#also one photo of me by jf

[lost-fool-wandering]

...

-L.F.

[kriegermeanswarrior11]

Original anon here—you’re correct that the current theory is Janelly Farias. At first it seemed like another crazy L Chat rumor, but after noticing the following things, I began to put more stock in the theory.

**There is no definitive proof and they could simply be friends. Just wanted to share this for others.

- Sometime in mid Feb - JF and her gf breakup and JF and Ali cover the Gold Cup together on CBS. Ali follows Janelly on IG around this time, but it looks like Janelly had been following Ali previously.

- During the Gold Cup, JF is seen wearing a rainbow friendship bracelet that says “ur gay” on it. People on L Chat mentioned that her friend made it for her months ago for the Taylor Swift concert. You can find a closeup of the photo under her Pride featured stories section on IG.

- Mid March - Ali’s style shifts back to more of her normal style. It seems like she knows exactly who her target audience is with her outfits. Less “for the male gaze,” if you will. Same with her nails. 👀 [This isn’t necessarily proof she’s dating JF, just that lately it looks like she’s trying to attract a woman more so than a man]

- Around March 20-21, Ali begins following JF’s good friend Renata Masciarelli on IG. Supposedly RM and JF are in NYC during this time. Rumors about RM and Ali dating begin on L Chat, but they don’t really stick. Regardless, it is a bit of an odd follow. The theory, which is later (somewhat) confirmed, is that Ali spent time with RM and JF while they were in NY.

- Mar 24th - Ali does the MSG interview with Sue Bird and she’s wearing a new rainbow friendship bracelet. This seems to be the first appearance of the new bracelet. Since this date, the bracelet has made multiple appearances and in one of the latest photos from Ali’s trip to Spain, you can confirm that it is the identical “ur gay” bracelet that JF was wearing during the Gold Cup and the months previously.

April 13 - someone on L Chat shares some of Ali’s recent IG quote likes. They seem to have taken on a more positive, romantic tone than her likes in previous months.

- “It’s the person you never saw coming that will change your life.” IG @3amthoughts9

- “ You deserve a calm love with someone who is good for your mental health and nervous system. Someone who is your safe space, your best friend, and brings peace to your soul during stressful times.” IG @selflovehealer

Two in particular (which, ironically, JF also liked):

- “Being attracted to someone’s voice is a real thing btw” from IG @queensdiarry

- “Good sense of humor, dirty mind and beautiful heart. Deadly combination.” From IG @love.quotes

- Mid April, an anon comes on L Chat and says the following: “All the trolls that had Ali turning her back on the LGBTQ+ community. That she wanted a man. And now she is actually dating a woman. Whoops, did I say that? 😂”

- A day later, people on L Chat post: “Ali is dating Janelly Farias. Mexican soccer player.” and “They’ve been seen around NYC on more than one occasion when JF was in town.” (Can’t confirm if this is true or not, but it would make sense given the timing of JF being in NYC and Ali beginning to wear the bracelet)

- At some point between Feb 24th and mid April, JF unfollowed Ashlyn on instagram and unliked her notes app statement post. I happened to take a screenshot of likes on Ashlyn’s notes app statement back on Feb 24th when I was explaining the divorce drama to a friend and Janelly had clearly liked the post, as well as older posts on Ashlyn’s account. When the JF/Ali rumors started in mid April, I remembered Janelly’s name being on that list and I was like, “there’s no way she and Ali are dating if she supports the ex.” So, I went to Ashlyn’s profile and noticed the unfollow and the unlike. That seems like a definite choice to me. Even close friends such as HAO and Lori haven’t unliked the original post, even though they are clearly supportive of only Ali now.

- During my deep dive, I also noticed that Makeup Alex and Janelly started following each other and liking each other’s IG posts in late March. This is interesting because Alex didn’t do Ali’s makeup for the Gold Cup, the CBS makeup team did.

- Mid April - JF was on The Courageous Podcast and she talked briefly about her recent breakup towards the end of the podcast, there’s a short clip on her IG. In the short clip, she mentions having a phone conversation with the woman she’s dating about changing people’s opinions through education [the question was about trolls, death threats, and such]. I think given the online trolling lately both JF and Ali have been receiving, it would make sense that they might have a conversation like that.

So, to summarize, they could be new friends, but the bracelet and the unfollowing of AH are the biggest things that make me think it could be something more.

I noticed Alex's (mua) likes too...👀

I'm sure that if is true, we will have some more tangible "proof" when Ali is ready.

[coolcat101s]

Raw notes from my surface level welcome home dive from last night

Obvious spoilers under the readmore

Welcome home:

Firefly video link https://www.clownillustration.com/4-14-bf

Bottom right of Eddie flowers have an audio link https://www.clownillustration.com/will-2

Bottom left has an audio log as well and the url https://www.clownillustration.com/help

Landing page:

Wally draws home link in it https://www.clownillustration.com/i

The y on the site update is invisible

Y hidden behind the word five in the update

“We always knew it was real, ever since that first itch in the back of our mind. You need to know too now, don’t you? Do you feel it. It’s good that you came back.” Good shit right on the page feels like Lore

About us:

The o is up

Hidden in text: When I unwrapped the first letter, I felt it. I heard it. Open. Open. Open. I want it out. I’m going to get it out.

After the text in the why did you make this website> Does it hurt?

Hidden After do you know how many episodes> The numbers are so hard to read. Sometimes I can’t see them.

The hearts https://www.clownillustration.com/a. Love the eyes stuff omg

Preying mantis at bottom right:

https://www.clownillustration.com/10-14-js it’s another video!

Stickers page

The spider: https://www.clownillustration.com/11-14-jb another video, also I notice it cuts out when they try to say Wally’s name in these interesting

The star flower drawing https://www.clownillustration.com/i-2 another audio with Wally drawings

Weird loopy thing over stickers and under the w

News:

Caterpillar https://www.clownillustration.com/12-14-hb another video the Wally cut out again at the end

“So many guest signatures… So many of them are trying to communicate. What are you telling me for? Do you think I can answer. What are you trying to do to me. I’m closing that guest book, I’m not playing this game anymore. The ringing is enough.” Feels like not the team is that is it Wally? Who is it?

The neighborhood:

Text changed I think:

Home is where the heart is and Welcome Home's residents are the heart of the neighborhood. Even if you don't live there, you're still one of its most important denizens! But don't worry, with the help of this colorful array of neighbors, it'll feel just like home in no time at all! 

Found this eye when I messed up copying the text above I’m not sure where it came from (update!! On desktop hes hidden behind the art banner apparently)

Swirl under home still there

Still has as bellow, as above now works too which it didn’t before I don’t think : https://www.clownillustration.com/as-above here leading to stars that have this https://www.clownillustration.com/soon (he says let me in) and the c on back looks like a 3

Eddie had a bug on his page! https://www.clownillustration.com/8-14-ef

Wally’s page had a flower on his canvas https://www.clownillustration.com/will

Bug on the menu https://www.clownillustration.com/9-14-fp

Media:

All of these are amazing like even the not hidden stuff is so fun

Little rainbow bug thing after the interview: https://www.clownillustration.com/1-14-ph

Merchandising:

Spiral on the last phone photo, repeating  motif is noted

Butterfly: https://www.clownillustration.com/6-14-jf

The playfellow exhibition: big that runs and hides like a little sneaky https://www.clownillustration.com/2-14-sp

House at bottom left https://www.clownillustration.com/understand

Guestbook: in the opening a speech bubble from Wally https://www.clownillustration.com/find

Bug on the opening page https://www.clownillustration.com/13-14-he

Bug on first page https://www.clownillustration.com/7-14-ej

[ewan-mo]

Saturday morning meeting with the (wo)man from the Ministry!

11th March 2023

Dr Hafsa is the lead for mental health in the Ministry of Health. We have known her for some years and she is always very welcoming of Jamie’s Fund. On our part, as with Butabika and the PCO School, we think it important to stay fully in touch with Ugandan psychiatry, to ensure we are in line with their current policy and strategic direction. 

Having said all that, it was a bit of a surprise to be invited out for coffee/breakfast with Dr Hafsa on a Saturday morning. We met her at Café Java in one of the malls. We thought she liked and approved of JF. After the hug she gave me today, I’m convinced!

We had a very good catch up, filling her in on progress in JF and hearing from her how things are in the Ministry. We knew that there have been substantial cuts to most health budgets, mental health included. We are also very concerned to hear the extent of the cuts to drugs budgets. 

Dr Hafsa has quite a battle to ensure any kind of strategic direction for the mental health service, and we don’t envy her her task. As in most health services around the world, mental health will almost never attain any kind of priority in the allocation of resources. Dr Hafsa knows that if we can help, we will, and she now knows the extent of progress in mhGAP made by JF, and that we are supporting training of PCOs, which can only be helpful to mental health services.

We drove out the slow road to Mukono and E enjoyed taking photos of different road side scenes and businesses.

Cattle on the roadside.

Fresh roasted corn on the cob

Do you need shoes or mangoes?

Travelling in some comfort!

Cutting planks with a chainsaw, rather than the old pitsawing technique

Need a new dress? It's a modest boutique

Why the traffic was moving slowly.

We have come now to a new hotel, and are discovering its attractions. We didn’t know we had a door bell at the entrance to our room until it rang! and a young lady presented us with a basket of fruit. 

Which reminds us to tell you that there are about five different kinds of banana here in Uganda. Did you know that?

The hotel is set on an industrial estate, interestingly different for a brisk walk together. On return I walked on into the gym for a bit of treadmilling. 

Treadling away, I gradually  realised that one of the teams being intently watched on the TV by the gym instructor was Liverpool. 

He nearly fell off his perch with excitement when I revealed my Liverpudlian origins and that we lived so close.

"So have you been to the gym at Anfield then?"

Um, no...!

Sorry to disappoint. One of his lifetime ambitions is to come to Anfield.

Sadly Bournemouth beat Liverpool by 1-0 on this occasion.

[smartdatarecoverykl]

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[bizarrequazar]

JunZhe Post-Filming Timeline Space Notes

This was a followup space to one a week before, hosted by Shi’er, JF, and Ltk. This space covered late-September 2020 to the end of January 2021, with discussion based off of fan resources (especially the Vietnam team and the Rainy Night fansite). Further details about many of the events mentioned can be found under the recording.

Word of Honor filming wrapped on September 22nd, the dinner banquet was on the 23rd.

September 24th: Both left Hangzhou.

Gong Jun went to Sanya and probably went to pray at the Guanyin temple he had prayed at prior to filming, then went to Fujou on September 25th, then Yibin in Sichuan where he recorded a variety show. After the variety show recording, Gong Jun went on a vacation with his family in Dandong during the first week of October, which he posted photos from on Weibo.

Zhang Zhehan went Shanghai, then to Kunming, Yunnan province on September 25th. He stayed in Yunnan for a holiday until October 5th when he traveled back to Shenzhen. During this period, he posted photos  on October 2nd, and it’s believed he also went to Shangri-La City, bordering Sichuan.

October 8th: Zhang Zhehan played golf, where he made a hole in one.

October 9th: Zhang Zhehan flew into Beijing, presumably to prepare for his concert. Gong Jun was possibly in Beijing, his exact whereabouts on this day and those preceding it are unknown.

