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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 15 days ago

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Matt Wuerker, Politico

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 30, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 31, 2024

On Friday, October 25, at a town hall held on his social media platform X, Elon Musk told the audience that if Trump wins, he expects to work in a Cabinet-level position to cut the federal government.

He told people to expect “temporary hardship” but that cuts would “ensure long-term prosperity.” At the Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he plans to cut $2 trillion from the government. Economists point out that current discretionary spending in the budget is $1.7 trillion, meaning his promise would eliminate virtually all discretionary spending, which includes transportation, education, housing, and environmental programs.

Economists agree that Trump’s plans to place a high tariff wall around the U.S., replacing income taxes on high earners with tariffs paid for by middle-class Americans, and to deport as many as 20 million immigrants would crash the booming economy. Now Trump’s financial backer Musk is factoring in the loss of entire sectors of the government to the economy under Trump.

Trump has promised to appoint Musk to be the government’s “chief efficiency officer.” “Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut.… We can’t be a wastrel.… We need to live honestly,” Musk said on Friday. Rob Wile and Lora Kolodny of CNBC point out that Musk’s SpaceX aerospace venture has received $19 billion from the U.S. government since 2008.

An X user wrote: “I]f Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit—there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy…. Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy. History could be made in the coming two years.”

Musk commented: “Sounds about right[.]”

This exchange echoes the prescription of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose theories had done much to create the Great Crash of 1929, for restoring a healthy economy. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” he told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living

will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.”

Mellon, at least, was reacting to an economic crisis thrust upon an administration. Musk is seeking to create one.

Today the Commerce Department reported that from July through September, the nation’s economy grew at a solid 2.8%. Consumer spending is up, as is investment in business. The country added 254,000 jobs in September, and inflation has fallen back almost to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.

It is extraordinarily rare for a country to be able to reduce inflation without creating a recession, but the Biden administration has managed to do so, producing what economists call a “soft landing,” rather like catching an egg on a plate. As Bryan Mena of CNN wrote today: “The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.”

Both President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have called for reducing the deficit not by slashing the government, as Musk proposes, but by restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

As part of the Republicans’ plan to take the country back to the era before the 1930s ushered in a government that regulated business and provided a basic social safety net, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

At a closed-door campaign event on Monday in Pennsylvania for a Republican House candidate, Johnson told supporters that Republicans will propose “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” if they take control of both the House and the Senate in November. “Health-care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda,” Johnson said. Their plan is to take a “blowtorch to the regulatory state,” which he says is “crushing the free market.” “Trump’s going to go big,” he said.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” he laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare…. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”

Ending a campaign with a promise to crash a booming economy and end the Affordable Care Act, which ended insurance companies’ ability to reject people with preexisting conditions, is an unusual strategy.

A post from Trump last night and another this morning suggest his internal polls are worrying him. Last night he claimed there was cheating in Pennsylvania’s York and Lancaster counties. Today he posted: “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!”

Trump appears to be setting up the argument he used in 2020, that he can lose only if he has been cheated. But it is increasingly apparent that the get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, efforts of the Trump campaign have been weak. When Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and loyalist Michael Whatley became the co-chairs of the Republican National Committee in March 2024, they stopped the GOTV efforts underway and used the money instead for litigation. They outsourced GOTV efforts to super PACs, including Musk’s America PAC.

In Wired today, Jake Lahut reported that door-knockers for Musk’s PAC were driven around in the back of a U-Haul without seats and threatened with having to pay their own hotel bills if they didn’t meet high canvassing quotas. One of the canvassers told Lahut that they thought they were being hired to ask people who they would be voting for when they flew into Michigan, and was surprised to learn their actual role. The workers spoke to Lahut anonymously because they had signed a nondisclosure agreement (a practice the Biden administration has tried to stop).

Trump’s boast that he is responsible for the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion is one of the reasons his support is soft. In addition to popular dislike of the idea that the state, rather than a woman and her doctor, should make decisions about her healthcare, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is now over two years old, and state examinations of maternal deaths are showing that women are dying from lack of reproductive healthcare.

Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana of ProPublica reported today that at least two pregnant women have died in Texas when doctors delayed emergency care after a miscarriage until the fetal heartbeat stopped. The woman they highlighted today, Josseli Barnica, left behind a husband and a toddler.

At a rally this evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump said his team had advised him to stop talking about how he was going to protect women by ending crime and making sure they don’t have to be “thinking about abortion.” But Trump, who has boasted of sexual assault and been found liable for it, did not stop there. He went on to say that he had told his advisors, “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.”

The Trump campaign remains concerned about the damage caused by the extraordinarily racist, sexist, and violent Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden. Today the campaign seized on a misstatement President Biden made when condemning the statement from the Madison Square Garden event that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” They tried to turn the tables to suggest that Biden was calling Trump supporters garbage, although the president has always been very careful to focus his condemnation on Trump alone.

In Wisconsin today, when he disembarked from his plane, Trump put on an orange reflective vest and had someone drive him around the tarmac in a garbage truck with TRUMP painted on the side. He complained about Biden to reporters from the cab of the truck but still refused to apologize for Sunday’s slur of Puerto Rico, saying he knew nothing about the comedian who appeared at his rally.

This, too, was an unusual strategy. Like his visit to McDonalds, where he wore an apron, the image of Trump in a sanitation truck was likely intended to show him as a man of the people. But his power has always rested not in his promise to be one of the people, but rather to lead them. The pictures of him in a bright orange vest and unusually dark makeup are quite different from his usual portrayal of himself.

Indeed, media captured a video of Trump’s stunt, and it did not convey strength. MSNBC’s Katie Phang watched him try to get into the truck and noted: “Trump stumbles, drags his right leg, almost falls over, and tries at least three times to open the door…. Some transparency with Trump’s medical records would be nice.”

The Las Vegas Sun today ran an editorial that detailed Trump’s increasingly obvious mental lapses and concluded that Trump is “crippled cognitively and showing clear signs of mental illness.” It noted that Trump now depends “on enablers who show a disturbing willingness to indulge his delusions, amplify his paranoia or steer his feeble mind toward their own goals.” It noted that if Trump cannot fulfill the duties of the presidency, they would fall to his running mate, J.D. Vance, who has suggested “he would subordinate constitutional principles for personal profit and power.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#political cartoon #Matt Wuerker #Politico #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From an American #Las Vegas Sun #MAGA extremism #garbage truck stunt #women's health #reproductive rights #Musk #Affordable Care Act #Obamacare #project 2025 #MAGA's plans for you

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brf-rumortrackinganon · 2 months ago

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Hello RTA 👋🏻 What do you think about the US Federal Government's allocation of 6.5 million dollars for African Parks? These people talk about the BRF behaving so meekly with H&M and but the US government is awarding them millions in grant and yet there's no uproar about this?

I ask this with all due respect, anon: Did you actually look into this or are you reacting to the number?

Because all the data is there and publicly available. And when you look at the data (or you ask a fed - hello, there), the data tells you it's actually not a big deal.

The total US government budget in FY24 (October 1, 2023 - September 30, 2024) is $1.7 trillion. To be more specific, that's $1,754,300,000,000.00. $6.5 million is 0.00037%. It's the federal equivalent of a toothbrush from the dollar store. Or a pair of sunglasses for Charlotte in the Duke of Cornwall budget.

So according to the African Parks website, they have three US federal partners.

US Fish and Wildlife Service (aka federal wildlife conservation). FWS grants help the conservation of plants and wildlife in protected areas across central and western Africa and elephant conservation. The Multinational Species Conservation Acts is a group of federal laws mandating for the US government to support conservation programs for certain species. One of the acts is the African Elephant Conservation Act which requires the federal government to assist African conservation programs that protect the African Elephant, of which African Parks is one. (The African Elephant Conservation Act, by the way, is what regulates ivory trade in the US.)

FWS's work with African Parks is likely part of the International Affairs program, and African Parks is just one of FWS's many partners in this area so FWS's portion of $6.5 million is pretty small. In the FY24 budget, FWS asked for $26.7 million for their International Affairs program, which has two tracks - international conservation and international wildlife trade. I suspect that the African Parks money is coming from the 'international conservation' part of the budget, which is about $13 million (so half of their total FY24 request).

