#Thinking about lib family dynamics today

[paranormaltheatrekid]

GUYS!!!!! What if Pokey taught Webby how to play instruments and that’s why Hannah knows how to play the ukulele and maybe even why Miss Holloway can play the guitar.

[silvercrystalwhump]

The Death of a Tyrant

Vincent Shield belongs to @ashintheairlikesnow

TW: antagonising, bbu content warning, owen grant

-

The lights shine down across the stage, three cameras spin and whirl in the shadows beyond. Vincent can feel the eyes beyond the camera watching every hair on his head. He can almost feel the millions of eyes on the other side of the lens.

Today was a long day of interviews for the first television show that he’s ever been in and Ann’s, the young actress to his left, first-ever adult role.

Vincent can almost feel her anticipation through his skin. The poisoned nostalgia freezes the air in his already tense lungs. The interview boasts eyes of venom and they are poised directly at him.

This interview was supposed to be about the show.

It turned into a drama cast very quickly.

“So,” The interview leans back, eyes scouring across Vincent’s face. He can feel the resignation behind his eyes. Simmering coals eat under him. Vincent can feel the question before it leaves his lips, “How has the recent tape release affected you, Vincent. It must be rather hard to deal with the aftermath of being forced to come out.”

Vincent pierces his lips. Watching the lens on the camera pointed at him shift, Vincent draws up the mask, “While I would rather we keep this conversation on Iscariot and the Strings of Time, I will say that there has been many people who have been very helpful during a time that has been definitely stressful.”

The interview looks almost disappointed, eyes dropping into shadows before perking up as the focus returns to him. Vincent can really tell in these moments that this man sitting across from him and Ann was once an actor. Every movement in his face is planned and Vincent can see Ann’s gaze trying to avoid his.

She’s not used to this.

“Vincent, how do you feel about the Director’s new Box Babe, Kat?”

There it is.

Vincent sighs, “Han and I have had a conversation about this. He did not want his decision to get in the way of professionalism. He is aware that I will not hesitate to contact the Commission if I see any sign of abuse.”

The interviewer pauses, waiting for more words to come. They do not.

Then, Ann laughs, shifting in her seat, “It looks like he pulled an Owen Grant, Kat looks so much like his ex-wife to the point where it’s almost uncanny.”

The air stills for a second as the words settle into the floorboards. The sound of the lights quietly can be heard above. Those few heart-chilling seconds seem to eat at the very fabric of his turtleneck. It suddenly feels just a little too tight.

The interview picks up again, “Well, I believe that all of us can say that we are looking forward to seeing how you two work together in this new dynamic.”

Vincent draws a smile onto his face with an invisible sharpie. Ann scrambles to scoop up her own as the camera does doubt pans out to view them all.

“Are you allowed to reveal a date?” The interview leans in, the side of his face away from the camera twitching slightly.

Ann nods and nearly bounces out of her chair. Vincent remembers the excitement when he was younger that came with being the one to say the date. He used to itch for it when he was with his old studio. Something else I’ve lost.

“The first episode will be available on Netflix on November 1st!”

The interviewer sits up straight and clasps his hands together, “I cannot thank you enough for your time out here today, thank you everybody for tuning in and we all anticipate the debut of Strings of Time.”

Vincent watches as the cameras are shut off and pulled away. He holds himself in the chair until all of the cameras have been pulled away and the interviewer stands. In one movement he is off of the stage and talking with someone. Vincent brings his hands on the armrests and pulls himself to his feet.

Vincent floats for the door, plans to go home, and just passes out on the couch already bubbling across his vision. He hates the air conditioning here.

Why did he have to get brought up?

Vincent adjusts his blazer and steps out of the recording studio. Regretting wearing a turtleneck, he makes his way towards his dressing room. The sound of his shoes clicking against the tiled floor echoes around him. Air catches in his throat as the faint memory of a different set of oxfords walks down a hall only a wall away from him. The memory tastes like Coke.

Just grab your paperwork and go home.

A hand grabs his arm, “Excuse me, Vincent.”

Vincent spins around, panic, like an ivy spreading up his veins. Ann stands behind him, looking a bit flustered, “I need to apologies to you.”

“For what,” Vincent asks, forcing his muscles to relax.

Ann smooths out the edge of her blouse and forces her eyes, “Once the words came out of my mouth I realized how insensitive it was to just… nonchalantly mention the Owen ordeal as um.”

“Hey,” Vincent says, “I- You were nervous I could tell, I’m not offended.”

“Yeah, but especially since his mother just passed and he’s going to be working with us I- it feels wrong, I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry, what!

“I accept your apology, Ann. Don’t think too much of it. This is your first gig since moving into adult acting, right?”

Ann nods, leaning back on her heels. It is painfully obvious that she is very new to interviews that ask unscripted questions.

“It’s alright,” Vincent reassures, “Honestly Ann, don’t stress about accidentally stumbling over words. It happens.”

Ann relaxes just a little, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay, thank you,” Ann smiles, letting gallons of air escape her tense lungs. She turns around and trots for her room a few halls down. As he watches her walk away the nostalgia hits him like a truck. The people-pleasing, the desire to be perfect, to be without controversy, makes him flash a piteous smile and shake his head.

He straightens his spine and turns around.

A very intense woman is standing behind him.

“Oh, hello,” Vincent nearly exits his skin as she draws her gaze up to him, “I didn’t realise you were there.”

“Vincent Shield, am I correct?”

Vincent nods, squirming under her very intense gaze, “Yes, you are.”

She holds out her hand, “Keira Harker.”

He takes her hand and shakes it, “Pleasure to meet you Ms. Harker. How can I be of service?”

“You’re known to be very active in the Pet Lib movement and you were basically responsible for the creation of the Commision correct?”

Where is this going? “I wouldn’t say that I’m responsible, there are many people who helped put in place the building blocks that would lead to the Commision.”

“I am aware,” she responds, holding her gaze firmer than Vincent does, “However you have a lot of knowledge about the underground and many of the safehouses.”

Vincent raises a hand, feeling himself freeze under the delicate mask, “Ma’am, everything I have done has been within the limits of the law. I can assure you all of my associates are also performing their actions under the law.”

Her face hardens and she takes a small step towards him, “I am not accusing you of breaking the law.”

I have just gotten out of multiple interviews and a press conference and in the press conference, I was called a felon at least four times. I wanna go home and eat Dmitri’s chicken and rice soup.

“All due respect Ms. Harker that is what this is beginning to sound like.”

Keira sighs and relaxes slightly, “I am asking for your help, if I were to accuse you of being a criminal that would not be very productive.”

Vincent lets his body de-tense but he is in no way relaxed, “My apologies Ms. Harker. I have been on the butt end of those accusations for a better part of today. Just on my toes.”

“I understand,” she responds, almost mimicking his behavior, “My brother was… voluntold to join the pet program. I tried everything in my power to find him and I found out that he was sold to the son of a very powerful senator.”

“He was sold to Owen Grant.” Kauri.

Keira nods, glancing over Vincent’s shoulder, “While I wish not to speak ill of the dead, now that she is deceased. I believe it will be easier to discover his whereabouts without WRU getting involved.”

The weight of her words start to weigh on him. If she is looking for her brother, how many others are now looking for their family?

“Well, I agree in that sentiment,” Vincent gestures forward, “If I can have a name, I might ask around to some more of my well versed colleagues.”

Keira reaches into her purse and pulls out a white card, “So, shall we keep in touch.”

“Of course,” Vincent takes the small card and glances down at the contact information, “We’ll be in touch.”

-

Vincent steps inside and can smell something good. He faintly hears Dmitri moving about his kitchen, making dinner. The aroma of fresh bread makes his house feel alive. Dropping his stuff at the door to his office, he floats over to the kitchen.

