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papillon82fluttersby · 2 years ago

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Eurovision 2023 - My ranking

Phew, I had to rush to whip up this ranking before @docholligay ’s two-day event. (Starting tomorrow! Don’t miss it!!)

I based my ranking on the stage performances when available, as I think they are closer to the final products. Let's do this!

37. Denmark - Reiley - Breaking My Heart

Are 12-year-olds allowed in the adults’ competition now? Baby-faced cutie pie got his heart broken by his meanie girlfriend. Never mind the kid’s heart, the excessive use of autotune and choppy chorus is breaking my brain 😖. Last place due to sheer auditory discomfort.

36. Ireland - Wild Youth - We Are One

We’re all different but we all live together and ain’t that beautiful blah blah blah. So trite. A snoozefest. (But we're wearing masks! Isn't that cool? No. Not nearly as cool as last year's space wolves.)

35. Romania - Theodor Andrei - D.G.T. (Off and On)

Skin on stage. I think if you feel the need to put largely-naked dancers on stage as ‘entertainment’ for the audience, it doesn’t speak well of the quality of your song.

34. San Marino - Piqued Jacks - Like an Animal

Menagerie on the dancefloor, or man woos his ladylove with such enticing lyrics as “I can smell you like an animal” – classy. C’mon, baby, let’s romp in the zoo. 🐍🦋🐒🐘🐫🦌🐙🦤

33. Poland - Blanka - Solo

High school girl clique strives to imitate trendy American pop idols – and fails spectacularly due to lack of vocal or dancing talent (the national final performance is particularly painful to watch and listen to).

32. Georgia - Iru - Echo

I have two working theories here: either the song actually means something in Georgian and they used a machine translator that turned it into nonsensical English; or they picked random words in a dictionary and vaguely connected them in a semblance of sentences.

31. Serbia - Luke Black - Samo mi se spava

A tormented lock-in gamer’s anguish about the scary world outside. The staging is just as jumbled and jarring as the electro sounds.

30. Israel - Noa Kirel - Unicorn

This song is about harnessing the power of a unicorn, which apparently entails heavy use of autotune, acrobatic dance moves, and transformation into a centaur (the music video producers really need to shape up on their mythical creatures).

29. Lithuania - Monika Linkyté - Stay

This song about overcoming difficulties doesn’t have much for itself. The mantra repeated during the chorus gets quickly annoying. The lady singer looks very sweet and earnest, though.

28. Switzerland - Remo Forrer - Watergun

Young man has a grand realization and acknowledges that real war is nothing like playing pretend as a kid. Well duh.

27. Cyprus - Andrew Lambrou - Break a Broken Heart

Poor guy got dumped by mean girlfriend and is sad 😢. But worry not, he will overcome this hardship because “you can’t break a broken heart.” That’s about as deep as the lyrics go.

26. Greece - Victor Vernicos - What They Say

Self-pitying guy hates everything and himself. Don’t listen to this one if you’re already feeling low. There’s a real tonal shift between the downright depressing lyrics and the rather upbeat tempo. Also, throughout the music video, my main thought is that I want to give the guy an umbrella and a plumber’s contact details to save his flooded sitting room. ☔

25. Latvia - Sudden Lights - Aija

Indie rock band aims to soothe his weary listeners’ hearts who ache from being confronted to the big bad world out there. (And apparently, based on the music video, the main singer gets drowned by his followers for his efforts.) Sleep-inducing, which, admittedly, is the whole point of the song.

24. Slovenia - Joker Out - Carpe Diem

Group of young people dances all night long to forget about their everyday’s boring routine. The song does a good job translating daytime dreariness into music, but the chorus is too one-tone to convey night-time exuberance. Generally boring.

23. Netherlands - Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper - Burning Daylight

Existential angst about screwing up and rising again. Since this is a male and female duo, I think they could have done something much more interesting with both of their voices by giving them different melodic lines that would complement each other instead of having them sing either individually or in unison. A missed opportunity.

22. Iceland - Diljà - Power

If ESC 2022 was the year of heartbreak, 2023 is the year of toxic relationships – this is the third song on this theme (after Denmark and Cyprus, and we can also add the UK). This one is kind of underwhelming at first, but does pick up power over time. Singer is cute as a button and has a nice energy on stage.

21. Armenia - Brunette - Future Lover

Sweet little girl makes a wishlist about what she’d like in a future boyfriend. The song starts off sweet and cute, then picks up pace in the middle, but the chorus is incredibly repetitive.

20. Azerbaijan - TuralTuranX - Tell Me More

A song about the importance of communication in a relationship. Evidently a worthy aim. For which we needed to resurrect the Beatles, interspersed with rap segments. The trouble is that the resurrected Beatle keeps asking his BF to share his feelings while saying nothing about his own, and though his rapper boyfriend does express himself, I fail to understand what his actual feelings are. Not so great communication after all.

19. Austria - Teya & Salena - Who the Hell is Edgar?

Satiric critique of the music industry. The chaotic energy is strong in this one. Fun, though.

18. Albania - Albina & Familja Kelmendi - Duje

Distraught daughter laments the loss of family time caused by the vagaries of modern life. Said daughter’s family perform as backup singers on stage. Heavens, Albina is SO dramatic, she would rip her heart out on stage and offer it to us still pulsing and bleeding if she could. Meanwhile, some of the accompanying family members look vaguely uncomfortable, like they’re wondering what they’re doing there. Rather hilarious on the whole.

17. Croatia - Let 3 - Mama ŠČ!

PUTIN EAT MY A** TRAAAKKKTOOORRRRR. Charlie Chaplin’s The Dictator meets the Village People. It’s a whole thing.

16. Czechia - Vesna - My Sister’s Crown

Woman empowerment anthem. I’m really curious what the staging will be like for this one.

15. Belgium - Gustaph - Because of You

LGBTQ+ inspirational anthem put to 1990s retro sounds.

14. Malta - The Busker - Dance (Our Own Party)

Kid who’s uncomfortable with noise and crowds leaves large venue to continue the party with a select few friends in a more comfortable setting (honestly, that’s me). Sax-heavy jazzy/funky tunes. They’re doing some interesting stuff with the staging, using props a little bit like a theatre play.

13. Moldova - Pasha Parfeny - Soarele și luna

Local shaman is planning his wedding to his destined bride, blessed by the sun and moon – all very mystical. Between the chanting women and the ethnic flute, it’s difficult not to see this as a mix of France’s and Ukraine’s entries from last year, although this is hardly the only number inspired by folklore over the years.

12. United Kingdom - Mae Muller - I Wrote a Song

Young woman who was wronged by a dirty cheater redirects her energy towards a creative outlet instead of giving in to her negative and destructive feelings. Fun and peppy britpop.

11. Finland - Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha

Crazy person on a boxing ring invites you to a night of boozing and getting smashed. Did I mention the crazy? This song is a terrible influence: the more I listen to it, THE MORE IT GROWS ON ME, SEND HELP!

10. Germany - Lord of the Lost - Blood & Glitter

Glam metal rock band sings about the multifaceted nature of humankind. Or something. This is absolutely not the kind of music that appeals to me, and yet I can recognise that the song has its merits – it’s not all one-tone loudness, and the singer has a nice voice when he deigns to sing rather than screech.

9. Ukraine - Tvorchi - Heart of Steel

Unsurprisingly, Ukraine sings about resisting in the face of adversity. Honestly I would have been happier with Ukraine winning last year with this song instead of Stefania. The Ukrainian lyrics look like they’ve been thrown in like an afterthought though. The staging uses some interesting visuals, although the crossed-out nuclear symbols are very much on the nose; I’m sure there would be a way to convey the same idea more elegantly.

