#and we both hate bob dylan

[theclowncowboy]

almost just burst into tears because im not his bestfriend .

[aheathen-conceivably]

Long before the last note Antoine had grown aware of Zelda’s presence; but as he finished, he looked up at her with a newfound vulnerability in his eyes. As she stared at him unmoving, he absentmindedly moved his hand along the strings to fill the quiet left by the watching stars, “Was it alright, you think? Writing lyrics, it’s new. Harder than assembling notes, if you ask me.”

She looked at him in amazed silence. His original piano pieces had been brilliant, and sometimes he had written ditties for her to sing, but never before had she heard him sing his own lyrics. She had always known how much he loved it - this place that he had left but that walked alongside him everywhere he went; but it was so much clearer this way, so full of both love and hate, loyalty and disdain, longing and relief, that it was difficult for anything other than music to encompass it. 

She brought her hands together in something that may have been a clap if she wasn’t so afraid to disrupt the stillness of the desert air. On silent footsteps, she left her reverie behind and moved to sit where he had made room for her on the worn wooden bench.

She looked at him earnestly, trying to ease his fear with even just the movement of her eyes, “It’s brilliant, Antoine, truly.” And she meant it, not just because she was under his spell and not her own now; the judgmental eyes of God and her sisters were shut out when she was in his orbit. Now there was only him and his memories for her to get lost in. 

He left his hands on the strings, still playing the familiar notes as though they helped make the admittance easier to utter, “You were right, you know? When I play it’s like I can see it all laid out in front of me. Or better yet, under me. Like I’m above it, observing it all like a story. Makes me realize I loved it more than I thought I did. That house. That place. Her. I wrote it because I know it’s gone now, probably nothing but rubble under a cheap government build. I just don’t want to forget. Or maybe I don’t want the world to forget.”

The stars looked down on them as his smile widened with every inch she drew closer to him. They reflected brightly in her eyes as she leveled them to his, “Would you sing it again? So I can hear it better?”

He let out a small laugh, just as much in relief as in humor. “Surely you would prefer to sing it? With a voice like yours I would hate to imagine what mine must sound like.”

She brought her knee up on the bench with them, curling as close as she could without dislodging the guitar from his arms. “Hush and sing. You don’t need me now.”

“I always will, Mrs. Duplanchier. No matter what. But as you wish….” 🎶

Part 3/3

(As Antoine is meant to have written House of the Rising Son in this universe, I’m going to leave a little disclaimer about this song and its origins under the cut, in case you are interested!)

The origins of the song House of the Rising Sun are much older and more complicated than I have presented here. Folklorist Alan Lomax has written more on it if you are interested, but it is commonly thought to have originated as an English folk song, morphing into the version we know today amongst various groups of American immigrants.

Perhaps best known for its 1964 version by The Animals, it has long formed a staple of American folk, blues, rock, and country recordings, with recorded versions by everyone from Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Doc Watson, Nina Simone, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Alt-J (amongst so many others). However, I have taken inspiration from the earliest known recorded version, which was done in Appalachia in 1933.

Of course, in having Antoine write this song I have compressed much of this history into a single figure, as well as slightly twisted the meaning of the song to fit the story line. The latter is mostly based on personal interpretation of the lyrics and is purposefully meant to draw a line from this family’s musical heritage through the 1960s and beyond. It also gives a face to the very real figures behind many of the staples of American music that have come to us from the early part of the 20th century, many of which were written or played by black men and women whose songs have continued onward while many of their names and stories may have been forgotten.

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

VHSCC OH MY GOD

(no spoilers)

Starkid nation, you aren't ready.

So let's start with the obvious. Look, I spent thirteen years growing up with Starkid. That initial Michigan gang are deeply special to me and I will always miss Dylan, Brian R., and Corey in any show they aren't in. And this one's no different. But just as Janaya came in and took over Belle from Britney so flawlessly, Curt, Brian, and AJ were all WONDERFUL in their new roles. The gentle-but-high-energy, truly decent, romantic himbo charm Curt brought to our Springsteen boy Jim (you all are going to LOVE Jim, I promise) perfectly offset the defiant, sneering anger of Young Scrooge in "That Scrooge." Brian's reactions (particularly to the "rather take my own life" line) were so funny and some of my favorite parts of the show. And AJ... this is now my favorite thing AJ has ever done. And that's saying something. The smaller casting shake-up moments (Joey as Fezziwig, other little line re-distributions) were so fun as well!

The new act 1 is PERFECTION. I was actually surprised by how absolutely hysterical it was? Like, I won't tell you what was up with that clip on Instagram of Brian, Lauren, and Joey doing a freak-out dance, but I can tell you that their whole Act 1 deal threatened to steal the show every. Single. Time. I already mentioned Curt as Jim, but you will also love Della, who is so funny and real and truly carries us through the start of the show (Janaya is a STAR and she Curt have brilliant chemistry). Ali did a terrific job of balancing the sadness and hope that are both at the center of the devastating little Match Girl. And Jamie's Grandma... well, honestly I have no idea how to talk about Jamie's song without giving stuff away.

But the real star of the show in Act 1, as he should be, was our man Clark. I can't emphasize enough how much he nailed the writing of this whole new act. I mentioned that the new stuff is hilarious, but it's also deeply heartfelt, and also sad exactly when it needs to be. Like, the transition after Jamie's song? I can't really talk about it yet, but what that moment does with emotion is unreal. And, as expected, every song is a banger! My one complaint about this show, and it IS a big one, is that there is no cast recording of the Act 1 songs. I want to listen to them all the time.

But the good news is, I CAN listen to Christmas Carol as much as I want! The classic that started it all is back, with so many people reprising the hell out of their truly iconic roles (God I love the VHS Cratchits), and better than ever. I traditionally hate change, and I love the version of VHSCC Live! we already have so much, but I think I somehow loved this version even more? The staging is alive and clever and there are some additions and changes, particularly in "Final Ghost"/"Christmas Day," that frankly blew my mind and somehow managed to elevate the material even further. I can't wait for the digital ticket to come out so that I can talk about them. To put it simply, James Tolbert mastered his Starkid directorial debut like you won't believe. I'm so proud of him and grateful for the larger role he's taken in Starkid since they moved base to LA.

Also, the Ghost of Christmas Past is extra unhinged this year? Jaime pulled out all of the impish stops and it was the BEST.

Basically, everyone more than delivered. I haven't talked about Meredith yet but she rocked it in the band and continued to validate the hell out of my opinion that "3 Spirits" is the dark horse best song in the show.

And a special shout-out to June Saito for continuing to be a costuming GENIUS. I always love her work and this production is no exception. I honestly wanted to give the return of the Bob Cratchit costume its own round of applause.

You know, the world is a mess and everything is pretty much terrible. It's been a hard year in an impossible decade. But every once in a while you come across some art that takes all of that, acknowledges the truth of it, and somehow pulls back the curtains to harness the joy and hope that's still there under the rubble. To me, Starkid in particular has always been about finding and holding onto the hope and the beauty and humanity that allows us to endure an existence that can so often feel bleak. And VHSCC is maybe the most perfect encapsulation of that idea.

So thank you Clark, James, Meredith, Brian, and everyone who worked so hard on this little bit of magic. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Let's make a little light.

[loftec]

🎄Weekly Tag Wednesday - Holidays 🎄

This week we are going to talk about your Holiday Traditions! Thank you for the tag @deedala <3

Name:  loftec

Where in the world are you?  Sweden

What holiday do you and/or your family celebrate at this time of year?  We celebrate christmas, but honestly I hate calling it that so I will call it yule in this post (jul, in swedish). It's obviously a pagan-turned-christian holiday here too, but I've never been religious so my brain does this every time I have to refer to it as "christmas":

Does your family get together to celebrate?  Yes, just my parents and brothers, it used to be that we'd celebrate on our own on the 23rd and maybe have one or two grandparents over for the 24th (the main day here) and then go see extended family on the 25th and 26th, but these days my brothers, their SOs and I just go hang out at our parents' three days in a row. It's very nice and low-key.

Are there any traditional foods for the holiday?  Julbord, a yule smörgåsbord. Ham, meatballs, kale, pickled herring, salmon, janssons, etc etc. We usually get to demand one thing each for the table, and mine is always kale. There's a culture war in sweden re: which type of cabbage is correct for julbord – brown, green or red – and I'm controversially team green (geographically, I should be team brown) (no-one is team brown).