October 10th: Zhang Zhehan had a series of interviews. During a broadcast on Beijing Music Radio (released October 23rd), he mentioned that he had shown Gong Jun his new songs and had asked him to come to his concert. This is also likely the day that the Doraemon photo was taken. Gong Jun flew from Beijing to Shanghai to celebrate the birthday of his co-star from The Love Equations.

October 11th: Zhang Zhehan held a livestream where he said he had invited a personal guest, then blushed bright red and got shy. This was also the official release date for his Another Me single. Gong Jun attended an event for GQ, stayed in the Jing An Shangri-La hotel in Shanghai. He posted the photos from the event on the same day, as well as the douyin of him dancing to Ai de Chacha.

October 12th: Gong Jun flew from Shanghai to Beijing. 

October 13th: Zhang Zhehan had an interview where he mentioned he had a task to produce three songs per year. He also mentioned that during Word of Honor’s filming he had only had one day off where he was able to watch the movie Tenet, tripping over his words with something that sounded like “Gong” before saying he went with his staff. Based on his clothing, this is also most likely the day that he filmed the douyin where he bows in the white suit, as well as the one where he throws the flowers on the stairs; these were likely filmed at the location of his concert rehearsals.

October 14th: Zhang Zhehan did a live interview with MR Radio, where the host asked him to invite Gong Jun and he said he wasn’t sure if Gong Jun was going to come.

October 15th: Zhang Zhehan played golf, annual Sina Pro and Mature Golf Tournament. Gong Jun did a photoshoot for Area magazine at Beijing Sanduanjing studio. 

October 16th: Xiaoyu posted the Doraemon photo, someone kept changing it from private to public and vice versa.  Gong Jun posted the Dandong photos.

October 17th: Zhang Zhehan did the band rehearsal for the concert, posted three photos wearing a white jacket, caption “See you tomorrow.” 

October 18th: Zhang Zhehan’s I Met Me mini-concert at 6pm at the Beijing One Space. After the concert, his studio posted photos; in one he was sitting next to the chair 146. This was the 146th day since they met (either the martial arts training day or the script table read depending on how you count it.) Gong Jun didn’t show up to the concert, but he sent two huge bouquets with a personalized card. There’s a high possibility that Zhang Zhehan took these flowers home, as there’s a photo where something that looks like them was visible in the backseat of his car. Gong Jun filmed a douyin in his friend’s spa clinic close to the concert venue, posted October 20th. This douyin was the first time he was seen wearing the Apple watch. Rumor: He was waiting for Zhang Zhehan to finish his concert. 

October 19th: Zhang Zhehan’s ELLE Men magazine photoshoot. 

October 20th: Zhang Zhehan flew from Beijing to Dongshan Island. Posted a douyin where he was singing with Xiaoyu, most likely filmed on the 17th; there’s a voice in the background that may have been Gong Jun. 

October 21st: Zhang Zhehan had a photoshoot for Condé Nast. Candy: The shirt he was wearing was very similar to the Givenchy shirt Gong Jun wore back during his event in June. 

October 22nd: Gong Jun flew from Beijing to Nanjing, was filmed wearing a red hoodie and an Apple watch. 

October 23rd and 24th: Zhang Zhehan posted a series of photos from the photoshoot and a douyin clip of himself singing Another Me, wearing an Essentials sweater. 

October 26th: Gong Jun posted a video of himself unwrapping gifts on Xiao Hong Shu, wearing the Apple watch. One of the gifts included a set of headphones. Likely filmed on the 15th. Zhang Zhehan’s studio updated his public itinerary to include Nanjing for a pop-up shop event.

October 27th: Zhang Zhehan posted two photos of himself in a recording studio wearing an unpaired Apple watch. He also posted the douyin of him throwing flowers on the stairs. 

October 30th: Gong Jun recorded Tian Ya Ke in Nanjing, photos posted on November 2nd.

October 31st: One Night in Nanjing. Zhang Zhehan flew from Shenzhen to Nanjing for the pop-up shop event and had a photoshoot, white shirt over blue tshirt. (Not the same hotel as Gong Jun’s Fresh photoshoot in November 2021, that candy is fake.) Gong Jun drove from Nanjing to Shanghai to watch an e-sports event and filmed a vlog of this. After that, he drove back to Nanjing, identified by store signs in the background of the vlog. It’s about a four hour drive between the cities. Rumor: The two met in Nanjing.

November 1st: Zhang Zhehan flew back to Beijing to record Tian Ya Ke. He was spotted at the airport with a possible hickey, looking quite tired. Gong Jun did not work this day, he only had a dentist appointment. 

November 2nd: Zhang Zhehan flew to Chongqing to film Retro Detective.  Gong Jun was back in Nanjing to film The Flaming Heart.

November 8th: Official start of filming for both.

November 11th: Zhang Zhehan went to Shanghai for a Fendi event.

November 18th: Release of Zhang Zhehan’s song Don’t Say, posted on Douyin. 

November 29th: Gong Jun’s birthday, livestream of him unwrapping his gifts with his coworkers. One of the gifts was a big Lego set of the Roman Colosseum that he said was from a friend, rumor is that it was from Zhang Zhehan. Sang Ai Ni Wuhu. 

December 4th: Gong Jun posted a photo on Instagram of himself with a neckwarmer.  Zhang Zhehan posted “你好吗” (“are you okay?”) on Weibo. 

December 25th: Gong Jun went to Beijing to promote Unique Lady 2. He had a fanmeet afterwards where when he asked for questions about his characters, someone asked about Zhou Zishu, and he laughingly said “I’m not Zhou Zishu, are you a fan of Zhang Zhehan’s?”

January 1st: Gong Jun did an interview where he said “In the new year ... may your CP be real.”

January 14th: Gong Jun flew from Nanjing (Flaming Heart filming) to Beijing where he recorded a spring festival gala. He filmed part of a vlog of him going to eat hotpot. Rumor: Zhang Zhehan may have been with him at the restaurant, there was definitely someone with him who he kept looking at; there’s no concrete evidence either way.

January 17th: Gong Jun posted hotpot photos on Weibo.  Zhang Zhehan’s studio posted a photo of him from behind with a caption about chasing stars. 

January 23rd: Zhang Zhehan privated then unprivated some photos he had taken in Yunnan of him by a lake. In the photos he was wearing a black hoodie that Gong Jun has in red.

January 31st: Gong Jun posted the hotpot vlog. 

To be continued in a future space. ♥

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 16 part one

(Masterpost of All the Recaps)  (Canary’s Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes

All righty, this one is going to be a laff riot...not. Let's do it.

The first half of this episode is like a beautifully executed standalone tragedy, while also threading together all sorts of themes and paying off all sorts of relationship building that's happened in the previous episodes. My hat is off to the writers, while I also shake a fist at them for making me cry an unreasonable amount.

We’re Sailing on a Strange Boat

The episode starts right off absolutely DESTROYING me with the Yunmeng brothers holding hands, fingers interlaced, in the first of many hand-touching moments that punctuate the episode.

Jiang Cheng has to be pretty far gone to accept this degree of comfort and tenderness. I think, from their positions, he is also holding Yanli's hand out of the camera's view. 

Zidian finally lets the trio go, and they immediately turn the boat around and head back to Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian gets the clever idea to turn the benches into makeshift oars but nobody gets the clever idea to use magic to push the boat like they do literally every other time they are in a boat. 

Their emotional need to go back to Lotus Pier is understandable, but they are being disobedient and irresponsible by doing it. Jiang Cheng is the future of the clan, and should not risk his life, particularly after his mother chose to sacrifice herself to protect him and after both of his parents told him to go hide with his sister and personal bodyguard brother. 

On the other hand, Jiang Fengmian, as clan leader, probably had a duty to go into hiding himself rather than go home to die romantically, so his authority is questionable at this point. Anyway, this is the Jiang Clan, they get to kind of do what they want, except when that pisses Jiang Cheng off.

Lotus Pier Massacre

Back at Lotus Pier, the Wens are kicking Jiang ass. The fight choreography is pretty good, taking full advantage of walkways, railings, pools, and other features of the environment. 

Using the set this way always makes fights feel more kinetic and real, as opposed to simply sparring in an open area. 

(more after the cut)

Yu Ziyuan is fighting adequately with a sword, having given her preferred weapon to her son.  She's clearly been at it for a while, and is tiring; the Wen soldiers are starting to land more and more sword blows but no critical hits yet.

Wen Zhuliu is kicking ass and possibly melting cores, although we don't see him do it to anybody yet. Later we'll hear from Jiang Cheng that he crushed the cores of his parents, but it's not clear when that happens.

Sixth young master replays Jiang Fengmian's entire archery lesson in his head while he waits, and waits, for Wen Zhuliu to finish strangling a dude the right moment to shoot an arrow at Wen Zhuliu. 

Homicidal tart Wang Lingjiao notices him lining up a shot, strolls over, and stabs him in the back while he's still thinking about what Jiang Fengmian said. One could wish that JFM's archery lessons weren't quite so wordy. 

Wang Linjao normally doesn't carry a sword because of her low spiritual power, but apparently can use one just fine when she's killing kids.

If you start feeling like this episode is unreasonably painful, just think of it as building up calluses so you can handle Yi City when the time comes.

Jiang Fengmian to the Rescue

Jiang Fengmian shows up very far past the nick of time, although he is not actually useful, so it's questionable whether arriving earlier would have helped. But his wife is glad to see him.

Netflix subtitles say that Jiang Fengmian calls Yu Ziyuan "My Lady!" which sounds courtly and romantic in English. His actual words are "San Niangzi" which hunxi-gullai breaks out here.  I might render this as "lady wife!" rather than "my lady" but I don't think English really has a perfect equivalent.

Jiang Fengmian sails across the courtyard, knocking down a few Wen soldiers and becoming a young, slender man in the process.

I mean, come on, that stunt double does not look like a boxy middle-aged man from any angle.

The Dying Bit

The episode splits up the big death scene for dramatic effect but I'm recapping it all together to keep things simple.

Within moments of arriving, Jiang Fengmian gets shanked by Wen Zhuliu like Scatman Crothers in The Shining (or Groundskeeper Willie in The Shinning).

Wen Zhuliu stops a Wen soldier from finishing JFM off, just so that a different Wen soldier can deliver the killing blow from the back, which is kinda harsh. With all this spin-fighting there is probably not an implication of cowardice when someone dies from a stab in the back, but still. Too rude, Wen Zhuliu.

Yu Ziyuan sees Jiang Fengmian fall, and after having a moment of sorrow and despair, she stabs herself in the heart, falls down, crawls to him and interlaces her hand with his. He revives just enough to give her hand a squeeze and say "San Niangzi" one last time before dying. 

She dies next, with a smile on her face at the end. The soundtrack plays that amazing "horribly emotional death scene" music that isn't one of the tracks available on the OST, argh. This same music appears at the end of Xue Yang's story.  

Of the many things I love about the Untamed, the complexity of all the minor characters is possibly my favorite. These two people suck at parenting, and suck at being married, and ultimately suck at protecting and leading their clan, making stupid, selfish choices at every step of the building conflict. 

And then they have this incredibly romantic death scene, in which they both face the inevitability of failure, and find comfort in failing together. Yet their death scene is totally in keeping with who we know them to be, and who they are to each other; the drama doesn't cheat by making them ideal lovers or great people at the end. But they have a great, great moment.