8. Australia - Voyager - Promise

Australia invites you to go out and explore the world. They’re not trying to out-eurovision everyone else with grandiose performances this year and it’s working out for them.

7. Estonia - Alika - Bridges

The lady can sing. Self-reflexion is good for the soul, says the lady. The song starts soft and ends up strong, with some changes in pacing in-between. I like the melodic line, particularly in the lower registers, as well as the “round and round” effect of the chorus, like a carousel.

6. Sweden - Loreen - Tattoo

This is SO formatted for Eurovision. It’s not like it’s a bad song but I feel like I’m being spoonfed pre-packed expected winner material. Also, the melody of the opening lines reminds me very much of ABBA’s The Winner Takes It All. Coincidence? Homage? Poaching?

5. France - La Zarra - Evidemment

La grande glam queen. I’m still bitter that she was just nominated by the French Eurovision organisation, robbing us of an evening’s fun and the opportunity to vote. O the irony of going to Canada to pick an artist who claims to sing, quote, “la Grande France” (as if that is even a thing). But, okay, I’ll admit that she has a great voice. And the song is a good mix of oldie tunes and modern sounds.

4. Spain - Blanca Paloma - Eaea

Poetry on stage. Haunting in the best possible way. And they're doing interesting stuff with the staging. Love it.

3. Portugal - Mimicat - Ai coração

Woman falls into madness waiting for her lover. The successively increasing and lowering pace gives a lot of dynamic to this number that looks like it could belong to a musical. The staging and dancing is laid out like clockwork. Very engaging and entertaining. (How did this rank so high? I liked the song okay when I first listened to it, but to make it to the top three…)

2. Norway - Alessandra - Queen of Kings

A banger. I dare you to listen to this song and not be ready to run to battle with a cutlass between your teeth. A rousing anthem that takes its roots in sea shanties and female empowerment. For some reason, the music video took inspiration from the flurry of dystopian YA books and movies from a few years ago. Go figure.

1. Italy - Marco Mengoni - Due vite

When I started listening to the songs to do this ranking, I fully expected that the struggle for top place would be a battle of queens between Norway, Spain, France and Estonia (Portugal sneaked up on me). And yet here comes Italy. Damn it, Mengoni could sing whatever he likes with this dulcet voice full of emotion and this luscious language – I would follow. The Pied Piper of San Remo! One remark though: the video from the national performance is 4 minutes long whereas the Eurovision piece will have to be cut down to 3 minutes – what will that do the flow of the song? We'll have to wait and see.

So there you go, that’s my ranking! Happy Eurovision season, everyone!

#eurovision #eurovision 2023

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ao3feed-newsies · 12 days ago

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Insert Cool Title

by, LVP1N by LVP1N Part 1 in a series I'm doing. A newsies canon era fic with two original characters (Dots-Julia and Flower-Elise). Dots is the sister of one Spot Conlon. Shes a Manhattan newsie. Idk how to do summary's tbh. Words: 990, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Julia and my fandoms because why not Fandoms: Newsies - All Media Types Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/F, M/M Characters: Original Newsie(s), David Jacobs, Albert DaSilva (Newsies), Smalls (Newsies), Spot Conlon, Jack Kelly (Newsies), Racetrack Higgins, Sarah Jacobs (Newsies), Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Morris Delancey, Les Jacobs, Romeo (Newsies), Oscar Delancey, Joseph Pulitzer, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt Jr., Kid Blink, Mush Meyers, Specs (Newsies), Snipeshooter (Newsies), Sniper (Newsies), Tommy Boy (Newsies), Bumlets (Newsies), Skittery (Newsies) Relationships: Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Kid Blink/Mush Meyers, OFC/OFC Additional Tags: Canon Era, Original Character(s), I'm Bad At Tagging read : https://ift.tt/p7DdXk9 - November 04, 2024 at 01:33AM

#AO3feed #newsies #fanfic #newsies fanfic

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chrisevanslovesposts · 21 days ago

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Pilot

Harper and Rory walked into Luke's to see there mother sitting right at the table by the door.

"Hey. It's freezing." Rory said as Harper shivered.

"Oh, what do you need? Hot tea, coffee?" Lorelai looked between her kids.

"Lip gloss." Rory said

"Aha. I have vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and toasted marshmallow." Lorelai said setting a small bag down.

"Anything in there not resembling a breakfast cereal?" Harper asked

"Yes. It has no smell but it changes colors with your mood." Lorelai set another bag down.

"RuPaul doesn't need this much makeup." Rory said looking at all the makeup filled up in the bags.

"She's crabby." Lorelai tilted her head at Rory.

"I'm sorry. I lost my Macy Gray CD and I need caffeine." Rory said

"I have your CD." Lorelai pulled it out of her big bag.

"Thief." Rory said taking it back.

"Sorry, I'll get you some coffee. Want some Harper?" Lorelai asked and Harper nodded her head then Lorelai grabbed to mugs and walked up to the counter.

A guy walked up to their table saying hi telling them about him.

"Yeah, I've never been through here before." The guy said as Lorelai walked back over.

"Oh, you have, too." Lorelai said walking up behind him.

"Oh, hi." The guy said turning to her.

"Oh, hi. You really like my table, don't you?" Lorelai said setting the two mugs on the table.

"I was just, uh..." the guy said

"Getting to know my daughters." Lorelai put a hand on the back of both their chairs.

"Your.."

"Are you my new daddy?" Rory asked in a sweet voice

"Wow. You do not look old enough to have a daughter. No, I mean it. And you do not look like a daughter. Any of you."

"That's possibly very sweet of you. Thanks."

"So... daughters. You know, I am traveling with two friends, ones not here. He's at the hotel but..."

"She's sixteen and she's eighteen." Lorelai smiled

"Bye." The guy said and him and his buddy walked out.

"Drive safe." Lorelai said

Lorelai bent down beside them both as all three laughed.

"Talk to me about room four. What was wrong with it? Kiss." Lorelai said kissing both her daughters cheeks as they walked up to her in the Inn.

They walked behind the desk as Lorelai talked to the plumber. Rory started looking for stamps in the drawer.

"What is your offspring doing?" Michel asked

"I need stamps. Can I have these?" Rory asked

"No."

"Take them. What's with the muumuu?" Lorelai pointed at the sweater she was wearing.

"Stop." Rory told her.

"I'm just saying, you couldn't find one made of metal in case anyone has x-Ray eyes?" Lorelai told her.

"And now we say goodbye." Rory said grabbing Harpers sleeve walking away.

"Hey, have Michel look at your French paper before you go." Lorelai told Rory.

"Excuse me?" Michel asked

"That'd be great." Rory said walking over to him.

"No." Michel said stubbornly.

"Come on, Michel. I'll tell all the ladies what a stud you are." Rory chuckled.

"Hm. I believe that memo has already been sent." Michel chuckled then continued going through papers.

"Oh, please, Michel. Pretty please with sucre on top. I will stop talking like this." Lorelai said taking in a French accent.

"Leave it. I'll look at it if I get a chance." Michel told her.

"It's due tomorrow. And pay attention to the grammar." Rory told him giving him the paper.

"Come, Rory." Harper told her grabbing her arm and pulling her.

"Harper!" Harpers best friend, Charlie, yelled at her and she waved at her running over to her.

"Bye, Rory, bye Lane." Harper called to Rory and her best friend.

"Hey!" Harper ran up to Charlie.

"He- Harper! Watch out!" Charlie yelled at her but she was too late and Harper was knocked down by a brick wall.

"Oh. My, god. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" A male voice asked her.

She rubbed her head and looked up to match the voice to the head. Her eyes widen when she met with her school crush, except he wasn't in school no more. He had blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, clean shaved face, built, and was really nice. Theodore Grant. He's one year older then her. He graduated last year from Harvard, really smart, so smart that he graduated early, skipped high school all together and went straight to college. He works for his fathers business. He's an accountant. He's only 19. One of Stars hollow's best and brightest.