If you'd like to learn about what FWS funds in their International Affairs program, here's their FY24 budget justification. International Affairs is pages 165-182. The section specific to the Africa Regional Program (through which African Parks' money comes) is page 171 or IA-7.

US Agency for International Development (aka federal humanitarian aid to developing nations). USAID also supports African Parks's conservation efforts. More specifically, their grants support a protected area between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic in three ways; management of the protected area, wildlife conservation, and helping the communities who live within the protected area develop sustainable livelihoods.

(Quick disclaimer here first - USAID's budget is tied in with the Department of State's so it's not as easy to read as FWS's is.)

USAID's work with African Parks probably comes via their partner accounts. In FY24, they requested about $32 billion for those partner accounts. Partner accounts can be fully funded by USAID or or partially-funded. The bottom line here is that whatever portion African Parks is getting from USAID, it's not even a drop in the bucket

You can read about USAID's work and their FY24 budget justification here. You'll notice that the budget justification doesn't discuss anything concerning Africa. That doesn't mean they aren't funding work in Africa, just that the work they're doing/supporting in Africa is bundled into one of the other programs or that their programs in Africa aren't as high a priority as the ones specifically mentioned in the justification.

US Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affars (aka a FBI and DEA for international cooperation). INL's grants to African Parks goes towards conservation law enforcement, everything from training and education to technology and communications and it includes quality of life and welfare programs for the rangers.

In their FY24 budget justification, INL asked for $1.4 billion, of which they report about $51.9 million is planned to be allocated to Africa. And like the other agencies, whatever portion of $6.5 million is INL's, it's really small. Inconsequential, in the grand scheme of things.

Here is State's FY24 budget justification. INL's section is pages 156 - 160 (in adobe, or document pages 146-150). The section on Africa's allocation is page 157 (document page 147).

So to answer anon's question, no one's in an uproar about US federal grants to African Parks because, frankly, it doesn't matter. It barely registers. Plus the money is going towards conservation and protecting endangered species...is that really something worth being upset over?

Anyway. Some other federal spending in the neighborhood of $6.5 million to show what I mean by how not-a-big-deal it is:

The Department of Defense spends $6.5 million on the planning of facilities for the Naval Reserves. The planning, you guys.

The Department of Agriculture's Office of the Chief Financial Officer needs $6.6 million annually in operating expenses.

The USDA's National Veterinary Stockpile gets $6 million to prepare for and respond to animal disease outbreaks.

The Department of Energy spends $6.3 million on energy loan guarantees to Native American tribes.

$6.1 million is reserved for competitive wildlife conservation grants exclusive to Native American tribes.

The EPA spends $6.5 million on grants for safe drinking water across the US.

The Office of Public Affairs and Engagement in the Department of Transportation needs $6.2 million in operating expenses.

Since this is already a pretty long post, I'll leave it here. But if anyone's interested in a quick explainer of how federal spending/budgets work, let me know. 'tis the season and all (plus a presidential election means the federal budget gets a little more attention than it usually does).

#african parks

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quaranmine · 1 year ago

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/22/us-braces-calamitous-costly-government-shutdown-eight-days/

Hey, just a heads up--

A (US) government shutdown is pretty imminent right now. They have until September 30 to pass any sort of budget to keep funding the government, but congress has been unable to come to any decisions or compromises. Typically what happens each year on Sept 30 is Congress will pass a continuing resolution (a temporary budget) to buy a month or two to keep arguing about it. This year, they haven't been able to pass even that. McCarthy has sent the House members home for the weekend already, which means they will have even less time next week to figure something out.

So, what happens during a government shutdown? Some parts of the government--deemed essential--will keep operating. Please be nice to these employees, because they will be working without pay. Fortunately a bill passed in 2019 means they are guaranteed to be paid at the end of the shutdown, but still. Thousands of other federal employees will be furloughed and not allowed to work. For hundreds of thousands of employees, they will struggle to pay bills.

What about everybody else, the public being served? Broadly speaking, tons of grants and projects and research and environmental reviews and loans and services will be halted and delayed. Most significantly though:

SSA will continue to issue retirement and disability checks, as well as Medicaid/Medicare benefits. There might be delays, especially in new signups.

FEMA will continue to offer disaster relief and aid, but may run out of funds if the shutdown continues.

Thousands of low income parents will lose access to Head Start programs and childcare programs.

FDA food safety inspections, as well as other safety inspections (including worker safety), may be delayed

Mail delivery continues, as the US Postal Service is independently funded.

Food stamps, housing vouchers, and college financial aid may lapse if the shutdown lasts beyond October. The longest shutdown in US history was in 2018, for 35 days. This one is probably unlikely to be that long, but if it is, people may lose access to these programs.

WIC will only be able to operate for a few days after the shutdown, leaving millions of pregnant people, infants, and children at risk of going hungry.

Weather forcasting, air traffic control, TSA, etc will continue (though the employees won't be paid)

Hopefully a shutdown will be averted, but it's far more likely this year than other years. If you are in a position to be affected by a lapse in government services, I would recommend keeping up with the news so that it doesn't hit you as a surprise. Ultimately I can make no real predictions for how it will turn out or which things will be affected, but I hope this helps.

#american politics #us politics #government shutdown #most of this info is from the articles above

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celestialcrownsvn · 23 days ago

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October Update

Hi guys! Thanks again for all the support regarding my last update. Stopping the marketing has been great for my mental health and I've finally been able to make progress on the game.

Backgrounds

All the backgrounds are... done 😰I feel like that can't be right. But, I've got them all, and barring any issues where I need to commission a couple more, we should be all set.

Programming

I have programmed 1750/7255 lines of Aalam's route so far (Scene 5 of 30)! This includes voice, music, animations, etc. Once I get through this round of programming, it'll be ready for testing. Last time I asked for volunteers for beta testers, but due to mixed results as far as people keeping deadlines, I don't think I'll be doing that again. I might ask a select group of people and see if there's anything left in the budget I can offer as payment.

Writing

Most of the new writing for Aalam's route is in later chapters, so I didn't do much this month aside from some editing of typos, etc., as I started from the beginning to program/polish all at once.

CGs

Good news and bad news on this front. The good news is that my CG artist is okay and isn't in any danger as far as we know. The bad news is that she has decided to leave the project. I am going to reach out to another artist once I finish taking in all the sketches/finished pieces she's done and seeing how much work is actually left.

Voice Acting

I hit a snag when someone asked me about the VA strike. I wasn't aware of it, as I haven't been keeping up with current events due to life stuff. But we came to an arrangement, and I'll be sending the VA scripts out soon, hopefully today. Essentially, I'm making a commitment not to use any of the voice lines received for AI training, now or in the future. Which I think is a very simple thing to promise and I can't believe people are having to strike for what seems like common sense. Anyway.

Conclusion and Timeline

That's it for me folks! Your support has been so uplifting, so thank you again.

I've been very busy with IRL work lately so I haven't had as much time to work on CC as I wanted, but I'm hoping to finish Aalam's route and send it to testing by the end of November. Slow and steady wins the race. 💪🏾

As a side note... my birthday is Friday, a great present would be to wishlist the game!

#visual novel #celestial crowns #vndev #english otome #celestialcrownsvn #game development #english visual novel #character customization

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socially-awkward-skeleton · 4 months ago

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Chapter 9

Summary: The trio have arrived in Russia, it's the last bit of quiet they'll get before they strike out to find Hadir and the gas. AKA a little aside chapter that's mostly there for me to play with the characters like they are barbies. Warnings/Tags: drinking, smoking, swearing, gambling, sexual tension.

A/N: Author is terrible at playing poker and had to borrow from famous movie poker scenes to understand the rules in play, also used google translate for the Russian that appears in this chapter

Pairing: Captain John Price x Fem!OC (3rd person POV)

Word count: 4.2 K

[AO3]

October 30, 2019 16:35 - Undisclosed airstrip, Russia

One five and a half hour flight later, arriving to a relatively “balmy” six degree celsius afternoon, gray clouds streaked across the sky in long, loose fluffy tendrils. Not entirely abandoned, the old Soviet era hangars worn with weather and age circled the dying, brown grass and cracked cement where the small private plane had landed. As the door swung open, a staircase was brought over for the passengers to exit. The trio of Brits, no longer dressed in tac gear and camouflage, but rather civilian wear in drab grays, black, and navy – anything not to stand out in a crowd, blending in with the masses – descended, their feet hitting ‘The Motherland's’ earth.