Dmitri stands in front of the stove, wearing a faded Kiss the Cook apron. Vincent finds a small smile blooming on his face as he steps up to him.

“Soup should be done in five minutes,” Dmitri asks as Vincent leans up onto the counter next to him, “How was the interview?”

“We cannot be doing that the night before an interview,” Vincent mutters and he fusses with the turtleneck. “I have been paranoid that someone has seen this all day.”

Dmitri smiles and chuckles, “Vincent you can barely see them, I highly doubt they would notice.”

“Dmitri, the media would go batshit if I had hickies in an interview!”

Dmitri swills the spoon around in the soup before turning towards Vincent, “You didn’t seem to mind last night.”

Last night, probably one of the first where he was both sober and relaxed. Dmitri had showered him in deep kisses. The two of them practically laughed themselves to sleep that night. They were so close yesterday.

Vincent had felt so. damned. cherished.

“Yeah,” Vincent pouts slightly while he leans into Dmitri, “I didn’t but I did this morning.”

Dmitri laughs, his chest rumbling against Vincent. His finger rests on Vincent’s hips and drums on his belt.

Vincent squints up at Dmitri, “If we get caught because of stuff like that I’m going to wring your neck.”

Dmitri leans down and places a soft kiss on his curls. His breath brushes across the strands and Vincent’s muscles relax. “I would love to see you try, cariño.”

The oven buzzes and interrupts their little moment.

“There’s the bread.”

-

Dmitri and Vincent sit out on his back porch, eating chicken and rice soup and just enjoying the crisp fall air.

“Can I ask you for advice?” Vincent says as he dips some of the bread into the broth.

Dmitri nods and leans in, “Always.”

Vincent rests his head back on the back of the seat, “Let’s say someone approached you and asked you to help them find someone. This someone has been missing for years but you’ve known their whereabouts for a while now. You want to reconnect them but you’re just not sure about what said ‘missing’ person would think? But you also don’t want to just completely cut of the person who asked for your help”

“Ask them,” Dmitri answers as he sips at his broth, “I’d just ask because they may not want to. They could have been trying to leave a difficult situation and don’t want to approach those who could have harmed them.”

Vincent sighs and tries to melt back into his porch cushions, “But what if he tells me not to talk to her at all, how am I supposed to explain that to her?”

“Improv,” Dmitri shrugs, “Lie.”

“Lie to someone who’s looking for her family?” Vincent blinks, “Isn’t that just cruel.”

“How do you know that she’s looking for them to be kind?”

Vincent pauses and lets his eyes wander upwards towards the dusk sky. The sky matches the color of the bottoms of the trees. The reds and oranges ripple above him and a sinking feeling eats in his gut.

“I don’t.”

Dmitri takes a final sip of his soup and gives Vincent a gentle smile, “Just ask them first, they might just wanna meet her and do it themselves. All else fails, just give them her contact information.”

I don’t think Kauri will. “Alright, okay.”

-

Vincent stands at the door to the safehouse. The sounds of the town around him drape the porch in waves of white noise, masking the sounds from within. Reluctantly, he raises his hand to knock on the wooden door frame. His knuckles barely tap it before two sets of locks are unlocked and Kauri opens the door.

They make eye contact and Vincent watches Kauri’s expression shift.

“Make this quick, I have stuff to do.”

Kauri lets Vincent step inside the safehouse. The air of the interior feels heavier than before, solidified by the sound of the deadbolt locking.

“I’m so-”

“If the words I’m sorry leave your mouth at anypoint, I’m gone,” Kauri says as he walks over to the kitchen, “Just get this over with.”

Vincent follows in his footsteps, glancing over at Jake who lays asleep on the pull-out couch. The makeshift IV step sits on the table next to him, out of use.

Remind me to send Nat money over to cover that.

Kauri places his hands on the counter behind him and shifts his weight into it. Crossing his arms out in front of his chest, he looks up over at AJke before returning his gaze to Vincent.

He looks exhausted.

“How has-”

Kauri raises his hand and presses his fingers together, making a “close your mouth” gesture, “Cut to the chase, I have errands to run today.”

“Alright then. A few days ago I was approached by a woman named Keira Harker who asked for my help in finding her brother, Liam Harker, who was taken by WRU. She said that she thinks the person he was sent to was Owen Grant and, now since Carlotta is no longer alive, she can try and find him without her getting in the way,” Vincent says, leaning his weight into the kitchen table, “She gave me her contact information and asked me to help her in finding-”

Kauri spins around and opens the cabinet behind him. Pulling out a white bottle, he sets it down on the counter and mutters, “So she’s looking for me?”

“Yes.”

“What else did you say?” Kauri asks as he pours himself a glass of water, “Did you tell her where the safehouse is? If you did I swear Vincent I’m-”

It’s Vincent’s turn to interrupt, “No, I didn’t say anything. All I said is that I would keep in touch.”

“Good,” Kauri says as he pours two pills out of the bottle and into his hand, “Cheers.” Kauri tosses the pills into his mouth and tilts the glass of water towards Vincent before drinking.

“What are you doing?” Vincent asks, tugging some at the sleeves of another turtleneck.”

“Migraine meds,” Kauri answers, pouring the rest into the sink, “I get them when I hear Liam Harker.” Just like clockwork, Kauri winces and rubs his temple, “Just something else to deal with.”

“I’m sor-”

“I will leave until Nat gets back.”

Vincent purses his lips and watches Kauri walk over to the fridge. The air stills around them in the way the air in a freezer is still. Something hangs over the room, could be the tension, could be the unease, could be the new presence in their lives, Vincent can’t tell.

“I have her contact information if you want it,” Vincent speaks, trying to shoo away the stillness, “On your time.”

Kauri pauses mid-reach. He rests his forehead against the fridge handle and says, “I- maybe later. I have far too much on my plate right now, running to the safehouse almost by myself. Nats with Jameson at her house, Jake is still recovering, the whole issue with Chris and Laken, the Oly- I just can’t take on something else right now.”

“I get it,” Vincent nods, shifting his weight onto his back foot, “I’ll keep it if you want it when all of this blows over. But, if she does try to press me for information-”

“Pretend you have no idea who me, Nat, and Jake are,” Kauri answers while pulling out a plastic pitcher of what smells like cold brew, “If I ever decide to contact her I’ll deal with it, okay? I’m just not ready or have the time right now.”

Vincent leans back on one foot to try and see the clock on the wall, “Um. what time is Nat supposed to get here, we have money stuff I have to talk to her about.”

“Around four,” Kauri answer while pouring himself coffee.

The sound of the deadbolt unclicking sounds softly crosses the room. Kauri barely glances over his shoulder.

“Is Nat back already?” Vincent asks as he tries to see the door.

“Nope,” Kauri says, popping the p. “Just Chris.”

“I- I’m back and I have Laken,” Chris beams as he dashes past with Laken in hand, “Oh hi Vince.”

Vincent gives Chris a small wave, “Hi Chris.”

“Wait- is that Vinc-”

But Chris has already whisked Laken away before they could get the last words out. Vincent follows them with his eyes for a moment before looking back at Kauri.

Kauri looks relieved. A tired smile adorns his face as he takes a sip of the cold brew.

Vincent doesn’t ask, he puts enough of the dots together to know something just fixed itself. Good for them.

“Anywho,” Kauri chuckles, looking back over at Vincent, “A turtleneck won’t hide your sins Vincy.”

“Shit, how obvious has it been?!” Vincent panics and readjusts the hem of his shirt.

“I was just joking...” Kauri’s smile deepens as the mischief returns to his face. He gives Vincent a look over and sing-songs, “...So, what’s Dmitri like?”

“We just kissed Kauri!”

“Sure, and I just kiss Jake.”

“Kauri!”

