV. The only thing 17-year-old Jane Sinner hates more than failure is pity. After a personal crisis and her subsequent expulsion from high school, she’s going nowhere fast. Jane’s well-meaning parents push her to attend a high school completion program at the nearby Elbow River Community College, and she agrees, on one condition: she gets to move out.

Jane tackles her housing problem by signing up for House of Orange, a student-run reality show that is basically Big Brother, but for Elbow River Students. Living away from home, the chance to win a car (used, but whatever), and a campus full of people who don't know what she did in high school… what more could she want? Okay, maybe a family that understands why she’d rather turn to Freud than Jesus to make sense of her life, but she'll settle for fifteen minutes in the proverbial spotlight.

As House of Orange grows from a low-budget web series to a local TV show with fans and shoddy T-shirts, Jane finally has the chance to let her cynical, competitive nature thrive. She'll use her growing fan base, and whatever Intro to Psychology can teach her, to prove to the world—or at least viewers of substandard TV—that she has what it takes to win.

Order now from the links below!

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MEET CUTE by Various authors

Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. MEET CUTE is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of “how they first met” from some of today’s most popular YA authors.

Readers will experience Nina LaCour’s beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service Tweet, Sara Shepard’s glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon’s imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno’s story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick’s charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There’s futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculate approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants.

HOW TO MAKE A WISH by Ashley Herring Blake

Grace, tough and wise, has nearly given up on wishes, thanks to a childhood spent with her unpredictable, larger-than-life mother. But this summer, Grace meets Eva, a girl who believes in dreams, despite her own difficult circumstances.  

One fateful evening, Eva climbs through a window in Grace’s room, setting off a chain of stolen nights on the beach. When Eva tells Grace that she likes girls, Grace’s world opens up and she begins to believe in happiness again.

How to Make a Wish is an emotionally charged portrait of a mother and daughter’s relationship and a heartfelt story about two girls who find each other at the exact right time.

Order now from the links below!

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EVER THE BRAVE by Erin Summerill

After saving King Aodren with her newfound Channeler powers, Britta only wants to live a peaceful life in her childhood home. Unfortunately, saving the King has created a tether between them she cannot sever, no matter how much she'd like to, and now he's insisting on making her a noble lady. And there are those who want to use Britta’s power for evil designs. If Britta cannot find a way to harness her new magical ability, her life—as well as her country—may be lost. The stakes are higher than ever in the sequel to Ever the Hunted, as Britta struggles to protect her kingdom and her heart.

Order now from the links below!

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THE LOVE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND LILY by Laura Creedle

When Lily Michaels-Ryan ditches her ADHD meds and lands in detention with Abelard, she’s intrigued—he seems thirty seconds behind, while she feels thirty seconds ahead. It doesn't hurt that he’s brilliant and beautiful.     When Abelard posts a quote from The Letters of Abelard and Heloise online, their mutual affinity for ancient love letters connects them. The two fall for each other. Hard. But is it enough to bridge their differences in person? This hilarious, heartbreaking story of human connection between two neurodivergent teens is perfect for fans of Eleanor and Park and creates characters that will stay with you long after you finish reading.

Order now from the links below!

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[askauradonprep]

So what are the main factions on the Isle? We know Sykes is a power player, but who else?

Depends what you’re talking about. Territory wise, Sykes….doesn’t really have a lot. He’s not a power player territory wise. Don’t get me wrong, he HAS territory, but it’s comparatively modest when you look at the Isle’s big names. He’s a power player financially speaking because he made sure his men were the ones mugging soldiers and guards for their wallets and sweeping up as much cash as possible, before he started loan sharking again. And because he’s running a thriving drug trade - he gets people dependent on him and exploits that for as much as possible. Everything his mob does is based on getting money or influence and THAT is why Sykes is a power player. 

Maleficent USED to be a power player because she collected a good chunk of territory. Not just size wise, but she picked some choice locations. She actually used to have more before she had to trade some to Sykes to get Mal back (and ohhhhh that was not a fun night for Mal). She’s also very charismatic and good at convincing people to listen to her.

The docks are neutral ground because god knows that if the pirates ever start to fight to control them, the gutters will run red by the end of the day. That’s why it’s a VERY GOOD thing that they mostly get along okay, as much as villains can. That’s the one piece of turf nobody is fighting over because it will be a dark, dark day for the Isle if they do. That said though, the fact that he mostly gets along with the other pirates, actively counts Davy Jones as a friend, and he intimidates John Silver, puts Hook in as a very strong power player in the docks. 

Shan-Yu’s that power player everybody forgets about. He has an ARMY people. He is not here alone. He’s an influential voice, especially in the Hun compound. But nobody remembers him or thinks about his power. Until you cross him and suddenly you’ve been wiped off the face of the map by an angry Hun band and everyone remembers WHY all of China feared his invasion.

Speaking of influence, the more infamous you are, the more social weight you have on the Isle. Ursula doesn’t have a ton of territory, she just runs the restaurant. She doesn’t have much money either. But she has a NAME. And, y’know, giant tentacles that will smash you around her restaurant if you make her mad. That’s why people don’t mess with her.  

Sometimes it’s also all about connections. Jafar and the Evil Queen both lost their magic and Cruella never had any, but all three have big names and that let them make friends with other big names like Maleficent.

And just because someone’s not considered powerful doesn’t mean you should forget them. Case in point, Hades doesn’t really have a whole ton of social clout, and he’s kinda considered B-list, but that doesn’t mean you should ever count him out. He’s a GOD. And he will make you bow. For all anybody knows, any street urchin could be plotting and biding their time. 

The people here weren’t sent here because they were nice people. Even the nicest man on the Isle, Kronk, was okay with murdering a 17 year old boy so his boss could seize power. Sure, he cried about it and wrestled with his conscience, but he was going to do it. Never count out anybody just because they’re not a power player.

I should also note that for the most part, the kids (as in, anybody BORN on the Isle) and the originals tend to operate on different scales. Just because, say, Mal was a power player among the kids doesn’t mean the originals would take her seriously if she tried to take over her mother’s position and say ‘I’m a power player on your league now’. Actually, I can imagine Sykes laughing and saying, “Oh, are you, little girl? I think you’d better rethink that. Mommy’s not here to protect you now.” So, sure, Uma is a power player, among the kids at the beginning. Her crew had to start breaking in to the original’s territory and leagues. They didn’t get to start there, and the originals were not happy that they came into the fray. But it’s not blown up on them yet so. 

Also - anybody with a gun is a power player, because they’re so rare on the Isle. Hook, Gaston, Clayton, Sykes, Helga, etc. Never ever ever underestimate a villain with a gun. 

[viraljournalist]

Power Rankings -- Who starred for each team in 2019

New Post has been published on https://viraljournalist.com/power-rankings-who-starred-for-each-team-in-2019/

Power Rankings -- Who starred for each team in 2019

Heading into the last week of the season, the division races are almost all won, leaving the wild-card races to provide a bit of drama. You’ll find some of that same balance between certainty and anticipation in this week’s rankings. The voters unanimously selected the newly crowned American League West champion Astros our unanimous No. 1 over the challenges from the Dodgers and Yankees. They also rewarded the teams doing the best job of securing their wild-card bids, with the A’s cracking the top five and the Brewers climbing up to No. 11.

For Week 25, our panel of voters was Bradford Doolittle, Christina Kahrl, Eric Karabell, Tim Kurkjian and David Schoenfield.

