#but its paul wesley all over again

[thethirdgenesisbooks]

Five Ways to Name Your Characters

One of the most common problems that authors, especially new authors, complain about is how difficult it is to come up with good names for their characters. Over my many years of writing, I’ve developed a few ways to name characters in stories. Here are a few. Bear in mind, some of these pieces of advice are genre-specific.

Babynames.com:

The site babynames.com is a great source for names from different countries and cultures. You can also look up name meanings or look up the names by the letters that are in them. In general, I recommend against having two main characters in your novel who have names beginning with the same letter, as this can cause confusion. For instance, you shouldn’t have both a “Robert” and a “Roger” among your main characters, because readers will mix them up. Also, while name meanings can be important, I urge you to consider the other factors as well. How does the name sound when spoken out loud? Does the name have negative connotations because of famous people who shared the name (for instance, the name “Adolph” means “Wolf,” which might be cool for some characters, but I strongly recommend against using that name because of its association with a certain, hated historical figure). Also, consider what nationality a character likely has if they have a certain name. A Caucasian boy living in modern California should not have a name like “Shinji,” unless he happened to be raised by Japanese parents, just as a native Japanese boy living in Tokyo should not be called “Stanley.”

Historical Records:

If you are writing in a certain place and time period, it can be helpful to look up names from that place and time period to create your character names. For example, when I was writing my westerns, sometimes I’d do a Google search for names of people who lived I the Old West. Then, I’d take the first name of one person and the last name of another and put them together. One instance of this would be to take Billy the Kid’s real name (Henry McCarty) and combine it with the name of another Old West outlaw, John Wesley Hardin. Together, we get the names Wesley McCarty and Henry Hardin. If you’re writing a modern story, you can also do this with the names of people you know, or other interesting names you see and hear. When you go to a restaurant to eat, pay attention to the nametags of the people serving you, as you might find a name you really like there.

Mythology:

I recommend only using mythology as a source for names if you are writing fantasy or science fiction stories. If you write a modern murder mystery and your detective’s name is “Thor Odinson,” a lot of readers are going to roll their eyes. I’d also recommend not using terribly well-known mythological names either. Names like Thor, Odin, Apollo, Zeus, Horus, Osirus, Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Freya, and Isis are far too well-known to be used, unless you have characters in the setting specifically point out the namesake. Names Fenris, Morrigan, Dorian, and Mordred are also far too common, and their inclusion in fantasy might well pull readers out of the story (again, unless your intention is to specifically invoke parallels to these mythological figures). However, names like Nikke, Selene, Eris, Argus, and Dia are a little more obscure and are less likely to take your reader out of the story. You can also look up the etymology of these names and find alternative ways that they were pronounced and spelled, because names in mythology certainly changed over time.

The Bible:

I know, this one is a touchy subject for a lot of people, but bear with me. For one thing, a lot of names in modern America (and in the Western world at large) come from Biblical names. Peter, Matthew, Joshua, Caleb, Paul, Aaron, John, Michael, Luke, Thadeus, and many others all come from the Bible. You don’t need to have Biblical themes in your work in order to use these Biblical names, because a great many people named “Peter” came from secular families who just happened to like the name, or who wanted to honor a loved one who had that name. Also, if you’re looking for names that sound a bit exotic but also feel familiar, the names listed in the various “begat” sections of the Bible (where it’s just one name after another) can be helpful. I’d just recommend looking up what the name means before using it. I made the mistake of not looking up a name meaning once, and named a villain in one of my stories “Zadok,” a name which means “Righteous.” Those who knew the name meaning would likely either laugh at the irony or just consider me ignorant. Thankfully, I never finished or published that story. In any event, the Bible can be a great source of names.

Alter Real Names:

Sometimes when writing something futuristic, you don’t want real names for your characters, either from modern times or earlier, neither will mythological or Biblical names work in your futuristic setting. We can’t all be Frank Herbert, who’s coming up with such names as Muadib, Atreides, Harkonnen, and Feyd-Rautha, or words like Bene Gesserit, Kwisatz-Haderach, Ginaz, and Faufreluches. Some of us are a little too grounded in reality for that, and often overly-complex words and names such as these end up confusing our readers. So, in order to make a futuristic name, perhaps start with a real name that exists today, and then change a few letters. Maybe remove some letters, add others, and rearrange some. Just as popular names in the real world change over time (see the various ways of spelling such names as “Sean” and “Geoff”), so too would futuristic names change over the years. Even so, your main character probably shouldn’t have too exotic of a name. Maybe give the main character a name that’s one, maybe two syllables long, but spelled slightly differently from its modern equivalent. For example, you may want a main character named “Nick,” but in a futuristic story it might be better to spell it “Nyk.” Or perhaps you want to name your character “John,” and a futuristic version of that name might be “Chon” or “Jahnn.” In any event, changing or rearranging letters in an existing name can be a great way to make your character feel more fantastical or futuristic.

These are just a few examples of how to name your characters. There are still many things to keep in mind, such as cultural context, the way the names sound when spoke out loud, negative connotations or associations of a particular name, name meaning, and whether the name is setting appropriate.

[vole-mon-amour]

I started watching Flowers in the attic: the origin (2022). Watched around 20 minutes of ep 1 and so far it reminds me of Downtown Abbey mixed with The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor with its flashback to the past. It's kind of creepy. And I absolutely do not trust that first dude.

(I don't know how to tag the series just yet.)

Oh, and it's so weird to see Paul Wesley out in "the wild". I'm so used to him in TVD tbh, it always makes me feel weird when I see him in other things and learn that he's doing alright as an actor. Good for him, honestly, but still.

UPD:

"I promised myself to never return to the attic again."

And she left a burning candle on the floor right next to a panting. I can't be the only one who sees the idiocy of that? How did the house not burn down from that?

UPD2:

Olivia: "What kind of man had I married?"

🤡🤡🤡 I'm sorry, but knowing a person for a couple of days, a month at the very best and marrying him without visiting his home? You're an idiot.

UPD3:

This creepy fuck. I have a feeling he'd rape his daughter over and over again if he could. And he would definitely be a very abusive father.

UPD4: Dude murdered his father so he could rape his widow. I mean, I haven't seen that yet, but the intention is very clear. Also, I would've thrown away that horrible woman from the help that does nothing but bad things.

UPD5:

Alicia: "It's his, Olivia. It's his."

??? Just get up, pack your bags and leave? And he won't find you? Have that child far away from him? She's not even married to him, he can't legally do shit.

On another topic, I feel so horrible for those parrots. They're not some kind of decor for the house. Those birds are so smart and require flying, talking, company. Big spaces to live and fly in. Not be locked up in that small cage all day and night long.

UPD5:

SAY IT!! She should've fired the head of the staff while at it. Seriously.

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

‘Wow, there’s a lot of sex and swearing’: Channel 4’s top-rated drama ever, 30 years on - The Guardian

Partner-swapping, nudity, Felicity Kendal: it’s three decades since raunchy wartime series The Camomile Lawn broke TV ratings records. How does it hold up?

Nice-but-dim nymphos … Jennifer Ehle and Toby Stephens in The Camomile Lawn. Photograph: Moviestore Collection

‘There’s going to be a war! What the heck do Sophy’s knickers matter?” What indeed, Felicity Kendal. This week marks the 30th anniversary of The Camomile Lawn, a bosom-heaving period drama that broke ratings records back in spring 1992. All is fair in love, war and lingerie.

Revisiting it, the hammier-than-Peppa-Pig five-parter often feels like a spoof. And wow, there’s a lot of sex and swearing in it. No wonder it was known as “The Camomile Porn” by the popular press. This is Game of Thrones with gravy-painted legs. Or perhaps Euphoria with a ration book.

All ravishing Cornish coastlines and lip-quivering passion, Channel 4’s starry adaptation of Mary Wesley’s beloved semi-autobiographical novel came as a welcome burst of nostalgic sunshine in PM John Major’s grey, boring Britain. It was written nearly a decade earlier when Wesley was 70 – part of a remarkable burst of creativity in her twilight years. This late bloomer only turned to her typewriter as a way to earn some cash after she was left impoverished by the death of her second husband. She proceeded to bash out 10 bestsellers in the last 20 years of her life.

The sumptuous miniseries was directed by theatre titan Peter Hall – who cast his daughter Rebecca as orphaned Sophy, the soul of the story. It’s an astonishingly accomplished turn from nine-year-old Hall, who radiates star quality in her first professional role. Wesley’s text was faithfully adapted by screenwriter Ken Taylor, who had previously turned Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown into a prime-time blockbuster.

Pulling in more than 7 million viewers, The Camomile Lawn became Channel 4’s top-rated drama ever – a record it still holds, with only robo-thriller Humans and Russell T Davies’s It’s a Sin coming close. At a time when most homes had only four channels, The Camomile Lawn’s potboiler plot and tabloid notoriety meant it attracted one-third of the total TV audience.

The handsome saga traced the intertwining lives of three genteel families. As storm clouds gathered over Europe in 1939, four teenage cousins visited a clifftop country pile in Cornwall for one last idyllic holiday. Their lives, as dramatic convention dictates, would never be the same again.

Wartime sequences were intercut with scenes from a family funeral four decades later, as the characters were reunited at a graveside. But who had died? Who had married who and were they being faithful? Who was a famous novelist and who had grown “fat and respectable”? And who was about to call a fellow mourner the C-word and throw a punch? This was an upmarket soap in the vein of Downton or Bridgerton.

A major draw was the pan-generational ensemble cast. Kendal starred as matriarch Helena Cuthbertson, owner of the enviable Cornish mansion with its eponymous fragrant lawn. It was Helena’s reminiscences in her dotage – with Kendal wearing a ropey wig, even ropier ageing makeup and slugging single malt from a silver hip flask – which framed the story.

Youngsters were played by Jennifer Ehle (the flighty, ludicrously named Calypso) and Toby Stephens (her brooding suitor Oliver), both making their screen debuts. Helena’s harrumphing husband Richard was winningly played by Paul Eddington. A clever piece of casting, since he and Kendal’s characters always had an unrequited vibe in The Good Life. The older Calypso was played by Rosemary Harris, Ehle’s real-life mother. Claire Bloom took over as midlife Sophy.

The family were joined by identical brothers from the local rectory, only ever referred to as “the twins”, along with Max and Monika Erstweiler, a Jewish refugee couple from Austria. Max became a famous violinist and, despite his ’Allo ’Allo accent and Einstein-esque grey fright wig, somehow managed to seduce pretty much every female. “You open the legs, ja?” he purred to one paramour.

However, it was mainly Calypso who put the phwoar-time into wartime. We followed her transformation from prissy virgin into prolific saucepot – a metaphor for how the war swept aside traditional morality. As Wesley herself said: “We were a flighty generation. We’d been brought up so repressed. War freed us. We felt if we didn’t do it now, we might never get another chance. It got to the stage where one woke up in the morning, reached across the pillow and thought, ‘Let’s see, who is it this time?’”

Wesley poured those memories into The Camomile Lawn, which saw all manner of bed-hopping and “raunchy romping”, as it was termed in tabloidese. Ehle’s screen career was launched with a string of nude scenes. “I haven’t done any nudity since and never will again,” she later said. “I didn’t realise there would be so much of it, but no one forced me to do it. The first time I felt really shocked – then came a whole day of naked scenes. I went home and was physically sick. I had forgotten that I’d be seen naked in a lot of living rooms.”

Predictably, there was lots of female flesh on display, with just the odd male buttock as a nod to equal opportunities nudity.

One memorable scene saw Calypso go into labour under a kitchen table during the blitz, with schoolgirl Sophy acting as midwife. As furniture fell and plaster crumbled around them, Calpyso screamed, “Fuck Hitler! Bugger that bomb!” while she gave birth to a son.

Cousin Polly (Tara Fitzgerald) formed a proto-throuple with the twins. She had their children but nobody knew who fathered which. Felicity Kendal, a pin-up for men of a certain age, steamed up their spectacles with a woodland sex scene that wouldn’t look out of place in current period romps Poldark or Outlander. Even the seemingly stuffy Richard and Helena swapped partners with Max and Monika. “May I fuck you now?” asked another character who was “fearfully randy”. Oliver demanded his “comforts” whenever he returned home from military postings, at one point telling Calypso: “I’ve got an erection. I want to poke it into you.” Steady on, old chap.

It all gave pensioner Wesley a reputation as a purveyor of posh smut. Her style was described as “arsenic without the old lace” and “Jane Austen with sex”. Her family disapproved of this late-career pivot. Her brother called her novels “filth”, while her estranged sister strongly objected to The Camomile Lawn, claiming some characters were based on their parents.

It wasn’t until the last year of her life that Wesley collaborated with biographer Patrick Marnham on an authorised memoir, Wild Mary. The title referenced her childhood nickname and her liberated sex life. Wesley shared her memories from her sickbed, saying: “Have you any idea of the pleasure of lying in bed for six months, talking about yourself to a very intelligent man? My deepest regret was that I was too old and ill to take him into bed with me.”

