#audio-and-anglophile

[spaniardindaworks]

I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN WITH ME AND A GIRL FROM CLAPHAM‼️‼️‼️

[dollycas]

Death and the Visitors (A Mary Shelley Mystery) by Heather Redmond #Spotlight / #ARCGiveaway @KensingtonBooks

Death and the Visitors (A Mary Shelley Mystery) Historical Mystery 2nd in Series Setting - 1814, London Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington (August 20, 2024) Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1496749030 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496749031 Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CNYHSBQX Audiobook ASIN B0DC7JBXWQ Audio CD ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CZ7LDBK4 The ties between a young Mary Shelley, her stepsister Jane “Claire” Clairmont, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the already-infamous Lord Byron grow increasingly tangled as they're drawn into a dangerous investigation in this vivid historical mystery exploring the birth of teenaged Mary’s creative genius and the roots of a real-life trio who would later scandalize 19th century England even as they transformed the literary world. 1814, London: Foreign diplomats are descending on London in advance of the Congress of Vienna meetings to formulate a new peace plan for Europe following Napoleon’s downfall. Mary and Jane’s father, political philosopher William Godwin, is hosting a gathering with an advance party of Russian royal staff. The Russians are enthusiastic followers of Mary’s late mother, philosopher and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, which leads to a lively dinner discussion. Following their visit, Jane overhears her father reassuring his pushiest creditor that the Russians have pledged diamonds to support his publishing venture, the Juvenile Library, relieving his financial burden. But when Godwin is told the man who promised the diamonds was pulled from the River Thames, his dire financial problems are further complicated by the suspicion that the family may have been involved in the murder. Stepsisters Mary and Jane resolve to find the real killer to clear the family name. Coming to their aid is Godwin’s disciple, the dashing poet Percy Shelley, who seems increasingly devoted to Mary, despite the fact that he is married. And a young woman Jane befriends turns out to be the mistress of the celebrated poet—and infamous lover—Lord Byron. As both sisters find themselves perhaps dangerously captivated by the poets, their proximity to the truth of the Russian’s murder puts them in far greater peril . . . About the Author Heather Redmond is the author of the Mary Shelley Mysteries, Dickens of a Crime series, and the Journaling Mysteries, as well as historical and contemporary romances written under the name Heather Hiestand. Though her last known British ancestor departed London in the 1920s, she is a committed anglophile, Dickens devotee, and lover of all things nineteenth-century. She has lived in Illinois, California, and Texas, and now resides in a small town in Washington State with her husband and son. The president of the Columbia River Chapter of Sisters in Crime, she be found online at HeatherRedmond.com. Thanks to the publisher I have 1 Advance Review Copy to give away! The contest is open to anyone over 18 years old with a US or Canadian mailing address. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Void where prohibited. You do not have to be a follower to enter but I hope you will find something you like here and become a follower. Followers Will Receive 2 Bonus Entries For Each Way They Follow. Plus 2 Bonus Entries For Following My Facebook Fan Page. Add this book to your WANT TO READ shelf on GoodReads for 3 Bonus Entries. Follow Kensington Books on Twitter for 2 Bonus Entries! Follow Kensington Publishing on Facebook for 2 Bonus Entries! Pin this giveaway to Pinterest for 3 Bonus Entries. If you share the giveaway on Threads, X, or Facebook or anywhere you will receive 5 Bonus Entries For Each Link. The  Contest Will End September 6, 2024, at 11:59 PM CST The Winner Will Be Chosen Using Random.org The Winner Will Be Notified By Email and Will Be Posted Here In The Sidebar. Click Here For Entry Form Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Escape With Dollycas. Read the full article

[audio-and-anglophile]

Whenever an older person says "you'll miss law school," I get really concerned, because even though I've met some nice people, this is definitely the worst time of my life so far and I really hope it doesn't get worse. I'll miss undergrad, I already really miss undergrad, but law school is the first time in my life that school has been a struggle rather than an engaging challenge.

[paulinedorchester]

Attention Anglophile music nerds — I’ve just been alerted to this! The University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing has launched this repository of “lost” (i.e., long unavailable) music from the 1860s into the first decades of the 20th century. In addition to scores and parts, there’s an audio file for each piece. I’ve dipped into these, and the audio and performance quality vary. Nevertheless, this could be an enjoyable and even useful resource for some of us.

The announcement that I read states that “the inventory of composers and compositions will grow over time as the libraries in the U.K. resume operations following the removal of COVID-19 restrictions.”

[hersdladyship]

Well, yesterday, as I sat shaking my head yet again over Madam Mayhem, my husband asked why I cared. I said, Please sit. Let me tell a story."

I started with HM and how I've lived her since I was a child, how my Anglophile mother introduced me to all things BRF. I told him about watching TV about PC Investiture, Royal Weddings, Royal Babies, etc. I asked to think back how we watched PW and Catherine's wedding. I showed him photos of MM, the engagement interview, had him listen to audio. He heard her voice and said, She can't be trusted. I said, Now, you're starting to understand. Tom him through the time line from before The Gathering of Unhappy People up until today. He was shaking his head saying, How is she believed? I educated him about @skippyv20 and her blog and LG and HMTQ's savvy. And, now, HE BELIEVES!

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

They Shall Not Grow Old

All throughout the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, everyone claimed that Peter Jackson was a real-life hobbit. Turns out, he’s a wizard. Jackson, commissioned by the Imperial War Museum and the BBC, has combed through over 100 hours of footage and 600 hours of audio interviews with surviving World War I soldiers to create this remarkable documentary. His goal was to cobble together a story of the standard trajectory for an average British soldier from enlistment to armistice during the conflict that changed the world’s perception of the word “war” and to, at the request of the IWM, show this footage in a new and unique way. Did he succeed? Well...

I can think of few history lessons that have ever felt this vital or this visceral. Jackson creates a larger-than-life spectacle that comes alive before your eyes and reaches down into your guts in a way no epic fantasy battle ever could. They Shall Not Grow Old relies ONLY on archival footage and the voices of real WWI veterans who served on the Western Front to tell his story. There are no historians here, no political analysis or wartime strategy deconstructions - there are only the voices of them who served their country and watched their friends and brothers die for it, many of them without knowing why.

Some thoughts:

It was just a job. That’s what I can’t get over. They say, “This was during a time when a man didn’t question it, he just did what he was told.” I can’t help but think this was partially because they imagined it would be a gentlemanly war like previous conflicts, when instead it unleashed horrors that these men could never have dreamed of in their wildest nightmares.

Some other fun bits of history include all the propaganda posters encouraging men to enlist (conscription didn’t begin until 1916, and before that the enlistment age was 19). And enlist they did - there’s an extended section of soldiers describing how they attempted to enlist at age 15, 16, 17 and the recruiters would lie about the age on their forms; or they’d be told “you better go outside and have another birthday, then come back.” They were just so YOUNG, so many of them, and war seemed like a game to them. The idea of it makes me sick to my stomach.

Also remarkable - how many men had no idea what they were fighting for. And when they came back, how many of them couldn’t find jobs. There were shops that would post signs: no veterans need apply. It’s a shameful and disgusting reminder that in almost 100 years we still haven’t come up with a better system to take care of our veterans. 

The shift from black and white to color is not so vivid, but just as breathtaking, as Dorothy’s landing in Oz. It brings the Western Front to rich, teeming life in a way that feels like magic. 

