#hal hamilton

[mariocki]

Man in a Suitcase: The Revolutionaries (1.26, ITC, 1968)

"Well... all your clients cause this much trouble?"

"No, do yours?"

"Yeah. Usually."

[howlerbat]

a James Flint shipping chart

[meyerlansky]

timestamp roulette: BLACK SAILS EPISODE VI ↳ how many times must you have told yourself that you're special?

[everythingfeelslike-themovies]

black sails memes (3/?)

1, 2

[oddlyenthusiast]

Black Sails (2014-2017) Happy 10th Anniversary!

caps courtesy of grande_caps/kissthemgoodbye

[heycarrots]

Happy Tuesday, Black Sails Nation!

As was requested by @billie-bones, I’ve listened back through 18 hours of interviews and compiled a list of every fic mentioned on the podcast.

This list is categorized by episode and includes ratings and summaries, as well as direct links to the fics, themselves. I’ll tag as many authors as I can, but I may not know the tumblr accounts for everyone. If you see someone who’s fics are referenced and you don’t see them tagged and happen to know their handle on here, you may want to send this on to them, that way they know which episode they’re mentioned in and can listen to hear the fic discussed if they so choose.

Some fics got multiple mentions across several episodes and so, to streamline, I’ve listed them only under the first episode in which they are mentioned, so there are no duplicate listings.

Edit: This will be a living document, updated with each new episode with any new fic recommendations. If you’re an upcoming guest and want to compile your top 5 and prefer to mention fics that haven’t been mentioned before, this list will be a valuable resource to cross-reference.

I want to thank my dear @tiofrean, partner in crime and all-around badass extraordinaire, for taking my bare bones list of titles, authors, and links, and filling them out with summaries and all the details you may want to know before committing to a fic. She also broke down every series referenced into its individual parts, since ratings and details will change throughout a particular series. She did this without me requesting it because she’s simply that awesome. Not only has she donated cover art commissions for several episodes, including the upcoming-coming Episode 13, but she helped with this project, which took several days, just for that part, out of the goodness of her heart. You sincerely fucking rock!

And without further ado, here is the Reading Between the Lines Podcast: Fic rec Masterlist!

@lupismaris @jaynovz @etoilesombre @tiofrean @b1uetrees @aisalynn @vowel-in-thug @jadedbirch @justadearie @lurkerdelima @r0b0tb0y @primal--scream @stele3 @twofrontteethstillcrooked @citrinekay @tahiri-veila @bisexualpirateheart @reluming @flintfag @mycapeisplaid @redwhale

Once again, if you don’t see your friend’s account tagged and they are on this list, please tag them or send this to them.

Sincerest thanks to all of our listeners! When you listen to the podcast, you’re supporting so so many people in this fandom!

Preview of Tora’s next episode art featuring Flint and Vane:

[mr-culper]

In truest love of Black Sails, we know no shame.

[asterofthevoid]

@illuminated-in-darkness and I did a thing.

[toseehowthestoryends]

Chapters: 13/? Fandom: Black Sails Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton, Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton, Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw, Eleanor Guthrie/Charles Vane, Miranda Barlow/Thomas Hamilton, Captain Flint | James McGraw & Hal Gates Characters: Captain Flint | James McGraw, Hal Gates, Billy Bones, "Calico" Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Charles Vane, Eleanor Guthrie, Max (Black Sails), Peter Ashe, Thomas Hamilton, Miranda Barlow, Dr. Howell (Black Sails) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Found Family, Pirate Republic, Angst, Aftermath of Torture, Eventual reunion, Eventual Happy Ending, Pirate War, Hal Gates Lives, Miranda Barlow Lives, Thomas Hamilton Lives, Past Rape/Non-con, Hal Gates mentoring broken young men (yet again), Hurt Captain Flint | James McGraw, 18th century Royal Navy leadership training is awful, Fix-It Series: Part 1 of In the Darkness, There Be Dragons Summary:

Chapter XIII: “Know No Shame.”