Houston Astros 2019 record: 102-54 Week 24 ranking: 1

While another World Series title would be nice, several awards should be coming Houston’s way this fall. Right-hander Justin Verlander figures to earn his second Cy Young Award (he won with Detroit in 2011), likely holding off teammate Gerrit Cole. Meanwhile, rookie outfielder Yordan Alvarez boasts an OPS better than 1.000 and could end up knocking in a run per game. Sure, Alvarez has played barely half a big league season, but the numbers are ridiculous. Carlos Correa won top AL rookie honors in 2015, but he did not have numbers like these. — Eric Karabell

ICYMI: A superteam showdown? A historic rematch? The World Series matchups we want to see

Los Angeles Dodgers 2019 record: 100-56 Week 24 ranking: 2

Cody Bellinger is not only the Dodgers’ MVP for 2019, but probably the favorite to win the National League MVP, as well. Clayton Kershaw won MVP honors in 2014, but the last Dodgers position player to win was Kirk Gibson in 1988. With 8.6 bWAR entering Sunday, Bellinger has recorded just the 11th 8-WAR season by a position player in Dodgers history and the highest since Adrian Beltre’s 9.6 in 2004. The others: Mike Piazza, Willie Davis, Duke Snider (three times), Jackie Robinson (three times) and Dan Brouthers. — David Schoenfield

ICYMI: How the Dodgers are better built for October than everyone else

New York Yankees 2019 record: 102-55 Week 24 ranking: 3

Yankees fans like to spin DJ LeMahieu as an overall AL MVP candidate. He has been an amazing story, but he isn’t on the level of Mike Trout or Alex Bregman. However, LeMahieu clearly is the team MVP with 6.0 WAR, plus some bonus points for his ability to play all over the field. LeMahieu leads the team in runs and RBIs and still has a shot at the AL batting crown. I guess he can hit outside of Coors Field.– Schoenfield

ICYMI: Severino’s sizzling return shakes up October picture

Atlanta Braves 2019 record: 96-61 Week 24 ranking: 4

Ronald Acuna Jr. and Freddie Freeman are potential top-five finishers in the NL MVP vote — but they only rank third and fifth on the team in bWAR: Josh Donaldson 5.9, Mike Soroka 5.6, Acuna 5.5, Ozzie Albies 4.8, Freeman 4.6. Who do you have? I give the slightest of nods to Acuna. That power/speed combo at the top of the lineup sets the tone, plus he has started in center, left and right, with very good defensive metrics. — Schoenfield

ICYMI:

Who was Braves’ best addition to earn NL East repeat?

Oakland Athletics 2019 record: 94-62 Week 24 ranking: 6

With 32 home runs and 120 runs scored, shortstop Marcus Semien clearly is having a season for the ages from the leadoff slot for the A’s. But his 7.9 WAR also ranks 19th among MLB shortstops since 1947, and just three shortstops have delivered that kind of season in the past 20 years — Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, Hall-worthy Alex Rodriguez and peer Francisco Lindor just last season. — Christina Kahrl

ICYMI: How the A’s rebuilt a winner without tanking

Minnesota Twins 2019 record: 96-60 Week 24 ranking: 5

Shortstop Jorge Polanco will not lead the Twins in home runs or RBIs, but he is the clear club leader in wins above replacement and makes the strongest case for Twins MVP. Yes, five Twins have surpassed 30 home runs, but Polanco is by far the leader in hits and total bases. A year ago, Polanco served an 80-game PED suspension, and while he hit in the second half, few viewed him as a potential star. Prospect Nick Gordon figured to displace Polanco at some point. Few are talking about that now. Good for Polanco, a rock for the likely AL Central champs in the No. 2 lineup spot and at shortstop. — Karabell

Tampa Bay Rays 2019 record: 92-64 Week 24 ranking: 7

The Rays might or might not reach the playoffs, but they’ve already topped 90 wins. They have one position player (Willy Adames) with a chance to play in 150 games and just one pitcher anywhere close to qualifying for the ERA title. That pitcher, Charlie Morton, has been the one Rays starter who has simply been there for the team all season. He is going to end up with 33 starts and over 190 innings, with a 143 ERA+. The Rays might have been able to piece together his innings total had Morton thrown, say, 100 IP. But thanks to him, they didn’t have to, and his performance would have been tough to replicate even with Tampa Bay’s hive approach to roster building. — Bradford Doolittle

ICYMI: What do the Rays have to do to make the playoffs?

St. Louis Cardinals 2019 record: 89-67 Week 24 ranking: 8

Four critical victories in Chicago during the weekend have the Cardinals on the verge of clinching the NL Central title, having already earned at least a wild-card spot. It has been a total team effort of late, with numerous Cardinals players standing out. But one in particular has been veteran right-hander Adam Wainwright: He has won four consecutive starts to begin September, with an 0.33 ERA in those games. — Tristan H. Cockcroft

ICYMI:

Cards close in on postseason return at Cubs’ expense

Cleveland Indians 2019 record: 92-64 Week 24 ranking: 10

Projection systems such as ZiPS of FanGraphs’ Dan Szymborski picked Shane Bieber as a big breakout player in 2019. But seeing that on the page is one thing; watching it unfold over six months of baseball is another. Bieber has posted a league-best walk rate, he leads the majors in complete games and shutouts, his 10.9 K/9 rates in MLB’s top 10 — and we would not be talking about the Indians’ shot at winning an AL wild card if not for his stepping up during the same season that saw Cleveland lose former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber to injury. — Kahrl

ICYMI: Inside the Indians’ season-long domination of the Tigers

Washington Nationals 2019 record: 85-69 Week 24 ranking: 9

Anthony Rendon has earned himself a massive payout this winter as a free agent with a season that could win him NL MVP honors. He finished fifth in 2014 and sixth in 2017, but he will go higher this year. He is right up there with Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich as the top three favorites. And with Yelich missing the final two-plus weeks and Bellinger fading a bit down the stretch, Rendon could steals honors after hitting .351 in the second half with 58 RBIs in 65 games. — Schoenfield

ICYMI: Scherzer no lock to start wild-card game for Nats

Milwaukee Brewers 2019 record: 86-70 Week 24 ranking: 13

The question isn’t whether Christian Yelich is the most valuable player in Milwaukee, it’s whether he is once again the NL MVP — and that question remains open. However, that Yelich is head and shoulders above his teammates only underscores how special it is that the Brewers have rolled on even after his season was ended by a broken kneecap. Milwaukee had won 10 of 12 since Yelich last played on Sept. 10, and his replacement, rookie Trent Grisham, has filled in effectively. — Doolittle

ICYMI: Yelich talks about his injury

Chicago Cubs 2019 record: 82-74 Week 24 ranking: 11

The MVP of the Cubs’ season is a little difficult to suss out. Kris Bryant is probably the best player. Javier Baez remains the most dynamic and has a huge impact defensively. But I’ll go with Anthony Rizzo as the best combination of all the above. On a team that has been less than the sum of its parts for two seasons in a row, Rizzo has flourished situationally, with a big edge on Bryant and, especially, Baez in win probably added. On the intangible front, his early return from a badly sprained ankle for this weekend’s huge series against St. Louis was Willis Reed stuff. Rizzo is the heart and soul of the Cubs. — Doolittle

ICYMI: Even Rizzo’s magic can’t save these Cubs

Boston Red Sox 2019 record: 81-74 Week 24 ranking: 12

For any grief outgoing Red Sox baseball ops honcho Dave Dombrowski has and will receive, he figures to be able to point to the six-year, $120 million extension he gave to Xander Bogaerts as a big positive. Boston’s World Series defense was a dud, but don’t blame Bogaerts. He delivered the goods after signing his big deal this past offseason, establishing career highs in virtually every offensive category, playing improved defense and looking like a foundation piece for a Red Sox team that potentially faces significant change in the near future. — Steve Richards

ICYMI:

Why nobody might want to be Boston’s GM

New York Mets 2019 record: 81-74 Week 24 ranking: 14

Rookie Pete Alonso and versatile stalwart Jeff McNeil have definitely been the most valuable Mets hitters this season, but give credit to outfielder Michael Conforto for reaching 30 home runs for the first time. Conforto might never graduate to top-10 status among major league outfielders, but there is a statistical baseline for reliable power, a strong walk rate and competent defense. And at 26 years old, he can still improve. Better results versus left-handed pitching would be nice, and he is not really a center fielder, but Conforto has become a reliable, if occasionally overlooked, performer. — Karabell

ICYMI:

Law on how McNeil surpassed preseason expectations

Arizona Diamondbacks 2019 record: 80-76 Week 24 ranking: 15

Ketel Marte won’t win the NL MVP, but he is just outside the inner circle of contenders in one of the most surprising breakout seasons of 2019. Heck, he even had an All-Star team named after him. Placing sixth in baseball in WAR among position players, as well as seventh in slugging and OPS, plus having the versatility to play center field, second base and even a little shortstop, will do that for you. — Richards

ICYMI: Back injury ends Marte’s season

Philadelphia Phillies 2019 record: 79-75 Week 24 ranking: 16

The Phillies will look to lock up catcher J.T. Realmuto to a long-term contract this offseason. Realmuto sailed past career bests in home runs and runs batted in, and his excellent work throwing out potential base stealers should result in his first Gold Glove recognition. Myriad Phillies are to blame for the disappointing season — from the rotation to the injured bullpen to the inconsistent offense — and, clearly, management gets no pass. But Realmuto, acquired from the Marlins in February, has been awesome. — Karabell

ICYMI: Are Phillies MLB’s biggest disappointment of 2019?