"Are you okay?" He repeated his question

Harper shook her head realizing she was staring at him. She stood up brushing the imaginary dirt off her pants.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Your good. It was an accident....bye." Harper said then walked over to Charlie.

"What did you say to him?" Charlie asked as they started walking into the school.

"I'm gonna be honest with you... I blackout the whole time." Harper told her as both started to laugh as they walked in.

They went in and sat down in class waiting for the teacher to start explaining stuff to them.

"For those of you who have not finished the final chapter of Huckleberry Finn you may use this time to do so. For those of you who have, you can start on your essay now. Whichever task you choose, do it silently." The teacher told them then sat down.

Harper was already halfway done with the essay, so she just continued to work on that. After school her and Charlie went walking around town then stopped at Luke's. They walked in and sat at the bar which he was stood behind.

"Hey, Harper." He said setting a cup of coffee down in front of her.

"Yes! You already knew." She smiled as he filled her coffee cup up.

"It's your moms fault you drink as much coffee as her. She probably had you drinking coffee for breakfast at five." Luke as he grabbed a blueberry muffin and set it in front of her.

"No... at six." Harper told Luke as she chuckled and he walked away.

Later Harper and Rory went to the Inn. When they didn't find Lorelai at the front desk they went to the kitchen.

"Mom!" Harper called as they walked in to see Lorelai and Sookie looking at her and Rory with smiles.

"You're happy." Rory said.

"Yeah." Lorelai nodded her head.

"Did you do something slutty?" Harper asked her.

"I'm not that happy." Lorelai said then her and sookie started laughing.

"Here." Lorelai said handing Rory and Harper a bag.

"What's going on?" Rory asked

"Open it." Lorelai told her.

Harper and Rory both pulled out a blue and white checker skirt.

"We're gonna be in a Britney Spears video?" Harper asked

"You're going to Chilton!" Sookie yelled happily and Lorelai slapped her arm.

"Oh, sorry!" Sookie apologized.

"Mom?" Both girls said

"You did it, guys. You got in." Lorelai held up two papers.

"How did this happen?" Rory asked

"You didn't with the principal, did you?" Harper asked making a face.

"No, honey,that was a joke. They have open spots. You're gonna start on Monday." Lorelai told them.

"I don't believe this. We're going to Chilton!" Rory grabbed her sisters hand before they both turned and hugged their mother.

"Sookie, we're going to Chilton." Harper and Rory hugged Sookie.

"I'll make cookies. Protestants love oatmeal." Sookie told them.

"I have to call Lane." Rory said walking out.

"I've got to call Charlie!" Harper walked out after her sister.

Harper ran out and grabbed the phone and dialed Charlie's number. She picked up on the second ring.

"Guess what?" Harper said excitedly into the phone.

"What?" Charlie asked back with just as much excitement.

"I'm going to Chilton. Me and Rory got excepted." Harper yelled into the phone.

"Oh,my, god. No way. You have to meet me somewhere. We got to celebrate!" Charlie squeeled.

"I know. Where?" Harper asked

"How about we get food from Luke's then got have picnic at the park, with some music." Charlie asked

"Oh, you know it." Harper yelled then hung up and ran out of the Inn.

Harper and Charlie were walking through the hallways of school.

"I've got to go to Math. I'll see ya." Charlie told her.

"Okay, see ya." Harper said and Charlie walked away.

Harper was over to her locker putting her books in her locker. She took her bag and open it and started to shove everything in her locker in it. Theodore suddenly came up to her leaning against the locker next to her's.

"Hey." He said smiling at her with his bright teeth.

"Oh, hey." Harper smiled at him.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, again." He told her.

"Oh it's okay, things happen..... so.. what are you doing here?" Harper asked

"Oh, I have to teach accounting to one of the higher up classes. How I became at so young." Theodore told her sticking his hands in his pocket.

"Oh, sounds fun. Let me guess a lot of the students draw, sleep, stare out the window. Do everything except listen to you?" Harper said she took the mirror off her wall and put in her bag.

"Yeah, pretty much. I've got to go to Chilton next week." He told her as he watched her shove a bunch of pens and pencils in her bag.

"Oh, really. I start there on Monday." Harper told him.

"Really? That's why your cleaning out your locker." Theodore told her.

"Yep." She said popping the p as she zipped up her and shut her locker.

"So, I was wondering if this weekend you would want to go see a movie. Or anything really?" Theodore asked walking with her to her next class.

"Uh, sure. We could go to Luke's after." She smiled at him as he nodded his head as she walked into her class.

He grabbed her jacket sleeve pulling her towards him.

"Let's make it a date?" He asked her letting her jacket sleeve go.

"... uh, y-yea, sure." He nodded her head.

"Awesome. I'll call you tomorrow." He said and leaned down and kissed her cheek.

Harper blushed as she watched him walk away. As the bell rung she rushed to her seat.

"Hello class today..." her teacher started.

That night Harper went to Luke's with Lorelai and Rory. She was sat with Rory and Lorelai and it was completely quite. They both sat picking at their food.

"So, you were late getting home tonight." Lorelai said

"Yeah, I went to the library." Harper said putting a piece of lettuce in her mouth.

"Oh. I forgot to tell you guys we're having dinner with your grandparents tomorrow night." Lorelai said then took a sip if coffee.

"We are?" Rory asked

"Mm-hmm." Lorelai nodded her head

"But it's September." Harper said confused

"So?"

"So what holidays in September?" Harper asked

"It's not a holiday thing. It's just dinner, okay?" Lorelai said slightly harshly.

"Fine, sorry." Harper looking down at her plate as Luke walked over setting three burgers on the table then the check.

"Red meat can kill you. Enjoy." Luke told them.

"So, I finished hemming your skirts today. A grunt of acknowledgment might be nice." Lorelai said after all Harper did was smile at her and Rory did nothing.

"I don't understand why we're going to dinner tomorrow night. What if I had plans? You didn't even ask me." Rory asked her picking at her food.

"If you had plans, I would've known."

"How?"

"You would have told me."

"I don't tell you everything. I have my own things."

"Fine, you have things."

"That's right. I have things."

"Hey, I had dibs on being the bitch tonight."

"Just tonight?"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Harper finally spoke looking at her sister.

"I'm not sure I want to go to Chilton." Rory finally spoke knocking Lorelai and Harper silent.

"What?" Lorelai.

"The timing is just really bad."

"The timing is bad?"

"And the bus ride to and from Hartford, it's like 30 minutes each way."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing."

"Plus, I don't think we should be spending that money right now. I mean, I know Chilton's got to be costing you a lot. I think, Harper would agree with me." Rory spoke as Harper looked at in disbelief.

"You were just talking about how mom didn't ask you about having plans tomorrow. Well what about me. What about my last year of high school. You can't just make a decision like that without me, especially when it includes both of us." Harper told her then stood up and walked out of the diner.

"Harper!" Lorelai yelled after but she kept walking.

Harper was walking when she past Miss Paddies dance class where a bunch of little girl danced.

"Hey, Harper." Miss Paddy smiled at her.

"Hey, Miss Paddy." Harper smiled at her and kept walking.

"Hey! Harper!" She heard and turned around to see Theodore walking towards her.

"T-Theodore, hey." Harper smiled at him as he caught up to her and slowed down to her pace.

"What are you doing?" He asked sticking his hands in his pocket.

"Walking home. What about you? What are you doing?" Harper asked him as she looked at the ground

"Same. I saw you. Thought we could talk." Theodore told her as they walked at a slow pace.