Rory's long coat flapped in the breeze behind her as she adjusted her turtleneck. The appearance of a jetsetter was one that seemed to work for her, a small hint at her life beyond that of the military, one that consisted of wealth and refinement, glamor and grace wielded the same way she carried a rifle.

“Have to say, I was not expecting Kate to charter us a flight,” she said over her shoulder. “CIA travel expenditure budget must have gotten quite the boost this last quarter.”

Price chuckled low. “Might've been all she could get on short notice. Either way, I'm not complainin’,” he rumbled, wetting his lips before slipping the cigar between them. “Nice to ride in something more akin to a limo rather than the bloody boot of a Volkswagen.”

Flicking the lighter on, the flame a dancing blue ghost against the cherry as it began to burn, Price’s gaze traveled over the flat expanse of the tarmac, noting the movement inside the traffic control tower overhead – always alert, always at the ready.

“A touch of the good life before we're about to be knee deep in shit again. I'll take it.” Her hands slipped into the deep pockets of her coat, boots clunking against the asphalt as she strode forward with purpose.

As they made their way from the plane, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time she had arrived undercover in Russia. That mission with Price – the first they had worked together – had taken place two years ago now. Rubbing absentmindedly at the scar hidden in her hairline as she combed her fingers through fluttering strands caught in the breeze. A passing reminder of how close she came to never coming back home, a fateful moment that brought her and Price to where they were together.

Glancing over at Garrick, she called over her shoulder to him. “I trust you enjoyed the flight, Sergeant?” She asked, brow lifting, her curiosity genuine. “First time in Russia?”

He nodded, fixing the baseball cap on his head, adjusting the brim of it. “Never been in a private plane before. Hell, never even flown first class,” he said with a little shrug. “Well, I would say ‘welcome to the Special Forces’, but quite frankly, we don’t usually get that sort of treatment either,” Rory joked, a cheeky grin spreading across her face as she laughed. A large cloud of smoke coiled past Price’s lips as he exhaled, leading the other two members of his team towards a waiting vehicle, the exhaust pumping out of the tailpipe with the same fervor as the chimney-like stream from the captain. “Heads up, our ride’s waiting.” He nodded towards the driver with a lift of his chin.

Drawing closer, the smirk on Price’s face grew more evident at the sight of one of his ‘old comrades’. A tall Russian with slicked-back, dark hair – Nikolai – had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth, resting nonchalantly against the hood of his SUV.

“Nik,” Price called out, “Always a pleasure.”

With a quick shake of hands, the dark eyes of Nikolai darted to meet Rory. “Sinclair,” he boomed, becoming slightly more animated upon seeing her, “Good to see you again.”

“You as well, Nik,” she said, holding out a hand to shake before being pulled into a much friendlier greeting. With his hands resting on her shoulders, the smoke of the cigarette held between his fingers coiling around her head, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to each cheek, making her laugh. “Bloody hell. You weren’t lying, were you?” she teased, her giggle bright and warm on the cool autumn wind.

“Never,” Nik said with a smirk. Looking past her, he noticed the other member of the crew. “Picking up more strays, Captain?”

Price puffed on his cigar. “You know me, got an eye for picking out the talented ones worth keepin’ about,” he said before nodding his head in Garrick’s direction. “Sgt. Garrick, meet Nikolai. An old acquaintance of mine.”

More like an accomplice.

“Sgt. Garrick.” Nikolai stuck out his hand towards the younger man. “Welcome to Russia.”

The sergeant was quick to stick out his hand, taking part in the formalities. “Good to meet you.”

“Well with the introductions over, let’s say we get the hell out of dodge, eh?” Price pushed, ready to focus on the next part of the operation.

The safehouse was a different experience this time around. No longer in the heart of Moscow, instead in the urban sprawl of St. Petersburg. One that included a few more of the comforts of home while still maintaining that derelict-chic look Rory had come to acquaint with places of this nature. Flying under the radar in a place that would barely be considered a two star accommodation – but it was more than a couple of beds and a bathroom, so an upgrade nonetheless. She was delighted to also find that the awkward tension from the last stay no longer plagued the group, despite having little to do and too many bodies in a confined space, their heads were all firmly focused on the job. Consummate professionals.

Under the yellowed light of an incandescent bulb hanging above them, they sat in mismatched chairs around the circular scope of a laminate kitchen table made to look like wood. Any talk of plans had been held off, Nikolai refusing to talk shop and preferring to act as host on the eve of the operation. A pack of cards and containers of pirozhki and chebureki from a nearby street food vendor were pulled out to keep the group entertained and well fed.

A half-burned cigarette hung from the corner of Rory's mouth as she looked over the five cards in her hand, changing the order of them, as if that would improve the luck of her current draw. Tapping the end of her fag into the empty styrofoam box on the table beside her to rid it of the ash, she slipped it back between her lips.

“Call and raise,” she said, placing five cigarettes down onto the table before her and sliding them into the pot at the center, joining the collection that had already begun to amass there.

She had to admit, playing poker with a Russian with criminal, intelligence, and military ties was an interesting experience. If anyone had a poker face that could hold up against her scrutiny it was likely him. There would actually be a challenge when it came to the bluff, especially since Price had decided to sit this round out, relaxing back in his seat with a cigar clenched between his teeth.

The smoke coalesced in a foggy haze around them, obscuring faces and the small tics that could give a person away. The perfect habitat for card sharks.

Her warm eyes glanced over to Garrick who placed his cards down on the table. “Fold. Anyone want another beer?” he said, standing up and heading towards the kitchenette.

“Not for me, thanks.” Rory combed her fingers through her hair, folding her arms on the tabletop, sitting forward in her seat as the cigarette maintained its precarious position dangling from her full bottom lip.

Drumming his fingers on the table, Price leaned back into his seat and watched the game unfold, his mouth curled into a half grin. There was a sparkle in his eyes that usually didn’t appear while in the field, deciding to allow himself to loosen up just a tad for the night. Nikolai smirked at her from the other side of the table, taking a drag from his cigarette and blowing the smoke through his nostrils. “Captain’s rubbing off on you, Принцесса.”

“Is that so?”

Sitting there, still as a statue, except for the lift of her brow. Waiting, watching, for his next move. This was no high stakes game of poker, only harmless fun amongst allies and yet she made sure to give nothing away. An unreadable mask to match the one of the man sitting beside her.

“Certainly. Make for a good student.” His gaze dropped to the cards in his hand, while his other started tapping one of the cigarettes in the pile beside him. “A student?” A smile finally broke through the barrier she had erected to maintain her poker face. “Is that all I am still?”

Her ears began to burn, the instinct that told her she was being observed kicking in. Glancing over to the side, she noticed Price ogling her, the impish grin remaining on his face as he twisted the cigar between his fingers. She rolled her eyes, watching him stiffen and his stare fall away from her as Garrick returned to his seat with a fresh drink. Kyle, sipping his beer, glanced over at the Russian and then his pile of cigarettes, a mix of brands. “You gonna smoke all those or place a bet?”

Pouring himself another glass of vodka, Price’s lip curled into a barely perceptible half grin, filling Rory’s empty one while he was at it and sliding it back towards her with a nod as their gazes briefly met and their fingers brushed against each other.

“He has a point, Nik. This isn’t Casino Royale, darling.” Her smile grew wider, her laugh bubbling out of her and carving dimples into her cheeks as she nodded her head to his pile. “We’re playing with fags like we’re in bloody prison.”

Nik lifted his brow, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth as he threw down five cigarettes into the pile. “Call,” he said before tossing another ten in, “And raise.”

“Oh, we’ve got a real round goin’ now, haven’t we?” Garrick said, sitting forward, placing his beer bottle down on the table.

She put out the burned down butt of her cigarette in the container, singeing a small hole into the bottom of it with a squeak of melting plastic. Her hazel eyes, ones that she had trained to be ever-perceptive both as a sniper and an interrogator burned, scouring the man before her, reading him like he was another target. “Now, Nik, you wouldn’t be bluffing, would you?”