Jiang Yanli, waiting in the woods while her brothers are presumably running toward Lotus Pier, drops her lotus pendant, which is made of the loudest jade ever discovered, and it breaks with a crash.  

Yanli, who is a well educated young lady, knows a moment of doomy symbolism when she sees it.

Jiang Yanli: Who put a giant rock out here in the woods? What are the odds I’d drop my pendant directly on it? 

It’s all Over Except for the Crying, Running and Choking

The brothers climb up on the roof and are shocked to see nothing but Wen soldiers and piled up Jiang corpses... 

...including one child who is either about to become a zombie or who is being played by a young actor who can't control their curiosity, judging by the way this eye is sneakily opened while the camera is running.

There's a moment where Jiang Cheng is saying they must have spared his parents, they must be okay, where Wei Wuxian's face is just...wow. You can see right here the gulf in life experience between these two. 

Wen Zhuliu roams around looking troubled while searching for more people to kill. He’s an interesting villain; someone who believes his loyalty to his boss makes him a good guy, but knows his boss is a bad guy. 

Then we are treated to a hell of a camera move, where it tracks over Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian together on the floor, heroic in death and still holding hands, and then sweeps up to show their killers sitting on the lotus throne. 

The dead couple were at odds for their whole lives together, while the evil people who killed them are acting like devoted lovebirds. It's a stunning shot and a terrific thematic contrast. When Wei Wuxian eventually comes to take his vengeance, he will spend some time turning Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao against each other, before ending them. 

The camera shows us JC's reaction, then shows his mother, then WWX’s reaction, then JF; each reacting to the death of the person who loved them. Some folks may feel that Jiang Fengmian actually did love Jiang Cheng but was just bad at showing it. But Jiang Cheng doesn't think so, and I don't think it's a given that parents love their children.

Side note: Macroexpression king Wang Zhuocheng is able to open his eyes so far that a giant strip of white shows above his irises, and keep them like that, which is quite a trick. Try it yourself.

Meanwhile Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao gossip about YZY and JFM's bad marriage. Wen Chao admires YZY's beauty, and Wang Lingjiao insults her character, and announces that she's going to stab YZY's body a few extra times. Jiang Cheng briefly faints at this, taking a page from Wei Wuxian's book, and rolls off the roof. 

Run Run Away

Both young men run, and run, and run away from Lotus Pier while Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao mistreat the bodies of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan 

The stabbing happens off camera, because it's ok to stab a live child on camera, but not a dead adult. (As always, there are cultural reasons for "what's ok" in any country, and I'm not saying anybody's wrong about these choices). 

Wen Chao follows this up with pouring a cup of wine across their faces. He does this in the style of a libation for the dead, but as a desecration, combining mistreatment of bodies with profaning a ceremonial rite. In a world where ghosts are real and have sharp fingernails, this is deeply, deeply stupid.

Yu Ziyuan’s actress Zhang Jingtong is able to have liquid poured INTO HER EAR without flinching. Mad props.

The brothers eventually finish running and arrive in a field with an extreme purple photo filter on it. Which I've done my best to remove for these gifs, with variable results. 

Jiang Cheng wants to turn around and go back to Lotus Pier. He says he wants to retrieve his parents’ bodies and to take revenge, but he's devastated and it seems likely he just wants to die with everyone else.  

Wei Wuxian pleads with Jiang Cheng to calm down and stay safe, while Jiang Cheng gives himself over to anger and shock as the brothers shout at each other.

Punching and running ensues, and Wei Wuxian tries to hold his brother back, grabbing him around the shoulders him in a gesture that painfully echoes the many hugs he's given over the years. 

This time Jiang Cheng doesn't just push him off. He turns around and chokes his brother for nearly a full minute, while screaming at him and blaming him. 

Just as when Madame Yu beat him, Wei Wuxian doesn't fight back; he pulls on Jiang Cheng's wrists but doesn't hit him or try to break his hold.

Finally Jiang Cheng lets him go, and cries out for everyone he's lost, while Wei Wuxian weeps silently next to him. Eventually they fall asleep in the grass together, their bodies curled up in the form of a heart. 

Damn, this episode really brings it.

Side Note: during their argument, Wei Wuxian says, among other things, that "revenge is a dish best served cold," according to subtitles. It's a French saying from the 1800s so it's probably not precisely what Wei Wuxian is saying. More importantly, as a longtime Star Trek fan I can't help but hear James Kirk yelling "KHAN!!!!!" whenever I encounter that phrase.

There’s Got To Be A Morning After

When they wake up in the morning, Jiang Cheng is still in his feelings, but now his feelings have moved along to despair, from anger.

I feel bad for noticing how handsome they both look in this scene. Let's all feel bad about this together.

Jiang Cheng is free to have this level of emotional breakdown because Wei Wuxian is there keeping his own shit together and focusing on what matters.

When Jiang Cheng refuses to get up, Wei Wuxian reminds him, very, very gently, that they have a sister, who has waited all night to know what happened.

At this, Jiang Cheng gets up, but won't look at Wei Wuxian, continuing to blame him for everybody else's actions, as he walks onward to find Yanli.

Wei Wuxian follows, hurt and bereft, as he gets to work internalizing everything that he's being accused of. This is good practice for his future as a widely reviled bogeyman.

Part two will be slightly less awful! Coming soon!

[disenchantedfaerie]

So many things to say and so many things not to say.

Fandom: This fandom is toxic. There is no other way to put it. It’s toxic from top to bottom, left to right, diagonally. My partners and I discussed this today because we were bored. We whole heartedly believe it starts at the top and by top I mean her majesty of the written word. Of course, now that’s she’s dropped the self diagnosis of “somewhat autistic,” you really can’t say anything because then you’re a horrible person. But she uses that as an excuse for her snark and condescending attitude. Hey. Whatever lady. I don’t follow you, I don’t read your books and aside from the few things I see, you’re no better than the leads. The difference is you’ve been milking the fandom for 30 years; people are waiting for you to finish and you can’t even complete the one that was supposed to be done last year. Yet you continue to yak about this side thing or that side thing and really, I don’t need a JF origin story. We’ve gotten that enough in the 9 other flipping books. You see the pattern here tho folks?

The female lead: She has done her share of being flippant and rude to people on her SM. She becomes sweet as pecan pie on Thanksgiving when she wants to want to launch something though. She was the one who wanted to end the shipper rumors and so IFH happened but sadly when you skirt around a subject and don’t say your partner’s name or take photos of them/with them and only take photos with your male lead in what could be construed as compromising positions - yeah. People will continue to buy what you sell to them. I’ve said it time and again, they are the biggest trolls in the fandom and do more to fuel the ship, even now that she is married to another man who is not the male lead, than anyone else. That’s all I have to say about her. She doesn’t owe anyone anything, none of them do actually, but sometimes being kind goes out the window with the lot of them.

His highness: Where to begin? His “fans” come all the way over here to our little corner of tumblr to hide behind Anon Asks to spew their hate and vitriol to those of us who seem to have opinions that differ from theirs. Namely, he is not a god. He is not someone we worship. We simply come together over coffee and tea and trade stories of current events and talk about the what if’s. My opinion of him is based on his own actions. Maybe all these “fans” want to blur the timeline of events and take it as gospel from his highness that he went on his luxury vacation before the travel ban while the rest of us cancelled ours and many lost jobs and incomes. Well that’s simply untrue. When he was called out, knowing he was wrong, instead of being the sweet, humble, normal guy that everyone says he is, he doubled down, became rude, flippant, went on a blocking spree, posting articles about COVID being no worse than the flu. Did his traveling companion get serious threats. I believe so. I believe he has as well from the same kind of people that come here to our little corner of tumblr, keyboard warriors that hide behind their anonymity and spew hate and vitriol. I also believe that people have gone to Glasgow and stalked his flat, which, come on people. That’s wrong on so many levels. I lived in LA for many years. It never occurred to me to drive to Malibu, Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon to actually stalk the celebs. Why? What’s the point? So I can see them in their grungy clothes looking like real people? No thanks. I don’t have that kind of time or energy. Thus the 4 page rant. Hey good for you dude. It’s about time you grew a pair actually but what did it accomplish? Nothing really except people stopped talking about his covidiocy. Why? Not because he wasn’t a covidiot and quite frankly still is (remember, he’s the king of “it’s not worse than the flu”) but because he pulled the mental health card. I think he does have mental health issues. I still have high hopes that some day he will realize this himself and seek the help he needs.

Now these Anons come to our little corner of tumblr and drop their comments saying things like “I hope you get COVID and die. It’s because of you he did his 4 page rant. The people you call mommies are his real fans.” Mmmkay. I used to blindly defend him. I used to buy into his shilling and his ever so sweet exterior, I even bought into the “best fans ever” bullshit. You want to blame us who never name him, her or the one who “writes” in any blog, never hashtag him, her, or the other one or the show, never interact with any of them on other platforms of SM for his 4 page rant, his mental illness, all of his flaws and accuse us of not being fans - fine. He who is without sin, cast the first stone. Perhaps you need to sit back and take a long look at yourself in the mirror as well. Wishing a deadly disease on people, making threats, spewing hatred - isn’t this the exact same thing that was done to his highness and you were all up in arms about it, yet you come here and do it to others and think that’s okay. What makes it okay? Because you’re defending your favorite star? If this is what it means to part of this fandom, part of his fandom specifically, no thank you. When y’all can walk on water, then you can judge me. Until then, judge not lest ye be judged.

I walked away long ago but I’m still human and still have an opinion, everyone does. If he’s your favorite celeb then perhaps you should follow his advice the next time you see something you don’t agree with - suggest you ignore. He’s the one that started the entire “be kind” campaign right? Or does that only apply when it’s comvenient? If you think this is the sort of behavior that will get you on his Christmas card list or the top of his potential list of never ending “girlfriends” - well, good luck. At some point this man (again, he’s a man, he’s flawed, he makes mistakes and he’s not perfect) will fall from the pedestal his fandom have put him on and then where will you all be? He has been unapologetic for all the things he’s done. He continues to shill his swill and all his other crap when a lot people can’t make ends meet. He continues to ask for donations to HIS causes instead of asking people to take care of themselves or their own communities. I love Scotland as much as anyone but my money right now is better served in my community. I ignore most of what they all do, following his own suggestion of ignoring, but things cross my dash and I do not condone or appreciate threats. I didn’t condone it when the threats were directed at him, his traveling companion, or anyone else nor have I ever made a threat against anyone.

I wish to be treated the way I treat others and if you can’t do the same, if you can’t engage with me in a calm, adult manner, I don’t have time for you. You can have a differing opinion than me. It’s okay. We don’t have to agree but we can respectfully disagree and discuss, not argue, about who’s right and who’s wrong. It isn’t cut and dry, black and white. We can agree to disagree and still be civil and still be friends.

My Scotsman added this: When will the games end, when will the games stop? I had high hopes for his highness to lead by example and be better but he’s a follower and he followers her majesty’s lead. He follows his business partner’s lead. He sees her milk the fandom, so why can’t he and he does an excellent job of it. His fandom vote for meaningless awards until their fingers bleed, buy all of his merchandise, buy anything he sells up to and including the ship. Is there an ounce of him being a genuine person left? Yes. He gives us a glimpse now and again but make no mistake, he will take you for what you’re worth. Maybe one day he’ll change and we’ll follow him again. Until then, I’ll be watching like my partner. I’ll be around.

