#and a little bit madonna for the win today

[tally-hautism]

Tally Hall Songs Iceberg

This is not counting covers of other artist's songs, however I am including the Mr. F Mixtapes

Air (Lay of the Land) - If you've heard a Tally Hall song but haven't heard of Tally Hall it's because of these. Not counting the Rob Ads.

MMMM, G&E, Miracle Musical, Shia LeBeouf, Perfect (1 song 29 celebrity impressions)

Surface (Sun in the Sand) - If you've spent a little bit of time interested in Tally Hall you've probably heard of these.

Complete Demos, Admittedly Incomplete Demos, Joe Hawley Joe Hawley, Not a Trampoline, Listed Black, Light & Night Magician's Elephant, Smile Like You Mean It, I Know It's Just the Same, We Need Cash, All of My Friends/I'm Gonna Win, Praise You, Just a Friend

Subsurface (Everything Suddenly Falls out of Sight) - The start of Tallying out.

Cojum Dip, Mr. President Musical, Popular Rob Originals ( Cuckoo, Going Purple, Country Good, ), Hawaii Pt 2 demos, Sketches 3d, yelwaH eoJ yelwaH eoJ, White Rabbit, Candle on the Water, Stationary Love, Nathan Naimark Theme, Pingry EP, Variations on a Cloud, Sleigh Ride Invincibility Star, Special, Weird Bed &/or Yes Please, Good Day Simlish

Center (Every Attachment is Made of the Light) - Yeah, sorry if you've heard these Tally Hall is part of you forever.

Toy Orchestra, Etudes 1 and 2, Hawaii Pt 2 Video Game OST, Happy Monster Band, Kazoo Song, Rob Disney Songs, Christian Bale is at Your Party, White Collar Prison, L'frou Jibet, Lady Madonna, Why Bother?, Gobble Chicken Song, Andrew Has No Power (It's So Sad), We Think We're Playing in a Band: A Tribute to Tally Hall

Bottom (Everything Will Fall Away) - If you've heard these you probably run a tally hall blog or YT channel, Tally Hall is no longer part of you, it controls you.

Maybe in the Night, At Least a Day, Grandpa is Hiding, Tomorrow and Today, Videojuegos, Club Can't Handle Me, Casey Shea's Music ( In Your Head, Love is Here to Stay, Take the Bite )

In The Water (To Order From the Disarray) - Some of these are only on SoundCloud, genuinely impressive if you know most of these.

Rob Rarities ( Chevrolet, Comcast Xfinity, Einstein, I Stand by Your Side, Monopoly and Clue, Summer Song, The Animator, Take a Second Chance on Me + Together Forever (TGaMM), Winter Song ), Joe Rarities ( Dot's Uke, Pu (Woo~Hoo) ), Andrew Live Unreleased ( Fishes, Good Morning Mr. Butterfly, Monsters, Someone Will Be There, Worlds in My Head ), Mr. F ( Yeah Yeah Without Me Vampire Sea, Mix Tape, Mix Tape 2, Mix Tape 3, Top of the Park, Ann Arbor MI August 9th 2019 ), The Baker Bros

Honorary Mentions (There are Some Things We are Never Meant to Know) - These are currently lost media or just things I couldn't find a recording of. If you have a link to one of these lmk please.

Toys R Us, Three Tales From a Messy Kitchen, Let Your Little Light Shine, the song at the end of Mobile Phone Premonition (This is probably a cover, not a lot is known about it)

Honorary Honorary Mentions (Who Do We Think We Are) - These are partial or bad recordings, but not quite lost media, and as such they appear elsewhere in this list as well.

Kazoo Song, The Start of Our City, At Least a Day

[kpopgerapitico]

Song of the Week

On time, despite the new job, because I for some reason had today off.

Honorable Mentions:

Idol Roundup:

- Addicted by PIXY: I like the creepy vibe, and that it isn’t cookie cutter for a girl group, but it just isn’t sticking with me.

- Waiting by WOODZ: He is still not my cup of tea, but the style is cohesive and well performed.

- Glassy by Jo Yuri: Sweet is just not a style I really like, and that is what this track has in spades.

- Savage by aespa: I love the hook, and the rest confuses me. Or maybe more accurately makes me feel old af.

- Veni Vidi Veci by Cravity: There is something here, but I’m not sure if it will be enough to bring me back for another listen.

- Sober by N.Flying: I Love that Seunghyub is getting more lines, and the vibe is nice but nothing new for them

Vibin’ is a very well names song. Because from start to finish it is a vibe. I am living for GOT7′s current era of soloist success that mostly seems to be driven by singers doing what they want. Youngjae looks happy, and the track fits him so so well, so I can’t help but be happy too.

Okay Golden Child, go off! Ddara starts with absolutely no instruments, and then does not add a single real one in throughout, instead using samples and synths to imitate an older sound. All of the older samples are pulled through distortions that leave them echoes of their original selves while still keeping the original vibe. It has a big band jazz vibe in parts, and modern synth emphasis in others. And the final hook hits so damn good!

Who knew I wanted to listen to a tribute to mid 2000s pop? Because that is what Luna’s Madonna feels like. It has the lyrics about female empowerment, it has synth sounds I haven’t heard since then, and it has the styling. And I loved every second of it.

[passionate-reply]

Depeche Mode’s early work is a bit rough around the edges--or, perhaps, a little too smooth, and syrupy-sweet. But in 1983, they finally put their classic lineup together, adding Alan Wilder to the team for their third LP, Construction Time Again. It’s arguably their first great work, as well as their most political, and the closest they came to fully embracing an “Industrial” sound. (Full transcript below the break!)

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! In this installment, I’ll be discussing the third album released by Depeche Mode, and the first one to feature their classic lineup: 1983’s Construction Time Again.

While today, Depeche Mode are best known for their string of successes spanning from the mid-80s to the early 90s, the band was first formed in 1981--the first musical project of Vince Clarke, who would go on to more acclaim as a member of synth-pop duos Yazoo and Erasure. Though Clarke left Depeche Mode after their first album, Speak & Spell, their follow-up as a trio, 1982’s A Broken Frame, was largely an attempt to duplicate the brighter and often more upbeat sound of their debut. It wasn’t until the addition of a new fourth member, Alan Wilder, that the group’s more recognizable sound would start to coalesce.

Music: “Get the Balance Right”

The first track to include contributions from Wilder, “Get the Balance Right” is a bit of a “transitional fossil” in the group’s career. It is perhaps the first Depeche Mode single to feel like a “proper” Depeche Mode single, with a gloomy atmosphere, a needling synth riff, and lyrics that describe the struggle to be seen as a respectable member of society. Well, if you listen closely, anyway--it’s also perfectly possible to take the injunction to “get the balance right” as an invitation to dance without missing a beat. At the end of the day, another part of sounding like a classic Depeche Mode tune is achieving that kind of accessibility and broad appeal, winning the admiration of many listeners who are otherwise not typical “Depeche Mode types.” Though “Get the Balance Right” was released as a non-album single, it would largely prefigure the sound of the LP that followed it, Construction Time Again.

Music: “Everything Counts”

Peaking at #6 in the singles charts, “Everything Counts” was swallowed even more readily by mainstream audiences, and would be tied with “See You” as the most successful single the group had released thus far. The 1980s were, of course, an era noted for the brazen advancement of rightism, and the political moves of Margaret Thatcher laid the groundwork for a number of increasingly politically-conscious pop hits. That said, many of the most successful of these opted to portray the lives of the rich and powerful in a glamorous and pseudo-aspirational mode, hiding behind irony in a fashion that made their works appear subversive and inoffensive at the same time. It’s thanks to this kind of double-dipping that we can still hear the Pet Shop Boys’ “Opportunities” in television advertisements. The elegiac “Everything Counts,” however, is not that kind of song. If anything, it might be a bit too on-the-nose for its own good, with its frightful description of “grabbing hands” bearing a closer resemblance to Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax than Madonna’s “Material Girl.” Perhaps there are some occasions in which it’s better to be too direct than not direct enough? That aside though, “Everything Counts” is also a track which is sonically rather similar to “Get the Balance Right.” Other tracks on Construction Time Again would push those boundaries further, such as “Pipeline.”

Music: “Pipeline”

Where “Everything Counts” is more of a top-level critique of capitalism, disparaging the executive who sponsors atrocities “with a suntan and a grin,” “Pipeline” looks at the same sorts of problems from the bottom up, adopting the persona of the worker who is exploited to build the titular pipeline. But this, of course, is far from the most interesting thing to say about “Pipeline”! This track stands out for its anemic soundscape, consisting of little more than a repetitive mechanical hum that functions as a drone, some vaguely melodic metallic tinkling, and, of course, the commanding voice of frontman Dave Gahan. The use of more sophisticated music synthesisers, with the capability of sampling such real-world noise and turning it into music, was one of the biggest innovations instigated by the aforementioned Alan Wilder, and while it textures most tracks on the album to a degree, it’s certainly the most noteworthy on “Pipeline”. I’d also be remiss not to mention the admitted influence of pioneering industrial acts like Einstuerzende Neubauten, who would become Depeche Mode’s labelmates on Mute Records. While there are many diehard rivetheads who will disavow any comparison between Depeche Mode and industrial music proper, their shared DNA is undeniable, and I don’t think the fact that Depeche Mode were able to translate some of these ideas into music that also had mass appeal should be held as some kind of strike against them. As desolate as “Pipeline” may be, something else worth noting about the album is that it isn't without a sense of hope. After being taken through the condemnations of tracks like “Pipeline” and “Everything Counts,” we end on the somewhat reassuring track “...And Then.”

Music: “...And Then”

Like many acts collocated somewhere in the goth or industrial spheres, Depeche Mode are preceded by a reputation of producing “depressing” music. There is some truth to this, of course, but I think what makes Depeche Mode as interesting (and popular) as they are is that there’s usually a glimmer of light in their work somewhere--the crack that lets the light in, to paraphrase the late Leonard Cohen. “...And Then”, with its vision of a better tomorrow created by children who might learn from the mistakes of the past, serves as a light at the end of the tunnel for the entire album, a break in the clouds created by the rest of its tracks. But at the same time, the track is not itself as cheerful as that description might imply--it’s still in a minor key, of course. The lyrics, as well, seem to show cracks of darkness in its prevailing optimism: the suggestion that people of the future couldn’t do any worse than those of the past certainly paints our current world as an especially bleak one, and the notion of “putting it all down and starting again” might be taken to imply an unquiet, perhaps even apocalyptic, end to the current order. Another thing that casts a shadow over “...And Then” is the opening track of the album, and its arguable corresponding bookend, “Love, In Itself.”

Music: “Love, In Itself”

At first listen, “Love, In Itself” seems almost strikingly similar to “...And Then”, at least from a musical standpoint. They have a similar sort of plodding, stately tempo that gives them a kind of dour gravity. Whenever I get one of these songs stuck in my head, it tends to get mixed up into the other along the way. Lyrically, however, the two seem to make opposite arguments: whereas “...And Then” seems to believe in the goodness of humankind and trusts that people in the future will correct our world’s mistakes, “Love, In Itself” can be taken to suggest the opposite, i.e. that “love” and other such positive feelings are not enough to create a better world. But that’s a very contextual reading of the text--outside of the context of the album, “Love, In Itself” seems unrelated to the problems with capitalism, and sounds more like an age-old lament of a dejected lover, swearing off their search for another relationship and proclaiming their disillusionment with the concept of romantic love. It seems likely that this quality may be why “Love, In Itself” was chosen as the album’s second and final single--even though the heavy-handed “Everything Counts” doesn’t seem to have been held back from success by its subject matter.

Perhaps the first thing one notices about the cover of Construction Time Again is its use of colour: the saturated blue of the sky contrasts with the orange-ish skin of the figure, and this pairing of complementary colours does a lot to create visual interest. Besides just looking striking, the sense of dichotomy between figure and background also underscores the idea of man and nature as forces in opposition to one another, who have become mortal foes in the ongoing depredation of the Earth’s resources for short-term human gain. While the worker figure is clearly engaged in the act of swinging his hammer, there is actually nothing in front of him that it seems logical to hit. Rather, a trick of perspective makes it seem that he is knocking on the mountain in the background, perhaps cutting it down to size. This is another element of the idea of man vs. nature, of course, but also perhaps an ironic expression of it, one that implies that in his struggle to conquer the natural world, man is limited in his sight, and doesn’t truly understand what he is doing. After all, the mountain is not really being stricken! It’s also worth noting that the figure is wearing an impractical, and perhaps sexualized, version of work attire, which exposes the side contour of his pectorals as well as the muscles of his upper arms, and adds a subtle eroticism to the image. His face is largely covered, partly by his arm and partly by shadow, which seems to make the image recall other familiar pseudo-anonymous homoerotic portrayals of men under the male gaze, such as those of the graphic artist Tom of Finland. Or perhaps it’s merely a suggestion of the effacement of identity suffered by the exploited worker?

The title “Construction Time Again” is taken from the opening lines of the aforementioned track “Pipeline.” While the announcement of “construction time” points quite directly to the album’s themes of post-industrial capitalist life and the struggle of the working man, I think the most interesting word in the title is actually “again.” The idea that it is construction time again puts emphasis on the constant grind of labour, and its tight grip on the timeframes by which we live our lives. We work again and again and again, tediously, until it wears us down. We get a brief respite from work, but soon enough, our intrusive alarm clocks remind us that it is construction time, again.

While Construction Time Again is, in many ways, the first true Depeche Mode album, it wouldn’t be the one that truly kick-started the peak of their international success. That honour would go to their 1984 follow-up, Some Great Reward. While this album would largely feature similar instrumentation to Construction Time Again, with tinkling samples and metallic percussion, it also mostly abandoned the more intense and overt political themes of its predecessor, in favour of more emphasis on the time-honoured topics of sex and romance--which would, of course, help them become so successful in the mainstream. Still, it seems doubtful they would have ever gotten here if it weren’t for Construction Time Again starting them on the path that it did--after all, their famous hit “People Are People” isn’t too far off from the simple and pointed grievances of “Everything Counts.”

Music: “People Are People”

My personal favourite track on Construction Time Again is “Two Minute Warning.” Another common political topic in music of this era is, of course, the Cold War, and the ever-present fear of a nuclear holocaust. “Two Minute Warning” is a song on this theme that feels like a worthy follow-up to the earlier Depeche Mode tracks that dealt with the same subject, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and “Leave In Silence,” but it’s got more of a stark, mournful tone suffused with inevitability, and less of the heightened emotional drama of these earlier works. That’s everything for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “Two Minute Warning”

[bebepac]

Seeing Double

This is chapter 7 of Just the Way You Are.  To catch up on what you’ve missed please click:  Just the Way You Are Masterlist

Original Post date: 2/24/2021

The Book:  Prerfect Match x TRR

Pairing:  Hayden and Kai /  TRR MC is single-ish

Word Count: 3192

Warnings:  Profanity

Summary: More of Hayden and Liam’s friendship is revealed.  Liam and Riley have breakfast together for the first time... alone.  The squad goes out to dinner.  

Taylor, Sal, Jaiden, and Nico are my own characters.  All others belong to Pixelberry.  

A/N: Working on giving my masterlist a face lift, here’s one of fruits of my labor.  I hope you like it.    I really don’t have a song for this one, so i’m not even going to bother picking one.  

A/2:  In this AU Jaiden is not the older brother, he is the younger brother.  Jason and Ren Brooks after failing to conceive adopted twin girls and seven years later.  Jaiden arrived!

“You have an identical twin sister?”  

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you mention that?”  

“She’s my sister, and we share the same face.  That's it. Do you mention your sibling that doesn’t?”  

“No.. but…”

“People get so drawn into the fact that we look alike, that they don’t realize that we’re still  completely different people with different personalities.  Yes we share a face… but that’s where the similarities end. People really start asking ten thousand questions when you say, you have an identical twin."

Riley laughed in her direction.

"Being that she's giving you the finger right now, looks like the two of you really hit it off. Come on let's smooth this over. I promise her bark is worse than her bite."

Riley grabbed his hand pulling him over to meet her sister. All Liam could think is that Riley was holding his hand.

Taylor immediately rolled her eyes.

"C’mon Tay be nice.”

“Why? He has corny jokes Riley. My God!!! They’re horrible.”

“You’re just a comedy snob because Max is a comedian.”  

She smirked at Riley. Riley smirked back identically.

“Liam is a nice guy Taylor, if you give him a chance. I gave Maxwell a chance.”  

“I’m engaged to Maxwell. Are you trying to get engaged to him Riley?”

Liam let out a surprised cough.

“In case you don’t speak in cough, that means no Ri.”

“That means, we just started hanging out and you’re trying to throw us down the aisle Taylor, overbearing much?”    

Riley raised her eyebrow, crossing her arms over her arms over her chest.  Riley tapped her foot impatiently.  

“Finnnnneeeeeee!!!!  You win.  Okay, You win.  Don’t do that thing like Mom does it drives me crazy."

Taylor took a sip of her coffee like she was taking a shot and then smiled sweetly at Liam.

"Hi Liam, I'm Taylor, Riley's sister. Nice to meet you."

Liam was impressed.

"That's all I ask. Thank you Taylor."

She saluted Riley. "Okay Mom."

"Come on Liam." She grabbed his hand again pulling him away from her.

They went to sit at a table away from Taylor. Liam was  relieved. Though he thought Riley had the situation handled with her sister.

"Sorry I am late. Chance told me at the last second, he couldn't make it then I had to throw something on."

Riley smiled, so did Liam.

He glanced at Riley. If this was her just throwing clothes on, his heart ached to see what she looked like when really tried to look nice.

Riley looked amazing. Her hair and makeup were done. She was wearing a blue retro dress with pink flamingos on it, and her signature pink flip flops.  Riley looked beautiful.

"Well if you rushed, Riley, I can't tell. I think you look beautiful."

Riley smiled biting her lip and her cheeks turned pink. She glanced down at the menu.

Riley was blushing!

"You make sure you let Chance know, I'm sad I couldn't hang out with him today. But I'm glad you're here Riley."

They ordered their food. Another Greek omelet for Riley. Liam ordered a different breakfast sampler.

When the food came he noticed as he ate Riley kept glancing at his plate.  

“Want to try some?”  Liam asked.  

“No.. I’m fine.”  Riley said hesitantly.  They continued talking.  It almost felt like a date to Liam.  

When he glanced up, Riley was eyeing his plate again.

“Riley, you're giving my food the look of lust.”  He slid his plate over to Riley.  

“Well if you insist.”   She said, taking a forkful of  eggs, chopped potatoes, cheese, and sausage breakfast casserole.

“That is soooo good.”

“Maybe you should get it the next time you have breakfast here….with me…”  

“I’d like that.”  Riley’s cheeks turned a darker shade of pink.  “Us to have breakfast again, and the breakfast casserole is a good idea too.”

“Alright.”  Liam’s smile brightened even more.  

Taylor watched her sister.  She hadn’t seen someone make Riley smile like that in a long time.   Maybe she was finally trying to let someone in.   Taylor was going to give this Liam guy a chance, if he could make her smile like that.  She hadn’t seen her smile that much since Nico.  

“See you at work sis.  See you around Liam.”  

“It’s been interesting meeting you Taylor.”  

Taylor smiled.  “You know what,  I like him a little more now.  He’s honest.”  

Hayden poured a cup of coffee.  Hayden didn’t dislike anything.  But he found that there were some flavorings he added to his coffee he enjoyed more than others.  

“Hey Hayden!”

“What’s up Liam?”

“Nothing much, how are you?”

“I’m really good.”  

Liam put his lunch bag in the fridge.

“I just want to thank you.”  

“For what?”  Hayden asked.

“For setting me up with Riley.  It might not go anywhere, but I feel like I have a chance.  We might have a chance. And I really like being around her.”  

“I thought you two would be a good match for each other.  You two have the same look in your eyes.  The one you try to hide.”  

“And what look is that Hayden?”  

“Pain.  I think the two of you could help each other heal.”  

“You can see that in the both of us?”  

“You don’t have to tell me about what happened to you Liam.  Or you can, when you feel like you’re ready to.  Just know you have a friend if you ever need to talk.”

Liam was humbled by Hayden's words. Regardless of what Hayden was or wasn't,  Liam knew one thing. Hayden is a true friend. No one could convince him otherwise.

"Thank you Hayden."

Liam had heard horror stories about the matches.  Especially the one that tried to kill the president.  People that knew what Hayden was, stayed away from him in the office.  Others were intrigued.  All still kept their distance.

Hayden was alone at work a lot, until Liam decided to sit with him one day at lunch.

“Mind if I sit with you?”  Liam asked that day.

“Sure, I guess my days of hoarding seats are now over.”

Both Hayden and Liam laughed.

Liam liked Hayden immediately.  They talked about everything. Hayden finally asked the question that was on his mind.

“Why did you sit with me?”  

“You looked like you needed a friend.  I need one too.”  

“Jai, do you have your wallet?”  

“Riley you’re worse than Mom.”  

“Well if you want to have a drink, they’re going to card you.  No one will believe my baby faced brother is twenty one without seeing your license.”

She pinched Jaiden's cheek.

"God you are Mom!!!!"

"And don’t be afraid to talk, Jai.  You cared about him too.”  

“Okay Riley.”  

When they arrived at The Ruby Apple, they were the first to arrive.

“Sal, can we get our usual booth?”  

“Sure sweetheart, it only seems like yesterday was the last time all you all were here together.”

Riley slid into the booth  glancing at all the pictures on the wall.  The Ruby Apple had been one of Nico’s favorite places, and their group of friends were regulars there.  They had their own booth.  And there it was, a picture of the group together celebrating Nico’s birthday, the last one he had with the group.   Nico had put on two birthday hats on his chest, and looked like Madonna when she wore that  cone bra in her music video.

  He was sticking his chest into Riley’s face, and everyone was laughing.  Everyone filed in, that was in town.  Drake, Max, Taylor, Liv, Bert, Savannah, and Kai.

“Where’s Hayden?”  

“He decided he would stay in tonight.”  

"He knew he was welcome right?"

"Oh of course Ri, he knew."

“Sal, can we…..”

“Loaded nachos for the table and your first round?”  

“Yes.”  

“Let me see Super Boy’s id.”  

Taylor laughed.  “That’s funny.”  

Jaiden handed over his driver’s license.  

“I’ll have my waitress bring your stuff over."

A few minutes later a young woman walked over to the table.  Jaiden sat up straight.

Riley raised an eyebrow.  

“Mia!!”  Kai screeched.  “What are you doing here?”

“Working, I pull some shifts here when we’re not on the food truck to make a little extra money.”

Jaiden kept staring at her.  She smiled at him.   She passed out the shots.  It was Nico’s favorite.  Baby Guinness.

“It looks like I have one extra.  I’m sorry, I’ll take it back.”  

