#but tate is the one that real!echo cares about the most

[echoes-lighthouse]

Tate and Echo: The Full Story

I'm trying to get all my lore for my selfships down on paper, and people said they would be most likely to engage with text posts with illustrations, so that's what I'm doing! I'm writing them so that they're hopefully understandable to people who don't know the source material (in this case, American Horror Story Season 1)

Previously: Toga

This selfship is pretty damn dark because of the source material being a horror show, so content warnings for murder, ableism, abuse, sexual assault, school shootings, suicide, toxic relationships, self harm, and parent/child death. Also I really struggled to summarize the ending to the story, because it's a bit of an eldritch ritual thing that only makes sense in the context of the story I haven't written lol

Chapter One: Backstories 

Tate Langdon was born in 1977, the youngest of three siblings and the first to be born without a disability. Accordingly, he grew up as his abusive mother’s ‘golden child,’ trying to protect his siblings and ultimately failing. His father allegedly ran away with an affair partner when he was six years old, leaving him the “man of the house” according to his mother (who had, in fact, killed his father and the affair partner). 

When Tate was 17, his older brother was murdered with the direction of his mother, who didn’t want him taken away from her due to her abuse (chaining him in the attic). Tate tried to kill his brother’s murderer, then killed fifteen people at his school, Westfield High, and committed suicide via police. 

Tate died in the property known as “the Murder House,” in which all people who die there remain in the house as ghosts, to serve an unknown hunger that lingers in its history. 

Echo Makovsky was born in 1987, an only child. They grew up happily, a third-generation witch with traditions passed down from their grandmother. They occasionally struggled with their powers, but ultimately graduated high school and went into a teaching degree. 

In 2012, everything went wrong for Echo: their best friend died in a car accident, their parents both passed away in the span of eight months. They took two months of bereavement, and then left their job altogether. By the next year, they had taken a new job teaching in the US, and they were looking at places to stay. 

While visiting for an interview, they took a tour of the Murder House and were immediately struck by the house’s energy. They went back to Canada, considered their options, and ultimately used their parents’ inheritance to buy the property. 

August 2014 finds Echo moving into the house that has claimed so many spirits, not knowing what they will find there… and also taking a teaching position at Westfield High. 

Chapter Two: First Meeting 

Echo enters the house and immediately starts to have nightmares. The house has many interlocking desires, but one of the pressing ones is to have a baby, to create a baby, to have something small to hold and nurture. Tate has promised one of the other ghosts that he’ll get them a baby, and Echo looks like a perfect opportunity. Among the nightmares of fire and bathtubs and searching endless hallways, Echo has a dream that a man comes to their room in the night and forces himself on them. 

That is, technically, Tate and Echo’s first meeting, although only one of them knows it. 

Echo starts to explore the house and encounter the spirits that dwell within it. They start to get into little routines: reading children’s books to the unseen sisters who like to sit by the fireplace and whisper to each other, making tea for the woman who wanders through the kitchen every day in tears, and rolling a ball back and forth with the spirit in the attic, who never speaks. 

One day, Echo is playing with the ghost in the attic and Tate introduces himself, joining the two of them. He tells Echo about Beau, his brother, the spirit chained in the attic. Tate is the first ghost that can actually talk to Echo properly, and they’re determined to get more information from him. 

Chapter Three: Getting Together 

Tate starts following Echo around after that, asking them questions and stealing their books. Echo likes him: he’s sardonic and sweet, clingy but goading in turn. He has information and tips about the spirits of children in the house, but stays closed-mouthed about most of the adults. The gaps in his information only make Echo more interested in his story, as do the inconsistencies in his behavior. 

Tate has always known how to be sweet and lovely: he knows that he’s pretty, he knows that he can use it to his advantage. The difference is that he’s never wanted to before. His mother always wanted him to be the perfect son, charming and soft, so he made himself as sharp and abrasive as he could manage. 

Now, he wants Echo for himself. He knows that the house wants them: he knows that every member of the house will want something from them. Tate is determined to stake his claim first, enough that Echo will choose him when the others come knocking. 

So he plays the vulnerable, the bird with a wounded wing. He’s attentive, he plays with his sweater sleeves, he confesses his insecurities, he talks about his nightmares instead of his hallucinations. He tries not to flinch under the onslaught of affection he receives in return, but it’s still not enough, still not more than Echo gives to all the members of the house. So he crawls into their arms and presses them against the back of the couch and Echo takes him to bed. 

And Tate thought he would be satisfied: he’s special, he’s chosen, but he’s lying. He’s playing a part and it’s starting to make him feel sick. The closer Echo gets to the other spirits, the closer Echo gets to finding out about the first night they were together, and Tate still can’t tell them how he died, or how he knew his mother abused his siblings and did nothing, or anything that isn’t part of the sweet boy he’s made himself into, to be easy to swallow, easy to hold. 

Part Four: Where We’re At  The Conclusion

It’s at work that things fall apart: in a conversation with another teacher, Tate is mentioned as the shooter that caused so much collective trauma at the school, and the pieces start clicking together. I hold onto the information for a while, resentful of needing to be the one to bring it up, trying to look at Tate from the right angle to make it all make sense. Trying to pretend that things can keep going as they’ve been. 

Filled with my months of labor and love, the house is finally opening up. Knowing that it might mean abandoning Tate, I descend into the heart of the house and give myself to the deepest reaches of the house’s need. I no longer know if I can fix things, with Tate or with the house itself, but I no longer care about my own well-being, and I can hope that my sacrifice will help. 

The house accepts me, and the First Abandoned Child, Thaddeus, is reborn through me: a bloody process that would have killed me if the spirits of the house hadn’t come together to save me. I come out of the process alive and with a baby in my arms, which is a bit of a shock since I was on birth control this whole time and have never intended to have a baby. But the house is suddenly alive again, and the spirits are given the chance to move on. 

Not all of them choose to leave: Nora stays to be with her child properly, the twins want to stay to cause more mischief, and there are a couple of ghosts who just aren’t ready for whatever comes next, but a great majority move on. 

And then there is Tate. 

For a while, I think he might have left without saying goodbye: I don’t see him anywhere, and I grieve for him with the others, but I’m still hopeful. Eventually, he comes to me, and we can finally talk honestly. It’s a long discussion, but Tate decides to stay, at least for a while. And I love him, as he is. It will take a long time for him to believe it, but I’m willing to put in the work. I can remodel the house, I can keep the gardens, I can raise my child, and I can love Tate unconditionally. 

In the years to come, Thaddeus will grow, and the remaining spirits will move on, but as long as they are in the house, I will love them, and when the time comes to let go, I will continue to love them, wherever they are. 

[ephillipsresearch]

The popular definition of a weed is “a plant in the wrong place”, which makes almost everything eligible, from an oak in a conifer woodlot to an orchid on the tennis court. For three or four centuries landscape painters agreed, and exiled lowly vegetation to the margins – usually, quite literally, to the lower foreground margin. Meandering through collections of early landscapes, you notice an undifferentiated frieze of wildings somewhere at the bottom of your field of vision – much where they would be on a real walk. They’re small, creeping, insignificant, wild nature as cosmetic afterthought. Most do not even have any real botanical identity, and have the stylised look of medieval posies.

That is until Dutch artists discovered burdock. The unmistakably expansive, foppish leaves of this familiar wayside weed began to appear in the foreground of paintings by Jan Wynants and Jacob van Ruisdael in the mid-seventeenth century. They soon spread to Claude Lorrain’s canvases, relieving dark corners or echoing the body curves of picnickers and dancers. By the early eighteenth century burdocks were invading English landscapes. Tufts sprout around the edges of pictures by Gainsborough, Stubbs, Joseph Wright and John Linnell.

Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of the Leaves of a Burdock 1799–1800 Watercolour on paper sketchbook © Michael Landy. Photo: Tate Photography

Just why this rather gawky plant should have been so privileged (it has no symbolic role in legend or folklore) is not easy to see, but J.M.W. Turner’s Study of the Leaves of Burdock c.1799–1800 does suggest one reason. The charcoal sketch highlights the sculptural quality of the leaves. They’re luxuriant, wavy edged, almost rococo, the opposite of the classically symmetrical acanthus. Their felted grey surfaces suggest leaves posing as free-carved stone. Ruskin, as outrageously human-centred as usual, was quite clear about their function in Creation, and therefore in painting: “The principal business of that plant being clearly to grow leaves wherewith to adorn foregrounds.” He sees burdock – in a wonderfully imaginative act of attention – as an exemplar of the beauty of irregularity: “When the extending space of a leaf is to be enriched with the fullness of folds, and become beautiful in wrinkles, this may be done either by pure undulation as of a liquid current along the leaf edge, or by sharp ‘drawing’ – or ‘gathering’ I believe ladies would call it – and stitching of the edges together.”

“Beautiful in wrinkles”: burdock could be seen as the Trojan horse through which the elegance of the ordinary entered landscape painting. The Pre-Raphaelites took up weeds with a relish. They were worthy of respectful painting just by being part of nature. But, possessed of a kind of humbleness too, they were also a rich source of moral symbols. William Holman Hunt’s Our English Coasts 1852, with its strayed sheep perched on the edge of a cliff, has been subject to all manner of pious religious and political interpretations. What is clear is that the foreground sheep, up to their ears in that riotous, entangling and thoroughly English weed bramble, are the ones that are not going to fall off.

John Raven’s Saintfoin in Bloom 1857 is almost, so to speak, post-Pre- Raphaelite in its pervading pink tone. But the sainfoin itself, a cultivated fodder species, is upstaged by the weeds in the foreground. The rough-bunched but exactly drawn poppies, mayweed and scabious (which are being “harvested” by the children in the background) aren’t just an ornamental frill, as weeds are in Claude, but a contrast and a challenge to the monotony of the crop plant. Again Ruskin seems to be at the artist’s shoulder. In Modern Painters he insiststhat painters “must be careful that [it]is nature to whom they go, nature in herliberty, not as servant of all work in thehand of the agriculturalist, nor stiffenedinto court dress by the landscape gardener.It must be the pure wild volition and energy of creation which they follow”.

Eliot Hodgkin Undergrowth 1941 Tempera on canvas 41.3 x 36.8 cm © Michael Landy. Photo: Tate Photography

When we break through into the twentieth century, the era of ecocide as well as genocide, weeds move centre stage as emblems of wild, regenerative energy, healers of vandalised earth. Eliot Hodgkin, while serving as an air raid warden during the Blitz, stalked the waste-ground of south London at the same time as Rose Macaulay was revelling in the weed jungles of the City bomb sites for her novel The World My Wilderness. Hodgkin’s Undergrowth 1941, with its forest of hogweed and dock, and a single bindweed flower glowing like a moonlit orchid, is the most exultant celebration of weeds since Dürer’s Large Piece of Turf 1503 four centuries earlier.

Now east London contemporary artists are putting up blue plaques by particularly resplendent patches of street weeds (Tagworts), and Michael Landy, best known for making an artwork out of the destruction of all his material possessions, none the less sees the “marvellous optimism” of urban weeds worthy of a series of meticulous and durable etchings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson generously suggested that a weed is not so much a plant in the wrong place as “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered”. Perhaps, in the desolation we are making of the planet, the weed’s moment has arrived.

https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-22-summer-2011/lowly-weed-has-its-day

[just-jordie-things]

The Child and the Coyote - Malia Tate (part four)

word count: 2816 summary: the search for malia tate begins warnings: nakedness, lots of anxiety, swearing

[part one]  [part two]  [part three]

You stood in the woods the next morning, just outside your doorway and enjoying the fact that it was a Saturday and you didn’t have to go to school.  As well as your father telling you he was going into work for the whole day to make a few extra bucks to have floating around.

You were waiting for the pack to show up, Scott, Stiles, Lydia, Allison, Isaac.  Your circle had expanded from when you were kids and were too shy to hang around anyone but Scott.  But if one thing was for sure it was that you certainly weren’t kids anymore.

But as you stood there, your arms holding your cardigan against your body closed and closely, trying to preserve your warmth on the chilly day.  You couldn’t help but hope that Blue- Malia… hope that Malia, would show up.

You had come home last night, rushing past your questioning father and to your room, opening the closet door and looking all over for the coyote you’d left at home, but you couldn’t find her.

She didn’t show up for her dinner either.

And now, she still hasn’t come around, and you were growing worried.  It was illogical, but somehow you felt like she knew, knew that you found out the truth.

The truth that Malia was a werecoyote.  That she was born this way, and was adopted by a family who didn’t know this about her.  That when she was eight years old, she lost control on a full moon, and her father crashed the car he was driving.  That she killed her sister and mother because she couldn’t ground herself and stay human.  And every since then, she’s lived in the woods, stuck in the body of a coyote.

And not more than a year after, you met her, all skinny and dangerously close to death from the extreme hunger she’d gone through.

You weren’t sure what to think.  But your mind was also swarmed with thoughts and realizations.  You didn’t even know where to begin.