"Okay, sure." Charlie nodded her head shoving her cold hands in her pocket.

"Well, what movie you wanna watch, also do you wanna do anything after Luke's. Go sit at the pond, go to the bookstore, anything really, or just go back home." Theodore asked her as she smiled at him.

"We could go do anything you want." Harper told him as he smiled at her and they stopped walking turning to each other.

"Okay, well, I'll pick you up Saturday than, how about 6?" Theodore asked her

"Yeah, sounds good." Harper blushed as Theodore leaned in and pressed his lips to her cheek before walking away from her.

When Harper got home she walked through the living to find her mother to I try sitting on the couch. Lorelai leaned up turning off the music looking at her oldest daughter.

"Your both going Chilton whether you want to or not. Is your's over a boy too?" Lorelai asked.

"What? Okay, I wanted to go to Chilton. It was Rory who didn't think to include me in her decision to not go. I don't care if she wants to or not, I will be going. I don't care if she doesn't go, I WILL be going." Harper explained to her mother before going upstairs to her room.

Harper stood at the counter flipping through as Rory sat on the chair beside in the Inn when their mother came up.

"Hey, no muumuu today. You know what's weird, I kind of miss it." Lorelai told Rory.

"You left us notes to meet you here?" Rory asked

"Thought you might wanna work a couple hours. Make little extra cash."

"Fine."

"You're not giving me the Mommy Dearest treatment ever, are ya?"

"You wanted us here, we're here. Should I do something or what?"

"Yeah, go home. Dinner's at seven. Be ready to go."

"Fine."

"Fine." Rory stood up to leave with Harper right behind her.

"You don't need to be a bitch." Harper told Rory as they walked outside.

"Excuse me?" Rory turned to her.

"You know what i mean. Don't be a jerk because Mom is making you go to a school you've always wanted to go to and now you're trying to throw it away for a boy. She's trying to make sure you don't do what she did. She wants us to go to college and to have a future so don't be rude cause she doing her damnedest to make sure you have an actual career when your older." Harper told her before walking off.

Harper got dressed in this⬇

All three of them stood on the porch of Emily and Richard Gilmore's mansion.

"So, do we go in or do we just stand here reenacting The Little Match Girl?" Rory asked as Lorelai stared intensely at the door.

"Okay, look, I know all of us are having a thing here and I know we all hate each other at the movement but I need you both to be civil. At least through dinner, on the way home you can Melendez. Deal?" Lorelai looked between her girls.

"yeah"

"Fine."

Lorelai sighed as she pressed the doorbell. The door opened a second later and they all smiled as they saw Emily.

"Hi, Grandma." Rory and Harper both smiled.

"Well, you're right on time."

"Yeah, yeah, no traffic at all." Lorelai smiled as they walked in and took there coats off.

"I can't tell you what a treat it is to have you girls here." Emily took there coats from them.

"Oh, well, we're excited, too." Emily put there coats on the rack before looking back at Lorelai.

"Is that a collector's cup or can I throw it away for you? In the kitchen, please." Emily told Lorelai after she tried to throw the cup in the bin by the door.

"Sorry." Lorelai scratched the back of her neck.

"So, I want to hear all about Chilton." Emily said putting her around Rory and Harper guiding them to the living room.

"Well, we haven't actually started yet."Rory explained as Harper pushed Emily arm off her shoulder walking away from the conversation to her mother who still stood by the coat rack.

"God. Just like then." Harper said as Lorelai put the cup in the bin.

"Let's go, before she gets mad." Lorelai said and they followed Rory and Emily into the living room where Richard sat reading the magazine.

"Richard, look who's here." Emily said as Harper walked up next to her sister as Richard looked up at them.

"Rory. Harper. You're tall." Richard looked between the girls.

"I guess." Rory shrugged.

"What's your height?"

"Five-seven." Rory answered.

"Five- eight and a-half." Harper answered after.

"That's tall. Their tall."

"Hi, dad." Lorelai walked in.

"Lorelao, your daughter's are tall."

"Oh, I know. It's freakish. We're thinking of having her studied at M.I.T."

"Huh?" Richard raised his eyebrows before putting his glasses back on getting back to the newspaper.

"Champagne, anyone?" Emily came over with 5 champagne glasses filled.

"That's fancy." Lorelai looked down at glasses grabbing one as Rory and Harper grabbed one.

"Well, it's not every day that I have my girls here for dinner on a day the banks are open. A toast to Rory and Harper entering Chilton and an exciting new phase in their lives." Emily said as they all raised their glasses.

"Here, here." Richard said not looking up from the newspaper as everyone took a sip.

"Mm. Well, lets sit everyone." Emily said and everyone sat down.

"This is just wonderful. An education is the most important thing, next to family." Emily explained.

"And pie." Lorelai joked which even made Richard look up from his paper.

"Joke, joke." Lorelai explained sitting down finally.

"ah." Emily nodded her head with a fake smile.

The room was silent as Harper tipped her head back downing the rest of the champagne and setting the glass down.

"I'm gonna need about 5 more of these to make it through the night." Harper leaned over to her mother who smiled at her as Richard handed spare newspaper to Rory for her to read.

Once the food was down they all went to the dining room where maids brought food and drinks in and out.

"Girls, do you like the lamb?" Emily looked between Rory and Harper.

"It's good." Rory nodded her head as Harper gave a thumbs up cause her mouth was full.

"Too dry?"

"No, it's perfect?"

"Potatoes could use a little salt, though." Lorelai said as Harper took a drink of the red wine sat in front of her and she was forced to hold it in as she did her best not to laugh as Emily gave an insulted look.

"Excuse me?"Emily asked as Harper dapped her mouth with a napkin.

"So, Grandpa, how's the insurance biz?" Rory changed the subject quick.

"Oh, people die, we pay. People crash cars, we pay. People lose a foot, we pay." Richard shrugged.

"Well, at least you have your new slogan." Lorelai told him.

"And how are things at the motel?" Richard asked her.

"The inn? They're great."

"Lorelai's the executive manager now. Isn't that wonderful?" Emily asked him.

"Speaking of which, Christopher called yesterday." Richard took a sip of his wine.

"Speaking of which? How is that a speaking of which?" Lorelai looked over at Rory and Harper.

Harper had always called Christopher dad, all growing up she did till she was about 8. Now it's Christopher. The main reason he was ever called dad was because he's knew her since she was born. He was the mole role model in her life. It made sense, since Lorelai and Christopher were destined to be together in the first place. But after Harper had grown up a bit and formed her own opinion she had never really counted him as dad. When he was around she was gone. She didn't talk to him much. It's not that she didn't like him, it was more of she didn't want to be attached. And since she had a slight attachment to him already from him always being in her life since she was first born she didn't want that to grow. The closes guy she had been to since him was Luke. But that was okay, cause Luke and Lorelai weren't a couple and she never planned on calling him dad. Though the thought of Lorelai and Luke together made her smile she knew it would never happen.

"He's doing very well in California. His Internet start-up goes public next month. This could mean big things. Vert talented man, your father." Richard looked between the Harper and Rory as Harper set her utensils down and napkin clearing her throat.

"They know." Lorelai spoke.

"Christopher isn't my father." Harper spoke making Richard and Emily look at her.

"Well, of course he is. He's the only male role model in your life, he's known since you were first born. You use to call him dad. What happened?" Richard asked

"I realized he wasn't anything close to being my father. I like Christopher but he's not my father." Harper told them.

"But if he's not your father then how are you our grandchild? You couldn't be."Richard asked

"Well it defiantly not like you haven't treated me any differently than Rory my whole life. I know I'm not blood related I get reminded everyone we see each other. And Christopher doesn't have to be my father for me to be your grandchild. I have to Lorelai daughter. Or did you forget that she's daughter too? You sure don't treat her like one. The only one of us who gets treated with some decency here is Rory." Harper stood up from her chair.