This chapter: 

In another world, Miranda Barlow gets word of Alfred Hamilton’s sailing, and she and James Flint concoct a plan. Flint is prepared. Ready. And he does what needs to be done. His actions do unknowingly allow for Thomas’s move from Bethlem to another, supposedly kinder prison in Savannah, but he won’t know that for a decade or more. What he does find out, far too late, is that his actions—sacrificing his crew to get his own revenge—fracture their trust in him. Does he ever really get it back?

In this world, James Flint is not prepared to run afoul of the earl. Yet that darkness inside him still takes over; he still rages and kills. But here Gates knows more. Here, Gates has his back. And when his crew asks questions, Gates pushes him to answer...which will have long-reaching consequences.

And as for the Hamiltons? Miranda not being in Nassau has its first big impact: here, she’s in England when Alfred dies, she knows Thomas is alive, and she is there and ready to free him. Even if Peter Ashe isn’t as helpful as he should have been...

Read here.

[ufonaut]

The uncontrollable, irresponsible force that you still live in fear of-- that zany-but-lovable control freak who nearly reshaped the universe-- me!

Highlights of Parallax in The Spectre (2001) #10

(J.M. DeMatteis, Craig Hamilton)

[queer-crusader]

Don't go giving opportunities like this on a silver platter because:

What do you think would've happened with Peter Ashe if Miranda would've recognised the clock earlier and Gates'd been alive?

ALAYA YOU ARE ASKING EVIL QUESTIONS

Also my brain is NOT at full capacity SO. This is HARD to answer. But I think. I'd LIKE to think. Miranda and Hal would've had a get-together. Chatting in low voice about the meaning of The Clock. The dread. The horror. The realisation. Hal would've realised the nebulousness of the path he originally chose. And then they would've inflicted carnage and fucked flint lovingly after as a treat

[howlerbat]

I’m ruined over you

[saltybenchday]

My second Outlander/Black Sails fic is now COMPLETE!

Read From The Beginning

Or finish the last 4 chapters starting here: Chapter 31: Leap of Faith

🤍 Thank you for reading along!

[lahtzu]

Hamilton, New Jersey

[lichfucker]

[image description: a series of stills from Black Sails, each overlaid with a headline from Reductress or the Onion.

1: Flint leering at Gates while talking about Billy's "death." headline: Why Conspiracy Theories Are Dangerous Except This One That Makes Sense

2: Flint chained up in Charlestown. headline: Man Only Good at Expressing Himself When Outraged

3: Peter Ashe looking down. headline: My Friends Are Visiting. Here's How I'm Going to Make That Stressful.

4: Thomas and James kissing. headline: How to Get Into His Interests So Deeply You Threaten His Sense of Self

5: Eleanor looking pensive. headline: Opinion: I'm Not a Nepotism Hire If My Dad Doesn't Like Me

6: Billy and Silver chained up with the rest of the Walrus crew on the way to Charlestown. Billy is talking and Silver is staring at him quizzically as though sizing him up. headline: How to Tell if He'll Be a Good Opponent When You Argue

7: a close-up of Flint in episode 1.07 telling Miranda "This ends when I grant them my forgiveness, not the other way around." headline: How to Signal Trust in Your Relationships by Displaying Asshole

8: Anne sharpening a knife. headline: Cool! This Woman Has Been in Fight or Flight for Four Years

9: a close-up of Dufresne staring intently. headline: Opinion: You're Not Punk and I'm Telling Everyone

10: Silver and Flint in the doldrums, rowing out to kill a shark. headline: First Date Ideas That Are Adventurous but Not So Adventurous You'll Be Victim-Blamed if He Kills You

end id]

[marybeatriceofmodena]

What did Andrew Lloyd Webber do to make Patti Lupone upset? Sorry, saw your tags and i was curious

Oh.

Oh honey.

You sweet child.

Anyway, get ready for one of the most infamous showdowns in all musical theatre history, with the guy who writes the straightest musicals on Broadway (derogatory) and the one and only, the matriarch, the queen, two three-time Tony award winner Patti LuPone.

