#but that one theatre adaptation of a different play and this book started mixing

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

i should not be allowed to read this author at emotional times. like. late at night. relocated from sleeping on the sofa (again lmao) at like 2am and was awake and i had mentioned that i really loved the play that one author had written (yes, the one filling me with admiration and envy so bad that let's not get into that) to my teacher and she also really likes that author and loaned me two books of his. so i decided, hey, i'm gonna read a bit, either i get tired and fall asleep (good) or i finish the book (also good) except now i'm hit once again by this stupid emotion mocktail i wanna write like that so so so bad but i'll never be able to write this or something like it because he already did that, that's the point, so now i'm tired but still not sleeping because ough and also i should really analyse the story maybe

[lilywrites9]

Top 5 Out of the Box Sonam Kapoor Movies

Sonam kapoor Indian actress Ahuja performs in Hindi-language movies. She has received a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award, and from 2012 to 2016, she was listed among Forbes India's Celebrity 100 based on her popularity and earnings.

Fashion and Sonam Kapoor go hand in hand. And enjoyment too. It's no secret that we enjoy Sonam Kapoor's choice of entertaining films to act in. Her films frequently have a carefree, sunny, perfect day feel. Popcorn movies at their very best.

Aisha

Rajshree Ojha is the director of the 2010 Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama Aisha. Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Ira Dubey, Cyrus Sahukar, Amrita Puri, Anand Tiwari, Arunoday Singh, and Lisa Haydon are all part of the ensemble cast in this comedy of manners. It is a version of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma and is set in the upper-class society of Delhi, India. It has the same tone as the cult Hollywood movie Clueless (1995), which is also an adaptation of Austen's book. Aisha, which debuted on August 6, 2010, had a mediocre box office performance. Critics gave it mixed to favourable reviews. She characterised her persona as an intrusive diva with a penchant for playing Cupid and matchmaking.

2.Neerja

The 2016 Indian biographical thriller film Neerja, which was written by Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh, was directed by Ram Madhvani. The narrative is based on a true incident: the attempted hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 by the Abu Nidal Organization, which was supported by Libya, on September 5, 1986 in Karachi, Pakistan. The head purser of the flight, Neerja Bhanot, who stopped the hijack attempt by warning the pilots and forcing them to ground the aircraft, is portrayed in the movie. Bhanot lost his life while attempting to save the 359 survivors among the 379 passengers and crew. She played the role of the air hostess Neerja Bhanot, who perished in 1986 while attempting to save the passengers of Pan Am Flight 73, which had been hijacked.

Since the project is based on actual events, Kapoor felt a sense of responsibility towards it. As part of her role preparation, she met the Bhanot family. The movie received a lot of positive reviews, and many critics thought that Kapoor gave her best performance to date. According to Raja Sen, her performance was a career-defining moment, and Rohit Vats of the Hindustan Times observed that "she carries entirely on her shoulder." She conveys a mixture of sincere, fear, goodwill, and boldness. Rajeev Masand invited Kapoor to his yearly best actresses roundtable, and Sen named Kapoor the best actress in Hindi film of 2016. In addition to numerous other honours, Kapoor received a Special Mention for a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics).

3. Raanjhanaa

Beloved One, also known as Raanjhanaa, is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film that was written and directed by Aanand L. Rai. Kapoor played the part of Varanasi-based Muslim student Zoya Haider, who becomes involved in politics as a result of the murder of her Sikh lover. Kapoor met with students, went to workshops, and practised with theatre groups affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University in order to get ready for her role. Additionally, she looked at Jaya Bachchan's performance in Guddi (1971), which she thought was "ideal" for the part. In response to a question about her role in the movie, Kapoor gave the following explanation of her acting style: "I have always tried to do diverse films and… I strive to be different for every character. The film was superhit at box office.

4. Delhi 6

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra is the director of the 2009 drama film Delhi-6, which was made in Hindi. Abhishek Bachchan plays an NRI in the movie who travels to India with his elderly grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) and starts learning about his ancestry before becoming involved in a religious issue involving an unknown attacker who resembles a monkey. After receiving its world debuts at the Museum of Modern Art and the Dubai International Film Festival, Delhi-6 was finally released on February 20, 2009, to critical and box office acclaim. Although it did poorly financially, it earned mixed reviews from critics, who praised the soundtrack and the cast's performances while criticising the plot, writing, and pacing. Best Production Design went to Delhi-6 at the 57th National Film Awards (Samir Chanda).

5. Veere Di Wedding

Female buddy comedy Veere Di Wedding is a 2018 Hindi-language movie that was produced by Rhea Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, and Nikhil Dwivedi and directed by Shashanka Ghosh. Starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam K. Ahuja, Swara Bhaskar, and Shikha Talsania as four friends attending a wedding, the movie is loosely based on the 2015 movie The Wedding Ringer. On June 1, 2018, Veere Di Wedding was released in theatres to mixed reviews. The movie, which had a budget of $28,000,000, ended up earning over 139,000,000 globally, making it the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year and the biggest for a movie with female leads. At the 64th Filmfare Awards, it garnered three nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Talsania and Bhaskar.

[strangestcase]

My Dark Lord, I urge you to speak of the misadventures your mind takes you to whenever you sit, wrapped by your humming thoughts of wrath (tell me about the jekyll and hyde adaptation i BEG you)

OH OOF! I have so many ideas buzzing in my head I barely know where to start! It’s structured like a musical theatre play but idk about the songs, I just wanna sprinkle in some musical numbers here and there…

Basically the story would start as the book, with Enfield telling Gabrielle about the incident of the door. A reenactment of it happens in the background as she narrates and we can see how she’s changing the story to make Hyde look worse. Gabrielle perks up when she hears the name “Hyde” and immediately runs home to her safe, and re-reads the will out loud. I think she could have a solo song about how much she cares about Henry and it would imply she has a crush on him.

So next she goes to ask Lanyon about it and as he starts shittalking Jekyll, he shows up. And then he assures her it’s all fine, that Hyde is a good guy, that there is nothing to be worried about (and to some extent, he is right). She’s not convinced tho so that night she decides to meet Hyde; he falls in love at first sight, of course. As she asks him what he’s doing, where he lives, etc, she starts to flirt and act all gentlemanly. Still, we can tell this guy is basically gloom personified. So YEAH, I switched up some scenes. I think Henry and Hastie arguing about the former’s theories (while Gabrielle tries to interrupt to ask wtf they’re talking about) should be a duet. And Henry is introduced with a dance number!!!!

The following weeks, Gabrielle basically goes conspiracy theory mode and goes around collecting evidence of what Hyde is doing by night… what he REALLY is doing is just show up, go to a nightclub, hook up with people, befriend the occasional goth, be a jerk, nothing much really. But the rumors are ridiculously overblown. One night she goes to a masquerade to meet up with Henry (he’s going to wear the cheesiest glitteriest matador costume because who ever said my Spanish ass wasn’t funny?) and tell him of all the stuff Hyde “does”, and he nervously brushes it all off. Truth be told, Henry is starting to fear what Hyde can be capable of. Oh, he also apologizes to Gabrielle on his behalf, saying that “he’s an incorrigible flirt”. She doesn’t really buy it. Insert big dance number in the masquerade I guess.

So the following night. Hyde is framed basically. Someone kills Carew and they find his broken cane -it is Henry’s cane ofc- near the scene. People also claim to have seen him around (he indeed was around) and to have seen him kill the old man with sadistic glee (he didn’t do that). What really happened is that someone stole the cane and later used it to attempt to mug Carew, then panicked, and attacked him, then fled the scene without taking anything. The whole police force now tries to hunt for the man- Of course Gabrielle is mega suspicious because she had caught notice that Hyde, despite his claims that he “loathes Jekyll and his stupid sunshine attitude”, was weirdly protective of him and tended to pick fights with people who had wronged Henry earlier (add the cane thing into the mix- it was a present from Gabrielle, and now she’s jealous and angry and. You get it). They can’t find Hyde, obviously, and the rumors now escalate to shit like cannibalism.

Henry is starting to get paranoid and is kind of terrified of Hyde even though, as I have stated before, that’s literally him but on a different font. And just a jerk really. He decides to close the back door to his lab. And have it walled. So he’s walking around the park when. Um. Transformation lol!! It would be the first time the audience sees it and it’s confirmation for the plot twist that we all know and love… also jekyll and hyde are played by different actors. Edward fucking loses it and tries to reach the lab. Just to see the door walled and suddenly remember that he just fucking had it walled SHIT!!!! Damn. Then Lanyon receives a mysterious letter, something about going to Henry’s lab and getting some weird potion out. The potion is small humbug candy shaped pills btw. Here would go a solo in which Hastie goes over his friendship/rivalry with Henry and explains why he thinks he’s gone nuts, but he’s interrupted by Hyde. He claims he needs the potion and that he has to use it to be safe again. Lanyon asks “why?”, and Ed replies “Because I am the dreaded Edward Hyde” right before taking the potion and transforming. Lanyon freaks the fuck out, panics, calls Henry an out of control monster, and barricades himself behind some plants. Henry is so hurt by this he decides to lock himself up forever so that this monster can’t hurt anyone else (…I reiterate Hyde is literally him but emo and mean).

So what happens next? A few weeks pass. Gabrielle pays a visit to Hastie and finds him in a panic, saying weird shit like that Jekyll is Hyde or whatever and she goes hey what?? Hastie says that she can ask him herself: he’s ran back to the laboratory. “You better bring a weapon, in case it is Hyde who opens the door.” Now say it w me kids: Gabrielle to the rescue! She goes into the lab to see a very sad, very gloomy Jekyll… that’s not the sunshine golden retriever boy we saw in his intro number. He’s all bundled up. And. Well. Miserable. Also the lab is a mess! Someone has been tearing it apart! He breaks down in tears and Gabrielle is like ???? What is going on. She tells him that Lanyon said something about Hyde and. Jekyll admits he can’t lie any longer so he decides to explain everything. There is a flashback scene of the first transformation- Gabrielle stands around Henry who details how he drank the potion and BAM! Shortie now. Since Jekyll and Hyde are played by different actors, Henry can move aside and keep talking to Gabrielle as Hyde re-enacts the rest of the events of the night. Two solos ensue: one in which Henry details why he did the experiment (he wanted to really be his emo self! Awwww) and that now he suffers the consequences (he can’t control his transformations) (that’s why the lab is kinda thrashed) but that its all self inflicted so he has to suck it up; one in which Edward talks about how his uh. Nightly escapades went from fun to miserable as people judged him for the way he looks and acts. And saying that yes, he’s been a dick, but that holy shit He Doesn’t Kill People. Are You Crazy. I think the two could be intermixed or something since two actors. But it ends with Henry saying something like “I can’t carry on without you”.

There is a happy ending after all. Hyde might be scary, but he‘s the dark side we all have, and you have to live with it. You can’t pretend to be someone you aren’t, after all. Henry and Hastie reconcile (lots of tears involved), and Gabrielle comes to forgive Henry -even though she’s still angry because he didn’t tell her anything at first!!!-. Big musical number here. Henry’s outfits btw are now a little darker- showing he now isn’t scared of embracing his true self. They’re all in love also. Henry’s last line in the play is something like “It’s great that I don’t have to become Hyde anymore!” Fade to black.

The BOOM. Red Lights of Evil On. Fake fog machine on. Hyde��s leitmotif plays and. Hyde emerges ominously from the dark. His “signature” moon themed outfit on. He scowls -as usual- and says something like “The Moon is always there… even when you can’t see it.” Then fade to black again as we hear him evil laugh for the first time. That guy really doesn’t laugh much.

DONT WORRY THO that’s just to scare the audience. Post-canon I think they all go on silly adventures and whenever Hyde shows up it’s like 🙄 Henry is on emo mode again guys

THATS IT!! Ummm that’s what I have for a plot. I’ve spitballed a lot here rn lol soooooo. Um. Tee hee.

[wanderchyld]

PBIO/IOTNBO theories

This is long so bear with me.

FYI, I watch the show on Netflix and while English is my first language, I know Chinese and Korean, so sometimes I ignore Netflix’s subs or (they tend to miss some nuances, not just for IOTNBO, heh) or change to Chinese subs for fun. If I quote anything, it might be a mix of Netflix’s subs and my interpretation.