The animal, the pet, the friend, in a way, that you’d known as Blue, was a human girl that you’d grown up with.  A human, a person, someone real.  And you’d always just thought that you had some strange connection with this coyote that could communicate with you in small ways.

“Ready?” You looked up to see Stiles pulling his Jeep in, Scott in the passenger seat.  “The girls and Isaac took Allison’s car, they’re looking for all the traps that Henry Tate put out while also looking for Malia” He told you.  You climbed into the backseat, quiet as Stiles drove off.

“And where are we going?” You finally spoke, your voice shaky.

“To the Tate house” Scott told you.

Your throat went dry.

When you arrived at the house, you almost knocked on the door, before Stiles grabbed your arm and dragged you around the back.

“Supposedly he’s at work, but we don’t know” Scott told you in a hushed tone as he picked the lock with his claws, then going inside.  You walked in hesitantly, not even sure what to say to them.  You wanted to help you did, for Malia’s sake, so she can be human again, see her Dad again.  But all you could think about were those big beautiful blue eyes and soft grey fur.

You followed the boys up the steps, Scott sniffing around like a police dog while Stiles touched and messed with everything, from pictures on the wall to drawers on cabinets and dressers.  You’d think he’d learn not to leave fingerprints.  But you kept to yourself, looking at the photo frames on the walls as you went upstairs, but didn’t want to touch anything.  You didn’t want to set anything off, disrupt the household in any way.

“Hey- hey I think this is her room” Scott said, opening a door.  You held your breath unintentionally, stepping inside slowly and your eyes darting everywhere at once.

It didn’t seem like the room was changed in any way since Malia had ‘gone missing’.  The bedsheets were all pink, and covered in stuffed animals.  Other things around the room that a little girl would need, such as dolls, play makeup sets, it almost seemed like it was freshly played in.

While Scott and Stiles were going through drawers again, you picked up a small picture frame, featuring who you recognized as Malia from the file, and a much younger girl.  Your brows furrowed as you studied the photo frame, before sliding it discreetly into your bag.

It had to have been her sister.  You were sure of it.

When they finally picked something to catch her scent with, a small stuffed elephant that Scott carried around like it was his own, they deemed it was time to go and you blindly followed the back out of the room, giving the room one last once over as you slowly shut the door behind you.

You tried to listen in on Stiles’ excited ramblings, about all of the stories this girl must have.  He went on and on and your frustration was growing by the second, manifesting off of your anxiety and bubbling up into something more aggressive.

“She’s not ‘some girl’ Stiles!” You finally yelled when you got outside.  The pale boy gave you a surprised but concerned look.  “She’s a human girl, her name’s Malia, she had a life!” Scott put his hand on your shoulder, trying to ease your perplexed state.  “Stop- stop it!” You shrugged him off and began storming down the driveway.

“y/n I’m sorry!” Stiles called.  “Where are you going?”

“Away! I’ll find her myself I care more about her than any of you do” You said, giving them a fiery look.  Neither of them said anything, just let you angrily walk yourself towards the woods.

You’d eventually gotten deep enough in the trees that you felt like you had to be close, constantly calling out Malia’s name in hopes she’d hear your voice and want to come to you.  But the longer you looked and louder you yelled, there was still no sign of the coyote.  You held your cardigan closer to you, picking up the pace of your walking, hoping for some sort of sign she was even still out here.

“Why’d you run away?” You sighed.

“y/n?” You perked up upon hearing the familiar voice of your banshee friend, seeing her, Isaac, and Allison.

Your eyes landed on the large gun in her hand.

“What is that!?” You shrieked, your arm flinging out gesturing towards the weapon in her hands.  She had to hold it with two hands.  Which really only irritated you further.  “You’re gonna shoot her?” Your voice carried seemingly through the woods as you made your way over to your friends.  “What is wrong with you people! She’s a pers-!”

“y/n look out!” Isaac yelled, running towards you and shoving you back swiftly.  You fell back onto the ground of leaves, and looked up just in time to see the reason for his antics.

His leg was ensnared by a bear trap, and he let out the most pained scream as his eyes glowed their beta yellow and his fangs and claws extended, his loud roar echoing throughout the Beacon Hills Preserve.

“Isaac!” You scurried over, desperate to figure out how to open the trap, all the while thinking it could have been me it could have been me.

Amongst your fumbling with the knobs on the metal contraption, Isaac leaned over, panting heavily as he pried the trap off of his ankle, revealing the bloody mess that had crushed his leg.

“Oh my God I’m so sorry I was just so angry-”

“It’s okay, it’s okay” He breathed out, wrapping his hand around the wound and trying to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.  “I’ll heal, you wouldn’t have” With hat he stood up, then helped you up as well.  “Allison had a tranquilizer, just in case” He emphasized, and you nodded, understanding now.

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry Stiles just really pissed me off earlier and he didn’t mean to but I just feel really off-”

“We get it” Lydia told you softly, setting a gentle hand on your arm.  “She was a friend to you, this is.. This is earth shattering for you” You’d never felt so thankful that someone understood.  Relief flooded through you as you hugged the strawberry blonde quickly.

“I’ll help you guys” You told them, and began walking along with them.

“We’ve just been closing up traps and looking for her” Lydia told you.

“But so far we’ve just been closing up traps.  There’s barely been any sign of her” Allison sighed, staring at the ground as she walked.  You figured she was looking for some kind of prints.  “You wouldn’t know anywhere that she goes, would you?” The huntress asked you.  “Any secret places or hiding spots, where she hunts for food maybe?” You shook your head, sighing and stuffing your hands into the pockets of your jeans.

“I don’t know a damn place” You admitted, your shoulders slumping in a  defeated fashion

The group had all met up and then branched off again, Stiles and Lydia doing their own detective work Isaac and Allison continued their hunt.  Which you liked to think off as a search party… but it felt like a hunt.  You stuck with Scott, thinking that he could find her faster with his heightened senses, but you seemed to be getting nowhere.

“Still nothing?” You asked for what felt like the billionth time.  You feet dragged on the ground as you struggled to have the will to keep up with your friend.

“I promise y/n, we’ll find her” He said, but you couldn’t help but feel like he was only saying it lift your spirits.

“She feels like she’s gone forever” You muttered bitterly.  “She’s probably not even in Beacon Hills anymore” Scott gave you a look but you ignored it.  “I don’t know what I did to make her run away.  She probably hates me but I don’t know why-”

“I completely doubt that she hates you” Scott said, but you rolled your eyes.

“Yeah? Well why’d she leave as soon as I got back home? Because the moments leading up to before you called me, she was happy, and cuddly, and sweet as always” You ran your hands over your tired face, willing yourself not to get emotional.  “But as soon as I got home she was-” You choked, unable to finish the sentence.

“She was probably just scared” He assured you.  “I mean, she’s had this secret her whole life, and wasn’t ever able to tell you.  Maybe she felt like she’d let you down, or betrayed you” Scott guessed, but you could only shrug.

“I don’t think she liked me anymore” You said quietly.  Scott gave you a look, but didn’t know what to tell you anymore.  You had more of a connection with Malia, with Blue, than you had with anyone else.  It had grown from a child and her pet, to a girl and her closest friend.  A special secret only known by Scott and yourself.  And just another thing on your list of secrets that just grew by the day.

“I would doubt that y/n” He finally said, and again you didn’t reply to him.  There was nothing left to say.  “You were her best friend too” He added.

You kept silent the rest of the walk in search of her.  Just watching as Scott would smell the stuffed animal then go off on a path like hed finally found her.  But the more he did it the more you felt like a failure.

You just miss her.

What if she really had already run away? You never got to talk to her, meet her as a real live person.  You never got to do a lot of things, normal things people do.  It would’ve been like becoming friends with her all over again.  She was just like your best friend, she really, and truly was, the one person that you could confide everything to, you trusted her so whole heartedly because who could she spill your secrets to? And now there’s a chance you may never see-

“y/n” Scott whispered, holding a hand out in front of you to halt your movements.  You looked wildly all around you, in hopes of catching sight of familiar grey fur.  But you didn’t see her anywhere.

“Do you-”

Before you could finish the question Scott was sprinting off into the trees, still gripping onto the stuffed animal.

“Did you find her!?” You yelled, trying to run after him but his speed wasn’t human, so you kept falling behind.  You were far too tired to be sprinting after him as much as your legs could push you but it was like you’d just drank an entire Red Bull.

Your will to find Malia was so strong and the thought of seeing her again was so empowering that you found the strength to run after him in the hopes of finding her.

“Scott!? Malia!?” You called for the both of them.  Scott was merely a small figure off in the distance.  You kept yelling out for them, worried that you’d fall to far behind and wouldn’t be able to find Malia, or that you would lose Scott.   You knew these woods like the back of your hand after living there your whole life, but you couldn’t simply ‘pick up a scent’ or ‘track prints’ like the few of your friends could.  So losing them would result horribly.

“Just stay back!” You heard his voice, far out and distant.  “There’s still traps!” He added, and you slowed your running, having practically forgotten about the bear traps that you wouldn’t heal from.  In fact, if you were alone and got caught in one, death was likely.

But you took off running again anyways, not really caring.  Somewhere, in the back of your head with all your crazy and frantic jumbled thoughts, you figured if you did happen to step in one that you could always have Scott take your pain.  You weren’t really in the right mindset at the moment, to put it lightly.

“Malia! Malia!” You screamed, begging for her to show up as you pumped your legs even faster.  “MALIA!” You sounded so desperate, and you were.  You’d never felt this panicked before.

There was a chance you could have her back.  A chance to see her again, hold her again, start all over.  And you weren’t going to pass it up.  You couldn’t.

“MALIA PLEASE!” You gasped for air, but didn’t slow down.  You’d never run this fast before, in all of the supernatural nonsense that you’d gotten mixed up in, you hadn’t once moved this quickly.  You felt more worried looking for Malia than you had when Kali was chasing you down out of blood lust.  “Malia-!” You were cut off by a roar.

Scott’s roar.  An alpha’s roar.

And although you were human, you were still a part of the pack, and the deafening sound shook you to your core, causing you to collapse face first onto the ground, your hands slammed over your ears and begging for mercy that the horrible noise would stop echoing throughout your head.

It seemed to last for minutes, even as you pushed yourself up, moving as quickly as you could towards Scott, realizing he was at a stand still when you finally reached him.

“Sc-Scott” You groaned weakly, still hearing his roar in your head.  It made you shake slightly, but you brushed it off quickly upon taking in the sight in  front of you.

A girl was there, lying on the floor of leaves and dirt, her hair messy and body dirty.  She was very human, and very naked.  For a moment you bashfully looked away, cheeks flushing pink before your mind clicked back into reality and you rushed over to her, no longer caring about the cold as you shrugged off your cardigan, wrapping it around her.  She looked up at you, eyes wide and a shade of brown that made you crave a chocolate bar.  Her gaze turned downwards at her body,studying her shaking hands and touching the dirty areas of her skin.

She looked back to you, and you could see tears welling in her eyes.

“y/n?” She mumbled out, and you nodded, rapidly and tearfully.  You felt a crazy amount of relief crash over you, your hands coming around her face as you took in all of her features.  The ran through her knotted dirty blonde hair and stroked over her cheeks.

“Blue” You whispered out so softly, you weren’t sure if she could hear you even with her enhanced were coyote senses.

You had her back.