“What makes you say that, Sinclair?”

“Spent an awful long time debating putting down that bet to begin with. And then to double my amount?” She asked skeptically, her brow arching. “It’s a tad fishy.”

His mouth drew into a straight line, placing his cards down on the table in front of him, and resting his hands folded on top. “Could be. Suppose you’ll find out soon enough, Принцесса.”

“Princess? Ты же знаешь, что я подтягиваю свой русский, да?” She replied with a smirk. (Russian: You do know I’ve been brushing up on my Russian, yes?)

He hummed. “See? Captain’s taught you well. Good student.”

Rory’s cheeks warmed and the mask dropped as a rosy blush bloomed on her apples causing her to lower her head and glance over the top of her cards, shooting daggers towards the Russian sitting across from her.

“I’m going to get you back for that, mark my words,” she muttered under her breath.

The low chuckles of Nik and Price met in sync with one another and drifted over to her, making her all the more aware of the flush on her face. Rolling her eyes, she kicked out at Price’s foot under the table, offering him a scathing look as well.

“Cards?” Garrick asked, grabbing the deck, breaking the stream of the obvious inside joke he was being kept apart from.

“Two.”

“One,” Nik taunted, his brown eyes glancing up at her.

“Someone’s confident.” Kyle passed the two players their cards so the round could continue.

“Call and raise.” Sliding twenty-five cigarettes towards the pile, Rory sat back in her seat and crossed her legs, returning to her perfectly still position.

Nikolai slid an entire pack of cigarettes into the pot.

Rory’s brow lifted. “I’ll call.”

“Four nines,” he said, laying them out flat on the table for all to see.

Her eyes dropped, raking over the cards set down on the table, clenching her jaw and running her tongue along her teeth, then sucking them. “Good hand,” she said with a little bob of her head before her eyes narrowed into the sharp stare of the combat ready veteran she was. “Not good enough, however.”

Placing down her hand of a straight flush: the 7, 8, 9, 10, and Jack of hearts.

With a smile, Rory stood up, coiling her arms around the hoard of cigarettes in the pot and dragged them towards herself. “Spasiba,” she said before leaning back and checking the clock on the wall in the kitchen, feeling the heady buzz of the vodka taking effect on her. “Right, it’s nearly one in the morning. Perhaps we should all think about turning in for the night? Let’s hope the springs in the couch aren’t too worn down for me, eh?”

When it came to sleep, Rory was at best a light sleeper. That only became more apparent when on a mission, practically sleeping with one eye open. Her subconscious mind was stuck half clinging to the lucidity of consciousness. Roused by the sound of quiet footsteps moving around her, disturbing her dreams, she was pulled into a state of wakefulness. Rubbing at her eyes, she pushed her hand back through her mussed up hair with a yawn, and sat up with a jerk from her spot on the sunken couch.

Across from her, sat on the old, worn recliner, a form resided in the shadows. Not moving, not breathing. Still. A stalker in the night.

Her hand slipped under her pillow, reaching for the gun stashed there on first impulse. Narrowing her eyes, not entirely sure what she was seeing was real, or the half-awake remnant of a dream. “John?” Rory’s voice was a rough whisper, still thick with sleep.

The curtains by the window fluttered softly in the night breeze, carrying the smell of cigar smoke and the musk of spicy cologne over to her, suffusing the room – scents she knew all too well – causing her finger to ease off the trigger.

“Yeah, love,” he husked in the dark, “Couldn't sleep.”

She chuckled quietly, shaking her head in mild disbelief. “So you decided to come out here and watch me do so instead?”

The dark mass across from her shifted slightly, broad shoulders twisting against the back of the chair as he stretched out his lower back. “Wouldn't be the first time.”

“You've watched me sleep?” Her brows furrowed, confusion settling in the lines there.

Sitting forward, he was washed in the dim light from outside cutting through the room. His steely eyes never steering away, locked onto her with the stare of a trained killer. “Is that so hard to believe?”

She shrugged, angling her head. “Just not what I expected to hear, is all. You're not exactly a romantic, my darling.” A little smirk curled at the corners of her mouth. “It is a good way of getting yourself shot though.”

“I might not read you bloody poetry, but I remember the important stuff.” He sat back, arms crossed over his chest. “Actions speak louder than words, after all. Isn't that right, my girl?” His gaze roamed over her tangled hair and rumpled clothes before a half smile curled at the corner of his mouth, turning downright Cheshire. “Do you have any idea how much effort it takes when you're with me to not find some secluded hallway to pull you down?”

Rory laughed. “Christ, you must be desperate if that's your first thought when I'm in this state.” Her cheeks turned rosy, an alluringly bashful grin on her face. “But you're far too professional for that, yeah? It has to wait until the mission's over.”

“Especially when there's someone else in the other room.” Price nodded his head toward the bedroom door where Garrick was fast asleep. “Could walk in on us at any moment. Can't have that, can we?”

“Never,” she whispered.

Price lifted out of his seat, circling the coffee table to sit down on it, the furniture creaking slightly under the weight. Leaning forward, he cupped her cheek in his hand, his thumb brushing over the soft flesh below it.

In the dark of the room she could just make out the flicker of his gimlet eyes, shifting from the depths of her hazel gaze to the pout of her lips.

“Careful, John,” she cautioned.

He drew back, looking her right in the eyes. “Always.” His hoarse whisper was a quiet murmur in the room.

Watching one another in the dark, the tension of having to pretend to be nothing more than soldiers carrying out their duty together held them like a tether, a magnetic pull neither could retreat from. The ache to touch too hard to ignore at times, hiding away in the shadows to feel anything. Unseen. Their love had to be left unspoken.

The way he looked at her was near reverent, as if he were committing every detail of her to memory. “Christ, you are so fuckin’ beautiful, you know that?” he rumbled.

“Certainly hope I’m more than just my looks.” A warning disguised as a jest. “‘Course. You’re the whole goddamn package, Ror,” he said, his tone sharp, if anyone ever tried to suggest the opposite it would result in him breaking their legs.

The distance between them closed once more, an attraction too impossible to ignore. Warm breath mingled and fanned over one another, their lips nearly touching, his whiskers prickled against her, tickling her skin and making her smile.

“Care to join me for a break?”

“Indulging me in my vices?” she asked with a lift of her brows.

“Won't deny, there is something incredibly sexy about watching you smoke, love.”

Rory hummed. “I think that's the oral fixation talking, you dirty bugger.”

Price chuckled darkly. “Could be. That mouth of yours is somethin’ special though, darlin’.”

“Well, perhaps I need to give you something to tide you over until we're in the clear, yeah?”

Tilting her head to just the right angle, she curled a finger under his chin and brushed her lips against his, grazing against them before wrapping her lips around his lower one, sucking softly.

Parting from her, he growled quietly. “Fucking hell, woman. You're gonna be the death of me.”

“Not before the lung cancer or a bullet,” she said with a smirk, patting his shoulder as she grabbed her cigarettes and lighter from the coffee table beside him and rising to stand, making her way over to the open window.

Slipping one of the cigarettes from her pack, she placed it to her lips and before she could reach her lighter, the flame was swiftly lifted to the end for her, the golden light producing shadows and highlights on her and Price's features.

“Cheers,” she murmured around the cigarette, muffling her thanks.

Responding in a low grunt before he flicked the lid of the zippo closed with the quiet chiming clink of metal.

She took a long drag, glancing sideways at him before exhaling the smoke in a stream out the window, blowing little smoke rings – one of the few party tricks she had up her sleeve – and passed the cigarette to him.

"Bloody hell," he drawled, a hand reaching out to brush a stray chestnut strand from her forehead. "I'll say this for you, darlin’. When you're not busy bein’ a lethal soldier, you've got a talent for showing off." Price placed the cigarette in the corner of his mouth and sighed quietly. “Still prefer my cigars though.”

“Yes, I'm well aware. But I think you've had quite enough of those for one day, yeah?”

He growled quietly and passed the cigarette back to her before releasing the coil of smoke from past his lips. “So, whatcha gonna get me with all those winnings of yours, darlin’?”