Do you typically decorate for your holiday?  I have a little box I bring out; I've got a star light for my bedroom (an orange paper lantern I've had since I was a kid) and a brass star light for the kitchen (it used to be the family kitchen light before my parents moved out of my childhood home). I also have a very small tree for the Boy (so I can put his presents under it), and this year I added a new guy to the box:

I've had the version on the left for as long as I can remember (he's in the family box at my parents'), and found the lad to the right at a second hand shop the other day. Obviously he had to come home with me, and one day he will be reunited with his long lost pal (gay).

Tell me about your favorite holiday memory:  For decades, one of the most important traditions in my family was to go to an indoor pool on the 23rd. It started when my brother and I were little and I think our mum was sick one yule and dad wanted to give her some peace and quiet, so we went to a public bath nearby. Turns out not a lot of people do this, most people are probably running around getting ready for the 24th, so we had a grand old time swimming and playing in a basically empty bath. So this became a beloved tradition, and we went for almost every year until the pandemic. One specifically memorable time was when they visited me in Japan and we went to an onsen, and it started snowing.

What is the significance of the holiday you are celebrating?  Spend time with family (people you want to spend time with) and eat good food (knowing that you're halfway through winter and that the food will last) and appease the natural forces (yule gnomes) with bribes (porridge) so they'll give you a little gift and not fuck up your life. Also Jesus and Brian of nazareth were both born at some point.

If there was one thing you could change about this holiday, what would it be? My dad came home with a persistent cold, I'm hoping for him to feel completely recovered by next week.

Anything else you want to tell me about your holiday? Please enjoy my top 5 yule albums (proceeds to recommend you five aggressively christmassy albums lol listen!! the bops transcend religion):

tagging @the-rat-wins @mittimellan (in case you want to procrastinate the stress week!!) @wideblueskies @beckyharvey29 @thisfeebleheart and anyone who wants to yap about their holidays!

[bigtalesalad]

Finally Viktor’s half!!! Yeayyy again this is based on my interpretations of arcane s2 and @bringthekaos fics!! Please give me a like bob dylan is just so hard to understand hahaha.

Here I will feature a more somber tone, the songs are full of doubts which conterparts with the previous playlist full of certainty, here the songs are more melancholic but at the end we have peace. I will post the meaning of each song for me in viktors context below, but I recommend listening to my playlist before reading so you are not influenced by my interpretation.

It’s again full of first aid kit songs, because they are the best in writing love turmoil songs!! I absolutely loveeeee them.

Hope you all like.

Rebel heart - it’s the song theme for viktor. It embodies his journey throughout the playlist. This song is about the herald’s heart, viktor rebel nature. This song have so many symbolisms, viktor debates, both the fics and the show, if he should trust Jayce, is him misplacing his hearth giving it to Jayce? To the machine herald all is futile and should stay in the past, is that also true for viktor? Even when he hates Jayce when his life is pure storm he can’t stop wanting him. All because of his rebel heart, he then realizes that Jayce is the only one that truly saw his heart.

When I grow up - it’s a song about viktor dreams and ambitions when he invented hextech, what he wanted to achieve, he wanted his investiments to come back to him in some form o happiness or contempt. He also stars to notice he wishes Jayce had deeper feelings about him.

In my room - a song about how recluse and not preoccupied viktor is when the matter is life outside the lab. He just can’t enjoy it, he thinks he’s useless if he don’t invent something new every minute.

Ready to run - it’s about Viktor’s insecurity when he make bold moves towards Jayce, mostly suggesting somethig by deeper, he has a impression that Jayce is scared of a possible relationship. But when at the ends he concludes he’s the disappointment (wrongly by the way) and that he’s the one ready to run all the time.

Jolene - it’s about jealousy, Viktor is jealous of Mel being Jayce girlfriend, specially because he thinks she’s better than him, but he also thinks she’s not a good person and is manipulating Jayce. (Do I support such attitude from viktor? No, do I think he believe this shit? Yes).

Child of Summer - here viktor wishes he was more active in life, he wished he shined like the golden boy, maybe then Jayce would admire him. Viktor always wanted to be lonely, because in his mind it was better that way since he was always ostracized due to his leg, until he found himself completely isolated of life and the joy of it. He regrets that decision even more after he meets Jayce, maybe if his personal life take no path he just needs to whait Jayce to find him.

Hem of her dress - Viktor believes that Jayce found his other piece in Mel and also in Piltover council. And that him and their dreams will be forgotten, like a photograph Jayce forgot he took.

I just needed a Friend - this song translates the loneliness viktor felt when he was sick, while Jayce was occupied being a councilor, viktor laughed at his fears and played controlled. He came to the conclusion he was nothing more than an amateur project that wasn’t made to live and was deemed to die fast, he was ready to be taken to whatever fate destiny wanted and believed everything was a mistake from the universe (him, his creations, hextech) he only needed a friend (where the fuck were you Jayce by the way?).

My wild sweet love - it’s also about the period where Viktor finds out he’s dying and Jayce is doing politics. Viktor needs Jayce golden aura more than even, but Jayce gotta do what he gotta do, and viktor is left with his feelings. The love he had for Jayce will this only be a memory?

Our own pretty ways - it’s a song about breakup, when s2 hits or when viktor is expelled from Piltover, he finally realizes Jayce is quite different from what he was in s1 but also the same in many ways (stubborn, hypocrite, blind) and that their paths diverged. So Viktor just decides to end their relation.

Ruins - it’s about what viktor left behind, his ruins: Jayce, his love, his dream, hextech, Piltover. He believes he lost himself in the pursuit of greatness and greedy politics. He realizes Jayce maybe lost too.

It’s all over now baby blue - it’s about endings and new beginnings. It’s Viktor saying goodbye to Jayce, to the dead (sky), to his political beliefs (pacificism), to Piltover, to his illness and leg, to his body. It’s a new beginning to him, when he leaves Jayce (considering s2 canon) or it’s expelled by Jayce (as in the fics) he needs to start over.

You want it darker - it’s Viktor disgusted with Piltover and himself for being a part of their schemes, it’s a song about terrible acts evil people do using progress civility and religion as an excuse. It’s him realizing how toxic the council is, and how they (and himself) are responsible for Zaun misfortunes, he’s ready to change that situation. In the series context this doing could also represent Viktor’s acknowledgement that humankind and it’s emotions are the responsible for all misfortunes, and he’s ready to evolve past that in pursuit of a better future. I do t think viktor is that much religious, but this song could also mean he’s pissed with god/universe/fate for giving him a disease that’s going to kill him. Basically it’s Viktor pissed with how unfair the world is.

Farewell Angelina - I think in Viktor’s context he is talking about two words. The world of appearances, where people see him as the machine herald/ arcane herald that force people into zombies and what’s found underneath, the world of what’s really going on. The contradicting lines of sweet words, with am apocalyptic agressive world symbolize the complexity of what’s really going on. In one side we have sweet human viktor that remains the same, and in the other we have the apocalyptic reality that pushes machine/arcane idealist that does not belive in humankind kind of viktor. who will him be? This interior fight is embodied in the decision related to Jayce: does he love Jayce? Does he hate Jayce? Does he follow the sound from his hearth? Does he say farewell? No assumption about his intentions made by either Piltover Zaun or Jayce are accurate, maybe not even he knows what is accurate. Viktor tries to leave behind this conflict and just get over it, but leaving emotions and morals buried is impossible. Using s2 sense literally this song could also symbolize Viktor’s transformation in the arcane herald inside the cocoon, it’s Viktor’s old self saying farewell inside Viktor’s own mind, here the apocalyptic verses would be viktor old body being thorn apart by the arcane.

Stay Gold - it’s a song about how everything in life is deemed to vanish, from gold to grey. Viktor realizes his human body will vanish, his relationship with Jayce will also whiter. But in his dreams he can still make a bridge that takes him to Jayce as he was before everything. What if Jayces love is not enough for viktor anymore?

Diamonds and Rust - this song is about the sweeteness of Jayce and Viktor love in the beginning of s1 (represented by diamonds) justaposed with the bitterness of the separation in s2 or after the end of s1 (represented by rust). When Jayce comes back to visit viktor, he’s met with the harsh reality of the price he needs to pay for leaving Jayce (solitude) a price he already paid. Viktor is also nostalgic when he remembers the time with Jayce in the lab, and he need to make clear that both him and Jayce could’ve died in that time and viktor would not have to taste the rust only the diamonds (considering he was ill and he and Jayce were blown up by jinx in the end of s1).