*heart eyes @ malia*

tag list: @chivesoup @all-alone-he-turns-to-stone @noraliseismyotp @sxph-t @impossiblybeautifulbouquet @high-functioning-fangirl02

~ jordie

[ahouseoflies]

The Best Films of 2019, Part II

Part I is here. ENDEARING CURIOSITIES WITH BIG FLAWS

106. Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez)- I'm not looking at a list of films with budgets over $175 million, but I guarantee this is the one with the lowest stakes. It concerns a cyborg who tries to uncover the identity that the audience knows she has all along, and it takes place on three sets. I was intrigued by the prospect of Robert Rodriguez directing a James Cameron production, since the former uses effects to be lazy and the latter uses effects to challenge himself. Alita is more of a Rodriguez movie in that regard. Although it looks slightly better than those pictures he used to make in his backyard, it ain't by much. 105. The Upside (Neil Burger)- As good enough as movies get, good enough right up to the childish screenwriting contrivances of the third act. ("I guess he knows about wheelchairs now, so he gets a job at a wheelchair factory? Or maybe it's his own factory? I don't know--I'm still spitballing in this production draft.") Queen Nicole is criminally underserved though. Have you read that story about how Keanu Reeves's friend forged his name onto the contract for The Watcher, but Keanu didn't want to go through a prolonged legal battle, so he just showed up despite the fraud? Surely it's got to be something like that. Or maybe she was under the impression her character was still being fleshed out, but she got there and saw that nothing has been changed since the last draft? It's just like, "Yvonne looks stern. More to be added." I know for sure that no one told one of the greatest actresses in the world about the part in which she's supposed to be a good dancer. She would have prepared. 104. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Dean DeBlois)- HtTYD is still the most visually experimental animated franchise. For example, DeBlois hazes the image when a character is looking at another through a torch, there's a five-minute wordless sequence of dragons falling in love, and a lot of work has been put into crafting peach fuzz. I also appreciate that these films retain consequences. Hiccup has a prosthetic leg, and his dad is still dead. Narratively though, everything feels like a holding pattern, a brand extension that doesn't offer real stakes or real laughs. (Fishlegs has a beard now. That's his character development. That's it.) Even if The Hidden World offers an ending of sorts to the trilogy, it's a story of retreat/escape that can't help but feel like a sideways step from its already disappointing predecessor. My daughter tuned out and got really restless with about twenty minutes left. 103. Greta (Neil Jordan)- Such a boilerplate thriller that I was actually predicting the dialogue at points: "Miss, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do if she's just standing there across the street. She's not breaking the law." There is one notable thing that happens though. In a scene at a church, Huppert makes the Sign of the Cross incorrectly. As an actress, kind of negligent. As a French person, pretty exquisite. 102. Anna (Luc Besson)- The timeline-jumping didn't work for me, but without it, I don't think there's much notable about the quadruple-crossing here at all. The awe-inspiring restaurant fight sequence is the film's saving grace; I'm awarding an extra half-star for its slashing-throats-with-plates viscera. 101. Captain Marvel (Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden)- Was I supposed to know what a Skrull was before this? Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou show up playing Guardians characters, so I think I was supposed to connect more of the sci-fi dots of the first twenty minutes than I did. All of that inter-planetary stuff was tough sledding for me, and I preferred the Elastica music cue and Radio Shack jokes. As it turns out, especially in this genre, it's dramatically frustrating to go on a hero's journey with a character who doesn't know who she is. It was nice to see Samuel L. Jackson, with convincing de-aging effects, get a real arc in one of these movies, rather than just posing here and there. Brie Larson does enough posing for the both of them. 100. Frozen II (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee)- Frozen begins with sisters being separated after one injures the other. It plays for keeps from minute five. Frozen II, whose smaller stakes are felt in the one-or-so location, B-team songs, and forgettable new characters, never feels as real. 99. Aladdin (Guy Ritchie)- Even if the songs still bang and Nasim Pedrad is very funny, Aladdin feels as cynical and--don't say it, don't say it--unnecessary as all of these live-action remakes do. I'm looking forward to the animated remakes of the live-action remakes, which might figure out a way to reincarnate Robin Williams. One can dream, even cynically. 98. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan)- Finally, the TV movie--and no shade, but this ending we didn't ask for is definitely part of the TV movie tradition--that answers a burning question for Breaking Bad fans: Was Jesse ever interesting by himself?

97. High Life (Claire Denis)- As uncool as it makes me, I have to admit that I just don't care for Claire Denis's aesthetic. Knowing nothing going in, I was captivated by the mysterious first half-hour, but once the film started to explain itself, it seemed like a B movie with more ponderous music. High Life is effectively claustrophobic, but I found myself "yes-anding" most of it. Yes, for example, space is lonely, as I've learned from every other movie about space.

96. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Richard Linklater)- From the get-go, this movie doesn't work--structurally, tonally--but the miscalculations of Linklater and Blanchett and especially the mawkish music don't have enough consequence for the film to even fail on a noteworthy level. It's not unpleasant. You just laugh sparingly and think, on the way out, "I don't think she loved her daughter as much as she said she did" or "Get to Antarctica twenty minutes earlier or twenty minutes later." Linklater, an inestimable talent, has added an entry to his filmography that might as well not exist. Making movies, especially adaptations of epistolary books, is hard. I'm being too understanding of that or not understanding enough. 95. Dumbo (Tim Burton)- Just as Dumbo begins to take chances--fashioning itself as an anti-corporate parable with Keaton playing a Disney-esque "architect of dreams"--it settles back down to its own low expectations. Expectations that come from the storytelling and characterization and not the production design, which seems grandly practical except for the CG [rolls up sleeves, adjusts glasses, tightens shoes] elephant in the room. Of the performances, Farrell comes out on top, displaying Movie Star confidence despite very little to work with. (Can a World War I veteran who lost his arm and his wife be allowed a bit more pain?) It gives me no pleasure to dunk on child actors, but both of the kids seem to be reading their lines, and their monotones nearly sink the movie at the beginning. 94. Echo in the Canyon (Andrew Slater)- A nice enough introduction to the scene, but Jakob Dylan's constant presence as an interviewer and performer turns it into a vanity project. The film shuffles among talking heads interviews, prep for an anniversary concert, and an anniversary concert, and I'll let you guess which one of those is interesting. The access that the filmmakers got is impressive, but if a person didn't participate (Carole King is the obvious one), the filmmakers just pretend he or she didn't exist. 93. Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt)- I like the notion of someone so specialized in his profession that he has a child-like understanding of the outside world, and Carloto Cotta sells the innocence of the title character. (The Donna Lewis needle-drop killed me too.) But too often this film feels as if it's focusing on sheer weirdness over satisfying narrative. Cult classics are fine, but you should try for the regular classic. 92. Ma (Tate Taylor)- There are some cool ideas here--the innocent entrees that technology provides, the way the movie earns its R rating. But the script needs a few more passes for everything to congeal past the silliness, especially with regard to the hammy flashbacks that attempt to provide motivation for the Ma figure. I respect the attempt to humanize a monster, but she would be more scary if left opaque. 91. Bombshell (Jay Roach)- The films that try explicitly to comment on our current social climate are never the most successful ones, especially if their internal politics are this muddled. The film takes great pleasure in implicating the toxic system of Fox News, taking shots at anyone who would participate. Then it starts to pick and choose who to like in that system, which is where it gets weird. Obviously, a Fox News employee who sexually harasses another employee is "worse" than an employee who gets harassed. But then the Charles Randolph screenplay starts to sort closeted lesbians and career-strivers, and it's not sure who the bad guys really are. The film moves quite swiftly in its first half, and Charlize Theron's mimicking of Megyn Kelly is eerie. But I don't think Jay Roach knows what he believes. The lurid, claustrophobic scene between Margot Robbie's composite Kayla and John Lithgow's breathy Roger Ailes is the transcendent moment. It teases out the humiliation slowly and powerfully. With a quite meta flourish, the scene makes you hate yourself if you've ever objectified one of the most objectified actresses in the world; she's that great at illustrating her discomfort.

90. Glass (M. Night Shyamalan)- 1. A great example of "story" vs. "things happening." A negative example, I'm afraid. 2. The Osaka Tower represents the literal and figurative highs that the film will literally and figuratively not reach. 3. Spencer Treat Clark back!!! 4. The flashbacks are actual deleted scenes from Unbreakable, which is amazing. 5. Not since Lost has there been a work that seems like obsessive fan service, but the fan in mind is the creator, not any member of the audience. We do not want your explanations about Jai the security guard's role in your universe, Night. 6. This is a sequel to Unbreakable and a sequel to Split, but it somehow does not feel like a third chapter of anything. 7. It makes sense that I watched this on the same day that I listened to Weezer's The Teal Album, their surprise collection of punctilious '80s covers. In both cases, there's an artist who was really important to me in formative years but who has used up the last of whatever capital he has accrued by giving in to his worst instincts. In Shyamalan's case though, at least it's a confident swing. The second act pretty much tells us that we were dumb to believe what he sold us on. Even though it's dramatically inert and completely stops halfway through, this is exactly the movie he wanted to make, which I stupidly still admire. 89. Five Feet Apart (Justin Baldoni)- I checked this out because I have the sneaking suspicion that Haley Lu Richardson is a Movie Star, and she is continuing to progress into that power/responsibility. Otherwise the movie is a by-the-numbers weepie that doesn't really have a new spin on anything but hits its marks adequately. I was surprised that Claire Forlani got neither a "with" nor an "and" card in the credits. How rude. 88. Pet Sematary (Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer)- I like the bleak dive the film takes following its second big twist, which is handled well, but there is a ceiling for an adaptation of one of King's least ambitious and most predetermined tales. 87. Wild Rose (Tom Harper)- So conventional that Jessie Buckley almost got nominated for a Golden Globe. 86. Judy (Rupert Goold)- Just as the leaves start to change, we get biopics like these: too earnest to be cliched, too safe to be original. I'm on the ground floor of the Zellwegerssaince, but Judy is a slog in stretches. 85. The King (David Michod)- Capable but superfluous. Animal Kingdom was nine years ago, so it's quite possible that David Michod, even when he has an imperious Ben Mendelsohn at his disposal, has lost the urgency. The reason that anyone should see this--at least until someone puts together a YouTube compilation of just his scenes--is for Robert Pattinson, whose take on The Dauphin is the frontrunner for Most On-One Performance of the Year. 84. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams)- There are just enough moments--the first Force battle between Kylo and Rey being one of them--that remind the viewer of the magic of Star Wars. Kylo Ren's arc concludes in a more satisfying way than I expected, Babu Frik is officially my dude, and Daisy Ridley's post-Star Wars career intrigues me. My Dolby seat was rumbling, and I was pretty charged up on candy. But, man, most of the business here feels compromised, undermined, and inessential. It's a rushed connect-the-dots compared to The Last Jedi. There's a scene in which the gang has to risk wiping C-3PO's memory to gain important information--they need a thing to get to another thing to get to another thing--and there appear to be stakes for just a second. Then, as if to reassure the audience that there will be ten more of these movies, Rey adds, "Doesn't R2 have a backup of your memory?" That's the whole movie in an expensive, nostalgic nutshell.

83. Queen & Slim (Melina Matsoukas)- Capable of tender moments but shot in the foot by its episodic nature, Queen & Slim is the most uneven picture of the year. The characters work well as foils to each other, but Jodie Turner-Smith's performance is overshadowed by Kaluuya's. I have no idea what Chloe Sevigny and Flea are trying to do in their brief time on screen, and I have no idea what the film is trying to do when it disturbs the point of view for a misguided protest sequence. 82. Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria)- It has been a long time since I was so surprised that a movie was over. The coda comes up telling us about, in real life, what kind of criminal slaps on the wrists the characters received, and I got pushed out of the theater wondering what it all amounted to. Yeah, that's the point. I know. Just as none of the 2008 bankers went to jail in the wake of their destruction, none of the women who drugged and exploited them did much time beyond "14 months of weekends" either. But should I applaud moral confusion? Can I be angry about the lack of consequences for both parties? If you want me to judge the film I watched instead of the film I wanted to watch, I can be more complimentary. Some of the most electric moments in 2019 cinema are here, rooted in 2008 strip club music. And saying 2008 strip club rap was good is like saying 1890 French Impressionism was good. Nearly every performance works, from Lili Reinhart's bashfulness to Wai Ching Ho's gratitude to Jennifer Lopez's intractable confidence. Also, I don't know if anyone has noticed this before, but J. Lo has a nice butt. 81. The Report (Scott Z. Burns)- There are some interesting things going on here. For example, this feedback loop: An hour or so in, protagonist Daniel Jones watches a fabricated news feature that explains what waterboarding is, and I had an instinct as an audience member to go, "Like we don't know by now. Don't hold my hand." But the only reason I know is because of news reports like that, informed by work that the real Daniel Jones did, dramatized in the events of the first half of this very movie. Still, this movie is a lot like one of those dishes in which every single element sounds like something you would like--"Ooh, pork belly, delicious. Oooh, lemongrass. Bet those would go well together"--but you take a bite, and it doesn't taste good. Is that your fault or the restaurant's?

[thelastspeecher]

Stan Pines, Farmhand - Chapter 11: Best Laid Plans

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6 Chapter 7   Chapter 8   Chapter 9   Chapter 10   Chapter 11   Chapter 12   Chapter 13   Chapter 14   Chapter 15   Chapter 16   AO3

I definitely did not plan on posting this today, but like what happens in this chapter, plans don’t always work out the way you want.  I’m pretty excited.  This chapter is really cheesy and fluffy, and so is the next one.  But the one after that?  ...Not quite.  Also, the de-aging thing from the previous chapter was resolved “off-screen”.  Anyways, enjoy!

April 1, 1977 – Gravity Falls

               Stan followed his girlfriend and his twin brother deeper into the abandoned mines.  

               “Ya really wanna spend yer birthday chasin’ down dinosaurs?” he asked, his voice echoing.  “Ya wouldn’t prefer to go to that restaurant with the ocean view?”  Angie shook her head.

               “That place is expensive.  Trackin’ dinosaurs is free.”  She looked back at him.  “Ya didn’t have to come with.”

               “You’re my girlfriend.  It’s your birthday.  If I abandoned ya, Lute’d have my head.”

               “I know ya didn’t really like Gravity Falls the last time we visited.”

               “Gnomes chewed through the brake wires of the car I’ve had since I was sixteen,” Stan said flatly.  

               “Yeah.”  Angie fell back a few steps.  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.  “Thank ya fer workin’ past yer hatred fer this town to spend time with me.”