[hardcorehardigan]

[Cover: GREG WILLIAMS/AUGUST IMAGES]

Tom Hardy interview and exclusive David Bailey shot

Tom Hardy interview and exclusive David Bailey shot

By DANIELLE DE WOLFE

02 September 2015

ShortList meets the British actor who took on the Kray twins and won. Plus an exclusive image of the actor taken by the inimitable David Bailey.

Interviewing Tom Hardy is not like interviewing other film stars. From the moment he arrives – alone, dressed down in hiking trousers and black T-shirt, puffing away on a complex-looking digital e-cigarette – it is immediately clear this is not someone who will be exhibiting any kind of on-promotional-duties polish. He is very, very nice (I get a hug at the end of the interview), but there is unmistakably a wired edginess about him. When we sit down, it starts like this:

Me: I’m going to start with an obvious question, which is… Hardy: Have you seen the film? Me: Yes. I… Hardy: Right, well that’s the first question, then. The second one is, “What did you think?” I tell him I loved it, and why, and he is pleased (“That’s a f*cking result!”). When we move on to me asking him questions, his answers – again, in contrast to other film stars, with whom the game is to get them to veer slightly away from prepared, succinct monologues – are smart and eloquent, but long, drawn-out and enjoyably all over the place, veering off into tangents prompted by thoughts that have clearly just formulated. At the end of our allotted time, we are told to wind it up not once but twice, and even then he is still going, launching into theories about American versus British gangster films and life and humanity and such things (“Sorry man, I can talk for f*cking ever!” he laughs). He will be talking with a seriousness and sincerity (“All the risk was taken by [writer and director] Brian [Helgeland], to be fair…”), then will switch without warning into a piercing, mock-hysterical falsetto (“…letting me PLAY BOTH F*CKING ROLES, MAN!”).

In fact, briefly, while we’re on the subject of the way he speaks…

Tom Hardy’s normal speaking voice is not something we have been privy to onscreen. Since he delivered – whatever your opinion of it – the most imitated cinematic voice of the decade in The Dark Knight Rises, we haven’t come close. That thick Welsh accent in Locke, The Drop’s quiet Brooklyn drawl, the Russian twang in Child 44: we just never hear it. And this might be because it doesn’t exist. It’s five years ago, but if you watch his Jonathan Ross appearance in 2010, where he is very well spoken, he confesses he “sometimes picks up accents, and sometimes I don’t know how I’m going to sound until I start speaking”. If you then watch another video of a feature on GMTV, dated just a month previous, while addressing some young people from troubled backgrounds as part of his charity work with the Prince’s Trust, he is speaking to them in a south London street kid drawl. Today, in the flesh, he is about halfway between these two.

A natural-born chameleon.

Tom Hardy shot by David Bailey for ShortList

BEING DOUBLE

The role we are here to discuss today does not, by Tom Hardy’s own standards at least, involve a huge stretch accent-wise. But it is “the hardest thing that I’ve ever done, technically”. This is because, as mentioned, he plays not one role, but two. In the same film. You will likely have seen the posters for Legend by now, depicting Hardy as both of the Kray twins. Which seems an ambitious, almost foolhardy undertaking.

Hardy agrees. “It is one of them situations,” he says. “You get an actor to play two characters, and immediately, it’s pony. It’s gonna be rubbish. Just: no. It’s a bad idea.”

This particular “bad idea” came to him when he first met writer and director Brian Helgeland (who had previously written screenplays for – no biggie – LA Confidential and Mystic River) for dinner. Brian wanted Hardy to play Reggie (the hetero, alpha male, more-straight-down-the-line Kray). Hardy, though, had read the script, and of course, being Tom Hardy, was drawn to the more complex character. “I was like, ‘Well, I feel Ronnie,’” he says. “So which actor am I gonna give up Ronnie to, if I play Reggie? Errrrrggh…. I can’t have that. ’Cos that’s all the fun there! And Reggie’s so straight! But there was a moment when I could have come away just playing Reggie. We could have gone and found a superlative character actor to play Ronnie, and that would have been the best of everything."

But Helgeland sensed the dissatisfaction in his potential leading man. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, he wants to play Ron,’” he tells me. “And the paraphrased version is that by the end of the dinner, I said, ‘I’ll give you Ron if you give me Reg.’”

And so began their quest to turn a risky, potentially disastrous idea into something special (as Brian puts it to me, “the movie’s either gone right or gone wrong before anyone even starts working on it”). Hardy found some comfort in Sam Rockwell’s two-interacting-characters performance in Moon. “I’m a big fan of Sam,” he says.

“And Moon gave me reason to go, ‘I know it’s possible to hustle with self, to create a genuine dialogue with self.’ So then it’s the technical minefield: can you authentically create two characters within a piece at all? So that the audience can look past that and engage in the film? It is what it is: it’s two characters played by the same actor. But I think we got to a point where people forget that and are genuinely watching the story."

This was the ‘why I liked the film’ reasoning I gave to him at the beginning of the interview. And it is a remarkable performance, or pair of performances, or triumph of technical direction. The opening shot features both Tom Hardy Krays sitting in the back of a car, and feels strange, but very quickly, within about 10 or 15 minutes, you settle into it, and forget that it is actually the same guy. This was made possible, in part, by Hardy’s stunt double from Mad Max: a New Zealander named Jacob Tomuri.

“He inherited the hardest job of my career,” Hardy grins. “I put on a pair of glasses, played every scene with Ron, then took ’em off and played Reg. And we went through every scene in the film, recording it on the iPhone. So he’s got every scene of me doing both characters, on his iPhone. He actually played both brothers, had to learn all of the lines. He was paying attention twice as hard to keep up. But he superseded that, and was eventually ad-libbing. There’s a line that ended up in the film, where Ronnie goes, ‘I bent him up like a pretzel, I hurt him really f*cking badly.’” “Where did that come from?!” Hardy shrieks, in that falsetto again. “It came from New Zealand."

The wife’s tale

The other big potential pitfall, as Hardy sees it, was contributing to the ongoing glamorisation and eulogising of two brothers who were, to say the least, not very nice. Somehow they have become almost as iconic a piece of the Sixties puzzle as the Beatles or the Stones. But this was not something that Legend would be setting out to reinforce. “One has to approach these things thinking about the families of the victims who were involved in the other end of it,” he says. “Before you find the heart to like somebody, you’ve gotta look at their track record as best as possible: the people who’ve been hurt, the bodies, the suffering, people who were bullied, who lived in terror, who lost significant parts of their lives in the wake of these two men. There’s a lot of sh*t to wade through. And a lot of people who do not, quite rightly, want to see anything to do with these two men. And if I were them, I wouldn’t want to be involved myself, but there’s also part of me that wants to know. That wants to get under the skin.”

So how do you go about doing that? About humanising, to any extent, such people?

“I think the first port of call is, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do and say whatever you wanted to do and say in the world, regardless of the ramifications and the consequences?’ Ultimately, when I – we – go to the cinema or read a book or we go to escape, we respond to certain types of characters that go, ‘F*ck it: I’m gonna do whatever I want.'

And that’s because we can’t. Because most people would feel a responsibility.”

The answer to how Legend would do this came in the shape of a person who did feel some responsibility, namely Frances Shea: the troubled wife of Reggie, who died in 1967. Played by Emily Browning, she became the centre of the film when Helgeland met Krays associate Chris Lambrianou, who told him that “Frances was the reason we all went to prison”.

“We could have put more of the carnage and the crimes in that film,” says Hardy. “Not to say that it is not there, but what you do see, really, is Reggie, Ronnie and Frances. That’s the dynamic we focused on, that space, which hasn’t been seen before. What was that dynamic like? I don’t know if we came anywhere near the truth, because we weren’t there. But that was the playing field, if you like: Frances Shea, future ahead of her, caught up in something, and no one with her, the suicide. That sits with me in a way as the lead. She’s who we forgot. Ronnie, Reggie, they’ve done their bit. Frances was forgotten. And that kind of all ties it together for me."

