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nolita-fairytale · 2 years ago

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still into you | carmen 'carmy' berzatto x fem!reader | chapter one: thursday

summary: you, syd, marcus, and carmy return to where it all began: new york city, prompting you and carmy to think a lot about your past... and your future together. (four part series | follow-up to 'make my heart surrender)

warnings: lots of swearing, tooth-rotting fluff, use of she/her pronouns, the lightest of smut, no use of y/n, second person pov

word count: 5k

listen to: 91 - bleachers | now i'm in it - haim | bewitched, bothered, and bewildered - ella fitzgerald (playlist here)

a/n: re: the poll -- yall really said 'let this man be happy please!' and i love that for us. if you voted for the other fic, i want to reassure you that i will be writing that one right after this! please enjoy all of the fluff and joy of this four chapter fic. i also feel like i potentially robbed us of a smut scene so... anyone interested in a bonus smut scene as a companion to this chapter?

Thursday

“Alright, guys. We only have a few hours to get our day one prep done. I’ve outlined a schedule for today so that we’re as efficient as possible. Tomorrow’s gotta go smooth, alright?” Carmy instructs, laying out the day.

You listen intently, marveling at your boyfriend in-action. He’s so fearless when he’s in his element, and being back in New York just seems to bring back all the memories of how you met. It’s like you’re twenty seven again, huddling up for a pre-shift meeting, led by recently-promoted wunderkind CDC, Carmen Berzatto.

Only, you’re not twenty seven anymore and Carmy is the love of your life.

“I’m gonna start with the mise for our beef dish, so Syd, can you get working on our signature veal stock? I think we should work with one in the pressure cooker just in case we get short on time and have a back up,” Carmy directs, an intense determination filling his eyes.

He looks from Sydney to Marcus, before continuing his orders.

“Marcus, I need you to start on the ice cream today, chef. I ordered us some liquid nitrogen if we need to make more on the fly, but I’d really prefer not to.”

And then it’s your turn, and boy, do you love to watch him work. You have to fight the corners of your lips from curling into a broad grin because you know now is not the time.

“And lastly, I’m gonna have you work on the pasta. My goal is for us to get all of the agnolotti assembled today, so I’ll jump in when I wrap up with my mise to help you with that, yeah?”

“Heard,” the three of you answer in unison.

Everyone’s got their game faces on because this is a big deal.

The biggest, actually.

Representing The Bear at the James Beard House is more than a big deal – it’s an honor. Only a handful of chefs get invited to cook here per year, and after a little fancy footwork in terms of scheduling, the four of you were finally able to agree on a date with the famous organization. You’re more than elated to be a part of the team, even if you aren’t working at The Bear anymore.

The four of you quickly busy yourselves with setting up your stations. You only have a few hours to accomplish a whole lot of prep, and the pressure sits heavily on each of your shoulders. Tickets to the dinner had sold out within the first hour, which, after all the press, accolades, and media attention the restaurant had earned over the last few years, hadn’t been a huge surprise.

“Think you can keep up, chef? Don’t tell me you’re gettin’ rusty on me,” Marcus quips, already starting the playful trash talking early.

You let out a laugh, before challenging him in jest.

“Damn, Marcus. Hasn’t been that long. Bet I can still kick your ass on a ‘beat the clock’ mise, chef.”

“Oooooh. Shots fired,” Sydney calls out, joining in on your friendly banter.

“Challenge accepted,” Marcus shoots back, almost instantly.

And then you’re scrambling to get as many prep containers and a kitchen scale, as you race your friend and mentee, all in good fun.

You’ve missed this.

It’s only been a few months since you started your new job – a culinary education director at a startup intent on building more sustainable food systems. While your heart would always be at the restaurant, you’d been ready to take on new challenges. The salary pay and benefits didn’t hurt either. You were happy taking a grown-up job, craving a little more stability and normalcy – and so that you and Carmy could stop paying out the ass for health insurance. Besides, you were still working with food. It just looked… well, a lotta different these days.

You’ve missed the fast pace of the kitchen, your people, and Carmy’s desire for excellence, but it’s not like those things have left your life either. You still have them.

After you’d left the restaurant, Marcus had taken over as the head pastry chef. In the last few months, you’ve watched him mentor and inspire a new group of wide-eyed, green, chefs-in-the-making, which had made you prouder than you’d ever have the words for.

You can smell the sharp-allium scent of onions, as Syd quarters them for her stock, and while you have several cartons of eggs and 00 flour, Marcus has gathered all the milk that you’d just purchased for today’s prep.

“Behind,” Carmy says. He passes you by with a few 5 qt storage containers stacked, as he hugs them to his body with one arm.

You feel his other hand place the gentlest touch on the small of your back as he leans in and whispers in your ear, “It’s good to have you back, chef.”

You smile, turning your head just enough to lean back to look at him.

“It’s good to be back, chef.”

He presses the gentlest, slow kiss to your lips, and it feels like time stops for a moment. As he pulls away from you, there’s a small smirk on his face as Sydney shouts, “Oh get a room, you two!”

“If we had the time…” he murmurs quietly, planting one more soft peck onto your lips. His face is still only inches away from yours. You giggle in response, the tender moment filling your heart with warmth.

“Speaking of time… I just bought Marcus a head start,” Carmy teases, your jaw dropping as soon as you realize what he’s doing.

You pull away from him, your head snapping towards Marcus’ direction to see that he’s already filled a 5 qt container to its capacity with one portion of the milk.

“Seriously? Damn it, Carmy!” you cry out, shaking your head. “This is sabotage!”

You hear Marcus laugh in the background and as Carmy walks away with a cheeky feeling of accomplishment. You shake your head in disbelief.

“Sorry, babe. You can deal with a little hazing, yeah? Since you’ve been gone for so long. Gotta give my guy a head start. ‘S only fair.”

“You’re such a dick,” you scowl, scrambling to catch up.

Oh it is so on.

By the time you’re done with your day one prep, the four of you head to the hotel. Luckily, it’s only a five minute walk away, and you’re grateful that the James Beard Foundation chose to partner with one so close. The four of you pull your suitcases down the streets of Greenwich Village, before arriving at the luxurious, vintage-inspired hotel.

You’re eager to get up to your room, as you haven’t had a shower, nor a time to take a break since you all arrived.

“Woah…” Carmy says, his brilliant blue eyes scanning the high end hotel room. “You sure we can afford this?”

You chuckle, “I think uh… they have a partnership with the James Beard Foundation, which is the only way I can answer your question with a ‘yes’ without having to tell you that we have to sell an arm, a leg, and our first born.”

He shoots a half smile in your direction before letting out a whistle as he looks around. The floor to ceiling windows feel way outside of anything you could afford, as Carmy spots the French doors that lead right out onto a terrace. As you continue to explore the rest of the room, you spot a huge tub in the bathroom – something you’re very eager to take advantage of.

“Power nap?” you ask Carmy, setting down your suitcase in the middle of the room.

You’ll put your things away later.

“Fuck yeah,” he agrees eagerly.

You’ve barely put your book bag down before you’re both stripping off your jeans and climbing into the perfectly made hotel bed. After spending the morning traveling, you, Sydney, Marcus, and Carmy had gotten off the plane at JFK and gone straight to the James Beard House in Greenwich. Not only had Carmy been antsy to see the kitchen and get a head start on prep, you hadn’t been able to check into your hotel till this afternoon. You’re both spent, and you know that Carmy’s been running himself ragged preparing for this once in a lifetime opportunity. He hasn’t been sleeping all that well either– his thoughts consumed with nailing down the perfect menu, while paralyzed with indecision.

His quest for perfection had made him irritable over the last few days. You could see that the pressure was getting to him. His appetite was down, he was picking fights with you about small, unnecessary things at home, and pushing Sydney (sometimes a little too hard) at the restaurant.

But today, he seems a little more in control of his feelings, and it puts him a little more at ease now that you’re finally in New York. He knows he’s been driving you crazy all week, and now that you’re all here, he’s hoping he can relax a little.

Now that you’re here, in the city.

Now that the dinner is only a day and a half away.

You’re hoping he’ll slow down at some point too – give himself a little time to enjoy how big of an accomplishment this is. At least by the end of the weekend. Frankly, you’re glad you’ll have Saturday to enjoy the city without any pressure.

For all of your sakes.

You’re surprised that Carmy falls asleep with you during your late afternoon nap. He’s been so wired, so high strung lately, but you’ve just been waiting for him to come back down. Now that it seems like he is, there’s no way in hell you’re going to wake him up. You’re curled up together when you wake, your back pressed against his chest, his arms enveloping you. It feels almost impossible to pry yourself out of his arms without waking him up, but his deep slumber confirms your suspicions and you’re more than willing to let him continue sleeping. It takes a few tries to slip out of his embrace, but you do, and it’s off to the bathroom to get ready for dinner.

You try to make as little noise as possible, but by the time you're out of the shower, and your hair has been blown dry, Carmy’s up. You can hear the hotel TV on as you exit the bathroom and see he’s put his jeans back on. He’s perched on the edge of the bed, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. You notice that the dark circles under his eyes that have accumulated over the years seem to sit heavier this week, as his eyes flicker over towards you.