               “Heh.  It ain’t a big deal.  Especially since this is way better than hearin’ Lute rant about how ‘that ain’t what southern men do’.  Your brother’s got some interesting thoughts ‘bout what bein’ a southern gentleman means. And for some reason, he seems to be under the impression that I’m one.”  Angie chuckled.  She froze.

               “Did ya hear that?”

               “Hear what?”  A roar echoed.  

               “That.”  

               “Yep.  Definitely heard that.”

               “I’ve found the nest!” Ford called.  He ran back to them.  “But there’s a slight problem.  I disturbed the mother.”

               “That’s more than a slight problem, Sixer,” Stan said.  “I think it’s time to go.”

               “What?  But we didn’t get any pictures!” Angie protested.  Stan grabbed her hand.

               “If ya get killed on my watch, yer folks’ll kill me.  C’mon.” She pulled her hand out of his grip.

               “No, I need at least one picture.”  Angie strode away determinedly.  “If’n yer so concerned ‘bout my safety, ya can follow me.”  A shadow fell over her.

               “Angie!”  Stan tackled her to the ground, narrowly avoiding the dinosaur’s claws.  They tumbled down a nearby slope, coming to a stop at its base.  He looked at Angie, whom he was effectively pinning to the ground.  She was so close that he could count every freckle on her face and see a thin silver ring around her pupils, contrasting the bright blue of the rest of her iris.  It reminded him of something.  He thought back to the small box he had left back with Fiddleford, at Ford’s house.  

               Now’s as good a time as any.  She stared at him, a pink flush beginning to spread across her cheeks.

               “Will ya marry me?” he blurted out.  Angie’s eyes widened.  

               “What?”

               “Banjolina Quinn McGucket, will ya marry me?” he said, more firmly this time. “I know I’m not on one knee, and the ring’s back at Ford’s house, but-”

               “Yes,” she interrupted.  

               “Wait, really?”

               “Yes, really,” she said.  “Ya goober.” Stan grinned at her.

               “I’m yer goober, now,” Stan said.  Angie smiled.

               “Ya most definitely are.”

----- 

May 1978 – Gumption

               “So, the wedding’s in a month, right?” Lute asked Angie.  Angie rolled her eyes.  

               “Ya got the invitation ages ago!  An’ all the information is in that there binder in front of ya.”

               “Oh.”  Lute opened the binder.  “Yep. June 18.  Good choice.  I’ve heard good things about June weddings.”  After her graduation with her master’s degree, Angie had come back to Gumption with Stan, and they were currently finishing up the wedding plans.

               “An’ it’s here in Gumption,” Angie continued.  “In the barn.  So we’ll have to clean it up a bit.”

               “Why not the church?” Fiddleford asked.  He and Ford were taking a break from their research in Gravity Falls to visit Gumption quickly before the wedding.  

               “Stan’s Jewish,” Angie said shortly.

               “Right.”

               “Angie, does this mean ya get to do the thing where ya step on the glass an’ break it?” Lute asked eagerly.  Angie looked at Stan.  Stan nodded. “Dang.  That’s excitin’.”

               “Y’all are weird,” Stan said, shaking his head.  Angie kissed him on the cheek.

               “Yer marryin’ into my weird fam’ly, though.”  

               “Fiddleford, Tate’s up,” Ford said, walking into the living room, holding his son.  

               “Did ya change him?” Fiddleford asked.

               “Yes.”

               “I’ll hold him, then.  He likes gettin’ attention.”

               “No, I’ll hold him!” Angie said immediately.

               “Are you sure?” Ford asked.  Angie nodded.

               “I don’t get to spend enough time with the lil polydactyl.”  Ford handed Tate to her.  “My lord, Tate, yer gettin’ so big already!” Angie cooed at her nephew. She looked at Fiddleford.  “How old is he, again?”

               “He was born November 17, so almost exactly six months,” Fiddleford replied. Angie looked back at Tate.

               “Yer already halfway to bein’ a year old, Tater Tot!  Such a big boy!”  She blew a raspberry on Tate’s stomach.  He giggled.  “Such a happy boy, too!  What an absolute cutie-pie.”

               “Since he started sleeping through the night, he’s definitely started to seem cuter,” Ford said.  He rubbed his eyes tiredly.  “I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been on Mom to take care of two infants at the same time.”

               “It’s a good thing twins don’t run in the McGucket fam’ly, then,” Lute said, turning another page in the wedding plan binder.  “Otherwise ya might have had to deal with that.”  

               “Are ya goin’ to have more kidlets?” Angie asked her older brother. Fiddleford shook his head.

               “I think just the one child is enough,” Fiddleford said, taking his son from Angie.  “I don’t plan on goin’ through that whole experience again.  It weren’t pleasant.”

               “Adoption is-”

               “Just the one munchkin is enough fer us,” Fiddleford said firmly. “Raisin’ kids is hard work, an’ we’re already busy, what with Tate and our research.”  He smiled at Angie.  “I understand where yer comin’ from.  I know ya enjoy bein’ an auntie, and ya like spoilin’ yer nieces and nephews.  But ya won’t be gettin’ any more from Ford and myself.”  

               “Fair enough,” Angie conceded.  She cocked her head.  “So, ya had to give up doin’ research fer a while.  How’d that go?  Just so’s I know.”  Stan looked up from the wedding plans he had been perusing with Lute.

               “Uh, what?” Stan asked.  Angie looked over at him.

               “I ain’t pregnant now, don’t worry.”

               “I know you’re not, but the fact that you’re askin’ before we’re even married is makin’ me a bit nervous.”

               “It’s just fer future reference,” Angie said with a wave of her hand.

               “Ya might go a bit stir-crazy when it’s yer turn,” Fiddleford told her. “I stayed inside a lot an’ didn’t do much, ‘specially near the end.”  Angie grimaced.

               “Yeesh.  But it’d be worth it.  Fer one thing, Stan’s cuter than Ford.  An’ I know it seems impossible, but that means a kid of ours would be even more adorable than Tate.”

               “Damn straight,” Stan said, turning his attention back to the wedding plans.  “And our kid would have a better name.”

               “Tate is a perfectly fine name,” Ford said defensively.  “Fiddleford and I agreed to forego the McGucket naming convention.”

               “Ya might have mostly foregone it, but ya did name him after Uncle Tate,” Lute said.

               “So?”

               “Do ya know what Tate is short for?”

               “It’s not short for anything.”  

               “Not yer Tate.  Uncle Tate.”

               “Oh, um, no,” Ford confessed.  Angie snickered.  “What? What is it short for?”

               “Isn’t he the one named after food?” Stan asked.  Ford looked at Fiddleford.

               “Fiddleford.  What did we name our son?”

               “We named him a proper name,” Fiddleford said reassuringly.  “His namesake just don’t have that.”

               “What’s Uncle Tate’s real name?” Ford asked.  Fiddleford sighed.

               “His full name is Potato.”

-----

September, 1978 – Gravity Falls

               Summer was beginning to fade, and the town of Gravity Falls was bustling with citizens making the most of the last warm days.  On the drive up, Angie had been bubbling with excitement over getting permission to finish her doctorate by studying some of the amphibians in Gravity Falls.  Her happiness almost masked the dread Stan was feeling.  Something about the lumber town felt odd to him, like bad things would happen there.  But now that he was officially moving boxes into the house they had just rented, the initial unease had gone to the back of Stan’s mind.  

               “Thanks fer helpin’ us move in,” Angie said, handing a box to Lute.

               “It’s no problem.  I’m always ‘round to help my baby sister,” he replied.  He tucked the box under one arm.

               “It’s not like you have anythin’ better to do, anyways,” Stan said, taking another box out of the trailer.  “What exactly do ya do, again?”

               “Mostly just bother my siblin’s,” Lute replied.  Angie opened the passenger door of the truck and took out the terrarium holding Tubbs.  She went inside the house.  Once she was gone, Lute turned to Stan.  “So, when are the two of ya goin’ to pop out a kid?”  

               “Lute, what the fuck.”

               “Hey, it’s a perfectly valid question.”

               “We’ve only been married fer three months.”

               “So?”

               “Isn’t that a bit fast?”

               “Not fer a McGucket,” Lute said.  “Ma didn’t even finish school ‘fore she had the oldest three.”

               “Well, we only just moved here.  Angie wouldn’t wanna stop doin’ her research just after startin’ it.” Stan rubbed his neck nervously. “An’ I’m still lookin’ for a job. ‘Arkansas farmhand’ and ‘San Diego car salesman’ don’t make the greatest resume.  We haven’t even talked ‘bout kids, beyond mentionin’ that they’ll eventually happen.  So, no, Lute, we’re not plannin’ on havin’ kids.  Not yet.”

               “What’s that thing folks say?  ‘God laughs at yer plans’?”  Stan eyed Lute suspiciously.  

               “What are ya gettin’ at, McGucket?” he asked.  Lute sighed and set down the box he was holding.

               “Ma didn’t plan on havin’ the older three.  It’s a well-known fact in the fam’ly that Violynn, Harper, and Basstian were all surprises.”

               “I don’t think I’m likin’ what I’m hearin’.”

               “Pa has seven siblin’s.”

               “Damn.”

               “The McGuckets are a very fertile fam’ly.  An’ unless you ‘n Angie are abstainin’…”  Lute eyed Stan curiously.  

               “Lute.  I’m not gonna talk ‘bout my sex life.  Do ya really want to know if your baby sister’s had-”

               “Fair enough,” Lute said quickly.  He shrugged. “Just somethin’ to keep in mind. Tate weren’t planned, either.”

               “Lute, don’t say things like that,” Angie said, joining them again.  

               “It’s true,” Lute protested.  Angie put her hands on her hips.

               “It don’t matter if it’s true.  It’s rude.  But that reminds me.”  Angie turned to Stan.  “We’re babysittin’ Tate tomorrow.”

               “Again?”

               “His dads have research to do.  I just want to help.”

               “Uh-huh.  Sure,” Stan said.  “It doesn’t have anythin’ to do with how much ya like spendin’ time with babies.”  Angie rolled her eyes and took the box he was holding.

               “They got backed up a bit on their work after he was born,” she called as she walked back inside.  “They need to catch up.”  

               “If ya say so.”  Stan looked at Lute.  “Do ya really think that-”

               “I ain’t a doctor.  I can’t tell ya yer chances fer havin’ a surprise kid.”

               “You literally just told me you thought that’s what’ll happen.”

               “…Point taken.”  Lute handed Stan another box from the trailer.  “If’n it makes ya feel better, I think you’d be a good dad.”

               “Yeah?”

               “Yeah.  Lord knows the Gucklings think yer the best thing since sliced bread.  Yer a natural with kids, even if ya don’t feel like ya are.”

               “I’m pretty sure yer just lyin’ to me to try to get another niece or nephew,” Stan said.  Lute scoffed.

               “I ain’t a liar, no matter how cute I think yer kid would be.”  Angie opened the front door and stuck her head out.

               “Are you fellers goin’ to bring in any more boxes or keep chit-chattin’ at the truck?”

----- 

               “Aren’t you the cutest lil feller I ever done see,” Angie cooed at Tate. She and Stan were at Ford and Fiddleford’s house, babysitting Tate.  So far, he’d been remarkably well-behaved, something Stan claimed was due to his parents being nerds.  Tate giggled and grabbed at Angie’s nose.  She laughed. “Yup.  That’s the fam’ly nose.  And you’ve got it too, Tater Tot.”  She sighed.  

               “What is it?” Stan asked.

               “I want one,” Angie said softly.  She played with Tate’s hands.  

               “Well, it’s not like anybody else is here,” Stan began.  Angie eyed him.

               “What are ya gettin’ at?”

               “If ya decide to take him, I won’t tell.  Ya can head for the border with Tate and I’ll meet up with ya.”

               “Mexico?”

               “No.  Canada.”

               “I did learn French at West Coast Tech,” Angie said.  Her eyes gleamed.  She stood up.

               “Whoa, whoa,” Stan said.  “I was kidding.”

               “Oh.”  Angie sat down again.  “Uh, so was I.”  

               “No ya weren’t!”

               “Hey, you don’t know me.”

               “Yeah, I do,” Stan said firmly.  Angie sighed.

               “Yer right.”  She kissed Tate on the forehead.  “This lil feller’s just so goldarn cute.  It ain’t right that Ford got a baby ‘fore I did.”

               “…Why?” Stan asked.  Angie shrugged.

               “‘Cause it’s Ford?”

               “Fair enough.”  Stan leaned over to look at his nephew.  Tate grabbed one of Stan’s fingers and began to chew on it excitedly.  Stan softened.  “You want a baby, huh?”

               “Yeah…” Angie said softly.  

               “But ya understand now ain’t the best time fer that.  We’re still settlin’ here in Gravity Falls, and ya just started your research, so we should probably wait a bit.”  Angie cracked a half-smile.

               “Does that mean ya want to be a dad?”  

               “…Maybe.”