Cincinnati Reds 2019 record: 72-83 Week 24 ranking: 18

Eugenio Suarez continued to build on his historic season despite the Reds’ elimination last week. Suarez hit home run No. 48 on Wednesday, moving him within four of George Foster’s 42-year-old franchise record, and he now has batted .358/.442/.806 with nine homers in 19 games in September. He has been one of the team’s better stories in an otherwise forgettable year. — Cockcroft

ICYMI:

Castillo, Suarez rank among Law’s biggest surprises of 2019

Texas Rangers 2019 record: 75-81 Week 24 ranking: 17

As flawed as WAR might be in judging pitchers, if one of your guys leads baseball in that category for virtually the whole season, it’s hard to argue he isn’t your MVP. That applies to the Rangers’ Mike Minor, who just in the past week or so was passed by Justin Verlander but still ranks second among MLB pitchers with a 7.5 WAR. Of course, Minor’s teammate Lance Lynn is just behind Minor with 6.7 WAR, fourth in baseball, and also is fourth in FanGraphs WAR at 6.0, while Minor is 19th in fWAR (4.0). So take your pick. — Richards

San Francisco Giants 2019 record: 75-81 Week 24 ranking: 19

Let’s accentuate the positive here and celebrate Madison Bumgarner getting back over 30 starts and 200 innings pitched for the first time since 2016, following two fluke injury-shortened seasons. With MadBum heading toward free agency, it was a great bounce-back campaign from one of the defining stars of the decade. Of course, it also inspired the Giants to keep him at the trade deadline as they briefly flirted with contention, which didn’t turn out quite as well. — Kahrl

ICYMI: Mike Yaz — HR in Fenway ‘super special’

Los Angeles Angels 2019 record: 70-86 Week 24 ranking: 21

Infielder David Fletcher is likely to end up the second-most valuable Angels player by WAR, which is something few expected back in March. Fletcher, in his second big league season, has played more than 35 games at three different infield positions — and also has aided in the outfield — and he easily will lead the club in hits. No, Fletcher is not much of a power hitter, but contact options remain important to a lineup, especially when they can handle most every position. Who knows what happens in 2020 or whether Fletcher secures a starting role, but for 2019 give the 25-year-old much credit. — Karabell

San Diego Padres 2019 record: 70-86 Week 24 ranking: 20

The firing of manager Andy Green on Saturday creates an attractive opening for the team’s next prospective skipper, coming off a season in which rookies Chris Paddack and Fernando Tatis Jr. should pick up votes in the Rookie of the Year race and the team has had a strong core consisting of Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer and Kirby Yates. But the beneath-the-radar story of the Padres’ second half has been Dinelson Lamet, who has a 3.20 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 45 innings in eight starts since Aug. 1. — Cockcroft

ICYMI:

Why was Pads manager Andy Green fired?

Chicago White Sox 2019 record: 68-87 Week 24 ranking: 24

The ChiSox’s 2019 MVP, Lucas Giolito, may not have more to contribute this season now that he’s shelved for the remainder of the season, but his emergence as a top-tier starter is a cornerstone development for a team emerging from a rebuild. Giolito has improved in every facet. His strikeouts are up by more than five per nine innings. His walks per nine have dropped from 4.7 to 2.9. And when everyone is hitting home runs, Giolito has given up fewer long balls than a season ago. He has been consistent and durable, traits increasingly rare among starting pitchers. The White Sox hope that a year or two from now we’ll see Giolito as just one of their aces, but for the time being at least they have one. — Doolittle

ICYMI: Sox shut Giolito down with lat strain

Toronto Blue Jays 2019 record: 63-93 Week 24 ranking: 26

Yes, he leads the Blue Jays in batting average (.276) and OPS (.789), but he is just seventh on the team with 15 home runs and his WAR logs in at 0.0. Still, the numbers matter not — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the slam dunk MVP of the Jays for invigorating baseball in Toronto (and beyond) and providing great hope for years of excitement and electricity to come. — Richards

ICYMI: Biggios now second father-son duo to hit for cycles

Seattle Mariners 2019 record: 66-90 Week 24 ranking: 25

No team has ever employed more players in one season than the 67 that have shuffled through Seattle in 2019. What, you don’t remember Zac Rosscup, Parker Markel, David Freitas or Nick Rumbelow? Backup catcher Tom Murphy leads position players in WAR, which says everything you want to know about this team. But I’ll give team MVP honors to Marco Gonzales, who has won 16 games with a 4.09 ERA, even more impressive considering Seattle’s defense has been among the worst in the majors. — Schoenfield

Colorado Rockies 2019 record: 67-89 Week 24 ranking: 23

The Rockies continue to audition youngsters for potential 2020 roles this September, and one of their bright spots this month has been utility man Garrett Hampson. The 24-year-old rookie has made starts at second base, shortstop and center field; and he has batted .357/.410/.589 with three home runs and has seven stolen bases this month. — Cockcroft

Pittsburgh Pirates 2019 record: 65-91 Week 24 ranking: 22

With all due respect to Josh Bell, Adam Frazier and Bryan Reynolds, Starling Marte’s performance seems to drive the Pirates’ performance unlike any other player. He has been sidelined for the past 13 days with a wrist issue, during which time the Pirates are 2-9. In fact, accounting for any of Marte’s absences this season, the Pirates are just 4-20 when he has been unavailable to play. — Cockcroft

Kansas City Royals 2019 record: 57-100 Week 24 ranking: 27

You’d like to see a team MVP be a little more well-rounded than Jorge Soler, but in absence of an obvious pick, his record-setting home run spree is enough to get the nod. Soler already has obliterated Mike Moustakas’ single-season franchise mark for homers, and with Mike Trout out for the remainder of the season, Soler’s next dinger will make him the Royals’ first home run champion. He still defends like the designated hitter he ought to be, but Soler’s power display has given Royals fans something to follow during a rebuilding season. — Doolittle

Miami Marlins 2019 record: 54-101 Week 24 ranking: 28

A fractured finger ended his season a month ago, but it reflects just how shallow a talent pool the Fish swim in that Brian Anderson still is the easy choice for most valuable Marlin. A defensive asset at third base and out in right field, like most non-Marlins he also had a breakout season at the plate, setting career highs in extra-base hits despite playing in 30 fewer games than in 2018. — Kahrl

Baltimore Orioles 2019 record: 51-105 Week 24 ranking: 29

For a team on pace for just 53 wins, the Orioles have a few reasonable choices for an MVP. Trey Mancini has an .889 OPS, 36 doubles, 34 home runs, 101 runs and 93 RBIs. Jonathan Villar has 3.9 WAR and 38 stolen bases. And Hanser Alberto has 3.1 WAR and a .310 batting average. But our co-MVPs are Chris Davis and Henry Frasca. Huh? Davis, with a .176/.268/.315 slash line and just 11 home runs to offset 134 whiffs? And who is Henry Frasca? He is a 9-year-old fan from Massachusetts who wrote a letter of encouragement to Davis during his record 0-for-54 stretch in April. Davis was so moved, he kept the letter with him throughout the season and spent the afternoon with Henry on a return trip to Fenway Park in August. After watching this video, we suspect you’ll endorse our pick. — Richards

Detroit Tigers 2019 record: 46-109 Week 24 ranking: 30

A rough second half took a lot of the shine off Matthew Boyd’s big campaign, but his first-half 3.87 ERA turned heads and his full-season 11.6 K/9, good for sixth in the majors, should keep them turned. And sure, while pitcher wins don’t mean much, you try flirting with a .500 season (he is 9-11) while pitching for a team due to lose more than 110 games and featuring MLB’s worst offense. — Kahrl

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[adamwatchesmovies]

The Animatrix (2003)

The Animatrix sounds like a glorified special feature, but this animated anthology is so much more. It’s 8 shorts (technically 9, The Second Renaissance is split into two), all completely original in terms of story and visuals, that compliment the Matrix films and also stand alone as compelling pieces of science fiction storytelling.

Final Flight of the Osiris

Taking place immediately before The Matrix Reloaded, this short written by the Wachowski siblings tells of the final flight of the hover-ship Osiris, during which they discover the mechanical army burrowing towards Zion. This is the only CG-animated film and displaying it first was the right idea. It sticks out and would have even more somewhere in the middle. What I like best about this story is the opening training sequence. It feels perfectly at home with the rest of the franchise with it’s got over-the-top fighting sequences, virtual dojo, and gender-equal fan service shots. It’s one of the more inventive sword fights I’ve seen and wraps itself up nicely by having a lot of tension and high stakes. It sets the right mood.

