#apparently this is my 50th post

[s-h-sarah]

Denouement.

Happy b-day Sunny! I was plagued with a severe art block before I remembered it's his birthday today!

I drew this on a new tablet my brother gave for free. How nice! He usually charges secondhanded things for a quarter of the original price so I'm gonna count it as a positive sign for all things coming!

[gothyanki]

Find me crying over Kith'rak Voss in the designated Crying Over Kith'rak Voss corner.

[kiwikiswia]

yeag

[uty-ask-axis]

(OOC)

Tumblr: hey u got 26 notifs!

Me: how?? I didn't post for 4 days, and my last post that isn't a reblog was from 2 weeks ago

Tumblr: oh, 13 more!

Me: WHAT THE-

Tumblr:

(super long screenshot under cut)

[lunarthing159]

I think in a family au jimmy would be a Boy Scout that has a major ego boost after every meeting only to cooldown after a day or two but of course it’s starts up again the next meeting

I Can See That! (Also, In Relation To Your Last Ask Abt Your Family AU: Grian Def Pokes A Bit Of Fun At Jimmy If He Ever Brings Home Macaroni Art. However, This Shall Not Cripple The Pride Boost Of The Smol Jim)

[009isdrawing]

I got a "Liquid Chrome" silver marker for Christmas and I don't know what to do with it.

[mercutio-of-escalus]

tumblr just glitched into light mode but only when i am viewing my own posts, and all other posts are in dark mode. what sick joke is this tumblr @staff. what do you want from me

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

03/18/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast&Crew; Samba; Leslie Jones; Taika; Rachel House; Rhys; Kristian; New Weekly Event Calendar; YouWear50Well; Ranker; AdoptOurCrew Rhys Radness; Fan Spotlight; Fundraiser Status; Kudoboard; Watch Parties; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika

Hey friends! Thank you for the kind words about my head injury! So far so good, not dead yet-- although I am a bit out of it so I apologize if i'm not totally articulate! I appreciate you all reaching out and sending love <3 You are the best crew ever!

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

== Samba More BTS ==

Samba gave us a whole bunch more BTS today! This time regarding the Spanish Jackiez Set! (I ran out of room for images on this so please visit the stills links for the pile of pics Samba dropped.)

Stills #1: Spanish Jackiez Stills

Stills #2: More Spanish Jackiez Stills

Video #1: Matthew confirming stuff

Video #2: "Hey Hey, Just mee and my big swords here" - Erroll

Video #3: "Are you a husband Kristian?"

Video #4: Flaming Bananas Practice

Video #5: Flaming Bananas Take

== Leslie Fucking Jones ==

Just, what can I say, this woman is on fire every time I see her. <3

SRC: Leslie Jones IG

== Taika ==

Taika was all over the place today, which is AWESOME! It's so good to see him feeling more comfortable posting on SM again, he also apparently is in some sort of influencer era because he keeps posting product reviews, which is hilarious and awesome.

=Rachel House =

Rachel House directed The Mountain, and Taika helped Produce it, she's out exhibiting the soundtrack that's available now!

Are you currently in Aotearoa (New Zealand)? They've got some screenings of the Mountain and Q & A sessions with Rachel! Visit the @temauunga linktree for more information and availabilities!

= Rhys =

For those of you not already aware-- Rhys is having a cameo on Night Court! As the Duke of Greybog. Available on Peacock!

= Kristian Nairn =

Just Kristian being sweet and continuing to keep us updated

= Gizmo = Poor Gizmo is missing Theo.

== Mar 18 - 24 Event Calendar ==

March 19th: London Billboard Round 2!

== YouWear50Well ==

Early reminder! The 21st is Rhys' Birthday! Since it'll be the 21st for some crew members earlier than others, @yronnia was kind enough to give us information early regarding the 50th birthday news! Please be sure to Post your birthday wishes to Rhys and show him your appreciation! Send your fanart and other creations using #YouWear50Well. Please Note: Please do not tag Rhys repeatedly! He's going to be getting a lot of notifications. Even just having notifications under #YouWear50Well will help keep everything visible :)

== Ranker ==

Wanna help boost Our Flag Means Death? There's another Ranker poll! Remember to rank OFMD up, and other shows down if you want to help keep OFMD up. Obviously vote how you like though :)

== Adopt Our Crew: Rhys Radness ==

So something I didn't cover yesterday was all the Rhys Radness going on over on Twitter! The first round of votes results were:

There are 4 categories: Movies, Commercials, Short Poppies, and Television

Todays options were:

Now one thing you'll notice, is the tv-show category between Stede Bonnet & Charles, and Steve and Murray got a bit out of hand. Most of the rest of the polls ranged in the 200-400 votes-- while those two ranged in the 7-9000K votes. Obviously somebody was having some bot fun. What's interesting is that during the day, once the bots started, they were heavily favoring Charles, and Murray, then the other half of they day they were heavily favoring Stede and Steve! We'll see who wins later tonight!