FUTURE LEGENDS

The initial praise for Legend has been plentiful, but the mindset of Tom Hardy right now is such that he does not have the time to bask in it. There are other quite ludicrously challenging projects to be pressing ahead with. Coming in autumn is The Revenant, starring his good friend Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu of Birdman fame. Its trailer, as well as doing the not-going-anywhere trend for big beards no harm whatsoever, suggests that it will also match Mad Max in terms of an unrelenting barrage of intensity. Further into the future there’s the Elton John biopic Rocketman (initial challenge? Hardy “can’t sing”) and another foray into comic-book adaptation with 100 Bullets (news of which broke just after our interview).

And right now, as in this week, he’s working on a BBC series called Taboo, which is set in 1813 and stars Hardy as an adventurer who comes back from Africa and builds a shipping empire. The story has been developed by his production company Hardy Son & Baker (formed with his father, Chips) and has been written and directed by Locke/Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, with Ridley Scott also exec producing.

“We’re sat on something really awesome,” says Hardy. “And it’s trying to piece it together. I’ve never produced anything before, so I basically don’t know what I’m doing. But I’ve got some options and solutions: if you say something is not working, you better come up with at least four other options. But it’s good. It’s just different.”

Another day, another big challenge. Another chance to do something different. It isn’t an easy life being Tom Hardy. But neither will it ever a boring one, and that’s good news for us.

Legend is at cinemas from 9 September

Words: Hamish MacBain. Images: David Bailey, Studio Canal

You can also read the Hardy interview in this week's ShortList Magazine. It'd be a crime to miss it.

Source: https://www.shortlist.com/news/tom-hardy-interview-and-exclusive-david-bailey-shot

[xhxhxhx]

~ show us your big discord posts ~ UwU

some oy my Discord posts, partially cleaned up:

On Conservatism:

secular social and cultural conservatism is about maintaining traditions and hierarchies, so it should always appeal more to older folks than younger ones, right?

like, if you're at the bottom of the pole, as you are when you're a kid, it's hard to see the appeal of the hierarchy, right? you might not have found it that hard, sure, but it'd always be easier if you were at the middle or the top.

if you've lived with a set of norms and traditions for decades, you have, well, a reliance interest in them. but it's hard to turn them into a propositional political package, something you can teach as doctrine, because its appeal is ... informal? lived?

you could socialize people into it, through example, but ... the evidence for it is implicit, tacit. you're not usually going to have a special revelation that turns you into a committed conservative, or a striking argument, at least not one that turns you into a secular social or cultural conservative.

but then, you’re an American, and American conservatism was always a little bit of a special case. there's no ancient aristocracy or clerisy to point to, not generally; the political-cultural traditions that most American conservatives point to are barely a few decades old.

because the core is a special kind of ... propositional liberalism: the Founding, the Constitution, a society of ordered liberty and free exchange, the rights reserved to the states and the people, the freedom of individuals and families. 

so maybe the dynamics are different in American conservatism, such that you can learn and adopt it as a set of propositions, which would make the age gradient less sharp than it is elsewhere

On Dynasties:

[i have never seen a meme about how we need a democrat's child to take up that president’s mantle]

the national Democrats seem to have a good number of ~dynasties, and I don't think it's unique to any faction or ideology

it's an information cue, a heuristic, and given the low levels of information most voters have, it's going to be a pretty powerful one. (you can only keep so many bits of information in your head!) you know what "the Clintons" are, you know what "the Kennedys" are, you know what "the Bushes" are, here's another one

it's especially important in candidate-centered regimes, rather than party-centered ones, like in places outside the old Northeast belt, where party machines are weak and candidates have to prove themselves in open primary contests.

(although maybe the effect is too small to detect and the patronage-style regimes of the party-centered contests would look the same, dynasty-wise)

On Liberalism:

[I heard that the right is much more unified than the left?]

yeah, but the right is just much less divided on demography and policy than the ~left. the right is a coalition of the "normative", whereas the left is everyone left over, so that makes for odd company, like the Blacks and Dixiecrats of the midcentury

the left is a coalition of interests, whereas the right is an ideological coalition, which makes Democrats more ideologically divided than Republicans. see Matt Grossmann and David Hopkins’s Asymmetric Politics (Oxford, 2016):

lmao

"Republicans are not only the more ideologically homogenous party, but are also more likely to conceptualize politics as an ideological conflict over political principles between the left and the right. Democrats instead prefer to think of politics as a contest among social groups competing with each other for influence over the government. Each party therefore maintains distinct criteria for judging policy proposals and outcomes, with Republicans prizing compatibility with ideological doctrine and Democrats emphasizing the protection or advancement of group interests."

I guess it's ironic that I pair my ~informal, ~group-centered understanding of conservative formation with a ~propositional, ~ideological understanding of conservatism as a movement

On Identity and Ideology:

[interested in if this changed recently with trump doing a thicc "white identity politics" thing]

enh things generally don't change all that quickly. you would have to check to see, but those long-term trends -- and this has been going on at least since the 1950s, when these surveys started -- don't get wiped out in one or two cycles, even if they might ebb. 

[how does this relate to like the Southern strategy?]

the Democrats understood white Southerners as a set of interest groups, whereas Republicans understood them as a set of would-be ideological conservatives?

like, the conservative appeal to the white South is, like, "you were conservative all along, join the conservative party" and, if you don't understand yourself as "a conservative" yet, then "our ideology preserves what you find valuable”

[conservatives hint at black people sucking tho? it seems very thinly veiled behind talk of values to me]

maybe? it's a trade-off between appealing to people's self-understanding of themselves ("I'm a good person") with useful heuristics for leaders ("you can tell I'm racist because I'm saying the racist thing, so vote for me, you racist")

so the more sophisticated the electoral environment, the more flattering the appeal, and the less sophisticated, the more vulgar. although you can apparently get a lot of mileage out of being vulgar, as our current president shows, so our discourse was probably set at too high a level before. we needed to dumb it down a bit.

[i mean that thing where some bush ran an ad with a big burly black guy criminal saying democrats were bad because they were lenient to him. or "inner city welfare queens", which is basically a meme at this point]

but I think those messages get a lot more mileage and replay on the left than on the right, because they offend the group-centered identities of the left. 

"this is offensive to a critical member of my coalition; friends, please pay attention to how offensive the other party is being," rather than, like "you're a liberal, so vote for the liberal party"

[i guess i'm confused whether you are claiming conservatives actually care more about values than libs?]

I think part of the story here is that the white South was just much more educated by the 1980s than it had been in the 1950s or the 1930s, so the appeal had to be more ... sophisticated

take Lee Atwater, George H. W. Bush's campaign manager:

You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

I think Lee Atwater is talking about how political discourse is increasingly ideological as the white South moves from a Democratic stronghold in the 1950s to a competitive two-party system in the 1980s and ultimately into the Republican stronghold that it is today

"you're getting so abstract ... all these things you're talking about are totally economic things ... [and] "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing," where "abstraction" signifies a move from group-centered talk to ideological talk

and like, at some level all ideological talk should be rooted in something you find valuable (tradition, liberty, white supremacy) but part of its value is that you can reason with it, discourse with it. you can hold a coalition together with it, with a sort of political minimum: small government, low taxes, states' rights.

and you can hold together people who are explicitly or implicitly white supremacists with people who wouldn't think of themselves as at all "anti-Black", because you can say "we're talking about taxes, not race.”

so the Democrats are at once advantaged -- because they're the bigger tent, and can make special appeals to one group after another, and don't even have to think of themselves as ideologues -- and disadvantaged -- because there's something grubby about being a coalition of "special interests", and you can ding them for it.