There were 2 women in the Go household.

Moonyoung’s house had a group of dolls consisting 1 male doll (Go Daehwan), 2 female dolls (Do Heejae and ???) and 1 smaller female doll (Moonyoung).

There were 2 women that allegedly died: 1 in the basement, 1 in the lake.

I know there’s a "Moonyoung has a stepmom" theory going around, and a lot of fairytales have stepmoms. But I think there is a possibility that the other woman is Do Heejae’s sister. Why?

Welcome to Oz

Every episode’s theme is tied to a certain story. However, there’s one story present in the show almost every episode, yet it was never explicitly mentioned; and that is The Wizard of Oz.

The current mystery around Do Heejae, Moonyoung’s mother, must be related to her novel, which is titled Witch of the West’s Murder. There is no way the novel was named after The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West for no reason at all, so this story has to be the the drama’s overarching theme. (I can also confirm that it’s the basis of the books’ content after reading the few pages they flipped on camera.)

Plus, the disgusting book reviewer from ep 2 mentioned that you can tell a lot about an author from their writing. So what does Witch of the West’s Murder tell us about the mysterious Do Heejae?

This story has multiple variations but I refer mostly to the 1939 film (the most popular adaptation) and the Wicked musical.

Who are our witches?

The Wicked Witch of the West (WWOTW) and Wicked Witch of the East (WWOTE) were sisters. This may be linked to the 2 women in the Go household mentioned earlier. The 2 women may be Do Heejae and her sister, and my guess is that the Head Nurse is the sister.

WWOTE = Moonyoung’s mother, Do Heejae

Known to be beautiful => multiple mentions that Do Heejae was beautiful, portrayed as feminine (often associated with beauty)

Used sorcery to control people => obsessive control over Moonyoung

Infatuated with Tinman before he became Tinman => she married Go Daehwan, so….

Caused Tinman to be without a heart => maybe she caused Go Daehwan a mental breakdown that landed him in the psychiatric hospital

Died from a house falling on her = died under a house => died in the basement, which is where? Under a house!

WWOTW = the woman in the lake aka Do Heejae’s sister, who might be the Head Nurse

Known to be a tomboy => Head Nurse has tomboy tendencies

Saved Tinman from losing his heart => Taking care of Go Daehwan in the hospital

Melted in contact of water => died in the lake, and Do Heejae loves to sing "Oh My Darling Clementine" which is about a woman drowning in a river

Who is Dorothy?

After WWOTE died, Good Witch of the North (GWOTN) gave Dorothy WWOTE’s ruby shoes, which WWOTW coveted, and told her to follow the yellow brick road to find the Wizard of Oz. Coincidence with the red shoes Moonyoung wore and the hospital’s brick path in ep 2 despite being linked to a different fairytale? I don’t think so! By now, we would have known that IOTNBO doesn’t do coincidences.

So Moonyoung is Dorothy. Not just because of the shoes. Firstly, what did Dorothy want the most? To return home. Just as how Moonyoung wants a warm family or home, they needed a sense of belonging.

Secondly, Dorothy was pointed to as the person who killed the 2 witches. While I’m pretty sure Moonyoung didn’t kill any of these 2 women, it’s almost definite that she’s related to or perhaps the very reason of their deaths.

The murder of the Witch of the West

Then what was the sister coveting? Go Daehwan? Her sister’s newfound wealth after marrying Go Daehwan? Or Do Heejae's attention (since Do Heejae loved Moonyoung to the point of obsession, her obsession may have ruined the sisters’ relationship)? (Thank you @honeyohhon​ for this.)

GWOTN described WWOTW as "worse than the other," so if this direction is right, Do Heejae's sister wouldn’t just sit back and accept it. She would be vengeful and put up a fight with Do Heejae. This might explain why she ended up in the lake, and why the Head Nurse, who comes off as an easygoing person, barely interacts with Moonyoung and even seems a bit cold to her (though Moonyoung doesn’t like to socialise lol). And Moonyoung doesn’t recognise the Head Nurse as her aunt because Moonyoung was always kept in the house.

Therefore, my take is that Do Heejae's novel is not about murdering Kangtae’s mother like some theories I’ve seen (she did write a few volumes before she killed Kangtae’s mother). It’s about Do Heejae killing her sister aka Head Nurse. And with all the foreshadowing and the mention that the novel had not been completed, both women might be alive………....????!?!!??!!???? Idk man 🤯🤯🤯I’ve no idea where Do Heejae would be.

Anyway, The Wizard of Oz doesn’t just apply to the 2 women in mystery. In IOTNBO, we also have our own tinman, scarecrow, lion and wizard.

Go Daehwan the tinman with no heart => no soul

Sangtae the scarecrow with no brain but is just young and naive => has a developmental disorder and infantalised by almost everyone

Kangtae the lion with no courage => ’nuff said

Director Oh the middle aged wizard who is "a good man but a bad wizard" and gave Tinman, Scarecrow and Lion what they needed => helping them as the director one way or another

Park Ok Ran the messenger

She’s definitely a red herring. Likely a pawn. WWOTW did have winged monkeys to do her bidding. Being the head nurse of a psychiatric hospital, Do Heejae’s sister/Head Nurse has easy access to the mentally unstable patients and their files. She could have conditioned the patients into certain behaviours or to do things for her. Perhaps she conditioned Kang Eunja in ep 5 and 6 into mistaking Moonyoung as her daughter? And Park Ok Ran?

Park Ok Ran had just begun reading the novel’s first volume in ep 5, the day after Go Daehwan choked Moonyoung. I really don’t think that’s a coincidence. By ep 7, she was at volume 9.

While she took volume 9 from the library herself, what made her start reading the books in the first place?

It seems like she received the first few volumes with cue cards like Sangtae did, judging by the cue cards kept in her copy of volume 3 (an earlier volume). Get this: she possessed a copy of volume 3 even when she left the hospital in ep 10 but the library wasn’t missing any volume when she went to get volume 9 in ep 7. 👀👀👀  

She used to be a theatre actress, and she seems clear that she’s not Do Heejae but a fan. Perhaps she received a role to play and the director communicates with her through the cue cards?

Kangtae also found her notebook, which seems to be a study of the books. I can’t read them because the shots aren’t very clear and it doesn’t help that the handwriting is a bit inconsistent. I then tried to compare her handwriting with the cue cards Sangtae received, and it is possible that his cards were not written by Park Ok Ran. I could be wrong because cursive vs neat handwriting? Ugh, spare me.

ETA: @annerossee​ mentioned that ep 13′s preview had Kangtae showing Director Oh the cue cards and Director Oh told him not to trust anyone. Seems like he recognised the handwriting.

If I’m right, then Park Ok Ran was simply passing the message to Sangtae. She was the last person to have the library’s copy of volume 9. And the volume Sangtae received in ep 10 was NINE. 👀 

End.

Any thoughts? 

I actually have have more theories on Moonyoung, her dad and Sangtae but this post is already quite a lot of work 😅Maybe tomorrow.

[bluecrusadearcade]

Harrison Osterfield is not your regular irregular

By Baker Street, Gentleman’s Journal quizzes the star of Netflix’s new drama on world records, Sherlock Holmes and his golf swing…

Draped in a silk shirt and paisley scarf, Harrison Osterfield is shivering his way across a brisk Regent’s Park. But he’s not complaining. Why would he? After all, the 24-year-old has dealt with worse. In his latest television series alone — Netflix’s The Irregulars — he’s tussled with demonic crows, paranormal serial killers and even the occult. So a little nip in the air? Nothing to worry about.

“I do have my eye on that jumper, though,” beams Osterfield from behind a bold pair of sunglasses. I don’t blame him. It’s a chunky-knit, funnel-neck number from Connolly, and the next piece of clothing lined up for this al fresco photoshoot. But, for now, the young actor must grit his chattering teeth — and continue striking willowy poses in that billowy shirt.

And those poses are turning heads. Dog-walkers, taxi drivers and tourists are all picking up on Osterfield’s energy; a coolly British blend of big grins and bouncy enthusiasm. He swings from a lamppost! He dances through daffodils! He feeds the pigeons! NW1 hasn’t seen this much action in months…

And we’ve come to Regent’s Park for obvious reasons; Baker Street snakes down from its south-west corner. And, on that famous thoroughfare, sits the fictional digs of Sherlock Holmes. But The Irregulars, a supernatural-tinged drama named for Holmes’ gang of trusty street informants, wasn’t shot in London. Rather, it was filmed on the authentically old streets of Sheffield and Liverpool — the same cobbles walked by the Peaky Blinder boys. So this, Osterfield grins, is a fun opportunity to see the real thing.

“All of the rest of the cast,” he admits, “are really big Sherlock fans. I’ve never really read any of the Sherlock books. I’ve seen maybe one Robert Downey Jr. film? So I was very new going into it.”

Today, then, will be a crash course. Because, after we get Osterfield out of the park (and into that jumper), we’re heading to the Holmes Hotel for a coffee and a catch-up. It’s a relatively new hotel just off Baker Street, decked out with knowing nods to the world’s greatest detective. There’s a bronze bulldog guarding the door, pipe-patterned wallpaper and signature cocktails at the sadly-closed bar (anyone for a ‘Case Closed’?).

But, though there are only suggestions of Sherlock in the Holmes Hotel, Osterfield explains that they’re even subtler in the show. Because The Irregulars, in a nutshell (wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma), sidelines the sleuth, and shifts the focus onto Osterfield and his fellow gang members. The actor plays one of the show’s leads; frail runaway nobleman Prince Leopold. All sullen glances and broken bones, his story is the heart of this first season.

“And it’s been a long project in the making,” says Osterfield, noting that filming on The Irregulars began almost two years ago. “That’s quite daunting. When you’ve spent that much time on something and you’ve got no idea how it’s going to turn out?

“It means that, now, it’s crunch time,” he continues, face creasing with mock-worry, “and I have no idea how people are going to react. But I’m really proud of the work, and that’s what I’m taking away from it.”

The Irregulars may be Osterfield’s first lead role — but he’s been acting for years, popping up in several short films and the George Clooney-directed adaptation of Catch-22 before Netflix took notice. His first role came at 11-years-old, when he was cast as Tiny Tim in his school’s stage production of A Christmas Carol. “It’s funny, actually,” says Osterfield, “because it’s quite a similar physicality to my role in The Irregulars”.

“But that’s where it started,” he continues. “And the real reason I got into acting was because there was this girl in the drama class who I really liked. I thought, if I joined up and impressed her, I could take her out on a date. That didn’t happen. But, although she wasn’t interested at all — the acting seems to be going okay!”

It certainly does. But, like actors all over the world, it’s been a very slow year for Osterfield. He returned to set in September to finish filming the Netflix show — but the rest of his lockdown was eerily, cannily familiar to everyone else’s.

“I went back to my home in Kingston,” he nods, “where I was living with three of my best mates who are also actors. Quite a few of my friends are in theatre, and they had a really tough time of it — not knowing what was going to happen next. I was very lucky, knowing that I was going back to finish something”.

The actor says it was strange being locked-down with fellow performers. With sets closed around the country and curtains falling on theatres, it was one of the first times they had all been at home together. But, even with the additional pressure, he says there were no problems. And there never have been, according to Osterfield — as it’s rare that he and his friends ever compete for the same role.

“We’re all very different castings!” he laughs. “Which is good. It’s a mixed bag, really. But it’s very useful when you’ve got to self-tape an audition and there’s another actor literally upstairs. Also, we’ve all known each other for ten years, so we’ve grown up together and, luckily, know when not to push each other’s buttons.”

With no work, Osterfield spent most of his 2020 getting stuck into lockdown. And he shamelessly tried every self-isolated stereotype. He binge-watched every sports documentary from Drive to Survive to Last Chance U. He upped the frequency and intensity of his workouts. He even tried his hand at cooking. He tried everything.

“I did try everything!” the actor laughs, fizzing once more with that lamppost-swinging, daffodil-dancing energy. “Really! I think I went though every lockdown activity there is. I gave baking a go for two weeks — that didn’t work out. I made a banana bread and that was it. I’m not going to be delving into that any more…

“We were quite lucky, though,” he adds, “because we had an outdoor space. We built a homemade golf net in our garden, by putting up two wooden poles and hanging a blue screen we had left over from filming. That kept us entertained most days”.