The Second Renaissance Part I and II

My favorite segments, The Second Renaissance chronicles the rise of the machine empire, how the sun got blotted out, and the origin of the Matrix. This story excels at shaping the franchises' world, without administering any useless information that makes it feel less magical. If anything, this two-parter makes the world significantly more emotionally complex than before, as a series of bad decisions escalate into all-out war. There are many haunting visuals (including references to real-life events given a different spin), some striking scenes, and disturbing material that's hard to shake. The animation is top-notch and The Second Renaissance stands on its own as a compelling piece of sci-fi. If the Wachowskis ever pull a George Lucas and make a prequel to their own trilogy, I hope they expand this story and turn it into a 2-hour epic.

Kid’s Story

Kid’s Story is about a young man ("Kid", whom you'll recognize from the other Matrix films and is again played by Clayton Watson here) who has what's necessary to escape The Matrix. He’s got that spark, that rebellious spirit, that drive, whatever it is that sets him apart from the rest. This segment's visuals appeal little to me. It’s all rotoscoped which I understand takes a significant amount of skill, but when compared to the other stylized pieces, it looks sub par. The highlight is an exciting chase between the Kid and The Matrix's Agents. This chase utilizes the animation style well. As the characters move faster and the situation gets more frantic, so do the visuals.

Program

Program is largely set inside a Feudal Japan-themed simulation where "Cis" (Hedy Burress) is tempted by her lover "Duo" (Phil LaMarr) to leave the real world forever and return to The Matrix with him. What I like about this segment (which would be my favorite visually if it wasn’t for “World Record”) is that it perfectly captures the fantasy element of this franchise. The entire story is set within this world that reminds you of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It’s got the energy of your inner kid, the one that picked up a stick and announced to the world “this is my sword, and it can cut through anything”. Program perfectly captures the "overlooked" element of The Matrix; that it’s a world of fantasy for hackers where the most inarticulate, uncharismatic computer nerds can suddenly find out that they’re special, cool-looking babe magnets and that there, no feat is impossible. I like the drama here too. It’s a way to give the action some weight.

World Record

This story is about a man with the potential to escape The Matrix. Not a hacker, an artist or even a philosopher, but an athlete. Dan Davis (voiced by Victor Williams) is so determined to be the best, to push the limits of what his body can do that it becomes clear to the agents around him that he might be able to break out of this phony reality he’s been born into. If you’ve seen Redline, this segment uses the same animation style and it’s gorgeous. Bold shadows, thick expanses of flat color and a certain indelible crunch to the way the characters are drawn make every impact feel like an iron bar to the stomach. I also love the concept. Dan doesn’t find out about any white rabbits or blue pills or red pills, he does what a true athlete does, he pushes the limits of what he can do. It gives more credibility to the world these stories are set in and has some of the most memorable sequences.

Beyond

One of my favorite things about The Animatrix is the variety. Beyond is essentially a ghost/horror story. Yoko (Hedy Burress) chases her cat into a strange abandoned building, a place where glitches within The Matrix create all sorts of bizarre phenomenon. This short has a dynamite concept, one I wish someone would steal and use as a full-length horror film. This place is eerie, frightening and wonderful. It takes the essential elements of a ghost movie... minus the ghost. It’s a weird place where lights that aren’t there light up, gravity takes a vacation and with a number of other weird happenings. It chooses a whimsical approach (fitting for the style of animation and stylish color palette). There’s a lot of imagination here. It plays with the idea of the virtual/computer world in a truly original way, it’s visually appealing and will get your imagination going in all sorts of directions.

A Detective Story

What I remember best about A Detective Story isn’t so much the story, as it is the style in which it’s told. It’s about a private eye that’s hired by the agents of the Matrix to find Trinity. Told in muted colors and in black-and-white, I like the way this short drips of Noir. Just like Program and Beyond played with different genres and applied them to this universe with great effect, a hard boiled detective story fits right in. The mysterious women, the conspiracies, the shadowy agents, the sunglasses with the long black coats are already here, so why not throw in a gumshoe? It is a bit of a retread (since Neo also had to evade bad guys and figure out exactly what’s going on), so ADS isn't the freshest segment. It isn't as memorable but is otherwise enjoyable.

Matriculated

Matriculated is unfortunately placed in this anthology. I have some affection for it but this is the weakest short. It tells of a group of humans who seek to convert machines to their cause via a Matrix-like virtual reality program. If you’ve ever seen Aeonflux (the show, not the horrible movie) you will recognize this style. You’ll also recognize the story. I like the approach, with the humans basically using the machine’s weapons against themselves and people trying a more diplomatic solution to the war, but it doesn't really fit in. Needlessly strange at times, but also stimulating and a nice change.

Overall I found The Animatrix to be one of the more enjoyable anthologies I’ve seen. It’s varied in terms of visuals, tone, and storytelling. This wide range makes the 101-minute running time feel like nothing at all. I wish these stories had been re-organized (as it stands, the two weakest segments are back-to-back and at the end of the compilation) but even the flimsier segments are well done. I could actually see people disliking the sequels, or even the original film and thoroughly enjoying these science fiction stories. Even if you’re not a fan of animation you’ll be impressed with the quality of the visuals. I may be biased, but The Animatrix might just be my favorite of the series. (On Blu-ray, April 17, 2015)

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1156

Monday, March 20, 2017

 It's the first day of spring but you would still think it's the dead of winter here in Ottawa. I hear it snowed in Vancouver recently too. I don't consider spring starting until I can't see anymore snow on the ground around our neighbourhood. I figure that will be the middle of April this year. I've already seen a robin at our house though. We put up a bird feeder last fall and it attracts many birds. Mostly house sparrows but we see finches, juncos, nuthatches, chickadee-dee-dees and our favourites the cardinals and woodpeckers. The male cardinals are bright red-orange and the females are a mocha coffee colour. We have had downy, hairy and pileated woodpeckers come and feed. Watching the birds outside our window is like watching fish swim around an aquarium. Very calming. Until the undesirables show up. Starlings and squirrels snark up a lot of feed and scare away the little birdies. The squirrels have gotten so brazen now that I have to go outside to shoo them off the feeder. I used to be able to do that just by banging on the window. Stupid squirrels.

 We lost one of the greatest comic book artists on March 18 when Bernie Wrightson succumbed to cancer and passed away. I have always been a bigger fan of the art side of our hobby and Bernie's art gave me goosebumps. His pen and ink work was stunning. Rest in peace Mr. Wrightson.

 Punisher #10 - Becky Cloonan (writer) Matt Horak (art) Frank Martin with Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I'm disappointed in Matt. This whole issue takes place at a sea port in Newfoundland and he didn't put one Canadian flag in any of the panels. Even a little one would have been nice. It looks like another dire situation for Frank but the bad guys screwed themselves. You'll see the obvious giveaway, but maybe I'm wrong.

 Uncanny Avengers #21 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Kevin Libranda (art) Dono Sanchez Almara with Protobunker (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). If there's a fill-in artist who makes me just as happy to read this book as when regular artist Pepe Larraz draws it, then it's Kevin Libranda. I liked how Deadpool found a way to defeat the Red Skull's Professor X powers. I wonder if they're going to bring back old Charles.

 Batman #19 - Tom King (writer) David Finch (pencils) Danny Miki, Trevor Scott & Sandra Hope (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). The art in this issue is pretty awesome. Part 4 of "I Am Bane" has the big bad guy wading through Batman's rogues gallery one by one. Almost every Bat villain you can think of get's his licks in. odd that there are no women. I was also bothered by the fact that they're all loose inside Arkham asylum. How are they going to be get back in custody? The last page leads into the inevitable final battle between Bane and Batman and I want to see who wins. Like I couldn't guess.

 American Gods #1 - Neil Gaiman (writer) P. Craig Russell (script & layouts) Scott Hampton (art) Rick Parker (letters). I started a list of books I want to read after the Snail closed because I found myself with a lot of extra time. American Gods by Neil Gaiman is on that list. I've been told what the premise of the book is so I had a bit of background going into reading this first issue of the comic book adaptation. Reading the comic book is going to enhance my reading of the novel when I get around to it because I will visualize Scott's depictions of the characters in my head and they are very nice ones. The back-up story "Somewhere in America" by P. Craig Russell (script & art) and Lovern Kindzierski (colours) was a hot piece of erotica about unsafe sex. This gets added to my "must read" list.