Rory giggled and nuzzled up against him teasingly. “For you, love,” she said, caressing the underside of his jaw, the stubble there grazing against her fingertips. “The world.”

He did his best to suppress his chuckle, resulting in a quietly huffed snort. “Bloody trouble you are.”

“Trouble you chose not to live without.”

He hummed, “Trouble I can't live without, sweetheart.”

“Semantics.”

His hand lifted, gripping the back of her neck in that possessive hold of his, thumb softly stroking the tender flesh of her nape. “The truth.”

She smiled softly, contentment clear on her face. “So,” Rory said, changing the subject, “We get Hadir, find the gas, prevent all out war between the West and Russia, and then what? Go for pints?” Sighing, she looked out the window, her gaze far off but not looking at anything in particular, taking a drag of the shared cigarette. “Whether he uses that gas again or not, Russia’s going to want him. And our allies will readily hand him over.” Her gaze returned to him, her brow furrowed. “You know that, yeah? Despite knowing full well what they’ll do to him.”

“Far as they’re concerned, he’s a criminal.”

“Who will be put in the hands of a nation with a terrible record for human rights violations especially for political prisoners.” Rory rubbed her hand down her face and inhaled sharply before releasing a heavy breath. “I fucking hate this part. All the backdoor bureaucracy and political bullshit. Shaking hands and making dirty deals. There’s never any bloody nuance. It’s all well and good when someone at the top decides to bandy their missiles about, but one person decides they’re done being bullied and, well, suddenly the ULF is a terrorist organization.”

“I sometimes forget you’re not quite as cynical as I am.” He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Still got that soft part of you that thinks the world’ll ever change.”

“I’m not so naive that I don’t already know I’m a cog in the machine, but if I don’t believe that things can change it makes all the sacrifices I've made sort of useless, love.” She sighed and raked her hand through her hair before passing Price the cigarette. “A man’s life hangs in the balance, and I’m sure some would say its for the greater good, but Christ… it’s such a fucking clinical way of looking at it.”

“Same could be said about what we have to do,” he said with a shrug. “The greater good. It’s not pretty though, is it? Never is.” Taking a drag from the cigarette, his eyes scanned her. “But we manage to sleep at night, don’t we?”

“You say to the woman who wakes up screaming with night terrors,” Rory scoffed, “Speak for yourself, my darling.”

“You know this is how things work, Rory.”

“Yes, yes, I know. The world is a terrible place and according to one Captain John Price there’s only one way to fix that, yeah?”

He huffed out a stubborn laugh and shook his head. “As gentle as a bloody lamb, you are. You know that?”

“Oh, shut up,” she said with a little sneer, scrunching up her nose as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, stroking her fingers along his spine as she rested her head against him.

Price’s arms coiled around her, holding her firmly against him, fingers carding through her hair, wrapping sections of it around his calloused digits. “That’s why I won’t let anything ever hurt you, my girl.” His voice low and hoarse as he rested his chin on top of her head. “I like you that way, all soft and sweet for me, darlin’.” His thumb brushed over the soft skin of her cheek, the smell of tobacco smoke clinging to them both. “Don’t know if I deserve ya sometimes, but you’re mine, aren’t you?”

Her head lifted and she gazed up at him, the lights of the street lamps outside glowing on her skin. “You know I am,” she whispered softly. Her warm doe eyes twinkled with fondness, loyalty, devotion.

His chest puffed out, a sense of accomplishment and ownership that overtook him each time he claimed her. A fierce protectiveness that was never far, but particularly sharp in the quiet, intimate moments they shared. Nuzzling into her hair, he gave a low chuckle. "Well, you're stuck with me then, love. There's naught I'd change about that. You're mine, Rory. And I'll take care of you, no matter the cost." It wasn't just a line, not with Price, she already knew he would do anything for her.

Trailing kisses down her neck, a soft growl rumbled in his chest. "And I'll be damned before I let you go, Rory. Can't bear the thought of it, not ever."

“Well, there’s no need to worry about that,” she said softly, her fingers combing through the short, cropped hair at his nape. “I’m your girl, remember? That’s never going to change. Not ever.”

#call of duty #cod fanfic #cod modern warfare #john price #captain john price #kyle gaz garrick #nikolai cod #oc: rory sinclair #john price x oc #skelly writes #fic: evening of score #chapter 9

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astrangetorpedo · 5 months ago

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Julien Baker: Accomplish the Most with the Least

by Zachary Gresham | Photos by Nolan Knight

Julien Baker is more visible than ever. After her low-budget debut, Sprained Ankle, made nearly every best-of 2015 list, the 21-year-old Baker signed with Matador Records and went home to Memphis to record her next record at the legendary Ardent Studios. Turn Out the Lights was released in October of 2017 to massive acclaim from critics, and was met with extreme devotion from audiences. It is the rare record that one can wholeheartedly describe as both monastically spare and cinematically epic, putting her in the heady company of Tori Amos, Nina Simone, and Jeff Buckley. We caught up with Julien shortly after her return to Tennessee from a quick tour of Japan to talk about guitars, Ardent, Craig Silvey, reverb, and doing more with less.

Turn Out the Lights is really beautiful.

Oh, thank you!

I find it difficult to disconnect from it emotionally for a while after I've turned it off, which is the sign of a quality record.

That means a lot to hear. Thank you.

You made it at Ardent in Memphis, but you did your previous album, Sprained Ankle, at a studio in Virginia, right?

Yeah. Spacebomb Studios. Most of the songs on Sprained Ankle were recorded at Spacebomb, but there are two on there (two with percussion, "Vessels" and "Brittle Boned") that were recorded at Cody Landers' house. He's an incredible engineer.

Were you recording yourself before that?

When I was in high school, the band I was in [The Star Killers, later known as Forrister] put out a full-length [American Blues] album that we recorded entirely in Cody Landers' attic. We were all kids, and he took on this project because we were his friends. It was a labor of love, as well as a learning experience. We had no idea what to ask for and what sounded good. It's funny, looking back now on what we were trying to emulate.

What were you trying to emulate?

Well, Matthew [Gilliam] – the drummer and one of my closest friends – our biggest influences are probably Manchester Orchestra and Circa Survive. We wanted to sound big, bombastic, and theatrical, but with sinewy, reverb-y guitars. The other guitarist listened to Wilco, Guster, and folk-adult-rock. It ended up sounding half like Whiskeytown and half like Sunny Day Real Estate. Those are mixed very, very differently. Also, and this is true with youth, is that everything is more exaggerated. You want things as more drastic, colorful caricatures of themselves. I always wanted a 30-second reverb tail on my vocals. The guitars had to be super loud. Matthew had the biggest snare that was sold at the local music store, because everything had to be so powerful. A better way to put it is that it lacks taste or restraint. I learned so much every day, after school sitting in front of Cubase and crafting a record. Before I ever went to MTSU [Middle Tennessee State University], that's how I learned how automation works, why you track drums first, or why you don't want to put a whole bunch of reverb on the drum kit, even though it sounds cool as an idea.

You went to MTSU to study recording?

I did. I went to MTSU because they had a really notable and reputable recording industry program, but my thing was always live sound. There's an audio engineering major, and within that you can specialize in recording arts or live sound. I don't have the meticulous drive to pick apart a waveform in a DAW. I make my own demos, but they're simply for mapping out songs. I can't sit there and master forever. When I was a kid I learned how to use a PA, and then they would let me run the console at shows. I thought, "Well, I could do that. I know how to do simple circuits, so maybe I could work at a repair shop repairing guitars." I went to school to learn that, systems optimization, and building stages at festivals. But because we were all in the same program – all of my friends who were wearing their headphones around their neck and mixing at the campus Starbucks – those were the people who would say, "Hey, I have some extra studio time. Do you want to come in and record?" I think that it is important to keep yourself open to opportunities to gain experience.

You've got to get in there.

Hands-on experience taught me so much. I took so many classes on systems optimization, signal flow, and live sound mixing. But what taught me how to find my way in a live sound setting was doing sound for bands at venues. What taught me how to act, how to vocalize what I wanted, or the protocol inside a recording studio, was being able to spend that time. I think that's a good thing that MTSU gives you. There are resources on hand to take the theoretical knowledge from the classroom and apply it in a real setting. Otherwise, I couldn't have gotten to meet [engineer Michael] Hegner and do the first demos of what would eventually become Sprained Ankle. He was sitting in the library and asked, "Does anybody have a song they want to do? I've got a session in 30 minutes and no one to fill it." I was like, "Yeah."