Nowadays The Camomile Lawn comes with a warning, not just about strong language and sexual scenes but “offensive, racist language and attitudes”. These were indeed different times. Racial slurs were bandied about, as was the word “Bitch!” (mainly on the rare occasions when women declined an invitation to bed).

Blimpish old gents in crumpled cream suits blustered that “concentration camps must be splendid places”. Calypso boasted about meeting “awfully nice” Nazis while skiing. Uncle Richard admitted an unhealthy interest in young girls, with references to him “groping” his nieces – which everyone dismissed as a harmless eccentricity. At one point, a coastguard flashed “his pink snake” at 10-year-old Sophy and ended up being pushed off a cliff for his trouble.

It’s a tale of toffs who are so pampered they don’t just own separate town and country houses – some have town and country spouses, too. Everyone goes “up to Oxford” from boarding school, dines at the Ritz or the Savoy, drinks like dehydrated sailors and demands kedgeree for breakfast. Uncle Richard nearly cops it when he ventures outside during a bombing raid to rescue a case of vintage claret.

The Camomile Lawn is like a time capsule. A relic of a lost England. It’s Brideshead Revisited meets Ian McEwan’s Atonement, with Jilly Cooper drafted in to sex things up. The acting is stiff, stagy and laughably plummy, like a bad Radio 4 audio play. Stephens’ attempts to emote are often reminiscent of a parody by Victoria Wood or French and Saunders.

Fittingly, proceedings climax in typically absurd fashion. There’s the sort of unconvincing, hysterically shrill laughter that might precede the credits of a bad sitcom, before Wesley’s nice-but-dim nymphos find themselves facing something truly dreadful. Something guaranteed to send a shiver down the spine of any right-thinking toff. As the series closes, some ghastly parvenu is overheard discussing his plans to dig up the camomile lawn and replace it with a swimming pool. Bally typical.

The Camomile Lawn is available for streaming on All 4 and BritBox

Credits: The Guardian

[jbuffyangel]

Hello,i have been reading your stuff,and i gotta admit u are freaking amazing!So yeah, thanks for making me fall in love with stefan slavatore all over again! I want to request a rewrite/explntn to a steroline scene, the ending of s7 actually, where they kissed infront of the armory. I felt like caroline and stefan should have talked more and resolved issues, like stefan talking about "its not LOVE,its FEAR" with damon,and how that directly connected with him leaving caroline in the frst place.

Thank you Nonnie! Hmm.. when it comes to TVD I am forever and always a Stelena shipper, but Steroline was kind of my life raft when it came clear Stelena was done for good. I think the show became extremely lazy in the last couple of seasons, so it’s not shocking that Stefan and Caroline’s reunion was rushed. 

That said, it was clear Caroline was still in love with Stefan despite being hurt and royally pissed off at him (with good reason). 

It didn’t take long for her to thaw because she loved him more than she was angry with him. She lived her life without Stefan. She knew what that looked like. Sure, it was survivable. One could even call it happy. But was it the life Caroline wanted? No. She wanted Stefan in her life no matter what. 

So, to drag it out too much longer might have been overkill.

I really loved their conversation in the parking lot after Stefan kidnapped Caroline. I love that she threw Elena in Stefan’s face because he always respected her choices and wasn’t respecting Caroline’s. I love that Stefan countered with the fact that Elena died because he was always respecting her friggin choices and then he lost her. He had no interest in doing that again. 

It was a really interesting way of exploring Stelena history in terms of the Steroline’s present. So, they hashed out their “issues” primarily in that conversation, which is honestly better than what most couples did on that show. I’m still waiting for Del*na convos that will never happen and really fracking needed to. lol

Speaking of Del*na, Stefan’s conversation with Damon was also really good. I believe Stefan was right. The reason Damon’s never listens to Elena’s choices is because he’s too scared to lose her. Damon lived how many years without Katherine and it was torture. So, how will living without Elena be? 

Damon had serious control issues because he allows that fear to rule him. I occasionally agreed with Damon that an 18 year old girl should not always be calling the shots. Especially when her decision making abilities were lacking in many circumstances. Frontal lobe development being the primary culprit.

HOWEVER, Damon’s need to control Elena by making decisions for her is rampant throughout the series. It is one of their primary issues and significantly impacts the toxicity of their relationship. If your partner can’t respect your free will then it’s not much of a relationship.

This is the argument Stefan is making. He did things the Damon way. He kidnapped Caroline. It didn’t feel right because it wasn’t right. Elena told Stefan long ago that she was glad he saved Matt. (WHY A VAMPIRE CAN’T GRAB BOTH IS BEYOND ME AND PAUL WESLEY). If Stefan saved Elena first and let Matt die I don’t know if she could forgive him. Bottom line is Stefan was in the middle of two horrifically crappy choices. He stood to lose Elena no matter what he did.

And here’s the other thing that nobody likes to say - was Elena’s life truly more valuable than Matt’s? Simply because the Salvatore brothers loved her didn’t give her more of a right to live than Matt. That’s why Elena made the decision she did. She knew Stefan would save her first. Elena was willing to risk her life for Matt’s. It was incredibly heroic on her part.

It always drove me nuts when Del*na fans use this situation as evidence that Damon loved Elena more. I don’t think Damon loved Elena more than Stefan. I think this is evidence he loves her just as much as Damon did. Stefan was willing to put aside what he wanted, accept Elena for who she is, and never tried to change her. That is an incredibly selfless way to love a person. 

This is why Stefan’s choice was based in love and not fear. He loved Elena too much to ever change or expect her to be someone she wasn’t. He risked losing her because he respected Elena enough to listen to her. He may have lost her anyway (SCREW YOU SIRE BOND), but Stefan never made choices about their relationship based on the fear he would lose Elena. If that was the case then he would’ve just turned her into a vampire long ago. 

When it comes to the person you love - there is very little you can actually control. It’s why falling in love makes us feel so out of control. We love that person more than anything else in the world and yet very often we cannot control what happens to them. The only thing we can control is how we treat them.

This why Stefan realized that he had to love Caroline the very same way he loved Elena - no matter what it cost him. 

[trevorbarre]

Paul Morley on Bob Dylan. Part Two.

As this is a site that mostly celebrates improvised music, I was especially pleased to read Paul Morley's appreciation of this aspect of Bob Dylan's muse.

"...in the end, improvisation was a big part of how Dylan wrote and recorded songs" (page 37). Regarding 'Talking World War 3 Blues' (on Freewheelin'), the jazz critic Nat Hentoff observed that the song was "...half-improvised...the simpler a form, the more revealing it is of the essence of the performer...there is no place to hide in the talking blues". Made in 1962, this comment is, of course, a precursor of the 'simple complexity' of rap. Dylan's singing/talking on Freewheelin' is a perfect example of how supple and flexible his folk vocalese had become by the time of his second, almost entirely self-composed, album.

Bob Dylan has managed to wrong foot his soi disant 'dedicated fan base' since 1964 or thereabouts. Let's see, there was (leaving aside his ongoing live re-imagining of his 'classics', which had discombobulated so many of the former):

1965: Pissing off the 'folkies' by re-strapping on an electric guitar for the first side of Bringing It All Back Home. Apres this, le deluge of Highway 61 Revisited and Blond On Blonde.

1968: Alienating the 'psychedelic crew' by birthing 'Americana' on John Wesley Harding and The Basement Tapes. The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival gig caused further cognitive dissonance for 'Dylanologists', the most celebrated of which was the very early "famous for being famous" non-celebrity, A.J. Weberman (current status not known, presumed utterly irrelevant). These were indeed the idiot daze.

1970: "What is this shit?" bemoans the sacred (or merely just scared?) Rolling Stone critic Greil Marcus, appraising, in the most snotty way, one of the most (retrospectively, it must be said) celebrated-but-'misunderstood' albums in rock history, Self Portrait. Marcus later had cause to make a grovelling re-appraisal in his notes to The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (but between grated teeth, as I read it).

1978: The 'Born Again Period' caused much trouser-soiling in the post-punk critical establishment. You really couldn't make up how furious the tragically hip were about Bob's essential 'lapse' into non-ironic fervour. "Nobody expected the Born Again Inquisition!!"

2009: The Xmas album, Christmas in the Heart. "What is this shit" 2.0?

2016: The 'Crooner Period", of American standards, WITS 3.0? (The greatest example of "taking a chance with love" of all, given how much of a pummelling his voice has always has?) Shadows of the Night emerged as a 'punk' triumph of intent-over-restriction. From the punkiest of 'em all, the loser who "couldn't sing" or even play his harmonica? Just as punk eventually acknowledged its forebears? Even Sid Vicious had the nous to pay homage to Frank Sinatra, however wonky was his eventual timeless crypto-tribute, My Way?

An iconoclastic spree indeed. Even more than Miles, Bob Dylan has continually invited, and risked ridicule, from his self-identified 'liberal' base. The 'Born Again Period' proved him to be essentially far more brave than his 'Electric Period', in terms of how high were the horses that 1970s critics mounted in defense of their precious shibboleths of 'freedom' (i.e. the freedom to completely reinforce their sixties Weltanschauungen?). Paul Morley completely gets this, and he puts forward the cases for Tarantula, Dylan's 'novel', not finally issued until 1972 (at a time when any Dylan material was food for his public, from what I remember), and his live spoken poem, 'Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie' (contained within the first Bootleg album set). Both of these 'products' have several pages devoted to them in Morley's book (inappropriately, it could be argued, i.e. consisting of one largely forgotten novella and a short poem), and both could be seen as metonymies for the artist's whole career, micro-communications that themselves 'contain multitudes'. Oblique observations like these do make Morley's book well worth reading. (Any book which prioritises relatively minor works is bound to attract critical and public opprobrium, but hey...).

But this is, surely, somewhat of an exceptional artist...

Final part to follow...

[salvatoreschool]

All The Vampire Diaries and The Originals Easter Eggs in Legacies Season 2

With so many unpredictable twists and such a lovable cast, Legacies is such an enjoyable series even if you were previously unfamiliar with the shared Vampire Diaries universe. But for those of us who did watch the flagship series and its first spin-off The Originals, Legacies is also a treasure trove of Easter eggs and references to our favorite characters and moments from the former CW dramas.

Legacies' first season was filled with nods to our fallen favorites like Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Klaus (Joseph Morgan), the reappearance of memorable items like Caroline's (Candice King) ballgown and reverse kyanite rings, and it built up the mythology of The Merge and nature's loopholes. While that was all fun and good, Season 2 raised the stakes (excuse our pun) with the returns of Freya Mikaelson (Riley Voelkel) and Kai Parker (Chris Wood), plus dozens of cheeky references for Vampire Diaries and Originals fans to pick up on.

As of now, Legacies Season 2 is on hiatus after production shut down amid the coronavirus outbreak, but the show is planning to resume production on the remaining Season 2 episodes later this year. In the meantime, you can check out all The Vampire Diaries and The Originals Easter eggs and references in Legacies Season 2 so far below.

• We still haven't gotten our Caroline Forbes return, but the Season 2 premiere confirmed she was still off living in Europe, searching for a way to help the twins avoid the Merge and getting Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) the help she needed over the summer break.

• Alaric (Matt Davis) dropped the sweet reveal in Episode 6 that the reason Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) is no longer sheriff is because he's now the mayor of Mystic Falls!

• That same episode, Lizzie took Damon's (Ian Somerhalder) Camaro for a spin, revealing to Sebastian (Thomas Doherty) that Damon had given it to the twins for their sweet sixteen.

• When Josie (Kaylee Bryant) traveled to New Orleans in Episode 6, not only did TVD fans get a one-sided phone call with Caroline but Originals fans got a wall full of photos of their favorite characters when Josie looked in at Rousseau's.

• Of course, the best aspect of this NOLA trip was the very welcome return of Freya Mikaelson, who revealed that she and Keelin (Christina Moses) now have a son Nik, which is presumably short for Niklaus. We also got to see such an emotional Freya and Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) reunion, which has us wishing for more Originals cameos soon!

• In Episode 9, Hope made a casual reference to her old friend Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood), who once gave her advice on what to do about a mora miserium.

• And while this isn't a Vampire Diaries or Originals Easter egg, Episode 9 also showed us Lizzie and M.G. (Quincy Fouse) reading Crisis on Infinite Earths comics. This was a cute nod to The CW Arrowverse, which includes many TVD universe alums, including Stephen Amell, Rick Cosnett, and Chris Wood.

• Another TVD favorite got a shoutout in Episode 11 after Emma (Karen David) told Dorian (Demetrius Bridges) she needed to go help Caroline with the Merge problem, only for him to tell Emma that Caroline could call Bonnie (Kat Graham) instead.

• We also got a great little flashback to the video Kai recorded in The Vampire Diaries Season 6 in Episode 4 when M.G. needed the camera to film Lizzie and the then-invisible Sebastian.

• Of course, that little glimpse of Kai was only the appetizer before the show served us Kai's full-blown return when the Saltzman's got trapped in the prison world with him in Episode 12. Seeing Kai again provided ample opportunities for the show to reference some of the heretic's signature moves, like singing karaoke and leaving video messages — including one in which he shouted out Damon, Bonnie, and Katherine (Nina Dobrev). We also learned that not only has Kai's ruthlessness not changed since we last saw him, but neither has his love of Zima!