               “Glad we’re on the same page.  I want a lil one, too, but we should prob’ly hold off a bit.  How long do ya want to wait?”

               “How ‘bout no kids ‘til after our first anniversary?  That way we can go as wild as we want next June,” Stan suggested.  Angie chuckled.  “Think you can wait that long?”

               “Yeah.” She kissed him on the cheek.  “Look at ya, bein’ responsible.”

               “Well, that an’, I dunno, havin’ a kid right away doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’m pretty sure it’s ruined marriages.” Angie’s eyes softened.

               “Stanley, it’d take more than a baby to make me leave ya.”

               “What would it take?” Stan asked.

               “Why do ya want to know?”

               “I wanna avoid doin’ it.”

               “I can’t think of anythin’,” Angie said, bouncing Tate on one of her knees.

               “…Really?”

               “Darlin’, I can’t think of a single thing that would make me so angry with ya that I’d leave.”

               “Nothin’?”

               “Absolutely nothin’.”

----- 

December 23, 1978 – Gumption

               Normally, at the holidays, the McGucket house was even more warm and welcoming than usual.  But Stan couldn’t help the nervousness he was feeling.  Sitting next to him at the dining table, Angie grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

               “Darlin’, it’s fine,” she whispered in his ear.  “You’ll make it through this.”

               “Why do ya want to wait ‘til January, to tell ‘em, again?” he whispered back.

               “Ya know why.”

               “Are the two lovebirds whisperin’ sweet nothin’s to each other?” Lute asked teasingly.  

               “What’s it to you?” Stan asked.  Lute reached out to take Angie’s glass.

               “Ya want some wine, lil sis?”  Angie hurriedly grabbed it from him.

               “No, Lute.  Thanks, though.”  Lute frowned at her.

               “What happened to the Angie I know an’ love?  It ain’t like you’ll get drunk.  McGuckets got fortitude.”

               “I know how our fam’ly works, ya goon,” Angie said.  She shrugged.  “I just ain’t in the mood fer alcohol right now.”

               “Is that so?” Ma McGucket asked.  There was an odd look on her face.  “Is there any reason fer that?”

               “N-no,” Angie stammered.  She swallowed, suddenly turning a slight shade of green.  She stood up abruptly.  “I’ll be back in a mo’.”  She rushed off.

               “She’s been usin’ the facilities an awful lot,” Lute said, taking his seat on the other side of Stan.  “Is she sick or somethin’?”

               “No.  At least, if she is, she didn’t tell me,” Stan said.  He looked at Ma McGucket again.  She smiled knowingly at him.

               Stan turned beet red.

[faircatch]

Thoughts on Teen Wolf Winter Finale...

::Deep sigh::

Spoilers and all that jazz...  (feel free to share your thoughts as well in remarks...)

Well... that was... I guess it was an ending? 

Outside of any characters or relationships or anything else... my biggest frustration with Teen Wolf has been their slap-dash mythology.  They take pretty cool idea seeds and grow them into confusing weeds that overtake everything and depend on deus ex machina plot points to save everyone in the end.  

Look, I used to get frustrated watching Yu-gi-o when they’d be dueling and the good guy was about to lose the match, but then would suddenly pull some rule out of his ass that turned everything around or became blue eyes white dragon... (”Ah, but you forgot, even though for all intents and purposes, I should lose, the rules are that when it’s the third Monday of the month and you wear green socks and black pants, that the Magician can return from the dead pile to the board any time I choose and transform himself into Blue Eyes White Dragon and therefore, I win!”) And it feels like Teen Wolf does the same sort of thing in their storylines.

First off, the Wild Hunt is an actually really cool concept (read up on it) and I didn’t care so much that it was a bunch of cowboys, cause, whatever...  But they were poorly designed otherwise.  Maybe it was concept or maybe it was budget, but it was clearly masks and bad wigs under those cowboy hats...  And they talk?  But in some weird language?  

...And why do they hunt?  There really is no good reason for them to come sweeping through towns and to take everyone.  And none is given that I even recall.  One of the mythology stories of the Wild Hunt is that they take the guilty...   or capture souls to add warriors to their storm... But on Teen Wolf? Nope... No reason... Just cause.  Why have REASONS AND LOGIC?  I’m sorry, I know it’s fantasy/sci-fi whatever, but logic and reason should be in there some where.  Fairy stories still have rules.

And let’s take a look at our Nazi friend shall we?  First off... just.  What the hell?  He wasn’t scary.  He wasn’t really a threat.  Just some white dude.  Which I guess could be a way to show a Nazi... but if you’re Jewish and pay attention to what’s going on around you, then you know, Nazis are dangerous.  

(and him saying, “You’d have made a great Nazi, Scott.” What?  DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO NAZI?  There is no way in hell the arian army would have taken Scott McCall, the swarthy Mexican kid, into their ranks.  Nazis weren’t just some cool outfits and a plan, you pocket-squares.  They were WHITE SUPREMACISTS who believed the best were WHITE... not dark skinned with crooked jawlines.  SERIOUSLY Teen Wolf writers... check yourselves)

Fine that the Wild Hunt took him as one of theirs... cause that ALMOST fit the mythology... though why they waited till he said something like, “I’m your leader.” didn’t make sense... Even if I overlook that poorly cobbled moment, WHY DOES HE GET A NAZI ARMBAND?  Part of the point of having no leader, as you’ve SUDDENLY established (and a few minutes ago, hello, they did!  THE NAZI was controlling them), is that they are all the same and equal.  They are almost mindless - like a Borg collective, just doing their thing... but now Nazi-cowboy has an armband because... why?  

Did you do it because you didn’t think your audience would understand what just happened?  Maybe if you didn’t do such a shitty job of keeping things consistent, that wouldn’t be a concern Teen Wolf writers.  And don’t get me started on the fact they were walking away a minute before they group hugged the Nazi and then right after he gets his bad Halloween mask and wig, they disappear in a flash of lightning?  It would have been better for them to hustle him along the railroad tracks as they had been before, losing him in the crowd to make it more poignant that he no longer matters and is gone... before they poof out.

WHY WAS CORY HOOKED UP TO THE SPEAKER SYSTEM?  The Wild Hunt suddenly need someone to work as DJ for the train when they’ve supposedly been doing this for centuries?  WTF? Was it punishment for fucking with them?  I DON’T KNOW!  THEY NEVER SAY!

And don’t get me started on Malia/Peter daughter/Daddy moment.  Malia has a father... Mr. Tate.  Remember him?  Apparently the writers didn’t.  I can get with Peter caring about her.  It’s his daughter.  And if nothing else, Peter did love his family, (in his own screwed up way) and after everything, would hold on to what family he has that he can connect with (I’m guessing Derek and Cora would still be like, “Nope...” with him).  But whatever...  that was the least of my issues.

I’m still not fully buying the Stydia storyline, but I also don’t care too much about it either.  I’m just glad Stiles was on screen being Stiles for an episode.

And did anyone notice that Liam wore a t-shirt the first time he appears in the episode, then when he went to get Scott from the bunker, he had a sweatshirt, but then the rest of the episode had a t-shirt again?  HELLO!  There are people on staff to keep track of that sort of thing. Besides that, Liam, yes, you could have told Scott what you found.  You didn’t have to drag him out to show him that there were train tracks suddenly appearing all over Beacon Hills.  See?  I just said it right now.  In one sentence.  You could have said, “Scott!  There are railroad tracks appearing all over Beacon Hills!”  Very easy.

And Claudia.... Ah... dear sweet Mrs. Stilinski...  First, I didn’t buy the actress as Mrs. Stilinski.  Just no chemistry with the Sheriff and she didn’t come across as a woman I could see raising Stiles.  But that’s casting /acting / directing issues. The bigger problem:  Why the HELL did she show up in this episode?  Her reason for existing this season AT ALL was already hanging by an unraveling thread, but her popping in this episode at that moment in time?  What was the point?  So her husband could shoot her?  To somehow echo the Nogitsune with Stiles or the scene from the party in Season 2? (Make Stiles feel unwanted and a burden) I didn’t like her and so didn’t feel any emotional, “That’s horrible to do to him” because even he was like, “Hell no Bitch... Not my Mom...” It was a pointless scene that served no purpose, no character development and didn’t further the story.  Kids, that’s poor writing and you shouldn’t do it.  Don’t be like Teen Wolf.

If it was there to show our heroes at their darkest moment (since it was intercut with scenes of Scott and his... sort of pack?  Like... yeah... [why wasn’t the pack all fighting together at that moment - you know... to show the strength of the McCall pack instead of some hobbled group of Scott, Malia, Theo and Peter?] And they were getting their butts kicked by the Riders), when things are looking their grimmest (which is a standard tv moment) it failed.  There were no real stakes felt.  I didn’t feel any anxiousness or worry.  Unlike the Nogitsune climax back in 3B, I wasn’t like, “Well... how they gonna work this out?”  It was pretty obvious they were going to win... so... no drama for me.  Even the whole ‘momentous’ Scott uses the whip to divert train was like...  meh.  The pacing and editing didn’t come together.  (“Looks like you missed your train!” Ooooo Burn, Malia! ::eyeroll::)

So.. fights over and...Where the hell is Theo?  Was everyone just cool with him being there cause he decided to join in the fight so he didn’t die?  Just another moment for the writers to say, “Oh... well... I don’t want to write about that so... I won’t.” :D

And then of course, Chris and Melissa... Now, I never really was a big Chelissa?  Mris?  Whatever... Chris and Melissa shipper... But THAT relationship made sense as they’d built it up from the first time they shot a scene together this season.  But...um... Chris, Melissa and Mason are just wheeling Cory (who has GREEN/BLUE Vulcan blood oozing out of his wounds) through the hospital and NO ONE notices?  Is it at the point where there is an unspoken rule that everyone ignores the shit Melissa does due to massive amounts of PTSD and it’s some sort of mental self-preservation tactic for the people in that hospital?  I’m going with yes, because it’s the only reason she’d be able to wheel bodies in and out of there with no repercussions.  AND WHEN DOES SHE WORK?

And now they have the 9 herbs of Deus Ex Machina to save the day... So.  There’s that.  I guess?  Though, where the HELL WAS DEATON?  Wouldn’t he have been a great person to bring into this?  

The ending was sort of slapped together... Like... the next day they all go to school and no one remembers anything?  Just.  Last day.  Like nothing happened.  I’m with you Stiles.  THAT WAS ANTI-CLIMACTIC.  Did they suddenly remember they had to wrap it all up?

I won’t go into giving away the bat to Mason... I get why Stiles did it.  It was this whole ‘passing the mantel to the other human in the pack’ deal...  But the Jeep?  WHY IS HE GIVING IT TO SCOTT?  He should be driving it to FBI school because it’s his and it was his mother’s...  I mean, sure, it could symbolically be Stiles letting go of the things he was holding on to (he was afraid of letting go/losing his friends.. had held on to the Jeep even though it was falling apart etc), but I don’t know if it worked as far as character development in that moment.  And suddenly we find out where everyone is going to school.. something that could have been brought up through the season...  But nope, let’s throw it all together real quick...  This is talking heads... You shouldn’t do this sort of thing in writing or in comic books and shouldn’t do it in visual media like this either - Talking heads is just people talking.  All this information is vomited up as people talk - making it obvious exposition.  Most writers tell you to show, don’t tell.  Kids, don’t be like Teen Wolf.

The only shining moment for me was the moment between Scott and Stiles at the end - going back to the roots of the show (of course, that would have been helped by Scott’s memory of Stiles being the most important one that brings him back, but I already ranted about that before).  

I’ll always love Teen Wolf because through it I got to find great fan fiction writers and fan artists and it sparked my imagination for my own work.  There were great characters and things in there and great things that stemmed from it...  

I’m glad Dylan O’Brien is moving on from the show.  I’m glad it’s the last season.  I hope everyone moves on to better things.  The convoluted storylines and mythology has been so frustrating, along with the poor writing.  I’ll watch 6b, but it feels like a slow-mo car wreck.  What is worse is that this show has had constant possibility to be something very cool, but as the seasons have gone on, their ability to manipulate and work those ideas has become weaker and weaker as they try to shoe-horn different stories and character plot-lines from previous characters who have since left the show.  

And I think that’s the real tragedy here... That this show had all the potential (talented young actors, a plethora of story possibilities, an open canvas to place ideas in, etc...) but failed to use or live up to that potential in the end.  

[racingtoaredlight]

The degenerate’s guide to 2017 college football TV watch ‘em ups: week 13, part 2

Why are there so many terrible turkey/football drawing in the world? I know, I contributed one of the worst of all time earlier this week but I can explain my awful work if necessary.

Enjoy your leftovers. This isn’t the strongest rivalry weekend of all time on paper, but there are sure to be some stupid results to make it fun anyway.

I cut out the FCS Playoffs, if you’re interested in those they’ll be going on basically all day. Times are Eastern, stolen from FCSchedules and lines are quoted from Vegas Insider.