"Oh, come on, Harper sit down. You know it's not true." Richard shook his head.

"Then why make the comment on me not being your grandchild?" Harper asked him before turning and walking out of the room.

"Harper! Harper!" Lorelai yelled after her but Harper grabbed her coat walking out the front door.

Harper walked to the bus station that took her back to Stars Hollow. Harper walked into Luke's going up to the counter.

"Hey, I thought you guys were at the grandparents house?" Looked asked setting down a cup coffee in front of her.

"Yeah, it didn't go great. The other are on their way back by now, I'm sure. I left early and go the bus back. Had I small screaming match with mom's father." Harper told him as he gave her sympathetic look.

"Need a hug?" Luke asked, even though he wasn't much of a sucker for affection people. He didn't being nice to Rory and Harper.

"No. Thanks though. I'm sad or mad about to be honest, I don't care." Harper shrugged sipping her coffee as Luke set a chocolate chip muffin in front of her.

"Thanks." Harper thanked him as he walked around the counter patted her shoulder before going to the next customer.

10 minutes later Lorelai and Rory walked into the door. Harper went and joined them at the table near the door.

"I think it was really brave of you to ask them for money." Rory said.

"Oh, I so do not want to talk about it." Lorelai said as Harper sat down and Lorelai set her hand on Harper shoulder.

"So, how many meals is it gonna take till we're off the hook?" Rory asked

"I think the deli spread at my funeral will be the last one." Lorelai said making both girls chuckle.

"Hey. Wait does that mean.." Harper smiled

"Can't let a perfectly good plaid skirt go to waste."

"Aw, honey, you won't be sorry." Lorelai said as Luke walked over taking their order and that was Harper noticed he was dressed in fancy clothes.

"Wow! You-you look nice. Really nice." Lorelai looked down at his outfit.

"I.... had a meeting earlier at the bank. They-they like collars. You look nice, too." Luke smiled at her.

"I had a flagellation to go to." Lorelai nodded her head.

" You parents I heard.......So, what will you have?" Luke asked.

"Coffee, in a vat." Lorelai said making Luke sigh and his good mood disappear.

"I'll have coffee also. And chili fries." Rory told him.

"Can I get another muffin?" Harper asked as Luke looked around at all of them.

"That's quite a refined palate you got there." Luke said then walked away as Lorelai watched him.

"Behold the healing powers of a bath. So, tell me about the guys." Lorelai looked between her daughters making Harper raise an eyebrow.

"Miss Patty." Lorelai nodded her head.

"You know what's really special about our relationship? The total understanding about the need for one's privacy. I mean, you really understand boundaries." Rory sarcastically spoke.

"So tell me about the guys." Lorelai looked between the sisters.

"Mom!" Both girls groaned.

"Are they dreamy?"

"That's so Nick at Night."

"I'm gonna find out anyway."

"Really?How?"

"Uh, I'll spy." Lorelai scoffed as Luke came to there table with coffee, fries, and a muffin.

"Coffee, Fries, and a muffin. I can't stand it. This is so unhealthy. Please, put down the cup of coffee. You do not wanna grow up to be like your mom." Luke spoke

"Sorry, too late." Harper spoke taking a sip as all girls smiled at each other then looked up at Luke who just smiled at them then walked away.

"So tell me about the guys."

"Check, please."

"Are you embarrassed to bring him home?"

"I'm not embarrassed."

"Does he talk at all?"

"No, mom, he's a mime."

#gilmore girls #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #richard gilmore #emily gilmore #Luke #Kirk

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whatisonthemoon · 2 years ago

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WACL Involvement in Kennedy Assassination

From anarchist newspaper Black Flag: For Anarchist Resistance (September 7, 1987)

▲ Pictured: Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy assassin, with his wife and child

Information has come our way that seems to substantiate the theory that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was set up by the organization now known as the World Anti-Communist League. We present this information below.

In 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald was transferred from a U2 base in Japan for special training in Taiwan, the headquarters of the Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League. Not long after, Kennedy received a letter from a former member of the House of Representatives that the Soviet Union was training terrorists to commit murder in Western Europe and the USA. As if to underline this, one of Jaroslav Stetzko’s leading men, Stefan Bandera, was assassinated in Munich. A Russian agent, Bogdan Statshynsky, was charged with his murder, although there is now proof that it was carried out by agents of the Gehlen Organization (West German Intelligence).

(Bandera was involved with WACL—then known as World Anti-Communist Congress for Freedom and Liberation; WACCFL for short. Both Stetsko and Bandera were high up in the Anti-Bolshevik Block of Nations—ABN. During Statshynsky’s trial, Bandera’s widow was represented by Kersten, a member of the central committee of WACCFL.)

When Oswald returned to the US from a visit to the USSR in 1972, he was met by a former FBI agent, Spas T. Raiken, who led a cover agency known as the Travellers Aid Society. Raiken ensured that Oswald was transferred to Dallas where he joined the extreme right Russian exile community. It is worth noting that Raiken was also the secretary-general of the American Friends of the ABN and affiliated with WACCFL.

Immediately before the assassination of Kennedy, Oswald resided at the WACCFL office in Gamp Street, New Orleans. This address was also the place where Oswald chose to set up a local for his Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Maurice B. Gatlin, a WACCFL affiliate who had associations with top WACCFL people such as Fritz Cramer, Ku Cheng Kang, and Nestor Procyk, also resided there. Only a few hours before Kennedy was murdered, a leaflet entitled ‘Wanted for Treason’ was distributed in Dallas. The leaflet accused Kennedy of betraying the USA to the communists, particularly eastern European nations, Cuba, and Katanga. It is possible that WACCFL produced this leaflet.

Directly after the murder, the European spokesperson for WACCFL, Gerhard Frey, who was also the editor of the Nazi paper Deutsche Nationale Zeitung und Soldatenzeitung, published accusations against Oswald that not even the FBI knew about before he had been apprehended. It should be noted that General Edwin Walker, a personal friend of Frey's, was investigated by the police in connection with a possible conspiracy. Walker, along with the oil billionaire HL Hunt, was a well-known supporter of the ABN as well as WACCFL. Later, a letter was found from Oswald to Hunt.

To understand all of this, it is necessary to look at some of the background to what had been going on. Recent submissions to the Christie Institute refer to Operation 40, set up against the Castro regime by Vice-President Nixon in 1959. Built into this was a sub-operation organized by the mafia head Santos Trafficante to assassinate Guevara, Fidel, Raul Castro, etc. Members of the sub-operation, known as the Shooters Team, included Rafael Quintero, Felix Rodriguez (aka Max Gomez), Luis Posada Carilles, Frank Sturgis (aka Frank Fiorim), etc.

Interestingly the first three named were later to be indicted in the Contragate scam, while Sturgis, it should be remembered, was a member of the Plumbers Unit of Watergate fame.

It has later been claimed that Kennedy had no knowledge of the Shooter team and that if he had he would have called them off. Kennedy instead reorganised Operation 40 and renamed it Operation Mongoose, appointing Theodore Shackley and Thomas Clines (both CIA and later involved in Contragate) as the chief organisers.

The headquarters of the operation was named JM Wave station in Miami, and Trafficante was kept on to supervise operations at a local level. Trafficante of course was the country’s leading drugs baron and was using the profits from his criminal operations to fund his political activities.

His ‘political activists’ were of course using their status as CIA ‘agents’ to further their drugs and arms trafficking operations. It can be surmised that if their association with the CIA was ended officially then some of their operations would be jeopardised.

The story comes full circle when it is shown that Jack Ruby had been working direct to Trafficante in Miami. Ruby of course was the man who spectacularly finished Oswald off before the FBI had a chance to properly interrogate him.