“Damn, my girl’s got style,” he compliments, checking out your all black-ensemble. “We really are back in New York, huh?”

You nod, grinning at his sweet compliment, as you sit down to slip your white sneakers on.

“You meetin’ up with Liz and Maya tonight?” he asks you.

“Yeah. Syd’s gonna join for a bit before her thing. She should uh… be here any minute, actually.” You begin tying up the shoelaces of one of your shoes, before slipping the other one on.

“You sure you don’t want to come?”

“Nah I-, I'll see ‘em tomorrow right? But tell ‘em I say ‘hello’.”

“Of course. I think they’re both really looking forward to seeing you.”

You check the time on your phone making sure you have enough time, before you make your way to where Carmy sits on the edge of the bed.

“What’re you going to do tonight?” you ask, curiously, stopping so that your body is right in front of his.

“Well Marcus is staging at per se so… I’ll probably just hang out. Order room service or pick up a sandwich across the street. I wanna run through all this shit so tomorrow goes as well as it can,” Carmy answers, waving his notebook at you.

He’s like a man possessed, but it’s one of the many reasons you love him. You pull the notebook out of his hands tossing it somewhere on the bed behind you. You place your knees on each side of his hips, before settling down on top of him.

“Think you can relax a little tonight?”

He pulls you in, his arms moving over your hips. Carmy leans in, placing a small kiss against your glossy lips.

“Think you can help me with that?”

You giggle in response, twisting your fingers into the curls at the nape of his neck.

“I think… that could be arranged.”

Before anything too spicy can happen, there’s a knock at the door and you know it’s Syd. Carmy groans as you pull away, falling back onto the bed with a sigh of defeat. You climb off of him, heading to answer the door.

“Hey, you ready?” Sydney asks, as you greet her.

“Yeah, let me just grab my phone,” you reply, stepping aside to let her in.

As she enters the hotel room, Carmy’s sitting up. With his feet planted firmly on the ground, he leans over, resting his forearms on his legs as he runs a hand through his messy curls.

Sydney looks from you to a somewhat pouty Carmy, as if she knows she interrupted something.

“Staying in tonight, Carm?” she asks him, as you gather your things.

“Yeah,” he grumbles, and you can’t help but notice how tired he looks.

Sydney rolls her eyes in response, “Don’t worry. I’ll have her back by nine.”

“Alright, I’m ready,” you say with a smile as you address Sydney.

“You guys have fun,” Carmy nods, with a half assed wave.

“Don’t work too hard, boss,” Sydney adds, as the two of you turn to leave. “Oh and Carmy. You’ve got a little…” She gestures towards the lipstick you’ve left on his face.

You laugh in response, and as you close the door, Carmy can hear Sydney’s ‘oh my god, you two are like rabbits’ comment in the distance.

Carmy allows himself to fall back on the bed, reaching above his head to grab his notebook again. He’s honestly grateful to have a night to himself. He’s never been much for going out, or big social events, so having a night in feels like a good kind of calm before the storm – especially because the next few days will be full of social interactions. He’d always found New York City a little overstimulating.

Between the dinner and the reception on Saturday, Carmy felt like he was collapsing under the enormous pressure – his only out being excellence. It’s not just the fact that being invited to cook at the James Beard house was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but there’s important business to announce here too. And then there’s the social aspect of it all, and he can’t help but feel like there are high expectations: from the food world, his reputation, your old friends from New York. And he wants to make everyone happy – he wants to impress them all.

Something about being back here, and being back here with you, has him caught up in his head about it all. This is where you’d met. It’s also where he’d been at his lowest – right before Mikey died. So much has changed, and Carmy feels too large for his old battlefield.

Because that’s what it had been for him: a battlefield.

A battle for his mental health, to rise to the top of the New York City fine dining scene, fighting with his feelings for you.

Over the last two years, he had learned that he didn’t have to fight every single damn day. Some days he could just… be – be himself, whatever the fuck that meant, be a friend, and be with you. It felt strange – familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Being back here makes him somehow feel like the total loser he was six years ago when he first arrived in NYC… and a completely different person at the same time.

While he was over the moon when he got the call from the James Beard Foundation, he also couldn’t fight this uncomfortable feeling that’s been sitting in his stomach all week long. Carmy had never quite been able to come to terms with the whole ‘celebrity’ aspect of the food world. He knew what he could do in the kitchen. That was unquestionable. But the rest of it – the networking, the celebrity chef circles – was the part he felt most unsure about.

Ever since Sydney’s Rising Star win, he’d let her take center stage with her rising visibility in the culinary world. Actually, he’d been grateful that she was so good at it – that it seemed like she enjoyed the part of the job he hated. There was someone to take the pressure off of him – someone who thrived in front of the camera so that he didn’t have to. But he knows at some point this weekend, he’ll have to face the music.

There were big changes coming to The Bear.

It didn’t take long after the initial introductions for your friends to fawn over Sydney. They were more than happy to meet your friend they’d heard all about, and the incredible chef who was shaking up the Chicago food scene.

“Well I’m glad to hear that some things have changed and that working with Carmy’s not a total nightmare any longer-?” Liz concludes your conversation about the restaurant, earning an eye roll from Maya and a laugh from both you and Sydney.

“Oh no it’s still tough sometimes,” Sydney says back. “He has his days. We all do.”

“Liz!” you protest, in regards to the Carmy-bashing.

“What?! You didn’t have to work directly under him back then!” she defends herself, before clarifying with Sydney. “And in his defense, Sydney, it was really our exec chef who was the real nightmare.”

“Oh she works directly under him, alright,” Maya jokes, raising an eyebrow at you.

“And sometimes on top of him, and also-,” you quip back, ready to play along.

“Oh my god, you’re out of control and I am sick of you!” Sydney exclaims with a laugh in reference to your crass comment.

“So tell us more about the new restaurant,” Maya prompts, refocusing the conversation back to Sydney’s previous reveal.

Sydney tells your friends about The Bear’s plans to expand, and shares ideas she has that even you haven’t heard from Carmy yet. As she wraps up her story, she realizes what time it is, meaning that she’s gotta head uptown soon. She really only was supposed to stay for a glass of wine, but meeting your friends has been so fun that she’s lost track of time.

“Shit. I have to head out,” she says. “But I’ve really loved meeting you guys. You’re coming to the dinner tomorrow night, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Absolutely.”

“And the reception!” you add gleefully, so glad you get to see your best friends three days in a row.

“It’s been really great meeting you, Sydney,” Liz says, shooting you a look of approval. She squeezes your hand under the table momentarily, before saying, “Thanks for taking care of our girl. She speaks so highly of you.”

“Where are you off to next?” Maya asks, excitedly.

“Syd’s got dinner plans,” you answer, waiting for Sydney to provide more detail.

“Yeah, I uh-, I got invited to one of the To Be Hosted events and it just worked out that we’d be in town for this the same weekend,” Sydney replies, a glimmer of excitement flashing through her eyes as she shares.

“Damn, you got invited to a supper club?” Liz marvels. “Okay!”

“Yeah because she’s a rockstar,” you cheer your friend on, saying it so matter of factly that even a stranger would believe you.

You all say your goodbyes to Sydney before ordering food. It feels so good to be back in the city, back here with some of your best friends. Maya and Liz had been the friends that held you up, and you them, when you lived here. While you had met Liz at your last job, a sous chef under Carmy’s leadership, Maya worked in fashion and the two of you had become fast friends after meeting through an ex-boyfriend. Once you introduced the two of them to each other, the three of you had been inseparable ever since.

They had always been your biggest cheerleaders – especially when it came to you and Carmy.

“She’s great,” Maya says, in reference to Sydney.

“Right? I’m so excited for her. This is a huge deal: create her own menu, a chance to run kitchen without Carmy…” you agree, feeling deep satisfaction over the amazing people you have in your life. “We’re announcing the big news at the dinner tomorrow.”

“Speaking of, how is our favorite guy? What’s he up to tonight?” Maya asks, guiding the conversation back to Carmy.

“I told him he could come but I think he wanted to stay in tonight. I think he needs some time to decompress. He’s been pretty high strung all week,” you answer.

“Carmy? High strung?” Liz asks back sarcastically, earning a laugh from you. “I’m kidding! I really am looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.

Maya shakes her head, before taking a sip of her glass of wine. She’s always adored Carmy, but knows that Liz has a different relationship with him, having worked as a line cook.

“You guys are… getting serious, huh?” Liz asks, glancing over at you.

“Um.. I think those two were married after their first coffee date,” Maya adds.

“It was not a date!” you insist, shooting her a look.

Liz lets out an unconvinced laugh, and you accept defeat because you know they’ve always been right about you and Carmy.

“Maya, don’t forget. Our girl is and has always been the Queen of Denial,” Liz adds, winking in your direction.

“Oh ha-ha. You guys are so funny,” you reply dryly. You nod, thinking about you and Carmy’s relationship over the last few years. “Yeah uh… it’ll be three years in the Fall so… you could say it’s getting pretty serious.”