“No leave it.  There was supposed to be one more.”  Riley said with a sad look in her eyes.  

Mia left the shot.  “I’ll be back in a few with your loaded nachos for the table.”

“Let’s do this.”  Drake commented. “Everyone hold your glasses up.  Only for you would I drink this weak ass shot for, because you know I’m a whiskey man.  And because of that, I know you are smiling down on all of us.  We fuckin’ miss you, and love you Nico KH. Cheers.”

Everyone clinked glasses and  downed their drinks.

“That’s not weak!”  Jaiden coughed.  

“Says the twenty-one year old that’s had more cough syrup in his life, than actual liquor.”

“Taylor God! He’s your brother, why do you have to be so ruthless?”  Bert laughed.

“You act like you just met me.  You  know this about me. My sensor is perpetually broken.”

She slid by Jaiden.  “I’ll be right back.”

Sal stopped her.

"Riley, I'm so sorry about the number of shots, I wasn't thinking."

"It's alright Sal."

Riley went into the bathroom to compose herself a little bit.  She wiped her eyes and touched up her makeup.  She felt it a victory she hadn't cried today. She sighed walking out of the bathroom when she saw him.

Liam was sitting in a booth alone, reading a book. Not a kindle, an actual book.  Riley smiled. She didn't know why she found it so endearing that he was reading an actual book, and chuckling to himself.

"Liam?"

He looked up at her.

"Hey!"

"What are you reading?"

"It's called The Greek Meet. It's absolutely hilarious."

"Isn't that a movie?"

"It is, but oftentimes the books are always better than the movie versions. The author was consulted on this one, it's pretty close to the book."

"Good deal! Are you alone Liam?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine Riley." He smiled at her.

"Liam…."

"I'm used to it." He reassured her.

His words stung Riley's heart.

"What happened to you Liam?"

"I was sick a lot as a kid.  I spent a lot of time alone in a hospital room."

"Come sit with us Liam."

He shook his head no.

"It's okay Riley. I'm fine really."

"Please?"

He glanced up at her.

"If you insist."

Liam followed Riley over to the big booth full of people.

"Who's this clown?"  Drake asked.

"Drake don't be a Taylor."

Everyone at the table laughed at Jaiden's comment.

"I resent that. And from all people, my little brother. Really Jai?"

"It's what we do. Broken sensors and sarcasm is a love language we're sure."

Drake and Taylor  high fived each other.

Riley introduced Liam to the table as her friend.  He sat next to Riley and across from Kai.

Mia showed up with another round of drinks.

"This one is on Sal! Hey about time you showed up! You missed the first round.  Just in time for the second."

"Excuse me?" Liam looked confused.

Mia passed out the shots.

"You said there was supposed to be one more. This is him right?"

Oh God. Liam thought as he looked at Riley. They were here for Nico.

Riley stammered.  No one knew what to say.

Riley's face fell.

"Yeah! I'm always late. You know me." Liam said with a smile at Riley.

"Great! I'll be back with your Nachos."

Drake gave Liam a nod of approval.  He had earned respect at the table.

"Come on then let's do this before the damn alcohol evaporates. You too Liam."

Everyone held up their drinks.

“You know we got more people in this booth this year without your big ass head in the way?  We still miss you though. Happy birthday in heaven.”  

Everyone drank their shots.

“Softie, your emotions… “  Maxwell nudged Taylor.

“I am NOT SOFT!!!”  You know this about me Max."

“So how was it?”

“Not terrible. Actually, I liked it.”  

Mia came back with the huge plates of Nachos.

“Yasssssssssssss!!!” Maxwell screamed.

Riley looked at Liam.  “Thanks.” she whispered to him.  

He winked at her.  “No problem.”  

Mia refilled the waters on the table.  

“Can I get a coke?”  Jaiden blushed at Mia.

“Sure sweetie, I got ya.”  

“Somebody’s got a crush on the cute waitress.”  

“She’s nineteen.”  

“How do you know that Kai?”  Riley asked.

“She runs my favorite food truck with her dad.  You saw the cute shirts.  Pops on the Go.  That’s Pop’s daughter Mia.”  

“She’s even made her uniform a little spunky.  She stands out from all the other waitresses.

“And not to mention her pink chuck taylors.”  

“Her what?”  Jaiden asked.

“Jaiden her shoes.”  

“They’re converse.”  

“You’re so young. But you know what we’re going to help you.  We’re feeling inspired.  I feel like Nico would help you out. Nico KH was a great wingman. We’re going to be your wing people tonight.”  

“Kai you’re up.”   Drake said.

“Here’s your coke.”   . “Thank you.”  Jaiden’s cheeks were bright red.

“Hey Mia?”  

“Yeah Kai?”

“Between Pops and here, how in the world do you have time for a social life?”

Mia laughed.  “What social life?  The most social I am right now, has media behind it, or talking to my customers.”  

“You mean to tell me as adorable as you are, you’re not seeing anyone currently?”  

“No, not right now.”  

Kai glanced at Jaiden and winked.  

“Can I get you guy’s dinner orders going?”

She paused.  Jaiden was just staring at her in awe saying nothing.  

Riley hit him.  “Jai, she wants your food order!!!”

“OH!!! Can you come back to me, I’m not sure yet.”  

Taylor made the sound of someone crashing and burning.

“You’re going to hell Taylor.” Drake said.

“With the way you drink whiskey, Drake, you're gonna be there first. You can save me a seat in the lake of fire.”  

By the time it was Jaiden’s turn to order he still looked indecisive.

“What’s your favorite thing on the menu?”

“My favorite is the tofu burger with carrot fries.”  

Drake made vomit sounds.

“Seriously?”  Jaiden asked.  Yeah he wasn’t going to attempt that one for a girl.

“Um no.  Get the Monster bacon burger with loaded fries.”  

“That sounds really good.”  

They enjoyed their dinner.

Mia passed out all the checks.

Riley grabbed Jaiden’s.  

“I owe you dinner.”  

She took his.  She smiled when she opened it.  

“You might want this though.”  

On a little separate piece of paper was Mia’s phone number.  

Jaiden smiled when he looked at the digits written on the piece of paper.  

He picked up his phone.

Drake snatched the paper away.

“Don’t you text her yet!!!!!!”

“Don’t play games with her.”  Savannah  said.  All the women at the table nodded.

“He’s not supposed to text right away. Makes him look over eager.”  

“Um he is eager.  Let’s be real.”  

“Are you staying with me tonight Jai?”

“Do you mind?”  

“Nope, you’re a little wobbly, you’re coming home with me.”

“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black.  You too Riley.”  

“I can walk you guys back if you want.”  

“Thank you Liam that would be great.”

Liam waited for Riley and Jaiden outside.  

Drake approached him.

“You know that was really nice what you did for her earlier in there.  None of us knew what to say without hurting her.”  

“Not a big deal,  I was only trying to help make an awkward situation… less awkward you know?”

“Riley is like a sister to me.  She’s been through a lot.  If you break her heart, I will break your face. Am I clear?”  

Liam swallowed thickly.  “Crystal.”  

Drake slapped Liam on the back when Riley came up.

"Nice seeing you Liam. Remember what I said!"

Liam, Riley, and Jaiden started walking to Riley's apartment in silence.

"My feet hurt." Riley grumbled.

"C'mon Ri."

Jaiden crouched in front of her.

She hopped onto his back.  After a few blocks Jaiden’s pace really slowed.

Jaiden grumbled. "I'm not going to make it."

He put Riley down on a park bench.

"My feet still hurt.”

"Do you trust me?" Liam inquired.

"Within reason, why?"

"This is why."

Liam effortlessly picked Riley up carrying her over the threshold.

Riley wrapped her arms around Liam's neck.

"I feel like a princess." Riley giggled still a little tipsy.

"No Riley, you're a Queen."

"Queen Riley. That's pretty nice."

Riley rested her head on Liam's chest, hearing his heart beat steady in his chest. It lulled Riley right to sleep.

Liam tried to pass some knowledge on to Riley’s younger brother.

"You know Jaiden, I agree with the ladies about Mia. If you want to get to know her better, text her. Don't wait. She seems like a really sweet girl."

"Is Riley snoring?"

Liam glanced down at Riley again. Her head was nestled right next to his heart.

"She's out like a light."

"You like my sister don't you?"

"What's not to like? She's amazing!"

"Riley is not going to forget him, Liam."

"I'm not asking her to. I'm just hoping she will open her heart to me."

"It's the same thing."

"It isn't. I know I can't replace him. There is a part of her heart that will always be his because of the way she lost him. I'm not asking her for that. I don't want that part of her. What I do want is the chance to make her happy, her to give me a chance to. And we could find a happy place together, her and I ."

He glanced at Riley. She snorted, waking herself up. Jaiden was laughing, Liam was trying hard not to. He just thought she was so damn cute.

"Was I snoring?"

"No, not at all Riley, you just breathe heavy."

"Where's your key? We're at your place."

Liam put Riley down at her door. Riley fished in her purse for her keys.

“Want to say hi to your buddy?”  Riley asked.  

Hell ya I do!”

Chance ran up to Liam once they got inside the apartment.

“He really likes you a lot.”  

“Yeah no one else matters when Liam is around.  Don’t forget who feeds you every day twice a day Chance.”  

“I think it’s forgotten.”  Liam chuckled.  

Liam saw Jaiden get excited as he looked at his phone.

"Mia just texted me back!"

"I'm so glad you didn't listen to Drake."

"Yeah I listened to Liam."

"What about your sisters or all the other women at the table."

"I am the great and powerful Li. Wise beyond his years. " he said with a wink.

Riley rolled her eyes.

The next morning Riley woke up with a headache.  

“Ri! Where’s your sugar?”  Jaiden called through the door.  

“In the sugar bowl on the table.”

Riley groaned grabbing her head.

“Ugh.. Baby Guinness, you are not my friend.”  

Riley settled back into bed and closed her eyes.  She heard a soft mumble and the bed settled next to her.  

Riley opened her eyes.  She rolled over finding Liam sleeping in the bed next to her shirtless.  

What the Fuck.

@dcbbw​​    @queenjilian​​       @jessiembruno​​       @bbrandy2002​​       @khoicesbyk​​      @janezillow​​     @sillypapermango​​      @gkittylove99​​ @gabesmommie1130​​      @mom2000aggie​​      @lovablegranny​​      @jared2612​​

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[animeraider]

My Kevin Gilbert Story, and my latest single.

As some of you know I’ve had a few brushes with the “big break” that many in my line of work crave. I was signed to a major label in the early 1990s, and the record I turned in was shelved. The label wanted me to be the “next Michael Penn” and by that point not even Mr. Penn was interested in that, let alone me. I had three songs picked up for a movie, which was never released. I got out of my record contract and signed with another label, releasing an album that included 5 songs from the one that was shelved. The label put no money behind it. I had a big hit in 2009 and signed a European distribution deal, which fell apart when the married couple who ran the business fell into a messy divorce. I sold thousands and thousands of records in Eastern Europe – which were being sold by pirates. It took several years to get that fixed.

I had an audition that everyone felt I was a lock for to play keyboards for a Japanese band that had a huge following. My flight to the audition was supposed to be September 12, 2001. I actually watched the plane I was supposed to board land as it was the last flight grounded. I’ve done some engineering and performing I don’t get to tell anyone about – the NDA’s are pretty strong. One of my songs became the theme to a German Television show.

But let me tell you the story of a relationship I almost had with a multi-Grammy-winning star who soared high and made it further than I have, whose song I have made a cover of and released as a single today.

So where to begin. First of all, yes, I knew Kevin Gilbert. No, we weren’t friends, but we were colleagues and classmates. We performed together a few times – all of if school related. That’s it. Oh, and he invited me to a jam session he was going to have once and I turned him down. I’ll get to that.

Believe it or not, I have to tell this story starting in the middle. There was once a band called Toy Matinee. I loved that band. Clever songs, well written melodies, a sense of darkness and a sense of fun. It was a band that me and my roommate Max could agree on and we cranked that album loud and often. We went and saw them live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, and were about 10 feet from the stage. This is NOT the live album released in 1999, but I can tell you they rocked the place that night. Played almost every song from the album, and did an encore of Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” that smoked.

A great night.

Now I jump into the past, to tell the tale of the UCLA Synthesizer Ensemble. It was the brainchild of Professor Roger Bourland, who at the time was only in his 2nd year as a professor at the school and would later become dean of the department. He searched out the most rock and roll musicians in what was mostly a stuffy classical music department. Me. Dave Koz. Joel Harnel. And this kid named Kevin. The five of us took another student’s source material and arranged up a musical. Straight musical theater and full of schlock, and all performed on synthesizers. We eventually put on four shows, with the five of us in the orchestra pit. I wrote the show-stopper ballad and a Latin inspired piece. I hate to say it, but I no longer remember what everyone else did, although I remember Dave mostly for his EWI playing and Joel for multiple reasons – including the fact that he wrote and arranged all of the drum parts.

I knew Joel fairly well – we had played together a few times and he was even more rock and roll than me, with more experience. Dave Koz was, even then, Dave Koz. The only saxophonist I had met up to that point in my life who was better than me. We had played in jazz bands together but he was already a rising star. When he beat me for the gig with Richard Marx’s touring band his career just took off – but all this was before then. I was one of Roger Bourland’s students – in fact, I had been in the “test” classroom when he had auditioned for his job.

I barely knew this Kevin kid. I was constantly getting his name wrong – for whatever reason my brain had him wired as Kevin Anderson.

My only real interaction with him outside of this 12-week experiment was down in the practice rooms. Many of these rooms had pianos in them and on any given day you could hear Mozart, Brahms, Chopin and all of the other usual suspects. I would go and write my own material and be pounding out rock and roll. Kevin did that too. Once while in the middle of the writing process for the musical he came into my practice room while I was working on a song in the style of Elton John. He invited me to a jam session the next Tuesday he was going to, and I declined. Tuesday was when MY band practiced, and as their lead guitarist I needed the practice.

That was the end of it. After the musical was over we all drifted our separate ways and for the most part didn’t run into each other again. I ran into Dave once at a music festival in San Francisco and he introduced me to Clarence Clemmons, which was pretty damned cool.

By now you’ve figured out that Kevin was Kevin Gilbert. Congratulations. I hadn’t. For many years to follow I would remember him as Kevin Anderson.

Now I’ve told you all of this so that you understand that this is long BEFORE Max and I went to see Toy Matinee in concert. I became a fan of the band without knowing that Kevin was its leader. I was ten feet away from him, performing for an hour. I had performed with him myself.

I didn’t recognize him. Nothing clicked in my brain that this was the same guy. I didn’t put two and two together. I rolled for my intelligence check and got a one.

Kevin Gilbert would go on to a solo career, win seven Grammys for his work with Madonna, be part of the driving musical force behind Sheryl Crow’s first album, become one of the founders of the Tuesday Night Music Club, and become one of my songwriting heroes. The man could paint a picture with very few words and his musical ability was enviable.

And then he died; a victim of his own vices. I’m not going to go into that here – I know nothing at all and can shed no light on the subject.

Several years later I relocated to San Francisco with my family. I discovered the band Giraffe once I was on their home turf, and of course discovered the fact that Kevin Gilbert had been their leader when he was a teenager. BEFORE I knew him. Giraffe was a pretty damned good band that had come so startlingly close to making it big – their albums are worth hunting down and they did a fantastic live rendition of Genesis’ “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” (the full album mind you) that is lots of fun.

I was looking for a recording studio for my second album when I ran across a man named Steve Smith who owned a recording studio down the peninsula from where I was living. In his bio, he briefly mentioned that he was the drummer for Giraffe. Awesome. On his web site of the time if you dug in a little bit there was a bio of Kevin Gilbert, and he talked about the brief time he spent at UCLA.

Parts of the story looked and felt awfully familiar to me. Smith talked about the musical without mentioning the name, and again, it felt familiar. Me being slightly brave, I wrote an e-mail to him to ask what was the title of that musical and that I might have been involved in it. He confirmed it for me.

Holy crap.

All of the pieces started falling into place then. The rehearsals, our discussions about piano playing, that I went to one of his shows and failed to recognize him? The fact that I think he invited me to come join the FUCKING TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB and I didn’t even fucking notice!?!!?!!?!!?

I’m an idiot.

Actually, in looking back at the timeline I don’t think he invited me to join TNMC. That came a couple of years later – I think. I’m never going to know for certain. If he had told any of the other members I don’t know about it. I’ve exchanged about a dozen words with one of the other members over social media but we certainly don’t know one another.

I wonder if he saw me in the audience that night and laughed. I will never know. I can tell you there is an album version of that night you can listen to and/or buy. A then-unknown Sheryl Crow played keyboards in the band, dressed up like a dominatrix biker chick. When I found out about that later I was amazed – I didn’t recognize her either.

I’m an idiot.

Nick D’Virgilio of Spock’s Beard played drums. I don’t remember the name of the bass player but what I remember is this man with the thickest eyebrows I have ever seen in my life. Marc Bonilla played lead guitar. Oh, the people I could have met.

I never did work in Steve Smith’s studio. I no longer remember why.

When I was working on my third album in my newly built home studio I recorded a number of covers and one of those was Kevin Gilbert’s “Tea For One”. It’s a fantastic song of unrequited love and missed chances told from start to finish in only a few dozen words. I have no idea if he would have liked what I did to his song – he had a wicked sense of humor that I can recall now but I never got to know him on a personal level as a songwriter, which was my mistake. I could have but I was so focused on myself in those days that even if the overtures were made I probably didn’t even notice.

I recorded the song in what I called "Garage Pop" during those days. A bit uneven, imperfect vocals - what you might get from a band practicing in their garage instead of a polished studio version. If you want that, I recommend hunting down his version.

But I recorded “Tea for One” just the same – it’s a great song and I’d like to think I gave it some justice – even if it doesn’t come close his version. It was on the original version of my third album "The Long Goodbye", which I released myself, but was cut when the album was moved to digital streaming services (In all fairness, I cut 21 songs from the original release – which was a 2 CD set).

My music career has been dark for several years, but it got jump started in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and I’ve been revisiting a lot of my unreleased work since, and of all the covers I did this is still my favorite. I am releasing it now, in tribute to a musician I admire and could have called friend if I had just paid a bit of attention.

The guy holding the roses was me, as it turns out. I had no idea.

+++++++++++++++++

For those of you with very long memories you should listen to the full single on Spotify, because I’ve thrown in a little bonus for people who remember the 1980’s band ASK. Just a little piece of a little ditty written by me, Kevin Donville and Ed Lee.

[365days365movies]

January 15, 2021: Casino Royale (2006) (Part 1)

So...we meet again, Bond. What’ve you been doing for the past few years?

...What. Not who, James, WHAT. Jeez.

Whatever. BrosBond had 3 movies after GoldenEye, and they were...not great, from what I’ve heard. Remember, I wasn’t as big of a fan of GoldenEye as many critics and fans were; so, I can’t imagine what I’d think of the latter three. Maybe one day, but not today!

Today, I’m focusing my sights on the revitalization of the brand. See, in 2002, Die Another Day came out, and that movie was apparently crazy. TOO crazy. So crazy, in fact, that audiences and critics accused it of losing the plot, and the production studio in charge (Eon Productions) had a yearning to change direction. And their inspiration came from...a surprising place.

See, Joel Schumacher’s campy, over-the-top Batman films were basically wiped out by Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reinvention of the character in Batman Begins. Which is, in my opinion, a highly underrated classic, Seriously. And in 2005, this film was absolutely a smash-hit. Batman was cool again, which a lot of people never thought would happen in film. Eon saw this, and thought...how can we apply that to Bond?

Out with Brosnan...in with Craig.

The first of the new, darker, reinvented Bond films is planned for release in 2006, starring Daniel Craig as the suave, sophisticated spy. And the director of the film was selected to be...Martin Campbell? From GoldenEye? The guy who kinda sorta started the modern over-the-top Bond? Really? I mean, OK. The writers this time are different...except for one. I didn’t talk about the writers last time because I don’t like putting people on blast if I don’t gotta. This time...maybe. We’ll see.

If this Casino Royale is basically Bond Begins, I’m definitely interested. Maybe this’ll revitalize that Bond-love from the Connery days. Let’s find out! We’re also gonna look at the Bond checklist again!

Gadgets: better have more cool gadgets than GoldenEye, I swear...

Bond Girl: GoldenEye’s Natalya wasn’t bad, to be honest; let’s see who his Inevitable Love Interest is this time.

Villain: Alec Trevelyan had so much potential. I need my dastardly villain, let’s do this. Oh, and let’s throw the henchman in here, too. Xenia Onatopp was...a lot...but she was a memorable henchman, at least.

Music: Of course. GoldenEye’s theme was good, and we’ll see how 2006 does.

OK, movie time. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

We start at an office building in Prague, where a man makes his way up to his office. Waiting there for him is, of course, James Bond (Daniel Craig). The man is Dryden, section chief at the British Embassy in Prague, whom M has accused of selling secrets, a big no-no. But Bond...isn’t a double-0 agent. Huh. You got me interested.

Apparently, agents get the two zeroes once they’ve killed two people on file. James hadn’t killed anyone...until recently. Which is when we get this.

OH SHIT

This is an absolutely BRUTAL fight. It’s not choreographed flashily, it’s not pretty...it’s rough. It’s intense. And it’s...oh my God, wow. Made me feel it. And what’s astonishing is that it’s SO short.

On learning this, Dryden tells him not to worry, the second one is...

...YOU GOT ME. I’M IN FOR THE FUCKIN’ RIDE

HOW??? How is it that in 3 minutes of screentime, I’m already more satisfied by Craig’s Bond than I was for the ENTIRETY of GoldenEye? That is masterfully done, right off the bat. WOW. We even get a smooth-as-silk segue into the classic bullet turret sequence, and that takes us right into the song and opening credits. And...wow.

Here’s the thing about Bond openings, as I mentioned last time: they were all directed by one guy up until GoldenEye, and were basically all silhouetted women with themes and scenes from the movie projected around them. The Brosnan movies followed suit, always having silhouetted women in one way or another. Die Another Day used CGI women and...a really bad Madonna song. It was...it is NOT GOOD, guys. Look it up, it’s the most 2002 thing I’ve ever heard.

But here’s the fin bit about Casino Royale. This is the first Bond movie opening with no women in it. Yeah. It’s the first one. And the song is Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name, and it’s good! Not sure it’s going in my soundtrack, though.

Finally, the opening credits sequence itself: it’s once again Daniel Kleinman doing it, and it’s actually inspired by the first James Bond book Casino Royale, which had already had a TV special and unofficial Bond movie made from it! The cover had a playing card motif, and the opening carries over that motif creatively. I really dig it, if I’m honest! Definitely a welcome break from the 44 years of Bond films preceding it.

