#christian sheffield

[mary-maud]

part of an exhibition I saw in the millennium galleries

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 10, Number 10

The Ex

October closes with a macabre flourish — blackened gardens, elaborate yard displays of skeletons, Halloween, the day of the dead, a terrifying American election.  We music lovers react in various ways, some turning to darker, more ominous musical textures, others seeking solace and distraction, still others ignoring the backdrop completely and listening to what they would listen to anyway.  And so, we gather another wide-ranging dust, spanning sounds inspired by a Bolivian earthquake, pogo-friendly snappy jangle, a crust supergroup, a celebration of the Ex’s 45 years in music, and much more.  This month’s contributors include Jennifer Kelly, Bryon Hayes, Bill Meyer, Jonathan Shaw, Christian Carey, Ray Garraty, Tim Clarke and Ian Mathers. 

Alma Laprida — Pitch Dark and Trembling (Outside Time)

Alma Laprida is an experimental artist and musician from Argentina, here playing a medieval stringed instrument—the tromba marina—through a 21st century array of effects pedals and an 18-inch subwoofer. The instrument, with its yards-long strings and vibrating bridge, is, by itself, capable of unusual sounds. Its natural timbre hovers between a cello and a trumpet. But fed through Laprida’s electronic rig, the sound turns harsh and ominous, blistering and dissolving into tones so low you feel rather than hear them. This album comes from a live performance at Bard College in 2023, taking as its subject Laprida’s experiences during an earthquake in Bolivia. In the long, “Trembling,” low, sustained vibrations make the air tremble, while trebly, metallic sounds skitter and rattle, like pots and pans clattering in the shock. A clock ticks in the foreground, steady on top of roiling, shifting undercurrents. “Vibra,” the other lengthy track, looses then subdues the tromba’s brassy sound, letting the echoes linger for long, not-quite-empty minutes. A corrosive blare interrupts, a foghorn in a world of mists and uncertainty, then clear string tones and its scratching echoes. Pitch Dark and Trembling distills an ambient unease into sound.

Jennifer Kelly

Artificial Go — Hopscotch Fever (Feel It / Future Shock)

This Cincinnati quartet produce a short, sharp brand of post-punk that induces spontaneous pogoing. Hopscotch Fever is Artificial Go’s debut, but it could easily be mistaken for an unearthed gem from late-1970s England with its snappy rhythms and chiming, angular guitars. Vocalist Angie Wilcutt (Corker) adopts an English accent as she sings charmingly, her lyrics unfolding in an energy-filled stream of consciousness that keeps pace with the bouncy backbeat of songs like “Payphone,” “Aphrodisiac,” and the band’s calling card “Artificial Go.” Cole Gilfilen (Corker, The Drin), Micah Wu, and Claudio Thornburgh round out the band’s lineup. Like a game of hopscotch, their churning jangle is a lot of fun but comes to a halt far too quickly. Hopscotch Fever is full of earworms. Its effervescent spirit lingers in our brains long after the music stops.  

Bryon Hayes

Black Toska—The Orphan (Self-Release)

The Madrileño goth punks in Black Toska return with six more haunted, synth-swathed, night visions, revisiting a sound Dusted described in early 2023 as “like John Spencer without all the arch theatricality or Rocket 808 in less of a growl and more of a croon.” If anything The Orphan is even more ominous than Dandelion was, with corrosive guitar sound tripping a hole in “Little Dead Bird” and a fever-dream unease percolating through “The Only Thing We Need.” The best cut is the title track, intimating baroque dangers its flowers-of-evil flare of wah wah and mannered vocal melody. “Who can steal a baby?” asks Victor Garcia, his elegant, jaded voice hemmed in by wild surges of electrified dissonance, as you’re left to consider that bad things—and compelling music—flourish in the shadows.

Jennifer Kelly

Paul Bryan — Western Electric (Paul Bryan Music)

The title might cue you to ponder your power situation, but the intent is more oblique. Bassist-programmer-producer Paul Bryan took Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, an exercise in restriction that happened to open doors of conceptual opportunity for everyone who was feeling confined by the piano’s roll as the chord cop of bebop. But Bryan, whose cv. includes production and arrangement work with Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, and Aimee Mann, is a plugged-in kind of guy, so his restriction involved writing the material on a little Yamaha keyboard and recording it with a trio comprising Jay Belleroe on drums and Josh Johnson on alto sax. Since you can’t completely separate a studio dude from his gear, there’s some processing and programmed drum, which results in the album having a soft jazz-funk feel that is uncluttered, but hardly minimal. Western Electric is the answer to a question that few might ask; what if you subtracted the guitar and the layered production from Jeff Parker’s New Breed?

Bill Meyer

CPC Gangbangs — Roadhouse (Slovenly)

CPC Gangbangs is back after a long hiatus and not a bit tamed. The Montreal garage punks with ties to Les Sexareenos and Spaceshit flared out in 2007 and reappeared (some of them) as Red Mass. But 17 years later and without explanation, they bash and slam and clatter again, serving up two covers and one original, all flayed and confrontational like it’s the rock-is-back aughts all over again. CPC Gangbangs jack up Louisiana swamp rock “Going Back to Philly” on agitated city-boy jitters. They blast through “Rock ‘n Roll Enemy #1” from the SF proto-punks Crime with furious intent. They haunt Bo Diddley’s grave site with a rackety beat in “Roadhouse.” It’s referential but never reverent, well-informed but never studious, good stuff.

Jennifer Kelly

Deadform — Entrenched in Hell (Tankcrimes)

Sort of stupid to reference the notion of “supergroup” in relation to a subgenre as witheringly anti-commercial as crust, but Deadform hits all the right notes, as it were: three dudes who have Oakland’s concrete ground into their bodies, and who have played crucial roles in bands as storied as Dystopia, Stormcrow and Laudanum. Dino Sommese (of Dystopia, and also Noothgrush and Ghoul) has the most recognizable name, for listeners beyond the Bay Area and outside of crust’s stinky, dirty milieu, and he pounds the skins and hollers with energy belying his 50-some-odd years. But all the players (including Brian Clouse and Judd Hawk) are all in. Entrenched in Hell doesn’t move beyond crust’s characteristic properties: lotsa nasty metal-tinged guitar parts, some sludgy yuck clotting up the bloodstream, the smell of filthy dreadlocks, and so on. It’s a heavy record, the second half of which hits especially hard. Check out “Peacekeeper” and especially “Fetid Breath.” Then pick yourself up off the dank floor of whatever squat you passed out in and play the tunes again.