== Fan Spotlight! ==

Two more cast cards! This time Connor Barrett and Michael Crane! Our two captive Englishmen from Season 1! Thank you @melvisik for keeping these going :D

= MaxFanFaves =

Our dear crewmate @iamadequate1 has been hosting their own #MaxFanFaves on Twitter-- and its down to the final 4!

Coyote Vs Acme / Harley Quinn, and Our Flag Means Death / Gentleman Jack!

== Kudoboards closing soon =

Last chance! Thank you to @sharpenyersword on Twitter for setting up ALL THE KUDOBOARDS! Rhys' birthday kudoboard will close on the 20th, the rest will close on the 22nd.

Go send the cast and crew some love folks!

Rhys Darby's Birthday

David Jenkins

Nathan Foad

Con O'Neill

Ruibo Qian

Leslie F*cking Jones!

Matthew Maher

Vico Ortiz

Samson Kayo

Alex "Ass Tonight" Sherman!

David Fane

Kristian "Wee John Wednesdays" Nairn!

Samba "BTS and Baking King" Schutte!

Fellow OFMD Fan Crew!

== Taika Kudo Board ==

LAST DAY FOR TAIKA!

= Watch Parties =

== Wrecked ==

There are sources being passed around. If access is an issue, DM @iamadequate1 on Twitter or Tumblr

Season 3 watch from March 18th to March 22nd. 

Times will be 10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 4pm CST / 2pm PST. Watch two episodes per day. Episodes are 21-22 minutes each. Use the following Saturday for the tags/watch if interested but not able to make this time.

Hashtags: 

#WreckedPirates

#SaveOFMD

#RhysDarbyFaction

New watch parties!

Movie: Boy Date: Sunday March 31st at Time: 10am EST / 2pm GMT. We're watching Boy (2010) Hosted By: @tillychmo & @regg_official Location / Hastags: TBA

== Fundraiser Statuses ==

eSIMS and Sanitary Products for Gaza

03/10/24 - $5689 / 191 Supporters / 71 %

03/11/24 - $5814 / 194 Supporters / 72%

03/18/24 - $6558 / 248 Supporters / 81%

Getting close all!

= In Soup Now =

03/10/2024 - £925 / 39 supporters / 18%

03/11/2024 - £1183 / 47 supporters / 23%

03/18/24 - £1833 / 69 supporters (nice) / 36%!

Still going-- 12 days left!

== Love Notes ==

Hey Lovelies. It's that time again. Time for me to gush over you for a bit.

Look at you! Go look at yourself in the mirror. Whether you see dark circles under your eyes, someone you can't recognize, or someone feeling put together --- You're gorgeous inside and out.

You are a tenacious, strong, amazing person, and whether you are where you want to be or not, you are making progress.

You're doing so well, even when it feels like you're not. Progress is so hard to gauge when you're living it-- but I know, because I talk to you all every damn day, that you are getting there. You bring out the best in every one around you, and you do so without even knowing it.

Even when things feel down, just know we can see you growing and you bring so much joy to our lives. I continue every day to be thankful for finding this little corner of the internet, for letting me meet each and every one of you.

Nothing can stop you lovelies-- nothing at all.

You're gonna get there, it just may take some time--

Remember to take breaks and get some rest if you can, it always makes things feel more manageable. But whatever you do, don't give up <3

We're here and we believe in you.

Love you crew, <3

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight's theme-- Driving! ... or parking, in Murray's case. And NO this does not indicate who I voted for. Putting Murray vs Steve was cruel to be honest, how am I supposed to choose between those two!? Darby Gif Courtesy of: @ofmooshd This terrible Taika gif is courtesy of me, cause I was gonna put it in his sighting section then realized I could just put it here.

[violetfaust]

For my own sanity

I'm trying to put together a list of the various versions of Goncharov (1973) screened throughout the last fifty years.

The four-and-a-half-hour film festival cut that even Scorsese felt was a rough draft

The US theatrical release in 1973

The 1973 European theatrical release with its extra half hour of footage

The 1973 Latin American dub with its extra half hour of different footage

The so-called Secret Reels that producer Domenico Procacci the Elder (not to be confused with the unrelated Italian filmmaker Domenic Procacci the Younger, who has only been active since the late 80s) used to screen at his fantastic, legendary drug-fueled parties in the 70s--these seem to be (at least one of) the source(s) of the deleted Goronchov/Andrey sex scene

The 1980 director's cut

The 1980s Soviet bootleg (which became so popular that it led to the 1993 re-envisioning)

Matteo's own controversial "Writer's Cut" (particularly complicated because apparently he never stopped editing and re-editing to fully achieve his personal vision--every time he screened the movie after 1975, privately or publicly, it had at least some minor differences and often incredibly large ones, with entire character arcs added or lost). At least one of these, my own personal favorite with the deleted second epilogue, was copied and got into general circulation on college campuses and whatnot

Also probably based on one of Matteo's cuts, the "Underground" cuts that were the basis of the Queer improv parties dating back at least to 1982

The first VHS release

The rare Betamax release with the extra Patchka scene

The post-Soviet edit 1993 "modernization" re-envisioning Gonchorov/Katya's backstory that was most Millennials' introduction to the movie