Uganda! And we meet the villain of this film: Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). And GODDAMN if that isn’t a Bond villain! He’s a banker, making a deal with a rebel leader, Steven Obanno (Isaach de Bankole), via their liason Mr. White (Jesper Christiensen). Setting up an attack by supplying Obanno with money, he sells his stocks of a company called Skyfleet, knowing that they’re about to fail.

Meanwhile, a ferret’s fighting an Asian species of cobra. In Madagascar. My zoology senses are EXPLODING, OH my God. So much wrong there. Anyway, there’s a bombmaker in the crowd watching the fight. He’s being tailed by Bond and another agent, Carter, who tips off the guy by being a bad spy. Bond chases him to a construction yard. What now, James?

Awesome. Why is this awesome when I said that the tank was dumb? Because at least it makes sense for a bulldozer to go haywire in a construction yard, just sayin’. Plus, this dude clearly isn’t the best, as he fires on construction workers and cops.

Eventually, this chase sequence brings us to the top of a crane, where this exchange happens.

I, uh...I love this movie already. That’s goddamn great.

The chase scene as a whole is also fantastic, as it continues off the bridge and into an abandoned building, then escalates into the streets, brings in law enforcement, and eventually ends with Bond at an embassy, facing down both the military and the bomb maker. He kills the guy, shoots some gas tanks, grabs the bomb, and then gets the hell out of there.

...Y’know what, that was fucking amazing, but he also almost certainly caused an international incident there. And I should be annoyed about that, but guess what! It makes sense! This is an inexperienced Bond, one who’s JUST been promoted to 00 status as 007, as the prologue explained. So, y’know what? I’m into it!

Cut to a yacht, like you do in a Martin Campbell Bond film. There, we have our villain, Le Chiffre, playing a card game. Also, he weeps blood. Yeah. HE WEEPS BLOOD.

OK, if that isn’t some Bond villain shit, I don’t know WHAT is. He’s also asthmatic, because I love it. I love it so much. He’s a mathematically-brilliant asthmatic that weeps blood. More, please. 

He’s also a person aware of what Bond did at the embassy, as it’s already become an international incident! Thank you for showing consequences, movie! Damn! I love it! This has two additional consequences. One, Le Chiffre notes that the code “Ellipsis” used by the bomber may be soon to expire, indicating a connection between the two. And the second consequence? M’s pissed.

M! DAME JUDI DENCH! One of my favorite things about GoldenEye was bringing in Judi Dench as M, and she made it through the reboot! And she’s still as entertaining as she was before, calling Bond out for his stupidity, and explaining that she misses the Cold War.

In her apartment, M does her normal exposition schtick, and her interactions with Bond are fantastic here. She’s understandably angry at him, and gives him what for, but she’s also clearly impressed that he FIGURED OUT WHERE SHE LIVES, as well as her REAL NAME. Shows her opinion of Bond and aspects of Bond’s character in a single, masterful stroke. 

Well. Goddamn. Done.

The Bahamas! Bond’s here to find Alex Dimitrios (Simon Abkarian), a Greek businessman who’s believed to have a connection with Le Chiffre himself. And, as James Bond is wont to do, he finds him at a party, playing cards. And here’s where the reinvention of Bond comes full circle.

See, Bond’s doing all the typical Bond things, yeah. But there are some differences present here, as well as some neat nuances. Bond isn’t wearing the suit, first of all. He actually hasn’t worn a suit the whole movie, which makes perfect sense for a spy. Suits aren’t exactly the least conspicuous thing in the world; bound to get you noticed if you don’t want to be.

And then, there’s the girl. This is Solange Dimitrios (Catherina Murino), the wife of Alex who was treated BADLY by him at the party. That gives her a reason to take Bond’s offer for a ride to his place, outside of just his raw animalistic charm that he seems to have in some of these movies. Look at that, already more chemistry than he had with Natalya in GoldenEye.

And yes, this results in her cheating on Alex. Is her cheating justified from a moral standpoint? No, of course it isn’t. And of course, this leads to the typical Bond-handsome-sex-GOOD sequence, but again, some nuance here! First of all, he doesn’t win her over with corny clever lines, like what we saw in GoldenEye multiple ties. Second, this is actually all an attempt to get some infomation from her about her husband. Bond might be enjoying it, but his womanizing here actually has a purpose. And that’s rare!

That’s further punctuated by the fact that he STRAIGHT UP LEAVES BEFORE ANYTHING HAPPENS. Yeah, she tells him that Alex just made his way to Miami, and he leaves! Dick move, yeah, but it makes sense! James isn’t here for pleasure, he’s here for work!

He follows Alex to a Bodies at Work exhibit (you know, the preserved and skinned cadavers put into poses that used to tour around the USA? I saw it in Times Square at the end of its popularity. A little ghoulish, maybe, but I think it’s pretty cool), where the two of them get in a very tense close-up knife fight in public.

Alex is dead, but not before passing off a package to someone else at the exhibition. Bond tails the guy to Miami International Airport, where the largest airplane in the world is set to be unveiled. Using the code sent to the bombers, Bond gets into the back, and goes to intercept the disguised bomber who’s set to blow up the SkyChonk (I mean it, that giant airplane is THICCC).

Time for another cool chase sequence! Some luggage is destroyed, along with a bus, the cops join in on the chase, an airplane is prevented from landing (making someone on that plane probably very upset), and Bond somehow manages to prevent the plane from blowing up. And it’s by the SKIN of his teeth, lemme tell you. Also, he blows up a dude with his own flashlight bomb.

Nice. Somehow, Bond isn’t arrested, and makes his way back to the Bahamas. And it looks like Solange isn’t the Bond girl after all. Because she was thought to be the information leak (which she was, to an extent), she was tortured to death. Whoof.

M’s in the Bahamas now, and the exposition continues. She’s done with Bond’s bullshit, and she plants a tracker under his skin. She explains that with the big boi plane destroyed, somebody stood a lot to gain financially from the stock crash to come. Except that the plane wasn’t destroyed, and that person lost $100 million by “betting the wrong way.”

That person, of course, was Le Chiffre, a manthematical genius and chess prodigy, who plays poker for fun, and plays the stock market with his clients’ money. Bond’s the best poker player in MI6 (a good addition that we already saw foreshadowed earlier! See what I mean?), and she’s sending him to a high stakes poker game that Le Chiffre’s looking to regain his money from. 

Bond FINALLY dons his suit, and gets on a train in Montenegro, where he meets...

Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). THERE’S our Bond girl! Although, there’s a reference to Miss Moneypenny in their introduction, which is interesting. But Vesper is an agent for the British Treasury, supplying the money for the buy-in for the tournament. And their conversation on the train...wow. Now THIS is chemistry, seriously.

Vesper’s a great character, and she gives Bond NO quarter. She reads his character, and calls him out very accurately. They also explain why both Bond and Vesper are good at poker: it’s all about reading people. I’m genuinely impressed by how this movie is put together, and how well-thought out Bond is as a character. And this is the dimension I love to see in a Bond girl as well!

GODDAMN, I am in love with this movie. More coming in Part 2!

[nicolacoughlanbigheartfanpage]

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET

New interview for German media (2020)

Translation

He is what Leonardo DiCaprio was in the 1990s. But Timothée Chalamet is not only enthusiastic as an actor. With his appearance, feminine and still male, he is also considered a model for a young generation. And he understands his work more politically than his predecessors did. Allow: the future of Hollywood!

NZZ am Sonntag magazine: Timothée, the story of a gay love "Call Me by Your Name" made you an international film star and earned you an Oscar nomination for best actor. What memory do you have of the evening in March 2018?

Timothée Chalamet: Oh, that was a fantastic evening! I went there with my mom, she was my date that evening. For me, a dream came true that day. I was so thankful to meet all these stars that I look up to. I had already met her at other events from time to time in the weeks before, so there was almost a buddy feeling - crazy! Friends of mine were also nominated, Saoirse Ronan and Greta Gerwig. And James Ivory even won an Oscar for our film, for the script. That was the most incredible moment.

In 2019 you were nominated a second time for the Golden Globe as the best supporting actor in «Beautiful Boy». Is that becoming the rule for you now?

I don't expect it in the near future. But of course I wouldn't mind if it works again at some point.

How has your life changed since the great success of "Call Me by Your Name"?

Oh, I don't think about that very much. I am happy that I have more options now and prefer to concentrate on doing good work and finding roles that challenge me. I've always been a violent film nerd, I grew up with indie films, I love this job - I was just extremely skeptical that young actors would get any chances out there. But the reactions from the audience confirm that it is worth being an actor. You can inspire people like that. We really wanted to say something with “The King” too. I love the language of the film alone - it is a cross between Shakespeare and “Game of Thrones”.

The drama “The King” deals with political issues such as abuse of power, manipulation, betrayal and trust. Did you learn anything personally from the subject?

When I was playing I noticed something: power feels very different than you think. Because you always feel yourself as a normal person, never as an overpowering figure or one of the most important drivers in the world. There are no machines even in the control centers of world politics. When I was in my costume and had to take on this leading role, I felt exactly like my young regent, who is faced with great tasks and challenges and who is not sure whether he can master them.

How does a young man, who carries a film of several million on his shoulders, who is quite slim by permission, deal with self-doubt? Didn't the heavy armor bring you to your knees, not to mention that you wielded the sword for hours?

The director wanted dirty, hard sword fights, and that's exactly what we shot. I gained a good seven kilos of muscle for this role. Of course I'm far from being a handsome warrior. If the director had wanted that, he would have taken another one. What we paid attention to was the attitude with which I went to war. It shouldn't be an invincible king, but one who just barely survives. The bottom line is that he still faces the fight. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun with it. I was able to bring the ten-year-old to life in me.

Even if “The King” is not a superhero movie but a modern allegory, many young people will probably only watch the film for your sake.

Phew, it can be, of course I don't know. But if I can make these important issues accessible to the masses, then I'm happy. It's about what makes power out of people who only came to this position through privileges or their family tree. Yes, I was still at school six years ago and I remember how hard the teachers tried in vain to get us excited about politics. Today it really worries me which regents are currently in power.

You've been dating Lily-Rose Depp since the shoot. Now you are both considered new Hollywood royalties like Brangelina once. How do you like being such a modern prince?

Now I have to think carefully about what I say. Modern Prince: Somehow this description doesn't suit me at all. My career was not a straight line that quickly led to great success. I would describe it as a zigzag. I always chose very different projects, sometimes they ran better, sometimes worse. First I made small independent films. It was only last year that the projects suddenly got bigger, but "The King" and "Dune" were not filmed in the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. Honestly? I don't even feel like a movie star.

Do you still feel the pressure from your fans? Do you want to live up to expectations?

No. What I feel is really just a big thank you. Because films are important. I believe that films can change the world. You are just my big love. I am incredibly happy that they obviously want to see me in it. It's fantastic how much films can move, isn't it? I remember seeing the Oscar-winning drama "Moonlight" in a sold-out movie theater and how it was felt after the show how deeply the whole audience was touched by the story. I work to make moments like this possible!

And what about your own life? Do you also allow space for all the successes?

To be honest, I struggle quite a bit: to find a kind of balance or rhythm between my complete dedication to playing and a normal one - if there is any! - Development of my living conditions. At 24, that's easier than when I'm 17. But I still have no idea what is good for me, apart from playing.

How old were you when you realized you really wanted to be an actor?

13 years. That was in high school in New York, we had an acting class that I was enrolled in. And after a few hours it was clear to me: "That's my thing!" But maybe it wasn't that coincidental. I grew up in the show business environment. , 

Your mother was a dancer, your uncle is director Rodman Flender, your grandfather is screenwriter Harold Flender, and you went to the acting and art specialist high school La Guardia, along with Madonna's daughter Lourdes. , ,, , ,

 But what really shaped me was the experience of performing something on stage with other people and thus generating deep emotions. When I finished high school, I immediately looked for an agent and started going to auditions. During an audition I met a colleague who had just got a small role in a TV series. That was when I felt my ambition for the first time: I wanted to achieve something. I really wanted to be part of a really good project, whether on TV, cinema or theater. ,

In any case, you've worked hard over the past few months.

But how! After “The King” came Greta Gerwig's historical drama “Little Women”, followed by Wes Anderson's “The French Dispatch”, and finally the sci-fi adventure “Dune” for six months in a row. That was a lot, but I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities. The good thing is that you don't have time to think about all the work, you just concentrate on the task in front of you. I don't want to disappoint anyone.

Who is a source of inspiration for you personally?

Talented colleagues with whom I work, for example Greta Gerwig, with whom I have already made two films.

What seduced you to “Little Women”, which now starts in late January?

Greta as director and Saoirse Ronan as main actress, whom I also knew from Ladybird before. We are already something of a gang. I am very proud of “Little Women” and will soon see it together with Saoirse, that has already been agreed.

Do you mind if fans are more interested in your amours than in your work?

What can I say? I can hardly influence what people think. Fortunately, it doesn't feel like many are interested in me privately. I know that it can be dangerous for young people if they focus too much on what the public thinks about them. So I decided to just focus on my job and my work.

What is going on in you when you are greeted and cheered by thousands at premieres in Toronto, Venice or anywhere else in the world?

In Venice I was just happy that so many, especially young people came to the premiere. It's not like people go crazy every night when I leave the house. A premiere like this is an exceptional situation, and that's exactly how I perceive it. It is not real life.

[writingformadderton]

Rock and Roll Madonna 💜

Ship: Madderton from friends to lovers

Word Count: 2791

Summary: Many people are in love with Richard and try to win his heart. Richard himself is sick of it and just wants to spend some quality time with his best friend. But Taron is one of his admirers and Richard knows it, feeling the same for him. Richard on his side tries everything to not fall for him completely, but Taron has his ways to convince him.

Additional Tags: fluff, cuddling, best friends, lovers, first date, first kiss

We somehow forgot to post that after Border Song, but here it is :)

It’s a beautiful, sunny day today, but Taron is kinda trapped inside. He’s learning and trying to memorize some lines for next week’s shoot. Even if he would have wanted to go out, there was no one he could go out with. All of his friends are busy or out of town, so he’s stuck bored or learning lines.

His stomach protests loudly and he now realizes how hungry he is. Groaning, he lies back on the sofa and starts reading his lines out loud. No motivation to cook or go out alone. He looks around his living room and can’t stop himself from groaning again. The script pages are lying everywhere, sorted into scenes although it looks as though someone just threw them around the room.

The clock on the wall ticks loudly and it cuts the silence in the air like a sharp knife. Taron switches between tossing and turning on the sofa, pacing or just standing in the middle of the room while reading his lines. He bounces on his toes while he speaks his parts out loud. Sighing, he sits back on the sofa again.

His doorbell rings a little while later and he jumps up at the sound, becoming hyper alert. He gets up and walks over to the door, running his fingers through his messy hair and opening the door. “God, you scared the shit out of me with the doorbell.” He breathes out with a laugh and looks at his visitor.

Richard laughs loud and shakes his head. “I’m sorry mate.” His blue eyes shine with joy as he pulls T into a warm hug. It has been a while since they saw each other last.

“I thought you wouldn’t be here until next week.” T says confused and raises his eyebrow at the Scottish man as he steps inside.

“Caught an earlier flight and came back yesterday. Thought I would check on my best friend.” He states and slips off his shoes. “Got something for ya.” Richard hands him a bag he’s carrying.

T opens it and his eyes light up. “Fried chicken? You’re the best!” He cheers and presses a kiss to Rich’s cheek. He just smiles and holds him close for a second. It already feels so good being back in town and with Taron after just a few short minutes.

Rich glances into the living room and chuckles. “I had a feeling that you would be working and too lazy to get something to eat.” He nods towards the mess of various sheets of paper Taron made in his living room.

“Yeah.” T groans and puts the bag down on the living room table. “You know me too well, Rich.” He starts collecting all the sheets of paper and Rich lends him a helping hand.

Afterwards, they decide to sit and eat. T walks into his kitchen and gets two plates while Rich sorts the scenes into the right order. He knows T would be very annoyed trying to do it later on. Taron sits down on the sofa next to his best friend and puts the plates down onto the little table. They eat in a comfortable silence while Rich finishes organizing the script.

When they finish, Richard leans back into the pillows and looks over to his best friend. He missed him a lot while being away. T never failed to make him laugh even when he didn’t feel happy at all. It was nice to have somebody you can trust and who makes you feel better with just being around them.

“So how was LA?” Taron asks and looks at him curiously.

“Good.” Rich says and laughs when Taron has an annoyed expression on his face. He hates short answers.

“You we’re away for two months.” Taron shakes his head in amusement and leans his head on Richard’s shoulder. “Which means you’re gonna have to tell me more than just good.”

Rich chuckles softly and lies his arm around Taron’s shoulder so he can rest his head on his chest. “I was caught up in shoots and preparing for scenes. Nothing really interesting to tell.” His fingers softly stroke through Taron’s fluffy hair. “And sometimes this weird guy called me and we talked for a while.” He tries to keep a straight face knowing what was about to unfold.

“You’re such an ass sometimes.” T mumbles annoyed. “I was trying to show you how much you mean to me and now I’m just the weird guy.” Taron folds his arms over his chest and pouts, pretending to be mad.

Richard giggles warm his heart almost immediately. “Did I say weird guy? I’m sorry I meant my best friend.” He keeps on running his fingers through T’s hair.

Taron cuddles into his side and closes his eyes. “You mind staying like that for a bit?”

“Not really no. Still fighting with jetlag to be honest.” Rich admits and leans his head against the pillow behind him.

“Let’s sleep a bit then.” Taron mumbles tiredly and Rich hums in agreement.

Rich wakes up a little while later when Taron’s head slowly falls from his shoulder. T shifted so much during his sleep that he’s now lying on the sofa with his head on Richard’s lap. Rich looks down at him sleeping peacefully and smiles to himself. There was a little secret the two shared that no one else knew.

Rich was always being flirted with and constantly had people throwing themselves at him. His attention was always torn between people trying to make him theirs. With Taron, it’s something different. T confessed his feelings a while ago and Rich took it as it was. He told Taron that he kinda had feelings for him as well but doesn’t want to settle on anything. They just continued their lives together and apart as best friends, with knowing their feelings for each other. So far, it worked out pretty well.

Taron wakes up and sits up tired. “You wanna lie down too?” He asks lowly and his sleepy eyes look at his best friend.

Richard nods and lies down, placing Taron between his legs. Taron adjusts his head on Richard’s torso and closes his eyes again. Rich runs his fingers through his hair again and closes his eyes too. They fall asleep again, peacefully.

Taron wakes up later and tries not to wake up Rich when he sits up. His best friend is still in a deep sleep and T knows how much he needs that after the flight yesterday. He stands up and gets a blanket, laying it over Rich. He then carefully lifts his head while sitting back down. Taron rests Rich’s head on his own torso and starts playing in his silky hair. Knowing it calms Rich down, he gently strokes his fingers through his curly locs.

T starts thinking about Rich and himself. He loves having such an amazing best friend who just drops by with some food and then cuddles with him on the sofa. But sometimes, when he looks into those deep blue eyes, he wishes for more. He wants to call those beautiful eyes his and wants to feel those full lips on his own. If he could choose, he would keep Richard around all the time. He feels so much better and happier around him. Without him, he gets kinda lonely and bored easily.

But there was this dumb situation Rich is constantly in. Everyone wants something more with him. And he was so done with it. Everyone wants him, but no one gets him. So T was just another person who tried to win the heart of his Scottish pal. Even though he knows deep down Rich loves him beyond their platonic friendship. His movements get slower, as if he was deep in his thoughts.

“You daydreaming over there?” Rich asks, his eyes still closed. He noticed the change in T’s movements in his hair and knew his answer.

“Yeah, kind of.” Taron starts moving his hand faster and plays with the grey streak in his hair. God, he loved it so much.

“About what?” Rich asks and pulls the blanket up to his chin. He knows when he’s really tired once his body becomes colder than normal. The Scottish man smiles to himself over T’s loving gesture, giving him a blanket because of how cold he gets.

Taron’s hand wanders down and rubs Rich’s arms, knowing he’s freezing. “About us.” He admits quietly and looks down at Rich.

Rich rolls on his side and looks up at him, still cuddling into him. “What are you thinking of?” He asks curiously, but knows the answer immediately.

“I’m thinking about this thing between us. Whatever it is.” Taron speaks with a shrug of his shoulders. They had this conversation so often before. He stares over at the clock on the wall, displaying the ungodly hour.

Richard holds back a sigh and takes Taron’s hand into his, locking their fingers. “What do you want me to do? You know I don’t wanna settle into anything.”

Taron just stares down at their tangled hands and sighs. “I know you don’t want to. I-I just don’t understand why we are fighting our feelings and pretending there’s nothing there.” T sees how the expression in Rich’s eyes become soft and understanding. “Don’t get me wrong I love our friendship. But you know I love you more than that.”

“I know, but let’s be honest. We don’t see each other for months at a time sometimes and it’s hard even now. How hard will that become when we are a couple, parted for months?” Rich’s question sounds more like a statement and rubs circles with his thumb over T’s knuckles.

“Did you tell that to your ex girlfriends, who were actresses by the way, too?” He asks a bit hurt and looks down at Rich, who’s biting his lip.

“Taron.” He groans and rubs his face.

Taron shrugs his shoulders and huffs. “Okay, you’re right. My fault. I’m gonna keep pretending I don’t want you.” He says and clenches his jaw slightly.

They remain silent for a while and Richard’s mind races. He sits up between Taron’s legs and looks at him. “Are you mad now?” He asks softly, not letting go of his hand.

“I am not mad. Just hurt.” Taron says and looks down at his lap where Rich was just lying a few seconds ago. Why does it have to be so complicated? They both have feelings for the other, it could all be so simple.

“Come here.” Rich opens his arms and pulls him into a tight hug. “I don’t wanna hurt you. That’s exactly why I don’t want you to be my boyfriend.” He points out and strokes over Taron’s back gently. “You know me, I’m insecure and I’m fighting with that everyday. I don’t wanna destroy you with it.”

Taron hugs him tighter knowing what he means. “We could fight it together.”

“But you know I always try to keep it to myself.” Rich whispers and takes a deep breath. He hates opening up about all the stuff going on in his mind. All these toxic thoughts running wild late at night.

T pulls back a bit and looks into Richard’s eyes. “You don’t have to. I wanna be here for you.” His fingers carefully stroke Rich’s cheek.

“I know.” Rich whispers and takes Taron’s hand to plant a light kiss on his knuckles. “I’m just not ready yet.” He admits and bites his lip when he sees the disappointment in Taron’s eyes. “And I’m sorry because you deserve better.”

T sighs and pulls him close again. They sit there in silence, just holding each other and let their thoughts run wild.

Over the next few days, they spend all their time together. Taron decides to learn the script in the mornings and Rich has a clear schedule at the moment. They enjoy their time after not seeing each other for so long. Most of the days, they stay in Taron’s home just talking or cuddling on the sofa. Rich feels all the stress of the last few months disappear and Taron is in a good mood now that his best friend is back.