I guess at the end of the day my point is this, the fandom made itself toxic and I highly doubt at this point it can or will turn around. Why would it? All we can do is choose to be part of the toxicity and contribute to it and pass it forward like these precious anons have been doing or we can choose to walk away, scroll on by, try to make the world or at least our little corner of it better.

I’m still disenchanted. I hope one day my wings turn white again with the promise of a better time and place. Until then, take care my friends. I’ll be watching and I’ll be blogging.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Small Isles Interview: Filmless Music

Photo by Dustin Aksland

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It’s rare that you find a record with a genesis as specific as The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, the debut album from Small Isles. The new project of guitarist Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, former Modest Mouse) and songwriter/composer Jacob Snider has its basis in film scoring. The catch? The films don’t exist. The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea is presented as an imaginary score to an imagined sequel to Ang Lee’s 1997 familial drama The Ice Storm, itself based on Rick Moody’s 1994 novel. And the band’s upcoming, unfinished EP, with strings arranged by Snider and recorded by collaborator Sienna Peck, is, according to the band, a distillation of the concept of the band, one that consciously combines film scoring motifs with traditional songwriting. In a way, you could say that Small Isles is music about film scoring as much as scores itself.

Fairchild and Snider hold the belief that film scores should hold their own as a piece of music independent of visuals, and on The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, they announce themselves convincingly. Opening track “The Concept”--essentially the prototype for the band--combines vaguely harmonic deep bass sounds with pristine, echoing string plucks, and wordless vocals, building up like an Explosions in the Sky tune. Other tracks, too, juxtapose the ambient with recognizable structures. “Fort Wayne” shimmers atop a drum machine, while the vocal samples of “Maybe We Will” cut in and out among the beats and arpeggios. Each track also has a pristine sense of place, as much of the album was written while Fairchild was on tour with Modest Mouse, tracks like “Fort Wayne” and the washy, atonal “Lake Superior” started in those locations.

I spoke with Fairchild (calling from his home in Ojai, California” and Snider (calling from near Philadelphia) last week, a few days prior to the release of the album via AKP Recordings. (The album comes out on vinyl next month). Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity, about the band’s artistic process, The Ice Storm, adapting the songs live, and what Small Isles has in common with Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour.

Since I Left You: You’ve called this record an imaginary score to an imaginary film. Did you think of the sequencing of the record in a narrative arc?

Jim Fairchild: Kind of, but honestly, there’s a sequence that originally existed, and I don’t remember what it was, and it would have been more aligned with what I pictured from the movie, but it didn’t work as well as a comprehensive piece of music. The last song on here, “The Plot to Take Clover”, that was earlier before. “Life at One”, the first single, really kicked off me and Jacob’s partnership. It was designed that way; it’s not the way the record plays out. I wrote all of the principle themes, the underpinnings of all the compositions, as an imagined score to some sort of a sequel to The Ice Storm. I don’t know exactly how it would play out with Rick Moody. The first one was really successful. I have this idea for a similar type of movie that takes place in contemporary California and all these cues I can use as a mood board. Like, let’s sit down and figure out what this palate is. Let’s write a movie around it. That’s what I was thinking.

SILY: You wrote a lot of this while on tour. Had you conceived of the idea before then and wrote while on tour because of your downtime, or was the downtime the launching point for the idea?

JF: I was totally inspired by the idea. I started some of the themes that popped up, but once the actual Ice Storm Ang Lee idea came to mind, it was really generative. It’s how a lot of this stuff works with me. It kind of floats around for a while, reaching out this way or that. Once the real kernel appears, it’s like, “That’s it!” It all happens pretty quickly. That was definitely the case with this. It was the real fine-tuning that’s the most time consuming. That’s what Jacob and I have experienced. The EP that we’re releasing later this year, basically how it’s worked so far is I send him a sequence of chords and basic rhythm, which happens pretty quickly. Then--and we’ve only done it on Zoom with the new EP, though it was the same with “Life at One”--there was this theme. Jacob came in, we were gonna write some other stuff. He came in with a mic and sang some stacked harmonies. Then it’s carving out all the other elements around that to make it. 

These are unconventional compositions. They’re meant to accompany visual ideas. With that in mind, cues and scoring music doesn’t always work in recorded music, traditionally speaking. There’s all these lengths, sometimes time signatures shift, a melody might exist in an unconventional way to fit what’s happening visually. I really wanted to embrace that. With “Life at One”, Jacob did all this stuff, and there’s this really interesting sound I don’t know how to describe. He asked, “What are those over there?” [My partner Natasha Wheat] had made these ceramic bells for me, and that’s the most fun part about working with Jacob. A lot of the people who are trained as Jacob is--and I say this with great admiration for his abilities--are stuck in certain modalities. This is a perfect example. He looked at the bells and said, “Let’s do that.” He grabbed a drumstick and played the edge of these bells and processed them. That was a big feature in the composition of “Life at One”. This all happens very thematically and reflexively, but to then carve it up and get it to have purpose, meaning, ebb, and flow and make it work visually--that’s where the dirty shit happens. [laughs] I also look forward to when Jacob and I can be in person more. We’ve made a lot happen over the past 7 months, but it’s hard when you’re not in the same room. Plus, I’d like to show off. If he’s sitting right next to me, play some fast guitar...[laughs]

SILY: The title of the record refers to various aspects of topography, and there are song titles that refer to specific places, like “Fort Wayne” and “Lake Superior”. Do these aspects exist within the narrative of the film?

JF: “Lake Superior” and “Fort Wayne” were just started in those places, literally. I picture the Ang Lee movie--the new Ang Lee movie that is inevitably gonna take form because he’s gonna hear me and Jacob’s music and think, “You’re right, we gotta do this,”--in this zone a little bit east of Berkeley. It’s the West Coast equivalent of the Connecticut zone where The Ice Storm exists. It’s this affluent, green place. But the reason I chose to keep the others as titles is like, Fort Wayne, that’s pretty grand and has Batman implications. And Lake Superior, what a fucking great name for a lake, you know? I like the power of those, and if I were sitting down and writing a movie, those titles could be at least generative of a conversation.

SILY: What about the other song titles? What inspired them?

JF: “The Concept” is literally the concept for our band. The concept has expanded since then, but out of the ordinary--no sounds are out of the ordinary in modern production--but in the film scoring landscape, out of the ordinary, ambient, or textural sounds. But then big, beautiful melodies. Jacob’s voice. All that stuff. Synthesizing our two strengths. Jacob’s also a songwriter and makes amazing songs, but my background’s in bands, and so I treat our relationship as if it’s a band. Taking our two strengths. Jacob’s more conventionally trained, schooled, and knowledgeable than I am. He has a richer depth of knowledge in theory and orchestration. I can arrange that way, but he knows what’s going on. Mine is more reflexive--I don’t want to say auto-didactic because that’s kind of an arrogant term--but learning through mistakes. I think Jacob’s made fewer mistakes than I have.

SILY: What were all the instruments used on the record?

JF: There’s a lot of found stuff. 12-string guitar. I was writing it using this Rosewood Fender Stratocaster that Fender made for me. The 12-string is prominent on “Life At One”. There’s a piano Jacob played. There’s a lot of me coming up with drum beats. A lot of the initial stuff was in the box. I’d roll in my portable studio backstage, I’d have a guitar, Universal Audio space, whatever drums and synths I had.

SILY: What is your background in film scoring?

JF: I don’t have a specific background. From a very early age, I’ve been into film scores. I’d buy them starting when I was 15 or 16. CDs. Pretty obvious releases, but things like Danny Elfman’s Batman score, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Sort of getting into Jerry Goldsmith. Elfman, Morricone. I like some of the Bernard Hermann stuff. I started studying it from the way I study everything: figuring out chord sequences, the way the melodies work, to the degree I was able. In the early 2010s, I was making a lot of music that was getting licensed for TV. Once Modest Mouse really started touring [2015 album] Strangers to Ourselves, I let a lot of those pursuits wither a little bit. But I’d always longed for a collaboration. A lot of that stuff was done in a solitary way, so I felt very fortunate when Jacob and I met. He was into that idiom but has a range of skills I don’t have. We also really work well together. All the reflexive stuff that happens, the melodies, it’s easy for us to go back and forth and see what we’re into and where to keep going. Neither of us get upset when the other person isn’t feeling whatever the direction is.

As I get older, I realize the value of stimulating multiple senses. I look forward to Jacob and I doing more of this stuff in collaboration with people. The Riley Thompson video for “Life At One” was him responding to a finished track, but in an ideal world, filmmakers would come to us and, in the way Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross work with David Fincher, where he says, “This is the concept for the new film,” and Jacob and I come back and say, “This is the sonic and melodic landscape we’re thinking of, and here are some character cues. Let’s take it from there.” I love being in conversation with people collaboratively and am attracted to the idea of it across media.

SILY: Do you think the idea that the music might not be responding to a finished film would make the score stand on its own more as a piece of music?

JF: The scores that I like totally stand on their own as music. When Morricone passed away, I read that John Zorn had a quote when they were hanging out in the late 80′s or early 90′s, Zorn said, “Don’t do it unless you’re thinking about what the soundtrack record is gonna be like.” The music needs to be cool enough to just be music.

SILY: Tell me about the album art.

JF: Natasha and I sold our place in Los Angeles last year and moved to Ojai. We thought it was a temporary transition, and now it’s somewhat permanent, because we bought a place here. We’ve been in this guesthouse next door since November. I like taking pictures at night with whatever ambient light [there is], so I took that picture from our place. I wanted there to be contrast with this technicolor paint and silver border on the upper and lower parts of the image. Homes are very interesting to me, and there’s a lot of that in The Ice Storm. There’s that shelf people look at from the outside and think, “It could be dilapidated, it could be beautiful.” People think of it as a thing. But there’s this whole other world that only exists inside of there. It’s always fascinating to me when walking by the place. Stories in the shell. I like the idea of a structure having implications. I don’t have an agenda for what those implications might be, but I like the idea that there could be implications there.

SILY: Jacob, when Jim came to you with this idea, how aware were you of The Ice Storm?

Jacob Snider: I had seen it. I don’t know if in our first meeting, it came up that specifically and clearly that this is where the music was going. In fact, it started more as a casual meeting of creative types. When I came over to Jim’s studio, he just showed me the latest thing he was working on without any huge idea behind it expressed to me in that moment. Jim might have been thinking it in that moment, but that day was more, “Alright, I’m working on something, what do you hear and is there something you think you could contribute to it?” It was really organic. Like Jim mentioned before, the best thing you can do when making something is show it to somebody else, because they’re gonna hear it in a different way or they might suggest something if you’re open to it. People can make amazing solitary music, but it will always be just their thing. You bring in someone else, there’s a different energy, a different perspective. 

As it stands, I do love that film. It’s really haunting. Jim and I talked before that it’s not a movie you can watch every week. It’s heavy, and the themes are deep: family, loss, grief, betrayal. It’s a great one. I think it’s a movie that’s cinematic but also has a lot of depth. I think that’s what we’re going for with Small Isles. It has shades of film music but also shades of rock and roll and romantic string writing from the orchestral traditions. I think we’re trying to combine a few things at once, and we’re really curious how it starts to strike people and how some filmmakers respond to it.