It’s not only the images that are mind-boggling in the way they spring to life. Jackson worked with a team of professional lip readers to determine what the men were saying in these silent films and dub the voices in. He went so far as to determine which unit the footage depicted and where it was from, like Manchester, Gloucester, Liverpool, Newcastle, etc, then chose voice actors from those specific regions to read the lines. The attention to detail creates such a vivid and moving portrait of these men’s faces, no longer relegated to fuzzy black and white smears, but startlingly alive and present for the first time in recorded history.

Another tactic that feels like witchcraft is that, with the wide shots now in much sharper focus, the camera is able to zoom in and use pans to make these static frames feel so much more alive and modern. It’s the kind of re-imagining of what you thought an art form could be that makes you just shake your head with wonder. It’s akin to seeing a still image come to life as a moving picture for the first time.

You know what I never ever want to see again? GANGRENE. Also like, so many dental issues, but I’ll take some of those teeth over long, lingering shots of trenchfoot any day.

Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I sure wish there had been subtitles. I’m an Anglophile to an intense degree, but I was having a h a r d t i m e understanding a lot of what the veterans were saying over the soundtrack of shells falling and men digging trenches and just general war mayhem. 

Very Important: there are not one but TWO dogs in the movie. Both of them are Very Good and are not harmed in any way.

My two favorite Peter Jackson quotes: “Well, that was the movie.” and “I’ve got a few bits of World War I artillery...as you do.”

This is a documentary that must be seen to be believed. If you can go see it in theaters, make it a priority. It’s an incredible piece of history that has been archived in such a way as to become completely new, and I’m so grateful to Peter Jackson for allowing these men to have their stories told in a way that highlights, more than ever, the cost and senselessness of war.

[thesimplyluxuriouslife]

333: What I Do to Lessen Jet Lag (flying from the West Coast to Western Europe)

"When it comes to jet lag, there ain’t — I report from the window seat of a bustling café in Montreal, hence this paraphrasing of Leonard Cohen — no cure." —Mark VanHoenacker, a Boeing 787 pilot for British Airways and the author of Imagine A City: A Pilot's Journey Across the Urban World 

The first time I flew abroad from Oregon to Europe (in my case France), concerns about jet lag were far from my mind; in fact, because I had so many other questions to answer and unknowns dancing in my mind, I didn't think about. I was 20 and planning to study abroad during my junior summer of college in Angers, France. I saved up for the $800 round-trip economy-class ticket (2000) by working three part-time jobs, took the necessary prerequisite courses, conferenced with my professor de Français, and along with not knowing I would need an adapter and converter to at the very least blow-out my hair and curled it, I also didn't think to investigate what jet lag was. Being the first member of my immediate family to travel abroad to Europe, I was figuring it all out for the first time on my own, and jet lag was never a word that popped up in conversations.

Fast forward to 2012 and my second trip to France that included England as well. Thankfully I had a close friend who having lived in England for a time and thus traveled back and forth from the west coast to England often, had a few suggestions for combatting jet lag. Nothing worked superbly, but none of the advice hindered my thorough enjoyment of visiting London for the first time, and then returning to Paris. Jet lag persisted, but if it meant I would be able to be in the two countries I loved, it didn't matter a bit.

Each trip following the two shared above, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, I have gradually tried to tweak, adjust and determine what works best to mitigate jet lag's effects, and while I have come to the same conclusion as the British Airways pilot above, as he too shares in his recent article in The Financial Times, there are ways to lessen the discomfort and the prolonged effects.

But first, it is important to note what jet lag is — any time you travel quickly across two or more time zones and is caused when rapid travel throws off our circadian rhythm - the biological clock that helps control when we wake and fall asleep (source) 

The more readers I hear from and fellow travelers I meet, the more I realize that where you are traveling from (home departure city), thus the amount of time difference you are undergoing, makes a difference, and so I decided to write specifically from my experience as a traveler from the west coast of the United States venturing to Western Europe where most of my excursions take me. With that said, as many readers/listeners of TSLL blog/The Simple Sophisticate podcast are Francophiles and/or Anglophiles and our destinations are the same even if our departure city is different, it is my hope that some of the tips shared today may be applicable when tailored to your flying itinerary.

~Note to readers: More details are discussed in the audio version of this episode than are shared below, so be sure to tune in.

1.Depart in the early afternoon

When scheduling past trips, excluding my most recent trip in 2022, I selected early morning flights to give myself more time at my desired destination. As well, often earlier flights in the day were a bit less expensive (I have not noticed this to be the case as of late, but in the past). However, when taking the most direct flight possible, leaving in the afternoon on the west coast has the arrival time in France or England in the early evening the following day which lends itself well to having a nice meal before exhaustedly going to sleep in a comfortable bed.

As well, leaving in the afternoon gives you time to gradually begin the day, go through your regular routines, partake in a healthy 30-minute or hour-long exercise routine, and generally, prepare to sit for a very long time. When I am able to exercise and not feel rushed, the rest of the day and any unknowns that pop up are easier to navigate, and I can more easily relax since my body has had the opportunity to fully move, stretch and receive what it needs.

2. Arrive in the late evening in Europe

If leaving in the early afternoon is not an option, at least try to schedule your arrival time in Europe in the early evening for the reasons shared above. Whether you were able to catch some sleep on the plane or not, your mind as well as your body is tired and after being fed well in your destination city, wants to stretch out and relax. Rather than fight trying to stay awake until night arrives should you arrive in the morning or early afternoon, when you arrive in the evening, you don't have to fight your body and just let it do what it yearns for.

3. The fewer connecting flights the better

If at all possible, scheduling-wise and/or budget-wise, choose a direct flight, or the closest thing to it (I have to take a short hop from Redmond to an international airport, typically Seattle, Portland or San Fran, and then my international flight departs to Europe from there). Not only do you save time, but it is less stressful, thus it doesn't exhaust your mind unnecessarily which is already going to be confused when you arrive due to the time change. Mind exhaustion on top of jet lag prolongs your ability to adjust, and the shorter the hop, the less stress incurred.

The many farms seen in the countryside in Normandy.

4. Try to sleep on the flight

Even if for only a few hours, do your best to find a way to experience real sleep. Real sleep where the hours invisibly whisk by and you wake up feeling somewhat, if not quite a bit, rested and energized. In my experience, the fewer hours I am able to sleep on the trip, the harder/longer jet lag is to recover from on that particular end of the trip.

5. Invest in Business Class if/when possible

In episode #329 I shared my experience flying Business Class on British Airways during my recent trip in April 2022 to Britain and France. Needless to say, even if it takes a bit longer to save up for each subsequent trip abroad in order to fly in such comfort, I will do it. It is worth it, largely because of the reduction of stress and my ability to sleep well. And as I shared in #4 above, when you sleep well during the flight, you reduce (not eliminate) jet lag.

My flight to Europe in Business Class provided more than 4 hours of sleep, and while I did feel the effects of jet lagged for about two days upon arrival, this was far better than it has been in the past. No doubt my excitement being back in Paris helped to overcome some of the feeling, but as I assessed what else may have contributed to an easing of this expected feeling of exhaustion, confusion, malaise and inability to sleep naturally, the one primary variable that was different was the flight I chose and the amount of sleep and quality of sleep I received.