A quiet life - here it’s Viktor wondering if now that he’s far away from Jayce and also freed from his decaying body maybe he would have a peaceful life. But it’s the quite opposite, now he’s utterly alone, and even when it’s all quiet outside, inside his mind his loneliness take away his peace.

Dress Rehearsal Rag - it’s about Jayce and Viktor interactions after viktor departure, it’s viktor realizing that Jayce lost all of his golden aura, it’s Viktor realizing his impact on Jayce and realizing that Jayce do care deeply for him. Dude this song is about a man that was famous and had an golden aura around him, this man was in the top of the world but he’s not what he appears, deep down he’s a frustrated man and the singer sees that, which call back to the fact that viktor truly a sees Jayce for who he is. Leonard cohen literally described Jayce

Cedar Lane - It’s about what was great of Jayce and Viktor relationship, he still can’t break away from Jayce, even with all the doubts he previously had deep inside he still believes something good may come out of his situation. He can belive the future maybe gold.

I’ve wanted you - confession song of viktor towards Jayce. It’s Viktor adititng to himself (or otherwise) all the struggle he went through, the loneliness he felt trohiught the years, him trying to foil that void with distractions. But all that time all he wanted was Jayce, maybe width Jayce viktor can finally overcome this void inside him.

I found a way - a song about the cicle of inner conflict between the two identities of viktor. I one side we have human viktor and in the other we have machine / arcane herald. Viktor is confused who is he, but suddenly Jayce is back to his life, and like the morning he takes over the darkness and share light into viktor decision. In conclusion Jayce takes out the best in viktor and creates the best version of Viktor’s when he’s around.

Emmylou - it’s basically viktor adimiting to himself and to Jayce he will stay with him though the end, is just a love declaration (cute I know)

[buck1eys]

steve's parents kick him out for missing his college application and refusing to do a day of hard work (i.e. struggling after being tortured and watching billy get his chest ripped out) and robin takes him in and this is a WONDER to steve... robin's family eat together EVERY NIGHT, weird things steve has never tried like tofu and dahl and chilli with no meat in it and talk about their days - after a week with the buckleys steve knows all about mrs buckley's energy healing and how mr buckley hates his job but loves his coworker who was there the concert dylan went electric, once steve has figured out dylan is bob dylan and bob dylan is sacred to the three of them, even if mrs buckley prefers joan baez as a singer, but even when they argue he can see how much they all genuinely LIKE each other. sure, he puts his foot in it a couple of times, complaining about the cold or finishing the milk without thinking, but they are endlessly patient with him and, and this is the bit steve can't get his head around, endlessly curious about him - who he listens to, how he met robin, what he thinks of ronald reagan and where would he live if he could live anywhere on earth, things steve had never bothered to ask himself, and so at first he's tongue tied, offering to do the dishes and hang the laundry just so he feels he has something to offer because he can hardly keep up with them, three robins with thoughts spiralling off in all directions, and they do seem to appreciate it, because though steve would never ever say it and hates himself for even thinking it, their house is the messiest house he's ever been in. they go along like this quite happily, steve gets a job and starts paying rent and driving mrs buckley to dollar tree and driving robin round the bend as his sense of humour comes back to him, until one day steve decides he's gonna do something nice, partly out of gratitude and partly because it's his day off and if he doesn't do something, anything, to stop the thoughts of last summer and the look on his mother's face as his dad threw his duffel bag out the door after him he thinks he might fall apart, so he sets about deep cleaning the kitchen. he gets into it, bleaching the skirting boards and organising the spice rack (they have a SPICE RACK) and he even puts a record on for company - the beach boys - and it's all going so well until he starts on the fridge, until the sudden noise of the key in the lock makes him jump in sudden panic and drop the glass pane he's cleaning, which shatters on the floor. and steve's stood among all this broken glass he knows the buckleys can't afford to replace as robin and her mom burst into the kitchen, and oh god, his chest is tightening and his eyes are burning and he tries to speak to say sorry, i'm sorry but all that comes out is a gasp and he's on the floor among the glass having a panic attack, pathetic, pathetic, but then there's a hand on his shoulder and a laugh as robin says "you've got that one right Harrington, that fridge was pretty pathetic". Steve looks up at her, so grateful to have a friend like robin, but nothing prepares him for robin's mom, who crouches down in front of him and rests her hands on both his kneecaps and tells him to breathe, breathe Steve, we can fix the fridge, it's you that's irreplaceable.

[silveragelovechild]

I was looking forward to seeing “a Complete Unknown”, not because of Bob Dylan, but because of Timothee Chalamet. I think is one of the greatest actors of his generation. I first saw him in “Call Me by your Name” (2017). His performance was great, but there was a moment at the end where he was brilliant. As the credits rolled, Chalamet sat staring into a fireplace. It was a long uninterrupted take. His character Elio was reflecting on his relationship with Arnie Hammer’s Oliver. Although the audience couldn’t “hear” what he was thinking, we could see what Chalamet was “feeling”. It was both painful and exquisite to watch.

Regarding Bob Dylan, of course I know of him, but I never following his music. The movie covers Dylan’s life between his arrival in New York City in 1961 as “a complete unknown”, until 1965 during a career transition. We see him meet his idols Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, the release of his earliest albums, and his rise to fame. The trailer suggests the movie is entirely about Dylan’s switch from acoustic guitar to electric, but it covers probably less than 20 minutes of the 141 minute running time.

Here’s another confession… I’ve never followed folk music. But I was surprised by how familiar I was with most of the songs used in the film - nearly 40! I’d be curious how much of the movie’s budget was used to pay the licensing fees for those songs.

As to the film itself, I think it’s worth seeing - especially if you’re a Bob Dylan fan. Did I mention they used nearly of his 40 songs? The movie is wall-to-wall songs with occasional dialogue.

In a biopic, you hope to learn something about the subject of the film - and I did learn a little of what kind of person Dylan is (more on that later). But I think I learned even more about the people surrounding him.

The cast includes characters such as folk artists Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy); Dylan’s contemporaries Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook); his agent (Dan Folger); his recording and touring band (Norbert Leo Butz, Will Harrison, and Elia Btieb, among others). And last but not least Elle Fanning as Dylan’s on again off again girlfriend.

Throughout the film, the camera lingers of these other people as they stare at Dylan from across the room or up on stage. They see something in Dylan - admiration? love? contempt? Or all three. A recurring theme in the movie is Dylan’s frustration with the people around him (friends and fans) who think they “know” him but don’t or who want a piece of him.

And here comes the part of the film I didn’t expect… ultimately it made me think the real Bob Dylan is an asshole.

As Dylan’s fame rises, so does his ego and unwillingness to give people what they expect of him. So much so, that when his mentor and friend Pete Seeger invites him to perform at the “all acoustic” Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Dylan suborningky insists on playing amplified electronic guitar - very loud and brash. As depicted in the movie, the audience in attendance hated it and even throw trash at him on stage. But Dylan won - dagnabbit, he wasn’t going to play acoustic music as the audience expected, he was going to do this own thing!

But it felt like an incredible betrayal of Dylan’s friend Peter Seeger, who had been trying to develop the festival to further folk and acoustic music and performers. If you’re a fan of Dylan’s you might not think his betrayal makes him an asshole. But that was the character Dylan evolved into over the course of the film.

That’s not to say I didn’t like the film. And Chalamet is good. Earlier in the film, when Dylan is shy and unsure of himself, I think Chalamet is too introspective (he hides behind the prosthetic nose). But in the middle part of the film, he opens up.

Edward Norton is great as Seeger. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get nominated for a supporting Oscar award. (Benedict Cumberbatch was originally cast as Seeger - thank gawd he dropped out!)

Both Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro are very good as well. I like Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash but he’s only in a few scenes.

Scoot McNairy plays Woody Guthrie. In the opening scene he’s ill and in a hospital. Guthrie is a shell of a man, unable to speak. Just seeing McNairy’s face evoked an emotional response from me that took a few minutes to shake. The movie never explains what’s wrong with him. I assumed he was suffering from a stroke. He wasn’t. (So you don’t have to check Wikipedia yourself, Guthrie suffered from Huntington's chorea, a hereditary disease that causes involuntary body movements and eventually dementia.)

Four out of five stars.

Note: There is an annoying aspect of the film. Several times the action stops to introduce a minor character by name. But they have no impact of the story of the film. Introducing them is distracting. It felt like director James Mangold (who cowrote the script) was including footnotes in the dialogue for you to check later. It’s a movie, not a musical history lesson.