SILY: Are you both generally Ang Lee fans?

JF: I haven’t devoured all of his work. There’s plenty I like. But I’m so in love with [The Ice Storm]. I was in love with the book before the movie came out. He treated it so beautifully. As high in the sky as it is for two nascent film composers to say, “I want to work with Ang Lee,” it’s very important to know where you want to go. It may take a long time to get there, but [it’s important] to have a place where you’re headed. That was definitely the case in the early Grandaddy days, and having watched [Modest Mouse lead singer] Isaac [Brock] for as long as I did, I think it was the case there, too. It may not be as specific knowing that I’m traveling in this direction, but that direction can totally change. There can be diversions that knock you off your course positively or negatively, but thinking about how beautifully he treated that material, that’s where I want to go.

SILY: How are you adapting Small Isles to a live performance?

JF: We’re gonna play at least some of this, maybe all of this live. I’m really looking forward to it. Jacob’s only on half this record, and the 5-song EP we’re releasing later this year, he’s on all of. That’s a straight-up 50/50 collaboration. I’m looking forward to the stuff Jacob didn’t contribute to on the record, hearing what he does with strings. We’re still figuring out how we’re gonna approach it. Jacob will be on keys and vocals, and I might sing a little bit. I’ll be on guitar. Our friend Sienna who Jacob went to school with, who’s doing the strings, we’re talking about having her lead a double string quartet. I would like to have a drummer doing some electronic drums and maybe a kit as well. I definitely don’t imagine we’ll totally nail it on night 1. There’s a lot of stuff we have to work out. There aren’t many antecedents in this zone, but something like Explosions in the Sky mixed with Johann Johannsson. I saw [the latter] in 2010 in San Francisco; there was a little bit of strings, various electronics, and he was on piano. That was a very striking performance. So the explosiveness of a big arena rock show with lots of subtleties and nuance that can come from strings and orchestral.

SILY: What else is next for Small Isles?

JF: We wanna finish this EP. I also really love the way a lot of rap and hip-hop people have gotten it right over the years. Using current listening habits and technology to get out as much music as possible. I definitely have the seeds for at least another EP behind this. Once we get this EP done--there’s just a little bit of tinkering to be done over the next month before going into the mixing stage--I want to make as much music as possible and release it. With the spirits of the world willing, I want to get off the ground live and collaborate with filmmakers, dancers, artists, people in the visual medium. I just love making music with Jacob and this type of music. I’d like to have a few releases a year. EP length [or] album length. I have a number of concepts written down. The seeds that Jacob and I have been playing with to make the EP. I was thinking about The Last Black Man in San Francisco when making this EP, and I’d love to collaborate with those filmmakers. Even just being in person, to tell Jacob, “What do you think of this sequence?” and have him respond without dealing with latency issues and dodgy DSL.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

Jacob Snider: I’ve been listening to a lot of pop. I’ve been listening to the Olivia Rodrigo record [Sour]. I think there’s great writing on there, great production. Watching, I’ll just piggyback on The Last Black Man in San Francisco. It took me a while to finally see it, but I had a filmmaker friend tell me I had to, and I loved it. Also the other film Emile Mosseri did the score for, Kajillionaire, the Miranda July film. Reading-wise, I’m about to jump back into Louise Erdrich’s The Round House.

JF: I’ve been digging the Olivia record, too.

JS: There’s some cool strings on there too from the guy who does a lot of the strings for Portugal. The Man, [Paul Cartwright]. They created a string orchestra sound with just one guy layering violin and viola, which is really cool, and that’s what we’re doing with our collaborator Sienna Peck. There’s totally room for that now, the way the world has been so remote. We can’t put 16 players in a room right now due to public health restrictions, so let’s get one person. It’s really hard to do--you can be a great violinist and not be able to layer yourself in a way that makes it sound like a string orchestra. You have to change your position in the room, the way you’re playing slightly, pretend to be three different people sharing a stand. That’s what you’ll hear on the next record.

JF: I just got into How to Change Your Mind, the Michael Pollan book about psychedelics, which I really loved. I just started a book called The Magic Years, which is about child development. I have a three-and-a-half-year-old son, and I’m very fascinated by what’s going on in his brain and what makes him make the decisions he makes. Just how to be a better dad. I am always a religious reader of The New Yorker, every week it comes out. Natasha and I watched The Kids, a documentary [about the making of Larry Clark’s Kids]. When that movie came out, Grandaddy were skateboarders, so it was important to us. But even as a young kid, I felt that it was really exploitative, and the documentary verifies it. It’s heartbreaking. Larry Clark is a really derelict dude. Truly lecherous. But [The Kids] is a beautiful movie. We’ve been watching Los Espookys. I’m really excited about Vince Staples’ upcoming record. My friend Nik Freitas put out a new song. My musical diet’s gotten really regressive in a way because my son is very into the Super Furry Animals record Radiator. It’s all he wants to listen to in the car.

[letterboxd]

The Circle of Live (Action).

“The effort here was to keep the filmmaking tradition. I think there’s a balance between innovation and tradition.” —The Lion King director Jon Favreau and cast chat with us about the visually stunning new Disney film.

Disney’s recent proclivity for making live-action films based on its animated classics reaches its technical zenith with Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (whose animated predecessor holds an impressive 4.3 out of 5 stars). Building on methods he first explored in the 2016 live-action version of The Jungle Book, Favreau has constructed a digital world comprised of the most photo-realistic animals ever rendered.

The irony is, of course, that although it’s often referred to as such, the new Lion King isn’t live action at all. Save for one individual shot, it was created entirely inside a computer. But you probably wouldn’t know that if the animals didn’t talk.

That talking is provided by a new voice cast that now better reflects the story’s setting by featuring many actors from across the African diaspora.

JD McCrary (Little) and Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) voice the youthful and adult versions of Simba the lion, respectively, opposite Shahadi Wright Joseph (the daughter from Us) and Beyoncé as Simba’s best friend Nala. Joseph played the same role in the long-running Broadway adaptation of The Lion King, from which the new film takes some musical and aesthetic cues.

Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange) replaces Jeremy Irons in the role of Scar, and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader himself) returns to the role of Mufasa.

Ugandan-born, German-raised actor Florence Kasumba (Black Panther)—who also appeared in the stage version of The Lion King—plays head hyena Shenzi, alongside Keegan-Michael Key (The Predator) and Eric André (Rough Night) as bickering hyena minons Kamari and Azizi.

Key and André are pretty great, but the comedic pairing in the film that is getting talked about a lot is Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner as warthog Pumba and meerkat Timon. Both are utterly hilarious.

Favreau recently got together with most of the cast (no Beyoncé, sadly) and some select press in Beverly Hills to discuss the making of the film.

On how working on The Jungle Book flowed into The Lion King: Jon Favreau (director/producer): I’ve been working on both these movies back to back for about six years. All the new technology that was available, I had finally learned how to use it by the end of Jungle Book. And at that point, with the team that we had assembled for it, all the artists. Because a lot of attention is paid to the technology, but really, these are handmade films. There are animators working on every shot, every environment that you see in the film—actually, there’s one shot that’s a real photographic shot—but everything else is built from scratch by artists. And we had a great team assembled. And then the idea of using what we learned on that and the new technologies that were available to make a story like Lion King with its great music, great characters, and great story, it seemed like a wonderful, logical conclusion. And so that was something we set out to do.

On how digital production evolved in the new film: JF: In Jungle Book, we were essentially using the same motion-capture technology for performers and cameras as had been developed ten years prior for Avatar. But towards the end of that, there was a whole slew of consumer-facing VR products that were hitting the scene. We started experimenting with it at the end of Jungle Book and realized that we could build this really cool system of filmmaking using game-engine technology. That way I could bring in people who don’t have any background in visual effects. We would design the entire environments. We took all the recordings that we had from the actors. We would animate within the game engine, in this case, it was Unity. And the crew would be able to put on the headsets, go in, scout, and actually set cameras within VR.

The effort here was to keep not just the tradition of the film and stage production that came before us, but the filmmaking tradition. Oftentimes when new technology comes online, it disrupts an industry. But with just a little bit of effort, we were able to build around the way filmmakers and film crews work. So a guy like Caleb Deschanel, a fantastic cinematographer who I’ve always wanted to work with, inviting him to do a very technically advanced film without any prior background in visual effects and just saying: hey, we’ll make it so that you could just make a movie as you would have made The Black Stallion. We would actually have cameras driven in VR space by a film crew with dollies and cranes and assistant directors, script supervisors, set dressers. So we kept the same film culture and planted it using this technology into the VR realm.

Although the film was completely animated as far as performances went, it allowed a live-action film crew to go in and use the tools they were used to. Part of what’s so beautiful about the lighting, the camera work, the shots of the film, was that we were able to inherit a whole career of experience and artistry from our fantastic team. I think that it’s nice to look at technology as an invitation for things to progress and not always something that’s going to change the way everything came before it. I think there’s a balance between innovation and tradition.

The cast of the new ‘The Lion King’.

On what excited him about the story: Donald Glover (adult Simba): Jon was really good about the circle of life having a major hand in it. I really feel that it’s good to make movies that are global and metropolitan in the sense [that we are] the citizens of the world. Like, making sure that we talk about how connected we are right now. Because it’s the first time we’ve really been able to talk to everybody at the same time. It was just, like, a necessary thing.

On getting into Scar’s head: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar): I felt that it was just really interesting to go into that psychology, to really try and uncover that and to look at it. I’m a huge fan of what was done before, obviously, like everybody else—Jeremy Irons—and just going back in and exploring that character again from a slightly different perspective and seeing what was there.

It’s such an incredible part to play; so complex and all of that. Having empathy—not sympathy—but empathizing with the character and trying to understand them and trying to get underneath that. And such a rich, villainous character to play. In a way as much as I—absolutely with everybody else—loved the original, you kind of make it your own and you create the sort of individuality to it in that way.

On finding a loose comedic rhythm in a digital context: Seth Rogen (Pumba): It was a lot of improvisation with Billy. We were actually together every time we recorded, which is a very rare gift to have as someone who is trying to be funny in an animated film, of which I’ve done a lot, and you’re often just alone in there. I think you can really tell that we’re playing off of each other. It’s an incredibly naturalistic feeling. They really captured Billy. That is what is amazing, I would say. He essentially played himself on a TV show for years, and this character is more Billy than that character somehow. It’s remarkable to me how his character specifically makes me laugh so hard.

Billy Eichner (Timon): I wish I was as cute in real life as I am in the movie. The Timon they designed is so adorable, and I think the juxtaposition of my personality in that little Timon body really works. And yeah. I agree with everything that Seth was saying. I can’t imagine now, looking back, not being in the room together. Being able to riff off each other and really discover our chemistry together in the same moment. You can feel it when you’re watching the movie. I had not seen the finished movie until last night and I was shocked by how much of the riffing actually ended up in the movie. I think it works. I think it feels very unique to other movies in this genre, which can often feel a bit canned.

SR: The fact that it has a looseness applied to probably the most technologically incredible movie ever made is an amazing contrast. It feels like people in a room just talking, and then it’s refined to a degree that is inconceivable in a lot of ways. That mixture is what I think is so incredible and that’s what Jon really captured in an amazing way.