• There were a handful of other Bonnie and Bennett family references during Kai's two-episode stint on Legacies, including the fact that Bennett blood is key to escaping the prison world and Kai mentioning Bonnie's teddy bear, Ms. Cuddles, when Josie said she spelled the mora miserium to be invisible. And after Kai does get out prison world in Episode 13, he went searching for the ascendant which he found in a stuffed elephant, giving us yet another Ms. Cuddles reference. (This show, much like Bon Bon, just can't get enough Ms. Cuddles!)

• But as fun as it was having Kai back, the prison world episodes also reminded us of the pain he caused on Vampire Diaries when Alaric had to operate on Lizzie with the aid of a Laughlin clamp, which was invented by Jo (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Once the Saltzmans escaped the prison world, Alaric finally got his long overdue vengeance on Kai for killing Jo at their wedding by beheading everyone's favorite villain in Episode 13.

• All the Kai references weren't the only blasts from the past in the prison world episodes either. It was enjoyable to see the Salvatore Boarding House refitted to look like it looked on Vampire Diaries and the actress who played young Josie on TVD, Lily Rose Smith, also returned for flashback scenes at the school.

• After the trauma of the prison world and everything else the Salvatore students went through, in Episode 14 Emma sent them into a noir simulation which she likened to a chambre de chasse, a pocket dimension used multiple times on The Originals.

• Caroline got another sweet shoutout when Josie explained in Episode 16 that her subconscious was a fairytale because her mom used to read them to her as bedtime stories.

• As Alaric pointed out, the spell Josie used to transfer her siphon ability into a coin in Episode 16 was the same spell her mother Jo used when she transferred her magic into a hunting knife to stop Kai from merging with her when they turned 22.

Legacies Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.

[letterboxd]

Satisfied?

We examine what Letterboxd reviews of Hamilton reveal about the musical’s cultural currency in 2020.

In this absolutely insane year, when our love of movies feels helpless in the face of pandemic-induced economic collapse, some extremely good decisions are being made on behalf of audiences. Studio Ghibli on streaming platforms. Virtual screenings to support art house cinemas. Free streaming of many important films about Black experience. And: Disney+ releasing the filmed version of Hamilton: An American Musical—recorded at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2016 with most of its original Broadway cast—a year ahead of schedule, on Independence Day weekend.

“Superlative pop art,” writes Wesley of the filmed musical. “Hamilton wears its influences and themes on its sleeve, and it’s all the better for it. Lin-Manuel Miranda and his team employ an unlikely cocktail of not only hip-hop and showtunes, but also jazz (‘What’d I Miss?’), British-Invasion pop-rock (‘You’ll Be Back’), folk music (‘Dear Theodosia’) and Shakespeare (‘Take a Break’) in service of developing an impressively vast array of themes. This is a testament to the power of writing, an immigrant narrative, a cautionary tale about ambition, a tragic family drama, and a reevaluation of who decides the narrative of history.”

2016 may only be a half-decade ago, but it feels like an eon in American political years. With theaters dark and America’s long record of racism under urgent scrutiny, the complex smash-hit lands back in the spotlight at an interesting time. Is Hamilton “the most offensive cultural artefact of the last decade”, as Lee writes? Or “timeless and wholly of the moment”, as Tom suggests? The answer, according to a deep read of your Letterboxd reviews, is “all of the above”.

First things first: why now?

Sophie has a theory:

“Disney executive: Hey we’re losing a lot of money because our parks are closed. How do we start making money again?

Other Disney executive: It might be nice, it might be nice… to get Hamilton on our side.”

Sure, business. Still, it’s historically unprecedented that a Broadway show of this caliber (a record-setting sixteen Tony nominations, eleven wins, plus a Grammy and a Pulitzer) would be filmed and released to the public while it’s still, in a Covid-free universe, capable of filling theaters every night. Will people stay away when Broadway reopens because they’re all Disney+’d out?

No chance, reckons Erika. “I’d still kill to see Hamilton live with any cast… I get why producers are afraid that these videos might hurt ticket sales, but I’m fucking ready to buy a ticket and fly to NY one day just to see as many shows as I can after watching this.”

Not every musical fan has the resources to travel, often waiting years for a touring version to come near their hometown. And even if you do live in a town with Hamilton, the ticket price is beyond many; a daily lottery the only way some of us get to go. So Holly-Beth speaks for many when she writes: “I entered the Hamilton lottery every day for almost two years but I never got to be in the room where it happens… however, this 4K recording of the original cast will do very nicely for now! Finally getting to see the context and performances after obsessing over the music for years was so, so satisfying.”

“Finally” is a common theme. Sydnie writes, “I love this musical with every fiber of my body and it was an extraordinary experience finally getting to watch it in Australia”. Flogic: “To finally be able to put the intended visuals to a soundtrack that I’ve had on repeat for such a long time: goosebumps for 160 minutes.” Newt Potter: “Now I fully understand people’s love for this masterpiece of a musical!”

I’ve got a small query for you.

Where’s the motherfucking swearing? Unsurprisingly, Disney+ comes with some limitations. For Hamilton, it’s the loss of a perfectly placed F-word.

“I know Disney is ‘too pure’ to let a couple of ‘fucks’ slip by,” writes Fernando, “but come on, it’s kind of distracting having the sound go out completely when they sing the very satisfying ‘Southern Motherfucking Democratic Republicans!’ line.”

Will agrees: “Disney cutting ‘motherfucking’ from ‘Washington on Your Side’ felt like sacrilege akin to Mickey Mouse taking an eyebrow pencil to the Mona Lisa.”

Nevertheless, sings Allison:

“Even tho Disney stripped the story of its f***s, Don’t think for a moment that it sucks.”

(Yes, she has a vegan alert for Hamilton.)

Does it throw away its shot?

The crew filmed two regular shows in front of live audiences, with additional audience-less sessions for a dolly, crane and Steadicam to capture specific numbers. The vast majority of you are satisfied. “It’s the most engaging and expertly crafted life filming I’ve seen since Stop Making Sense,” writes ArtPig. “The film does an incredible job of placing you right in the action. It feels like the best seat you could get in the theater. You can see the sweat and spit.”

“Translates perfectly onto the small screen,” agrees Ollie. “There’s a level of intimacy that feels hard to replicate in any other filmed production. We see those close ups, the passion and gusto behind every actor’s performance.”

“Shockingly cinematic for something filmed on such a small stage,” is Technerd’s succinct summary, while Paul praises director Thomas Kail: “He knows when to back away along with moving nearer when appropriate, and the choices always serve to govern the power and stamina of the performances.”

Though cast members’ voices were recorded on individual audio tracks, Noah had a few quibbles with the sound quality. “Some of the audio capture is off in the recording, sometimes voices being too soft or too loud. It’s not immersion breaking, but it is noticeable enough to irk me a little in pivotal moments. Some of the shot composition doesn’t fully work either. Of course nothing is going to be as good as seeing it in person.”

Robert, recalling another recent cinematic escapade of musical theater, lets his poetry do the talking:

“This will do for now until the true movie’s made, Though if Hooper directs, there’ll be an angry tirade.”

I think your pants look hot.

Hamilton fans have their cast favorites, but something about being able to see Jonathan Groff’s spittle and Leslie Odom Jr’s scowls in 4K has you losing it all over again. Several specific shout-outs we enjoyed:

“Daveed Diggs the Legend! Go watch Blindspotting (2018), it’s one of the best movies ever!” —Kyle

“It’s hard to believe anyone will ever top Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. I already loved him from the original cast recording, but seeing his full performance in all its glory was just godly.” —Erika

“Thankful that it was made possible for me to view with such clarity the phenomenon that is Renée Elise Goldsberry and spectacular Phillipa Soo.” —Thea

“Daveed Diggs was electrifying and Jonathan Groff was absolutely hilarious. If they interacted together the stage would’ve combusted from the sheer will of their talent.” —Nick

This is not a game.

On one hand, the release of Hamilton is sweet relief for music theater nerds riding out the pandemic. A generation of kids knows every word by heart, rapping (this version of) American history like it’s no thing. On the other, the Obama-era musical already feels behind-the-times, even for many Hamilton lovers, and the filmed version has brought that into sharp focus.

“I listened to the OG cast album about 50 times when it came out, the production is about as good as I’d always hoped,” writes Josh. “Since then however there’s been a very important and broader reckoning with the failures of neoliberalism and the Obama years ([from] which this has to be the most emblematic piece of art) and for me personally a drifting further to the left that has resulted in a very different relationship with the material. So my feelings today are a bit more complicated.”

“Hamilton is extremely non-committal about its politics,” writes Sting. “It doesn’t examine much of what Hamilton dictated besides ‘he wants complete financial control of the country’ (which would sound like a fucking supervillain in any other context, including reality).”

That lack of political commitment, reckons Morgan, is what helped Hamilton as a musical become so popular: “It’s fun. It’s catchy. It interweaves trendy and socially relevant artistic tools to infer a subversive subtext, while simultaneously sanitizing and, at times, flat out fabricating the historical narrative and downplaying the brutality of the true origin story, for the sake of appeasing those in power. Classic Bill Shakespeare stuff.”

History has its eyes on you.

Much criticism lies with the fundamental storytelling decision to make a modern ruckus about America’s Founding Fathers, the men (including Alexander Hamilton) who in the late eighteenth century united the thirteen colonies and co-wrote the Constitution. Undisputed titans of history, they also have blood on their hands, and HoneyRose writes that the musical “glorifies these men, and paints them as self-sacrificing heroes, and honestly normalizes and validates slavery, as well as the behavior of slave owners.”

Stevie, who saw the Broadway production as well as the filmed version, confesses: “I’ve tried (I’ve really tried) to understand what makes people lose their minds over this but I’m still completely baffled by the hype… These were horrible men and a romanticism of them through song and dance just seems entirely misguided.”

Sean is not convinced that Hamilton is a hagiography. “I can’t imagine anyone watching all of this and thinking it paints a portrait of the Founding Fathers as anything other than childish, greedy, venal and self-aggrandizing.” Wesley agrees: “I don’t think Hamilton is trying to be a history lesson, so much as a lesson about how we think about history. It’s a compelling human story told in a revolutionary way.”

That “revolutionary way” is the musical’s central conceit: that of a cast-of-color playing the white founding fathers as they bumble towards independence. Journalist Jamelle Bouie, who regards the musical as “fun, exciting, innovative and, at points, genuinely moving,” wrestles with the “celebratory narrative in which the Framers are men to admire without reservation. Through its casting, it invites audiences of color to take ownership of that narrative, as if they should want to take ownership of a narrative that white-washes the history of the revolution under the guise of inclusion.”

It’s complicated for Matt, too: “It’s widely agreed upon that the show encapsulates the Obama era better than anything, how it coddles white liberals with a post-racial vision of history in a superficial sense, overlooking the insidious and oppressive systems that they benefit from (hearing the audience clap to ‘Immigrants, we get the job done’ unsettled me). Of course hopefully its legacy will be that it opened up more Broadway roles for POC. But I really think that the show doesn’t make Broadway more appealing and accessible to POC, it just makes hip hop more accessible to white people, a launching pad of course to listening to Watsky or something.

“No hate though to anyone that’s completely in love with this, it’s definitely worth seeing despite any hang ups.”

I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.

The story doesn’t end, just because the music does. Kai_Kenn has a suggestion: “I have been a part of discussions that dissect the culture that created Hamilton, as well as the culture that Hamilton created, and whether or not Hamilton appropriately addresses the modern issues [that] the cult following proposes it does.

“This is an ongoing discussion that I am trying to be an active listener in and, if you consider yourself to be a conscientious consumer of art, you should too.”

Noah is on board with that: “Reflecting on the past and focusing on the future are not two mutually exclusive actions. Both are a must, regardless of who you are or what you do. A five-star experience in a four-and-a-half-star film. I think that’s just fine.”

Related content

Want to see more of the key cast? Watch Daveed Diggs in ‘Blindspotting’; Renée Elise Goldsberry in ‘Waves’, Jonathan Groff repeat his role as Kristoff in ‘Frozen 2’, Lin-Manuel Miranda in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, Leslie Odom Jr. in ‘Harriet’, Phillipa Soo in the forthcoming ‘Broken Hearts Gallery’, Christopher Jackson in the forthcoming ‘In The Heights’, Jasmine Cephas Jones in ‘The Photograph’, Okiereriete Onaodowan in ‘A Quiet Place II’ and Anthony Ramos in ‘Monsters and Men’ and ‘A Star is Born’.

Ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement

Official Black Lives Matter’s Resources

Teenagers that have ‘Hamilton’ stuff on their bedroom walls

Films where they mention ‘Hamilton’

[ordinaryfools]

&.  →  paul wesley  :  in the middle of it all by citizen — is seems like STEFAN SALVATORE was brought back by the necromancer. Word around the town claims that the 20/180 year-old VAMPIRE is known to be ALTRUISTIC and SECRETIVE. But being back from the dead has its challenges, especially when you’re hiding, A STRONG DESIRE AND DESPERATION FOR BLOOD THAT IS FALLING OUT OF CONTROL AGAIN. Who knows if anything we’ve heard is true. It’s mystic falls, nothing bad ever happens here .  // ( britt ● 24 ● cst ● she / her )

Basics : 

Full Name: Stefan Salvatore.