 Totally Awesome Hulk #17 - Greg Pak (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) Cory Petit (letters). This hasn't been a solo book for the last few issues with Amadeus hanging out with his friends but I am still enjoying it. This issue is a good place to start as the team has to figure out a way to save themselves and some civilians from being eaten by aliens. You could call these guys the Asian Avengers because what happens in this issue gives them something to avenge. If you jump on here you won't want to jump off until you read the next issue.

 Batwoman #1 - Marguerite Bennett & James Tynion IV (writers) Steve Epting (art) Jeromy Cox (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). Kate chases after a mystery woman from her past after dealing with a terrorist in Istanbul. I like how she's teamed up with Julia Pennyworth.

 Kill or be Killed #7 - Ed Brubaker (writer) Sean Phillips (art) Elizabeth Breitweiser (colours). This issue features Dylan's ex-girlfriend Kira, now with purple hair instead of red. I'm glad she's still hanging around because boy does she have problems. We start off during a session with her therapist and get a lot of background. I love this kind of stuff because it makes the characters more engaging. Kira might need an emergency session after she decides to do something stupid at Dylan's place.

 Monsters Unleashed #5 - Cullen Bunn (writer) Adam Kubert (art) David Curiel & Michael Garland (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Okay, Kid Kaiju comes through to save the world from the Leviathon Mother, showing up all the Marvel super heroes. I guess that's why he's getting his own book. Look for it to hit the racks on April 19. Unless it's drawn by an artist that I really like I will take a pass. The Kid's creations are more suited to fans of action figures or Saturday morning cartoons than an old coot like me.

 Super Sons #2 - Peter J. Tomasi (writer) Jorge Jimenez (art) Alejandro Sanchez (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). This is great. I don't know why but I love really well written comics about young super heroes like this and Champions. Maybe it's because I can't let go of being a kid. Damian and Jonathan have to deal with Super Lex in order to get a lead on Kid Amazo, the very bad boy they're after. Everything doesn't go smoothly and then, uh-oh, their dads find out about what they're doing. I can't wait to see what happens next.

 Wild Storm #2 - Warren Ellis (writer) John Davis-Hunt (art) Steve Buccellato (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). This 24 issue series is very ambitious and there are a lot of players involved. If I was a new reader I would be wondering who are these people? Some people work for International Operations (IO) and some people work for Halo. The two organisations don't like each other and they're both after Angela Spica, the Engineer. I hope that helps with getting into this story. One of my favourite things from the old series was the Door which could transport people to different places. I think we're introduced to a new Door this issue and she's a lot better looking than Lockjaw.

 Ms. Marvel #16 - G. Willow Wilson (writer) Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Ian Herring (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I like this story about a malevolent computer virus and it looks like Kamala can't defeat it. That is until she gets a clue from her old pal Bruno. I can't wait to find out how Doc.x gets deleted.

 Superman #19 - Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason (writers) Patrick Gleason (pencils) Mick Gray (inks) John Kalisz (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). Part 3 of "Superman Reborn" looks like it might resurrect the pre-New 52 Lois and Clark. I hope not. That would confuse me to no end and then I would get annoyed and stop reading these amazing Superman books. Patrick draws the creepiest Mr. Mxyzptlk ever. I wonder if they're going to do the saying the imp's name backwards thing?

 Guardians of the Galaxy #18 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Valerio Schiti (art) Richard Isanove (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I love these issues featuring one team member. Angela's up this time around and it's a beautifully drawn fight scene between her and some alien bounty hunter. The issue ends with a major threat heading for Earth. It starts with Th and rhymes with anus.

 Spider-Man #14 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Nothing serious between Miles and Gwen despite what the cover shows. This is one of those issues that annoy Bendis detractors because nothing really happens. The heroes hop from one dimension to another and each wind up in different ones by the end of this issue. I can easily forgive because of Sara's art.

 Mighty Thor #17 - Jason Aaron (writer) Russell Dauterman (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). The gods of Asgard and the Imperial Guard of the Shi'Ar finally come to blows in part 3 of "The Asgard/Shi'Ar War". Meanwhile Thor can't seem to win much in the challenge of the gads against the Shi'Ar gods Sharra and K'ythri. Mjolnir is sure getting a workout though. This book is not only chock full of action but it's visually stunning as well.

 Amazing Spider-Man #25 - Dan Slott (writer) Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade von Grawbadger (inks) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I wish you didn't have to pay $9.99 US for this one issue starting off "The Osborn Identity" story. That's a bit much for one comic book don't you think? Sure you get a bunch of back-up stories but none of those really matter to the main story. You do get 40 pages of Stuart and Wade goodness though, so why couldn't they have printed just that and charged $4.99 US? As you can probably tell Norman Osborn is back so the Green Goblin can't be far behind. I did like the team-up with Mockingbird with a hint of Peter and Bobbi possibly becoming more than friends. Here are the other stories that pad this issue. A fight with Clash by Christos Gage (writer) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters) which has the old "it's not what you think" twist at the end. A silly Tsum-Tsum story for the younger readers by Jacob Chabot (writer) Ray-Anthony Height (pencils) Walden Wong (inks) Jim Campbell (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Thank Thor that was a blessedly short 6 pages. A Parker Industries mishap at their Shanghai facility by James Asmus (writer) Tana Ford (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). A young Spider-Man story about a boy and his dog by Hannah Blumenreich (writer & pencils) Jordan Gibson (inks) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Some Aunt May gags by Cale Atkinson which were even sillier than the Tsum-Tsum story. And finally to ease the pain of having to buy an overpriced comic book, the return of another Spider-Man nemesis. One thing that "The Clone Conspiracy" did was bring back Otto Octavius, Doc Ock. He now has a youthful body thanks to Miles Warren's cloning process. So meet The Superior Octopus by Dan Slott (writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Cam Smith (inks) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). He's bad-ass now plus he's got Hydra backing. Here's a prediction: Somewhere in the future Peter and Norman have to team up to fight Otto and Hydra.

 Archie #18 - Mark Waid (writer) Pete Woods (art & colours) Jack Morelli (letters). This issue proves that love is blind. Archie and Veronica have nothing in common and should not be together. Betty and Dilton Doiley are more compatible. I wish I was Dilton Doiley.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 3, No. 18

Sleigh Bells

It’s our last Dust of the year, and as usual, writers have ferreted out the music that interests them, release dates, genre classifications and commercial viability be damned (though we did hit up Sleigh Bells this time, just to mess with you).  The result is an intriguing mix of ambient sounds, countrified covers, cave recordings, classic jazz, border crossing ethnic experiments and fuzzy, mope-y indie rock.  Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Ian Mathers, Derek Taylor and Justin Cober-Lake contributed this time. Happy holidays and see you next year.  

Alessandro Cortini—Avanti (Point of Departure)

 Alessandro Cortini plays keyboards with Nine Inch Nails, but that fact will do very little to prepare you for this brooding memory palace of an ambient album, constructed of heaving, shifting, drones of EMS Synthi AKS and snippets from home movies shot in Cortini’s Italian childhood. A sense of loss pervades these slow-paced compositions, as vast cathedral tones surge than slowly fade to silence, a la William Baskinski’s Disintegration Loops, while conversations drift in from other times, other rooms. All seven tracks are named with verbs – “Iniziare” (to start), Perdonare” (to forgive), “Aspettare” (to wait), “Perdere” (to lose) — but the action, such as it is, seems to take place largely in Cortini’s head. The chatter of women, the clink of silverware, that opens “Aspettare” gives way to a pulsing, glowing abstraction, the church-organ-ish drones of “Perdere” open up mournful, pensive landscapes of internal reverie. Odd, personal and rather lovely.  

Jennifer Kelly

 Robert Ellis and Courtney Hartman — Dear John (Refuge Foundation for the Arts)

Guitarists Robert Ellis and Courtney Hartman discovered a mutual love for the music of John Hartford, and this connection led to the 10-track tribute album Dear John. Hartford was best known for his “Gentle on My Mind” (included here along with more obscure numbers), but he was also a bit of an oddity, performing at times like a one-man band and digging through traditional American folk and bluegrass even while turning in banjo-y versions of popular songs from other genres, an approach that put him at the front of the developing new grass sound. Ellis and Hartman take a more straightforward look at his music. The album mostly stays subdued; the duo seek to find the subtlety and the heart of this music. Often, as on the closing of “Gentle on My Mind,” they let their playing do the heavy work. Hartford's lyrics still have a resonance, but the treat of the tribute is as much in hearing these two artists weave their guitars (and their vocals) together as it is in revisiting Hartford's writing. The pair's love for the music comes through, and there's a pleasure in hearing them ease into the tunes. The joy comes out in the uptempo numbers like “Howard Hughes Blues” and “Up on the Hill Where They Do the Boogie,” which also show off Hartford's wit. Ellis and Hartman have paid classy and respectful tribute to an influence while keeping a commitment to their own artistry.  