My seat in Business Class on British Airways, bedding products from The White Company

6. Hydrate as much as possible while flying

While toasting with sparkling wine as the journey begins is tempting and certainly something I enjoy doing as well, refrain from too much alcohol as it dehydrates you. Instead, seek out as much water as you can, and even the multiple bathroom-runs are good for you as it gets you up and out of your seat which is an activity that sets your circadian rhythm. The more you can do to set your circadian rhythm to knowing when it needs to be awake and when it needs to rest (the reason why airlines dim the cabin light uniformly for everyone and set the meals as they do), the more quickly your mind will be able to settle into the new sleep schedule.

7. Take a hot bath before bed

Whether at your travel destination or when you arrive home, just before you want to go to bed, take a hot bath as this helps to relax the body and interestingly enough, drop the body temperature which helps you fall asleep.

A deep soak of a bath at The Savoy while staying in London. Take the tour of our stay in this detailed post.

8. Begin to simulate, ever so slightly and gradually, the new time zone before you leave

While a subtle shift at home may not seem beneficial, for me, this is actually quite possible as I like to go to bed early, and an excuse to go to bed one hour sooner, wake up one hour earlier is not a detriment. Of course, this will depend on your work and home schedule, but if you can, it may reduce jet lag a bit so it won't last as long when you arrive.

9. Be gentle and patient with yourself, gradually shift into the new time schedule

Our brains are wonderful tools, but it takes time to change them, and that includes its sleep schedule. When our sleep schedule becomes disrupted, our mind is confused as to what it is supposed to do, so be gentle and patient with it.

When I returned home this past April, it took about 7-10 days to get over my jet lag. Finding myself falling asleep on the sofa at 5pm with eyelids I could not bribe to stay open at any cost, I let myself fall asleep, and pushed myself to stay awake an hour later each night until I was finally back to my regular bedtime routine.

With all of that said . . .

10. Understand there are many jet lag remedies, but honor what works for you

I won't list the suggestions I have received over the years I haven't found helpful for me, or the beliefs from other travelers about what is most difficult (direction of flight) because what is true for them is true for them. However, sharing what has worked and why I have discovered it does work, had I been able to understand these truths, is something I would have loved to have known earlier in my travels but likely could not have known. Knowing that I needed to, for want of a better phrase, 'feel my way' through jet lag to figure out what happens and how I respond to it gave me the tools to figure out how to reduce its effects that most negatively affected me. Self-awareness not only helps you live a life you love living in a general over-arching way; it also affords you helpful insights in how to work well with jet lag to best fit your needs to ensure the best trip and experience possible.

For example, as an HSP, sleep is especially important, whereas for non-HSPs being able to function well on 5-7 hours of sleep may be no problem. Not so in my case, so now that I know the value of sleep for my well-being, I invest in ensuring I receive a good night of sleep when I travel as I want to enjoy my trip as much as possible, and that includes on the flight.

When we have the fortunate opportunity to travel abroad and cross many time zones, the price of jet lag is a small price to expense, but being aware of how it affects our minds and physical well-being is helpful so that we don't blame our mental lag on the destination but rather our mind's gradual settling in to the new time zone we have taken it to.

Wishing you many wonderful trips and stamps in your passport! Bon Voyage!

Petit Plaisir

~Herbed Salmon

~click here for the full recipe.

~Top image: arriving in London, looking out over Kensington, Royal Albert Hall

Tune in to the latest episode of The Simple Sophisticate podcast

[daggerzine]

Deardarkhead’s founding member and drummer, Rob Weiss, give up all the secrets.

Kevin, Rob and John- the current lineup 

South Jersey’s Deardarkhead started as a band shortly after I had started doing this very zine, DAGGER (my first issue was March of 1987 and they began in ‘88). I had met drummer and founding member (and the only original member left) as kids as he grew up down the street from me on the mean streets of Linwood, NJ. Fast forward several years later and Rob is into underground music and forming a band (and working at Sound Odyssey, our local record store in the Shore Mall).

The band was really a breath of fresh air in the South Jersey scene back then as most bands in the scene were either metal or by-the-numbers punk. DDH went across the pond for their influence and gathered it in bands like the Jesus & Mary Chain, Echo & the Bunnymen, Joy Division and many more (many years ago our friendship was further solidified when he told me he was a huge Naked Raygun fan). The band were able to take these influences and create something truly unique. 

Through a myriad of ups and downs and band members, Rob (drums) and guitarist Kevin Harrington (longtime vocalist Michael Amper left nearly a decade ago) hooked up with a bassist last summer, John Bennett and began playing out again and the band is excited about recording new music.

All of the band’s releases had been on their own Fertile Crescent Records, but nearly a decade ago the band got a serious boost when NYC indie label, Captured Track released a compilation of the band’s early days (Oceanside- 1991-1993). It’s a superb compilation and a great place to start for newcomers (of course DDH completists need it as well). In 2016 Texas shoegaze label Saint Marie Records released an EP, Strange Weather. I was a bit hesitant as the EP was their first record as all instrumental, but the songs were so good that I needn’t worry.

As you’ll read below, Rob’s anxious to record more music and hit the stage as well. That makes me excited as I really hope DDH have lots of gas left in the tank.  

When did you first start playing drums? Did you pick up any other instruments?

I started playing drums in 2nd grade, but I had always wanted to play drums since I was in kindergarten. We had a piano in my house and all of my family played, so I grudgingly agreed to take lessons. A friend of my mother's, who was a piano teacher, would come to our house for the lessons. After about three weeks in, during a lesson, I was asked to repeat a song. I asked my teacher if I could use the bathroom first. Minutes and minutes go by, and my mother comes to the bathroom door asking "Rob are you coming out?" My reply was "I want to play drums!" Lesson over, and the rest is history as they say. I started learning to play other instruments when DDH formed in 1988. I got a 4 track and experimented, until I got good enough to write songs on guitar and bass. If you give me an instrument, I'll make music with it. 

Kurt, Mike, Blakely and Rob- the early daze

 What do you remember as the first indie/alternative bands that you began listening to?

I was really getting into New Wave during the last few years of junior high school. Stuff like Blondie, Devo, The Police, The Cars, and The B-52's. I mostly rejected classic rock at the time, as I wasn't too interested in bands that were no longer around. By high school (1982-1986), I was getting into bands like U2, The Cure, Echo and The Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Public Image Limited and INXS. 

 When did you get hired at (South Jersey record store) Sound Odyssey? How long did your tenure there last and what was it like?

I started at Sound Odyssey in 1987. I was going to Stockton State College at the time and had started hanging around WLFR, the college radio station. While I wasn't a DJ myself, I met a lot of like minded people there, including our mutual friend DJ Bob Portella, who was working at Sound Odyssey then. He put in a good word for me and I got the job. Sound Odyssey was a great record store and I'd probably still work there now if it existed! It was a small chain of about seven stores, owned by the Richman Brothers, and for a mall record store it was amazing. We had a bit of everything: vinyl, tapes, cds, imports, 12"s, 45's, videos, t-shirts, posters, guitars, effect pedals, small amps etc. I bought so many records at that store and it was an important, formative period in my musical education. I made a lot of great friends there (both employees and customers). It was definitely a social hub of the time, as there weren't too many record stores in our area. I came in right at the end of the era, and sometime in 1989 it was sold to the British company, W.H. Smith, which turned it into a Wee Three Records and then The Wall. Although it had changed into an average mainstream record store, I continued working there until they shut it down in 1998, but it had moved to the other end of the mall a few years before. After that, I worked at another local record store, CD Warehouse/Exchange, for a few years. 

 Kevin, Rob, Mike and Blakely- aka: the next lineup (Kevin replaced Kurt)

Had you been in any bands before Deardarkhead?