Of course, you had to put the time into having a song.

I didn't think about that. Writing is always a compulsory thing, so I always have literally hundreds of voice memos.

Is that how you make your demos, just voice memos on the phone?

That's how I make the very first part; the writing process. If there's an idea while I'm playing guitar that I think is worthy of being explored, then I'll make a short little 1-minute voice demo and save it as "cool riff 85," or whatever. Then later it will be fleshed out as a song with placeholder lyrics. I finally took the plunge and got a real DAW. I use Logic now and I do those little MIDI things for keyboards. I can plug straight into a little one-input interface and have my actual guitar sounds from my pedalboard. Before that, I was using a straight-up 2005 Audacity program that I found. It was free. It looked awful. No hate on Audacity. But my version was so old.

It's a great program for cutting up samples.

Yeah. It's really limited. I guess that's how you learn. I was also using a Toshiba computer from 2006, because I held off for so long, saying, "I'm not going to buy a computer. This one works fine." It's so hard for me to give in and upgrade my gear, because I get used to working within the parameters I've become familiar with.

From that perspective, let's talk about going to Ardent Studios. Listening to the record for the first time, I kept waiting for the gigantic production to kick in. Almost all the songs have a moment where I thought, "Here it comes." But it never does.

It's really interesting to me that you say that. I felt self-conscious in the opposite way. I thought, "There're eight vocal tracks and strings, and my buddy's playing clarinet. This is so much." By comparison, it's much more expansive than Sprained Ankle. I was worried. I had this oxymoronic fear that it would be too similar to my past material and also too different, but not in the right ways. I wanted to have it be very dramatic – and have the parts that seem like soaring ballad climaxes – because I'm a sucker for that kind of dynamic. I think it's very emotive. But I also wanted to be careful that I didn't take so much of a maximalist approach that I weighed the song down, or it got to this critical mass where there's too much going on.

That's an incredibly mature perspective. I don't mean this because you're a younger person, but just in general. There are people who never get there.

Thank you. I'm going to acknowledge your compliment; I didn't take it as a thing about my age. But I agree. I think that restraint is such an important skill in music. For a long time when I was playing guitar in a band – and I think this had a lot to do with my insecurities about being a female in a male-dominated scene – but every time we played a show, I had to rip a crazy solo so that everybody knew I was "good." Still, one of my primary lurking fears about performing the material that I have today is that if I have a song that's three chords of quarter notes, everybody's going to be bored and put to sleep. But that's the challenge. Restraint is such an important thing. Just because you have every single color in your palette doesn't mean that every single color serves the painting. I think there are artists where the maximalist approach serves them well. When you think about a Bruce Springsteen record, like Born to Run. Or have you listened to Kimbra?

Yeah. A lot going on there.

Or St. Vincent. There are so many sounds; it's insane. But I think the challenge with my music is figuring out how to make it interesting while still leaving it pretty sparse. It's an interesting interplay. How many points of dynamic can you introduce into the song, as subtly as possible?

Do you go into recording feeling like you're going to do what you do live, but with a little extra?

There was this reciprocal relationship between the live and the recorded for this record. Another thing I wanted was not to say, "I don't know how I'm going to pull this off live, so I'm not going to explore this possibility." Now I do the weird play-guitar-and-piano-at-the-same-time. I decided if I wanted to have clarinet in there, then it'd be worth it to add clarinet. I think I was a lot more particular about the instrumentation on this record because I knew that it would be received in a different way. With Sprained Ankle, I was recording the songs as they had formed in my free time, using my looping pedal or whatever. With these songs, I sat down with a spiral [notebook] and mapped them out. I thought, "This song is tedious. What small embellishment can I add that will change the song enough to re-focus the listener's interest, without detracting or obscuring the totality of the song?" One of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten was from Josh Scogin [of bands The Chariot and '68]. We were at a show, and we were talking about how The Chariot's records are so interesting. They'll have this incredibly heavy breakdown, but it'll be free with no time signature at all. Or the song will completely stop and then something from Atlanta AM radio will play, and then the song will pick back up. "How do you know to do that? Is it just a novelty, or what?" Josh said, "I think you have to think of what will make people back up the track because they missed a thing." You don't want to make a song that goes on in a predictable fashion without introducing new elements.

You got an incredible guitar sound on the record. You tour with a [Fender] Twin and Deluxe, right?

Yes. We recorded a lot of Turn Out the Lights on my little 1x12 Deluxe, but I also have a 2x12 Blues Deluxe that I took the speakers out of and replaced with Warehouse guitar speakers called Veteran 30s. I got the higher-wattage option because there's way more gain room before it breaks up. My one gripe about Fender amps is that they break up too soon.

By design. A lot of people want blues.

Exactly. I get it. With the Twin, it's fine. It's a really sparkly break up. The Deluxe amps, I like the warmness of them. But when you start to break up such a warm, midrange-y amp, it gets fuzzy really quickly. I really like those speakers in that amp. I use so many of my instruments partly because they sound the way I want them to, but also partly because it took so much work for me to get them to sound the way they do that maybe my goal and my ability met in the middle. Especially with the wiring. I have a [Fender] Telecaster that I modded, and it took so long for me to figure that out when I was 18, trying to read a circuit diagram on how to get your pickups to go in series or parallel, and add that little option with the 4-switcher. Once I finally did it, I was like, "This is what I want, for sure." Whether or not it was what I was going for, I was so committed to doing it.

Do you go back and forth between series and parallel?

No. I have the blue guitar, it's a Mexican-made Tele, and then I have an American Tele, which is the butterscotch one. I leave it on series all the time. You have to put aftermarket pickups in Fender guitars. The Telecaster has the plucky clarity that I like; but I think everybody plays them so hot and bright, because that's the Nashville sound. I thought of Telecasters as country music guitars until I saw Now, Now and Circa Survive on tour. Both the guitarists were playing Telecasters. I was like, "What is happening? How are you guys getting this sound out of a Telecaster?" Then I used my next paycheck to buy a Mexican Tele. I love it.

Were you using Fender amps already?

Yeah. The first amp that I used was this Vox digital combo that was bad news. Well, it wasn't bad news, because I think those amps that have the effects built-in are good for learning. I wasn't playing big shows, so why would I need a $700 amp? The first real amp I bought was the Fender I replaced the speakers in. I had it for a really long time. Then I bought the 1x12 on tour when the tubes of my other amp broke, and now I play through stereo amps. It's interesting that the idea to do that never occurred to me, even though I had two amps on hand. Even on Sprained Ankle, I played through one amp.

You use so much reverb and delay, it's perfect for what you're doing.

Sometimes we'll be at a festival and I'll play through one amp. The way that my looping system is totally jury-rigged, I can use it into the first and second channels on a Fender amp.

It's a wonderful, underused feature, having the two channels on those amps.

It is. So much of my musical knowledge is very de facto and functional, and it doesn't result in a logical understanding of the mechanisms I'm using. On my Deluxe, there're two input jacks. I'd say, "Oh, I always plug into input 2 because it sounds different, and I like that sound." I didn't know until October of 2017 that one of them is high gain and one of them is lower gain. I had no idea. It sounded different. Now I have two A-B-C-Y splitters on my board; I send out from those two channels a dry channel and a reverb channel on one amp, and then yet a third reverb channel into a different amp.

Is the reverb channel 100 percent saturated?

It's all the way on, all the time. The dry channel is there in case the two stereo outs of my looper go off, because I'm paranoid about my loop breaking and there being no safety net for me to play through. I was not always that wise. I have been brought low by humiliation, the great teacher. Now I have one fail-safe channel. The rest of my loops come out on different outputs.

Do you use the amp reverb?

I used to have it pulled up to quarter to two almost all the time, but now I like the flat character of the amp enough, and I have three or four different reverbs. The Strymon blueSky is always on. I forget that I have it on my board, because it stays on. It's the staple of my tone.

I read that you used a [Neumann] U 67 for recording your voice. Is that right?