[it's always funny to me that rural whites and economic elites don't count as "special interests"]

it's a difference in how liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans talk about things!

conservatives don't say "I'm doing this for rural whites and economic elites", whereas liberals do say "I'm doing this for African Americans, Hispanics, the poor, the LGBT" etc

alright I'm gonna leave to watch some anime

[timeagainreviews]

My Favourite TARDIS Teams

Yesterday on Twitter, Doctor Who Online asked the fandom which was the greatest Doctor/Companion pairing ever. This got me thinking. In the same way that I could never pin down a favourite Doctor, I doubt I could pin down a favourite TARDIS team, out of all of the TARDIS teams. But perhaps I could pin down my favourite team per Doctor! It seemed like a nice excuse to talk about some of the characters my reviews hadn’t touched upon yet. You may notice, I left out the War Doctor. While I do love the War Doctor, I’m not sure if any of the people he interacted with in the audios were what you could consider a full companion. That being said, I decided to dip into anything from the comics to the audios in some spots. Please note, this is not a list of who is best, merely, who are my favourites!

First Doctor: Susan, Ian, and Barbara

This one seemed like an obvious choice. It’s hard to argue with the original lineup. However, beyond this trio being the original crew, there’s a lot more to love than seniority. When we meet Ian and Barbara, they’re initially at odds with the Doctor. They’re more captives than companions, which makes their reluctant heroism a story of character development. We watch them become a tight-knit family through shared experience. This is something we see less and less throughout the First Doctor’s tenure, and it’s sad to see. We got characters like Dodo who was clearly added in to be a strand-in for Susan. By the time Ben and Polly show up, it’s as if companions are simply there to witness the Doctor and call him "far out." Giving the Doctor a familial link and two intelligent adults to answer to, added gravity to the situation. His actions had consequences. The Doctor wasn’t just magnificent with this team, he grew as a person.

Second Doctor: Zoe and Jamie

For this one, I could have easily just said Jamie and left it at that. Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. All-day, Jamie. But then our sparkle-butted whiz kid from the year 2000 shows up, and she’s wonderful. Why so much love for Jamie? I think most of the fandom would agree he’s the essential Second Doctor companion. Not only do Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton mesh so well together, so do their characters. I'm not a person that usually ship's characters, but I easily ship Two and Jamie. There’s a certain magic when you pair the Second Doctor’s bumbling eccentric with Jamie’s rough and tumble man out of time. You get two characters who are most dangerous when they’re underestimated. As Terry Pratchett said of his character Carrot Ironfounderson- "Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid." However, this is not to say that the pair weren't in need of a bit of direction. Zoe brought a grounding presence to the team with her headstrong confidence. One of my favourite Zoe moments is when the Doctor defers to her math skills. Before this era, the Doctor hadn't really been one to ask his companions for advice. A lot of the framework for future companion relationships was forged in the Second Doctor era. There's also something sad about the way the relationship ends between the three of them. Zoe and Jamie's minds were wiped of all memory of the Doctor and returned to their original timelines. Barring future retcons, they would never know of the brave adventures they had with their cosmic hobo friend.

Third Doctor: Sarah Jane

This one was hard. I could have easily picked Jo Grant. But I went with Sarah Jane for the same reason I didn't go with Sarah Jane for the Fourth Doctor. When Jo Grant had entered the show, it was after the rather unceremonious departure of Liz Shaw. Part of the reason Caroline John left Doctor Who was mirrored in the reason Liz left UNIT. She took issue with a strong woman being sidelined in her job by a male. Not very "women's lib," of them. Enter Jo Grant, who was basically there to be an assistant. This is why I love Sarah Jane for the Third Doctor. She comes in with her business lady suits and her fast-talking gumption. There's a wonderful way that she balances out the Doctor's ego while losing none of her sensitivity. Sarah Jane brings a certain realness to the companions in a way we hadn't seen since Barbara Wright. I also really admire the way she reacts to danger. There's a complete lack of vanity in her performance. Sadly, I feel Sarah loses a bit of her edge when she joins the Fourth Doctor. She trades her lady suits for Andy Pandy overalls. While Elisabeth Sladen will forever be one of the greats, I simply feel she worked best with the Third Doctor.

Fourth Doctor: Leela and K9

I may have lied when I said I can't pick a favourite TARDIS team out of all of them. This may be the closest to what I would call "favourite." It's always surprised me to discover that many fans rate Leela quite low. The most common reasons people usually give me are along the lines of why Tom Baker disliked the character- she was too violent, too one-note. I couldn't disagree more. In my mind, Leela's one of the few classic companions with a clear character arc. Essentially, Leela's story is one of rediscovering her roots. But on a simple level, it's a story of atheism. Leela's people weren't meant to be the Sevateem, worshipping technology like relics. They were a survey team, a group of scientists. As the Doctor teaches Leela about science, she learns more of what she was always supposed to be. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't also love that she's a murderous badass. There's something delightful about seeing this jungle warrior stalking down a corridor with her robot dog friend. It's a wonderful juxtaposition of anachronisms that screams Doctor Who. This is easily one of the most dangerous TARDIS teams, with Leela's knives and Janis thorns, and K9's death rays. Not only is the Doctor forced to teach Leela restraint, but is also forced to use it himself. Wouldn't it be easier to just let his friends do the dirty work? But at what cost? Interesting stuff.

Fifth Doctor: Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough

This one was a bit more difficult than others. Not because I couldn't decide, but because I've never exactly been all that enamoured with the Fifth Doctor's companions. Kamelion and Adric definitely weren't making the list (sorry not sorry). I wasn't going to include Peri either as there wasn't much to go off with her. I'm also slightly averse to any further adventures for Peri and the Fifth Doctor via audios and books, as I feel it undercuts the Fifth Doctor's sacrifice in "The Caves of Androzani." Which leaves us with these three. As companions, I would say they're all just sort of... fine. Despite the fact that the three of them are on screen for only two stories (seriously, finding a picture of all them together with the Doctor was very hard), I couldn’t discount any of them. Nyssa sadly has the least bit to do out of all of them. They usually relegate her to the TARDIS with a headache she needs to sleep off. That being said, I really like her gentle nature and the fact that she can somewhat make heads or tails of the TARDIS. She's an alien with a big heart, I can get down with that. Turlough I actually rather enjoy. I like that he's a bit of a coward and a bit of an opportunist. I even named one of my cats Turlough because of his orange fur. He's also got a great character arc with his Black Guardian storyline. Tegan is the rogue element out of the three because I can't really fault her. She's got some genuine moments of showing her brave heart, but she's never really excited me. She just wants to go to Heathrow. Would that be too hard, Doctor?

Sixth Doctor: Evelyn

Poor Peri, she's getting all kinds of sidelined today. Really, the girl deserves a medal for all of the Doctor's shit she puts up with. I'm a bit of a Peri fan in all reality, but she's not my fave. That distinction goes to Evelyn Smythe. I spoke a little in my article about older companions about my love for Evelyn. Working as a history lecturer for Sheffield Hallam University, she was an older, learned woman. Because of this, the Sixth Doctor seemed to always want to impress her, as opposed to just always assuming he was impressive. She had a way of calming his more abrasive tendencies which really allowed him to shine. This isn't to say that she was some stuffy buzzkill, however. In a story like "Doctor Who and the Pirates," we learn that Evelyn likes a good laugh, even if she's a rather rubbish storyteller. Had she ever travelled with Frobisher, I would have added him as well, as he was a close second. Sadly, Maggie Stables has passed away, so further Evelyn stories are no longer possible, but we were able to say goodbye to her character in "A Death in the Family."