It’s been a week since Richard came back and it’s been great. Today, they are walking through the inner city, enjoying the low spring sun. It’s a beautiful day and there’s not a single cloud in the sky.

“You’re doing something this evening?” Taron asks suddenly and looks into a small store’s showcase.

Richard lies his arm around his shoulder and T grabs him by the waist. “I don’t think so.” He answers and they stop walking to look into the showcase full of antiques.

“Good.” T simply says and starts walking to the next showcase.

“Why?” Rich asks and puts his sunglasses on to see through the bright sun rays. They’re looking at some watches and the high prices make Richard roll his eyes.

“May I take you out for dinner then?” T asks and continues walking.

“Something special today?” Rich wonders confused. What day was it today actually?

“Mhm. It’s our first date.” Taron quips cheekily and grins at him.

“Taron.” Richard stops walking and gives him a confused look. Why is he calling it a date?

“You said you need to figure everything out, so I’m taking the first step. You can only figure it out if you try it.” Taron remarks and starts laughing when he sees the Scott’s expression. He looks surprised, soft and annoyed at the same time.

“The first step huh?” Rich huffs and stares at T. This man was gonna make him crazy. “Okay, we’re gonna go out for dinner. But it’s not a date. Just dinner between two friends.” He explains in a serious tone.

“Who know about their feelings for one another but have to hide them because the older one is searching for the love of his life.” Taron speaks sarcastically and puts on his sunglasses to hide his eyes. Rich can’t see how much fun it is for T to finally say what’s on his mind.

Richard shoots him a glare. “Stop that dumb nonsense.”

“It’s not dumb.” T whines as they walk over to a bench. They sit down and Taron stares up into the bright blue sky.

“Dinner. No date, Taron.” Rich says after a while and turns his head towards him.

“Ugh, call it what you want.” Taron shrugs and grins cheekily. “The newspapers will agree with me.” The teasing tone in his voice doesn’t go unheard.

“Taron!” Richard groans and punches him in the arm playfully. T starts laughing loudly and his best friend can’t hold back his own giggles.

“You wanna know something?” Richard asks while they walk over to the car. They just left the restaurant, giggling after having an amazing evening. Rich takes Taron’s hand into his and locks their fingers.

“Mhm.” T hums and smiles down at their hands. It’s already dark out and he can barely make out the Scott’s face.

“This was my favorite first date ever.” Rich quips and squeezes the Welsh’s hand.

T stops walking and smiles brightly. “You’re serious?” He asks giddy.

“Mhm.” Rich hums and gets closer to him. “It’s really hard to stick to my intentions when it comes to you.”

Taron can feel his warm breath on his lips and his hands around his waist. “Really?” He asks teasingly and gets cut off by Rich pressing his lips to his own.

Rich pulls back and thinks for a moment. “Is it too late to say I love you too?” Taron cups his face and kisses him gentle and sweet as an answer. Rich moans softly and blushes a bit after. “Fuck.” He breathes out.

“Huh?” Taron hums a bit confused and stops his actions.

“Only two kisses and I’m already addicted to it.” He plants his lips onto Taron’s again and moans into the kiss. His lips felt so tender it made him go crazy. “You make it so hard to be good, Taron.”

The Welsh smiles and feels himself blushing. “Happy to see you finally realized what you would have missed with your ‘I’m a virgin and gonna die alone’ number.” He taunts him.

“I never said that!” Rich protests and punches T in his arm. “Oh I don’t care, come here.” He cups Taron’s face and the two share passionate, hungry kisses.

“What about getting away from public eyes and you can stay with me overnight.” Taron suggests between kisses.

“Sounds lovely.”

He finally did it! Richard is his now. Taron grabs his hand and pulls him towards the car, trying not to stumble as Rich won´t stop kissing him.

@taruhnegerton​ @primaba11erina @shereighties @onceuponadetectivedemigod @honkycrowley @dreamingwolfthings @cheshirechan   @guns-n-marvel

[jan-uinely]

hot takes continued

here we go. season 12 episode 12. 

so. it’s time to chit chat about drag race. if u dont like my opinions sry. 

this is gonna get bigger than one episode or one season. this is meta drag race. 

but first i guess the episode. right. so. obviously it was a “musical” so obviously i wanted to see jan sing and obviously she did not. I do think that this challenge [not necessarily placed in this episode] would have been a great time to do a like returning queens. but i digress.

i think that it was a little muddled. like it wasn't like any of the “girl group” numbers where it’s just the verse and chorus. all of the verses were placed in different spots throughout the show. I also think it’s ironic that this whole episode is to promote this live vegas show which is obviously not happening right now. but alas. 

i agree with bob in that i liked jackie’s verse the best. 

i did not love gigi’s outfit in the challenge. you couldn't make out the heart as easily bc the red was all the same color. I also think the material used was too chunky- it was quilted. i would have rather had the heart be quilted, not have a corset underneath it, and have the rest of the top part not be quilted. i thought it was a good concept but i would have preferred different #choices. i also would have rather the hair been straight instead of curled.

i did not have a huge issue w crystal’s orange and green outfit. i also appreciated the callback stars and stripes hair. though maybe not together?

jaida was good as per usual. i want her to win, but we will get to that later. 

also let us note the basketball wives hair that made a comeback [gigi, jackie]

runway time.

crystal and ******’s outfits did not fit the way i wanted them too, and the problems were both in the hips. when i saw them i thought the hips should be exaggerated, but instead they both looked weirdly deflated. and crystal’s torso section could have been brought in. [i did see on instagram that the person who made crystal’s look [casey caldwell who is a nyc based designer, works w a lot of neoprene/thick materials- just look up on instagram caseyyalater] actually made it for dragcon and crystal bought it right there, so it wasn’t tailored] 

in the dior v dior battle, i thought gigi won. jackie’s dress was just i think a little too large [not in terms of tailoring, in terms of diameter] but it was very jackie

gigi said that her outfit was quintessential gigi, which i think it interesting bc if you look up showgirls performances, it very much is. however in terms of the character portrayed on drag race i didn’t think it was. it was very well made, etc. but it just didn’t fit the “perfectionist trope” of the show. 

jaida is once again wearing a gown with a presequinned fabric, which i am not mad at. it is quintessential jaida. 

critiques. 

again ooh we have to nitpick bc we accidentally cast too many winners on this season blah blah blah. i was not a fan of when they said oh well we will have to look at report cards. as if they didnt intentionally load up gigi and ****** with wins at the start of the show. 

and then it’s like oh well jackie and crystal have to lip sync blah blah blah. and you know that jackie is going home. bc the judges absolutely love crystal, all because of that mullet. 

to quote bob “I used to be really upset at queens who won the judges with their personality” and that is still mostly true for me. i don’t think her placement is unjust or whatever, but like if ru didn’t like the mullet, she would not have been given the confidence boost to turn her trajectory around, compared to jackie and widow and jan, who did most things right but just were not rupaul’s fave, and must have had a much more difficult time mentally on the show. 

and FWIW heidi falls into this category as well. race chaser i think said it - all of her success comes from ru’s ideas. and being naturally funny and charismatic and having ru like you as a person is a huge gift and huge talent, but the inability to wrangle it...  that being said i think she deserves the world and will grow [and has already grown] from this experience.

and the thing is that crystal also keeps going back to the same stuff which could have been funny if the episodes were more than one apart or if she didn't do it twice in one episode but. idk. 

now, who will win, who should win, hmm hmm hmm. tbh i don’t think it will be crystal. they just crowned the oddball and they like to mix it up, or at least try to. also why looking at the history of dusted or busted scores [and s/o to jan for coming in @ 4 [after the disqualification]] crystal is at a 2, and bebe won with the lowest score at a 3 [w 2nd and 3rd place at 4 and 5], and that was in season 1, which was a whole other ballgame. leaving us with jaida and gigi. i am team jaida. i think that she is much more developed as an artist and performer than gigi, and I think that she will bring us something new.

[here comes the meta part]

the title is america’s next drag superstar. and i think in the beginning of the show, they decided that that had to mean something new and exciting, something that pushed the boundaries of what drag could be [which is rly ironic coming from them but]. which has developed this culture of what is the formula to be successful on drag race. and some people were more overt about this [jan] and some people were more subtle about this [gigi and jackie]. 

but for some reason, the [Black] pageant queens will make it to the top and then never win. - and they’ve had overt conversations regarding pageants and pageant culture on the show before - but balls and pageants were like the building blocks of drag culture in the us [from what i understand]. so inherently that means it’s no longer “new” and exciting. but the thing is that so many of these fashion [/nyc] queens work so exclusively with these high end designers to produce these looks [i think bob said it can cost like 10K to prep all your stuff for drag race] and with that the ability to design and sew falls away. 

and i think that is reflected in the challenges and how they have changed. this season there was one design challenge. and that is just so disappointing to me bc i think the design challenges really separate who has a full understanding of their persona and who does not. 

and with fewer and fewer design challenges, you have more and more designer items, and the ability to create something has fallen to the wayside. personally [and i will probably make another post about this later] i want to bring back the design challenges in one of two ways. 1. have an all designers season. where drag designers work to make elaborate costumes based on a prompt and given certain materials. bc on the show designers are not credited as much [that part comes on instagram]. 2. i want to have a drag race blank slate competition. where contestants audition and are given a list of prompts but cannot bring anything except like a notebook. no prepared outfits. you can sketch designs to the prompts, but all the materials are provided. contestants still have a main challenge and a runway, but rather than 2 days, they are given a full week to execute the challenge and the outfit. this would totally change the game in my mind. like one you wouldn't have to have money or take out loans to compete, you could just come and show who you are. and two the audience could see more of what goes into this stuff. AND if drag race really wants to feed us, they could do like a wed. ep and a friday ep. to spread things out. 

my favorite challenges are design challenges, and while i think the first challenge this season gave us a better introduction to who the contestants are, the design challenge is a really good thing to have at the front. 

i do think that if they had not had the debate that there would have been another design challenge in the mix, but bc it was an election year. 

anyways, i want jaida to win bc she’s excellent at what she does. and at this point there is something new and exciting about making all your own clothes and being polished and knowing who you are.  and tbh gigi doesn’t bring anything new to the table. sure the ability to sew and design is good, but compared to aquaria and violet the designs were not as diverse or inventive. on top of that, the fact that gigi is outwardly apolitical [and doesn’t understand the connotation of “privilege” in today’s times] is just not a good look. I also think that it is interesting that gigi came in as the look queen but actually did better in the acting challenges. 

idk my main takeaway is that gigi is really really good at playing other people, and with that comes a lack of self awareness. striving so hard to be perfect can come at the cost of not knowing who you are as an artist. like gigi’s brand is literally “im that bitch/bitch” which again, just isn’t what i want in a winner. 

and tbh the gigi bug bit early but ended when ru gave her the win on the madonna episode. [i will say that jackie could have won snatch game but tbh i was annoyed w her for being a little dickish to the safe girls that week [though what she said was totally understandable] and also i <3 jackie cox [and chelsea piers we stan chelsea piers in this house] i think there is something so gr8 abt being a nerd and being prepared and being on brand about it. also jackie is always the one to hop on the dolls’ lives and comment their venmo. hashtag cool aunt jackie. [though that here for cox t-shirt and the promo photos make me uncomfy though i get it]]

re jackie coming back to complete the top 4... IDK it’s nice and all but they've already established that they don’t want her to win- otherwise she would not have been eliminated. 

also in my mind there are only 12 places so jan actually came in 7, widow 6, heidi 5, jackie 4. 

anyways these are my thoughts. as usual, raw and unedited. 

[crowdvscritic]

round up // MAY 20

When the going gets rough, I find I keep coming back to two kinds of movies: Romantic comedies and action adventures. For whatever reason, those are my comfort food, even if I’m watching someone get their heart broken or fight for their lives.

Hopefully you’re finding small ways to make your days brighter with books, movies, music, and shows that either help you fight or forget some of the darkness around us for a time. These were a few that made my month brighter, including a number of rom coms and action flicks.

May Crowd-Pleasers

SNL at Home

I almost cried for joy when I learned SNL would finish out its season even though it wouldn’t be in Studio 8H—it felt like a glimmer of a lot of joys we’ve lost in the last few months. While the At Home episodes have an odd rhythm compared to the usual broadcast (that live audience makes a difference, especially during “Weekend Update”), I still laughed every week. A few highlights:

“Bailey at the Movies”

“Dreams”

“Grocery Store”

“MasterClass Quarantine Edition” + “Another MasterClass Qurantine Edition”

“RBG Workout”

Watch those skits, then enjoy an infographic-heavy review of the season from Vulture.

Extraction (2020)

Is this a groundbreaking action movie? Heck no, but watching Chris Hemsworth fight to save a kid with a supporting appearance from David Harbour made for a great Sunday evening. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6/10

The Wedding Singer (1998)

Somehow I’ve never gotten around to this rom com, perhaps because Adam Sandler’s sense of humor usually isn’t my cup of tea. But here he replaces the gross out jokes with a sweet chemistry with Drew Barrymore. I liked it so much I gave 50 First Dates a shot, but, uh, I only recommend movies I finish. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

Baby Boom (1987)

Another not-innovative genre entry, but a satisfying one. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10

Action Movies set in 1700s America: The Last of the Mohicans (1992) + The Patriot (2000)

Sometimes I don’t want a complicated villain—sometimes I just want Jason Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy) to be so evil I want Mel Gibson to take him down with a tomahawk. The Last of the Mohicans: Crowd - 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10 // The Patriot - Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Taylor Swift City of Lover concert (2020)

I’ve seen Ms. Swift live twice and have loved the stadium tour spectacle. But an intimate show heavy on acoustic performance reminds me how well her songwriting holds up no matter the production

Prop Culture (2020)

I know, I know: Disney+ original series are well executed, long-form advertising. But can you find better-executed advertising than Jason Schwartzman chatting about the Mary Poppins snow globe at a piano with Richard Sherman, the character he played in Saving Mr. Banks? These staged treasure hunts for Disney movie props may be a bit self-important, but they’re also a dose of nostalgia and lessons about the technical side of filmmaking.

This Drake Bell TikTok

If you get this, you get this.

Silverado (1985)

My weird New Year’s resolution? To watch Westerns, a genre I’ve basically skipped until now. Silverado feels like a throwback to classic Westerns with a modern sensibility and more laughs. Plus, baby Kevin Costner and Jeff Goldblum in a fur coat! Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

Chromatica by Lada Gaga (2020)

Turns out I’m not just a fan of the A Star Is Born/duets with Tony Bennet/Joanne Lady Gaga. I’ve always been cooler on her electronic-dance-club Top 40 hits than her recent guitar-and-vocal stylings, but I can’t stop listening to album-long jam sesh. It’s old Gaga meets 2020 beats meets Depeche Mode/Flock of Seagulls/Madonna/New Order of the ‘80s.

The Heat (2013)

Two of my favorite funny ladies teaming up was—not surprisingly—a win. No one delivers a kooky insult like Melissa McCarthy. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10

May Critic Picks

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, and more try to keep Hollywood and their careers afloat despite a bizarre series of kidnappings, line flubs, and tap dances. Of course the Coen Brothers have a dry, wacky take on the Hollywood studio era. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Jane Eyre (2006)

Confession: I have not read Jane Eyre. But my mom did, and since she enjoyed the book so much, I figured a happy medium would be to watch this BBC miniseries with her commentary about what they changed from the Brontë classic.

Daisy Jones & the Six (2019)

The highest compliment I can give a book is staying up way too late to finish it, which is what I did with this buzzy Taylor Jenkins Reid book. It’s a barely-fictional oral history of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘70s, and somehow it’s not crass or gratuitous about any of them. Most impressive is that Jenkins Reid keeps her characters well-defined even though it’s not written in a traditional novel format. My favorite parts of this story are the deep dive into the creative process and the exploration of how we remember the past. Here’s hoping the Sam Claflin/Riley Keough-led, Reese Witherspoon-produced, (500) Days of Summer team-written Amazon series can do this book justice—I need this soundtrack!

The Plot Thickens podcast (2020)

A Turner Classic Movies podcast hosted by Ben Mankiewicz about film history is a specific—and predictable—Venn diagram of my interests.

Alfred Hitchcock Double Feature: Psycho (1960) + The Birds (1963)

The story about Psycho goes that my grandmother ran out of the movie theatre screaming during the shower scene. Now that I’ve finally watched it, I know why. This horror drama is still terrifying today even if you know what’s going to happen. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 10/10

The story about The Birds goes that my mother was terrified as a little girl after walking into a room where it was on TV, and now she still won’t watch it. The Oscar-winning visual effects have aged so much I didn’t find it scary, but I was still sucked in by the eerie plot. That said, I did have a frightening dream last night involving Tippi Hedren, so it may be more effective than I realized. Give me just a sec while I schedule some Hitchcock-focused family therapy. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Spend two hours with the two nicest bank robbers you’ll ever meet! A winsome Paul Newman and a laconic Robert Redford make their escape on the scenic trails of the Southwest, and gosh darn it, if they aren’t just a barrel of fun. I enjoyed this Western so much I recommended it in a piece I wrote for Round Trip, too. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Katharine Hepburn Double Feature: Alice Adams (1935) + Woman of the Year (1942)

Saying you love Katharine Hepburn is like saying you love sunshine and flowers—of course you do! In Alice Adams, she’s an optimistic Cinderella with a down-on-their-luck family who falls for a high class fella (Fred MacMurray). In Woman of the Year, she’s a high-brow journalist who falls for sports columnist Spencer Tracy in their first of nine films together. She earned Oscar nominations for both, but I dare you not to fall in love with her after watching just one. Alice Adams - Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8/10 // Woman of the Year - Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Also in May…

When you’re not allowed to travel, you get creative! For Round Trip this month, I recommended 13 movies about travel that will make you feel like you took the vacation COVID-19 made you cancel (including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). And if that’s not enough, why don’t you recreate your trip? I turned my apartment into Paris, and here’s why you might want to do the same.

Kyla and I didn’t go far back in time for most of our Gilmore Girls pop culture references on SO IT’S A SHOW? We covered three movies (or two, depending on how you see it) from the 2000s with connections to this year’s Oscars, 8 Mile and then Kill Bill. We also looked into the famous architect Stanford White and a movie he was featured in, 1981’s Ragtime, which had more connections to today’s culture than we expected.

I made another attempt at Jim Jarmusch for ZekeFilm with Broken Flowers. I still don’t get Jim Jarmusch.

My movie count in quarantine is up to 156. You can see them all on Letterboxd.

Photo credits: SNL, Taylor Swift, TikTok, Lady Gaga, Daisy Jones & the Six, The Plot Thickens. All others IMDb.com.

[precisedblog]

Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” is a delectable slice of pop

The ongoing pandemic has left a lot of pop culture events postponed—from the Coachella Arts and Music Festival to the release of Lady Gaga’s upcoming album “Chromatica”. The spread of COVID-19 has caused such a huge impact on everyone’s lives, and now we are all stuck in our homes wondering when we can resume our usual routines.

Image (C) Warner Records

That’s why it’s no surprise that last week, Dua Lipa got emotional on an Instagram live video while talking about the release of her album Future Nostalgia. The Grammy Award-winning singer expressed concerns about releasing a dance pop album during the current climate:

I’ve been a little conflicted putting music out, and you know, whether it’s the right thing to do during this time because lots of people are suffering. 

                    - Dua Lipa on Instagram Live, March 23, 2020

Nonetheless, Lipa pushed through with the release of the album yesterday, March 27th. And in its entirety, the album is a cohesive body of work, drawing on a disco pop sound that, as the title suggests, feels both retro and modern.

The album opens with the title track, “Future Nostalgia”, which does a great job of introducing the soundscape that the album plays in. The verses are mostly composed of Dua talking, with clever lines such as “Like modern architecture, John Lautner coming your way” and “Can't be a Rolling Stone if you live in a glass house”.

The next track, the worldwide smash hit “Don’t Start Now”, showcases the groovy bass that runs predominantly on the album. The track is catchy and danceable, and despite being a pop radio staple for months, still feels fresh. It is exactly the kind of triumphant breakup anthem that will stand the test of time.

On tracks such as “Cool” and “Pretty Please”, a more subdued vibe is present as opposed to the album’s more upbeat cuts. Lipa’s voice is highlighted, with the more stripped back production complementing her unique tone. Other highlights on the album include the current UK single “Physical”, a banger that can go toe to toe with the Olivia Newton-John classic that is referenced in the chorus.

As you continue listening to the album, it becomes more obvious that Dua was very influenced by the sounds of the 80s and 90s, from Prince to Madonna. The album is not all disco though, as “Break My Heart” features a funky chorus that is somehow timely. She sings, “I should have stayed at home,” a line that will probably become a catchphrase in the coming weeks.

“Levitating” is another highlight, and a testament to Lipa’s ability to create hooks that sound like instant classics. The last two tracks (”Good in Bed” and “Boys Will Be Boys”) feature the same sass present in her self-titled 2017 album, although with less of the bombastic production in the rest of Future Nostalgia.

In today’s trap-dominated music scene, creating a fully pop record that resonates with the public is not an easy feat. But Dua Lipa is able to do just that, creating a cohesive world of danceable tracks and lush aesthetics. Future Nostalgia may just make the quarantine a bit more bearable for pop music enthusiasts.

Album Highlights: “Physical”, “Levitating”, “Break My Heart”

Rating: 5/5

[hunnywrites]

We Fell In Love In October: Part Three: The End

Summary: Billy and Teddi celebrate Halloween in 1986.

A/N: Happy Halloween everyone! The end of the mini series is here! This was a bit more fluffy than I had intended, but is that really a bad thing? Hope you enjoy!

“Will you quit unbuttoning your shirt?” Teddi asked with a huff. “He doesn’t have it unbuttoned in the movie, Billy.” She reached forward and buttoned up the remaining buttons on Billy’s dark blue plaid shirt. Billy was pouting down at her.

“If I button them all I look like a fucking dork,” He argued. He turned to look at himself in the full length mirror that sat in their bedroom, adjusting his red jacket with a frown. 

Teddi had gone to goodwill once a week for the last two months until she finally found all of the pieces for their costumes. Billy had finally caved and agreed to be Jack and Wendy Torrence from The Shining. Considering the incident with the mindflayer had made Billy go full Overlook, Teddi thought it would be a funny choice (plus, she had actually hit him with a baseball bat). 

Billy and Teddi stood side by side, looking back at their reflections. They looked older, Teddi realized. Like somehow they were peering into their futures. “...We look like we should own a farm.” Billy muttered.

Teddi let out a snort, softly elbowing him in the side. “We’d make pretty hot farmers.” she joked.

“Obviously.” the doorbell rang. Teddi hurried out to the front door, and Billy could hear her greeting all of the trick or treaters and complimenting each of their costumes as she handed out candy. Billy picked up his flask, stashing it in the pocket inside his jacket and heading out to meet her. 

