#andrew downing

[toomuchlovereviews]

Final Destination 2 (2003)

⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5

I’m aware I am watching these films out of order, I still can’t find the first one on Criterion on Demand, but c’est la vie.

Maybe it’s because I always believe my friends, but I would never have let my friend drive onto the highway after hearing her vision. Wack. Her friends were not there for her.

I can’t help but feel like this whole series is like that text post about Apollo gifting people with Sight.

(Edit: THIS ONE!)

Also very wild to say “have you noticed anything ironic?” to a person that believes they’re going to die. That’s pretty twisted.

Also, sometimes, it’s not fate coming to get you, it’s a lack of kitchen safety and WHIMS knowledge. It all gets us in the end. Regardless, the tension in each death scene is so worth it.

I think that this twist on the original narrative was compelling but sometimes the actors couldn’t sell it. See: “See what? 😐 Pigeons? 🤨” and “😃 Tim! 😐” Other actors were putting their whole pussy into their performance to the point of near camp. But I think that horror movies like this make a person like myself easier to digest the horror.

You should watch this film for:

The yearly reminder that WHIMIS safety is indeed important

Edging. You get it if you have seen a single movie in this franchise.

The mid 00s dialogue, with gems like “Suck my junk, biatch!”

Similar titles:

The rest of the Final Destination Franchise (ig)

Escape Room (2019) (deals with a lot of planned horror, and asks the question ‘who will make it out alive?’)

[storyof-eden]

Andrew Minyard really looked at David Wymack with that med-induced grin and said "I don't give a shit about stickball or school. But my brother wants to be a doctor. And my cousin deserves something good for taking care of us the last few years. So if you sign them, too, I'll pretend."

And David Wymack really said "okay, kid."

[seasonofhorror]

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) | The Craft (1996)

[sunflowerius]

one of my favorite things about aftg is that in any given conversation not related to about, like, three things (exy, Andrew, and the mafia) Neil is just. entirely checked out. he was there for the first sentence of that conversation and immediately clocked out once he realized there would be no Stick Ball Talk.

[dustedmagazine]

Lina Allemano Four—Pipe Dream (LUMO)

Photo by Cristina Marx

Pipe Dream by Lina Allemano Four

The latest by Lina Allemano’s long-running quartet takes on the impact of Covid-19, though the inspiration of this heavy topic is not intrusive. Rather, Pipe Dream offers a reflection on one of the defining events of our generation with a kind of playful solemnity well suited to uncertain times.

In thinking about the impact of the pandemic on music, it seems useful to distinguish three phases. First, there are recordings made just before the lockdown and released in the thick of it that provided much-needed joy and relief at a time when live music had all but ceased, such as the Lina Allemano 4’s previous release, Vegetables, recorded in January 2020 and released in April 2021. Next, there are recordings made under lockdown conditions, a personal favorite being João Madeira’s Quartet Exquis, for which the musicians recorded their parts in isolation without hearing each other, released late in 2021 in the midst of the omicron wave. Now, some recordings made after things have opened up again are appearing that try to make sense of the experience, such as Eri Yamamoto’s A Woman with a Purple Wig, released in November 2022, in which the pianist processes the anti-Asian hate that the pandemic fueled. 

Pipe Dream also belongs to this third phase, having been recorded in February 2021 and appearing some two years later. According to the liner notes, Allemano wrote the music during isolation in Toronto, and the band has clearly spent considerable time working up the arrangements while leaving ample room for improvisation during the recording. The first three tracks establish a mood and sound consistent with the 4’s previous records, offering plenty of twists and turns and memorable themes. Often, double bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Nick Fraser provide a roiling, shifting framework over which Allemano’s trumpet and Brodie West’s alto chase and respond to one another, as on “Dragon Fruit,” in which their intertwined lines introduce the theme and evolve purposefully under the propulsion of bursts of bowed bass and nervous percussion; then the pace slows, the theme is restated, the group picks up steam and slows again, and, in the final two minutes, coalesces into a stirring return to the theme. 