Justin Cober-Lake

 Fovea Hex — The Salt Garden II (Headphone Dust)

Clodagh Simonds has been making music for a long time (look around and you can find her on the odd Thin Lizzy or Mike Oldfield record), but at this point most of her music has been released under the name of Fovea Hex, attracting plaudits from Brian Eno (who provides backing vocals here) and David Lynch, among others. Absent that context you might be hard pressed to tell when exactly Fovea Hex is coming from; Simonds’ voice is high and pure and clear, the music a blending of acoustic and electronic that attains a kind of smooth, vatic timelessness. Every element feels precisely placed and oddly haunting, no less here than on the first Salt Garden EP from 2016. Although the records aren’t actually that similar, at times The Salt Garden II feels like an emotional or psychological descendant of the immense stillness of Mark Hollis’ eponymous solo effort (even though this is, ultimately, much more “active” music). The effect is spellbinding, whether it’s the massed voices at the end of “All Those Signs” or patient cello drones opening “You Were There.” This is special stuff.  

Ian Mathers  

 Haptic—Ten Years Under the Earth (Unfathomless)

ten years under the earth by Haptic

Haptic is not in a hurry. Three years separate this CD from the last recording by Adam Sonderberg, Joseph Clayton Mills and Steven Hess. During that time the trio has played live fairly often, although that rate might decrease now that Mills has moved from Illinois to Arizona. This recording, which documents an encounter with Louisville-based percussionist and field recorder Tim Barnes, recalls the trio’s formational impetus, which was for its members to have an outlet for live performance and collaboration with other musicians. But it didn’t go down in front of an audience. Rather, the morning after a concert at Barnes’ venue Dreamland (RIP), they accompanied him to a cave in the nearby hills.  

The cave has been put to various uses over the past century and a half, and it is fitted with lamps and electricity. Still, what you hear over the CD’s single 45 minute-long track is not so much a performance as the sounding of an environment. Using microphones, a shortwave radio, a few percussion instruments and the rocks on the floor, the four men tested the space’s properties. Objects boom and echo, droplets smack and splatter and a fuzzy whoosh makes you wonder where water ends and untunable static begins. The vibrations of a bowed cymbal spread and morph, turning quasi-electronic and then fading away. Bell-strikes fade like sonar pings. Nothing is rushed, and the piece’s patient unfolding allows the listener to forget the origin of what they are hearing and sink into the sound itself.  

Bill Meyer

 Cat Hope — Ephemeral Rivers: Chamber Works (hat[now]ART)

Australian composer/flautist Cat Hope’s Ephemeral Rivers contains a survey of five chamber works recorded between 2011 and 2015. Familiar acoustic instruments converge with electronic elements in singular combinations both complementary and oppositional. On the 21-minute “Dynamic Architecture” bassist Mark Cauvin approaches his instrument flat with three bows, one strung with guitar string instead of customary horsehair, alongside an audio track funneled into the body of the bull fiddle by transducer affixed under the fingerboard. The results are a series of striated drones that are at once mesmerizing, fine-grained and self-sustaining. “Miss Fortune” mixes the unlikely assemblage of viola, cello, piano and cymbals with AM radio static for an exercise in measured glissandi and ambient textures. Each of the pieces draws on very specific catalysts that are mostly extra-musical in origin, most strikingly “Cruel and Usual”, which comments on the exponential increase in the usage of solitary confinement as a means of prisoner pacification. Standard string quartet joins a perimeter of four bass amplifiers in the sculpture of a soundscape both disconcerting and trenchant. Hope succeeds in each meticulously-realized exponent through a plenary unification of score and musician(s).  

Derek Taylor

 Leeann Ledgerwood — Renewal (Steeplechase)

Confirmation of Leeann Ledgerwood’s latitude of musical intelligence is as immediate as a glance at the tray-card of Renewal, which lists a program of material encompassing Miles Davis, Jimmy Rowles and Paul Hindemith alongside a pair of her own compositions. The pianist has been in the professional game for nearly four decades after getting an auspicious start in partnership with bassist Red Mitchell. All these years later she’s still keeping quick company.  Bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart bring their best in the service of their unstinting employer. Hart’s vital solo on the foray through the Harry Warren ode to optimism “Summernite” is the first of several and McClure favors palpable feel over distracting displays of digital dexterity. “All Blues” is all fun with the leader launching from the seesawing vamp only to switch gears and open space for McClure’s striding pizzicato line. Hart keeps a percolating beat around the edges and three players manage to make a tune that’s been covered to the point of ubiquity seem zestfully fresh. Adding an earnest outside seal of approval, pianist peer Richie Beirach submits his share of encomiums by way of warmly-written liner essay.  

Derek Taylor  

 Maneka—Is You Is (Exploding in Sound)

Is You Is by MANEKA

Devin McKnight’s main gig is playing mathy, complicated guitars in Speedy Ortiz. For Maneka, he plays guitar, everything else and sings, with occasional help from Fern Mayo’s Katie Capri, Butter the Children’s Jordyn Blakley, Dirty Dishes’ Alex Molini, Two Inch Astronaut’s Sam Rosenberg and, on the final track, his parents. Where Speedy Ortiz navigates tricky corners and tight, unexpected maneuvers, Maneka is blown-out guitar-fuzzed bliss, the dandelion fluff indeterminate roar of MBV cut with Dinosaur’s disconsolate tumult. “Tiger Baby (with Jordyn Blakley)” stretches out like taffy, vocals half buried under slanting, sloughing piles of guitar feedback, like Sonic Youth if they’d just woken up from a particularly nice dream. “Dracula,” one of the Katie Capri cuts, is meatier, big crashes of guitar wrapped in blurry blankets. In “Parents Outro,” the senior McNights chat about past brushes with racial discrimination, then mom calls out journalists who say there are no more guitar heroes. “I know one,” she says. Me, too.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sleigh Bells — Kid Kruschev (Torn Clean)

After releasing a record three days after the election that, accidentally or presciently, channeled a lot of the chaos and fury to come in 2017, you could forgive Sleigh Bells for taking the actual year off. But no, a year later here they are with just under 22 minutes of new music, which for some bands would qualify as a single or EP but for this band (with their most sprawling release clocking in at a whopping 46 minutes) it does feel appropriate to call a mini-LP. It covers a lot of ground, from the despairing guitar thrash of the opening “Blue Trash Mattress Fire” to the dense boom bap of “Panic Drills” or the full on acoustic balladry of “Florida Thunderstorm.” Derek Miller is still wrestling with sobriety, the death of his father and politics, and he and Alexis Krauss still make it the most natural thing in the world that she’s the one who sings from his perspective. Especially on devastating closer “And Saints,” a synthetically nocturnal, darkly sweeping song about the state of depression where even the delivery guy starts asking if you’re ok. It never erupts, just sounds like an unresolved problem sung through by Krauss with an ache in her voice like a bruise, and it’s one of the more powerful things they’ve done.    

Ian Mathers  

 Strange Ranger—Daymoon (Tiny Engines)

Daymoon by Strange Ranger

Strange Ranger, now out of Portland, OR, but with roots in Montana, makes a sleepy kind of indie racket, vocals stretched out high and thin over a hard strummed guitars and bashing drum fills. Nothing is polished. Nothing runs straight when it could meander through fog banks of indeterminant sound. Melodies shade in and out of tune. Yet, even so, there’s a dreamy emotional heft, a beautiful narcotized ache to these songs that might remind you of fellow NW-slow-corers Carissa is Weird. “Hydration is Key” winds the wheeze of melancholic organ through thickets of jangle, its vocal line a cirrus cloud tracing of tunefulness, far, far away. “The Most Perfect Gold of the Century” channels some slack Neil Young guitar blues a la the more recent MV + EE material, but slowed way down, so that every line seems lost in its own daydream. This is the kind of record that sounds slight the first time, but gains on you, listen by listen.