Seventh Doctor: Ace

As I mentioned in my article "The Doctor with 1000 Faces," Ace was a clear case of course correction. A few years ago in Newcastle, I got to meet Bonnie Langford. While she seemed like a nice person, I had a really hard time saying something I liked about Mel. I literally defaulted by saying "I liked you in Doctor Who," which was basically a lie. I didn't. It just wasn't her fault. And while I've revisited Mel and rather liked her in stories like "Paradise Towers," the introduction of Ace was an automatic improvement. Not only does Ace elevate Sylvester McCoy's performance, but she also breathed new life into the companion archetype. Ace didn't react to danger with mindless screaming, she was brooding and mysterious. There are moments where I laugh at just how much a delinquent she is. The girl carries explosives around like it's something everyone does. I told Sophie Aldred that Ace and Leela were my two favourite companions. I don't know what it says about me that I really like the smashy-smashy, stabby-stabby companions, but I do. There's just something really fun about the dangerous action girl with the mythic space nerd dynamic that I really love.

Eighth Doctor: Izzy and Feyde

This was another one that was difficult for me. I could have easily said Lucie "Bleedin'" Miller, or maybe even Fitz. I also have a somewhat incomplete knowledge of the 8th Doctor's companions. I've not yet listened to his audios with Mary Shelley, Tamsin, or Molly. I ended on Izzy and Feyde however because of their obvious impact on the show. Taking place in the comics, during the wilderness years between the TV movie and the 2005 series, this was some of the best Doctor Who available. Not only were Izzy and Feyde one of the first LGBT depictions in Doctor Who, they were also highly enjoyable characters. With Izzy we got to see some of the groundwork for characters like Rose Tyler and Lucie Miller. She was a modern girl who was a bit of a geek. I found her very relatable, even during her time as a fish. Feyde was an easy choice to include, and I do mean Feyde and not Fey. While being a secret agent from 1933 is cool, being a secret agent from 1933 merged with a sentient Time Lord weapon is way cooler. I could have gone with Shayde for the Fifth Doctor (hell, I should have gone with Shayde), but I wanted to save him for his time as Feyde. Having one companion who body swaps with a fish, and another that shares a body with an alien weapon, who also have lesbian feelings for one another is a recipe for some very interesting storytelling. Russell T Davies is a notable fan of this era of Doctor Who, so much so that he offered to let them show the 9th Doctor regenerate within its pages. If you've not read the Doctor Who Magazine comics, you should be. If for no other reason than for the Eighth Doctor's sublime era.

Ninth Doctor: Rose, Mickey, and Jack

Rose is a very divisive companion in the fandom. I know because I've taken part in the mud flinging until I realised that such endeavours were stupid. Seriously, if you're a hater of other people's tastes, you should stop. Let people like stuff. That's not to say I am a fan of what they did with her when David Tennant came into the TARDIS. For me, Rose Tyler will always work best with the Ninth Doctor. Having both met at a time when neither of them knew particularly what they wanted from life, they both seemed to have a healing quality toward one another. I was willing and able to believe that the two of them genuinely cared about one another, and the relationship blossomed because of this. It was a great way to reintroduce fans to the show after such an extended hiatus. The Doctor was this unknown figure who we got to discover and learn to trust through Rose Tyler's eyes. When the family grew with characters like the flirty Captain Jack or the goofy but earnest Mickey Smith, it only added to the dynamic. It was an exciting group to watch, and one that hooked countless new viewers.

Tenth Doctor: Donna

I will go up to bat for Donna Noble. I once had a roommate who brought a guy home who didn't like Donna Noble. When I asked why, he said she was ugly and annoying. When he left our house, I told her to dump his ass for his bad opinions about women (she agreed). Donna is a goddess. Much like Evelyn, she has the ability to temper the Doctor's shittier qualities. I mentioned I dislike how the Tenth Doctor interacted with Rose, and he definitely didn't appreciate Martha for the MVP she was. Donna was funny, she was nurturing, and she didn't let people push her around. There is nothing I don't like about her character. She gave the Tenth Doctor an accountability like Ian and Barbara gave the First Doctor. Seeing him interact with someone as an equal developed his character in ways we hadn't seen before. It was also really nice, after so much puppy love mooning over the Doctor, to see a companion who was literally just a friend. I've always preferred the Doctor's relationships to be platonic. I know some people like the idea of love in the TARDIS, but I'm old fashioned. Donna was so perfect for the Doctor that her ending could only be tragic. They say you never forget your first Doctor, but in the case of Jamie, Zoe, and Donna, it's sadly not true!

Eleventh Doctor: Amy and Rory

This one seems like a no-brainer to me. I would say the golden age for Matt Smith are his early adventures with Amy and Rory. I've heard people complain about Amy because of her lack of development outside of an obsession with the Doctor. While Rose Tyler had a job and a family, Amy had the raggedy man and years of therapy. But I can forgive all of this because of Karen Gillan's fiery personality. She kills every line of dialogue and sells every dramatic moment. I absolutely love her. Rory is more of a slow burn, but he achieves something I think they've tried with many other male companions and failed. He's able to question the Doctor's actions in a way that doesn't make him come off like a cocky prick (Adric) or horribly misguided (Danny Pink). His lack of hero worship toward the Doctor is a sober counterpoint to Amy's undying adoration. (If you remember correctly, I also named my other cat Rory after him). By the time the three gel into a team, they're like a family, and not just because of River connecting them in a familial way. You'll notice that I didn't include River, and this is simply because I have a lot of issues with the way her story was written. The whole meeting from opposite directions thing led to a lot of implied chemistry. It broke the rule of "show, don't tell," in a way I felt was detrimental to her character development. Despite a really lousy final episode, Amy and Rory are some of my favourite modern companions. Seriously, their goodbye in "The God Complex," should have been their actual goodbye.

Twelfth Doctor: Clara

Oh, Clara... I could write an entire article on my feelings about Clara Oswald. I would title it "The Many Faces of Clara," but it wouldn't be any of the split time stream versions, it would be about the ever-fluctuating character type of the companion Clara Oswald. She's all over the place, and it's a mess. Sometimes she's goofy, other times she's a stern killjoy, then she's a careless daredevil. I don't believe the writers knew what to do with her for most of her run. The impossible girl thing was, in my mind, a total misfire. But I can't help but feel like when she's with Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, she's given the most to work with. I went back and rewatched a lot of her episodes, and her stuff with Capaldi is some truly great Doctor Who. I didn't include Danny because he had so many issues as well, but I couldn't reconcile them. He spends the entire time barking at the Doctor in what was becoming a really sad trend of the Doctor not being able to get along with male companions and competing for the attentions of the female companion. I really tried to come away with a new appreciation for Danny, but his reluctance to stop a Cyberman invasion to prove a point that the Doctor is a general, was so stupid. "I'm going to let the world burn to win an argument." The worst part is, he wasn't even right about the Doctor, and we as the audience knew it. Clara, on the other hand, when she's outside the influence of the "impossible girl" storyline and Danny Pink, she's actually pretty damn compelling. It took her three seasons, but she gets there. This was just barely enough to edge Bill out of running. I'd also love to see Bill come back in an audio, as I feel she never got a proper shake. Make it so!

Thirteenth Doctor: Ryan, Yaz, and Graham

What other choices were there? That being said, I rather like all three of these companions. I've covered, rather extensively, the pros and cons of all three companions in my reviews for season eleven. I find it humorous that most of my friends were least excited by Graham, considering what a darling he's become in the fandom. I love the guy. It's no secret in this blog that I have been a big Graham fan from the start. Yaz is a character I think all of us can agree needs way more development. With that being said, I think we get a pretty good idea of her moral compass. I also really love Mandip Gill in the role. She's a great actress and not at all hard on the eyes. Tosin Cole as Ryan is a really interesting character because I keep fluctuating in between not being able to tell if he's a good actor or not. Either way, the scenes between him and his dad were some of the best of the season. I love the way the group defers to the Doctor. They really do seem like a team with a belief in the good they're doing. People can talk about the spotty nature of season eleven, but the fact remains, the characters are there to make me want to see what's in store for season twelve. Chibnall has given us three distinct individuals that we want to watch develop, and at the end of the day, isn't that what it's all about?