Prior to DDH around 1987-1988, I had started a short-lived band called Aslan's Pride. We were very U2-esque and only played a handful of shows. Blakely Parent, who had recently moved from Baton Rouge to Ocean City, was our bass player and he would go on to be in the initial line up of DDH.

 Tell me about some of your influences. I know you loved a lot of UK stuff like Echo & the Bunnymen and Jesus & Mary Chain but you also loved Naked Raygun.

I'm definitely an Anglophile, as most of my favorite bands are British or from the UK. In terms of my major influences when I started DDH, I'd list: The Cure, U2, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Beatles, Bauhaus, The Police, Joy Division/New Order, The Church, The Psychedelic Furs, The House of Love, The Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain and 4AD/Factory Records/Creation Records in general. While DDH was definitely on the post-punk side of things, we also liked a lot of punk bands: The Dead Kennedys, The Sex Pistols, The Dead Milkmen, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, Agent Orange etc. I never really got into the hardcore scene, and preferred bands that were more melodic, which is something I've always loved about Naked Raygun. They are totally kick ass, but the songs are very anthemic and super melodic. 

 Tell me about the beginnings of DDH? Was it 1987 (same year I started Dagger)?  Was it you, Mike and Kurt early on?

DDH actually started in 1988, after Aslan's Pride broke up. The original lineup that recorded our first demo "Greetings From The Infernal Village", was Blakely Parent (vocals, rhythm guitar), Kurt Douglass (guitar), Josh Minor (bass), and me (drums and ebow). So Dagger started a year earlier. Frances Avenue, the street you and I both lived on, was pretty happening for South Jersey!

The first recordings- on gold-plated cassette

 Tell me about the revolving lineups? I know Blakely Parent came aboard pretty early on. Who else?

We've had fairly stable lineups over long periods of time, although at this point I'm the only original member. After the initial lineup, Josh Minor left and Michael Amper came onboard in 1990, as our vocalist and rhythm guitarist, with Blakely Parent moving to bass. Kurt Douglass left in 1992, and was replaced by Kevin Harrington, who is our guitarist to date and is a defining element of our sound. Blakely left in 1994 and we continued on as a three piece. The next major change was Amper's departure in 2009. Unable to find a suitable vocalist, Kevin McCauley joined us in 2010 on bass and we became an all instrumental three piece. McCauley departed in early 2019 due to family obligations. We had been on a hiatus for a few years before that, as my mother was sick with Alzheimer's and I was completely overwhelmed dealing with that. She passed in June 2018. Around the end of summer 2019, John Bennett joined us as our bassist, and we've done three shows together since the beginning of 2020. 

 Were the early recordings collaborative or was one person doing a bulk of the writing?

Every DDH record and lineup has been about collaboration. I've always encouraged everyone to contribute ideas. We don't really have one standard way of writing our songs. Sometimes one person will bring in a mostly finished idea or maybe just a few sections and other times we've written tunes after jamming on a riff out of the blue. We tend to spend a lot of time arranging the song structures, so it's definitely a group effort for us.

An early EP- 1992

 Was there a specific studio where you did most of the recording?

Every recording was done in a different studio: 

Greetings from the Infernal Village - my house Linwood, New Jersey Spiral Down and Vibrate - Dekar Studio, Northfield New Jersey Melt Away Too Soon - Audio Plus, Northfield, New Jersey Ultraviolet - The Catbox, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Unlock the Valves of Feeling - The Churchbox, Lancaster, Columbia, Pennsylvania Strange Weather - Miner Street Recordings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 The Catbox and The Churchbox were both run by Ken Heitmueller and Jay Sorrentino of Suddenly, Tammy!

 Did the band tour back them (or now)? What’s the furthest away you’ve played?

We've pretty much stuck to the East Coast, as we've never had any label support. We mainly concentrated on putting out our own records.

 Who are some of the bigger names you’ve opened up for?

The Psychedelic Furs, Supergrass, The Lilys, Everclear. 

 How do you feel about the early recordings? I still think the Melt Away Too Soon EP is really great.

We've always tried to make the best recordings we could, with what we had at the moment. Since we never really had any record label money behind us, we had to pay for all the studio time out of pocket. Most songs were done in a few takes with minimal overdubs. Constraints are a good thing, as you can get lost in infinite possibilities. I think we always sound like DDH, no matter what the lineup is, but I do feel there has been a continuous evolution of our sound over time. I'm proud of every record we have released, and feel lucky to have worked with so many talented people. 

The Captured Tracks compilation

 Tell me about the Captured Tracks collection, Oceanside: 1991-1993. What year was that and how did it come about?

That came out in 2011. I was at home one summer day, when I got a call from Mike Sniper from Captured Tracks. He wanted to know if we would be interested in having our early recordings released as a compilation, which would be part of a series called The Shoegaze Archives. The idea was to shine a light on American bands, from the late 80's to early 90's, that were working in a similar vein as their British contemporaries, (eg. Lush, Ride etc.), but never got the same attention. We were the second release in the series and all of the tracks were remastered with sleeve artwork featuring photography I took, that we used to project on stage when playing.  Overall, it was a great experience in terms of exposing an entirely new crowd of people to what DDH has been doing all along. Mike Sniper and the entire Captured Tracks staff were wonderful to work with and we are big fans of many of the bands on the label. Thanks again for contributing liner notes, we were honored!

 Your most recent EP is the vocal-less Strange Weather EP Saint Marie Records, the Texas shoegaze label. How did that come about? Will you do more stuff with that label?

After we finished the recording, I shopped it around for the better part of a year with some labels I thought might be a good fit. Wyatt Parkins, from Saint Marie Records, responded favorably and we worked together to get the release out in March 2016. We'd love to do another record with Saint Marie, but that's up to the label.  Strange Weather, certainly got some of the best reviews we've ever had, however being a instrumental, shoegazer/dreampop/post-punk/indie rock three piece is a hard sell for a lot of folks. That said, DDH always finds a way to keep doing our thing. 

Strange Weather EP- 2016/ Saint Marie Records

 Bring us up to what the band is doing currently. Is there a new vocalist yet? Any new recordings? Shows?

As I mentioned in the lineup question, we played three shows in Atlantic City during January and February 2020, with our new bassist. We played out one new tune and had started working on more material when the Coronavirus pandemic hit. Everything is up in the air until that blows over, but ideally we'd like to write new songs, play more shows, and hopefully make another record sooner than later.

 Who are some of your current favorite bands?

There is always a ton of stuff I'm checking out every day, but some of my heavy rotation lately includes: Ringo Deathstarr, Cigarettes After Sex, Khruangbin, Wild Nothing, Tycho, DIIV, Washed Out, The Horrors, Destroyer, Arctic Monkeys, Pinkshinyultrablast, The Wants, Tara, Seablite, Sulk, Feet, Hatchie, Southpacific, Beabadoobee, Slowdive, Ride.

 What are your top 10 desert island discs?

Let me just say, as a hard core music junkie, narrowing it down to only 10 choices is next to impossible! This is the hardest question ever, and on any given day you might get a slightly different list. Here are ten records I adore, and still listen to regularly, in no specific order:

 The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta

The La's, The La's

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless

The Cure, Disintegration

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

Echo and the Bunnymen, Songs to Learn and Sing

The Dukes of Stratosphear, Chips from the Chocolate Fireball

U2, War

Slowdive, Souvlaki

The Cocteau Twins, Treasure

Still destroying stages  (and women’s hearts)

Final thoughts? Closing comments? Anything you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask?