Date of Birth: November 1st.

Place of Birth: Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Gender: Male ( He / Him ) 

Species: Vampire.

Sexuality:Bisexual.

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio.

Positive Traits: Heroic, Protective, Caring, Intelligent, Brave.

Negative Traits: Self-Loathing, Addictive, Self-Destructive.

Stefan is canon and you can have a more in depth description here - [  x  ]

The after math :

Since the abrupt awakening of being brought back to life, Stefan has been struggling with grasping what it feels like to be ‘alive’ again. Unlike, past experiences this time is different and he doesn’t feel the same. An aurora surrounding his presence feeding off of the guilt that has over taken. A part of him doesn’t want to be brought back because of the harm and pain he’s caused, painting himself as a monster. It left him not wanting to return to his home in Mystic Falls because he didn’t feel that jolt of excitement or want to be bluntly reminded of any damage he has caused in the past.

Being attached to Mystic Falls was the seal that broke, being drawn back into a place he should have strayed away from. Despite, his efforts, he failed.

And his lust for blood had intensified stronger than it ever had been before.

Wanted Connections :

--- “ok but an immortal couple who break up and get back together every thirty years or so, and they’re messy as fuck, like every couple decades they break up and swear that they’ll never speak for the rest of eternity, until inevitably one tracks the other down and shows up like “okay, i’ve elected to forgive you, we’re together again” and the other is like “BUT WHO SAYS I FORGIVE YOU FOR THE AL CAPONE INCIDENT” and then they’re arguing/making out and meanwhile the rest of the immortal community just groans and rolls their eyes because jesus christ, this again, they have been doing this since the holy roman empire.” --- source of plot [  x  ]

--- considering stefan’s past and the amount of people he’s hurt. i’d love a connection where he’s trying to build a bond / make amends with said character that he would have hurt whether that be through them, their family, a friend etc. 

--- enemies to friends to lovers / enemies to friends

--- any sort of friends

--- exes

[fancoloredglasses]

Dungeons & Dragons episode review Module 1-4: Valley of the Unicorns

(Again, thanks to Jenny Saqua)

Another episode written by Paul Dini, and one that Venger is not the primary antagonist!

(WARNING: This module is very Uni-centric, if the adventure’s title wasn’t a giveaway. As I previously stated, I don’t have a particular beef with her, but I know most fans’ opinion of her are similar to TNG fans’ opinions are toward Wesley Crusher. If you don’t like Uni, you may want to skip this one. Otherwise, check out Watch Cartoons Online)

Where the PC are: The entire party has reached level 4, but judging by where their current XP totals are, I’m going to guess that only half the party will reach Level 5 this adventure

We open in a spooky forest (where even the trees have creepy faces) in a thunderstorm...

(Once again from Jenny Saqua)

(OK, who pissed off the DM this week?)

...where a purple unicorn (no, not Twilight Sparkle!) is being chased down by a pack of 5 dire wolves!

Meanwhile, in a sunnier patch of the forest, Uni suddenly huddles in fear in Bobby’s arms. While the party wonders why (except Eric, who’s too busy bitching), they hear the purple Unicorn in the distance and rush to its aid (well, Uni does...like she’d be any help...and the party gives chase)

The unicorn appears to be holding its own (or at least losing valiantly) when this adventure’s villain arrives...

(Thanks to Recap Retro)

...Kelek the wizard. A quick online search lists him as a 7th Level wizard (kind of a step down from Venger, isn’t it?) worth a whopping 650XP if defeated. I take back my earlier prediction. If this is the big bad this adventure, ain’t no one leveling up!

Kelek orders the dire wolves to hurry the hell up and take down the unicorn. Naturally this is when Uni shows up, trips over her own hooves, and tumbles to the feet of Kelek’s mount. Kelek immediately grabs for Uni, who immediately runs. About this time the rest of the party shows up and Kelek withdraws for the moment.

Bobby and Eric lead the charge, with Bobby’s club causing a fissure in the ground that swallows up 2 wolves. While the rest of the party is occupied, a dire wold grabs Uni and takes her to Kelek. The other unicorn gives chase, but is quickly surrounded, so it...teleports away? Can unicorns do that? *Checks Monster Manual* Huh...I guess they can!

Anyway, Uni is a captive of Kelek and tries the same trick, but she hasn’t mastered that power yet, apparently. Kelek recalls the remaining wolves as the party realizes they’re short one unicorn, but gained...90XP per dire wolf defeated? That’s it?!...for a total of 180XP (I think the DM is overcompensating for those first few adventures...) Hank uses his Ranger tracking ability (yes, it’s A Thing) and pursues the dire wolves (once again, with Eric bitching the whole time. You know, another Ranger ability is moving silently in the wilderness, but there’s no way that would ever succeed with Eric’s bellyaching announcing their presence a mile away...)

A while later, just before Bobby is about to knock Eric’s whiny teeth out for even hinting he wants to abandon Uni, Dungeon Master appears. Eric shows he has some intelligence after all by writing down everything Dungeon Master says (where the hell did he get a spiral notepad and #2 pencil?) Dungeon Master explain that the purple unicorn is Silvermane, leader of the last herd of unicorns (given that a herd generally only has one male, the species is about to be extinct...) His Riddle of the Week is “The fate of one is shared by all” (Mr. Spock he ain’t) before vanishing, leaving the party to figure out how to get through a grove of thorny brambles.

Hank decides to make Eric be useful for once, using his shield as a kind of magic bulldozer. The party eventually catches up to Kelek, just as he makes a tower sprout from the ground and enters, the party following (Does anyone smell a trap? I think I smell a trap)

Now, in my research for this adventure, I saw some rather disturbing descriptions of the following image and what it says about Kelek...

(yep, Jenny Saqua again)

All I’m gonna say is that unless the last herd of unicorns has at least 3 members remaining, he’s in trouble (yes, those are unicorn horns. Nice knowing you Uni...) and his taste in esthetics is appalling. I mean, he could have at least made the statue symmetrical!

Kelek uses his magic on Uni, removing her horn and moving it to the statue. Surprisingly (well, maybe not, since this is Children’s Programming) Uni survives the procedure, but her coat and mane turn grey and she seems to lose her vitality. Kelek begins ranting that the unicorns’ power will make him more powerful than Venger (does that mean I should boost his XP value?)

The party rushes to attack, but...

(Hi Jenny!)

Kelek hits the party with magic that freezes them in place as he casually strolls past them (OK, that’s kinda badass) and announces he’s going to the hidden Valley of the Unicorns to capture the final unicorns.

After Kelek leaves, Bobby is finally able to invoke Barbarian Rage (yes, it’s A Thing. Nice to see the party actually using their class abilities) and breaks free He then charges the statue as Hank manages to get free somehow. Hank frees the others as Bobby’s swings at the statue are met by a magical barrier.

After the party is freed, they hear a noise deeper in the tower, and discover other unicorns (similarly de-horned) in cages. Not entirely sure why Kelek didn’t kill them. Maybe the horns lose their power if the body dies? Anyway, Uni manages to convince the herd to trust the party and they lead the party to their secret Valley (I’ll be it takes longer when they can’t teleport...)

Eventually the party comes to...

(Thanks to imdb...what? I can’t let Jenny supply all my images...)

...a technicolor waterfall (you know, this doesn’t seem so secret...or hidden) The unicorns lead the party to a tunnel behind the waterfall. Uni rushes to Silvermane, but this happy reunion is spoiled when Kelek and his wolf brigade show up (he knew the party would free the unicorns and try to beat him to the Valley, so he followed them and discovered its location. Not a bad tactic)

Kelek captures the final three unicorns (just enough for his statue...WHAT A COINCIDENCE!) and buries the party under rubble before they can attack. Fortunately, Eric uses his shield to keep the party from being crushed, though they’re still buried.

The party manages to crawl out from under the rubble (except Eric, whom I’m assuming is still maintaining the barrier preventing the party from being crushed) when Dungeon Master shows up (in mid-adventure? That’s unlike him. I guess the DM thought the party needed more hints) and says “Sometimes your worst enemy can be your strongest ally” (so...I’m guessing Venger’s showing up later?)

The party treks their way back to Kelek’s tower, when Presto goes back and reads my last paragraph again. He decides to cast a summoning spell to call Venger. Unfortunately, his spell misfires as usual and he is instead teleported to Venger’s domain! Presto manages to stammer out enough of an explanation that he isn’t vaporized where he stands as we dissolve (so to speak) to Kelek’s antechamber.

Kelek has taken the horns from all the unicorns except Silvermane. Eric somehow manages to distract Kelek long enough for Sheila to free Silvermane. Unfortunately, Kelek isn’t distracted for long and attacks Hank, disarming him. Then Kelek calls the Wolfpack to finish off the party!

At that time, Presto reappears and the Dire wolves are transformed into Dire pups. That’s when Venger makes his presence known. Venger demands the unicorn horns from Kelek, but Kelek says the kid-friendly version of “fuck that!” and attacks Venger! Cue epic wizard battle!

In the ensuing chaos, the statue is destroyed and the unicorn horns are scattered. Presto attempts to magic the horns back on the unicorns, but...

(Jenny, Jenny...you’re who I turn to)

...and who is surprised by this?

Eric checks his notes and deduces Presto doesn’t need to magic all the horns, just one. Presto tries again, this time on just Uni...and this time, it works!

Without the unicorn horns, Kelek is no match for Venger and is easily dispatched (no XP for the party, as Venger did the heavy lifting). However, now Venger wants the horns! Hank tells the party to mount the unicorns and they can teleport everyone away.

Back at the Valley, Bobby is sulking because it looks like Uni will be leaving the party (you know, we already went through this. Car ads aside, Uni can’t go with them if they ever find a way home. So maybe it’s better if--

(Thanks to Jedi’s Paradise)

...never mind)

So...180XP total, or 30XP each. No one levels up on that chump change.

I wonder if the players gave the DM a head start before chasing him down and kicking his ass?

[charlemagne-reincarnate]

the sh ep is in 10 minutes and im not even excited, like i know a lot of cool stuff is happening but shtv does not know how to market at all lmao theyve made the ep seem so boring :/

[srawesleyghuewrites]

Back To You - Chapter 10

Series: Back To You(Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9)

For desktop users: masterlist

For mobile users: mobile masterlist

Pairing: Drake x MC(Anna Grey)

Faceclaim: Daniel di Tomasso as Drake Walker, Elizabeth Olsen as Anna Grey and Paul Wesley as King Liam

Book: The Royal Romance

Word Count: ~ 2800

Rating:  M for language

Prompt:

They never expected the night to go this way, from the proposal to someone getting shot. They didn’t expect the events, the confessions, the hurting and the consequences of everything. But this wasn’t the first time, Anna and Drake didn’t expected getting to know each other, or to fall so madly in love with each other that they would sacrifice everything for this love.

But the unexpected is what keeps us all truly alive.

Author’s Note:

I’ve loved writing every litte piece of this, so I can only hope someone loved to read it too. And with this, I say goodbye to this story that will stay forever in my heart.

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me(except for Anna Grey),  I just borrow them from Pixelberry!

Come back to you

You know, my thoughts are running loose

It's just a thing you make me do

And I could fight, but what's the use?

I know I'd go back to you

The two of them collide as the shot hits Drake. They go crashing to the ballroom floor, the force of his body knocking the wind out of her. He rolls to the side clutching his chest. When he pulls his hand away, it’s shiny and wet with blood. The color drains from his face, and her heart seems to stop in its tracks. Red blood stains his suit and keeps pouring down his abdomen, until Anna’s hands press the wound in an attempt to make it stop. 

Bastien, seeing the scene immediately runs to them, sidearm drawn. He helps Anna to her feet first, then Drake. He wobbles on his feet, so she quickly steps forward to steady him, passing her arm around his waist and his arm over her shoulders. But always keeping a hand on his bleeding.

“Anna! There’s a servant’s entrance to the left. Help Drake and stay low. I’ll cover for you.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.... about me.”

Drake’s voice is barely a whisper, even though he tries to seem tough and pushes Anna a little bit away from him, not wanting to be a burden for her in the fire line. But she’s just as stubborn as him, and keeps her grip strong on the man she loves. The danger she’s in seems to have flown out of her head the minute she saw his blood, because he’s hurt and that’s all that matters. Anna takes a deep breath as Bastien signals her to move, she steadies their bodies together and runs for the servant’s entrance with Drake.

When they’re already out of the palace, Bastien points to an SUV at the end of the drive. He helps Anna put Drake inside and fastly puts an address into the console. She, who’s been holding Drake’s hand inside the car feels his grip weaken. His face is contorted in a painful expression and his face is getting paler by the second.

“This is the address to the nearest hospital, it’s a gunshot to the chest so we can’t take any risks. Get him there as quick as you can.”

“Don’t you think that’s a possible attack place? I can’t put him in any more danger.”

Bastien senses the raw worry in her voice and his gaze softens, however his voice is firm and cold because they might be wasting precious seconds of Drake’s life. 

