#fuck we know cuz he has a signed poster in the movie

[autisticenbydonnie]

I like never talk about this and I've seen noone else talk about them which is a shame

But I FUCKING LOVE DIGG. Punk chaotic women committing acts of vandalism for music *chefs kiss*

Let's go, lesbians!

[springfieldblues]

my long ass review for S32E03 Now Museum, Now You Don’t

warning: LONG because i rambled about history more than i thought i would

id been looking forward to this one because i like art history, especially after seeing how they tried their best to stick to historical accuracy in the previous episode I, Carumbus. this time however….they didnt try that hard. i dont know why i thought theyd go through that sort of trouble again LMAO

but its okay, i dont really expect the simpsons to be the paragon of historical accuracy or anything. especially in anthology episodes told through a particular character's lens (in this case, lisa, whos already feverish so whatever)

first i just wanna say that this is, i guess, less of a review and more of an accidental list of history fun facts. so im just gonna get my general thoughts out of the way first.

the episode was fun! to me at least haha. i mean it got me to think and do a lot of research on my own so that must count for something. besides a couple of really weird ones, the jokes were good. anthology episodes tend to be….not that good but i thought this one was one of the better ones so far. idk.

anyway on to lisanardo da vinky its the renaissance! jesus christ the italian accents in the beginning of this segment were annoying as hell but i also feel like that was the joke lmao. ill be real i kind of tuned out for a second there when grampa started rambling so idk what he said.

i told myself i wouldnt get nitpicky with historical accuracy if the jokes were funny (final edit: so that was a lie) but this meh bit with the pizza guys and mascots was really not worth ignoring the fact that its impossible for italy to have any tomato-based food in the 15th century (tomatoes were brought to europe from the americas in the 16th century, and pizza as we know it today—flatbread, cheese, tomato—originated in the late 18th century)

oh this next part was kind of legit tho. lisanardo, like the real leonardo, became andrea del verrochio's apprentice at his workshop. i loved this next bit:

"Whoever paints the sweetest cherub will have the honor of having MY name signed on their work. That's what great artists do!"

SO YEAH as it turns out, lisanardo painted the sweetest cherubs. the painting here is called The Baptism of Christ, and the real leonardo assisted verrochio in finishing it. specifically, he painted the cherubs in the corner.

this causes verrochio to quit and go someplace with less talented people: a music school (yes, verrochio did quit painting after getting owned by young leo and his mad angel painting skills. he never did anything with music tho, he was more of a sculptor)

alongside lisanardo, in mr largo-verrochio's workshop we have barticelli (botticelli bart), dolphatello (donatello dolph), ralphael (raphael...ralph) and mediocrito (no one that i know of. sorry milhouse) (and kearney i guess but they dont refer to him by name). botticelli and donatello are said to have also been apprentices at verrochio's workshop, but raphael came a couple of decades later so he couldnt have been there. and donatello was too old so that claim is a bit questionable. but anyway

it IS true that leonardo's peers envied him, to the point where he was anonymously and purposefully accused of being gay (a major crime punishable by death in 15th century florence) while he was still working at verrochio's workshop

we are then treated by what im pretty sure is the fourth time the show has used 'at seventeen' by janis ian, this time sung by a dejected lisanardo (man they really do keep making yeardley sing these days huh) who only wishes to be appreciated and not envied.

"I'll show them all! I'll show them all in a secret diary that no one will decipher for 400 years!"

some of lisanardo's future inventions. who wouldve known

so after barticelli, for some reason (revenge??? or something?? what was his plan here idgi) steals lisanardo's diaries full of blueprints of her inventions and takes them to mr burns who i have to assume is pope alexander VI here, they decide to use her inventions for war.

"With these, we can kill the most evil people in the world!! ....Slightly different Christians."

leo actually did this of his own accord. im surprised this is what they decided to do with lisanardo instead of talking about leo's love of nature and vegetarianism (not a single mention of that in this episode? come on...) then again, trying to do good only to end up indirectly making things worse is a very standard lisa storyline. i guess they didnt want to miss the chance to have evil pope burns (very fitting, especially for that era since they were all about money and controlling the people)

so lisanardo decides to leave for france, unlike the real leonardo who was more or less persuaded by his ultimate fanboy king francis I to move to france.

"Lisanardo, I have many questions. Why are you hitting yourself? A nerd says 'what'? And how is it possible that I am rubber and you are glue? Et cetera, et cetera."

that line may seem a little random, like hes just nelson saying nelson things (and i mean, obviously he is) but the real francis also "had an unquenchable thirst for learning, and Leonardo was the world’s best source of experimental knowledge. He could teach the king about almost any subject there was to know, from how the eye works to why the moon shines." so yeah, he did have many questions and lisanardo, finally being appreciated for her intellect, was happy to answer them all. its very interesting how lisa assigned this role to nelson in her retelling of da vinci’s life :^)

and so she lived the rest of her days in france, nat king cole's 'mona lisa' plays because duh, and they make a da vinci code reference because duh. and the segment ends. and not a single time did they show the actual mona lisa painting. the fuck?

(ngl i was fully expecting bart to say 'leonardo da vinky' for a second here)

so this next segment is about french impressionist painters, most likely the batignolles group, a name adopted by the early representatives of impressionism. its much more vague than the lisanardo segment since no one here is referred to by name (except moe, more on him in a sec) but i dont feel like it really matters in this case. bart is prrrrooobably claude monet but its hard to say, this segment is kind of a mish-mash of a lot of things. also i gotta say i really liked how lisa introduced the story to bart with an 'if you hate the formal study of art' and not 'if you hate art' because thats exactly my headcanon. i LOVE the concept of artist bart and whenever its referenced it just makes perfect sense to me.

anyway the segment opens in 1863 at the école des beaux-arts (back then it was actually known as the académie des beaux-arts), preserver of traditional french art styles. skinner reviews his students’ paintings one by one. praises the plain, unimaginative paintings depicting your typical european countryside landscapes. very run-of-the-mill (haha get it...cuz theres….a windmill) (although the real académie didnt approve of such basic stuff, they wanted artists to draw epic historical and mythological scenes) then he gets to barts painting and he gives him an F- because the painting made him think.

(the paintings in this scene arent real famous paintings as far as i know but they are inspired by real paintings enough to get the point across)

in comes barney dressed as bacchus as a model for the students to sketch, which i just loved:

barney: “You prefer robe open or robe off?” skinner: “Just cover your privates with this walnut shell.” barney: “Whoa!!! So roomy!”

skinner gasps in horror at bart’s sketch, which “looks nothing like him” and bart explains that “it shouldn’t; we’re making the art that we feel because we can’t compete with a camera.” damn, you go bart. take that, realism. draw what you feel!!