Jonathan Shaw

Efterklang — Things We Have in Common (City Slang)

Danish post-rock band Efterklang has been releasing recordings for 20 years, as well as producing an opera in 2015 and making music through core members’ side projects. Things We Have in Common is the culmination of a trio of albums, beginning with Altid Sammen (2017) and continuing with Windflowers (2021). This time out, the group doesn’t eschew its characteristic experimentation, but several of the songs evince a gentle, art pop vibe, particularly “Plant” on which singer/cellist Mabe Fratti guests, “Getting Reminders,” with Beirut and “Animated Heart,” featuring the choir Sønderjysk Pigekor. Efterklang on its own is persuasive too. “Shelf Break” has an artful use of vocoder against oscillating synths and abundantly syncopated percussion. “Leave It All Behind” combines whispered vocals, keyboard arpeggiations, sustained sine tones and a drum thwack on alternating beats. Taken as part of the trio of recordings, Things We Have in Common is its hopeful conclusion.

Christian Carey

The Ex — Great! / The Evidence (Ex Records)

In 2024, the Ex are celebrating their 45th year by putting out their first new music in six years. It’s just two songs on a 45-rpm record (although they’re also throwing a celebratory shindig in Amsterdam and Mechelen late in November). Not many bands last 45 years, and of those that do, it’s pretty rare for them to put out work you’d want to hear as much as the songs that first drew you into their camp. The Ex are not a common band. The quartet of Terrie Hessels, Andy Moor, Arnold de Boer, and Katherina Bornefeld are still engaged with the moment; the words to these two song address current realities with a combination of elliptical expression and blunt veracity. They’re still engaged with each other, locking into these tough, intricate, but fat-free tunes with combustible chemistry intact. And they’re still tuned into the joy and outrage that’s infused their work across four and a half decades. That’s pretty rare.

Bill Meyer

Jill Fraser— Earthly Pleasures (Drag City)

Electronic composer Jill Fraser has been making music for commercials and films, as well as performing New Age pieces live, since the 1970s. Earthly Pleasures is her first album release in a while. It demonstrates her versatility with vintage gear such as the 1978 Serge Modular synth and newer resources such as Ableton Push 3. “When We Get to Heaven” is a ten-minute long track that uses these resources to make a diaphanously appealing arrangement. “Amen 1” and “Amen 2” are more aphoristic, the first with clouds of harmony and a sci-fi sounding ascent, the second with sparking bell timbres, oscillating percussion, sampled voices, and a fluid keyboard part. Earthly Pleasures closes with “I Stand Amazed,” with trebly, widely spaced synths. Fraser has suggested that the theme of this album is, “What happens to our music when we die?” History suggests that mileage varies, but while she is earthbound, one hopes Fraser has more recordings to share.

Christian Carey

Häxenzijrkell — Portal (Amor Fati)

German maestros of bummer black metal Häxenzijrkell are back with another slab of downtempo musical maelstroms, engineered to drag you into a terrible, soul crushing void. That description and the band’s sonic profile sound a lot like blackened doom, but somehow the music on Portal scans as straight-up black metal — at least to this reviewer’s ears. The best tracks are at the end of the record: “Assiah” and “Aeon” drone, churn and distend like the effects of some of that legendary brown acid, which we aren’t supposed to eat. There’s nothing especially lysergic (to invoke that too-trivially used term) about the textures or production of Portal. It’s more the nightmarishness of the tunes, the mechanical edges on the band’s sound, the taste of something metallic at the back of the tongue — all that stuff accumulates, alongside the deliberate, glacial progress of the songs. Soon that glistening, awful wall of ice looms over you. You can see your face on its glassy surface. You know it’s a bad idea to stare, but you can’t help yourself. It’s excruciating. It’s entrancing. You are through the Portal.

Jonathan Shaw

Boldy James & Harry Fraud — The Bricktionary (Boldy James / SRFSCHL)

The Bricktionary is the fourth Boldy James’ tape this year and apparently not the final one. The producer Harry Fraud has also been too busy lately, spreading himself too thin. The good news is that Boldy is good even on generic beats (probably half of his output has been on some unknown guys’ production). It’s the kind of street music which never forgets that it’s an art and not a report card. The best track here is “Shadowboxing.”

Ray Garraty

Danny Kamins — Retainer (Sound Holes)

“Solo Horn,” declares the J-card art, and it does not lie. This tape presents Texan Danny Kamins playing sopranino and baritone saxophones at home, alone. It would appear that he spent his lockdown time developing his circular breathing. On the small horn, his examinations of patterns that subtly vary and throw off flurries of orbiting overtones feels like an homage to Evan Parker’ solo soprano work. Parker got there first with such authority that he has made it hard for other people to do it and not simply sound like him. Kamins sounds great but doesn’t quite overcome the challenge of differentiation. The baritone is another matter. Kamins sculpts massive ribbons of tunneling, rippling sound to consistently compelling effect.

Bill Meyer

Seiji Murayama / Jean-Luc Guionnet — Balcony Inside (Ftarri)

Multi-instrumentalist, graphic artist, composer, improviser, film-maker, etc.; Jean-Luc Guionnet is a confirmed polymath. On Balcony Inside he and frequent collaborator Suijiro Murayama perform a duet for church organ (Guionnet) and snare drum, cymbal and voice (Muriyama). But it might be more accurate to say that they play with space. There’s the apparently capacious interior of the Taborkirche, which Guionnet represents with massive chords that beat against the walls. And there’s the space inside your head, which is likely to be rearranged by Muriyama’s horror-movie-victim cries and emphatic, elastically rhythmic beats. A seasonal suggestion: pipe this music loudly out of your house on Halloween, and keep a tally of how many are drawn by these massive sounds and how many avoid your house.