But, despite the failed banana breads, closed-off golf courses and Irregulars anxiety, Osterfield says that the worst thing about lockdown was missing his family.

“Because we’re a very close family”, he explains. “Massively so. And, usually, we’d have family gatherings every other weekend – my whole family are in East Grinstead and closer to Brighton, so real countryside. I’m honestly just looking forward to the day, with summer on the horizon, that we can do some good barbecues outside.

“We even tried family Zoom quizzes over lockdown,” he adds, “and they all figured out that I’m not that clever. The rest of my family all seem really, really intelligent. I don’t know if they were just revising beforehand, but I was definitely last a couple of times…”

And Osterfield’s most inspiring family member — not to mention the most irregular — is his 89-year-old grandfather. Despite the young actor upping his own fitness levels during lockdown (“I started doing handstand push-ups. That’s my new skill!”) Osterfield’s grandfather put those athletic achievements to shame.

“He’s fitter than me!” laughs Osterfield. “He’s been kept at home for most of the time and, as a family, we’ve been quite worried about him. But I struggle to keep up with him. I’ll ring him up and ask how his day’s going and he’ll say ‘Oh, hi Harry. Can I call you back later on? I’m just doing some exercise’. So he’s doing better than okay!”

But the exercising, Osterfield says seriously, has been a real lifeline. It’s kept both him and his mind busy during lockdown — and has motivated the actor to pursue more physical, active roles in the future. If he can look back at a body of versatile work, measured out in marked body transformations, he says he’ll be happy.

“I’ve been doing a lot of bodyweight exercise over the last year,” he nods. “I thought it would be quite cool, while in lockdown, to break a world record for something — so I’ve been trying lots of fitness challenges. I’m very close to getting the most burpee chin-ups in under a minute. I’ve got to knuckle down on that.

“I also tried to eat an apple in under 38 seconds,” he laughs. “Which sounds like a long time, but it’s actually quite difficult. And, with apples, I eat everything. Even the middle bit. Even the stem. I just chuck it down. I’m a big fruit bat, so I eat everything apart from the seeds.”

There’s that bouncy energy again; that fun-but-utterly-sincere enthusiasm. It’s an odd thing for an actor, to be so happily unabashed by everything — but the 24-year-old is as animated when talking about his acting as he is about his apples. And that’s nice to see. He’s clearly relishing every opportunity to better himself, and just getting started with what promises to be a very exciting career. Harrison Osterfield, it seems, takes every bite of the apple — literally. Talk about irregular.

[instablamwriter]

TenTaiYuki Domestic HCs

the apartment is ofc purchased by tenma

they all sleep in the ame room but each has a room dedicated to their interests

tenma’s room has a lot of gardening equipment and books. It also has his large closet of clothes and stores all the random things he gets from his jobs like from sponsors, etc++

tenma has a small garden on the roof for his bonsai

he had initially thought of just getting a penthouse apartment for them but yuki told him they shouldn’t do any needless spending (“this hack really doesn’t know how to handle money smh”)

yuki’s room is a sewing workshop. It has several mannequins, as well as fabrics stored neatly into rolls. He has a bunch of checklists everywhere to help him keep inventory and has 2 sewing machines (one that Taichi usually operates)

he also has a large corkboard full of his designs with lots of pins and random cut-outs that give him inspiration

Taichi’s room is where they store a lot of their more intimate things like their photo-albums, their theatre posters, etc.

Taichi has a large bookshelf for all his magazines and theatre scripts, etc

there’s one wall where he keeps all his skate gear and yoyos

bc of muku, he’s also started collecting a bunch of shoujo manga

there’s a big collage on one of the walls with pictures, mostly from omi and kazu

their living room has a large tv where they watch variety shows/tenma’s dramas in their spare time; they also watch shows where the celebrities are handled by azami unless azami tells them not to

they all eventually learned to cook from omi - meaning yuki cooks and the other two do the grunt work

they also learned how to mix in veggies in a way so that tenma wouldn’t be so bothered with them

tenma is still a popular actor who’s even acted in foreign films but he tries to stay in japan so that he doesn’t have to stay away from the two for too long

yuki has opened his own boutique; at first people thought he was getting buzz because tenma sumeragi was set to model his clothes but yuki boldly stated that he can get a different model and his clothes would still stand out (king shit)

he uses taichi and muku to show off his clothes and everyone started praising especially how he has such flexibility in making casual clothes to high fashion to all sorts of costumes used for the stage

tenma finally got to model his boyfriend’s clothes in magazines and let yuki earn a lot of mint

taichi acts in different theatres and also teaches acting, especially for those who are doing stage adaptations of already existing media (like kniroun)

he has a fanclub of students because of course he would >)

his hair gets totally dyed now because his boyfriends learned how to make it work

sometimes they’re all just on the couch and curl up with one another

when they’re spooning, tenma is the smallest spoon while yuki is the biggest spoon

when one of them has nightmares (usually tenma), they each hug tenma from either side and hold one of his hands while trying to sing soothing songs to calm him down

it doesn’t always work but tenma appreciates the effort each time

they all tend to overwork themselves (tenma with his schedules, yuki with nonstop work on his clothes, taichi with his practices) so when one of them notices the other is tired, they immediately make them go on break - no excuses

taichi and tenma both try to help yuki since they’re familiar with clothesmaking by now; usually taichi is the one who heads this

yuki is in contact with Igawa and makes sure that Tenma isn’t taking up too much

taichi would be the one to often make either of them take a break to go eat somewhere or try something

sometimes they just stay at home and play board/card games or video call with their friends

taichi’s siblings sometimes comes by to play with them

they ask taichi how he got such pretty boyfriends and what his secrets are

they really wanna brag to all their friends about their brother’s bfs but due to possible scandal, they don’t

they’re very happy boyfriends, that’s all I can say

[scratchybeardsweetmouth]

Iain Glen: From Game of Thrones to cycling's dark side when Le Tour came to Ireland

November 4, 2020 | By Esther McCarthy (x) Irish Examiner We last saw him as Daenerys' trusty sidekick, but in The Racer - opening movie at Cork Film Festival - Iain Glen plays a shady character involved in the Tour de France in 1998 Excerpts:

[...] Now a new movie recounts that 1998 tour through the eyes of a cyclist. Though fictional, The Racer shows the dangerous lengths teams will go to for a competitive edge. Shot in Ireland and Belgium, the opening film for the Cork International Film Festival centres on a domestique (support rider) regarded as one of the best in the business. Iain Glen plays the team’s Mr Fixit, the man with the syringes and vials. “I studied documentaries and a couple of films just to get to know the world it occupied,” he says. “What drew me to the script was it didn't hold back its punches, I thought it was a very frank and honest, quite a wry, insightful look at a particularly bad period for drug abuse within the sport.” “That tour became known as the Tour de Drugs because of the amount of drugs that were going down at the time. The people within the team and my character, certainly within the context of the film, didn't have any great qualms about it - everyone was doing it and we were doing it as well. That was the norm. It's ironic to think that (Lance) Armstrong was about to enjoy his great stretch as being the world-leading cyclist and he won so many tours in a row and this was prior to that. During Armstrong’s time everyone thought the sport had got its act together a bit more.” Directed by Kieron J Walsh, the movie shows the extraordinary dangers the cyclists face as a result of blood doping...    [...] “People weren't wrestling with their consciences as they decided how they could compete at the highest level, they were just doing what everyone did. And I thought that was accurate and telling,” says Glen. “You would have to have a gallows humour.” “The conceit of zoning in on this domestique, someone who had sacrificed his entire life for cycling with the intent of never, ever winning himself, who would put his whole life on hold, and then physically put his own body through the abuse that he did to try and compete, I thought was a very powerful conceit for the film.” Glen is one of Scotland’s best-known actors, mixing it up between roles in theatre and the big and small screen. But he didn’t initially consider an acting career, stumbling into drama while studying at Aberdeen University. “It was there that friends of mine got involved and I was slightly dragged against my will into it. I had no idea what actors were and that you could earn a living for what they did.”   That changed when he performed a small part in The Crucible. “I felt that I could occupy that space in my imagination where I believe the world in which I was standing in and seemed to be able to project that in a small way. I just got really addicted very quickly for that feeling. I bumped into it very accidentally, I had no great desire, I didn't even know what it was until I was 18, really.”  Many of those projects have brought him to Ireland - including playing Jorah Marmont in Game of Thrones. A movie shot in Ballyvourney, Co Cork, is one he has happy memories of despite its dark subject matter. “I do have very strong memories of Song For a Raggy Boy and it’s among my favourites,” he says. “It put me together with Aisling Walsh again, who was a great friend and still is. It's an awful part of history. And I thought that the film portrayed it very powerfully and very accurately.” “I played a very disturbed man and all the kids were slightly scared of me, because they were at an age where they didn't see a division between actors and and the roles that they're playing. I remember the last weekend just before we wrapped, I took them all out. We went and hung out and saw a film together and did different things.” “It's amazing how much in denial the higher echelons of the church were and politics and society too. You need to keep banging on the door for it to be really broken down and owned up to comprehensively and fully and certainly the film was one of the early knocks in the door, I think.” LOCKDOWN CULTURE Parenting a young family during initial Covid restrictions made for a busy household, but when Glen turned to culture he found comfort in reading and his guitar. “It's been a tricky time for everyone. I'd love to say that massive new things opened up but to be honest, it's really very pragmatic: how do you cope with young children when they're in the same house all day?” “I've got young kids as well as older ones. The home education was a challenge that was very preoccupying. I play the guitar and that's always a means of getting away from it all a little bit. William Boyd was a writer who opened up to me. I'd worked with William on a film that he adapted the screenplay for. And then I did a play of his called Longing.” “He was very present in the rehearsal for that and he’s a lovely man, but I'd never read any of his writing. I just started to read a William Boyd book and I just couldn't stop reading. So during lockdown, I read about nine William Boyd books, starting with Any Human Heart.”

[rocknvaughn]

New Review of Colin's play A Number

Link here:

(some plot point spoilers, but mild)

The Bridge Theatre is having far greater success with revivals than it has with new plays, and no problem attracting talented cast and crew to star in them. Both of its immersive Shakespeare productions – Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – have been excellent, while big productions are on the programme for later in the year including wunder-director Marianne Elliott’s version of They Shoot Horses Don’t They and Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. First though, the Bridge joins both the National Theatre and, as of last week, the Donmar Warehouse in celebrating the work of Caryl Churchill with a short but superb performance of A Number.

It’s notable that two theatres have chosen to stage One Act pieces that, unusually in our era of three-hour-plus marathons, stand alone allowing audiences to be well on their way home by 8.30pm. Far Away at just 45-minutes practically feels over before it has even begun, while here at the Bridge, A Number is just an hour long. Perhaps surprisingly given ticket prices of up to £55, nothing else is scheduled alongside it, with both venues choosing to allow the singular work to speak for itself. It may not feel like value for money based on time spent in the auditorium, but in this case Churchill’s play is definitely small but mighty.

Yet, her work can have a marmite quality, creating quite divisive effects on audiences, so much of the time either you get it or you don’t. But A Number is one of her most straightforward pieces, a fairly simple narrative about a family discovering their eldest son has been cloaned. While the science-fiction surface is an examination of the effects of science on society, a premise Churchill uses to think about the apocalyptic nature of man’s own self-destructive impulses, A Number is really about lies. Across just five scenes, the writer explores the nature of deceit as a father (Salter) betrays his sons in several different ways as information about the true circumstances of their birth and early life is drip-fed to both men and the audience.

It is a clever and well executed premise, one designed to wrong-foot the audience at every turn, opening with an affectionate conversation between father and son taking place soon after the latter has discovered that clones exist. This first scene suggests a terrible miscarriage of justice in which an unknown other has effectively stolen cells from the boy and used them to make unauthorised replicas now living openly and blindly in the world, unaware of each other’s existence. Nothing about this early interaction is suspicious and it seems that Churchill’s intention may be to examine the faceless demands of scientific progress that harvest humanity’s innocence for nefarious purposes.