#Lee Harvey Oswald #john f. kennedy #anti-communism #cia #wacl #world anti-communist league #Stefan Bandera

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kiillmeromantically · 1 year ago

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theodore had noticed his new neighbor the day she had moved in. she was a bit impossible to miss and he knew it. he knew that she was newly divorced and it was her first time on her own. he knew that she wanted him but he didn't think it mattered. in fact he thought it was charming to a point that she kept coming to him for help. he found himself still up late one night when he heard a knock on the door. he had been going over notes for a new patient and he chuckled the moment he answered the door," good evening holly." he had the feeling it was a rouse but he wasn't about to call her out on it. instead he motioned for her to show him back to her place," i'm afraid i'm not as skilled as a plumber would be, being an academic but lets see what i can do." his hand hovered at the small of her back as he stepped outside," and you are quite lucky i'm a night owl."

closed starter for @kiillmeromantically holly x theodore

As a newly divorced woman Holly was still in an adjustment period of living on her own again. Not only did this mean she needed some help with random household tasks but in general she missed the company of a man in her bed. Thankfully she happened to live next door to a very handsome man. Sure he was a little older than her but that was part of the appeal on her end. Which is how she found herself at his door. "Hey Theodore," she smiled hoping her scantily clad outfit would draw him in. "I know it's a little late but uh, it seems something might be wrong with my bathroom sink? It just won't stop dripping and I can't get to sleep. So maybe you could help me with that," what she wanted to say is he could fuck her to sleep if he wanted but she would only share that if he initiated a flirty banter between them.

#c: theodore #theodore ft holly #cherrysugcr

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witchbinchstories · 2 years ago

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For Sure?

Pairing: Crutchie x Jack Kelly (Newsies)

Summary: Crutchie returns from the Refuge and Jack has many feelings about the return.

Words: ~700 (it’s very short oops)

Contains: Light angst I guess?, fluff, my attempt at writing New York accents without going overboard

A/N: This is basically just a rewrite of the final scene in Newsies Live where Crutchie comes back from the Refuge to be both a romance between Crutchie and Jack, but also just a better acknowledgement of Crutchie returning because in the show it’s lowkey just like “Crutchie’s back!!! Ok Jack isn’t gonna say anything about his guilt of Crutchie ending up in the Refuge, let’s move on” so yeah.

—————————————————————————

“Hey, Jack! Look who’s here!”

Jack turns around, away from his excited conversation with Davey, Les, and Katherine, and his eyes land on the only person who’s been on his mind for the past few days as the strike has come to an end: Crutchie. A bruised, dirty, and messy-haired Crutchie whose face lights up when he returns Jack’s gaze.

“Crutchie…” the name escapes Jack’s lips like a whisper as he approaches his friend. He almost can’t believe he’s here, that this is real. When he tried to see Crutchie in the Refuge, it seemed like he would never be able to escape, yet here he was.

“Jack,” Crutchie responds, a soft lopsided smile gracing his lips as he looks up at Jack. He opens his mouth to say more, but before he can say anything, he’s lifted off the ground and squished tightly in a hug.

“‘M sorry. I’m so sorry, Crutchie, I tried to come an’ see you, I did, but there were too many guards and I couldn’t make it. I’m sorry,” Jack confesses as he sets Crutchie back down, still holding onto the sides of his waist. Crutchie’s heart breaks as he sees tears forming in Jack’s eyes, and that causes some to form in his own.

“It’s okay, Jack. I know you had to keep the strike goin’. I wouldn’t have wanted you to risk throwing all that away. And besides, it’s the strike is what got me outta there.”

“The strike’s what got you in there, too.”

Crutchie pauses for a moment as he realizes Jack’s guilt. “No, bad men like Snyder are why I was there. Not ‘cause of the strike, but ‘cause the Refuge existed in the first place,” Crutchie lifts his hand not helping to support his crutch up to cradle Jack’s face, “it weren’t your fault, Jack.”

Jack manages to crack a smile at Crutchie’s kind heart, and even huffs a laugh. “You’re too sweet to me, you know that, right?”

“I am not,” Crutchie laughs.

And then Jack is staring at him softly, hands still loose at Crutchie’s sides, and he’s leaning in. Crutchie is surprised when Jack’s lips meet his, but not opposed to it by any means. Jack’s lips are surprisingly soft against his own, and they bring a warmth he was missing while he was in the Refuge, and Crutchie is glad to be back with him. Back home.

“Oooooooooo!” The other Newsies drawl as Crutchie kisses the older boy back.

When he pulls away, Crutchie swears he sees a pink dusting across the brunette’s cheeks before Jack turns around to playfully yell at the other Newsies.

“Mr. Kelly, I have to say I’m sorry to see you go,” Roosevelt says as he approaches Jack and places an arm on his shoulder, “Your drawings helped close the Refuge and bring back your friend. I’d be excited to see all the other things they could bring to light in the newspapers. But I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully in Santa Fe.”

“Thank you,” Jack responds, giving him a nod before Roosevelt walks away.

“Don’t you ever get tired of singing that same old tune? What’s Santa Fe got that New York ain’t? Sand storms?” Davey asks, stepping up beside Jack.

“Better yet: what’s New York got that Santa Fe ain’t?” Katherine adds, coming up to stand on the other side of Crutchie.

“New York’s got us. And we’re family,” Crutchie says, “And besides, you’ve got one more ace up your sleeve.”

“What would that be?” Jack asks, a toothy grin appearing as he turns back to Crutchie.

“Me. Wherever you go, I’m there right by your side.”

“For sure?”

“For sure.”

“Maybe I should stay… I never had a family before, but I have a home here. A home made by you.” Jack says to Crutchie, and then turns to look at Katherine, Davey, and Les. “And I guess we do have a family now.”

The others bunch in to come together in a big hug, squeezing each other tightly and never wanting to let go.

“Besides, we’ve got a union to run!” Les exclaims, looking up from the middle of the hug at his brother and their friends.

#newsies #broadway newsies #newsies 1992 #jackcrutchie #jack kelly x crutchie #jack x crutchie #jack kelly #crutchie #katherine plumber #david jacobs #les jacobs #theodore roosevelt #canon rewrite #i blame my director for me writing this

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inevitablemoment · 3 years ago

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So, I watched the Newsies pro-shot last night, and now I’ve found myself falling back in love with Jack and Katherine. Just want to share a few random bits and pieces that popped into my head about Jack and Katherine’s life post-canon.

Jack and Katherine’s wedding date was September 25th, 1901. This was Katherine’s wedding dress; it’s definitely faded, but just imagine how beautiful it was at the time it was created:

This is a dress that Katherine wears when she brings Jack as a date to a birthday party held for one of her brothers (and yes, I’m gonna write a fic about it soon):

Here is Katherine’s engagement ring, which once belonged to Jack’s mother; he held onto it after all those years, thinking that he would sell it if it came down to it... but then he met Katherine:

Jack and Katherine have five children together:

Rose Lucille Kelly (born December 5th, 1902)

Rose mainly takes after her mother in looks, but she has her father’s hazel eyes. Her birth was very difficult, lasting for sixty hours, and she weighed nine pounds when she was born. She has her father’s energy and her mother’s ambition. While she dabbles in journalism, her true passion is fiction; she writes a few short stories that her proud grandfather has published in the newspaper. His death in 1911 devastated her and sent her into deep depression. It was only the birth of her brother, Jacob, that helped begin to lift her out of it. When she grows up, she writes a semi-fictional book about the Newsboys’ Strike of 1899 (from the perspective of her father and mother), which in that universe, becomes the base of the 1992 film and the stage musical.