Bill Meyer

The Necks — Bleed (Northern Spy)

It’s impossible to guess where The Necks might head next, whether live or on record. Their new album, Bleed,is a single 42-minute track that unfolds patiently in an episodic fashion. There are no conventional rhythms from Tony Buck; instead, he punctuates the space with chimes, bowed cymbals and snare and tom rolls that suggest something ominous is about to happen. Sparse, sustained piano notes from Chris Abrahams are left to hang in the air — listen carefully and you can hear breathing in the room — or Abrahams switches to organ and projects pulsing clusters of notes into stereo space. In an unexpected turn, an electric guitar appears, with accompanying tube amp hum. Lloyd Swanton’s bass is largely absent, save for occasional isolated octave plucks, or some ominous bowing. When the piece coalesces in its final stretch with two piano chords, bass and guitar, the music is begging to continue in this vein for at least twice as long as it does but is cruelly cut short. That’s The Necks for you: always expansive, always surprising, always tapping into music’s eternal potential.

Tim Clarke

Rich the Factor — The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 (WE MFR)

We mostly listen to Rich the Facc’s music because of his gruff voice. The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 is another sample of his voice. The big mistake would be to try to pay attention to what he’s saying on these songs. It is some usual nonsense about how he’s “on money mission, not on dummy mission.” Even after dozens of replays no song off this tape stays in memory. But it’s fine. You have only one question: how is The North Face Whale, Vol. 3 any different from Vol. 1 and Vol. 2?

Ray Garraty

Colin Andrew Sheffield — Moments Lost (Sublime Retreat)

Sound source resonates with subject on this brief minimax (a 3” CD embedded in a 5” plastic disc) CD made by Colin Andrew Sheffield, an electronic musician who resides in Austin TX. Sheffield’s preferred method is plunderphonics; he mines his own media collection for sounds to be procured and (most of the time) processed into music of his own. Moments Lost is a soundtrack made from soundtracks. Sheffield has marshalled a mass of samples from movies, mostly string passages that imply moments of pause, reflection, transition and loss, and layered and sequenced them into a 20.33” sequence of sounds daub association and reverie like a painter might daub paint. Played at low volume, it could be your next go-to ambient recording. But if you spend time listening closely, perhaps while peering at the sleeve’s stills from a film that Sheffield played along with the music when he first presented it at the Molten Plains Festival in Denton in 2023, you might find your physique and consciousness sinking deep while you hit the play button over and over.

Bill Meyer

Chelsea Wolfe — She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She (Loma Vista)

Considering Chelsea Wolfe hasn’t put out a solo LP since 2019’s Birth of Violence, and that was basically a folk record, casual fans may well wonder what kind of upheavals led to this very different seventh album. On a personal level there have been plenty (sobriety, relationships changing, learning to live alone, etc) and that combined with additional pandemic time spent working on the demos led to Wolfe going in a more electronic direction and deliberately seeking an outside producer (Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, many others) to transform the songs. The result is further in a darkwave/trip-hop direction than the already protean Wolfe has previously gone, and also one of her most consistently engaging records. Whether on the noisier, spikier bursts of “Whispers in the Echochamber” and “Eyes Light Nightshade” or the more delicate likes of “The Liminal” and “Place in the Sun,” there’s a beautifully sung and relentless Gothic vibe to the whole thing that’s extremely satisfying. Wolfe may well choose to move on again after this, but it’ll be a bit of a shame if she does.

Ian Mathers

[unitedbydevils]

Match Review: Sheffield United 1-2 Manchester United

A scrappy game in the aftermath of the tragic news that Sir Bobby Charlton had passed away aged 86 was not what fans would have wanted, but thankfully the Red Devils could honour the great man's memory with a crucial win.

Bramhall Lane played host to a tale of two halves. In the first, Manchester United were dire; devoid of composure, creativity, and most importantly control. We didn't retain possession or dictate the game. It was so bad that the official United highlights show McTominay's goal - a tidy takedown and finish, in all fairness - as the first of the match highlights. It came in the 28th minute. It's wild that there was nothing of note that United did in 27 minutes of gameplay.

In classic United fashion, no sooner had we taken the lead than we gave it away; a handball from McTominay gave Sheffield a penalty and Oli McBurnie banged home a good finish. Special mention to Andre Onana who got very close to saving it, but Harry Kane would have been proud of McBurnie's set piece. A top drawer penalty.

There were two big disappointments within United's ranks. Bruno Fernandes was more wasteful than is within his remit as the creative attacking midfielder. There's gambling on a chance, and then there's sloppy passing around the midfield that completely collapses our possession play.

The other was Scott McTominay. He's scored 3 in 2 for United, and I believe he is our top league scorer this season - only behind Casemiro for all competitions. He excels in attacking opportunities and is something of a wildcard, but his weakness is possession football - in the same way Harry Maguire struggles with a high defensive line. McTominay isn't a metronome like Amrabat, or a line-breaker like Eriksen. He shies away from the ball. Players like Hannibal and Mainoo will supplant him from the squad in due course, but in the meantime Erik Ten Hag and his coaching team have a challenge on their hands to ensure that they don't risk United's fluidity by rewarding players for fluke moments - such as McTominay's winners. I do like the guy, and I'm happy to have him in as a squad player, but I know he wants more. I just hope he has a good campaign for United, to secure himself a favourable move away next summer.

The second half wasn't glorious football, but it was what the first half should have been - before a team talk at HT sharpens it up.

United were more ambitious. They retained the ball better thanks to fewer weird mistakes, and they were more aggressive going forward. Rashford was unlucky to not score, dragging a great chance wide of the far post. Amrabat hit the crossbar too, denying him a first United goal. The standout was a moment of magic that echoed the likes of Charlton and Beckham, with Diogo Dalot whipping home a top corner curling shot from 25 yards to uproar from the away end.

Truthfully it should have been more too. Martial and Garnacho mistimed a counter attack to flag offside, and Bruno and Martial misunderstood movements and also tripped the offside trap. If these moments can be erased, and a bit of luck guides the Amrabat goal in, suddenly we're looking at a 5-1 slapdown of Sheffield United.

That brings us to the point at hand though: we've not clicked, not yet. These results are very achievable based on the talents available to Ten Hag, but for some reason players haven't quite found their groove. Perhaps it's the injuries, perhaps it was the pre-season workload.

Thankfully players are returning. Harry Maguire has had three good games on the bounce. Garnacho's finding form. Amrabat unsurprisingly looks far better in CM than deputising at LB. With any of our LBs back I think United will be far more reliable, but there are so many 'what ifs'. What if Mainoo's pre-season form flattered to deceive, ala Andreas Pereira? What if Mason Mount doesn't fit in to the system? What if Onana doesn't regain his form?

Until United can build a run of form, every game's a "must win" or a "big test". 2 defeats from 2 in the Champions League group stage means Tuesday vs Copenhagen is though. We must win or we're not even looking at the Europa League, we're just dusted, and that's embarrassing to another level. Fortunately it's a very achievable victory. I just hope Mason Mount starts over McTominay to give us some more vibrancy and spark in our passing and vision.

[stoopidamerican]

On Tap 9/1-3

Embed from Getty Images The last weekend before the September international break promises to be a good one, especially in the Premier League. But there’s also key games in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, as well as an Old Firm derby to contend with. And then there’s a tasty opportunity to catch not-so-Stoopid American Christian Pulisic on Friday. All listed times are CDT. Friday, September…

[lookingfts]

Friday Fic Rec 9/20

Thanks so much for your submissions! I actually got so many that I’m going to save some for next week, so if you don’t see something you recommended, I will include it later!

Titles are links to each fic.

can’t turn back now by idkmanokay

"This mob boss Anthony and BAMF Kate is absolutely amazing. I love it when they match each other’s freak a thousand percent.”

Description: anthony inherits his father’s empires and finally meets his match in a secretive kate

WIP (12/14) - E - 64k words

So Help Me God by writesforpleasure

“It’s a very interesting story about Kate and Anthony as camp counsellors at a religious summer camp!! It addresses themes of religious guilt, atheism and God, from their perspectives.”

Description: Kate, Anthony, and company navigate American Christian summer camp. What could go wrong?

WIP (5/?) - NR - 14k words

An Inconvenient Arrangement by @doodlingaway

“This story is set after the Sheffield dinner. What if Anthony was honest with Edwina regarding their loveless marriage? And then Kate proposes a marriage of convenience. Chaos ensues. It's a brilliant emotional revelation. Really anything by this author is A+!”

Description: After the Sheffield dinner, Anthony is struck by Kate’s mention that he would break her sister’s heart by calling off their engagement. He decides that a conversation is in order between them to clear the air, which goes about as well as you might expect. Kate is left to pick up the pieces and find a way forward for her family. Which, most disconcertingly, might just involve the one person who has caused all this pain for her family to begin with.

Complete - T - 18k words

bloom by antematter

“An oldie but a goodie. I just reread this as antematter has been pumping out hit after hit these last couple of months. Every one of her stories is stunningly beautiful, but this one was the OG for me. I still remember reading it the first time round in complete awe and waiting so anxiously for the second chapter. It was my first soul marks fic, and I’ve been in love with the trope ever since. Antematter is a fandom gem!“

Description: Kate is born with a single tulip on the inside of her left wrist and a red lily on her right. This in itself is not particularly unusual. a soulmates au

Complete - T - 7k words

dowry by afreenafreen

“Dowry is a masterpiece, a fic focused on Kate's feelings after Anthony's marriage proposal to Edwina, but the difference is that although Kate is destroyed, she also feels freed when Anthony refuses any dowry and with the added bonus of a friendship between Kate and Dorset.”

Description: She is glad that Edwina managed to find a good match for herself - despite all of Kate's meddling and disapproval and interference. And after she goes home and hands the settlement papers to Mary with careful instructions regarding its notarization and safekeeping, she must congratulate her sister as well, sweetly and sincerely, and wash her hands off the entire affair. For she has now been set free.

WIP (5/10) - M - 28k words

A Promise Made In Haste by @waterlilyrose

“Hands down the best take on the 'What if Anthony married Edwina' premise that I have read. It's a very slow burn as the author takes the time to actually navigate regency era divorce (taking some liberties, of course). A really spectacular, thorough journey to their HEA.”

Description: An AU where Anthony actually goes through with marrying Edwina and Kate actually goes back to India. And Anthony and Edwina (after maybe a year or so into their marriage--which is going miserably by the way) go to visit her in India.

Complete - E - 107k words

time makes fools of us all. by limeny

Description: Kate gave her sister the most exasperated look she could manage in a fuzzy pink sweater. “Edwina Sharma,” she scoffed. “What on Earth possessed you to say yes to a loser that would allow a bored widow to play matchmaker for him?” A modern AU love story in the span of a year.

Complete - M - 20k words

LFTS rec: Kate the Virgin by @rosesatdawn24

Such a fun plot for our two dumb lovebirds. Sweet and sexy and you don’t need me to tell you that my girl Rose is an absolutely amazing writer.

Description: A Jane the Virgin AU

WIP (16/40) - E - 32k words

Thanks to those who submitted! Keep your recs coming! You can find previous weeks under the "lfts fic recs" tag.

[shannendoherty-fans]

The Rolling Stone

AMERICAN IDOL

Nobody Could Break Shannen Doherty, and Everybody Tried

The Beverly Hills, 90210 star was America's favorite Nightmare Girl — hated, feared, idolized. She embraced it all with an ever-present, knowing smirk

BY ROB SHEFFIELD

JULY 14, 2024

MARIO CASILLI/"TV GUIDE"/© AARON SPELLING PRODUCTIONS/EVERETT COLLECTION Rest in peace, Shannen Doherty — the quintessential Hollywood bad girl of the Nineties, the Heather-est of the Heathers. Doherty made her legend on Beverly Hills, 90210, the best TV teen drama ever by a mile, playing teenage chaos agent and drama factory Brenda Walsh. The world is mourning the news of Doherty’s death, at only 53, after an agonizing, nine-year, public battle with cancer. Yet she faced her health struggles with the same fighting spirit she brought to everything she did. Doherty was always defiantly herself, America’s nightmare of a Difficult Girl, which made her the most vilified celebrity of her time. But she wore it proudly. “I have a rep,” she said in 2010. “Did I earn it? Yeah, I did.”

She always had that wonderfully cocky grin, from 90210 to her Let’s Be Clear podcast. It was that grin, more than anything, that made her controversial. It wasn’t her brief marriages or her “difficult” work rep or her tabloid feuds that made her Hollywood’s most hated woman — it was the smile, her cool self-satisfied look of knowing she was the shit. That’s what America could not forgive her for — she loved being Shannen Doherty and refused to apologize for it. Nothing she went through, even in her final years, could break that grin.

She blew up right before the Nineties explosion of feminist pop culture, as the Alanis/Fiona/Courtney/Missy/Liz/Left Eye revolution took off. She was the jagged little pill that America could not swallow, and it got her crucified in public. But it’s why so many of us idolized her.

In Heathers, Winona Ryder’s Veronica Sawyer asks, “Why do you have to be such a mega-bitch?” Doherty, as queen bee Heather Duke replies, “Because I can be.” Only Doherty could give that line such a stiletto twist.

I saw her last year making a rare public appearance at a Nineties pop-culture fan convention in Florida. She had the longest lines at her autograph booth — fans told me they’d camped out for hours before her sessions even started. Everybody knew she was battling cancer, so it was emotional to see the crowd erupt when she came out for a Charmed reunion panel, saying that she was “feeling great,” holding court with that same cocky smile. She also refused to take part in the Beverly Hills, 90210 reunion panel, featuring almost all her castmates, even though she was right there in the building — she scheduled an autograph session while it was happening. What a Brenda Walsh power move.

Even before 90210, Doherty was ferocious. She was just 17 when she became one of the all-time-great movie supervillains in Heathers, as the high-school mean girl Heather Duke. It was supposed to be a star vehicle for Winona and Christian Slater, but Shannen steals it, especially in the funeral scene. She’s dressed to kill, in black gloves and a royal-wedding hat. She kneels by the casket to pray over her dead friend’s body. “I prayed for the death of Heather Chandler many times,” she tells the Lord. “And I felt bad every time I did it, but I kept doing it anyway. Now I know you understood everything. Praise Jesus! Hallelujah!” Her sadistic smirk is still shocking after all these years.

Doherty was a child actress, appearing in Little House on the Prairie when she was 11, alongside frontier patriarch Michael Landon. She credited him for inspiring her combative streak. “He told me, ‘Go with your instinct, and never let anybody walk over you, and always stick up for what you believe in,’” she once said. She stood out in the bizarrely underrated masterpiece Girls Just Want to Have Fun, one of the Eighties’ best teen movies, as Sarah Jessica Parker’s sassy little sister.

But she became a household name with Beverly Hills, 90210. “This receptionist told me, ‘What you have done for brunettes is amazing,’” Doherty told Rolling Stone in a 1992 cover story. “‘It’s always the blondes that get the guy, who have the wonderful life, who are perceived as the most beautiful one. And you have totally turned it around.” Brenda and her twin brother Brandon (Jason Priestley) had just moved to Beverly Hills from Minnesota. The Walshes were an innocent Midwest family dropped into the decadent SoCal fleshpots, where her mom fretted, “You didn’t wear this much makeup in Minnesota.”

The joke was that Shannen didn’t have a drop of Minnesota in her — her family was from Memphis, but she grew up in L.A., with showbiz written all over her face. “I dress more for my figure than Brenda does,” she said to Rolling Stone, explaining why she wore a bodysuit to the interview. “She’d probably put a dress over this bodysuit to hide herself. Brenda’s more apple pie, girl next door, America’s sweetheart.” That wasn’t Doherty’s style. Her glamour was more suited to the L.A. shoulder-pads era — she made a fantastic hair-metal muse in a video for the band Slaughter’s power ballad “Real Love.” Brenda was originally scripted as the nice, wholesome heroine, but Shannen turned it around with her sheer force of personality. Brenda had drama with practically everyone at West Beverly Hills High School, dating the bad boy Dylan. (Luke Perry tragically died of a stroke in 2019, only 52, a year younger than Doherty.) Jennie Garth played her best friend Kelly, yet they famously despised each other; one on-set brawl got so intense that Brian Austin Green had to break it up. (Green and Doherty had a laugh about this last year on her podcast.) The tension blew up with the Brenda/Dylan/Kelly love triangle. Dylan and Kelly try to keep it secret, until the legendary scene when Brenda catches them at a restaurant. Naturally she turns an awkward public encounter into World War 3, snarling, “Kelly, if you’re trying to lose your bimbo image, I honestly don’t think this will help.” If you doubt her greatness as an actor, watch her in this scene: She was a genius at hostile eye contact. Doherty made it a classic TV moment — even though Dylan really did belong with Kelly, sorry.

Brenda became the most hated character on TV. The zine Ben Is Dead did a spinoff called I Hate Brenda, with lines like “Shannen: The Other White Meat” and fantasies about Ted Nugent bow-hunting her. Plus a spinoff album full of bangers like “Brenda Can’t Dance To This” and the sensual slow jam “Horny Brenda.” It came with an “I Hate Brenda” T-shirt riddled with bloody bullet holes. When Doherty hosted Saturday Night Live in 1993, it became a horrifyingly misogynistic get-the-guest episode, sadly typical of that SNL era. In one sketch, Doherty was in the dock at the Salem Bitch Trials, with the whole cast chanting, “Burn the bitch!” (When Luke Perry hosted SNL, one of the first jokes in his monologue was “Be nice or I’ll get Shannen after you.”)

The tabloids were obsessed with her public fights, especially when she battled with Paris Hilton over Rick Salomon, Doherty’s ex from a quickie Vegas marriage. When her name came up on The Simple Life, Hilton just sniffed, “I hate that girl.”

Doherty was the bad conscience of Nineties girlhood, which was why America was so fascinated with the idea of hating her. Like Brenda, she was judged by ridiculously hypocritical double standards, sexualized and then demonized for it. She was about one-sixth as destructive as your average Hollywood male star of the time, yet she was the one constantly on trial for being everybody’s worst-case-scenario of a messy girl in public, prosecuted in her own real-life Salem Bitch Trials. Yet she refused to back down or play nice. This bitch would not burn.The 1992 ABC TV movie Obsessed is largely forgotten now — it’s total trash, but Doherty is brilliant in it. Her character spends the movie stalking her ex, who is (of all people) Seventies character actor William Devane, who was in McCabe & Mrs. Miller before she was born. (When this movie comes out, she’s 21, he’s 63 — exactly three times her age.) Naturally, the movie presents him as an innocent family man seduced and trapped by a stereotypical psycho sexpot, but Shannen’s feral intensity makes it very different — she’s in a totally different movie from anyone else onscreen. It’s full of normal people living their hypocritical lives, all agreeing that she’s the problem. But she doesn’t see it that way and won’t play that role. It’s the Alanis “I’m not quite as well and I thought you should know” brought to life.

Doherty moved on to Charmed, in a threesome of witch sisters with Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs. After three seasons of conflict with Milano, Charmed finally killed off Doherty’s character and replaced her with Rose McGowan. Doherty reprised the role of Brenda in the terrible 2008 Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot, and again in the campy 2019 BH90210 miniseries. She also had a great 2006 reality show on the Oxygen network: Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty. Each week she met with people desperate to escape their dysfunctional relationships, so she stepped in and did the breaking up for them. A perfect use of her skill set: the emotional assassin.

At the Charmed reunion panel last year, she kept snuggling on the couch with fellow bad-girl lifer Rose McGowan, who said her biggest career regret was that she and Shannen didn’t overlap on the show, so they never got to be witch sisters. A fan asked if Rose, Shannen, and Holly-Marie Combs would say the Power of Three ritual together, since they never got the chance on the show. It was indescribably moving to see these three women — all outcasts in Hollywood, all women discarded and demonized in different ways, all counted out and written off — huddle together and chant, “The Power of Three will set us free!”

It was a moment that said so much about her power, and why she will be missed and remembered. But she always lived up to that answer she gave Winona in Heathers. Why did she have to be Shannen Doherty? Because she could be.

[merovingian-marvels]

Boar helmets

Boar statuettes have been used as helmet decorations during the Germanic age both in mainland Europe, as well as Anglo-Saxon England and Vendel Scandinavia.

But could you have guessed that boars have been used as helmet decorations since Celtic times? More accurately I should say Hallstatt era Iron Age, but it does mean that the idea of warriors mirroring themselves with boars as fearless creatures in combat, has been in existence before the Roman conquest of Europe and has managed to survive up until the Christianization of all layers of society around 800-900 AD.

The helmet above is the “Benty Grange helmet”. Contrary to more famous helmets, is that this particular one was plated with horn rather than metal. The boar on top may have been decorated with hair running along its back. This was the first Anglo-Saxon helmet ever to be discovered, found in 1848.

Weston Park Museum - Sheffield, England

Museum nr. Unknown

Found at Benty Grange farm, Monyash - Derbyshire, England

[azspot]

The Republican party is run by deranged Christian fundamentalists.

Matthew Sheffield

[burlveneer-music]

Electric Sufi - O Ignis Spiritus - an electronic & Middle Eastern interpretation of Hildegard von Bingen

Electric Sufi are Sheffield based Professor of Music and Sound Archaeologist at Huddersfield University Rupert Till, Manchester based singer-songwriter and environmental activist Sarah Yaseen and Nottingham based multi-instrumentalist / University lecturer Mina Mikhael Salama.

With its bed of electronic drones and ebow guitar setting the scene, Electric Sufi’s interpretation of O Ignis Spiritus, a mediaeval chant by St. Hildegarde, is a mesmeric performance that sees a Muslim Sufi woman singing ancient Christian music written by a Christian woman. This embodies their mission of bringing traditions and ideologies together in a harmonious and creative way to precipitate solving the biggest issues of the day like climate change and societal division.

Utilising tuning based on the Solfeggio Frequencies, an ancient six-tone scale said by some to be incorporated in Gregorian chants and other sacred music, some research suggests that the pitch 528Hz on which the song is centred has healing properties and can help with relaxation.

[ao3feed-kathony]

So Help Me God

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/56869066 by writesforpleasure (seajay_bird) Kate, Anthony, and company navigate American Christian summer camp. For me, Season 2 was giving 2000s purity culture. The tension! The sexual repression! The secrecy! The brooding! The patriarchy! Trying my best to make this a fun read, but will also be dealing with serious subjects like grief, trauma, and spiritual abuse. Age differences have been changed. Words: 5093, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English Fandoms: Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M Characters: Anthony Bridgerton, Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma, Benedict Bridgerton, Edwina Sheffield | Edwina Sharma, Simon Basset, Agatha Danbury, Violet Bridgerton, Eloise Bridgerton, Penelope Featherington, Colin Bridgerton, Mary Sheffield | Mary Sharma Relationships: Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma, Benedict Bridgerton & Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma, Anthony Bridgerton & Benedict Bridgerton, Edwina Sheffield | Edwina Sharma & Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma, Simon Basset & Anthony Bridgerton, Agatha Danbury & Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma, Bridgerton Family & Kate Sheffield | Kate Sharma Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, purity culture, Swearing, Period-Typical Homophobia, Sexual Repression read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/56869066

[mary-maud]

Sheffield Cathedral

[animasola86]

Voice Appreciation Post

I’ve always loved certain voices. Mostly male voices of a certain timbre, I cannot explain their sound exactly, but when I hear these voices, it does something to me, not necessarily in a romantic/sexual way, mind you. I just enjoy them, very much. They are soothing and relaxing and I could listen to these voices forever. They could say the dumbest or most mundane things, but I would still listen to the sound of them.

And it doesn’t even matter what language they are speaking. I’m German, so my first “voice crush” (if you want to call it that) was a popular voice actor we have here (you see, most/all of foreign movies and shows and video games are being dubbed here and that in a very high quality kind of way), who voiced the German version of Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed II or Geralt of Rivia in the Witcher games, etc. (making these characters my all-time favorite videogame characters, btw).

I also enjoy listening to Japanese seiju - which makes it hard sometimes to read the subtitles of my favorite anime/drama, as I only listen (without understanding much) and enjoy. I don’t know what it is about Japanese men, but most of them just sound so good to me.

As for my newest (or oldest) love and obsession and why I’m writing this post to begin with: I also have a knack for British guys. It’s the accent (I’m not an expert on British accents so I couldn’t tell you which dialect it is or from where it hails, except maybe the Scottish accent, but that’s a no-brainer and also a favorite of mine). So I’ve had my voice crushes on, let’s say, Giles from Buffy, or Mr. Sheffield from The Nanny. (Or maybe I always liked older men too? Hmm.)

This also explains my deep obsession with Chamber of Secrets’ Tom Riddle played by Christian Coulson, whose voice is just, so, ugh. (Highly recommend any audio books he has narrated!) I can’t explain it. It just does things to me.

And the same happened when I played Hogwarts Legacy. I became totally obsessed by one particular voice and you might have guessed from the tags. Sebastian Sallow is not only the best character of the whole game, because he is so versatile and conflicted and adorable and whatnot, but his voice... the way his voice actor (Alfie Nugent, you are my absolute hero, btw!) says things, how his voice just vibrates through me, so low at times, the perfect timbre, no matter what situation Sebastian finds himself in, cheeky, flirty, worried, sad, it always sounds so mind-bogglingly good to me.

I find myself listening to his voice lines over and over again (thank you YouTube) and it helps me so much in writing my fanfiction. I love his voice, really, truly love his voice, it gives me all the good vibes love would do (in a completely platonic kind of way). And it’s just a voice.

Now, speaking about voices, I have to address the AI issue. Is it an issue? Well, I do feel bad for voice actors whose voices are (ab)used without their consent, but from a fan perspective it is the best thing that ever happened to this world. (That took a turn, eh?) Having all these creative people of the Hogwarts Legacy fandom create their own voice lines for Sebastian (and other charaters for that matter) is truly such a blessing. Every day I find more and they are all so good and authentic and the way an AI program can mimic these perfect voices is just beyond me.

So thank you, lovely people who have perfected ElevenLabs, and thank you to the original voice actors for providing those voices in the first place. I salute you all. I thank your voices for keeping me sane in these troubling times we live in.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

An employment tribunal in Leeds (UK) has heard suggestions that a Christian social worker's beliefs could lead to the suicide of vulnerable members of the LGBT community. 

The tribunal is hearing discrimination claims brought by Felix Ngole after a job offer was withdrawn by Touchstone Support Leeds. 

Mr Ngole, a 46-year-old pastor in Barnsley, lost the job after Touchstone discovered that he won a landmark free speech case against Sheffield University, who removed him from a social worker training course over Facebook posts in which he called homosexuality "wicked" and "sinful"...

[deardiary-history]

Meet the Diarists

On an ordinary day, I plan to post 3 entries, one from each writer. However, on days when one or two of them didn't write at all, there will be nothing to post for them that day.

Mary (last name unknown) finished high school in 1934, and so was probably around 18 at the beginning of that year, meaning she would have been born around 1916. I know that she was American and lived somewhere with snow in the winter, but that is all. Most of her journal covers her college years. She wrote from 1934-1936. Though she wrote nearly every day for the first 2 years, she trailed off towards the beginning of September 1936. She was Catholic with several friends and studying to be a teacher.

Phyllis O'Rourke was approximately 13 at the beginning of 1940, so would have been born about 1926. She lived in New York state and wrote from 1940-1946, although some years trail off halfway through and she skipped 1942 altogether. Other than the missing year, I will skip any day she didn't write, so she will be more inconsistent than the others. She was also Catholic with one sister close to her age and another old enough to work and live on her own. She talks about her family, friends, school, several boys later on, and general life things.

Frances Sheffield was married with an adult son and at least one young grandson by 1962, so I estimate she was born between 1910-1920. I got incredibly lucky with her journals--she wrote every single day from 1962-1971 and then from 1977-1978. It's mostly mundane life, housework and letters and visits, but I find that's the beauty of history--Not the exciting rare times but just what did a mundane life look like? I'm especially grateful to Frances because her diaries ensure that I will have at least one post every single day for the foreseeable future. She was also Christian, and also lived in New York state. I am fairly certain that Vern was her husband and Rich her son.

Note: Although I do my best, handwriting can be hard to read. Especially in Mary's entries, I may have multiple spots filled in with {???} when I couldn't decipher what she meant. I appreciate any assistance if you have any corrections or additions

Mary's diary, 1934-1936

Phyllis' diary, 1940-1946

Frances' diaries, 1962-1978

I also recommend you keep a diary!! I have been for the last 14 years and I have a lot to write, but even if you don't, they still make 5-year diaries with only a few lines to jot down what you did every day! I have one to catch what I did when there isn't much else to say about it. Diaries from now will be rarer than diaries from 100 years ago because more people use social media or digital diaries instead, but think about what happens when that technology is no longer usable! Save a future historian! Keep a journal!

[nina-segal]

Nina Segal is a playwright.  Her productions include:

THE ODYSSEY (IT'S A REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG JOURNEY) : Unicorn Theatre (2024)

SHOOTING HEDDA GABLER : Rose Theatre (2023)

WAR AND CULTURE : New Diorama (2023)

THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN : Sheffield Theatres and Lyric Hammersmith (2023)

O, ISLAND! : RSC (2022); Stadttheater Gießen (2024)

AI : Young Vic (2021)

ASSEMBLY : Donmar Warehouse (2021)

(THIS ISN’T) A TRUE STORY : Almeida Young Company (2019)

DISMANTLE THIS ROOM : Bush Theatre (2018); Royal Court (2019)

DANGER SIGNALS : New Ohio, NYC (2018)

BIG GUNS : Yard Theatre (2017); Theater Ingolstadt (2019); Theater Plauen Zwickau (2023)

IN THE NIGHT TIME (BEFORE THE SUN RISES) : Gate Theatre (2016); Teatro Belli, Rome (2017); Orange Tree Theatre (2018); Foro Bellescene, Mexico City (2019); Staatstheater, Mainz (2019); Know Theatre of Cincinnati (2020); Theater Bielefeld (2021); Schauspiel Frankfurt (2024)

Nina was the recipient of the 2022 Playwright's Scheme Award and was shortlisted for the 2020 George Devine Award. She won a Rose D'Or award for her short film CAPTURE, made with the Financial Times. She is under commission to the RSC, Soho Theatre, Dutch National Opera and Royal Opera House.

Contact Nina at ninasegal@gmail.com.

Contact Nina’s agent Lily Williams at lily@curtisbrown.co.uk.

Photo: Christian Rubeck, Anna Andresen and Antonia Thomas / Shooting Hedda Gabler / Rose Theatre (2023). Credit: Andy Paradise.

[thirdrowcentre]

2 years ago I decided I should watch at least two movies I’d never seen before a week. That year I managed 278 films. This year I have 346 first-watch-films, and so many more still to see. These are ones that stood out, in no particular order other than the order in which I saw them. Movies are magic, history and humanity, and how lucky are we to have them.

2022 FIRST WATCHES – STANDOUTS

January

Career Girls (dir. Mike Leigh, 1997), 4 January

Titane (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2021), 8 January at Prince Charles Cinema

La Chienne (dir. Jean Renoir, 1931), 18 January

Panique (dir. Julien Duvivier, 1946), 20 January

Undine (dir. Christian Petzold, 2020), 21 January

An Angel at my Table (dir. Jane Campion, 1990), 23 January

Drive My Car (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021), 29 January at Prince Charles Cinema

February

Parallel Mothers (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 2021), 7 February at Rich Mix

Life is Sweet (dir. Mike Leigh, 1990), 18 February

March

Accattone (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961), 5 March

In the Cut (dir. Jane Campion, 2003), 6 March

Phoenix (dir. Christian Petzold, 2014), 10 March

Outer Space (dir. Peter Tscherkassky, 1999), 16 March

Cleopatra (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963), 20 March

Inside (dir. Bo Burnham, 2020), 31 March

April

Scenes with Beans (dir. Ottó Foky, 1975), 5 April

High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa, 1963), 9 April

Una Mujer Fantastica (dir. Sebastian Leilo, 2017), 13 April

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1988), 19 April

May

Chungking Express (dir. Wong Kar Wai, 1994), 2 May

Zazie dans le metro (dir. Louis Malle, 1960), 5 May

Three Colours: Blue (dir. Krzysztov Kieślowski, 1993), 11 May

La 317e Section (dir. Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1965), 28 May at Christine 21

La Collectionneuse (dir. Eric Rohmer, 1967), 30 May

June

Remorques (dir. Jean Grémillon, 1941), 1 June

Orphée (dir. Jean Cocteau, 1950), 17 June

Les plages d’Agnès (dir. Agnès Varda, 2008), 20 June

La belle et la bête (dir. Jean Cocteau, 1946), 21 June

Moonage Daydream (dir. Brett Morgen, 2022), 25 June at Showroom, Sheffield

July

Endless Summer (dir. Bruce Brown, 1966), 2 July

L’une chante, l’autre pas (dir. Agnès Varda, 1977), 12 July

Junior (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2011), 17 July

The Big City (dir. Satyajit Ray, 1963), 23 July at BFI Southbank

Andrei Rublev (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966), 24 July at Prince Charles Cinema 35mm

Flee (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021), 24 July

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975), 30 July at Prince Charles Cinema 35mm

August

Blood and Black Lace (dir. Mario Bava, 1964), 4 August

Happening (dir. Audrey Diwan, 2021), 9 August

Nope (dir. Jordan Peele, 2022), 15 August at Castle Cinema, 29 August at Vue Islington

Brute Force (dir. Jules Dassin, 1947), 16 August

Naked City (dir. Jules Dassin, 1948), 30 August

September

Gaslight (dir. George Cukor, 1944), 1 September

The Red Balloon (dir. Albert Lamorisse, 1956), 5 September

A Valparaíso (dir. Joris Ivens, 1963), 8 September

Raw Deal (dir. Anthony Mann, 1948), 10 September

Little Dieter Needs to Fly (dir. Werner Herzog, 1997), 25 September

October

The Killers (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946), 8 October

Foolish Wives (dir. Erich von Stroheim, 1922), 9 October at BFI Southbank (London Film Festival)

One Fine Morning (dir. Mia Hansen Løve, 2022) at Odeon Luxe West End (London Film Festival), 14 October

Orlando (dir. Sally Potter, 1992), 19 October

7 Days in May (dir. John Schlesinger, 1964), 22 October

Seconds (dir. John Schlesinger, 1966), 28 October

November

The Rider (dir. Chloe Zhao, 2017), 1 November

Los Huesos (dir. Cristóbal León, Joaquin Cociña, 2021), 10 November

Fire of Love (dir. Sara Dosa, 2022), 13 November

Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells, 2022) 19 November at Castle Cinema

The Draughtsman’s Contract (dir. Peter Greenaway, 1982) 26 November at BFI Southbank

December

Sullivan’s Travels (dir. Preston Sturges, 1941), 3 December

Victim (dir. Basil Dearden, 1961), 8 December

Le Pupille (dir. Alice Rohrwacher, 2022), 16 December

The Queen of Spades (dir. Thorold Dickinson, 1949) at BFI Southbank, 30 December

Honourable mentions

Barry Lyndon (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1975) at la Filmotheque du Quartier Latin, 8 May. I don’t like Kubrick but I think I liked this. Titane at the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris with Ducournau Q&A, 16 May. Top Gun Maverick at the Vue Leicester Square, 6 June, with my best friends. Jane (2017) at Sheffield DocFest, introduced by Brett Morgen. I had literally had 10 minutes sleep the night before. 26 June at Showroom, Sheffield

Moonage Daydream at BFI IMAX, while the Queue was ongoing. 17 September. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (Anthony Fabian, 2022) at 11am on a Sunday at the Vue Islington. 29 October. Glass Onion (Rian Johnson, 2022) at the Rio Cinema in Dalston on a very uncomfortable date. 25 November

And rewatching The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) for the first time since I wrote my dissertation on it, six years ago.