But that is only half the story and it soon becomes apparent in Polly Findlay’s thriller-like staging that nothing is quite what it seems in this household. A similar tactic occurs in Far Away with book-ended scenes set in a familiar domestic normality that hides (and lies about) the seamier activities beneath the surface, where the corruption of innocence is a major theme. The same occurs in A Number as the son referred to as B2 is forced to know more of his father’s choices as well as the existence of his duplicates which has terrible consequences.

Findlay quite effectively uses a square-shaped rotating set to explore the play’s themes with each new scene set at a 90 degree angle to the one before. In doing so, the audience sees every perspective on the single room in which the entire piece is set, and crucially, each of the four walls that provide the limitations to this domestic sphere in which Salter has maintained a bounded span of control for some years. Designed by Lizzie Clachan the room is exceptionally normal, a living room / diner filled with soft furnishings, family photos and some tiger prints on the wall, all warmed by a bar fire, and unlike previous adaptations that veered towards the clinical, this is a domesticated tragedy in progress. Churchill is interested in the casual monstrousness that lurks beneath the chintzy surface of suburbia, the banality or perhaps more appropriately the thoughtlessness of evil.

Findlay and Clachan’s rotating set does two important things, it changes the audience’s perspective as each new scene brings further revelation that build into a clearer picture of the people it concerns. So by the end of the play we have seen the room and the circumstances of family life from every angle. But it also reinforces the much discussed effect of cloning in which the created being is the same but different. Salter is asked by each of his children about comparisons with their brothers, and we see they are quite different personalities in the same form. And so it is with the rotated set, what we see in each scene is the same room from a different perspective, creating an increasingly disorientating effect as the story unfolds.

Findlay’s control of the tone is particular impressive, there is something unnerving about the scientific discussions being had in this bland and unexpected environment in the first scene, yet the affectionate relationship between the men seems genuine, encouraging us to feel concerned that their rights have somehow been violated. Over time, Findlay changes the temperature introducing darker notes that build into something far more sinister as the result of the initial revelation is felt across the play. As each new slant is revealed, the mood shifts with it, so worry turns to desperation, anger and foreboding as Churchill slowly and often unceremoniously reveals one crucial revelation in each scene. The return of the room to its original position in scene five is a reset in every sense, with what now seems so clearly a cycle of hope and destruction ominously about to begin again.

At the centre of A Number is the ambiguous figure of Salter, a man who seems racked with concern for the pain his sons newly endure and whose initial instincts are to comfort while demanding legal justice for the misuse of his son’s DNA. Yet, it is never entirely clear whether Salter is telling the truth or why he tells the specific lies he chooses, so many he can barely keep track of them; which son is the original, the fate of his wife, his knowledge of the cloning process and the exact chronology of his son’s childhood are all subject to interpretation as he continues to give deliberately evasive responses. He appears to lack any genuine remorse for his mendacity and there are also suggestions of cruelty to B1 whose night terrors he ignores, a child that Salter decides is not up to scratch by the age of four and simply replaces with an improved copy.

Yet, Salter is also sympathetic, a father desperate for a second chance to put things right – an outcome at the start of the play he appears to have achieved as he and B2 express a mutual love for one another and happy life to date. Salter’s later confrontation with his original son B1 leads to revelations of grief at the death of his wife and a loneliness that haunts the play as a father grapples with his own positive legacy, a need to create a good relationship with his son to guarantee his own future. The momentary pauses between the five scenes which leaves Salter alone in each room configuration offer a contemplative pause, a man isolated and perhaps even abandoned with little left to lose.

The pairing of Roger Allam and Colin Morgan is a savvy one, two dedicated and respected theatre actors who have found a valuable chemistry well ahead of this week’s press night. Allam easily connects with the many conflicting layers within Salter’s character, he is at once a man trying to find a good outcome from past mistakes and someone who lies with astonishing ease. Under pressure, Allam’s Salter runs on, saying almost anything to dilute the confrontation and his culpability for the existence of multiple children, Allam ever treading that fine line between selfishness and parental love by mixing half-truths and outright lies with genuine emotion and bewilderment.

The audience never quite knows if Salter is a good man led astray by grief and a good sales pitch decades before, selling the soul of his child to answer some deep call of fatherhood, or a mercenary man using a disarming scattiness, a failure to remember exact details to malevolently excuse himself from blame while perhaps willfully bringing about a wider destruction to rid himself of the problem. Allam is careful to offer both interpretations within his performance, that keeps the audience guessing about his real motives.

As his antagonist throughout, Colin Morgan offers an equally layered presentation of character, rising to the challenge of playing three different versions of the same man. In each of the five scenes, Morgan alternates between personas, changing accents from two variations of London to play B1 and B2 as each man separately confronts Salter. And it is a play that wastes no time, with Churchill introducing the characters post-revelation requiring the actors to begin mid-argument, already at a pitch of exasperation and confusion.

Each man is given distinction by Morgan with B2 the nervy innocent, trying to accept the new-found truth about his cloned-selves and, at first, trusting his father’s explanation with a credulousness that is increasingly naive. The confounded approach hardens in Morgan’s creation of B1 who introduces an important note of latent violence, of the possibility of physical harm as he intimidates the father who betrayed him. Each of the characters is given two scenes so Morgan finds consistency in his characterisation, switching between them relatively quickly as the responses of both men to their father creates further tension once the brothers become aware of each other’s existence. The subtle hints of the Cain and Abel struggle in Churchill’s work and man’s desire to be somehow individually unique are brilliantly elucidate by Morgan in a varied and gripping performance.

A Number packs a lot of themes, meaning and ideas into just an hour of stage time in a production that asks big questions about scientific progress, human regeneration, parenting and legacy. Churchill is concerned here with the mysteries lurking beneath a sheen of civilisation and how quickly things unravel once the veneer is shattered to reveal further deceits. With performances by two very fine stage actors, Findlay’s production asks us to look beyond the simple dichotomy of nature or nature because the advent of medical interventions into the reproductive process, designer babies and genetic modification leaves us wondering whether human individuality exists at all, and how do we control who we become?

[architectuul]

Teatro del Mondo: An Odyssey

The Venice Biennale is an increasing magnet for professionals and laypersons alike, as evidenced by a stampede of hundreds of thousands of visitors quickly rolling over exhibitions in Giardini dell’Arsenale, and an exponentially growing number of various minor events during the Mostra.

Arnell, Peter and Scully, Vincent (1985): Aldo Rossi-Buildings and projects. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. New York.

People from all over the world travel to Venice to visit the Biennale. But it happened just once that a pavilion intended for Biennale went in the opposite direction. The motives for this voyage were reported on the sidelines of an exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 1979-1980: The Theater of the World Singular Building. Maurizio Scaparro curated the show that was held in Ca’ Giustinian in 2010.

Read also “In Vino Veritas Biennale Style!” and Is It Possible To Exhibit Architecture?

It is always difficult to judge a piece of great contemporary architecture: From the vantage point of present, we usually lack proper temporal distance. But 30 years after its implementation, Il Teatro del Mondo (The World Theater) - a floating building designed by Aldo Rossi for the architectural Biennale once anchored in front of Punta della Dogana and created in 1979 for the Venice and the Stage Space exhibition, grew to become an architectural icon.

Il Teatro del Mondo by Aldo Rossi | Photo via Focusdamnit

British theatre director Edward Gordon Craig once said: “There is something so human and so poignant to me in a great city at a time of the night when there are no people about and no sounds. It is dreadfully sad until you walk till six o’clock in the morning. Then it is very exciting.”[1] In his stage designs, Craig used architectural language to design and articulate the relationships in space between movement, sound, line, light, and color, enabling actors to assume positions and spatial relationships that they could use in ordinary urban life.

A parallel to Rossi's architectural project is unmistakable - was that a coincidence or intention?

Venice-Dubrovnik, a diary of the international theatre lab 1980 from “Giornale di Bordo”. | Photo © Daniela Sacco

In Dubrovnik | Photo © Piero Casadei

Its legendary trip to Dubrovnik, (the theater was ferried in the summer of 1980 to the local Theatre Festival) is exciting and feels like reading Homer’s Odyssey. In the best tradition of Venetian mobility, Rossi wrote: "Just the image of Venice, a synthesis of gothic and misty landscapes and oriental inserts or transpositions, fixes the capital of the city on the water. Therefore, of the possible passages, not only physical or topographical, between the two worlds. Even the Rialto bridge is a passage, a market, a theater. "[2]

Arnell, P. and Scully, V. (1985): Aldo Rossi-Buildings and projects. Rizzoli International Publications, New York. 

Today, when we think about Venice, we conjure up a small peninsula in the northern Adriatic. It is hard to imagine that Venetians were able to rule such a vast cultural space. The key was their legendary mobility. They were always on the move. The Republic built on the water developed its eclectic cultural influence through its enduring presence in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. The city was the final destination for the most important cultural and caravan route between the Orient and the Occident. No wonder The World Theater united in itself several references: Renaissance and Elizabethan theaters, lighthouse architecture, Venetian floating architecture, and temporary structures built for the carnival. [3] As Nadine Labedade wrote "Thus, it is the typology of the city that creates the scenario. And this mobile theater-boat became a fragment of the urban history, a quasi-metaphysical image tasked with representing architecture.”

The revision of modernity - as an abstract, functionalist, and timeless architectural language - was a common denominator of the Tendenza, the group formed by Also Rossi together with Carlo Aymonino, Paolo Portoghesi and Franco Stella among others. Rossi was undoubtedly the most influential member through his book L’architettura della città (The Architecture of the City, 1966). Through descriptions of Italian cities, he described his concept of architecture. He saw his work as part of an urban structure in constant dialogue with the countless layers of history, a city in continuous change in analogy to its buildings, and adapting to new social, economic, and cultural conditions.[4] His design language is generally understandable, using simple geometries and academic elements borrowed from the past. His layouts reintroduced imagination and poetry into the presentation of architectural work: colorful collage, wooden models, the mixed scales of shapes that can be both design objects and real houses.

There were just a few performances in the floating Teatro del Mondo that Rossi built for the Venice Biennale in 1979. After the short display in the lagoon and the voyage across the Adriatic to the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, the temporary theatre was disassembled. Nevertheless, this scenography-like building shaped the Italian architecture of the second half of the 20th century like no other project. The relocation to Dubrovnik, the famous medieval Republic and archrival of Venice in the Adriatic, inspired discussion about eclectic cultural influence and the complex historical layers of Adriatic cities. Those years coincided with the beginning of the Postmodern movement in former Yugoslavia. It probably was not Rossi’s primary focus of attention, but this Trojan Horse disguised as a theater that was shipped to Dubrovnik, was the first step in a politically delicate debate and movement towards a revision of Modernism in Yugoslavia - no easy feat in the ideologically colored cultural character of a country unconditionally committed to Modernism. Theater as a revolutionary tool in urban planning?Notabene: in 1956 the city of Dubrovnik even hosted CIAM X, the congress. which saw the start of the Team 10.

Peter Brook, who directed Hamlet in Dubrovnik, said that "a theatre should be like a violin, its tone coming from its period and age".[5] His daughter Irina took her Midsummer Night's Dream to the Old City of Dubrovnik’s Marin Držić Theatre, one of the oldest institution of its kind in Croatia.

Arnell, P. and Scully, V. (1985): Aldo Rossi-Buildings and projects. Rizzoli International Publications, New York.

The Dubrovnik Shakespeare Festival was founded in 2009 by American-Croatian author Michael Lederer. Suddenly, Dubrovnik and its architecture are increasingly associated with the stage on which everyone plays a distinct role in his or her daily live. On an urban scale, the morphology of the Old Town itself reminds us of a stage, surrounded by the natural slopes of the adjacent hills, with the eternal blue of the Adriatic in the back. The topography places the architecture in the foreground and the architecture has taken over the nature so dramatically that the two have become indivisibly connected.