Because of this, if you plan to see “a Complete Unknown”, see it at a theater. If you wait to see it on TV via streaming, you’ll constantly be checking every name and song on Wikipedia.

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #48:

Songs of Love and Hate, Part 2

Individual notes, verses, flashes of color and morsels can sum up all that is great about a given artist.

Joyce's heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit and Eliot's patient etherized on a table instantly encapsulate each author's vast oeuvre; Botticelli's cornered, puffing zephyrs sum up everything that dwells within his immense, canvassed, rushes of air.

Plus, you could dedicate a week or two straight to Dinosaur Jr's catalog or just get the whole thing done quick by letting J Mascis order you to get him a bucket.

Like J says, it's sometimes best to absorb the whole by ignoring it and staring instead, well, into the face of "ducket".

So let's follow J's advice and, after an initial post that focused largely on Jew's harps and orgies, dedicate this Part 2 to zooming in on Leonard Cohen's own, single, summation bucket: the opening track of Songs of Love and Hate, Avalanche.

All the vast riches hidden within Cohen's monstrous but sexy raincoat are on display in this track.

The opening verse goes a long way to sum up Cohen's art. "I stepped into avalanche: it covered up my soul." This isn't a guy with inherited hardships; he bought a house on a Greek island before he was famous with inherited funds; plus he was really, really good looking.

But one of the great things about the man is his ownership of his own sorrow: he knowingly and willingly stepped into a swirl of hardship and frozen water. It's his own damn fault, and he owns that. And when horrors covered up his soul, leaving him hunchbacked, crippled and befouled, he consistently pulled off the ultimate magic trick, transmuting his self-entrapment into a golden sleep of verse and art and song.

And we're the miners in Cohen's song, of course: we stumble into Cohen as we tunnel after more obvious and conventional beauty. I discovered him in the backseat of my teenage girlfriend's parent's suburban on a four hour drive through the mountains.

"Who is this?" I asked the car. I was already transfixed.

"Leonard Cohen!" chorused the entire family of 5, including an 8 year old with pigtails and a stuffed rabbit in her lap. Clearly, they all thought, this new boyfriend is an idiot.

There's a sonic summation at work in Avalanche too: Cohen's signature sinister and churning Spanish guitar, originally encountered on Avalanche's prequel, The Stranger Song, is met by equally sinister and strident strings that crowd him and then retreat time and again; often Cohen would bring in female vocalists to commune with him and contradict him on his records. But this song is too personal, too harrowing, to foist onto anyone else. He burdens the song's weight alone, letting it bury him deeper and deeper down beneath the hill.

We always want it darker when it comes to Cohen. With Avalanche he truly delivers.

And then there's the song's phrasing. Dylan did a real nice job of publicly honoring Cohen at the time of his passing and it occurs to me now that, consciously or unconsciously, the Bobster, after blowing out his voice altogether in the 80's, surely taught himself how to sing all over again in the 90's and Ought's by channeling Cohen's work on songs like this.

Every word in Avalanche is stretched for and clawed after; every phrase refuses to submit to convention and instead is determined by its owners own soulful sense of time. Cohen and the later day Dylan knew they couldn't sing like other men. So they stopped trying, focusing instead on pace and mood, transmuting their own grotesqueries into beautifully individualized truths.

If both songs are indeed utterly Bob and Leonard, how could anyone ever cover such songs? Now one is gonna enjoy reading anyone else's versions of Molly Bloom or Prufrock; Zephyr in anyone else's painting is just a fat baby who needs his diaper changed in a big way.

But music allows for tributes to become solid art. The Cowboy Junkies turned in a deft, Spanish-tinged cover of Give Myself Up To You almost instantly.

And Nick Cave did the same thing 40 years ago with Avalanche.

These covers don't upstage the originals. They kneel to them. And so do I.

[foxes-that-run]

Betty

Betty was written with William Bowery. In the credits, Joe is a producer. In the Long Pond Session, Taylor said James and Betty wind up together, but he really put her through it. In the Eras Tour Taylor introduces Betty, (Transcribed Betty Speeches) likening it to HYGTG. She says it is about a teenage boy trying to apologise to the love of his life:

There are songs with a high school metaphor (Betty, August, INTHAF, MA&HBP & Suburban Legends) that have Haylor references. The metaphor of 17 year old James for late teen HS and Betty for Taylor is clearer. To me, I think Augustine is loosely based on Kendall Jenner, but Taylor has also shown she identifies with this role also.

To Vulture Aaron said:

This one Taylor and William wrote, and then both Jack and I worked on it. We all kind of passed it around. This is the one where Taylor wanted a reference. She wanted it to have an early Bob Dylan, sort of a Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

It's unusual for Taylor to have a direct throw back musical reference like that play such a role in the song. This may be William Bowery's influence, Taylor said that William Bowery played her a lot of diverse music. Harry Styles has a similar approach.

Lyrics

Betty, I won't make assumptions About why you switched your homeroom but I think it's 'cause of me Betty, one time I was riding on my skateboard When I passed your house It's like I couldn't breathe

The opening reminds me of Wish you Would & Style with him passing her house, now on a skateboard rather than Range Rover. (cute video of Taylor recording the skateboard)

Harry has Asthma and uses oxygen on stage. This last line also reminds me of his anxiety, which Taylor has referred to in New Years Day (squeeze my hand in the backseat of the taxi) and Now that we don't talk ( Did you get anxious though On the way home?)

You heard the rumors from Inez You can't believe a word she says Most times, but this time it was true The worst thing that I ever did Was what I did to you

It's well known that James, Inez and Betty are Blake and Ryan's kids. I always wonder how Inez will feel about this line when she's older.

Here I think her name is standing in for the media, specifically I think of Perez Hilton which was a bigger thing in 2012. This is a call back to when Harry kissed a girl in Australia in April 2012.

The worst thing line is a reference to Where do broken hearts go's line "Counted all my mistakes and there's only one / Standing out from the list of the things I've done / All the rest of my crimes don't come close / To the look on your face when I let you go"

[Chorus] But if I just showed up at your party Would you have me? Would you want me? Would you tell me to go fuck myself? Or lead me to the garden? In the garden would you trust me If I told you it was just a summer thing? I'm only 17, I don't know anything But I know I miss you

In the Long Pond Sessions, Taylor said 'William Bowery' wrote this whole chorus. It includes references to a number of songs about Harry and Taylor's relationship:

HYGTG "Stand there like a ghost / Shaking come the rain, rain / She'll open up the door / And say, are you insane, -ane?"

Cruel Summer "And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate"

Style: " I heard / That you've been out and about with some other girl, some other girl" / He says, "What you heard is true, but I Can't stop thinkin' 'bout you and I" / I said, "I've been there too a few times"

To be so Lonely: "Don't blame me for falling / I was just a little boy Don’t blame the drunk caller / Wasn't ready for it all" and "You said you cared / And you missed me, too"

Betty, I know where it all went wrong Your favorite song was playing From the far side of the gym I was nowhere to be found I hate the crowds, you know that Plus, I saw you dance with him

Suburban Legends "“I am standin’ in a 1950s gymnasium” in Suburban Legends and here Taylor is using a metaphor for a prom or school dance for an event. In Suburban Legends she is proud to be with him, here they are using it as a reason to escape together.

Wildest Dreams "He said, "Let's get out of this town / Drive out of the city, away from the crowds"" and who could blame either of them. I Know Places is also all about the avoiding crowds

The seeing Betty dance with someone else reminds us of Exile (I can see you standing, honey / With his arms around your body), Woman ("While he’s touching your skin He’s right where I should, where I should be") and To be So Lonely "Do you think it's easy being of the jealous kind?"

I was walking home on broken cobblestones Just thinking of you when she pulled up like A figment of my worst intentions She said "James, get in, let's drive" Those days turned into nights Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long

Cobblestones links it to Cardigan, and indicates it is set in London or New York.

I love 'figment of my worst intentions' for temptation, in Style she sings of him being with someone else and thinking of TS.

Betty, I'm here on your doorstep And I planned it out for weeks now But it's finally sinkin' in Betty, right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when You see my face again The only thing I wanna do Is make it up to you So I showed up at your party

This verse is similar to HYGTG, Wish You Would and The Last Time.