He would have been perfectly happy lounging out on the couch with a stack of horror movies, ordering a pizza and handing out candy. But there was a Halloween festival in town that Teddi had been looking forward to all month. So he agreed to wear the couples costume and pig out on funnel cake and caramel apples. 

Billy didn’t miss the girl with short, golden brown hair dressed as Madonna at the door. He didn’t need to see Teddi’s face to know the girl reminded her of El. The group of kids thanked Teddi and ran off. Teddi shut the door, turning back with a glazed over look in her eyes. She quickly smiled when she saw Billy watching her. 

“You can always call her when you get home, you know.” he said, wrapping an arm around her. 

“I know...maybe. I don’t wanna annoy her,” Billy knew that wasn’t possible. “We should head out before the trick or treaters start to pick up.” she suggested. Maybe it was time for them to take a trip up to visit the Byers. Maybe he could call Joyce and surprise Teddi. Tell her they were going somewhere else entirely. 

The pair headed out to the Camaro and Billy flicked on the radio. He groaned when Teddi’s Halloween mixtape came on, the Monster Mash playing loudly. She giggled beside him, running her fingers through his curls, tucking some behind his ear and laying her head on his shoulder. “It’s one night, Hargrove.” she reminded him. 

The Halloween festival was bigger than Billy had been expecting from a town like Hawkins. It reminded him a little of the boardwalk back in San Diego. The janky rides and colorful food stalls. He was hit with a wave of memories. All the dates he’d taken to the boardwalk to make himself look good. He liked to win whatever girl he was taking out that week lots of those cheap stuffed animals to impress her and help seal the deal when it came to fooling around in the back of the Camaro afterwards. He’d be lying if he said it didn’t make him a little homesick. 

“Billy, look,” Teddi said, excitedly grabbing his hand and squeezing it. She was pointing over at a ride called Dante’s Inferno. It was some tacky dark ride that Billy guessed was supposed to be some sort of torture chamber in hell. It had two levels to it, and a large, red demon that grinned down evilly at anyone approaching the ride. “We totally have to go on that. It’s so lame.” she laughed. 

It was lame. The car was almost too small for the two of them. It had ratty old green seats and grotesque faces carved into the sides of it. Billy guessed it was enough to probably scare some kids, but it all looked almost comical to him. Teddi linked her arm with his tightly as the car took off with a jolt. Billy looked over at her, smiling at the nervous but somehow still excited expression on her face. 

Billy didn’t really understand much of what they saw inside. There was a track of loud, howling wind and evil laughter playing on loop. Every few feet a generic, “scary” animatronic would light up and go off as they passed. Billy reached over and tickled Teddi on the side a few times, timing it with the animatronic to scare her. She fell for it each time, squealing and jumping before slapping his hands away. “You’re such an asshole.” she laughed, trying to squirm away from him. 

They were both laughing as they stumbled away from the ride. Billy slowed to a stop, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the scene in front of him. “...Isn’t that your boss?” he asked, looking over at Teddi. She frowned and looked over. There was Keith standing over by the ticket booth. He was dressed as Jason Voorhees, shifting nervously and looking around as if he were looking for someone. 

“Yeah...huh. I can’t believe he’s he-...oh my god. Is that Cheryl?” she didn’t need to ask. It was definitely Cheryl Burns. She was dressed as the Queen of Hearts. Her strawberry blonde hair was swaying back and forth as she sauntered over to Keith, giving him a seductive smile that Billy was all too familiar with before running her hands up Keith’s chest. 

Billy and Teddi looked over at each other, speechless. “...Am I finally going insane, or does Cheryl Burns have her leg wrapped around Keith and her tongue down his throat?” Teddi asked, blinking wildly.

“Well...to be fair he’s probably the only guy in town that she hasn’t slept with,” he said, attempting to joke. He was way too weirded out to find it funny. “Forget the Mind Flayer, that is the weirdest thing I’m ever gonna see,” he said with a shudder. “...How come you don’t kiss me like that in public?” 

Teddi let out a loud scoff, rolling her eyes and glaring over at Billy. “Why don’t I kiss you like your ex girlfriend?”

“Technically she was never my girl-” Teddi cut him off by putting her hand over his mouth.

“Please don’t finish that sentence.” she groaned.

Billy wrapped his arm around Teddi and pulled her close, burying his face in her neck. “C’mon, Larsson. You’re not allowed to be pissed at me tonight. It’s our anniversary.” he said with a grin.

Teddi raised her eyebrow, trying her best not to smile. “Oh is it?”

“Of course. Two years ago today you fell in love with me at Tina’s Halloween party, remember?” he turned Teddi around to face him, smirking down at her as his hands rested on her lower back. 

Teddi couldn’t fight her smile anymore. She wrapped her arms around Billy’s neck, grinning up at him. “Technically I fell in love with the kissing. It took me a little while to fall in love with the rest of you.” she teased. If you asked Teddi the moment she’d fallen in love with Billy she wouldn’t be able to tell you. It felt like she had woken up one morning and realized she was in love with him. 

“Technicalities,” he scoffed. Billy leaned down to kiss her, his hand weaving its way up through her hair. It was longer than it had been when they met, and it was back to its natural sandy color. Teddi smiled against his lips, pressing herself closer to him.

“Maybe you’re right,” she sighed happily. “God, I hate how charming you can be sometimes.” that was a lie. Teddi linked her fingers with Billy’s pulling him over to the colorful and brightly lit food stalls. The smell of funnel cake batter and powdered sugar was making Teddi’s mouth water. 

“I was thinking...maybe we should go on a road trip,” Billy suggested after they had purchased their dessert. Teddi ripped a chunk of dough that was almost too big for her mouth and ate it. “We’ve been talking about it for awhile.” he reminded her. 

Teddi eyed him carefully while she munched on her funnel cake. “Yeah, but where do you wanna go?”

Billy shrugged, taking a bite for himself. He licked the powdered sugar off his fingers while he thought. “...You let me worry about that part,” he finally said. He’d never been very good at lying to Teddi. The more simple the lie was the better the chance he had at keeping her off his trail. “What do you say, Larsson?”

Teddi didn’t take long to think it over. She didn’t need to. The two of them had been talking about taking a nice, long road trip for over a year. It was long overdue. Time for just the two of them. “Just tell me when,” she said with a shrug and a smile. 

Teddi ended up convincing Billy to go on a few more of the rides. Each one seemed even cheesier than the last. They ate fair food until they nearly got sick, and took turns sneaking drinks from Billy’s flask. Billy won Teddi a small army of those tacky, cheap stuffed animals from the game stalls. On the way back to the car she could barely keep the large pumpkin, dracula, little devil and a genuinely creepy looking teddy bear in her arms. 

“Thanks for going, Billy.” she mumbled sleepily, her head resting on his shoulder. 

“Any time, Weird Girl,” he didn’t think she heard him. Teddi was already asleep, most likely from a sugar crash after all the junk food. Hawkins was pretty quiet. All of the trick or treaters had gone home for the night, and the only people Billy saw out and about where a few costumed adults stumbling out of house parties. 

He pulled into the driveway of their little house, where the pumpkins they had carved were still glowing on the porch and got out of the car. Billy opened Teddi’s door, reaching over her to undo her seatbelt and easily picking her up. All of her prizes fell out of her arms and onto the floor of the Camaro. Except the evil looking teddy bear, Billy noticed with a groan. “C’mon, Larsson. Bed time.” he mumbled, carrying her inside. 

Teddi took a deep breath in as she woke up, squinting as she took in her surroundings. “I gotta make a phone call, okay? You gonna be alright getting yourself in bed?” he asked. She rubbed the backs of her eyes roughly and nodded before he set her down. Billy disappeared into the living room. Teddi was too dazed to hear what he was saying on the phone or wonder who he was talking to. 

She made quick work of changing into her pajamas, leaving her costume in a pile on the floor before crawling back into bed and hugging the bear Billy had won for her close. She was asleep again by the time Billy made his way back into their bedroom. Joyce had picked up on the second ring. Billy could hear Will and El in the background talking animatedly about some movie they were watching. When he told her his plan, Joyce had been all for it. She told him they could stay in Johnathan’s room for as long as they wanted since he was away at school, and she promised to keep it a secret from Teddi. 

If you asked Billy the moment he’d fallen in love with Teddi he wouldn’t be able to tell you. One minute she was driving him up the wall and the next he felt like he’d do anything to keep her happy...she still could drive him up the wall. There wouldn’t be any changing that. 

Billy changed and slid into bed next to Teddi. He grimaced down at the black teddy bear in her arms, with its red eyes and fanged smile, and wrapped his arm around Teddi’s middle. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Happy Halloween, Teddi.”

[easyfoodnetwork]

Christina Tosi’s Baking Club Is Keeping My Family Sane in Quarantine

Images via Christina Tosi’s Instagram | Christina Tosi/Instagram

Every day, Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi goes live on Instagram to give fans what they desperately need: Something to do

“Baking club is not about tears.” I hear these words and immediately want to wail into my stand mixer. Though it’s only day 15 of pastry chef and Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi’s quarantine-inspired Instagram baking club, it’s now day 22 of my family’s quarantine and our reserves of positivity are quickly running out. I didn’t sleep well last night, so when Tosi starts to tear up as she talks about fulfilling cake orders while standing in her Brooklyn-based industrial kitchen (all 11,000 square feet of it), I feel that familiar quiver in my lip. And then, my son says the refrain that has kept me going for the past two weeks: “Mom, what are we making today?!”

Since the stay-at-home order started for us, the same day we moved from Los Angeles to Austin, there have been few things upon which my eight-year-old son and I can agree. From how much screen time he should get, whether or not he still needs to practice his handwriting, and even the importance of not riding his bike in the middle of the street (“Mom, the cars can’t hit me because of social distancing”), it’s safe to say in the age of quarantine, we haven’t exactly seen eye to eye. But then, #bakingclub came along.

I’ve baked with Cooper before, and despite some disagreements about frosting to cake ratios and whether his little brother should be allowed to participate, it’s typically an activity that brings us both joy. At one point when he was a toddler, I even dreamt of opening my own bakery; I now chalk that idea up to postpartum hormones. When I saw that Tosi, whom I came to love after watching her episode of Chef’s Table, was starting her quarantine baking club on Instagram, something sparked for me. Could we do this, he and I? Would it ease the daily tension? I figured at the very least I’d be able to say we did math and science for the day, and maybe get a cookie or two out of it. Little did I know that Tosi and her #bakingclub would become the glue holding our lives together.

My son knows Tosi not as a James Beard award-winning pastry chef, but rather as one of the judges on MasterChef Junior, a show perfectly suited for her warmth and positivity. So when I introduced the idea of doing #bakingclub with him, he was on board. She was familiar, knowledgeable, and because of her, we were going to have dessert for the first time in a week.

And so we began. For those who’re unfamiliar with #bakingclub, here’s how it works: Each afternoon Tosi posts a set of ingredients for the next day. Flour, salt, eggs, sugar, and butter are predictable mainstays. There are also wild cards thrown into the mix. Cereal, potato chips, ramen noodles, and grape jelly have made appearances, always leaving us rife with anticipation for what the next #bakingclub creation will be. And then, like clockwork, at 2 pm EST the following day, there she is.

She greets us with a dance, to the beat of the day’s playlist, which she also puts on Spotify. Madonna, Dolly Parton, Survivor, The Beach Boys… each day a different mix as we gather our ingredients and wash our hands while singing happy birthday to some of her followers. In the hands of someone else, the novelty may have worn off after the first couple of days. But with Tosi, that’s not the case. In fact, as the days go on, #bakingclub has become our not-so-secret ingredient for what she calls the secret to life: “always having something to look forward to.” And judging by the numbers, I’d say we’re not alone.

On day four of baking club I noted her Instagram following was hovering at 393,000 followers. Just 11 days later, she had 408,000 (and counting). It’s not only the recipes, which have proven to be delightfully simple and always delicious (save for a savory day when making tortillas fell a bit, well, flat, in my household). It’s not just the consistency of her process: ingredients, music, recipe, baked goods. It’s not just her over-the-top adorable dog, Butter, who typically makes daily appearances — though she certainly helps.

It’s Tosi.

She shows up everyday, enthusiastic to make the most of our time together, as if there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. She reminds us that it’s okay if we don’t have all the ingredients; there are always swaps to be made, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s the way she bebops around her kitchen, looking as precious as a grown woman possibly can in overalls while being decidedly not precious about her baking.

It’s been a long time since a public figure has brought me this kind of comfort. I was a senior at NYU in 2001 and lived just blocks away from where the Twin Towers fell. I remember how my roommate and I would wearily navigate each day as best we could. Some days we’d go to class, some days we wouldn’t. Some days we’d cry, some days we wouldn’t. But every night, we’d watch the Late Show with David Letterman, finding comfort and security in the way he navigated the fear and uncertainty of the time with a careful mix of humor, compassion, and his own raw emotion. While the COVID-19 pandemic and 9/11 aren’t exactly comparable, I’m finding similar relief in watching and baking along with Tosi. She’s giving us something reliable when the world is anything but.

I imagine that, as the days drag on, my son and I won’t magically start agreeing on how best to spend them. But I do have hope that he’ll eventually look back on this quarantine and think about our time together in the kitchen, dancing and baking our way through the 2 o’clock hour with Tosi and the rest of the #bakingclub.

I know I will.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2RIrdsI https://ift.tt/2XFCbmG

Images via Christina Tosi’s Instagram | Christina Tosi/Instagram

Every day, Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi goes live on Instagram to give fans what they desperately need: Something to do

“Baking club is not about tears.” I hear these words and immediately want to wail into my stand mixer. Though it’s only day 15 of pastry chef and Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi’s quarantine-inspired Instagram baking club, it’s now day 22 of my family’s quarantine and our reserves of positivity are quickly running out. I didn’t sleep well last night, so when Tosi starts to tear up as she talks about fulfilling cake orders while standing in her Brooklyn-based industrial kitchen (all 11,000 square feet of it), I feel that familiar quiver in my lip. And then, my son says the refrain that has kept me going for the past two weeks: “Mom, what are we making today?!”

Since the stay-at-home order started for us, the same day we moved from Los Angeles to Austin, there have been few things upon which my eight-year-old son and I can agree. From how much screen time he should get, whether or not he still needs to practice his handwriting, and even the importance of not riding his bike in the middle of the street (“Mom, the cars can’t hit me because of social distancing”), it’s safe to say in the age of quarantine, we haven’t exactly seen eye to eye. But then, #bakingclub came along.

I’ve baked with Cooper before, and despite some disagreements about frosting to cake ratios and whether his little brother should be allowed to participate, it’s typically an activity that brings us both joy. At one point when he was a toddler, I even dreamt of opening my own bakery; I now chalk that idea up to postpartum hormones. When I saw that Tosi, whom I came to love after watching her episode of Chef’s Table, was starting her quarantine baking club on Instagram, something sparked for me. Could we do this, he and I? Would it ease the daily tension? I figured at the very least I’d be able to say we did math and science for the day, and maybe get a cookie or two out of it. Little did I know that Tosi and her #bakingclub would become the glue holding our lives together.

My son knows Tosi not as a James Beard award-winning pastry chef, but rather as one of the judges on MasterChef Junior, a show perfectly suited for her warmth and positivity. So when I introduced the idea of doing #bakingclub with him, he was on board. She was familiar, knowledgeable, and because of her, we were going to have dessert for the first time in a week.

And so we began. For those who’re unfamiliar with #bakingclub, here’s how it works: Each afternoon Tosi posts a set of ingredients for the next day. Flour, salt, eggs, sugar, and butter are predictable mainstays. There are also wild cards thrown into the mix. Cereal, potato chips, ramen noodles, and grape jelly have made appearances, always leaving us rife with anticipation for what the next #bakingclub creation will be. And then, like clockwork, at 2 pm EST the following day, there she is.

She greets us with a dance, to the beat of the day’s playlist, which she also puts on Spotify. Madonna, Dolly Parton, Survivor, The Beach Boys… each day a different mix as we gather our ingredients and wash our hands while singing happy birthday to some of her followers. In the hands of someone else, the novelty may have worn off after the first couple of days. But with Tosi, that’s not the case. In fact, as the days go on, #bakingclub has become our not-so-secret ingredient for what she calls the secret to life: “always having something to look forward to.” And judging by the numbers, I’d say we’re not alone.

On day four of baking club I noted her Instagram following was hovering at 393,000 followers. Just 11 days later, she had 408,000 (and counting). It’s not only the recipes, which have proven to be delightfully simple and always delicious (save for a savory day when making tortillas fell a bit, well, flat, in my household). It’s not just the consistency of her process: ingredients, music, recipe, baked goods. It’s not just her over-the-top adorable dog, Butter, who typically makes daily appearances — though she certainly helps.

It’s Tosi.

She shows up everyday, enthusiastic to make the most of our time together, as if there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. She reminds us that it’s okay if we don’t have all the ingredients; there are always swaps to be made, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s the way she bebops around her kitchen, looking as precious as a grown woman possibly can in overalls while being decidedly not precious about her baking.

It’s been a long time since a public figure has brought me this kind of comfort. I was a senior at NYU in 2001 and lived just blocks away from where the Twin Towers fell. I remember how my roommate and I would wearily navigate each day as best we could. Some days we’d go to class, some days we wouldn’t. Some days we’d cry, some days we wouldn’t. But every night, we’d watch the Late Show with David Letterman, finding comfort and security in the way he navigated the fear and uncertainty of the time with a careful mix of humor, compassion, and his own raw emotion. While the COVID-19 pandemic and 9/11 aren’t exactly comparable, I’m finding similar relief in watching and baking along with Tosi. She’s giving us something reliable when the world is anything but.

I imagine that, as the days drag on, my son and I won’t magically start agreeing on how best to spend them. But I do have hope that he’ll eventually look back on this quarantine and think about our time together in the kitchen, dancing and baking our way through the 2 o’clock hour with Tosi and the rest of the #bakingclub.

I know I will.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2RIrdsI via Blogger https://ift.tt/2ROvqer

[leoninapelliolovesconchitawurst]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION (by me)

MINUTENMUSIK.DE 23/10/19

https://minutenmusik.de/rezension/conchita-wurst-truth-over-magnitude?fbclid=IwAR2r4hLLl5nxlHLvmRYbhIJ-NPrUyvFBJGoMpPP_y8p6AgLZfOf1XxwHTgo

CONCHITA WURST - TRUTH OVER MAGNITUDE

Who cares about his artist figure today? Once upon a time, Madonna and Michael Jackson were the pioneers, and Lady GaGa has resumed them, and currently only Billie Eilish comes to mind. But even in German-speaking regions, there are musicians who define themselves not only by their songs, but also by their appearance. Conchita Wurst has recognized this and almost pushed it to the extreme.

You have to imitate this first. In 2011, Tom Neuwirth decides to perform publicly as Conchita Wurst. A female figure with curves, evening dresses, iridescent wigs and - a beard! Sorry? What's that about? Indignation! Admittedly, you can hardly speak out that you have reacted a bit confused and thus exactly what was wanted was triggered. But at the latest with the win of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, it was clear that Conchita Wurst is not one of the untalented drag queens, the dirty jokes rips, a little back and forth while singing crooked tones. Instead, there was a bombastic performance with "Rise Like A Phoenix", which in addition to a very strong expressiveness and a terrific composed song also offered exceptionally good vocals.

And then she was on everyone's lips. Whether you wanted it or not, but you had an opinion. Conchita became the mouthpiece of the LGBTQ community with her "We Are Unstoppable" motto, receiving support from many political sites and holding countless bullying attacks. In fact, a close acquaintance of her even outed her as HIV-positive - even that slowed her only briefly. Instead, his debut album "Conchita" featured heavy-ranged broadband pop that combined some earwigs and power ballads with plenty of matching kitsch and pathos, and an even better cover art called "From Vienna With Love". The longplayer recorded with the Wienern Symphoniker shows that seriousness and sophisticated vocals plus simply perfect arrangements are by no means mutually exclusive in the Conchita-Universe.

But that's not enough. Tom Neuwirth has realized that as Conchita he has achieved everything he wanted to achieve and actually more. Thus, Tom decides to let the figure "Conchita" die. Little by little, for almost two years, more and more of typical feminine attributes are lost. From time to time they still flash, but the optical features, which are more connected with men in the mainstream, dominate - now there is a six-pack, patent leather and a short haircut. Just watching the metamorphosis on Instagram is like going to a museum. Where is there so much thought out effort?

Long preface, which makes sense in this review. Now the third longplayer is in the starting blocks with Truth Over Magnitude. For the first time in thick letters only Wurst is on the side. Once he was Conchita Wurst, then Conchita and now just Wurst. Which initially sounds flattened, but is on closer observation much more complex. Just as random are the initials of the album title T.O.M., so it can be assumed that we see and hear more Tom Neuwirth than ever before.

Of course, a Wurst album can not sound like a Conchita record - and in fact, especially in terms of sound, a radical cut happens. Both pop sounds with radion level and orchestra tones have to give way, because now there is electro. Yes, really electro. Although in all possible facets, but in the heart it remains electro. From time to time a catchy melody seeps through, but only well dosed.

Since March, the preliminary single "Trash All The Glam" is on all portals and presents a good four minutes without chorus, but with building Sound honeycomb. Especially in combination with the morbid video it sits huge. Conchita still sounds familiar in the voice, but gimmicks lurk around the voice. An opening like a bang and a logical consequence, in which song titles and content can hardly harmonize better. Away with the glamorous costume, forth with the essence.

It's not that radical anymore. Ultimately, "Trash All The Glam" remains the only contender that only reveals a structure after several attempts. Instead, from song 2 onwards, a few catchy lines appear here and there. In the entire production of the album was really really good work again. Conchita stays out of songwriting but still has enough fingers in the game to tell her regional team from Austria where to go.

Unfortunately, the album splits in half at the end: a really successful, strong and rousing first and one almost repetitive, little saying second. Like a break, track six is ​​all about. That Electro combines perfectly with pop and R'n'B shows the direct-fitting "To The Beat", which is clearly the best track on the album and just bucks. Even the already established as a small indie stomper hit "Hit Me" may be heard and motivated to dance and sing along. In "Can not Come Back" is additionally textually addressed that you say goodbye to previous patterns. This can be found in several songs, along with topics such as exclusion, tolerance, self-confidence and inner strength. Wurst begins in "Can not Come Back" in the lowest registers of the voice and shows changeability that captivates. "See Me Now" as a semi-ballad with drum machine sounds like a commercial form of James Blake. That too works.