Well, friends, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed this article! Did any of these match your picks? Was I totally wrong? Who are your favourites? I like to think there are no wrong answers because this fandom is vast and there's so much to love! I'll see you all soon!

[fyhyungwon]

Additional translation by Dana Hong. © Dazed

[forljh]

[Article] From survival show rookies to K-Pop stars

Talking to the seven-member group, who rose from participants on survival show NO.MERCY to become rising stars in South Korea’s music scene

Paris. Summer, 2017.

It should be a gorgeous mid-August day but the rain is apocalyptic, drenching the hundreds upon hundreds of people queuing outside one of the city’s most celebrated music halls. They’re here for the first ever European shows by Monsta X, the seven-member South Korean group whose mix of pop, hip hop, and heavy EDM combined with dark, tough, and sometimes cabalistic concepts has seen them gain a fiercely dedicated global following.

When the lights do go down, the screams are piercing and reverential. Monsta X’s show is broken into group and unit performances (where members do something special, from a spin on the decks to covering popular Western songs) and every gesture, word, and ad-lib will wind the audience higher until the room virtually pulses.

Backstage, however, things are much calmer. Vocalists Wonho, Kihyun, Hyungwon, Shownu, and Minhyuk, and rappers Jooheon and I.M, emit a serene, friendly professionalism. They’re wearing their stage costumes: Kihyun, the main vocalist, sports a sizable and sparkling Chanel logo brooch, while Monsta X’s leader, Shownu, has a thick band of sequins around a sleeve that throws light right into your eyes. Their entire effect is dazzling and distracting – all seven in tight trousers and jackets laden with diamante chains and epaulettes, beautiful faces smooth with makeup – and it will send their fandom, known as Monbebe, wild over the next two hours.

While fans will commit their favourite moments of the night to forums or YouTube, Kihyun can’t pick just one standout memory from the tour, which began in June. “Rather than just one particular moment, it’s just whole moments of time,” he explains. “Even when we perform in front of people who speak different languages, that all members enjoy the concert together gives me goosebumps.” Shownu, however, pinpoints his as “at the end of the songs like ‘넌 어때’ (‘I’ll Be There’), Monbebes prepare something special, like placards, so we’re always surprised.”

“We’re having fun every day,” says Minhyuk, as I.M adds, “We spend most of our free time sightseeing and eating. We’re always walking around, taking pictures.” Jooheon nods in agreement: “It gives us inspiration.”

Monsta X, who debuted in May 2015, were born from NO.MERCY, a survival show created by their label Starship Entertainment. In the show, existing male trainees vied against each other to debut in a new boy group. NO.MERCY initially shocked its audience when I.M, a total newcomer, was added to the mix late and ended up controversially being chosen for the group, knocking out fan favourite #GUN. It was a contentious start to idol life, but the competitive tension fast become an enviable camaraderie, complete with family-esque banter and bickering which, alongside Monsta X’s underrated, slow burn success, helped earn the unwavering loyalty of the Monbebes.

Like most artists, both Monsta X’s music and their members contain notable contradictions. Their singles frame them as one of K-Pop’s more intimidating groups – the cinematic strings on “Fighter”, the graceful choruses and tight raps on “All In” and “Beautiful”, and “Hero”s crunching EDM and its sibling, the passionate, infatuated “Stuck” – but, as Kihyun says, “even if we look a certain way on the outside, it’s just an image. For example, Jooheon might look chill and tough, but inside he’s quite sensitive.”

This contrast was recently presented to the casual listener with the fizzy “Newton”, their first aegyo-heavy (cute behavior) official MV (music video), but a recent interview points to grittier songs as their personal favorites, creating a lot of guesswork as to their next concept. Wonho, who habitually scratches at his palms idly while other members speak, snaps to attention and smiles. “Actually we’re working towards the next album, but we haven’t fixed a particular concept just yet. So when we know we’ll call you directly... if you want.”

“Even if we look a certain way on the outside, it’s just an image” – Kihyun, Monsta X

Their sensitive side has never been concealed, but you need to delve into their albums for it, seen on likes of the mid-tempo soul of “Amen” and “Need U” or the extraordinary, piano-lead “Broken Heart”. Or invest in their reality shows Deokspatch X, Right Now!, and newer series X-Ray (“You saw that?” Kihyun asks in English, surprised – and you can just catch his slight lisp), where their off-stage personalities veer like go-karts through sassy, embarrassing, risible, protective and tender.

Of course, far more lies beyond those facets. “I’m actually writing songs most days, particularly at the hotel between concerts,” Wonho divulges. Notorious for removing his shirt on every stage, he’s the incorrigible flirt, the sweet, muscular show-off – but has, alongside Jooheon and I.M, become far more involved with the group’s output and devoted himself to honing his craft. One of his compositions, the bittersweet lyrics and upbeat trop-house of “From Zero” is a fixture on the set-list, a duet he performs with Hyungwon. Despite calls from fans to commit “From Zero” to tape, it’s still only for the stage, though Wonho isn’t entirely discounting the idea. “That’s something we need to discuss further as the song was originally developed without a plan for release,” he muses. “So we’ll think about it.”

One of the most compelling inter-band unit performances on this tour is 2Chain (Kihyun and Jooheon), who, after releasing a striking cover of R&B singer Crush’s “You & I” earlier this year, cover Lil Wayne’s “Mirror”. Jooheon has written his own verses for it, brutally self-judgmental yet ultimately empowering words he uses in a volatile performance that emotionally knocks you from your seat. “It was Kihyun who suggested ‘Mirror’, and I liked the song as well,” he explains candidly, sat beside the singer who reassuringly taps on Jooheon’s knee throughout.

“People don’t always say complimentary stuff to themselves, and I thought about what I was missing, where I wasn’t good enough – like, trying to see the whole picture,” Jooheon adds in Korean. “I realised it was my fans who were most important in my life, so I tried to match myself with them, seeing the fans from my perspective and seeing myself from the fans’ perspective. I guess I tried to put a lot of things into those lyrics…” He trails into silence – although known as one of Monsta X’s big on-stage personalities, today he’s quiet and watchful, and Wonho breaks the sudden lull. “Wow, that’s going to be really hard to translate,” he blurts, making the others laugh.

“I don’t particularly think about if we’ve had to work at becoming friends, which I guess means it hasn’t been difficult” – Minhyuk, Monsta X

Besides Monsta X, the members have their own projects – mixtapes (Jooheon, I.M), photography (Kihyun) and illustration (Minhyuk). I.M’s introspective 2016 track “Who Am I” was the pertinent musings of a young idol, asking “am I born for me or born for success?” Despite a year speckled in career milestones, answers remain unfound. “I think I’m still looking,” he replies in English, which he undoubtedly picked up from a childhood spent in Israel and the US. He’s the maknae (youngest) at 21 years old but possesses a disconcerting directness and a wry intensity. “Asking myself questions like that makes me grow up and be stronger,” he says, leaning in, elbows resting on his knees.

The group’s meme king, Hyungwon, isn’t a big talker in interviews but a joy for fans with his droll humor and expressions, which consistently go viral. Under the moniker DJ H.One, he’s been DJing on the tour and appearing at dance festivals like Ultra Korea “to show new things about myself. I’ve been practicing for about eight months in my own time.” His preference is for crowd-pleasing EDM; he throws a sliced and diced version of Monsta X’s single “Beautiful” into his sets, and as Hyungwon adds, “there’s a song called ‘Bang Bang Bang’, it has Jooheon rapping over it. I think the reaction (from the crowd) is so much better when we’re together.”