Jennifer Kelly

 Suns of Arqa — Revenge of the Mozabites (Corbett Vs. Dempsey)

Revenge of the Mozabites by SUNS OF ARQA

The Mozabites are a Berber ethnic group who inhabit an expanse of Saharan desert in Algeria. Just what Revenge of the Mozabites has to do with them is a matter for conjecture, but you can be sure that it’s part of a bigger picture. Suns Of Arqa has been combining musical styles from around the globe since 1979, with sitarist Michael Wadada the sole constant in a membership that counts about 200 past, current and recurrent people. Early on the Suns were aligned with Adrian Sherwood of On-U Sound, and his fingerprints are all over their first long player, which has just been reissued on CD by long-time fan John Corbett’s Corbett Vs. Dempsey label. Celtic fiddles, Indian drones, flamenco guitar and reggae rhythms meet in a zone bounded by the throbbing walls of a dub-happy sound system, and while the stylistic combinations seem audacious even from a remove of nearly four decades, it’s Sherwood’s ability to make the air pulse like a living organism that makes this album so strong.

Bill Meyer            

 Thollem / Mazurek — Blind Curves and Box Canyons (Relative Pitch)

In the minds of many, Rob Mazurek is a Chicagoan. While he came to musical maturity in the city, he’s spent more time away than around in the past 20 years, and he’s currently based in Marfa, Texas. The desert artist’s community is no doubt good for many things, but you have to look a bit harder to find improvising peers, which may explain why he has forged a relationship with Thollem McDonas. The keyboardist, who dropped his last name for professional purposes not so long ago, lives in New Mexico and headed down to Marfa for this first time encounter, which took place at the closing of a showing of Mazurek’s visual art. Plugged in and spontaneous the two men engage in a dimension more commonly associated with Sun Ra’s small group encounters from the 1970s. Mazurek chants, plays synthesizer and cornet and samples his horn, and Thollem runs his electric piano through a bank of analog effects. They often sound like they are calling to each other across a space far vaster than the confines of the Marfa Book Co., but they bridge that space quite successfully, whipping up great whorls of voltage-charged sound.

Bill Meyer

[savetopnow]

2018-03-20 19 MUSIC now

MUSIC

Brooklyn Vegan

What's going on Tuesday?

BrooklynVegan Blog Radio on SiriusXMU: Playlist for March 19, 2018

Jenny Hval played MoMA PS1 (pics), releasing her debut novel this fall

tours announced: Thom Yorke, blink-182, Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm,' Big Boi, more

Def Jam rapper Bobby Sessions triumphed at SXSW (stream his 'grateful.' LP)

Consquence of Sound

Steven Soderbergh in Five Films

Mazzy Star to reunite at Vivid Sydney for first live performance in five years

SXSW Music Festival 2018 Gallery: Max Richter’s Sleep, Ben Kweller, Salt-N-Pepa, Kurt Vile, Pussy Riot, Khalid

Jim Carrey triggers conservatives with unflattering portraits of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Donald Trump

Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly announce co-headlining US tour

Fact Magazine

London’s Southbank Centre launches new club night, Concrete Lates

FACT mix 644: Susanna

Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas project returns with new album, Rausch

10 under-the-radar club tracks you need to hear in March 2018

MJ Cole wants you to remix his new single before it’s released

Fluxblog

Very Nice Very Nice

To Be Lucky Once

The Sun In Your Cold World

Took Me For A Ride

At My Leisure

Idolator

Coming Soon: Shawn Mendes Teams Up With Spotify To Tease New Music

These Are The Absolute Best Songs Ever Made For Movies

Fifth Harmony Announces Plans For An Indefinite Hiatus To Pursue Solo Careers

She’s Coming! Tinashe Announces ‘Joyride’ Release Date, Unveils Cover

PRETTYMUCH Have A Massive Pop Moment With “Healthy”

Listen to This

The Urinals - I Hate [Punk] 1997

Bird Blobs - Nothin At All [Garage Rock / Post Punk] (2004)

Kratos Himself -- Needless [Chill Electronic](2016)

Clayton James -- CALIFORNIA [Wavy Pop] (2017)

Blake Rules and Netherfriends -- Dinosaurs [Kid's Trap]

Popjustice

Saluting the artwork for PRETTYMUCH’s Healthy

Louisa Johnson interview: “We went, ‘oh, fuck it, let’s just get drunk’”

Popjustice’s Spring Statement: Key Points

New Music Friday: Vera Blue’s Lady Powers are still strong

New Music Friday: When it’s time to put Andrew WK at the top of the playlist it’s time to put Andrew WK at the top of the playlist hard

Reddit Music

The Cure - In Between Days [Pop Rock]

Alien Ant Farm - Movies [Alternative Rock]

Gary Numan - Cars [New Wave/ Synth Pop]

a-ha - Take On Me [80s Pop]

Jethro Tull - Aqualung [Progressive Rock]

Rolling Stone

David Fricke's Picks From SXSW: Psychedelic Folk, Seventies Glam-Prog and More

Trey Songz Turns Himself In Following Domestic Violence Allegation

Korn's Jonathan Davis Details Solo LP 'Black Labyrinth' With Song Samples

See Queens of the Stone Age's Whimsical Fright Fest in 'Haunted House' Video

Watch Bleachers' Jack Antonoff in Rom-Com-Spoofing 'Alfie's Song' Video

Slipped Disc

Death of a leading dancer, 58

Herbert Blomstedt: Fritz Reiner would fire you for nothing

A town called David Bowie?

Maestro dies, at 93

Theatre says director committed suicide after media attacks

Spotify Blog

Spotify Launches Self-Serve Advertising Platform in the UK and Canada

Spotify Announces Launch of Line-In

John Hancock and Spotify Give Runners Everywhere Access to Custom Playlists and Tips from Some of the World’s Fastest Marathoners

Spotify Kicks off Women’s History Month with the Launch of ‘Amplify,’ a New Hub Spotlighting Causes & Community Voices

Spotify’s Electrifying Concert Series “RapCaviar Live” Returns with a New Tour Lineup featuring Migos, 2 Chainz, Tory Lanez, DJ Mustard, Lil Pump, and more

We Are the Music Makers

Chord Detection/Visualizer Plugin?

Recently posted about quitting the 9-5 and focusing on music and freelance graphic design - here's some more album artwork for you!

Some good string pieces for me to transcribe?

I need help transcribing music

Music Distribution Services and Artist Promotion

[stanleybrogaard8-blog]