Also this is similar to the leaked Half the World Away "I messed up, you'll be fine / I'm gonna sleep alone tonight / Never gonna be the same"

Yeah, I showed up at your party Yeah, I showed up at your party Will you have me? Will you love me? Will you kiss me on the porch In front of all your stupid friends? If you kiss me, will it be just like I dreamed it? Will it patch your broken wings? I'm only 17, I don't know anything But I know I miss you

The stupid friends like reminds me of Suburban Legends "I had the fantasy that maybe our mismatched star signs / Would surprise the whole school / When I ended up back at our class reunion/ Walkin' in with you" They are both expressing wanting HS and TS to be showing off their relationship, which they kept private.

Standing in your cardigan Kissin' in my car again Stopped at a streetlight You know I miss you

Kissing in cars matches Cardigan "To kiss in cars and downtown bars was all we needed" and also matches the many references to driving.

If I could fly "I'm missing half of me when we're apart"

TBSL "You said you cared / And you missed me, too"

[simsthesammyway]

Inspiration!!

I give credit to @moonravensims for this particular legacy.

I call this the Legacy Where I Actually Play Ravenwood. :o LOL Joke, I call this the Larkin Legacy. And I know that I was going to get back into TS2 and TS3 but holy jeez, TS4 is soooo fun!!

Here we go!

I gave her a random first name, but I kind of chose the surname based off of it being a favorite surname...

To me, she looks like a living doll with that face and that hair do?

I don't know about you, but macabre sims kind of freak me out... it's just the way they hold themselves I guess???

Cataleya (or Cat if you will) loves the Moggy Manor (?) In Brit a moggy is a cat so... idk.

What do you know! It is Ekade from my other legacy lol!!!

I had to add that, love Bob Dylan 🩶🩶🩶🩶

Did I mention how much I hate Brytani Cho?? 💯💯💯💯💯

Nothing says "I'm into you." like a guitar shoved into your chest cavity! 🤘😅

🤪

Someone got wasted tonight.

Who the eff knew that these two who previously were at the bar together, would hit it off as great as they do?? 🫨😲🤯

Embracing the Gloom!

THEY FUCKING DID IT IN A CRYPT!! I am soooooooo jealous!!!!! I want to have sex in a crypt/cemetery!!! (I'm a weird weird biche I know.)

That's it! I want a wedding in a cemetery too!!

Cat talks to a dude named Warez, I'm guessing he was robbed and left to die. o_O

I love ravens/crows. I fucking belong in this ep.

Sexy Mitch Larkin!

Is it just me, or does the mac and cheese in TS3 look more realistic than both TS2 and TS4?

I am so shipping these two. 🩶🩶🩶

Next time,

Cat and Mitch get jobs, and they hire a nanny.

Baby Larkin is born!

idk what else.. lol

Tell me what y'all think!!

Sammy

[mad-prophet-of-the-airwaves]

In preparation for "A Complete Unknown" I watched "Dont Look Back" and I have some thoughts.

It's very interesting to me that, despite being the earliest rockumentary, it feels like an intentional deconstruction of the genre.

In general, I hate rockumentaries. It doesn't matter which artist it's following, I absolutely hate the self-aggrandizing, egotistical concept of the entire genre, but Bob Dylan's "Dont Look Back" is one I have a huge soft spot for.

It's perhaps the most unflattering portrait of any artist I've ever seen.

It's baffling that Dylan would allow the film to be released when he's at his absolute worst. He's petty, rude, vindictive, pretentious and suffering from an extreme God complex.

He's a hard hero to root for, but we're constantly assured through both first-hand accounts that he's a genius, but we never really get to see that. Sure, his musical performances in the film are terrific, but who talks about those? Think about the movie for a minute: what are some of the iconic scenes from the movie? I bet most of you thought of scenes where Dylan harasses the teenage reporter or throws a fit over a missing glass if you didn't think of "Subterranean Homesick Blues", but even that performance, as iconic as it is, is famous for being completely detached. Dylan doesn't even seem to care enough to show the lyric cards in time to the music most of the time.

By its end, Dylan himself doesn't even seem sure of his relevance as a celebrity. That final scene where he seems to begrudgingly accept his status as an "anarchist" feels like a particularly bitter jab towards the entire genre that came after it.

All of this genuinely feels satirical. It's clear that D.A. Pennrbaker saw Dylan for who he was at the time, but I feel how ahead of the curve his portrayal of the superficiality of celebrity is very understated.

It's a brilliant movie without a doubt. I haven't seen a music documentary that I've liked this much before.

[therecordchanger62279]

BEEN THERE, SAW THEM

For somebody that spent most of his working life in the retail record business, and whose passion has always been music, I was never an avid concert-goer. I never liked the long drives to and from. I hated shows where I had a seat but was forced to stand all evening because everyone else did. I hated the excess smoke - when that was still permitted. I often seemed to get seats behind someone who stood all evening, or was a head taller than me when seated. The volume was a problem, too as I suffered some hearing loss at a Springsteen concert in 1978, via some Steve Van Zandt guitar feedback that was actually painful, and caused me to cover my ears. I was in the last row of Vets Arena in Columbus, Ohio. If I'd been front row, I'd probably be deaf now. I hated the exits after the concerts, too. It took more time to leave the Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio after The Rolling Stones show I saw there in 1989 than it did to watch the show.

My aversion to concerts became legendary, and I used to get needled all the time about it by the people I worked with at record shops. Eventually, I got tired of it, and lied about attending shows I never saw (a Joe Henderson show at a high school auditorium in Lima, Ohio, and a Neil Young show with Sonic Youth opening on the Ragged Glory tour - in Cincinnati, if memory serves). I saw my last live show in 2014. I wouldn't even remember that date except that I had a notion of trying to compile a master list of every concert I've seen since my first one in August of 1975. By my count, and to the best of my recollection, I saw more than 40 concerts over a 39 year span. That's one concert a year. And given that I grew up in a small town where nobody ever played, and never lived anywhere bigger than Toledo or Dayton, Ohio, I don't think that's too bad.

I could've been to many, many more. For years I had access to free concert tickets through my record retailing connections, but since the people who worked for me made less money, and were more into live shows than I was, I used up my favors to score tickets for them when I could. I was content to buy live albums, and experience the shows from the comfort of my recliner.

In any case, I've compiled the complete list - at least everything I can remember - including the opening act(s) if there were any. If there was something worth noting about the show, I've made comments after the entry.

Beach Boys / Ambrosia. 8/21/75 Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio. My first concert. We had floor tickets, so I stood the entire time. Great sets from both bands, but this was still before Brian Wilson had rejoined for live shows. That was my only real disappointment.

Buddy Rich Orchestra. Lima Senior High Auditorium, Lima, Ohio 1977. I went with my mother. I was still living at home, going to college, and just beginning to really explore Jazz. I knew Rich from The Tonight Show. It was a terrific experience.

Bruce Springsteen. Vets, Columbus, Ohio 9/5/78. The night of the hearing loss. But it's still one of the three or four best shows I ever saw. I also saw him in Cincinnati, Ohio at Riverfront Coliseum in July '84 on the Born In The U.S.A. tour. Still great, but not on a level with that '78 show.

Bob Dylan. Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio 10/22/78. Also Riverbend Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio 8/10/89, Hara Arena 11/2/2002, and Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio 8/5/11. The '78 show was mindblowing. The '89 show was one of those nights when the sound was bad, and you couldn't recognize the songs unless you happened to catch a familiar lyric. Awful. The last two were quite good, though.

Elvis Costello / The Rubinoos. The Agora, Columbus, Ohio 3/15/79. The Rubinoos were great. Costello wasn't. He played all of 45 minutes. Left without ever saying a word to the audience. No encore - not that anyone minded. Later that night, he and his band got into an altercation with Stephen Stills and his band at a Holiday Inn Bar in Columbus that made national headlines when Costello uttered a racial slur at Ray Charles. I was a huge Costello fan before the show, but after - not so much. I swore I'd never see him live again, and I never did.

Crosby, Stills & Nash. Toledo, Ohio 11/9/82. I was nervous about this one because I knew they had a reputation for sometimes being awful in concert. We got lucky. They were incredible. They were so good that Nash even made a comment about it from the stage. One of the best live performances I've ever seen.

Weather Report. Ann Arbor, Michigan 1983. Some other managers at the mall where I worked in Toledo took me to this. I loved the band, and I've been forever grateful to them for inviting me.