The butchered 90s broadcast TV airings (both of which cut vital plot points--such as Ice Pick Joe's lobotomy backstory--and were likely the reason an entire generation lost interest in the film)

The 1998 25th-anniversary director's cut (the one that The New Yorker famously panned with "It seems that Scorsese has forgotten his own movie")

The 40th-anniversary DVD release with six hours of additional footage

The recent gorgeously digitized Blu-ray release that included the nine-hour supercut and "Making Of" documentary (and probably inspired the Gonchorov renaissance)

The eagerly awaited upcoming 50th-anniversary Criterion edition that's rumored to incorporate the "Lost Reels" that Matteo, Scorsese, Al Pacino, and second assistant editor Mariana Lyudmila Manuali had kept private, as well as the distinct four hours of Patchka footage that the cinematographer filmed whenever he got bored.

And, of course, the crowdsourced Internet project to recover the "definitive" Gonchorov, incorporating most of the known footage as well as new home-filmed snippets from the private collections of minor players like Lynda Carter (in her first screen role as Dancer #2) and Henry Winkler (the busboy)--currently running twelve hours

Am I missing anything?

(Note: This list intentionally excludes the probably apocryphal student project that reframed the entire film from Valery's point of view--even if it actually exists and uses original footage, it can only be considered an homage to the full film and not an actual variant.)

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Jenna Coleman: The Audios

With the announcement of a new digital audio book read by Jenna Coleman coming soon, I thought it might be handy to give a quick list of her recorded works so far. This doesn't include commercial/documentary narration or video game voiceovers, obviously.

All these I believe are all available digitally in some form, too. (Officially or unofficially):

The Secret Garden - recorded in 2012-2013 for AudioGo, Jenna reads an abridged version of the children's story. The CD is hard to come by, since AudioGo went out of business soon after its release.

Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctor - The Time Machine. Part of a year-long series of original narrated audio dramas produced by Big Finish in conjunction with AudioGo/BBC Audio for the 50th anniversary in 2013. This was the Eleventh Doctor chapter of the storyline, but incredibly and inexplicably it does not feature Clara but rather a one-off companion named Alice. Jenna nonetheless narrates the tale and plays both Alice and the Eleventh Doctor. My head canon is Alice is a Clara echo. AudioGo died almost immediately after its release, but Big Finish covered its distribution and I think you can still buy the MP3 version from them, along with the rest of the Destiny arc. Thus far it remains Jenna's only Big Finish-related audio work.

A Christmas Carol - Jenna's first audio drama involvement sees her playing a (relatively small) role in an all-star performance of the Dickens story, recorded while she was starring in Victoria (there were photos of her posted visiting Victoria showrunner/writer Daisy Goodwin at a book signing fresh from the recording session). Only released on Audible (apparently available for free in some places). I've never heard this myself.

"Pressures, Residential" - a short story recorded as a fund-raiser for Esquire UK magazine during lockdown. It basically reads like a story you might come across in something like Black Mirror or Inside No. 9. As a bonus, you get to hear Jenna utter a word we don't hear from her again until The Sandman. It's still available to listen to online from Esquire (it's an official page so I can link to it without violating a TOS).

"The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies." I don't know if this was recorded during lockdown or earlier, though it was released during. Jenna was one of a number of celebrity readers (including David Tennant among other Who veterans) contributing to the CD set "Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales". I think this is still available on Amazon in CD form. Just the one story read by Jenna, though.

Iris Is More Than Okay by Natalie Cooper, a made-for-Audible original story, scheduled for release on May 16, 2024. Sadly, like A Christmas Carol, this will not be released to CD so it will be inaccessible to some. Not sure on length. This is not likely to be a full-length novel being an original so we're probably going to get something closer to 90 minutes-2 hours in length but I'm prepared to be corrected on that.

[saturnsocoolioyep]

I don't think ive ever posted about this online but I think it's pretty funny.

Today is my dad's birthday. April 1st. April Fools Day. Holiday for jesters and japers and fans of tomfoolery and mischief everywhere. My father was in fact born on this day, the Day of Clowns.

Now, this is already funny on its own. My dad's entire life, his birthday has fallen on THEE joke day. Its actually his 50th birthday today and the first thing I texted him was "how does it feel to be fucking ancient?" (This is not genuinely how I view 50 as an age but considering he's spent the entire 20 years of my life being a professional manchild, I need to get my jokes and shit in where I can.)