“Right now, the danger is that the bullet reached a vital organ so you have to get him help. NOW!”

He leaves before she can protest. Anna looks at Drake and sees his eyelids closing, she squeezes his hand to calm herself. She rips a piece of her dress and folds in into a ball, giving it to Drake use it to stop the bleeding. Then starts the car and drives as fast as she can to a hospital.

“You’re gonna be alright, I promise. We’ll get to the hospital right away, ok?”

“Heh… If you don’t e-e-end up killing me on the way t-heere.”

Drake tries to joke, the words come out a little slower than intended, but she seems calmer just to hear his voice. She looks at him for a moment, pressing the - already bloodied - piece of clothing strongly a his chest, and a half-smirk spread across his face.

“Why are you smiling? You’re… you’re hurt Drake.”

“But you aren’t. That’s enough to make me smile. And also I think the pain has re-each… a level of..”

He drifts off as they stop in front of the hospital. And then Drake sees it… in front of his childhood ranch, a man dressed in a plaid red shirt, a huge smile spreading on his face when he recognizes Drake, his son. He never thought he would see his dad again, the memories he treasured so much are now somewhat palpable. Jackson is drinking his favorite whiskey and he hesitant walks to him, wondering where the hell are they. Even though Drake knows he should get some answers first, he can’t help to wrap his father in a hug, needing to feel if it was just an illusion. When he feels Jackson hugging him back, tears start building in his eyes, because after all this time is finally true.

“I gotta say, didn’t expect to see you here so soon. Makes me feel sad, but you probably enjoyed the time you had, right son?”

“Time? Here? What-what are you talking about?” 

“And I can’t say I’m not glad to have company.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

At this, Jackson takes a long sip of his drink and seems to reflect on which words to use next. Drake motions to the drink.His father nods and he takes the cup, drinking it all at once.

“Well, if you don’t know yet, it’s not my place to tell you.”

“I never thought I would see you again.”

“Never is a strong word Drake. Even though you loved to use it when you were a kid, remember?”

“What happened?”

“If I didn’t go play with you, you would say ‘I’ll never forgive you’; if you didn’t catch any fish, it would be ‘I’ll never go fishing again’; if you and Savannah fought, it would go like ‘I’ll never be friends with you again’; Good times huh?”

He looked around and everything was exactly like when he was a child. The little garden with gardenias and other flowers his mom used to cultivate on their summers there, the wood bench with his and Savannah’s names scrapped in their ugly childish letters. It was so much like old times that his father guitar layed over the bench, like he was about to play something for them. Everything was the same but something felt incredibly wrong.

“Why I am here dad?”

“It doesn’t… matter.”

When he looks at the cup in his hands, previously empty from his quick drinking, it’s completely full again. Jackson has a bittersweet gaze, giving Drake a half smile because that’s probably all he can say. His son sighs, watching intently the brown liquid in the glass, humming incoherent words for no reason, then he stops altogether.

“Did you hear that?”

“What?”

“Someone… there’s someone crying.”

Drake can hear the crying sounds, even though they seem to be coming from somewhere distant. He walks around the front porch, trying to follow the sound and find what the hell is going on. Until Jackson puts a hand on his shoulder, bringing his attention back to the man who was supposed to be dead. And suddenly a very bad idea strikes him like a wave, is he dead too?

“I don’t hear anything son. Perhaps you’re still connected. Or it might be a memory. But I can assure you, here, nobody has reasons to cry.”

“Connected? What the hell are you talking about? And why don’t you answer my questions?”

Drake’s almost yelling at this point, because none of the options of why he can see and touch his father are nice: either he’s dead and this is literally some weird dying thing, or he’s lost so much blood and is delusional to the point of making a hallucination sound real.

“I already told you Drake. It’s not my place to tell you these things. Not the ones you’re asking anyway.”

“Which ones can you respond?”

His dark chocolate eyes are wet with tears, he doesn’t really know why but maybe it has something to do with seeing his father after so long. Drake sees the tears building up at his dad’s eyes too, and they share another long hug. He needs to allow himself to enjoy this moment, it might be all in his head, but it’s still his father.

Drake has been fighting to remember anything that could help, however it seems like his memory turned to jelly and only his childhood memories flow through his mind. That is, until a very known - and now sounding very distant - voice says:

“I love you. I love you so much, so don’t you dare dying on me Walker. Just don’t… please don’t. I can’t lose you, alright? I just can’t.”

Grey. Her voice echoes over and over again in his ears, pounding as strong as her crying sounds. She was the one crying and he gets desperate when she speaks again, her voice a whisper of pain and worry:

“Drake, please please don’t leave me. I love you. I always will. So please, let them take care of you. Because I need you to come back to me.”

What was she talking about? Why was she crying and why the hell can he hear her but not see or feel her? It doesn’t make any sense and hurts him like hell, causing all his tears to fall quickly over his cold cheek. Drake has never heard Grey sound so desperate, so hurt, in fact, he never heard her beg for anything. Not the way she was begging for him, and what hurts the most is that he can’t give her what she needs. He looks at Jackson, searching for answers again and finding a longing in his eyes he’s not seen in many years.

“You don’t hear anything? Why can’t you hear her?”

“No. But this person, is she important to you?”

“She’s the love of my life. And now I remember… the ball… she almost - I almost lost her. I took… a bullet...to keep her safe… and now…”

Before he can finish tying the dots, his dad stops him by hugging him strongly. He caresses Drake’s head, then moves away enough to look him in the eye, tears pilling up on his eyes when he whispers:

“You’re not staying. At least, I hope you’re not staying because it is too damn early for you. So I need you to know two things: I’m very proud of you and who you’ve become. And that love… love is the most important thing in the world. Don’t take it for granted, alright? If you take a bullet for someone, if you can hear them here, that’s… that’s love.”

Everything goes black again and Drake feels nothing for a long time. Like he’s immerse in a black ocean where nothing happens, there’s no pain or suffering, just empty waves. Silence and waves, blending together in a way there’s no how to how where one begins or finishes. He feels addicted to the waves, something interesting about all that darkness, something he can soak himself in.

Then he feels a tug, and there was no longer the ocean of emptiness, but a comfortable solid reality. He could feel his body again, the weight of it where he lays, his calm breathing sounds and the warmth of something holding his hand. Still, it takes him a while to control himself again and it feel like he’s learning to be here again. When he finally does, causing his eyelids to open slightly, there’s a lot of blank white in front of him.

He can hear people moving and talking, his eyes are so heavy it’s hard to try and open them completely, but the minute her voice reaches him, it’s impossible not to. 

“Drake?”

Drake’s eyes finally see her gray ones, the freckles of light now slowly returning to them as she watches him wake up. The tears in her eyes are big and they spill slowly over her cheeks, just as a beautiful smile spreads over her face and she squeezes his hand - which she’s been holding for the past four hours.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fi-ine.”

“Really?”

He squeezes her hand back, tracing little circles in it with his finger and giving her his best smile. Anna can barely believe he’s awake and well, according to the nurses and himself, even after they said the surgery went well every bone in her body was terrified of what could happened. After all, he took a shot to protect her and now she could’ve lost him.

“Yes. What happened? Are you ok?”

“You had to go to surgery because the bullet was in a dangerous place, but the doctor said the procedure when well and that you’re likely to have a great recovery. But are you feeling alright, really?”

“Grey. I’m fine. I promise.”

His words make her sigh with relief, then she kissed his hand, letting more and more tears fall over their twined fingers. Drake uses his other hand to cradle her head, wanting more than anything to pull her close and keep her as close as possible for as long as possible.

“Everybody else?”

“They’re all ok too, only a couple of people got hurt and nobody died. Savannah and Bartie got away with no bruises, just as Hana, Maxwell and Liam. Bastien got shot in the leg but he’s already being treated here. Our friends are probably at the cafeteria, getting me some food. They’ve been trying it for about eight hours.”

“When was the last time you ate? And how long was I in surgery?”

“I’m alright. Don’t you dare worry about me, Mr. Hero. And your surgery lasted ten hours.”

“Mr. Hero? Really?”

“You took a bullet for me. You… took...a… for… me. To… pr-o-otect me.”

She speaks slowly, as if the words have such a strength against her that they held power over her whole body. He caresses her cheek, bringing her face close enough to give her a chaste kiss on the lips and forehead. Drake enjoys that their faces is so near to whisper:

“I’ll always keep you safe. And I don’t regret it for a second Grey, because taking a bullet is nothing compared to the possibility of losing you.”

She kisses him this time, her lips brushing slowly against his as if she’s tasting them for the first time and doesn’t want to let go. The kiss is deep, and she takes a long time to bring their lips apart, giving him a couple quick kisses afterwards. 

“I almost lost you. So I took the liberty of picking something borrowed from your suit to ask you something.”

Anna wiggles her eyebrows and at first Drake has no idea what she’s talking about, until she kneels and picks up his well known green velvet box. She smirks at him, takes a deep breath and presents the open box to him, between the stubborn tears - of joy this time - that escape from her eyes, she says:

“I almost lost you today, and I was so angry because damn, it took me a lot of convincing and fighting and waiting to get you in the first place. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t planned, because I don’t think anything this amazing could ever be.It was probably the hardest thing in my life, getting you to open up to me, challenging that snarky grumpy adorable man, pretending I wasn’t crazy about you since that moment in Olivia’s cellar. When you made me realize the moments in between were what made me fall for you, what made me stay when I was ready to leave, they kept me going because I knew there were many other to come, with you. Pretending not to love you was the hardest thing in the world, even though loving you was the easiest. I almost lost you today, but you came back to me. And with this, I promise I’ll always come back to you. Drake Walker, the most grumpy man I’ve ever met, who has the biggest marshmallowist heart in the world, would you give me the honor of marrying me?”

He doesn’t interrupt her because he was so surprised that his breath is caught in his throat. By the end of her speech, he’s crying too, overwhelmed with so much love and joy for the woman in front of him. 

“I think that’s my line, and also my ring. But, as if there was any other answer, yes.”

She jumps up with a huge smile on her face, giving him the box and the ring so that he can put it in her finger. Then she puts both of her hands on his cheeks, staring intently at the man she’s going to marry before kissing him deeply and lovingly.

“Did she woke him up with a true love’s kiss?”

Maxwell says loud enough for the couple to hear, while he enters the room with a smirk on his face, Hana and Liam on his toes. And just as this unplanned love story began, it ended. 

The End

[endlesstm-blog]

╰ & › .  𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔   /     SILAS.

dear diary, look what the cat dragged in. — it’s silas ( cis-male / he/him ). the unemployed could be paul wesley’s doppelganger, but don’t tell them that. you never know how an immortal will react. they’re 18 / 1000+ and in mystic falls because he’s looking to end the immortality spell. hopefully the town can survive a selfish, capricious and determined personality.

AESTHETICS.        blood running from eyes and mouth. vacant stares. crowds stuck-still. pale fingers digging into flesh. the way the forest feels still when there's a predator on the prowl. weak sunlight through morning mist. tenderness like the fresh breath of wind on a wound newly unbandaged. body a twisted composition of agony. mirages. dreams that feel so real they leave you reaching across empty space, waking up to grasp at nothing. bright white light and white marble. crimson cloth. breath misting in the air. laugh like a bullet heard round the world. bloody hands. bloody mouth. the way blood looks black in the moonlight. romeo and juliet. bruises blooming like flowers beneath skin. tombs. cracked marble. disturbed graves. the way the moons shape keeps shifting and in all its wavering it knows what it means to be human. sleep as death training. rumpled bed sheets. hard liquor. grapes sweet and tart and bursting like a vein on your tongue. inspiration: the way a rabbit inspires a wolf. I want to be better, a better what ? man ? immortal ? monster ? bared teeth. snarled words. soft menace. the way sickness creeps up on you, a betrayal of self. 

  CANON CHANGES:

silas was woken a lot earlier in his timeline he's been kicking around for centuries traveling the world looking for ways to bring amara back to life rather than attempting to spend his afterlife with her. though as the years drag on he's getting more and more tempted to take the cure that he alone has stashed away.

INTERACTION NOTES:

silas understands other people very well, perks of being able to slip in and out of their minds ( don't worry I'll contact you before hand to avoid god-modding ) the problem is he just doesn't care about other people. he knows they've all got an expiration date and he's jealous of that fact. no matter how strong their emotions they're going to he snuffed out some way some how. they'll stop being a thorn in his side soon enough.

he just loves to remind hunters that he's human. and unkillable

the cult of silas was a thing and we will never forget that

he doesn't care about people easily, doesn't get attached, he's been around too long.

he's mostly unaffected by dopplegangers looking like the love of his life, he's too aware that they're just shadows of her, and having seen his own shadow self he knows just how different those shadows can be. he's spent too much time conjuring illusions of other people by pulling out the idea of them from the targets head to let himself trap amara into a bubble.