(also no, you didnt need to hold still for 17 hours for a daguerreotype. 30 min tops.)

nelson haw-haw of the week: FOIE-gras!

so here they are at the moulin rouge (“enjoy it before baz luhrmann ruins it” hey shut up. i love that movie), which wouldnt be built for another 26 years, but it is the most widely known gathering place for bohemians in the public consciousness so i can understand why they went with the moulin. nelson delivers this anachronistic line:

“This époque keeps getting beller and beller!”

which alludes to la belle époque, the golden age of france usually dated from 1880 to 1914. made me snort so ill let that slide

and heres moe! as henri de toulouse-lautrec, who was actually born a year after the year this segment is set in. yo moe szyslak he was just 1

toulouse-moetrec introduces himself as the chronicler of the demimonde (not an actual job). an iconic figure associated with the moulin rouge (largely due to his affinity for alcohol and prostitutes), toulouse-lautrec was also a painter, having illustrated a series of posters for the moulin himself. he simply had to be in this segment, anachronisms be damned, just because they decided to include the moulin. cant have one without the other.

and yes he did have a walking cane where he kept his liquor.

i love how everyone drinks absinthe in this place. theyre bohemians what else would they drink

toulouse-moetrec points out that barts paintings are the greatest thing hes ever seen (and hes seen like five things!) and that hes a genius. milhouse realizes that they should stop doing what the teacher says and use their own minds to instead...start doing what bart says lmao. to the easels!

next we have skinner hyping up chalmers about the art his students made for the salon de paris, an art exhibition that the emperor of france will attend. he assures him that none of these paintings will encourage debate, provoke thought or be out of place at a dentist’s office. when they unveil the art, theyre both SHOCKED at how scandalous the paintings actually are.

this reaction was kind of accurate. impressionism was severely rejected at the salon de paris, due to paintings not looking finished enough to them, they thought they were ugly and vulgar for depicting nudity in a contemporary setting (historical and mythological nudity was fine). these impressionist paintings were sent to the salon de refusés, which is. yeah. the place where they sent the rejects. the salon de refusés does not make an appearance but this scene makes a reference to it when the artists get expelled from the royal salon. also:

“What about our student loans?” “Oh they’ll be refunded. We are not barbarians, I mean, come on.”

(god if only)

so the painters are down because they want the emperor to actually see their paintings. toulouse-moetrec pipes in once again with an idea.

“There is one thing the emperor loves more than anything.” “France?” “No, he hates France.”

apparently the emperor really loves cheese, which makes sense since its napoleon III (who loved cheese) and homer (who loves cheese.) so the painters roll into the salon inside a giant wheel of cheese (obviously.) as lenny said, “Eh, you know French cheese. Very runny.” napoleon III chases after the wheel into a room, where the wheel falls apart after getting chomped on by the emperor. now that they got his attention, the painters proudly show the emperor their impressionist art, which he couldnt be more indifferent about because he just wants to eat his cheese dammit, and he awards them with the royal medallion just to kind of get them out of his way. skinner immediately starts kissing ass (as he does) until marge’s like ‘hey wait a minute. you expelled these students from the royal salon’ and an executioner immediately starts ominously measuring skinners neck.

“Uh, sir...is your tongue sticking out because you’re dead or because you’re mad at me?”

and thats the end of that lmao (gore in this episode, gore in the last episode, and next week we’re getting gore too cuz its THOH, what the hell is goin on)

we get a short intermission with maggie, who wants a story for her too! lisa tells her that renaissance artists loved to put babies in their paintings, especially baby angels.

here she is showing her The Triumph Of Galatea by raphael:

King David Playing The Harp by peter paul reubens:

and a very simplified version of pretty much any depiction of hell by hyeronimus bosch lmao:

not much else to say about this one, really. but i really liked that sky!

the last segment is about frida kahlo and diego rivera. or as bart puts it ‘the one about a fat guy whos wife is too good for him.’ i was REALLY looking forward to this one because i love frida and i thought itd be a cool opportunity for animators to go bonkers and do really cool shit with her art as inspiration…..but the segment is not about frida, its about diego and his selling out to capitalism. and its also yet another story with homer and marge drama. no funky cool animation here. sigh i guess i’ll take it

the story begins in 1929 at la casa azul, frida’s home (now museum dedicated to her life and work.) frida and diego are getting married. this courtyard definitely did not look this way yet back in 1929. also theres something very cringy yet funny about lovejoy saying spanish words the way he does, i honestly cant decide how i feel about that one

the writers know theyre being cringy with their gringoness so they go along with it.

moe: “Spanish for ‘best wishes’!” mel: “Spanish for ‘congratulations’!” bumblebee man: “Spanish for ‘muy bueno’!”

OH YEAH BUMBLEBEE MAN this is his new voice actor, eric lopez! hes not mexican but its still great to finally have a latino actor voicing a latino character and hes very excited to be part of the show so i hope to hear more of him!! im rooting for him

el barto/zorro makes an appearance which i am very confused about. he has jack shit to do with frida and diego and mexico in the 20s-30s. el zorro was set in the spanish california of the early 19th century. their use of the original theme song makes me think they just wanted to flex their disney privileges tbh

lets not talk about that that whole scene was bad

anyway diego announces he and frida are going to new york, without even asking her first. frida is obviously pissed.

“Don’t worry, as a woman, you’ll be treated with much more respect in America.”

so in new york, diego is having a bit of a business meeting with mr burns as one of the members of the rockefellers, who is commissioning him to draw a mural for the rockefeller center. its kinda funny how he refers to him and frida as socialists even though they were very much communists lmao its okay you can say it. ok so far, but then frida says ‘yes, we hate the capitalists! right now, a young socialist is being born who will take them down! mr. bernie sanders. i hope hes quick about it’ and that was a simple enough joke and couldve been left at that but then its immediately followed by this weird as fuck family guy-esque cutaway gag to bernie as a baby:

“Getting a cootie shot should not cost your lunch money. And if you don’t listen to me, listen to the Bernie Babies! What? Everybody’s got goons.” *larger babies start beating up this other baby* “I disavow that, and welcome it.”

this confused me so much that i had to ask one of my american friends to help me understand, but even she was like ‘uhhh yeah thats a weird joke,’ especially now that hes been out of the race for months (then again these episodes take almost a year to produce. i guess they couldnt be bothered to replace it with something more relevant.) whatever that was weird and confusing and unfunny moving on

frida is pretty irked that diego is going through with this deal. after all, it goes against everything they believe in. im not sure how the real frida felt about diego doing the mural, but she did feel a bit of rage during her visit to the united states, especially the obvious disparity between rich and poor. she hated having to interact with capitalists and found americans very boring. in this segment, frida seems to be acting more like the american communist party, which diego got kicked out of for accepting commissions from wealthy patrons. in any case, frida is pretty upset about this whole thing.

and finally we get the first and only kind of surreal frida moment. kinda. maybe. its more cartoonish than anything but im desperate ok

interesting how they felt like they had to add a “don’t smoke” in big letters after showing patty and selma flying away on their giant cigarettes. i wonder if this is something theyre making them do now? i remember hearing something about them toning down patty and selma’s smoking

diego comes home to frida, drunk as hell, followed by the marx brothers. i cant believe they didnt make a marxism joke come on it was RIGHT THERE. THE MARX BROTHERS. KARL MARX. COME ON

frida paints her feelings.

this makes diego realize that frida is a genius and he is not half the artist she is. he proclaims he will now show his awe of her by sleeping with other women, starting “an hour ago.” to which frida replies, “and i will start sleeping with other women, starting two hours ago.” yes this was pretty much their relationship. though im just wondering how the hell did diego not know frida was this kind of artist until now? i know homers an idiot but jeez. art was how frida and diego met, diego knew from the get-go that frida was an incredible artist. i guess the fame got to his head or something. again, homer just being stupid.

“well enough already, while the art is still deco, okay?”

its time for the mural diego painted, Man At The Crossroads, to be unveiled:

rockefeller examines it. good and great so far, and then...uh oh

“Who’s that fellow…? With the beard, and the bolshevik smile…” “That’s the founder of Soviet Russia, Lenin!”

“B-b-but he’s a communist!” “Oh he just attended a couple of meetings.”

rockefeller will not have this communist in the temple to capitalism that is the rockefeller center, so he orders diego to paint over it. diego stands his ground and refuses. despite rockefeller’s threats, diego says that theres only one person he wants to be proud of him no matter what and in true homer & marge fashion, frida is touched by this. they happily leave the rockefeller center.

now, the real story of Man At The Crossroads and the rockefeller center was actually not that different. as soon as the rockefellers found out diego had snuck in a portrait of lenin into the mural, they ordered him to paint over it, to which he refused. diego even offered to include abraham lincoln and even american abolitionists in the mural as a compromise, but the rockefellers simply did not want any references to communism whatsoever. they did not complain about the hammer and sickle, though. yes, they did know diego was a communist and hired him anyway. what did they expect? lmao. diego said:

"Rather than mutilate the conception [of the mural], I shall prefer the physical destruction of the conception in its entirety, but preserving, at least, its integrity."

so they decided to destroy the mural before it was even finished and they never talked to each other again.

diego then repainted the mural at the palacio de bellas artes back in mexico, this time known as Man, Controller of the Universe. this new version included even more communist leaders and a depiction of john d. rockefeller jr. drinking at a nightclub, right underneath a depiction of syphilis bacteria. cue nelson haw-haw:

this was the version they used in the episode also, since the original was, well, never finished and also destroyed. only a black and white photograph of it exists, taken by diego before it was destroyed so he could remake it.

right so, homer!diego then pulls a Barthood and finishes the episode with a large mural summarizing the entire episode. he says some rick and morty thing i didnt get because i dont watch the show idk idc

the end

ALRIGHT NOW ITS TIME FOR THE STORY OF VINCENT VAN MOE

[genius11rare]

Figured id try this. AH  Chit chat livestream notes / QnA  7-10-20

because i'm weird i like “documenting” videos and (in this case) Live Streams. figured why keep this to myself so here. maybe one day ill just post a google docs link for a viewing copy but idk. So heres what i got for today seeing as the chitchat part will likely be cut off for the “real” video i may as well memorialize it. not perfect and may be kinda nonsensical but its what i could come up with.

