#els is a brilliant writer the way i pictured it all

[moonpascal]

♡︎ first time with dad!james

╰┈➤ inspired drabble by @amiableness

[valenhell]

From the studio that brought you “I can’t find good Byler fics in the ao3 tag”, comes:

"The Definitive Byler fic rec list"

Literally no one asked for this but because I spent the majority of last year (...and 2019, and 2018...) reading byler fics and coping with life, I thought I’d make a list of some of my absolute favorites. 

The other day I was basically starving for some byler fics and the angel @magicalfairy provided me with some of her faves so I thought I’d do the same, because I love reading, and I love all of these fics and I appreciate their writers💗 And fic writers in general, come on!

- This is a mix of long works and one-shots/short stories. - Everything is mostly fluff with a tad of angst and a lot of internalized homophobia conflict.  - Every fic is completed, except for the ones I mention that they are not. - I try my best to lay out the stories in a way that I won’t spoil you the plot but also warning you of some stuff you might don’t like. Either way, all of these fics are correctly tagged by their respective authors/owners, so read at your own risk. For better understanding, in between brackets I denote Rating, Words and quantity of Chapters. - I feel like I should clarify, none of these are narrated in the singular first person. None of that “And I told him...”, no. 

Long fics

a dream always the same (T, 99k, 35 chapters) What happened in those few weeks between the Battle of Starcourt and the Byers leaving Hawkins. Literally a satisfying and very needed fill in of season three, with a good dose of Mike’s thoughts and conflict. Mike’s characterization is specially amazing in this one. The writing style is amazing and I know the author put everything into making it historically accurate, and it was really sweet. You probably read it, it’s by the amazing sevensided here on Tumblr🧡

Spring Break (T, 120k, 14/15 chapters) The slowburn of my dreams. Lots of internalized conflict and conflict with each other. Conflict within the Party (uhh kind of), conflict with Mike and Will. Byers family has moved and the kids are visiting! Chaos. Characterization is on point. Yeah, I know it’s unfinished, but the fourteenth chapter actually serves as a pretty nice ending. 

This is where it starts (M, 148.8k, 24 chapters) Aged up characters. The Party is in college and Will disappears again, but now it’s different. Mike knows he didn’t vanish from thin air, and the discovery he and the Party end up making is pretty insane. Mystery solving/fantasy/third dimension, throw in a bit of D&D and Mike realizing some shit, and you get this marvelous fic. It’s a breath of fresh air. The world building is definitely one of the elements that stands out the most, because it’s very nicely described, it sounds like a dream and it’s completely immersive. Absolute gem of a fic. 

there’s a Starman waiting in the sky (M, 30.6k, 8 chapters) Do I need to say anything? Will is out there living his best life and Mike realizes that wow, umm, maybe his best friend looks a bit too nice with that costume... and wait, is he getting horny? It’s actually really fun and sexy.

The Evening Speaks (T, 23k, 7 chapters) In where Mike is a late-night college radio host and Will is the art student that stays up till late to catch up with Wheeler on the Mic. They flirt through songs y’all, this one is really sweet. 

heads or tails? (E, 24k, 3 chapters) Aged up characters. I know most people don’t enjoy sex in fics and with specific characters but this one is insanely well written. It’s a slowburn that commits to the tension and with every word you are grasping and anticipating their next move. I think you can find the author here on Tumblr as yousaidyes🧡

The Man of Average (M, 56.7k, 5/? chapters) Aged up characters. No but you don’t understand, the writing here is absolute gourmet. The story is exciting as well, it’s super interesting. Weirdly enough, for being very aged up characters, they are well characterized but they don’t feel like teenagers. They are naturally Mike and Will. The author really captured Mike and Will’s essence. I know, it’s unfinished and it’s updated very rarely, but this is the typical fic you can’t believe someone just posted on the internet for free. I will say though, I think it’s definitely not for everyone. Read at your own risk.

Heartstrings (E, 82.8k, 24/? chapters) Aged up characters. By the same author of The Man of Average. A collection of memories, the road to Mike and Will’s happy ever after. And fucking hell!!!!! You’ll cry and get angry, you’ll cheer for them, then you’ll want to crash their faces together because god dammit you love each other!!! But yeah, same thing here. The writing and the way the story is laid out as a nonlinear narrative is brilliant. And I also think this is one of the best Will versions I’ve read. The author might as well be the og creator of this two characters tbh. You can find the author here as mylesimeblr🧡

Sinners behind the walls (T, 1.5k, 1/1) And because I can’t stop recommending this author, a little thing of Mike tormenting himself but also being too deeply committed to Will. 

The Red Envelope series (T/E, 167K, two completed works) Something happens that Will thought was impossible and from there, pure drama and romance. Anything by this author has the potential to become your absolute favorite fic, but this series in particular is amazing. I doubt that any of you haven’t read this, but it doesn’t hurt to put it in this list. I’m pretty sure the author is serendipitous-magic on Tumblr🧡

A New Fight series (T, 91k, two completed works, one WIP) And finally the Star Wars AU that we all needed. But this isn’t your typical “Mike is Han”, “Will is Leia” and “El is Luke”, it’s way more interesting than that, and the author has appropriated the Star Wars world like no other. I’ll admit I’m not a 100% fluent in SW lore but this is amazing to me either way. This author is also on Tumblr, tea-for-one-please🧡

- Yes, most of these are (if not all), in a way, canon compliant/canonverse/canon continuation into fanon. (In a way)

One-shots and short stories

Sundae for Two, Please (G, 4.8k) Steve being the supportive friend and older brother these kids collectively need. (not Jonathan erasure, we love him). Steve is very sweet himself, and this little cute thing through his POV is gorgeous. Yes, it’s byler.

Backstage (T, 10k, 2/2) Jonathan, you forgot to mention to Will how hot your new band’s guitarist is, dude. Now he’s hyperventilating and weirdly flirting with him in the corner. Background Stonathan because why not.

102 Peach Street (G, 3.8k) Established relationship, but not only that, they are married :’’))) PURE fluff. Extreme fluffiness. Diabetes. 

sweatshirts and bottled up feelings (T, 3.2k) Or, Mike thinks that the sweatshirt Will wears looks insanely good on him. And kitchens are for lovers. 

kiss it better (T, 16.3k) Basically one of the best character studies of a few precise moments of Mike and Will’s relationship and feelings. 

will wonders ever cease (T, 11.3k) #i ship will and happiness. Omfg what a beautiful piece of fanfic. Will centric, this kid really deserves all the good in the world.

The Calm After the Storm (T, 1.6k) Tooth rotting fluff, boyfriends in love. Boyfriends being lazy, cuddling, love words, kisses. Boys loving each other’s company... Basically, Mike and Will in their element. What more can you ask for?

neither of us ready to let go (T, 4.8k) That scene from season three, but a bit of a fix it. 

Still in love (G, 1k) Domestic, married life au fluff. Y’all, I’m a sucker for established Byler, even if I can’t find many fics with it. But this is very sweet. It takes place in 2020, but I don’t think there are any mentions of the COVID-19 crisis that I remember.

I Nver Find Out ‘Til I’m Head Over Heels (G, 12.5K) Classic 5+1 fic. If you haven’t read it, where have you been? This is your moment. In where Mike keeps inviting Will to the school dances and Will thinks it’s just a joke until he realizes it’s not. 

Before You’re Gone (T, 5.9k) Will is leaving Hawkins and Mike thinks this is a great moment for a confession. This one I discovered last friday, thank you friend @magicalfairy 💗

You’re weird Wheeler (M, 4.5k) Mike unintentionally starts a tradition of going to each other to talk about their sexual encounters just after they finish. Will keeps getting more explicit with the details he shares, and he makes his best friend interested. This one is really fun y’all.

Out-Of-Town Friends (N/R, 4.6K) It’s not rated. I haven’t re- read it but I’d say it would probably fall in a T rating. So cute!! Will has new friends and sneaks off every friday and the Party doesn’t know where he is going, so Mike decides to follow him and is surprised. 

Snowed Under (G, 1.3k) By the same author of The New Fight series. Mike is spending christmas by himself in college because a snowstorm hits Chicago and Nancy can’t drive to see him, but then he has a surprise visitor. Ahhh just a lil sweet holiday fic. Super cute. 

you love me anyway series (T, 7.1k, three completed works) Literally just the cutest thing ever. Established Byler. Will loves to take pictures and he loves taking pictures of Mike. It’s adorable. 

you wanna be friends forever (i can think of something better) (T, 9k) This one is so amazing. So. Amazing. From Will’s POV, my kid deserves the world and he gets it. 

okay not to be okay (T, 4.9k) Mike is a bit sad but then everything is okay. 

can’t hold out forever (G, 18.4k) Y’all!!!!! 5+1 sweetness. Mike has been falling in love since kindergarten. And it’s long af, you’ll enjoy it. 

even if it takes forever (G, 1.3k) College short AU, they miss each other, they love each other, they promise all to each other. It is sappy y’all.

clear as day (N/R, 18.4K, 4 chapters) It’s not rated, but I’d say it falls in the T category. Strangers to friends to lovers. And also, everyone is pretty gay; we have our dynamic trio Mike, Max and El as disaster lesbians (and gay). Will works at the library and he is also gay. Lucas and Dustin and Will are the best friends we needed. It’s very sweet and the Party is kind of formed here!

I went overboard with the one-shots, so you must have realized how much I love long one-shots and I favor them over long works lmao but they are all amazing!!! If it’s on this list, I probably read it at 2 am, sobbing in my bed. So. Hope you enjoy it☺️🧡

[halfemptygirlrps-archive]

Polyamory CAN work (long post)

As a black, queer woman who could very well be poly, I am always looking for content to feed my soul and have for a few years now. I know I grumble about white/het couples a lot which makes me sound some kind of way but I ship a ton of white couples, that isn’t the problem. It’s the way representation is stepped on these days with toxic white couples being seen as true love that upsets me. And this is coming from a chick that lowkey ships Reylo.

I don’t understand and never will why writers in 2020 think that the only demographic there is are the people who can’t handle seeing anything but a white male and a white female be together. Interracial relationships CAN and DO work and f/f or m/m relationships or any race CAN work, so guess what, so can relationships involving three or more people and while difficult, it can work, even if the people are different races.

My annoyance also stems from Poly woman really getting shat on when writers hit a wall. Very few times have I seen it work out and that’s so stupid to me because she shouldnt’ have to choose.

I start with Wynonna Earp, a CLEARLY Poly woman with a strong sexual appetite that never gets shamed. She loved both Dolls and Doc and though Shamier left the show effectively forcing her to Doc, they still made it clear that she was poly and capable of having feelings for more than one man when they brought in Charlie. He was patient and sweet and while all three men wanted Wynonna to themselves, they NEVER gave her an ultimatum and even while PREGNANT WITH ANOTHER MAN’S BABY  Dolls still loved her and held her in bed. I believe that had Shamier (Dolls)  not left that they would have went on waiting for her to choose but also letting her know that she didn’t have to.

Then there’s my first real Poly stan, Bo Dennis from Lost Girl. Unapologetically bisexual and poly, Bo was in control at all times, both of her relationships and her sexuality. While she needed sex to feed like a vampire needs blood,she also enjoyed it and didn’t view it as a curse or burden and her partners were alwasy consenting, which was amazing. Lauren never shamed Bo (in fact she praised her sexuality and wished she could keep up) for liking men (thus not being toxic to bi women, which is an issue in the community I wont get into) and Dyson, Bo’s male lover never pressured her to submit to him. Here she is pictured with Tamsin, Dyson and Lauren, all her lovers, at once.

If all three of them can be respectful and understanding while each of them were with Bo alone, not a quad, then why do they make it seem so hard to have three people love each other? And yes, I know that couples break up, but on Tv they just dont need to when it’s what a show is based on.

I could go on about Bo all day but I will move on to one of my favorite movies: Prof. Marsden and the Wonder Women.

Now real or not this story had everything. It showed how slowly and steadily they grew to love each other, the highs and lows and the shame of the community that made them all stronger together. Was there jealousy at times, yeas, but they addressed it and learned that they didnt’ need to be and that they could all be together happily and that it could be easy to be in love with more than one person. Sure, it was the 40s but in this day and age it’s nothing to hide, and if they could have a happily ever after back then, why couldn’t it happen now? 

Could it be because of race? Without kidding ourselves, we know that every fandom is capable of being toxic and that it’s just fact that the black girl is often hated. I call it the Iris West treatment, where the clear canon couple is hated and the black girl is trashed for the white option. I quit Supergirl after Season 2 but I hear that Jimmy’s sister is getting said treatment now from a friend that still watches and I am not surprised.  You can’t force an actor to stay on a show and I get that having their ship destroyed build animosity, but I really can’t help but feel like had the other girl been white it wouldn’t have been such a huge issue. A Stefan vs Damon issue none the less, but still, less so. I say that because I have seen actual people defend Mon El in that fandom but saying “what’s wrong with owning slaves?” NUff said. 

Another reason I bring up why it could be race is because of You, Me, Her.

I really enjoy this show and will be sad to see it and and while I recommend it, there are flaws, but none of these flaws seems to be that the three of them can’t work past it and get back together. 

Emma and Jack are married, Izzy comes in and shakes up their world and they both fall ass over elbows in love with her and her with them. They go through the usual things:jealousy, favoritism, hiding their relationship then coming out, but they always work through it. When Jack leaves to date an ex, he comes back. When Emma leaves to date and ex, she comes back. When Jack and Emma think about moving away and Izzy doesn’t want to, they come back. When Izzy has a thing with a co-worker, she still chooses Jack and Emma because they know they all need and love each other. They even have babies together! Izzy sees the sonogram and her heart stops. She realizes that she is going to be their actual mom and they all get married and even look into tri custody because they know they are a family and that it’s not an odd man out type of thing. They try it with other people and with just one another but they know where they’re hearts belong. It works. Does it work because they’re all white? NOPE

Sense8 was a brilliant show. Here everyone was represented and it was such a shame they killed it. Still, they showed us that sexuality can be fluid and that a fandom can be supportive. Raj and Kala married in spite Kala loving someone else. They never made her choose and in the end, they accepted that she was poly and wanted both and guess what? The two guys even fell for each other! Here is a white, bisexual male with his Indian partners. India isn’t the greatest with being gay so for Raj this must have been stranger and scary but they both made him feel safe and comfortable, loved and supported and in the end it was canon that they were all going to be together and learn as they go. Like with You, Me, Her, the fandom is supportive of this and while we didn’t get much of Rajalagang, it is clear that they can work regardless of skin color, religion, and even long distance.

So then why not Polymarine? It was clear it tested well with the audience, haters aside, so what made them feel like they couldn��t carry on? Sure, people fall out of love, but in the show, they just didnt’ need to. Before Ryn Ben and Maddie were together without issue for almost a year. It was made clear every time that he was in love with her, that they had chemistry and that he was attracted to her, so how do they justify saying that this:

Wasn’t real and meant nothing? That this

Wasn’t the same?

If other relationships can survive and thrive then what is it that was so hard, so difficult for the writers that they remove the credit that they themselves paved the way for and throw it aside for something that has been done literally thousands of times? Why throw away what made you unique to fall in line? Why does a show about mermaids have to have this be the “realistic” thing?

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Been having a weird/off week. But you know what’s made it better?

Spending some more time in Midvale with Supergirl Ep. 6x06, “Prom Again!”

Spoilers!

So! Last week was the fun shenanigans/set-up, THIS WEEK we get the emotional pay-offs and oooooh. So good. So good.

Historically, Supergirl kinda struggles to stick its landing when it comes to paying off its set-ups, but I think this episode is really solid in that regard.  

And thus, we begin! With the forest showdown! And I love it. Love every part of it. Love Kara flying in and freeing Nia and Brainy with her heat vision, love that one of Kenny and Kara’s go-to plays is called ‘Speed Racer’, love Brainy’s whole, ‘my buddy’s gonna BLAST YA if you don’t cooperate’ and Kara just. Threatens the bad guys from the shrubbery.

She’s supposed to be scary and intimidating with the heat vision eyes but dagnabbit...it’s just kind of cute.

Last week I completely forgot to mention how much I love that Kenny and Kara have go-to plays WITH NAMES. (NERDY names at that!) And also that Alex is so exasperated by it.

JUST YOU WAIT, KIDDO. 

Fast forward to the Fortress and everyone’s happy! The day is saved! The timeline is restored! Alex apologizes for being a bit of a grouch!

*cough* understatement *cough*

And Brainy doesn’t get the fist bump, d’awwwww. XD

Nia has a lovely chat with Kara wherein SHE is the elder hero who inspires the youths. Nice. NICE.

And THEN, the first of some good Danvers Sisters scenes...we’ll call this one ‘the mini-van chat.’ 

Kara apologizing about the ‘Zookeeper fight-y thing’ and the GLASSES FIDGET.

Shout out to the writers, who were ON-POINT with the dialogue for both parts, and shout out to the young actresses as well. It’s...honestly uncanny, how well they nailed playing Kara and Alex. 

(I mean, we knew this already, of course, but GOSH. What a wonderful showcase. So, so glad, that we got such a large Midvale story in the final season.)

Right, so, another dialogue highlight from the mini-van chat (but like, not in a silly way. More in a, ‘oh wow that’s very sweet’ way) Alex, to Kara about her choice: ‘It’s the right one because you made it.’

THESE KIDS.

Then we go to Nia and Brainy on the Legion Cruiser!

Nia’s outfit? Outstanding. Brainy’s mask? Admittedly a little distracting because it didn’t look like it was fitting quite right.

But A+ song choice for their dance, show. 

(Really, A+ song choices across the board. You can tell they were absolutely LOVING getting in all those needle drops.) 

And then we discover--ALL IS NOT WELL! THE TIMELINE IS STILL BROKEN!

Cat Grant has released the aliens! And she has been captured! And yet she remains heckin’ fearless!

Love that she calls Mitch ‘Mr. Blue Sky.’

It took me a while to warm up to this ‘new’ version of Cat Grant but this episode really gave her some fun stuff to do and yep, I dig it. Great stuff. 

Meanwhile, back at the prom...

I'm taking this moment to applaud the Supergirl folks for their very nice workarounds for ‘crowded’ locations this season thus far. The episodes have never felt like, overtly obvious in terms of Covid protocol impacts (I mean there are a few scenes here and there where you’re like, ‘oh, yeah, this is set up in this specific way to probably account for some production changes) but I’ve never felt that the episodes are losing anything, you know?

Case in point! Two episodes, set in a crowded high school! But most of the stuff takes place before/between classes, or outside!

(Specifically enjoyed all the outdoor stuff and natural lighting. It’s not quite the same as that LA sunshine, but. Still nice.)  

Anyways, in “Prom Again!” the action/discussions are set in the hallways/classrooms outside of the actual Prom. Inobtrusive! Makes sense for the story! Doesn’t compromise!

Gold stars for everyone. 

Kara and Kenny are BOTH unrelentingly cheesy--Kara even says as much--and it’s wonderful.

‘Hey Stargazer.’ Kara, you smooth operator you.

Shout out to Kenny’s bowtie, it’s great.

...Shout out to Kenny in general.

(Like, Will is great, but he’s got a lot to live up to, now.)

So FURTHER PROOF THAT THE TIMELINE IS BUSTED: Kara is going to stay in Midvale!

:O

Me, knowing full well that Kara has to go to National City, but also being...just a liiiiittle bit team Kenny: 

And then...THE METEOR!

That Kara just. Body-slams.

It reminded me of another Danvers, who also body-slams some space stuff:

But UNLIKE Kara’s cross-company cousin, this particular move does not end well!

Because there’s KRYPTONITE! And also, a CLOAKED SPACESHIP, BLOCKING THE FALLING METEOR DEBRIS! And, you know, ALIEN HUNTERS THREATENING HIGH SCHOOLERS! And Kenny SACRIFICES HIMSELF FOR KARA!

(Well, okay. It’s tonight but you get the idea.)

Poor, sweet Kenny. Who feels WAY out of his depth as he’s imprisoned alongside Cat on the alien ship...but it does bring us one of her patented ‘tough love pep talks.’ Wherein she calls Kenny brilliant.

And also, Kendall.

Never change, Cat. Never change.

Also, “Go, go.”

Okay, some more rapid fire specifics that I enjoyed so that this list doesn’t get...too? Long? ...No promises.

Smol Kara squaring her shoulders in that classic Kara Super Pose! 

Alex being able to pick a lock!

Kara using the reflected sunlight from the moon to heal!

‘That’s an 80% failure rate’ ‘Oh yes it’s terrible.’

The scene where the police have Kara, and Alex comes rushing out all, ‘that’s my sister!’ and Kara’s gonna just RISK EVERYTHING to fix this?

100/10, excellent, love to see that Danvers Sisters angst in the Worst Timeline. Also? Alex’s desperate little headshake, silently pleading for Kara to NOT DO THE THING???? Devastating. In the best way.

‘The world will know that name...Keira.’ 

No Plutonian Landshark sightings!?!? Not even a graphic on a computer screen? FOR SHAME!

(Personally, I’m imaging that they look like Jeff, pictured below.)

Kara stowing away on the Cruiser, and her very cute, ‘Don’t be mad!’

Her entire speech about her future--She’s just seventeen! She doesn’t have her driver’s license yet! Eliza’s only let her do the laundry once! She’s not even sure she can make rice!

(Eliza, I love you, but for Pete’s sake, let your kid do her own laundry.) 

Brainy and Kara trying to play it cool upon being discovered by Kenny and Alex! 

Their story involving an excess of formal wear!

Nia inspiring Cat to start CatCo, and telling her she’s CAT FREAKIN’ GRANT!

“If you say Lois Lane I will expire.”

Wait, did I mention the lucid dreaming power yet? ...Nia’s lucid dreaming power!

The entirety of Kara and Kenny’s talk in the gym!

Kara in the Worst Timeline tell Alex, ‘you don’t have to shout’. And then in the Fixed Timeline: ‘inside voice please.’

And she quotes Monty Python that lil GOOBER.

THE WHOLE EPISODE(S) was a GOSHDARN DELIGHT, I TELL YA. (Did I say that last week? I might’ve said that last week, but I don’t care.)

And now, some slightly more in-depth, overall thoughts:

So, How ‘Bout Them Danvers: Not surprisingly, the girls end up in, if not the exact same place as the end of “Midvale”, then pretty darn close. I’m trying to avoid, like. All of fandom, these days, but unfortunately, the bad takes are numerous, and often untagged. So I did see a bunch of people insisting that Kenny living ‘ruined the Danvers’ relationship’ and that the show is ‘taking away everything that makes Kara Kara’

To which I say:

In the broadest terms, what needs to happen by episode’s end to match up with “Midvale”, and prep the kiddos for the stuff that happens in the Pilot - Kara needs to put the aspirations of super-ing on the backburner, and Alex needs to like. Not hate Kara, but also be committed to helping Kara keep her secret, you know...secret. 

All of these things are set up. I repeat: All. Of. Them.

And Kenny didn’t have to die!

(I will admit, I chuckled that they so blatantly teased an untimely demise for him...because I know it will annoy select corners of fandom.

Muhahahahaha.)

But anyways, back to those key ingredients for making a ‘Danvers Sisters in the same emotional place they were in @ Midvale’s end’ soup: Alex deals with that simmering resentment. Seeing Kara handle herself well in a super-ing context gives her that little, ‘hey, this isn’t so bad!’ outlook.

BUT INTERESTINGLY, in the Fixed Timeline, Alex and Kara don’t have that chat in the supply room, where Alex is like. ‘You CANNOT reveal your powers, BAD THINGS will happen if you do.’ 

That is saved for the Pilot!*

MEANWHILE. The Kara ingredients! She puts super-ing on hold. 

Her chat with Kenny functions as a replacement for her chat with J’onn-as-Not!Alura, in the sense that it’s here that she reveals that she didn’t choose to come to Midvale, she didn’t choose these powers. 

(...I can already sense fandom using those lines to prove their end-of-series theories and like. Ugh. Ugh.) 

But anyways. It’s also here that we get shades of Pilot!Kara, what with the season one conflict of being Super vs. being normal. 

It’s ALL THE SAME STUFF.

Fandom needs to like. Chill. 

And their (fake) concern for Kara’s characterization is entirely misplaced, because this was a really wonderful showcase for Kara in particular.

Like. The first episode was really Nia’s time to shine, and we still got solid Brainy and Nia action in this episode!

But man. That good Kara content.

THE CONTENT I CRAVE!

So speaking of good Kara content in particular, I LOVED Kara’s prom dress. It's got both a SKIRT. AND PANTS!

Amazing.

I know nothing of fashion, but it was very cute, very girly, and okay. Though I hate the comic, the one thing I actually liked about Future State is Kara’s costume. This was similar!

(Thank goodness it looked nothing like the prom dress from Rebirth. That...was a bit of a train wreck.)

(Look, not all comic artists are great clothes designers, it’s just how it is.)

We see the empowerment theme come up with Kara inspiring Kenny; he describes her as ‘an amazing light in a world of darkness’ and tells her that, ‘you changed me, Kara Zor-El.’

We love to see it. 

They also agree that stargazing and Monty Python make for the perfect prom these absolute NERDS I love them.

*Quick wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey note WRT making this episode ‘fit’ with the Pilot: I’m not saying that it 100% does. There’s already the change with the Kryptonite, and the added info/awareness of the DEO. 

Those little changes, though, don’t really impact the overall arc of Kara and Alex, the way the emotional stuff might. 

Thus! The ‘Pilot’ of Earth Prime, and in fact, the ENTIRETY of the show’s run thus far most likely involved little differences throughout, but the emotional core is very close, if not the exact same.

BUT EITHER WAY, it doesn’t matter, because our Kara and Alex are still our Kara and Alex thanks to the multiple sets of memories! 

(So all of fandom’s freaking out is for naught. As it almost always is.) 

I bring this up because, again, as much as I talk about setting stuff up for where we find Kara six years from now--this Kara is a little different! She comes across as more confident, something Izabela Vidovic mentioned in an interview, when discussing her approach to playing Kara this time around. 

And now, Alex: Admittedly, she gets less focus as like, a solo-entity in these episodes--she really is there to serve the more Kara-centric plot. Personally, it didn’t bother me too much because outside of these flashback episodes, Alex has had some solid development and screen time, so. It balances out.

And the scenes we did get with those 2? Solid. Top tier. There was even a couch scene! Like, technically. Because there was a couch in the supply room. XD  

Spotlight on Kenny: fandom kinda loves to insist that all the men on Supergirl are trash, because, ya know. 'Feminism’ or whatever. It’s ships, it’s always ships. But, in fact! The dudes on Supergirl? Are actually wonderful! And Kenny is another example of a guy who isn’t afraid to be emotionally vulnerable, who 1000% supports Kara, but is also like. His own person. 

GOOD JOB, SHOW. GOOD JOB.

Brainy too, had some really nice stuff in terms of dealing with his emotions!

And it’s Brainy who gives us our closing line, as Nia asks him how he’s feeling now that they’ve accomplished their mission:

“Hopeful.”

NOICE.

In conclusion! “Prom Night” and “Prom Again!” were EXCELLENT! They had heart! They had stakes! They had the promised time-travel do-over alluded to in the titles! Outstanding performances from the entire cast! Tthe ‘young’ versions of characters in particular! And I WILL be watching these episodes on repeat throughout the three-month hiatus! XD

But before the Super Friends take their break: NEXT WEEK! The Quest for Kara Concludes!!!

[back-and-totheleft]

Romantic, freewheeling, containing fathoms

IT'S early in the piece but maybe the best way to explain the allure of Oliver Stone’s romantic, freewheeling autobiography is to tell you how one of my best friends took on the experience.

My mate, a self-confessed Stone nut, downloaded the audio version of Chasing the Light - as read by the author - and then proceeded to drive around Cork city with the Oscar-winning director and screenwriter for company. “Love how he paints a picture of post-war optimism in New York circa 1945-46,” he messaged me. “Take me there...” Throughout his storied but turbulent career, Stone has certainly taken us places - the steaming jungles of Vietnam, the (serial) killing fields of the American heartland, the fervid political theatre of El Salvador, the grassy knoll. Even if we didn’t always like the destination, more often than not it was worth the journey.

Reading Stone's words in Chasing the Light, it’s impossible not to hear that coffee and cognac voice. The words roll from the page, sentences topped off with little rejoinders, just about maintaining an elegant flow. Drugs are mentioned early and often, while the word “sexy” features half a dozen times in the opening chapters alone. As in his best movies, Stone displays a positively moreish lust for life, at one point referring to how the two parts of the filmmaking process, if working well, are "copulating".

The book tells the story of the first half of his life, up to the acclaim and gongs of Platoon, and it’s clear that his own sense of drama was underscored by his family background, which is part torrid European art flick, part US blockbuster. His mother, Jacqueline - French, unerringly singleminded - grew to womanhood during the Nazi occupation of Paris. She downplayed her striking appearance as the jackboots stomped the streets but quickly scaled the social ladder, becoming engaged to a pony club sort. Enter Louis Stone.

Considerably older than Jacqueline, Louis quickly zoned in after spotting her cycling on a Paris street. In no time Jacqueline has jilted her fiancée (who, remarkably, appears to have turned up as a guest at the wedding), Oliver is conceived and one ocean crossing later, William Oliver Stone is born.

This family contains fathoms, Stone's father straight-laced and Commie-hating on the surface, yet a serial adulterer (even threesomes are mentioned) and positively uxorious towards his own mother. "It was sex, not money, that derailed my father," he writes. Louis's infidelities nixed Jacqueline's American dream, and Oliver’s with it. Jacqueline ultimately cheats on Louis, not simply via a fling but a whole new relationship, and with a family friend to boot.

What’s even more interesting is Stone’s reflections on *how* it was dealt with. Already dispatched to a boarding school, he learns of the disintegration of his family down the phone line. It has the coldness of some of the best scenes from Mad Men, children of the era parceled off to the side even as momentous events in their home life detonate in front of them. As things veer ever more into daytime soap territory, Louis then tells his son he's "broke", echoing the impact of the Great Depression on his own father's business interests.

By now, Stone is unmoored. He has secured a place in Yale but blows it off for a year and heads to Saigon to teach English: "I grew a beard and got as far away from the person I'd been as I could." On his return he decides he is done with academia; he'll be a novelist in New York, much to the distaste of his father. "That's why I went back to Vietnam in the US Infantry - to take part in this war of my generation," he writes. "Let God decide."

And here we are at the pivotal moment in Stone's adult life. Plunged into the strange days of 1968 in the jungle, he recalls a scene in which his patrol group comes under attack, imagining itself surrounded. Time elides and a metre may as well be a mile, explosions going off everywhere and bullets flying amid paranoia and uncertainty that borders on the hallucinogenic. "Full daylight reveals charred bodies, dusty napalm, and gray trees."

Tellingly, Stone focuses on this arguably cinematic episode while other incidents in which he is actually wounded don't receive the same treatment. By the time he leaves Vietnam he has served in three different combat units and has been awarded a bronze star for heroism. So many of his peers were drafted, yet he had decided to go. You never get a direct sense that his subsequent career is in any way a type of atonement, yet it is never fully explained. "Why on earth did you go?" he is asked. "It was a question I couldn't answer glibly."

From this point on, Chasing the Light mainly becomes a love letter to the redemptive power of the cinema, pockmarked with acerbic commentary on Hollywood powerplays. Stone's firsthand experience of jungle combat gives him a sense of perspective that no amount of cocaine or downers can ever truly neutralise, and it also imbues him with a sense of derring-do. At NYU School of Arts, his lecturer is Martin Scorcese, an educational home run. Watching movies is a place a refuge, writing them a cathartic outlet. It leads to visceral filmmaking, beginning with his short film Last Year in Vietnam. That burgeoning sense of career before anything else brings an end to his first marriage - "'comfortable' was the killer word". The seeds are sown for the plot that would germinate into Platoon.

As he moves past the relative disappointment of his first feature, Seizure, the big break of writing Midnight Express, and then onto the speedbump of The Hand, his second movie, Chasing the Light becomes a little more knockabout, though no less enjoyable. Conan the Barbarian, for which he wrote the screenplay, became someone else's substandard vision, Scarface a not entirely pleasant experience as his writing efforts move to the frosty embrace of director Brian de Palma. Hollywood relationships rise and fall like scenes from Robert Altman's The Player. His second marriage, the birth of his son, the slow-motion passing of his father, and all the time Stone is chasing glory on the silver screen.

By his late thirties it feels like he's placing all his chips on Salvador, a brutal depiction of central American civil war based on the scattered recollections of journalist Richard Boyle and starring the combustible talents of James Woods and John Belushi. His own high-wire lifestyle is perhaps best encapsulated in his reference to Elpidia Carrillo, cast as Maria in Salvador: "Elia Kazan once argued against any restrictions for a director exploring personal limits with his actresses, and I wanted badly to get down with her," he writes with delightful candour. Yet ultimately "I convinced myself that repression, in this case, would make a better film." Note: in this case.

Salvador was a slow burner, not an immediate critical or commercial success, but then in the style of a rollover jackpot, it started climbing the charts just as Platoon is about to announce itself to the world. Despite some loopy goings-on, that shoot in the Philippines had never gone down the Apocolypse Now route of near-madness, the drama mainly confined to warring factions within the production team. Ultimately, Platoon was the movie mid-Eighties America wanted to see about Vietnam. The book finishes in triumph, Stone clutching Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

There are piercing insights and inconsistencies dotted throughout. Stone lusts after good reviews but rails against the influence wielded by certain writers, such as Pauline Kael. He makes frequent reference to his yearning for truth and factual accuracy, yet hardly raises a quibble with The Deerhunter, the brilliant but flawed movie by sometime ally Michael Cimino which - particularly in the infamous Russian Roulette scenes - delivers an entirely concocted depiction of North Vietnamese forces. But then again, Stone revels in what he says is the ability to "not to have a fixed identity, to be free as a dramatist, elusive, unknown."

We've come to know him more in the decades since - through the menacing Natural Born Killers, the riveting but wonky conspiracy of JFK, the all-star lost classic U-Turn, even the missed opportunity that was The Putin Interviews. As my friend, who is the real authority, correctly observes, Chasing the Light is also weighted with nostalgia for a time when political dramas and anti-war films were smashing the box office, something hard to imagine today.

The second volume, if and when it arrives, will surely make for good reading - or listening. Buckle up your seat belt and take a spin.

-Noel Baker, “Oliver Stone’s freewheeling autobiography tells the story of the first half of his life,” Irish Examiner, Jan 17 2021 [x]

[minaminokyoko]

A Love Letter to ‘Knives Out’

Disclaimer: This isn’t even a review. This is literally just me freaking out about what a great movie I just bloody watched and I just need to vomit words everywhere about it. Sorry in advance.

I think the best thing ever is I went into this with zero information. I remember seeing the original trailer months ago, but it wasn’t detailed. Just the short one of the premise, and to be honest, I’m not really into Whodunits. Clue is one of the exceptions and Castle is the only detective-related thing I’ve ever liked and followed religiously (up until the final godawful two seasons), so I have no predisposition to even care about murder mysteries. But then Rian Johnson dangled the juicy carrot of Chris Evans playing against type (because we all know the man is a sweetie and I can personally vouch that he’s great at hugs) and so I decided to add it to my watchlist. Then the reviews came pouring in that it was great, which surprised me, and so I decided to take a leap of faith to see if the hype was real.

Oh God, was it ever.

Y’all know me by now. I’m a hard, cynical old bitch. It’s tough to impress me, but fucking hell, I really loved Knives Out.

It’s not that it does anything new; it’s that it is a fresh, creative spin on tropes we’re used to and it’s also the strong performances that just make it a delightful film. It’s kooky and dark and offbeat. It’s charming. It’s wonderfully political. It’s irreverent. This is the niche kind of writing that I adore. It’s why I’ve loved shows like Frasier or movies like Snatch. I love the interwoven mess between the plot and the characters and everything coming to light in a big explosion.

Spoilers down below for my talking points, naturally.

I want to start with Marta, simply because I love how this movie framed the character as innocent, but not stupid, useless, or weak. I love that she had a great relationship with Harlan. I love that Harlan didn’t have any evil ulterior motives. It was simply a man who looked around and realized that he thought he was providing for his family but all he really was doing was supporting selfish, downright cruel people. That family basically just siphoned off of him and had the entitlement complex that is currently killing this country right this fucking second. It was very satisfying when he left them nothing and gave Marta the money and the choice of what to do. The final shot of the movie is genius.

Which segways into probably my second favorite thing about the movie: the commentary about the entitled upperclass versus the working class immigrant. The whole Trump debate during the party made me groan because we all just wrapped up three holidays, so I know that people were having to go home for the holidays and listen to the broken-ass logic of their Trump supporter relatives. Especially since they dragged Marta into the bullshit conversation. I LOVE the writing of having this girl who busted her ass, who listened, who was a genuinely good person, still being able to be a good person in the end after one hell of an ordeal. I loved how the movie poked all kinds of holes in the fake narrative of inheritance and immigration and patriotism. Fuck that. This country isn’t some holy land. This country was stolen from the people who were born here and then they built a fake fucking pedestal on top of the mass graves and proclaimed it theirs. Fuck that revision history and fuck the people who believe these lies. This movie is so satisfying because it’s a giant middle finger to those people and it’s a reminder that the future is these hardworking, kind people who care about society and they are the ones who have earned all the good things this country has to offer.

I also love the examples of bigotry and microaggressions that were more subtle. The WASPs in this movie don’t even realize the backhanded compliments and the truly insulting shit that they do since they’re so entitled. For example, Richard handing Marta his plate while he was arguing for Trump. That’s brilliantly done. He thinks of her as a servant while he pretends she’s on equal footing: saying one thing and yet his actions prove the opposite. There’s also Meg’s comment of “we’re his REAL family,” showing that those bastards all will smile and welcome you until the second you cease to be useful to them and then they show you just how truly ugly they are beneath those “civil” masks. When the will was read, it was the exact shitshow we all knew it would be. That was a great representation of the upper class. It’s not about being loud and racist; it’s all those subtle, hideous things they do to suppress people of color and the working class so they can stay on top where they think they belong. This narrative is powerfully woven in that regard and I really needed to hear this story in today’s climate, especially since we just started 2020 today, which could be the end of everything all over again. I applaud the writing. As a woman of color, I see this kind of shit every single day, especially now that I work in higher education, so I really hope it opens more eyes to the shit that not only immigrants but working class POC deal with on a daily basis. I likened it to Zootopia, where you came to the movie for one reason but then you were served an absolutely piping hot side dish alongside the entrée. Well done, Knives Out. Well done.

I need to give a nod to this powerhouse cast as well. I forgot Michael Shannon was in this movie so seeing him made me giddy, as I’ve always liked him since he’s so damn sinister. He’s a great antagonist actor and I almost wish he’d been given more to do. Jamie Lee Curtis did great as well.

But y’all know what’s coming. I mean, look at my profile picture. You know I have to stop and talk about my future husband’s performance.

Chris Evans as a villain.

Not only that, but Chris Evans as a GREAT villain.

Oh, God, pass me the cigarette.

We all knew from his work in the MCU that the man can act his fine America’s ass off, but boy, did I really like his role here. I compare it to Chris Hemsworth in the godawful movie Bad Times at the El Royale, because while that is one of the worst movies of the decade, it was extremely smart in casting Hemsworth in the villain role. Why? Because it sold the believable factor. Chris Hemsworth is so handsome and charismatic that he COULD in fact be a creepy ass cult leader. You take one look at that man’s chest and tell me you wouldn’t fight a smelly hippie to jump in his bed. Damn right I’d be in a Chris Hemsworth cult. Point being, Chris Evans as the handsome but cruel Hugh was phenomenal. I really enjoyed seeing everything unfold. He did such a great job. It’s all the more satisfying knowing that in real life, he’s the cutest, sweetest goofball on earth. I’m so delighted he took this role because he knocked it out of the park.

Which brings me to my next point.

I’m gonna be a basic fangirl bitch for a second here. Just hear me out.

I’d LOVE an alternate ending to this movie where Hugh didn’t do it.

I know, I know. That’s super basic and dumb and I know part of it is because I just wanted to like Hugh anyway, but it actually would be a great piece of storytelling if you changed the ending.

In this premise, Marta really did mix up the bottles and accidentally killed Harlan. Well, what I would change is that Hugh really did have a benevolent epiphany and he decides to come back to stick it to his shitass family and he figures out what Marta did and decides to help her so she’ll slip him his cut. Then the rest of the film is Hugh and Marta trying to cover the rest of their tracks so that Blanc doesn’t piece together Marta’s accidental crime. Over the course of helping her, Hugh gets to know her and they become friends, so by the time they pull it all off—mind you, I’m ambiguous in this AU, I’d be fine if the detective works it out but lets them cover it up or if they actually manage to just destroy all the evidence so he can’t convict her and he admits defeat—he’s now invested and doesn’t accept the money when she goes to pay him. Bonus points if he falls in love with her during the cover up. It’s not necessary, but I saw a couple little sparks, so I think it would be very cute if Hugh and Marta hooked up to protect each other from the horrible family and build their own empire together. But that’s me.

Trust me, this movie is brilliant as written. It doesn’t need that alternate ending. But I have to admit it got my mind churning about what a fantastic character arc it could be if Hugh hadn’t been the bad guy and he and Marta learned things about each other and formed a friendship. I’m a writer, it’s kind of a hobby, sorry. I hope I’m not the only one who thought that, but we’ll see.

I’m so glad I started 2020 with this film. It’s a rare gem. I can’t wait for it to get on DVD, because I am gonna snag it asap and watch it again. What a romp. It’s also gratifying in a petty way that J.J. Abrams went out of his way to undo Rian Johnson’s work in the Star Wars franchise and it’s backfiring majorly critically speaking meanwhile Knives Out is getting bomb ass good reviews, so good for you, Rian. Your revenge is at hand. #TEAMPETTY

I can’t recommend this hard enough. If you love murder mysteries or if you just love Clue-style quirky black comedy, please see Knives Out. It’s worth every red dime, to quote the movie.

Kyo out.

[krokonoko]

for the meme: Katara, Jesse "The Boy" Pinkman, Ati

Katara:

favorite thing about them: Do I really need to count all the ways in which Katara is amazing? Like, how she is headstrong, and kind, and doesn’t to well with following authority, how she’s caring, and hot-headed, and how her path to becoming a water bending master was one of the most rewarding and empowering things to watch in the history of ever?? Also she was the first girl I had a crush on back when I was a kid.

least favorite thing about them: Just like with Aang, I feel like the writers kinda fumbled her characterization a lot in season 3. What was that whole trying to turn her into a stuck up, stuffy mother hen and all the “TOPH NO SWIPING!” and “I CAN BE FUNNY” bs. Not a fan.

favorite line: “Let us fight for our freedom!“

brOTP: Toph / Katara probably.

OTP: Katara / Aang all the way

nOTP: Guess.

random headcanon: She totally gets her own statues all over the world after the events of ATLA :)))))) Just like every single other Gaang member :))))))))))))))

unpopular opinion: Katara bloodbending is not cool, she hates it, she hates herself when she does it, it’s not a neat little trick she can do, stop trivializing blood bending 2k20

song i associate with them: The Avatar’s Love!

favorite picture of them: Just insert every screenshot of Katara smiling or being happy RIGHT HERE!!!

Jesse:

favorite thing about them: Whump central. Skinny legend. Fragile wrists, dainty hands. All that pain and misery and loneliness and it only made him kind. Talented. Brilliant. Incredible. Show-stopping. Spectacular. Never-the-same. Totally unique. How dare Aaron Paul be such an amazing actor. How dare they sit down and think “why don’t we just make the most emotionally and physically vulnerable character and make him go through ALL the possible shit and keep the camera in a close up the entire time through!”

least favorite thing about them: THE ENDING HE ALMOST GOT WITH BREAKING BAD!! I swear to god if I had finished BrBa and El Camino hadn’t been out yet, I would have flipped my shit at how unfair the finale was for him, how it only focused on Walter fucking White and HHHH the possibility of living in a timeline where I had to wait YEARS for that movie to come out and give me a satisfying conclusion to one of the most heart-rending character arcs in the history of TV KILLS ME

favorite line: “The thing is… if you just do stuff and nothing happens, what’s it all mean? What’s the point?”

brOTP: BADGER/JESSE/PETE!!!!

OTP: Hmm, that’s tough cuz I ship him with so many ppl! I think I’d go for Mike/Jesse.

nOTP: none

random headcanon: He and Mike (who totally survived) met again in Alaska. Mike has a repair shop, Jesse a carpentry shop, they got a couple of dogs together and there’s doggo cuddles on the couch every night.

unpopular opinion: aaah goddangit I still don’t know what unpopular BrBa opinions are...! Uhm... I... don’t want him to be my boyfriend?

song i associate with them: Somewhere Else To Be by Vast cuz DAMN that shit is his life.

favorite picture of them: This one singlehandedly made me watch BrBa

Atemu

favorite thing about them: He taught me that fierce tiny skinny men in black patent leather poots and kajal are goals

least favorite thing about them: sometimes it seems to me like no one in the fandom can really agree what exactly his character is, me included.

favorite line: Iiiii don’t know, they’re all 4Kids dub lines sooo… Look, it’s been forever since I watched that show, and it was in German, which is translated from the 4Kids version. And I’m not really happy about that. I wish I knew quotes from the original dub, but I don’t because as unhappy as I am about the situation, I’m not gonna sit through the entirety of YGO again just to watch it in Japanese. So. Idk. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this subject.

brOTP: Yami/Yugi

OTP: Yami/Seto

nOTP: …gotta have to say Yami/Yugi here. I totally see it, it’s totally there, I used to be a big fan, but due to personal reasons I just can’t stand it anymore, sorry.

random headcanon: At this point in time I feel like whatever I think about any YGO character is canon.

unpopular opinion: It’s a good thing he died. He deserved some rest after being forced to haunt a goddamn labyrinth for thousands of years.

song i associate with them: Oh god I used to have about a thousand songs that I associated with him and now I can’t think of a single one anymore…! Let’s go for the best YGO Opening of all time: Warriors!! That shit didn’t have to slap so hard but DAMN it does!

favorite picture of them: That one last shot of DSOD hjahjahjs the 15yo in me dies every time

[my-lady-knight]

Favorite Reads of 2019

As seems to be my usual, I’m posting this at what feels like the last second.

Writing this year’s post was hard. I’ve been complaining offline all year that it feels like I read far fewer books I really, truly enjoyed. Even the books I did enjoy, they didn’t stick around long in my head for me to remember details. On the other hand, this list ended up being thirteen items long, so it can’t have been that bad. And having to go back to the books in order to write this list did make me remember how and why I loved them, so there is that.

Presented in chronological order of when I read them:

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay

The first book I read in 2019, and I knew would end up on this list as soon as I finished. It’s also the first book of Guy Gavriel Kay’s where I finally understood what the fuss was about - when he commits to writing three-dimensional characters with compelling interpersonal and socio-political relationships, he commits. The cultural/social details of this secondary-world version of medieval Spain set at the beginning of the end of the Caliphate and the rise of the Reconquista are evocative, and the scope deftly alternates between being vast without tripping over itself and touchingly personal. Most importantly, this book gave me an OT3 I wasn’t even expecting in the form of Amman ibn Khairan, famed soldier, poet, and advisor now outcast from the city-state of Cartada, Rodrigo Belmonte, beloved cavalry captain with a complicated loyalty to the rulers he serves, and Jehane bet Ishak, an esteemed physician whose path intersects with them both. Together they represent the connections and tensions between their respective, secondary-world Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, cities, and leaders in this secondary-world Spain and form a triangle of everything the country has, is, and can be. A year later I still love this book.

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee

This book is difficult to write about, because I remember loving it as I was reading it, but I can’t remember any of the essays very well several months after the fact (see above). What I do remember is that they were difficult, and complicated, and messy, and they did the thing I love when essays do where the fact that the things Alexander Chee was writing about are super-specific to him made them somehow feel all the more relatable. All the essays were nicely crafted stories and emotional journeys, withAlexander Chee tracing all the various aspects of his life through his writing, as an Asian man, a gay man, an aspiring writer, a professional writer, a resident of NYC, and a survivor of sexual assault, using prose that was both artistic and clear as water.

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Amal El-Mohtar wrote in her NYT review that this book was akin to “Hamlet”, “if [the play] were told from the point of view of Elsinore Castle addressing itself to a Horatio who mostly couldn’t hear it,” to which my response was “huh?” Then I read the book and it a) made so much more sense and b) ended up being an astute, apropos explanation of the kind of book The Raven Tower is. It’s the story of a soldier and companion to the heir of a country investigating the disappearance of its ruler and the ascendency of another in his place. It’s also the story of a calm, patient god in the form of a stone who predates all of history and narrates the changing existence of gods, their power, and their relationship to humans and their civilizations. It’s an understated yet powerful book, full of Ann Leckie’s brilliant and clever writing, world-building, storytelling, and otherworldliness. It’s Ann Leckie. She knows what she’s doing. And it fucking works.

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

This book - is bonkers. It is insane. It is one thousand percent over the top. I kept asking myself “why am I not irritated???” Instead I loved it. Sal is the new kid, a practicing magician with as showman’s flair for the dramatic and boundless energy, and he can open up portals into other universes. Gabi is the sharp-eyed, bossy class president and editor of the school newspaper who just knows something’s up with Sal and his shenanigans. Together, they become friends! And open up more portals into other universes. This book is warm and empathetic and funny and kind-hearted. It’s too-muchness quality somehow worked. The whole thing felt like the literary equivalent of a hug. 

The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino

This wasn’t a Deep book, but I could not stop thinking about it, nor could I stop recommending it to people. It’s a zippy historical fiction novel set in 1830s NYC prior to the Potato Famine. Mary (or Maire) and her brother Seanin are Irish immigrants working in the same wealthy family’s house, she as lady’s maid to the marriageable daughter named Charlotte, he as a groomsman. Mary is half in love with her Charlotte; unfortunately so is Seanin, and the two of them are carrying on an affair, the aftermath of which leaves Mary in a bind about where her loyalties lie. I love that this book has a queer take on a love triangle that I’ve never seen before, and I loved Mary’s anger and resentment, her unashamed attitude towards her desire for Charlotte as well as other women, and her selfishness as well as her loyalty. I also loved the upstairs-downstairs nature of the book and the clash of Anglo-American and Irish immigrant ethnic and class mores and the larger social and political setting of the city and time period.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

I don’t even know how to begin describing this book. It’s a story about maps and boundaries and borders. It’s an epic of daring escape and adventure about a mapmaker named Hassan with a magical gift and a concubine named Fatima, two friends fleeing the Inquisition after the surrender of Granada, in search of a mythical island ruled by the King of Birds. It’s a story of faith and trust and bonds forged from disparate people, and transformation, transformation of yourself and the world around you because you will it to be so. It’s a beautiful, beautifully written book.

(As a side note, I’m intrigued by the fact that two of my favorite books on here are set during the Reconquista.)

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

In some ways I liked this even better than The Hate U Give. I loved the complexity that arose out of Bri rapping about the injustices she’s experienced, with people drawing completely different meanings out of her words, people wanting her to use her rapping and her voice for differing reasons, and Bri herself working to figure out the power she has with her rapping and how she wants to use her talents, when it comes to financially supporting her family, standing up for herself, and being herself when so many around her are creating all these false images of her based solely off her words. I loved Bri’s anger, the way she kept speaking before thinking, her loving, sometimes complicated relationships with her family and friends...Angie Thomas’s writing and storytelling is phenomenal.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

I’m not even sure what to say about this book that hasn’t been said but, um, yeah, it’s Octavia Butler, it’s a classic, and really my favorite aspect of the book is how it so effectively bridges the gap between history and present and demonstrates how the two aren’t so far apart, and effectively blends them such that for Dana, the present becomes the past and the past is her present and suddenly she isn’t visiting history at a somewhat removed vantage point, she is part of history, her own history, her ancestors’ history, in all its horror, caught in a catch-22 of needing to repeatedly save the life of her white, slave-owning ancestor who over time grows more and more violent towards her, in order to ensure the chronological security of her own life.

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf

This was a harrowing read. Set in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the 1969 Malay-Chinese race riots, sixteen-year-old Melati has OCD, or what she understands as a djinn living inside her that forces her to obsessively count in order to keep her mom alive, a secret she tries to hide so people don’t think she’s possessed. When the race riots break out across the city, Melati has to make her way through the violence in the streets in order to find her mom, all while battling the djinn as its power increases in the chaos. I repeat, this book was brutal. The descriptions of Melati’s OCD alone make it a tense, taxing read - combine it with the violence and unpredictability of the race riots and all the threats to Melati’s safety and her ever-growing fear for her mom and it’s a lot. Even so (perhaps because) I could not put this book down. The recreation of this part of history (which I had no clue of before and knew nothing about) was both immersive and informative, the story was deftly plotted, and I loved how Melati’s characterization and her relationship/the depiction of her OCD and how it specifically affects her in her particular circumstances. 

Jade War by Fonda Lee

CLEAN BLADE CLEAN BLADE CLEAN BLADE

*ahem*

The second book of the Green Bone Saga was even better than the first. It took the story of the Kaul family and the No Peak clan and the worldbuilding of Jade City and turned everything up to eleven, expanding the story beyond Kekon into the global theater, particularly Espenia, bringing into the picture Kekonse immigration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural heritage - what it means to be Kekonese, to be a Green Bone and carry jade and follow aisho outside of Kekon. The gang warfare between the No Peak clan and the Mountain clan spills over the domestic sphere into the international. Espenia grows more aggressive in its moves to gain control over jade at Kekon’s expense. It’s family loyalties and betrayals, it’s gang politics and warfare, it’s community, municipal, national, and international politics and culture clashes, and the changing world of being a Green Bone and wearing jade in a post-colonial world. Anyone who’s followed me this year because of Peaky Blinders - READ JADE CITY AND JADE WAR. YOU WILL LIKE THESE BOOKS I PROMISE.

Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee

With this short story collection, Yoon Ha Lee has not only successfully published fan fiction of his own work in the Hexarchate universe and is getting paid for it, he’s published good fanfiction. The cute Cheris and Jedao backstory pieces of flash fiction he first published on his website are drabbles. One of the original pieces in this collection is straight-up PWP. (How the hell Solaris agreed to it I have no idea, there is literally no plot.) The very last story (also original) is fix-it fic for Revenant Gun that left me kicking and screaming over the CLIFFHANGER that Yoon Ha Lee ended it on HOW DARE YOU I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT CHERIS AND JEDAO ARE GOING TO DO NEXT YOU BETTER BE WRITING MORE STORIES SET IN THIS AU TIMELINE. In sum, Yoon Ha Lee is a delight, I love him, and I loved this collection.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

A novella about the weight of history, especially painful, traumatic history, and the necessity and yearning for it when you don’t have it. To be forced to bear the burden of history alone is to be crushed and subsumed by it. To lose or become detached from it is to lose connection to the people you’re from. Either way, it is difficult to impossible to maintain a people’s history alone. Rivers Solomon is such a poetic writer with her prose, painting beautiful images with just the right collection and arrangement of words, all while packing an astutely aimed punch in 160 pages.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

I had some issues with how convenient some of the magic/magical artifacts felt, and the various threads of the murder plot didn’t tie up as nicely as I wanted, but oh, Alex Stern is a marvel - a survivor in every sense of the word who embraces that part of herself over and over, even as what being a survivor means changes for Alex over the course of the book. A dark/contemporary urban fantasy set at Yale where the university’s elite student societies are also magical societies— Alex is a dropout who got into drugs as a teenager in order to shield herself from the ghosts she can’t stop seeing, recruited to act as overseer of the societies’ magical rituals, and who takes it upon herself to investigate the murder of a young woman not too different than herself. The centrality of power and its abuse in this book is delicious, the read is gripping, and Alex is worth the price of admission. Yes, I will be reading the second book when it comes out.

(Also, this is literally the second book I’ve ever read that makes any mention or inclusion of Ladino (both Alex and Leigh Bardugo are Sephardi.))

Honorable Mentions

Finding Baba Yaga by Jane Yolen

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin

Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 edited by N. K. Jemisin and John Joseph Adams

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

It’s also been my practice over the past few years when making these posts to crunch the numbers regarding the number of books I’ve read by PoC authors. This year I read a total of 30 books, which is the exact same number as last year, but since I read fewer books this year, they accounted for 47 percent of my reading, compared to last year’s 43 percent. My goal since I started has been to get to 50-50 parity between PoC and white authors, and this year’s the second-closest I got (I reached 48 percent in 2017.) The goal for next year is once again 50-50.

[mylifeincinema]

My Week in Reviews: October 12, 2019

Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019)

It's impossible to talk about Todd Phillips' Joker without at the very least acknowledging just how much it was influenced by Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. Phillips’ film is homage bordering on plagiarism and might’ve failed if not for the fact that it embraces this and runs with it full speed ahead. Replacing a run-of-the-mill nobody with one of pop-culture's most famous villains, Joker manages to dive deeper into its subjects' mental decay, knowing its viewers will endure even the most disturbing and twisted moments in anticipation of a reveal they know is on its way.

Joaquin Phoenix's performance is staggering. He embodies Arthur Fleck with just enough likability for us to feel for him as he’s beaten, betrayed and belittled throughout the film, but enough detached malevolence so that his heinous acts are still nothing less than appalling. Phoenix fills this cracked psyche with just as much sadness, fragility and frustration as he does explosively violent fits of psychopathy, making the entire film feel like a burning fuse leading up to the inevitable moment when the madness shatters through, devouring the last bit of humanity left in there.

The rest of the cast is all but wasted. Incredible character actors like Shea Whigham, Bill Camp and Glenn Fleshler are reduced to fuel for the plot, and the radiant and reliable Zazie Beetz is little more than glorified set dressing. Only Robert De Niro is given any substantial material to work with.

Todd Phillips’ work as writer (with Scott Silver) and director is successful in maintaining a tone of dread throughout, and only ever loses focus on the film’s timely themes when he ignores his limitations. Phillips isn’t quite the visionary director he clearly believes he is, and choices of his – especially throughout the late-second/early-third acts – are distracting in not only their long-winded self-indulgence, but also in their gross distrust of the audience. Phillips and Silver fill the film with a ton of pitch-black humor, as they clearly believe – much like Arthur himself – that Arthur Fleck’s life is indeed a comedy. This works at times, such as the climax, where the dialogue is so painfully awkward and true to the characters and Phillips’ direction shifts tone so rapidly and dizzyingly that the events that occur succeed in completely overwhelming the audience with a paralyzing sense of shock. But mostly, it only takes away from Phoenix’s careful dissection of a villain by painting Joker as an anarchist anti-hero that this decaying vision of Gotham oh-so needs. Despite it often being hard to tell whether Phillips wants to celebrate or condemn Arthur, it’s always clear that he’s trying to understand him… but someone really should’ve told him that a little empathy goes a long way with a character like this.

In short: Joker is a mostly effective, if far too empathetic character-study of the broken, mentally-ill man who becomes Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime. Todd Phillips painfully wants this to be a dark-comedy, even when he understands why it’s absolutely not. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a staggering performance that explores every crack in this man’s shattering psyche. And that laugh!! Also, I know I shouldn’t say it, as this is a completely different performance and downright brilliant on its own merit, but Ledger was better. Finally, Arthur Fleck’s time on Murray Franklin’s couch just might be the best scene of 2019, so far, if only Cliff Booth didn’t murder the shit out of a bunch of hippies with assists from Brandy and Rick Fucking Dalton while tripping balls on LSD back in July. - 7/10

Judy (Rupert Goold, 2019)

Biopics are tough. The best ones don’t overreach by telling its subject’s entire life story.

Judy succeeds when it takes that approach, focusing on her final string of London performances in late-’68. Then it falters in its flashbacks. Not enough to ruin the film, but enough that it’s took me out of the moment several times. They make sense, though, after finding out this film is based on Peter Quilter’s stageplay, End of the Rainbow, and directed by English theatre director, Rupert Goold. On stage, these flashbacks work wonderfully, as they’re perfectly timed for major costume and set changes. On the screen they’re jarring, and only ever slightly effective in adding depth to a tragic legendary figure.

But none of that really matters when you have Renée Zellweger, does it? With a performance as rich as hers, this could’ve been condensed to cover just the final performance, and we still would’ve gotten a complete picture of the tragic, broken, and unbelievably talented woman who was Judy Garland. - 7/10

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan, 2019)

A completely unnecessary, yet perfectly executed farewell to a beloved character from one of the best all-around television series of all-time. There isn’t much here that doesn’t work perfectly. Gilligan gives us all of the intimate character moments and every ounce of palpable tension we’ve come to expect to accompany them. Aaron Paul slips back into the skin of Jesse Pinkman with such natural ease that it’s hard to imagine it’s been over six years since we’ve last seen him as this character. Extra points for the inclusion of a fantastic, meaty scene for Robert Forster. The last project of his to be released before he passed away. - 8/10

Crawl (Alexandre Aja, 2019)

It’s at its best with its acting as a simple, claustrophobic, hopeless survival creature feature. Some bumps, like thinking we care about the father/daughter relationship and them ignoring the severity of Barry Pepper’s injuries, knock this down from being a perfectly light-weight horror/suspense film. - 6/10

The Art of Self-Defense (Riley Stearns, 2019)

A delightfully absurd, endlessly weird satirical exploration of fear and masculinity and the societal relationship between the two. Some of the funnier moments & quotes of the year so far live within this film, and they’re all delivered with such deadpan perfection. “Seven years ago today, Grandmaster was killed in a tragic hiking accident where he was shot in the face with a gun.” damn near killed me.  And its over-the-top representation of its masculine cliches works in dismantling them without ever becoming preachy in the process. - 8.5/10

The Death of Dick Long (Daniel Scheinert, 2019)

A much darker and infinitely more disturbing look into both the societal and familial expectations in regards to masculinity. A bit of a mess throughout, but it still manages to pack quite the punch.

“Death by misadventure.” I’m still both speechless and nauseated. - 5/10

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[avaantares]

Tag game - Torchwood edition

Tagged by:  @humany-wumany-stuff

Rules: Always post the rules. Answer the 11 random questions posted for you. Create 11 new ones and tag 11 people. Let the person who tagged you know that you answered.

1. When did you start watching Torchwood and what (or who) got you to start watching?

I was actually a bit late to the party, since my personal history with Doctor Who is... complicated (and waaaaay too long to relate here, though I’m happy to share the story if anyone ever gets really bored). The net result is that I didn’t catch up with New Who and, by extension, Torchwood until long after Torchwood had finished its TV run. I think it was 2014, maybe? (Sadly, I’d already been spoiled for most major series events, so I didn’t get to experience the shock and dismay of those who watched when it was new.)

I started watching because yes please, more Captain Jack Harkness, thank you. But I stayed for Ianto Jones.

2. What is your go-to episode to watch when you’re feeling down/bored and why?

You know, I really don’t have that kind of relationship with television. I watch TV so rarely (by which I mean I went for 13 years without even having TV and didn’t miss it), and I have so little free time in my schedule, that I don’t tend to rewatch shows unless I’m 1) showing the series to someone new (which I’ve done with Torchwood) or 2) looking for specific costume references (which I have also done with Torchwood).

That said, I think KKBB probably packs the most pure, shameless entertainment value, so if I really needed a Torchwood fix I’d probably go for that one.

3. Which of the TW villains/aliens/whatevers did you find the scariest and why?

I think Torchwood’s storytelling was at its best when the team wasn’t facing camp alien monsters, but rather dealing with concepts and issues rooted in our reality. Suzie Costello was a decent person, slowly warped into a serial killer by the things she’d seen and done. Out of Time touched on aging and cultural disconnect and loss. Meat was about exploitation. Children of Earth used aliens as a frame to explore political corruption and the abuse of power. Those stories were much darker and stayed with me longer than, say, a poorly-CGed “fairy” with improbable dentition. (Apologies to The Mill, but those effects... weren’t scary at all.)

4. If you had to pick 2 characters to do a BF audio, who would it be and what would it be about?

Ianto Jones and Norton Folgate. Probably having to join forces to save Jack, or something. I don’t even care what the plot is, I just want a full hour of catty insults and cutting dialogue between those two. SO MUCH SASS.

5. What is your favourite fanfic-trope to read/write?

To read? Probably slow burn, but it has to be done really well. I also enjoy emotional H/C, if it’s believable and not just abusing or woobifying the characters.

To write? The pen-dulum (ha!) swings liberally between angst and dry humor/snark. I also have a tendency to get characters into really heated, emotional arguments, possibly because they’re all so stupidly repressed and it’s nice to see them let loose once in a while.

6. If you could assemble your own TW team (post-CoE) with canon characters from the extended Who-niverse (any show related to DW), who would be in it?

So this is basically just a list of all my favorite companions, right?

Core Modern-Day Team:

Martha Jones - brilliant medic; worked for UNIT; saved the world a few times. Won’t take guff from anyone.

River Song - Jack’s equal in every way, only far more likely to shoot you. Tolerates even less nonsense than Martha.

Zoe Heriot - super genius from the future who can calculate pretty much any mathematical solution in her head faster than a computer. Adorably perky, but not afraid to hit bad guys over the head.

Sara Kingdom - by-the-book former Space Security officer. The one who would constantly be reminding Jack that he’s in violation of Torchwood code #439.27 subsection A. Also handy with a blaster.

Ianto Jones - because of course he’s still around, why wouldn’t he be?

Victorian Team:

The Paternoster Gang (Lady Vastra, Jenny, and Strax) - They’re pretty much doing Torchwood’s job for them already. so why not?

Jamie McCrimmon - 18th-century Highlander. Only barred from the main team because if Jack actually had a young, athletic, kilt-wearing man on his regular team, he’d never get ANYTHING accomplished (also, Ianto would probably have to intervene due to Olympic levels of workplace sexual harassment).

Consultant:

Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 - journalist-turned-suburban-mom who still saves the world on a weekly basis, and her robot dog. She doesn’t really approve of Torchwood (that’s actually canon!), but helps out when they need it.

7. A question you would like to ask the actors on a panel (assume they are all present :p)

Since we know that the storylines and character arcs were often in flux as the series was being written, what grounding concept or idea allowed you to keep your character’s portrayal consistent throughout the series?

8. If there was another season and they would do a crossover with any show/movie/book/whatever of your choosing for 1 episode, what would it be and why?

This is a little bit cracked, but someone recently posted about a Dirk Gently/Torchwood crossover, and I think, with enough suspension of disbelief, there’s actually some potential there. I mean, except for the conflict of Samuel Barnett being in both series. (Though I could see some good material there, too...)

Apart from that, it’s already been, er, “established” that Sherlock and Doctor Who/Torchwood exist in the same universe (oh, Arwel Wyn Jones, did you know the chaos you were unleashing?), so... why not?

9. If you were to find out tomorrow that Torchwood is real and Jack is leading a Torchwood team in your home city, how would you convince him to let you join them?

Oh, man. Would I want to? I mean, what are my odds of survival?

I am (among other things) a professional animal trainer with some certification letters after my name, so I would probably just point out that they really need someone to train their pteranodon so it stops eating livestock and pooping on all the war memorials.

10. How would you recast the original Torchwood team? (Jack, Owen, Tosh, Ianto and Gwen)

Hmm, I’m not sure I would. The characters are so closely tied to the actors in my mind, I can’t picture anyone else playing them. I can only come up with alternate faces if we port it completely out of context. So here’s my completely ridiculous Golden Age of Hollywood Torchwood cast:

Jack - Errol Flynn (dat jawline, yo)

Owen - James Cagney

Gwen - Barbara Stanwyck

Ianto - Marlon Brando (young Brando. Not Jor-El.)

Tosh - Miiko Taka? (This is a hard one to cast in that era, because Toshiko’s Japanese heritage is so significant to her character, but there were so few headlining Asian actresses during the GAoH. Or... well, even today, for that matter.)

11. If you could pick any author to write a Torchwood novel, who would it be and why?

Are we excluding fanfic writers? Because if we’re going to talk novel-length Torchwood stories, I could name a few that are more consistent and true to character than the official ones... *sidelong glance at @gmariam321*

But while we’re dreaming of impossible things, how about Douglas Adams? He wrote for Doctor Who, and his own books spanned the bizarre (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and the tragic (Last Chance to See), so I think he would bring an interesting perspective to a bunch of alien hunters trying to save the world from their glorified sewer in Cardiff.

Also, potential sofa cameos.

In all honesty, I was going to do the 11-new-questions-and-tag-people thing, but it’s now 4:59 a.m. (ZOMG1 what am I still doing awake at this hour?!) and I really, really need to turn off the computer instead of thinking up creative new asks. So I’ll just open this up to anyone who hasn’t yet been tagged and offer them the same questions @humany-wumany-stuff posed!

[smokeybrand]

This is Snyder

I don’t care for Zack Snyder. I don’t hate his craft as much as i hate Michael Bay, Snyder actually tries to make good movies, but i don’t find his schlock entertaining. He’s not a bad director, i guess, but his movies are always scatter-brained messes. I think Snyder is more a creative than a crafter. He’s the guy you want in your development stages, throwing out ideas and boarding those massive action scenes. If i were to equate him to a sports analogy, Snyder is the Offensive Coordinator on an American Football team. He’s the guy that builds the visual aspects of your scenes, the car who sets up the set pieces. He’s Mr. Battlemaster, the Attack Master, the guy you call in to adds little spice to your drama and conflict laden plot, not the guy you give the keys to an entire cinematic universe where you have to humanize godlike heroes. Emotional subtlety has never been Snyder’s strong point. Since the only DCEU film that was passable was Wonder Woman, the one flick that Snyder didn’t really have his hands on too much, i wanted to take some time and kind of dissect why i hate almost everything Snyder has ever made.

Dawn of the Dead

It’s been years since i’ve seen this movie but i recall enjoying it considerably. But it’s a zombie movie. And it wasn’t written by Snyder. That’s going to be a running theme in this; Other people’s stuff, Snyder is okay. His own stuff, not so much... Zack was only a Director on this flick which meas he just got to bring a script to life. He just got to pick the best scenes and build a cool looking movie. That’s Snyder at his best and it shows. For my money, DoD is his best film.

300

This was his breakthrough. 300 lends itself to Snyder’s style even more than DoD. The comic it’s based on is literally revisionist history written by 80s comic madman, Frank Miller. It is literally a series of splash pages with cool sh*t on them. In comic book speak, it’s literally a series of action set pieces. Splash pages are used to fill every inch of paper with dynamic, poignant, information. When every page of your book is a splash page, it conveys a sense of aggressive action. That is right up Snyder’s alley. There’s no room for plot or character development but that slow-mo buster kick to that persion dude was crazy dope, son! “THIS! IS! SPARTA!” It’s also a superficial, special FX laden, popcorn movie that is borderline sexist with all of the half naked dudes about but still, i had a good time.

Watchmen

Watchmen was the first Snyder movie i saw where i realized he was kind of out of his depth. Dude did his best to bring this unfimable story to the screen, and in some spots i think he did a really good job (Comedian’s arc was okay and that change toward the end made all of the sense to me) but overall, it lacked the emotional, philosophical, and political depth from the source material, you know, literally the reason why Watchmen is so goddamn brilliant. Snyder shot this movie like a mid 2000s cape flick. Think Raimi’s Spider-Man or X2 but infinitely more superficially, which is ridiculous because the Watchmen novel is infinitely more rich. WB kind of let up on Snyder’s leash a bit and he focused way too much on the sh*t that shouldn’t have been focused on. At it’s core, Watchmen is a character study of those old timey 80s archetypes and an indictment of the destructive materialism infecting society at that time. There’s a visceral moral question that my brother and i argue about all of the time and i believe Snyder stuck the landing, but he kept falling off the bar to get there.

Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch is one of the worst movies i have ever seen. The mechanics, the technical aspects of this movie, are just the worst. I can go into how this is basically a shittier version of Inception with the dream in a dram aspects or how that sh*t doesn’t make any sense in the movies established lore or timeline. I can go into how this thing technically takes place in between the five minutes that Babydoll is being moved from her cell to the lobotomy chair so none of it matter or how f*cking ridiculous it is that this woman’s name is f*cking “Babydoll”. Sucker Punch is wildly problematic and i’ve written at length about how i feel about it before, i think, but my point with this entry is to high light how messy this movie feels. This is Snyder wit h no brakes. This is Snyder unleashed, When left to his own design. THIS, Sucker Punch, is the type of movie Zack Syder wants to make. He wanted to explore the psychology behind being in such dire straights, the emotional and psychological rationale of those terrible circumstances but he also wanted naked chick, a dragon, and giant robot samurai in it. How does that work? You can’t put Nazi Zombies in Girl, Interrupted, man. that dog don’t hunt. i know because Sucker Punch tried it and IT was AWFUL!

The DCEU

I thought about doing these thing individually but considering he basically directed all of these f*cking movies (except Wondy) i can lump them all into one entry. WB mistook the success of the Grimdark Nolan Batman Trilogy as audiences wanted a bunch of edgelord superheroes. So they gave the Batman Begins treatment to f*cking Superman. And, to bring this car crash of an idea to the big screen, they give the reigns to Snyder. I don’t like Superman. I think he’s a terrible hero. How do you right him? What aspects do you focus on when the guy and turn back time by flying real fast? How do you make that asshole compelling? Snyder’s solution? Uncle Ben his ass! Guilt trip him into becoming the world’s savior! sh*t’s lazy son! Man of Steel was adequate though. it was good enough for the WB suits to hand the entire reigns of the DCEU over to this asshat and, oh boy, was that dumb! My chick is the biggest Superman fan and she hated this movie. For her, someone versed in the Kal-El mythos, this was an affront. From what little i know about Supes, i’d agree.

SO Snyder double-downs on his Batmanfication of Superman by literally introducing Batman into a Superman story. BvS is an abortion of a film. It destroys the archetype of what all of these heroes represent. Batman is a psychopath killer. Superman is a morose pussy. Lex Luthor is the goddamn Riddler from Batman Forever. It’s a goddamn mess. Which sucks because, at it’s core, there are a lot of good ideas here. I liked how Luthor was more Zuckerburg than Rockefeller. I liked the introduction of Wonder Woman, even if it felt a little forces at times. I liked at the whole “Punished Messiah” story line for Supes, even if it never got deeper than a puddle. I hated everything else. Everything was just too Snyder-y. Cool sh*t to look at as opposed to deep sh*t to identify with. But that’s what happens when you forgone character development for mech fights and a Doomsday story line that should have bookend a phase one of pictures. Seriously, Doomsday in the second goddamn movie of your fledgling franchise? No! no, im not going to get into that. We’ll address that later.

Suicide Squad was a goddamn mess. I know David Ayer directed that, and one day i hope we get to see that sh*t, but the studio brought Snyder in to fix what they felt was an unwatchable film. Seriously, Snyder is considered a “guest Director” on that film and it shows. Justice League is the same way but Joss Whedon kind of added a bunch of levity to this ridiculous film. While i think Justice League is trash, i also believe it’s the second best that the DCEU has produced, mostly because there was reprieve to ll of Snyder’s grimdark bullsh*t. Whedon was able to bring out the best of these characters. I eve liked Superman in this and i f*cking hate Superman. But that’s kind of my point. If you remove Snyder from the equation, you get solid sh*t! like Wonder Woman!

Everything about Wonder Woman screams dope. It reminds me of a Phase one MCU outing, which is a fitting tone for Diana’s adventures. It’s not a perfect movie, there area ton of issues with it, but overall, it is a delight. I think Gal Gadot gave her best performance and someone finally used Chris Pine in an advantageous manner. I think going full on Ares was a mistake but, in the context of the world, i get it. I thought this was a decent ride until the end. The climax was whack. Seeing as how Snyder is credited as a writer, i assume he wrote this part because it feels wildly Snyderish. Literally the worst pat of this film is the ending. Tonally, it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t fit. It’s poorly executed. But it’s fun to watch, i guess. That’s Snyder in a nutshell.

Ultimately, putting this guy in charge of the entire DCEU, which wanted to be a direct competitor to the MCU, was a mistake. His vision is ridiculous. He has too many ideas for any one film and with no one to reel that in, you get the mess that we have now. There are certain things that needed to happen in order for the DCEU to be relevant, to be good. Snyder doesn’t have the patience to execute like this though. He doesn’t want to put in the time to world build. He just wants to throw awesome looking sh*t on screen and move on. That, a good movie, does not make. If i had a say, i’d probably loosely follow the MCU Phases. That sh*t worked and gave ample time to develop a proper story. As an example, i’d have done something like this:

Phase One - Trinity

Movie 0: House of El. Prequel to the entire DCEU set in the final days of Krypton. You could establish all of the requisite Supermann necessities while also planting seeds for Brainiac, Doomsday, Apokolips, and Darkseid. This would be the backbone for the first three phases of your DCEU. Think Star Wars but with Krpytonians instead of Jedi.

Movie 1: The Batman or Gotham, dunno about that title yet, Definitely a Year one or Year Two Bat-story. I’d want to introduce The Long Halloween arc. Make it a noir, focus on the assumed Batman doing his detective thing, until the climax which would be an amalgamation of No Man’s Land and The Man Who Laughs. Like, Joker is holding the city hostage and all of the holiday murders were a distraction while he planted his trap. Batman would have to choose between his morals or vengeance in the end.

Movie 2: Superman Sequel. Calling this one Man of Steel as it would have both Superman and Metallo as the primary antagonist. I figure having Clark and Corbin duke it out makes for a clever title, you know? You can introduce Luthor as the mastermind, secretly collaborating with his miraculous AI that turns out to be Brainiac. Deathstroke could be hired muscle. Cadmus can be introduced. You get to see the introduction of Superman on a world wide scale as he and Metallo duke it out in the open. This would feel like that old Superman cartoon on the WB way back when. Light-hearted yet serious tone. Actual stakes. Sub plot of Lois figuring out Luthor is the reason all of the trauma occurs.

Movie 3: Wonder Woman. It will probably be a period peace set against WW1. It would pit her against Aries and the preconceptions of women during those bleaker times. The battle would be against disillusionment; trying to find a reason why Man should be defended or something of that nature. Wonder Woman would be more or less what we already got from Patty Jenkins, with a much better ending. Like, an actual pgysical fight with Aries seems dumb. If we have to go that course because of executive meddling, at least cast a better Ares. Make him more menacing and less inept. Motherboxes and a bit more of Apokolips will be introduced in this movie.

Movie 4: World’s Finest. Basically Batman against Superman while WW actually solves the real issues behind the scene. Like, she uncovers the underlying plot of the Motherboxes and actually tries to prepare for the coming of Steppenwolf. I really like the idea of Wonder Woman adapting her skill set to covert ops kind of like Motoko Kusanagi does. Also, you know, dudes is dumb and punchy. While Supes and Bats are having their tiff, Steppenwolf actually appears and engages the two of them. Ultimately, Wonder Woman arrives and the three of them, the Trinity, send ol boy packing back to Apokolips and the Motherboxes go dead. The Trinity is established, the seeds of Apokolips have been sown, and we can move into Phase Two - Justice League with the first movie of the lot; Death of Superman. Opening with the sidelining of the most powerful hero opens up a reason for Batman, having an established relationship with Winder Woman and Superman, realizing there are bigger things out there and a team might be necessary to combat them.

See, four movies, five if you count the Krypton prequel, and you’ve established the world, the main characters, the underlying conflict, and you have room to grow. You’ve developed characters, established the backbone to your entire universe, and given each of your principal heroes, Batman, Superman, ad Wonder Woman, their own outing, in the vein of their own themes. Grimdark works for Batman because he IS grimdark. Sh*t doesn’t fly with Superman or Wonder Woman. Diana is a warrior, set her story to the backdrop of a conflict to showcase her strengths. Superman wold spend his time trying to save Metallo, not murder him at the end of the goddamn movie because Supes is about believing in the good, not killing troubled assholes. Snyder didn’t have the patience to do this. He wasn’t building anything. He just wanted to put cool sh*t on the screen while trying to make everything dark and deep. He failed at both.

In closing, i don’t think Zack Snyder is a terrible director. I don’t. I think he has too may ideas and no one to reel him in when left to his own devices. When he is making someone else’s material, when he has a guidelines to follow and people keeping his rampant creative energy in check, he can be pretty good at his job, a la DOD or 300. Hell, i’d even give him Watchmen. But, left to his own devices, we get nonsense like Sucker Punch and BvS. Zack Snyder is everything that’s wrong with modern American cinema and it galls me to the core.

[mastcomm]

Your Monday Briefing – The New York Times

Coronavirus deaths exceed toll from SARS

As many people across China return to work today after an already-extended Lunar New Year break, the country is confronting two bleak statistics:

The novel coronavirus has killed more than 900 people in the country — more than the 774 people who died worldwide from the SARS epidemic 17 years ago.

The number of new deaths that the government reported on Sunday — 97 — was the highest so far in a single day.

Here are the latest updates and a map of where the virus has spread. The World Health Organization’s director general said on Sunday that an advance team was on its way to China to help the government contain the outbreak.

Analysis: Officially, the virus has sickened 40,171 people in China. But experts say that deaths and infections are probably being undercounted because testing facilities are under severe strain.

Inside the outbreak: In Wuhan, the center of the outbreak, our reporter met a family in which three generations have been sickened by the virus.

In Beijing: The outbreak is testing an authoritarian system that President Xi Jinping has built around himself over the past seven years. A writer in the Chinese capital described the outbreak as “a big shock” to the ruling Communist Party’s legitimacy — second only to the government’s armed crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.

Sinn Fein poised to enter Irish government

Preliminary results from Ireland’s national elections over the weekend show that Sinn Fein, a party that was once the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, is on the doorstep of joining a coalition government.

In doing so, Sinn Fein would break the hold that two center-right parties — Fianna Fail and Fine Gael — have held on the country’s politics for 90 years.

“This is changing the shape and mold of Irish politics,” Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s leader, told reporters in Dublin. “This is not a transient thing — this is just the beginning.”

Why this matters: Sinn Fein has long been ostracized over its ties to sectarian violence. But many younger voters don’t remember that. Instead, they see the party as the only one responding to their day-to-day grievances on issues like soaring rental prices and corporate tax breaks.

By the numbers: Fianna Fail was on track to win about 45 seats in the 160-seat Parliament, followed by Sinn Fein with 37 seats and Fine Gael with 36 seats. The final results are expected today or tomorrow, probably kicking off weeks of coalition negotiations over who will control Parliament.

Germany’s political red line

A political drama in Germany last week — in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party played kingmaker for a center-right candidate on the state level — set off spontaneous protests in a country that is still deeply conscious of its Nazi past.

It also raises a question: Will mainstream parties ever feel pressured to break their own taboo against working with the AfD, the first far-right party to enter the national parliament since World War II?

“For many Germans, allowing the far right to be kingmakers conjures up dark memories,” writes our Berlin bureau chief, Katrin Bennhold. “It is a red line that many do not want to see crossed.”

Context: The drama took place in Thuringia, an eastern state where the Nazis first won power locally in the dying days of the Weimar Republic. They later won nationally, with the help of conservative parties.

Related: A researcher in Germany discovered that a 17th-century painting, on view for years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, once belonged to a Jewish art dealer who fled the Nazis and lost court battles to win the artwork back.

The hydropower dam that has Egypt worried

Egyptian and Ethiopian officials are set to reconvene in Washington this week to discuss a colossal hydroelectric project that some fear could bring the two countries to blows.

For Ethiopians, the $4.5 billion project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, would confirm their country’s place as a rising African power. Ethiopia’s young leader, Abiy Ahmed, has said that “no force could prevent” the dam from being completed.

But the Nile is under assault from pollution, climate change and population growth. And many Egyptians fear that the project, whose reservoir is about the size of London, will cut into their precious water supplies.

Details: Egypt has justified its dominance over the Nile partly by citing a colonial-era water treaty that Ethiopia does not recognize. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt has insisted that he wants a peaceful resolution, but he has been accused of sponsoring anti-government protests and armed rebellions inside Ethiopia, among other destabilizing tactics.

If you have a few minutes, this is worth it

An uneasy political alliance

By becoming the junior partner in a coalition government led by conservatives, Austria’s progressive Green Party was able to put climate change on the country’s political agenda.

But now the party is also becoming complicit in Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s hard-right immigration policy.

That is particularly difficult for Alma Zadic, above, a daughter of Bosnian refugees and Austria’s first minister with a migrant background: The coalition charges her to defend policies that were designed to effectively keep people like her parents out of the country.

Here’s what else is happening

U.S. budget: President Trump is expected to propose today a $4.8 trillion budget that includes billions for his wall along the border with Mexico and steep cuts to social programs like Medicaid. Congress can ignore the budget, but it will feature in Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.

Switzerland:Voters in Switzerland agreed on Sunday to greenlight an amendment to an anti-discrimination law that had not provided protection for lesbians, gay men and bisexual people. The national referendum had been forced by critics who said the amendment threatened freedom of expression.

Thailand: The country’s deadliest mass shooting ended on Sunday, when a rogue soldier whose shooting rampage at a military base and a shopping mall left at least 29 people dead was killed during a firefight with the authorities.

Rocket launch: Solar Orbiter, a European-built spacecraft that launched from Florida late Sunday, is expected to complete 22 orbits of the sun in 10 years — and perhaps help solve mysteries about how that fiery star works.

Snapshot: Migrants play soccer at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos, where asylum seekers are waiting for approval to travel to the Greek mainland to pursue new lives. Few on the mainland want them, and other European governments have mostly closed their doors.

Oscars: The South Korean film “Parasite” won best picture, a first for a foreign-language film. Follow our coverage and check out our roundup of red-carpet fashion.

What we’re reading: This essay in Essence, addressing the attacks on the broadcast journalist Gayle King after she raised the question of a 2003 rape accusation against Kobe Bryant in the wake of his death. “The term misogynoir — the special type of hatred directed against women of color — says it all,” says the briefings editor, Andrea Kannapell.

Now, a break from the news

Cook: Italian pasta and chickpea stew cooks in just one pan and can be vegan by leaving off the final dusting of pecorino.

Watch: The final season of the show “Homeland,” starring Claire Danes as a brilliant C.I.A. officer with bipolar disorder, is now playing on Showtime.

Smarter Living: Want to improve your sleep? Our Wirecutter colleagues present hacks, tips and products that actually help in their “Five Days to Better Sleep” Challenge. (Sign up here.)

And now for the Back Story on …

Revisiting ‘The Year of Africa’

Seventeen African countries shed their colonial status in 1960. Sixty years later, our archival storytelling team, Past Tense, paired photography from collections at The Times and elsewhere with writers and thinkers of African descent for a special section, “A Continent Remade.” Veronica Chambers, the editor of Past Tense, spoke with Adriana Balsamo about the project. Here are a few lightly edited excerpts from their conversation.

Can you speak to the decision to have more youthful writers be a part of the project?

We really wanted a certain dynamism to the conversation. And we thought that it would be interesting to ask youngish people who are really connected to the continent … and who have a sense of pride about it. David Adjaye, for example, spent years cataloging the architecture of Africa in a way that had never been done before. But he grew up half his life off the continent.

There’s always a period of discovery for someone who has a foot in a country but didn’t necessarily grow up there. And especially because the countries are so young, it felt like it’d be interesting to ask these young people who in some ways really benefited from all of the good of independence — their lives were shaped by everything that came after — to look at the pictures and respond.

What is your favorite photo?

I think the mother and baby picture [with Imbolo Mbue’s essay] and the Miss Independence picture [with Luvvie Ajayi’s essay] were really important to me because those were the two I found first, in October 2018. I held onto those two pictures as a kind of proof of concept. I also love the picture at the United Nations by Sam Falk [with Mr. Adjaye’s essay]. He’s so special to the history of The Times and just to know what it must have meant for those men to be able to go and represent new nations. To say, “Our country is three months old and here we are. Let’s talk about how we fit into the rest of the world.” I think that’s pretty powerful.

What do you hope readers take away from the section?

We are really hoping that people on the continent will read the digital version, and we’ve worked really hard on the interactive. When you look at the news photographs, it was a time when very few New York Times readers would have been to the continent. And so when we look at where we are at 60 years later, there’s still a lot of people who have never been and may never go.

And I hope what readers will take from it is a sense of possibility on the continent that I believe continues to this day. A sense of beauty, a sense of community. And I hope, interest: I hope they will continue to read some of the writers we featured.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Mike

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is on the lawyer behind Harvey Weinstein’s legal strategy. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Where the heart is (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The 1619 Project is the centerpiece of a new wave of ads from “The Truth Is Worth It,” a Times campaign.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/your-monday-briefing-the-new-york-times-10/

[chiseler]

SALVAGING THE FORSAKEN SOUNDTRACKS

There was a time when film music was an art, what I like to think of as the true American classical music. If done right, a film’s score was as much a part of a picture’s identity as the director or the star, and sometimes could overshadow both. Nowadays movie soundtracks have devolved, for the most part, into little more than banal and empty pop song compilations. The days of full orchestral scores written by Morricone, Korngold, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota or Jerry Goldsmith are all but a thing of the past. But people tend to forget that while the aforementioned composers were writing grandiose music for big budget, high-profile pictures, the little B films, the low-budget genre numbers, needed scores as well. That job generally fell to contract composers in studio music departments—like Irving Gertz and Herman Stein at Universal—who, while just as talented as the bigger names, rarely received screen credit for scoring the likes of, say, Badlands of Montana or The Deadly Mantis.

David Schecter is a writer, film historian and accidental musicologist who’s earned the title World’s Foremost Authority when it comes to the horror and sci fi film scores of the Forties and Fifties. He’s co-authored several books, many with horror film historian Tom Weaver, including Universal Terrors, Creature Chronicles (about the Creature from the Black Lagoon franchise) and the Scripts from the Crypt series. He also runs Monstrous Movie Music, a small California-based record label devoted to releasing lovingly and meticulously reconstructed scores from mid-century genre films, more often than not written by composers who aren’t as well-known as, say, Elmer Bernstein or Max Steiner. To date, Monstrous Movie Music has released the scores to This Island Earth, Rocketship XM, Kronos, The Doll Squad, The Brain from Planet Aros, The Last Man on Earth, Mighty Joe Young, and countless other pictures no other label would even consider. For those of us who’ve been collecting more or less mainstream soundtracks for decades while secretly pining for the score to Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, it’s a godsend.

I spoke with Mr. Schecter via telephone on a Saturday afternoon in mid-May.

Jim Knipfel: Did you have any formal musical training?

David Schecter: No, none at all, but music has always been the most important thing to me. It started with pop and rock and folk. When I married a classical composer, Kathleen Mayne,I learned a lot from her. I asked a lot of questions and she helped me, pointed me in certain directions so I could pursue it myself. I can’t play a musical instrument, but I’ve always had good musical instincts. What I didn’t have was the technical knowledge. She helped a lot, so  I could read musical scores and follow along with the music when we were doing recordings. I was picking it up when we were on the Job 

Jk: So how do you end up becoming the World’s Foremost Authority on Horror and Sci Fi soundtracks from that era?

DS: As I like to say it was by default, because no one else wanted the job. I was fortunate in that I ended up becoming friends with a bunch of the composers  when they were alive, and I learned first hand a lot about what went on back then. I had access to a lot of their legal documents and musical manuscripts. I didn’t have to research it the same way a lot of people do, just watching the movies and drawing their own conclusions. I actually got to talk to them first hand, and threw all my amazing theories by them about why things were scored this way or that way, and they promptly shot all of them down, letting me know the answers were much simpler than that, or much more bizarre than that. It gave me an insight into things nobody else really had. It wasn’t that I was brilliant—it was that I was lucky enough to be in the position of having all these people as friends.

JK: So how did you end up meeting and becoming friends with all these old film composers?

DS: In the beginning, my wife and I just liked soundtrack music, so we went to certain events and met certain people. One of them was the soundtrack producer Tony Thomas, who came out of Canada. He was releasing a lot of what we’ll call gray area material as well as legitimate things. He introduced us to a lot of people. But then when we decided to start our label I actually reached out and tried to find some of the composers. So that’s how that started. Once you’ve met one, you can go up to the other one and say, ‘Oh, I’ve been friends with so-and-so for the last six months.’ It lets them open themselves up to you a little bit, because they can call up the other one and find out you weren’t some kind of maniac, but someone who was interested in the music and interested in getting the facts straight. 

JK: Does this particular niche arise out of being a big horror and sci fi fan when you were younger?

DS: I loved the movies. I also liked to read science fiction, but the movies were a big thing to me. I used to watch them over and over whenever they were on at three in the morning. I didn’t think about the music—it just became part of the experience, just through repetition. I was watching them for the monsters, the special effects. But the music, like some of the dialogue, sunk into my brain and there was no way I could get rid of it. So when I started to become more aware of the music, it was already there.

JK: What was the impetus for founding Monstrous Movie Music, and when did that happen?

DS: We started looking into it in the mid-Nineties. At that point I was already a soundtrack collector. We had a representative from Epic Records living down the block when I was a kid, and he would give us records every now and again. The Dave Clark Five and a lot of folk artists. And we got a few soundtracks, too. I remember we got Nelson Riddle’s El Dorado, and I listened to that all the time. I remember buying the single “Born Free,” and listening to that all the time too. The one horror soundtrack that was out there at the time was that classic Themes from Horror movies by Dick Jacobs that was advertised in the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland. I saw that, and I think the price was either $3.98 or $4.98, but it might well have been $5000. It was beyond my allowance at the time. But I always wanted that, and would look at the cover with a little magnifying glass, and imagine the music from The Deadly Mantis and The Mole People. That’s what started it—just wanting to hear that music, but it was impossIble financially. So when I was older, we were friends with Tony and some other people who were working in the soundtrack business. They were a generation older than me, and they were releasing music they loved and had grown up with—and I loved it too—things like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Citizen Kane. I appreciated it, but it wasn’t the music I had grown up with. The music I’d grown up with came from the monster movies, and I realized no one was focusing on those. They were kind of pooh-poohed because they weren’t written by the giants of film music like Erich Korngold and Max Steiner. So I decided there was an opening there to try and do the music that was important to me as I was growing up. 

JK: Given my own soundtrack collection, I couldn’t believe I wasn’t aware of Monstrous Movie Music until recently.

DS: That continues to surprise me. We’re a small label, we don’t do any advertising, but when I do a convention somewhere, people will always come up to me and say, ‘Oh wow, I’ve been a big soundtrack fan for twenty years and I’ve never heard of you.’ Well go on the Internet and search.

JK: Thing is, I wouldn’t have even considered going online to see if anyone had released the soundtrack to Roger Corman’s  The Intruder, figuring it was pretty pointless.

.DS: You and fifteen million other people. Especially since the movie had something like ten different titles. The reason I did that one was because it was Herman Stein’s favorite score. Not that it’s his greatest score. It’s a good score, but he got to score the film by himself, unlike Universal, where everyone was dumped into this stew. But it was also a great movie, and I think he was happy to be associated with something that had a message and was an excellent picture.

JK: How do you decide what scores you’re going to go after?

DS: A lot of it has to do with personal choices, thinking ‘wouldn’t it be great if this was out there?’ Because I loved it. A lot of it also has to do with what was practical in terms of whether I knew where the music was. It definitely had to be a score I thought deserved to be out there for one reason or another, instead of just, ‘Oh, this is lying around so I guess I’ll put it out.’ It’s too expensive and too time consuming to do all the research. In a lot of cases I knew the legalities of it, so I was cleared to release it properly. Those can hold things up. In a lot of cases it was because I knew the composer or their family. That adds a level of enjoyment to it, instead of just putting something out as product. You’re putting it out and you know there are some people who are really going to appreciate it. In many cases the composers felt completely forgotten. They’d scored these movies, but they weren’t ‘acclaimed’ pictures, so they felt lost through history. It’s nice to be able to do something about that.

JK: How do you go about getting the rights for some of these things?

DS: Well the first thing you have to do is understand who owns the rights. Generally you do that by looking at contracts, if they exist, otherwise you have a certain knowledge about the film, the copyright, the publishing history and all that. We’ve always done things by the book legally. I won’t mention names, but we do appear to be in the minority that way. It’s a small business but unfortunately a lot of people have gotten involved, figuring ‘Oh, it’s under the radar, I can do what I want.’ 

When I got started working in the business, and I was friends with a number of these composers, they were in their eighties and nineties, and their accountants and lawyers and business managers had died off long ago. They started asking me to help them with certain things, like if they heard their music on a television show. They didn’t know about this, that or the other. If somebody wanted to release their music on a compilation they would ask me to look into it, I had to learn a lot about music legalities, even more than I had to learn while running a soundtrack label. We decided early on that we weren’t big enough that we could hire lawyers to fight for us if we did something crooked, so we better do everything honestly. I mean, that’s not the only reason we did it, we also did it because my mom and dad raised me right. You need to look into the history of each individual project to find out exactly who owns it, as opposed to who says they own it, and go from there. I’ve only dealt with the studios in cases where I have some legal control, knowing who owns the music so I can bargain with them and try to get a better deal than some people.

JK: Have there been any scores you’ve been after that have proven elusive?

DS: I had approached the family of Carmen Dragon to do Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This was twenty years ago. I wanted to do a re-recording of it, but they couldn’t find the scores in their warehouse. They did have the original tracks, so we had set something up, I was actually going to be working with Brigham Young University on getting this out.  We’d gone through all the contracts and agreements, and then they just pulled the plug at the last second. I think they thought that maybe it was worth more money than it was. I kept re-approaching them every few years, and they kept holding out for more and more money. What eventually happened is they held out for so long, eighty percent of the people who are crazy about this stuff died off, or they decided to put their retirement money into paying their bills. So it didn’t come out until a year or two ago, when another label apparently met the family’s demands, and from what I heard it just didn’t sell well at all. Which is too bad, because it’s a great score.

There are a lot of scores I wanted to do, but we couldn’t find the music. One I was after for a long time was invaders from Mars (1953). People have been looking for that score for ages, and they couldn’t find it. So I ended up getting some clues and following them up, and it seemed that I was getting really, really close to where the scores were. In fact I’m pretty sure I may have even seen the closet they were stored in. Then the person who had them died, and his estate all of a sudden got reclusive. I eventually just gave up. And who knows? They probably got thrown away, or they’re sitting in some garage someplace getting moldy. I have no idea. But that would’ve been a really great score to do a re-recording of, with the choir and all that.

JK: Could you tell me a little bit about how you get from the old written music to the final recording? You sell a few original scores, but most of your releases are re-recordings conducted by Masatoshi Mitsumoto and the Radio Orchestras of Krakow and Slovakia. What’s that process like?

DS: Um, a nightmare? First of all, a lot of the scores we did—especially the Universal ones, the Columbia ones—they pieced these scores together from a wide variety of sources. Music from previous films, music written specifically for this film, different composers. So trying to track down enough of the music so you could do a representative suite from a picture can be really difficult, just in terms of finding things. Then from the legal standpoint, because all of a sudden you’re dealing with different copyrights, different publishers, different composers. And then it all has to be reconstructed. That was something my wife was always really good at, because she’s a conservatory trained musician. All that takes a ton of work, especially if you don’t have the original music recordings to go by. You basically have to look at the written scores, you have to watch the movie a million times, try to figure out what instruments are playing what, which is not always easy when there’s dialogue and sound effects. It helps if you’re lucky enough to have a union sheet that shows who played what on the score. So it’s really really difficult. Even when it’s done and you’ve created the parts for the orchestra and the score for the conductor, the way you record it is difficult  because you’re trying to recapture not just the notes, but the way they were performed and recorded and mixed so it has that resonance for those people who grew up watching these movies. So it’s not just ‘Oh yeah, I kinda remember that,’ No! It takes them right back instantly to when they were watching that picture. Trying to get the dynamics right—how loud this instrument is compared with that one, it’s just really, really hard to do it right.

JK: I have a bunch of re-recordings put out by other people—Herrmann’s scores to Citizen Kane and Psycho come to mind—that are miserable. Even a few things that say “original recording” on the cover are clearly re-recordings. You put it on and in an instant you know this is not what you heard in the movie. It’s always such a disappointment. But the things you’ve put out are fantastic. You even get the sound quality right.

DS: When we started doing these, I won’t say all of them but definitely a majority of ({other soundtrack labels} seemed to be aimed at either a pops audience, almost like they’re semi-classical, or like the conductor or record company said ‘Well, let’s just get the music, record it and that’s that.’ We weren’t doing melodic scores like Korngold or Steiner, Waxman or John Barry. Ours were really, really dramatic horror scores, most of them. We felt it was really important to have that presence to the music, where it sounded like the monster was right in front of you, as opposed to feeling like you’re sitting in the back row of a pops concert, listening to this big echoing sound pass over you. We wanted the monsters to be in your living room, or wherever you were listening to it.  Having access to some of the original session tapes that were done, we realized that’s how it was recorded. It was recorded very close up front. The musicians were packed together. They weren’t in a huge concert hall, they were on a recording stage in a studio that wasn’t gigantic. They were huddled around just a few mics, and the music had that presence to it. That was something I wanted to do with the re-recordings to try and capture the feeling you were at the original recording session. What would that sound like? Only in stereo, because only rarely did they record monster scores in stereo. That was reserved for the big-budgeted films. So that brought a whole other level of complexity to it, because one of the advantages of recording film music concert style is you set up a few microphones far away from the orchestra, let ‘em play, you record it and release it. If an oboe screws up on bar seventy-two, or the second violin comes in a little late, it’s not as easy to catch it if you don’t have the microphones right up close. We have microphones right up close, so if the flutist belches, you hear it. So the editing, in order to get the best parts of every take, with the composers naked and exposed, is really difficult. That’s the main reason most labels don’t do what we do. What I liked about what we do is it brings out the subtlety of the orchestration, the nuances in the writing. We want you to be able to hear every instrument that’s playing as much as possible.

JK: Now, these are really beautiful, elaborate packages. Along with obtaining the rights, doing all the research, hiring conductors and orchestras, you’ve even hired {legendary sci fi and horror illustrators} Robert Aragon and Vincent DiFate  to do the cover art. And your liner notes are extensive and exhaustive, bordering on the obsessive. This seems an extremely expensive and time-consuming undertaking for something aimed at what we’ll call a fairly limited audience.

DS: Yeah, well, that’s why I’m living under a bridge right now. The thing about me is, and it probably led to the divorce, this pursuit of perfection. If you’re doing something you love, something that’s important to you, and it’s likely that no one else is going to do it, it better be done right. How many people are going to put out the score to Animal World? The answer is either zero or me. We have a responsibility, and that came from knowing the composers. We never thought of this as product, we thought of it as doing something important, preserving this historical legacy, this work these musicians had done. We wanted to do it as perfectly as possible, because this is what people will be listening to. There are no other choices. It’s not like Gone With the Wind, where there are a thousand different recordings. So not only do we need to get the music right, we need to get the history right. Because no one’s ever written about a lot of this stuff before.

Gaze in wonder and awe at the Monstrous Movie Music catalog here:

http://www.mmmrecordings.com

by Jim Knipfel

[how2to18]

YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD of Percival Everett, and he would probably prefer it that way. Although I’m sure he’d like for you to buy his books, which are a lot of fun because they all manage in their own ways to be cerebral page-turners. Despite this commonality, each one is distinctive in terms of form and content: a story about a hydrologist; a retelling of a Greek myth; an experiment in poststructuralism narrated by an infant who sounds like Roland Barthes; a co-written set of fictionalized interactions with the late senator from South Carolina, Strom Thurmond; a disjointed narrative of torture; a novel about a novelist who writes a terrible novel. He is best known for this last book, Erasure, the story of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a thinly veiled version of Everett himself who is frequently frustrated by how the fact that he is black dictates readers’ expectations of his work in ways that don’t apply to white writers. Erasure is a great book, perhaps Everett’s best, though I prefer Watershed and Wounded myself. But Erasure is the kind of book that inhabits its subject completely. When you read the novel, you experience the slippages, fits, and false starts of the psychology of America’s original sin.

There. From the outset I’ve said that Everett is black, and that race is a central theme in his most important work. The difficulties have only just begun. If you’re new to Everett’s work, I would like to recommend that you start with Erasure, as this is, for sure, the novel that is most well known. But is it representative of his work? That’s a troubling question, one that parallels the lopsided expectation that people of color must always speak for their group. When so much of Everett’s fiction eschews race, effaces it, should I recommend that you familiarize yourself with his work by reading the most overtly “racial” of his books? Do we read, enjoy, and recommend Erasure because it is a book about race by a black man? Is it better than Cutting Lisa and Walk Me to the Distance, or do those books simply receive less attention because they are not about race? Is it possible to talk about Everett’s work without talking about race? Is it desirable? When Everett acknowledges race in small ways in other books, are those books “about” race because their author is black?

Take his most recent novel, So Much Blue. Its narrator is Kevin Pace, an artist in his mid-50s who has been working for years on a painting no one else has seen. We learn in the opening pages that the “canvas is twelve feet high and twenty-one feet and three inches across” and that it is mounted to a wall in a locked barn. He has a pact with his best friend Richard who has sworn to destroy the painting if Kevin dies before he does. Kevin even experiments with a system that would sabotage the painting should someone else enter the barn before Richard can burn the place down. Kevin has a wife, two children, lots of secrets, and yes, he is black. This element of his character is mostly tangential throughout the book, though there are scenes in which it is essential to understanding certain conflicts. Is So Much Blue about race? Such a question would be inconceivable if Everett were white.

So Much Blue is not about race even though race is an important theme in the book. The novel belongs to a category of Everett’s work in which he acknowledges race, and even examines some of its causes and effects, but does not make it the gravitational force of plot or characterization. Novels such as Wounded and stories like those in Half an Inch of Water belong to this category. But he also writes books like Erasure, God’s Country, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier, in which race is a primary concern. Finally, there are novels like Cutting Lisa that never mention race at all.

The novelist Madison Smartt Bell has written about how the fiction in this last category, the stories that don’t mention race at all, are racialized by default in the United States when the author is black. In his introduction to a reprint of God’s Country, Bell recounts how he received an author’s copy of Cutting Lisa by mistake because he and Everett shared the same editor. He settled in and read the novel, and, upon finishing it and seeing the author photo on the back flap, “thought, before I could stop myself, ‘Oh, did it say somewhere those characters are black?’” He goes on to explain that, no, even after reading it again, the novel does not offer racial identities for its characters. Bell’s self-critical reflection reveals how completely race has been conflated with nonwhiteness in the United States and how whiteness depends on this conflation for its very existence.

Everett’s fiction is attuned to this problem because Everett himself is attuned to it. When asked directly by Anthony Stewart in 2007 whether or not including author photos in his books is “part of [his] own terms,” Everett responds that he chose a specific photo once for a specific book, “but the other times, the publisher wanted a photograph … and that’s why they’re all snapshots … here’s a photograph. I don’t care. They like having photographs. They can have a photograph. And then it becomes a kind of ironic thing for me. Sure, have at it. This’ll confuse you.” He knows that race has been constructed in such a way in the United States that readers will feel something of a disjunction between his fiction and his photograph.

I wrote a review of So Much Blue that avoided race as Everett avoids it in some of his novels. The effect was the same: I was delivered back to the place I started. Trying to avoid something only makes that thing the unspoken focal point of everything you write. I even labored over a one-sentence summary of Erasure that refuses to reduce the novel to race. Here it is, by the way, in all its terrible glory:

Everett is perhaps most well-known for his 2001 novel Erasure, the story of a high-brow novelist named Thelonious “Monk” Ellison who writes a pulp novel in a fit of rage and insists on shopping it to all the major publishers who, in turn, gush over its authenticity.

Pretty bad, huh? What a non-descript description of a truly brilliant novel. I was snagged, hung up on the idea that Everett has been avoiding, ironizing, and parodying the expectation that black writers will write about race. I was stuck to the point that it seemed wrong to write about race at all: wouldn’t doing so simply reinforce the very kind of implicit racism his work so compellingly and hilariously satirizes? And so, I wrote a review that focused exclusively on the domestic sphere of the novel, its aesthetic philosophy, and the broader relationship between the two.

While such a rationale might have worked for Cutting Lisa, it will not work for So Much Blue. Kevin Pace isn’t just an artist; he’s a black artist. The novel recounts his affair with a young French woman and tells the story of a trip to rescue his best friend’s brother from the drug trade on the eve of revolution in El Salvador. I had to face the fact that I could not write about these events without writing about race. What’s more, until I began thinking through the implication of its form and content with regard to race, it seemed kind of boring. Upon having this revelation, I became suspicious of myself, though oddly not of the book. Was I writing about race because Everett is black? Then, I reasoned that this is precisely where Everett would want me to be: caught in the very conundrum that entraps him no matter what he writes about. And this is what I love about novels like So Much Blue that address race as a matter of fact, but do not take it as their primary concern. They entrap us, and when we call foul play they remind us that the world in which the trap is possible is really what’s rigged. It’s this double move that makes So Much Blue so successful.

Everett would never talk about his work like this. He is the least didactic of writers, even when taking things head-on. So Much Blue is prefaced by an epigraph from the photographer Diane Arbus: “A picture is a secret about a secret.” But that is not the complete quote. The second half reads, “the more it tells you the less you know.” This sense of proliferating information that results in less knowledge is among the recurring ideas in Everett’s work. That’s why it makes sense that Everett would leave off the more didactic part of the quotation. He resists the impulse to moralize the cryptic and plain alike. But the greatest mistake we could make as readers of his fiction is to infer that it is thus somehow amoral or uninterested in meaning. Instead, as he explains to Yogita Goyal, “I never speak to what my work might mean. If I could, I would write pamphlets instead of novels. And if I offered what the work means, I would be wrong. The work is smarter than I am. Art is smarter than us.” So, it’s not that his novels have no morals or meaning; it’s that they are, themselves, their morality and meaning. It is the work of readers to engage the story and capture whatever glimmers their reading may reflect.

The structure of So Much Blue encourages us to do this hard work as Everett divides the novel into three narrative threads, each set in a different time in Kevin’s life. The chapters titled “House” take place in the narrative present of about 2009, although in them Kevin recounts events that stretch back to his engagement to his wife Linda. He proposes to her after his return from El Salvador in 1979, a journey to find and bring home his friend Richard’s brother narrated in the chapters titled “1979.” In the interval, the chapters titled “Paris” recall Kevin’s affair with a young French woman named Victoire during a showing of his work in France in 1999. Each narrative could be read entirely on its own, but they illuminate one another when read together. The sections are not arranged in a pattern early on, but they do settle into a regular rotation for most of the book before running together in a surge of “House” chapters at the novel’s end.

So Much Blue is a book of secrets. In the “House” chapters, Kevin’s teenage daughter April confides in him that she is pregnant but only discloses the secret on the condition that he not tell her mother. Of course, such a secret is impossible to keep for long whether Kevin tells his wife or not, and the conflict that arises is no less teeth-grinding for its inevitability. These chapters also trace the familial tensions over the secret painting.

In the “1979” chapters, Kevin experiences two especially traumatic events among a host of disturbing incidents that seem tame in comparison as he and Richard search for Richard’s drug-dealing brother, Tad, in an El Salvador that is erupting in civil war. The first trauma takes place when Kevin, Richard, and their despicable American guide “The Bummer” happen upon a small village square through which fighters have recently swept. A man is stunned over the body of his small daughter who has been killed in the exchange of gunfire. They are almost finished helping the man bury the girl when the child’s brother gives something to Kevin, which he realizes is the severed hand of the daughter. He puts it in the grave as inconspicuously as possible, but carries this secret with him from El Salvador. For a time, this seems to be the shadow that most haunts him. But as the “1979” chapters continue to unfold, Kevin recounts a second, even more terrible secret that he will only ever tell Victoire.

Kevin meets Victoire in 1999 while in France. She is the secret of the “Paris” chapters. To tell her about the tragedy in El Salvador is, as Arbus says of pictures, to hide one secret inside another. The disclosure is an act of intimacy, not of confession or absolution. It is evidence of the fact that Kevin and Victoire’s relationship is not merely physical. And yet he will not leave Linda for Victoire. He will return home to his family, to his life, to his painting, and never see her again. Amid all the secrets, the painting is the central force of the book. It is, at once, a conspicuous presence and an overwhelming absence.

In the opening pages of the novel, we learn the dimensions of the painting and that Kevin has

used much phthalo blue, Prussian mixed with indigo. In the upper right hand corner is cerulean blending into cobalt, maybe bleeding into cobalt. The colors and their names are everywhere, on everything. The colors all mean something, though I cannot say what, would not say if I could. Their names are more descriptive than their presence, as their presence need not and does not describe anything.

This information is not significant early on, but we learn later that the presence of blue in Kevin’s work is monumental:

I looked across the dining room at a small canvas of mine. There was no blue in it. It was often pointed out that I avoided blue. It was true. I was uncomfortable with the color. I could never control it. It was nearly always a source of warmth in the underpainting, but it was never on the surface, never more than an idea on any work. Regardless that blue was so likable, a color that so many loved or liked — no one hated blue — I could not use it. The color of trust, loyalty, a subject for philosophical discourse, the name of a musical form, blue was not mine.

This passage solidifies what we have learned about Kevin throughout the novel. He is solitary. He describes himself at one point as “the singular loner.” He struggles with trust, views himself as disloyal despite the great lengths to which he goes to help find Richard’s brother and to build a life with Linda. He avoids the kind of self-expression, the kind of outward emotion associated with the blues. This is why the novel’s secrets are baptized in blue. The girl killed by soldiers wears a “blue” dress. The brother of the little girl wears a shirt that is “cobalt blue.” The soldier Kevin encounters in the moments of his most terrifying secret is “wearing light-blue socks.” The small painting that becomes “the seminal image” of the secret painting is called Fledgling Blue. An early painting on which his grandfather comments is filled “with lots of greens and blues.” Victoire’s best painting is “green leaning into blue in places.”

He reasons that his “dislike of [blue] was a function of fear and that fear, like all fear, was a function of lack of ken.” “Ken” here means a range of knowledge or sight, and so Kevin has a lack of knowledge or insight into this color of trust and emotional expression. He fears opening himself up; he prefers to stand alone like so many of Everett’s characters. And so the last line of the novel signifies on multiple levels, as Kevin leads Linda into the locked barn at last, switches on the lights, and she remarks, “So much blue.”

It’s hard not to read this revelation as an allegory for Everett’s engagement with race throughout his fantastic career. Kevin’s avoidance of blue has, in fact, led him to devote his life’s work to it, and no serious reader of Everett would deny that he has been tangling and untangling the meaning of color from the very beginning. I imagine that if you were to ask Everett about the significance of black or white in America he would no doubt say, as Kevin does of his colors, that they mean something, but just as readily admit that he does not know what they mean and wouldn’t say even if he did.

This reading of the novel brings me back to my discomfort with being unable to avoid talking about race in Everett’s work, but I think this is part of what the novel does. It calls attention to the inevitable treatment of race in the writings of people of color. I’m doing it now even, or especially, while identifying it as a problem. It’s as if Everett knows the world into which he is releasing his work, and, like with the author photos, is saying to us: here, let’s see if this will confuse you. All I can do is echo his words to Yogita Goyal, and say I’m glad the “work is smarter than I am.”

¤

Matthew Mullins is the author of Postmodernism in Pieces (Oxford, 2016). His essays and reviews have appeared in American Book Review, Arizona Quarterly, First Things, SubStance, and other venues. You can follow him on Twitter @MullinsMattR.

The post The Unavoidable Percival Everett appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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Living El

The making of Oliver Stone's brilliant portrayal of journalists amidst a terrifying bloody central American war. Imagine Withnail and I meets Apocalypse Now with not quite so many laughs.

Oliver Stone: The original idea was to shoot a semi-documentary in El Salvador starring Boyle as himself and Dr Rock as himself and we were going to get the Salvadorians to put up all their military equipment. Boyle took me down to El Salvador and we partied.

Richard Boyle: We met with [Robert] D'Abusisson's generals. They liked Oliver because they loved Scarface.

Oliver Stone: These guys were slapping us on the back, drinking toasts to [Scarface's] Tony Montana. They kept talking about their favourite scenes and acting out the killings. They'd go; 'Tony Montana, mucho cajones [Lots of balls)! Ratta-tat-tat! Kill the fucking communists!' [...]

James Woods: I'd heard of Oliver as being this crazy, druggy, gifted writer. I liked him right away. His reputation preceded him, bolstered I have to say by Oliver's own efforts: he was very good at getting himself in the headlines of people's minds. But he was never afraid to be who he was. [...]

Oliver Stone: Richard is much worse than Jimmy. Richard's a very colourful character. Jimmy didn't want to play him as raggedy and scummy as Richard really is. Jimmy felt he made Richard more attractive to a larger group of people. People say; 'That's attractive?!' But the real Richard is far worse. [...]

James Woods: We were all just nuts. I don't know why we were nuts but I think it was in the nature of the picture. I'm playing this lunatic and we're riding fucking burros up in the woods. John Savage is a brilliant, unheralded, unappreciated nutcase great actor. Oliver is a fucking lunatic. [...]

James Belushi: There's a scene where we come out of this armoured personnel carrier and get into the back of an open truck. So Oliver says; 'Jim Belushi, you come out first and walk in front with your hands over your head and get into the truck, and then Jimmy Woods, you come walking right behind him.' So we get out and start to walk, and Jimmy literally knocks my arm out of the way, and sort of elbows his way in front of me, and we get into he truck and I'm pissed and Jimmy won't shut up. He's improvising all these lines because he knows that as long as he's talking, the camera has to stay on him. And I finally said; 'Will you shut up!' Oliver left it in the movie because it fits, but it's really just me telling Woods to shut the fuck up!

James Woods: Belushi and I would always tease each other. And the same thing with Savage. I remember when the three of us would be in the same scene, Oliver would say; 'This will be a struggle to see who's going to steal the scene.' But, of course, that situation is what makes for great movie making. [...]

Oliver Stone: Jimmy's like the guy you want to punch out at school, He drove everybody crazy. The crew, me, his fellow actors. Everyone wanted to kill him because we had no money and we really had to depend on his mercy. He was the biggest single star in the entire thing. When someone is always reminding you of that, it becomes tiresome.

James Woods: Oliver and I are great friends now, and were then, but there was a lot of tension between us during the making of the film. At one point, I was strapped down to the street with these squibs running up my legs because I was supposed to get shot, and this Mexican pilot was about to fly this old plane real low right over me. Just before the scene starts, I hear Oliver say; 'God, I miss combat.' So I think; 'You get down here and be wired to the damn street with his screwy plane flying over you then!’ [...]

Oliver Stone: It was a complicated scam, getting the movie finished. It involved acts of high piracy, buccaneering and skulduggery.

James Woods: One time I got a phone call through to my agent and he said; 'You haven't been paid for two weeks so come home.' And I said; 'I'm not going to do that to Oliver. Tomorrow's our biggest day.' He said they were going to fuck me so I should split.

Oliver Stone: We took over this entire town for a week to shoot the battle of Santa Ana. The mayor was great. He loved movies. We redesigned his office and used it as a whorehouse set, with real prostitutes. He liked the decor so much he kept it that way, red walls and all. Later, he said; 'Go ahead, blow up the whole fucking City Hall,' and we blew it to pieces. [...]

John Daly: Oliver puts 1000% of himself into a film. It's all up on the screen. For Salvador, he waived his salary and expenses. I think he would have given up his house. I don't think he goes and directs a film. I think he lives a film. It's a rare quality.

Oliver Stone: The feeling was that people in America didn't know how they were supposed to react to the movie which I found kind of sad. Dr Strangelove was a perfect amalgam of humour and seriousness about a subject that is extremely dark. There's no reason the subject of Salvadoran death squads has to be solemn.

James Woods: I saw the final cut of the film. I watched it with the music for the first time. All of a sudden I thought; 'My God: I thought it was this little movie. Am I wrong or is this a Great Movie?' Bob Dylan was there and said; 'This is the greatest movie I've ever seen.' [...]

Oliver Stone: We were against such odds. I had so many roadblocks to make that picture. And I got enough of what I wanted in there. We shot Salvador the way it looks - hand-held, urgent - I love that movie. It was an ugly duckling. It went after American policy in Central America and it said some things Americans didn't want to hear.

-Richard Luck, “Living El: An Oral History of the Making of ‘Salvador’,” Sabotage Times, Nov 15 2013 [x]