Yes. Indianapolis, 4/12/84. I went with some people I worked with. I drove. This was the 90125 tour. The show was fantastic. But one of my pals knew the band. She co-published the Relayer fanzine, and had actually interviewed band members. She took us to the backstage area afterwards promising to get us in to meet the band. But the bouncers gave her, and another female co-worker access, but denied me, and two of my male friends. We were waiting around for them to come out when some bouncers approached us, and told us to leave. We told them our friends were inside, but they couldn't have cared less, and threatened to remove us bodily if we didn't leave. So, we went to the car where we sat for more than two hours waiting for our pals to return. When they finally did, they breathlessly told us they'd been invited to join them at a party at the hotel. They claimed again that they would get us in. But I was skeptical for obvious reasons. Besides, it was now past 1 a.m., and we still had a 90 minute drive home, and I was opening the store in the morning. We argued for probably 20 minutes, and put it to a vote. It was two in favor, and two against, and one abstention. But it was my car. So we left. I was very unpopular for a long time after that (actually, I've never been very popular anyway), but given the same circumstances at another time, I'd have done the same thing. Fortunately the Yes show I saw at Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio 5/4/91 was a better show, and a far better experience.

Pat Metheny Group. Memorial Hall, Dayton, Ohio 7/18/85. Ohio Theatre, Columbus Ohio 11/22/87. One of only a few acts I've seen more than once. Fantastic - both shows.

Stevie Ray Vaughan / Johnny Copeland. Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio 1985. Incredible show.

Pretenders / Iggy Pop. Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio 3/24/87. Great show all around.

Billy Idol / The Cult. Hara Arena, Dayton, Ohio 4/21/87. I could only score one ticket to see this show. I only wanted to see The Cult, and one of my co-workers was dying to see Billy Idol. He was closing the store that night just up the street from the venue. Since The Cult opened, I went to see them, and during intermission, I went back to the store, gave my ticket stub to my buddy, closed the store for him, and told him to go to the venue, and pretend he'd gone outside during intermission for a smoke. He presented my stub, and got in to see Billy idol. Win win!

Heart. Riverbend Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio 7/87. Courtesy a Capitol Records rep, and it included a ride in a Steamboat down the Ohio river to the venue. Heart was great!

R.E.M. / 10,000 Maniacs. Vets, Columbus, Ohio 10/24/87. Really fine show. I went with a co-worker and her boyfriend. He drove, and had one hand on the wheel, and with the other changed the radio stations constantly all the way there and back. He was wound far too tight for my liking.

Pink Floyd. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio 5/28/88. History says this was the first ever concert at the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes. What I remember was the spectacle itself. It was the first big budget production I'd ever seen, and it was something extraordinary.

Dio / Megadeth / Savatage. Hara Arena 8/2/88. I was dragged kicking and screaming to this show. I liked Dio's records, but I had no desire to see him or the openers at all. But I gave in. Savatage and Megadeth were so loud, I stayed in the lobby and girl-watched. Dio, I'll admit was really great.

The Rolling Stones. Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio 9/14/89. The Steel Wheels Tour. My only Stones show, but it was incredible. I watched Charlie most of the night, and Ronnie played his ass off.

Tina Turner. Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio 8/25/90. She was everything you'd expect of a living legend.

Gordon Lightfoot. Memorial Hall, Dayton, Ohio 4/91. Lightfoot and his band were terrific, but we had balcony seats, and the chairs were the smallest, hardest, and most uncomfortable I've ever experienced. I remember getting up three or four times during the show, and standing in the aisle to alleviate the discomfort.

Don Henley / Susanna Hoffs. Riverbend Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio. 7/23/91. The Columbia rep knew what a huge Hoffs fan I was, so he provided the ticket. We had a meet and greet with Hoffs after, and I got autographs, and a picture someone else took for me that I never received. Hoffs killed, and Henley was good, too.

Neil Young. Nutter Center, Fairborn, Ohio 9/11/92. Completely solo show, and a great one from start to finish.

Roseanne Cash / Lyle Lovett. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio 1994 (I believe). Couldn't track down the exact date for this, or find my ticket stub. But I recall it was when Lovett was having a romance, and short marriage to Julia Roberts, and he was in the news so much he'd decided to have some fun with it. So he had a roadie put a wig and a dress on to introduce him each night. When the roadie walked out, he was indeed mistaken for Julia Roberts. The gasps, and whispers were quickly drowned out by laughter when we realized the ruse. Great night all around.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio 8/30/95. A dream come true for me. They were great. It was the only time I got to see them.

James Taylor. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio 7/9/97. Another artist who lived up to his legend.

Guided By Voices. Gilly's, Dayton, Ohio 1/99. There was GBV fever at the shop I worked in at the time. I thought the show was good musically, but Bob Pollard's constant beer swilling throughout the set got on my nerves after awhile, and my wife was none too fond of that performance either. We left early, and I never again listened much to them. In fact, a couple of years later, I sold all my albums, and 45s of the band to a shop, and kept only a couple of homemade cassettes.

Black Sabbath / Pantera / The Deftones. Nutter Center, Fairborn, Ohio. 2/99. There's an account of this rather memorable night on this very blog under the title Me and Dime (May '23). I even submitted an account of the show to Record Collector for their 'Memorable Concert' feature from fans that runs in their letters section. They never responded to the submission, and to date, have never published it. That's why I have a blog.

B.B. King / Boz Scaggs / Bobby "Blue" Bland. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio, 6/19/99. Three legends for one price. Great, great night.

Emmylou Harris / Shawn Colvin. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio 8/25/01. We sat outside in a torrential downpour all evening. But Emmylou and Shawn were so good, we didn't care.

Black Crowes / Beachwood Sparks. Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio 10/10/01. Just a month after 9/11 which Chris Robinson referenced from the stage. Very good night, and seeing Beachwood Sparks was a bonus for me. I was one of the few in the crowd who knew them, and had their record at the time.

Sheryl Crow. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio 7/03. I had wanted to see this, but it sold out so fast I couldn't get a ticket - until a customer walked into the shop that afternoon and offered the ticket to any of us who wanted to go. I snatched it up, and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you want to see it, too, the entire thing was filmed, and released on a DVD titled C'mon America.

Leon Russell. Gilly's, Dayton, Ohio 1/3/2004. Leon completely solo at a bank of keyboards in a small club. Much as I'd liked to have seen him with his big band in the 1970s during his heyday, there was some magic on this night that I'll never forget.

Rock 'N' Blues Fest with Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, and Kim Simonds of Savoy Brown. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio. 2012. My disappointment at hearing that the great Leslie West had to drop out due to health issues at the last minute was somewhat mitigated by the opportunity to see the others. I'd been a fan of each since the 1970s. Edgar stole the show. But it was poignant seeing Johnny since he passed away less than 2 years later. And Rick and Kim still had it all these years later.

Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. Fraze Pavilion, Kettering, Ohio. 7/14. To date, this was my last concert, and I don't expect there will be any more - unless someone wants to provide a free ticket and transportation to see Yuja Wang, or Taylor Swift somewhere. I'd leave the recliner to see either. Everyone else has passed away or retired, or isn't worth seeing at this late date. So, after 40 years, I finally saw a Beatle live, and the bonus for me was also finally getting to see another legend - Todd Rundgren. Ringo does not disappoint. A good one to go out on.

Appendix (courtesy my wife): When you're married, sometimes you make sacrifices. My wife wanted to see Neil Diamond at Nutter center in Fairborn in November of 2001. I accompanied her because I'll confess an affection for his early hits - several of which he played, and played well. My wife also wanted to see John Tesh - twice. We went - twice. It was sometime in the 90s. I wasn't a fan of his music, but the shows were professional, and the crowd, and my wife very much enjoyed them. And, finally, she wanted me to take her to see Josh Groban, again at The Fraze in Kettering, Ohio. The date is foggy, but it was sometime between 2005 and 2010. And though I am not a fan of his music, the show was impressive, and there's no denying he has one of the great voices in recent pop history. He's also a very engaging, and likable sort who is great with audiences.

Appendix II (courtesy my wife): She also tells me I bought tickets and took her to a Jim Brickman concert (New Age pianist who recorded for the Windham Hill label) at Memorial Hall in Dayton, Ohio some time in the early 90s. I have almost no recollection of any of it, although it seems like something I would've done, and I do remember she had a couple of his CDs.

[a300lbman]

Six Decibels of Separation: The Big Lebowski Soundtrack

I can toe-tally understand the cult mentality of The Big Lebowski, a movie that can be both adored and completely overlooked by so many people. “You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me. There are ways, dude. You don’t want to know about it.  Believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon.... with nail polish.”

Forget about the fucking toe. This movie is one of my favorites and I am slowly realizing that I have probably already written a fanboy piece about this movie. This is probably due to the fact that I drink when I watch this movie and I write when I drink. This is like a G-rated Burroughs scenario and I am down for a time. 