Unexpectedly, it’s Shownu who has impressed the public through the dance show Hit The Stage and beauty show Lipstick Prince, where male idols are taught the art of makeup. Formerly awkward enough around people to have earned the nickname ‘Robot Shownu’, he’s blossoming. “Lipstick Prince really helped me a lot to become confident around other singers and be able to get to know them, and Hit The Stage helped the way I perform,” he admits. “It’s definitely good for us to be working solo, but we never forget it’s Monsta X that makes solo activities possible. Also we have more fun together than alone.”

Together they’ve certainly achieved impressive goals – from winning last year’s Male Dance Performance at the Seoul Awards to topping the Billboard World Chart with their recent album, The Clan Pt. 2.5 Guilty. “We haven’t really thought about awards,” Minhyuk says of potential future wins. He’s interrupted. “A Grammy!” demands I.M, laughing, then apologising. “But rather than awards, we want to be a group the next generation can look to, like ‘I want to be like Monsta X’,” Minhyuk continues.

“We’re a family... We shine brighter when we’re together” – Shownu, Monsta X

Monsta X might well inspire others. After all, their dynamic – even in the unnatural confines of an interview – is one of warmth, acceptance, and familiarity. It’s in the little looks they shoot each other, the nudges of support, and Minhyuk, with his sunny smile and a speaking voice that cracks a little on the edges, embodies all that, creating an easy atmosphere that relaxes his bandmates.

“I don’t particularly think about if we’ve had to work at becoming friends, which I guess means it hasn’t been difficult,” Minhyuk muses. K-Pop fans often question if the appearance of closeness in idol groups is strictly for business or if they’ve truly bonded. “Well, y’know, I am a businessman,” he says slyly, making Wonho snort with laughter. “Just kidding! I think it’s been just a naturally flowing relationship.”

That there might be a member who remains hard to read sparks a debate. Kihyun tilts his head, squinting at the ceiling. “Even difficult members are so easy to read. I don’t know…” he says, half to himself.

“No, no!” says Minhyuk, with glint in his eye. “I have one. I.M. He’s our youngest so he seems to easy to read, but sometimes he’s really not. It’s like he has his own world.”

“I think he just has no thoughts during those times,” Shownu offers.

I.M’s world would be..? “Maybe Mars?” he replies, straight-faced. “But anyway, we don’t get angry, we’re always happy,” he quips, to explosions of disbelief around him.

There’s just enough time to look back at their career thus far and define, beyond the music, what’s set them apart to succeed. In a rather endearing way to end things, what Shownu says is mistranslated into “I think the difference is we have quite great bodies…” Kihyun laughs so hard he rolls into Jooheon’s lap as Minhyuk protests loudly – “Great bodies? Great shapes, great shapes!” he re-translates as Hyungwon and Shownu look startled, and I.M, Jooheon and Wonho wear the smiles of those who can no longer be embarrassed by much at all.

Shownu patiently starts again. “Firstly, all of us have great shapes, and we’re very dynamic…” He pauses. “I’ve never used the word ‘dynamic’ (‘역동적인’) before,” he says hesitantly, a leader who tends to let his group do most of the talking, “...and we’re powerful on stage. We’re a family. We’ve known each other for a long time and we shine brighter when we’re together.”

Article by Dazed

[rbeatz]

The Most Underrated Set at Gov Ball: Jenaux

I attended Governors Ball Music Festival for all 3 days, and I have to say, Jenaux’s performance was the most underrated set at the festival. His set was the very first set at the event, so a smaller crowd was expected; however, the more he played, the more the crowd started to gravitate and join-in on the funky electro vibes.

The bass was bumpin’ right off the bat. He got into a bit of funky stuff, heavier hitting glitchy future bass towards the early middle of his set. My ears really began to perk up when he played a remix of Skrillex’ remix of Cinema (remix on remix on remix). It might have been this mashup! Whatever it was, I was super pumped to hear dubstep early on in the festival. Soon after, he played my favorite single of his, I Want Your Love, featuring Bryan Christopher. See our Instagram video below.

@jenauxmusic #govballnyc

A post shared by rBeatz (@rbeatzmusic) on Jun 2, 2017 at 9:32am PDT

The drum dynamics kept my hips going throughout the entire set.  He rounded out his set with an the Party Pupils remix of Outkast’s Ms. Jackson. Overall, his set was fairly flawless – he brought the anticipation up throughout his set while maintaining the hype.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Janaux before his set. You know the drill, click play on Jenaux’s soundcloud below and read the interview for the FULL Jenaux experience.

 INTERVIEW:

What is your personal favorite song that you’ve made?

Get It On by far. The sound started in a random hotel room in Austin, messing around and chopping some samples. Then Get It On was born and everything from then on has been inspired by it.

Where does the name Jenaux come from and why did you pick it?

So Jenaux just means Eugene, which is my name. Well “Jeno” across every eastern-euro language, so I just swapped the end.

Where are you from and how has that shaped the musician you are today?

I was born in Russia. My family moved to America after the Soviet Union broke apart. I was raised in NJ and moved to NYC about 5 years ago. My ears were shaped by my father’s tastes. When we came to America, the freedom to listen to anything I wanted was overwhelming (that didn’t exist in communist Russia). Russian producers used to have to bootleg and trade tapes because the government would control want sounds came in and out. During my early years, my father would play a whole lot of everything, from funk/disco to classic rock to the original house music. It allowed me to listen to a variety of genres when I was growing up.

Do you play any instruments when you were younger? If so, which ones?

I’m classically trained in piano.

Are there an instruments that you currently wish you COULD play?

Guitar, for sure.

Tell us the story of how you started creating music on your computer?

I had a friend that showed me a few softwares. Then I just started dabbling and producing beats. My sound went through a lot in those next couple of years. It wasn’t until I stopped trying to produce what everyone else was producing and started focusing on my own sound, when new fresh songs started coming.

What was your favorite studio moment when producing, I Want Your Love?

  This track came together in an interesting fashion. I had a completely different song that I sent to Bryn Christopher (I heard of him through Sweet Lovin, the Sigala record) … After he recorded the vocals, they were incredible. I had a completely different idea though. I took his ad-libs and chopped them up to create I Want Your Love. It was really just some creative magic.

Who is one of your favorite artists to collab with and why?

I really enjoy working with songwriters. I find them to be so versatile and extremely talented. I think the world is now really seeing thatthe guys behind the scenes are the most valuable assets to a song. I loved working with Lauv on one of my records. He’s unreal, a producer, a singer, and a a writer. You can’t top that.

Who are your musical influences?

I’ve had influences from all over the spectrum. More recently, lots of Michael Jackson, George Benson, and Kanye.

  What do you like to do when you’re simply hanging out – aside from music?

I’m always making music. If not, I’m a huge foodie, so finding the new spot to eat in NYC is always the thing to do.

  What DAW do you use and why?

Ableton. It’s just what I started with. It was quite intuitive, and now I’m just very quick with it. I could never change.

What is your favorite MIDI Controller or instrument to produce with right now?

My Native Instruments S88 is everything. Weighted keys, midi control, I love it.

Do you have a key production tip for our young producers out there?

When producing, don’t be scared to just do something weird. Find a sound, mess with it, and see where it takes you. I think I spent to much time speculating what will others think of this while making music, but not anymore. I just do what I feel is right in the moment.

What are some of your favorite venues to play and why?

I grew up playing in Pacha NYC and Webster Hall. To this day, nothing has topped the days and shows I’ve played there. The energy and the sonics were just incomparable.

What is your favorite color?

Blue

Do you have a favorite in-studio snack?

Sour Patch Kids

What is your favorite Social Media platform and why?

Instagram – I love telling a visual story.

What is next for Jenaux?

LOTS of new music. I’ve been sitting on so many records, and for various reasons, I haven’t been able to put them out. Now, finally, the stars have aligned, and I’m so stoked to show the world what I’ve been working on.

  from rBeatz.com http://ift.tt/2sx7RZd