Finally, Rossi´s vision worked out: cultural and geographic lines connected the Adriatic cities together over the last decades. The voyage of the Teatro del Mondo can coincidentally be seen as a rediscovery of the medieval stage setting of Dubrovnik, which serves as shooting location for renowned TV-series and a dream destination for thousand of tourists. Rossi must have had the words of Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima in his mind when he said that life is nothing but a theater. [6]

***

VAB 02: Mladen Jadrić

Photo © Jakob Mayer

Mladen Jadrić is teaching and practicing architecture in Vienna, Austria as the principal of JADRIC ARCHITEKTUR. He has realized a wide range of projects of different scales: architectural and urban design projects, housing, residences, art installations and Museums in Austria, USA, Finland, China and South Korea. He is teaching at the TU Wien and has gained extensive experience as a visiting professor and guest lecturer in Europe, USA, Asia, South America and Australia. His work has been awarded the Outstanding Artist Award for experimental tendencies in architecture in Austria. He is also a member of the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, and deputy Section Chair of the Federal Chamber of Architects.

Notes: 1. E. G. Craig (1998): A Vision of Theatre, Christopher Innes, York university, Ontario, Canada. 2. 1998 OPA N.V. Published by license under the Hardwood Academic Publishers imprint, part of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group 3. Observations on the Fantastic Nature in the Architecture of Aldo Rossi, Alessandro Dalla Caneva, Architectoni.ca 2018, Online 4  4. Rossi - Autobiografia scientifica, Milano, Nuova Pratiche Editrice, 1999 5. Eyre R. (2004): National Service: Diary of a Decade at the National Theatre 6. Mishima Y. (2018): Bekenntnisse einer Maske, Kein&Aber, Zürich 

[cammi-writes]

Title: Chuck’s Wrath

Part: part 1 | part 2 |

a/n | warnings: mentions of death, throwback to before the apocalypse, blood addicted Sam aka Dick Sam, emotionally abusive relationship, descriptions of torture | I haven’t written any Supernatural fics in sooooo long lmao but my 13yo sister and 10yo brother just got into the show (they just watched John sacrifice himself for Dean) and I saw fetus Sammy and got inspired!!! Some things you should know are the reader is Bobby’s only daughter and she’s known the boys her whole life. When John gets captured by Azazel and the boys exorcise Meg at Bobby’s house, she goes with them and continues to hunt with them after all the Azazel stuff.

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairings: Sam Winchester x Reader, Dean Winchester x Reader

Tags: message me if you want to be tagged

Sam and Dean were frozen in the theatre, courtesy of Chuck who sat to their left, popping a piece of popcorn in his mouth with a shit-eating grin.

“I never wanted a movie adaption of the Supernatural books. I felt like they would suck the raw emotion out of it.” Chuck explained. “I mean you saw Supernatural the musical.” He made a face of distaste. “But they were just kids so I had to pretend like it was good.”

“What the hell is this?” Dean grunted out.

“Just watch.” Chuck focused his attention to the screen as the reel started to play. “You remember this, right Dean?”

You stood outside the motel room door, a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes as you heard her moans. When you heard Sam’s deep groan, you instantly turned away. He was screwing the black-eyed whore in your motel room...

“Y/n?” Dean’s gruff voice spoke and you quickly blinked away the tears.

“Hey Dean” You forced your usual happy smile but this time it was filled with pain. “I just forgot my motel key and I don’t think Sam is in there-” You were cut off by a loud porn star like moan.

“Ruby’s in there, isn’t she?” Dean’s voice was a mix of anger and sympathy.

“Yeah.” Your voice broke. Sam and you had been together for around a year. Your first kiss had been while Dean was in his coma... Your first time was the night his father sold his soul to save Dean... You had finally made it official when he returned from the dead after Dean made the demon deal.

“Come on...” Dean grabbed your hand a led you away from the motel.

“Where are we going?” You sniffled.

“Somewhere... quiet” Dean gave you a soft smile. Something you hadn’t seen from him before. Something you never would have expected since the way he’s been acting since he got back from Hell.

Sam gave Dean a confused but broken look. Sam thought about you everyday since you disappeared from his life but he could never find you because the end of the world always seemed to loom in the distance.

“Turn it off.” Dean begged Chuck. The desperate tone that he only used when his family was in danger leaked into his voice. He didn’t want Sam to see what was about to happen...

There was a park on the other side of the woods that laced the edge of the motel you guys were staying at. That’s where Dean had lead you to.

“I’ve been in love with him since we were kids. I thought... I thought for the first time in my life I had gotten what I wanted.” You whispered as Dean and you walked down the dirt path.

“I know...” Dean whispered.

“I should have expected this though. My life has never been this easy.” You let your tears fall.

Both of you were quiet for a while before you decided to ask a question that had burning at the back of your mind.

“What happened?” Dean looked up at you when you asked. “Down there, I mean...”

Dean stared at you for a while, lost in thought. A pained look on his face as he remembered the things that he had done. But the way you shivered when the wind blew snapped him out of it and he shrugged his jacket off for you.

“A lot of things I’m not proud of.” Dean draped the jacket over your shoulders.

“We all do things we’re not proud of.” You tried to comfort him while sinking into his jacket to escape the cold, the smell of pine and old leather embracing you. A smell that reminded you of him.

“You’re not proud of accidentally killing a person while exorcising a demon.” Dean glared at the ground. “I-I tortured people, Y/n. I hurt them. I wasn’t strong enough so I sank to there level.”

“Dean.” You grabbed his bicep, ignoring the shock in your veins. “We all do things to survive. The only thing important is that you survived. You made it back to us.”

“I liked it.” Dean’s teary eyes met yours. “I liked hurting people down there. What does that make me? A survivor? Or a monster?”

Dean looked away, scared of seeing the look of disgust on your face from his confession but when your soft hand cupped his cheek to make him look at you, all he saw was a soft, caring look in your eyes.

He didn’t know why he said it. Maybe it was the fact that you were alone and Sam was screwing a demon in the bed you both had shared. Or maybe it was the way you were looking at him as if he hadn’t just admitted to being a sadist in hell.

“I wish you had fell for me instead.”

“What?” You furrowed your brows curiously.

“I mean... I just don’t like seeing you upset. If it was us... I wouldn’t be hooking up with a demon. I’d be here, with you.” Dean gave you another gentle smile, something confusing you even more.

“You are here with me, Dean.” You shyly turned away. Confused by the pounding of your heart. Maybe it was because Dean was here for you while Sam was sleeping with Ruby. Or maybe it was because you were actually feeling something for him.

“Exactly.” Dean spoke, making you turn towards him, just in time for Dean to connect his lips to yours.

Dean stared at himself on the screen. He was feeling all the same emotions he had felt when he kissed you all those years ago. That wasn’t just Dean stealing another one of Sam’s dates. This was different. That was something Dean had rarely felt in his life.

Sam stared at Dean with anger and betrayal. Sam knew about Dean’s habit of stealing girls from him but never with someone he actually cared about and loved. Dean would always gloat about it to his face but he had never mentioned this to him. He never even suspected it. What else had you two done behind his back?

“How could you?” Sam hissed.

“Sammy...” The gut wrenched look on Dean’s face told Sam that what he had just saw was different... It wasn’t the same as all the other girls.

The screen flashed to a new scene.

“Oh! This is my favorite part!” Chuck got the attention of the demoralized brothers.

“You can’t go!” You grabbed Sam’s arm. “You can’t go by yourself with Ruby to kill Lilith.”

“Let go of me.” Sam roughly shrugged his arm from you, making you stumble back.

“Sam, please.” You sobbed, the tears leaking down your face. “Do you really think this is the right thing to do? Drinking demon blood! Sleeping with a goddamn demon?!”

Sam glared at you, making you shrink away.

“You sound like, Dean.” Sam shook his head, continuing to pack his bags. Your heart dropped at the sound of Dean’s name like it always did, ever since your kiss at the park all those months ago.

All of the secret kisses, the late night talks when Sam would disappear with Ruby, the days where he would hold you as you cried about the way Sam was acting... The feelings that were sprouting because of all of that. The way they made you wonder why you were still trying to salvage your relationship with Sam. You had seen how Dean had stopped the random hookups since your kiss while Sam, your boyfriend, cheated on you repeatedly with a demon nevertheless.

“I’m scared for you, Sam. I don’t want you to get hurt. I love you.” The words sounded familiar but the feeling it gave off was foreign. Did you not love him anymore? “I’m your girlfriend...”

“I don’t love you and you’re not my girlfriend anymore.” Sam sounded cold. “I haven’t loved you for months and you’re just annoying me now. I’m with Ruby. I’ve been making it as obvious as I can and you just won’t take the hint.”

With that he slammed the motel room door. You felt scared for him. You felt like you needed to stop him. Like he was making a big mistake. But you didn’t feel heartbroken and that told you that you didn’t love Sam anymore like you had thought.

“He finally broke the news, huh?” You glared at the demon to your left.

“Go away, Ruby.” You hissed. “Isn’t he going to meet you-” Maybe it was the fact that you had been working with her for awhile that made you turn away without fear of what happened next.

You were still in the motel room when you woke up. Tied to the motel room bed. It was hazy but you could make out Ruby standing in front of you.

“You’re finally awake.” Ruby gave you a malice smirk.

“I knew it.” You groaned at the throbbing headache that formed as the result of getting hit in the head by whatever Ruby had used.

“Too bad, Sammy didn’t.” Ruby rolled her eyes. “You know I was supposed to kill you the night you cheated on him but well after that heated performance I didn’t think you were a problem anymore.”

“Screw you.” You pulled at your restraints. “If I’m not a problem then why am I tied up?”

Ruby gave a grin that made you shiver in fear. “I have some time to spare before Sam makes it to where I’m supposed to be. Dean’s busy so he won’t be coming back for a couple of hours. And I really don’t like you.”

3 hours and 42 minutes of extreme torture. She had started by cutting deep wounds in your stomach and continued lower... She filleted your feet and skinned random parts of your body. One of your ears were torn off at some point. Your wrists and ankles were raw from where you had been pulling on your restraints. Your fingernails were on the floor somewhere and by now all you could see was your own red blood soaking the bed sheets.

You don’t know how you hadn’t bled out by now but you had wished you did. There was no coming back from this. If you had somehow survived... there wouldn’t be a life worth living after. Even though you had believed that, when you heard the rumbling of the Impala, hope sparked in you. Dean was back. He could save you. He could stop her and save the world. Ruby had explained to you her entire plan while torturing you. How Sam killing Lilith was the final seal to release Lucifer.

“Dean.” The gargled, quiet plea was silenced by Ruby as she used her knife to quickly slice your tongue off. The pain the seared through your body as she shoved the pillowcase into your mouth when there was a knock on the door.

You watched as she quickly changed her clothes and cleaned the blood off of her arms. She strutted across the room to the door. He won’t see you from that angle...

“Where’s Y/n?” You heard Dean demand when Ruby peaked her head out.

“With Sam, obviously.” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“This is their room.” You could hear the undertone of hurt in his voice.

“She wasn’t too keen on well... using the same bed as Sam and I.” Ruby shrugged. “They’re four rooms down.”

“I’ll go make sure myself.” Dean glared at Ruby and stalked down towards the door, fully prepared to bang on the door... Until he heard the familiar sound of a headboard banging on the wall. In a moment he felt his heart tear before pushing it down and backing away.

“I warned you.” Ruby grinned as Dean stalked past her with an angry look on his face.

A gargled noise left your mouth as tears left a clean stream of skin down your face.

“That’s actually some prostitute and a senator but Dean doesn’t know that.” Ruby spoke quieter, now that she knew Dean was in his room adjacent to yours.  “He really loves you, did you know that?”

A strangled noise left your mouth.

“I’m going to mix your blood in with the demon blood Sam’s going to drink.” Ruby grinned. “I’ll tell him once he free’s Lucifer.”

And then in a quick slash, your throat was opened and you quickly bled out of existence.

Sam and Dean stared in horror as the screen faded away. They didn’t know... They didn’t know that Ruby had slaughtered you like that.

“So much emotion. I really outdid myself there.” Chuck stood, clapping as the lights turned on.

“I could have saved her.” Dean whispered. He felt dizzy and exhausted.

“Both of us could have.” Sam felt nauseous and disgusted with himself.

“No-No.” Dean spat angrily. “You were jacked up on demon blood. You weren’t yourself. I was. I should have known. I should have-”

“Don’t- just don’t” Chuck cut him off with that familiar dissatisfied look. “Just enjoy my gift while it lasts.”

And then he was gone and the brothers were free to move.

“You-You loved her?” Sam spoke after a few moments of silence.