Your friends are beaming back at you in response to your admission, and while you’d love to spend all night talking about how head over heels you are for Carmy, you’re also kind of ready to shift the attention off of you and your relationship.

“Enough about me. What’s going on with you guys?” you change the subject.

It feels so good to catch up with your girl friends. You all agree to make it an early night. While Maya’s husband had agreed to put their kid to bed, she wants to make it home in time anyways. Liz has a date later, and before you know it, you’ve wrapped up dinner and are walking back to your hotel. You send Carmy a quick text, because you’re only a few blocks away.

You: On the way back.

New York City has always been so inspiring to you. The city itself feels alive – like there’s an electric undercurrent that always makes you feel so full. There’s never a dull moment, and it feels as if the potential for a wild adventure is always around the corner. It’s also the place that you and Carmy met, all those years ago. It’s funny. The version of you that met him six years ago never could’ve predicted this: that you’d actually get to be here together, after almost three years of loving each other fiercely.

Your friends were and always have been right about you.

Back then, you were Queen of Denial and even then, Carmy had been your king.

But you’re here now: in the city you met in, stupidly in love with the man you’d met six years ago who had seemed terrified to merely have a conversation with you.

Your phone buzzes in your hand, interrupting your trip down memory lane, as you peek at the text you just received.

Carmy: Went out for a walk and a smoke.

You type back a quick, yet short reply.

You: Love you.

When you return to the hotel room, you enjoy the quiet of the evening. It still feels like spring in NYC, so you open a window because it just feels too damn good outside. No wonder he’d gone for a walk. You kick your shoes off, placing them gently by the door, before stripping off your jacket and heading into the bathroom.

As you pull your hair up and out of your face, piling it into one conglomerate on top of your head, you eye the large bathtub you’d admired earlier. Not only are you in need of a relaxing soak, but you’re hoping you can persuade Carmy to join you – maybe even help him destress a little. You don’t think twice about it, as you strip off all of your clothes, sliding on one of the fluffy robes that the hotel has provided. You flip on the hot water, the sound of rumbling water against tile hitting your ears.

There’s a bath soak in a glass jar that you find on the bathroom counter, before adding it to the increasingly hot water. While it looks like a mixture of some kind of soak and epsom salt, large bubbles begin to form underneath the rapid stream of the faucet, and you inhale deeply.

Lavender. Vanilla. Chamomile, maybe?

The smell puts you at ease and you can feel your shoulders melting away from your ears.

It’s not long before Carmy returns, the bathtub is almost at its capacity and the bath soak that you put in the hot water has bubbled up and blossomed into large, sudsy configurations. You’ve put on a jazz playlist, the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald filling the small space as you hum along.

“Babe?” Carmy calls out to you, as you hear the front door close behind him.

“I’m in here,” you call to him, turning the volume of your phone down a few levels. .

You hear a shuffle of shoes, before he’s peeking around the door frame, his eyes lighting up as soon as he sees you. He knows it’s silly. It’s not like he’s been able to be very present over the last week, and it begins to dawn on him that he’s missed you.

“How was your walk?” you ask softly.

“Good.”

He looks around the bathroom, the air thick with humidity from the hot water. You turn the faucet off, as you’ve now filled the tub to its capacity.

“You look comfy.”

“I am. It’s a very comfy robe.”

You wait a beat before preparing your ask.

“Big tub,” you entice him, gesturing towards the bubble bath that awaits you.

“Yeah?” he asks, a half smile on the edges of his lips as he takes a step towards you.

“Big enough for two,” you nod, making your case.

It’s all the convincing he needs. You’re removing your robe, leaving your bare body on display for him to see, and soon enough, he’s stripping down and climbing into the bathtub with you. You share an awkward laugh as the two of you clumsily figure out how to position yourselves for optimal comfort. Your back is pressed against his chest, and you’re truly in awe of the large bathtub that somehow holds the both of you.

It becomes progressively easier for Carmy to relax. Between the hot water, and your naked body pressed against his, thoughts and worries about tomorrow begin to slip away. The two of you enjoy the quiet intimacy between you, the soft sounds of your favorite jazz standards, and Carmy’s lazily dragging his fingertips across any bit of exposed skin that he can.

You lean your head back against his shoulder, and Carmy buries his face in the crevice where your neck and shoulders meet.

“Why don’t we do this more often?” he asks, in between leaving a few slow-paced, soft kisses across your shoulders.

“Hm?” you hum in response. From the way his mouth and hands move across your body, and the silky feeling of the hot water, you barely have a thought left in your head.

“This whole… bath thing,” he clarifies, exhaling a deep sigh.

This may be the most relaxed he’s felt all week and he likes that you seem to be enjoying this too.

“Probably because we have a tub that I can only assume was built for a small show dog,” you joke.

He laughs dryly.

“Fair enough.”

Carmy waits a beat before speaking again, enjoying how his mind has quieted for the first time in days.

“Let’s put it on the list… for when we’re ready to move to a new place,” he suggests, quietly.

“Somewhere with a big tub?” you ask, only sort of surprised by his request.

“Yeah.”

You turn your head to look at him, as Carmy presses a searing kiss to your lips. You feel his hand snake between your legs and you begin to understand exactly why he’s enjoying this whole bath thing.

“As much as I’m enjoying this…” he whispers against your lips. “Think you maybe want to get out of this tub…”

Another kiss.

“… dry off…”

You slide your tongue against his as his fingertips move higher up your inner thigh, earning a hiss of pleasure from you.

“…not put our clothes back on?”

And then he’s swallowing your moans in his mouth, as he continues his exploration. Your head is spinning, and it’s not just the hot water that makes you feel as if your soul was set aflame.

“Yes.”

The next morning, you wake up alone. On the bedside table there’s a note in Carmy’s scratchy handwriting that reads:

Couldn’t sleep. Went to Chelsea Market. Love you.

You let out a frustrated sigh. Last night had been incredible but you also knew it’d be back to the grind today. While you’re excited for him – and for tonight – you’re also kind of ready for this to be over. You’re ready to have your boyfriend back.

read: bonus smut scene | chapter two

taglist: @allthefandomstogether @gaysludge @sobshoney @harrysmatcha @starbritestarlite @tpwkkmila

#carmen berzatto x you #carmy berzatto #carmy x oc #the bear hulu #the bear fx #jeremy allen white #carmen 'carmy' berzatto #carmy berzatto x reader #carmen berzatto x reader #carmen berzatto #carmy berzatto headcanon #the bear headcanon #carmy berzatto imagines #carmy berzatto fluff #make my heart surrender

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sodaliteskull · 2 months ago

Text

alt text under the cut:

SLIDE ONE

TEXT: Abyssal Scrutiny: an urban fantasy hot mess by tumblr user sodaliteskull

(IMAGES: the background shows a washed out image of a person standing before Cthulhu. They are minuscule in comparison. A speech bubble coming out of Cthulhu's mouth reads, "gimme yo FAKKIN MONEY!!!!"to which the person is responding, "NO!")

SLIDE TWO

TEXT: The city of Port Crowden... IS UNDER ATTACK!

people are being gruesomely murdered

property is inexplicably damaged

monster sightings!?

ANGEL SIGHTINGS!?!?

There's only one thing that can save it... MUTHA FUKKIN SUPER SENTAI!!!!!

(IMAGES: in the upper left hand corner is a picture of Vancouver, standing in for the fictional city of Port Crowden. Along the bottom is an image from the 35th anniversary of the Super Sentai media franchise, showing nearly 200 precursors to the Power Rangers)

SLIDE THREE

TEXT: wait wait wait! I'm gonna need a little more context than that!

hokay so, ON THIS ALTERNATE REALITY EARTH! for the last handful of decades, this comet would swing by every twenty-ish years and hang out for roughly twelve months of so.

one of the weird things about it is that is always becomes visible to the naked eye during the week of the Cancerid meteor shower, almost as if the meteors were coming from the comet - BUT THAT'S NOT HOW COMETS WORK!!!

every time this bitch shows up, a lot of weird crime happens. weird in a "literally what is the motive for any of this" kind of way. weird in a "reliable witnesses claim the culprit was some kind of eldritch horror" kind of way. weird in a "conspiracy theorist's wet dream" kind of way

authorities have claimed it's a bunch of shit: mass hallucinations caused by some kind of chemical leak, influencer publicity stunts gone horribly wrong, viral marketing gone horrible worse, run of the mill gang activity, miscellaneous cult tomfuckery. and while suspects have been arrested on suspicion, no one has ever been proven guilty

(IMAGE: a picture of comet Hale-Bopp, standing in for the Star Dealer comet)

the Ishinomori-Haim comet, also know as "the Star Dealer"

(IMAGE: along the bottom is a faded out photo of "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS" tape)

SLIDE FOUR

TEXT: okay, cool. so what's REALLY going on?

siblings Morgan and Al Kurosawa, along with their cousin Grant Jardine are each struck by a fallen fragment of the Star Dealer comet, which gives them superhuman abilities and equipment. not long after, they encounter Dirk Silberg, a local entrepreneur, who explains that the arrival of the Star Dealer causes - or potentially coincides with - a thinning of the veil between this world and a realm he calls the Otherworld. from there, a malevolent force known as the Spread launches its invasions to try and snatch up any fallen stars that hadn't found their way into human hosts.

forty years ago, Dirk, along with his twin Drake and their friends Tony and Barb were starstruck, and battled the Spread. sadly, Tony, Barb, and Drake lost their lives fighting

(IMAGES: Picrews of the characters mentioned. Morgan has short brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, glasses, and is associated with the colour blue. Al has short sandy brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, and is associated with the colour green. Grant has short dark brown hair and beard, dark brown eyes, olive skin, glasses, and is associated with the colour red. Dirk has short ruddy brown hair, hazel eyes, olive skin, and is associated with the colour green. Drake has short ruddy brown hair, hazel eyes, olive skin, and is associated with the colour red. Tony has short black hair and stubble, light brown eyes, olive skin, and is associated with the colour blue. Barb has long ginger hair, blue eyes, fair skin covered in freckles, and is associated with the colour yellow.)

