#crow this man is In His Early 20's he is not father material

[nebulousboops]

I made a last minute birthday gift for @matchamabs, and I already sent it to them, may as well post it here

Have a character duo I would've never considered without doing that secret santa!

[ttccprojectoverdrive]

Time for some general info about each Manager!

Here’s an important note going in: in this world cogs are born either the natural way (which surprises toons because they didn’t realize that toon and cog reproduction wasn’t all that different) or are commissioned to be built using their parents genetic material/coding

William Boar

Late 30’s-early 40’s, bi trans man, white boy, autistic, shares a dad with Desmond but different moms since Will’s mom passed away before his dad remarried to Desmond’s mom, dating/eventually marries Rain and has what’s (to their knowledge at the time) the first documented cog/toon hybrid post main story, daughter is named Olive and she's more cog than toon

Buck Ruffler

Mid-late 30’s bi man, Chilean, AuDHD and (family inherited that manifested after the stress caused by his failed toon up) Schizophrenia, mom is still alive but dad passed away, married to Dave and has one daughter with him whom they commissioned to be built named Gliss (short for the piano term Glissandro)

Brian (Monarch but shhh he doesn’t put that last name in his records bc of their secret shady dealings)

Early to mid 40’s, bi man, white boy, Autistic (I plan to potentially add more considering what he does in the story so I wanna see if more than just autism explains his behavior besides psychopathy) mother is alive but dad “mysteriously “ died, has a lot of siblings and he’s one of the youngest, married to Ben and they commissioned a daughter together whom they name Chime

Misty Monsoon

Mid 30’s, bi demigirl, Afro-Hispanic, AuDHD OCD and Bipolar, mom is a single mom, marries Mary and Holly and I plan to give them at least two bubbies (kids)

Mary Anna

Mid to late 30’s, Filipino, AMAB intersex bigender bisexual individual who uses he/she, has a mom and dad and a few siblings, married Misty at first and eventually maybe Holly too if the two develop feelings for each other lol, has a kid with Misty

Holly Grayelle

Mid to late 30’s, British with a medieval inflection, bisexual woman, Autistic, has a mom and dad and younger brother, marries Misty first then maybe later Mary too, has a kid with Misty

Alton Crow

Early 40’s, Texan white boy, bi man, AuDHD (which means autistic and ADHD btw), comes from a big family, is married to a buff and tall cow based cog lady and has a son and daughter with her

Prester Virgil

Late 50’s to early 60’s, cishet, white boy, Depression and PTSD, comes from a big family, is a struggling divorced dad to his one daughter whom he eventually gives custody of to Chip and his partner after situations that cause Prester to realize he’s not mentally well enough to be a father

Winston Charme

Early 80’s, cishet, white boy (subject to change may make him and Dana black), possibly AuDHD with a form of Dementia and PTSD, only living relative is his great niece Dana whom he ends up in the care of after a legal case between the ye olde toontown elders and the lawbots

Benjamin Biggs

Early 40’s, bi man, British, OCD in the forms of obsessive love and organization and possible either sociopathy or psychopathy (still working out that one), mom and deceased dad, married to and has a kid with Brian

Cathal Bravecog

Mid 20’s, pan demiboy, white (subject to change though I’m tempted to make him half asian from his mom’s side) might also make him autistic but idk, divorced mom and dad, honestly haven’t put much thought into him yet but I wanna maybe give him a partner

Dave Brubot

Mid 30’s, bi man, Haitian/Brazilian/Italian, AuDHD, has a mom and dad and four younger siblings, married to and has a kid with Buck

Belle Dama

Early 70’s, cishet, white (possibly subject to change but I also kinda want her to be an ally white grandma who doesn’t like any form of discrimination and will give you hugs and cookies if you need it), possibly autistic but idk, comes from a big family, widower with several children and grandchildren, eventually dates Cosmo

Cosmo Kupier

Early 70’s, cishet, Italian, comes from a big family, widower whom can’t have kids so his mob is going to his henchmen when he dies, eventually dates Belle

Flint Bonpyre

Mid 30’s, bi demiboy, Afro-Venezualan, Autistic and General Anxiety Disorder, two moms, married to and eventually has a kid or several with Graham

Chip Revvington-Campbell

Early to mid 40’s, bi man, white boy, Autistic and PTSD, adopted by Spruce’s family when he was very young but has since regained contact and is friendly with his bio mom, dating/married to and eventually has several kids with his assistant Bubblegum Pop along with their adopted child from Prester named Nixie

Spruce Campbell

Mid to late 40’s, pan man, white boy (Scottish mostly), comes from a big family, thinking of giving him a partner eventually

Tawney C. Esta

Mid 60’s, genderfluid heteroasexual, tempted to make them either Mexican or Hispanic or from another Spanish speaking country bc of how their name is a pun for siesta, comes from a big family, wife but no kids

Graham Ness Payser

Mid 30’s, bi (male leaning) man, mixed (mom is white dad is black, his older sister looks more black than he does and it’s a running joke that she took all the melanin leaving Graham looking white) ADHD and Narcissistic, has a mom and dad and an older sister, married to and eventually has one or several kids with Flint

Desmond Kerosene-Boar

Early 30’s, bi man, white boy, half brothers with Will, in a poly relationship with Buck Wilde and Dana and whom I may eventually give three kids

Buck Crow Wilde

Early 30’s, bi man, Texan white boy, Alton’s cousin, in a poly relationship with Desmond and Dana and whom I may eventually give three kids

Dana S Charme

Early 30’s, pan genderfluid, white (subject to change), Winston’s great niece, in a poly relationship with Desmond and Buck Wilde and whom I may eventually give three kids

[blackkudos]

Jimmy Cliff

James Chambers, OM (born 1 April 1948), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska and reggae musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. Along with Bunny Wailer he is one of only two living musicians to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.