Matt has a window…. With a balcony blocking above , pointless window. Red Web (trevors podcast)  “where he gets in over his head on the internet” “think if i just show them the episode of Technical Difficulties where i made garden lights into solar chargers i can get that tax kickback?” , Jacks neighbor with the tesla solar roof , having to train people to know how to install it . Ryan: “what are the odds he cant look outside at any given hour of the day and see atleast one human with a big piece of paper scratching their head” Elon Musk Starlink satellites for internet worldwide, Ryan “not saying that's _clearly_  a supervillain plot but if it was it wouldnt surprise me” , Ubisoft Far Cry teaser… oh its live action movie teaser clip- oh shit that's rendered!!! , teaser pick of a young Vaas with scars…. Ryan “Did he get them in the womb!?!?!?  Wanna know how i got these scars? Born with them don't know…”  “What is your fave type of cake?” Ryan: Chocolate (Lava)… don't put a sprinkle on it OR ILL SLAY YOU Jack: I mean is birthday a type of cake… Funfettis great Jeremy: both are stereotypical , Boston Creme cakes and Rum Cakes. Matt: Yellow cake with fudge frosting. “Pets and significant others are safe , what item do you grab in a house fire” Jack: Animation cel of the Dino DNA scene in Jurrassic Park (think i got it) Ryan: i mean my life looks alot like this corner , if i could burn this shit down to start with a new empty house i might even be happy. (chat Ryan your insurance is listening)  Jeremy: don't have much i really care about , just “well that sucks it burnt up” . Matt: first ever smash trophy i won , only one i still have. Chat answers “Photo albums , Ryans DeadPool Suit” “what games hope to be announced on microsoft stream?” Matt :  Fable 4 (Ryan ”surprised theyd try to bring it back past the press that is peter molyneu” Matt ” well now nothing holding them back , not those trees!”) Jack: not so much games but LockHeart the mini streaming Xbox. (Ryan: all those types of things have failed idk why they think - well they also made mixer and that went tits up so sure why not) Jeremy: microsoft doesnt really blow me away , arent really anything that im like “i HOPE they announce a sequel” Matt: know this isnt the right crowd but Banjo Kazzoie? Just added in smash , Crash Bandicoots got a new game it makes sense nows the time… i mean the time was already before this but fuck it do it anyway. Steffie says we are at almost 10 mil views on Achievement Knievel (9.95 mil)  Ryan “which one was that” (Jack and Jeremy) “that's Im Still In The Air” Ryan “oooohhh… now i know why i blocked it out… thought we titled it like “the greatest stunt ever” or atleast that's what we called it while making it” “rather fight 100 duck sized ChilledChaos (yey my boy chilled!) or 1 ChilledChaos sized duck?” Ryan “feel like the duck cuz atleast it still doesnt have thumbs” - Jeremy “or teeth , what is it gonna do it can bill and flipper you” Matt “i mean a bunch of tiny Chilleds can work together to kill you” Jeremy “right they will figure something out” Ryan “tiny chilled more dangerous he can infiltrate spaces i wouldnt expect to find him” “tv show / movie you could watch again for the first time what would it be?” Jack: Breaking bad and Endgame … but only if its with a crowd who is ALSO seeing it for the first time. Matt : The Office Ryan: Full Metal Alchemist (oh anime time) , everyone talks about Brotherhood but i really liked the original. Matt:  Brotherhoods a bit better but original is still good on its own (paraphrased). Ryan : had that twist at the end of “dafuq did this show just go?” made a movie based off it… skippable though. Jeremy: Futurama , *or erase all my knowledge of Whose Line* “Fave piece of Merch put out?” Jeremy: Geoff tanktop with the tribal skull. Ryan: *puts on classic gray achievement hunter hat* Jack: Extralife Posters if those count , like the Xmen AH one behind Ryan that Jon (Risinger i assume) and Pat (IDFK) made. Matt: Tiki Mugs. Jeremy “do you use those , make pina coladas?” Matt “often! When i get caught in the rain (GDI Matt) “ Chat alot saying FrontBack ,  one said Jacks Varsity Jacket. “Trapped in quarantine with a fictional character , who?” Jack: Macgyver maybe idk (Ryan: How about Dr Manhattan he could just fix it)  yeah like Q from star trek. Matt: GlaDOS but in potato form. Jeremy “theres a lot of anime girls id be ok being stuck with but idk their name” (i love jeremy)  a Matt: you want Lust from Full Metal Alchemist - Jeremy: That sounds great , (Ryan *Nods*) i can picture that i like it or if we keeping the Futurama train then Bender… think wed have A LOT of fun , and he wouldnt get me the virus! Ryan: no he would , hed deliberately try to get you  sick. Jeremy: hed bring people in “what occupation / person where you most surprised to find out was an AH fan?” Jack: Fun story im looking to learn how to Sauder , someone messaged me saying they're a fan if you need help , *hes the guy welding StarShip* Matt: well… anyone smart really… Jack (and Ryan) : the Dr Who Set/Prop designer (Ben) hes done some stuff us (think he snuck in a name plate on a show of Jack and Ryan name or something , saw a tweet about that before) Ryan: not really any that's surprising… there was the time Macauly Culkin wore our shirt (press my awesome button) “our” being RT  Jeremy: Cool meeting Xavier Woods but like we know hes a gaming fan and watches a lot of content like ours… still on Whose Line Johnathon Mangum is a AH fan , even messaging me at one point. Trevor in chat “what if president trump rode up in a Salad Chalice shirt” , Jack: one guy who bought it , like “im hip with the kids” Ryan: can you imagine someone less likely to be seen near a salad? Matt: I mean ryan he thinks he has to drink them so…. Jeremy: also been having a lot of solicitors recently for some reason… really annoying and during a pandemic. Ordered a sign thats basically “fuckoff im not answering the door LEAVE” , have a ring doorbell (some kind of doorbell app where you can talk to people at the door i guess?)  but when im recording cant be like “hang on a second - FUCKOFF” Ryan: i DO feel like you have the kind of job you could do that , if anything youd put them in the video like “hey you're live right now what you need” … Jack managed to crash 7D2D on my local system already that's a good sign (brief technical difficulties music playing as it cut to ryans screen in the game) 

[kxlance]

here are my thoughts on the bullshit under the cut cuz it's gonna get long probs i assure you it’s a reassuring post:

ok so the interview itself wasn't bad to me honestly. jeremy did not deny the bi!lance hint, which was the most important thing to know. the fact that he said "that much i can say" implies that there's something left to know that he can't say because nda.

i'm gonna list a positive thing and a negative thing here: the negative one is that on one hand, it pisses me off that lgbt characters are treated as such a big spoilery deal when it should just....feel so natural to have them in a show. also thinking back that dreamworks tagged certain videos as klance just for views...well it's kind of a coward move if they don't at least end the show with lgbt rep. on the other, i really don't see the point with going all "no comment" about it if it weren't to happen?? that would be very assholey, and i know that the writers are not to be trusted, but the mere fact that they lie so much over things than then ended up being canon (e.g: galra keith, paladin allura, pidge being a girl etc) can't help but make me think they are pretty much hiding the endgame couple on purpose. you could argue they could be hinting at allurance which i'm not excluding bc some of the things could be honestly interpreted that way and also they never mention them ever as a couple except i remember like kimberly saying that allura isn't interested in lance (but she could be lying obviously) and jeremy here stating that lance has still a crush on her which is pretty evident and there's nothing new. (we also learned, according to him, that lance basically can dish it out but he can't take it which frankly...i can see pretty well as canon)

on that spectrum, pls note that this happening (or lance ending up with a girl for the matter) doesn't absolutely excludes bi!lance like at all. he can still be confirmed as bi and end up with a girl and that itself would still be very important! one thing doesn't exclude the other honestly so i say very confidently that lance being bi will be confirmed. like 100% convinced that it will. (do not forget lauren's drawing where lance is holding the lgbt sign, there's a specific reason he's the one holding that)

also does anybody think that....this stress over lance liking ladies and stuff is kinda....suspicious?? like jeremy himself was used to say "lol he flirts with anybody on two legs ahha" and now today all of a sudden he's putting a lot of stress on the ""woman"" part. which kind of threw me off? i might be reaching obviously, but mmm you know? and all of this comes after joaquim said "what he's looking for is getting to a place that might be different than when he started in the series" and “what he wants might not be what he needs” and if math isn't an opinion, he started the series always wanting allura so if what he wants is now changing..........................

it is also true that lauren used female pronouns in that interview and while that could be an indicator that lance will end up with a girl, it's also not set in stone bc.... they used to hide pidge's pronouns the same way and if lauren had said "him" you know that keith would have suddenly come to mind bc??? he's legit the only person lance has been paired up so much with. they've been sort of a duo ever since the beginning. and they've had most of the couple tropes out of all the possible pairings??? in the show??? allow me to list some. I'm too lazy to back this up with pics but like you know the scenes i'm talking about (and i also say this because when i ship something i ALWAYS look at canon interactions. and they have a lot):

the bonding moment (or the we are a good team scene if you will), which is not only visually very romantic (the purple lightning aka their two primary colors mixed together) but its sort of the turning point of their relationship and it's something that's very much used with couples especially with couples with their dynamic because oh lord!!!!!! do you know how many heterosexual couples exist with a dynamic like theirs? broody boy meets friendly girl and they're total opposites but ops they fall in love?? bitch literally every goddamn YA novel is like this. anyways, you know that scene would be considered romantic if it was between a boy and a girl, and indeed, allurance sort of paralleled that scene in s4 so if you consider that as romantic but not this one....well....buddy,,,,,,,they're basically in the same lions keith and lance were aka the fire and ice dynamic and if you can see that as romantic with a/l you should be able to see it the same way with....k/l but i digress).