SLIDE FIVE

TEXT: this is just a Power Rangers reskin, isn't it?

sure the fuck is! more so these guys tho -> (IMAGE: a team photo of the Gokaigers. Gokai Red is seated with his arms crossed, while Gokai Yellow is to his left, and Gokai Pink is to his right, holding the mechanical bird Navi in her arms. Gokai Silver is standing behind Gokai Red, while Gokai Blue is to the left of Gokai Yellow, and Gokai Green is to the right of Gokai Pink)

the absolute gorilla GRIP Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has on my psyche…

Sentinels, empowered by fragments of the Star Dealer, are the only thing that can halt the Spread

they have special suits they can morph into, which protects them from the corrosive effects of the Otherworld, with weapons and special attacks to help them take on the nasties that dwell there

they are also granted superhuman abilities outside of the suits, like how these guys in the 2017 Power Rangers movie were able to jump crazy distances and crush cell phones with their bare hands (IMAGE: a screenshot from the aforementioned movie, showing Billy, Jason, Trini, Zack, and Kimberly standing in the Command Centre)

I call them "Sentinels" as a nod to both "sentai" and "senshi", since Sailor Moon is as much an inspo for this as Power Rangers is (IMAGE: a promotional image from the 90's Sailor Moon anime, showing Sailor Venus, Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Jupiter striking their signature poses against the background of a Tokyo night skyline)

look, I just like teams of pals who fight monsters together, okay!?!

SLIDE SIX

TEXT: design inspo because I am a visual thinker but shit at drawing!

the Mecha Will Rise/Bulletpunk figures from Devil Toys are the closest to what I have in mind for the look of Sentinels

skin-tight armour suits that manifest underneath street clothes

funky helmets that reflect the personality of the Sentinel

glove and boot armour

clothing changes colour to match the Sentinel's signature colour(s)

some kind of batshit anime weapon for fighting

definitely going more for style than practicality with these things, because who doesn't wanna look cute when fighting Cthulhu?

(IMAGES: thirteen figures from Devil Toys, all of which are wearing cyberpunk/techwear fashion in an assortment of colours, all of them wearing mecha style helmets, while some of them are wielding some kind of over-the-top weapon)

SLIDE SEVEN

TEXT: so I take it you aren't talking about butter?

nope! this ceaseless wave of nightmare fuel wants one thing and one thing only: to monch and cronch on fallen stars. they are single minded in their pursuit, closer to a fire consuming whatever is flammable in its path rather than an intelligence that is working towards a goal

At least, that was the case, until these tarot themed weirdos showed up and started bossing the Spread around! (IMAGES: arrows pointing to four figures - the Empress, a woman with long black hair and pale purple skin and dark purple eyes, associated with the colour silver. the High Priestess, with long pale green hair, darker green skin, and even darker green eyes, associates with the colour purple. the Magician, with a short ocean blue afro, sky blue skin, and pale blue eyes, wearing glasses and associated with the colour red. and the Fool, with long orange hair tied in a pony tail, khaki skin, and golden eyes, associated with the colour yellow)

the Spread are hard to categorize, as they're all chaotically shifting messes of tentacles and teeth. the only exceptions are the very rare, very powerful, and distinctly humanoid looking Abominations

(IMAGES: five pictures of eldritch horrors looming in nightmarish landscapes, representing the Spread. there's a lot of tentacles and pustules and assorted other body horror going on in each image. representing an Abomination is a humanoid figure somehow both skeletal and fleshy, with a mass of tentacles coming out of its back)

SLIDE EIGHT

TEXT: hold up, you mentioned something about angles at the start of this!?!?

thankfully, not everything in the Otherworld is out to kill you! looking like something of a cross between the angles from Bayonetta and Greco-Roman marble statues, are the Courts. in contrast to the chaotic Spread, the Courts have an orderly hierarchy. ruled by a King and Queen, every Court is defended by Rooks, advised by Bishops, while the Knights lead Pawns in their battle against the Spread. they are quick to ally themselves with the Sentinels

the assorted Courts are all named after metals (the Court of Gold, the Court of Iron, etc), and the rarer the metal, the more influential the Court

the exception to this rigid societal structure is the Court of Gems, which is composed entirely of Knights, and are even more single minded in their desire to wipe the Spread out than the rest of the Courts are

(IMAGES: several different enemy angels from the Bayonetta games, all of them looking like mythological monsters made of white marble and wearing crimson and gold armour, with statuesque faces in places where they should not be. behind them are several white marble statues with veins of gold running through them, almost giving them the effect of the Japanese style of Kintsugi, wherein one uses gold to mend cracks in pottery)

SLIDE NINE

TEXT: overview of the Otherworld

the Otherworld is a reflection of our world - the landscape and structures of here have mirror copies there. organic things, such as plants and animal life, do not have Otherworld counterparts, however. beyond the Courts and the Spread, the Otherworld is lifeless.

it's divided into two distinct locations - the Heights and the Depths. the Depths are especially deadly, as it's blanketed by a corrosive cloud roughly 100m tall. without protection, organic life does not last long in the Depths. the Heights, in contrast, are corrosion free.

(IMAGE: a rough outline of five buildings on a flat plateau, to the left of which slopes down off screen)

the Heights

the Courts make their homes in the upper floors of skyscrapers

(IMAGE: the three tallest buildings are poking up into the Heights, while everything else in the city resides in the Depths)

separating layer looks like waves from below, and clouds from above

the Depths

the Spread live in the dips and valleys of the landscape, surging up onto higher ground whenever they sense a fallen star nearby. when inactive, they just look like an inky black, viscous ocean

SLIDE TEN

(IMAGE: the background is the person standing before Cthulhu image from the first slide, only washed out to the point where it's barely visible)

TEXT: so sum this shit up for me…

a comet swings by every twenty years and (potentially!?!?) shits debris all over the place

if a comet dropping hits a person, they become a Sentinel

if it lands on the ground, the fragment shifts the area around it into the Otherworld

drawn by the power of the fallen star, the Spread destroy everything in their path to get to it, people and buildings alike

in order to protect those around them, Sentinels need to hunt down these comet fragments and find a way to safely dispose of them

but how are Morgan, Al, and Grant going to deal with all this?

does Dirk have ulterior motives for helping them?

if Sentinels happen every time, why no mention of the team from twenty years ago?

what is going on with that tarot team?

if they've been fighting the Spread this long, why haven't the Courts succeeded yet?

all these questions (and more!) will be answered… once I actually fucking write this thing!

#comic sans wip intro #comic sans presentation #wip intro #story introduction #writers on tumblr #voidyelling.txt #sentinel.exe

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margaretqualleytruther · 1 year ago