Yeah.

Did you do a shootout, or did you know going in you wanted a 67?

We tried out that mic because Calvin Lauber, engineer for Turn Out the Lights] suggested it. On Sprained Ankle, I recorded part of it on a [Shure] SM7B. We used a couple of different microphones on that one. I don't remember what the other one was. With the Neumann, I'm very reluctant to use mics with so much crispness, because I think my voice has a tendency to get really nitty and bland.

I respectfully disagree, but go on.

Well, okay. Maybe I'm hyper-critical of my voice. But that vocal mic sounded really nice, especially in the room. Once we started tracking with that, I was like, "Yeah, I'm really, really happy with this vocal sound." It's an incredible microphone. It sounds like it's capturing what's happening to your ears with intense clarity. Whenever I make my little Logic demos, I go in there and notch out 2.5 to 3 kHz, because it sounds really annoying. When I started singing in a band, I wanted the vocals to be pushed all the way to the back and ‘verbed out. I was self-conscious about my voice. I never really wanted to be a singer. I wanted to play guitar. Then our first show came up, and we didn't have a lead singer, so I said, "I'll sing until we find a singer." Then I became the singer. Every single time we performed live, someone would say, "That was really good. You should sing louder!"

Did you try to change the way you sing?

By the time The Star Killers had been a band for a while, I would do the shouty scream thing. But then that became a gimmick of my voice. It was atonal. It was less about the pitch and more about the intensity and having the gang vocals part where everybody sings along. It took touring for a while as a solo musician for me to become completely comfortable with my voice as an instrument. That was also probably because I still smoked at the time we recorded Sprained Ankle. Singing was really taxing on my voice. When I had not smoked for a little over a week, the way that my vocal control and the timbre of my voice changed was amazing. I thought, "This cannot be real." That made me much more confident, and it made me take singing seriously. My voice was no longer just a vehicle for poetry that I was using to "Leonard Cohen" out my lyrics. I think that's also what made recording this record a lot different. I was more ambitious with what I could do.

How long did you have at Ardent Studios?

I booked out six days, intentionally. We ended up staying there 12 hours a day. Time flies when you're in the studio, because it's fun, and exciting, and interesting. I think I limited it that way because of that fear of overproducing the record. If I gave myself too much time, I would fall into a paralysis of option anxiety. In hindsight it might have been good to have a deadline, but also take a rest. Record for a week, take a month off, let the tracks sit, and then come back with fresh ears. Maybe I was over-restrained, like I was overcompensating for my fear of overproducing.

It sounds like discipline is a huge part of your whole process.

Oh, definitely. I talk about this with so many of my friends in music. This land of words like discipline, motivation, and obsession are all fluidly bound. For any of the players on the record, like Cam [Boucher] from Sorority Noise, or Camille [Faulkner], who tours with me, the way that those people interact with music is almost obsessive, but in a way that drives them to be the most optimal players they can be. Not in a competitive way. I really don't think that trying to be the best you can be means that you have to be obsessed with being the best musician out there, or being superior.

It's its own reward.

Exactly. I think the fact you say that discipline is a huge part of the record is because maybe it wasn't that I had to apply an effort to sit down and map out the songs in a spiral notebook, or think about them and listen to them over, and over again. It's what preoccupies my mind all the time, so the only way to abate the anxiety of creating is to be engaged with it. But, at the same time, that's why I only wanted to book out six days. It's really important to get a great raw sound. We did a lot of setting levels for what would basically be how the record sounded.

It's a huge advantage not to "fix it in post."

Exactly! Get it right the first time. This thing that Calvin and I would say to each other all the time is, "It's worth it." When I would record a vocal track and it was almost what I wanted, and I felt I could live with it, we could nudge a note, or we could comp it. But I had the time. I'm not flying out to L.A. to do a two-hour recording session and we have to comp it. We had the time to get it right, and it's worth it. We ended up tracking a whole bunch of weird piano, guitar, and keyboard tracks that didn't make it on the record. But what if it had been awesome? It's worth it. When you start with good ingredients and you do less work on the back-end to try to wrangle it into sounding good, it's so much easier. And it sounds very pure and more organic, because I think you can tell when a song has had to be manipulated.

You can. It's almost never going to be as good as it would have been.

Exactly. There are so many great records that are tracked live. That's how recording used to be. Now I'm going to sound like one of those people who thinks that antiquated methods of recording are the only way and swears by tape only. No, there are amazing things we can use Pro Tools for. But I think the ethos of old-school recording is getting a great live sound. I watched a documentary about Tom Dowd [Tom Dowd & The Language of Music]. He plays the faders like a keyboard. It's so cool. Whenever I watch those documentaries, I'm amazed at that process, because it's happening to those people in real time; it's just their job. They have this very colloquial relationship with the music. Chilling out with Aretha Franklin and not knowing that it would change history. What I think you glean from those is not that it was better in the past, and we should only record to tape, and only use old vintage equipment. I think the process is that you should be able to accomplish the most with the least. You should know how to utilize a room, or you should know when it's enough. I think sometimes the necessity of having only four tracks, or having only eight channels, or what have you, makes you be more discerning. The options aren't endless. The time is not endless. You make a leaner, refined version.

Craig Silvey mixed Turn Out the Lights?

Yeah. We had a mixing day with Calvin; then he and I shot some mixes back and forth. I had very specific things I wanted out of the mix. It was really observable what Craig changed, but he didn't necessarily remove or add anything. I was amazed at how much he was able to add to the tracks. I think the people we involved on the record were all ones we wanted to use, either because of their prior work, or our prior history with them, indicated that they know how to be tasteful. Especially with Craig Silvey. I knew a few of the notable records that he had done, like Arcade Fire, but when I started to look at the breadth of the work he had been a part of, it was amazing.

Did you choose Craig, or did Matador say they wanted him?

Matador brought the idea. I was reluctant because I wanted the least tampering. They said, "We have this guy we think you'd really like. Give it a chance." I'll give anything a chance; but if I didn't like it, I was ready to say, "No." We sent a test mix, and when I got it back, I was like, "We should have the record mixed by this guy." It was ultimately a collaborative effort between Calvin being so personal and central to my life as a person and a friend, and knowing what I wanted, as well as Craig's expertise and impeccable ear. It made for a really special thing.

(link)

#this offers an interesting look at jb’s recording process #i bought this issue to gain access to the full interview so please don’t repost to twitter thx <3 #boygenius #julien baker #calvin lauber #tape op magazine #2018 #may 2018 #interview #archival

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lexreadsdiversely · 2 months ago

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Lex's October tbr 🎃

I'm leaning into the mood reading with this tbr. I intentionally put way more than I can finish to give myself room to switch it up as my mood changes. This is going to be so fun!

Books:

Physical tbr:

The Weight of Blood - Tiffany D. Jackson (210/413 pages complete)

Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield (105/223 pages complete)

The Book of Witches - Edited by Jonathan Strahan (select stories only)

The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

Library loans:

A Short Stay in Hell - Steven L Peck

Little Rot - Akwaeke Emezi

Graveyard Shift - ML Rio (finished 9/30)

Extra Salty: Jennifer's Body - Frederick Blichert (finished 10/1)

Kindle:

Eat Your Heart Out - Dayna Ingram*

My Carmilla - Anita Zara*

Lupus in Fabula - Briar Ripley Page (BookSiren - will most likely dnf)

Under Her Skin: a Women in Horror Poetry Showcase, Vol. 1 - Edited by Lindy Ryan and Toni Miller*

Fanfiction:

Read some halloween-themed fics. Link them here when finished.

Short(er) Stories

Hayseed - Holly Wilde*

Pumpkin Spice Lover - C.B. Walker*

This Pumpkin Spice Latte Gets Me Off In A Fun And Sincere Way Because It’s Okay For People To Enjoy Popular Things Without Being Shamed For The Perceived “Basicness” Of Their Beverage Choices - Chuck Tingle*

Read some Tor originals

* reads contingent on my budget

🦇 Goal: Enjoy reading! 🦇

#lex's october tbr #tbr #booklr #bookblr #bookish community #book community #book talk #book worm #reading community

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hooked-on-elvis · 2 months ago

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"Tender Feeling" (1963-1964)

Recorded on September 29, 1963 at RCA's Studio B, Nashville. Elvis' vocals recorded October 10, 1963 at MGM's soundstage, Culver City, Hollywood - CA · Released in April 1964. Soundtrack album: Kissin' Cousins.