as i was saying, the bonding moment is the turning point of keith and lance's relationship. after that we get:

1) an episode where keith is super anxious to have lance out of a pod and gets jealous when he sees lance flirting with allura, reminds him of their "bonding moment" and gets offended that lance doesnt remember (and an entire discussion could be open as to why he was so offended and the vlog kinda sets that up), overall the flirty banter that we're used to (not to mention this is the famous infamous bi flag planet)

2) a solo mission where they're shown to be working extremely well with each other (like classic battle couple duo scenes)

onto other tropes:

the subtle jealousy that can be interpreted both ways

THE ELEVATOR SCENE which is such a common trope for main couples!! they usually get stuck and have a moment of clarification or something like that. keith and lance's was a lot more comedic but it did lead them to collaborate in battle 2 seconds after so.... it did have an impact like those scenes usually do. (also that scene wasn’t necessary for the plot at all and yet...)

Lance making that fond face while talking about Keith that, may I remember you, was animated purposely to be that way. and overall there's a lot of subtle things like lance being constantly worried over keith in season 2 even though they didn't have much dynamic development??

the hey man scene? the fact that everybody was looking at lance EXPECTING HIM TO DO SOMETHING. and he could have easily looked back at them like "why me???" BUT NOPE, he was ready to go to comfort him!!!!!!!!

i get so worked up over the fact that so many of their scenes can be paralleled with other scenes as the story goes bc LETS BE FUCKING REAL FOR A GODDAM SECOND: they're the only pairing who started a way and are ending up in another. because they've had the most coherent development as a pairing in the seasons and we're fucking halfway through the show and when you also remember that it's pretty clear that lance wants to falls in love and that it's a ""slow burn""" kind of deal,,,,how in the fuck,,,,can it be other than klance??? literally nO OTHER PAIRING had a development since the goddamn start i’m not even saying this with my biased ass i’m saying this objectively speaking!!!!

all of season 3 could be a huge romantic trope honestly but like 2 scenes in particular strike as very romantic:

the leave the math to pidge scene obviously (the way it is framed is very tropey lmfao) and the way we see keith through lance's eyes.......pretty gay if you ask me

and the i got you buddy scene which someone made notice that AN EXACT SAME SCENE happens in the wonder woman movie but with a boy/girl pairing ofc. BUT IT'S THE SAME FUCKING SCENE THAT'S LIKE ROMANTIC TROPE 101 I AINT PLAYING

add on the fact that keith might have left team voltron to make sure lance had a place and boom. pretty romantic to me.

even if jeremy sees them as brothers....which is like...super fucking odd to me bc....he never mentioned this before almost like he's backtracking lololol, his opinion isn't...you know...canon. (and like lbr they never acted like brothers in the show??? and the creators never addressed them as such unlike...you know what) i like jeremy jokes and meme as much as the next guy but i'm a realist and i know that he doesn't really ship klance or anything he just knows how to spoiler the good stuff lolz but also he didn't say anything wrong like it's just how he sees it but the creators never said so (lauren montgomery called lance keith's stability don't forget that) and overall there are wayyyy too many hints to not believe that's its gonna be canon. like......it even makes sense with the overall story better than any other pairing?? because it's pretty plausible that lance had a crush on keith at the garrison that tried to mask with the rivalry. the way he acts and the way he tries to always get his attention furtherly proves that. it's a common thing to do when you have a crush lmao.

LIKE THOSE TWO ARE ALWAYS PAIRED UP EVEN IN THE FUCKING SEASON 2 POSTER?? LIKE THEY COULD HAVE GONE WITH KEITH IN THE MARMORA OUTFIT SINCE IT WAS A BIG PART OF THE SEASON BUT NO??? THEY PUT HIM IN THE SWIM TRUNKS WITH LANCE FOR THOSE 2 MINUTES OF SCENE THEY HAD TOGETHER?????

ok that's it keep on hoping and remember that klance not happening doesn't mean that also bi lance won't because those two things aren’t mutually exclusive ok? but also don't lose hope on klance itself especially if it's something that makes you happy because fandom is meant to be a distraction and klance is an healthy lgbt ship that deserves all the attention it gets and it’s groundbreaking from so many aspects and it being canon would be amazing. bye

ALSO PLEASE STOP COMMENTING SHIT ON JEREMY’S PERSONAL PICS ON INSTAGRAM HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG THIS IS EMBARASSING

bonus

[kgysj-blog]

day 2 - 4/25/17

dear depression, you thought you got me didn’t you ;-) nope nope. i had a super good day today. i love the movie we are watching in history it makes my heart happy.. it’s called wuthering heights. in second period (math class) we are re learning simple one-step equations -_- i mean don’t get me wrong, id rather be doing that instead of actual work bc that’s baby cakes for me but oh well!!!! third period (anatomy) me & my buddy brett are partners in this poster project thing & we had to find 5 signs/symptoms of a heart attack & then draw a cute pic to go w it & it looks bomb af. then fourth period (economics) we watched homeless to harvard & its wild to me that a girl had two parents that were drug addicts & didn’t have water growing up & was made fun of 24/7 at school & had absolutely zero help from the outside world made it to Harvard one day. the wildest thing is that it’s based on a true story. thank god matthews didnt hit me w her regular bullshit lmao. then none of my buddies were in the class I sit in until the career tech bus comes so i left school campus & went to the store & got a fat ass piece of pizza & it was good af. i thought i was gonna be sly and drive around the school that way i could ensure i wouldn’t get caught but when i rounded the corner by the cemetery, THREE COPS WERE SITTING THERE :)))) i didn’t get caught tho so it was gucci. then i went to career tech & all the prom bullshit* was brought back up AGAIN. *the prom bullshit would be all the stupid ass rumors going around ab my prom group doing hard drugs -_- a while back like long before prom i asked this human (not gonna name names bc dats dumb) if she was gonna do acid on prom AND I LAUGHED WHEN I SAID IT LIKE HA HA ITS A JOKE HAHA NONE OF US ACTUALLY FUCKING DO ACID. well anyway this said human was telling her friend & these nosey ass ppl over heard it and told a parent and that parent is actually mentally UNSTABLE and craZY. anyway teachers & random ass parents have continued talkin some bullshit for almost two weeks.* anyway i was asked what was brought to the land and i said absolutely no drugs like are these fuckers stupid? none of my friends have even fucking done drugs like these dumbass parents are making themselves LOOK DUMB. then i was told it’s going around that my friend Ky has apparently been selling drugs since SEVENTH GRADE lmaooooo we were 12 in the seventh grade. TWELVE! but its whatever i handled that shit head on and called that said human out lmao whoopsies ;-) then i got bonus points in my career tech class and that was lit woo. then i went to practice and i honestly can’t feel my arm so there’s that HAHA i hope i do well at sectionals this Friday it’s got me stressin hard af. also i talked to this human that im supposed to be going without till ive fixed myself and it was nice talking to him cuz i miss him n stuff but i got off the prom stuff topic & said something ab throwing & he seemed uninterested:/ so i just said that i know we werent supposed to be talkin & sry & that id let him go and he didnt reply :’) it’s ok tho NO SADNESS. i went to los mex w my girl joce then got food for cuppy & drove around then when i got home i was chillin in my car listening to music AND I FELL ASLEEP FOR HALF AN HOUR IN MY CAR HAHAHAHA im such a goob. now im finna shower & hit the hay but i just thought id do muh daily entry!!! i feel betta now woo love, g