Thanks for asking me to do the interview. I feel like it could easily go on as long as Jack Rabid's Big Takeover interviews with The Chameleons! For those of you who have never heard of us, please check us out at: www.deardarkhead.com

 Bonus questions; What’s the weirdest fan letter or strangest thing you have ever received in the mail regarding the band?

We never got any super weird fan letters, however since we put out the majority of our recordings on our own label, Fertile Crescent Records, we'd get a demo submission now and then. I recall getting a tape from a rap artist in our area early on. I of course politely replied saying that we were in no position to sign any artists and even if we were, rap certainly wasn't our area of expertise. For all I know it was one of my smart ass friends winding me up, as it was pretty bad. If that was the case, they never let me in on the joke!

A few recent flyers.

If you missed it, all things DDH can be found at www.deardarkhead.com  

[lunapaper]

Album Review: ‘Lover’ - Taylor Swift

Still trying to wash the mediocre taste of reputation out of your mouth? Then give Lover a try!

Let’s face it: Taylor Swift will never reach the dizzying heights of 1989 again. Though all of her records have been hits so far, the hype surrounding the 2014 album was a whole other beast.

Stereogum – when their love of Swift bordered on parody – defended the record (‘We should respect motherfucking craft when we hear it’). Even a pre-problematic Ryan Adams produced a 1989 cover album. Her notorious Squad, filled with a veritable who’s who of the young, rich and famous, numbered in the thousands… (Not really, but still).

So of course 2017’s reputation was destined to fail, though not nearly as hard as fans and critics probably imagined. It still reached No.1, but more so out of obligation. Y’know, ‘cos she’s Taylor fucking Swift.

While 1989 saw Taylor in the Big City, reputation was driven by a rather childish amount of vengeance. The singer had hoped to cast herself as the snaky, leather-clad Bad Girl but instead was just a plain old snake after Kim Kardashian provided proof that Swift lied when she said she never gave Kanye West permission to name-check her on his 2016 single ‘Famous,’ as well as dodging accusations that she was an alt-right pin-up girl (For the record, I never thought Swift was a conservative).

So how do we define the Lover era? With swirling pastels, renewed optimism and newfound romance, by exorcising old demons but ultimately falling back into old habits.

The album’s first single – the unfortunately named ‘ME!’ – is still the worst thing on here, a sugary head rush that inhabits the same garishly-coloured ‘purposeful pop’ of Katy Perry’s 2017 bomb, Witness. As I said in my review of the track, Glee would’ve produced a godawful cover of this song had it been released in 2011 instead.

It also serves as a sad reminder of just how far Panic! has fallen these past few years as ‘ME!’ personifies the big, dumb glossy pop and rote lyricism of their (his?) recent albums, Death of a Bachelor and Pray For The Wicked. Also, I guess spelling is no longer fun, ‘cos that line has been erased altogether from this track, which is, depending on if you love your pop smothered in cheese or not, either a total relief or utterly devastating.

‘You Need To Calm Down’ doesn’t fare much better. Produced by former Lorde collaborator Joel Little, it’s a pale imitation of the NZ singer’s own megahit ‘Royals’ with its pulsing backbeat, glitchy reverb and harmony-fuelled chorus. The lyrics also feel forced thanks to Swift’s new political bent, resulting in a jumbled mess as she tries to cram in as many gay-friendly sentiments and zeitgeisty Twitter sass as she can. It’s also just as difficult to take ‘The Man’ - her critique of sexism – as seriously because she already is The Man, what with her seven No.1 albums, selling out stadiums and with an estimated net worth of $360 million. Honestly, Taylor, you stopped being the underdog about four or five records ago…

With its sickly sparkle, ‘London Boy’ (featuring a spoken word intro by Idris Elba) is the gender-flipped sequel to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Galway Girl’ that nobody asked for, basically the audio equivalent of a Sherlock-obsessed Anglophile on Tumblr circa 2012. We get it, you know Camden and Highgate and drank a lager in a real pub once, good for you…

The cinematic ‘Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,’ meanwhile, fails to capture Lana Del Rey’s signature noir pop because Swift will never be brave enough to tap into her inner nihilist, comparing the modern political landscape to petty high school drama, what a surprise...

And even 10 years later, Swift is still dwelling on her feud with Kanye West on the bouncy Motown-inspired ‘I Forgot You Existed.’ You can’t forget someone existed or be indifferent to them or accuse them of living rent-free in your head if you keep bringing them up on every goddamn record. Take those ‘hard lessons’ you’ve learnt and let it go already, you’re almost 30 now!

But unlike the hard slog that was reputation, the pros slightly outweigh the cons on Lover. 

With its wavy reverb, hollowed beats and foggy nostalgia, ‘Cruel Summer’ (co-written with producer Jack Antonoff and St Vincent’s Annie Clark) recalls the soaring retro pop of 1989, one of the album’s more starkly honest tracks with a tipsy and emotional Swift crying in the backseat (‘I'm drunk in the back of the car/And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (Oh)/Said, "I'm fine," but it wasn't true/I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you’).

Now this Taylor, I like.

The folkish waltz of the title track is lovesick without being too cloying, dedicated to her boyfriend of ‘three summers,’ British actor Joe Alwyn, as she channels the sweet shoegaze of Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You,’ while ‘The Archer’ adopts the soft, powdery glow of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time,’ though its slow build leads to a rather unsatisfying finish. ‘I Think He Knows’ also sees a more devilish Swift at play, delivering a cross between Janelle Monae’s twitch funk and Carly Rae Jepsen’s retro RnB pop, while ‘False God’ is a swirling cut of sax-laced neo soul that wouldn’t look too out of place on a BANKS or 1975 record. And, oh my God, Swift even tries to channel some summery 00s pop-punk on ‘Paper Rings.’

‘Soon You’ll Be Better,’ however, is Swift at her most raw and heartfelt, describing her mother’s battle with breast cancer for a second time. There’s something dark and truly devastating about the way she vividly recalls the sterility of the doctor’s office, the orange pill bottles and how her hair tangles in the buttons of her coat, consumed by anxiety and fear. With help from The Dixie Chicks, her vocal aches and soars as she returns to her country roots, able to feel the pure desperation and helplessness Swift feels as she asks: ‘And I hate to make this all about me/But who am I supposed to talk to?/What am I supposed to do/If there's no you?’

Taylor Swift is never one to do things by halves. Though a lot more clear and focused than reputation, Lover still suffers from overindulgence with its bloated runtime and abundance of clichés, as well as its sometimes hamfisted political commentary. Not that I don’t agree with the sentiment or doubt Taylor’s impact on the cause (The recent release of ‘You Need To Calm Down’ led to a spike in donations to GLAAD), but by the laws of PR she had to go political on Lover, otherwise she’d still be accused of being a secret Nazi alt-right homophobe who’s obviously an agent for the patriarchy and therefore must be cancelled…

Admittedly, the album works best when Swift applies some restraint, resulting in low-key gems like ‘False God,’ ‘Soon You’ll Be Better’ and ‘Cruel Summer.’ But even then, the album’s Antonoff-produced tracks (minus ‘Soon You’ll Be Better,’ of course) shamelessly recycle the retro synthpop he helped craft on Carly Rae, Lana and Lorde’s past albums. 