No, what's much much funnier about my dad's birthday being on the day of the pranksters gambit is that God or fate or whatever decides these things decided to have a little fun and fill up its own pranksters gambit on my poor grandmother. My grandma is a good woman, she tries her best to be progressive, she's unlearned a lot of things in her life. But in the year 1974, when she was pregnant with a child she simply could not have known would grow up to be the most unaware and undiagnosed autistic man of all time, she very much did ascribe to the gender roles of the time. That is to say, specifically, Pink Is For Girls and Blue Is For Boys and Boys Have A Penis and Girls Have A Vagina

I've been told, at the time, there was obviously no ultrasound equipment even close to what we have today for determining the sex of the baby. My grandma has told me that back then, they usually tried to determine (read: guess) the sex of babies in utero by gaging the speed of the heartbeat. The myth of the time was that boys had faster heartbeats than girls in the womb

Another fact about my father that's of note is that he has been diagnosed with ADHD a total of TWICE now in his life. Once as a kid, and then he was rediagnosed this last September upon having some focusing issues at work at the age of 49 years old. He, quote, "thought he had grown out of it."

😐😐😐

Anyway. My grandma, after determining the speed of the heartbeat at a checkup, happily threw a baby shower with loved ones and received tons of support and toys and supplies and lovely little pink clothes!

Pink? I hear you ask. But I thought you said she was very traditional?

Well, apparently my Grandma's belly mustve been the one and only place and time in my dad's entire life he ever slowed the fuck down and chilled out, because his heartbeat was slow

And so I'm happy to inform all the lovely clowns of tumblr that today marks the 50th anniversary of the greatest April Fool's prank God ever pulled: the day my Grandma was told she gave birth to a healthy baby boy

[fraeuleintaka]

Character Introduction (Investigations 2): Sebastian Debeste / Eustace Winner

This is the 50th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 31 days left until release!

Today's topic: Sebastian Debeste (Eustace Winner) Character Introduction!

Similar to Franziska, I also wrote my own character introduction for Sebastian in a previous countdown post because the website only now added an official one for him. Interestingly, that makes the amount of characters introduced for both games equal (7 per game), and even more interestingly, Sebastian's icon is added in immediately after Gumshoe (before Justine, Gregory and Ray) while Franziska and Ema are just added at the end. One would assume the order is roughly determined by the character's importance so it's a bit strange to see Sebastian before Justine (she is the primary rival, after all) and apparently considered so important but only included in the line-up at a later date compared to everyone else. Curious.

Coming to the introduction itself, it's kind of funny how similar it is to the one I wrote 😄 There's the mention of Sebastian only just having become a prosecutor, him being assigned to all of Miles' cases and his obsession with being the best or first at everything. Sebastian and his role in a nutshell! I especially love the very last part with "before anyone has a chance to say or do otherwise". It sounds hilarious, like he just bulldozes over people's attempts to correct him, but it also gives Sebastian's actions a desperate vibe, like he HAS to be first and not let everyone else interfere or he wouldn't stand a chance anymore which ends up being true and foreshadows how desperate he is to prove himself to his father.

Apparently, the nickname he gives himself is going to be "The Winner", so essentially just his surname with more emphasis. I definitely prefer the little more creativity of "Debeste" to "The Best" but it is what it is. What I do find interesting though is that the German translation uses "Der Gewinner", the German equivalent, instead of just the English variant. I was wondering about how they'd do that and if that really is the method they went with (maybe with him emphasizing "Der Ge-Winner" the first time he says it), I think I actually like it more than the English version simply because it plays around a little with his surname instead of just using it as is. It's exactly the kind of stupid pun that Sebastian would make and closer to what Debeste / The Best does (which, funnily enough, you could also easily do in German with "Der Beste"). Really hope that's the case, that'd be really cool!

I've already talked about Sebastian's full character artwork and also his chosen chibi sprite animation which is his dramatic pointing, just like the one we saw in the Direct Trailer. Not at all surprising, it is one of his best animations (and he has so many amazing ones) and I love seeing it in even greater quality and detail! Truly Debeste!

[caltropspress]

DEBRIEFING: 5 August 2023 | Brooklyn, NY | The Nursery at Public Records

Armand Hammer’s We Buy Diabetic Test Strips Pop Up Party, featuring Fatboi Sharif, Cavalier, and DJ Haram

On the helix approaching the Lincoln Tunnel I saw a Virginia plate that read PHUNKE—its occupants seemed anything but, but who am I to judge? Not since I saw EGO DETH on a Volkswagen Kombi in the artificial light of the Holland while driving in to see woods’ Church release show at Baby’s All Right in early June have I taken a license plate as a sign. Fred Moten writes that “the sign works its terrible magic precisely from within a radical non-isolation,” but it’s a bit too early in the everyday struggle for theory, wouldn’t you agree? What I’m focused on is the WE BUY DIABETIC TEST STRIPS signs plastered over walls and poles. A sight as common in NYC as POST NO BILLS and CA$H FOR CAR$. We close our eyes to these signs, oblivious to their ubiquity. We’ve become blind to them. But I saw the sign with “Armand Hammer” appended to it, and it opened up my eyes. Life is demanding without understanding. So I overstand the signs and signals sent through wires and cables when I dial 1-877-ARM-N-HMR. I focus. I fixate. I study Alexander Richter’s photograph from the forthcoming album of a lamppost covered in taped and torn flyers. The edges fray and flicker in city winds. Looks like the tendons and flesh rotting from the bones of Death in Hans Baldung Griend’s Der Tod und das Mädchen (1517) painting. Looks like some real litter-ature. Gathering on August 5th, just six days shy of hip-hop’s much-heralded 50th anniversary, I think of hip-hop flyers of the past, specifically Kool Herc’s Back to School Jam at 1520 Sedgwick. But MC Debbie D—a flyerologist of the highest order—tells us that the index card flyer is a phony, a fake, a fugazi replica, a forgery. Fifty years into this thing and we’re still searching for authentic experiences. Fifty people at a rap show and one’s an informant. I’m here to inform on what felt—brain to bone—like an authentic experience.