So, Andrew Lloyd Webber was basically kind of a boy genius in his prime - he met his future collaborator Tim Rice when they were 17 and 20 respectively, he wrote his first big hit, Jesus Christ Superstar, at 22, with Tim Rice writing the lyrics. And it was kind of a big deal at the time because the topic was controversial (you know, the Passion with rock music), but also because Broadway wasn't that far off from its golden age and let's just say the music and style were very different from, say, My Fair Lady. Or The Sound of Music. Or Funny Girl. It was basically the Rent/Hamilton of its time. (Yeah, Stephen Sondheim was around at that time, he worked on West Side Story which was revolutionary in of itself, but he's kind of an oddball in this case. You'll understand why later.)

Their real follow up (I'm not counting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a variety of reasons) was a little musical called Evita, which you might know mainly because of a song called Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Or at least, your mom has probably heard it once at the very least. It's that song that's oversung from a musical while being out of context along with I Dreamed a Dream for Les Misérables. Or Memory from Cats.

Evita tells the story of Eva Peron, the wife of an Argentinian dictator, who basically screws her way to the top and ends up becoming the mistress of Juan Peron and the most beloved woman in her country through guile and deceit. Yes, I know the historical accuracy is very much debated but I know jackshit about Argentina's history except the bare basics so don't come at me. It was first produced in the West End in London, with Elaine Paige in the role, but because of Equity issues, she couldn't reprise her role for the Broadway production. So a Julliard graduate who was mostly starring in David Mamet plays got the part instead, and that was Patti LuPone.

Patti... did not have a good time during Evita, because the part is basically the kind of score where you can tell the composer is used to writing male parts, but most female singers have a two-octave range (yes, you got Julie Andrews who used to have a three-octave range, and many others, but they're exceptions), so she struggled a lot. That being said, if you listen to live recordings of her, you wouldn't be able to tell, and it got a lot easier later on. But she had this to say:

"Evita was the worst experience of my life. I was screaming my way through a part that could only have been written by a man who hates women. And I had no support from the producers, who wanted a star performance onstage but treated me as an unknown backstage. It was like Beirut, and I fought like a banshee."

This is from Patti's autobiography, which she wrote in 2007 - 8 years after shit with ALW went down. With all that said, she won a Tony Award for Evita, and she pretty much became a musical theatre household name from then on. She played Fantine in Les Misérables, Nancy in Oliver!, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. Meanwhile, ALW's next big hits were Cats (I'm not even kidding, Cats was a hit), and, you guessed it, The Phantom of the Opera, which he wrote in part to showcase his then wife Sarah Brightman's triple threat talents.

So, you need to understand before I continue that ALW, from my perspective, has always had a bit of an inferiority complex. He's basically associated to writing these commercially successful musicals that show a big spectacle but aren't ultimately substantial. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, but I do think that if he didn't have Hal Prince, Maria Bjornson, Charles Hart and Gillian Lynne backing him up for Phantom, it would have probably been a Rocky Horror Picture Show knockoff people would have forgotten about pretty quickly. This is what I mean:

Yep, that was Phantom before any of the people I mentioned above (and Michael Crawford) were really involved.

Remember how I said Stephen Sondheim was an oddball? The thing with him is that his musicals weren't always commercially successful, but in general, in part thanks to being Leonard Bernstein's protégé, he was generally pretty well-respected and it was considered that his work was bringing musicals to a whole other level. Without Sondheim, you wouldn't have Jonathan Larson, and you wouldn't have Lin-Manuel Miranda. I am convinced ALW is resentful of that, and when you stop and think about it for more than 10 seconds, it's so obvious he REALLY wants to be Sondheim or at least command the same level of respect, but that's a story for another day.

So, after Phantom, ALW had other musicals that followed that either got a meh reception or outright flopped. Then there was Sunset Boulevard, which is based on the movie of the same name with Gloria Swanson. Despite all of her griefs for Evita, Patti LuPone agreed to partake in the musical as Norma Desmond, for its production in London, with the promise that she would transfer to Broadway once that production would open. And overall, after a string of flops, Sunset was actually doing pretty well.