Still, despite its flaws, Lover is a stronger, more consistent effort, displaying some growth for Swift as she slowly begins to reassess her priorities. As she sums up on final track ‘Daylight’: ‘I wanna be defined by the things that I love/Not the things I hate/Not the things I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of/Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night/I, I just think that/You are what you love.’

I guess the old Taylor isn’t as dead as we thought…

- Bianca B.

[ryanmeft]

My Favorite Films of 2018, Part 2

Part 1 is right here: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/182987886772/my-favorite-films-of-2018-part-1

They Shall Not Grow Old

The documentary can be a pretty static form of film making. You talk to witnesses, research subjects, check your facts, find footage, and compile your movie. What to do, though, when the subject comes from the very beginnings of film, before color, sound or halfway decent film stock? If you’re Peter Jackson, obsessed with World War I, and also a little bit certifiably insane, here is what you do: visit actual locations to colorize old footage the way it would have looked, hire lip readers and scour old documents to determine what the silent soldiers were saying, and spend four years with your team restoring the visual records of The War To End All Wars until it almost looks like it was filmed yesterday. Rare scenes of actual battle are less important than those of men in the trenches awaiting their last stand, or audio of them discussing simple pleasures like cigarettes and fresh underwear. Done for the hundredth anniversary of the war’s end, Jackson and company are keenly aware that these century-starting events, and the people who lived them, are being swiftly forgotten as a new century rolls on it. And he’ll be damned if he’s going to allow that.

The Favourite

An acid-tongued look at royalty that is as darkly comedic and disdainful of courtly privilege as most Anglophile movies are worshipful of it, Yorgos Lanthimos’s film about a mentally ill woman surrounded by vipers in human suits is sharp enough to cut bone. Starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in a triptych of roles that are highlights of their already sterling careers, there’s no chivalrous honor or ladylike poise to be found here, only manipulation, resentment, cunning and ambition. Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara’s screenplay is a devilish delight of double entendres, threats veiled and open, and wordplay more venomous than a pit of snakes. Witness the fantastically brutal interactions of Stone and Weisz as they seek to make each other bleed without weapons. Robbie Ryan’s camera passes on the normally grandiose portrayals of English courts, and Fiona Crombie’s production design focuses on shadowed, claustrophobic halls and gritty detail, with the result that it all feels like the dark, crowded, petty place it would have in life. Perhaps it took a Greek director to puncture the stuffed shirt of so many British period pieces.

Zama

The man sees himself only in his own mind. To him, he is a diligent, brave, upright servant of the Spanish Empire, enduring the unimaginable hardship of being given an assignment far from his family. To the South American locals, he is a pompous stuffed shirt who may not do much real harm, but isn’t good for anything particularly useful, either. To the revolutionary bandits who roam the countryside, he is both a simple of the oppression of their unasked-for Spanish overlords, and simply a pigeon whose pockets are ripe for the picking. Fiction often portrays the imperialists who forcibly colonized the world as evil racists, and that’s not far off the mark. Lucretia Martel goes in for something a little more understated, looking at a minor imperial functionary through the lens of his dull life and duller aspirations. That may not sound exciting, but Rui Pocas’s choice of shots drenches the viewer in a world of unending color and beauty, contrasting starkly with the gray and pointless place Don Diego sees. A perfectly measured performance by Daniel Gimenez Cacho completes this meditative work.

First Reformed

I’m not gonna lie to you all: this is probably my Inside Llewyn Davis for the year, the movie I’ll still be bringing up in five years as proof that people don’t actually want to see original films. Ethan Hawke turns in the performance of his career as a disillusioned Reverend relegated to a tiny tourist church in a multi-million-dollar religious empire, whose encounter with a radical environmental activist leaves him shaken. It’s been called a Taxi Driver for the modern age, but Paul Schrader’s film is much more than that. The Reverend’s faith is genuine, while the pain of his past, his attraction to a dead man’s widow, and his newfound passion for the planet are also completely genuine. Ernst Toller is a man who can hold multitudes, and Hawke brings them all to life. The final shot leaves us to puzzle out which is most powerful for ourselves. Schrader’s film is about a world in which we are almost always asked to choose expediency over ethics, even if we wear a frock that claims to say otherwise.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

If there’s one thing you can reliably expect from the movies, it is that they will romanticize the creative arts. On the screen, writers who are good are always successes, and not having put out a book in ten years never results in losing your beachfront home. Then there’s the true story of Lee Israel, who coped with her vanished success by forging letters from famous authors. Israel, played by Melissa McCarthy in a role you didn’t know she had in her, is clearly the hero of the story: her goal is not to get rich but to pay the bills, and most people don’t really feel too broken-hearted when the kind of person who pays thousands for a signature gets ripped off. Marielle Heller and screenwriter Nicole Holofcener don’t rely on simple distinctions, though. Israel herself is only sporadically likable, with the only person who will endure her being a drunken and irresponsible gay friend played by Richard E. Grant. It’s hard to sympathize with writers when Hollywood casts them all as wealthy and alluring. McCarthy’s role is anything but; Israel is an abrasive working stiff, and we can’t help but root for her, despite her deep flaws.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Much like the writings of James Baldwin, Barry Jenkins’ adaptation is not to much a plot with a clear story progression as a series of episodes in the life of a family. An innocent black man has been imprisoned by the racist testimony of a white cop, with his pregnant wife struggling to free him, but that is mere detail. What makes the movie stand out is the way it is shot, weaving not only between past and present but between perspectives. Two fathers discuss their fears over drinks. A hopeful couple, denied other housing, moves imaginary belongings into an under-construction loft. Two men look at each over beers and years and try to figure out if black men have a place in 1970’s New York. Two families meet to announce the pregnancy and it ends in a war with no winner. This is all supported by a moving score and cinematography that evokes the fall of the year. Jenkins is unafraid to start things that have no catharsis, and ultimately to suggest that maybe life is just a series of events with no satisfying conclusions.

Damsel

Damsel is a black comedy feminist adventure western, but once you’ve got that many keywords in one paragraph, isn’t the very idea of genre being stretched? Yes, and to viciously brutal effect. Directed by David and Nathan Zellner and featuring a acidic performance from the underrated Mia Wasikowska, it appears to be a traditional damsel-in-distress story, until it turns out the heroic rescuer has deluded himself, the priest accompanying him is a cowardly fraud, and the women being rescued doesn’t actually need rescued. What follows is a journey through the wild west frontiers as darkly comic as it can get without ever tipping over into satire. The men are cowardly and useless, the woman must fend for herself, and what results is the sort of takedown of a genre that, sadly, doesn’t reach very many viewers. You can say it’s a political film, but for me, it seems like the Zellners were simply enjoying flipping every western trope ever made on its head and into a ravine.

As I said, the list is 14 movies long because I simply could not bring myself to cut any more films from it. However, I loved a lot of films this year, perhaps more than any other year in recent memory, and I want to mention many of the “runners-up” here: Beast, Isle of Dogs, Eighth Grade, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Cold War, The Insult, A Quiet Place, Alpha, You Were Never Really Here, Puzzle, The Rider, On Chesil Beach, The Old Man and the Gun, Love After Love, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Hearts Beat Loud, Leave No Trace, The Death of Stalin, Shoplifters, Dark River. Every one of these was as worthy and memorable as any on the main list; it’s just a matter of space, really. There are also many incredibly acclaimed films I simply was not able to get my hands on in time for this list.

[circular-time]

Hi! I'm trying to go through Classic Who and was wondering what some good serials to start off with would be, in your opinion? From a variety of Doctors, if that's okay.