Cliff is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as "Wonderful World, Beautiful People", "Many Rivers to Cross", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "The Harder They Come", "Reggae Night", and "Hakuna Matata", and his covers of Cat Stevens's "Wild World" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" from the film Cool Runnings. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae across the world, and Club Paradise. Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Early life and education

Jimmy Cliff was born in Somerton District, Saint James, Jamaica. He began writing songs while still at primary school in St. James, listening to a neighbour's sound system. In 1962 his father took him to Kingston to go to Kingston Technical school, where he ended up sharing his cousin's one rented room in East Kingston.

Career

1960s and 1970s

Cliff sought out many producers while still going to school, trying to get his songs recorded without success. He also entered talent contests. "One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, pushed myself in and convinced one of them, Leslie Kong, to go into the recording business, starting with me," he writes in his own website biography. After two singles that failed to make much impression, his career took off when "Hurricane Hattie" became a hit, while he was aged 14. It was produced by Kong, with whom Cliff remained until Kong's death from a heart attack in 1971.

Cliff's later local hit singles included "King of Kings", "Dearest Beverley", "Miss Jamaica", and "Pride and Passion". In 1964, Cliff was chosen as one of Jamaica's representatives at the World's Fair in New York; and in the same year Cliff was featured in a program called "This is Ska!" alongside Prince Buster, Toots and the Maytals, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. He soon signed to Island Records and moved to the United Kingdom. Island Records initially (and unsuccessfully) tried to sell Cliff to the rock audience, but his career took off in the late 1960s. His international debut album was Hard Road to Travel, released in 1967. It received excellent reviews and included "Waterfall" (composed by Nirvana's Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons), which became a hit in Brazil and won the International Song Festival.

"Waterfall" was followed in 1969 by "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" and "Vietnam" in 1970, both popular throughout most of the world. Bob Dylan called "Vietnam" the best protest song he had ever heard. Also during this period, Cliff released a cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" as a single, but it was not included on his Wonderful World, Beautiful People album.

In 1972, Cliff starred as Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin in the classic reggae film, The Harder They Come, directed by Perry Henzell. As the film tells Martin's story, he is a young man without funds. Arriving in Kingston from the country, he tries to make it in the recording business, but without success. Eventually, he turns to a life of crime. The soundtrack album of the film was a huge success that sold well across the world, bringing reggae to an international audience for the first time. It remains one of the most internationally significant films to have come out of Jamaica since independence. The film made its debut at London's Gaumont cinema in Notting Hill on 1 September 1972. In 1975, Cliff sang on the first season of Saturday Night Live, episode 12, hosted by Dick Cavett. After a series of albums, Cliff took a break and traveled to Africa (the Nigeria-based Jamaican writer Lindsay Barrett was instrumental in Cliff's first trip there), and subsequently converted to Islam, taking the new name: El Hadj Naïm Bachir.

1980s and 1990s

Cliff quickly returned to music, touring for several years before he recorded with Kool & the Gang. In 1984, Cliff appeared at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, Netherlands. During The River Tour, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band added Cliff's previously little-known song "Trapped" to their live set; it achieved great prominence when included on 1985's We Are the World benefit album. The follow-up, Cliff Hanger (1985), won a Grammy Award for 'Best Reggae Album', though it was his last major success in the United States until 1993. Also in 1985, Cliff contributed to the song "Sun City", a protest song written and composed by Steven Van Zandt and recorded by Artists United Against Apartheid to convey opposition to the South African policy of apartheid. Cliff then provided backing vocals on The Rolling Stones' 1986 album Dirty Work, and appeared in the comedy Club Paradise, co-starring with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole, and contributed several songs to the soundtrack, including "Seven Day Weekend", which he sang with Elvis Costello. In 1988, his song "Shelter of Your Love" was featured in the hit film Cocktail.

Cliff appeared in the film Marked for Death in 1990, performing "John Crow" with the Jimmy Cliff Band. His recording of "You Can Get It If You Really Want" was used as a campaign anthem by the Sandinista National Liberation Front in the 1990 election in Nicaragua. In 1991, he performed at the second Rock in Rio festival in Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He continued to sell well in Jamaica and, to a lesser extent, the UK, returning to the mainstream pop charts in the U.S. and elsewhere (#1 in France) with a version of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" on the Cool Runnings film soundtrack in 1993. In 1995, Cliff released the single "Hakuna Matata", a collaboration with Lebo M, a song from the soundtrack of the film The Lion King. In 1997, Cliff was a guest star in a 1997 episode of the Cartoon Network talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

2000 to present

In 2001, Cliff became an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists. In 2002, Cliff released the album Fantastic Plastic People in Europe, after first providing free downloads using p2p software. This album featured collaborations with Joe Strummer, Annie Lennox, and Sting as well as new songs that were very reminiscent of Cliff's original hits. In 2004, Cliff completely reworked the songs, dropping the traditional reggae in favour of an electronic sound, for inclusion in Black Magic. The album also included a recording of "Over the Border" with Joe Strummer. Cliff performed at the closing ceremony to the 2002 Commonwealth Games and in 2003, his song "You Can Get It If You Really Want" was included in the soundtrack to the film, Something's Gotta Give. He also appeared in July 2003 at the Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland. The Jamaican government under P. J. Patterson honoured Cliff on 20 October 2003, by awarding him The Order of Merit, the nation's fourth-highest honour, in recognition of his contributions to the film and music of Jamaica. Cliff, Bunny Wailer and Mervyn Morris are the only currently living figures from the arts to hold this distinction and he is one of only two living musician (along with Bunny Wailer) to do so.