[thebigcitynightsband]

Gone Songs

Stroker’s v. Shoeless Joe’s Like most rock bands, we’ve record music in various states of inebriation, from smashed to sober and back again. We don’t need booze, but we’ve always played better when we’ve loosened up. A few beers each and, for Ryan, a furnace blast of strong weed in the lungs, gets us in a good place and we play better. Any more than a few, though, and things can go quickly wrong. In September 2007 we played a show at Stroker’s, a dank old pool hall downtown Brampton where one of the regulars actually has a hook for a hand. I used to go there with my Dad to play pool when I was a kid. I’m not sure what the legality of my being there was, as I was eleven or twelve and in a bar, but maybe it’s legal if you have an adult accompanying you? It’s not like my Dad would drink on these outings or anything, we’d just go to Stroker’s when we felt like playing pool and he was too lazy to drive out to Diamond Jim’s, which was a great hangar of a pool hall out near the airport. I’m guessing it’s gone now because places like that always leave. Bob Sharky’s is gone, possibly for once distributing impossibly real looking five dollar bills that acted as vouchers for a drink special but which likely more than a few clever crackheads slipped to their dealers while grabbing rock out on Tullamore Road. Brampton has lost other pool halls whose names I can’t remember - one was on Steeles Ave across from the Latin Quarter - but Stroker’s was still around last I checked in November 2016, which pleased and comforted me. I love old pool halls. I’ll play pool anywhere, cuz I love the game, but it’s more fun in a place like Stroker’s than say, Shoeless Joe’s where squeaky clean tables have red felt and cartoonishly large pockets. I went to Shoeless Joe’s in Guelph a few years ago and noticed that it doesn’t even pretend to have good food. The menu is so rote and routine, slapped together by some moron with no creativity, the same shit every other bar sells: bland french fries, dry club sandwiches, salty onion rings. They don’t even give the head honcho the title of “chef.” At Shoeless Joe’s, he’s the “kitchen manager”. I guess that makes sense though. When you don’t even cut your own fries or even slice your own onions (everything arrives pre-prepared...they use a microwave), you can’t even call yourself a cook, much less a chef. So the quality of the food was similar to the quality of the pool tables. Which is to say atrocious. And that try hard name. Shoeless Joe’s? Talk about trying to get some dive credentials, eh? Funny how Stroker’s, in comparison, sounds almost gentle. Even regal. Not Hitters or Ball Smackers, but Stroker’s. Considering the fact that Shoeless Joe’s turns away shoeless patrons with extreme prejudice, they should probably change their name to something else. I’ve only ever been to the location in Guelph and I hope to never go there again. But Guelph ain’t all bad. Once you get away from the franchises on the outer fringes you can find some real classic dives, such as Tony’s Place:

Anecdote Describing How Much I Love Shooting Pool

I took a first date to Tony’s Place years ago. We went in and I ordered a set of Boston balls, which I love ordering because it’s a way of gauging whether the counterman/counterwoman knows his/her stuff (Boston balls are the regular ones, alternating between solid and striped and a black 8-ball). They knew their stuff and gave me the right balls and we took a few turns and then she - my date that is, who I’d pretty much forgotten about, so immersed was I in the game - put down her cue and tried to kiss me and caress my neck. Rather than reciprocate, I kept playing. Not only were my concerns frugal (we were less than five minutes into the game and I’d paid for an hour. If she didn’t want to play at all, why suggest a pool hall? And it had been her suggestion, not mine). So I ignored my date and bounced the balls around, getting my money’s worth, even showing her an old trick shot that I’d use at parties except a) I don’t go to parties anymore and b) even if I did, I don’t associate with persons who have pool tables in their homes. My ilk is of lower stock. The only time me and my friends have pool in the house is when a pipe breaks and floods the basement. The point of this anecdote is this: I love pool. That I chose Boston balls over the baser pulses of my own should be a clear indication of my ferocious fondness for the sport.