Dean nodded as he sat on one of the chairs with his head in his hands. He couldn’t get the image of you, tortured and broken on that bed out of his head. A new nightmare to plague his sleep. One worse than all.

“It was just a crush when we were kids.” Dean spoke, trying to hide the fact the emotions he was feeling. “And then you guys got together and I was annoyed and then I got back from hell and... she was so sad.”

“Because of me...” Sam felt his heart break again at the thought of you.

“I never... I never slept with her.” Dean looked up at Sam. “There were a few kisses and some nights where she would sleep in my bed with me. But I never took in any further because I knew that you loved her too. I knew that it wasn’t you hurting her. But I couldn’t let her think that nobody was going to treat her right-”

“I get it.” Sam nodded. “I just thought she was alive somewhere. Hunting, living her life.”

“I thought she would have been married by now. With kids... A normal life.” Dean closed his eyes when he felt his tears well up. “I hoped that she got out.”

It felt like they sat there in silence forever, lost in there own emotions before Dean’s phone rang.

“I’m not dealing with this shit right now-” Dean was fully ready to reject the call until he saw who was calling.

“What game is Chuck playing?” Sam growled when he saw who was calling.

A picture of you, smiling and alive was splayed onto Dean’s phone.

[marylovettpostgradblog]

1. IS IT BECAUSE I AM A GIRL?

Too Few Women in Audio 

My work to date has been weighted more towards working with people in a therapeutic way rather than music technology. I have a ”Freelance portfolio career” which loosely translated means juggling different projects simultaneously to pay the rent. Most of which have been in community music and theatre. The work consists of, performance, commissions for music for immersive site specific theatre and directing community choirs.

My rationale for choosing to study Creative Music Production is to develop the technical skills be able to produce my own music to an industry standard. (whatever that means) To to accurately translate compositional ideas and in turn do justice to them. Despite having used Logic as my preferred DAW for over twelve years, I still feel like I have only just dipped my toe into the program, and its capabilities.  I enjoy working in my own small home studio and the security it provides.  I am currently confronting my feelings of overwhelm with the studio desk at the University.

During my experience of music technology education over the last 16 years, women have definitely been in the minority.  Reflecting on my own feelings embarking on Masters study, I really notice how a lack of self confidence rises within me particularly around technology.

For years I have been more interested in the process of composition rather than  mixing and production. Preferring to leave this to other more technically skilled people.  This has often resulted in being unsatisfied with the end result. 

I thought that being able to speak the language of the studio and understanding what things did would help in communicating ideas about the mix. While this certainly helps, I have come to the conclusion that there is no substitute for learning to do this my self. Having to overcome this reluctance was something I wanted to investigate.  Why the reluctance? What is the difficulty? Surely it's not because I am a girl?

fig 1: Leslie Gaston-Bird

I began to look at texts about women in the music industry and in particular production and engineering. My interest was piqued when looking into gender within the music industry as a whole and examining the technical roles of women. Exploring this opens a whole world of historical, sociological, systemic, and complex reasons as to why this has been the case and remains present today.  

Women in Early Audio

Fig 2: Ada Lovelace 1840

Ada’s place in history was not only for her outstanding work but also assisted by her lineage. Her Father being Lord Byron, the famous poet and politician and her Mother, Annabella Milbanke, ensuring that she was tutored in Mathematics, logic and science. She worked alongside Charles Babbage who was developing a machine called the “Analytical Engine.” James Essinger in his book “Ada’s Algorithm” says that  “With her definition of the word “operation,” she is giving birth to the science of computing and computer programming and is in fact now regarded to be the inventor of computer programming. (Gaston Bird 2020)

In relation to music Ada wrote, “Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent” (Essinger, 2014).

Sophie Germain a French Mathematician. Answering an “open call” call in 1808 from the Academy of Science for Mathematicians, (A place where girls were not allowed to study) to build on the work of Ernest Chladni. He had described the resonant frequencies of vibration with the patterns made from sand on a metal plate. Germain’s work was to develop the formulae to mathematically predict what the resonances would be. This was not acknowledged at the time. Even when she had won the grand prize at the Institute of Science in France (on her third attempt.) She was not invited to the Grand Prix ceremony and not allowed to publish her work. She self-published in 1821. 

Fig 3: Patterns of sand on a metal plate with the vibration from a violin bow

Historically Women’s achievements in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) have been hampered by not being able to access this type of education.  Those that have broken through are have been uncredited and their work not recognised, or excluded. Sophie Germain's formula was used in architecture to measure that stresses on metal. This contributed to the building of the Eiffel Tower. “However, you will not find Germain’s name on any of the four sides of the Tower, which was built between 1887 and 1889 and upon which are inscribed the names of 72 scientists who contributed their intellect to its construction.” (Mozans 1913)

Woman were actively excluded from education and  professions deemed (by men) to be unfit for Women. Today, the door is not so blatantly closed as it was for Sophie Germain back in 1802.  

Perhaps more subtle barriers are at play? Audio Engineering is a profession open to all genders, yet we never hear the term “Male audio engineer.” When women in the same profession, they are described with her gender as the prefix. 

“Gender-based designations such as these have been the case throughout history; perhaps more so in science, technology, engineering, and math, where women are underrepresented. In contemporary discussions in the media, we hear the phrases “women in medicine” or “women in physics.”(Gaston-Bird 2020)

 The ratio of male to female producers is estimated to be 47-1 (Smith et al 2020) 

The question of why this might be continues to be asked. Singer songwriter and producer Rosina Ncube says that her experience at school could be described as “character building”, being the only female in the music technology class.  Not being chosen to collaborate in group work, and having to speak louder to be heard. She also recollects, being crowded away from the mixing desk whenever there was a demonstration. “Suggesting an idea, having it rejected, then when a guy suggests exactly the same thing 20 minutes later, everyone loves it. Frustrating? You bet, and it's just one in a string of similar experiences that I have had as a woman starting out in the world of music production.” (Ncube R 2013)

fig 4: Rosina Ncube 

The comedy sketch from the “Fast Show”posted beautifully illustrates what Rosina Ncube was saying. See fig 9 below

In 2004 I accidentally discovered Imogen Heap when she was playing solo supporting Rufus Wainwright. This was inspiring and influential to me to have a female role model using tech and playing live. She wrote, recorded and engineered her music. Winning a Grammy for best Engineered non classical album in 2009. What is it that young women and girls need to be encouraged into audio? Female role models to aspire to? Women teaching and leading workshops in music technology in schools and colleges? Programs specifically for girls and women? I began to look at how these questions are being addressed. 

Organisations across the world have developed specifically to encourage women into the industry. The Yorkshire Sound Women Network is one of these, founded in 2015 by Dr Liz Dobson. 

“We have to be in an environment which is lower risk, which – in this case – means not being the only woman in a world which associates masculinity and technology; to remove that risk to be in a community of peers; and to have a chance to put your hands on and use equipment. To make mistakes and learn from that” (Dobson 2019).

fig 5 Yorkshire Sound Women Network

fig 6 Yorkshire Sound Women Network Workshop Video 

Thoughts and Musings:

Digging in to gender disparity has the potential to enrage, dishearten and become a cul-de-sac that could distract from my main objective of being better at production! Heartening though, are initiatives like the YSWN. Watching the video and seeing the excitement and enthusiasm of the girls taking part in the workshop was an absolute joy. It seems that throughout my studies gender and audio are intrinsically entwined. This topic once explored, impossible to ignore and yet I’d like to be able to ignore it and get on with being a creative music producer. Much like Leslie Gaston Bird would rather just be called an audio engineer, but that’s not how she is represented.

“I am not a woman in audio. I am an audio engineer. Nor am I a “Black woman audio engineer.” I am an audio engineer who happens to be a Black woman.” (Gaston-Bird 2019)

fig 7 The Incredible Invisible woman

References:

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/sounding-why-so-few-women-audio

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

http://researchonline.rcm.ac.uk/id/eprint/334/1/SaltMusic-Research-Report.pdf 

Images: 

Fig1: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 2:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 3:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/detail.action?docID=5988228

Fig 4:www.soundonsound.com/people/sounding-why-so-few-women-audio 

Fig 5: https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/

Fig 6: https://yorkshiresoundwomen.com/

Fig 7:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE3r_CgScms&ab_channel=Lizallinos

[thornfield13713]

7 & 15 for Garashir?

What do they get up to on a night out?

That would depend on when this is, and who gets to pick. On DS9, the only real place for a night out is the holosuites, at least if you want any privacy. On the nights Julian picks, he tends to favour spy adventures. Yes, all right, they’re a bit ridiculous to do with an actual spy, but after the events of ‘Our Man Bashir’, he’s come to rather enjoy seeing Garak in these situations. Occasionally they mix things up and play as nemeses rather than a team, but it’s always a challenge. When Garak picks, it’s usually an adaptation, usually of a Cardassian enigma tale, as they lend themselves pretty well to holosuites. Also, seeing Julian try to figure out exactly what crime he himself is guilty of is a great deal of fun.

On Cardassia, after the wall, there aren’t many things to do on a night out for a long time. After places start opening again, however, I see Garak as a theatre person, and Julian definitely expresses an interest in plays at a number of points in canon, so he’d definitely be willing enough to tag along. 

When they watch a film what do they choose and why? Who gets the final vote?

See the above about the holosuites, as that seems to be the nearest thing to film left in this era. That said, I imagine they’d both also rather enjoy adaptations of their various book recommendations, and sometimes compare and contrast different adaptations of the same work. As for the final vote...honestly, that one could go either way, although Garak will undoubtedly get snarky whenever he doesn’t like whatever Julian has picked.

[jack-irallie]

Chapter 2 - Lost and Found

Slice of life story about gay couple and their daughter, but whoops the new biology teacher at the daughter’s school is an old boyfriend of one of the dads!

I’ll be posting chapters as I finish, I hope you enjoy!

--------------------------

Before he knew it, there was a knock at the door that made Grant jolt awake; the sudoku book that was laying across his face slid to the floor as soon as he sat up. 

He rubbed his groggy eyes, giving a weak wave to his boyfriend as he reached for the crank to roll down the window. 

“Did someone have a nice nap?” Richard cooed, leaning in for a peck on the cheek.

“Ew! Dad!” 

He glanced back at his daughter, who was fake gagging as she climbed into the backseat. “Am I not allowed to kiss your father?”

When he only got a huff in response, he chuckled to himself before turning back to Grant. “So, am I meeting you at the theatre?”

“Oh yeah...that…Is it already six?”

“Mhm. And we should get there early; I told Amber if she came we’d let her get whatever snacks she wanted, isn’t that right, dear?”

She gave a shrug, more focused on whatever was happening on her phone. 

Richard was about to give some parting words before the hesitancy in his partner’s face kept him planted in place. “You okay?”

“Had to wake up and remember that my ex is back in town, but other than that, yeah.”

“Is that why we’re meeting Mr.Moore?” Amber asked, suddenly giving her full attention. “You’re not going to start dating him, are you?”

“Amber…” Richard said in a scolding tone. “Of course not, he has a wife. They’re just catching up is all. But we better get going; at least the traffic is calming down a bit.”

“Drive safe. I’ll see you there.”

Richard was right, it wasn’t like a theatre was a good place to have that sort of conversation. But it was a good place to enjoy a soft kiss and an amusing bad horror movie, that was for sure.

The only noises that filled the car as they drove away was the lull of the radio and the occasional bloop of a phone. 

That was, until Grant decided to say something. “So...how was cheerleading practice?”

“Good.”

“Just good?” He could see his daughter’s perturbed expression through a mirror he was adjusting as they sat an unusually long red light. “Something the matter?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Is this about the movie? I can take you home-”

“Dad. Seriously.”

“Fine…” He threw up his arms as he caught her eyes in the mirror, just in time for him to miss the green light and get honked into moving. “It’s just...you know I’m here for you no matter what, right?”

“I know, dad…” She sighed, though her tone started to sound more genuine than before. “I guess going to the movies sounds kinda fun. I just can’t believe you used to date Mr.Moore; he’s such a nerd.”

“How so?”

“Well, uh…we had this huge group project on his first day; everyone was given a different type of creature or whatever; it was something about adaptation.”

“What were you?”

She scoffed at the question, rolling her eyes. “Algae. Which is apparently super important for like, photosynthesis and stuff.”