On how Favreau guided their tone: Eric André (Kamari): He’s incredibly talented and really, really easy to work off of. And he is a selfless altruistic talent, which is rare. So I was in great hands with Jon. It was just a very nurturing environment and made it very easy, because I’m very, very sensitive. So the slightest wind of anything will make me tear up.

Keegan-Michael Key (Azizi): I think Jon is a great student, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all different types of comedy. One of those pieces of knowledge is about comedic duos and the dynamic that exists between them. We had a very similar experience to Billy and Seth where we were allowed to walk around the room. It was as if we were being directed in a scene in the play. And as you said, we were all mic’d, and so everything was captured.

It was the subsequent rounds that I thought [were] interesting. Jon would get a little more technical, when I would be actually by myself. The refinement is also very fun, because we would sit there and I would have the headphones on. I would say to Jon, “We’re looking for Fibber McGee and Molly here or Abbott and Costello. What are you looking for?” He goes, “I’m actually looking for a little bit of Laurel and Hardy with an explosion at the end, but then back it up into little Apatowian for me.”

EA: With a sprinkle of Beavis and Butthead.

On the experience of going from the stage version to the film version: Florence Kasumba (Shenzi): I was lucky that I got to play the part already in Germany for more than a year. We played like eight shows a week. So Shenzi is like muscle memory, because I got to play her every day. But this Shenzi is so different. I remember in the musical, we had sometimes shows where I was embarrassed because the hyenas are so dumb and funny. They are entertaining, but this is so different, this experience, because when I listen to the dialogue, when I read them, I realized that this is way more dangerous and more serious.

I was lucky [on] my first day that I was in a black box and I was working with Eric André, and with JD. We were very physical, because the guys were so strong, it was easy for me to just be big. Because everybody is very confident, we could just really try out things. We could walk around each other. We could scare each other. We could scream, be loud, be big, be small. It’s like working in the theater, which I love. Having that freedom just made me… I was allowed to do whatever I wanted to.

‘The Lion King’ is in theaters now. Comments have been edited for clarity and length.

[ewan-mo]

A sad 16 year old  Friday 4th October

We began the day’s work with morning prayers with some great drumming as usual.  We then met Dr Birungi, the executive director.  He is an impressive man and the breadth of his vision is a lot to do with why Bwindi is the outward facing hospital it is.

I joined  in the work in the clinic with Kuule and Evas, a psychiatric nurse who was at the workshop last week.  Her joy in her work is apparent; she loves being “a nurse who makes a difference” with patients whom other professionals don’t really want to know.

We progressed to the wards to see some inpatients – there are often one or two, a big reduction in numbers since the community MH project has been in operation. One patient I had met before. It always amuses me how many patients I know at Kisiizi and Bwindi – even doing a clinic/ward round just once a year or so, you get to know the regulars. Who are mostly being kept well.

This particular patient, Cornelius, is very well known to the team, and has been a member of staff in the guest house. With his training in hospitality and tourism, when he’s well he is a good worker. When he isn’t well he’s much too overactive and is challenging for his wife and the team.

Enock and his mother

The second patient was Enock, a boy of 16 who has had epilepsy since he was one. Because of intermittent attendance at the health centre, frequent unavailability of medicines, (a really serious challenge here) and a failure to increase the dose appropriately for his age, his fits have not been well controlled. Before this admission he fell in the fire in a fit, and his arm was burnt to the bone. His mum delayed bringing him for treatment so it got infected, and he has now needed complex surgery to start repairing the damage.

We had a lot to talk about with the student nurses who were with us. We learnt that dad had died and mum was bringing up her boys alone. Enock can do simple chores and make bricks, but otherwise has nothing to do. He was mistreated in his brief attendance at school, and is now mistreated by the village. I asked a student nurse how she thought he might be feeling: “I think he will feel hopeless” and indeed he is, with clear signs of depression.

There’s plenty we can do – get the meds right to stop the fits, treat his depression with talking therapy, get a village health team worker to support the family, maybe encourage some income generation. And the community might do better with some education about epilepsy.

I asked mum and Enock if I could take a photo, explaining how I would use it and how I would tell their story. As always in my experience they agreed. The only time Enock smiled in the whole of our time with him was when I showed him his photograph.

I spent the morning meeting different people. Stuart the operations manager, who is about to start a research project on looking at how medical equipment donations are handled and if they are suitable. Enoch in accounts to discuss JF donations, Haevan who is doing a research project and also has been asked to review a paper – which he hasn’t done before.

Then the luxury of a 70 minute flight back to Entebbe, rather than driving for around 10 hours.

The local alternative - an overnight bus to Kampala. Leave at 4 pm and arrive about 3 am

We tried a new place to stay, which is a 20 minute boat ride from Entebbe. We liked it.  It was nicely done, quiet, and from our room we had a view over the lake.

Approaching Buvi Lodge.

[bethingletonbcu]

Principles & Practice Week 1

Week 1 of Principles & Practice was type focused. On Tuesday we did a task which involved copying a typeface onto paper, using your last name. I thought this went well and I chose the typeface Cabernet JF Pro. 

I thought this went pretty well, though I could improve on the g. I decided to not ink it all in as I liked seeing how I made up the letterforms, utilising circles of different sizes to help me get the curves right.

On Tuesday we also did a task where we picked out a letter block and drew it, scaling it up to a3. The fact the letter was backwards almost helped a bit, as you didn’t look at it as a letter and more like a collection of shapes and lines, which made it easier to break it down to scale it up. I actually measured the letters and used the measurements to multiply up to get the right dimensions for everything.

On Friday we did the paper play task where we had to create a word from paper. I decided on the word stacked and wanted to make it out of small cubes, all stacked up. I worked out that stacked would need 70 cubes so i cut it down to just the word stack. Despite this I still couldn’t finish it during the day but managed to get the letter S done. This was annoying but I had a lot of cubes to make and they were pretty time consuming. I’m working on getting it finished off at the moment.

We all put out our work to look at everyone’s and it was really interesting seeing all the different ideas. I thought I had taken more photos but sadly this one is the lot! 

You can see the S. I put it together in a more messy way as i thought it would look better and portray the meaning of the word more confidently.

These tasks were really fun and challenging!

[grandmascottlang]

Comic Con, Day 2

(Sorry for this coming out so late! I ended up calling asleep as I was typing this because I was so exhausted.

Hey, guys! So, as promised, I said that I would *officially* announce who I was cosplaying. I cosplayed as Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog which is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. Now, it was my first time making a cosplay, so please don't judge it too harshly, I spent a lot of time and effort making it, and ultimately, I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish.

(Photos below the cut)

Now, this was the only one that my mom took that was decent, so ignore the table and stuff in the background. I spent hours days making this.

I literally finished it this morning at about three, and I wasn't able to sleep and I had to get up at 5:30 AM.

Anyways... Onto more photos.

Literally, the first thing I saw today was this gigantic group of Waldos. At the train station. I was very amused, it was fantastic!

Beetlejuice!Deadpool and Bob Ross!Deadpool (he made another appearance today!) were spotted today and Bob Ross!Deadpool was just painting the other Deadpool. It was great.

This was the same Captain America from yesterday! He remembered who I was and just really liked my cosplay. Then he gave me his business card (for his cosplay company? business? not too sure) and said, and I quote, "this way, you'll always have a Cap in your back pocket."

The two most iconic Disney princesses: Tiana and Shuri. 'Nuff said.

I also met Pom Klementieff's autograph, she was really nice! It says, "Louise, kick names, take ass!" I'll be meeting her again tomorrow for a photo op. (And before you ask, I bought one of the hard plastic Funko Pop! Figurine cases in advance so once she singed it, I put it in the protector, I just took it out for the photo.)

My mom thought that this was Annie I LOVE MRS. FRIZZLE. SHE IS MY ICON.

This one was creative. Yao, Ling, and Chien Po? THIS was super creative and funny, these were amazing cosplays.

So you can probably tell that I love Avatar: the Last Airbender by now. The first picture is Azula and Zuko and the next is Zuko and Aang.

I haven't seen a really good Jack Frost cosplay in years (around the time that Rise of the Guardians was released was the last time I actually saw anyone cosplay as Jack Frost). Both Elsa And JF's cosplays were awesome and they were super nice.

(All of these I took, and the ones below, my friend took for me.)

The quality on these is actual trash, but they're super cool to look at! All of the other princesses were so nice! And Elsa and JF were pretty... Chill.

[jafreitag]

Grateful Dead Monthly: Lindley Meadows (Golden Gate Park) – San Francisco, CA 9/28/75

On Sunday, September 28, 1975, the Grateful Dead played a concert at Golden Gate Park’s Lindley Meadows in San Francisco, California.

Lindley Meadows

From the Wiki: “In the 1860s, San Franciscans began to feel the need for a spacious public park similar to [NYC’s] Central Park. Golden Gate Park was carved out of unpromising sand and shore dunes that were known as the Outside Lands, in an unincorporated area west of San Francisco’s then-current borders.” Frederick Law Olmsted was the driver. He was the guy who conceptualized Central Park, and later Jackson and Washington Parks in Chicago, as well as the whole shebang for Chi’s 1893 Columbian Exposition and most of the nearby U of C campus. Olmstead “proposed a plan for a park using native species suited for San Francisco’s dry climate; however, the proposal was rejected in favor of a Central Park-style park needing extensive irrigation.” Nice try, man.

The park got a Commissioner in 1871, and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department began overseeing its development. Between then and now, it’s been basically urban green space. Per the Wiki, GGP is roughly the same shape as Central Park, but twenty-percent bigger. It’s bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the West and the Haight on the East. And it’s the third most-visited park in the United States, after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

So Lindley Meadows?

See the oval on the left side of that sat pic? It’s Golden Gate Park Polo Field. Apparently, Lindley Meadows is the green area that sits just above its northeast corner. Guys, I’ve never been to California, much less SF. I’m not a super-traveled person, so some of these venue write-ups seem poser-y. They’re not intended to be. Apologies for the lack of local knowledge, and feel free to add anything like that below the line.

The Dead played exactly four shows in 1975. On 3/25, they played a benefit for San Francisco Students Need Athletics, Culture, and Kicks (SF SNACK) with the Doobies, the Starship, Santana, Dylan & Baez, and Neil Young. The band’s set was comprised of the Blues for Allah material that everybody pretends to dig (but nobody really does). I’m not familiar with that show. On 6/17, they played at Winterland, and the setlist was also BFA-forward. I’m not familiar with that show, either, but, according to the Grateful Dead of the Day blog, it gets attention nowadays. On 8/13, they played at the Great American Music Hall – that’s One from the Vault, and we’ve covered it before. Finally, on 9/28, they played at Lindley Meadows. Single set show, which clocks in at just under two hours. A lot of BFA material, but a lot of well-toured and well-beloved chestnuts, too.

Photo credit: Alvan Meyerowitz

In a 2008 post about this show, the Grateful Dead Listening Guide blog makes two points. First, there’s an absolutely epic audience recording. To wit: “[T]his is one of the audience tapes that historically was said to have been recorded by the band (Phil Lesh in particular) from the stage itself … It is absolutely one of the very best of the best AUDs. But Phil didn’t tape it. Phil didn’t make any tapes.”