TIRED ! TIRED ! TIRED !

he's immortal, powerful, an aberration against nature and ruthless. pls don't underestimate him. he's shown time and again he'll kill and he'll bombard you with illusions.

all of that being said his one motivation the whole show over is love. he's capable of real genuine caring, he doesn't mask that, doesn't treat it as a weakness. his love for amara is what makes him strong nothing will change that.

he tends to think of himself as an adam of sorts. the first man. the first immortal. vampires are immitations of of him and it shows.

for those that know stefan he may pretend to be him, just until it stops being entertaining to him, afterall. it's not like stefan is locked away like he was in canon. if he pretended to he him the charade wouldn't last very long.

CONNECTION IDEAS

silas has been kicking around this big blue marble for way too long he could have met anyone at any time except the years he spent asleep

vampires thinking he's Stefan will never stop being funny.

peeps who knew the cult of silas or knew people in the cult.

[jennmoslek36]

IT HAS BEEN about a year now since my involvement with the Dozier School For Boys began taking over my world. Kicking off the whirlwind was my need to get my hands on the school’s student ledgers. I won’t rehash the entire adventure but what I will say is that it took many frustrating nights online, several emails to the Archivist, the potential of an $600+ bill to get digital copies & finally an 8 hour round trip before I’d actually have what I wanted…Well at least a quarter of what I wanted!

  HAVING ABSOLUTELY NO clue what I was looking for, I spent the next several weeks trying to organize what I had. Almost immediately number of very distinct patterns began jumping out at me. The same sentencing judges over & over again, the SAME sentence length OR lack there of & a crap load of blank spaces; Specifically under the “WHEN/HOW RELEASED” columns. One would expect that any institution handling children would be required to keep detailed & accurate records of ALL of its charges, especially when it comes to their last known whereabouts BUT that would make too much sense, now wouldn’t it…

        THE INFO THAT I had gotten was only from the latest volume of the ledgers & didn’t even make a dent in the number of boys that had been shoved through the doors to be reformed. I knew there were hundreds OR even thousands of names in those books. I maybe had a few hundred at the most. By now, I had gotten used to what I like to call the “Hurry Up & Stop” method of researching. Basically I’d need specific info, finally get said info ONLY to start looking it over & promptly figure out that I needed additional material OR even worse, I’d need something entirely different altogether. In this case, I had just assumed that I’d eventually be making another trip to the Archives; That is until I ended up becoming involved with Bob Straley & taking over his website…And right there on one of the site pages was a link to the detailed, handwritten notes that WHB Mr. Andrew Puel had spent hours putting together.

Mr. Andrew Puel At The State Archives…Sitting In The EXACT Same Spot That I Did When I Was There!

      NOT IT!!

WHEN I SAW that link, I was beyond thrilled! I was finally going to have something reliable to validate what I had come up with! I had spoken with Andrew at Bob Straley’s memorial service & knew that any research he had done would be the best & most accurate info that I could possibly get. When the page loaded, it definitely did NOT show what I had been hoping for; In all actuality, it showed nothing but this:

    ODDLY THE INFO was missing! I started clicking on some of the other older links on the website & sure enough, there were quite a few that led to nowhere. I don’t know why it gone OR where it went, only that it’s not there. I tried not to get to aggravated, thinking that there had to be a hard copy among the thousands of documents that I have. I spent the next several weeks going through EVERY page, folder, digital file, etc. & found nothing. Bob kept everything, so to say I was puzzled that he wouldn’t have a copy of something so important was a huge understatement. I did another look through, literally taking out every piece of paper, one by one; Still nothing.

  Well Damn….

    AN EVENING IN GAINESVILLE

ON A FRIDAY in late February, I made the 3 hour trip to Gaineville. With me was a small black bag filled with what I believed to be the most important material related to the Arthur G Dozier School for Boys. I pulled up to a beautiful home, tucked back in a quiet sub division that was surrounded by forest. Standing outside was a familiar face, Mr. Bryant Middleton. The “Whitehouse Boy” greeted me with a smile & a brief hug before inviting me inside to meet his wife. Both graciously spent several hours telling their personal story of Dozier & how the WHB’s Organization was founded. They were both lovely people & I was grateful that they had been so willing to meet with me & be as open as they were. When we finally moved into the dining room to look over the things that I had brought, I began pulling things out. I yanked a folder out that had been wedged inside of my over full bag & a stack of papers fell out. The stack was stapled together & folded in half. I picked it up to see what it was & as I unfolded it, my jaw hit the floor!

    OH…MY…GOD…It was a hard copy of the list of missing boys! The same list that I had just spent weeks trying to find! The stuff inside of that bag was the stuff that I pulled out & reviewed quite frequently & there’s absolutely NO way that I would missed that thick stack of ledger pages! I slid the stack across the table, explaining to Bryant why I was a bit stunned at finding them. He thought it was strange as well. I’m not going to get into the specifics of my time with the Middletons in this post, although I will say that I’m very fortunate to have met with them. They’re great people & they continue to work toward keeping the future from repeating the past.

    WHERE COULD THEY BE?

OF COURSE THERE is minimal info on the boys on this list. What is known is that most were listed as escaped but never recovered. A lot lacked permanent homes OR guardians, so there wouldn’t have been any concerned parents wondering about the whereabouts of their lost boy. It should also be noted that the last place they were seen was the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna. That leaves so many unanswered questions; Could ALL 185 boys on that list have actually successfully escaped & moved on to a better life? Even if that did happen, would it be possible that NOT 1 single child ever be heard from again? I suppose it could be possible for some BUT for All 185? I seriously have my doubts & given the history of Dozier, I’d say that’s highly unlikely. Especially considering the significant proof of other burial sites on the school’s 1200+ acres.Whether or not they continued life after Dozier OR their lives were taken at the school, they each deserve to be recognized. I’ll let them speak for themselves….

☆☆☆☆☆☆

  JOSEPH WILK – 17 JAME HENRY COLSON SMITH – 16 BEHARD STEPHENS – 15 JOHNNIE J. RICHARDSON – 17 AB DURDEN – 16 WILLIAM RICHARD WHITE – 16 MONROE ROGERS – 16 NOWLA (SONNY) VENOS – 16 BERNARD WILLIAMS – 15 WILLIAM NICOLAS BURNETT – 15 FRED RUSH – 16 HORACE MECHOM – 16 J.W. HARRILL, JR. – 14 EDWARD MATTHEW MITCHELL – 17 LARRY DAVIS – 14. ALFONSO DEWEY DAVIS – 16 JAMES ARTHUR HARELL – 13 CARROL PITTMAN – 15 CARL HUBBARD REWLS – 14 RICHARD PEUDRY TYLER – 15 HAROLD OLDS – 14 LYNVILLE RAY – 16 LAIRD WILDES (age unknown) ALFRED SMITH GOODSON – 16 QUINCY LEWIS – 16

☆☆☆☆☆☆

ZANE HOPKINS – 12 ROBERT WALKER – 13 WILLIE FRANKLIN FARROW – 13 EUGENE JOHNS – 14 GABE BELL – 15 WILLIAM DEWARS – 15 LELAND LLOYD BRADY – 16 JASPER ALLEN HOLDER – 15 WILLIAM JOHNSON – 16 GEORGE HENRY ABBEY – 16 HARRY L. SAULS – 15 BEN BUNDRICK – 15 LOUIS VALOIS COUTURE – 16 ROBERT GILBERT ALBRITTON – 16 LAUDRIC BASKIN – 17 JAME HENRY COLSON SMITH – 16 JOHN JOSEPH COOGAN, JR – 16 ARINAUDO MACHIN, JR – 16 JULIAN GREEN – 15 CARL UNDERHILL – 16 WILLIAM DANIEL HATCHER – 17 DWIGHT SPRINGER – 14 JASON EDWARD LOGAN – 15 PAUL HERSHEY, JR – 17 CLARENCE C. RAULERSON – 16

☆☆☆☆☆☆

EVERETT BRADDOCK – 15 HAROLD EUGENE NORMAN – 16 RICHARD RUSSEL TODD – 14 EDWARD POOLE – 14 BILLY RAY BURNS – 16 MARCO GUTIERREZ – 14 WALTER C. GREEN – 16 LEON MANNING – 16 LEONARD JAMES NELSON – 16 GODSON WHITTAKER – 15 ROBERT GORDON – 15 ROBERT LAURIN GODDARD – 15 KENNETH LEE YORK – 17 TRUBEE BYRD – 17 ROWANE HOLLIDAY – 16 BOBBY WHITEHEAD – 15 WILLIAM EDWARD LEGGETT – 16 ROBERT HELGRAN – 13 OSCAR EUGENE MCCURDY – 16 WILLIAM RIVERA EMANUEL, JR – 16 JOHN LENNARD NAVE – 16 JACKIE CREWS – 16 ERNEST WOODARD – 16 ARTHUR KENT PATTERSON (aka William S. Johnson) – 14 DAVID EVANS HARRIS – 16

☆☆☆☆☆☆

JOHN HARRIMAN – 16 GB IRWIN – 14 HOWARD MCCALL – 17 OSCAR LEE CALDWELL – 14 JD THOMAS – 13 GEORGE F. CLAY – 13 WILLIS BUNYAN – 16 JAMES CAMPBELL – 15 BERTRAM THOMPSON – 16 WILLIE JAMES MURPHY – 17 SANDY JONES – 15 RALPH HALL – 16 MELVIN FALSON – 13 HERBERT LEE COVINGTON – 14 LUKE BENJAMIN – 16 TOMMIE L. WOOTEN – 15 WALTER ADAMS – 15 DAVID JONES (aka Cockran) – 15 EDWARD BROWN – 14 EDWARD DEMERRITT – 16 WILLIAM JENKINS – 13 MATEO BENARD COLUMBUS – 14 WILLIE C. MITCHELL – 13 CLARENCE MORTON, JR – 15 JOSEPH JOHNSON – 16

☆☆☆☆☆☆

CURTIS WILSON – 10 EUGENE FULLER – 16 THOMAS BOWERS – 15 LEON DUNBAR – 16 DAVID EAGLETON – 14 HENRY JUNIOR JOHNSON – 14 EDWARD FOSTER – 15 GEORGE EDWARD THOMAS – 17 ODIS SINGLETON – 16 JAMES WILEY BRYANT – 14 CURTIS DOWNING – 15 WALTER LEE NIXON – 15 JOHN TYLER – 16 ELMORE JOHNSON – 15 HENRY MELVIN JONES – 16 DOCK SMITH – 15 ROBERT LEE KING – 16 WILLARD LAMAR SHELTON – 16 ROBERT HAYS – 16 CHAS W. CHAMBERS – 16 RUSSEL HUTTON – 15 HOWARD CAYWOOD – 15 BOBBY HAYES – 16 BILLY CAUDELL – 16 WALTER R. HAYES – 17

☆☆☆☆☆☆

ARTHUR KENT PITTEBON(?) – (age unknown) WILLIAM P. NUNES – 16 EDWIN T. FINNIE – 15 MILTON LEDBETTER – (age unknown) LEROY SMITH (aka Leroy Gregory) – 17 JOE RODRIGUEZ – 17 BENARD MIXON – 15 ROBERT WESLEY DAVIS – 16 PAUL DAVID HUGES – 12 ROY JOHNSON – 13 LENARD JAMES LOTT – 16 JERRY LLOYD – 16 GABRIEL THURMAN – 16 ROBERT LEE BOSTIC – 14 GEORGE HILL – 13 JOHN ALBURY – 14 NATHANIEL TURNER – 15 LEO COLLIER – 17 TEEVESTER JAMES – 15 FLOYD RILEY, JR – 17 GEORGE NELSON – 15 NORMAN MCAULEY – 15 LYLE MACK PAULK – 16 EDWARD GIBSON – 14 WILLIAM EDWARD CORTEZ – 16

☆☆☆☆☆☆

ROBERT CHRISTMAN – 16 HUBERT BERRYMAN – 15 CHARLES LACGUEY – 16 CHARLES EDWARD KIDDY – 15 JOHN CHARLES CLANCEY – 15 DANNY LEE BOWMAN – 16 HOWARD GEORGE FAGG – (age unknown)

ROBERT ALTON SINGLETARY – 17 ELLIS MARLOWE HASKIN – 16 JAMES PHILLIP SLAWSON – 16 JAMES JOHNS – 17 BENARD JACKSON – 14 ARLISS BLACKMON – 15 BENJAMIN UDEL – 13 NATHANIEL BOWLES – 16 ROLAHO LYLES – 16 CLARENCE BOBBY BROWN – 15 WILLIE BRADFORD – 16 BILLY JACKSON – 13 RICHARD GILLYARD – 14 LEONARD WHITEHEAD – 15 FREDERICK NATHANIEL HARREL – 16 HENRY MCLENDON – 17 SAMOLE DARBY – 17 WILLIE LEE DOUGLAS – 15

☆☆☆☆☆☆

MOZELL BRADLEY, JR – 16 J.C. STEPHENS – 15 CHARLES BROWN – 15 GRANT BERNARD KEMP – 13 RONNIE FRANKIE ROSE – 16 JOE EDWARD ALLEN – 15 VICTOR STEPHEN GRICE – 16 TOMMY COOK (Mathias) – 15 JERRY COOK – 16 JOHNNY LEON WRIGHT – 16

  IT’S AN ENTIRELY different feeling you get when you’re able to put names to the children you’ve been speaking of….