Grant chuckled, feeling a wave of nostalgia run over him the more he thought about Alan. “You know, that man is actually really smart; last time I talked to him he was running off to some fancy school with heaven knows how many scholarships and honors. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot in his class.”

“He told us that he went to our highschool when he was a kid; is that when you dated?”

“Oh...yeah. We actually got together when I was about your age.” He sighed bittersweetly. “Time sure flies.”

“Does that mean you won’t get mad at me if I get a boyfriend?”

He went to argue to the contrary, but she did have a point, so he bit his tongue on any weak rebuttals he could come up with. “Sometimes I forget you’re getting old enough for that. It’s crazy.”

“Don’t get all sentimental on me, dad.”

“It’s true! You used to be so...ah, nevermind; I’m sorry.” He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as a nervous tick as he stared forward. “Just...don’t bring this stuff up when we’re at the theatre, okay?”

“I wasn’t going to.” She flopped back in her seat, her eyes trailing the scenery passing behind the side door mirror. “Can I ask one more thing?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Why’d you break up?”

“Well...like I said, he went off to college, but I had other plans. Our lives were just different at the time; that’s all. It happens.”

The conversation petered off from there, Grant turning up the radio as he started to zone out.

That is, until Amber broke the silence. “I’m just nervous about actual tryouts; that’s all. We’re all really good, but what if I don’t make it on the team? What if one of my friends doesn’t?”

“Oh, honey…” Thankfully the theatre parking lot wasn’t too packed, so it was easy to find a spot near the front. “You can’t worry about that before it even happens. I know you’re going to do great. And if something happens; we’ll figure it out.” 

Now parked, he turned to face her, offering a comforting smile. “Besides, you have bigger things to think about right now, like stuffing your face with popcorn.”

She huffed a laugh, rolling her eyes as she stepped out. “Whatever.”

Once Grant had joined her, he hurried over to Richard, who was already waiting near the front door with tickets in hand. “How’d you get here so quickly?”

He gave a small shrug, his face lighting up into a small smile when he saw his daughter. “Come on, let’s go grab some snacks before Alan gets here.”

They shuffled past some large groups, the overwhelming smell of buttered popcorn hitting them once they stepped inside the tackily decorated movie theatre. 

Once they had made it through the bulk of the concession line, Grant felt a tap on his shoulder, knowing who it was before he had even spun around. “Hey...Oh, is this your wife? It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs…”

“You can call me Janet.” She replied in a soft, friendly tone. “Al has told me loads about you; I’m glad we got to finally meet.”

“You have? Like what?”

Alan got a light blush as he nervously thumbed at the bridge of his glasses. “Just some stories about when we were kids, that’s all.”

“Hey, Grant! You want anything to drink?”

He turned to his partner’s voice, realizing that they had been left behind while Richard and Amber were already ordering. “I’ll just take a water. You guys want anything?”

Alan snickered at the proposition, leaning in to whisper, “Jane’s got everything in her purse; you didn’t have to buy anything.”

She gave a lax thumbs up, giggling to herself as her husband shot her a playful look. 

“Dad! Are you going to help us carry this or what?”

“Yes, I’m coming!” Grant paced to the front of the line, grabbing the large popcorn and a couple of the water bottles. 

Alan walked up to help as well, though when he noticed everything had been picked up, he got some straws and napkins from the nearby dispenser instead. “I didn’t know you were going to join us, Amber. I heard this movie is hilarious; I’m sure you’ll love it.” “Isn’t it a horror movie?”

“Kinda…Al got recommended it from some of the kids he’s been tutoring; I almost didn’t believe him when he told me the plot.”

“Oh, you tutor?” Richard asked as he handed off their tickets to the usher. 

“Yeah, everything from Ecology to Physics. Though, I do have a fondness for Chemistry; I was planning on teaching it this year, but there was a mix up with the staffing, and...I doubt you want to hear me ramble.”

“It shows passion; I can respect that.”

He simply nodded as he glanced at some random set of cardboard cutouts displayed behind the counter; it was Janet that picked up the conversation when they started making their way to the correct theatre. “Where do you work?”

“We actually own a little diner, Henry’s...it’s down on North Street.”

That caught Alan’s attention; he caught Grant’s eye with a grin. “Like that one your dad used to run? How’s that going?”

“Pretty good.” He felt a swell of pride at the words that was evident in his own smile. “I think he would be proud. Hope so anyway.”

“You sell yourself too short, dear.” Richard patted his boyfriend’s back, reaching for the door handle to lead everyone into the mostly empty theatre. “I think we’re doing amazing; it’d be great to have you two visit sometime.”

“That sounds lovely.” Janet put her purse down on an end seat, moving aside so that everyone else could get seated. “I’m going to go use the restroom before the movie starts, excuse me.”

Grant only went to speak up after click of her heels faded out of earshot, chuckling when he glanced over to see Alan already rummaging through the bag of snacks. “Hey, I’m sorry about my comment earlier; I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“Oh, the husband thing? It’s really not a big deal; you know how gay I am.” He laughed awkwardly before clearing his throat. “It’s just that...I met Janet, and, well...we became instant best friends, really clicked.”

“That’s very sweet.” Richard interjected as he stood up. “Actually, I think I need to use the bathroom too...you want to come with me, sweetheart?”

Amber nodded, following close behind her dad until they were out of sight behind a swinging door. 

It was tempting for Grant to just run off to the restroom as well; without his boyfriend there his confidence about the situation started to dissolve. But it wasn’t like he needed it anyway… what was so scary about hanging out alone with a man he used to be madly in love with?

“Remember when this place only had like three theatres?”

Grant turned to the other, realizing that he had ended up zoning out and staring ahead at whatever ad was playing on screen without even realizing it. “I also remember when we were stupid enough to try and sneak in.”

“Sure the janitor ratted us out, and our moms didn’t let us go to the movies for months after, but...you gotta admit; it was quite funny. Thinking back on it.”

Alan’s laugh was infectious, Grant soon joining in. “Yeah, it is…”

His voice petered off, picking up once the silence between them started to become tense. “You know; I’ve missed you. It’s um...it’s great to have you back in town.”

“I’m glad to be back. I really am.”

They shared a nostalgic smile, that was, until Janet returned and snatched up the now half full box of candy that Alan was snacking from. “Hey! Those are my favorites, lay off.”

“Not my fault you took so long.” He teased back, putting a hand on his chest in mock offense as she grabbed his soda and took a swig of it. 

“Now we’re even.” She said as she screwed the top back on and plopped it back into the cup holder. “Oh, where’s everyone?”

“They should be…” But Grant got his answer when Richard and Amber came walking back in. “There you are.”

“Just in the nick of time too.” Once Richard sat down, he threw a lazy arm around his partner’s shoulders as he got comfortable. “Do you need to go?”

“Nah, I’ll live.” He muttered as he leaned into the embrace. 

“You guys better not start making out or something.” Amber muttered as she sent a last text before silencing her phone and shoving it in her bag.

They glanced to their daughter with raised eyebrows, though Alan was quick to throw in a teasing remark. “Yeah, Grant. No one wants to see that.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the comment, making his scolding not hold much weight. “I’m just enjoying your father’s company; why would we do that? In public?”

“I dunno.”

Grant sighed, even as the theatre darkened for the previews, he could see the grumpiness in his daughter's face.

Richard noticed his boyfriend’s unease, whispering a quick, “Are you alright?”

“Oh...yeah. Amber just looks unhappy; do you think something bad happened at her practice?”

“I was wondering that too; did she tell you anything?”

Grant shook his head, adding, “Just that she was nervous about tryouts; could that be it?”

“Maybe...but let’s just enjoy the movie, no use dwelling over it right now.”

[belizedeservesbetter]

In Which David Korins Stole the Whole Show

but otherwise it was disappointing disappointing disappointing 

I got to see Beetlejuice with my mother so I suppose I’ll begin with her first thought about the show, which was: 

“How come all mothers in pop culture have to die of cancer?” 

The more I think about it, the more I know she’s right. All dead moms in film, theatre, television and books (except Catelyn Stark) typically die of cancer or some other illness. I don’t know why. It’s become an “easy” trope by which I mean I feel like writers have it happen so often because it’s a simple way to give a character a sad backstory without it raising too many questions. And Beetlejuice uses it literally in the first couple of minutes. The show starts at Lydia Deetz’s mother’s funeral, where Lydia sings a brief ballad before Beetlejuice himself comes in with a “A ballad already?” kind of joke. 

I too was wondering “A ballad already?” exactly when Beetlejuice made his first appearance. I was also wondering “Beetlejuice, already?” when he pops out in literally the first five minutes when I thought he’d be the big reveal of the show. He wasn’t. 

The big reveal, then, was the amazing set. My goodness the Maitland’s house set was incredible. Both before Beetlejuice took over and afterwards, everything about that set was stunning. It was so cool and so fun and so detailed and felt like it was taken right out of a painting. The longer I stared at it the more I loved it. David Korins walked away with the whole show, which is something I’ve never said before.

The lighting and sound design was incredible too. It added so much to the show, giving it exactly the right feel. Even if the book/score/directing didn’t understand the tone of the piece, the lighting and sound did. I especially loved how the netherworld lighting drew itself on the set. 

As for the man himself, Alex Brightman is clearly having the time of his life playing Beetlejuice. His vocal cords must hate him but he sounds great and looks great and is milking the part for all its worth. He’s so fun to watch. I also think Brightman has the perfect energy for the part, which also made him perfect for School of Rock and by that I mean he has this kind of energy where he’s still a grown adult but not a creepy adult. Like he could play Dewey Finn well with the kids in that show and it doesn’t come across wrong and the same is true for this show with Beetlejuice and Lydia. Especially in Beetlejuice he could have been the wrong kind of creepy but he isn’t. 

Leslie Kritzer is an absolute gem as Delia and Miss Argentina. She’s hilarious and embodies the spirit of Catherine O’Hara without mimicking her performance. I kept wishing for more Delia scenes because she was so so good. 

That being said, Beetlejuice should’ve been a good musical. When they first announced the show was being done in DC, I was stoked! Beetlejuice seemed like the perfect movie to adapt into a musical. I thought it would’ve been weird and different and cool and fun. I thought it would be a musical that could and would take a lot of risks. 

It wasn’t! 

It’s really bland, actually. 

First of all, I can’t believe they didn’t let Tim Minchin do the score for this. He would’ve done such an amazing job! This kind of show is right up his alley! I wanted the score to be a mix of both Matilda and Groundhog Day with an extra dash of spookiness. He has that very specific voice that would’ve been perfectly suited for Beetlejuice and yet they gave it to Eddie Perfect. Eddie Perfect who, between this and the disaster that is King Kong, will never write a Broadway musical ever again. The score was so boring. Every song sounded the same. I can’t remember a single song except for “Day-O” and “Jump In the Line,” which are both songs that were in the movie/already written! I didn’t even like that “Dead Mom” song everyone kept telling me was oh so good. 

I enjoyed Act One of the show and thought it was fun, but Act Two was a complete mess.

They also somehow managed to mess up the story. The movie is about the Maitlands but they made the musical about Lydia and Beetlejuice, which is the B story in the movie. I get that everyone loves Lydia and that everyone has made the line “I myself am strange and unusual” an instagram caption/bio at some point in their life BUT she is the side character in the movie! She isn’t as fully fleshed out as Adam and Barbara because she’s a side character, so making her the main character reduces her to one single problem and like two character traits that honestly becomes super grating.

So I guess the show has a Lydia problem in that she keeps saying the same things over and over and over again and she no longer becomes interesting or strange or unusual. Also, her dad is completely right so it was hard to see him as the bad guy. They do have to keep moving forward after her mom dies and maybe a new start is a good thing and geez Lydia, it’s okay if your dad remarries! Likewise, Lydia is blaming adults for everything wrong in her life, and yet when a little girl scout comes along she tortures the little girl instead! I wasn’t sure how to root for Lydia Deetz because she made it incredibly difficult at every turn. Sophia Anne Caruso is clearly very talented and very clearly has a wonderful voice, I just wasn’t a huge fan of her Lydia. I feel like her voice is more better suited for a rock musical. She sounds like a baby Lena Hall, and I love Lena Hall, but Lena Hall is better in rock musicals than more traditional style musicals, or whatever style of musical Beetlejuice is. 