GDLB continues, and this is great:

“[B]efore this century [meaning the ’00s], if you weren’t in the most enshrined trading circles, you couldn’t find a complete copy of this AUD to save your life (and the real deal master itself only just went into circulation in May 2008). When you might have run into this recording (I was lucky enough to score 45 minutes of the show on cassette about 12 years ago), there was no way you could accept that it was an AUD at all. Clearly Phil and the band had to have had a hand in making this tape, right? It just sounded WAY too good. And there was the fact that there were a painful amount of right channel dropouts throughout the tape which allowed you to appreciate the quality, but never really left you wanting to listen to the tape again because of the pain involved in those dropouts.

Then the SBD came on the scene, sounding super duper. Someone digitized the AUD (a multi-gen version) and spent the time patching the dropouts with the left channel – palatable now, the AUD was a dizzying drink from the fountain of audience magic. Well friends, that was nothing…

I’m not going to attempt to document the story of taper Bob Menke here on these pages. Let’s just say that BadBob (his own moniker) bleeds the history of Grateful Dead taping and collecting. He’s one of those fellows whose name lands in the inner circle when playing the dart game of Dead tapers. ‘Nuff said. Menke’s story has been one of clouded half truths, misunderstandings, and mystery in the eyes of tape collectors. Over the last number of years, the real Bob Menke has made his way into the digital scene, so a lot of the mystery has faded. But, it sure did fuel the fires that made this particular tape one of such grand story telling. This is one to tell the grandkids about, to be sure.

So Menke recently digitally transferred his master, and the MOTB crew [dunno] finished it off with heroic editing (glad I didn’t face this task). And now we have this AUD for the ages, in its most beautiful glory.

The recording is so good, it makes the AUD vs. SBD debate seem silly. It’s a little unfair, like bringing an NBA all star off the bench at a junior high basketball game. So much so, that it’s fair for a SBD supporter to cry foul – ‘Oh, well, 09/28/75! You can’t talk to me about that show. That’s not fair.’ Regardless, when you want to know what it might have sounded like pressed up against the stage for this hallmark Dead show in the year after they retired (you may never see them again), this is it my friends. Cripplingly good.”

There’s a link to the Menke AUD below, but on to the second point. Apparently, the band was “high” – as in, their performance was chemically enhanced by LSD. Again, GDLG:

“Then there’s the well enough substantiated story that the band was higher than kites for this show. While it has always been very well understood that this band played under the influence of LSD many many many times, there are some shows that come to mind when Deadheads talk about shows where the band was ‘known’ to have been chemically altered for sure: 08/27/72, 05/11/78, and 09/28/75 among them. So, this places an extra special sparkle to re-living the day’s concert when listening.

Also, there is the fact that a baby was born during the show [check banter after Slipknot!], with the band and stage announcers doing their best to help.”

Acid, a baby, and no deaths? It’s like a good time Altamont. Right, Jerry?

GDOTD offers some listening notes:

“It opens with a sharp and focused Help On The Way before heading into a moody Slipknot!, which rages in the latter half. Rather than transitioning into Franklin’s at that point, as they had during the two other times they had paired those songs, the Slipknot! ends, and they launch into a smoking The Music Never Stopped. On that tune, Donna adds lovely backing vocals, as she does throughout the afternoon.”

More GDOTD:

“[A]fter a bit of banter, they finally hit the Franklin’s Tower, playing in mind-meld form throughout with Phil throwing down and the entire band contributing to a seismic jam after the ‘listen to the music play’ line. Then, Bobby announces that they will be playing a cowboy tune, before rolling into Big River, throughout which Keith serves up some incredible fills. After It Must Have Been The Roses, a marvelous Truckin’ takes off and eventually steers into a blistering jam … [T]he boys slow things up just a notch, Phil rains down a series of bombs, and Jerry streaks around before ceding the stage to the drummers. The Drums themselves are transcendent, but the Stronger Than Dirt that follows is face melting. What’s more, the transition into Not Fade Away is rapturous as the drummers drive on the change, but the rest of the guys resist, teasing out the last of the Stronger Than Dirt theme while slowly falling to the inevitable momentum of NFA. And what a Not Fade Away it turns out to be with serious, imaginative jamming all the way through to the Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, which is itself resplendent. Then One More Saturday Night caps the show in rocking, high-energy fashion.”

That’s cool, but there are listening notes, and then there’s our guy. Without further ado, here’s everyone’s favorite. The master of zero disasters, the king of schwing, the 88’s tickler, the Peloton’s boss, the cherry on top, the sun behind that one annoying cloud, the reason that outside cats come back home, the guy who rolled his eyes at all those Dos Equis commercials b/c #beentheredonethat, the Ig influencer behind @31daysofdead, and the better half of this gotdam thing. Man/myth/legend is just a trope until you meet him in person. He’s handsome; he’s erudite. He’s a man beyond description and, in his rare spare time, a member of Jehovah’s favorite choir. He’ll break it down, fo’realize. Ladies and Gentlemen, LN Grateful Deaditor, ECM…

“Hey now, kids! Today we’ve got some ‘Hiatus Dead’ for you. As most of you know, Hiatus Dead refers to that period of time between 10/20/74 (Winterland) and 6/3/76 (Portland, OR) when the Grateful Dead took some time off from touring. During this period, the band played only four shows, all of them in 1975. The show JF and I are featuring in this month’s edition of Grateful Dead Monthly – September 28, 1975 – is the last of those 4 shows and it would be the last show for over 8 months. This show is unique for a lot of other reasons too. First, it was a free show in Lindley Meadows in Golden Gate Park at a time when that kind of thing didn’t happen anymore like it did back in the 60’s. Another thing the band hadn’t done in a long while was play a show while they were tripping. Legend has it that they revisited that part of their past as well on this day. Although this has never been confirmed, it sure makes for a good story and at least seems plausible given the overall strangeness and looseness of the music compared with their very tight performance at the Great American Music Hall just a month prior on August 13th. In addition, unlike most GD shows where the band is virtually mute, here there is a lot of funny and odd stage banter – Bobby’s joke about getting around to all the old favorites that they can remember, the calls for a doctor to attend to the woman in the audience that was going into labor and Phil clarifying for the crowd that Truckin’ is NOT pronounced Truck-ing.

Another factor making this show unique is the weather which was unseasonably chilly for September. With temperatures down in the 50’s, it felt more like November than September which brings us to another unique aspect about this show – the band’s attire. Instead of Bobby wearing his signature Lacoste polo shirt and cutoff shorts, on this day he is wearing a Pendelton jacket with bell-bottoms. And, Garcia is rocking a leather jacket with Puma sneakers(!) While we are talking about attire, let’s also talk about instruments. This was allegedly the debut of Jerry’s new guitar, Travis Bean. It’s the guitar that he would use until 9/28/77 when he started playing his Doug Irwin Wolf again. Keith plays an electric Fender Rhodes the entire show. These two instruments certainly influenced the sound of the band that day.

Which brings us to the MUSIC…

The Grateful Dead played one set which clocked in at approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. They opened with Help>Slipknot. It’s the third one ever but just the second with lyrics. Jerry botches the last verse. It happens. Slipknot! is the third one but the first not going into Franklin’s Tower. It is played slowly, but deliberately, and they pull off the complex arrangement with flying colors. However, things come to a rather abrupt end when they call a halt because Jerry apparently breaks a string – he is audibly absent in the closing riffs. This is the point when the woman is having a baby too. 

Once everything on stage is ironed out and a doctor is located for the woman in labor, the band launches into the Music Never Stopped. It is only the second performance and is a mere 6 minutes. Donna crushes her verse. This early version has only a few bars of the drifty mid-jam section and then charges right into the ending jam which only hints at the potential that it would soon become. Once the song concludes there are more stage announcements. A doctor has been located and now there are pleas for a stretcher.

“Oh, man. That’s weird. A stretcher?”

They Love Each Other is up next – perhaps inspired by the woman having the baby(?). Either way, it’s the first in over 1½ years and the first without the bridge section. This performance has a unique sound and tempo that is played somewhere in between the peppy versions from the 1973-74 era and the slower versions from the 1976 and later era. It is almost reggae-like. Jerry gives it a sensitive reading – sweet and subdued in its expressiveness. Afterwards Phil comes to the microphone to tell the father of the newborn child that his help is needed (Help on the Way?). That’s when Bobby comes to the microphone to assure the fans who are calling out requests that ‘we will get around to all the old favorites that we can remember.’ Cheers and laughter ensue to which Bobby responds, ‘you wouldn’t be laughing if you knew what that meant.’

Bobby cameltoe, ftw.

With the the band launches into a spirited version of one of their oldest songs from their first album – Beat it on Down the Line. Maybe this was a musical message to the father of the newborn baby to get moving and help his wife(?) Weir’s old buddy and bandmate from Kingfish, Mattew Kelly joins on harmonica. His playing is faint, but present, and adds a nice counterpoint to Jerry’s guitar. 

The band completes the piece of their musical triptych that is missing due to the equipment and baby interruptions by playing a stand-alone Franklin’s Tower from a cold start. It is the third version ever and it is exquisite. The drums are groovin’ and Jerry’s on fire especially after the ‘if you get confused, listen to the music play’ line. Great call and response at the end. This is the song that made it onto the abbreviated version [featuring one song from every year] of the box-set 30 Trips Around the Sun that appears on Spotify.

There are more calls from the audience for songs – apparently somebody is calling for Truckin’ but Phil does not like the way the fan is pronouncing it. ‘Did I hear someone say TRUCK-ING? That’s not how you say it. You don’t say TRUCK-ING. But anyway, we’re not gonna play that now. We’re gonna play something else.’ Weir then comes to the microphone to announce that ‘Billy would like to make a small point to the fact that we’re playing a cowboy tune.’ That leads into rootin-tootin’ version of Big River which has nice solos from Jerry and Keith. 

A letter-perfect reading of It Must Have Been The Roses follows. Jerry’s voice is at its pure, sweet unaffected peak. Excellent vocal harmonies from Jerry and Donna. Keith’s work on the electric piano provides the perfect accompaniment.

Phil returns to his Truck-ING banter which signals that the band is now ready to play it. Weir warns the crowd that he’s not going to remember the words, and he makes good on his promise by not only forgetting most of them, but also forgetting to sing part of the second verse at all.  No worries. The jam that follows is fantastic thanks in large part to all the tight material the band had been playing over the past year when they were rehearsing and recording Blues for Allah. There is some heated controversy among fans about the jam that comes out of Truckin’. Some have said that it is The Eleven. In fact, the 30 Trips box set refers to it that way. I don’t hear it but it’s an exciting jam for sure! To me, it sounds more like a King Solomon’s/Stronger Than Dirt groove which is what the band segues into following Drums. This is the fourth and final King Solomon’s. It’s definitely the loosest.There are a few rough spots at first it recovers and maintains a solid groove.

There is a loose transition into Not Fade Away. The lead in is funky and rockin.’ Garcia peels off a slide-flavored, acid-drenched solo which is the start of a long, spacey transition to GDTRFB which is also funky with some amazing energy. Saturday Night caps the show in rocking, high-energy fashion. a hoarse-sounding Phil bids the audience farewell, ‘Let’s have another party like this again sometime.’ And with that, the band slipped back into hibernation mode and would not perform again for another eight months.”