But then there is not much left. If the first tracks keep pushing the expectations higher and higher, "Resign" loses himself especially in his penetrating vocals and his excess length. Even the staccato-like, redundant "Under The Gun" wants more than it actually is. The whole second half puts too much emphasis on sound design instead of melodies - but in the end Conchita Wurst is still on the plate and not Björk. For the final Truth Over Magnitude gets but then briefly the curve. "SIX" conjures up an intimate atmosphere with sharp-rhythmic sounds, just a little bit of vocal acrobatics. With the theme song as a finish, there is a long overdue blast of energy in the middle section. Here the instrumental is by far the most exciting aspect.

Conchita Wurst really manages to reinvent herself and repeatedly show other aspects of her (or should we say "his"?) ability. That deserves a lot of respect and may be watched with excitement. Truth Over Magnitude supports this hustle and bustle with the right soundtrack. Exciting, if not always quite successful, but still above average. In the end, however, the permanent haters are puked in the face and shown that talent is in no way tied to a gender and you should break again and again with conventions and forced corsets.

[zenyukifanficblogs]

Jennifer’s Adventures; The Start Of A New Life Chapter 3 : Blake

Credits: @Aesthetics__

Junghwa’s POV

“RINGGGGGGGG!!!”

I woke up and as usual preparing everything at the cafe till the CEO enters in. “Good morning Jennifer.” He tells me.

“Yes. Anything?” I responded asking him. “Ah yes. I will come down in a hour. Do you take over the phone orders?” He asks.

“Yes just send me and I will start away.” I said. “I will be down in a an hour. Can i please order a latte?” He asks.

“Yes.” I said going to prepare whatever I needed to do. While i was getting everything prepared another customer walked in. “Erm hello? Can I order?” The customer asked.

I nodded my head. She looks up at the board and orders one of the hardest drinks to make but in a big cup.

I nodded my head and took down her order. I make the ceo drink and out it somewhere warm. I then start on the other one. I managed to make it after some struggle cause the bottle is a bit funny.

I hand it to her and she pays, “Thank you.” She bows. I nodded my head expressing that she’s welcomed before going in the kitchen to do my things

The ceo walks in, grabs his coffee and pays for it. He quietly talks with the girl outside.

I turn on my player listening to Like A Virgin by Madonna while baking some cookies. After a short while the girl comes back in and orders another drink, in a large cup again.

I nodded and took her order before pulling the “On The House” board for her to read. She just reads it. “So it’s free?” She asks me and I nodded my head. “Thank you.” She says.

I just smiled and make the drink she ordered. Once i finish i hand it to her and shes pays

I pulled the “On The House” board again. “Right. Sorry.” She apologises. I just smiled and continued doing my own things after she gets her drink

Soon she leaves. “How has today been?” The ceo asks me. “Good and quiet, just the way I like it” I said to him

“Good.” He nods. “Anything to talk about?” I asked him. He shakes his head. “Take me as an invisible and continue your work.” He says with a smile and I do so, changing my playlist to Ben by Michael Jackson

Every once and a while i would catch him humming to some songs. ‘No wonder he produces music, he has good and fine tune’ I think to myself taking out the cookies to cool

‘I must keep a eye on the cookies. I dont want him sneaking one’ i think to myself. I managed to put the cookies away from his line of sight.

“Which part of the States you study in? Just wondering” He asks me as I came out to take out the coffee sifters to wash. “Illinois” I answered

“Is it good over there?” He asks. “In some places yeah but mostly a lot of really weird things going down south of the place.” I said honestly

“I think i could imagine it. What made you want to come back and start a cafe?” He asks. I froze a little but managed to collect myself.

“Just don’t want to be constantly reminded of bad things there.” I explained briefly. “Okay. Sorry.” He apologise.

“It’s alright.” I reassured him. After a while he does start to help me around the shop. “It’s okay. I can do myself” I reassured him.

“Don’t be such a lone ranger Jennifer. I’m glad to help.” He says to me with a smile

I nod. “You doesn’t seem to be a curious person also.” He says. “Naturally I just don’t like being curious.” I explained

He nods, understanding. My brother and the others came after a bit. “Finished your schedule?” The CEO asked them

They all nod. “Good cause today’s special is chocolate butter cookies.” I tell them. Their faces instantly light up.

“What type of chocolate?” The CEO asks me. “Dark” I replied taking the tray out. “Yes.” Jungkook says and starts grabbing the cookies. “Bahahahaha this Jungkook!” RM laughs at my brother’s reaction

I just smile and softly chuckle. “Met any new people?” My brother asks. I nodded my head

“Who?” He asks. “Taller than me. A lady. She seems approachable but maybe I’m just a little uncertain about her.” I said

“She could be a nice person for all you know” V says with a wink

“You didnt get her name?” Jhope asks. I shook my head. “I let her have one of her drinks for free cause she’s ordering large cups. Seems to be someone with a sweet tooth from the looks of it.” I said

“Blake Hsu.” Jimin answers. “Blake?” I scratched my head confused cause I never heard a lady I’ve seen with a rather masculine name like Blake

“Blake is from america, she is a member of Sixteen. Often has a lot of coffees because she does have a sweet tooth. Her full name is Blake Hsu Liena.” He explains.

“Ah I see” I nodded my head understanding. “She also seems friendly” I added on

“She is, she is also protective of her friends, family and members.” V says. “Awesome” I nodded my head impressed

I give them the drinks and they drink them. “How’s adjusting to life here so far?” Jin asks me. “All good.” I said

“Good. Just tell us if you need any help.” Rm says. I nodded my head and after a while, I closed up my shop and headed back for an early rest while the CEO wants to see my brother and the rest of them

[thecostumeplot]

Episode 21: Walk the Line & The Impossible

Both  

Welcome to The Costume Plot.

Jojo

I'm Jojo Siu.

Sarah  

And I’m Sarah Timm. We're professional designers with a passion for costume design and the performing arts. Our podcast does contain spoilers. Accompanying slideshows for each movie are linked in the episode description.

Jojo

We hope you'll join us every other week as we delve into the wonderful world of costume design in The Costume Plot. [music]

Sarah  

Hello!

Jojo  

Hello, welcome back.

Sarah  

How's it going?

Jojo  

Yay. We actually recorded more often this month, and I still feel like it's been forever. [both laugh]

Sarah  

I know! We're curring it fine again, too, where we're not that long from release. But that's okay. We have time. It's great. Here we are. We made it.

Jojo  

Sorry. It's been a busy month.

Sarah  

Jojo's had a lot going on. But we're glad. I'm glad you've made it. Here you are.

Jojo  

Thanks. Still surviving somehow. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yeah. So I have a thing that I want to talk about at the top of the show today. It's a little bit of self promotion. So I hope our listeners are okay with that. I am competing in the Her Universe Fashion Show, as you guys might know. And it's virtual this year, and there is an audience vote. [editor's note: Votes are now closed! I didn't win!] So I'm campaigning for votes right now! I need your vote. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yay!

Sarah  

If I win, if I win, I get the chance to design a line with Her Universe that gets sold in Hot Topic. So it's a really big deal. My look is "Hamilton"-inspired. And if you listen to the show, you know I am a big fan of "Hamilton".

Jojo  

Yes.

Sarah  

I'm really proud of it. And I got to shoot in a theater, like an abandoned theater, from the 20s. So like, I'm just so excited. So all the links that I have so far will be in the description of this episode. We haven't given been giving a lot information. It's on... I'll back up. It's on July 23. [laughs] At 5pm pacific time.

Jojo  

Very important.

Sarah  

Yeah, that's the important information. And it's part of Comic-Con@Home, San Diego Comic Con. And so we don't have any specific links for where to watch it yet. But I do have a link that will hopefully be updated as the info gets released. And then that will hopefully also have voting stuff. But yes, please watch. And then please vote for me, if you like my look.

Jojo  

Yay! Definitely vote for Sarah.

Sarah  

Thank you so much.

Jojo  

I'm so excited to see it in person.

Sarah  

I'm so excited too.

Jojo  

I've only been seeing snippets of it.

Sarah  

I know. If you follow me on social media, I've been trying my best to kind of like build some suspense. I made a little trailer in iMovie. I'm doing the thing.

Jojo  

I saw that. I love it.

Sarah  

I'm working hard on trying to get people interested, because I mean... more power to them, but I'm competing against some people who have multiple thousands of followers. Like, 25-100k. So I gotta find a way to stand out, you know, when I don't have that big of a fan base.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Right.

Sarah  

Which, like, I'm excited for them that they have that. I just don't.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

So.

Jojo  

We'll get there eventually.

Sarah  

I mean, maybe I'll win and then I'll be... my followers will just "whoosh!"... through the roof.

Jojo  

That would be great.

Sarah  

So then I'm Instagram famous. [both laugh] Okay. Yeah.

Jojo  

Perfect. Onto our theme!

Sarah  

Our theme this week! I'm going first this week, our theme is... are we calling this "based on real life events"? Is that what we're...?

Jojo  

I think so. I think that's what we ended up deciding, like, based on true events.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And however loosely that is, that is true.

Sarah  

Yeah. So real people or real historical events. So I chose "Walk the Line". Because I'm not usually a biopic person. I often find them to be a little bit... I don't wanna say "heavy handed," but it's sort of like they're always sort of Oscar-bait movies. And they're really melodramatic sometimes, but I really like "Walk the Line". And I'm not even a giant Johnny Cash fan. I just love this movie.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I think I also just really love Reese Witherspoon. So that helps a lot. She's...

Jojo  

She's pretty great.

Sarah  

...one of my faves. Okay, so I'll just dive in. It was released in 2005. So I was like, you know... it still feels like a very current movie to me, but it's very much not. Because that was...

Jojo  

I know, I forget how far away 2005 was. Like, that really wasn't that long ago, but...

Sarah  

Once again, just facing our own mortality on this show. Going, "What? ...Okay."

Jojo  

How have we passed this many years already?

Sarah  

[laughs] Exactly. It was directed by James Mangold, who is a very prolific director. He's done "Logan," "Ford v. Ferrari," "3:10 to Yuma," "Girl, Interrupted," and he's also a producer. So he produced "Greatest Showman," lots of blockbuster movies. And the costumes were designed by Arianne Phillips, who works a lot with James Mangold. So she designed a lot of those movies that I just mentioned, in addition to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," "Nocturnal Animals," which I heard is not a very good movie, but the costumes are great. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then she also has a really long-standing working relationship with Madonna. So she has styled basically everything Madonna has done, like in the last...

Jojo  

That's amazing.

Sarah  

...decade, at least. So, good for her. That's great.

Jojo  

Yeah, exactly.

Sarah  

Oh, and she also did a couple of really iconic movies that I haven't even seen. But if I can... I can imagine the looks from them. So those are "Tank Girl" and "The Crow". And I'm like...

Jojo  

[gasps] Ooooh.

Sarah  

...I know both of those visually, even though I haven't seen them.

Jojo  

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

So she's done a lot of great work.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

She has been nominated for three Oscars, one for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," one for "W.E.,", which makes sense, because didn't Madonna direct that?

Jojo  

I think so.

Sarah  

And then this movie. And she has not won an Oscar yet, but she probably will eventually.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And she has been nominated for a lot of Costume Designers' Guild Awards, and she won one for "W.E.". And then she also has a Tony for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" on Broadway, because I think she did the movie as well.

Jojo  

Oh yeah, I forgot she did that one. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah. So it's cool... I like when-- it happened with my movie last week, too, where the designers also got to design the stage adaptation of the movie that they designed. I think that's cool. Okay, so the movie itself was in part based on two autobiographies, "Man in Black" from 1975, and "Cash: the Autobiography" from 1997. Although they say that the film goes deeper into some painful sort of subjects that Johnny Cash himself didn't really dive into in those books.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I don't really have any other like background on the movie itself. I think they were trying to get it made for a really long time. And it just like, finally happened in 2005. So let me share my screen. I have a lot of pictures this week. So I think that, you know, I'll obviously put all of them on Pinterest, but I might have to weed out a few for Instagram, or I might have to do two posts, we'll kind of see how I feel.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Partly because I have some real life pictures, as you can see, to compare to the movie.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then also because we go through, like, three decades. We go from the 40s through to the late 60s. So there's a lot of periods being represented.

Jojo  

A lot of period wear.

Sarah  

I don't know why put this one first. That doesn't go first. That's not it. [both laugh] That one's first. Okay, so we open in 1944. I mean, basically, the story of this movie is Johnny Cash's life, which is... he starts growing up in rural Arkansas. And he loses his older brother very young, in a tablesaw accident, which is really sad. And it seems like it informs a lot of his life, and his trauma, throughout the movie.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And then he joins the military and gets married. And then he kind of hits it big in music. And then it's basically just about his musical career, and also his struggle with drugs and alcohol. And then also his eventual relationship with June Carter, who he falls in love with when he's already married to his first wife. And he doesn't exactly stay faithful to her. But then he and June...

Jojo  

[laughs] As we well know.

Sarah  

[laughs] Yeah. He and June eventually do get married. And, you know, after the events of this movie, they were married for like 35 years. Until they both passed away. So that's the story. It's Johnny Cash's life. Okay. So here we are in 1940s Arkansas, and I like these sort of first scenes, they're very warm in color, I feel like. Everything looks kind of dusty, but also really hot, you know, and it kind of sets the mood of this. They're very poor. So this is him and his brother, he... Johnny is on the left. And when he's young, he goes by the name JR. And he has a lot of guilt because his brother, he says, is the good son. Basically, his brother wants to be a preacher and is really good at minding his parents and is really helpful, and JR just feels lesser-than, like he's not as good as his brother. So.... Oh, also his dad is abusive. And his dad even says, after his brother dies, he says,  "God took the wrong son," basically.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Sarah  

So that's gonna really impart some trauma on your child, to say something like that.

Jojo  

Just a little bit.

Sarah  

Just a little bit. Yeah, so this is them going fishing. And their little relationship is so cute, they're clearly very close. And so it's even more heartbreaking that one of them dies. And then this is his mom, who is the one who teaches him to sing and stuff. And this is... oh, I have this, and I was thinking about cutting it, but I have a picture of her later in the movie. So I wanted to compare, you know, her. Because she's not in a lot in the movie. But we see her go through a big change, you know, after Johnny is successful and is probably like, paying for her to have a happy life. A happy, comfortable life later in life.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So, yeah... oh... yeah, I put these in a dumb order. Okay, this one. [both laugh] Sometimes I label them wrong.

Jojo  

I do the same thing.

Sarah  

So this is Johnny thing after he goes and serves in Germany. And that's kind of like... not really focused on in the movie. But... this is... he has a job, basically, as a door to door salesman, and he's not doing a very good job at it. So this outfit really says to me a real lack of personality, because he hasn't really found who he is yet. He hasn't found his own identity. He hasn't found even-- he knows that he likes to sing. But he hasn't really let himself think that maybe he could be a successful music artist.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And also, when he first tries, when he first starts a band, they do exclusively gospel music. And the radio guy who they meet with is like, "Gospel music doesn't sell anymore. What do you have?" And so he like, on a whim, plays him... the famous song about shooting man in Reno. Can't remember what it's called. [editor's note: "Folsom Prison Blues"]

Jojo  

You're asking the wrong person, I'm so bad with names. [laughs]

Sarah  

I don't know.

Jojo  

I know what you're talking about, though.

Sarah  

I honestly... "I hear a train a-comin'." I don't know. Anyway, I really liked this soundtrack in high school when it came out.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I just don't remember the names of the songs. So this is them playing for that radio guy.

Jojo  

Mmm.

Sarah  

And it's not really communicated why he chose black. But black becomes, obviously, his signature color. Maybe it's just like, they all had black in their wardrobe. So they were like, "let's all just wear black."

Jojo  

Right. Pretty standard color.

Sarah  

Yeah. And his wife says, "It looks like you're going to a funeral." And throughout the movie, people tell him that. And he's like, "maybe I am."

Jojo  

[laughs] "Maybe that's exactly what I'm doing."

Sarah  

Let's see. So there's an LA Times article that's an interview with Arianne Phillips, and she says, "You can read a lot into it. Black is a very humble color, and Cash was a working man's man. He was also an outsider who didn't belong to the rock world, or the country world. And there was something shocking at the time about wearing all black. It's what you wore to funerals. So it worked for him on many levels." So he just becomes... he becomes the man in black, you know.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

This is his wife, Vivian. And I have a lot to say about her.

Jojo  

[laughs]

Sarah  

Because... so she's played by Ginnifer Goodwin, who we can see here, I like this. I really like this pattern of this gingham with the stripe, with the cardigan on top.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I pulled it because it's like my favorite look of hers. But I want to talk about stuff that isn't even costume related when it comes to her character. So his wife, Vivian, let's get into it. She was...

Jojo  

[laughs] Let's dive deep.

Sarah  

I'm ready. She was a mixed race woman. And I found this out because a Twitter thread came across my page recently where it was like, "can't believe they cast Ginnifer Goodwin to play a black woman," basically. And I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are we talking about here?" So I did some research. Her grandparents were from Italy. And then Vivian, according to her at the time, her grandmother--I mean, her mother's family--was like, German and Irish.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So in real life, Vivian was photographed at a court hearing with Johnny when he was arrested for drug possession. And in the photo, she looks darker skinned than him. And so at the time, I found an article... oh, in the Washington Post, and it said, "at the time in the eyes of most Americans, you were either black or you weren't." And interracial marriage would not become legal until 1967. So leaders of the racist National State's Rights Party in Alabama ran an article in their newspaper "exposing" Johnny for having a "Negro" wife, basically being like, "they're trying to hide the fact that she's black."

Jojo  

Ahh. Right.

Sarah  

And they were connected to the KKK, this organization was, and they boycotted him for like a year. So he had to basically file a counter attack and sue them for this, because Vivian at the time thought that she was white. She had gone to all white schools, and on her birth certificate, marriage certificate, it says Caucasian, because...

Jojo  

Ah, right.

Sarah  

That's what their whole family thought they were. So in THIS year, February of 2021, Roseanne Cash--Johnny's daughter, who is also a country star in her own right--went on the show "Finding Your Roots". Which is about genealogy and DNA tracing.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And they found that Vivian Cash's--so Vivian, the wife's--maternal great great grandmother was an enslaved black woman named Sarah Shields, whose white Father, in 1848, had "granted her and her eight siblings their freedom and their passage into whiteness." So she married a white man. And by the time Jim Crow arrived in the 1930s, all of her children and their descendants were listed as white. So...

Jojo  

Wow.

Sarah  

...she had basically erased her own blackness, Sarah Shields did, from her descendants.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So Vivian Cash did not even know that she had a black ancestor.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So, I was ready to come on the podcast and be like, "Can you believe they whitewashed this character?" But in 2005...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...we were still taking Vivian's word for it--and her whole family's word for it--that she didn't have any black relatives.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah  

So isn't that interesting? [laughs]

Jojo  

That's so crazy. Like to, I mean, to not know that, too. I feel like...

Sarah  

I know.

Jojo  

...that's such a huge part of your identity, to not know for your entire-- I mean, for your adult life too, not even... like, it's one thing if you didn't know as a kid, because you just didn't know any better. But to have have that all throughout your adulthood, like, that's crazy.

Sarah  

Yeah, it probably made the real Vivian's life easier that she had been passing, you know?

Jojo  

Oh, yeah. Right.

Sarah  

But it is kind of heartbreaking to know that, like, this enslaved woman's story wasn't known until now.

Jojo  

Yeah. Until many, many, many years later.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

That's crazy!

Sarah  

I know! So I just thought it was really interesting. The other thing I'll say about this character is that... this is the thing I don't like about biopics. It's that there's often, in the stories of great men--like, genius men--there's often a first wife or a first girlfriend who is just seen as a long-suffering wife, who has his children. But basically, the audience is kind of meant to see her as a complainer who's holding him back from achieving his destiny.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And I definitely think that she serves that role in this movie. And it kind of is a disservice to her, because they were married for like 12 years.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And probably a lot of those years were really difficult for her. So I think it sucks for her to just be portrayed as like, she's holding him back from being the real Johnny Cash, and also holding him back from his relationship with June, which is also problematic.

Jojo  

Right, right. I think that's a lot of biopics, too, it's like, you know.... Oh, you're right. She definitely... she definitely looks like she has some sort of Black in her history.

Sarah  

Yeah, she looks darker skinned. And like, you know, at the time, she was probably just like, "Oh, I have olive tone. I have Italian, you know, Mediterranean DNA."

Jojo  

Right, right. Right.

Sarah  

Yeah. So that's the real life Vivian and Johnny. Okay.

Jojo  

So interesting.

Sarah  

I know, right? So I... that just kind of gave me the lesson of, like: don't get mad about things you see on Twitter without actually reading what they're about. [laughs]

Jojo  

Do the research first.

Sarah  

Yeah. All right. Moving on. Moving on. So this is Jerry Lee Lewis, and I love him. He's sort of... he has a more flamboyant style, obviously. My brother was watching this movie with me and said he looked really 70s, and I could agree with that.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Even though this is the 50s at this point. He has sort of, like, unbuttoned... very rakish hair. And then this is him in real life. So I feel like it's a pretty good job casting.

Jojo  

Ohh. Yeah.

Sarah  

Okay, let's talk about June because let's get to the main event, honestly.

Jojo  

Yeah!

Sarah  

This is a picture of Reese on set. So her hair is not... like, I think her hair is in rollers.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And she's just walking to or from. But this is the best picture I could find of this whole dress. There's not a lot of really good high quality pictures out there.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

And Arianne talks about this costume. So she says for June Carter Cash, she referenced 1950s Howdy Doody culture and Minnie Pearl, who... I don't know really who that is. Didn't Google it. "She found her talisman for the character at the Santa Monica Vintage Expo, a ruffled red organza dress with a sweetheart neckline and Swiss dot overlay," that she wears in basically her first scene. And they had to rework it, and redo it, because it was rotting, apparently.

Jojo  

Ohh.

Sarah  

So I wonder if that means that they replaced the whole lining, or did they take a pattern off it and basically make a replica? Unclear. Yeah. And she says, "the dress summed up for me the place that June Carter comes from as a child performer, as this comedic character at the Grand Ole Opry. I knew we would see her transform into a woman but the starting point was this cartoonish country girl." So June says in the movie that her sisters are the pretty ones and the talented ones, and that she had to learn to be funny.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And so we can see, sort of, it's a little immature and young-looking, and definitely sort of cartoony.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Very comedic.

Sarah  

Yes, exactly. Here is that dress onstage. And they said... I watched an interview with her on YouTube as well. She said that they did a screen test in this video.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And the... not the network. The... the studio! That's the word I'm looking for. [both laugh] The studio got worried because the sleeves were really poofy. And it was just this sort of... it was more cartoony than they were originally... thinking.

Jojo  

...Expecting. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah. And when you book a name as big as Reese Witherspoon, the studio definitely wants Reese Witherspoon's fans to come to the movie and see Reese Witherspoon.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Like, people are expecting to recognize her. So they don't want the costume to swallow her and be all that people can focus on. So...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...studio notes are often like, "Oh, make the lead sexier," or "tone this down."