  ♤Please Consider Helping In The Fight For Justice By Signing The 1st Petition: https://www.change.org/p/jenn-moslek-re-investigation-of-the-arthur-g-dozier-school-for-boys♤

  ☆ IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW SUFFERED ABUSE, PASSED AWAY, WENT MISSING OR WITNESSED ANY WRONGDOINGS WHILE AT “THE FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS” AKA “THE ARTHUR G. DOZIER SCHOOL FOR BOYS” OR THE OKEECHOBEE SCHOOL FOR BOYS, PLEASE REACH OUT VIA HERE AT findingflorida.blog OR ANY OF THE CONTACT INFO LISTED BELOW!!☆

  Want More “Finding Florida?” BE SURE TO “SUBSCRIBE”!

    FOR PRIVATE CONTACT SEND EMAILS TO:  whitehouseboys2018@gmail.com

  FOR ALL DOZIER RELATED INFO:

http://thewhitehouseboysonline.com

AND

http://www.whitehouseboys2007.com

  FOR FULL PHOTO GALLERIES & ADDITIONAL LOCATION INFO FOLLOW ME ON FB AT:  @GRAVEAdventuresFL

THE LOST BOYS OF DOZIER: Have You Seen Me? IT HAS BEEN about a year now since my involvement with the Dozier School For Boys began taking over my world.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The 2020 presidential contest is starting to pick up steam, but we’re still a long way from any votes being cast. To see if we can learn anything at this stage of the election cycle, we’ve been looking at past years’ early primary polls to see how well they predicted the eventual nominee. It turns out that they have a fair bit of value, especially when we adjust for how well known a candidate was.

This is the second part of a three-part series on early presidential primary polls. Last week, we examined polls for competitive nomination processes from 1972 to 1996, and now we’ll look at more recent contests, from 2000 to 2016. To refresh readers on how this works, we took all the polls in the FiveThirtyEight database that were conducted in the calendar year before each election and then split them by whether they were taken in the first half of that year (January through June) or the second half (July through December).

For every person who had been included in at least one of those polls — no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run or win — we calculated two key metrics. The first is an average of all the polls for each candidate (or potential candidate) for each half of the year — candidates were counted as having zero percent support in any poll they did not appear in.1 The second is an average of each candidate’s standing in the polls adjusted for how well known the person was at the time.2

Because pollsters ask questions in different ways and ask about different lists of candidates, our methods of estimating name recognition had to be treated as rough estimates, so the candidates in each primary cycle have been sorted onto a somewhat subjective five-tier scale to sum up their level of fame.3 These name-recognition scores are represented as five square boxes in the table below, where more black boxes means higher levels of name recognition. (Because these scores can adjust a candidate’s average upward but not downward, the adjusted polling average will add up to more than 100 percent).

This time we’ll start with the 2000 presidential cycle, when both parties had crystal-clear favorites who polled well ahead of the opposition more than a year out. The GOP continued its streak of nominating its early frontrunner, who in this case was George W. Bush. The son of a former president and governor of Texas, Bush began the cycle already pretty well known, and he held on to his lead once the voting started. Notably, Bush’s nomination broke another long-running streak in the Republican primaries: nominating a previous runner-up in the next presidential cycle where there was no Republican incumbent (Bush was running for the first time). Our adjusted polling average picked up on another rising star in the first half of 1999 — Sen. John McCain, who really grabbed the national spotlight in this cycle. McCain emerged as the principal opposition to Bush and even defeated the frontrunner in the New Hampshire primary, setting up an ugly fight in the South Carolina primary, which Bush ultimately won. But like previous GOP runner-ups, McCain would return to the presidential stage.

The 2000 Republican primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd George W. Bush 46.6% 61.0% 58.2% 61.0% John McCain 4.8 10.8 11.9 26.9 Gary Bauer 1.3 2.0 6.4 9.8 Steve Forbes 4.7 5.8 7.8 9.7 Alan Keyes 0.3 2.3 0.8 5.8 Orrin Hatch 0.1 1.9 0.2 4.8 Elizabeth Dole 18.0 3.2 22.4 4.1 Dan Quayle 7.0 1.2 7.0 1.2 Pat Buchanan 3.2 0.9 4.0 1.1 Lamar Alexander 1.1 0.1 2.8 0.2 Bob Smith 0.2 0.0 0.8 0.1 John Kasich — 1.5 — 7.5 — Jack Kemp — 0.6 — 0.7 — Rudy Giuliani — 0.4 — 0.7 — George Pataki — 0.2 — 0.4 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

To face Bush, the Democrats nominated Vice President Al Gore, who ended up having only one opponent — former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Bradley’s adjusted polling average made him look competitive in the first half of the year, but Gore was still polling above 50 percent in the second half, so Bradley was running out of time to cut into Gore’s lead. Bradley kept it close in New Hampshire, but Gore went on to win every contest and the nomination, making it just the second time in the modern primary era that the Democrat who led the early unadjusted polling average clinched the nomination. Only former Vice President Walter Mondale had earned this distinction previously, in 1984. In the controversial 2000 general election, Gore lost to Bush, but pollsters continued asking about the Democrat in future election cycles.

The 2000 Democratic primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Al Gore 53.7% 54.8% 53.7% 54.8% Bill Bradley 20.5 29.4 34.1 49.0 Warren Beatty — — 0.4 — 0.5 Dick Gephardt 1.0 0.2 1.7 0.4 John Kerry 0.4 0.1 1.0 0.2 Paul Wellstone 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 Jesse Jackson — 4.4 — 4.4 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

Because we’re only interested in competitive nomination processes, this means we’ll skip over the 2004 GOP primaries, when Bush ran for re-election without any serious challengers from within his party. As for the Democrats in 2004, their primary field was large and fragmented, and they did not pick the early polling frontrunner as their nominee. Instead, by the second half of 2003, six candidates had an adjusted polling average of 10 percent or more. By this metric, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry looked somewhat stronger in the first half of the year than in the second, but he still managed to narrowly beat North Carolina Sen. John Edwards in the Iowa caucuses and win the New Hampshire primary as well. Edwards ended up joining Kerry as his vice presidential pick, but the Kerry-Edwards ticket fell to Bush and his running mate, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, in the general election.

The 2004 Democratic primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Howard Dean 3.4% 15.5% 8.5% 25.8% Wesley Clark 0.3 9.2 1.5 23.1 Dick Gephardt 12.2 9.8 20.4 16.3 John Kerry 12.8 9.3 21.3 15.5 Joe Lieberman 18.5 11.6 23.1 14.5 John Edwards 6.9 4.3 17.3 10.8 Dennis Kucinich 0.8 1.8 4.1 9.2 Carol Moseley Braun 2.0 3.4 5.0 8.4 Al Sharpton 3.9 4.1 6.4 6.9 Hillary Clinton 7.4 5.8 7.4 5.8 Bob Graham 3.5 1.2 8.6 3.0 Al Gore 1.3 0.4 1.3 0.4 Gary Hart — 1.3 — 1.6 — Tom Daschle — 0.9 — 1.2 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

In the 2008 cycle, both parties had dynamic primaries in the race to succeed Bush in the White House. Edwards threw his hat in the ring again, but the Democratic race really developed into a titanic duel between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Clinton was the better-known candidate thanks to her time as first lady, and she led surveys throughout 2007, but Obama’s adjusted polling average underscored early on that he might have potential as a rising star in the party. And so despite Clinton’s lead in the national polls heading into the first primaries of 2008, she finished third in the Iowa caucuses behind Obama and Edwards. She recovered to win in New Hampshire, but in the end, Obama and Clinton battled all the way until June, the end of the primary season, before Obama clinched the Democratic nomination.

In the GOP primary, McCain renewed the Republican tradition of nominating a previous runner-up. But McCain’s win bucked another trend — he was the first GOP nominee since 1972 who didn’t lead early national polls the year before a primary. In the first half of 2007, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani topped national surveys, but former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson (also of “Law & Order” fame) matched him in the adjusted polling average in the second half of the year.

McCain was probably helped by the fact that the field was crowded and some of his leading opponents made pretty big mistakes. Giuliani chose to essentially skip the early states to focus on Florida as a springboard to win other big states on Super Tuesday — a strategy that failed. And Thompson waited too long to declare his candidacy, which was then hampered by the rise of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who became the stronger Southern candidate in the field. McCain got off to a slow start in Iowa but edged out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in New Hampshire to get on track. He then won narrow pluralities in South Carolina and Florida, fending off Huckabee’s continued challenge in order to win the overall nomination. In the end, McCain lost decisively to Obama in the general election.

The 2008 Republican primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Fred Thompson 8.3% 16.5% 20.7% 27.6% Rudy Giuliani 32.0 27.4 32.0 27.4 John McCain 20.5 15.5 25.7 19.4 Mitt Romney 8.6 11.3 21.5 18.9 Mike Huckabee 1.8 7.3 8.8 18.1 Ron Paul 0.7 2.5 1.7 6.3 Duncan Hunter 0.8 1.1 3.8 5.4 Tom Tancredo 0.8 0.9 4.0 4.4 Newt Gingrich 8.0 2.5 10.1 3.2 Sam Brownback 1.5 0.8 7.4 1.9 Chuck Hagel 0.4 0.1 2.0 0.6 Tommy Thompson 1.3 0.2 3.2 0.5 Jim Gilmore 0.4 0.1 2.1 0.3 George Pataki 0.4 0.1 1.0 0.2 Alan Keyes — — 0.1 — 0.2 Jeb Bush 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1 Bill Frist 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 George Allen 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 Mark Sanford — — 0.0 — 0.1 Rick Santorum — — 0.0 — 0.0 Tim Pawlenty — — 0.0 — 0.0 Michael Bloomberg — 0.0 — 0.1 — Condoleezza Rice — 0.0 — 0.0 — Haley Barbour — 0.0 — 0.0 — John Cox — 0.0 — 0.0 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

In 2012, the GOP nominated Romney — who had been one of the runners-up in the 2008 campaign — to take on Obama. This marked a return to the tradition of the early polling frontrunner eventually winning the party’s nomination. But Romney was probably also helped by Huckabee, who was also a runner-up in 2008, deciding not to run. And then there was Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s decision to defend a Texas policy that allowed immigrants who had entered the country illegally to pay lower in-state rates for college tuition, which hurt him in the polls. Other candidates, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and businessman Herman Cain, had periodic booms in the polls, but Romney was the last one standing, though he did lose to Obama in the general election.

The 2012 Republican primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Mitt Romney 19.5% 22.2% 24.4% 27.8% Newt Gingrich 9.0 19.1 11.3 23.9 Rick Perry 1.1 12.1 1.8 15.1 Herman Cain 3.5 7.5 8.7 12.5 Ron Paul 6.5 9.0 8.2 11.3 Michele Bachmann 4.1 6.4 6.8 8.0 Rick Santorum 1.9 2.7 4.8 6.7 Jon Huntsman 1.0 1.8 4.8 4.5 Sarah Palin 8.2 0.2 8.2 0.2 Tim Pawlenty 2.9 0.1 7.1 0.2 Gary Johnson 0.3 0.0 1.5 0.2 Rudy Giuliani 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 Fred Karger 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 Buddy Roemer 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Thad McCotter — — 0.0 — 0.0 Mike Huckabee — 11.5 — 14.4 — Donald Trump — 4.6 — 4.6 — Mitch Daniels — 1.7 — 4.3 — Haley Barbour — 0.7 — 1.7 — John Thune — 0.1 — 0.6 — Mike Pence — 0.1 — 0.5 — Chris Christie — 0.3 — 0.4 — Jim DeMint — 0.0 — 0.1 — Roy Moore — 0.0 — 0.1 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

Now for the most recent presidential primary cycle. In at least some respects, the 2016 primary on the Democratic side echoed the party’s primary in 2000, when Gore led the early surveys at more than 50 percent and faced only one significant opponent. Hillary Clinton was the early polling frontrunner in the first half of 2015, when her unadjusted polling average was at 67 percent, the highest mark for any half-year period we looked at from 1972 to 2016. She slipped slightly in the second half of the year, but still led at 61 percent. However, there was evidence in the early polls that despite not being as well known as Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had potential. His adjusted polling average stood at about 24 percent in the first half of the year, then shot up to 44 percent in the second half. Ultimately, Clinton had to fend off Sanders all the way to the end of primary season, just like in 2008 when she was up against Obama, except this time she won.