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one last taylor swift post. her current flame that was pr analyzed to death by her millenial team that has one gay dude for diversity points as soon as she felt the first stir of attraction. which def happened while she was still with that ugly british dude LOL. he probably cheated on her first but ofc she can’t let her general fans find out she’s also one bc of the constant need to always be seen as a victim and never as the predatory business savy megalomaniac she really is even though she wants to promote a bad girl image with the 1975 dude 🙄… she can’t even fart in peace without swifties analyzing the shit particles like tea leaves for who she’s currently fucking. the consequent internet meltdown by her parasitic fans which was probably one of the biggest draws to getting with milquetoast edgelord twat healy cause she for sure hates them and wants her space from the constant scrutiny even though that is quite literally what her and her team most utilized to reach the heights she has including her current career high even though she has meltdowns any time something negative is said of her due to her obscene ego. obv i’m not immune bc i like talking about her gay flings but i like all gay celeb gossip in general and also why i’m interested in her bc you dig one inch beneath her carefully constructed pr top soil and realize she would be one of those serial killer nurses if she wasn’t famous. and don’t even get me started on the dykes that STILL think she’s a lesbian, that was an acceptable thought in like 2014 maybe. massive cope to think she isn’t just bi and likes fucking dudes too instead of the every man she breathes near is in a full blown bearding situation with her like she’s an old hollywood starlet or something. even then she wishes, they had 20x the balls size than she ever will. shoutout katharine hepburn. more on her predatory ways ie the olivia rodrigo situation where she went beast mode on her for riding her coattails a little during SOUR like she didn’t do the exact same thing with tim mcgraw LOL. literally sicced her $2000 an hour or whatever tf lawyers on olivia for copyright which took a significant chunk of royalties for some of her biggest hits off of the album and then got paramore’s team to do the same 😭 and then pretended like nothing new was written in 2012 for red like it isn’t the most obvious crying over olivia blowing up and using her name a bit for promo. olivia could have gone the lorde way where she could have organically gotten closer to her and then had to have painfully extracted herself from taylor’s grip so either way it would have ended badly in between them (also she def got with lorde for a bit, parts of melodrama start clicking in place when you realize that). the most fragile ego in the game which is also why she barely ever lets other women feature and if they do they get sent directly to background vocals except phoebe bridgers but i attribute that to the bpd spell phoebe casts over pathetic people. just a constant pattern with her. katy perry, lorde, her girl squad, her former men where she surrounds herself with underlings whose energy she can feed off of till they obviously turn against her control freak ways so then she casts them off to the wolves (her fans) and also the reason she’s stuck stunting with the haim sisters. will be awaiting her and healy’s breakup for their epic public battle of personality disordered egos. i know she has more testosterone than he ever will and will try to absolutely pulverize him in the public’s eye but she’s so overexposed rn i sense another fall from grace due to it. amen 🙏

#oh my god i went on a rant here #stuck in a three hour car ride rn

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ileftherbackhome · 2 years ago

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I need to know what you think about the whole Joe thing because at this point I'm genuinely so confused as to what's going on

i hesitate to even answer this at all, anon, because I'm honestly in the same boat as you.

all i can honestly say is something about this situation doesn't feel right to me. i don't really wanna say too much because i dont want to fan the joe is a beard bullshit but the whole "differences in personality" thing... almost that exact same wording was used during the coverage of the harris x swift break-up. im not gunna look it up but if you research the people article for it, you can see what im talking about.

we also know that as soon as midnights, her most accurate album to date, she wrote sweet nothing about her relationship with Joe. Its a really hard pill for me to swallow that after seven years of music about how supportive and how understanding he is of her career, the thing that broke them apart was "differences in personality."

but then there is haim, gigi, blake and ryan, austin unfollowing him off instagram. why? why would they do that right now, in the middle of her tour being made about this fucking break up, when they absolutely KNOW that people will be reading into those actions. however, there is also the possibility that none of those people were actually following on insta to begin with because he doesnt actually post on there. i have no way of verifying that they actually recently unfollowed him but the words of the same fans who believed he deleted the cat photo of his insta when it was just a story in the first place.

all i can say for certain is the pap pictures are planned easter eggs about a work related project. she knows we expect speak now so it would be the perfect time to throw another curveball at us. i can also see taylor deciding to have some fun with the media coverage of her tour, especially if she is announcing a film soon in which she tackles fame and the media specifically in it, when she told us in lavender haze the way she protects her relationship is by ignoring the media. like, she could be showing us how much of a mastermind she actually is. like, im getting so much deja vu from 1989 era and the fact that she used the same wording as calvin harris break up, that makes me so suspicious. i still think she's planning on coming out this summer so im not sure if this could somehow be related to that?

i keep going back to the coverage of this relationship, the media narrative she crafted of this man who supports her superstardom and just wants to be in her presence and nothing else, and how it's a complete 180 from everything she has let us know up to this point. like, the fact that in the span of 2 weeks, we have had swifties take the narrative from "they broke up" to "he cheated on her" also just makes me feel like super gross about the situation.

like i am just not a fan of all the drama about taylor's personal life all of a fucking sudden now that we think she's single as a fandom. like, wow, and like she spent so much of their relationship shading the people who called it fake or disgenuine, that i just... i dont know. nothing about how this is playing out makes any sense to me.

taylor hid the relationship for almost a year, you don't think she would have waited until the tour was over to release this news??? and then we got the pic of joe, which like, thats the first pap pic ive ever seen of him alone i think and that also makes me question why we're seeing him right after taylor. like, she was so happy right up until tour, it kind of makes me think something dramatic did happen because why did they all unfollow him?

i just don't really know what the fuck is going on. I dont really believe any of what they say is the reason they broke up, i guess. if they did break up, it sure as shit isnt even close to what the media is running with imho.

and then im like idk this whole thing just doesnt make sense and that's really all i have to say about it.

#taylor swift #jaylor #joe alwyn #anon love #ask and you shall receive

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wine-mom-wheeler · 3 years ago

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An Analysis on El's Playist (just anti Melvin parts)

Sometime last week I had the idea to listen to El's Spotify playlist and I found some Byler evidence/ anti Melvin evidence. El's playlist also foreshadows her storyline in s4 with a lot of songs about escaping. This is just a post about Byler rn so hang tight.

Blow Your Mind (Mwah) by Dua Lipa

https://open.spotify.com/track/7kJlTKjNZVT26iwiDUVhRm?si=SdIMYJ54Rt2MDqOjqg346w

‘Something money can’t buy' Is definitely referring to when Mike was at the mall after lying to El, especially since you can’t buy someone’s forgiveness. And the fact that if Mike really wanted to put in some effort into apologizing to El he would’ve gotten some eggos for her.

‘Tell me I’m too crazy' It mentions being crazy but it’s someone saying “you’re crazy.” In s1 Nancy always tells Steve he’s “crazy” or “this is crazy” never once calling herself crazy. We all saw how Stancy played out and how it’s been parallel to midleven before.

'You want some more' Mike wants more as in he wants someone to be his beard and El is the easier person to use as a beard.

Let Me Go by HAIM

https://open.spotify.com/track/26Ij4Z5uXledB0fRg7V9av?si=3Y-mYGDUQcqrObXzYd8Dng

This one also foreshadows El being kidnapped and her dynamic with the people capturing her. I'll only be underlining the lyrics that have to do with midleven

‘I’d give you everything I could give' El giving mike a sense of stability in his sexuality so that he doesn’t have to face being gay in the 80s by using El as a beard.

'But take on everything you can' Mike is taking on being gay in the 80s and him struggling to figure it out.

'I won’t wait till day you beg again' These lyrics remind me of Mike trying to apologize to El in the shed where it could have been seen as him 'begging' and also how max said that Mike will come begging for forgiveness but then he rushed to beg forgiveness to Will.

Revenge by Patti Smith

https://open.spotify.com/track/00QrHgrVlYOsleK3Vb62OJ?si=pYiZDu9tQmuLfHV0GS0ThQ

'Don’t hesitate now' Mike hesitates to act with El. Lucas has to urge him to say sorry. He doesn’t kiss her back during their goodbye scene. He hesitates to say he loves her back and he hesitates to explain to her what he means by crazy.

'Needed you, you withdrew' Mike all of a sudden 'withdrew' from their relationship. El asked him if he remembered what he said while looking for the flayed. He 'all of a sudden' decided he ‘didn’t remember'

'I thought you were some perfect read out' El thought Mike was perfect until Max told her otherwise.

'And it secured phased my view of the wicked hand you played' El didn’t see that Mike had an ulterior motive to be dating her. I’m not saying that Mike is wicked but he did screw up by using El as a beard.

'I gave you a wristwatch' El didn’t give Mike a wristwatch but Mike and Will both have matching wristwatches.

'For ghosts of our love have dried and faded' The little bit of love that was in Mike and El's romantic relationship is gone and there’s no more of it. I think El has lost the need to be with Mike romantically.

‘There’s no use faking it' Nothing good will come from Mike if he fakes a relationship with El. 1. It will ruin the chances of him and Will getting together, 2. It will ruin Mike and El's relationship and 3. It’s detrimental to Mike himself.

'Ah, the spirits are gonna close in on you tonight' Mike is going to realize he's gay because its too hard to ignore now that he’s older.

'All the gold and silver' Mike looks at a gold teddy bear while looking for something to apologize to El with.

'Couldnt measure up my love for you, it’s immaterial' Their relationship is immaterial therefor mike trying to apologize to El why buying something for her was useless.

That concludes my analysis (there are definitely more to come)

#byler #Spotify

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outstandingmenshair · 2 years ago

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‘K, so you may or may not know, or have noticed - you may or may not care (and why should you!) that I have a few particular penchants;

Probably the most prominent in my posts - a red hot, handsome ginge gets me every time, whether they rock a full red mane, or a lovely pale skinhead with a gorgeous ginger beard….

A crisp white tailored shirt, or even a white tee does it for me. Don’t ask why, cos I have no idea!

I have an occasional and inexplicable, irrational attraction to some cartoon characters from the 80s & 90s - Lion-O (Thundercats) I’m looking at you as the lead candidate! (Ok, so that one is likely the wild red hair again….)

And following that, blonde boys from the same era; Corey Haim (no longer within us 😞), Mark Paul Gosselaar (aka Zack Morris) and Jason Priestley (Brandon, BH 90210) are 3 examples that come to mind.