Great question. It’s hard for me to boil 27 years into a quick watchlist, but I’ll do my best to give you a good sampler with good stories, watershed events, and most classic companions. I’ll boldface my top rec for each Doctor.

My suggestion is to try 2 top-recommended stories for each of the classic Doctors, and then watch more of whichever Doctor/companions catch your fancy.

Rec list below the cut: 

First Doctor

I always wrestle with where to start newbies.

Unearthly Child is such a good launch, especially the first half hour. It establishes that the Doctor has a lot to learn from humans! But if you find the later episodes of that story a bit draggy, it's okay to skip ahead to when the show hits its stride.Here:

The Aztecs (Barbara, Ian, Susan): First TARDIS team, classic historical, first to grapple with ethics of altering history. Excellent story.

The Romans (Barbara, Ian, Vicki): Lighthearted historical with a lot of moments to make you grin.

The Time Meddler (Steven, Vicki): Another fun one, first to introduce another Time Lord (although at the time, the showrunners hadn’t decided that the Doctor wasn’t human; the “Time Lord” concept was introduced in the second Doctor’s final episode.).

Second Doctor

I know this era the least, because almost all its episodes were lost when I was a kid, and I still need to catch up on recons and recovered stories. A pity, because Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Peter Capaldi all look back to Patrick Troughton as their Doctor.

I’m still playing catch-up, but I warmly suggest:

Power of the Daleks (Ben, Polly) I’m not quite sure about this rec. It’s the first regeneration story ever, totally lost apart from the soundtrack, recently reconstructed using 1960s-comics-style animation. The visuals may not be your cup of tea, but it’s a good story. I guess this is another, “Try it, see if it works for you, and if not, move on.”

Enemy of the World (Jamie, Victoria) WATCH THIS. NO SERIOUSLY. It’s alarmingly topical, and Pat Troughton is amazeballs. Remember it’s 50 years old now.

The Mind Robber (Jamie, Zoe) a goofier, more lighthearted entry than most of my suggestions, but if you have a sense of humour, it’s a lot of fun. It reminds me that (a) Who was primarily a kids’s show smart enough for the whole family to enjoy and (b) early television was like watching a stage play;  you had to suspend disbelief, tolerate flat sets and basic props, and fill in the rest with your imagination. Our minds were the CGI of early TV.

Third Doctor

Three was my first Doctor, so from here on it gets difficult for me to be choosy.

Spearhead from Space (Liz, Brig) for sure; it’s the intro of the UNIT era and a good regeneration story. Keep in mind what a radical departure this was; not only was it in colour, but it was the first time the Doctor and companions had left at the end of one season and been replaced with an entirely new cast in the next. The Doctor was now Earthbound, working with UNIT. The Time Lords had just been established in the previous (10 episode long!) serial.

Inferno (Liz, Brig) is widely regarded and a heck of a story, with some unforgettable moments, but it’s another that’s about one episode longer than it needs to be according to modern tastes.

Terror of the Autons (Jo, Brig, Benton) introduces Jo AND the Master. Good story. Watch it. :)

The Three Doctors was the tenth anniversary special, and I love it, goofy monsters, ham acting, campy villain and all. William Hartnell passed away not long after.

Fourth Doctor

This is especially hard to pick and choose because Tom’s era spanned seven years, and he had so many good companions and watershed stories. You don’t have to hit all of these; I just have trouble choosing.

Genesis of the Daleks (Harry, Sarah Jane) for sure, introduction of Davros. Unusually dark but important story, a real watershed.

The Brain of Morbius (Sarah Jane) is a solid Four-era adventure introducing the Sisterhood of Karn and another problematic Time Lord. It’s not a pivotal story so much as “this is absolutely classic classic Who, and good entertainment.” 

Hand of Fear is Sarah Jane’s final story. It’s a good sendoff, even if the writers had forgotten she was a tough bird; she shrieks more than I’d like. The final scene is embedded in the hearts of all Whovians of my generation. Our Sarah Jane.

The Deadly Assassin (just about the only solo Doctor serial): I waffle on whether to recommend this because it’s slow in spots, but it probably did the most to establish Gallifrey canon of any story, since it’s the first story that takes place on Gallifrey. 

The Face of Evil introduces Leela. And you can skip it. No really, it’s simply a good adventure, and I hate for you to miss Leela altogether.

The Pirate Planet (Romana I, K9) is hilariously over the top, a farce penned by the inimitable Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide. Bonus: drinking game with the phrase “MIISTER FIBULIIIII!” Except that might land you in a hospital, so never mind.

The City of Death (Romana II) contains a lot of running through the streets of Paris and Tom Baker and Lalla Ward flirting shamelessly. Nevertheless, it’s a good story with an unusually good secondary cast. A fan favorite. Watch for the John Cleese cameo!

Drat, that’s too many Tom Bakers already, so I guess I shouldn’t say Keeper of Traken. But I’m gonna, because I’m biased. (It’s Nyssa’s intro, a Shakespearean tragedy with an interesting villain. More importantly, Anthony Ainley, the next Master, plays her father.)

Fifth Doctor

Castrovalva is the best regeneration story. Yes, I’m biased, but that sequence with Peter Davison wandering around the TARDIS imitating the Doctors he grew up watching is a great intro.

Earthshock (Adric, Tegan, Nyssa) I haven’t given you any Cybermen stories yet, have I? Watch this one. I refuse to spoil why; I’ve already spoiled the first cliffhanger (it had been seven years since the previous Cybermen story, and nobody was expecting them).

The Five Doctors (Tegan, Turlough, and everybody else) is the 20th anniversary special that brought back as many Doctors, companions and monsters as it possibly could. Pure fanservice, but fun for all that. Plus more Gallifrey worldbuilding.

Caves of Androzani (Peri) is often voted the best classic Who story ever. Not sure about that, but the directing in this one is so much better than most of the era it hurts. Even if modern audiences are no longer used to characters addressing the camera; it was a convention back then.

Sixth Doctor

Poor Colin; I love his audios but I haven’t gone back and watched his TV serials since the 80s. The two I remember as especially good are:

The Two Doctors (Jamie, Peri) - Colin Baker collides with Patrick Troughton. Not to mention Jackie Pearce, who played the arch-villain of Blake’s 7.

Vengeance on Varos (Peri) - keep in mind that so-called Reality TV was almost two decades away

Seventh Doctor

I loved the quirky first season of the Seventh Doctor era, but most people don’t. Delta and the Bannermen (Mel) was apparently penned under the influence of recreational substances, and I love it, but again, most people don’t. Happiness Patrol is another “I love it, but most people don’t” story.

These are safer, quality bets:

Battlefield. (Ace) WATCH IT. NO SERIOUSLY. Last Brig appearance on classic Who. A+ would recommend, if nothing else for the fact that Who clued in to having a diverse (and good) cast. Watch for Ace’s gal pal of the week. ;) 

Remembrance of the Daleks (Ace) was originally meant as the 25th anniversary special. The Doctor returns to Coal Hill School for the first time since Unearthly Child. There’s Daleks and the famous Unlimited Rice Pudding speech. Ace kicks Dalek ass.

Survival. Last classic Who ever. A Master story. Ace’s gal of the week is none other than Lisa Bowerman (Big Finish director, also plays Bernice Summerfield) disguised as a furry. Despite the naff costuming, it’s a good story, and the scriptwriter was slipping in as much lesbian subtext as she could get away with in the 80s (according to an interview).