As Ed mentioned, this show is part of the massive 30 Trips Around the Sun box set.

And it’s still on the Live Music Archive. Transport to the soundboard recording HERE, a matrix recording HERE, and Menke’s audience recording HERE. According to Menke,

“It was an overcast day and we got there early. About 8:30 in the morning. That is how we ended up about 10-15 feet from the stage. The mics were mounted on broom sticks (handheld) and they were split about 20 feet apart. The upfront vocals I believe are the product of a small (relative to PA speakers) speaker on the floor of the stage next to the right PA column. The vocals seem to be blasting from that speaker. Another very intersting point is the fact that the Jefferson Starship opened and their sound from the same PA absolutely sucked. Nothing approaching the clarity and sound quality the Dead got from the same system.”

There you go.

More soon.

JF

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[sinceileftyoublog]

The Felice Brothers Interview: Crumbled to Nothing

Photo by Shervin Lainez

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The Felice Brothers have always built worlds with their songs. Like some of their best records, their latest, From Dreams to Dust (Yep Roc), culls from a small space and internalized thoughts and then expands outward. Recorded last winter in an 1873 one-room church that Ian Felice acquired and renovated, From Dreams to Dust uses existential, COVID-era anxieties as a launching point for personal growth. Per usual, the songwriting was divided between Ian and James Felice, but the songs share common views on the things that dominate our thoughts, good and bad. Capitalism gets the best of the characters on Ian’s “Jazz on the Autobahn” and “Money Talks”, whether they’re corporate criminals, sheriffs, or outlaws, while scavenger hunts for happiness supply the backbone of his “To-Do List” and “Valium”. James’ head enters the clouds on “All The Way Down”, a somber tune about the creator of a new AI, and the painkiller haze of “Blow Him Apart”, while his persona comes crashing down to humility on “Silverfish”; multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis (who mixed the album) provides heady Marxophone and pedal steel. And the album’s two palate cleansers are eulogy “Be At Rest” and 8-minute, Dylan-esque closer “We Shall Live Again”, triumphant radical optimism dedicated to everyone “From Francis of Assisi / To the fans of AC/DC.”

From Dreams to Dust is The Felice Brothers’ second full-length with the lineup of Ian, James, bassist Jesske Hume, and drummer Will Lawrence, and you can hear the chemistry they’ve developed. “To-Do List” is a first-take gem rife with Ian’s guitar solos and barroom piano, “Celebrity X” a Bob Seger-like choogler. Of course, many songs offer fantastic individual moments, like the gorgeous acoustic guitar picking of “Inferno”, but for the most part, the songs on From Dreams to Dust are the type you’re going to want to hear live because of their instrumental prowess. Appropriately, I spoke with James over the phone while the band was driving through Pennsylvania, on the way from New York to Boise, Idaho on tour. Tonight, they play Lincoln Hall. James emphasized that while the band understands that not everybody will be comfortable coming to shows right now, they can’t wait to play for a room of masked, vaccinated fans.

Read my conversation below, edited for length and clarity.

SILY: How would you say From Dreams to Dust is unique as compared to any other Felice Brothers album?

James Felice: That’s a good question. It was approached a little differently. It was recorded during the pandemic. We made it in a church. A lot of the process was just me and Ian sitting around. The church had a piano we just bought, and I was trying to make things that made sense to us in that space.

SILY: I’m intrigued by the opening track, “Jazz on the Autobahn”. I don’t know if anybody else has asked you this, but the melody and Ian’s talk-singing reminds me a lot of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane”.

JF: When he first played the song for me, I thought, “It does sound a lot like The Velvet Underground,” which is a cool reference, and I think it works really well in the song. I was sort of surprised that not too many people had mentioned that in the reviews.

SILY: I like the line, “‘What is freedom?’ he thought, ‘Is it to be empty of desire?’” Do you know what inspired that line?

JF: When I hear it, I think [of it] in the Buddhist sense, almost, escaping from the feeling of desire. In reference to that worldview, I think that is true. Being empty of desire, chasing the next high, chasing the next experience, is freeing.

SILY: “To-Do List” is full of things that are very specific and attainable [“Wash all the pots and linens”] but also things that are broad and only attainable depending on how you define them [“test the limits of love”].

JF: Part of that is done for comedic effect, but we do have those crazy, unattainable goals. We all do. “Be happy. Find meaning in my life. But also I need to buy cereal and change the tires on the car.” It’s a good illustration of how our minds work, these mundane, milquetoast things we do but also these grand aspirations.

SILY: The character in the song “Valium” idealizes the American West. The song is right before the song “Inferno”, whose characters seem to idealize past moments in their own lives. Was that a purposeful juxtaposition?

JF: Yeah, I think with the genre of music we play, idealization and sentimentality are powerful factors, especially when you’re thinking about the American West because it really wasn’t like that at all. You can say the same thing about moments in our past. Strange moments in our lives stick with us for no reason.

SILY: The song “Silverfish” has a lot of lines about finding different unpleasant household bugs, but where does the “guy from Leeds” who “sends my girlfriend memes” fit in?

JF: The song is about helplessness, in a certain way, against these forces that seem so insignificant, like a wasp’s nest or silverfish bugs. And also stuff like some dude flirting with your girlfriend on the internet. There’s nothing you can really do about that. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something that makes you feel helpless and impotent. I’m realizing that I feel the same emotions I feel when I see those memes pop up as when I see a bunch of mice living in my car.

SILY: The poet John Clare was mentioned as an inspiration in the track-by-track commentary for “Land of Yesterdays”. When were you or the band in general aware of his poetry?

JF: You know what? That’s a question that you’d have to ask Ian. I should read [Clare], though. I don’t know his work very well.

SILY: Is that something common in your songwriting process as a band, since all of you have such different influences? That the rest of you can channel something without being super familiar with it?

JF: I think so. Ian and I also have diverging interests sometimes. He sometimes writes a line or verse or a whole song and I really have no idea what the hell he’s talking about. But I just enjoy it and try not to ask too many questions, because it can diminish the enjoyment of the song for me. There are definitely lines in a lot of his songs that I think are references to poets I don’t know or artists I’m not familiar with. He’s a smart guy.

SILY: Were there any newfound lyrical or instrumental influences on this record for you or the band?

JF: That’s a good question. It didn’t really come into making this record. We sort of meandered our way through it in the studio. We weren’t listening to a lot of music while making it. Part of the reason was we didn’t have internet in the church, so we didn’t have access to any other music. And there was no record player.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album title?

JF: It’s in a line from “Be At Rest”. Ian sent me the demo, and I thought the song had a beautiful sentiment. We made the record at a certain point when live music was dead or dying. All of our dreams, aspirations, places to go and sing crumbled to nothing. It’s sort of a morbid, dark sentiment, but it felt right for the times.

SILY: What about the cover art?

JF: That was another choice by Ian. That’s an unknown painting from the mid-19th century. It was hanging in a museum near his house. It felt right. It’s a strange winterscape that felt from the same place as a lot of the songs.

SILY: Is it pretty easy to adapt these songs to the live stage?

JF: For most of them, it’s totally natural and easy because we recorded a lot of them live anyway. 

SILY: You recorded this album last fall. What have you been up to in the meantime? Are you always writing new music?

JF: We were writing music over the winter. I was taking other jobs just to pay the rent. Now, it’s focusing on tour. There’s a lot to get together. We have to start from scratch in a lot of ways. Survive and thrive for the next month and a half. Then the winter starts again, so I guess it’s time to record another record.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

JF: I just listened to Frances Quinlan’s solo record [Likewise]. It’s so good! I’ve been re-watching The Wire since Michael K. Williams died. It still holds up so well.

[pope-francis-quotes]

31st December >> (Zenit) Pope Francis’ Angelus Address: On the Feast of the Holy Family ~ The Mission of the Family Is “To Create the Favourable Conditions for the Growth of the Children, so that They Can Live a Good Life Worthy of God and Constructive for the World Virginia Forrester, Zenit.org. (Photo ~ Vatican News Screenshot) (Zenit.org).- Below, please find an English translation (by Zenit) of the address Pope Francis gave today before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square. * * * Before the Angelus: Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning! In this first Sunday after Christmas, we celebrate the Holy Family of Nazareth, and the Gospel invites us to reflect on the experience lived by Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, while they grow together as a family in mutual love and trust in God. Expression of this trust is the rite fulfilled by Mary and Joseph with the offering of their son Jesus to God. The Gospel says: “They brought the babe up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22), as the Mosaic Law required. Jesus’ parents go to the Temple to attest that their son belongs to God and that they are the custodians of his life, not the proprietors. And this makes us reflect. All parents are custodians of their children’s life, not proprietors, and they must help them to grow, to mature. This gesture underlines that God alone is Lord of individual and family history; everything comes to us from Him. Every family is called to acknowledge this primacy, protecting and educating the children to open themselves to God who is the very source of life. The secret of interior youth passes by here, witnessed paradoxically in the Gospel by a couple of elderly <persons>, Simeon and Anna. Old Simeon, in particular, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says about the child Jesus: “This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against [. . .] that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed” (vv. 34-35). These prophetic words reveal that Jesus came to have the false images fall that we make of God and also of ourselves; to “contradict” the worldly securities on which we attempt to lean; to make us “rise again” to a genuine human and Christian way, founded on values of the Gospel. There is no family situation that is precluded from this new way of rebirth and resurrection. And every time families, including those wounded and marked by frailty, failures and difficulties, turn to the source of Christian experience, new ways and unimaginable possibilities open. Today’s evangelical account says that Mary and Joseph “when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew — says the Gospel — and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him” (vv. 39-40). We all know that the growth of children is a great joy of the family. They are destined to develop and to grow strong, to acquire wisdom and receive God’s grace, precisely as happened to Jesus. He is truly one of us: the Son of God makes himself a child, accepts to grow, is strengthened, is full of wisdom and the grace of God is upon Him. Mary and Joseph have the joy to see all this in their son; and this is the mission to which the family is oriented: to create the favorable conditions for the harmonious and full growth of their children so that they can live a good life, worthy of God and constructive for the world. This is my wish for all families, accompanying it with the invocation to Mary, Queen of the Family. © Libreria Editrice Vatican [Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester] After the Angelus: Dear Brothers and Sisters, I express my closeness to the Coptic Orthodox brothers of Egypt, affected two days ago by two attacks on a church and a shop on the outskirts of Cairo. May the Lord receive the souls of the deceased; sustain the wounded, the families and the whole community, and convert the hearts of the violent. A special greeting goes today to the families present here, and also to those taking part from home. May the Holy Family bless you and guide you on your way. I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims, in particular, the parish groups, the Associations and the young people. On this day, let us not forget to thank God for the past year and for every good received. And it will do each one of us good to take some time to think how many good things we have received from the Lord this year and to be grateful. And we should also be grateful if there were trials and difficulties because He helped us to overcome those moments. Today is a day of thanksgiving. I wish you all a happy Sunday and a serene end of the year. I thank you again for your good wishes and your prayers: and please continue to pray for me. Have a good lunch and goodbye! © Libreria Editrice Vatican [Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester] JF Virginia Forrester, Zenit.org.