For the sake of argument, I would like to focus on the music in the movie. It is in this comfy space that I think we might all find some common ground. 

Lets start out with some Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lookin Out My Back Door, a classic song, but if you only have a minute and you want something to laugh at, the video above will check those boxes. 

Being a huge fan of Santana, I always enjoy the musical backdrop to the punch line of an amazing joke in the movie. If you haven’t seen it, the smashed out windshield and Jeff Bridges visual frustration aren’t nearly as comical, but this loop of the guys riding to Oye Como Va cracks me up every time!

Nobody fucks with tha jesus. You know this or you don’t, but if you’ve seen The Big Lebowski, you know that given his pedo backstory, tha jesus might not be someone you want to fuck with. In either case, I’d like the share an anecdote from my youth. To properly date myself, I had asked a friend to burn a CD for me and I asked that he put Hotel California on there for me. I ended up getting the cut by the Gypsy Kings and while I might have been pissed at first, I have come to love this version more than any other... 

https://youtu.be/61NJnUL7Fcs

Arguably the intro song would have been the poetic beginning, or even end, to this foray into Musical Lebowskianism, but do you see what happens? Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass? The Man in Me is not an appropriate answer to this question, but it does make sweet ear candy for the lazy malaise of the film. Bob Dylan was a chameleon and this song is but one example.  

It is important to respect the classics. While I won’t pretend to have known the song made famous by the Sons of the Pioneers, Tumbling Tumbleweeds has a soothing nature about it and I’m here for it. Add to it Sam Elliot’s baritone twang and you’ve got the setup for an epic movie indeed.  

Impossible it would be to talk about classics and not mention Requiem in D Minor, a song you’ve heard a thousand times and might not know the name. After you rewatch this movie, or based on this musical journey decide to watch for the first time, do yourself a favor and grab a book off the shelf, loop this song and shock yourself at how much better you read with this music in the background. Say what you want, but you’ll feel like a genius. For those looking only for a tune and a laugh, click to watch the scene below and enjoy The Dude’s ability to say ‘fuck it’ better than anyone (sorry I can’t post the video directly, evidently you can only post five video’s per post... probably should have learned that by now). 

The Big Lebowski (clip 10) "What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?"

Well I hope you enjoyed your journey through the musical folly and forte of the soundtrack to the cult classic Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski. I would highly recommend it, whether it stands the test of time or not, but at the very least I hope you come to appreciate the soundtrack.

“Look, I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin Eagles, Man.” 

[beautifulcinephile]

10 Songs To Know Me Better

I've made this tag myself in the past, but I decided to update it because I don't listen to some of the songs included in there. The rules are: List 10 songs and how you got into them. 1. Orinoco Flow - Enya: When I was a kid, I used to have ballet classes and my ballet teacher had an Enya CD with this song. I was always hypnotized by this song, then one day I asked my teacher what was its name and who sang it. She told me it was Enya, but didn't tell me the name of the song. One day, when I was at my dad's house, my sister found it, and we both listened to it together. I smiled gleefully and to this day, I cherish this song a lot.

2. Stop Crying Your Heart Out - Another one from my childhood. Back then, my sister had a VHS tape with music videos she recorded from MTV and this was one of them. As a kid, I loved the music video, even though I was too young to understand it and when I understood it, years later, my heart felt crushed because I realized the protagonist died. But if I see someone striking a match, or even myself striking a match, I will automatically get reminded of the music video.

3. Whenever, Wherever - Shakira: OH, GOSH, THIS ONE! I think it's time for me to finally reveal the reason why I like this song. When I was a kid, for some reason, I started having recurring dreams that I was watching the music video, right at the beginning when Shakira comes out of the water and kneels on that rock. I downloaded the music video (It took days because, keep in mind, it was 2006, the Internet was slower back then and a download of a music video took days and not seconds as it is today), watched it, thought it was awesome at the time, now I know that it has aged kinda badly. I still love it, though.

Then, I started doing AI arts of Timothée Chalamet reenacting the music video because I thought: "Why not? He's in the desert, shirtless, barefoot, I need this. There are no barefoot pictures of him at the moment, so why not make ones?" And the song ended up helping me during one of the most stressful moments of 2022. I even have some memories of the real Timmy (to differentiate him from the AI-generated version of him) with this song involved, which are when I watched him at LFF and the "Bones and All" premiere in Milan.

4. The Safety Dance - Men Without Hats: I think I've never talked about this song before, it's one of my favorites. Well, I listened to this song in 2015, and my crush on Mark Hamill came back in full force because of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and there was a video of him in which this song played. It comforted me during a dark time in my life, which was ending. Listening to this song makes me feel like a 17 year-old which was coming out of a dark place to one of happiness again.

5. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan: Compared to the others, this song is quite recent and I feel it represents my early 20s quite well. I started listening to it in late 2020, but it was in 2021 that this song came into my life. I was going through another dark moment in my life, luckily this one only lasted for a month as far as I remember. Bob Dylan's songs helped me through this moment, and "Like a Rolling Stone" was the song of his that I was really hooked into.

I remember one day that I was searching for an apartment because I was still in the process of moving, and this was the song that I was listening to the most during that day. Despite its dark lyrics, this song for some reason gives me a feeling of comfort, the same goes for "Positively 4th Street".

6. Shape of My Heart - Backstreet Boys: If I told you that I used to hate this song, would you believe it? Yes, I used to hate this song in my childhood, but somehow I kinda liked the music video. It was only when I was 15 years old that I took a liking to this song and the music video, I remember listening to this song on road trips.

But I only started loving this song after I had a dream that Timothée Chalamet and I were recreating the music video, more precisely, at the 2:43 mark of the song. I was wearing a gray shirt and blue denim, Timmy wore a black tank top and black pants, and he was barefoot, and during this part, I stroked his hair while the camera panned down on his bare feet (A dream in which I would never like to wake up from. A barefoot Timothée Chalamet with a blue tint, clad in black? IT WAS MY AWESOMEST DREAM EVER!) and everytime I listen to this song, I remember the dream and there's even fanfiction inspired by it (Thank you, @timottea!)

7. Safari Song - Greta Van Fleet: February 2019 marked when I listened to this song for the first time. This is the song that made me a Greta Van Fleet fan. I remember the countless times when I walked through college listening to that song while going to my classroom, or just hanging out during break time, or when I was ready to go home after classes. Nowadays I don't listen to Greta Van Fleet that much like I used to, but this song will always have a special place in my heart.

8. Paul's Dream - Hans Zimmer: I don't remember when I listened to this song for the first time, but I do remember lots of good moments with it, such as listening to it on my dad's car, so I could feel the bass kicking in and I closed my eyes in utter joy while listening to this song. And when my dad and I went to watch "Dune" in the theaters, we sang this song because we were completely in awe with the movie. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SONG.

9. Commuter Love - The Divine Comedy: I’ve only heard about this band because Neil Hannon will compose the songs for "Wonka" and I wanted to have a glimpse of what the soundtrack would sound like. When I listened to this song, I was immediately transported to a black-and-white music video set on a subway which is all about that person we see on the subway, have a slight crush on, and then we never see this person again (I had this experience, so I know how it is) and I consider this song to be one of the best of theirs.

10. Visions of Gideon - Sufjan Stevens: Well, I really love this song. It obviously reminds me of "Call Me By Your Name" and I remember that I was listening to it during a stormy night (Not rainy night. Stormy night. There were lightning bolts everywhere.) Initially I was scared, but I was listening to that song and thinking about Timmy, so I comforted myself and went home safely.

Tagging: @softhecreator @cocoamoonmalfoy @whole-other-layer

[femme-foucault]

Award Season Guesses - late December 2024

Alright, well I still haven't seen The Brutalist (or Nickel Boys) because it's not releasing outside NYC and LA until sometime in January and I have no intention of seeing A Complete Unknown precisely because I am a Bob Dylan fan. So I haven't really updated my list of predictions from about a month ago or so. I am tempted to include The Substance but it is a sliiiiiim possibility given how the Oscars snubs work in horror. So here are my predictions as of late December 2024.

Above the Line Awards:

Alphabetical order as usual. My suspected winners in bold and runner-ups/potential "upsets in italics.

Best Picture:

Anora*

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Dune Pt 2

Emilia Perez

Nickel Boys

A Real Pain

Sing Sing

The Substance (????)