Theodore Larkin Kelly (born June 14th, 1904)

Katherine went into labor during a Flag Day celebration at the Pulitzer mansion; as is often with second babies, baby Theo’s birth seemed to go by much quicker than Rose’s birth. He’s a sensitive soul and a quiet child (a definite miracle for someone of Kelly blood) who didn’t even say his first word until he was almost three (for those of you who are curious, his first word is “Mama”). He’s also very empathetic to a fault, heavily effected by world events happening in the world. After the 1918 flu pandemic and his mother’s brush with the illness, he decides to become a doctor himself. During the Second World War, he becomes a medic overseas. Unfortunately, despite his precautions, he contracts cholera. While the patient survived (and not without guilt), he died in 1943, leaving behind his family, including a wife (who became pregnant when he received Christmas leave) and twin daughters. His wife gave birth to another baby girl, whom she named Theodosia (affectionately called “Teddy” by her Grandpa Jack).

Elaine Josephine Kelly (born October 28th, 1909)

Little Elaine Kelly seemed to be born for the theater; at the age of two, while visiting Medda Larkin’s theater with her parents, she ran onstage before a show and began singing to “aws” and applause. She embraces the flapper movement, and performs onstage. She spends her teens dreaming of Hollywood the same way her father once dreamt of Santa Fe, eventually becoming a star of the stage and the screen.

Jacob Charles Kelly (born April 28th, 1912)

Named for Davey Jacobs and Charlie “Crutchie” Morris, obviously, though he is definitely a mini-me of Jack. While his siblings are all exceptional artists, he is the only one who pursues it as a true career aspiration. In fact, when Jack retires, Jacob takes over the cartoons.

Beatrice Grace Kelly (born July 28th, 1914)

The happy occasion of Beatrice’s birth was eclipsed by the beginning of the first World War. She was a very adventurous and inquisitive child. But she never left New York City for long, eventually settling down as a schoolteacher, marrying at the age of thirty-five, adopting an orphaned three-year-old girl, and welcoming a biological son and daughter.

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ryunumber · 3 years ago

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Rufus from Deponia

Rufus has a Ryu Number of 2/3/4.

(clarification below)

Some might say the above is proof of indecision. I choose to say that the above is proof of comprehensiveness.

There are four characters that I’ve chosen to highlight above as connections to Rufus.

Mario: I’m generally fairly loathe to count dubious Mario cameos, but Goodbye Deponia does take it step further by making interacting with the plumber mandatory for progress. More specifically, you have to give him mushroom swill, upon which he immediately strikes a jumping pose midair then talks about how he feels taller and bigger, then gets enamored with a blond patron.

And the achievement you get for doing so?

Still, it’s worth finding a route that’s a bit more bulletproof. To that end, thanks to Daedalic Entertainment’s tendency to sneak in cameos in all of their games, Rufus can be spotted falling into a stack of hay in Anna’s Quest, a game that’s filled to the brim with references to German folklore, mythology, and literature.

From Anna’s Quest, I’ve singled out three characters of interest:

Mephistopheles: Technically speaking, the character in question is only ever officially named as “Devil”, which is vague enough that making specific connections to other devil figures is questionable. However, in Chapter 3, talking to the priest Theodor has him bring up a very specific name for the lord of dark.

Combined with Mephistopheles usually being the devil most strongly associated with the German legend of Faust, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that in this game, made by German developers, bursting at the seams with references to German storytelling, the devil in question is Mephistopheles.

That being the case, the route then connects to Fate/Grand Order, where Mephistopheles appears as part of Arc 1′s London Singularity and is also a clown.

Cinderella: In Chapter 5, you come across a servant girl named Cindy who makes some fairly obvious references to the Cinderella story.

If you grant this is Cinderella, besides her life pretty clearly not reflecting how most Cinderella stories go, there’s an interesting twist in that this is specifically Cinderella as retold by the Brothers Grimm, since the fairy godmother is completely absent and replaced with a tree spirit, referencing the hazel tree in Aschenputtel.

I haven’t found any other game that includes the Brothers Grimm take on Cinderella, so if you consider that to be meaningful different from the more well-known Perrault version, then this is a dead end. But if you don’t, the route goes through Cinderella’s presence as a Princess of Heart in Kingdom Hearts.

(And if there’s a decent reason to treat Disney’s Cinderella as a separate entity from other Cinderellas, there’s also a route through NIS’s The Guided Fate Paradox, because why not. We’re already splitting far too many hairs, might as well preemptively split a few more.)

Minerva: While not German, near the end of Anna’s Quest, a Minerva is summoned via ritual, and given the association with wisdom and straight up Latin speech, it’s reasonable to assume the Minerva in question is the Roman goddess.

All fine and dandy, but where you go from there depends very heavily on what you make of Greco-Roman mythology; namely, whether or not Minerva and Athena are the same mythological entity.

If the answer is “definitely”, then the Minecraft route through the Greek Mythology Mash-up gives 2.

If the answer is “definitely not“, then the Assassin’s Creed II route gives 4, as long as you’re willing to paper over Minerva being part of a progenitor race that came to be deified and also being encountered as a probably sentient projection of a consciousness. (You know, Assassin’s Creed.)

If the answer is “maybe?”, then as a result of SMITE treating them as the same (explicitly, in the supplemental lore to the Odyssey 2018 event, as long as Manerva is just an alternate spelling of Minerva), the SMITE route can give 3 by splitting the characters into “definitely Minerva” and “definitely Athena”.

#rufus #rufus deponia #deponia #daedalic entertainment #ryu number

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dweemeister · 3 years ago

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The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)

Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, remains best-known for his children’s books. The Cat in the Hat; Green Eggs and Ham; and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! are household names in English-language literature. Seuss’ bibliography overshadows his work in films, beginning with the adapted screenplay of his own book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) – directed by George Pal as part of the Puppetoons series. During WWII, Seuss was heavily involved in propaganda films and the Private Snafu (1943-1946) military training films. After the war’s end, Seuss returned to writing children’s books, but also continued to write for movies. The Academy Award-winning animated short film Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) benefitted from Seuss’ story work, and Seuss’ success there inspired him to write a screenplay for a live-action fantasy film. That screenplay – the unwieldy rough draft coming in at over 1,200 pages – was The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. The eventual movie, produced by Stanley Kramer (1960’s Inherit the Wind, 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg) and directed by Roy Rowland (1945’s Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, 1956’s Meet Me in Las Vegas) for Columbia Pictures, would be Seuss’ only involvement in a non-documentary feature film.

Like many who speak English as their first language, Dr. Seuss’ books graced my early childhood. So integral to numerous children’s youth is Seuss that his whimsy, wordplay, and authorial stamps are easily recognizable. In that spirit, the cinematic record of live-action Seuss adaptations consists of the scatological Jim Carrey in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and the visual nightmare that is Mike Myers as The Cat in the Hat (2003). Compared to the original works, both films are ungainly, casually cruel, and overcomplicated. Not promising company for Dr. T. But even taking into account the three animated feature adaptations of Seuss – Horton Hears a Who! (2008), The Lorax (2012), and The Grinch (2018) – and the fact that Columbia forced wholesale deletions from the rough draft script of Dr. T to achieve a feasible runtime, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T is arguably the most faithful feature adaptation to Dr. Seuss’ authorial intent and signature aesthetic.

In other words, this is one of the strangest films you may ever encounter. No synopsis I could write in one paragraph will ever capture the film’s bizarreries.