The 2016 Democratic primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Hillary Clinton 67.0% 60.7% 67.0% 60.7% Bernie Sanders 9.6 26.3 23.9 43.9 Martin O’Malley 1.7 2.0 4.2 5.0 Jim Webb 2.8 0.9 13.9 4.4 Joe Biden 2.9 2.9 2.9 2.9 Kirsten Gillibrand 1.0 0.4 2.4 1.0 Lincoln Chafee 0.1 0.1 0.5 0.7 Elizabeth Warren 9.7 0.1 16.2 0.1 Lawrence Lessig — — 0.0 — 0.1 Andrew Cuomo 0.2 0.0 0.4 0.0 John Hickenlooper 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 Mark Warner 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Brian Schweitzer — 0.0 — 0.2 — Deval Patrick — 0.0 — 0.1 — Amy Klobuchar — 0.0 — 0.0 — Cory Booker — 0.0 — 0.0 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

But the bigger story in the 2016 cycle was arguably the rise of now-President Donald Trump in the GOP primary field. Prior to his campaign announcement in June 2015, Trump was polling in the low single digits. But the 2016 Republican field was arguably the most crowded one ever, and there was no clear frontrunner. In the first half of the year, seven (!) candidates were polling at more than 10 percent in the adjusted polling average, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush leading the way. But in the second half of 2015, Trump shot up to take the lead while candidates such as Bush and Walker fell sharply. Trump’s increase from an average of 3 percent in the first half of 2015 to about 29 percent in the second half — using either the regular or adjusted polling average — represents the largest increase from the first half of the year to the second half for any candidate in the 1972 to 2016 period. And once the primary voting started in 2016, Trump consistently won pluralities in most of the early contests, which positioned him to withstand efforts among some in the GOP to stop him from winning the party’s nomination. He then, of course, went on to defeat Clinton in the general election.

The 2016 Republican primary field

Candidates’ polling averages in the first half and second half of the year before the presidential primaries, plus an adjustment for name recognition

Name recognition Poll Avg. Adj. poll avg. Candidate 1st half 2nd half 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Donald Trump 3.0% 28.7% 3.0% 28.7% Ben Carson 8.4 14.5 14.0 18.1 Ted Cruz 9.4 9.3 11.7 11.6 Marco Rubio 9.3 8.8 15.5 11.0 Jeb Bush 15.5 9.2 19.4 9.2 Carly Fiorina 2.2 4.5 5.4 7.6 John Kasich 0.4 2.7 1.0 6.7 Scott Walker 16.5 4.0 27.6 6.6 Mike Huckabee 10.1 4.1 12.7 5.2 Rand Paul 8.8 3.3 11.0 4.2 Chris Christie 6.2 3.3 7.7 4.2 Bobby Jindal 0.5 0.8 1.2 2.1 Rick Santorum 2.7 0.9 4.5 1.4 Lindsey Graham 0.7 0.5 1.1 0.8 George Pataki 0.3 0.3 0.8 0.7 Rick Perry 0.7 0.2 0.9 0.3 Jim Gilmore 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 John Bolton 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Peter King 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Mitt Romney — 0.4 — 0.4 — Paul Ryan — 0.0 — 0.1 — Bob Ehrlich — 0.0 — 0.0 — Mike Pence — 0.0 — 0.0 —

We included everyone we had polling data for, no matter how likely or unlikely they were to run.

Source: Polls

So while aspects of Trump’s victory were certainly unprecedented, he did lead in primary polls during the second half of 2015, which means that him winning the GOP nomination maybe shouldn’t have come as such a surprise. In fact, McCain was the only Republican during the 1972-to-2016 period who won the nomination without ever having led in the national polls in the year before the primary. But it’s hard to apply this logic to the 2020 Democratic primary, as Democrats have historically been far less likely to nominate the early poll frontrunner during the modern primary era.

So now we’ve gone through every cycle from 1972 to 2016 and found that the early polling leader often went on to win a party’s nomination, and the early polls, once they were adjusted for name recognition, often foreshadowed the rise of notable candidates. In the final part of our series, we’ll move beyond the descriptive and dive deep into the trends that emerge from the entire 1972 to 2016 period, drawing some statistical conclusions about how meaningful early primary polls really are.

[trevorbarre]

More Paul M. on Bob D. Part Three.

Paul Morley's own 'Dylan trajectory' bears some comparisons with mine (he is one year and a half years younger than me): he was introduced to BD around 1971 with the then-new release of New Morning, at a time when critic were suggesting that "his star power and greatest songs were behind him" (Morley, p.184). Little did he (or we) know what lay shortly around the corner...Planet Waves acted as an humble-but-honest broker for his soon to be resurrected career behemoths, the 1974-8 'second triumvirate' of Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Street Legal.

It seemed like a long furlough after the infamous motorcycle 'event' of summer 1966, but it should be born in mind that Time was elastic for Dylan fans at that point: the previous triumvirate, Bringing it all Back Home (recorded in January 1965), Highway 61 Revisited (July and August 1965) and Blonde on Blonde (January-March 1966) were all recorded in just over ONE YEAR!! I can't think of any equivalent 'wild mercury' period by any other pop/rock artist/band, even by the Fab Four? (One would surely have to be forced to refer to such contemporary jazz giants as Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane to experience such a compressed period of excellence in vinyl output.) No wonder the relatively gentle pace of the John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning sequence (1968-71) seemed pedestrian in qualitative comparison, even though, with the benefit of hindsight, this was clearly a questionable equivalence (don't forget to factor in the Little White Wonder bootlegs on top of these others!) The fact that he fathered five kids in the same amount of years may have contributed to a feeling of exhaustion. Perhaps?

It's funny how Morley, for all his love of prolix detail and his oppressive piling up of names and numbers, makes a few factual howlers. Whilst any author can do this (guilty as charged!), Morley's Alexandrian and encyclopedic approach to his material can render his misnomers rather compelling. For example, he repeats one faulty misidentification in particular, on several occasions, and it is one that a critic of his depth of knowledge and experience simply should not make: the 'Judas shout out' gig in Manchester was part of the 1966 tour, NOT of the 1965 Don't Look Back itinerary. The two tours are potentially easily confused - D. A. Pennebaker's initial ultra-hip documentary has given its 1965 events an indelible historical sheen, but any equivalence for its 1966 sister, Eat the Document, has been obviated by the latter's opaque and obscure history. Ultimately, Eat the Document was so cool that it was itself swallowed by its own sense of significance (Beat will Eat Itself?) On the other hand, the fact that Dylan insisted on controlling the editing process undoubtedly hastened its ultimate deliquescence; just look at how Tarantula turned out, what looked cool on the back of an LP cover was decidedly uncool when unspooled over multiple pages. I clearly remember how Tarantula appeared on most of my peer group's bookshelves, but no-one seemed able or willing to give it any sort of thumbs-up. (The same fate met the albums from that period, until Planet Waves finally gathered a gradual tide of tentative approval in early 1974, to the sound of gratefully expired critical breath. I still think that it is Dylan's 'punk' album, by the way, and gave us all reasons to be hopeful at the time.)

Morley's misattributions do seem somehow appropriate in a book that suggests that its subject's hallucinatory, multivalent work renders Time fragile and uncertain? (I worry here, that I am straying into pretentious, moi? territory, but this does seem somehow inevitable at some points.) Dylan's The Bootleg Series perform an a-temporal function, just as Miles' Legacy Series does for the trumpeter, a palimpsest and a laminal layering of the artists 'classic numbers' that present them as fundamentally protean and unstable (yet fundamentally immutable?) Dylan and Miles helped to free us from the fragile tyranny of the 'perfect version', whether it be Miles' 1959 studio cut of 'So What' on Kind of Blue ,or 'Stuck In Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again' on Blonde on Blonde. (Thus liberating them and us from the 'originals'.) The concept of 'classic' and/or 'ur' recordings can dissuade other interpretations of same. Dub reggae's 'versions', however, offered one take on innovative sound and mixing that helped to make the idea of the inviolate and untouchable 'take'/'mix' a thing of the (very recent?) past.

Bob Dylan made a considerable contribution to the idea of music-as-flux, an "everchangingneverchanging" flow, as James Joyce had it. He has never stood still, and I think that Paul Morley's book, in its own idiosyncratic way(s), helps us understand just why Dylan's work is so radically transformative. for its author and for his listeners

[salvatoreschool]

Best of the Decade: The Vampire Diaries delivered a perfect love triangle in its third season

To celebrate the end of the 2010s, Entertainment Weekly’s Must List is looking back at the best pop culture of the decade that changed movies, TV, music, and more (catch up on our list so far, which includes the MCU’s big Snap, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s history-making hit Hamilton, and Beyonce’s iconic Coachella set). Today, we look back on The Vampire Diaries and its perfect love triangle.

There’s a reason we’ve seen so many love triangles on television. The classic storytelling device is a surefire way to drum up drama in any situation. It taps into a fandom’s desire to root for something, to feel competitive about something. If shipping was born out of fans wanting a particular love story, why not give them two and make them choose? Well, because it can get complicated. For as often as we see love triangles on television series, they don’t always work.

Love triangles are a high-wire act. The two relationships needs to feel different enough, though both must feel valid. You have to give each couple their moments without making the central person’s preference obvious. And most of all, it has to feel right when that central person finally chooses someone. Audiences should be able to look back at the story and understand that decision. (They might not like it, but it should make sense.)

So yeah, love triangles are fun. Will Joey choose Dawson or Pacey? Will Rory choose Jess or Dean? It’s a way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. But when handled correctly, it should be about more than suspense. It should be about great storytelling. And when The Vampire Diaries premiered its third season in 2011, it delivered on all the promises of a love triangle.

After two years of establishing the love story of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), the teenager as familiar with loss as she was with homework, and Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), the undead man who brought her back to life, it was time for Stefan to step out of the picture for a bit. (He left town with Klaus as part of a deal to save his brother’s life.) Enter Damon (Ian Somerhalder), Stefan’s older brother. The show had already established Damon’s undeniable connection with his brother’s girl, and through the experience of trying to track down Stefan, Elena and Damon grew closer. But again, high-wire act. Elena, the selfless human who put those she loved before herself, couldn’t suddenly fall head over heels for the selfish, impulsive vampire who once snapped her brother’s neck. But what she could do was slowly start to see other sides to Damon, all the while trying to get Stefan back.

The groundwork was laid as early as episode 2, when Damon told Elena, “When I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt while he was gone.” The key words being “while he was gone.” Stefan’s absence was crucial to building the love triangle: If she felt things for Damon while Stefan was gone, what would it mean when he returned? By pairing the story of Damon’s redemption with that of Stefan’s downfall as Klaus (Joseph Morgan) forced him to drink human blood and turn off his humanity, Elena’s relationship with the brothers was flipped on its head. She found herself once again paired with the “good Salvatore brother” — only this time, it was Damon.

And once that bond with Damon was set, Stefan started to make his way back into the picture.

If we’re talking about the balance needed in a love triangle, TVD’s third season could walk a tightrope. Just as Damon started to win Elena over, Stefan proved that she shouldn’t give up on him. Damon made Elena jealous by flirting with another girl in one scene, Stefan caught her when she fell in the next. We’re not talking about epic, sweeping romantic moments. We’re talking about a look here, a touch of the knee there. Because the show was calculated and incredibly subtle in both building the relationship of Damon and Elena and rebuilding the relationship of Stefan and Elena. You have to be when your season contains 22 episodes. Damon and Elena didn’t share a kiss until episode 11 of the season. Stefan and Elena, the love story upon which the show had been built in its first two years, did not kiss until the season finale. Let’s say that one more time: The show managed to get through 21 episodes without its core couple so much as kissing, and yet Stefan and Elena’s love never felt like it was gone. It coursed through the show with the same electricity it always had, as the thing that propelled each of them forward.

It should be stated that the show was able to survive on an entire season of almost-moments in large part due to the chemistry between the actors. Not every show could get away with a look between two people holding as much weight as Stefan and Elena in a closet in Chicago or Damon and Elena in his bathroom after the bonfire. But thanks to that chemistry, the show didn’t need multiple make-outs and big speeches to make the love triangle feel real.

And by never having Elena waver in her love for Stefan, despite her feelings for Damon, she remained likable as the heroine of the story. At no point did she forget Stefan in favor of her new relationship with Damon. She struggled with both, all season long. As she told Stefan in episode 18, “I never stopped loving you.” And with that love as the foundation of the triangle, she remained relatable in her emotional struggles, which allowed viewers to become invested in both possible outcomes and guaranteed that no matter which brother she chose, fans would follow that love story.

Somehow, The Vampire Diaries managed to build a new love story without destroying the one that launched its series. And furthermore, it found a way to make Damon feel like a viable candidate, despite Elena’s unfaltering love of Stefan, which meant viewers went into the season 3 finale genuinely not knowing which brother Elena would choose. After all, her options were very different. As Rose (Lauren Cohan) told Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) in episode 19, “[Stefan’s] love is pure; he’ll always be good for her. Damon is either the best thing for her or the worst.” So the question became: Is Damon currently the best thing for her? Or the worst?

It all built to the second half of the season finale, when Elena had to make a decision because she believed both brothers were hours away from dying. She had to choose which one got the goodbye. And ultimately, she chose Stefan. Because, as she told Damon, “No matter what I feel for you, I never unfell for him,” a line that acknowledged her feelings for both brothers and allowed viewers to understand her decision. (And just to make sure the Delena shippers didn’t lose hope, the writers threw in a flashback that revealed that Damon and Elena actually met first.)

In its third season, TVD told a beautifully balanced, perfectly paced story about a human girl torn between two very different vampire brothers. And in the end, she made her choice. As she’d later claim, it was the best choice she ever made, and for viewers, it was one of the best love triangles TV had ever seen.