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017

Matchup                                                                       Time (ET)                 TV

East Carolina at (20) Memphis                                   Noon                   ESPNU 

Memphis is supposed to wreck shop on an ECU team that has turned out to be quite bad. Still can’t get over ECU firing Ruffin McNeill. He’s assistant head coach at Oklahoma now so maybe he’ll end up back in the AAC to torture the Pirates after this season. That could be fun. 

Florida State at Florida                                               Noon                   ESPN 

FSU is the year’s weirdest disappointment. Them missing the playoffs with a bad offensive line is one thing but if Florida somehow pulls out a miracle in this battle for last place among Florida’s seven FBS programs then FSU won’t even make a bowl game. And they’re still going to produce like 8 day one / day two draft picks next year and then be projected to win the ACC in 2018. Just odd.

(7) Georgia at Georgia Tech                                      Noon                    ABC

Georgia Tech never wins when I want them to so I’m not counting on anything crazy here but if I was counting on it, how crazy could it be?

Indiana at Purdue                                                      Noon                   ESPN2

Not the worst game in the history of the B1G. You’ll see farther down the list that there are reasons to appreciate a rivalry game that actually has a reason to exist.

Kansas at (19) Oklahoma State                                Noon                    FS1

Kansas is expected to get two guys drafted in 2018. That makes absolutely no sense when you see how fucking bad they are. Okie State players can start worrying about their own draft stock now but even the third team should be enough to wax the Jayhawks. It’s only the truest of rivalries that can see a 41-point spread.

Louisville at Kentucky                                               Noon                   SECN

Last year Lamar Jackson & Co. ruined the fun of his Heisman-winning campaign by losing to Kentucky. Can the good Josh Allen and his horrible teammates repeat their big win from last year? Probably. Louisville is a 10-point favorite but they aren’t actually very good as a team.

(9) Ohio State at Michigan                                       Noon                     FOX 

I can’t make up my mind as to what possible outcome is the most hilarious here.

Tulane at SMU                                                          Noon                   CBSSN

Tulane beat Houston last week and now they’re an 8-point road dog against SMU. A win here would get Tulane to the magical 6-win plateau.

UConn at Cincinnati                                               Noon                   ESPNews

I can’t even put into words how much you should not watch this game.

Boston College at Syracuse                                  12:20 pm               ACCN 

I could say the same here but at least Boston College has some decent prospects on the squad and Syracuse will knock themselves out to win even if they are a putrid decaying mass. Hilarious that the Orangemen beat Clemson and scared Miami because they fucking suck.

Duke at Wake Forest                                              12:30 pm                 RSN

Wake Forest has a lot more to play for than they should and I’d like to think their prime motivator is not letting Duke become bowl eligible. Let’s go Deacs!

North Texas at Rice                                                1:00 pm                ESPN3

So Rice is the big rival of the 096ers? It’s weird because Spencer loves rice.

UTEP at UAB                                                           1:00 pm              CUSA.TV 

This doesn’t qualify as entertainment but if you want to look like a real gambler start talking to people at the bar or whatever about how much you like UAB to keep UTEP winless and that 20-point spread seems mighty tasty.

Appalachian State at Georgia State                     2:00 pm               ESPN3 

Here’s another chance to show off your degeneracy. Go around talking about how ridiculous it is for Appalachian State to be a 7-point road favorite.

Florida Atlantic at Charlotte                                  2:00 pm               Stadium

The Owls are expected to trounce the 49ers and. depending on the bowl draw, could be a 10-win team in Lane Kiffin’s first season. Everybody in Florida has beaten expectations other than the two flagship state universities.

Southern Miss at Marshall                                     2:30 pm               Stadium

I would not have been able to guess that both of these teams are 7-4 if you had given me 22 chances.

Arkansas State at ULM                                           3:00 pm               ESPN3

Didn’t LSU and Arkansas used to play on rivalry weekend? This is like the kids menu version of that.

Old Dominion at Middle Tennessee                       3:00 pm               ESPN3 

And this is like a slightly better version of UVA playing Tennessee.

UNLV at Nevada                                                       3:00 pm           ATTSNRM

I didn’t know until this year (or I didn’t remember) that this is a legitimate hate-on-hate rivalry. Nobody else cares about either of these teams so good for them.

(1) Alabama at (5) Auburn                                       3:30 pm                CBS 

Here is, of course, the best rivalry game even in the worst of circumstances for both programs. We aren’t at the worst of circumstances for either of them so this should be more than enough to make up for all the other waste on the docket. Auburn is a very trendy 4.5-point dog and I can’t make up my mind at all. I assume Nick Saban isn’t going to let the Tide roll out there with the kind of elemental bullshit that got Georgia eaten alive but then his OC is Steve Sarkisian. Sark might just try to roll out there with some straight ahead, 3-yards and a cloud of dust idiocy.

(23) Boise State at Fresno State                             3:30 pm             CBSSN

Boise and the hate that they engender among power conference football fans delight me no end. This is a tough closer for the regular season and, in a weird echo of last year in the MWC, will be replayed next week in the conference championship game. Last year it was SDSU and Wyoming playing twice in a row. Boise at -7 seems like a bad play to me but I am notably stupid.

Iowa State at Kansas State                                     3:30 pm              ESPN2 

K State ruined Oklahoma State’s slim playoff hopes last week and could really put a damper on Iowa State’s surprise midseason run. And then the squabbling begins in Manhattan as they try to figure out what the hell the succession plan is for when Taco Bill walks off into the sunset one last time.

North Carolina at NC State                                      3:30 pm            ESPNU

I like that UNC and NC State are football rivals because it makes me realize the Duke-UNC basketball rivalry is really a marriage of convenience that could break apart at any time if one or both programs slides out of the national spotlight.

(10) Penn State at Maryland                                     3:30 pm             BTN 

This is like Byrd squaring off against his family. Nobody has stupider arranged rivalries than the B1G. This isn’t even the dumbest one.

(5) Wisconsin at Minnesota                                      3:30 pm             ABC 

Is Paul Bunyan associated with Wisconsin at all? I think of him as a Minnesota guy but here these two teams are fighting over his axe. The original rivalry was played for The Slab of Bacon but it got lost one year and they started playing for this axe. I can’t pretend that isn’t an awesome and fitting history.

West Virginia at (4) Oklahoma                                   3:45 pm            ESPN

This would interest me a lot more if it were being played in West Virginia and I hadn’t watched the replay of Will Grier smashing his fingers straight down into the turf last week. Oklahoma is going to run it up as much as possible here.

Idaho at New Mexico State                                       4:00 pm           ESPN3

One of your last two chances to see Idaho lose a game as an FBS program.

(16) Michigan State at Rutgers                                  4:00 pm             FOX

What the fuck is this? Why is this being played during rivalry week? UCLA and USC played last week and they actually are rivals. Why couldn’t the B1G just make Maryland and Rutgers be rivals or schedule things so that both teams are done a week early?

(22) Northwestern at Illinois                                       4:00 pm             FS1

Northwestern is going to get a bowl game against some completely checked out team like Oklahoma State or Washington and then get a bunch of praise for winning a stupid game that shouldn’t even count.

Temple at Tulsa                                                           4:00 pm          ESPNews

I feel like Temple did pretty well this year but they’re 5-6 and only favored by 3 over Tulsa so I guess I have that all wrong.

Vanderbilt at Tennessee                                             4:00 pm             SECN 

I’m so sad that Tennessee is favored as I write this. Go Vandy!

Arizona at Arizona State                                             4:30 pm         Pac-12N

The wheels fell off the Arizona season last week. Khalil Tate should have one more game of preposterous numbers in him but ASU did shut down Washington so I don’t know what to expect.

Georgia Southern at UL Lafayette                             5:00 pm            ESPN3 

ULL can get to 6 wins so that’s something nice about this game, at least.

Wyoming at San Jose State                                        5:00 pm           ESPN3

Josh Allen is out but Wyoming, despite being billed as an awful and decrepit roster all year long in order to frame Allen’s awful numbers and bad tape, is still going bowling and should cruise to their 8th win without their star QB.

Oregon State at Oregon                                               7:00 pm           ESPN2

This is one of the better rivalries in the country in terms of how much the fanbases hate each other but, unfortunately, the two programs are seldom both particularly good at the same time.

(3) Clemson at (24) South Carolina                              7:30 pm            ESPN

I’m not as sold on this rivalry. South Carolina should consider itself lucky to stay within 14 points of their in-state enemies this year.

Texas A&M at (18) LSU                                                  7:30 pm            SECN

Kevin Sumlin is expected to be fired after this game. God knows who is ever going to want this Texas A&M job again as a hot name.

UTSA at Louisiana Tech                                                7:30 pm             ESPNU 

UTSA has a defensive end that’s going to the Senior Bowl if you want to check in on this one for a few minutes.

(8) Notre Dame at (21) Stanford                                   8:00 pm               ABC

I don’t expect Bryce Love to do major damage against Notre Dame but if Travis Homer could rack up 136 yards on them there’s at least hope for Love to do even better.

(13) Washington State at (17) Washington                  8:00 pm               FOX

Those are some nice numbers next to these two teams. It’s cool when they’re both good. Once upon a time Drew Bledsoe led a rivalry week upset of UDub in the snow but Luke Falk is no Drew Bledsoe. This wouldn’t exactly be a huge upset, either. Oh, well, it still should be a fun game for TV.

BYU at Hawaii                                                                9:00 pm             CBSSN 

Hawaii was and maybe still is a repository for all sorts of evangelizing weirdos so I guess it makes sense for the state school to be rivals with BYU, a university founded on the principles of being evangelizing weirdos.

Colorado at Utah                                                            10:00 pm              FS1

I like this forced marriage. I still hate Colorado being a Pac school but this is a good idea for two schools to learn to hate each other up in the mountains.

Utah State at Air Force                                                   10:15 pm         ESPN2

If you want to feel the blood coursing through your eyeballs as your slobber and jab at the TV in a way that makes your family equal parts revulsed, scared, and sad, then this is one hell of a closer. There’s nothing left after this but “meaningful games” so get it all out now.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

[footballleague0]

Diggs off to a hot start

The top graded cornerback in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season isn’t Patrick Peterson, Josh Norman, Richard Sherman or Aqib Talib. It’s a Detroit Lion, and it’s not Darius Slay, either.

Nickel cornerback Quandre Diggs has earned that distinction from Pro Football Focus through two terrific performances to start the season.

Diggs has given up just 35 passing yards when targeted the last two weeks. Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer and New York’s Eli Manning had a combined passer rating of just 58.3 throwing Diggs’ way the first two games.

“It’s a tough job (playing nickel), I know it is, and he’s playing phenomenal right now,” Lions safety Glover Quin said.

“Great coverage. He’s always been a physical guy. He’s always been smart. That’s one thing you have to have to play inside. You can’t just have talent. You have to be smart, because there’s too many moving pieces. If you’re just talented, you won’t play well. There’s too much going on.”

Playing the nickel in the NFL isn’t just about covering slot receivers. They also play a huge role in the run game, and have to know all the run fits. They also blitz more than most cornerbacks. Quin is right, there are a lot of moving pieces, and the veteran Diggs is handling it all terrific early on.

But always the team-first kind of player, Diggs credited the fact that the Lions return all five players in the secondary from a year ago, and the terrific communication they’ve developed as a unit, as a big reason for his success early on.

“I don’t ever look at my numbers as being individual,” Diggs said Wednesday. “It has a lot to do with the d-line and the linebackers and the secondary. I’m connected to all those guys (in the slot), I think people forget that.

“I’m one of the guys on defense that’s connected to everybody. I’m connected to the linebackers, I have to know run fits. I’ve got to know what GQ (Quin) is thinking and the corners. I think people take that for granted and don’t know how hard the position is.”

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell echoed that sentiment, saying: “Yeah, it’s a unique spot because it requires somewhat skills of a linebacker and skills of a perimeter player because when you’re lined up in there, you’re going to have to be able to support the run. You have to be also willing to trigger, get dirty down inside, but then yet be skilled enough to cover some pretty gifted guys that play on the inside. So, I think that’s where it becomes a real challenge for people.”

Detroit’s been good in every phase on defense early this season, and Diggs’ play in the nickel is connected to it all. He’s had a great start to his third season. Detroit’s defense will need him to continue to play well Sunday against the high-flying Atlanta offense that has few, if any, real weaknesses.

ODD MAN OUT

After Marvin Jones Jr. scored Detroit’s first touchdown in Monday night’s win over the New York Giants, he celebrated by playing a pretend game of ping pong in the end zone with teammate Golden Tate.

But while Jones and Tate were acting out their celebration, offensive guard Graham Glasgow came over to celebrate the touchdown. He stood by patiently with his hand in the air looking for a high five from Jones, but didn’t want to interrupt the celebration. After standing by for a few moments, Glasgow had to get back to the huddle, so he tapped Jones on the helmet and went back to the huddle.