But pretty sure I have yet to highlight my twin thing. Two for taking on one, yes please. Doesn’t have to be twins necessarily (I mean it’s not like I would knock back Chris & Liam Hemsworth (sorry Luke… yes, there is another one if you didn’t know) - and who in their right mind would?) or James & Dave Franco (are we still shunning the former, I don’t know anymore! And yes, there is also another Franco fact fans, by the name of Tom). But twins would be the golden ticket (Harrisons, Pletts, Patriota…. um, Jedward, hi, yeah, kinda busy right now, *ahem* can I get back to you?)

So the above pair probably aren’t even related, but are looky likey enough for me and worth a post, post confessional. The fact that one has a lovely boxy pomp and the other has a terrible tall, straight up and unflattering flattop (which instantly makes it, and him, hot as… hair, done brilliantly badly, that would be the bonus round No.6 to the above list! Broccoli heads that means you too, crazy hazes and rookie initiates welcome aboard!) just makes it a pairing worth sharing, for a rowdy round of throuple trouble. After all, three is the magic number!!!

#NTTD

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spade-riddles · 3 years ago

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Submission: Lover rooms = rerecorded eras?

Alright, I’m putting this as a submission, because I may ramble here.

But if my theory is correct, then the “rooms” in the Lover house don’t just represent certain albums of Taylor’s. They may also actually contain Easter eggs that will only make sense when we get the Taylor’s Version rerecording of each album!

Am I mad? Maybe. (But we’re all mad here, so who cares.)

Let’s put on our clown hats and take a deep dive.

The Orange Room / Games Room / Fearless era

This is the first room, and already contains some potential hints, even if we may not have recognized them as such at the time.

First of all: ANAGRAMS. Taylor kicked off the Fearless TV era by scrambling the titles of the bonus tracks as a puzzle for fans to solve. An anagram is a word game, like Scrabble. Which is what Taylor and her lover are playing on the ceiling.

We can take the “hidden words” / “word games” thing even further, by saying the “Willam Bowery” pseudonym, and the whole debacle over Toe being given a producer’s Grammy credit after the fact, are also examples of word games. And PR games. Which is what the orange room is all about.

We also see the door of the orange room is open a crack. And in front of it are three things. A row of little ducks. What looks like a toy version of a London bus. And a trash can. This last one is right in front of the door, suggesting someone or something is potentially about to be thrown away.

To have your “ducks in a row” is a saying meaning that you’re prepared and your plans are all set up, ready to be put into action.

The London double decker bus has a less clear meaning. It could be a reference to Toe. It could be a reference to Taylor’s attendance at the Brit awards. Or it could be a reference to the End Game music video. Maybe it’s not even a bus - my view of it honestly isn’t clear enough to be sure. But I think it is.

There is also a hamper on the other side of the room, and a crocheted blanket can be seen spilling out of it. This is interesting because Taylor keeps sending hand-made baby blankets to people. It’s a nice gesture but it’s also obviously a PR move, as the recipients post them on social media and show the world. So Taylor is probably doing this for a reason beyond just being sweet. Again, it’s hard to know what the inclusion of the blanket means here. It could just be a reference to all the PR games going on around the baby. Or it could mean that we’re about to see Karlie get a baby blanket too. Again, I don’t know.

We also just had the release of the “Halfway Out The Door” Fearless chapter, which obviously seems like a metaphor for being halfway “out”. Taylor even called Fearless the “first outing”, and the motif of standing in doorways has been showing up in her promotional materials for a while now. She performed part of her Grammy’s medley while standing in the doorway of a mock cabin, and one of the promotional photos for Folklorevermore was of Taylor standing halfway out of a door, with a sign saying “2 ½” and an arrow pointing towards her.

I can’t make out more details without hi-res images of the room I can really zoom in on. But already there is some interesting stuff there.

If this pattern holds true, I wonder if the rest of the rooms contain clues to her upcoming PR rollout?

If the next album to be released is Speak Now, then does that mean we might get “single” Taylor then? Taylor is shown composing on her own in that room, and Speak Now was the only album she wrote entirely on her own. This is an especially contentious subject given the way Toe (a beard who most likely had absolutely no input on her actual work) has been credited as a co-writer for her last two albums. Will Speak Now TV see Taylor drop Toe and reclaim her musical integrity?

What about the 1989 era? In that we see Taylor’s lover jump into the fishbowl with her. Could that be a hint Kaylor might start being seen together again during 1989 TV?

The Red era room shows Taylor and her lover at a party, but the lover is talking to someone else, while Taylor looks on longingly. Could that mean we get a narrative of Taylor pining for Karlie in that era? You could argue some of the groundwork for that has already been laid, with suggestive, regretful tracks on Folklorevermore, which even Karlie’s detractors think are about the Kaylor relationship.

Debut era is green, which is the colour of growth, and depicts Taylor playing the drums while her lover hangs a picture of their cat on the wall. This suggests to me that Debut era could be the last era. (There will obviously have to be a delay before Reputation can be recorded.) So after Debut, we may get some forward momentum from Taylor. A lot of us suspect Taylor has another original album in the works. There were rumours of a third album to complement Folklore and Evermore, which would be called Woodvale and have a green colour scheme.

But there are also rumours that Taylor’s next new album will be rock-influenced album she was forced to shelve before Reputation. In LWYMMD Taylor sings “all I think about is karma”. She also depicts herself cutting the wings off a jet plane and spray painting “Reputation” on the side - suggesting her next planned album was something else, and Rep was a pivot. The Taylor who does this is dressed uniquely, in a jumpsuit with a palm fronds patterns. (There are tropical house plants in the green Debut room too.) The theory goes that this next album is called Karma, and there is some evidence that suggests Taylor is still working on it. Taylor did a joint Rolling Stone interview with Paul McCartney, she is rumoured to have worked with Lenny Kravitz recently, and she has now twice collaborated with HAIM. I really feel like we don’t talk about the significance of Taylor playing the drums in that room enough. It’s such an unusual move for her, and to me it suggests she’s hinting at a change in musical style. Going more rock.

The portrait of the cat also feels important. It feels like a metaphor for something. That Taylor is going to make a statement via her art, unveiling something she’s proud of. Again, I’m not sure what that could be. Taylor’s love of cats has been used before as a hint about her true sexuality, and we do see Ryan Reynolds painting a portrait in the YNTCD music video. So this painting could represent a coming out. But then Taylor’s cats have also been jokingly referred to as her children, most famously in the ME! music video. And recent social media posts have seemed to carry forward the trend of Taylor using her cats as code for her child. The fact that Taylor has three cats, but only one gets a portrait, makes me wonder if it symbolizes Taylor making her child a more visible part of her life / art.

All of this is just me theorizing. And obviously, the activity in the rooms shifts over the course of the video, so I could be missing or misinterpreting things. But I think there could be something to this theory. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts, or get some eagle eye screen caps of the video. I can never zoom in far enough and I know there are probably more clues hidden away in it.

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whatiwillsay · 3 years ago

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Hey Camcakes!

I was listening to the beards to lovers part 2 and I agree with like 95% of what you guys are saying. The theories make a lot of sense.

One question I have about the Daisy thing is why do you think Karlie tagged her as a daisy in the Instagram pic?

Personally I think she and Karlie kinda hooked up but for Karlie she knew Josh was endgame and he was probably cool with her exploring being that they got together when she was so young. I’ve known quite a few couples who’ve done that.

Taylor seems like the u-haul type but for Karlie it seemed like it was mostly a friendship with some hooking up here and there.

Curious as to what your thoughts are on this.

i mean karlie either tagged her as the daisy as a random cute joke as a bestie or she tagged her as the daisy because they were involved sexually or romantically. i don’t know which it is but either is possible. due to tea and clues i still think lily is the main rep muse but maybe some of it comes back to karlie.

karlie also starts to convert to Judaism in 2015 fully signifying a very serious commitment to josh. so whatever went on in 2014 - which fully includes the possibility of a kaylor hookup - was over by then.

that’s just me tho! but i think as gaylors we have to allow things to be coincidences from time to time. not EVERYTHING is a secret sign and symbol from taylor ab her personal life. it’s possible that a daisy is just a daisy with that IG post. i understand why people think it’s more than that but i think we ought to remain open to the idea that it’s a coincidence (as we should with everything) after all karlie dancing around in a cardigan 13 days before folklore was announced was a coincidence. she literally got pregnant with josh around that time.

dianna streamed haim 13 days before evermore was announced and i’m certain that was just a coincidence even though we have a haim feature on evermore.

so i think you can sort of decide for yourself. if you think kaylor happened in some fashion then the daisy on IG has kaylor meaning. if you are skeptical then it doesn’t have to! and if you want you can stay in the middle of it like i do and just say “hey maybe 🤷‍♀️” we don’t always have to have all the answers sometimes it’s enough to have the questions you know?

thanks for listening to the pod 😉glad you enjoyed!

#gaylor #gaylor swift #Anonymous

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jennyboom21 · 5 years ago

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lol , Taylor and her supposed gay rumors , she also had rumors she slept her way through the Nashville ice hockey team, hooking up with 1 of the haim girl ex’s. Going to a college to visit a guy when she was younger. The Kennedy boy, which was not fake on his part.