In 2007, Cliff performed at the opening ceremony at cricket's World Cup. In the spring and summer of 2010, Cliff embarked on an extensive tour of the U.S. and Canada. In 2007, "You Can Get It If You Really Want" was adopted by the British Conservative Party during their annual conference. Cliff was quoted in The Independent as saying "One of my band mates called me this morning to tell me the news. I can't stop them using the song, but I'm not a supporter of politics. I have heard of Cameron, but I'm not a supporter. I don't support any politician. I just believe in right or wrong."

In September 2009, he was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following a campaign on his behalf by the American Charles Earle. Cliff reacted to the news by saying, "This is good for Cliff, good for Jamaican music and good for my country." On 15 December 2009, he was officially announced as an inductee and was inducted on 15 March 2010 by Wyclef Jean.

Cliff appeared in the 2011 documentary Reggae Got Soul: The Story of Toots and the Maytals which was featured on BBC and described as "The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica".

In 2011, Cliff worked with producer Tim Armstrong, lead singer of American punk band Rancid, on the EP The Sacred Fire and the full-length album Rebirth. Rebirth was nominated for a Grammy Award for 'Best Reggae Album'. The album was listed at #12 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012, saying "There's ska, rock steady, roots reggae, a revelatory cover of The Clash's "Guns of Brixton" delivered in Cliff's trademark soulful tenor, grittier but still lovely more than 40 years after his debut." In December 2012, Cliff was named 'Artist of the Year' by digital newspaper the Caribbean Journal, citing his work on Rebirth.

On 25 June 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Jimmy Cliff among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Personal life

Cliff is not a member of the Rastafari movement, although he briefly was before converting to Islam from Christianity. He now describes himself as having a "universal outlook on life", and does not align himself with any particular movement or religion, saying that "now I believe in science". He is married and has a daughter Lilty Cliff and a son Aken Cliff. He is also the father of the actress/singer Nabiyah Be.

[aion-rsa]

Borat 2: Rudy Giuliani ‘Tucking Shirt’ Excuse is Irrelevant

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Having been online for a little more than a weekend, the climax to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat 2—or its full title of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan—has already become the stuff of legend. Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, once dubiously titled “America’s Mayor,” and current personal attorney of President Donald Trump, appeared to be sticking his hand down his pants while in the hotel room of a young woman.

At least that’s  how the news started trickling out last week when the review embargo lifted on Borat 2, and it’s a public perception that Giuliani and his cohorts in the White House immediately began trying to discredit before anyone in the general audience saw the movie on Amazon Prime Video.

The moment in question occurs late in the film, with Giuliani reclined on a bed after Maria Bakalova takes off his lavender microphone. Bakalova is playing the character of Tutar Sagdiyev, who is in turn pretending to be an alt-right conservative journalist from eastern Europe, hence how she’s ensnared Giuliani into a pseudo-prank. For the moment occurs after he’s followed her into a hotel bedroom to “have a drink.” Once she takes off his mic, he lies down on his back and over the course of several shots edited together from several hidden cameras around the room, he is seen with his hand in his pants.

The obvious implication to many when the news broke, and possibly to the filmmakers, is that Giuliani’s hand is on his genitals. And it’s a reading of the moment that the controversial politician flatly denies.

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, Giuliani attempted to get ahead of the movie when he tweeted, “(1) The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar. In fact, the NY Post today reports ‘it looks to me like an exaggeration through editing.’”

And to be completely fair, his clinging to The New York Post’s reading may not be unfounded. It’s clear in the now widely available film that the moment with his hand in his pants is cut together in a way that extends the length of the scene for dramatic (or comedic) effect. He does, in fact, appear to be tucking his shirt in (at least initially), and the way the story was first broken last week emphasized that Baron Cohen’s character cried, “She was 15,” when Barkalova is actually 24.

Yet even if he was only tucking in his shirt, the distinction matters little for an increasingly disgraced politician who’s inserted himself into the center of a shady conspiracy theory—and after he played a central role in the scandal that got President Trump impeached earlier this year.

For starters, whether or not Giuliani kept his hand in his pants for longer than necessary, the fact that he was in the situation as a public figure of his age and position of power is already inappropriate. Here is a 76-year-old man, with two children in their 30s, happily allowing himself to be lured into a bedroom by a woman he is supposed to be having a professional interaction with—a woman in her early 20s and who he was tricked into believing was a teenager. Even before lying on his back, he was visibly flirting with Bakalova and suggested, “You can give me your phone number and your address” while she was taking off his mic. To reaffirm his apparent interest, he placed a hand on her hip and reclined on his back. It’s a strange position for any person to be in to tuck in their shirt, to put it mildly.

Read more

Movies

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Review: Rare Win For a Legacy Sequel

By Nick Harley

Movies

How White Noise Exposes the Empty Lies of the Alt-Right

By David Crow

But the bigger, and more important, reason his and some media outlets’ equivocating is irrelevant is because Giuliani finding himself in this situation demonstrates extraordinarily bad judgment. The kind of bad judgment that Giuliani, by his own design, has attempted to make a focal point in the 2020 presidential election.

In a handful of minutes, a pretty smile and some flattering words convinced Giuliani to place himself in a compromising situation that’s turned him into a laughing stock around the world. In essence, he handed “Borat,” of all people, the kind of video Russian intelligence officials would deem “kompromat.” Kompromat is a term that originated inside the KGB during the Soviet reign of Joseph Stalin, but it’s become popularized in the 21st century as “compromising material” that Russian intelligence services are accused of regularly collecting on public figures as a resource for blackmail, extortion, and control.

This is important to know since The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the White House was warned in December 2019 of Giuliani being the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, which showed the president’s personal lawyer interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence. At the time, he was on a quest to obtain information that could be used to incriminate, or at least smear, Hunter Biden and his father, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Apparently National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien personally warned Trump that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered “contaminated.” The president responded to the intelligence by allegedly saying, “That’s Rudy.”

Cut to October 2020 and Giuliani has attempted to engineer a damaging October surprise at Democratic nominee Biden’s expense by sharing with The New York Post a computer hard drive he claims belonged to Hunter Biden, and which he and the New York tabloid assert proves Hunter traded on his father’s influence on American foreign policy in exchange for money.

Giuliani’s story does not directly implicate Ukraine as the source of the laptop and its allegedly damning intelligence. He and computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac claim that Hunter Biden dropped the laptop off in Mac Isaac’s Delaware repair shop, even though Hunter does not live in Delaware, and is said to have forgotten he left the incriminating laptop there because he was drunk at the time—it’s also worth noting that Mac Isaac is legally blind.

This has led to a fair amount of skepticism about the actual source of the laptop, including by Fox News, whose newsroom refused to publish images from Giuliani’s “laptop from hell” without further evidence or separate sourcing to corroborate it. Indeed, the New York Post journalist who actually wrote the piece to Giuliani’s specifications refused to have his name on the byline due to questions about the validity of the laptop.

Meanwhile the conspiracy theory Giuliani’s attempted “surprise” tries to feed into has been repeatedly discredited and dismissed, including last month by Republican senators who released an 87-page report from the joint findings of the U.S. Senate Security and Finance Committees. They found no evidence of wrongdoing or improper influence by then-Vice President Biden.

Whether more news actually comes from Giuliani’s “laptop from hell,” its association with Giuliani is, in the words of the national security adviser, “contaminated,” just as Giuliani’s credibility is further demolished by the fact he found himself compromised by Borat.

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[robbieinterviews]

“Margot Robbie, Australia’s Newest Movie Goddess”, 2014

Margot Robbie was so outrageously seductive as *The Wolf of Wall Street’*s trophy wife, Naomi (a role that earned her an Empire Award in March), that she managed to exceed the script’s hyperbolic requirement that she personify “the hottest blonde ever.” When she makes her sizzling entrance at a Hamptons bacchanal, one prurient male declares, “I’d fuck that girl if she was my sister!” Another breaks down on the spot and masturbates. Richard Curtis compares the Australian siren—who played an unattainable dream girl in his 2013 romantic comedy, About Time—to that other screen goddess Grace Kelly. And this summer Robbie is taking on the role of the ultimate irresistible Ur-female, Jane (opposite Alexander Skarsgård), when David Yates’s Tarzan begins filming in London. Martin Scorsese’s casting director, Ellen Lewis, who first brought Robbie to the master’s attention, said, “As beautiful as she is, that’s how talented she is.”

The 24-year-old actress is slightly baffled by all the over-the-top admiration. “In my big group of girlfriends at home,” Robbie insists, “I am definitely not the best-looking. I did not grow up feeling like I was particularly attractive. You should have seen me at 14, with ­braces and glasses, gangly and doing ballet! If I looked good in Wolf of Wall Street I cannot take full credit; it was because of hair extensions and makeup.” Robbie even downplays her seemingly innate gift for acting, which, she says, did not always bring her topmost accolades when she was growing up in the Curumbin Valley, on the Gold Coast of Australia, about an hour from Brisbane. “My school was very academic. I was up there in English. I could have done law and a number of other things. But I was only second in my year for drama.”

Even so, she had a pretty clear idea of where she was headed. Since childhood she had amused herself and her family (she’s the third of four siblings) by memorizing the films they watched on the household VCR. “My family had nothing to do with the entertainment industry. We had farming on both sides. My mother’s family raised grains and crops. My father’s grew sugarcane and mangos. So I knew more about the basics of farming than of acting. But my background was real­ly helpful when I was shooting Z for Zachariah”—a post-apocalyptic drama to be released in 2015. “I already knew how to drive a tractor and milk cows.” The movie, for which Robbie became a brunette, co-stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, who says, “Whilst she is truly very, very funny and enormously vibrant, Margot takes the ‘doing of it’ very seriously.”

By the age of 10, Robbie was earning her own wages—polishing cutlery at a restaurant and then advancing to “chopping vegetables and waitressing.” During her last year of high school, she worked as a housecleaner. “I’ve worked three jobs at a time. I worked in a pharmacy, an office, at a warehouse, did catering. I was always trying to save up money.”

Robbie’s resourcefulness served her well when, at 17, she moved to Melbourne without professional prospects. “I was sleeping on a mattress in a shitty apartment,” she recalls. Her boyfriend at the time, a university student, worked as “a pizza boy.” Her favorite job during her early Melbourne days was as a sandwich-maker at Subway. “I was really good at it! I make a mean Subway. The trick is to spread everything evenly out and cut it so well that there is never a bad bite.” A few months into her Melbourne adventure, she announced to her Subway colleagues that she was quitting because she had landed a part on the TV series Neighbours—after cold-calling the show’s production company. Six months later, Subway hired Robbie for a commercial, and, she said, “I got paid like 20 times the amount I ever earned there.”

Neighbours—a beloved nighttime soap, running in Australia since 1985—had long been a breeding ground for the country’s breakout stars, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kylie Minogue among them. Robbie’s guest stint as bitchy bisexual Donna Freedman quickly evolved into a regular role. “Neighbours was my initiation into the industry,” Robbie says. “It’s definitely the hardest job I’ve ever had; it was boot camp. I spent so long on it. I survived three years.”

During her Neighbours tenure, she received two nominations for a Logie, the Australian equivalent of an Emmy. But Robbie had set her sights higher and farther. “I was carefully setting things up,” she said. Robbie enrolled in acting classes, concentrating on dialect coaching in order to perfect her American accent for the next move she planned, to Hollywood. She traded in a “dodgy” agent for one with Hollywood connections and thriftily held on to her earnings. “I saved up enough to get me through three years unemployed,” she says. A Neighbours co-star, Jackie Woodbyrne, has said, “It wasn’t a matter of if she would become successful, but when.”

“People ask me all the time what it is about Australia that produces so many big stars,” Robbie says. “Honestly, I believe it is a combination of things. Our education standards are quite high, but our industry is very limited. Yet we’re very aware of the industry—everyone goes to the theater, sees TV shows. The logical step is to make a move to America—America is getting the best of the best of us. You don’t leave Australia unless you are passionate. Any Australian actor who comes to America is really committed. There are no dabblers—it’s all or nothing. If you’ve worked in Australia you can’t get away with bad behavior, like showing up late. We take our work ethic seriously. So maybe that’s why we have a good reputation.”

As soon as Robbie’s Neighbours contract ended, she was on a plane to Los Angeles. She had timed her January 2011 arrival strategically, so it coincided with winter auditions for television pilots. By springtime, she had landed a role as the stewardess Laura Cameron on Pan Am, the ABC period drama starring Christina Ricci. A kind of Mad Men of the skies, the series fared better internationally than domestically and was canceled in 2012.

Robbie’s Pan Am character was a runaway bride, who, she says, “fell in love with a black guy.” In both Z for Zachariah and Focus (a romantic-comedy caper set to open in February 2015), Robbie plays opposite an older, Oscar-nominated black actor—Ejiofor and Will Smith, respectively. “Will and I spoke about this,” she says. “It’s 2014—and we’re one of the few inter-racial couples you’ll see in a mainstream film! We’re breaking that mold!” Last November a tabloid published shots of the pair clowning around in a photo booth while filming Focus in New Orleans. Smith was bare-chested and Robbie was lifting her top above her bra. She tweeted at the time, “Been working nonstop, just catching my breath. There’s absolutely no truth to the ridiculous rumor in Star mag . . . ” Robbie says today, “Everyone wants to link me up, make it seem like I have a thrilling love life. They tried to say Leo and I were a couple, too. Ideal­ly, I’d want people to know nothing about my personal life. The truth is my love life is very dull. I’m in love with my job.” She does allow that she and her old Melbourne flame, the erstwhile pizza boy Jake Williams, are no longer together. He went on to co-found the Internet start-up Spotjobs, an Australian employment Web site. “We both went separate ways to pursue careers,” Robbie notes, “and went above and beyond what we wanted to achieve.”

Beore Pan Am was canceled, Robbie sent an audition tape to Ellen Lewis, Martin Scorsese’s casting director, without any real expectation of a response. The Wolf script had gone out to scores of hopefuls, she initially felt little sympathy for the gold-digger character, and she was ambivalent about the requisite nude scenes. Robbie had perhaps one edge over the competition: she had nailed Naomi’s salt-of-the-earth, outer-borough accent. For inspiration, she had drawn upon “my best friend from New York—a chef who grew up in Queens.” Robbie also channeled a woman from “the props department of Pan Am,” which had been shot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. “These women have huge personalities,” Robbie says. “Nothing like what we have in Australia.”

Back in 2009, during the Neighbours era, an Australian journalist asked the then 18-year-old novice what actors she would most like to meet. High on her list was Leonardo DiCaprio. Remarkably, within four years Robbie was in New York auditioning in person for DiCaprio and Scorsese, doing her very best to keep up with the actor’s “daunting” off-script improvisations and make sense of the indecipherable exchanges between the two men. Riffing on a scene in which an exasperated Naomi argues with DiCaprio’s priapic con man, Jordan Belfort, Robbie suddenly reached out and slapped the star. “We were stunned,” Scorsese recalled, “because she was as surprised as we were. But when she made that move, she claimed Naomi.” As for DiCaprio, he apparently told Robbie, “That was brilliant. Hit me in the face again!”

Under the two pros’ influence, Robbie re-discovered her knack for improvisation, unexplored since high school. Some of *Wolf’*s more memorable bits were, in fact, Robbie’s off-the-cuff contributions. She improvised, for example, the lines (both of which reverse the couple’s power dynamic) “We’re not going to be friends” and “ ‘Who?’ What are you, a fucking owl?” For the notorious nursery scene, it was Robbie’s idea to push her patent-leather stiletto into a groveling DiCaprio’s face. And it was she who boldly suggested that the dominatrix Venice should insert a lit candle between DiCaprio’s buttocks, to follow more closely the debauched autobiographical source material.

Robbie says, “Nobody else compares to Marty. I still pinch myself that I worked with this director who has been a pillar for dec­ades and decades. I can’t believe it! It was one of the best times in my life! I’d sit down and have lunch on the set and think to myself, I’m getting paid to do this! It was insane! Pure insanity!”

Robbie—the latest mantle-bearer in a long line of extraordinary Scorsese temptresses that includes *Taxi Driver’*s Cybill Shepherd, *Raging Bull’*s Cathy Moriarty, and *Casino’*s Sharon Stone—can easily envision a future beyond Wolf. “I’m not an overnight sensation,” she says. Other upcoming films include A Bigger Splash, inspired by Jacques Deray’s La Piscine, with Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, and an adaptation of the World War II–era novel Suite Française, with Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas. Robbie, meanwhile, would rather not return to television, for the simple reason that she doesn’t like “playing one role for a long time—I’d rather do many characters for short periods intensely.”

For now the actress has no problem turning down lucrative offers. “I will never sell my soul for a paycheck,” Robbie says. “I don’t need the money because I’m not extravagant. I share my house in London with five roommates. I take the Tube—it’s free entertainment! I intend to stay the exact same person I always was; my family and friends keep me grounded.”

Robbie’s perspective may be unusually long for an actress her age. But then the outdoorsy Australian has some experience seeing vistas from great heights. “For my 18th and 19th birthdays I went skydiving,” she says. “I wanted that to become an annual tradition. But instead I’ve been working on my birthdays.” This year proved to be no exception—she was on the set of Tarzan. And that, she’s decided, is exactly the way she likes it. “The set is still my favorite place to be. I just don’t ever want the novelty to wear off.”

[jafreitag]

Leslie Nuss: The Liner Notes Interview

Leslie Nuss is a singer-songwriter, based in Valparaiso, Indiana. She lives with her family in an idyllic space south of town. Her sister in-law is a close friend of mine, and she reached out and asked if LN would be interested in doing an interview with Leslie.

I’m a proud Hoosier, born and bred. Local music is cool, but an interview here isn’t a foregone conclusion. If a Creed cover band in NWI asked me to fluff their stuff, I’d say no. Basically, the material has to be good. Leslie’s is. Felsen‘s Andrew Griffin, who was interviewed here earlier this year, had this to say about her: “Leslie Nuss is my home town hero. Her music is a strange and sublime alchemy that creeps up on you, crawls in your ear and gets lodged in your imagination.”

Leslie has a catalog on Spotify. She recently released an EP titled V (cover art above, Spotify widget below). In conjunction with that, we emailed back and forth some Qs and some As. Here’s the result…

JF: Hi, Leslie. Now that it’s December, I can start off with an early Happy Holidays. What’s your holiday prep entail?

LN: Well, for me it’s almost like a month-long process. There’s my annual holiday letter that includes as many photos (with captions) as I can cram into an 11×14″ sheet. So many people tell me how much they love the letter and several people save them and reread them, which is nice to know. The card has a photo of the kids in front of the tree.

Plus, “Mrs. Claus” makes things, so she is/I am busy. I think that my daughter no longer believes, but she did for 12 years. Kind of amazing.

JF: Yeah. We should probably get to your music, in case there are any younger readers, who still believe, haha.  The first thing that strikes me about the new EP, V, is the production. There’s a big, lush sound for an independent release. Was that something that your aim?

LN: Yes. Even though I’m indie, I want it to sound as good as possible. Plus, if I have Master Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi working on it, it better be good. To be honest, it’s his ears that I’m after.

JF: Were you involved in the studio stuff? Did you have a team?

LN: I love to be in the studio, even though I’m mostly watching/listening. For a lot of it I was, especially the first half with Kyle Paas in New York City.  Kyle started Von the recommendation of his friend, Kyle Kelso, who produced my first LP, Action Hero Superstar.  Kyle Paas is a very cool dude and extremely creative. After a while, it was really hard for me to go back and forth to New York, so I thought I’d finish the EP in Chicago, but it wasn’t happening. So I asked the people behind the Women in Music Facebook page to recommend a female producer, which led me to Ainjel Emme of Block of Joy.  She’s in Los Angeles, and she worked on some parts of V on her own.

Basically, I found the producers, and they found the additional musicians.

JF: How much of the EP did you play? I’ve seen you locally, and you’re a great guitar player, but there’s plenty of piano on the record, too. So I’m guessing that you may have done that.

LN: You are so kind! Actually, this is the first time I did not play on one of my recordings. At first it was hard for me, but then I realized it gives someone else a chance to play and me a chance to hear what ideas they have. Also, there are so many great musicians and I love giving people the opportunity to play on a recorded track, and letting them do their thing.

As for piano, though I took lessons as a child, it’s only now, after taking lessons from local legend Waz since March, that I’ve been able to write a whole song on piano. But performing live seems a ways off yet.

JF: What’s you background? Where’d you go to school, and what did you study?  Was your family musical, and did they encourage you to pursue songwriting and performing?

LN: I’ve always been all over the map. I went to the University of Illinois and studied Pre-Med and Fashion Design. The idea of studying music never occurred to me, even though I was quite musical and sang in choir, etc. All of the bands I admired, I don’t think any of them studied music, and so I thought that you just sort of taught yourself. My family was musical, yeah. My mother played the piano, and my father sang in the church choir, and both of my brothers dabbled with the guitar. They were mildly encouraging, though my mother used to say, “It only takes one song!”

JF: Who are your influences? Like I said, I’ve seen you play, and I always think of Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan.

LN: Yes, to both, and the Beatles! I’m still a fan. Then I got into New Wave and fell hard for English music. But Hüsker Dü, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Sheryl Crow, too. I do love good songwriting.

JF: The EP has a lot of facets. “Lost” is ethereal in a Julee Cruise way, but there’s also an edge to some of your stuff. “Subway,” for example. And “Writer” (my fave) has some of both qualities – a dreamy opening, then a slow build to a solid closing. Did you have a big picture of the EP going into the studio? Or did you just take your best material?

LN: Both. I did present the songs I really liked, and I had a vision. I wanted them to be slow because I’ve been a bit unnerved at the speed of life these days. I wanted to help set a mood for people (for myself).  And to be honest, I wanted to … uh, put out some songs that people could have sex to.

JF: How collaborative was your recording? Describe that process.

LN: Well, usually I try to give a lot of creative freedom, so I can hear what the producers have to say. I may give a nudge here or there, but, mostly, I want to encourage them. There is a lot of trust that needs exist, too. Kyle [Paas] gave me a road map, other artists/songs that he was inspired by, and that helped. The cool thing later was Ainjel taking a look at me and basically saying, “I got you.”

JF: Another process question. What comes first for you, lyrics or melody? Do you write separately from songs?

LN: Well, I write every way. Often, a thought comes into my head, and I sing automatically. I also play – the guitar, the piano – because striking different chords in different ways can also spark a melody. I think “Writer” started with the two chord riff, and I played that over and over again, while letting my mind wander “where it will go” (ala John Lennon). But mostly, lyrics first.

JF: What inspires you, lyrically? How autobiographical are your songs?

LN: Aha! Most of my songs are incredibly autobiographical. I’m a problem solver, and that means, if something’s on my mind, sometimes songwriting is a way for me to look at it from a different angle, or to try to articulate something that’s hard to say. For instance, there’s a song, “Someday,” that will be on an upcoming EP (the third in this series) that is about my son, Harry. While I often write personally, I strive to do so broadly so that, hopefully, someone else can relate to my take on the human condition.

JF: How often do you write?

LN: Every week, for sure. Sometimes, like when I was just in Joshua Tree, ideas come almost faster than I can write them down/record them (usually into my phone, as a video, voicemail, or note). Songwriting is like a wild beast. Do I keep letting the ideas flow, or do I finish the ones I’ve started?

JF: The dreaded gear question. What kind of guitar, etc?  Geek out, or not.

LN: I play a lefty Taylor 410-CE, a black and white telecaster (I noticed Courtney Barnett also plays one – another lefty!), and a beautiful custom arch-top by John Gray. But I would love to take a trip to Southpaw in Houston to look for an acoustic with a smaller neck.

My amp is a Music Man 210. I’m still grateful to John Jinx, who reluctantly sold it to me.

JF: What’s been your experience with the Northwest Indiana music “scene,” for lack of a better word?

LN: I’ve loved playing live with Specx (my side project), but it’s hard to play a four-hour gig. There are so many great players in the area! I would love to play more gigs as part of a line up of three or four bands, but that is rare here. I’ve been thankful to play at the Hunt & Gather maker’s market in Crown Point and the Valparaiso Farmer’s Market, which is a great way to reach new fans.

JF: You also mentioned to me that you’ve been talking to Andrew Griffin of Felines. Do you have any plans to write or record with him?

LN: Yes. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to make that work as he lives on the West Coast. He has a great ear, and is a fantastic drummer and I think we could do something cool. Since I was just in LA working with Ainjel, I’m now regrouping. Then I’ll send him some tracks and see what he thinks.

JF: Ok, last one. What do you want to say? Feel free to talk about anything – upcoming shows, new material, anything personal/political. You have the LN soapbox.

LN: Ok, thanks. I am finally getting it together on Bandcamp! You can go right now and get the tracks, or my holiday special packaging…it’s an incredible site and it just takes time to upload all of the merchandise, etc. And, finally releasing V on Spotify.

I’ve had to get over my irritation at the industry for their lack of equality and bite the bullet. Women in Music still have a ways to go to get the same opportunities and respect as men. I’ve spoken out and up about these issues, and there are some really encouraging signs, but 20/80 is still hard to accept. About 20% of the voting members of the Grammys are women. Likewise, about 20% of musicians who tour are women. And what I like to stress is that music lovers are missing out on the great and awesome talent of women!

It’s also been a bit disheartening to see the domination of digital, which had led to the downfall of physical releases. I’ve always been a fan of album art and liner notes, and have put out 4 full length CD’s, where had 20 page booklets. That additional expense is hard to justify now, especially as an indie artist. I still had fun with the packaging for V, which included a temporary tattoo, a sticker, and a coloring page.

As for upcoming shows, I’m set to play at Hunt & Gather possibly with Specx on December 15th, and then I need to get serious about getting a schedule for 2019. I’ve been so focused on the recording and releasing and everything else that live shows were not on my mind. I’m also doing a pop-up show on December 8th at Society in Valparaiso–I’m making bags and accessories to sell/fund my recording projects. I’ll be there and will also sing a few songs throughout the day. When I lived in New York, I supported myself as an accessories designer, so why not.

JF: Thanks, Leslie. The EP is great. Thanks for sharing it, and sharing your time.

Folks, you can check out Leslie’s stuff on Bandcamp HERE or Soundcloud HERE. She has a personal blog, and she’s on Instagram @leslienuss1. Oh, here’s V. Enjoy.

More soon.

JF

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[rocknutsvibe]

7 incredible rock albums coming soon

1) Chuck Berry, Chuck (pre-order it on Amazon). Out June 16, 2017.

“Chuck Berry, the father of rock & roll, is releasing his first album in nearly 40 years, which is comprised mostly of new, original songs written, recorded and produced by the legend himself. ‘CHUCK’ was recorded in various studios around St. Louis and features Berry’s longtime hometown backing group – including his children Charles Berry Jr. (guitar) and Ingrid Berry (harmonica), plus Jimmy Marsala (Berry’s bassist of forty years), Robert Lohr (piano), and Keith Robinson (drums) – which has supported him for over two decades on over two hundred residency shows at the famed Blueberry Hill club. ‘This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy,’ said Berry, referring to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry. ‘My darlin’ I’m growing old! I’ve worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!'”

2) Bob Dylan, Under the Covers (pre-order it on Amazon). Out April 7, 2017.

“Although the man who won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature is known best for his self-composed lyrics and music, he has, across the years, performed and recorded a huge number of cover songs; according to the book Bob Dylan – The Songs He Didn’t Write by Dylan authority Derek Barker, there have been more than 500 to date. This CD collection brings together just 20 of these, but without a doubt these remain among Bob’s finest interpretations of others songwriters’ work. Featuring of course tunes by his mentor Woody Guthrie, and a smattering of folk traditionals, this compilation includes too numbers by an eclectic range of writers from Townes Van Zandt, Ry Cooder and John Hiatt, to George & Ira Gershwin, rockabilly legend Warren Smith and blues mainstay Muddy Waters, all rubbing shoulders with other classic cuts from the cream of 20th Century composers.”

3) Ray Davies, Americana (pre-order it on Amazon). Out April 21, 2017.

“This is Ray Davies’ first new album in 10 years. It follows his acclaimed 2013 memoir of the same name, and uses the book as both source material and jumping off point. Davies wrote and arranged all the music on ‘Americana’ and co-produced the album with Guy Massey and John Jackson with the Jayhawks serving as Davies’ backing band. ‘Americana’ was recorded in London at Konk Studios, the legendary studio founded by The Kinks in 1973.

“The album is an autobiographical work, taking inspiration from the vital role America has played in Davies’ life over five decades. It also features a number of short spoken-word passages from the memoir. In Davies’ own words, ‘America is such a big story, a vast landscape, you can get lost in it. It’s possible in America to go ahead and have a new start somewhere.'”

4) Willie Nelson, God’s Problem Child (pre-order it on Amazon). Out April 28, 2017.

“‘God’s Problem Child’ is Willie s first album to debut all-new songs since ‘Band of Brothers’ in 2014. It includes 13 new songs, including seven recently written by Willie and Buddy Cannon, his longtime collaborator and producer. The album’s title track, penned by Jamey Johnson and Tony Joe White, includes vocals by both writers and the legendary Leon Russell (on what may be Russell’s very last recording). Closing the album is “He Won’t Ever Be Gone,” a song written by Gary Nicholson that pays tribute to Willie’s outlaw country comrade, Merle Haggard.”

5) Grateful Dead, Cornell 5/8/77 (pre-order it on Amazon). Out May 5, 2017.

“Cornell 5/8/77 was recorded live directly from the soundboards by Betty Cantor-Jackson. After several years the master tapes were seemingly lost for good, but that all changed at the end of 2016. The lost tapes, or lost “Betty boards” as they are commonly known, finally made their way back home to the Grateful Dead vault, making it possible to officially bring the world this legendary show just in time for its 40th Anniversary. The complete live show has been Plangentized by Plangent Processes and remastered by GRAMMY ® award winning sound engineer, Jeffrey Norman.”

6) Diana Krall, Turn Up The Quiet (pre-order it on Amazon). Out May 5, 2017.

“Diana Krall’s latest album, Turn Up the Quiet, celebrates Jazz and the Great American Songbook, reuniting Diana with Grammy Award-winning producer, Tommy LiPuma.

“Diana Krall is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. To date, her albums have garnered five Grammy® Awards, eight Juno® Awards and have also earned nine gold, three platinum and seven multi-platinum albums. Krall’s unique artistry transcends any single musical style and has made her one of the most acclaimed artists of our time.”

7) Sheryl Crow, Be Myself (pre-order it on Amazon). Out April 21, 2017.

“Multi-platinum-selling singer, songwriter, and musician Sheryl Crow will release a new album, entitled Be Myself, on April 21st via Warner Bros. Records. Be Myself, her ninth studio album and the first album for the label is available for pre-order now.

“For this album, Crow worked again with producer, musician, and songwriter Jeff Trott, a long-time collaborator throughout her career. Trott co-wrote many of Crow’s classic hits including ‘If It Makes You Happy’ and ‘My Favorite Mistake.’ Crow says her main goal was ‘to investigate what made my early songs strike people as being authentic and original. So for the first time in my life, I made it a point to sit down and really listen to my old records. I’d drive my kids to school and play the old stuff as I came back home. That helped me remember what it felt like when I was just beginning as an artist. But it wasn’t about repeating myself. It was about revisiting where I came from and seeing where that would take me now.’

“Be Myself is like each of her preceding releases: thoughtful and candid. It’s unlike them too, mainly in that it represents contradictory movement — a look at the world today powered in part by a return to the energy that first lofted Crow and her music into the limelight.”

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