“I’d been focusing on the ping pong and just didn’t see him,” Tate said Wednesday, when asked about it. “But I looked at it again today, I was like, ‘Oh, poor Graham.’ He just wanted to be included.

“We’re going to definitely try to involve him in something next time because it was a little awkward to look at it.”

“You got to be careful with a lineman because the clock is still running and those guys still have to get back to what the 15 (yard line) or whatever it is. They still have to get back and get ready for the extra point, so it’s kind of like, it’s got to be quick so we’ve got to get on the same page very quickly. But yeah, we’d love to get ol’ Graham involved and all the other linemen and have a big fiesta after we score.”

.@ShowtimeTate: “We’re going to try to involve him next time. Poor Graham. He just wants to be included.”

 http://pic.twitter.com/FZ2VomzH44

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 20, 2017

CONFIDENT ROOKIE

Rookie cornerback Jamal Agnew was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after his 88-yard punt return touchdown helped seal the Lions’ 24-10 victory over the Giants Monday night.

Agnew said the play was by far the best return of his career, and gives him a ton of confidence moving forward.

“It definitely skyrockets my confidence,” he said.

Agnew only started returning punts his senior year in college at San Diego, but he has natural hands and a terrific ability to track the football.

“If I get the ball in my hands, I can do some things with it,” Agnew said. “You have to be smart back there, especially making good decisions. That’s the No. 1 goal about being a punt returner. You have to catch the ball first. Coach always says secure the ball and make good decisions.”

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The Lions’ defense had just 10 interceptions all of last season. They have four through the first two games of the season.

Caldwell and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin made it a point of emphasis this offseason, and it appears early on that practice makes perfect for this Detroit secondary.

“Putting an emphasis on it every single day,” Quin said. “Keeping our standards high on tough days, when you’re tired. If you practice it and you do it in practice, a lot of times it translates over to the games.”

ASSISTED INTERCEPTIONS

Speaking of interceptions, Quin would like the NFL to come up with a new statistic: Assisted interception. It was Quin who assisted on Tahir Whitehead’s interception Monday night in New York by popping the ball up in the air after attempting to pick it off himself on what would have been a difficult catch on a ball thrown behind him. Whitehead snatched the ball out of the air and the Lions eventually turned the interception into seven points.

Quin has had a number of those kinds of plays over the years.

“I feel like I’m doing my good deeds,” he said with a grin Wednesday.

Quin obviously got a pass defended on the play, but he argued – I think jokingly – that the NFL should adopt a separate statistic for defenders who get their hands on footballs that are ultimately intercepted by teammates.

“Should I have caught it clean? Of course. I didn’t,” Quin said. “But what if I wasn’t even there and the ball hits the ground. They line up for second down. The fact that I was even there and attempted to catch it and it bounces up again, Tahir gets to catch it.”

The post Diggs off to a hot start appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from http://ift.tt/2fBwY8J from http://ift.tt/2wzUkFY

[giantsfootball0]

Diggs off to a hot start

The top graded cornerback in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season isn’t Patrick Peterson, Josh Norman, Richard Sherman or Aqib Talib. It’s a Detroit Lion, and it’s not Darius Slay, either.

Nickel cornerback Quandre Diggs has earned that distinction from Pro Football Focus through two terrific performances to start the season.

Diggs has given up just 35 passing yards when targeted the last two weeks. Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer and New York’s Eli Manning had a combined passer rating of just 58.3 throwing Diggs’ way the first two games.

“It’s a tough job (playing nickel), I know it is, and he’s playing phenomenal right now,” Lions safety Glover Quin said.

“Great coverage. He’s always been a physical guy. He’s always been smart. That’s one thing you have to have to play inside. You can’t just have talent. You have to be smart, because there’s too many moving pieces. If you’re just talented, you won’t play well. There’s too much going on.”

Playing the nickel in the NFL isn’t just about covering slot receivers. They also play a huge role in the run game, and have to know all the run fits. They also blitz more than most cornerbacks. Quin is right, there are a lot of moving pieces, and the veteran Diggs is handling it all terrific early on.

But always the team-first kind of player, Diggs credited the fact that the Lions return all five players in the secondary from a year ago, and the terrific communication they’ve developed as a unit, as a big reason for his success early on.

“I don’t ever look at my numbers as being individual,” Diggs said Wednesday. “It has a lot to do with the d-line and the linebackers and the secondary. I’m connected to all those guys (in the slot), I think people forget that.

“I’m one of the guys on defense that’s connected to everybody. I’m connected to the linebackers, I have to know run fits. I’ve got to know what GQ (Quin) is thinking and the corners. I think people take that for granted and don’t know how hard the position is.”

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell echoed that sentiment, saying: “Yeah, it’s a unique spot because it requires somewhat skills of a linebacker and skills of a perimeter player because when you’re lined up in there, you’re going to have to be able to support the run. You have to be also willing to trigger, get dirty down inside, but then yet be skilled enough to cover some pretty gifted guys that play on the inside. So, I think that’s where it becomes a real challenge for people.”

Detroit’s been good in every phase on defense early this season, and Diggs’ play in the nickel is connected to it all. He’s had a great start to his third season. Detroit’s defense will need him to continue to play well Sunday against the high-flying Atlanta offense that has few, if any, real weaknesses.

ODD MAN OUT

After Marvin Jones Jr. scored Detroit’s first touchdown in Monday night’s win over the New York Giants, he celebrated by playing a pretend game of ping pong in the end zone with teammate Golden Tate.

But while Jones and Tate were acting out their celebration, offensive guard Graham Glasgow came over to celebrate the touchdown. He stood by patiently with his hand in the air looking for a high five from Jones, but didn’t want to interrupt the celebration. After standing by for a few moments, Glasgow had to get back to the huddle, so he tapped Jones on the helmet and went back to the huddle.

“I’d been focusing on the ping pong and just didn’t see him,” Tate said Wednesday, when asked about it. “But I looked at it again today, I was like, ‘Oh, poor Graham.’ He just wanted to be included.

“We’re going to definitely try to involve him in something next time because it was a little awkward to look at it.”

“You got to be careful with a lineman because the clock is still running and those guys still have to get back to what the 15 (yard line) or whatever it is. They still have to get back and get ready for the extra point, so it’s kind of like, it’s got to be quick so we’ve got to get on the same page very quickly. But yeah, we’d love to get ol’ Graham involved and all the other linemen and have a big fiesta after we score.”

.@ShowtimeTate: “We’re going to try to involve him next time. Poor Graham. He just wants to be included.”

 pic.twitter.com/FZ2VomzH44

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 20, 2017

CONFIDENT ROOKIE

Rookie cornerback Jamal Agnew was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after his 88-yard punt return touchdown helped seal the Lions’ 24-10 victory over the Giants Monday night.

Agnew said the play was by far the best return of his career, and gives him a ton of confidence moving forward.

“It definitely skyrockets my confidence,” he said.

Agnew only started returning punts his senior year in college at San Diego, but he has natural hands and a terrific ability to track the football.

“If I get the ball in my hands, I can do some things with it,” Agnew said. “You have to be smart back there, especially making good decisions. That’s the No. 1 goal about being a punt returner. You have to catch the ball first. Coach always says secure the ball and make good decisions.”

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The Lions’ defense had just 10 interceptions all of last season. They have four through the first two games of the season.

Caldwell and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin made it a point of emphasis this offseason, and it appears early on that practice makes perfect for this Detroit secondary.

“Putting an emphasis on it every single day,” Quin said. “Keeping our standards high on tough days, when you’re tired. If you practice it and you do it in practice, a lot of times it translates over to the games.”

ASSISTED INTERCEPTIONS

Speaking of interceptions, Quin would like the NFL to come up with a new statistic: Assisted interception. It was Quin who assisted on Tahir Whitehead’s interception Monday night in New York by popping the ball up in the air after attempting to pick it off himself on what would have been a difficult catch on a ball thrown behind him. Whitehead snatched the ball out of the air and the Lions eventually turned the interception into seven points.

Quin has had a number of those kinds of plays over the years.

“I feel like I’m doing my good deeds,” he said with a grin Wednesday.

Quin obviously got a pass defended on the play, but he argued – I think jokingly – that the NFL should adopt a separate statistic for defenders who get their hands on footballs that are ultimately intercepted by teammates.

“Should I have caught it clean? Of course. I didn’t,” Quin said. “But what if I wasn’t even there and the ball hits the ground. They line up for second down. The fact that I was even there and attempted to catch it and it bounces up again, Tahir gets to catch it.”

The post Diggs off to a hot start appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

from https://dailystarsports.com/2017/09/20/diggs-off-to-a-hot-start/ from https://dailystarsports.tumblr.com/post/165556065081

[lsaraypritchart-blog]

A Collection of notes from Wednesday Artist Talks.

Assemble 28/09/2016

http://assemblestudio.co.uk/ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov...  

Turner Prize Winners 2015 Assemble are a collective based in London who work across the fields of art, architecture and design. They began working together in 2010 and are comprised of 18 members. Assemble’s working practice seeks to address the typical disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made. Assemble champion a working practice that is interdependent and collaborative, seeking to actively involve the public as both participant and collaborator in the on-going realisation of the work. Petrol Station to Cinema, 2010  - learn and teach each other Material experimentation  - project and music space 'The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.' David Harvey. Baltic Street Adventure Playgroud, Glasgow  - Space for children and they have complete control 

- Being a tool to create someone else's vision South Liverpool, Granby Workshop - planning and growing stuff in the street - CLT - Community Land Trust - design houses, open ended - turning house into garden space/art space - residential space, community space   - giving back to the community and local people - product development, testing out new processes - trying to make practical things but playing around   - recording mistakes when they happen - taking the positives away from the negatives   - processing and shaping

After listening to the Assemble talk I decided that there was certain parts of their work that I partially liked. I enjoyed seeing the Petrol Station that had been changed into a Cinema. I think this was a great use of an old petrol station as it makes it more modern and gives back to the community. I enjoy the aspect of Assemble's work as their main focuses are on giving back to the community and giving people and the audience more control of the piece and the outcome. This to me is a good idea as it changes the vision of the finished piece. It goes from being a representation of what you wanted to being interpenetrated to what and how someone else would represent it instead. That is what art is all about. Taking something that is a representation of something else or someone else's idea and representing it in a different way that is it the same thing but different. I am also interested in the way Assemble focus on product development, they test out new processes in order to try and make practical things however, they are still just playing around and record when mistakes happen, this is an important factor in art from my view as it shows that it is important to fail and that mistakes happen. We use them as a learning curve during our process to develop and strengthen it.

Stuart Bertolotti Bailey – 05/10/2016

Graphic designer – 20years, fields cross over: film, lit, fine art. The Serving Library – 35 Water Street Liverpool. Dot, Dot, Dot Journal; started as Graphic Design, open to change. Journal serious and funny, text heavy but not academic writing. Had to try and find ways to trick people into writing. Instead of writing about subject, did demonstrations of it, issue 9 of Dot, Dot, Dot. Small, after hours organisation. Hit a wall, needed funding. Published list at back of cover of who owed money and how much. – had a positive approach. Gallery in Switzerland, experimental, unusual thing. 3 weeks working in space. Asked for money in advance. Based on essay, piece called ‘Use Me Up’ we are always switched on and waiting to work. Cover of 20th issues, painting, self reflective issue about its history, painting serving as its own palette. Frame of grey spells grey. www.servinglibrary.org Journal too comfortable, not active enough, context and contains become expected. make something more visual, Dot, Dot, Dot -> Serving Library engine room of the whole project. Same physical format and writing. Published PDF’s, free downloads. Still published physically. No order, equal to each other online. Bulletins of the serving library – house journal. Jacques Derrida, 12inch record cover. Not artwork (album cover). Wall in Portugal. All original objects. Diverse objects. Active living collection, always collecting and expanding. TATE Liverpool. On the Spiritual in Art – Wassily Kandinsky.

Sophie Mackfall – 02/11/2016

Painter in London Studied in Glasgow and lived there for a while. Cultural Influence Define ourselves through occupation, productivity. Utopian movements Transcendence and abstraction SO, oil on board, 23 x 32 cm, 2011 Houpes and Quines, 20 x 30 cm, 2011 On the third attempt, collaged monoprint on newsprint, 300 x 200 cm, 2011 bigger works become about the gestures, the whole bodily movement. collage merged with paintings all linked together, communicated worked in a building shared with network rail. oddly corporate but also shambolic thanks to the university environment. concept of working for leisure, working to survive. sneaked in at the weekend to make these collages in her office. the risk of being caught, the danger, felt silly but she took it very seriously. Eat Aknar Jam 2013 the process of collaging itself. materiality. began to work with wicker. gouache on wicker and tape, 2014 a clear contour. Sophie isn’t interested in making work about anything – more about the space, the material, the way she’s thinking, not literal at all with her work.

Evan Ifekoya – 23/11/2016

http://evanifekoya.com/news/ Trauma/Transcendence/Recovery Lyric

Language big part Lyric as a medium – song/poetry 2010-2015 playful but polictical charged work. childhood – MTV, music big part of life. Work tone is differeny – similar elements. Video – Ojulowo GOA Kids TV presenter – challenge who gets these roles. Mainstream society and trauma of daily life. Song – working with format for a long time. Receive certain information through song, re learn – unlearn. Claudia Rankie ‘on lyric’ Lyric is unspoken private language. Trauma is were the self feels the self again. Lyric allows you to enter the trauma. She was the full body speaker – video 2016 Film part of larger project Radioplay over summer – focusing on the sound. What does it mean to write images than to see them. Set in past and future. Post living mourning. Glasgow – Cass Ezeji September 2016 Quote from ‘poetry, polyvocal philosophy a thought experiment’ – Jean Washington. Family and Guilt – Ebi Flo 2016

Evan Ifekoya’s current work investigates the possibility of an erotic and poetic occupation using film, performative writing and sound, focused on co-authored, intimate forms of knowledge production and the radical potential of spectacle. Ifekoya's ongoing project A Score, A Groove, A Phantom explores archives of blackness, sociality and inheritance as they diffract through queer nightlife and trauma in the present moment. The aim of which is to cultivate spaces of intimacy and belonging amongst minoritarian subjects. Ifekoya’s recent work has been presented at: Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire; Transmission Gallery, Glasgow; Serpentine Galleries, London; and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2016). Recent performances include Jerwood Space, London and Whitstable Biennial 2016. Collaborative projects include Collective Creativity: Critical reflections into QTIPOC creative practice and Network11. Upcoming solo exhibitions will be take place at Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh and Rowing Projects, London in 2017. After listening to the Evan Ifekoya talk, I realised that although I might not be interested 100% in how her work is depicted as myself I would not use video or make songs, however I was very much interested and influenced by the language Ifekoya used in her songs and how personal they are. They address real life social issues such as gender and what makes someone them. I can personally relate this to my work as my work too questions social issues however ones in which are that of social media. A lot of the issues that Ifekoya uses in her work are that of which occur on social media, from a judgemental and ‘cyber bullying’ from, also known as ‘trolling’. I do like the way that Ifekoya produces work and doesn’t care what people think as this is the way in which she chooses to express herself and that is what is important.

The White Pube – 30/11/2016

http://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/ Check out their instagram too! Very social media based.. Ties in with my work very well, addresses social issues. http://www.artinliverpool.com/review-white-pube/

Jamie Crew – 07/12/2016

http://www.jamiecrewe.co.uk/

Jamie Crewe is an artist, singer and a beautiful bronze figure with a polished cocotte’s head. They use objects, moving image, print, installation and publication to make diverse works which inform each other. ‘Curdling’ is often an appropriate description of Jamie’s artistic intentions: adding a catalyst or agitation to a thing which causes it to split and transform. Forms or structures from existing cultural products are echoed, but with content that contradicts, complicates or undermines them. Pushing against their references, these works become ambivalent explorations of history, identity, community and desire. Jamie was born in Manchester, studied in Sheffield, and now lives and works in Glasgow. In February 2016 they opened their first solo show, But what was most awful was a girl who was singing, at Transmission, Glasgow, and in January 2017 they will open their second solo show, Female Executioner, at Gasworks, London. Recent group exhibitions include Enough Romance, Let's Fuck, Gabriele Senn Galerie, Vienna, (2016); Like a Floral Knife, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh (2016); and A Camel is a Horse, Transmission, Glasgow (2016). In 2015 Jamie graduated from the Master of Fine Art course at Glasgow School of Art, for which they received a special commendation from Glasgow Sculpture Studios.

Artist/singer describes himself in odd ways, without saying anything clear or useful subtle, difficult history, identity, community, desire. work in the circle of ambivalence around these themes. from Sheffield, graduated 2009 a poster by Jamie Crew 2012 4 years trying to have a practise in Sheffield. didn’t know any other queer artists, wasn’t interested in their work. realised had to just make work for themselves worked alongside full time office job

Hardeep Pandhal – 14/12/2016

http://www.daviddalegallery.co.uk/programme/hardeep-pandhal/ https://frieze.com/article/hardeep-pandhal http://www.hardeeppandhal.com/

Born in Birmingham, Hardeep Pandhal now lives and works in Glasgow, having graduated with an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art in 2013 with the support of a Leverhulme Scholarship award. Hardeep develops non-linear, semi- autobiographical narratives though drawing, painting and sculpture. Hardeep Pandhal’s art confronts trauma with laughter. Making work that is both satirical and transgressive, Pandhal questions perceptions of British Asian identity via his personal reflections on modern British history and popular culture. He does this by drawing on the conflicting experiences of others and his own biography to create fictionalised characters and narratives, realised in drawing and collage, spoof documentaries, and handmade garments (made with the help of his mum). He was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2013), the Glasgow International Open Bursary (2013), the Catlin Art Guide (2014) and the Drawing Room Bursary Award (2015).

Lucy Clout – 25/01/2017

https://www.limoncellogallery.co.uk/artist/lucy-clout/ https://vimeo.com/lucyclout https://frieze.com/article/focus-interview-lucy-clout https://lux.org.uk/artist/lucy-clout Lucy Clout was born in Leeds in 1980 and lives and works in London. Performance and the experience of viewing performance constitute the basis of her practice. This is reflected in the production of objects, sound work, text and video. She holds a BA from Goldsmiths, an MA from RCA and is represented by Limoncello gallery in London. Alice Theobald – 01/02/2017 Alice Theobald draws upon a mixture of pop and underground cultural references as she develops multifaceted performances using music, installation, and video. Theobald’s performance and video works reference the hybrid nature of their construction through playing with the metaphorical potential of language, sound, and movement while directly addressing accepted concepts of spectacle and emotion. Theobald frequently works in collaboration with a cast of non-professional actors and performers and employs repetition as a strategy to interrogate the unstable relationship between art, communication and representation.

http://alicetheobald.blogspot.co.uk https://frieze.com/article/focus-alice-theobald https://vimeo.com/user10819813

Alice Theobald lives and works in London and graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in 2014, where she won the Gold Medal. In December 2015 Theobald had her first solo exhibition in a public museum at the BALTIC – Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Theobald recently completed the first cycle of the ‘Bear Pit’ Residency at Focal Point Gallery, commissioned by Grand Union. In February of 2014 she presented I’ve said yes now, that’s it. for the Chisenhale Gallery’s Interim programme. In late 2014 Theobald completed The Future Autumn Residency at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire; in 2013 she completed the Gasworks, London International Performance Residency. Recent performances, exhibitions, and film screenings include: The Next Step, Two Queens, Leicester (2016); Alice Theobald and Atomik Architecture, BALTIC Ryder Commission, BALTIC – Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2016); Lucy Stein & France-Lise McGurn present NEO-PAGAN BITCH-WITCH!, Evelyn Yard, London (2016); The Boys The Girls The Political, curated by Lynton Talbot and Hana Noorali, Lisson Gallery, London (2015); The Fifth Artist, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2015); Open Source, Gillett Square, London (2015); Dear Luxembourg (yours, bucktoothed grl), Nosbaum Reding Projects, Luxembourg (2015); Too Much, Two Queens, Leicester (2014); Marmalade Me, South London Gallery, London (2014); I’ve said yes now, that’s it., Outpost, Norwich (2014); I’ve said yes now, that’s it., Chisenhale Gallery, London (2014); AFTER/HOURS/DROP/BOX, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2013), Spike Island, Bristol (2014); Young London, V22, London (2013); They Keep Putting Words In My Mouth! An Operetta of Sorts, Pilar Corrias, London (2013); Situation|Event, Gasworks, London (2013); Stage Night, The Horse Hospital, London (2013); 6th Tropical Lab, ICA, Singapore (2012).

Dancehall – 01/03/2017

psykickdancehallrecordings.com Psykick Dancehall is a collaboration between Hannah Ellul and Ben Knight that emerged from an involvement in underground experimental music in the UK. Initially based around a label and events, it has subsequently expanded to incorporate other activities exploring sound and aural experience, including publications, performances and exhibitions - often in collaboration with different artists along the way.

At the moment, we are particularly interested in acts of listening and how they inflect the ways we negotiate our surroundings. Most recently, we have been thinking about how forms of communication and cohabitation develop and change, and what that might suggest about the politics of listening. Sound is a bodily disturbance: listening is not an activity that allows us to put a clear distance between ourselves and things. Instead, it shapes our encounters with the places and bodies that surround us in unexpected ways. Listening might mean courting the risk of disorientation: of overhearings, mishearings and misunderstandings. Sound is a matter of physical contact, and so it involves the renegotiation of our relationship to spaces, bodies and objects. We are also interested in the relationships between sound and writing and between the page and performance. Since 2010 we have produced a publication, DANCEHALL, which has explored affinities between artists from different fields working in very different ways with sound, the voice and performance. Recent projects include an exhibition at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2015), where we staged an edition of DANCEHALL across objects and events within the gallery. Considering publication as a mode of production, the project explored the relationship between the page, the gallery space and live event. The ongoing relationship of writing and performance in our work was previously developed in The Speaking Machine (2013-14), a long-term project begun for the Colour Out of Space festival of experimental sound in Brighton. Taking the novel Berg by writer Ann Quin as a starting point, the work adopted a version of the novel's revenge narrative and its themes of doubles and imposters to produce a hallucinatory chorus of voices in performances and video. Other activities have included a performance at besser stranger noch festival, Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, Hamburg (2015); contributing to the Superwoofer event, Matts Gallery, London (2015) and the exhibition Writing Sound 2, Lydgalleriet, Bergen (2014); and unsmoothmaking, an exhibition and performances at Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2013); and Lothringer_13 Laden, Munich (2012/13).

Daniel Rourke – 08/03/2017

The 3D additivist manifesto &a cookbook Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke

More of a writer than an artist Research methodology Stories

Additivism.org/LJMU

3D printing Status and identity Political questions Trumps shutdown of 6 countries, closing boarders Disconnected from both homelands, couldn't go back

Dark Matter 2014/15 Surrealism Banned objects blended together Juxtapositions Questioning boundaries and crossing them Breach boundaries, formal political boundaries

Cody Wilson, The Liberator 2013 Gun fires one bullet and then breaks Prohibited to own the Digital file Gun legislation

Boris Groys    

Megumi Igarashi - good for nothing girl 'I want my vagina to travel around the world' Work was considered 'pop art' by court

Golan Levin with F.A.T. Lab + Sy-Lab 2012 Free universal construction kit Connect different toy systems together e.g. Lego with Connect

Additive process Use many different materials Toys to limbs using the same technology Produce drugs and chemicals

Donna Haraway, A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s 1983/85

Caroline Achaintre – 22/03/2017 Caroline Achaintre (born Toulouse, 1969) spent her formative years in Germany studying Fine Art at Kunsthochschule in Halle/Saale (1996-98), with her postgraduate Studies in Fine Art and Combined Media at Chelsea College of Art & Design, London (1998-2000) and a MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London (2001-03). She trained as a blacksmith before coming to London, where she now lives and works. Recent solo exhibitions include those at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2016); TATE Britain, London (2015-15); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, IT (2015-16) and currently at FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Riems, FR until April 2017. Her works were also part of the recent British Art Show (2015-16).

Dawn Mellor – 08/04/2017 

http://www.studiovoltaire.org/exhibitions/archive/dawn-mellor/ http://www.hungertv.com/feature/the-interview-dawn-mellor/ http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/mellor-dawn-1970

In her images Dawn Mellor (born 1970 in Manchester, lives and works in London) deconstructs the interactive structure of the cult of celebrity – which appears in our culture to have been elected as a substitute for religion – by means of black humour fabricating a relationship between star and his/her believer, the fan. In so doing the artist herself frequently takes the role of an obsessed follower. Through a frequently self-chosen “painterly” role Mellor destroys the moral codes communicated through mass entertainment vouching for a deliberated immorality. Whereby in the face of the obsessive image worlds the question is also continually asked about the actual standardised taste of the observer and its verification. Mellor’s painting style is simultaneously fed by surrealism, the colourfulness of Pop Art and the intentional bad taste of a Joe Coleman. In her first institutional presentation in Switzerland the painter is to exhibit amongst other works, the 120 part portrait cycle Vile Affections (2007–2008) as well as numerous new large-scale works, drawings and a wall painting. The delusional fan or stalker as they are also called, that can no longer leave the object of his/her desire alone, is a figure that has already taken a firm place in Mellor’s works. The starting point for her paintings is formed throughout by celebrities and stars, idols and icons of the most various fields and eras. They frequently undergo a grotesque deconstruction, the narrative of which she contextualises anew and furnishes with a new symbolism and iconography. The artist herself takes on various stalker roles and makes distinct to which of various functions the star can be assigned: as family member, lover, enemy or object of delinquent sexuality. The painting and drawing that emerges from this fictive role giving is a performative painting concept which also produces an intellectual distance between subject and object.