MUSICIANS Guitar: Grady Martin, Jerry Kennedy, Scotty Moore, Harold Bradley. Bass: Bob Moore. Drums: Buddy Harman, D.J. Fontana. Piano: Floyd Cramer. Saxophone: Boots Randolph, Bill Justis. Fiddle: Cecil Brower. Vocals: Winnifred Brest, Millie Kirkham, Dolores Edgin, The Jordanaires.

Elvis Presley as Josh Morgan and Jodie Tatum in Kissin' Cousins (1964)

RECORDING SESSION Soundtrack Recordings for MGM’s Kissin’ Cousins. September 29–30, 1963: RCA’s Studio B, Nashville | Elvis' overdubs vocals: October 10, 1963: MGM, Studios, Culver City. In his business diary the Colonel wrote, “It was decided for the sake of economy and efficiency that the recording sessions for Kissin’ Cousins should be held at the RCA Victor studios in Nashville.” From MGM’s point of view Nashville might have sounded like an apt choice to cut some “hillbilly” songs, but the real reasons for the switch from Hollywood back to Nashville were obvious to all. Both the filming and the recording sessions for Viva Las Vegas had gone way over budget; more musicians than ever before had been hired for the dates, and many sat idle while others played. Since Elvis and the Colonel shared in the actual profits from the movie, these extra expenses cut into their share, and the Colonel made it clear that they wouldn’t make the same mistake with Kissin’ Cousins. In fact, his concern for “economy and efficiency” probably contributed to Kissin’ Cousins’s status as the first true “low-budget” Elvis movie, with filming lasting only four weeks. The demand for songs was now so great that Freddy Bienstock was able to collect no more than a bare minimum of material for the Kissin’ Cousins session, and half of the ten songs had a Giant/Baum/Kaye credit. To make matters worse Elvis came down with another cold come session time, so the musicians ended up recording backing tracks for Elvis to overdub later in Los Angeles. The film had Elvis playing two roles — a soldier and a hillbilly — and the title song was conceived as a duet between the two, obliging Elvis to record two sets of vocals, one in his normal voice, the other with a mock-Tennessee twang. (It was left to an engineer to splice the two versions into the required duet.) The sound was arguably better than on the previous MGM recordings, yet still nothing really sparkled.

Excerpt: "Elvis Presley, A Life in Music: The Complete Recording Sessions" by Ernst Jorgensen. Foreword by Peter Guralnick (1998)

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LYRICS — "Tender Feeling" Bill Giant/Bernie Baum/Florence Kaye

I can't conceal the tender feeling Now that you are close to me I look at you with tender feeling And can't help kiss you tenderly I offer you a true devotion All life through my love I vow For this is real, this sweet emotion This tender feeling I have now Somehow I knew from the moment our lips first met You'd be the girl I could never forget No other love could be appealing I loved you right from the start And with each kiss I'll keep revealing The tender feeling in my heart

MOVIE SCENE — Kissin' Cousins (1964) Jodie Tatum (Elvis Presley) and Midge (Cynthia Pepper)

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"Tender Feeling" LONG VERSION · Master Vocal Overdub Take 1 The official release runs 2:34, this version runs to 4:09.

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TIP: READ THE COMMENTS FOR A LOVELY SURPRISE ABOUT THE (MOST LIKELY) ORIGIN OF THE MELODY FROM "TENDER FEELING". THANKS, @deke-rivers-1957! You're the best for sharing this! ♥

Jodie Tatum (Elvis Presley) and Midge (Cynthia Pepper) from Kissin' Cousins (1964)

#yes i watched the movie again recently thanks to much discussion around jodie...#i confess i like him a little better now but it's hard to say much... poor jodie almost doesn't shine in the movie #it sucks #i'm sorry if elvis didn't like to do the mock-tennessee twang for jodie but i love how he sounds #i had this song on my list of songs to share but now i watched the movie i just had to talk about this track #it first caught my attention when i was listening to the soundtrack album alone... i didn't even remembered the kissin' cousins scene #but now i have one more reason to say... jodie > josh #don't even make me start talking about josh singing about having two girls at the same time and not being able to choose one yet #i cringed so hard at this #Spotify #elvis history #elvis music #elvis movies #elvis gems #kissin' cousins #tender feeling #1964 #elvis #60s elvis #elvis the king

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justinspoliticalcorner · 7 months ago

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Judd Legum at Popular Information:

In 2024, reliable access to high-speed internet is no longer a luxury; it is a basic necessity. From job applications to managing personal finances and completing school work, internet access is an essential part of daily life. Without an internet connection, individuals are effectively cut off from basic societal activities.

But the reality is that many people — particularly those living around the poverty line — can not afford internet access. Without internet access, the difficult task of working your way from the American economy's bottom rung becomes virtually impossible. On November 21, 2021, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The new law included the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provided up to $30 per month to individuals or families with income up to 200% of the federal poverty line to help pay for high-speed internet. (For a family of four, the poverty line is currently $31,200.) On Tribal lands, where internet access is generally more expensive, the ACP offers subsidies up to $75 per month. The concept started during the Trump administration. The last budget enacted by Trump included $3.2 billion to help families afford internet access. The FCC made the money available as a subsidy to low-income individuals and families through a program known as the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. The legislation signed by Biden extended and formalized the program. It has been a smashing success.

Today, the ACP is "helping 23 million households – 1 in 6 households across America." The program has particularly benefited "rural communities, veterans, and older Americans where the lack of affordable, reliable high-speed internet contributes to significant economic, health and other disparities." According to an FCC survey, two-thirds of beneficiaries "reported they had inconsistent internet service or no internet service at all prior to ACP." These households report using their high-speed internet to "schedule or attend healthcare appointments (72%), apply for jobs or complete work (48%), do schoolwork (75% for ACP subscribers 18-24 years old)." Tomorrow, the program will abruptly end. In October 2023, the White House sent a supplemental budget request to Congress, which included $6 billion to extend the program through the end of 2024. There is also a bipartisan bill, the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, which would extend the program with $7 billion in funding. The benefits of the program have shown to be far greater than the costs. An academic study published in February 2024 found that "for every dollar spent on the ACP, the nation’s GDP increases by $3.89." The program will lapse tomorrow because Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refuses to bring either the bill (or the supplemental funding request) to a vote. The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act has 225 co-sponsors which means that, if Johnson held a vote, it would pass.

[...]

The Republican attack on affordable internet

Why will Johnson not even allow a vote to extend the ACP? He is not commenting. But there are hints in the federal budget produced by the Republican Study Committee (RSC). The RSC is the "conservative caucus" of the House GOP, and counts 179 of the 217 Republicans in the House as members. Johnson served as the chair of the RSC in 2019 and 2020. He is currently a member of the group's executive committee. The RSC's latest budget says it "stands against" the ACP and labels it a "government handout[] that disincentivize[s] prosperity." The RSC claims the program is unnecessary because "80 percent" of beneficiaries had internet access before the program went into effect. For that statistic, the RSC cites a report from a right-wing think tank, the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), which opposes the ACP. EPIC, in turn, cites an FCC survey to support its contention that 80% of ACP beneficiaries already had internet access. The survey actually found that "over two-thirds of survey respondents (68%) reported they had inconsistent internet service or no internet service at all prior to ACP."

[...] The RSC also falsely claims that funding for the precursor to the ACP, the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB), "was signed into law at the end of President Biden’s first year in office." This is false. Former President Trump signed the funding into law in December 2020. The RSC's position is not popular. A December 2023 poll found that 79% of voters support "continuing the ACP, including 62% of Republicans, 78% of Independents, and 96% of Democrats."

In 2024, access to the internet is a necessity and not just a luxury, and the Republicans are set to end the Affordable Connectivity Program if no action is taken. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provided subsidies to low-income people and families to obtain internet access.

#Internet #Internet Access #Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act #Affordable Connectivity Program #Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act #IIJA #Emergency Broadband Benefit Program #Republican Study Committee #Economic Policy Innovation Center

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