A Brief History of How I Feel About Billiards Ever feel nostalgia for an era you never saw, except through television and movies and magazines? Midnight in Paris is all about that, with Owen Wilson wistfully wishing he was Hemingway. He loves the people and places of the 1920s. For me, it’s the people in old pool halls and the way they offer up themselves as strong and sentient  glimpses of the past. A living echo inside a room, undisturbed by time and passed over by the plague of Netflix and chill. I have untold thousands of false and fragmentary “memories” absorbed through osmosis by watching movies and TV. Pool halls where the bad characters were forever killing time (like the gang of ruthless older kids in Stand By Me), trading dialogue and pushing the plot forward. So for me, pool halls always carry a whiff of danger and excitement: gangsters muttering amongst themselves, barmaids crossing the floor in clacking heels to bring them Budweiser, cigarettes glowing in crimped silver ashtrays, the sharp smack of a clean break - indelible in its unmistakability, like a camera snapping or a pop can being opened, it sounds like itself and nothing else - followed by the rolling thud of balls, falling and settling into pockets, men cursing their luck in hushed tones and tapping their cues off the toes of their black boots, ten kinds of whiskey behind the bar, one for each mood you’re in over the course of a given evening, the comforting hum of the ice machine, beer in bottles sweating condensation, framed posters of Minnesota Fats holding a cue and earning his nickname, young hustlers prowling the floor looking for suckers while old men linger over cups of coffee and skim the newspaper and recall other, older times...perhaps the pool halls of their youth...everybody basking in the genial vibe, always genial even when the air is thick with the threat of envious violence over a game or a woman.  Forget the no smoking sign, this is a memory and my memories belong to me. It’s the old days and everybody smoked and the haze gathers over the tables in a grey halo above the green oblong lampshades running the length of each table, blue smoke gathering as the evening lengthens, getting thicker as the stakes grow higher... The Mouth From Montreal I forgot one thing: the competitiveness. As much as I love to play, I always hated to lose. In Grade Nine, when I was attending BCSS, I’d sell my bus ticket every day to James for a dollar so I could play pool. And I hated to lose back then. In January 2016 I was in Olon, Ecuador one weekend playing pool at Ojas, my favourite local bar. There was an informal sort of doubles tournament going on, and I was playing with my friend Wayne. Wayne was a shy man, given to long bouts of saying nothing at all, but he was cool as clay. One older gentleman from Guayaquil was out on vacation and played as well as his meek hands would let him. He was terrible, but terrifically friendly, and he pocketed a few balls. Wayne let the man win because his wife was watching (Wayne’s wife was watching too, but she knew what her husband was up to). It was a nice time and everybody was enjoying themselves. We were playing winner continues and I felt a little bad that our white asses were colonizing the table, not leaving and letting the people play, but winner continues had been agreed upon in English and Spanish, so I don’t think anybody got mad at us. We ordered more drinks and played on. Then an arrogant prick from Montreal waltzed in, speaking fast and trying to top every anecdote and just being a fucking asshole. He broke the balls like a jerk too, lunging forward after hitting the white ball, as if trying to get the balls to move better by creating wind.  There was a lot of wind coming off the guy as he ordered himself more to drink (never offering to stand any else a round, naturally) and offered tales of vague sexual conquests until, realizing nobody cared, switched tactics and regaled us with stories about saving naive surfing tourists from the fatal violence of the Pacific. Despite hailing from Montreal, or so he claimed, my gut told me he was lying, I felt no national solidarity. None whatsoever. I did not like the man.  And I wanted to beat him, but he had us on the ropes. We had four balls at different corners and Mr. Loudmouth had one left before a brief honeymoon with the eight ball and a bragging victory. Except Wayne didn’t like him either. And Wayne, who was usually as expressionless as a blank wall, had started to glower at the man. He even gave a huff of impatience during one of the dude’s taller tales. But I was off my usually decent game that night, having had one too many Cuba Libre’s. I couldn’t find my rhythm. I couldn’t sink a thing. I was forlorn at the prospect of losing the table to this utter shithead who, having won, would never leave. Indeed it wasn’t just losing the game, it was losing the table and, by extension, the evening. But we won. Wayne clicked into overdrive and put the game away, playing with a finesse and ferocity I hadn’t seen from him before. He was so good, in fact, that I suspected he’d been letting me beat him all week. But that didn’t matter now, for we had beaten the loudmouth. I don’t know how and I don’t care how, but Wayne saved the day. We beat the mouth from Montreal. He shook our hands and promptly left the bar, a scenario I expected with the same certainty as him staying if he’d won.

But there’s another, more important reason that I’m glad Wayne won. He was born in Montreal himself and grew up there, so it was important to him to beat a guy from his hometown. But that’s still not the reason. I knew I’d miss Wayne when I shook hands goodbye with him, leaving Ecuador for home in early February, but I didn’t think I’d never see him again. After all, we’d grown tight and the man lived in Oakville. But a few days after I landed, Wayne suffered a stroke while walking along the beach in Olon. He slipped into a coma and eventually died. He regained consciousness once, very shortly after the attack and, confused by the commotion - medical personnel looming, a stranger fanning him - he asked his wife what happened. She gave him an abridged version of events and Wayne actually apologized for causing such a fuss. That was Wayne. A good friends. And another man who came alive in the pool hall. I never saw him more excited, more animated, than in that old pool hall. Ten Years Gone So yeah, it was a big deal for me that we were playing Stroker’s, one of my old billiard haunts. I hadn’t been there in ten years and I was nervous for the show, so I bought a magnum of white wine at the LCBO in Union Station (gone now too...and why? Nobody needs alcohol more than a stressed out commuter). I was going to sip it and share it with the guys but I somehow polished the whole thing off on the bus ride to Brampton. Fortunately, the guys had brought my gear for me, or maybe we borrowed some, as I was in no condition to carry anything, even myself, when I staggered off the bus downtown and practically fell into Stroker’s. We set our amps and drums up in the front, between the bar and the window, and a crowd formed around us in a circle. We opened with “Born to Bar Band” which went smoothly enough, following up with “Horseshoes,” which was still fresh at the time. Then I drunkenly and dictatorially decided that it would be a fine idea for us to do a rendition of the Tragically Hip’s “Poets,” despite the fact that Ryan didn’t know it and James hadn’t heard it in a really long time. Actually, I’m not even sure if Ryan was at that show. It may have been Emon. I was so drunk that I don’t even know who, if anyone, played bass. And I don’t remember how “Poets” came off but I do remember jumping into the drum set soon after, a kit belonging to Steve Sandhu of Hormoans, who are excellent and who played a set in my Bathurst living room in 2012. Sandhu was/is infamous for his live antics, which include throwing microphones and smashing stands and also jumping into drum kits mid-song, so he wasn’t mad at me, though James sorta was. After our set I took a ride to Carey and Spencer’s in the back of Roper’s new Subaru. I remember him blasting Matthew Good’s “Odette” on the way and really liking it. The rest of that night is, as Lou Reed would say, “unavailable to me.” 

It’s fair to say that I let the band down that night. Ryan did something similar a few years later, so at least I’m not alone in my idiocy. If we’re lost...we are lost together. TBCN played a show at Track’s one year, I think 2010, that happened to fall on Ryan’s birthday weekend and he got demonically and seraphically hammered. Not Danny at Stroker’s hammered, but still hammered. He was fine for our first set, im fact he was excellent, but during the second I remember hearing the bass drop out mid-song and looking over at him and his right hand was resting on his bass, not playing a note. His face wore a blissful expression. he was pretty much asleep, perhaps dreaming of playing a show with his band. But yeah, he was cronked out. Ryan lived forty steps from Track’s at the time and still had to be helped home. He wrote a sheepish apology to James and I the next day and we of course forgave him because we weren’t even mad in the first place. Like my Stroker’s debacle, everybody was more perplexed than anything else. I did it, and Ryan did it, which brings us to James. James hasn’t yet played/ruined a show due to drunkeness but it’s fair to say that Ryan and I will forgive him immediately if it ever happens. He has been holding a Get Out of Jail Free card for seven years, or ten this September if you’re counting from the first offense. Anyway, that’s it for pool halls. For those of you still curious, yes, I did have sex with the girl I took to Tony’s Place and then ignored in order to shoot billiards.