3PM in the sun. I lined up with the other RSVPs (the show was free, in every sense of the word) outside the venue. Summer summer summertime. Fresh Prince via Juice shit. The temp on my dash read 90°. Kids walked down Butler Street mantled with beach towels from the Douglass and DeGraw Pool. Spotted lanternflies dive-bombed my legs. Thank god I lotioned my pale neck. When the powers-that-be finally allowed us entry, the musk of maryjane and malignant body odor was thick. Now I knew (it hit me in the fucking face) what that PHUNKE license plate was all about. “Funk,” from the French dialectal funkière: “to blow smoke on.” I’m not complaining, though—it was a communal fumigation. We were funky technicians, one and all.

“The Nursery” that Public Records has built falls somewhere between greenhouse and Zen garden. The square space is essentially an urban enclosure where pine and plane trees and fresh lumber create a private performance patio, a paradise just beyond the concertina wire, as woods might say. The stage is bedecked with potted cacti, while I spied A. Richter across the way with his Fujifilm GA645Zi amongst the bamboo stalks. ELUCID’s green Champion mesh football jersey (the Bo Jackson jersey in the laundry, apparently) matched the soundsystem monitors, and I found what little shade there was to be had and huddled close to the soundman’s booth, a shed of glass. I almost managed to forget I was cordoned off by beige shipping containers. 

It wasn’t long before I was entertaining the idea of going full Fatboi Sharif, i.e., shirtless. Sharif himself only made it through half his set before shedding his garb—there wasn’t even a hospital gown in sight. The heat was on as soon as he came out to Can Ox’s “Scream Phoenix”—rising from flames. El-P’s Phillip Glass sample could’ve easily made a Sharif beat (we’re only talking a single generation removal, really). Sharif made quick work of some of his most recent altered realities. “Static Vision” included a call [I ain’t scared!] and response [Motherfucker, I ain’t scared!]. He ran through “Phantasm,” “Dimethyltryptamine,” “Designer Drugs,” “Think Pieces,” and “The Christening” like a buxom blonde through an abandoned building, revving chainsaw in pursuit. At times, his speech slurred into a makeshift Swahili (word to This Heat). It was strange to see Sharif in daylight, sunstruck, as I’m so used to seeing him in blood-flooded cellars or Joseph Conrad’s heart of darkness environs, like he alludes to on “Dimethyltryptamine.” He barreled through ventricles, riding shotgun in Sir Menelik’s Space Cadillac. DJ Boogaveli (who hypes up Sharif like it’s a pep rally at Springwood High) shouted about family at the start of “The Christening,” which sounded sincere compared to the tone Sharif takes on Decay—there the family must be of the Manson or Duggar milieu. He finished the track acapella, exhausting the last of his energy, only to reinvigorate and reanimate for a rioting rendition of “Smithsonian.”

I’ve yet to invest the necessary time into Cavalier’s work, though I know him from his association with Quelle Chris. With an album coming down the pike from Backwoodz, I found myself in the lucky position of witnessing his set incapable of discerning old material from new. He took centerstage, acting as his own hype-man and DJ (though he did high-five the invisible “DJ Light-skin” at one point), and his kineticism was immediately apparent. His floral button-down danced over his body as he rapped vitally. I felt vivisected by his exhortations and incisive observations. Keep in mind, my age prohibits me from becoming enthralled by any performer whose work I’m unfamiliar with—a sort of neuropathy of the soul. But he had me open and endeared by the time he implored, Put the tiger balm on it, put the tiger balm. As you wish, Cav. I lathered my chest.

“Y’all believe in magic? No? That’s okay.” Cav said it so quickly that he didn’t give anyone a chance to answer, but he assumed correctly, I think. Still, I was smitten by his conjurations—he made me a believer (no small task). “King me,” he rapped, “I’m trying to make it all across the board.” And, by the end of it, he had the entire crowd shouting “KING ME” back at him without a problem. MAKE SOME BLOODCLOT NOISE! he growled, and we didn’t need to be asked twice. IT’S VIBRATIONAL, AIN’T IT? With a seemingly innocuous phrase he was able to summon the spirit of the crowd. Over the course of his 25-minute set, I heard him rhyme epiglottis, brag of spitting a verse while performing cunnilingus, give a lesson on homophones, and regale us with stories of winking at cops in Whole Foods. “From the Tree of Life I smoke foliage,” he said, and the trees Betty Smith saw grow in Brooklyn circulated through his lungs. “We need to bring back weed spots—it’s not nostalgia.” Though he did rap nostalgically at times, letting us know he was born in BK, went to school not far from where we stood, and though he’s representing the 504 now, Brooklyn born-and-raised ossified his being into bone.