About Destiny Coaching Ministries

Welcome to the second installment of our Game In Progress overview for Destiny two More than the next numerous weeks, net culture editor Clayton Purdom will be shooting his way by means of Bungie's enormous sequel and sharing his impressions. Additional information about Destiny 2 have destiny 2 PC Download not been revealed because they likely never want to undercut and cannibalize the Rise of Iron DLC due out on September 20th. According to Hirshberg, the pre-orders for the upcoming expansion pack is ahead of where the pre-orders had been in the course of the exact same time last year for The Taken King. Destiny two is an on the internet-only, largely co-op shooter, but a single of Bungie's stated targets is to assistance all sorts of players—solo, competitive, raiders. On the solo front, Destiny 2 Destiny 2 PC Download will feature much more cinematics than its predecessor (not a high bar) in campaign missions which, from the looks of it, involve NPC allies from the original game fighting alongside a solo player, or up to 3-player teams. Very first Episode Resurrection : The player character. The opening of the game has you getting resurrected by your Ghost , who explains that you've been dead a extended time and may possibly not realize the world as it is now. The Destiny secret-hunting subreddit, Raid Secrets , has been unable to locate the gun in the game. It currently how to download destiny 2 appears likely that Black Spindle has been locked behind some sort of timed barrier and will be released at a later time. Nevertheless, it's also possible that the community is just missing one thing. Destiny does a great job of mixing solo play and multiplayer, maintaining you in a shared world with other players for a lot of a mission, then quietly instancing you off alone or with your Fire Team for the major beats. Even so, it could do a far better job of making ad-hoc alliances into Fire Teams. Fire Teams are set close friends-only by default, and the strategies of joining other players to a Fire Team How to Download Destiny 2 are a tiny opaque. It really is easy adequate to invite a friend or simply jump in their game, but far more players would happily function by way of the story missions collectively if Bungie made issues just a small far more intuitive - or even added a matchmaking selection. At times sad and sweet, other times broad, commanding and bombastic, the score to Destiny two is extremely reminiscent of John William's function on Star Wars , in that every arrangement is deeply emotional and really acceptable for each and every setting and mood. It also adds an air of grandeur that communicates the vastness of space, supporting the game's imposing sense of scale and immensity. In an era where How to Download Destiny 2 more and far more open world games are decreasing the background music to bland, ambient filler, the distinctive themes in the music of Destiny 2 feel daring, but memorable. Not to be confused with Bill Nye the Science Guy, Bill Nighy is a celebrated character actor who's created appearances in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Shaun of the Dead, to name but a handful of. destiny 2 pc benchmark was also the face behind Davy Jones' tentacles in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Aside from games based How to Download Destiny 2 on motion pictures he's been in, Nighy has also contributed his voice to the sooner or later-coming-to-consoles Elder Scrolls On the internet. In Destiny, he plays the Speaker, the voice of (and advocate for) the Traveler. That shift also lead to a choice to bring the tech group into advertising and marketing so they could work a lot more closely with that side of the organization. The sole objective, Ellis said, was to enhance the experiences inside games and locate far better methods to communicate with players. Excellent destiny 2 PC Download news for Destiny two fans who own an Amazon Alexa-enabled device - you have a new skill to attempt out! Announced by Amazon and Activision at the current AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, the Ghost Skill will allow players to control their in-game guide and companion by means of their Alexa device. In the name of balance Destiny 2 slows the player down. It drastically increases grenade and super cool-downs. It tends to make the vast majority of exotic weapons and armor underwhelming pieces that offer only tiny tweaks to how you play.I'm not even going to get into the insanity of not obtaining gear drop from bosses but rather possessing Destiny 2 PC Download the token method. Or the insulting and grotesque microtransactions that went from a tiny annoyance to a core economy program. Or the actually dozens of modest simplifications that have been made with apparently no audience in mind. A Void Fusion Rifle that seems to discover its origins in the Awoken of the Reef. Telesto functions the capacity to fire projectiles that stick to enemies and explode, whilst How to Download Destiny 2 rewarding multikills with Orbs for you allies. Officially revealed on Destiny's Instagram. If you want an added sense of speed as you dash about on foot, or jet about on a Sparrow, enable Motion Blur to add varying degrees of speed-primarily based blur to your gameplay. Bear in mind that loving each other is your highest goal. Your really like will aid you weather the storms as nicely as propel your dreams for the future. Your ultimate destiny is to reside a fulfilling life collectively. In January, Destiny 2 game director Christopher Barrett announced that Sparrows, Ghosts and ships will eventually destiny 2 PC Download be obtainable from activities, and promised more approaches to earn loot via gameplay He also stated we'll be getting much more a-la-carte sales as an alternative to loot boxes, and promised that the loot boxes would suck less.

[espressocoffeemachine]

Nice Coffee Art photos

Nice Coffee Art photos

A few nice coffee art images I found:

Denver – Civic Center: Denver Art Museum – Harry Jackson’s Two Champs

Image by wallyg Harry Jackson’s Two Champs, a bronze sculpture, was executed in 1978. This sculpture is a portrait of horse Old Steamboat and rider Clayton Danks, who won the world championship at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo a century ago. Of the six splaying legs, only one connects…

[buddyrabrahams]

Five biggest deals of the 2017 MLB trade deadline

A good trade at the MLB trade deadline can turn a good team into a World Series winner. There is, after all, a long history of teams swinging deadline deals for pieces that helped them win a World Series; the Cubs added Aroldis Chapman, the Royals grabbed Ben Zobrist, and so on.

One of these deals could certainly put someone over the top and help them to a championship.

Here are the five best deadline deals made throughout the month of July by MLB teams.

5) Cubs acquire Jose Quintana from White Sox

In a certain sense, the Cubs’ acquisition of Jose Quintana was as important symbolically as it was in terms of talent addition. The reigning champions spent much of the first half of the season floundering around the .500 mark, falling behind the surprisingly potent Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central standings. Something had to be done, both to improve the team and send a message to a group of players that had the talent to perform much better than they were.

Yes, Quintana was extremely expensive in terms of prospects. The Cubs gave up Dylan Cease, Bryant Flete,, Eloy Jimenez, and Matt Rose, with Jimenez in particular having the potential to be elite. But the Cubs have so much talent that is just entering its prime, and they’ll be fine on the depth front.

Getting someone like Quintana, who has a long track record of success and is under team control through 2020, will be huge. The early returns are extremely encouraging, too — he has a 2.37 ERA in his first three starts for the Cubs. The team has responded as well by surging into first place, and suddenly things look rosier on the north side.

4) Yankees acquire Frazier, Robertson, and Kahnle from White Sox

Todd Frazier is a rental who should shore up third base for the Yankees for the rest of the season and provide some power. He’s not the same guy he was in his heyday with the Cincinnati Reds, but he can still hold down an everyday job.

The pitchers are the real prize here for the Yankees. Robertson isn’t the same guy he was in his first stint with New York, but he’s still a steady hand in the back of the bullpen who will be able to get the ball to the likes of Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. Kahnle might actually end up being the true gem of the trade for New York. He turns 28 next week, will be Yankees property through 2020, and is striking out opponents at a remarkable rate — 69 in 41.1 innings, to be exact. He is the forgotten name in the deal, but he may end up having the biggest long-term impact.

The trade didn’t come at no cost to the Yankees. They traded Tyler Clippard along with minor leaguers Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo, and Blake Rutherford. Rutherford was a first-round pick last year and Clarkin was a first-rounder in 2013. Both are far from the big leagues, yet have promise and talent and could provide a nice return to the White Sox. But the Yankees were willing to pay the price to add a lot of depth to their current club.

3) Washington Nationals acquire Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson from A’s

The Nationals’ bullpen has been such a problem that members of the team have supposedly complained off-the-record to media members about how long it took to fix. Fix it they did, though, with a deal that brought them two quality relievers for a relatively modest price, all things considered.

Ryan Madson’s career once appeared to be over due to elbow injuries, but he resurrected it with Kansas City and then Oakland to re-establish himself as one of the league’s more reliable relievers. He brings a lot to the table as he has an ERA under two this season, has extensive postseason experience, and is under contract for 2018.

Doolittle is the key piece. Injuries have held the lefty back throughout his career, but when healthy, he’s one of baseball’s best power lefties out of the bullpen. Add in Monday’s addition of Brandon Kintzler and you have three solid new arms in the Washington bullpen, all of whom can get outs late in ballgames.

Coupled with a powerful offense and a great group of starting pitchers, they should not be slept on in October, particularly if they can batten down the hatches late in games. In order to acquire the two pitchers, Washington sent Blake Treinen and minor leaguers Jesus Luzardo and Sheldon Neuse to Oakland.

2) Yankees acquire Sonny Gray from A’s

That the Yankees were able to get this done while keeping five of their top six prospects speaks to both the depth of New York’s system and the fact that Brian Cashman is really, really good at his job. Gray drew interest from many teams, but the Yankees were the ones able to match things up and strengthen their rotation with the 27-year-old righty.

The Yankees shouldn’t have needed to buy a starter, but Masahiro Tanaka’s struggles and Luis Severino’s youth necessitated a move like this. Gray will help, and not just in 2017. He appears to be back to his best, with a 3.43 ERA and a 3.24 FIP that bests all of his other seasons except his first one. He will also be with the team for two full seasons beyond this one. The Yankee rotation just got deeper for October, and they may well be the favorites to win the American League East now.

In this trade, the Yankees had to part with Dustin Fowler, James Kaprielian, and Jorge Mateo. Fowler and Kaprielian will need to rebound from season-ending injuries, but could provide Oakland plenty of good players down the road.

1) Dodgers acquire Yu Darvish from Rangers

The rich get richer. It looked like the Dodgers were going to be content to pick up a couple relief pitchers and call it a day, but they sneaked in just before the deadline to grab Darvish from Texas, all while managing to hold on to top prospects Alex Verdugo and Walker Buehler. They still surrendered minor leaguers A.J. Alexy, Willie Calhoun, and Brendon Davis in the deal, with Calhoun being the biggest name.

The Dodgers didn’t particularly need Darvish, but Clayton Kershaw’s recent injury created a bit of a question mark atop the rotation. Darvish should answer those questions. His 4.01 ERA is inflated because of a 10-run start against the Miami Marlins in his last outing with Texas in which he allegedly tipped his pitches. Provided he fixes that, Darvish will bring the same nasty stuff he has always had with him to the National League.

In the postseason, Kershaw, Darvish, and Alex Wood will likely prove a devastating 1-2-3 punch for opponents, and the Dodgers have added even more talent to a team that was on pace to win 114 games. It’s almost unfair.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2vh4UzZ