5. Gone Songs

Just as we have some shows that we played drunk, we have many recordings in which drunk was the fourth member of the band, tripping us gleefully and singing along and knocking microphones to the ground. So in light of my recent clarity, having quit drugs and sworn off alcohol (though I am smoking weed every other day or so, dispensaries peddling quality bud presently popping up on every corner of the city, like the proliferation of Starbucks locations in the 1990s), I have compiled a top ten list of Songs Recorded While Not Sober. Ironically enough, our drinking anthem “Hey Thirsty!” was not recorded drunk. I had a beer or two, as did Russell, Jake, and Ryan Taylor, but we were by no means drunk. The same cannot be said for the following entries in the Big City Nights catalog, songs I’ll call our “Gone Songs.” 10. “Some People Say”

We recorded this one sitting down, a choice made for us by our fourth member drunk. Wait, can it be called a choice if we had to sit down? That’s an interesting philosophical question someone should address sometime. Either way, it was late at night (or early in the morning, depending on your perspective), and standing was proving rather difficult. Before tracking “Some People Say” we’d tried four or five times to lay down a live rendition of “The Hard Way,” a song we ended up recording for Heck ‘Em All (coming soon in 2017!) at Yogi’s Meatlocker in Ottawa in September 2013. I was playing guitar and singing, Ryan was playing bass and singing, and James was playing tambourine and singing. So not only would the track be unusable if one of us fucked up the lyrics or the vocal phrasing, it’d be useless if one of us fucked up our instruments, which one of us did repeatedly until “The Hard Way” became “The Impossible Take” and we decided to sing vocals for “Some People Say” instead. Click on the hyperlinked numbered song title above to hear the glorious results. Could’ve sounded worse.

09. “Millions”

This one was really fun to sing, despite the cryptic lyrics. “If I die with ___, if I die with ____,” it just goes on and on with the death thing. But there’s a triumph somewhere in there, especially when the band kicks in and the guitar solo hits high and hard. It’s not a coincidence though, that the best part of the song is when we stop singing. Andrea and Sam were particularly off key that night, as you can hear, but alas, the Nights didn’t fare much better. I only have one photo of the Exile sessions, taken either by James from beside his kit or by Reena. Can’t remember.

08. “Tranquility Man” As if “Millions” weren’t enough, I decided to add a drunken downer recorded in a gin-soaked haze in the basement of the shittiest apartment I ever lived in, and that’s saying something. This is a song about being afraid of losing things due to drinking. Not easy listening.

07. “Devil Can’t Help” And this song is about actually losing everything, rather than fearing that outcome. Recorded drunk and alone on Christmas 2012. I bought myself a brick of goat cheese and a case of Corona.

06. “Everybody Got A Beef With Me”

We were so drunk that we were writing lyrics up to ten seconds before singing them. “Foreign Girls” was done under similar circumstances but earlier that same night, so this one takes the cake-flavoured vodka cake.

05. The Fog 

We did the vocals at Peel Industries, my Dad’s old warehouse on Torbram near Derry Road, same place we did “Hockey Night in Canada” and “Horseshoes.” We actually wrote “Horseshoes” there too, then went to the bar. It’s a song about togetherness, feeling alive, and friendship. How could we not drink to this one? I only wish we’d added harmonies but we didn’t have the skill nor the sobriety back then. 04. “Be Mine This X-Mas”

Emon had it together enough to offer to lay down a bassline after vocal tracking and nailing it in two takes (he missed the bridge in an otherwise flawless first take). Those high castrato notes in the final chorus are done by Andrew Fisher, and the giggling reaction is his sister and my then-gf, Jessica. As Jessica once said, giggling was pretty much her trademark. You can hear her laughing somewhere in at least five Big City Nights songs. I don’t have any photos of the session itself, and I realize that these pics are getting pretty Danny-centric, but I have to go with what I have. This is a picture of me the next day, hungover and trying to mix the song. I finished it in the afternoon and we put it up on MySpace that night, so the song was written, recorded, and released in a single weekend. Ah, for the boundless energy of my youth.

03. “Like A Song”

Might Minutes was an absolute blast to record, my favourite by a long shot. Not only was it one long party filled with friends and barbecues and jamming, it was one long productive party. I wonder if now we could party for a week and nag out a nineteen songer. We did the vocals for “Canadian Cigarettes,” “Lump In My Throat” and “Fuck Edwin” in the basement of the house I grew up in on Fairglen Avenue in Brampton (same place and time that me, James and Russell sang the Flower City Three’s rendition of 54-40′s “Casual Viewin’”), but most of MM was done in Carey and Spencer’s basement, where we made the bulk of our best music in the early years. This is one of my all-time favourite songs of ours, so I’m cherrypicking it from the long drunkthon that characterized the album’s recording. In case you haven’t seen it yet, we even made a silly video for it, which Ryan says he can’t watch because the buttons on my wallet carved a disgustingly long scratch across the hood of his truck when I slid across it.

02. “Do the Do” James playing some unscheduled drumming at the end to the sound of Winfrow giggling should give it away. We were really drunk when we sang this one in my bedroom of the Bathurst house. I did a few headstands to get the blood flowing to my vocal cords and fell backwards into a bookshelf. We were excited about having our first album on a record label and having fun and this was just a great night. We went out after and watched the Leafs, who promptly lost to the Canucks.

01. “Born to Bar Band”

Yep, after all these years, ten of ‘em by my count, the first song on our first record still takes the number one slot. Ryan shouting “Ohhh! No you didn’t!” was in reaction to Eric Lister cracking a fresh beer, putting it down, promptly forgetting it was a fresh beer and tapping a long ash right into the hole. He drank the polluted beer anyway, perhaps to teach himself a lesson, and even through Ryan may have polluted the vocal take by yelling and laughing during it, the moment captured the spirit of what the song was about so we left it in. We sing what we wanna sing. Doomed to obscurity. Born to Bar Band.

That’s the list. Thanks for reading and, hopefully, listening. More to come, as ever. This year’s gonna be a good one for The Big City Nights, with at least two good albums coming down the pipeline, and possibly four. More music is coming and we can’t wait to share it with you.

I literally can’t wait actually, so here's a very rough mix of "Cadillac (On My Ass)" from our long-delayed studio album Heck 'Em All, out spring/summer 2017. It's not mastered yet, so CRANK the volume:

https://soundcloud.com/the-big-city-nights/cadillac-roughmix