Little Bart Collins (Tommy Rettig) is asleep during piano practice and his teacher, Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried), is furious. His overworked, widowed mother Heloise (Mary Healey) intuits Terwilliker’s unrealistic expectations (Terwilliker wants to teach the next Paderewski) towards Bart’s piano skills and inability to concentrate. Heloise also appears to be quietly eyeing the plumber August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes) and his wrench. With the lesson done for the day, Bart falls asleep again. This time, he dreams that Terwilliker is now the leader of the Terwilliker Institute, a pianist supremacy mini-state which is built upon five hundred young pianist slave boys (hence, 5,000 fingers) forcibly playing Terwilliker’s latest compositions. His mother is Terwilliker’s unwilling, hypnotized assistant and plumber August Zabladowski (Hayes is essentially playing the same character, but in a different world) is Bart’s only ally around. Together, Bart and Mr. Zabladowski must evade the Institute’s guards as they attempt to undermine Terwilliker’s plans for his next concert.

In its final form, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T is a muddled mess of a story. The analogues between Bart’s reality and his dreams are inconsistent, several would-be subplots never resolve (or at the very least develop beyond a basic idea), and the film’s initial lightness is subject to rapid mood swings that make this picture feel disjointed. Indeed, Seuss’ sprawling social commentary in his first draft – including allegories and themes of post-WWII totalitarianism, anti-communism, and atomic annihilation – is in tatters in this final product. The viewer will witness brief fragments of those ideas, remaining in this movie as the barest of hints of the contents of the original screenplay’s rough draft. Even now, Dr. T inspires psychiatric analyses and accusations that Bart’s relationship with his mother reveals signs of an Oedipal complex (to yours truly, the latter is too much of a reach). The grim nature of Terwilliker Institute renders Dr. T unsuitable for the youngest children. For older children and adults, try going into this movie without expectations of narrative logic and embrace the grotesque aspects that only Seuss could imagine.

If my attempts to describe this movie’s preposterousness through its narrative and screenwriting approach have failed, perhaps I can capture that for you by writing on its technical features.

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For its sheer narrative inventiveness – inconsistencies, abrupt tonal shifts, nonsense, and Rowland’s uninspired direction aside – The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T is nevertheless an ambitious film, and Columbia bequeathed a hefty budget to match that ambition. Much of that budget went to the film’s visuals. This is an extravagantly-staged motion picture, as nothing could do Dr. Seuss’ illustrations justice without fully committing to his geometric impossibilities: skyward ladders and improbable connections between rooms, an eschewal of right angles and straight lines, and architecture bound to raise the ire of physics teachers. One could compare this to German Expressionism, but Dr. T’s sets tend not to dictate the film’s mood nor are they subject to high-contrast lighting. Seuss went uncredited as the concept artist on Dr. T, and it was up to Clem Beauchamp (1935’s The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, 1952’s High Noon) and the uncredited matte artists to commit those visuals to the real world. Outside of animated film, Beauchamp and the matte artists succeed in creating twisted sets that seem to leap off the pages of Seuss’ most artistically interesting books. Some of the sets appear too stagebound, but the production design accomplishes its need to resemble a world borne from a fever dream (or, at least, a young pianist’s nightmare).

This movie’s outrageous costume design (other than Jean Louis’ gowns for Mary Healey, the costume designer/s for this film are uncredited) comprises absurd uniforms and two of the most ludicrous hats – the “happy fingers” cap (see photo at the top of this write-up) and whatever the hell Terwilliker dons in the film’s climax – one might ever see in a film. Most of the costumes are laughably impractical and ridiculous to even those without fashion sense. In what might be the tamest example, while working under Terwilliker, Bart’s mother wears a suit that is all business formal on the left-hand side and bare-shouldered, sleeveless, and nightclub-y on the right. The delineation of real life – which barely features in the film’s eighty-nine minutes – and this world of Bart’s dreams could not be any more unambiguous thanks to the combination of the production and costume design work.

The disappointing musical score by Fredrich Hollaender (1930’s The Blue Angel, 1948’s A Foreign Affair) and song lyrics by Seuss rarely connects to the larger narrative unfolding. Seven songs make the final print, with nine (yikes!) Hollaender-Seuss songs ending up on the cutting room floor. Seuss’ wordplay is evident, as are Hollaender’s melodic flourishes. Columbia, a studio not known for its musicals, assembled a 98-piece orchestra – the largest musical ensemble to work on a Columbia film at the time – for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T alone. That lush sound is apparent throughout for the numerous nonsense songs that color the score in addition to the incidental score. It is unusual to listen to a collection of novelty songs orchestrated so fully. Listen to “Dressing Song: Do-Mi-Do Duds” and its complicated, seeming unsingable lines:

Come on and dress me, dress me, dress me In my peek-a-boo blouse With the lovely inner lining made of Chesapeake mouse! I want my polka-dotted dickie with the crinoline fringe For I'm going doe-me-doe-ing on a doe-me-doe binge!

The rich orchestration seems to hail from a more lavish film. But too many of these songs are scene-specific, and rarely does Hollaender utilize musical quotations from these songs into his score. “Get Together Weather” is delightful, but it seems so isolated from the rest of the film; elsewhere, “The Dungeon Song” exemplifies a macabre side to Seuss seldom appearing in his books. Nevertheless, Hollaender is able to demonstrate his playfulness across the entire film, none moreso during any scene with the bearded, roller-skating twins and the “Dungeon Ballet”, in which the music complements stunning choreography and fascinating props that recall the jingtinglers, floofloovers, tartookas, whohoopers, slooslunkas, and whowonkas from the Christmas television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). Yet, Hollaender’s film score and the soundtrack with Seuss seems to demand something – anything – to tie the entire compositional effort together. Perhaps a song or some cue like that was cut from the film, which is ultimately to its detriment.

Hans Conried (who starred as Captain Hook in Disney’s Peter Pan several months prior to Dr. T’s release) stands out from a decidedly average Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healey – Hayes and Healey, in a sort of in-joke, were married. Conried’s performance as the sadistic, torture- and imprisonment-happy music teacher can be considered camp, but this is anything but “bad” camp. He throws himself completely into this cartoonish role, sans shame, complete with mid-Atlantic accent, and topped off with exaggerated facial and physical acting that fits this fantasy. As Bart, child actor Tommy Rettig (best known as Jeff Miller on the CBS television series Lassie) seems more assured in his performance than most child performers his age during the 1950s. His fourth wall-breaking asides seem more appropriate in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but Rettig makes it work, and inhabits Bart’s flaws wonderfully.

Columbia demanded numerous reworkings of Seuss’ script, leading to several reshoots – most notably the opening scene (Seuss opposed the conceit of Bart’s dream framing the film) – and a ballooning budget. Upon its release in the summer of 1953, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T bombed at the box office and was assailed by critics. A crestfallen Seuss, who could not stand the production difficulties that beset the film from the start of shooting, would never work in feature films again. He would dedicate himself almost entirely to writing and illustrating children’s books, with many of his most popular titles (including The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and Green Eggs and Ham) published within a decade of Dr. T’s critical and commercial failure. His hesitance to participate in filmmaking informed his reluctance to allow Chuck Jones to adapt How the Grinch Stole Christmas! thirteen years later. Animation suited his books, Seuss thought, and he would never again pay any consideration to live-action filmmaking.

The reevaluation of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T has seen a rehabilitation of the film’s image in recent decades. Home media releases and television showings have introduced the film to viewers not influenced by the hyperbolic negativity of the film critics working in 1953. This is not a sterling example of Old Hollywood fantasy filmmaking, due to a heavily gutted screenplay, scattershot thematic development, and incongruent musical score. Yet, the movie’s surrealistic charms and Seussian chaos know no peers, even in the present day.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T #The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.#Dr. Seuss #Roy Rowland #Peter Lind Hayes #Mary Healy #Hans Conried #Tommy Rettig #Allan Scott #Stanley Kramer #Frederick Hollander #Rudolph Sternad #Cary Odell #William Kiernan #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

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