Thank you for confirming the rumors about her being yanked from high school in favor of “Christian” home schooling due to her budding, raging baby dykism. Mike Pence would be proud! Those music journos weren’t kidding about Dianna and Taylor being WAAAAY more serious, despite their lax boundaries the alleged majority of their relationship. Everyone has their person, and I’ve read about Twin Flames... Taylor killed two birds with one stone, but I bet that neighbor was sore from being taken for a ride. At least she brought her gf along to give the new beard a once over, despite the impending Swiftgron break up later on in July...

*Chris Evans’ Voice* I can do this all day, anon.

#gaylor swift #swiftgron #taylor x dianna

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taylortruther · 5 years ago

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I am not a Kaylor or `Gaylor` but I think something is unnatural about T and Joe. They seem awkward. Even in the doc when they hugged. And T is extra-private about it . . . except when getting `caught` by the paps? The hiking trip where he was in jeans was so weird. I felt this about TH and CH, too. Something doesn`t add up for me.

okay, this is controversial, but i KINDA get where you’re coming from. i 100% agree taylor has acted very awkwardly about her public relationships, and is way more comfortable with her friendships. like, remember when taylor stumbled over thanking calvin/adam at the iheart awards, and he couldn’t care less? girl...

i have some theories... the biggest one being: taylor knows her romantic relationships are dissected, so she has no chance of acting naturally in them in front of others. hence why she just took that out of the equation completely.

also, i think taylor is awkward in general. i think that’s why she wants so much control: she wants perfection, she wants to plan how things go, and that makes her behavior in front of her high-value relationships look uncomfortable, because she can’t just be natural.

around girlfriends, like HAIM, she can be weird, because there is not the same public expectation. and could also explain why her friendship with karlie went from cute and warm to nonexistent.

also, again, i think taylor used to use her relationships for marketing, and used to call the paps a lot. i’m a #paptruther. so what she showed us is what she wanted us to see, not what her relationships were actually like.

or maybe she’s gay and hiding her true lesbian lover behind male beards! but i’m not convinced lmao

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

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BILLIE EILISH - BAD GUY

[6.93]

The Jukebox has thoughts on Billie Eilish? Well, duh.

Andy Hutchins: Nothing clicked for me with Billie Eilish until "Bad Guy." I understood the appeal intellectually, because it has sometimes been my wheelhouse: "Prodigy-cast makes off-kilter pop music from a perspective with more than a little precociousness and possibly a feminine spin that serves to disrupt rather than reify" is my jam for months at a time, sometimes. But some combination of prodigy and precociousness sometimes striking me as preciousness -- something that I've occasionally found issue with in the work of Sky Ferreira and Solange and Lorde and Cher Lloyd and fka twigs and Haim and Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey and so many women who have occupied this same treacherous lane where deviating from delivering what is expected from a young woman making pop music can offend the sensibilities (or engage the biases) of even someone who has strained to stave off the stupidity of dismissing music made by young women and largely intended for young women -- and what I read as a deliberately dark and standoffish aesthetic put me off of Eilish, whose stuff just didn't compel me. Everything clicks for me with Billie Eilish now that I've heard "Bad Guy," which I reckon is pathetic on my part, because so much of the DNA of "Bad Guy" is in other work she's done that the things that differentiate it as The Hit and The Breakthrough come down to tempo and a kooky synth run in the hook that every third YouTube commenter thinks is stolen from Plants vs. Zombies. But "Bad Guy" is also an unassailable pop song and has come along at a time when bulletproof ones are not occupying the charts -- the closest competition in the current top 40 by my sight is, like, a Katy Perry song whose verses let down its magnificent hook, a bunch of drowsy-to-dire Khalid and Halsey tunes, a C- effort from Taylor Swift, and a microwaved Lizzo track that I've known of for a while and don't consider her best stuff -- and so it stands out even more from the pop metagame than the larger Eilish oeuvre does from a host of less realized tunes. And I'm a sucker for an unassailable pop song, especially one with a vocal initially delivered so low that it demands attention to the dial in the car but that is by turns brightly funny ("...duh!") and world-weary and campy to the hilt (the titular phrase being stretched to a titanium crocodile's rasp), a relentless bass line that sounds like a monster's heartbeat echoing in a cave, and lyrics that constitute a semi-sincere embrace of some Lolita tropes and a more powerful sarcastic destruction of them while somehow also being fully ready for Instagram captions and Twitter display names and ... well, no one's on Tumblr anymore. But that's hardly Billie's fault, and I'm not docking points for only barely failing to raise the dead with a virtuosic song that makes me this glad to be alive. [10]

Alfred Soto: There's a reason this song has become the breakout hit besides its insidious keyboard hook: Billie Eilish sings not mumbles the gender bending hook. Otherwise a ditty that the top 40 could use more of; its quietness is a tonic. [8]

Joshua Copperman: Sounds great, looks great (if possibly plagarized), memes great. The deadpan anti-sexuality of "might-seduce-your-dad type" is "Guys My Age" done right. The delivery of "my soul, so cynical" like even that is too earnest of a statement. The only weak part is the ending switch-up. But you knew all that already. Duh. Besides the cries of "industry plant!" there's also the ongoing sense that Eilish is a music writers' idea of what a 17-year-old Tumblr-born pop star would sound like. And sure, she's a young music writers' dream; I have a byline at Billboard because of her. But also, it's genuinely smart music that is mostly set to age well, even if it's hard to tell if it m a t t e r s. Who knows what 17-year-olds of any predilection towards seducing dads are actually listening to; I'm 21 and finding that out is only getting more difficult, if maybe not more necessary. If teens still control popular culture, if anyone does, who knows if this really does reflect them, or if its bottomless angst is mocked like Limp Bizkit? Is "Bad Guy" just "Heathens" for the late-2010s? Does this really represent the next generation? And which next generation; the shit-talking saviors, or the ones just like their parents and the radicalized alt-right kids? There's no easy answer to any of these, no "duh" to shrug them off. But there is Eilish and co. applying the daily grind of apocalyptic dread to smaller-scale topics. Processing death on "Bury a Friend," processing one's own body image on "idontwannabeyouanymore," processing changing gender roles here. Finding your place in 2019 is a lot for anyone. No one is getting it right. What Eilish does instead is turn that uncertainty to playfulness, confidently existing within the mess instead of trying to find her spot. [8]

Leah Isobel: I was on Tumblr in 2011, so "might seduce your dad type" doesn't feel as provocative as she might intend. (Also, Halsey did the exact same thing.) Besides, pop is a space for fantasy and role-playing, and she's not the first 16-year old bad girl to make adults freak out a little. What gets me is that the song itself is a brilliant production piece in search of an equally compelling melody; the biggest hooks here are an audible eye-roll and a Tim Burton rip. I love the idea of Billie as a goth-teen-pop star, and the choice to swerve into a spooky outro instead of a more traditional structure is genuinely a lot of fun, but this all feels like so much posturing -- normal for a teenager, but not that compelling to listen to on its own. [6]

Katherine St Asaph: If Billie Eilish is the Gen Z Fiona Apple, which I've heard from about three separate people even before the Discourse started, then "Bad Guy" is her "Criminal," down to it being creep flypaper. Everyone quotes that one dad line a bit too eagerly, like they're subconsciously thinking that if they have the pithiest take they just might get to be the dad. (It isn't even the most suggestive line.) There's a strong case for the dad being the bad guy, if only because he's, well, the guy. But "Bad Guy" lives in the world of teenage politics, where the guys just are and the girls get their badness thrust upon them, and their choices are to shrink away or play along. Duh. ("Bad Guy" : "duh" :: "Your Love Is My Drug" : "I like your beard.") But all this is pretty serious analysis for a fundamentally trolly song: half-mumbling the melody to a beat I'm pretty sure I made in a high school to go with a video project; rhyming bad/mad/sad/dad like a Mavis Beacon keyboarding tutorial (or whatever the kids have now; maybe they're just born typing); crooning an exceedingly Lana Del Rey-ish "I'm only good at being bad" then immediately cutting that crap for a bassy, fuck-off breakdown; filling only about 60% of the song with, like, song. [6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Not the most impressive or cohesive Billie Eilish song, but it is the one most likely to remind you of how fun her music can be (that she included the Invisalign skit in the video helps). The coda is fine, but the best reversal is found elsewhere: the nonchalant cries of duh followed by a cartoonish synth melody, underlining just how playful the song's darker elements are. [6]

Josh Langhoff: Eilish sometimes sounds like the Cardigans if they only did Black Sabbath covers, "evil" squeezed between an extra set of scare quotes, and sometimes she's Nellie McKay on downers, ennui shaped like wit but without the laughs. Sometimes she's good and sometimes she sings ballads. And somehow that combination produced "Bad Guy," the elusive Somehow Perfect Pop Song That Sounds Like Nothing Else On The Radio. I can't say I love it, but all her murmuring and posturing makes Top 40 radio seem, after too many years, like a playground of endless possibility. What'd we do to deserve this and "Old Town Road"? [8]