Likewise, the Maitlands, who have been reduced to supporting characters who honestly don’t really affect the story all that much in this version, are boring! Beetlejuice even tells them they’re boring to their faces. I get that’s their charm but it wasn’t fun to watch them. I felt bad for them, actually, because they’ve essentially been written out of their own story. 

But the problem with writing away the Maitlands is that the story becomes paper thin and falls apart when you give it literally any thought. Likewise, the emotional core becomes trite and predictable, because instead of the story being about a couple coming to terms with their own mortality and the family they never got to have, it’s about a girl who’s sad and a demon monster thing who is also sad but neither of them will listen to literally anyone so they’re sad cause they choose to be. Honestly, I’m not even totally sure of Beetlejuice’s motivations cause they changed so much. Likewise, he became a complete idiot in Act Two when he was pretty smart in Act One. It’s not even an interesting show about a girl dealing with the death of her mother because everything that happens with that has been done a million times before. Lydia and Beetlejuice are fun, but they’re side characters for a reason. 

The tone of the show was all over the place because they wanted to be so many things but ended up failing at all of them. They wanted to be a raunchy comedy. They wanted to be spooky. They wanted to be an Adult show. They wanted to be a fun heartwarming show for the family. The end result is a bad mix of all of them, none of which makes all that much sense. I wish they picked one and really committed to it. I would’ve appreciated the boldness. Because otherwise? This show felt so safe. I wanted something cool and new and what I got was something any writer could’ve written in their sleep. 

I think at the end of the day I’m more disappointed than anything. I really wanted this to be good. I really really wanted this to be good. At least the Hello, Dolly! references were fun.

I also really liked the snake puppet, which is truly giving a more exciting performance than the King Kong puppet could ever dream of giving. 

[bbclesmis]

Exclusive Track & Interview: 28 Days Later composer John Murphy’s “Les Misérables”

Check out this exclusive premiere of John Murphy's "Les Misérables" from the BBC/PBS's Masterpiece Les Misérables now. This version is very close to Victor Hugo's original novel, and hence is not a musical. The soundtrack will be available May 3.' Murphy also dishes on the challenges of scoring such a huge, epic, and sweeping story (and a lot more) in the interview below.

Exclusive premiere: John Murphy's "Les Misérables" from Masterpiece's Les Misérables Lakeshore Records is set to release the original soundtrack to the critically-acclaimed BBC/PBS Masterpiece mini-series Les Misérables, written by composer John Murphy (28 Days Later, Sunshine, Kick-Ass). Check out our interview with Murphy and the exclusive song directly below this article. Les Mis the album will be released digitally on May 3 with CD and vinyl versions forthcoming.

This Les Mis is NOT a musical; in fact, it is relatively faithful to the source novel. It premiered April 14 on PBS, but all episodes can be watched with PBS Passport.

Les Misérables is a six-part drama adaptation starring Dominic West (The Affair) as Jean Valjean, and David Oyelowo (Selma) as Javert in this landmark take on a classic, timeless, and sweeping story. They are joined by Lily Collins (Rules Don’t Apply), in the role of Fantine.

With a striking intensity and relevance to us today, Victor Hugo's novel is a testimony to the struggles of France’s underclass and how far they must go to survive. The six-part television adaptation of the renowned book vividly and faithfully brings to life the vibrant and engaging characters, the spectacular and authentic imagery and, above all, the incredible yet accessible story that was Hugo’s lifework.

The distinguished British cast includes Adeel Akhtar (The Night Manager) and Academy Award winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) as Monsieur and Madame Thénardier, Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals) as Cosette, Josh O'Connor (The Durrells in Corfu) as Marius and Erin Kellyman (Raised By Wolves) as Éponine.

Liverpool born John Murphy began scoring movies at the age of 25. In 2001, following the success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, he moved to Los Angeles.

Since then he has worked with some of the industry's most respected and luminary filmmakers, including Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie, Stephen Frears, Matthew Vaughn and Michael Mann, producing film scores as prominent and diverse as Sunshine, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Miami Vice, Snatch, Kick-Ass, and the seminal 28 Days Later.

Murphy's movie trailers include: Captain America: Winter Soldier, Gravity, X-Men: Origins, Cloverfield, War of the Worlds, Cowboys and Aliens, Blindness, Ex Machina, Southpaw, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Avatar. His music has been featured in advertising campaigns for Nike, Audi, Microsoft, Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Google, and Apple.

After Kick-Ass, Murphy set up the record label Taped Noise and began work on several non-movie projects. BBC/PBS Masterpiece Theatre's Les Misérables is his latest project.

Les Misérables director Tom Shankland wanted John to tell a fresh musical story and to ultimately create a raw and uncompromising score to reflect the trials and misery of "Les Misérables." John describes the scoring process as an "experimental journey."

Initially, Tom wanted a gritty, folk-oriented score, but as they began the process, he and John quickly realized that the story would need a broader musical palette. John ended up incorporating less obvious elements such as bowed electric guitar, analog synths, experimental viola, and backwards loops, with a nod to the classic French romantic scoring of the '60s. Despite mixing instrumentation, the elements fused and the sensibility stayed true throughout.

John described the scoring process further:

"My original idea for the score to Les Mis was '1816 Velvet Underground meets '60s French film music.' While director Tom [Shankland] was thinking 'gnarly, down in the dirt, French folk music.' Producer Chris Carey suggested, 'let's do both, but throw in some vintage analog synths.' I then gleefully tried all of these elements, often at the same time. And we discovered that you can actually mix a hurdy gurdy with a Moog Sub Phatty, and we loved it. And what started out as a musical standoff, became our score for Les Misérables."

Interview: John Murphy

Hello John and welcome!

Hey Wess. Good to talk with you!

Likewise. To start things off, what attracted you to this telling of Les Mis as a project? I really appreciated how it was based on Hugo's novel, and not a musical. The novel, in my opinion, does not get enough praise.

Yeah, sadly the musical has pretty much hijacked this great novel. I read it in my early twenties. I was a session player back then and I spent a lot of time on tour buses, so I got through a lot of reading. Aside from all the ideas and themes, it's a great story – hope, despair, sacrifice, redemption, all the good stuff. I loved it.

I read it when I was in my twenties as well. Such a great novel.

So when the call came in, I did some Skype meetings with the director Tom Shankland and producer Chris Carey, and they were so passionate about it, and so hell-bent on going back to the source, the book I loved. I knew I had to do it.

That's fantastic. I was hoping we could get an idea of your overall creative process on the project. It really is very sweeping in the emotions of the story and the history it covers.

Well I've really only ever done movies so I knew the production process would be different. For example, before they started shooting I had to write a lot of the in-camera music they needed to shoot to; the scene with the band in the pimp's den, Cosette's piano pieces, Gavroche's song when he runs out to collect the bullets, that kind of thing.

Oh wow.

Which was cool because I'd never done that before. And then there was a big break while they filmed and put together the episodes. So rather than sit around and wait, I started sketching out themes and ideas from the script, which is actually way more creative than writing to picture. But having this pot of ideas was a life saver because, when the episodes finally did come, they came thick and fast.

But the actual creative process wasn't too different from scoring a film. I always write the themes first, and I try to write them away from picture. And then I'll work to picture and write the featured cues, the montages, the chases, that kind of thing. And then you're down to the underscore cues and you're just connecting the dots really.

Interesting process John. What were the challenges like?

I think the biggest challenge was time. Even though I had ideas sketched out for most of the themes, there's only so much you can do until they give you locked picture. And when the final locked cuts started coming, I had about 20 days per episode from start to delivery. And this is when I would score everything in, write the underscore, record the soloists, and mix the tracks ready for the dub. There was usually about forty cues and forty minutes of music per episode. So there were a few long nights!

Were there huge differences between Les Mis as a project and working on your more conventional titles like 28 Days Later? You've scored quite a bit in the horror realm.

I've actually only scored a few horror films. They just tend to be the ones people remember!

[Laughs] good point. I was thinking just relative to other composers I've talked to…

Because of the musical, there's kind of a skewed perception of Les Miserables. But a lot of the book is actually very dark. And, for whatever reason, I find it much easier to work with darker material.

I find myself attracted to darker art as well; not just film.

For me, it's just a deeper well to draw from. So even though it's based upon an historic work I never felt like I was writing outside of my own instincts. At the end of the day, whatever the scale, it all comes down to ideas, story and characters.

Absolutely. Any memorable or funny moments that stick out from that behind the scenes process of scoring the series?

There were, but none I could mention! [Laughs]

[Laughs] fair enough. A question I ask most everybody: what scores and films have molded you most as an artist?

I think the first time I became aware that movies used music was in A Fistful of Dollars. I must have been six or seven and it was on TV one night. I remember thinking why is there music playing? Where is it coming from? After that I started listening for it when I watched movies. So, I think my love for [Ennio] Morricone started there. And after that it was the James Bond movies, and the great John Barry themes. Another film composer I love to this day. I was just a kid, but I remember getting hyped up whenever I heard that guitar riff. A few years later, when I started to play a few things, I discovered Bernard Herrmann.

Psycho always stands out for me when I think of a great score. It may be cliché to say but it is true.

I couldn't fathom how he could make music that was so dark and so beautiful at the same time. I'd never heard anything like it and it blew me away. It was like magic.

So, those three made more of an impression on me than any specific movies. Thinking about it now it's probably why I'm so theme-heavy today. Because those guys definitely knew how to write a theme.

That they did. One other big question which is sort of related, what makes a great score?

That's such a difficult question and I don't think there's a definitive answer. But if it truly moves you and takes you somewhere else, then it's doing something right.

Well said. Last, what's next for you?

Well, Les Mis was like doing six movies back to back, so I won't be jumping into another big project just yet! I'm going to mess around with one of my own projects for a few months and then see what's around. Maybe a cool little indie where I get to play everything myself!

https://www.thefourohfive.com/film/article/exclusive-track-interview-28-days-later-composer-john-murphy-s-les-miserables-155

[anawritesatnight]

Small Island - National Theatre - Review 

This review is in response to Mouse Trap’s £10 18-23 Scheme bringing discounted offers every month to young people in the UK. This was the First of June’s Show offers.

Small Island is a stage adaption of the 2004 novel by Andrea Levy about three people’s lives connecting in different ways in the late 40’s, taking place before, during and after the Second World War. I cannot compare this performance to the original material as I have yet to still read this award-winning book, but the play has truly moved me. We follow the lives of Hortense, Queenie and Gilbert, all of which we are introduced in such clever and engaging manners as these actors in each of their parts face the audience and have us laughing as soon as the play starts. I prefer to see musicals but since this performance I am more open to watching more comedic and drama pieces as I found myself enjoying the whole thing.

Personally, for me Queenie’s script and acting was one of the best parts, her overall character and personality was humours and uplifting throughout, yet all of them bring their own quality and spin to the characters. The whole first part of the play was full of humour as we see these characters intertwine and how they are connected whilst learning their dreams, their wishes and thoughts when they break the 4th wall and talk to us directly. The transitions with lights and sets help break down the different times within flashbacks which seem seamless allowing them to show more of these characters’ stories that I’m sure were part of lines in the book.

The whole first act by itself felt like the play in one, once the second half began it starts strongly before bit by bit dipping down in quality. Because these characters are suddenly apart of each other’s lives instead of just interacting slightly (like in the first half). You loose which character is in lead as if the torch is being passed between them several times in a scene. But this doesn’t stop the play from ending strong, throughout addressing how people of colour were treated at this space of time in Britain whilst hitting all points at the end of the show. Treatment of people of colour were successful represented and well received with lots of cheers in response to any time the issue was argued on stage.

Regards to design and costume it felt and breathed life of the 40s with the mix of animation and video projection added more depth to the sets with the visuals of waves in the background making you feel like you’re by the sea. Transitions and quick changes making things smooth between scenes with lifts under the stage bringing characters out of nowhere help add more to the comedic factor.  

Overall a strong play that can connect with many people and is something that young people should be encouraged to see and learn from. Hope to attend more of National Theatre performances soon after the great success of the Small Island.

Again Thank you Mouse trap for such great offers!

Rating 4.5 / 5 ****