The rest of the tracks form a four-part suite titled “The Plague Diaries.” The first part, “Longing,” is introduced with a tour de force two-minute trumpet solo that displays the circular breathing used to great effect on Allemano’s 2020 solo recording. The band joins in to reinforce the theme and help convey the titular emotion, with Downing both holding things together and contributing a third voice alongside the horns. Other emotions are explored as the suite proceeds, from “Trying Not to Freak Out,” which begins with a haunting solo by West and lurches from groans to outbursts that could be a soundtrack to the early pandemic experience. A solo from Downing gets things going on “Hunger and Murder” with a combination of arco and pizzicato initiating a dark, slow churn that eventually erupts into fireworks before coming reluctantly to a halt. Fraser opens the closing track “Doom and Doomer” with a furious solo and then the other instruments impose a pulsing cadence that gives way to a kind of march before the four blend back together in the final minute in a stately resolution to the suite and the record as a whole. 

After nearly 20 years together, the Lina Allemano 4 continue to make consistently interesting music. Pipe Dream can be a challenging record, but it’s also a lot of fun. It may be rewarding to reflect on the Covid experience while listening, but it’s certainly not necessary. 

Jim Marks

[aalyre]

one thing about the foxes that will always make me giddy is the team taking shots at their own goals knowing that andrew’s gonna catch the ball

[frenchublog]

[kevindavidday]

neil, jean and jeremy all have such fanboy descriptions of kevin idek what a pov would sound like from the perspective of someone who isn't in love with him

[allforthegaymes]

Neil playing striker meaning his job on the court is to prevent the ball from getting towards Andrew in the first place.

Neil who tried to prevent Prost from happening to Andrew by going to the Nest, trying to keep anything bad far away from Andrew. But instead at the Nest he’s forced to play backliner, representing that hes attempt to keep Prost from happening to Andrew failed, the ball metaphorically landing in the net.

Nicky and Aaron who play backliners, the last line of defense to try and keep the ball from getting at Andrew. Coming in later than Neil’s position as a striker, relying on Neil first to keep the ball far away, but stepping into their roles as protectors when it strikes too close.

Backliners being the players to get most aggressive, fighting with other players to protect the goalie.

Aaron being the one who brings the racket down on Drake.

Neil is there first, at the metaphorical ball, but it slipped past him, and Aaron is the one whose there to scoop it up and ricochet it back towards the other end of the court.

THE MURDER CHARGE AT LEGAL COURT REPRESENTED BY THE RED CARD ON THE EXY COURT

[lucabyte]

Taking pride in One's own appearance.

[lifemod17]

the smile of the man who forgot the rules of a 2 truths 1 lie game and gave all three truths

your honor I love him

[wheredidthe80sgo]

funniest part about aftg is undeniably the fact that andrew thought liking neil was a side effect of him being high 24/7 and then he comes back sober and realises not only was it not a side effect of the drugs but it’s gotten worse, and it turns out those feelings are reciprocated so he ends up with a whole ass boyfriend who now has absolutely no filter bc he’s not being chased by his serial killer father anymore

[seasonofhorror]

THE CRAFT

1996, dir. Andrew Fleming

[userarmand]

ANDREW SCOTT for Esquire | ph. Ramon Christian

"I'm also wearing a couple of gold rings that my mother, who died really recently, always wore. They remind me of her. One of them she made herself, so, I just wanted to say that I'm wearing that so I have her with me on the evening as well. That's important. I just wanted to let you know."

[queenoffoliage]

Your honor, he was indeed spinning

[unlicensedmortician]

i love how andrew and neil are just doing the most insane obsessive in love things possible and neil is like yeah that’s andrew. we just spent two minutes pressed up against each other and staring lovingly in a way that literally no one else could get away with upon being reunited because that’s just how andrew is