THIS IS CHURCH, YA FEEL ME? And I did feel him. I spent the week culling quotes about improvisation from Amiri Baraka’s Black Music (1967) for another self-assignment (I don’t work for anyone, son), and highlighted this passage: “...to go back in any historical (or emotional) line of ascent in Black music leads us inevitably to religion, i.e., spirit worship. This phenomenon is always at the root in Black art, the worship of spirit—or at least the summoning of or by such force.” [Peace to Kehinde Alonge—always at the ready with choicest recommendations.] Cavalier danced upon the altar and rapped his sermon relentlessly, tirelessly. I was raised up on tippy-toes, enthralled by the force of his spirit. THIS AIN’T JAZZ?! he asked. WHAT THE FUCK THEY TALKIN’ ABOUT MAN? I don’t know who’s doing that sort of talking, but they’d be hard-pressed to say such a thing in this public gathering. “Brooklyn, this is how it feels—all of us together: this is how it feels.” I believed in Cavalier’s magic by the end of his set. I was charmed by his satchel of High John de Conqueror. Let me know where to Venmo my tithe. 

The heat index had my vision tunneling. When Armand Hammer stepped on stage, sounds were moving in reverse, and the Class-A dynamite duo took us back (way back) in time, when ELUCID was in “fifth grade in [his] dad jeans” and he “played Game Boy in the backseat.” woods, with his first words of the afternoon, said he “rather be codependent than co-defendants.” This must’ve been “Landlines,” the lead-off from the new album, seeing as how they shouted-out JPEGMAFIA, ELUCID rapped “leave a message after the beep,” and a dial tone toned between verses. It was off the hook, as they say.

They seemed to be following the official We Buy Diabetic Test Strips tracklist, because next up was “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die” (a song with a title so long that it must’ve come from the magnum mind of ELUCID). She replied, she replied, she replied… they repeated, but I didn’t quite catch what that chatbotbitch said. woods refashioned a line from “Remorseless” with “Life’s a blip, I’m swimming under the radar.” Life’s a blip and then you die, that’s why we puff lye. Further deepening the uncanny valley, their third offering to the musty masses included “fake trees in the Apple Store.” I’m sensing something about the excesses of tech after a cursory listen to these WBDTS tracks, the detritus and pollution it produces. To quote my damn self, something in line with “...a cell tower with evergreen branches: / …a drone with seagull feathers.” ELUCID revived “a double portion of protection for [him] and [his] niggas,” explaining he’s “trying to only say what’s necessary.” By any means, sir. 

Cavalier was welcomed back to the stage for “I Keep A Mirror in My Pocket,” another new joint with Preservation on production. We the audience felt, collectively, like we were in the belly of the beast—those shipping container walls (a real Season 2 of The Wire sensation)—as Cav chorused and signified about the Big Bad Wolf. A cautionary tale, indeed. I can see clearly how Cavalier fits within the Backwoodz cadre. 

The content of the next number left no question of its title. “Niggardly (Blocked Call),” if I was asked to predict, will be the cynosure of the new album. (Yeah, you heard me right dog, I said cynosure.) Produced by August Fanon (who was in the place to be—a rare appearance from an elusive mastermind who would humbly demur if you called him such, I’m supposing), the song has an R0 = 15 infectious hook: “Admittedly niggardly, I won’t even give these niggas bad energy.” woods, what with his penchant for scales and measurements, boils everything “down to the last red cent.” How does he do it? Well, MY HEART PUMP KETAMINE, he yells. We find woods in one of his ruthless, no Vaseline moods: “I eat knowing I’m starving my enemies.” Revenge is like the sweetest joy next to spending time with your kids, and woods picked up where his verse from “As the Crow Flies” left off. He closed his eyes and rapped to the rafters and the sky:

I write when my baby’s asleep, I sit in the room, in the dark, I listen to him breathe, I walk him to school and then the park,  Hold they little hands while we cross the street, I think about my brother who is long gone, And this is all he ever dreamed.

ELUCID and woods repeated admittedly niggardly back-and-forth at the end, delighted with the wordplay. 

They kept riding the August Fanon beatwork like Thomas Sankara in the Renault 5 as the killer chords from “Smile Lines” crept in. The crowd response was screw-faced sneers and shouted lyrics. One youngblood knew the song front to back, beginning to end—ELUCID acknowledged him from the stage: “Peace to the homie out there—he knew every word, man.” I watched the dude beam from the compliment. Even after writing profusely—profusely (fuck Caltrops and his non-existent editor, here comes the predator…)—about woods and ELUCID, I still can’t memorize their lines. Chalk it up to some neurological incapacity that arrived in my 30s. I envy those who commit songs like “Smile Lines” and “Smith + Cross” to memory. My not-so-supple gray matter just can’t cut it anymore.

My expectations for We Buy Diabetic Test Strips were upended by the tracks they debuted. I’d speculated an abrasive noise event; a Sheet Metal Music for the new millennium we’ll never reach; a kind of Schoolly D “P.S.K.” FML swagger. There’s certainly elements of that, just not as much as I was anticipating. (And who knows what noise the as-yet-unheard tracks might bring.) I assumed the shared space with Soul Glo over the past several years, the screechings zapped through the receiver on the toll-free number, and their recent appearance on Shapednoise’s Absurd Matter would be an indication of the Shape of Rap to Come. Speaking of which, woods sludged through his verse from “Family” before DJ Haram’s scrapyard percussion ushered in “Trauma Mic.” 

Haram was at the helm for the entirety of Armand Hammer’s set, and she reveled and felt every ounce of her own beat. The buzzsaw sounds were like Baraka’s description of Don Ayler’s trumpet: “long blasts…in profound black technicolor.” ELUCID’s traumatized mic draped over his shoulder for the opening anvil strikes. He needed his hands free to clap in rhythm. The gesture was reminiscent, again, of Baraka’s analysis of the saxophone held by Albert Ayler (the elder Ayler), “a howling spirit summoner tied around the ‘mad’ Black man’s neck.”

The “Trauma Mic” video had me thinking on thematics of refuse and rubbish—you best protect your dreck. I thought back to the garbology Aesop sifted through, where I saw Bakunin’s barricades in the city streets and revisited the actions of The Motherfuckers in the late ’60s—they stood in solidarity with striking sanitation workers and dumped garbage at the doorstep of Lincoln Center. Armand Hammer—outfitted as scrappers, pitching barrels and coiling skeins of copper wire—are of the same spirit. They propose a cultural exchange of garbage for garbage.

woods bodied “No Hard Feelings” and was joined by damn-near the entire crowd. Had it sounding like a tenant revolt as we all screamed, LIKE THEY STEALING! The Aethiopes track equals, if not outright overtakes, “Asylum” and “Remorseless” as most affecting in the past year’s blitz of performances. 

ELUCID stood on the precipice, at the edge of the stage, as he rapped through “Barbarians.” He went swimming into the crowd with his free arm, astro-spiritually. The refrain of “Who the fuck are you?” evolved from the accusatory tone heard on Rome to an existential “Who the fuck am I?” ELUCID and woods bandied the question between them like two college kids in the dorms at 2AM, faded as fidduck. The “intelligent fist” of woods and the “mysticism” of ELUCID (to use an equation Baraka applied to Milford Graves and Sonny Murray) working together to produce a manic mix. They kept the marriage going through “Mangosteen” before turning to the heliocentric worlds they invented in collaboration with the Alchemist on Haram. “Black Sunlight” and “Falling Out the Sky” had me thinking of Baraka (again!): “It only takes two to start a group. If the two are maturely strong, and have a oneness, then the others will feel it and touch their own sound, voice, or whatever.”

ELUCID’s last solo number was “Spellling,” and by then he was spent but still perseverating in the dopest way possible. “This is a physical experience,” ELUCID said as the song began, asking the soundman to turn the volume up higher. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII been spelling, he spoketh [an ever ever elongated I and a shot-to-the-dome of “been”]. The I Told Bessie opener became what Baraka calls “an antiphonal rhythmic chant-poem-moan.” ELUCID’s voice was ragged by this point, a metallic scrape as he shouted about being “your momma’s favorite, since about ’88, ’89.” The down in “just got to heaven and I can’t sit down” was made malleable in how he twisted it around in his mouth. Split tongue heavy lifting.

He had nothing left when the alarming squeal whistle warp of “Stonefruit” started to play. But the audience assisted, screaming with him I REALLY CAME IN ON A CYCLONE as his voice gave out. woods jumped in early when it was his turn, which proved a moment of levity. To err is human, and woods—despite the adoration he’s been receiving—is endearingly human. That humanity is probably why so many of Armand Hammer’s fans have become zealous collectors, showing up at the venue with cardboard boxes full of vinyl, willing to wait patiently for woods and ELUCID to write their names in metallic Sharpies on these their prized possessions. “First Armand Hammer show in the states in a while,” woods said at one point. “Small flex,” ELUCID noted, chuckling. But they brought it home on Saturday. It was “As the Crow Flies” made manifest. woods brought all the Backwoodz family on stage at the conclusion of their set. The family atmosphere afforded by the 3PM start time was embellished by the sight of children on shoulders. It had the feel of a triumphant affair. It’s winning, it’s winning, it’s winning…

Peace to the conversations that were had with Alex Richter, Willie Green, Max Heath, and Sharif.