Jessica Doyle: Yes. Some are red, and some are blue. Some are old, and some are new. Some are sad, and some are glad, and some are very, very bad. Why are they sad and glad and bad? I do not know. Go ask why that menacing bass and Eilish's whisper didn't deserve better lyrics. [4]

Tobi Tella: Billie Eilish's artistic direction and style of music makes it seem almost impossible for her to make a legitimate banger, but this fits in perfectly with the rest of her album tone-wise and also completely slaps. The simplicity of the production, literally created in a bedroom just adds to the perfect low-key vibe. The lyrics do make Billie sound a little like a teenager who will cringe reading them in 10 years, but as an 18 year old, sometimes doing stupid stuff you know is destructive and immature is FUN, and this completely captures that feeling. [8]

Will Adams: I love love love the idea of this shifty, close mic'd oddball dancepop song being as big of a mainstream hit as it is, even if it's one of the more slight offerings from the album. Extra point for the coda, where Billie drops the coy and reminds you how quick she is to put her foot on your neck. [7]

Pedro João Santos: The coda lamentably inverts the light heart of "Bad Guy": the colourful, whispered titillation conjugated with what's left unsaid, a sort of puerile pleasure dutifully translated by the Theremin-esque synths; not the heady, overlong consummation that it unfolds onto by the end. I must say I'm exhilarated that someone knew how to ape "Las de La Intuición" nearly 15 years on, although startled by the fact that it was Billie Eilish the one to do it. [7]

Scott Mildenhall: Done well, it's enjoyable to hear a musician having such fun, but especially so when one unexpected element of a song comes in to underline just how much fun they're having. In this case, it's the gloopy searchlight noise, playing out like the theme tune to a 1970s cop show set in space, in a way that cannot be anything but gleefully goofy. Such bold and playful invention is something pop music would suffer without. Extra points for the consideration to leave a gap before the outro so that radio stations can cut it out. [8]

Iris Xie: I still think this song should've been cut off at the 2:14 mark, because it said everything it needed to say. [5]

Katie Gill: That purposefully obnoxious "duh" sums up what Eilish wants to say more than the rest of the song combined (and is currently in the running for my favorite 2 seconds of 2019 pop music). This image of her as the bad guy isn't serious. It's bratty and playful, more her creating something she can have fun with instead of taking herself seriously. Unfortunately, that something interesting here is buried in a three minute piece that somehow manages to be three completely different songs which never actually coheres to a single whole. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Billie Eilish #pop #music #music review #writing

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thethirteenthdegree · 3 years ago

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easter egg : haim

specifically, the line : "este's sister's gonna swear she was with me"

taylor is, of course, referring to just one of este's sisters with this line. este has two : danielle and alana, which begs the question which one the line specifically refers to.

why I think it's alana :

alana haim made her acting debut in a 2021 film by the name of licorice pizza ("a gay political leader’s story brought to life") where her character is asked to act as a beard. an alibi. "(s)he was with me". licorice pizza was filmed over the same time evermore was written and recorded (aug - nov 2020).

it's also based on a true story. dots.

a brief thank you to the very unexpected source who innocently told me about this movie before its release with no idea the significance it would have to me !

#easter egg #evermore #no body no crime #folkmore #taylor swift #TS #TV #taylor's version #HAIM #haim sisters #alana haim #este haim #danielle haim #folklore #concept album analysis #no body no crime has been one of my fav songs to analyse #it's literally loaded #:)

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tilbageidanmark · 3 years ago

Photo

Movies I watched this week #60

3 By auteur Baltasar Kormáku:

🎦🎦🎦 Trapped, his excellent and gripping police procedural series, the most expensive television series ever made in Iceland. I liked it so much that I binged the 10-hour series in one day. A claustrophobic story taking place in a tiny town in the middle of “nowhere”, snowed-in and separated from the rest of the world by a winter storm. And with all the genuine performances, the most amazing acting went to a 7-year-old “Maggi”, a traumatized red-haired little boy, waiting for his father. Works perfectly on every level and highly-recommended. 9+/10

🎦🎦🎦 Virgin Mountain, a Baltasar Kormáku production, is a quiet story about Fúsi, a middle-age man, fat, bald, shy and lonely who’s still a virgin living with his mom. When he receives a birthday gift of line-dancing lessons he meets another lonely soul, a blond who suffers from depression and they starts a fraught relationship. A delicate and realistic film with 2 of the same actors from ‘Trapped’ - Best film of the week!

🎦🎦🎦 In The Oath, Baltasar Kormáku plays the the lead, that of an accomplished heart surgeon, whose rebellious daughter falls for a rotten drug dealer. A slow-moving and austere thriller. 8/10.

All 3 films offers the same dark atmospheres with the use of similar swelling “Sound”, an ominous, low-melodic ambiance, that is a character as much as any of the people playing.

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Going thru the complete Steven Soderbergh’s filmography, I also got to binge on his murder-mystery Mosaic. It was released in 2018 as an interactive “branched narrative” app (which I didn’t use) as well as a 6-parts mini-series on HBO. Typically to Soderbergh, it’s a rich and convoluted story of a long con, filled with savvy grifters, old money and deadly passions in a resort Utah town. Shines like one of his commercial packages, but ends like one of his smaller personal projects. It features Pee-Wee Herman, Beau Bridges and the radiant Sharon Stone as a murdered children’s book author Olivia Lake, as well as a bunch of other indistinguishable actors. 7+/10.

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...“We are here on earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different”...

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a warm and wonderful biography (of what used to be one of my favorite authors). It was proposed to him by a fan in a 1982 letter, and in the course of the 33 years that it took to finish, the two became close friends. 9/10.

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The Danish 2022 Oscar-Nominated Short On My Mind. A disturbed man at an old-fashioned dark bodega is getting drunk at 10AM and insists on paying extra for a karaoke song.

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The game and how to play it: In The Candidate handsome Robert Redford is running for the US senate in what is still the finest political campaign story of all times. How an idealistic individual is losing his genuine leftist principles once he's thrown into the grinder. With bearded Peter Boyle and Allan Garfield. I'm sure it was young Bill Clinton’s favorite film. 8+/10.

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Adora told me that Matilda is her favorite movie right now. I can see why: It’s a dark fairy tale about a super-bright girl with psychic powers who lives with a family that doesn’t want her, until she finds a kind teacher who appreciates her for who she is. What’s unusual for a children film is the blatant abuse by the parents and especially by the Nazi-like school mistress, the result of it being based on a Roald Dahl story. Mara Wilson was cute in it.

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2/3 of PT Anderson’s San Fernando Valley Trilogy:

🎦🎦🎦 His latest Licorice Pizza, an unexpectedly sweet love story between a pudgy, pimple-face 15-year-old hustler and directionless 25-year-old Alana Haim in 1973 Encino. Each of PTA’s films is different in focus and style, so it’s hard to pin him down, unlike other independent filmmakers. (Photo Above).

🎦🎦🎦 Boogie Nights empathetic ensemble drama with the older Hoffman (and Ricky Jay!) about the ‘Golden age of Porn’ was a hoot, and brought back memories, the lifestyle, the popcorn ceilings, Nina Hartley. But at 2 1/2 hours, it was at least 30 minutes too long.

As a completist, I planned on also re-watching the 1/3 part, Magnolia, but I hated it when I saw it years ago, and I don’t have the nerves to hate it again. I still need to watch his ‘Hard Eight’ and 'Inherent Vice’ though.

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Sea of Love: Alcoholic Al Pacino is a tough NYC detective who falls for sizzling murder-suspect Ellen Barkin. With William Hickey and young Richard Jenkins, and one moment with Samuel L. Jackson. It conflated casual sex and the dating scene with danger and death without saying they’re the same.

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Spielberg’s Romeo & Juliet old-school musical, West Side Story. The song and dance, and Spielberg’s expansive cinematography were my favorites.

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In Lars and the real girl Ryan Gosling plays a shy and lonely guy who falls in love with a sex doll. It’s a very simple story that loses credibility as he immediately transformed from a pathologically introvert person into a near-functional member of the community.

Structurally, I liked the precise arrival of the 5 narrative peaks exactly at the 15 minute marks, just like it says in screenwriting 101.

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I watched A Ghost Story because I liked Rooney Mara in ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’, not because I care for any supernatural tales. But it was a little different, a slow and moody meditation on loss. Visually though it was mostly a guy floating quietly through the generations covered with a large white sheet. I could also do without the unprompted scene of the party hipster mansplaining his cosmic philosophy all of a sudden. 4/10.

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Mr. Sloane, a British comedy TV series with Nick Frost & Olivia Coleman, about a straight-laced accountant set in 1969. It was OK, but I didn’t bother to watch more than the first episode .

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I disliked Arsenic and Old Lace and it took me 4 attempts to finish. The frantic screwball “comedy” about two old ladies who poison and bury twelve of their lodgers in the basement was embarrassingly loud and stupid. The only bright spot in it was Peter Lorre role as Doctor Einstein. 1/10.

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Throw-back to the art project:

Adora with Kurt Vonnegut.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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