Eighth Doctor

By all means, watch the TV movie, despite its flaws. When it came out, my friends compained, “Stop trying to appeal to Americans by making Doctor Who more American! We’re Anglophiles!” And I lamented, “This is the opposite of Doctor Who: The FX are superb [well, they were then] but the dialogue is mediocre!”  Nevertheless, we all loved Paul McGann as the Doctor and were angry on his behalf that he hadn’t been given a better script to reboot the franchise.

My opinion of the 1997 movie has risen considerably over the years, but it’s still a bit rocky.

And of course you have to see Night of the Doctor, but it’s only seven minutes. Perfect Paul.

Edited to add: Nobody is grading you on your hobby. Or if they are, F ’em. You are allowed to pick and choose! There is so much Who now that it’s pretty much impossible to see, read and listen to all of it. Different eras of the show have different styles and appeal to different tastes. So watch what gives you joy. Just remember there are overlooked gems in every period.

[audio-and-anglophile]

I drove like 10 hours to try to get away from my feelings, but they fucking followed me here

[listentotheland]

Wednesday, May 13th at 8pm EST, ISSUE is pleased to present To the Planetarium, a new long-form recording from writer and musician Derek Baron. The recording is part of the Isolated Field Recording Series, commissioning artists to produce field recordings to be streamed over the course of this challenging and isolated time. Note from Derek Baron on To the Planetarium: “When I was a kid, there was this big dictionary in our house that had print so small that it came with this little domed magnifying glass, which I am looking up now and seeing that it is called a “loupe.” This loupe was smooth on the bottom and could glide across the page, with a black band around the base and then this perfect dome of glass magnifying the words directly under it. On May 10, 1849, the Astor Place Riot broke out in New York City over a bitter rivalry between an American and a British Shakespearean actor. It seems like this feud was really a cultural proxy for a deeper class conflict in New York at the time––the elites being typically Anglophilic and the working class supporting the American actor. The “riot” only became a riot when the mayor and the police chief called in the militia and re-armed the cops, as always. The story is that the masses congealed around the rallying cry of “to the opera house!,” meaning the Astor Place Opera House, where William Charles Macready (the British actor) was playing Macbeth that night. The Astor Place Opera House had to close permanently after the riots and was torn down in 1890 to make room for an 11-story building that is now a bunch of condos, and I think a CVS. A planetarium, or at least a sort of stock image of one I have in mind, is shaped just like a loupe, with a flat bottom, a thick base, and a domed top. But its lens magnifies in the other direction––we stand inside of it and supposedly see the stars magnified for us. We think we’re seeing the stars up close, but maybe the stars are seeing us, reading us like little syllables strung together to make definitions. I don’t know much about this, but I think that certain trends in Jewish mysticism propose an Adamic language that Adam and Eve used to name everything they saw and felt, and that these words are the sort of divine, primordial names for things. This would obviously be before the “confusion of tongues” and the tower of Babel. This “Adamic language” is kind of a troubling thought to me, but I’m not sure why. The source of my unease may be related to something that Kafka supposedly said, that the alternative to Zionism is Kabbalah. This idea makes a lot of sense to me, though I don’t know if he ever said it. “To the Planetarium” is a long piece, but I hope not to suggest any kind of heroic marathon listening. It’s designed to be and stay kind of open because I’d like to keep working on it after this livestream. So I can recommend that you listen to it as much or as little as you want, tune in and out, have dinner, go to sleep (goodnight!), return to it later if you want. How far off of the surface of the earth do you have to be to see the curve of the earth? That’s where I’d like this music to be played––not in volume, god no, but in altitude.” Derek Baron is a writer and musician from Chicago and living in New York. They make recorded music alone and have some collaborative groups, like Cop Tears, Permanent Six Flags, and Causings. With Emily Martin, they run the Reading Group record label from their apartment. They work at New York University, just a few blocks from the former Astor Place Opera House. In response to COVID-19’s impact on public assembly and our subsequent suspension of public programming, ISSUE’s Isolated Field Recordings Series commissions artists to produce field recordings to be streamed over the course of this challenging and isolated time. The series will support artists directly in an unprecedented moment of uncertainty, struggle, and financial risk and emphasize the solidarity of artists working in a situation where everyday life is confined and separated. Focusing on recordings from artists’ current conditions, the series will broadly approach the field recording as an expanded form and open invitation to experiment with home audio recording during this period of social distancing.

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Audio: Franc Moody's Shimmering Disco-Tinged Remix of Issac Delusion's "pas l'habitude"

New Audio: Franc Moody's Shimmering Disco-Tinged Remix of Issac Delusion's "pas l'habitude" @IsaacDelusion @FrancMoody @microqlima @Partisanpr

Deriving their name from a playful, Anglophile nod towards the famed physicist Issac Newton, the Paris-based electro pop act Isaac Delusion —  founding members and creative core Loïc Fleury (vocals, guitar) and Jules Paco (keys) — was formed back in 2010. With the release of 2014’s self-titled debut effort, the act received attention for a sound and approach that meshed the acoustic…

[cricmain]

Cricket commentary... get ready for the new bedtime story #Cricket #GrouchoMarx #Sleep #Insomnia #ActonLondon #BedtimeStory #TestCricket #Durban #HenryBlofeld #SiliconValley #BBC #BBC #TestMatchSpecial #Meditation #England #India #KarlMarx #Plugin #Watermark #Opacity #London #Temple #TheObserver #GarrickClub #RobinWilliams #Baseball #Diazepam #SanFrancisco #TheMillionDollarHomepage #Googly #Doosra #Fielding #Mindfulness #Hypnotic #GeorgeBernardShaw #Ireland #BillBryson #Anglophile #WilliamTemple #Archbishop #Canterbury #TheIndependent Cricket Explained To ... Groucho Marx, it's a soothing audio essay of some 35 minutes, in which Blofeld’s plummy tones explain the complex laws and baffling terminology of cricket to a long-dead American comedian famously mystified by the game. https://cricmain.com/2018/09/04/cricket-commentary-get-ready-for-the-new-bedtime-story/

[thesimplyluxuriouslife]

A new week and arriving at an exciting point in the publishing process of #tsll3rdbook . Just last week received the final manuscript after three rounds of edits from my editor (currently 461 pages). Now a final read through, fine-tuning, confirming, giving extra polishing where necessary. Timeline: 💻 10 years of inspiration and personal content drawn upon from the weekly newsletter sent out to readers since 2010 (over 500 newsletters). ✒️ 2 years of writing the manuscript, organizing, deciding on the focus and intention of the project. (2019-2021) ✏️✂️ 6-7 Months editing with my editor. Cutting, adding, rewriting (rethinking), challenging myself to be more direct and draw upon self-examination and revelations of life truths. 🎨 1 year deciding and aligning custom illustration ideas to share with illustrator. All 13 illustrations plus the cover art just arrived today after she spent all of November and part of October on this project. Incredibly grateful to @tea_in_the_studio . 😌💛💛 Now, it is time to finalize, format into all forms - hardback, paperback, eBook and record the audio version. December and January will be full and exciting. Look for news about how to order in late January and look for the book to be published in early Spring 2022. Content Genre: part Memoir, part Daily Meditations for an entire year, part Francophile and Anglophile focused. All about living a life of true contentment. ❤️📚❤️✒️ https://www.instagram.com/p/CXJqWB4PCKb/?utm_medium=tumblr