Photos credit:  Rory Simms

AH setlist:

1.  Landlines 2.  Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die 3.  [???] 4.  I Keep A Mirror In My Pocket 5.  Niggardly (Blocked Call) 6.  Smile Lines 7.  Family 8.  Trauma Mic 9.  No Hard Feelings 10.  [???] 11.  Barbarians 12.  Mangosteen 13.  Black Sunlight 14.  Falling Out the Sky 15.  Spellling  16. Stonefruit

[penthony]

ok idk if someone has already gone over this and if they have then ignore me but BUT IF NOT hear me out 

The show runners really weren’t slick in their hints towards Polin in the second season, and it’s most evident during Episode Six. Not just because of the Polin scene, but it becomes most apparent when Eloise is talking to Pen about her crush on Theo, and how El thought her feelings towards Theo were merely friendship because they had “intellectual bond, a friendship based in likeminded thought and rigorous conversation.” Only to then move on and say that she cannot take the mystery of not knowing how he feels any longer. 

Then Eloise says the fated line “I shall suppose if i know for sure it will be a relief - It’s the not knowing that makes it feel like torment” so apt and true for any sort of crush but VERY true for Pen with Colin. 

NOW, moving on to the main point of this rather long winded post. 

Eloise actually goes to Theo, and asks him if he thinks of her - which is confirmed. 

I think this is foreshadowing in an odd way for Polin. Despite how obtuse Colin is with Penelope and her feelings towards him, that her feelings are returned. It was rather evident in the 6th episode, and the following episodes really (DESPITE HIS STUPID COMMENT UGH) - it’s just that neither of them are ready to say anything, and make that leap. Especially considering Pen says that her purpose (which im sure was more about whistledown and her own character arc) will make her brave. 

idk if this makes sense but that’s just where my brain went when I was rewatching the episode for the 50th time (especially after i saw the framing of polin on either side of the wedding cake...) 

[foster-the-world]

In route

7 hours into our 14 hour flight to Japan. Cannot wait. Girls are being great. Currently quietly zoned out on TV. Let's hope it holds out.

Baby boy was perfectly happy saying goodbye this morning - thankfully. I've been warning him all week. I miss his sweet face already. While also appreciating how easy it is to travel with two 6yo.

I passed my nursing exam - so I have zero obligations hanging over my head. It's a dream. I was confident I failed but I guess you can get a lot wrong and still pass. So glad to have that behind me.

So helpful to have my Mom around. She got bad news that she has to do chemo along with radiation. She'll start two days after we get back. She'll do three rounds - finishing up a month before our Costa Rica trip for her 70th Birthday/50th wedding anniversary. Then she'll do a fourth round when she gets back. She refused to let it interrupt the trip. Which is understandable.

We arrive around 1:35 in the afternoon. People have been highlighting 3-4 hour immigration waits. Fingers crossed thats not the case for us. There is apparently a pull out line for young children/senior citizens. I'm not sure if 6 year olds are considered young children in Japan. We are staying near one of the most famous temples. Hopefully, will have enough energy to check it out + grab dinner. Then all crash. I'm sure will be up super early in the morning. Hopefully, that works in our favor. I've heard restaurants/activities open post-10am. We are staying across the street from a 24hr department store. Worse case we can check that out. So excited for all of the sushi coming my way. My Mom's the only non adventurous eater amongst us. The girls will be thrilled. So many snacks/street foods to try. Cherry Blossoms bloomed sooner then ever before. I think will still catch some. Fingers crossed.

[marietheran]

LotR reread - book 1, chapter 0 - the (three!) Forewords

Note on the Text:

My, the textual history is complicated even taking into account just the works published in his lifetime.

Tolkien's publishers pampered him tho, letting him revise and revise the book again and again.

Mmm... I remember being very fascinated by all the mentions of the earlier versions as a child. Now, I know some of the information relied here by heart, but I miss the wonder

Yes, I was the sort of person who reads introductions even at ten years of age; I will admit I'm flipping through now, though.

Note on the 50th Anniversary Edition:

"Personally I have ceased to bother about those minor 'discrepancies', since if the genealogies and calendars etc. lack versimilitude it is in their general excessive accuracy: as compared with real annals and genealogies!" Apparently he had visibly not "ceased to bother", but it's still a helpful attitude to try out as concerns such minor slips in the legendarium.

Hmmm... I kind of get why "Dark Power", "Dark Lord" etc. instead of "dark power", "dark lord" buuut I'm still rendered uncomfortable by those capitalisations. My language does not capitalise "devil" and I'm likewise of the opinion that evil does not merit capital letters.

Foreword to the Second Edition:

Yes! LotR is "an account, as it were, of the end and passing away [of the older world] before it's beginning and middle had been told"

"Foresight had failed and there was no time for thought" - even when writing of his own life, Tolkien takes on an epic tone...

Just - the mention of Christopher being sent chapters of LotR when in the RAF and my recent learning that life expectancy for RAF pilots was measured in weeks :( How Tolkien must have felt...

^Just more evidence for my connection of "We shall laugh together yet" and "If you ever return to the lands of the living... laughing at old grief" but that's book 2

Allegory vs applicability!

"To be caught in youth by 1914 was a no less hideous experience than to be involved in 1939" - well, for Englishmen. But I have long ago realised that Western Europe views WW1 which gave us independence as a catastrophe near that of WW2, and possibly with some reason.

I thought to include the prologue with this post, but it seems it must be a separate one, because this one sprawled out very far.