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And I think that they took some extra ruffles off the sleeves from what it originally looked like. But it looks pretty-- they showed some footage of the screen test and it looks pretty much the same.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. I mean, they still kept that poof sleeve too. I feel like there's still that. It doesn't take away enough from her, that you're not like, "oh, who is that?" Or like, "I'm so distracted."

Sarah  

Yeah. Exactly. Agreed. So this is Johnny onstage. And he goes... we see a few of his sort of onstage outfits before he starts only wearing black. It seems like he started wearing exclusively black on stage in the 60s. So this is him in the 50s, it's this lovely red- burgundy.

Jojo  

Yeah. Oooh.

Sarah  

I like that.

Jojo  

Does he have a design on his lapel too?

Sarah  

Oh, it... does it say JC?

Jojo  

Or J... oh yeah, that's pretty cool.

Sarah  

It's hard to find pictures of this movie, which is surprising.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Like, I always expect, if it was nominated for costumes, that I'll be able to find really good pictures of the costumes.

Jojo  

That's what you would think!

Sarah  

Not so much.

Jojo  

Nope.

Sarah  

So this is June later on when they're on tour. And they're kind of just walking through town, having some time off. And so we see this in contrast to her stage persona, her real life wardrobe is a lot more subdued. It's still very sweet and feminine, but it's definitely more grown up, and as she goes through the movie, it definitely gets more and more grown up as she evolves and comes into her own. Oh... do have a picture? I don't think I do. So in the interview Arianne said she found an orange and green flowered dress, a vintage one, because apparently the budget was pretty small for this.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So she used a lot of actual vintage, borrowed... you know, found for cheap. And one of them she found, she found an actual picture of June Carter Cash in that exact same dress! Like, she found the actual dress.

Jojo  

Oooh. Yeah.

Sarah  

But I couldn't figure out which dress it was, because she wears two that are orange and green floral. [laughs]

Jojo  

"Which one?!"

Sarah  

And it's not this one, but they're later in the movie. So I think I got rid of the pictures because I was like, "I don't know which one it is." So I can't really hold this up and be like, "See?"

Jojo  

[laughs] Right. Right.

Sarah  

So that was frustrating.

Jojo  

I do love the floral motif that she has on a lot of her stuff.

Sarah  

Yeah, I like the colors that she wears too. She doesn't stick to certain colors.

Jojo  

Right. Right.

Sarah  

I would say generally it's pretty warm. She does wear a little bit of blue. But yeah, it's just like a nice... you know, wardrobe.

Jojo  

Fun. I would wear this skirt.

Sarah  

Yeah, it's cute.

Jojo  

If I wore skirts more often. [laughs]

Sarah  

I wear too many skirts. Like, when I go to thrift stores I go to the skirts first and I ended up with... I have so many of them, and I keep buying them because I love them. Anyway.

Jojo  

[laughs] They're great.

Sarah  

So this is her onstage singing later in the movie. I think we might be moving into late 50s at this point. And then I have a full body shot of this. So once again with a floral motif.

Jojo  

So cute!

Sarah  

I know, right? She's got a little bit of a bouffant happening.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And this is definitely more streamlined in silhouette than that frilly one was at the beginning. So she's moving away from her cartoony image and into more of a serious singer.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

This is her onstage again. Once again, could not find great picture. I found some on a mannequin.

Jojo  

So sad!

Sarah  

I think it was auctioned, so here's this.

Jojo  

So cute.

Sarah  

And I thought, looking at this picture of her onstage, that it was beaded.

Jojo  

Yeah, I was gonna say that's what I thought too.

Sarah  

Yeah, cuz it's sparkly. But I found this, and you can see that it's like a metallic embroidery?

Jojo  

Oh, yeah. It's almost like a trim.

Sarah  

Yeah, it's very sparkly, but it's not actually beads. It's the fabric.

Jojo  

I wonder if it's real metal, because you know how they used to have that on some of the trims?

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

That's probably what's creating that extra sparkle

Sarah  

Could totally be. Okay, so what's next? We're moving into.... Okay, I have this picture, it's called "John is a mess."

Jojo  

[laughs]

Sarah  

Because he's a mess. This is when he basically has lost everything, he had a breakdown on stage. He's drinking too much. He's doing drugs. Vivian has left him at this point. So he's living in this nasty apartment.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And he's wearing this, it looks like a tux shirt, because of the pleats.

Jojo  

Oh, yeah.

Sarah  

But it's clearly very... he hasn't showered, it's very yellowed. Looking pretty gross. And then... oh, I liked this. Because we got to see some period children's wear. This is an upsetting scene, as you can see, the children are crying. [laughs] But...

Jojo  

It's so funny to me, because it's always those little scenes of children that we're always like, "Okay, we HAVE to get these images." Because you just don't see them very often.

Sarah  

I love period children's wear!

Jojo  

I know. It's great.

Sarah  

Children look so cute in vintage clothes.

Jojo  

So cute. I can't wait.

Sarah  

I was at a party the other day and one of the kids running around was wearing... it looked like a little Oktoberfest dirndl, but it was vintage.

Jojo  

Yes!

Sarah  

It was like a three year old girl wearing a vintage dress.

Jojo  

Love that.

Sarah  

And I was like, "that girl looks so good."

Jojo  

On point, mom! On point.

Sarah  

I know. I was like, "you're doing it correctly." I love that. Yeah, I mean... I haven't anything to say about them. They're just cute. And I like seeing period kid's clothes.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yep. Agreed.

Sarah  

Okay, how am I doing on time? I'm doing great on time! Yay.

Jojo  

Woohoo!

Sarah  

This is Thanksgiving, later when Johnny is starting to get his act together, but hasn't quite. But he invites basically his parents and then June and her parents, and it ends up getting very awkward because his dad is very... his dad sucks, basically, his dad is really mean. But this is in the 60s, as you can see from the hair, and such. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yep.

Sarah  

And on the left here, this is Johnny's mom. So she's gone through a big transformation since we saw her in the 40s, of course. She has money. She's hopefully happier, even though her husband sucks.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then June in the middle is... oh, I have this dress. Here it is.

Jojo  

So beautiful.

Sarah  

It's pretty.

Jojo  

It's that lantern sleeve that I love again!

Sarah  

I know, we love a lantern sleeve.

Jojo  

So funny. I keep seeing that everywhere. I'm like, "just looks good every time I see it."

Sarah  

It does. And also, in my opinion, it's timeless.

Jojo  

Yeah, I agree. It's a really elegant look.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

Especially, I mean, most of the ones I've seen happen to be transparent or some kind of see-through material. So maybe I'm just a little more biased, but I just think it looks really nice. And it's just, I don't know, it's kind of secretive and seductive while also being classy.

Sarah  

Yeah, you're covered up, but you're not.

Jojo  

Right, exactly.

Sarah  

Totally. So this dress is, I think it's probably chiffon. It's this gorgeous burgundy. It looks so good with her brown hair.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And it's totally free of surface decoration, you know? So it's like her final sort of evolution into a more mature adult woman. And then, I would say, we talk a lot about how in period movies you can kind of tell what era they're made in, because they don't quite go all the way to the period.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And I think that we can see that in Reese's hair for a lot of the movie, and probably a little bit in the makeup too, because her makeup looks pretty modern for the time in a lot of the shots, like this one right here. I mean, she has a maybe a little liquid eyeliner on. And the lipstick is definitely pink. You know, that's definitely a 50s/60s color. But...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

I think the way she's styled, they clearly wanted to make sure ...like I said, the studio wanted to make sure that people saw her.

Jojo  

...It was a good enough balance that it still felt like it could relate to contemporary audience.

Sarah  

Exactly. They don't want to make... they don't want to alienate her from her audience by making her look too removed from the Reese that we know and love. So I think that that's a pretty good balance, actually, that they struck, because this hairstyle is pretty period looking. But it's also... it also looks kind of 2005, so there's that.

Jojo  

Yeah, seriously.

Sarah  

All right. Oh, I was close to cutting this picture. But I was like, "couldn't possibly do it." This coat.

Jojo  

I love it. Love it so much.

Sarah  

So good.

Jojo  

I do love a good pea coat. in general.

Sarah  

It's... I love all coats. I love codes from all periods. I think everybody looks good in coats. I like summer a lot, but I will say some of my best outfits involve a jacket, because I love jackets and coats.

Jojo  

Yeah. That's why I miss fall so much. All the pea coats you can wear.

Sarah  

This is when she she takes him to... she's basically helping him get his his life together. And she takes him to church. So here they are going to church. And he's kind of like, I don't know... I like a lot of his offstage wear and I would have pulled some of it but this movie stays really tight on like, heads and shoulders. So there weren't any good screencaps I could find of most of the stuff he wears offstage. So, you'll just have to trust me that a lot of it's really cute. [laughs]

Jojo  

I trust you, Sarah.

Sarah  

All right. And here is his freakin'... like, he's back. He's at the record label being like, "guess what? I'm gonna play a show at Folsom Prison." And they're like, "Say what?" And actually, I enjoyed this because there was a scene of him getting dressed. So... ta-da. Close up on that fabric. I love it.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.  Ooh, yeah.

Sarah  

Arianne said that while they had a small budget, the money they did spend was getting a lot of his stuff custom made. So...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...you can kind of tell, you know, it looks great, especially this outfit.

Jojo  

That's usually how we prioritize, you know. The lead character usually is who gets kind of the more custom made items, or at least the ones that are... a little more focus are put on them.

Sarah  

Exactly. And I think she probably saved a lot of money on shoes, because like I said, hardly any shots of anybody's full body in this movie. [laughs]

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Okay, and then here's him performing at Folsom. And I like this because of the the stark visual contrast between all of the inmates in blue, and then him in black in the middle. I just think it's a really effective picture.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Sarah  

And then I have one last one. This is when they're performing on stage. And he proposes her onstage, which is a very sweet scene. But she also had said no to him so many times. Like, obviously, he knew that she was in love with him. And he could feel that and probably could feel that she wanted to marry him. But he also... it's also just a little bit like he pressures her into it. Just a tiny... it's still very sweet, though.

Jojo  

Juuust a little bit.

Sarah  

It's... Yeah.

Jojo  

I mean, anytime you do something that public.

Sarah  

Right, you're like...

Jojo  

They don't really have another option.

Sarah  

Exactly. You're like, "Oh, so you won't say yes on the tour bus. So you'll say yes onstage in front of hundreds of people." [both laugh] I like this outfit on June. I think it looks a little bit 2000s-y. But I wonder if it is vintage. And it just kind of happens to look contemporary?

Jojo  

Yeah, like maybe a repeated silhouette or something.

Sarah  

Yeah, exactly. But it's very nice. Oh, and then this is when we come to this picture, because this is them onstage in the 60s.

Jojo  

Oh, cute.

Sarah  

I know. As we can see, the hair; very different. They did not go for a full 60s bouffant on her.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

For reasons as we have discussed. But I love this little dress. Look at this kicky little skirt. So cute!

Jojo  

Very cute.

Sarah  

Okay, so the thing I just wanted to finish up saying, is I watched... like I said, I watched an interview with her. It was at a film festival of some kind, and it was her and James Mangold.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

The director. And she just brought up a couple points. And I was like, "let's chat about that a little bit." She talked a lot about how the wardrobe department is an actor's, basically, first foray into their character.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

It's often the first thing they do on the movie, having a costume fitting and meeting with the costume designer.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So lots of times, the movie actor is coming from another project, they're really busy. You know, this is the first chance they've had to kind of stand there and be like, "oh, who is this character? What did they look like? How do they stand?"

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So I just thought that was really interesting, that costumes are often their first chance to see themselves as the character.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And they also they find a lot of their physicality in costume fittings, how are they going to stand? How are they going to walk?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So I just thought that was a really good point. And probably something that average people don't necessarily know, is that like, the first thing is not a rehearsal, sometimes. Sometimes the first thing is costumes.

Jojo  

Yeah. And that happens often very late in the game, especially for theatre. So it's like, sometimes... I mean, they have been doing their own research into the character, but once they actually see themselves. And I had that conversation with a few actors too, where they're like, "I was getting into my character, and I was understanding them a little bit. But it wasn't until I got into the costume that I fully embodied, like, who this character was." So that's always a kind of rewarding moment, I feel like, for designers. Because it really does mean you've thought about it... I mean, you both have thought about it. And you've clearly made those choices very intentionally. But to see the actor really get into the character that you've created for them too is a really nice part of the collaboration, I think.

Sarah  

Totally. And things can change, obviously, that's what fittings are for.

Jojo  

Yeah, absolutely.

Sarah  

And so something that you as a designer might think was perfect for the character, the actor might be like, "Well, I'm not sure, you know, if this is right, because of these reasons," and then you find, and you explore it together. And that's how it should be. It should be a dialogue and a relationship between you--the designer--the actor, and the director. It should be a collaboration and that's what I love about it.

Jojo  

Right. And that's what makes it so collaborative, is that you are having an open dialogue about it, and that it's not just "you just do whatever I want." Although that sometimes may be the case, if you've had a really extensive conversation with a director. But yeah, I think that's very important. So that's cool.

Sarah  

Yeah. And then the other thing she talks about is like, she said that she specializes in distracting actors during fittings. And I was like, "that's interesting." Because actors can often feel really objectified.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And I think it can be dehumanizing, especially, to be in a costume fitting when people are staring at your body, talking about your body, like you aren't in the room.

Jojo  

Right?

Sarah  

So it can be really hard when you make your living off of partially how you look.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So she said she likes to just chat with them and get them out of their head and get them out of focusing on the flaws they see in the mirror and just really work on her relationship with them in the fitting. And I was like, "yeah, that's a good thing to do." Because you don't want them to feel like they're just a mannequin being dressed.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah, I feel like sometimes those are the most.... Well, I guess I'm a little more biased, because most of the costume designers that I know, that I think are really successful, are the ones that do build that rapport with their actors, and sometimes become friends with their actors, because they've built up that relationship. And they've built that trust. And that's also-- I mean, you never know, an actor sometimes can be the one getting you the next job, too.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Even though people don't necessarily think about it that way. But you know, it's such a small industry, you really don't ever know who's going to get you your next job.

Sarah  

Totally.

Jojo  

So I think building that relationship with whoever you're working with, and in this case with actors, it's the most intimate relationship that you can have. It really does go a long way, when you're able to build that trust. I mean, you know, Arianne is the perfect example with Madonna, building up that trust and being that person that becomes her go-to. That's how she got a lot of her other work.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So it's kind of a cool... like, you get to see sort of how the relationship changes and shifts and builds and still kind of benefits both parties, because of that trust. So that's always important.

Sarah  

Totally. Yeah. Yeah.

Jojo  

So excitiing.

Sarah  

So that's "Walk the Line". And those are my little side tangents that I was like, "let's chat about this, this will be fun."

Jojo  

Good sidewalk conversations. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yeah. We like sort of diving into stuff that, you know, average, people who don't necessarily work in the industry might not think about or know. And it's all about shedding light and opening people up to what they might not know about.

Jojo  

Yeah. And hopefully that's, you know, that's what makes our podcast interesting, too, is...

Sarah  

I hope so too. [laughs]

Jojo  

... hearing more of that stuff. And even though it is costume related, but yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Opening it up to other things, because we don't just live in a vacuum of costume.

Sarah  

Totally, it's not just about the pretty dresses, even though it we like those too.

Jojo  

Yeah, very true.

Sarah  

All right.

Jojo  

Okay, let me...

Sarah  

Are you ready? What's your movie?

Jojo  

I'm doing "The Impossible," which... I'm just trying to get my stuff loaded up. So I can see my notes, as well as my pictures.

Sarah  

Yeah, no problem.

Jojo  

And I don't have a ton of pictures for this. Because again, very similar to Sarah, even though this movie actually got quite a few nominations, and Oscar wins, there were just really not a ton of pictures of this. And I mean, some of it is kind of understandable. Because it is a movie that is about a natural disaster. And so, you know, a lot of the costumes are naturally very, very distressed.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And it's not like it's some beautiful thing that you see on a mannequin that you can put on afterwards. It's really more about kind of seeing the realistic, I guess, and natural way that costumes can break down over time. So I kind of wanted to choose it for that reason, because as many of you know, I am really into distressing costumes. And I've talked about this in the past. So this, unfortunately... there were not a lot of pictures of all kind of the step by steps, which I wish that I could have gotten. But I'm going to try and at least get some kind of important beats throughout the movie, where we can actually see how the costume kind of changed, at least. And sort of how the the costume designer-- it was actually multiple--how they were sort of coming up with, you know, where these outfits came from and that kind of thing.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, so really quick, just talking about some of the background for "The Impossible". The director is J.A. Bay... Bayona? I think that's how you say his name. I believe he's actually a Spanish--like, from Spain--director. I don't know exactly what his ethnicity is, but he did projects like "The Orphanage," which was his directorial debut. He also did "A Monster Calls," which I've never...

Sarah  

Oh yeah.

Jojo  

...I've never actually seen the movie but I have a whole book on all of the the creative visual effects that they did for that movie, which is phenomenal.

Sarah  

I've read the book that that's based on, but I have not seen the movie.

Jojo  

Okay. Yeah. And then he also did "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom". So one of the newer ones.

Sarah  

Okay! Wow.

Jojo  

So his choices of what he directs is very, very eclectic and very versatile. So that was kind of interesting. But his directorial resume actually is not super long. But the fact is, even though he hasn't done a ton of projects, they've all been pretty big and well recognized at least. And then in terms of the costume designer, it was actually three people. And again, they're all... none of them are very big designers. Anne Bingeman, I think is how you say her name. She did "Deception". And she also did the the comedy "Bachelorette".

Sarah  

Oh yeah, I've seen that.

Jojo  

Yeah. Which I was like, "Oh, that's interesting." Very different movies.

Sarah  

Did we watch that together?

Jojo  

We might have! I feel like we did.

Sarah  

With Jessica?

Jojo  

Oh yeah, I think we did.

Sarah  

[both laugh] I think we did!

Jojo  

That's so funny, because I was like, "I know I watched it with somebody."

Sarah  

That's really funny.

Jojo  

And then Sparka Lee, which I thought was a very interesting name, literally spelled "spark" with an A at the end. She's mostly a costume supervisor and assistant. And I think that was kind of her role in this as well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But she did "The Constant Gardener". She was an assistant, I believe, for "Resident Evil," "Speed Racer," "The Reader," and then she was a supervisor for a lot of "The Queen's Gambit".

Sarah  

Oh, nice.

Jojo  

So she's probably had a little bit more of a recognizable career than the other two. And then the third costume designer was Maria Reyes. And she does a lot more foreign TV shows. So I don't think... there was a lot of stuff that I didn't recognize, I wrote them down. But they're not things-- they're not titles that I recognize. They're "Merli," "Oh Happy Day," which is also a TV show. And then "La torre de Suso," which I think is also a movie. But again, all titles that I was like, "I've never heard of any of these things." But maybe it's just because it's in a different country. And I've just haven't seen them.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So yeah, so that's just a little bit of background. Just to tell you a little bit more about the actual event that this was based on... it follows a tourist family who ends up heading to Thailand, and this was back in like 2004. So there was a huge tsunami, which is actually... it said that it was one of the largest tsunamis in record, even to today. And that occurred in the Indian Ocean. So basically it pretty much wiped out the entire coast of Thailand in 2004. So there were, let's see, what were the statistics that I wrote down? It was considered the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. It was a 200 foot wave. It wiped away entire towns and the lives of over 200,000 people across 14 countries.

Sarah  

Oh my god.

Jojo  

So this thing was huge. And it was traveling from Indonesia. But this this particular movie focuses mostly on Thailand. And then the death toll in Thailand was nearly 5400, including 2000 foreign tourists.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

So this focuses on one specific tourist family who, miraculously, all five of the family members ended up surviving. But there were obviously a lot of other tourist deaths that were also happening at this time.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So just to give you a little bit more background, because again, I don't have a ton of pictures. But I was curious how well they translated, I guess, what happened in real life versus what happened to this family, because it is a very isolated event. And actually, it only took place over about two days.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

But of course, the entire time during the movie, you're just like... I was like crying and tense and all these other emotions, just because I was like, "I don't know what's going to happen to these people, even though I kind of do."

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And also you're just watching them almost drown multiple times. And I think he spends a lot of time focusing on them underwater, getting hit and all this debris and everything. So of course, all those moments, you're kind of just sitting in tension, waiting, and hoping that they're going to resurface and and be able to breathe and survive. But the original family... and this is what I wanted to kind of touch base on, because I was a little confused. And there is a lot of critiquing about how they portrayed this movie, because the original family that survived was actually Spanish.

Sarah  

Oh.

Jojo  

And of course, all the actors that they cast for this were all well known white actors. And I think there was a back and forth of like, well, they chose these white actors. And there's a lot of white savior complex in there, even though there is you know, obviously they were in Thailand, and so they took a lot of the locals to portray, you know, the hospitals and the nurses and all the people that ended up helping. But the big critique was that it was essentially at the very end of it, the white family that survived while they didn't really focus on how much it actually affected the Thai people in the aftermath.

Sarah  

Do you know if if the family, the original family, was Spanish from Spain? Or were they Hispanic?

Jojo  

I believe they were from Spain. So yeah, not Hispanic, sorry.

Sarah  

There are white people in Spain but like...

Jojo  

Correct.

Sarah  

...it still would have been better to cast actual Spanish people.

Jojo  

Yeah. And I mean, it's very clear, the original lady was named Maria Belón. She was a physician. And then her husband's name is Enrique Álvarez. So you know, it's interesting the choices that they made. And you know, in justification, they actually did have the original Maria Belón come back, and literally be an advisor on--and guider on--the entire film.

Sarah  

That's good.

Jojo  

So she had a lot of, like... she was telling a lot of her own experience. And they said that their first interview with her... because I think she was also trying to figure out if these filmmakers were the right people to tell her story. Her first interview with them was actually five hours long, just her telling what happened.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

And I was like, "five hours?" Like, I can't even imagine. So a lot of, actually, what happened to Naomi Watts in the movie did in fact happen to Maria, in very much the same way. Even the way that the tsunami originally, or initially, approached them or attacked them. Like, they said that they actually had the family members standing in the same exact spot at that resort, where their family was. And I was like, "yikes." Like, I don't-- as an actor...

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

...I don't know that I would.... Like, that would have been so mentally like... I'm not ready for this.

Sarah  

That's a... that's heavy. That's like...

Jojo  

It is.

Sarah  

...that's a lot.

Jojo  

Definitely. And they actually, so they were from Japan originally. Sorry-- they lived in Japan for Álvarez's job. And then they ended up going to Thailand for Christmas. So they were actually there for holiday.

Sarah  

It was Christmas time?

Jojo  

Yeah. So crazy.

Sarah  

That is heartbreaking.