HOWEVER. One day, while reading the gossip column of a newspaper, Patti found out that contrary to what she was promised, Glenn Close, who was meanwhile starring as Norma in the Los Angeles production, was to play Norma on Broadway. That was a complete surprise for her since no one on the production team had bothered to tell her it was happening - and keep in mind that for the news to come up the way it did in a gossip column, it probably would have necessitated a delay of a few weeks between the producers and the newspaper, which would have given them plenty of time to break the news to Patti. And Patti kind of needed the leg up because she was pretty bitter that a) Madonna was cast in the Evita adaptation instead of her; b) they actually lowered the key to fit Madonna's voice range, and she still had to expand her own to be able to sing the (lowered) score. And trust me, Patti is mad about it to this day.

So of course, she trashed her dressing room, the cast and crew weren't even mad about it because they were as shocked and angered as she was by the news. Patti sued Andrew Lloyd Webber for breach of contract, namely for 1 MILLION DOLLARS (yup, those are the real numbers), won, used the money she got from the lawsuit to get a swimming pool, which she called (and I SHIT YOU NOT) the Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool. Since then, Webber is dead to her, to the point rumor has it she had part of a building blocked during an event so she could get out of it without coming across Webber, because she hates him so flipping much she doesn't even want to be in the same building as the guy.

(There's also drama that happened with Faye Dunaway who was supposed to replace Glenn Close after she went from Los Angeles to Broadway, except they abruptly closed the show down after Close left, but that's a story for another day)

So with all the bad press, and with ALW forced to pay 1 million dollars for Patti's lawsuit, that led Sunset's productions to close earlier than expected. ALW has stayed around since, with... mitigated output, so to say. The lowest point for a lot of people is Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom, which some people love, and that's fine, but it didn't do well with either critics nor fans of the original show, which ALW is EXTREMELY BUTTHURT ABOUT. And like, there are so many stories I could tell about LND alone, but I will share my own crack theory about it, since it does relate to the ask.

Anyway, buckle up.

So. There have been jokes going around for years that the Phantom in LND is basically ALW's self-insert, where he displays to the world that he's totally not over Sarah Brightman leaving him (in part because making Phantom kinda ruined their marriage lmao), despite, you know, having married since. (Aaaaaakward.) So LND basically becomes this really uncomfortable therapy session where a man writes a self-insert musical about how his ex-wife made a big mistake of leaving a sensitive artistic soul such as himself. The characters from Phantom who appear in LND are all more or less unrecognizable as a result, and one who gets it worse (in my humble opinion) is Meg Giry, who was basically Christine's sweet and loyal ballerina friend who basically went into the Phantom's lair on her own to save her friend despite the danger. In LND, she's basically a bitter hag (because ALW hates women, guess Patti was right about that), who really likes the swim and even has a stripping vaudeville number about it, written in universe by the Phantom, no less.

For comparison, here's Don Juan Triumphant (the Phantom's opera in the original):

And here's Bathing Beauty (the vaudeville number):

Yeah, so... do you see why people hate LND already?

And that's not the only thing with Meg! She's also pining for the Phantom to pay attention to her and threatens to drown the Phantom and Christine's secret love child when he makes it clear that he's gonna love Christine for EVA AND EVA.

So, with everything we learned today about ALW, would someone like him view someone like Patti LuPone as some sort of crazy, bitter diva who's obsessed with him for whatever reason? Absolutely. Would he be petty enough to insert Patti LuPone into his self-insert musical, which gave us the version of Meg Giry we got in LND? Of course. Why does Meg love to swim so much and why does she drag Gustave out ostensibly for a swim? Is it a dig at Patti's Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool? Maybe.

I kind of hope we find out one day if that theory is true. And maybe start a kickstarter so Patti can add this painting from the 2004 movie in her collection.

Fun fact: during the process of casting for the 2004 movie adaptation of POTO, ALW allegedly suggested Patti LuPone to play Carlotta... only for Joel Schumacher to have to awkwardly remind him that they were not on speaking terms. The idea was therefore promptly dropped.