Wicked Pt 1

I am going on a limb and guessing The Substance does get in even though I think it is reeeeally a stretch. The Academy snubs horror films all the time, especially in acting (see Toni Collette in Hereditary and Mia Goth in Pearl). But the GG noms made me reconsider even though the GG is a critics/journalism awards show and the Oscars are an industry awards show and like any "election," demographic patterns vary. But actually if anything I think critics are snobbier about horror than industry people so that's a good sign. No idea what will win -- which is fun! 2024 was not nearly as good as 2023, which was an unusually packed year for great movies. But in a way, that makes Awards Season more fun because there isn't a clear front runner. I am leaning Anora right now for BP like I have been all year, but I would NOT underestimate either Wicked or Emilia Perez. I don't like the latter movie very much and while I did really enjoy Wicked I wouldn't say it was the best of the year. But don't underestimate the Oscars leaning populist because all three of the last BP winners in awards season were very much "crowd pleasers" over more "artsy" choices like Power of the Dog or Poor Things. (It feels odd to call Oppenheimer a "crowd pleaser" as that movie is so bleak, but technically, it counts in the sense that many people saw it and both general audiences and industry people liked it. So I'd put it next to EEAO and CODA as a "crowd-pleaser" Best Picture winner and a "populist" choice due to it making so much money because of Barbeheimer despite being, technically, a kinda weird movie when you dissect it. So don't underestimate Wicked!).

Best Director: Sean Baker (Anora), Edward Berger (Conclave), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), maaaaybe Coralie Fargeat, but ONLY if The Substance gets into Best Picture. I have taken Denis Villeneuve (Dune Pt 2) out of my predictions even though he deserves it because Dune Pt 2 was better than the first one. But until I see The Brutalist, I can't evaluate it. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a rare Best Picture and Best Director split.

Best Actress in A Lead Role: Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Perez), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Mikkey Madison (Anora).....and if and only if The Substance The Substance gets into picture, maaaaaybe Demi Moore. She probably deserves it (I haven't seen The Substance because I'm squeamish), but the Academy is awful about nominating horror performances (see Toni Collette for Hereditary). The alternative might be Nicole Kidman for Babygirl.

Best Actor in a Lead Role: Adrian Brody (The Brutalist), Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave).

I am leaning Brody based on trailers alone (the Academy loves an accent and a WWII-post Holcaust drama) but even if Chalamet is mid -- and apparently he is quite good -- the Academy isn't above rewarding lame music biopics. See Austin Butler's nomination for Elvis and Rami Malek winning for Bohemian Rhapsody. ACU is apparently good -- I really hate that kind of biopic so I am not there for it -- so all Chalamet has to do to be decent for the boomer crowd who likes Dylan to vote for him.

Best Supporting Actress: Ariana Grande (Wicked), Felicity Jones (The Brutalist), Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez), Margaret Qualley (The Substance).

Still leaning Saldana but Grande is not to be underestimated (the Academy are more likely to award comedic performances in supporting -- see Ryan Gosling's nom last year. He might have won if RDJ didn't have The Narrative). I am putting Rosselini in there now that she got into GG and if I am going to lean towards The Substance, maybe Qualley. Felicity Jones isn't doing well in critics circles but I think if The Brutlaist is popular, she could be the Emily Blunt of the season (the person who gets nominated for being in a popular movie and tags along but doesn't win anything, which is what happened with Emily Blunt last year because Oppenheimer was so popular with the industry and critics that she got a lot of "tag along" noms but no real wins).

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), Denzel Washington (Gladiator II)...and someone else. Idk maybe one of the Anora guys (Yura Borisov (Igor?). I don't see the supporting performances from Conclave aside from Rosselini getting in because while everyone was good...that is part of the problem. No one but her really stood out because everyone in the supporting cast was so solid and I think Anora is a bit similar in that regard except that Borisov's character sticks out as having a sliver of decency. It's weird to think that the sentence "Oscar winner Kieran Culkin" might be a thing. As much as I like Culkin from Succession, my actual vote would be Maclin. But no one saw that movie :( I am including Washington even though Gladiator II got poor to mixed reviews because he's Denzel. He is such a great actor who was snubbed for his best performances that now they nominate him all the time to make up for it, and it's such a weak year in this category that I'm not complaining.

Original Screenplay: Idk what is original and adapted, but I think Anora wins Screenplay, especially if it doesn't win Best Picture. The recent trend is sometimes to throw a movie that won't be awarded anywhere else a screenplay award (see last year with both American Fiction and Anatomy of A Fall). The other possibility might be A Real Pain if they decide to award it.

Other than Anora, I think: The Brutalist, A Real Pain, The Substance, and maybe September 5 if they follow the Globes (which they don't always do because the Golden Globes are a press/critics award and the Oscars are industry so different voting demographics).

Adapted Screenplay: No idea what is even in this category. The distinction between Original and Adapted is pretty arbitrary at times (see: Barbie in Adapted last year). My guesses are A Complete Unknown (based on a specific Dylan bio apparently), Conclave (based on a novel), Emilia Perez (I think inspired by something?), Sing Sing (loosely based on a true story) and idk what the fifth slot is.

Who I think will win in the tech categories:

Best Production Design: Wicked. Dune Pt 2 might be an upset.

Costume: Obviously Wicked.

Special Effects: Probably Dune Pt 2 but it could be something I haven't heard of that the effects branch likes, because that happens often.

Hair and Make Up: If The Substance gets in, maaaybe. This is the one category that horror is recognized so I wouldn't be surprised if The Substance and maybe even Nosferatu gets in. But it might be Wicked if the Academy does what it often does and people outside the nominating branches just vote for the movie they like more, in which case it would be Wicked. Dune Pt 2 should get at least a nomination for Rebecca Ferguson's possessed henna.

Cinematography: Either Conclave or Anora. It really depends how 1) Anora does in general and 2) if it does well, if there is a "share the love" vibe. The Academy doesn't do the massive Titanic/Lord of the Rings sweeps anymore (and I'm fine with that) -- see last year giving Zone of Interest the Sound award and American Fiction got Adapted Screenplay when a lot of people thought Oppenheimer was a lock for both because it was the BP frontrunner and, if this was the 2000s, probably would have taken them by default. In the EEAAO year, an Edward Berger film (All Quiet on the Western Front) won cinematography over EEAAO in an upset, so it wouldn't be unprecedented if that happened again with Conclave.I hope it's not Emilia Perez. That movie is very flashy but I don't like the cinematography much. It's all flash no style. Dune Pt 2 will definitely be nominated but I feel like its spring release hurt it.

Score: It'd be cool if Challengers got nominated but I don't see it, unfortunately. The score branch is not that cool and prefers instrumental scores over tech/synth music, even though Trent has been nominated before. I don't know what will win, since Dune 2 is not even eligible.

Sound Design: It better be Dune Pt 2. I think Wicked and probably A Complete Unknown will get nominated because of the music mixing (which, in Wicked, was very subtle and well done and apparently ACU sounds great too). But I really don't like biopics about musicians so I'd rather it not. I wouldn't mind a Wicked nom here, but Dune Pt 2 is so inventive in its sound design that I am rooting for it.

[loplainlointhemorning]

i hate when my parents are like "did kurt cobain study commercial music....did bob dylan study commercial music...did lou reed study commercial music...." because it doesn't matter. those are one in a million chance artists. firstly, the programs i'm interested in didn't develop until after a lot of those artists had already surpassed their prime or died, secondly, one in a million. as a musician, that's all you ever hear. you just have to be good enough, you just have to be special. that's a lie. you have to know the right people and get lucky and bust ur ass. that's the formula. if you break it down and take away the glow of celebrity and the romance of history and try to really find out how people became both brilliant and successful, it's trial and error and continuing to work and meeting the right people. it's very much a people game, even in local music. you get what you get because of who you know. race, sexuality, and gender all influence these things. only men have been held up to me as symbols of people who "didn't have to"- that's because the commercial music industry is extremely sexist and they didn't have to because it wasn't required, especially decades ago. it's also agitating because it very much is a business, and i don't want it to be, but it is, and part of that is finding a community who can support you and get you where you desire to be in the world. aside from luck, which has never been my friend, the best way i can see to do it is to take it to an environment where i can really study it and get to know people who understand that i'm there to WORK, not be buddy-buddy. we have a mutual agreement already. it's not just sitting around in a garage hoping everybody shows up again next week. for me i truly feel like it's time to move beyond the local level and the "hehe i wanna be this when i grow up" and truly figure out what's expected of me and how to get there. even if it takes forever.