Jojo  

And then they said that in terms of the actual injuries that she suffered--because I was also curious about how much of that they translated--Belón apparently suffered severe thigh and chest injuries, which is also what they did in the movie for Naomi Watts. So like, very, very much exactly like what she experienced was what they kind of recreated.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Both parents ended up being separated from their children. So they had three sons, Lucas, Simón, and Tomás were the original names. They changed them to very white names of Lucas, Simon and Thomas.

Sarah  

Ooh.

Jojo  

And then even Enrique, they changed to Henry. Maria, they kept as Maria. But their last name was actually Bennett instead of, you know, Maria Belón and Álvarez.

Sarah  

That's...

Jojo  

So like that part of it, I was a little bit like, "uhhhh..."

Sarah  

How do you excuse that? Like, how do you... we wanted to get the movie made, and we didn't think that they would fund a movie with no white people in it?

Both  

[editor's note: our apologies, we do know that Spain is primarily Caucasian. Our use of "white people" in these exchanges is incorrect. We meant that instead of casting people who looked like the familiy--dark hair and olive skin--they cast very fair people and Anglicized their names, essentially changing the fact that the family is Spanish.]

Jojo  

Right. And I think that was the one person that critiqued it. They were like, "why did they choose not to use a, you know, a more well known celebrity that was from Spain?"

Sarah  

There are a lot, yeah.

Jojo  

Like, I think they had mentioned Penélope Cruz as an option, you know, things like that. And it was interesting because Maria, the original lady, actually said that when she talked to Naomi Watts, she felt the most... like she could relate to her the most when they were talking about the role.

Sarah  

Okay.

Jojo  

So I was like, "Oh, that's interesting that she connected the most with a white lady to represent her." Like...

Sarah  

Yeah, I'm glad that basically she gave her blessing on it.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Like, I'm glad she's not upset by the decision. Yeah, but it is kind of bad optics, you know?

Jojo  

Very much so, especially now. I mean, this was created a couple years ago, but like...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...you know, it's just weird to think about it now, when everything is so much more sensitive about that.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Okay. So let's see. One thing that I did want to mention, Naomi Watts quoted Belón when they spoke, she said, "Belón felt completely sure of her instinct." And this was like, during the time of the tsunami, everything that happened. She said, "Nothing got in the way of her instinct, and she'd never had that feeling before." So I think that was something that really helped Naomi kind of get into her character as well. Which you definitely do see that, like they make Naomi a little bit more fearful, I think, in the movie. Like she... when they start off on the plane flying to Thailand. She's already nervous about all the bumpiness on the plane.

Sarah  

Hmm.

Jojo  

And then when she goes into the actual... when she actually has to save her son, or try to reach her son, there's a little bit more of a jump of her anxiety, becoming a mother and trying to save her children. So moving on to costumes.

Sarah  

Costumes!

Jojo  

Sorry, I spent way too long talking about that, but I figured I would at least show some background. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yeah, it's good to have that information.

Jojo  

Before we talked about it.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I wanted to show you the original family. And you can tell they're... they look very Spanish, like from Spain. Like, all their features are very "from Spain." And then you have the white family that represents them. So... so yeah, it's quite a big difference. Ewan McGregor plays Henry.

Sarah  

[laughs] I'm sorry.

Jojo  

Naomi Watts plays Maria, obviously... I know.

Sarah  

We couldn't even put them in dark hair? Like, we couldn't even dye their hair? Okay. All right.

Jojo  

Yeah, yeah.

Sarah  

They had to be blonde.

Jojo  

And then we had, interestingly enough, this is actually Tom Holland.

Sarah  

Oh my god!

Jojo  

So funny, because I was like, "Oh, yeah, I forgot he was in this movie!"

Sarah  

Little baby.

Jojo  

He's so, so young in this movie. And he plays our oldest child, Lucas. And then we have our middle child, our little blond, blue eyed kid, who I believe is Simon. And then our youngest is Thomas. So I kind of wanted to pull this picture out, just because throughout the movie, the designers actually kept a really, really tight palette for them. So it was a lot of really nice earth tones. They're mostly in... like, if it's white, it's a kind of cream. I mean, this is probably the lightest white, and it's only the mom.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

The rest of the time, most of the guys are either in blues or greens, you'll see a lot of kind of deep grays, or kind of cooler tone grays. So I think they really did a good job of kind of sticking to that.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And then... and this is all, of course, before everything happens.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

This is a little out of order. But this was the original outfit that Maria is in. And this is pretty much the outfit she's in the entire time she's suffering through this tsunami. So she starts off, obviously, in this white tank top and the blue shorts. And of course, throughout the movie, there's so much that's happened. She's like, drowning in muddy water. So this totally looks like a completely different outfit by the end of this.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

But this is sort of where she starts.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, and then... so this was actually supposed to be before the other one. But this was basically one of the nights before the tsunami hits. They actually have a little lantern, which is very famous in Thailand, they do the lantern release.

Sarah  

Oh yeah. Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Where they're seeing the lanterns fly into the sky. And this is kind of their last calm and nice moment as a family. So I love that, again, it's still earth tones, but these beautiful greens that the costume designers decided to use here really kind of ties them into the the natural setting of Thailand as well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

She actually ends up putting these kind of tropical flowers in her hair. So it's this very tropical feeling, you know, they are on vacation.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So I did love that they kind of tied everyone together very tightly, in terms of color. Alright, so...

Sarah  

Oh boy. Here we go.

Jojo  

...after the tsunami hits, you can already see her white tank top has turned yellow.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She's already covered in mud. And even her blue shorts have kind of turned sort of a gray. It looks like they've kind of given her some... almost like salt stains.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Because this is after the water has kind of died down. But she's sort of still... kind of trying to find her way to help. They end up picking up this kid, which apparently this also happened in real life. They actually found a stray kid that they helped for a little while named Daniel.

Sarah  

Oh my gosh.

Jojo  

And in the movie they totally just make it a happy ending where he finds his dad, and they see him reunite with his dad. In the real situation, apparently Daniel was never found again. Like, somehow he got separated from them a second time and they never found out what happened to him.

Sarah  

Oh, no.

Jojo  

So it's like... it's just this really heartbreaking moment.

Sarah  

That's too dark, too dark for the movie, I guess.

Jojo  

It really is, it really is.

Sarah  

Oh, that's so sad.

Jojo  

And you can kind of see even with Lucas, he, you know, he's still got that kind of blue swimming shorts. I mean, like I said, there's not a ton of costume, interesting things here because they're in swimwear.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

They're at the pool when the tsunami hits. So it's like, very kind of bare minimum clothing.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But you do start seeing how much this kind of changes, even just seeing all of the different details of what water does to our clothes, after being in a muddy tsunami. And the other thing, too, that's interesting is she was wearing a swimming suit under this when everything happened, and somehow the swimsuit has just sort of disappeared.

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

Because during this time, she actually... underwater, gets stabbed in this, in the rib cage. And also a whole chunk of her back thigh is just missing. So there's a scene where-- I didn't want to show it because it was just very, very graphic.

Sarah  

That's fine. [laughs]

Jojo  

But you see the kid walking behind her, and he just sees a chunk of her leg just flapping down and he's like, "I can't."

Sarah  

Ugh!

Jojo  

He's like, "I can look at you right now," and so she makes him walk in front of her, so he doesn't have to look at it. And that's why she has this little thing tied around her leg, to like, keep the skin up. And I'm like, "oh my god."

Sarah  

Oh god. [laughs]

Jojo  

But yes, it's a lot of... and again, this is where it kind of gets down to the nitty gritty of like, this costume crafts person had to understand what each of these steps were. Like, everything that hits her has to somehow show up on her clothes.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

So you know, you start seeing the blood kind of dripping and staining from the side-- the side injury, but then you also see the blood kind of getting on some of her pants.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

It's just like, I don't know, it's so much to think about. Especially in a natural disaster, this where literally everything is making you dirty. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yes, that's the daunting part of distressing, I think. Like, you must have to completely storyboard it.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And then that's how you figure out how many duplicates you need. And you must have to like, just lay it all out.

Jojo  

Yeah. And I... you know, even in this, it's like, they must have had to have, you know, 15 or 16 copies of this shirt alone.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like, even just for a 20 minute segment, just because she goes through so much trauma, and she's still wading through water even after it kind of subsides. So like, there's still things that are happening, because she's still trudging through terrain, so...

Sarah  

Well, and then you're like, "Okay, so how many times does she have to do to the take," you know.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

"Do we need a fresh one at the beginning of every take, so that she can get wet?"

Jojo  

Right, exactly.

Sarah  

So yeah, it's so much to think about.

Jojo  

And that also makes me wonder why we have, you know... it's probably why they had three costume people.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And also why they had a supervisor in addition to, you know, maybe a more seasoned designer, because someone who's a supervisor understands more of that craft stuff. And usually, they'll either at least have someone on hand that they know who can do that, or they're often the ones doing some of the craft stuff.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So it's, you know, it's sort of interesting how they pulled together their team. Like, it makes a lot more sense when you're looking at the amount of craziness that has to happen to these costumes in terms of breaking them down.

Sarah  

Yeah. And you need people on set who know exactly what is supposed to be happening when.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So I think that is... that's kind of probably what a supervisor would do too, right? Is be, like...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...in charge of knowing which one is for which scene.

Jojo  

Right, right, and making sure everything is organized in such a way that they don't get those mixed up.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah. Okay.

Sarah  

Wow, oh no.

Jojo  

So this is the next stage. She gets basically dragged through... I mean, there's quite a few things that happen in between this, of course, but a big part of this--the original story, too--was that a Thai man actually ended up dragging her through the mud. And like, this is so hard to watch, because she's just screaming in pain the entire time. And they just-- they're just dragging her through grass, and like...

Sarah  

Ohh.

Jojo  

...mud and all these other things. And she... you know, it's the back of her leg. So it's just getting ripped up even more. But that's his only way of trying to get her to a hospital and get her to somewhere safe.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And you see her son in the front. Like, it's interesting, because clearly the people making this movie did not want to hurt children or make them look hurt. So like, the two youngest kids, don't look distressed or dirty or anything at all.

Sarah  

[laughs] Not bloody.

Jojo  

You see maybe one or two scenes where Tom Holland gets kind of beat up under the water, but you know, in terms of the amount of pain and injury that he sustained, it's much, much less than...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...what Naomi Watts goes through.

Sarah  

People don't want to see kids getting hurt.

Jojo  

It's so true. So yeah, they definitely kept them pretty clean in general. But she, again, she gets stabbed right in the side. And then it's really gross. Like, they actually show her boob all sliced up underneath. And so, you know, her son's obviously freaking out because she's like, falling apart in front of him.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And so she ends up having to tie one of her tank top straps to the other side, just to, like, cover herself.

Sarah  

Uh huh.

Jojo  

So yeah, it's just, you know, this looks so horrible here. But again, it just shows you this is sort of the next few steps that our craftsperson had to pay attention to.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She's getting dragged through the mud. She's also got all the blood on top, she's probably bleeding more because she's being dragged through other stuff. So it's just all those things that you have to pay attention to. Because as humans, that's what would happen in real life.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So yes, so she ends up wearing pretty much this outfit for the rest of the time until she's she's able to get to the hospital.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

Okay, so Tom Holland. Obviously when he gets to the hospital, somehow he finds a shirt. Or like, they end up... so when they get to the actual Thai village, where it's a little safer, they actually have a-- it's basically like all the local people end up coming and, you know, putting... they end up giving her a shirt. They end up, you know, giving Lucas another shirt. But one of the reasons I wanted to pull this image is not just because it's like, "Okay, great, now we have a costume change." But it kind of also goes to show the kind of clothes that are overseas. Because a lot of times, overseas countries do end up just getting, essentially, the waste that America gets rid of.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So it's interesting that we're looking at graphics that look a little bit more American, but it's almost like it's faded out, or it's not quite there anymore.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like these are old clothes that have been discarded from elsewhere.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I kinda want to just pull that in. Because I mean, it just says... even with how kind of dingy it looks, it tells you a lot about what's actually in the rest of the world, and how other people manufacture clothing, or even get clothing from other places. Or wealthier places.

Sarah  

Yeah, I think, you know, Americans at large don't necessarily think about what happens to our clothes when...

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

...you know, they can't even be sold in Goodwill or whatever.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

That's what happens, is that we ship them to other countries and just... make it their problem instead of ours.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah. And like, he gets this as a new shirt, but you can see how torn up the collar is, and how the sleeves are all torn up.

Sarah  

Yeah. And the graphic is faded.

Jojo  

So yes, I just thought that was a really interesting way to kind of introduce that.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, so then the second half of the movie, they kind of go... I mean, because the first half of the movie you're really focusing on how Naomi is able to find her son, and they stay together, and how they're able to get to the hospital.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And hers is probably the much more traumatic experience, because I think she obviously went through a lot more injuries. Somehow, Ewan McGregor stays fairly intact and untouched through all of this. Which is weird. But he's also in the pool with his kids when he starts.

Sarah  

Oh.

Jojo  

And I wanted to pull this image, even though it's the dirty version of this, because he has these pretty standard Hawaiian blue swimming trunks. But in the beginning, his kids are just making fun of how ugly they are. [laughs] And so it's just funny that, you know, it... obviously, it's not a huge thing, but then they just get so dirty and ripped up by the time he gets through the tsunami. And yet, somehow, the only injuries he sustains are maybe a few scars here and there on his face.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

And when they find him, or when he starts his kind of portion of the story, he's still back at the resort. So somehow, he's survived enough after the water has kind of subsided, to still remain at the resort. And he's somehow found his two kids. So like, apparently, they were also clinging to a tree. And that's how he found both of them. Like, they were both, you know, just holding on.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And so at this point, the water has subsided. The rest of the movie, his goal is to just basically find his wife and his kids, because he feels like they're alive, even though no one else seems to think so. So I just wanted to pull that image really quick, because that's mostly what he's in until he's able to find a shirt.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Later on, this is still him looking for his wife, he's kind of talking to his kids and trying to convince his middle child that he has to take care of Thomas, because you know, they're going to go somewhere safe to the top of the mountain so that it's far away from the water. And then he's going to keep looking for his wife. So basically, this is sort of like a "grow up, you gotta man up and take care of your younger brother."

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Because he's also the kid that's afraid of everything at the beginning of the movie.

Sarah  

Aww. I relate to that.

Jojo  

Okay, so moving on. This is actually... I believe this is one of my last ones. I wanted to pull this because she's one of the few characters that kind of gets a little bit more screen time, other than the guy that drags Naomi Watts through the mud. And she actually does speak pretty fluent English, because she's one of the ones that finally kind of is able to converse with Lucas when he's trying to find... at a certain point in the hospital, he loses his mom temporarily. So she finally is able to converse with him and calm him down and try to help him find his mom again. And so she's kind of... it's still a really, really small role. And again, another big critique is that the local people just aren't given much of a character in this movie. But she ends up kind of having this big long conversation with him and she ends up kind of being his trustworthy, like, go-to nurse.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So she has a very small part, but you do see her represented a little bit more. And I kind of just wanted to show, again, their uniform is clearly not pristine, like we are used to seeing in the States.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

It's clearly like, this is the shirt that she got. And it's probably whatever "Goodwill" version that she got out of wherever she could find. And that's their uniform for the hospital.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

So I just thought that was interesting, to sort of represent kind of what the local people were wearing. And I didn't do enough research to find out how accurate this actually was.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Or if this is just something she wore on her own, versus an actual, you know, hospital issued uniform.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And then last one.. they talked about-- like, I just kind of pulled this image because again, they haven't really changed. But this is sort of where they finally find each other. And this is after a very long like hour and a half of the movie. So within that last half hour, Lucas finally finds his two brothers, and then they finally find their dad.

Sarah  

Aww.

Jojo  

So there was this really heartwarming moment. And again, it's sort of like a double edged sword, right? There's so many other people that die during the tsunami that aren't focused on in this movie. And yet, the white family is the one that survives. So I think that was one of the biggest critiques of this movie, of how whitewashed everything was.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But you know, it's at the end of it, it's still a very heartwarming happy ending, I think. Unfortunately, audiences don't... well, I shouldn't say "unfortunately," but audiences don't really like to see a sad ending for things like this, where it is a natural disaster that's totally out of your control.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

But it is also one of those things where, you know, it makes you wonder, what about all those other families that didn't make it? So... Yeah, anyways, that was the last thing I had for this movie. Again, a really hard thing to watch.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

But I did like that they at least brought the original survivor into the discussion and didn't just try and like, fake it or make something happen that wasn't really happening.

Sarah  

I feel like if I was making this movie, which... I don't make movies, so whatever. But I would probably try to tell a bunch of family's stories, you know?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Instead of... you can get the real life testimony from the survivors and try to do justice to their actual story.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

But you could also add in some side characters who are on their own sort of struggle and journey, and maybe not all of them have happy endings, you know?

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Like, you could tell the story in a way that was sensitive to the actual family who survived this. And then... but also sensitive to everybody else who didn't find their family.

Jojo  

Right. Which... I think, you know, they did do a little bit of that.

Sarah  

Yeah?

Jojo  

When Lucas is running through the hospital. Because while his mom is laying kind of in the hospital ready for surgery, he ends up... just because he doesn't know what to do with himself. So he ends up running around the hospital, and all these people end up reaching out to him and being like, you know, "have you seen this person?"

Sarah  

Mmm.

Jojo  

Like, most of them are parents asking for their sons, or their kids.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And so he starts going around, he starts taking their names down, and walking around the hospital and just yelling out names, being like, "anybody recognize this name?" So there is a little bit of that, that I think they tried to throw in there to like, redeem some of it.

Sarah  

[laughs] Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah, you know, it is one of those things where I think you see maybe two families reunite-- including that kid Daniel, who in real life, we never find out what actually happens to him. But there is another family who... the son and the father get reunited, because Lucas ends up finding him.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And then there's another mom who also goes, like... she has a similar situation and ends up having to go into surgery kind of right next to Maria's character. And you never find out what happens to her. Like, she goes into surgery. And she, I think she writes her name on Maria's arm, so that she won't forget her name, because she was like, "I have a family too. And I just want to say bye to them one last time before... I don't know if I'm going to survive this surgery," kind of thing.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

And then she goes into surgery, and you never see her come back out. So you know, there's a lot of unfinished stories, which, you know, I think they tried to do that. Which is probably why this movie lasted two hours. Like, I forgot that that was long it was. [laughs] And I was like, "how are they going to make a movie about a tsunami last two hours?" [both laugh] But you know, they did it. So... so yes, it was interesting to see how they were able to kind of translate some of that. And like, show all of it. I think, you know, again, at the end of the day, I'm kind of like, "what was the reasoning behind switching to a white family when it didn't have to be done that way?"

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like, you know, it's one thing if you're resonating with that particular actress. But like, they could have even kept her husband, you know, Spanish. Or... I don't know, something like that.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

I'm not a filmmaker. So who knows? But...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...but yes, it does make me wonder what their choices are, what their motivations behind those choices were.

Sarah  

It's hard to justify that, you know, in a way that really makes a lot of sense. Other than...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

"...we were worried about money. We were worried that people wouldn't pay to see a movie about people who weren't white," which is like... [grimace sound] [laughs]

Jojo  

Right. And then last fun fact I wanted to share was when they did the tsunami, apparently he built a water tank. And that's how they filmed the whole movie. I think it was very similar... I can't remember the other movie you said that they did that for. But there was another one.

Sarah  

"Parasite"?

Jojo  

Yes. Yeah.

Sarah  

Yeah, I just transcribed that one.

Jojo  

They built a water tank. And like, they just... you know, they kind of just did most of their swimming in there.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And then they just added some digital, you know, extra effects or visual effects afterwards for the extra stuff. But I was like, "That's so crazy," because I can't imagine trying to film. He tried to use as much real water as possible, though.

Sarah  

Oh, wow.

Jojo  

He was like, "I wanted it to be as authentic as possible." So a lot of the tidal waves that come in, and things like that, all of that happened for real. And I was like, "yikes," that's... that's so crazy and scary. Like, I can't imagine.

Sarah  

Yes, I feel like that would be very hard. But also I think about actors and I'm like, "a movie where you're wet the whole time?" That just has to suck to shoot.

Jojo  

Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

Sarah  

Just wet for two months.

Jojo  

And where you have to constantly change costumes, just to make sure you're continuous. Like...

Sarah  

They're like, dumping buckets on you before they start. Ugh.

Jojo  

Yep, yep. So yeah, must have been a very grueling process. For sure.

Sarah  

Yeah. Yeah.

Jojo  

But yeah, that's my coverage of "The Impossible."

Sarah  

Great job.

Jojo  

Thanks, Sarah.

Sarah  

I'm glad you covered that, because I am glad I know about that movie now. But that's the kind of movie that would stress me out deeply to watch. So now I got the experience of watching it without having to actually watch it. [both laugh]

Jojo  

So funny. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I will definitely say, the scene where she reunites with her son--and she's trying to get back to him because they're so far apart--and they see each other and they're both screaming for each other, but they can't get close enough to each other. And there's a whole scene where they're reaching across a mattress, but they can't touch hands, because it's too far away. And they're still also trying to avoid debris under the water that they can't see. And I'm just like, "this is so stressful!" And I feel like I don't know what I'd do if this was me, and my parents. Or like, me and a child that I cared about. [laughs]

Sarah  

I hope we never have to find out what that's like.

Jojo  

Agreed. Agreed. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Oh, man.

Jojo  

But yes. So yeah, that's our coverage of true event movies.

Sarah  

Very different films we picked, from each other. [laughs]

Jojo  

Absolutely.

Sarah  

That's good. We like to keep it spicy. Keep it fresh.

Jojo  

That's true. It's very true.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Keep your interest peaked.

Sarah  

Exactly. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Oh, man. Well.

Sarah  

Okay.

Jojo  

Thank you so much, Sarah, that was so much fun.

Sarah  

Thank you, JoJo.

Jojo  

Thank you guys for joining us. And again, if you have any comments or questions or just other things you want to add, maybe more information about either of our movies that maybe we didn't cover, please feel free to add or comment on Instagram.

Sarah  

Yes! Totally.

Jojo  

We are behind on YouTube. So I will get back on that this week. Sorry. It's been a crazy month. But thank you for being patient with us.

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

And we look forward to hearing all of your comments and notes and questions and everything else.

Sarah  

Yes, we appreciate your patience as we, you know, try to fit doing this podcast around our regular lives. [laughs]

Jojo  

So true. Well, thanks again and we'll see you on the next one.

Sarah  

See ya. Bye.

Jojo  

Bye!

[OUTRO]

Jojo

Thank you for listening to The Costume Plot! You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thecostumeplot. If you have a question, comment, or movie suggestion you can email us at thecostumeplot@gmail.com.

Sarah

Our theme music is by Jesse Timm, and our artwork is by Jojo Siu. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts.