#his scenes are also beautiful and very edit fitting with music given he dances

[rpgchoices]

Thank you this was so nice and kinda encapsulated my feelings. Mainly because I come from very strict fandom etiquette of "don't like, don't watch/read" and "don't leave negative comments on fandom creations, ex. Fanfics".

I also did not see that "don't fight with strangers on my blog" critique, which is pretty funny if you've been following me because I had a very big long fight about what constitutes queer games some months ago. Also my blog is not a poll blog 😅 just a random "my fav videogames" and "recs" one.

I was happy to make the Wyll video because I have ton of Wyll footage given I tried a bunch of options for him and Astarion. But I do not have other videos and I'm not comfortable stealing people's playthroughs, I can only use mine.

While I could have used only footage of Wyll this means... excluding all the romance scenes which is why he won the poll. And excluding a big chunk of Wyll scenes. People who know the character and played the game with Wyll in party actually know far too well that Wyll has a bunch of "standing there and dialogue" but much less "quest scene".

For example, for a Shadowheart video between act one and act two I could have used her introduction, her at the beach and recruiting her again (she has four variants of this), her playing with the astral pole, the drinking at the party, seeing the Selune temple, her dream, her wound hurting her, meeting the Nightsong twice etc.

But for Wyll - well, if you've played with his character you know he has less scenes. In act one I got all those Shadowheart scenes and for Wyll instead: his intro, training with the children, meeting Karlach, calling for his father, Mizora turning him into a devil and Mizora again which is a very similar (visually) scenes to the other Mizora ones and it seems like that's it. The rest is just him standing there which for edits is pretty repetitive.

Because the game gives so little content I also think romance (and romancing him) is what helps add more scenes. Which is also my way to recommend to people to try his romance and keep him in the party. A lot of his humour and character really shines through his banter and party comments.

Sorry for the long rant, I also wanted to answer to some people wondering why Wyll won - well, he is the character of romance. I found it quite fitting that he won. His romance scenes are probably some of the best and most personal he has, even during his quest in act three - the consequences of your choices in that quest are mainly shown through his romance scene and the two (fail/success) have very different specific scenes. You could say "it's the same with Astarion", but with Astarion you also have a very big scene during the quest, the quest is much more centred on him. While getting to Ansur only gives Wyll minimal focus.

So yeah, sorry I derailed the post. But yeah, romance him! And remember fandom etiquette about fandom creations, it really sucks to have your vid/fic/fanart being reblogged with "you did it wrong"/"we were talking right now about how wrong and annoying it was".

The WINNER of the Tournament of fav tumblr rpg male romances is...

The Master of the Vollante

The Babe of Frontiers

The Heart of the Gate

WYLL RAVENGARD

Enjoy this two minute FANVIDEO DEDICATED TO HIM (don't miss the final quote, it is my favorite), I used the most appropriate song ever. Congrats, Wyll with a y!

(he is the hero, but he also needs a hero to sweep him off his feet, get it?)

With about 1235 votes, Wyll beat Garrus in the finals of the tournament. This gives him the title of best tumblr rpg blorbo and babygirl.

(more under cut about the Wyll's sweep and his character)

Wyll jumped into the tournament qualifying among 69 total characters, and being the most voted of his section in round zero! Wyll was also the most voted OVERALL in round one where he got about 6420 votes against Cullen (88% of votes). Round two saw him winning a very close competition against Zevran, and in round three he won with almost double the votes against Astarion! Again with double the votes he won against Dorian Pavus in the semifinals!

Very appropriate for him to win as his character is truly a romantic at heart and his actor even revealed in an interview that the romantic scenes were his favorite to film.

Wyll is a companion and romancable option for any gender in Baldur's Gate 3. You will meet him while he is in pursuit of a devil, just to find out that the honor and code he is trying to live by might be clashing with the path he could be choosing.

Wyll's romance has a kiss that has been nominated (and won) for "favorite kiss ever in a rpg game by me and for my opinion only and I just love it".

Man who will crack a joke when you least expect it

EVEN WHEN IT REALLY IS NOT THE TIME

Just to turn around and offer you the most heart shattering and unwavering support

Monster smasher (in all senses) hero, who truly needs someone at his side who makes sure he fights his own battles too, not just the trials of the coast!

Very happy to see he is currently (with all the biases and limitations of such polls, of course) the favorite romance in the rpg fandoms here on tumblr (for male characters)!!

Please, make sure to also jump in the female characters tournament!!

Also, CONGRATULATIONS TO GARRUS who came second in the tournament, and FENRIS who came third! (as he had more votes than Dorian, in the semifinals)

*In the fanvideo there are the seven clips that are not from Wyll games. I wanted to write them down as this is supposed to be a rec for his romance, so I don't want to trick people!

00:16 I modded Wyll into Karlach and used Astarion as player character (Karlach romance scene act 3)

00:38 Astarion romance scene, I played as Wyll but I flipped the character with the ring of metamorph mod so Wyll could pick up Astarion

00:50 Like the first clip, this is Karlach scene from act 3

00:51 I modded Karlach into Wyll, this is her scene from act 1

00:53 I modded Shadowheart into Astarion and I was playing as Wyll, this is Shadowheart romance scene in act 1

00:59 This is Astarion romance scene in act 2, I was playing as Wyll

01:07 The hug is from Astarion romance, epilogue, where I was playing as Wyll

[fyeah-bangtan7]

V: “I have a desire to perfect one cool thing about myself”

As he’s being interviewed, V speaks his mind at a relaxed pace. But there was one moment where he kept on speaking without taking a breath. Look for that moment in the interview below. You listen to a lot of old music on vinyl. Has any particular artist’s music excited you since your last interview with Weverse Magazine? V: I was listening to Louis Armstrong’s music again. And I picked up some albums with a pretty jacket that’s also got a lot of really good hits on it.

How do you feel when you’re listening to those classics? V: I feel like I’m beginning to relax a bit. If I listen to a song when I’m feeling depressed and then really get thinking, the things that are frustrating me disappear, and I can feel myself becoming more peaceful. And it makes me picture things in my head. For example, some songs might make me think of seeing something in front of me while walking down the road somewhere at night when I listen to them. I think setting the mood for listeners is the most important thing. The mood will presumably be different for everyone, but for me, those songs are the ones that are good at setting a really beautiful mood in the moment.

You said that you got inspiration from artists of the past like Sammy Davis Jr. for your performance in “Dynamite.” Was there any artist who inspired you for “Butter”? V: Well, there was Billy Joel. When I shoot a music video, I think of a movie more than any one artist. And when I perform on stage, for some songs I think of the way movies like Reservoir Dogs look. For “Butter,” I watched a lot of teen movies. And musicals. After that I randomly ended up seeing a video on YouTube of some scenes from an old teen movie Johnny Depp did [which turned out to be the movie Cry-Baby]. The image I got from that was really intense. That’s the look I used in “Butter.”

“Butter” felt like a teen musical to me and now I know why. V: I did it like a teen musical, just like you say. When we shot the “Butter” music video, I really, really tried to shoot the part in the elevator so it would feel like a teen movie. Although a lot of takes were edited, so not all of it’s there. (laughs)

What kind of feeling do you get from that kind of teen movie that you find so charming? V: For me, teen movies show a youthfulness that’s appropriate for the age. I think there’s an appropriate mix of emotion, energy, and a completely different and peculiar mood that everyone necessarily experiences at that age. If you watch teen movies, they’re overflowing with energy and full of sunny emotion, but behind it all they’re not as bright as they seem. They are really bright, but the color itself almost feels like some kind of filter. They feel like they have a different filter than other movies, so I tried thinking of teen movies when we shot the music video and put on performances.

That teen movie feeling seems to be divided in two between “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.” By the looks of the thumbnails for the fancam focus videos uploaded to the BANGTANTV YouTube channel, “Butter” seems to showcase a really cool character, while “Permission to Dance” is more teenagers smiling brightly for children. V: The teen movie vibe in “Butter” and “Permission to Dance” are different from one another. We showed the sunny image people usually think of when they think of teen movies in “Permission to Dance.”

Do you think that going with the teen movie vibe influenced your vocals to be the new style that you used? In “Butter,” you still had your signature vocals but without the deep notes, giving them a new feeling. V: That’s because, when we’re given a concept, we have to come up with vocals that fit with the concept. I think my singing style matched up with the concept, so I feel relatively satisfied. There was nothing majorly difficult about actually changing the style itself, since unlike changing your voice, you only have to change your vocal technique. Having said that, even though the notes in “Butter” were high for me, I still hit them! (laughs)

I guess hitting the high notes was your assignment this time around as a vocalist. V: I’ve been working a long time to make up for my weak points. For example, I thought I was weak when it comes to high notes because I sing low parts a lot and I tend to sing in a flowing way. But I had trouble when we were recording “Dynamite” and I had to sing the high notes during the chorus. I got so mad (laughs) so I practiced a lot.

How does it feel to see the results you’re seeing with “Butter” now after all that effort? V: I’m just trying not to rest on my laurels. Like instead of savoring the feeling, I feel like I should go to bed early for everything I have to do the next day? Getting back in tiptop shape quickly is what’s important, so I haven’t really had time to bask in the joy very much. I’m just working hard at the work I had like I always do.In your 

New Year’s greeting on YouTube, you said you regretted not being able to put on the show for ARMY you wanted, and that your 2021 resolution is to “follow my own pace and pattern” when you work on music. Do you think your personal pace and your professional pace are in step this year? V: No. [My professional pace is] fast, so fast. (laughs) We have a lot we have to get ready for since we’re always promoting. It can be challenging sometimes, but in a way, I think it’s also given me a good opportunity to become a little stronger.

I imagine it’s meaningful to do the work for your own songs, because you can slip into your own world. You also made “Blue & Grey” when you were having a hard time, and it consequently became a song that allowed you to empathize with many people and vice versa. Looking back now, what kind of song do you think “Blue & Grey” will be remembered as? V: I think with “Blue & Grey” I just wanted the song to let people know how I was feeling, and how we were feeling, at that time a little better. Obviously everyone was having a hard time, but I think I wanted to share those emotions with ARMY as-is, including the pains we went through in our growth process. And, to put it another way, I think I just felt like making it obvious. (laughs) I thought it was okay to be that obvious, seeing as I couldn’t put those feelings into words. I just hope people could understand how I was feeling; it’s okay if it becomes forgotten later on.

In the “BE-hind Story” interview on YouTube, you talked about the first line of “Blue & Grey”: “Where is my angel?” You explained how, when you have any kind of issue, you close your eyes and wish for your angel to come and think. Are there times when it seems like your angel understands your feelings, as you just mentioned? V: I get a ton of answers by doing it. I’m not religious, but whenever I have some kind of issue, I close my eyes and think about it. Is this right, the way I’m thinking about this, or not? They’re just yes or no questions, like, Does my outfit look good today? Instead of just worrying about what you should do, if you tackle it in the form of a question, you  get a response with the answer.

I guess it could work when you’re looking for inspiration in your life, but what about for your music? In your previous Weverse Magazine interview, you said you make a note whenever you feel something. V: I write in my diary in hopes that it’ll help with writing lyrics and so I don’t forget those feelings. I do it constantly—I open up my diary whenever something comes up. I copy melodies that pop up in my mind, lyrics, and other things from my diary to my notes app temporarily, and when I’m taking a break or I get the urge to work, I open my notes and say, Let’s try this out today, and run over to the studio.

You released “Snow Flower,” featuring Peakboy by V, on Christmas Day. Is that another song you ran to the studio to work on after the feeling came to you? V: For that song, when I was drinking with some older musicians, we were talking about doing a song together, and then we were like, Well, do you think we’ll have time to do that? So we decided to do it right then since everyone was available. My mixtape was delayed, so I at least wanted to play a different song for ARMY, and I thought, since I’m a bit tipsy (laughs) I thought I should try writing something. So I made the song really quickly. In maybe three hours.

Even though you made it quickly, the composition is somewhat complex and it has the same unique atmosphere that “Blue & Grey” did. V: There’s times when I’m, like, in the zone (laughs) and can make a song all in one sitting, but when I’m not feeling it, I end up revising it more and more. And I don’t want the composition to be too obvious, so I try to change up the way the melody flows. With that kind of sharp image coming to you almost immediately, what were you imagining for that song? V: You might think “Snow Flower” is about a type of snowflake, but I was actually thinking about snow and flowers separately. I started hoping that flowers wouldn’t wither away and just keep on blooming on snowy days. But in reality, when it snowed, all the flowers were crushed, the world became blanketed in snow, and I felt like the flower buds turned into snow flowers. I wrote that song about how I felt after watching that happen.

It must be important to feel things intuitively when you’re trying to express yourself through song. V: If it sounds pretty to me: approved. (laughs)

On the other hand, as a member of BTS, you have a job where you have to deal with a packed schedule and keep various situations in mind. How does that make you feel? When you celebrated your Billboard Hot 100 win on V LIVE and the topic of your clothes came up, you joked that you wore them to give off an idol vibe. V: It’s fun. It’s fun, but I could also say it’s hard. The performances are fun. I think idols should shine in a way that’s suitable for their age, and it’s important to do lots of things for fans like ARMY. Not just performances, but also posting pictures, having conversations on social media, making content. We’re artists and idols, so we think each and every one of those things is important. That sentiment won’t change just because we’ve achieved so much success.

You recently held an impromptu event on Weverse for ARMY. V: I’m sure there’s lots of ARMY out there who are tired of not being able to see us in person. But since the only thing we can do for them is to be on stage and stuff, I was worried that we’re not doing enough for them. And I love being able to talk with ARMY so much that now it’s like a habit that I read their posts. I have a thing today. I have a test today. I’m moving today. Somehow I feel better when I hear their stories. When I end up reading things like about how ARMY are living or what kind of lives ARMY have, I can’t help but write a response, and because of that ARMY respond, so I try to become friendlier in a more fun way, too. I want us to be more than the Billboard number one Bangtanies—I want to be ARMY’s partner, their best friend, the friend who’s always by their side when we’re not on stage. It feels like business when I talk about communicating with ARMY. (laughs) I just want to talk with a close friend. I wanna talk with a close friend—that’s exactly how I feel. It’s been a long time since I could see my friend, ARMY. Usually when friends can’t see each other they keep in touch all the time. I can talk about all kinds of things like that with ARMY thanks to the Weverse platform, and because I can hear all about their lives, I think I was able to go on Weverse and hold that kind of event.

You’ve been talking about ARMY nonstop for a few minutes. I was going to ask you how you feel about ARMY, but I think you already answered the question. (laughs) V: They’re just, well, friends I would hate to lose. Friends who seriously give me strength whenever they’re around. Sometimes you find friends like that in life. It’s like that with the other members, and I have other friends who I can share my feelings with. And I have ARMY. So I can’t help but do whatever I can do to make those people smile and make them feel happy.

Well then, is there a song you’ve heard that you want to let ARMY know about? A song that shares your feelings. V: Umm, recently … “No. 1 Party Anthem” by Arctic Monkeys. When I hear that song … I get emotional, somehow. I don’t usually listen to a lot of rock music, but I can instantly feel the band’s emotions with that song. I seriously get goosebumps listening to it, and emotional, and just all kinds of feelings. It’s to the point that, as soon as I hear that song, I think about how I really want to live well.

That song really means a lot to you. V: Actually, I don’t really know what’s up with that song. I don’t even know the lyrics, but I’m quite clear on what sort of emotions the melody and the band’s performance give me.

Don’t you feel like that’s an emotion you want to express to people, as an artist? Like you don’t have to explain your messages in detail? V: I don’t know. I just want to exchange the good, and be the one to embrace the bad. So I have a desire to perfect one cool thing about myself.

So how close do you think you are right now to becoming an artist who has perfected something cool? V: I’ll say 2%. It’ll go up someday later. (laughs)

© source

[carmenxjulia]

Another Duane interview transcript, coming at you! This one was from a smaller Carmen Sandiego chatroom. There were several interviewers, so that’s why the name of the question asker changes. Get the details below the break! Stay tuned, more interview transcripts coming soon.

Duane Capizzi:

HI EVERYONE! I'M IN!

Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way haha. Then got lost trying to change my PFP

Thanks for gathering! Shall we get started? Let's do some Q&A!

(as long as they are not geography questions haha)

Fuel:

What characters or plot points were cut from the final product?

Duane Capizzi:

Ooo, starting with a right hook to the jaw!

Let me think about that for a moment: I'm hesitant to give too much away because I'm really hoping we can tell more stories in this world at some point

Which is to say, we tend not to waste anything: if we don't use it when we originally planned, we usually find a way to use something later - and there's usually a "karmic" reason that we waited.

I'll also preface by saying this: I know season 3 was more of a mini-drop and some felt season 4 was rushed. But I wish EVERY season were longer. Season 1: ideally, i wanted the Pilot to be its own event and 10 more episodes after that (but we had to tell the post-Pilot story in 7. At the end of the day, that had its benefits: we got to the Shadowsan turn earlier and I think that's when a lot of viewers realized the ride they were truly in for). Season 2: we initially figured we'd need 5 episodes to have Carmen doing the ACME dance with Chief, and wound up doing it in 3 - mostly because it quickly became clear that Rio needed to be a 2 parter, and the Zack and Ivy backstory a rough 2 parter. So we squeezed 3 episodes worth of plot into 209. It was exhilarating!

So, we had hoped to have more episodes for Season 4 of course. We had a ton of ideas and had to compress things a bit. But honestly in many ways it was for the better. I know we all wanted to live in this world longer, but I think sometimes the flip side is true - when you have big ongoing storylines, it can get frustrating when some things drag out too long. But, we got all the "story" we wanted to tell in Season 4 - we just lost some "incident" if that makes sense. We would have taken longer to get there.

So, all that preface to answer the question: we wanted to do more musical numbers! We had a Bollywood dance sequence in a return to India caper with Paperstar. We wanted to do a famous Elvis suit theft in Las Vegas during an Elvis impersonator convention (Shadowsan's an early elvis guy; Brunt likes the Vegas "jumpsuit" era). We also wanted to do a thread where Gunnar gets captured by ACME so that Julia could interrogate him and he could play mind games with her a la Hannibal Lector and Clarice. CAVEAT TO ALL THIS: these were some ideas that were bouncing around, that may not have seen the light of day if we couldn't get them to work. But they were on our wish list.

re: "other stories" - I could live with these characters for another 32 episodes easily and there have of course been discussions. But alas, that is up to the powers that be. Let's keep fingers crossed - and keep the Carmen love alive online so that someone up there takes note

There is more of course, but those are some things that spring to mind.

Fuel:

Were there any scenes cut for time that were your favorite?

Duane Capizzi:

Not much springs to mind: our directors were amazing at getting everything in the scripts to fit naturally (and in fact, I was the one who was usually suggesting trims to let other things breathe, etc). We were limited to 22 minutes of episode time, NOT counting front and end credits so a little longer than the average show. We have a pretty good idea when the SCRIPT is too long, so the cutting usually happens at script stage before it gets to the board crew so that they don't waste efforts over-boarding material that won't be used.

We had hoped to build out Chase and Carmen teaming up for the first time, meeting at Carmen's hotel lobby etc for more scenes of them together; but had to reduce that to get that all to fit in the VERY packed episode 406. But again, tighter was fine considering. That's one area that leaps to mind. (note that when I say packed, I don't mean that in a bad way: we spend a lot of time pouring over details in editing to make sure everything gets its due).

If I think of anything, I'll circle back at a later point. But the simple answer is that scenes were usually trimmed or compressed at script rather than board or animatic. So nothing comes to mind. I know it's hard to believe, but "shorter is usually better."

except for my answers to fan questions of course

Fuel:

We saw that in s4 episode 6 that Julia's mother(?) is wearing a necklace remarkably similar to the one Julia wears all the time. Is this the same necklace and if so, why was it given to Julia?

Duane Capizzi:

Just when I thought I was detail oriented! Wow! You guys blow me away

I can't take credit for that: it was either the board artist or director who added that. They do slip things in! As I've said before, EVERYONE on the crew really brought their A-game and were as deep thinking and as passionate as I was/am about the show.

It's a nice detail and I would say your interpretation works!

It took me three or four reviews before noticing that the team had slipped in baby Carmen near the play set in Mom's front yard at the end of 408. When I caught it, I was like: bravo!

Fuel:

When they first met, Zack and Ivy said to Carmen that they were the only family they had, do you know what happened to the rest of Zack and Ivy's family?

Duane Capizzi:

I don't. At least, I don't yet until such a time that I might have the opportunity to explore that. It was important to their relationship with Carmen that they be orphans, so they had that common bond (aside from being "thieves who steal from bad guys" - even if it was only gonna be one time for Zack and Ivy).

I know there are writers out there who like to do entire bio's for characters up front but i'm not one of them. It could be a trap in many ways. I like to have a general idea but be open to the demands of the ongoing storyline. You discover things along the way - it's like you're taking a journey with the characters by writing them, and the longer you spend, the better you get to know them (that was not a prepared statement by the way - I just made that up but I'll have to use it again :). So in Z/I's case it wasn't important to the story or Carmen's relationship, we felt. Conversely, we STARTED with Shadowsan's family backstory with 203, but more important to me was that we use it as a platform to explain why he stays with Carmen and crew. He really has no home at that point, so it was relevant to the present ongoing story. Which is what made that especially powerful to me.

Also, there's always a push-pull between telling character back stories while balancing them with ongoing episodic plots. You have to service both. If you just tell back story, then you're writing a biography

Arden:

What was the biggest challenge when designing these characters, especially the pre-existing characters from the series in the 90's?

Duane Capizzi:

This is probably more of a question for Chromosphere, re: challenges. But from my standpoint overseeing that process, the first thing I'll say is that we weren't necessarily trying to be "true" to those characters since we reinvented nearly every one from the ground up. (with the exception of Carmen of course - her trademark red hat/coat weren't going anywhere! But mostly the update with Carmen was in the styling of her "outerwear"

ALTHOUGH: I will admit that I was pushing for Carmen to have shorter hair as Carmen. I thought it would be a cool update. Chromosphere were really passionate about giving her long full hair and I have to see that they were right. The short tomboy cut worked so well for Black Sheep anyway. We had a different hair style for each of her ages.

So about the reinventions: Gunnar is in spirit a similar character to the original (old colleague in Vile and an early mentor if I remember), but his presentation completely different. We weren't trying to be "in canon" with the original. The beauty of CSD is that every incarnation has been its own entity so that freed us to reimagine the characters. THE CLEANERS, for instance: gimme some Cleaner love! There were a pair of janitors from the original game named RICK AND NICK ICK. They were literally janitors, it was too silly for our purposes. But, it's one small step to make them "Cleaners" (in the sinister hit men sense) - and lo, our reinvention.

So to summarize the answer to your question, they weren't really challenges to me so much as FUN to creatively reinvent the original characters (many of which were from the game, so not really "characters" per se with dialogue and inner lives). Whenever we could, we tried to use character names from the originals and update their looks and personalities. Where we couldn't find an equivalent for what we needed, we created characters from whole cloth. For instance, it seemed a miss to do a heist show without a tunnel guy and a high rise climber guy. Hence, LC & ET, everyone's favorite taco truck vendors!

(yes, i've seen some short hair carmen fan art on Twitter - someone did a great one recently!)

Arden:

Are there plans to give us more of the characters in, say, novel/graphic novel form?

Duane Capizzi:

I know HMH has done a bunch and no doubt have more in works. There's currently a novelization of the Pilot with some additional material if anyone's interested. I consulted on the second one, Clue for Clue, because it falls in the timeline while Chase was still Interpol/pre-Acme so was tricky.

And depending on whether another series in this canon makes it to air, I may just approach them about writing one or two myself to get some "further adventures" our there. Anything is possible!

Arden:

If you could go back and change anything about the series, what would it be?

Duane Capizzi:

File under anecdote, but there was what I felt was an important expression on Gray that kept me awake at nights, from his graduation ceremony at Vile. When we revisited those flashbacks in the Gray arc in Season 4, I had them change his expression there (to be more evil less innocent). We had it corrected in 404 so was able to get permission to have Netflix "fix" the Pilot by adding that shot in. I am tenacious!

We really poured over everything, it's the series that I have virtually zero complaints with the end product to be honest. But the simple answer is: I would have gone back to 106 and "un-greek'd" Gray's nametag. It's sort of a rule for international that we scramble signage (which is weird for a show that takes place in many countries/languages, I know I know). It's mostly for localization/translation reasons. And I'm sure there are some countries where Gray's name might be spoken differently. But as a proper name, I think we could have made an exception and seen "Gray" on his name tag. See? Details! But that's about the worst of it

there's also like one small line from Chief in 208 where she indicates she knows Carmen is a good guy (something to that effect) which I felt was too absolute and would have tweaked the line to temper it a bit. It's tiny, but looking back it sort of bugs me and I kick myself for not catching it. But this is absolutely the series I wanted and couldn't be happier.

Carmen:

How did Carmen know she could trust Julia? As far as we know, she has not seen or heard Julia defending her, and in the Fashionista Caper, Julia even held up her gas gun to her, saying she was under arrest. Do you have any opinions on this? Was it just intuition?

Duane Capizzi:

I'm gonna go with intuition

Carmen was raised on an island with some hardened criminal types. I think she's a pretty good judge of character. Poor Julia, trying to be tough with Carmen didn't suit her.

But, great observation! I'd have to mentally step through everything to see if Carmen had any earlier indication but i think you're right there.

Yes, sometimes you just gotta follow your heart

Carmen:

Are there any characters that didn't actually interact that you think would get along well?

Duane Capizzi:

Amazing question! First, I'd have to think more about who DIDN'T meet - you're asking the hard questions haha. But "get along well" is very specific! Hmmm, care to volley anyone?

I'll also add that so many smaller moments get lost in the "binge" of it all, but I am surprised how few fans have noted the first meeting between Player and Julia. THAT was a good one IMO! Very sweet!

Before getting back to your question, I also want to add that we were originally going to find a way for Carmen to lose her earring in Stockholm so that Julia could pick it up and be communicating with Player. BUT, I cut it at treatment stage because I knew we didn't have room in that episode to service it. Circling back to questions 1 & 2, another case where it turned out better saved for later IMO (saving Player meeting Julia, not to mention the earring business in 402 with Ivy).

Oh of course, Julia and any of the other Vile members. It would have been Gunnar for my vote, as mentioned earlier. We probably would not have had Julia meet anyone else and mixed it up more. I like that Cleo sort of became J's personal nemesis.

YES, SONIA & XIFENG (and LUPE PELIGRO, if I can add). The intent was (and is, if we ever get to revisit) to see them again in Carmen's travels. We started to expand Carmen's world but when we finally learned the finite number of episodes we had to finish the story, we drilled back down into the essentials. Would love to see them some day!

I'm hesitant to share too many things I have in mind in this forum for hope that they will see the light of day one day. You know, "spoilers"

Julia:

Do you have any opinions on Zari? Just in general? Some thoughts on her backstory would be nice if possible

Duane Capizzi:

I love Zari! I really don't have any back story on her at this point. She was originally just "Agent B" but when the need arose to give story points to another agent, we chose her because she looked so awesome! And Sharon Muthu gave voice to her so wonderfully.

I love when we finally teamed her with Chase. Hopefully the anticipation was that she would give him a hard time. I love that we defied expectation (organically, of course) and had her respect him by the end of that episode (for believing that he foiled Carmen!)

Julia:

Do you have any thoughts on small facts about any character, major or minor, that you think are fun/interesting to think about, but don't necessarily add to the plot itself?

Duane Capizzi:

Bellum, like myself, likes cats. But you knew that!

I try to put everything pertinent on screen, doing double duty to service any given episode's story but also the overarching story. That "journey" thing I mentioned earlier - we had no idea Chase falling on his own car would be a thing when I first came up with it. But as other characters refer to the incident, it took on a life of its own and made the characters feel more real.

Sorta kinda related to this question and some earlier ones, I will say that I DO think there's more to learn about Shadowsan's past vis a vis Lady Dokuso: it's clear to me that they have a history together, and it's something I hope to explore someday soon (maybe in a book if not another series

Julia:

Are the Carmen Sandiego books a part of canon?

Duane Capizzi:

I only consulted on the first two or three (too busy with series!) and have not read them, so hard for me to answer in a definite way. They are definitely in the universe we've created, but not in the timeline that I know of (which would have been too hard to pull off with our script development running concurrently). But do know that the book team at HMH pays close attention to the series and world so they should be perfectly compatible. Look no further to their clever social media on the series for example.

Kenz:

We saw in season 4 that Julia and Carmen helped each other mid to long term; would there ever be a possibility that Julia would permanently or semi-permanently join team Red?

Duane Capizzi:

Of course there's a possibility. But in a sense, with ACME now finally on Carmen's side, in a sense if Carmen were back in the game Julia, Chase, Zack and Ivy would ALL be an extension of Carmen's crew. But, would J remain with ACME or literally come to Carmen's team at her HQ? As they said in an old radio show: "Only The Duane Capizzi knows ..."

Kenz:

Where do you see Carmen in her retirement (if she retires)? Do you think she would still travel the world or settle down somewhere? Similarly, do you have any thoughts on what some other characters could be doing years down the line?

Duane Capizzi:

That is a big question, and one difficult to answer without some potential future spoilers (and yes, I really want to tell more Carmen stories if you can't tell But I'll answer by giving you one "read" on our open-ended ending as seen in 408 (read no further if you haven't seen it - yeah, right haha). The ending suggests to me that Carmen settled down for a spell to forge that relationship with her mother, to make up for lost time. But, if that is indeed Carmen that we see on the rooftop, I think the ending suggests that Carmen doesn't stay still for very long. If Vile is back, there is work to be done! Carmen has a life mission - she's one determined lady.

But of course, it's deliberately ambiguous: "anyone with your heart, wisdom and courage can be Carmen Sandiego." Is it Carmen? Sonia? Someone we haven't met? I think both endings resonate: Caroline and I always said "Carmen is bigger than a person, Carmen is a movement" would be a great message to end the series on. And I think our ending resolves this chapter of Carmen's journey as a person, but also elevates her to mythic status. Which is why I love it!

And, that seems to me a pretty perfect question and answer to end our chat on. Thanks everyone! Again, I cannot tell you how moved I am to see that we have such a passionate, intelligent and talented fan base. THANK YOU.

Take care guys, thanks again for having me! 'night!

[fictionadventurer]

Top 5 unpublished stories (unfinished, in-progress, etc. yours or others' - things posted on tumblr fit, but not indie or traditional publishing)

To be clear, I’m limiting this to:

Works that have at least a partial scene drafted. If it exists only in outline or in idea form, it’s ineligible. There has to be some writing for me to reread and like.  

Stories that are not current WIPs.

So, in no particular order, here are five favorites that I’m fond of.

(Warning: Very Long Post)

1. Airship Sleeping Beauty.

In this world, parents buy fairy gifts for their children at birth. Most people are limited to two or three. Seraphina Crowne (please call her Sara) was gifted with twelve. Her impoverished parents had friends among fairy kind who were able to bend the rules to give this child enough gifts to survive in their harsh environment. Thus, Sara has everything from enhanced beauty and grace to strength and speed and musical skill, which makes her an unstoppable force of (super)nature. She loves a challenge and decides to support her parents by becoming a sailor on a flying sailing ship, where she rockets up through the ranks.

Our POV character is Jack Sanders, who serves under her as second lieutenant. Jack has spent years struggling through the ranks with only one unsuitable fairy gift. The father who chose his gift was an insomniac, and gave his son the gift of helping people fall asleep. Surrounded by people with more useful skills like strength or navigation, Jack languished as a midshipman for years until he served under a captain who realized the greater uses of his gift. Jack hates Seraphina Crowne, assuming that she’s the daughter of a rich man who has enough money to bend all the fairy gifting rules for his precious princess.

As they travel through a tropical land, they run into many adventures, and Jack starts to respect Sara. He learns that she comes from a much less privileged background than he’d assumed, and they slowly become friends. Then one day, they’re taking a day of shore leave on a flying island when they get into a fight with some local ruffians. Sara falls over the edge and is impaled on one of the metal spikes that serve as a barrier between the island and the open sky. But she doesn’t die. She climbs up with a gaping hole through her torso, and the should-be fatal wound heals within hours.

Sara is forced to tell Jack her greatest secret--she actually has a (highly illegal) thirteenth gift. Her mother’s greatest friend among fairy kind was a fairy who was banished from the guild for giving gifts that were too powerful. This fairy wanted to make absolutely certain that her friend couldn’t possibly lose this child at a young age. Her gift to Sara was that she would die by being pricked on the spindle of a spinning wheel--which means that nothing else can kill her. Not disease, injury, old age--she is invulnerable as long as she stays away from spinning wheels, which is easy to do in this industrialized age when your average person has never seen such a thing.  

Jack promises to keep Sara’s secret and they return to the ship. But Jack isn’t the only one who heard her confession. There’s a local airship pirate who supports his business by adopting infants and getting them the illegal fairy gift of being able to transform into birds. One of these bird-children also heard Sara’s story, and they inform their pirate father, who make plans to attack the ship and take out its most powerful asset.

I never finished the story because the climax falls apart. The pirates were going to attack and stab Sara, but Jack is able to stall her death by putting her to sleep--and I could never figure out a way to save Sara without it feeling cheap and predictable and/or detouring into a completely different plotline that takes us away from the story. But I think of the rest of it as one of the best fairy tale retellings I never wrote.

2. Faraway House

This one is my middle-grade portal fantasy for adults. Mara meets Adrian, a mysterious, magical man whose house sits in a space that connects to three different universes--ours, one that has a more medieval fairy tale vibe, and one that’s more steampunky and involves lots of chimeras and people with animal traits. People in need of help tend to fall into this in-between space, and Adrian lets them stay at Faraway House for as long as they need.

There are tons of characters who drop into this story and provide little subplots, but my favorite part was an overarching plotline involving Adrian and Mara. Adrian, who was originally from the fairy tale world, was the evil magician of every childhood nightmare, a powerful man who did all sorts of horrible things to people. He became obsessed with immortality and eventually got it--at a great price to the rest of the world and to himself. He was caught, stripped of a lot of power, and left to live his long life and see the consequences of his actions. He spent a few centuries wandering the three different worlds and undergoing a ton of character development. As a newly humbled man, he was given charge of Faraway House, since his magical talents would be valuable to keep the area and the portals stable. Now, he���s the nicest, sweetest guy you’d ever want to meet. He rarely tells anyone about his past, and most people wouldn’t believe it if you told them.

Anyhow, after Mara’s been staying at Faraway for a long time, she and Adrian go through a portal that links to Adrian’s home universe. They soon realize that it links to his world several centuries in the past, when Evil Adrian was at the height of his power. And he’s very interested in Mara, because her adventures in Faraway have given her some kind of magic that will help him reach the Well of Immortality (or something like that--it’s a very nebulous, fairy tale idea). Unfortunately, taking this magic will kill Mara, so Older Adrian does all he can to save Mara. He succeeds and gets her back home. But his younger self is still on the lookout for her, and he eventually makes his way to Faraway, where he drains the magic and escapes, leaving Mara dying.

And I know this is the most cliche way to end this, but I like my stories predictable and cheesy, and Older Adrian ends up saving Mara by giving up his immortality, which kills him. It’s all very Disney-moving. The story ends with Mara being made the new caretaker of Faraway. And I give away the ending because I’m never going to write this, but I’m still fonder of this story than it deserves.

3. The Island

Anne of Green Gables meets fairy tales.

The Island is a place full of magic. Amphibious mermaids swim along its shores. A fairy forest fills the heart of the Island. Selkie live on the tiny islands off its shore. Pixies cause trouble in the farmyard’s back garden. It’s amazing to the relatively low-magic areas of the rest of the world, but it’s all part of daily life to the farmers and fishermen who live here.

The Fairy’s Daughters, a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”, had the most words written in it, but I think I’m fonder of some of the shorter sketches set a generation earlier that highlight little bits and pieces of the world. I started with the tale of Lizbet, an ordinary orphan girl living with her aunt who befriends Gideon, a half-fairy boy who eventually becomes the town’s magical doctor. Their friends include the widow lighthouse keeper who tries to adopt an orphan boy and is surprised to get Amy, who’s a girl--and a mermaid. There’s Captain Avery, a fierce-looking old sailor with a gentle heart and a surprising amount of experience with magical creatures. There’s Auberon, a fairy prince and eventually king who’s racist against humans, spends some of his younger years traveling in human lands to import human-made products, and becomes even more racist because of it.

I think my favorite thing in this universe are the sylphs. I borrowed Andersen’s idea of the “Daughters of the Air”, and made my sylphs into invisible, benevolent creatures who do good deeds for people, and can accomplish magical feats far beyond what any fairy can do. The sketch I reread most often is a scene where Amy, out for a swim in a storm, is rescued by a sylph who has taken a human (though translucent) form, and gets invited in for tea by Amy’s grateful friends.

It’s a fun universe to play in, but not one that I’m very good at finishing stories in, so I think it needs to stay as a pretty aesthetic and a fun sandbox.

4. Clever Anne

A retelling of “Kate Crackernuts” set in a non-magical Regency-esque setting. Anne is the beautiful, intelligent daughter of a duke. Kate is her bold, daring stepsister. They are deeply devoted to each other, but Kate’s mother hates Anne for being so much more beautiful than her daughter. She gets one of the servants to push Anne into the embers of the fire, leaving her face badly burned. Kate throws a veil over Anne’s face and gets her out of the house, insisting they’ll go off to make their fortune.

Anne was childhood friends with a young man who, through a convoluted succession crisis, unexpectedly finds himself on the throne. They stumble upon him in their travels, and find themselves able to help him by investigating the mysterious behavior of his half-brother, who resents that he was passed over for the throne and may be plotting something sinister. I was never able to figure out a good political-intrigue parallel to the “dancing all night with fairies” portion of the plot, so it never got written. The only really good scene I wrote from this story was the moment where Kate finds out about Anne’s injury and insists on leaving the house. But even in that one scene, their relationship is so strong and so vivid in my mind that I love their story even if I never finish it.

5. The Beast’s Mechanic

This is the one on the list that’s closest to being a WIP. I actually edited some of the beginning in March. It’s a sci-fi take on “Beauty and the Beast” set in a world where two planetary empires are at war. The war destroyed Monique’s father’s shipping business, forcing the whole family to move to a desert planet where they run a small spaceport. Monique is a top-notch mechanic, her sister Gemma is a pilot, Gemma’s twin Joanne stays at home to take care of the house and the two youngest siblings, and Leo is a seventeen-year-old rapscallion who is desperate to join the war as soon as possible.

Their world is upended when, for the first time in years, their mother wants to meet with them. A former starship captain, she and her husband disagreed over the war, and she left the family years ago to join the war effort. But now her starship is in for repairs and she wants to take some time to reconnect with her family. There’s some controversy among the family--do they really want to open these wounds again when they’ve finally moved on?--but Monique the peacemaker insists that, even though it’s impossible for the whole family to make the trip, her father should take the chance. He goes to meet his wife, but on the way there, his spaceship breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and he’s rescued by the Beast, an infamous cyborg outlaw. He also breaks important equipment on the Beast’s ship, and is only able to keep from being thrown out of the airlock by insisting that his daughter can fix it.

Monique nearly does, except that the authorities show up just before she’s done with repairs, forcing the Beast to take off with her in the ship. She comes to learn that the Beast is far from an evil criminal and has been helping people wronged by the government, and she helps him get home to his family (in the enemy empire), but her patriotic starship captain of a mother takes all of these events in very much the wrong light.

I’m very fond of this story for the ways that it avoids some of the usual BatB retelling tropes. There’s much more to this story than the romance, and little focus on the mystery of how the Beast became a Beast, and there’s much more focus on family. The Beast hasn’t even shown up yet, but I’m just incredibly fond of Monique’s family and their everyday working-class life on a desert planet. I hope I can make more progress on it someday.

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Be Quiet For Me {One-Shot}***

Chris Evans x Reader

Words: 3.3K

Warning: Smut. NSFW. Cursing.

Summary: You’re in the mood for some fun. Chris has to work; he tells you to give him a few hours. You are impatient and decide to have your fun anyway.

Note: Song listened to, that you might want to listen to when indicated is; Madness By: Ruelle. I also apologize for any spacing issues.

**Slightly Edited/Proofread**

***Interactive***

Thank you guys for reading!!!! If you enjoyed this please LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. 😊 ❤️❤️❤

~~~~~~~~~~~

MSG: I miss you.😞

Sitting in your office, twirling in your chair you looked at your phone and waited for him to respond. You watched the sway of the beautiful weeping willow tree that was right outside your window. You’d chosen this room for your office because of that tree. Every time the wind blew you the hanging branches of the tree swayed and reminded you of a slow dance. You imaged classical music playing, and that made it even better. You didn’t have to imagine classical music because it was playing in your office as it usually was. The mellow sounds helped you work and kept your stress levels down.

 MSG Chris: How? I’m less than fifty feet away.

You smirked. He was right. Right now, he was across the house in his office—working.

MSG: I know, but you’re so far. Come here.🙁🙁

You added a few sad faces to emphasis how much you really missed him. Almost a minute passed before his response came in.

MSG Chris: I can’t right now, sweetheart. I’m still in the middle of this deal.

You pouted and sent him the crying emoji.

MSG: 😭 You’ve been doing that for hours. Take a break. Please. I can make it worth your while.😈😈😈

Before sending it, you added three devil face emojis. You knew the devil face emoji would get your point across. Another minute passed without a response. You were getting annoyed. You hated when it took longer than a few seconds. When his message came in all he sent was the smirking face emoji. Sitting up, you crinkled your brow, wondering what the hell that meant. Another few seconds passed then another message.

MSG Chris: I have no doubt you can make it worth my while, but whenever you make it worth my while, I end up losing four hours at least. I need to finish this first. Give me a few hours. I’ll come find you. Promise.🤞🏼

It was not the response you wanted. He’d been busy the last week or two on this same deal. He was in town, but his days were filled with meetings, and when he was home, he was still in those meetings, and always on the phone. You knew this deal meant a lot to him; it would mean incredible things for his newly established production company. After ending his stint as Captain America and taking some time off he realized he loved acting, but he also loved behind the scenes work.

He’d always wanted to do something in production but always put off having a company because he felt he had no businesses doing that. Thanks to your pushing, he finally decided to do it, and the buzz was incredible. Turns out while many people were lining up to work with him as a costar, just as many were lining up to work with him as a producer and director. You were proud, prouder than any wife could be. You also knew this was your fault.

MSG: You’re neglecting your wife.

Two full minutes passed with no response, and it made you antsy. You stood from your chair and paced your office while scanning your email and checking updates to your own company. Maybe you should focus on work like him instead of trying to get into his pants. Every time you checked your texts for a response you may have missed, you got annoyed to see there was no. He’d left you on read. When you checked it didn’t even say he’d read it. You were left on received. You didn’t know which made you more annoyed. You tossed your phone to your desk and groaned. That was when your defiant, bratty side took over.

“If Goliath can’t come to the mountain, the mountain has to go to Goliath.”

 Prancing out your office and down the hall toward your husband’s office, the smile on your face spoke volumes. You were about to put a major dent in his work schedule, and you gave zero fucks. When you rounded the corner you saw his office door open, but he was not behind his desk. After scanning the room and coming up empty-handed, you walked out and began searching for your elusive husband.

 He wasn’t in your bedroom, or the kitchen, or the dining room. After almost ten minutes of searching, you were ready to give up, but then you spotted him in the media room. The closer you got, the more you could hear him talking to himself as he scrolled through his tablet. You leaned on the jamb and watched him. You loved looking over him from the back. His shoulders were broad, which contrasted with his taut waist and tight ass. Your teeth sank into your bottom lip, and your hands itched to touch. The navy blue pants he wore really fit him well and showed just what an amazing ass he had. He turned and gave you the view of the front. His white button-down was rolled up at the sleeves to his forearms and unbuttoned a few buttons, which gave you a nice glimpse of his tattoos. He was the perfect mix of country club heir, and down to earth hunk.

 “Eh-em!”

 Chris’s head snapped up. His eyebrows were knitted together as if he were thinking deeply about something and his jaw was clenched. Once he saw you his features softened.

 “Hey, baby.” Two words, that was all it took to make you melt. You hated it. Shaking off the effect of his words you hardened your expression.

 “Don’t baby me. I sent you a message over fifteen minutes ago, Evans,” you sternly chastised. Chris dug into his pocket and lifted his phone.

 “Oops, I’m sorry honey, I didn’t see it.”

 You crossed your arms and scowled. He smiled softly.

 “Neglecting? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?

 “Christopher Evans, it has been a week since you’ve given me the time of day,” you protested.

 “A week? Babe, we had dinner last night right here, just the two of us. You had my full attention.”

 “Okay, but after dinner, you were back in your stupid office. I went to bed—alone, alone.”

 Once he got your meaning, he smirked and walked to the sectional and sat. “Oh you mean that kind of attention.”

 “We said we’d never go longer than three days max. It has been seven.”

 “You’re keeping track.” The narrowing of your eyes wiped his stupid grin off his face. He sighed and placed the tablet to the side.

 “Come here, sweetheart.” You rolled your eyes and looked to the side while staying put. This would not be easy.

 “Come on, kitten, come to daddy.” Reluctantly your smile emerged, and you walked to him. Once before him, he pulled you onto his lap, which allowed him to wrap his arms around your waist.

 “I know it’s been pretty hectic the last few weeks. I know I’ve been busy. I’m sorry if you feel I’ve been neglecting you. It’s not my intention. Forgive me.”

 His blue eyes hypnotized you and pulled you in. Then when he added the puppy dog pout you couldn’t stay mad.

 “Fine.”

 His lips met yours for a chaste kiss then turned soft and sensual in a matter of seconds. Heat spread through you, and just like that, you wanted him right here and right now. Chris must have tasted the need in your kiss because his hand dropped to your backside before he squeezed. You moaned on him and dug your fingers into his hair not caring if you messed up his perfectly coiffed locks.

 Chris broke the kiss and dipped his lips to your neck, where he teased your skin and fanned the flames making them blaze even hotter. You could feel his arousal twitching against your thigh, and you made your move. Slinking down between his legs you quickly undid his belt and pants. He lifted slightly, allowing you to pull them down to settle at his ankles. You saw his manhood straining against the soft fabric of his underwear, and you wasted no time hooking your finger in the waistband and pulling them down to join his pants.

 His length bobbed before you. You couldn’t believe it had been a week since you’d been this close to it. Just before you could bring your lips to his member his phone rang. You groaned and gave him the evil eye daring him to look at or even touch his phone. Chris gave you an apologetic look, and you could tell he was tempted to answer. He also knew you were probably very close to losing your shit. After the third ring the pressure was too much for him.

 “I’m sorry, baby, give me two minutes.” Quickly he grabbed the phone and answered it to your disdain. You rolled your eyes exaggeratedly and dropped your head to his thigh trying to remain calm. You were so close to just taking what you wanted.

 As he spoke, he grabbed the tablet beside him, and you knew this would not be a two-minute conversation. At that moment you decided fuck it. You stood before him, but he didn’t look at you, his face was buried in that damn tablet. You began untying the knot at the front of your wrap dress then opened it and allowed it to fall to the floor. Chris’ words stumbled then stalled as he stared at the pool of bright pink material at your feet. Slowly his eyes traveled up your body. They stopped at your white lacy panties then again at your matching bra. When his eyes met yours he sighed. While the clench in his jaw said “stop and behave,” the fire in his eyes said “please keep going.”

 When spoke again, it took great effort to look away from you and back to his tablet. You looked to his lap and saw he was still hard. He must have liked what he saw. You smirked and walked to the sound system and took up one of the Bluetooth headphones and messed around with the music device on the wall, and found a song you loved. You began swaying to the spellbinding beat which made it impossible to not wind your hips to. You turned back to him but didn’t look at him. Instead, you slid your hands up the sides of your thighs to your hips over your stomach and across your breasts. Once there you softly cupped them. It was then you looked at him. You had his full attention and had his jaw clenched even tighter.

 Fighting the smile that wanted freedom, you began to fully enjoy the music. It didn’t take long for you to get lost in it, and it also didn’t take long for Chris to have difficulty with remaining focused on his conversation and whatever he was looking at on his tablet. His eyes kept drifting back to you when he’d looked down. It was amusing. You turned your back to him and bent down to touch your toes. That made him gawk at your ass. When you peered at him through your open legs you winked, and you saw his length jerk. You stood and approached him standing between his legs and slithered your body like a snake in perfect Shakira belly dance form. His eyes were glued to your hips as you did it. When you saw his teeth sink into his bottom lip you knew you had him. Still he fought it though.

 You turned your back to him and began winding your waist again, but you slowly dipped down to sit on his length. A strained groan escaped him then his hand was at your hips to give you a terse squeeze. You knew it was a warning. You didn’t care. You rotated your hips on his lap to the rhythm of the music. You bent forward and held onto your ankles and stood then dropped back to his lap and repeated the action a few times. Each time his hand squeezed the flesh where your pelvis and thigh met. You felt so much power knowing he was at your mercy. It was addictive, and you decided to forge ahead.

 Turning to him again, you dropped to your knees before him and dipped down enough so his dick was right before you where your nose was. For him you knew the view would be torture because all he could see were your eyes. Again, Chris nudged his hips up sending his sack to tap on your chin. His skin was scorching. You tipped your tongue out and teased the skin at the base of his dick where his balls began. Not a sound passed his lips, but the fire in his eyes intensified. You traveled your tongue up his length to his tip and swirled it around before you sucked his head into your mouth while keeping perfect eye contact. His mouth was in an “o” but still he was silent. Slowly you inched your mouth lower sheathing him inside the warm, wet tunnel of your mouth before you squeezed him in the tight passage of your throat. It was then Chris growled.

 “No, I’m sorry, got a little prick. Continue, please.”

 You wanted to laugh; it definitely wasn’t a little prick. Chris cupped your jaw, forcing you to stop momentarily. He shook his head, but you took his hand from your jaw and put it back onto his tablet to join the other and continued. Deciding not to take it slow, you began bobbing up and down on his need  --every time you brought him further into your mouth ensuring to keep your throat tight. As you did he lurched up, sending his hardness deeper and his nostrils flaring.

 Before long, you’d found a stimulating pace that worked well with the beat in the headphones, and you’d lost yourself. You loved giving him head, he was always so responsive, and you loved the feel and taste of him. You picked up the pace when the crescendo of the song picked up and saw the tight clench of his fist beside him. You hadn’t even realized he was only holding the tablet with one lose hand. He wasn’t even looking at it. You had his undivided attention. It was time to assert dominance. You slinked him into your throat and kept him there as you tightened it around him. Chris began to shake, and you knew he was dangerously close. You didn’t want a mouthful of him though; you wanted to feel him fill you up.

 Standing, you swayed again to the song and slowly spun around to grind your hips as you slowly lowered onto his lap. You didn’t take him in; you rotated on his lap giving him a short lapdance. Chris’ hand was at your back slowly trailing along your spine. You then felt him push your forward. You dropped your head between your legs and stood. His soft hands caressed your backside. You knew you were soaking wet, and you couldn’t wait another minute. You pulled your underwear to the side and lowered yourself onto him while looking back at him. His mouth dropped open as a pained expression took over. The lower you slide, the more his eyebrows knitted together. Once you’d taken all of him he dropped his head back to look into the ceiling. You ground on him, giving him a full three-sixty feel of your walls—walls he stretched like no other.

 You tried to keep your moans inside as you began bouncing on him. You were close, that was how on edge you’d been this last week. By the way Chris was pulsating inside you; you knew he was close too. You leaned back onto his chest and dropped your head back over his shoulder and moved your body in a frenzied wave. You saw the bright rainbow of your release just ahead, and you began the chase. You felt Chris’ hand splay across your abdomen and then slip between your legs. His fingers expertly played with your clit sending you closer and closer to the rainbow. He must have known it; his hand clasped over your mouth then he stood holding you around the waist as well and shoved you onto the sectional. You hugged the back of the seat when you felt him slam into you with the strength of a mack truck. His hand across your mouth stifled the sound that slipped out. You felt his hot breath at your ear before you heard his low, predatorial like whisper.

 “Not one sound, kitten.”

 He didn’t give you time to adjust at all; he slammed into you, again and again, each thrust rougher and deeper than the last. His grip tightened around your hips, and your eyes saw his phone beside you on the couch, it was on speaker. Thanks to the music in your ears you didn’t hear the other party. Chris changed his pace and depth every so often to keep your body on high alert, and it made you want more and more. He knew it. Then he delivered the pounding you’d been craving for the entire week. His deepness was overwhelming, and you desperately wanted to scream his name, so you buried your mouth into the cushion and bit down on it. Chris grabbed your hair and pulled it then ground his hips into you. He’d lost his control. When you felt him jackhammer into you with deep stroke after deep stroke you knew he was chasing the same rainbow.

 After one, two, three strokes, he administered a final knock you out for the count snap of his hips, and your damn broke. You could feel Chris shaking behind you as he emptied stream after stream of his hot come deep inside you. He bent over your back and rested his forehead on you as he tried to catch his breath. Chris placed soft kisses across your skin, leading to your neck before he kissed your ear. Then he pulled from your body and dropped back onto the couch. You could barely move; you felt amazing. When you looked at him he was staring at you with a look that said he wasn’t done with you. You peeled off the headphones just in time to hear the other party on the phone.

 “Are you there, Chris? Did we lose you?”

 “Not at all, I’m right here. Everything you guys are discussing sounds good.”

 You could hear several other voices, and it dawned on you then he was in a group conference. Slowly you stood from the couch and looked over him. The sight of his still hard dick made you want him again. It jerked, and you knew he knew what you wanted. He dropped his head back onto the couch as he continued to speak. You languidly walked through your home in your bra and panties making your way to your office. Once inside you dropped into your swivel chair and smiled enjoying the pleasant hum in your body that no one else but your husband could give you.

 Your phone chimed, and you took it up from the desk.

 MSG: One hour, make sure you are on the bed just as you are now with your legs spread. I haven’t nearly had my fill.

 You smiled wider because you hadn’t either. A week was a long time to make up for.

TagList:

@chrisgalore​ @chaneajoyyy​ @rynabarnesrogers​ @disneysdarlingdiva​ @bellaamor88​ @ab-baybay​ @sonjashuterbugjohnson​ @caramara3​ @patzammit​ @airis-paris14 @thiccdaddy-mbaku @wakandas-vibranium @wakanda-inspired @theunsweetenedtruth @ashanti-notthesinger @reignsxjackson @halfrican-heat @ambthegamer @simplyyamberr  @muse-of-mbaku @sisterwifeudaku @mejustme06  @ilcb7 @leahnicole1219  @destinio1 @maliadestiny @drsunshine97 @blowmymbackout @purplehairgawdess @thehuntoyobun @wakandamama @wakandawinning @profilia @zxddy-panther @h-challa @babygirlofwakanda @misswakanda2018 @ororowrites@hutchj @myfavemarvelfanfics @lavitabella87 @afraiddreamingandloving @autumn242 @purple-apricots @skysynclair19 @hersheyskissesss-blog @blue-ishx @90sinspiredgirl @tchallaswife @tchallamakesmeh0lla @turn-thy-paige @blackchickfics @blackpantherismyish @inlovewithmakeupcomicsanimelove @naturally-bri @flawlesslybeautiful14 @qweentbh@lunaerly @theoutereffect@twilight-sapphire-lover @pupyluv247 @stark-red19 @cockyboysandsugarism@maverickabull @madbadsiren @aykanna @myaw731 @ruruly20 @mixedmelanin @brittyevans @bezzywazhere@laketaj24  @soulsparker @theresnomoregoodones @syreanne@loveandcigarillos @heyauntieeee @heybriheyyy @wakanda-bcth @uhlxis  @maliadestiny @dadinhas-heat @yaachtynoboat711@geeksareunique @bultalongthewayside @ajspencer1892 @captiansaveasmut @imaginewhoever @terrablaze514 @starsshines-blog @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade@darkandlovely94   @sithlordslut @wavyyc @naturalistamisslyn @nigarachi15 @madamslayyy @blackandfair @kreolemami @mylastnameisthe-fish @kaykay0829@chaneajoyyy @tequilajay27 @blacklotus-of-the-black-kingdom @slimmiyagi @im5ftbutmythroat66 @jaeee-http@madhatterhelsing @sunflowerpsalms @wakanda-shit-is-that @deliciousstreetkidcroissant @jecourt @vebner37 @disneysdarlingdiva @melaninmarvel @alanastormborn@dolphinpink310 @yourwonderbelle  @ohleucothea @queentearra @bitchbetterhavemydinner @fentybabyy @kaykay4454fan @priya212 @kitkit1690 @chrismarcs @beautycomesindifferentformsworld @blackpantherimagines @ovohanna24 @sweetpeachjones @kslo000   @nubian-queen18 @omgsuperstarg  @airis-paris14 @sisterwifeudaku   @mejustme06 @ilcb7 @leahnicole1219 @destinio1 @drsunshine97  @blue-ishx @inlovewithmakeupcomicsanimelove @prettyprincessushio @treeondrea  @ursapharoh05  @blackpinup22 @kaytauru @big3gocandykahn @kissingpineapples @wildaboutchrisevans   @fitfineandstayingalive @misspooh @michele-onel @gorjiss @blacklotus-of-the-black-kingdom @muva-milaje @limbo-limbo-limbo @awkwardlyabstract @blxck-brxndie  @meeky-imagines @inlovewith3 @metalarmlover @mellowjellow6 @scrumptiouslytenaciouscrusade @thatrandomhetaliachick @missdeerstalker15 @ursapharoh05 @treeondrea @ovohanna24 @marvelheaux @romanceoftheeveryday @mufasathatniggatho @cltex84 @sweetbearcolorgarden @msincognito67 @mosagram @lunaerly @mar-ta-3 @ljstraightnochaser @lewatigress @akimi-youngblood @bekahdean87 @jasmindaughteroftheworld @cocooned-butterfly @emoniclark22 @chereedrop619 @theblulife @niggarachi15 @drsunshine97 @msincognito67 @missdeerstalker15 @wakandamama  @avenger-marvel-fan @arieljamiyla @vibranium-soul @monae-boss @queenxchallaxkillamonger@amirra88 @jaeee-http @omg-itsnadi @fonville-designs @sydneebleu @cherrystainedlipsbaby @behindthesehazeleyes27 @areubeingserved  @kelbabyblue @academic-glowup  @patzammit @yourwonderbelle @pennywisesmistress @squeackygee @noramushrooms @titty-teetee @ab-baybay @kreolemami @impossiblegiantrebelbasketball @dangerouslovefanfic @heladoom @renesmeeharelds @zaddysqueen7 @alyxkbrl @hello-therree @taylorveebee @a-dizzle777 @deidrashouseofpain @coldmuffinbanditshoe  @evemej  @chaselovinggert @ben-wyxtt @designerwriterchic​ @chrisgalore​ @jennmurawski13​ @rynabarnesrogers​ @yunggyeezyy​ @kemkem101​ @dearkyrainez @minton131​

[joseshin]

CATS: 1998 vs 2019

Alright, going to do this already.  Note: these are my personal opinions.  Intelligent rebuttals will be considered and replied to, anything else may likely be ignored.  Also spoilers, and LONG.  So onward to a comparison of the 2019 movie against the 1998 filmed stage version.

Edit before posting: Apparently I never queued this.  I feel a little silly now

Plot/Framing:  The use of an abandoned Victoria to frame the introduction of the plot of the Jellicle Ball and Munkustrap acting as narrator/guide to Victoria is a decent idea, and one that worked fairly well.  Granted, when you take a book of poems and turn them into songs, it’s a little hard to create plot for a musical, but inspiration comes from everywhere.  Victoria is a pretty blank slate for directors to work with, so having her be the framing vehicle is a really good idea.  She’s the white cat, the dancer, doesn’t have any specific lines of dialogue or song attached originally.

I think that Munkustrap didn’t have enough presence in the movie.  He’s the primary narrator, he needs to be someone we want to pay attention to, not just because he’s the one who happens to be singing or speaking at the moment.  Maybe it’s a difference in how the two versions were filmed, and the focus was a little more on Victoria as our window into the world of Jellicle Cats, but I didn’t catch myself looking for him, or even noticing him in some shots, and you want your main source of information to be someone/thing you’re aware of, if only to see the mood of the scene.

“Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats” and “The Naming of Cats”: I thought the pacing was a touch fast, but I can understand trying to get all the material of the musical to fit into a film.  Same with the cut lines here, and it did flow very well for the most part.

Having each cat introduce themselves via their song, and thus their entry into the competition for the Jellicle Choice, is interesting, and it does give a reason for not doing either the songs “The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles,” or “Growltiger's Last Stand,” as they are the Jellicles entertaining each other in “play within a play” scenes.  It also gives Growltiger a reason to be a villian/henchman of Macavity’s, by using a snippet of his song during one of the capture sequences.

“The Old Gumbie Cat”: I was not happy.  Rebel Wilson is an amazing singer and actress, and I was very much looking forward to her interpretation of Jennyanydots.  What I saw was a petulant, whiny brat, instead of the example of Edwardian do-gooder.  Also, the mouse costumes were ridiculously bad, and the replication of the cockroaches was just showing off CGI work for no real effect.

“The Rum Tum Tugger”: No.  Why would you use this version, it’s a trainwreck?  And the music choice made no sense!  Jazz by itself would have been fine, but as far as the hip-hop/rap elements go?  Are we trying to make the timeframe screwy?  I miss the rockstar Tugger.

“Grizabella: The Glamour Cat”: Alright, Jennifer Hudson is amazing.  That said, I don’t think she made sense as a casting choice.  Grizabella is older, she’s past her prime and her singing should have more of that age and grit to it that shows her experience.  If you’re going to use someone younger, at least put some convincing age makeup on her, and choose a singer who has a huskier tone.

“Bustopher Jones”: James Cordon did a very good job to make this about more than a cat who eats his way through life, though I’m not sure about his scavenging through the trash.  He’s supposed to get huge amounts from the gentlemen’s clubs he attends, I would have thought the proper attitude of “the St. James’ Street cat” would not allow for his digging in the garbage.  And the sensitivity about his weight was stupid.

“Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer”: Perfect.  The mischief makers in their element, and Victoria having to deal with the fact that they can be not nice cats, it works.

“Old Deuteronomy”: Judi Dench was an interesting choice for the role, but it works.  There are some slight differences that come with having a matriarch for the Jellicle tribe instead of a patriarch, and they were handled with grace.  It also is a way to give Dame Dench a role in Cats that fits her experience, since her injury during the rehearsals for the original London opening meant her planned dual roles didn’t happen.

“The Jellicle Ball”: The dancing was nice, and I liked the way several other cats became more than faces in the crowd during it.

“Memory(Prelude)”: Again, I just don’t think Jennifer Hudson has the age for this to work.  Beautiful rendition though.

“Beautiful Ghosts”: A Victoria solo.  Huh.  It makes sense, given that Victoria is the primary viewpoint character in this version, for her to have something of her own.  And it’s a pretty little song.

“The Moments of Happiness”: It doesn’t have quite the impact it should, since the only real witness to Deuteronomy is Victoria here.  It works better when the entire clan is being given this lesson, even if most of them don’t understand it yet.

“Gus: The Theatre Cat”:  Ian McKellan, ladies and gents, in a role that suits his age and expertise?  I almost don’t miss Jellylorum.  Also the lead up to it, with him giving some words of wisdom to a fellow performer?  Yes, and yes!

“Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat”: The vocals and dancing went very well, but I kept getting distracted by the costume.  What’s up with that facial hair and the suspenders?  Also, the way the scenery shifted during this song where it never had with any other Jellicle performance.  More questions than answers here.

“Macavity: The Mystery Cat”:  Hoo boy.  Where to begin?  Making Bombalurina one of Macavity’s cronies sits a little funny with me, but I understand the logistics behind the choice.  The one place though, the one place that lyrics should absolutely have been changed in the entire show and you MISSED IT!?!?!?!?  Idris Elba is not a ginger cat, there is no way to make him a ginger cat, and you didn’t try to make him a ginger cat, so why does the song define him as one?  You couldn’t try, I don’t know: “Macavity’s a midnight cat/ He’s very tall and trim”?? Instead, you call him ginger, and thin.  Ugh.  Also, as much as I love to watch Elba, a lot of the threat of Macavity in the musical comes from the fact that this is the first time he’s been openly on stage, and not just a shadowed figure hiding along the fringe.  Using Macavity often earlier in the movie, having him spirit away the other competitors for the Jellicle choice so obviously, damps down on that.  Shadows crank up anticipation better than overt threats most of the time.  The stage version creates a scarier Macavity, though I’m sorry to say it.

The use of catnip is kind of hilarious as a drug, though I’m a little sad there was no fight between Munkustrap and Macavity, and that the Jellicles all came under Macavity’s power so easily.  Little annoyed that Griddlebone and Bombalurina seem to just melt away after the song, but understanding not wanting to use T Swift for “lesser” plot type issues.

“Magical Mr. Mistoffelees”: Mistoffelees is adorable here. This show is as much him coming into his powers and abilities as it is introducing Victoria to what it means to be a Jellicle.  His attempts, as he tries again and again to bring back Deuteronomy, are laced with just enough desperation that he’s trying his hardest without making it overacting.  The final success, when he’s sure he’s failed utterly, is so very sweet.

“Memory”: Same critique as before.  The thing about Grizabella’s songs is that they are reminiscing.  Looking back on a more golden youth.  Crying for understanding that those without experience in the shades of gray life throws at you won’t have.  It’s significant that Victoria (or Jemima, depending on the rendition) reach out to her, but Deuteronomy is the only one who has no problem with her, even from the get-go.  You need someone with either a hell of a shitstorm life experience, or just plain experience to get that.

“The Journey to the Heavyside Layer”: I liked the transition of the broken chandelier into a balloon carrying away Grizabella.  Little confused at Macavity’s loss of power, but okay.

“The Ad-dressing of Cats”: Deuteronomy addressing the crowd certainly brings the magical nature of cats to the fore, leaving the audience wondering how long she and the rest of the Jellicles have been aware of our view into their world.  I liked how when she was describing the food gifts a person can give to their cat, all of those surrounding her got excited.

Costuming: Just bodysuits and CGI ears, tails, and whiskers do not turn people into convincing cats.  The giant wigs of the stage show, while an 80′s throwback to the extreme, also change the profile of the face to better mimic a feline skull.  I get it, having that poof would have been annoying with having to deal with the CGI ears, having to compensate for every fur twitch, but still!  Also, nobody’s fur had any significant fluff amount to it whatsoever, it was all extra elements, like the coats and other accessories, but you could have used the legwarmers and armwarmers of the stage show give a better illusion of volume to fur.  Having everyone be sleek shorthairs is boring.  To my mind, the makeup was not convincing enough either.

Final thoughts: The movie version was okay, casting choices were decent for the most part, but I have to say that all together, I prefer the 1998 version.  It could also be that the actors for the filmed stage version had been doing these roles for some time and it shows, especially in movements.  Don’t get me wrong, the movie actors are good at their jobs, but there’s a difference in living a role for months or perhaps years during a stage run, tweaking things each performance, research and changing your approach, and making a movie, trying things only to have to move on to the next shot.

[arisu-artnfics]

The rainbow after the rain

Summary: With everything going on in her life, ´The rainbow after the rain’, seems very fitting to describe Chloe´s situation. Beta by: @someone-but-still-noone​.

Also on: DA/FF/AO3/FB Original published date: February 14, 2020. Working with: @eastwesthomeisbest as part of the @thedeckerstarnetwork​ ValenTeam Celebration. Our prompts were sunset/sunrise and Lux/Lucifer’s home, hope you like it :D :D

Spanish version of this story.

Edits done by @eastwesthomeisbest​. Post here with permission. (https://eastwesthomeisbest.tumblr.com/post/190811503559/the-rainbow-after-the-rain - February 14, 2020).

It was two weeks since Lucifer returned from hell. Two weeks since he appeared on that beach again after closing the gates. Since he managed to get a taxi back to Lux, to the penthouse to be exact. Since he found his furniture covered in white sheets - even though the last time he was there, the place was a disaster - like so long ago. Since he took a shower, had a drink and drove to the detective’s home wondering all the 'what ifs'. Since the detective lunged herself into his arms unbelieving of who she was seeing on her doorstep. Since Maze and Trixie saw the whole scene. Since the little human joined her mum in the tight hug, while the demon stayed back and observed happily with a grin. Since Chloe actually thanked him for being back, just in time.

When Lucifer returned, he wasn’t sure what he was going to find. He didn’t have a working phone anymore, or car, or his so precious flask with any drink on it. He was glad that he was wearing clothes at least, although those weren’t the best, and he hated it. He wasn’t actually glad of anything except of being back. He decided to take a taxi, tell the driver via deal that he is paying after they arrive to Lux. He did as promised and fulfilled the deal as soon as he got a chance of opening his vault in his penthouse. When Lucifer arrived at the detective's, very nervous and completely unsure of himself - for the first time in his long life - he decided to knock on the door.

Chloe was about to leave again to go to the precinct, and she hated it. She hated the fact that this case was consuming her, that her demon friend was right, and she probably needed to hand it over to someone else. Mazikeen had even suggested that she should be the one tracking down these 'ready for torture' humans, as she had described them. She wanted to start punishing them for their crimes while they were still alive, even though she knew that her style of punishment wasn't allowed here on earth. These criminals could be added to the worst section down -that special place deep deep down in hell, where even Lucifer would've agreed to have them there. That’s what was happening when someone knocked on the door.

When Chloe opened the door, she couldn’t believe her eyes. For just a moment she felt like she was dreaming again, as she was just talking with a demon about him. After what felt like an eternity - at least for Chloe - she, seemingly without any control, lunged herself into his arms and hugged him like there was no tomorrow. It only took a couple of seconds for the little - or not that little anymore - human known as Beatrice to also join her mother and one of her favourite people on the plane, the devil, Lucifer Morningstar, in their hug.

It took a bit longer for Chloe and Lucifer to finally let go of one another and for Trixie to say ‘Good night, thank you for coming’; and for Maze to say ‘just go, they are expecting you, right?’ to have the devil listening to the detective explaining what was definitely the worst case so far that she had been given. After Chloe told him all the details of the case, Lucifer drove her back to the precinct. He said something along the lines of ‘the demons down there are going to have so much fun with these ones’ while flashing his red eyes. Red eyes that Chloe noticed, but that didn’t bother her.

They worked the case together of course. When they arrived at the precinct, Lucifer found it odd that it was very busy. It was pretty late already, which is why Maze offered to look after the little urchin of the detective. But then Lucifer considered the case that was just explained to him by Chloe, and he could see how and why everyone was still working. Dan and Ella were kind of happy to have him back, even though they were confused and a bit (or a lot, depending on who you were asking) mad as to why and when he disappeared. Now, with him being back so suddenly, it felt for them as if he had been brought back by a miracle yet again. Lucifer said that it wasn’t, at least not one that he knew of. He wasn’t sure if it was his father's doing in one way or another, although he doubted it.  

Chloe explained again that the evidences they collected so far weren't much. The criminals -definitely more than one- were killing in the most gruesome way possible while leaving almost no clue. The only clue that they have seemed to gather so far was that, the obviously dead bodies, or what was left of them, were burned after being murdered. The places where the crimes happened were so clean on terms of clues or evidence that one could almost believe there wasn’t any crime committed. 

It was a case that was starting to last very long. Lucifer was back from torturing dead souls, but he didn’t mind at all finding these ones, maybe finding out what they desire even more in the world and well, giving them what they deserve. The next two weeks were very intense. Those weeks went from having to keep looking at the massacres, because they couldn't be called a simple murder case anymore, to solving other cases. Other cases that may have been relevant, but not that much for anyone of the team. Mazikeen tried to help as much as possible, but sadly she wasn’t allowed to or allowed herself, as she should've been focusing on others cases, as the detective was also supposed to. The FBI was supposed to be the only ones working on that case.  

It was impossible for Chloe Decker to just let it go, though, and Lucifer Morningstar knew that too well. That’s why they still continued working on it, keeping a secret copy of the case file. Every time they could spare a minute, rather than enjoying themselves, they kept working on it. It was most certain that Chloe and Lucifer wouldn’t rest until those criminals died. They weren't supposed to die, but then they put the detective's life in danger, meaning a certain devil just had to show them what they would get for making such a foolish mistake. The scared-to-death criminals shot Lucifer, which forced the detective to make a lethal decision: she shot back without any regards. The criminals got hit pretty badly and died in the end. Nobody messed with the devil and his detective. 

Now, after all the tension was gone and the worst criminals that the detective Chloe Decker had ever encountered in her life have died and were therefore out of her life, she was feeling better. As the refrain says ‘the rainbow after the rain, joy will reveal itself after sorrow’ and that’s what Chloe was feeling. Even Lucifer approved of this forthcoming and couldn't complain about it.

Although everything had not been easy, Lucifer was back on the earthly plane of existence. Chloe was happier than ever, even though she got almost no sleep because of  that terrible case. Only after Lucifer came back, was it possible for Chloe to sleep again as much and as long as she should. No more nightmares for the detective on all the what ifs concerning those criminals, especially if they included her daughter, herself or both. Trixie was doing well in school, had accepted the truth about Lucifer and, of course, her best friend Maze. Lucifer learned about that just as he arrived back on the earthly plane and was asked by her if he was going to stay now or if he has to go back to hell. Lucifer surprised everyone by saying that all is sorted out so he is staying on earth. 

Linda and Amenadiel were also very happy that he was back, they were very glad to hear that Lucifer was finally getting the happiness he deserved. They heard the news by Maze. Maze found Eve again, and Eve also found her place on earth, feeling complete in her own words; that gave the demon so much hope, that she never thought was possible. A lot had happened since Lucifer said ‘Goodbye’ that night, but now he couldn’t be happier. He was officially dating Chloe. Something that, years ago, he wasn’t sure of even being reality or even a possibility. He knew that Chloe was his miracle, but that wasn't the only thing that she was. She was indeed very special, but she was his and more and that’s what really matters.

Now, with all the misery being lifted from solving that terrible and horrible case, ending with the criminals getting killed themselves. The detective and the devil were back at the penthouse, drinks in hands, happy to just be there and enjoy each others company. Her angel was sitting with her in one of his very comfy chairs outside on the balcony. They had a free day, after all it was the weekend; Dan had Trixie for the time being. Lucifer Morningstar and Chloe Decker had spend most of the day together, well, actually, all of it. They finally had that date - a very special one - that Lucifer (of course) had planned. He didn’t went with dinner and opera, he knew this time, that’s not something that Chloe would want to do, maybe another day, another time, but not now.

They had a special dinner cooked by him. They danced to 90’s jam music that Lucifer played on his grand speakers, and they even played their little perfect song together on the piano. Thinking about it, their joined day actually started very early in the morning when Lucifer went to pick the detective up and helped her cooked an omelet for breakfast. Then they went to the beach, and just walked there along the shore. The coastline was indeed beautiful, especially while driving in Lucifer’s car with the perfect view. After some time of walking, Chloe was the one to invite her angel to swim for a while, just something simple. He agreed with gusto, since he was prepared for it, which surprised Chloe greatly. They laughed while having fun on the beach, something that was very much appreciated by the both of them. 

Later on, they were back in his penthouse, which was no surprise, because Lucifer was in need of a change of clothes, of course. Chloe laughed and rolled her eyes at his incredible but unique behavior, which made her love him even more, if that was even possible. Chloe was prepared as well, she wanted to go and relax at the beach and considered the possibility of maybe going for a swim, so she brought extra clothes with her. In the penthouse they took turns showering, cleaning themselves up. Afterwards they relaxed with the piano and then danced to the music. Finally after eating dinner -that Lucifer cooked happily- they went to the balcony with drinks in their hands, which, obviously, Lucifer finished first but refilled it. It was getting late, they were getting tired, but the sunset was too beautiful to pass up. They did as any other couple would do, and sit together, cuddle, and admire the sun as it went down. Even though they were not like others, because they were none other than the devil and his precious miracle, or the detective and her angel.

The End :D :D

[epcnes]

here’s some music suggestions and me geeking out if you want it

holy shit. half•alive and The Regrettes released their albums today and i am fucking THRIVING, i am LIVID, i am living my BEST life out here.

How Do You Love? (The Regrettes)

Are You In Love? (Intro)

this poem is genuinely amazing. it’s so good holy shit this is a great precursor to the album and like hype. 9.5/10

California Friends

i didn’t even know this song was going to be on this album and i’m so glad it is. it fits in really fucking well and it’s a whole bop. the guitar really drives the song while lydia’s vocals and the drums and bass both complement it really well. 10/10

I Dare You

light and fluffy with a goos guitar riff? yes please. also lyrics are really fuckin good??? good dance bop. 9.7/10

Colouring Book

i like the warmth of the guitar and lydia’s vocals really go with the warmth. AND THEN THE CHORUS wow. it’s good. i love. AMD THE BACKGROUND VOCALS IN THE SECOND VERSE!!!! holy shit i love this song. 9/10

Fog

OH DAMN THE BASS!!! i love this. i didn’t know what to expect from this song but like WOW OK, THANKS GUYS. i love the chorus so much and it’s got a thing that just sticks, man. i was dancing in a dumpster to this song and that’s rare for me to do so it’s really good, obviously. 10/10

Pumpkin

they released this on valentine’s day and like still a solid ass song. the prechorus and chorus really carried the song and the bass is pretty simple. 8.7/10

Stop and Go

oh yes. sounds like a voice memo and i love that homemade shit at the beginning. then it goes like “lol nope we goin pro now, bitches.” i really love this song. i also danced in the dumpster to this song. chorus is really fucking a bop! IT’S SO FUN TO DANCE TO! 10/10

Dress Up

yep. riff, lyrics, back vocals, drums, bass? amazing. i loved this song as soon as i heard it and the chorus feels like a “FUCK YEAH BITCH” then the drive on the guitar and crunch? fan-fucking-tastic. 9/10

Dead Wrong

oh damn! ok lydia just snapped and yes please, thank you. a whole bop; prechorus has this droning in the background for a bit with just vocals and the chorus is really fuckin good, i swear to you. 10/10

More than a Month

i heard this song and i ALMOST sent it to an ‘old friend’. really fucking good; it’s super energetic and it’s amazing! it’s a striaght up banger. 11/10

Go Love You

i felt like the beginning of this was a bit awkward but it’s still a good song. the verses are totally solid. the chorus is nice af and prechorus works really fucking good. 8.9/10

Here You Go

BASS is STRONG AF. Keys sound really nice and is a good contrast to the ‘grittiness’ of the rest of the instruments. Lydia has solid fucking vocals and lyrics and i am LIVING! a good song to dance in your room to. 9/10

The Game

not the Queen album but still good - i’m kidding - it’s fucking amazing. HOLY SHIT! it’s mainly just pretty chill for the most part. but the chorus just goes full out and the drive on the guitar is turned WAYYY up and i have been given life. 10/10

Has It Hit You?

Am I in love? maybe. this song starts off STRONGGGGG very much grittiness in there and distortion. but lydia’s vocals are a really pleasant contrast to the static-like instruments. the drums Drew did are really fucking outstanding. 10/10

How Do You Love?

I don’t really know... it jumps STRIAGHT (haha) in. it’s mainly the speaker observing others in love and this is a great ending track and it really pulls the album together. Genessa’s guitar is SOLID AF. 9/10

Now, Not Yet (half•alive)

ok ok?

goes from UP THERE to down here. it’s really strong and loud and then it calms down and the vocals are like heavenly. wow. chorus is just... wow, i can’t describe it; it’s just really fucking good. super strong start to the album. 11/10

RUNAWAY

this song, man. my dad likes this song and he never likes my music unless it’s Queen or Led Zepplin or another 80’s rock band. Josh Taylor really knocked out of the park with the vocals like holy shit some of the theatre kids would be jealous. 11/10

Maybe

fUnkY bASs. also SYNTHHHHH and the whole general vibe of the song is very warm and vibrant. it’s kinda like 80’s synth pop with all the shit going on and yep, it’s good. a bop to damce to. 9/10

the notion

who dis? 36 seconds of someone speaking. nice accent, very hot. 8/10

still feel.

one of the first songs i heard from them. THAT BASS THO!!!! it’s groovy and a bop also the music video is lit. overall a good song and a bop. i’m still raving about the bass line tho.

TrusT

it builds and swells. a trumpet comes in amidst the chaos and then it goes bye bye. then it comes back like taylor swift does every album cycle. Keys? BEAUTIFUL! Bass is still strong af. flows really gooder and it’s lovely. 10/10

arrow

a bop. calm then it does the bass thingy and it goes into this tambourine, bass, vocal, (and eventually) guitar thing and the guitar fits in really well even if it came in later than the others. the guitar parts are always nice and simple; the bass just slaps (literally). 11/10

Pure Gold

it’s a really good listen and the bridge is really good and it really grabs your attention if you haven’t been paying much at all. the beginning of the song is absolutely phenomenal. the verses and prechorus are really fan-fucking-tastic. i love them. the chorus is just drums and synth sounds with a really low bass voice and it’s lit af. 9/10

ice cold (feat. Kimbra)

uhhhh... it took me a minute but i warmed up to it. the beginning gave me a bit of whiplash after hearing Taylor’s voice for the past 30 minutes. Kimbra really works well for this track tho and half•alive used her talent really well. the rapping was a very pleasant and welcome surprise. 8/10

EDIT: this is literally my new favourite song on this album. 11/10

Rest (feat. Samm Henshaw)

i love the intro to this song. it’s so chill, ya know? chorus is really good with the loudness and shit; it’s really fucking good. the spoken/rap parts are also really good. lyrics are also really good. Henshaw comes in after the second verse and his verse is really good. wow. 9/10

BREAKFAST

starts off strong with the synth vocals and Taylor’s voice just lays ontop of them then an acoustic guitar comes in and it’s starts to come together and it sounds vvv nice. it’s a really chilled and laid back song. 9/10

creature

calm then the synths came in and then more NOISE came in and then the acoustic guitar and Taylor’s vocals, holy shit they’re fucking spot on!! the chorus is also CHAOS!! it’s mostly chill until it’s a bit chaotic and loud and that’s how i like my music. 10/10

In conclusion:

How Do You Love? by The Regrettes:

a very good follow up album to ‘Feel You Feelings Fool!’ it’s really good. 9.87/10

i highly recommend this to anyone in the alternative/indie/rock/punk scenes.

Now, Not Yet. by half•alive:

really solid freshman album. the first half is really strong but i felt like it faltered a little in the backhalf. still solid af and i can’t wait to see where they go next! 9.67/10

i highly recommend to anyone in the alternative/indie/new wave/synth pop scenes.

[usaghinanami99]

Hugh Jackman’s world tour: a personal comment

Hi, everyone! I know I'm a bit late, but I'm here to post a not-so-brief coverage of Hugh Jackman's world tour The man, the music, the show, or at least of the performance I've been able to witness myself. To be precise, I attended the concert held inside the Hallenstadion, Zurich, on the 19th of May, which, by a lucky coincidence, also happened to be my 20th birthday. It's been a long trip by train to reach Zurich, and I want to deeply thank my mum for being the kindest parent in the world and going through all of this just to give me the best birthday present I'll ever have had. Oh, please bear with my English, which is less than stellar, unless I’ve written something absolutely incomprehensible (in which case, please don’t hesitate to contact me!). I must say I’m very grateful that Hugh, knowing he was in a non-Anglophone country, purposefully spoke at a very slow rhythm. Thanks for being so considerate and kind. [Edited to put all this wall of text under a cut]

First things first, I have to say I had never been to such a big event, and concerts I had previously attended were nothing like this one. I mean, the only non-classical music concerts I had been to before were shows by Cristina D'Avena and/or Giorgio Vanni (who are Italian national stars specialized in anime theme songs), where the relationship between the artist and the public was completely different, in the sense that it was a given that, after the performance, they would have got plenty of time to meet every fan who wanted to do so for signing sessions, answering questions etc., with no additional price or need to preorder whatsoever. Well, things are obviously different when one's level of fame goes from "national" to "global", so what I felt was lacking more from Jackman's show was a real contact with the public... save a few horribly lucky exceptions. I mean, it's not like I thought he could do a signing session with over twelve thousand fans, but all in all, I reckon that seeing a concert with so little first-hand contact is not all that different than seeing said artist through a screen (which, BTW, we still had to do, since it was not humanly possible to see Hugh and the dancers from the furthest places without the aid of the maxi-screens). I'm sorry to have to start this post with a negative opinion, but I also have to say that this was absolutely the only bad thing about this concert; that, and the fact that Hugh always had a shirt on. Because, otherwise, I was totally blown away by the majesty of the music, as always happens when my ears are graced with hearing Hugh's fabulous voice, with the added bonus of the spoken intermissions, which were endless fun to listen to (and quickly translate to mum).

The show, as probably expected, opened in medias res, with no sort of introduction (apart from a very brief on-screen montage of various scenes taken from Hugh's filmography), but directly on the notes of The greatest show, which, thanks to the meta nature of its lyrics, may very well work as the most fitting show-opener of all time. The first verses of the song already worked very well when the film started at the cinema, but were no less than perfect to introduce a real-life show like the one that Barnum was about to start in-universe. Unfortunately, the version performed was the one from the official soundtrack – I say "unfortunately" because I prefer the film version, where The greatest show is actually two different songs and we manage to hear sad!Barnum's amazing verses at the end of the first part – albeit tweaked a bit to cut Zac Efron's solo lines out. Nevertheless, this song is breathtaking in every rendition, as are all songs from TGS, at least in my opinion, so I was still blown away right from the start of the show, and I remained in a state of hyper-excitation for its whole duration. After the show-opener ended, the first spoken intermission came, which made us understand from the get-go that this was going to be a little bit more than a normal concert, with the inclusion of these short but interesting comedic numbers by the star. This sketch consisted in a weirdly long declaration of the importance of numbers, which in the end was only functional to Hugh declaring in a depressed tone that he's fifty. A fact which matters not, seeing how he is still the sexiest man alive (disclaimer: I am not a gerontophile by any means, I usually lust over younger men and women, but Hugh's sexiness is something that transcends this, also because he objectively looks at least a decade younger than he is) and how insanely athletic he is for his age, a thing which we can confirm first-hand with all the crazy dancing he did on stage... and dancing while singing, may I add. And always with his shirt on, to boot. Man, that must have been hard. Oh, and he also said that, in case we were those horrible people who left before the show ended to have an easier time with the traffic, he would tell us when there'd be only two songs left. I wonder who on earth could have been that insane.

Immediately following this, Come alive came next, with its usual irresistible catchyness. The only negative side is that PT didn't actually put his red coat on in the epic and sexy way we see him do in the film, but I think I can live without that. I really liked the following transition, because, right after starting the show with his latest musical project, Hugh took us back to the start of his thetrical career, telling us how he still can't believe he won the audition to portray Gaston in the Sydney 1995 version of the Beauty and the beast stage musical (the theatric adaptation of the 1991 Disney Classic), seeing how he still had to take singing lessons. Now, the following part was my personal favourite of the whole show, given the fact that B&B is, in my opinion, the very best film ever created, as well as featuring my eternal OTP and sporting Alan Menken (the greatest composer alive) at the very highest of his career, who graced us with the most breathtaking songs I've ever listened to; oh, and Marjorie Biondo is my favourite singer on earth, to boot. So, you may imagine just how elated I was at the perspective of my favourite film meeting one of my favourite singers/actors! I had obviously already listened to Hugh's rendition of Gaston's songs from the official recording of the Sydney cast, just how I also watched Beauty and the beast in every language it's ever been dubbed into, because that's just how much of a fangirl I am; the only other film I've got such an extensive experience of is Frozen. That being said, I honestly reckon that Hugh's singing skills have dramatically improved during the almost-24 years that passed between that recording and this concert, even if he was already an excellent singer at the start of his career! Well, to put things shortly, Gaston was the musical number that followed, and it was undoubtedly the one that I enjoyed the most. The one performed was obviously the stage musical version, which is a bit longer than the original film version because of its lenghty dancing-only intermission; well, the crew didn't actually dance on tables, but the atmosphere was still there, thanks to Hugh being very in character as the sexy but sexist asshole that is Gaston, and the choreography involving tons of fake beer. That being said, since there was no LeFou present, the song was presented in a somewhat abridged rendition, starting from the "When I was a lad..." lines, but then recuperating some of the earlier stanzas and putting them out-of-order before the finale. The visual highlight of the number was Hugh lifting one dancer per arm to prove that Gaston has indeed "got biceps to spare", but sadly he didn't open his shirt like Gaston does in the film to show that every last inch of him's covered with hair. That was the saddest thing ever, imho. Still, I can confirm Hugh Jackman as being on the second spot in my ranking of the best Gastons ever, right after the inimitable Carlo Lepore, not to mention the fact that he's the sole and only baritone I can accept as Gaston. I mean, the character really needs a basso to fit his physical appearance and personality, especially in the film, and a basso also sounds much better in Gaston's songs, but Hugh somehow manages to make a baritone Gaston credible, like no other's been able to. Well, to be honest, maybe he's helped by the fact that he portrayed him in a stage musical and not in a film, so he didn't have to adjust his voice in order to be perfectly glued to the already-present face of a character; still, I regard this feat as something amazing, and you can't change my mind. As a side note, my mum, too, was quite happy during this number, because Gaston was pretty much the only song in the whole concert that she already knew; after all, you can't not know Beauty and the beast if you live with me, since I watch it obsessively every month (I'm still amazed by the fact that the videotape has never broken).

After an introduction with his own music repertoire, Hugh then went on to a small series of covers from different artists, starting with Fred Astaire's classic The way you look tonight (taken from the film Swing time), and on with other songs I had never heard him perform; which was a very nice surprise, because I really didn't expect to listen to anything new that evening! He thanked Switzerland for existing because that's where his parents first met (awww), which means that the country is very important for him, and thanked his public for being there for him, especially those of us who came by train or by plane – which means that Hugh Jackman thanked me, I'm definitely not delusional. But next time come to Italy, pleeease! After this, he performed I've been everywhere, which seems to be a popular Australian song where the singer mentions the hundreds of cities in the country that he's visited; this number was particularly hilarious because Hugh randomly added Zurich to the mix, and because, during an instrumental break, he asked the cameraman to show the audience the small screen where he could read the lyrics... seems that even Hugh Jackman is a human being after all, who would've guessed? Next came two songs from the film Dear Evan Hansen (absolutely watch it if you haven't!), which happens to be scored by the same Benj & Paul of The greatest showman fame, starting with the melancholy, but at the same time uplifting, You will be found, which was my personal favourite among the unreleased covers of this concert. The second song was the tearjerker For forever, a romantic ballad that Hugh aptly dedicated to his wife, and even played by himself on the piano, because apparently there's nothing this man can't do. The number was accompanied by pictures of Hugh, Deborra and their children on the screens, at which I literally couldn't not cry of too many feels... And, at the end of the song, she even went up on-stage to hug and kiss her hubby. Gosh, I envy her so much even as I still totally ship her with her husband, but really, Deborra Lee-Furness may very well be the luckiest woman alive. Returning to Benjamin and Paul, he then told us of how they composed and wrote This is me during a plane trip, one single day before a workshop where the film would be pitched. He then proceeded to recount the famous anecdote of how Keala Settle, who should've only sung this song at the workshop and wasn't to portray Lettie in the film, stunned everyone with her performance so much that she was immediately chosen for the role. This intermission, of course, served the purpose of introducing the night's special guest: the audience seemed to explode when Hugh announced Keala's entrance, to the point that I think that quite a few of them hadn't read that she would make an appearance. Anyway, even without her beard on her impression as Lettie is incredible, and her rendition of This is me was as breathtaking as always (incidentally, she also sang Tom's lines as well as her own). After her number had ended, she briefly thanked everyone who gave her the opportunity to play Lettie, and even the character herself, since she helped her become more determined, all while weeping tears of joy, which caused Hugh to cry, and... I can't. I just can't. These two are so amazing together and I want to see them in thirty more films singing and being happy one with the other.

After Keala exited the stage, a medley consisting of three songs from Les misérables started, introduced by footage from the film of Colm Wilkinson as the bishop giving Valjean the candelabra (you know the scene). The first part of the medley consisted of the aptly titled Valjean's soliloquy, which Hugh soloed with all the amazing skill we've already witnessed in the film. What I wasn't expecting, though, was for a background singer to own the spotlight as a full-on soloist: the second part of the series was none other than I dreamed a dream, in a rendition where a singer called Jenna Lee-James played Fantine. And, oh my gosh... I still have to listen to all versions of the stage musical, but what I know for sure is that I liked this performance even better than the one from the film (sorry, Anne!). I didn't think I would come out of a one-man show determined to check out a never-heard-before artist, but here I am, and it was definitely worth it; Jenna has got such a melodious, angelic voice, that I'm sure you'll be enchanted by her, too. The last number of the medley, as well as the closer of the first act, was One day more (which is already more or less a medley by itself, lol), where basically everyone had the opportunity to shine: since this is such a big ensemble number where almost every main character has got some solo lines, many different background singers managed to step out of the shadow and be recognized for their raw talent. While I'm somewhat sad that Bring him home wasn't included in the concert, this song was a truly satisfying act-closer, thanks to it epic proportions and majesticity.

After a well-deserved pause of twenty minutes for the artists, the second hour-long act opened with the cameraman gracing us with a glorious zoom-in on Hugh's butt (though I prefer his buttshots as Wolverine because here he was sadly wearing his trousers); it doubled as sexy and hilarious when the cameraman started to zoom out, only for Hugh to reprimand him and ask him to keep the focus on. By the way, at this point Hugh was already in-costume as Peter Allen, which means that he was wearing that absurdly sparkling jacket, so unfortunately it was a bit difficult to look at him without being blinded by all the *sparkle sparkle*. The initial musical numbers of the second act consisted in a series of freaking seven songs composed by Peter in various occasions and then posthumously used for the biographical stage musical The boy from Oz (I'm writing it here so that I don't have to repeat the various songs' origins every time), for which Hugh played the protagonist role in the Broadway version. The first one was obviously the legendary Not the boy next door, which was as spectacular as you can imagine, with the highlight consisting in Hugh taking the sparkling jacket off (for which my eyes thanked him in every possible sense) and spend the better part of the medley in a bright red shirt. All in all, this was probably the funniest number of the show; but then came the most irritating part, where Hugh invited a random man from the public to dance with him, and by "dance" I mean "being impossibly close and touchy-feely to the point that it was almost hard to distinguish where one ended and where the other started". I reckon it would've been sexy if the other person had been slightly hotter (for example, Hugh Jackman on Zac Efron brings infinite possibilities to mind), but he was just your regular middle-aged man, so no, there wasn't much fanservice for everyone except for him. I mean, Hugh even stroked. his. chest. Not fair. While rationally I know that it could never have been me because 1) I was as far away from the stage as you can get, since we bought the most economic tickets, and 2) he was in-character as Peter, so he needed a man, I'm still impossibly envious of this random man who's got the greatest luck of us all for no particular reason. Jeez, maybe I'm unneedlessly bitter, but I almost hope he's hetero, 'cause if he's either gay or bisexual, then he'd really have got the biggest luck of his life. Not-so-funny sketch aside, the show went on with a preposterous medley of songs from Peter's repertoire (and, indirectly through the musical, also Hugh's own) with no further interruptions: these were, in order, Best that you can do, the only one recycled from a previous musical, namely Arthur; Don't cry out loud, a pop song that Peter originally composed for a female voice, so it was a bit unexpected to hear Hugh sing it; I honestly love you, another pop piece, this one originally sung by Olivia Newton-John (which happens to be Hugh's childhood idol, by the way); Quiet please, there's a lady on stage, this one written, composed and sung by Peter himself; the iconic I go to Rio, where we found out that Hugh's red shirt actually concealed another layer of clothing – that is, the hilariously iconic pineapple shirt (and yes, he did use the maracas); and Tenterfield saddler, with which the medley closed. As previously mentioned, these songs were created by Peter for various different occasions, either for musicals or for more traditional albums, but were later reused for TBFO, sung either by Hugh-as-Peter or by other characters. All in all, this part was really enjoyable, and a totally deserved tribute to Allen's musical legend, even if one can question the inclusion of some minor pieces which kept the much more beloved I still call Australia home from being in the show.

After this, Hugh went on a speech about how dreams are important, and we know what this means: it's A million dreams time! The cutest thing is that this song was accompanied by a woman translating the lyrics into sign language... even though I must admit I struggle to conceive that a deaf would want to attend a concert, so the sense of the operation is a bit lost on me. Anyway, the version performed followed once again the soundtrack instead of the film, and once again I confess I prefer the latter, mainly because kid!Charity is also featured in it; on the other hand, it's true that the soundtrack version has got some additional verses, and the abrupt transition between the kid and the adult Barnum (which is much more nuanced in the film) is breathtaking. The parts were divided between Hugh Jackman as adult!PT, Jenna Lee-James as adult!Charity and another female singer whose name I'm desperately searching for as kid!PT. This song, which was already one of my absolute favourites, is still amazing in this rendition, but Jenna is possibly even better than Michelle (who is awfully talented in her own right), and now I really want to hear her sing Tightrope.

Following this, it was the turn for another long medley, this time a set of five covers from classic US musicals; this part of the show was introduced by Hugh confessing that he's got a very difficult upbringing... because there was only one TV channel when he was a kid, so he watched the same things over and over again (not that we do things differently even now that we can choose among many different channels), which led to his infatuation for old-style musical comedies. The songs composing this medley were: Luck be a lady tonight from the film Guys and dolls, then made even more famous by Frank Sinatra; Gene Kelly's preposterously famous Singing in the rain from the homonyme film, complete with fake rain and real umbrellas; I got rhythm from the film Girl crazy; Fred Astaire's Stepping out with my baby from the film Easter parade; and Benny Goodman's crazily-paced Sing sing sing. Needless to say, Hugh totally owned all of these songs, and I think this is the part of the whole show where his unadultered love for singing, dancing and generally being on stage shone through the most; of course the man is an excellent cinema actor, but you can clearly see that he's more elated when in a theatre or otherwise in front of an audience.

Immediately after came what was very probably the most physically prowing number for the cast, as well as the only non-sung one: after narrating that his brother was so much of an asshole that he discouraged him from taking dance lessons when he was a child, he proclaimed his happiness for having finally managed to study tip tap, which transitioned into a full-fledged tip tap routine with accompanying background music. This was admittedly the part of the show that I enjoyed the least, even if I did like it well enough (that's just to say how much I love this concert), because of the lack of singing and because I'm not the biggest fan of tap dancing. The funniest thing is that, at the end of the routine, Hugh exclaimed: <<Do you think that Ryan Reynolds could do that?>> and then did his Wolverine shtick using the battery sticks. Absolutely amazing. Oh, and after this exhausting number he turned back to drink, and even lampshaded the fact that we could take advantage of his tiredness to enjoy the view.

Then some brief footage from Australia was shown to introduce the members of a humanitarian organization called "Nomad two worlds", which made up the serious part of the show: the number in question consisted of a few men singing while two other men played the didgeridoo and a woman recited a poem. I should mention that all of these people were Aboriginals. After the end of the performance, it was explained to us that the woman who was on stage next to Hugh was actually a member of the Australian parliament who had a key role when their nation finally asked official forgiveness to the Aboriginals for the prosecution of their people. It was a very touching moment, indeed. With this over but still keeping on theme with Australia, Hugh performed a cover of Somewhere over the rainbow from the film The wizard of Oz (like his colleague and friend Nicole Kidman did in that film), and I wouldn't be lying if I said that I honestly prefer him over Judy Garland.

Then cam the most unexpected number of the whole concert, i.e., a cover of Mack the knife from Bertolt Brecht's Three-penny opera, which maybe would've fit better earlier in the programme; after which, Hugh actually told us that there were only two songs left, in case anyone wanted to leave early (I mean, does he think we’re crazy?). The following one was From now on, which I honestly expected to be used as the show-closer, but was nevertheless incredibly breathtaking; this is my favourite song of The greatest showman, in particular because it lets Hugh Jackman show everyone that he's truly the best belter of the world. From now on is also one of the two cases in which I prefer the soundtrack version of the song over the one from the film, since, like Tightrope, it features a bunch of additional verses. Unfortunately, though, Hugh performed an abridged version of the song, only starting with "I drank champagn with kings and queens...", maybe because it would've been difficult to hear him during the first part of the piece, which is sung while whispering. Anyhow, it was still exciting as heck, and the background dancers were even more amazing than usual. And, right when I was left asking myself what the final number would be, Hugh started singing another piece written, composed and sung by Peter Allen (albeit this time not in-character) and then used for TBFO; namely, Once before I go, which is incredibly fitting as a show-closer thanks to its lyrics. Thus the concert ended, with the main star, the special guests, the singers, the dancers and the orchestra bowing in front of the audience. I was appalled by the lack of an encore, and especially by the fact that no one in the public was apparently screaming for one like you usually do at a concert, but I was still utterly satisfied by the experience. Every member of the crew was simply fantastic, not just Hugh, and I'm very happy I've been so lucky to witness this show. ...I'm just still wondering why What a beautiful morning wasn't included in the programme, nor any other song from Oklahoma. That's jarring, I think.

Believe me, I would've totally stayed and bought some souvenirs, if it weren't for mummy, who wanted to go straight to bed; but, after all, she's already done so much for me, in exchange for nothing, that I can hardly believe it. She is the person I have to thank the most for this out-of-the-world trip and I couldn't be happier of being her daughter. So, many thanks to Hugh Jackman and all the others who made this concert possible, but even more thanks to the only one who made me being at this concert possible. Anyway, I simply cannot wait for Hugh to come back where he belongs to, now that his partecipation in The music man has been announced; I obviously won’t be able to go to Broadway to see the musical, but you can be sure I’m going to purchase the soundtrack album as soon as it comes out. What can I say, I love the man and I’m very happy he’s been able to realize both his personal and professional dreams.

If you've come this far, congratulations! I hope you've liked this totally unprofessional coverage, and I'd love it if you could link me to someone who's written a similar piece about a different performance, because I'm very interested in knowing how they differ between one another. Thanks for reading!

[all-hail-the-witcher]

my feet don’t dance like they did with you

ship: race x albert genre: angst ;) warnings: implied breakups and people leaving, also like 3 curse words editing: eh word count: 1560 this is inspired by ghost of you by 5sos ive wanted to write angst based on that song since the first time i heard it _______________________________ The gravity of the situation didn’t hit Albert until he was at rehearsal the following day. The director had paired him with Elmer until she could figure out how to fill the perfectly Race-shaped space in the show. Albert struck the opening pose for the duet, a crouch in the downstage right corner, and Elmer took Races place, a lunge at center stage. The opening notes of the song began and Albert felt his body go on autopilot, completing every leap, jump, and turn with practiced fluidity. That is, until about 32 counts into the piece when he and Elmer stood downstage center. This was the moment where they made eye contact and acknowledged each other for the first time during the piece before doing a complicated lift and turn sequence. Some part of him had known, very deep down, that it would be Elmer’s, not Race’s eyes that he would be meeting. But somehow he was still shocked. Maybe it was the jarring difference of seeing Elmer’s brown eyes as opposed to Races luminous blue ones, or maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t met by Races familiar smell of laundry soap and cheap cologne that caused Alberts brain to short circuit. His dancing become choppy and disjointed. He barely had time to recognize the sudden difference before Elmer morphed into Race and the walls of the studio closed in around them, transporting him back in time to the hallway outside their apartment and the events of the night before. Albert had just ran up the five flights of stairs to their apartment - curse this old building and its lack of an elevator - and had been rummaging around in his dance bag for his keys when he had been greeted by Race exiting the apartment, not even bothering to lock the door behind him. “Hey Race,” Albert had called out, abandoning all hope of finding his keys, “going somewhere?” Race had turned abruptly and stiffened slightly at the sound of Albert’s voice, almost like a kid who had gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Albert hadn’t noticed that originally, but now every detail came back to him, screaming that something was terribly wrong. Race had been wearing one of Albert’s old sweatshirts - the big green one he had a penchant for stealing - and a pair of adidas track pants with his sneakers. His big black dance bag had been thrown over his shoulder and he had a navy backpack on. Albert remembered thinking that he must be going to rehearsal. But, if he had pondered that question a little bit longer he would have remembered that Race never had rehearsal on Thursday nights. “Hey, Albert.” Albert, not Albie or Albo or Al: Albert. Race never called him by his actual name. Why hadn’t he picked up on that? “Romeo wanted to rehearse with me tonight for a few hours, not sure when I’ll be back.” His voice sounded fake, scripted, almost. And, of course now, Albert remembered that Romeo was out of town at an audition so there was no way Race was going to meet up with him. “Okay,” Albert remembered saying, hand on the door knob ready to go inside, “I’ll see you later.” Race had turned to walk down the hall, but stopped at the last second. He had turned around, and strode back toward where Albert was standing. Then, without any warning, he threw his arms around Albert’s neck and kissed him softly on the lips. “I love you, Albie,” he had said. “Don’t forget that.” At the time it had all happened so fast, but now the whole scene played back almost slow motion. Albert could see the tear tracks on Races cheeks and the slight tremor in his hand as he ran his fingers absently through his hair. He could see the glint of sadness mixed with regret and hopelessness in his beautiful blue eyes. If only he had seen it then. “I love you too, Tony,” Albert had whispered back, opening the door to their apartment and stepping inside with a small wave at his boyfriend. Race had given him his trademark lopsided smirk before wandering back down the hall. If only he had known that was the last time he would ever see him. Back in reality, Albert could feel Elmer’s hand on his arm as they moved into the partnering section. He couldn’t help but notice that it was smooth, not callused like Races. It felt wrong. It all felt wrong. Elmer caught Albert’s eye for a second. The look he gave him let Albert know he could tell something was off. Albert knew that Elmer would understand if they stopped, but he willed his body to keep moving in time with the music as his brain drifted back to the apartment. Albert had stepped inside, breathing in the familiar scent of one too many sugared apple candles - courtesy of Race - and thrown his bag on the floor before heading to the kitchen in pursuit of a snack. He had pulled out several bags of chips from the cabinet and was reaching up into the cupboard for a bowl when he had noticed an old pair of Race’s black canvas ballet shoes with holes in the toes laying on the counter. Race was always leaving his things in strange places, so Albert had been about to move them aside when he saw the note. That was when everything had come crashing down. In present time, Albert could feel Elmer spinning him around and around and around and he thought that that was fitting seeing how his head was spinning from remembering the letter Race had left him. Dear Albert, it had said. I’m terribly sorry, but I won’t be coming home tonight. Or tomorrow night, or any night after. You didn’t do anything wrong. Hell, you were the best boyfriend I’ve ever had. But it’s become too much for me. I can’t really put it into words, but I need you to understand that nothing you could have ever said would have changed my mind. Elmer stopped spinning him, and Albert flew into a switch split, but he landed weirdly, a sharp pain running up the inside of his ankle. He winced. He had never had a problem with that jump before. I love you, the note continued. More than I love myself. Which is why I have to go now, when things are good before I screw everything up and we fight and break up the hard and painful way. I’ve been through that too many times Albie, and I don’t want to fight with you. I’m not very good at this love stuff, no one has ever wanted me in that way before, and I can’t fathom that you would be any different, nor do I have the mental capacity to get broken up with again. Albert did a seat roll into a fish flop, but his knees banged the floor painfully. And there was Elmer’s hand, right where Races should have been, pulling him up for the last 8 counts of the dance. I’m leaving you my old ballet shoes. They were what I was wearing the day I met you. Remember that day? It was the first time we ever partnered. It was so magical Albie, we just worked together so well. Everything suddenly made sense the moment we touched. Did you feel that way too? Probably not, I’m being stupid. I knew in that moment I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. But I can’t. So maybe you’ll consider taking these shoes in place of me, or maybe you’ll throw them out, I don’t care. Whatever happens, Albie, never stop dancing. Albert heard the music cut out. He barely registered that he was in his final pose, hugging Elmer, although it should have been Race, it should have been Race, goddamnit. He backed away quickly, like Elmer had burned him. “Are you okay, Albert?” Elmer asked gently. “That run was a little...rough.” “Yeah, I’m okay,” Albert lied, fighting to meet Elmer’s gaze, reminding himself that this was who he had to dance with now because Race wasn’t coming back. Race wasn’t coming back. He was gone, nothing but a mere memory. A memory that would never be brought back. “I’m just not used to dancing with you yet.” Elmer nodded. “Okay, we can work through it. You’re a good dancer, we’ll make it work.” He offered him a smile, which Albert was hesitant to return. “Yeah, okay,” he said, looking down at his feet, which were wearing Races worn out ballet shoes. They were a size too big on him, but he could still see the tips of his toes poking through the holes. He remembered when those shoes had begun to get those holes in them and he’d teased race endlessly for it until he had gotten a new pair. Was the reason he had hung onto them so long because they reminded him of when the first met? He forced down tears as he willed himself to work through the dance with Elmer. He’s not coming back. Race had told him to never stop dancing. Oh, Race, he thought, how is that even possible when my feet don’t dance like they did with you? _______________________________ im kinda low key proud of this ? i love hurting my bois angst is my specialty, so if there’s anything anyone wants to see feel free to hit up the ask box !! feed back is always appreciated !!

[velvet-tread]

Unfiltered sweary mess: 507 edition

I had thoughts so I decided to this again. Let’s hope it doesn’t become a habit.

Let’s start with the Bellarke of it all, and the sheer joy of seeing them hustle up a plan together on the fly. AND LISTEN I am not on the #bellamysucksnow train, or the #bellarkeisdead train either and as such fair warning there is squee incoming. It feels like the core of the show has returned to us after s4’s barren years and IT IS GREAT. And honestly? I don’t care that romance isn’t in the air between them RIGHT NOW. I thought I would mind but I don’t. It feels right. It feels true to Bellamy, and it feels true to Clarke, and it feels exactly like the vibe I’d expect and want between two characters who love and respect each other and their choices, who have been apart for so long and need to reconnect. Let’s do right by Clarke and Bellamy, yeah? We’ve waited for 4 seasons (the last of which gave us sweet fa) we can wait a little longer.

And seriously, even if it turns out they are just beautiful co-leaders with a lot of professional respect for each other (yeah RIGHT) they could never, ever kill that relationship for me as long as they are in scenes together like this. I don’t care if they don’t bang (call me out on my lies someone), but the concurrent Bellarke scenes in the dining hall, and the triffid room, and then on Echo-watch just gave me so many OTP vibes. Bellarke are at their most effective when they’re together, even better when they have the support of their genius friends. And we got a return of the Bellarke dry-as comedy double act WTF @the100writersroom are you trying to be good at your jobs or something.

Top bantz, as we’d say in Essex.

Too bad the Bellarke unity ain’t gonna last, but thankfully, Bellarke are just as awesome when they are just…very angry and exasperated with each other ok, but DON’T HURT YOUR PRECIOUS SELF I MAY BE FURIOUS BUT WHEN DID YOU LAST SLEEP AND DO YOU NEED SOMETHING TO EAT

Great to have Monty back in the frame cutting through everyone’s bullshit. I thought he’d been relegated to a bit part this season. Oh ye of little faith. Does anyone realise that Monty is the biological weapon earth forgot? Put that angry face in a room with Octavia and see how long it takes for her to crack and wither from Monty’s externalised disappointment with everyone and everything.

Bellamy burning Octavia ow ow ow. I’ve already spoken about this at some length but damn that hurt. And it was deserved, but still spoke to the depth of his contempt for Blodreina.

Which brings me to…BELLARKE V BLODREINA: GRUDGE MATCH

And man, was this grudge match some time coming. To make sure the audience was VERY CLEAR on EVERYONE’S MORAL STANDING, the show helpfully prepped us with some little reminders that Bellamy helped commit a massacre, and Clarke did a load of horrible human testing in Becca’s lab last season. Thanks show.

So, all armed and loaded, the mud slinging began, and boy was it awesome.  First of all Bellarke takes Octavia to task about the worms and TURNS OUT OCTAVIA DIDN’T KNOW which get a grip on power here Octavia because it’s slipping from your grasp faster than you can say Wonkru Barbecue (shoutout to @mego42 – your time is coming). But Miller obviously watched the earlier part of the show and recapped for Octavia just in time because she’s ready for that shit and fires everyone’s dark past back at them. Cue: Bellamy’s best frowny face and Eliza Taylor’s saddest, most regretful Clarke eyes.

Bellarke disarmed and cowed (for now) live to fight another war they don’t want to fight.

But Octavia’s grudge match continues in her office when Indra enters with the intention of being reasonable, which is exactly the kind of shit Blodreina has warned her about before so help her god.

Indra is, obviously, the Queen of Everything and My Heart and delivers some bitchass Truths as Indra is wont to do and Octavia rewards her by throwing what my mind remembers as a skull but was probably a paperweight because why would Octavia have a skull in her office *nervous laughter*

Indra leaves, still Queen of Everything and My Heart, but not before delivering a portentous warning about losing yourself in the dark, which obviously Octavia is not going to listen to because DAUGHTERS, MAN.

Talking of daughters, Madi trying to suck at training was the most adorbs thing I’ve seen in a long time, guys and I am subscribed to a LOT of cat blogs. And man I felt for her. Sucking at anything sucks, and sucking on PURPOSE is just the height of unfair. And she’s in a new school! And the other kids are mean! And maybe they eat people!

Serious question though: from whence did Madi learn her swordswomanship? Clarke? Helios? Roan? (too soon?).

But don’t blame Clarke, Madi! Clarke’s Madi feels are pretty much on a par with mine which means she wants to cry every time she looks at her earnest little face AND CLARKE I FEEL THAT SO HARD YOUR BABY IS ADORABADASS. Which also means MAMA MODE ACTIVATED when Vodka Aunt Octavia starts messing up that precious braid she put in Madi’s hair earlier.

Hey Vodka Aunt, you don’t just get to come in here and make executive choices about Madi’s career, especially given your past efforts at parenting *looks at Ethan*

Oh, oh, oh and WE GOT A RETURN OF THE MUSICAL INTERLUDE! It was like Knocking on Heaven’s Door and Early Seasons feels all over again. But I gotta say Jason, fresh from the Sense8 finale my musical interlude expectations are higher these days and I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t a dance off. Perhaps an orgy or an endgame B/C/E triad instead? *Wanheda jaw clench*

But anyway that whole sequence of Clarke sending Madi off to her first day of training sent me in to a spiral of sadness that lasted for a lot of minutes I wasn’t counting. It was very sad and I am sad about it. Poor Clarke.  Just as well Octavia helped her remember she’s motherfucking Wanheda.

MY GIRL ECHO MY GIRLING UP THE HOUSE.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate what a babe Echo kom Spacekru nee Azgeda is.  First of all: EVIDENCE OF SPACE GIRL SQUAD and I am all here for that. Second of all Echo is officially the first person on the show to get one over of Colonel Charmaine Diyoza SOMEONE GET ME A FUCKING SHOT.

And listen up everyone who bashes at their keyboards dribbling with rage about the things other women like on television: I love ladies with swords and if you want an apology for that you’ll have to prise it out of my cold dead body. But can we just take a (second) moment to appreciate that for all of Echo’s badass sword skills, she is Clarke Griffining up this joint like a motherfucker. Echo is as Slytherin as Clarke and as sneaky as Clarke and as smart as Clarke and that manoeuvre she executed with Zeke and Raven was 100% a Clarke Griffin move, don’t @ me.

It’s almost like….they’re similar….on purpose….

Shout out to all the smart, insecure girls who aren’t sure if they belong. Learn to swordfight, use your brain, and get yourself a girl squad and a soft space dad boyfriend.

Sidebar: Clarke’s faith that Echo would take the eye down and her admiration when she does will keep me in Clecho feels for months.

But friends…I am the most fervent of Echo stans and Becho shippers and I am AFEARED. She is very much circling the abyss here and it gives me a sick feeling in my stomach. I believe Raven will forgive her (FOR WHAT CAN SOMEONE PLS ENLIGHTEN ME AS TO WHAT RAVEN IS SO PISSED ABOUT??) and I believe the rest of Spacekru will 100% understand what she did because it was presented to us as an understandable choice.  But but but… what’s next?  Diyoza ain’t gonna take the turn the other cheek approach to learning that Echo took down her eye in the sky. What if her next move is to make *Echo* her eyes in exchange for safe passage for Spacekru?

*sweats forever*

That seems like a Diyoza move. And like…where would that leave Echo with Bellamy? Her choice would be: tell him and risk the whole mission and/or turn him into a lying liar to his sister too, or not tell him and risk their entire relationship and hurt him very badly. I think I know which one my loyal girl would choose and how that would end.

Fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

*ugly crying*

I’m not ready.

Okay it’s time for a Raven rant. What the hell is going on with Raven this season? Raven has had some beautifully executed arcs in the past, and I am high key here for her to finally get some NC-17 action now she’s done all that Work On Herself, but if Raven’s arc in s5 amounts to RAVEN DIDN’T GET BONED FOR 6 YEARS AND NOW SHE’S GETTING BONED then Imma flip a table.

Sidebar#2 obviously Raven got boned on the Ring, it’s not like they would have had a space orgy without her, come ON.

And just… I’m sorry I don’t get the Zaven. When they released the s5 pics I thought WOWZA these two are gonna be gr9 together and LOOK HE’S A SPACE EXPLORER. How could this possibly go wrong?  But somehow, they’ve managed to introduce a character who, on his own, is 10x as compelling as Wick, but has about -100% of the chemistry with Raven. Which is???? Some kind of alchemy??? how has that happened? I love Zeke! I love Raven!!! They’re both MAGNETIC on screen. On paper they should be a perfect fit but it’s like whenever they’re in the same scene together I have the sudden urge to check my emails.

And someone, please, just tell me what work Zaven is doing for either of these characters. What’s Raven’s conflict? How does Zeke resolve it? Is it *literally* Raven being presented with a hot dude with a similar skill set? Sorry I’m out.

And before anyone comes at me with the usual packet of whining about how Echo has stolen all of Raven’s screentime, I’d beg you all to remember that there is no law saying that one woman’s time on tv has to be at the expense of another and this is a GIANT SEXIST TRAP DO NOT FALL FOR IT.

Talking of out, Kabby is also circling the drain and [averts eyes from discourse].

But I’m calling Diyoza’s ship name, and if she bangs Kane I hereby pronounce it TEQUILA [whatever Kane’s ship name is, someone hmu].

OK I need to talk about Gaia now before I get shot down by a thunderbolt. The girl creeps me tf out but I SOMEHOW LOVE HER NOW. This is new and unnerving because feverish religious types are not usually my jam ESPECIALLY if they present Clarke’s daughter with a creepy sacred flash drive that they want to insert in her neck, but somehow Tati Gabrielle nails that line, even if my reaction seeing the Flame was exactly the same as my reaction to seeing the worms.

But I believe Gaia’s intentions, while creepy, are pure. And WHO PICKED UP on how fluid her loyalty is? She will serve Blodreina faithfully as long as she reigns. Huh.

In other news McCreary, and more importantly McCreary’s undercut, were absent from this episode I hope they are both enjoying Memori’s couples counselling retreat. I look forward to seeing his glazed expression next week as I cry my Becho tears.

[airadam]

Episode 144 : Multiples Of Twelve

"It ain't f-ing sensible."

- Strategy

I ended up completely changing the selection this month when, taking the lead from a few tracks I was considering, I decided to go with an all-downtempo selection - a continuous unbroken mix once the first lyric hits. That said, there's a serious mix of genres so you get a bunch of variety inside the hour-long show! Get yourself plugged in...

RIP to the legendary Chi Modu - the man responsible for some of the most iconic images in the culture.

Twitter : @airadam13

Twitch : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Duett : Video

An extremely short track to open things, just for the flavour! Duett, is a UK synthwave artist (only one person, despite the name) who has released some amazing records channeling that electronic 80s vibe. This one is drawn from the "O U T L I N E S" mini-album from last year - all tracks that were done in a day each - and is a bite-size motif that you could imagine as the sonic logo for a film company or TV station from the VHS era.

Meyhem Lauren ft. Hologram & Big Body Bes : Lexus In The Lobby

I was originally saving this for a future mix, but even though it would have fit perfectly thematically, it's so much slower than pretty much everything else that it may not have ultimately made the cut. This is an absolute gem from the original "Glass" EP, with Harry Fraud on production building an absolute vibe with a quality sample that may be familiar to German listeners and some heavy 808 action. Meyhem Lauren is of course the best MC on the cut but Hologram on the first verse definitely kicks a memorable opening quatrain!

Mikhail Chekalin : As If It Was Not From Here

Going super left-field early for this instrumental bed! Chekalin was a radically-innovative composer from Russia who was not embraced by the Soviet government - they felt his work was too "Western" and while his music was heard by some plugged-in people in the outside world, he wasn't able to tour internationally or release his music outside the USSR. Thankfully for music lovers, times have changed and the "ГАР001: Михаил Чекалин «Экзальтированная Колыбельная 1979 – 1987»" collection (don't even think about asking me to pronounce that) is now available on Bandcamp, and is a great collection of his electronic work - his own take on what could be done with the synths of the time. His sound is a worthy companion to the other greats who were also experimenting at the time, from Jan Hammer to Jean Michel Jarre.

TY ft. Rootz & Deborah Jordan : Eyes Open

It's been a year this month since TY passed and I was glad to find one of his tracks fitting into this pace perfectly, one from his excellent final LP "A Work Of Heart". He was always an excellent MC from the first to the last, and he does himself proud here, spitting thoughtful lyrics with a rapid sharp flow. OG Rootz (formerly Durrty Goodz) is a solid complement, and Deborah Jordan adds a vocal decoration that puts the whole self-produced track over the top. I do like the unexpected switch to French for the hook later in the song too, just *chef's kiss*.

Bumpy Knuckles : Step Up

If you're a real Hip-Hop geek, the highlight on this track might just be the brilliant cuts by DJ Rukas on the hook, not only sharp but incorporating a very clever manipulation of a line from the stone-cold classic "Top Billin'" by Audio Two. Bumpy Knuckles goes in with a quasi-double-time flow in typically rugged fashion over the production of BeatBanga, who gets his only Discogs credit in fine style. You can find this on the "Konexion" album, which is well worth having.

Flatbush Zombies : Laker Paper

It might not be the most conscious track in the world, but it does have the exact type of sonic energy to fit into this spot! Despite the production style (courtesy of Erick Arc Elliott) and the track title, the clue is in the name - this is a trio from Brooklyn who released this cut on their debut mixtape "D.R.U.G.S". They don't try to dazzle with a quick flow on this beat, they stick to their style and settle into it at its native speed.

Samantha James : Come Through

Even for those who might not be into a record like this most of the time, I thought that bassline and the underlying lazy drum break might draw you in! This track was one of the highlights of the 2007 "Rise" LP from LA-based Samantha James. If you like a varied electronic music album, it's one you should check out - a little house, a little broken beat, some singer-songwriter vibes, a showcase for a singer comfortable with working with different production types.

Jake One : Evelen Gravest

We bridge the first and second mixes with a beat from the man Jake One, taken from his free gospel-themed "#PrayerHandsEmoji" beat tape. It'd be worth a purchase, but for zero dinero it's a must-have!

Kano : Ps & Qs

Coming out of East Ham, London, this is one of the early breakthrough grime tracks from a pioneer of the scene. This 2004 debut 12" release was a bit hit on the underground and helped Kano build momentum into the release of his "Home Sweet Home" album. DaVinche's big bombastic beat is an iconic one - a perfect underscoring for Kano, and can still mash up a dance even today.

DJ Quik ft. Hi-C and James DeBarge : Ev'ryday

One of my favourite cuts from Quik's 2002 "Under Tha Influence" LP (which, being a relentless perfectionist, he probably hated the minute he finished it). At the time there really wasn't much, if anything, out that sounded like this, and it was interesting to hear a musician and engineer of his skill level bring that to that double-time style. That stuttering bass and the skipping drum pattern work together brilliantly, and James DeBarge coming through with that hook might just be the vocal highlight.

Strategy : LengBreak

Time flies, and it's already been ten years since the release of the "Pre-Season Training" mixtape from Salford's Strategy, who continued to build his skills in fine style. "Bleep Test" and "Kill 'Em" were the standout tracks for me, and this one kind of passed me - maybe it was my personal taste in beats, maybe it was that I just didn't smoke! I gave it another listen this month and very much deserves a proper airing. One question for those of you who partake - all these years later, how do those prices sound? 🙂

Tobe Nwigwe ft. Royce Da 5'9" and Black Thought : Father Figure

Easily one of the best and most unique MCs to emerge in years, you'll have heard Tobe on this podcast a few times before and his collective have continued to impress and to elevate their profile. This killer is from last year's "Cincoriginals" album, and it's a meeting of heavyweight MCs. The fact that Tobe holds his own against both Royce and Thought, who is widely regarded as the MC's MC, while maintaining his own style, shows that he deserves all the praise he's been getting and more. Nell on production, as always, with the heavy low end for your system.

9th Wonder : Black Album Rejects, Track 15

One more of the instrumentals that 9th Wonder brought to Jay-Z for "The Black Album" that was ditched in favour of the brand-new "Threats" beat that launched him into the consciousness of many. The "rejects" were still dope as anything though.

Children of Zeus : No Love Song

Brand new Zeus! If you know what's good for you you'll be going to place a pre-order for the upcoming "Balance" album, but we've got this as an appetiser for now. Beat Butcha provides the laid-back soulful groove on which Tyler and Konny emphatically don't give you the love song that most other artists would given the same production. If you've been following this podcast, you would have first heard CoZ in the SoundCloud days, and it's been amazing to see this Manchester crew continue to produce great music - and the rest of the world catch up!

Corinne Bailey Rae : Walk On

Representing the city of Leeds lovely, Corinne Bailey Rae is a fine musician who brings the quality every time out. Her third LP, "The Heart Speaks In Whispers", was a worthy follow up to "The Sea", and saw her pairing with Steve Brown on production. This starts with a jazz club reserve and builds from there as she offers inspiration to keep on pushing through difficult circumstances - a message certainly relevant to the current time.

Rae & Christian ft. Lisa Shaw : Should Have Known

I'd somehow forgetten I even had this one! Lisa Shaw is best known for her deep house career, but her sublime voice is a versatile one and she's also on some soulful/downtempo stuff like this Manchester production from the Grand Central Records founding duo. The "Central Heating 2" compilation might be worth owning for this alone.

Zero 7 : Spinning

We finish a coincidentally all-UK segment with a track that didn't make the cut for the original UK release of the "Simple Things" album (twenty years ago!), but I believe was on the US version (plus the recent special edition release) as well as on the B-side of the "I Have Seen" 12". Sophie Barker takes the vocal reins, and it's a beautiful song.

L'indécis x sad toï : Dog Days

For the final instrumental break, we go to the Chillhop label, which specialises in releasing this kind of material - in this case, on the "Chillhop Essentials - Fall 2018" compilation. This track is an all-French connection, with sad toï (sic) alongside Grenoble's L'indécis for a relaxed and partly-acoustic beat that suits a lazy summer day just as much as the autumn.

Scritti Politti : Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder

"The day began to decline" - I think many of us can relate to that feeling! One more UK track to close the episode, and this is the one that I think will divide listeners the most. Personally, I love this. It's one of those tunes where no-one seems to agree on the exact meaning of the lyrics, but when Green sings "...some keys they found there"...well, that could be read multiple ways! This was a great close to the "Anomie & Bonhomie" album, with a long instrumental outro to cool us all the way out at the very end of the episode.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

[grahamstoney]

Musique Concrète and Other Experimental And Electronic Music

New Post has been published on https://grahamstoney.com/music/musique-concrete-and-other-experimental-and-electronic-music

Musique Concrète and Other Experimental And Electronic Music

In the subject Creative Music Technology at university last semester, I was asked to listen to a collection of experimental and electronic music to stimulate my creative imagination, and to write what I liked and didn't like about it. Here's my rather cynical take on the genre.

Musique Concrète

Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry – Symphonie pour un Homme Seul

This piece reminded me of Strauss’s Symphonia Domestica; only less musical. I’m a Homme Seul (single man) and my life doesn’t sound anything like this. In his book La musique concrète, Schaeffer described the work as “an opera for blind people…”. Haven’t they suffered enough?

Edgard Varèse – Poème Électronique

The audio equivalent of Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali’s Un Chien Andalou.

Does to my ears what the asbestos coating on the walls of the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair for which it was commissioned, would do to my lungs.

György Ligeti – Artikulation

George Lucas must owe Ligeti millions in royalties for R2D2’s sound effects. Initially I thought I was joking when I first wrote that, but I’ve since discovered that he was actually trying to create a sort of phonetic speech in electronic music, which pretty much fits R2D2’s dialogue. Plus, the title is German for “articulation”. That should have been a giveaway.

I thought this piece might make more sense to me if I played it backwards, so I dropped it into Logic Pro X and reversed it. I couldn’t tell the difference. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I listened to it in the original quadraphonic. I’ll just end noting that Ligeti abandoned electronic music after composing this piece.

Iannis Xenakis – Concret PH

2 minutes and 44 seconds of breaking glass to my ears. I think I’d rather listen to Kraftwerk.

Karlheinz Stockhausen – Kontakte

It’s long. It’s too long. I think this is how Jacob Collier learned to play piano in his mother’s womb; but look at him now. The title is German for “Contacts”, which I think Stockhausen interpreted as “Just hit the things.” Maybe it sounds better in the original quadraphonic.

Stockhausen was evidently a pioneer of the extended dance remix, as the work exists in several versions: “Nr. 12”, “Nr. 12½” and “Nr. 12⅔”

Bernard Parmegiani - Accidents / harmoniques

Parmegiani had studied mime before turning his hand to electro-acoustic composition, and in this piece it really shows. From the album De Natura Sonorum (the nature of sound). I felt like there were Martians in my head listening to this. Surely he’s just playing a joke on us.

Pauline Oliveiros – Bye Bye Butterfly

Bids farewell to the institutionalized oppression of the female sex while also providing inspiration for the sound of the Theramin. Gave my new monitor speakers a good workout; I hope the neighbours enjoyed it too.

Tape Loops

Steve Reich – It’s Gonna Rain

I’ve got this pervasive feeling that it’s going to rain. I’m not sure why. I liked the way the meteorological message panned left and right. More like It’s Gonna Have An Acid Trip.

Halleluiah Part II is over. I’m not sure how I lasted the full 18 minutes.

Terry Riley – Mescalin Mix

Parts of this sounded to me like an industrial version of native Australian bush sounds. I felt like I was on a camping trip in the 23rd century.

Brian Eno – 1/1

From his album Music For Airports/Ambient 1, which apparently coined the term Ambient Music. Brian Eno has a lot to answer for. However, this track put me in a relaxing state, ready to fall asleep on the plane; so I liked it.

Sampling

Luc Ferrari – Ronda, Spain, June 2001

After being jolted awake by the sound of a loud sliding door opening to greet the day, I was drawn into this by the sweet sound of a French woman’s voice. I imagined she was Ferrari’s lover, speaking to him in bed after awakening on a warm Spanish summer Sunday morning. I wanted to know what she was saying, but my French isn’t good enough. In my mind’s eye, they head to a busy market together to buy some croissants for breakfast, where we hear a man’s voice repeating “numero quatro”, which I assumed is Spanish for “number 4”. As the voices fade, the sound becomes more musical and we return to the soft sound of Ronda speaking to her beloved back in their villa together. I quite liked it.

My interpretation, however, is not what the composer had in mind. According to him, the point of Les Anecdotiques (The Anecdotals) is to dispense with the story altogether. My busy market was, in fact, the sound of Spanish tourists in a museum. While he describes the woman’s words as “Spontaneous and intimate”, in this context they are simply words in a foreign language with no narrative purpose. Just another one of Pierre Schaeffer and Michel Chion’s sound objects, if you will. My narrative interpretation of what was intended as an explicitly anecdotal work is testament to the human brain’s tendency to make meaning out of nothing. It turns out Rhonda is a village in Spain, not a woman.

Still, I enjoyed my little fantasy, thank you Luc.

John Oswald – Manifold

Wow, this was short. I didn’t even have time to eat breakfast while listening to it. It was only about as long as the Spotify ads, but certainly more fun. I recognised a couple of songs, like U2’s With or Without You and Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares To You. Artists who use samples liberally often sample obscure works, sometimes affording them attention they would otherwise have missed; but in this work Oswald went mainstream. It sounded to me like the soundtrack to a sample-abusing hip-hop artist from the 1990’s being beaten up in a boxing ring by all the artists who reckoned he’d ripped off their work.

Tod Dockstader - Water Music: Part III

I quite liked this piece. The cuteness of the sounds and the stereo effects bouncing between the left and right channels really drew me in. I’ve recently got myself some decent monitor speakers for my home studio and this piece really worked on them. Pretty amazing for something released in 1963.

Dockstader started out in the 1940’s, prior to the invention of magnetic tape, editing his steel wire recordings with a lit cigarette. That makes me realise how much I take the piece-of-crap Logic Pro X File Editor for granted. Listening to this, I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next, like I was watching a soap opera on TV; only with no actual story.

Synthesis

Karlheinz Stockhausen – Studie I

I found this quite disorienting to listen to. I guess it was revolutionary in 1953 but I reckon now you could whip it up in Ableton in about 5 minutes using the Random MIDI Effect and some automation.

Eliane Radigue – Jetsun Mila (Pt.1) / Birth and Youth (Excerpt)

I liked how the pulsing ambient drone sound in this grew over time; it drew me in and had me wondering what was going to happen next. Unfortunately the answer was: not much. Gradually a rhythmic element with some high pulsing tones which grew over time came in. It was a bit like listening to a very slow EDM dance track from underwater in a diesel-powered submarine going at full throttle for 12 minutes.

Laurie Spiegel – Appalachian Grove: I

I liked the pulsing stereo effects in this piece and the way the tonal characteristics of the sound varied while the pitch changed. It’s much more melodic than the other tracks we’ve listened to and that made it more enjoyable to my ears. It got a bit harsh in the middle though. This piece puts the musique in musique concrète.

Morton Subotnick – Silver Apples of the Moon – Part A

Perhaps the sound designer for Star Wars had this in mind when creating the sound effects for R2D2. I kind of lost the flow of the conversation without the witty English-accented retorts from C3PO though. Morton Sobotnick is described as The Mad Scientist in one interview, and I think if I listen to this too often I’ll end up fitting one of the DSM-5 diagnostic categories I’m learning about over in PSYC1002.

Suzanne Ciani – Concert at Phil Niblock’s Loft

This piece had some funky sounds that I liked. The start reminded me a bit of Kraftwerk but without the rhythm and melody; although it did get more melodic later. I’d probably give it a Distinction for its use of technology given it was made in 1975, but only a Credit for musicality.

Barry Schraeder – Lost Atlantis: Introduction

At first, I thought this sounded a lot like a modern ad for KFC; then I realised I was hearing a Spotify ad.

I liked the ambient sounds in this piece and the way it surged in and out with its “mysterious tone colors”. It slowly builds to a crescendo until we get the drop that EDM lovers crave, and then built more quickly to the ultimate drop at the end. I kept wondering what was going to happen next; I’d still rather listen to Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp or Queen though.

Contemporary Examples

Amon Tobin – Foley Room

DJ & producer. Retain percussive quality through sounds. Horsefish & Esther’s. Create beauty and delicate textures from sounds. Pitched percussive material. Fast loops. New textures. Funky beats. Check out the Foley Room Documentary.

Aphex Twin - 1ST 44

Acid house DJ in rave scene. Intelligent Dance Music. More complex sampling, polyrhythms, rhythmic patterns. From Collapsed album. Polyrhythms sounded funky. Lots of variation.

Holly Herndon – Chorus

Intersection of humanity and technology. Recorded web browsing. Stereo ping-pong effects. Here’s a talk she gave about her creative process.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Riparian

This was my favourite out of these three, largely because it sounds the most musical to my ears. I liked the pulsing beat in this track. I can hear a bass line for instance, melodies played on the synth and lyrics, although I can’t tell what they are saying. I also like the way the soundscape swirls around when listened to with headphones. It feels ambient, immersive and musical all at the same time. I get the sense that she’s using the electronics at her disposal in service of the music rather than the other way around. There’s even a great video about how she uses modular synthesis.

Graham Stoney - Foster le Concrète

"How hard can it be?", I asked myself. And since I had an assignment to do, I wrote my own musique concrète track based on the drum rhythm from one of my favourite songs, Coming of Age by Foster The People. I even made a breakdown video showing how I did it; because that's what the assignment required.

Conclusion

I didn’t take too easily to some of the more experimental musique concrète pieces we studied at the beginning of this semester. The weekly listening tasks felt harsh to my untrained ears and I would think mean things like:

“Didn’t the Geneva Convention ban cruel and unusual punishment?”

Perhaps these tracks will never be my preferred go-to pieces for chilling out on a Friday night, but when I look back at some of my cynicism-laced early comments in these discussion threads, I cringe. I just didn’t appreciate the historical significance of these pieces and how they might have influenced later electronic music that I do enjoy, like Kraftwerk say.

Then in Angharad Davis’s Music Colloquium Series talk on George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, when she played a snippet of the work I heard sounds reminiscent of musique concrète. Sure enough, they were roughly contemporaneous, and Antheil had been living in Paris at the time musique concrète was just getting started. You never know when something you study in one arena will pop up elsewhere.

Another thing I’ve learned in this subject is about taking creative risks and learning to follow my gut instincts without worrying whether a concept will work, or other people will like it. This has been an opportunity for me to explore that. My Formative Skills Assignment piece Foster le Concrète was in part a reaction to my frustration at the lack of discernible rhythm in some of the early pieces we studied. However, I really didn’t know whether the concept was going to work, and that was a little anxiety-inducing; especially given that I was doing it for an assignment which would be graded. I was quite touched to hear other students say they liked the end result, and I feel more confident about following my gut instincts in future and seeing what I end up.

Finally, I’ve been really inspired by the creativity of the other students in this subject. It’s been a weird experience studying online this year without ever meeting them in person, but I’ve really enjoyed hearing the creative works everyone came up with. They’re all so distinctive and amazingly different, it’s incredible; yet they were all products of the same brief. I can’t wait to hear everyone's works on the radio, TV, movies, video games, Spotify, or whatever audio technology is around when we all graduate: live streaming direct to our neurons perhaps?

[amboseus]

Rewatching The Man From U.N.C.L.E

I love this movie so much and I can’t understand how it is so vastly underappreciated. 

Here, I’m gonna list all the things I most likely missed during the first time and bewarned, I WILL gush a lot, attempt at creating meta and there will be spoilers for those who haven’t seen it (which I so don’t understand.) 

Another Warning: This is fucking long.

- Napoleon being distracted by Illya and the pretty guard at the wall. I mean, do I have to say more?

- The moment Napoleon shot out Illya’s tires. The way he was standing with the shadows parting his face and the rainbow flare… Simply beautiful.

- I’ve read a lot about how Illya is the killer in the duo and Napoleon is more the thief. While that is not completely wrong, I believe Napoleon is more than capable to hurt and kill someone, though he cares for people in general far too much for it to come easy to him. Illya is the “hardened” KGB agent, but he also didn’t just kill those guards, when they were stopping him on his pursuit after Napoleon and Gaby, which he easily could have in the same amount of time.

- It shows again, when Illya attacks Napoleon first in the bathroom, while Napoleon is completely on the defensive the whole fight, although I strongly believe Napoleon’s hand to hand is probably as good as Illya’s, if not in a different way.

- Illya has a sense of humour. It doesn’t show immediately and it gets overlooked with Napoleon’s quips and jokes, but it is there. It’s so dry, Illya isn’t used to other people getting it.

- Waverly’s first appearance wasn’t even at the Vinciguerra party. It was already at the hotel, just before Napoleon checked in in Rome. Very nice touch. Things like that won’t be caught the first you watch a movie.

- Illya bullshitting his way through an architectural speech, acting all confident is so adorable. He is all puffed up. 

- Napoleon coming to the rescue to make sure Illya behaves properly, because he already knows exactly how he ticks (or so he believes.) 

- That hurt puppy dog eyes from Napoleon when Illya told him “you’re not needed here.” To be honest, Illya immediately looked like he regretted saying it. He is not immune. - The music is really brilliant. 

 - Everyone saying Illya can’t control himself, but he is the master of control. Everyone saying he is just a beast, a machine, but he is feeling so much. 

- I personally believe Gaby did all that dancing and fighting to get under Illya’s skin deliberately and it worked somewhat. I also believe she faked falling asleep and grabbing his hand unconsciously. That’s way too coincidental with the fact she is an agent. Also his reaction to her physical being close, has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with him not having any physical contact with anyone outside of fights. (Can’t people, especially male-female, just be hitting it off as friends and not immediately have some romantic/sexual tension?) 

- Napoleon is not committed to making the hotel woman stay in bed with him. Could be attributed to him tired after a long stretch of sex, but I don’t think so. 

- He is also slightly peeved, either at himself for missing bugs again and trusting Illya already too much or that Illya doesn’t seem to trust him at all yet. 

- Napoleon’s insulting Illya’s bowtie in a childish attempt to hide his real feelings about this situation. 

- And there’s Illya’s humour again. Also he like his “women” strong. I know who else he liked to wrestle with. 

- That little smirk Waverly had after Napoleon bumped into him to get his invitation. I love to think that Waverly had planned it like this and Napoleon was played without even knowing. That must have been a first. 

- Again, a show of control by our Illya. He also makes a very nice figure in that suit. So handsome. 

- Illya’s protective outburst because of Alexander is so sweet, I want it to happen over Napoleon. Also, Gaby telling Illya to work on his temper is so stupid. He had himself perfectly in control the whole time. 

- Napoleon does a disbelieving double take at Illya when he shows him the Gamma radiation pictures. He is surprised and impressed. And Illya’s sad he didn’t get any praise. Poor boy. 

- So much flirting, so little time. 

- Illya has the better equipment but Napoleon is the much better thief. The little frown at the gun Napoleon sported is another sign of him being against hurting people. 

-That scene with the two doing different things in different locations was so beautifully edited and directed. And again, the music is brilliant. 

- Napoleon and Illya hiding from that one guard in a way that puts Illya in immediate danger though it would be smarter to be the darker dressed smaller Napoleon in front. 

- that curious head tilt from Napoleon. It reminds me of a puppy again. 

- yes, it could be Napoleon gloating about his ability to open a nearly uncrackable safe, but I think it’s to include Illya in what he is doing and not just have him stand by. Because, despite what he is saying, they are already partners, if only unconsciously. (Also Napoleon’s biceps and ass. Why are both guys so freaking handsome?) 

- The camera on the vault door moving with it… Beautiful. 

 -Illya’s face as the alarm goes off: smug and annoyed at the same time to be right. 

- the two switching positions as they run from the gunfire to Napoleon before Illya and always as far away from danger as possible. (We see Napoleon kill one person in the whole fight too.) 

- Napoleon eating during Illya trying to run away from the guards is… Who even has that in their car? Then Napoleon is ready to drive away. (He was always an one man team. Sanders and the CIA were the people caging him, ordering him around, not working with him. No one can be trusted because they will use anything against you.) But he already cares too much, he always cares too much and that’s way he is risking a guaranteed safe escape to save Illya. 

- Illya is worried and the first thing he needs to know is if Napoleon is okay and the sigh when he turns the device off.

 - Napoleon doesn’t sound thrilled at all that he had to sleep with Victoria and it really shows how he is sleeping with women because of appearances and not because he wants to. He never instigates it.

 - That whole Gaby standing on a table scene… Where to begin? Napoleon standing on the balcony, giving Illya the opportunity to be alone with Gaby, because he just realized that Illya feels attracted to her, which I still chalk up to very limited human contact for a long while. Putting Gaby on the table so that she is taller than the boys is a clever tactic to create a change in dynamic, similar to putting her on top of Illya after their wrestling match two nights ago. Illya had to only flick one switch which Gaby could have done herself easily. She tried to get Napoleon to touch her because he is the supposed ladies man but has no luck at all with him, so she switches to Illya, masterfully playing him. (I also believe the tracker hadn’t been activated because she met with Waverley who as we all know now lives in Room 304 of their hotel.) 

- Napoleon’s timely interruption was because he was watching. His shoulders are stiff and there is no smile, despite the clever little quip he delivers. 

- Illya threw his hat away when he thought he would be jumping into the water. How many has he brought with him? 

- I really need a scene in the sequel where the three of them talk about the fact that Gaby had been lying to them. Yes, they’re all spies and agents, but this is still not a way to build trust. 

- that sassy head shake Illya made when Gaby told Rudi about them. - Napoleon’s act of being completely fine and in control as he looses the grip on the situation. He can’t do anything about losing consciousness, but at least he can choose how he is doing it. 

 - Napoleon strapped in the chair, again not in control at all, enduring the pain in absolute silence. The way he doesn’t look Victoria in the eye when she leans close s the slow panic settling in. Gaby betrayed him, the CIA sees him as an expendable pawn and Illya is a KGB agent after the disk. There is absolute no reason for Napoleon to believe anyone is coming to save him and that’s why hope is slipping, dread and fear. - the use of Shadow and light in the torture scene is incredibly well done and engineered. 

- having pictures of himself where Rudi is the doctor eliciting pain in others is so perverse it fits perfectly. 

 - Napoleon still suffers the pain in silence even as he is sure no one will come for. He won’t give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him weak. Illya races to him, hoping to be there in time even as his task is to get the disk, nothing else. (Damn the music hits me again.) 

- the pure relief on Napoleon’s face, the way he relaxes completely when he sees Illya. How Illya is so much less tense now that he is seeing Napoleon alive, in comparison to how he was in the car. He needs to cross his arms to not rush forward to get Napoleon off the damn chair. 

 - Illya’s wide shocked eyes as he accidentally shocked Napoleon who is not even that surprised at the childish curiosity from the giant. 

 - Illya’s humour. Love it. 

- How did Napoleon get his jacket out of the fire? I want to believe Illya got it for him, but who knows. 

- The complete unwillingness on their faces the entire phonecalls, because they know what is coming. They know agencies like these too well. Napoleon looks at Illya and already knows he won’t be able to do it. Illya looks at Napoleon and knows he will do it if necessary but it will break another piece of him. 

 - Waverley is such a sassy bitch for a Brit. 

 - scene transitions are so beautifully done. I’m in love. 

- Napoleon’s ability to spot the Watch from maybe a minute total of observation time when it was on Illya’s wrist proves once again his sharp eye. 

- Napoleon called Illya by his first name over the com. And this is after being given the kill order. 

 - Illya on a motorbike. Ugh. Too hot. 

- the camera movements are so amazing. Everything is coming together so nicely. 

 - yes, Illya can throw a motorbike but Napoleon is fucking strong too.

 - I may not like Illya and Gaby as a romantic pairing, but watching him kill a guy with a knife while watching the life go out of his eyes without flinching and then transform into this soft protective guy is a sight to behold. 

- Illya’s expression of “of fucking course we did all that for the wrong warhead”. 

- napoleon swallowing with a stony expression hiding how fucking scared he is that they might fail. 

 - Napoleon has such a way with words. I love it. 

- Napoleon looks over to Illya while Victoria is talking and Illya nods, conveying confidence in Napoleon and assuring him their part of the plan is ready. 

 - Napoleon must feel so satisfied. The woman who drugged him, took away his control and forced him into spending the night with her for proof that he is who he says he is, who put him at the mercy of a psychopath, who wanted to kill a fuckton of people with a nuclear bomb, just got what was coming to her, and while he might not entirely aprove of killing, he most likely doesn’t disapprove of this entirely either. 

- Illya's soft expression and the affection in his everything. While Gaby doesn't seem remotely as open and her guard is still pulled up high. 

- Illya's barely controlled face. Left by Gaby with whom he could have had something good, betrayed by Napoleon he had just started to trust and believed he didn't have to kill him, but he was wrong. Everything destroyed in one sentence and then of course, Oleg who is not a friend or a colleague or a person Illya can trust either. He is alone again. But still he can't verbally agree to the order to kill Napoleon, even as his rage and pain threaten to consume him completely. 

- Napoleon let Illya out of his sight in the same room as him. A first in the whole movie. Then he sees Illya's face properly and know immediately that something's wrong. He knows him too well. Napoleon places a gun in reach because he knows. He knows Illya is there to kill him for the disk and this is still an option. Kill the Russian if necessary was the order, but when did Napoleon ever play by Sander's rules if he didn't had to? Napoleon deliberately shows Illya his back, emphasizing to Illya his trust, asking him if he is okay which is giving him an out. His frown says it loud and clear that he doesn't want it to go down like this. Napoleon is not wearing a mask in front of Illya, opening himself up. Napoleon sees Illya reaching for his gun, grabs his own and makes a conscious decision: placing his life in the hands of the man who he is convinced will kill him. He takes a leap of faith, does something he has never done in his life, because this is Illya and he won't be able to kill him, even in self preservation. 

 - napoleon and Illya saying their last words to each other, thinking they will never see each other again and they are lying, Napoleon with a complete straight face because his masks are perfect, but Illya with a tiny smile. Illya looks more relaxed than ever.

 -Waverley is still a sassy bitch and I love it. - Waverley also is a former alcoholic and opium addict. Interesting. 

- under psychological disorders, Napoleon has gambling Backgammon and serial womanizer. Both seems bullshit. He never once went after a woman, never treated a woman differently than he did any man. And if gambling, why the hell backgammon? This seems to be another thing Napoleon manipulated for him to feel the semblance of control in the cage he is living in.

 - Again I must say the music is still brilliant and those credits are wonderfully edited with the pictures. (I felt like I was running out of adjectives there.)

[placetobenation]

Melody Time

Release Date: May 27th, 1948

Inspiration: N/A

Budget: $1.5 million

Domestic Gross: $1.81 million

Worldwide Gross: $2.56 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

IMDB Score: 6.4/10

Storyline (per IMDB): Segments: “Once Upon a Wintertime,” two lovers rescued from an icy river by friendly animals; “Bumble Boogie,” bee beset by musical instruments and symbols come to life; “Johnny Appleseed,” story of the legendary pioneer tree-planter; “Trees,” mood piece set to musical treatment of Joyce Kilmer’s poem; “Little Toot,” story of a heroic little tugboat who saves an ocean liner; “Blame it on the Samba,” Donald Duck and Jose Carioca have the blues blown away at a Latin cafe; “Pecos Bill,” story of the legendary cowpoke, his trusty mount Widowmaker and his sweetheart Slue Foot Sue.

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue to trek our way towards the end of the 1940s with the fifth straight package film released during this time. It’s been no secret in doing these reviews that the package films have not held up that well which isn’t to say they’ve been bad which they aren’t, but compared to what I have watched prior to them I have seen a downturn in quality. Fortunately, we only have two more to go and hopefully this film ends up slightly better than what Make Mine Music was, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Voice Cast: Much like Make Mine Music, we have some big names for the time brought in to serve as either the narrators or singers for the segments though some of them also provide voices for the characters in a few of the segments. We first have Buddy Clark who sings the title song and provides the buffers between segments which he does a fine job at, and then for the Winter Wonderland segment we have Francis Langford performing in what would be one of her final performances on the big screen. Next we have composer and musician Freddy Martin who leads the orchestra in playing “Flight of the Bumblebee” and then for the story of Johnny Appleseed, we have radio personality Dennis Day who narrates while also voicing Johnny and his guardian angel. We then have a returning group as the Andrews Sisters tell the story of Little Toot and following that, we have bandleader Fred Waring along with his group the Pennsylvanians as they perform the music for the poem about trees. For “Blame it on the Samba”, the Dinning Sisters perform the song while organist Ethel Smith performs the organ and makes a live action cameo playing the organ while Donald and Jose dance for her. Finally for the segment on Pecos Bill, we have a few more live action cameos as legendary actor Roy Rogers narrates the story of child actors Luana Patten and Bobby Driscoll while Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers sing the story of Pecos Bill. Those involved did well in their jobs and they were pretty big names for the time, and for some of them this would be the peak of their careers while for others it was just another step in their careers.

Hero/Prince: N/A

Princess: N/A

Villain: N/A

Other Characters: So again much like Fantasia and Make Mine Music, we don’t have any main characters as we just have characters that are specific to their own segments and we don’t see them intertwine. For the first segment, we have the couple that is known as Joe and Jenny though they do not speak at all, and we also have the animals that accompany them as well as help Joe save Jenny in the end. We then have the bumblebee who goes through a wild ride in “Bumble Boogie”, and then in our first major segment we have Johnny Appleseed and his guardian angel along with the pioneers and animals featured as well. Next we have Little Toot along with the other tugboats who shun him when he causes chaos before accepting him when he saves a ship during a storm, and then we have the return of Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, and the Aracuan bird who join Ethel Smith in dancing the samba. Finally, we have Roy Rogers, Luana Patten, Bobby Driscoll, and the cowboys who sing the story of Pecos Bill, and in the actual segment we have Pecos Bill, his love Slue Foot Sue, and the cowboys of the town they live in. This was fine as again these characters worked well for the segments that they were featured in and really besides Donald and Jose, they wouldn’t work well within the other segments especially since nothing connects them together.

Songs: Once again much like Fantasia and Make Mine Music, we have a film where each segment is basically either a song animated or a segment that is mainly sung by someone so those will not be included here even though they were considered. However, we do have one song that is included in here and that is the title track for the film entitled “Melody Time”, and it is pretty similar to Make Mine Music in that it was written so that the film could have a title track. It was a fine song to start things off for the film and works well for the film, but much like the other title tracks of the package films it doesn’t stand up to the other major Disney songs.

Plot: Not to sound like a broken record, but we once again have a film that is pretty much in the same vein as Fantasia and Make Mine Music in that there is no overarching story in the film, instead it is a series of segments set to music that may feature some dialogue or narration. Each segment was completely different from the other ones so there was no real flow between segments, and the only buffer to each segment was a magic paintbrush that would showcase who was up next while we heard the narrator hype the segment. It was fine for what it was since it was pretty much just a bunch of animations around the music aside from telling the stories of Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill, and it worked well for a film like this as again it was the same style of Fantasia and Make Mine Music.

Random Watching Thoughts: I didn’t think Radio RKO Pictures was still around even at this point; Trigger: The Smartest Horse in the Movies; Once again, we have a title song made specifically to intro the film of the same name; It is kind of interesting how they make it seem like you are watching a variety show given how many segments there are; Kind of funny that we have a segment about a winter wonderland given that the film was released in May; I don’t know why, but this animation just feels very un-Disney like; They had to find numerous ways to make a variety of hearts to put over the romance in this segment; How did they go from being on a pond to being in a river so quickly, and where did that waterfall come from?; It is interesting knowing that since this was before TV, their guest stars were mostly stars on the radio; Fun fact: the segment about the flight of the bumblebee was originally considered for Fantasia; That poor bee went through so much with the instruments blowing him around and stalking him; I feel like Johnny Appleseed is not talked about much in the modern day for how legendary a pioneer he was; I wonder if Johnny ever at any point in his life grew tired of apples and wanted to grow something else; It’s always funny that the pioneers were so excited to travel out west completely unaware of the dangers they were going to face; They really made apples seem like nature’s greatest gift; You have to be so dedicated to your craft if you pay no heed to any animals that are ready to attack you; When has a skunk ever been referred to as a black and white cat?; You want to know how to tame animals when they are prepared to attack them, just pet them softly and they will fall in love with you. Typical Disney logic; There is no jubilee quite like an apple jubilee; That chipmunk on Johnny’s shoulder again looks suspiciously like Dale, but where’s Chip?; You must be very happy with your life if you spend 40 years just planting apple seeds before falling asleep under a tree and dying peacefully; Even in death, Johnny feels like he can continue planting the frontier until the angel tells him he can plant in heaven; Little Toot was basically acting like a disobedient toddler even though he wanted to be a help; How strong was Little Toot that he could push that big ship around with such ease to cause it to crash into the city?; I get that Little Toot had to be punished for what he did, but forcing him out into the ocean by himself seems a bit harsh; Even the buoys and lighthouse had no sympathy for Little Toot; Is it a coincidence that there just happened to be a ship in need of help so that Little Toot could redeem himself?; I feel like by this point they were scraping the bottom of the barrel by doing an animated segment about a poem to a tree; This “Trees” segment seems like it could’ve fit better in Bambi; Good to see Donald, Jose Carioca, and the Aracuan bird one more time, almost like they were the poster children for these package films since they have been in a bunch of them; I like how Donald and Jose were figuratively and literally blue until the samba brought the color back to them; Also, is it coincidental that there is always a live action female whenever Donald and Jose are around?; I wonder if you ask someone what they know about Roy Rogers, they might mention the chain of fast food restaurants that are named for him; I know Texas is the biggest state in the continental US, but talk about your exaggerations when they showed the size of Texas compared to the other states, plus we apparently have the Gulf of Texas which replaced the Gulf of Mexico; So Pecos Bill was raised by coyotes similar to how Mowgli was raised by wolves in “The Jungle Book”; Fitting that the welcoming committee for the desert is a flock of vultures; Fun fact: the scene with the tornado was edited out of the video release originally due to Bill smoking a cigarette yet somehow the scene with Bill chasing the Native Americans was kept in; Nothing comes between a cowboy and his horse expect for a beautiful woman; Western weddings were very complex, especially back in the old days; That bustle must be strong as hell to keep Sue bouncing repeatedly until she was able to bounce to the moon, and how did she survive in space?

Overall Thoughts: Overall, this film was just slightly better than Make Mine Music but it is still not that great of a film which is unfortunate. Again, I want to make it clear that these films are not bad per se and they are fine for what they were, but when you are comparing them to the other films in the Disney canon they do not hold up that well. These package films were already kind of maligned to begin with and I was hoping that perhaps they were more underrated and underappreciated, but sadly that has not been the case. We only have one more film left in the package era before we begin the new decade and jump right back into the major films, and hopefully the last package film can end this era on a good note. As for Melody Time, it is a perfectly acceptable film for what it was though it definitely ranks near the bottom of the ranks of the Disney film canon.

Final Grade: 3.5/10

[symphonicshakespeare]

Program Notes from Ever-Fixed Mark: A Senior Voice Recital

An Introduction

Last year, I presented a junior lecture recital entitled “Symphonic Shakespeare”, a study of the adaptations of playwright William Shakespeare’s texts into western Classical music. It only made sense that I should continue learning about the ways in which his timeless narratives and characters were rewritten, redefined, or interpreted by the music in which they were set. This recital aims to address the role of the soprano, which I have come to find in many contexts represents the love interest. It is no secret that Shakespeare’s writing embodies a type of romance, eroticism, and affection that shapes the way we as a society approach and understand relationships. Aside from understanding the significance of adaptation, then, this recital is to showcase the multifaceted and complex concept of “love”.

About the title: “Ever-Fixed Mark” is taken from Sonnet 116, in which he writes: “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds, / Or bends with the remover to remove. / O no! it is an ever-fixed mark,” (116: 2-8). I thought it was fitting, as all of the songs on the program have to do with love or some shape of it, to name my recital. Additionally, written notation, music itself is but an ever-fixed mark, bound to exist so long as the score, or even the melody from rote, is maintained.

“It was a lover and his lass”

The arts have intertwined for as long as they’ve existed as a means of expression—and in the English Renaissance, especially on the stage of the Elizabethan theatre, so they did. “It was a lover and his lass” was a diegetic (meaning the music was a witnessed part of the performance) number in Act V, scene III of As You Like It, sung by one of the pages to the betrothed Audrey and Touchstone. In the scene, Touchstone expresses dislike of the song, as it represents little of actual love; its lyrics are ridiculous, overall, it’s silly, and there’s really no substance—but the music, just as love itself, is beautiful despite the frivolity of the antics happening lyrically.

Thomas Morley (1557-1602) was an English renaissance secular and sacred composer, singer, organist, and publisher, probably most renowned today for his madrigals (secular a cappella pieces for six to eight voices). He published this tune in his anthology, First Book of Ayres, in 1600. It contained English songs for voice and lute, and although it cannot be confirmed that this version of the song was used in the production that William Shakespeare would have presented at the Globe, it is known that Morley and Shakespeare, two creative contemporaries, did not collaborate accidentally.

“If Music Be The Food of Love”

Following his death, Shakespeare’s works (as well as those of other authors) were disseminated into spin-offs and retellings by other playwrights and publishers. His portfolio edition of these stories would disappear from the repertoire, but nonetheless influenced English literature and drama for centuries to come.

Colonel Henry Heveningham (1651-1700) created a text, adapted from Duke Orsino’s opening dialogue in Twelfth Night I.i.1-15 as he laments to his attendant Curio about his failed attempts at wooing the fair Olivia. Compare the original text to the lyrics below:

Although it certainly comes from the same place (Duke Orsino’s desperate, fascinated appetite for a humanistic satisfaction be it tangible or expressed through creative means) it’s obviously different. The latter, by Heveningham, is written as a ballad, between two lovers, instead of an address.  Henry Purcell sets this strophic text with word painting, the longing emphasised by a melody that slowly climbs the staff with accompanying crescendo, that eventually falls dramatically at the end of the verse, relinquishing itself to the accompaniment and too, hypothetically, the object of the serenade.

“O, let me weep,” from The Fairy Queen

The Fairy Queen is another example of Shakespeare’s work being adapted after his death. This particular semi-opera, first performed in 1692, is based on Midsummer Night’s Dream—in the spoken moments, the original text remains unchanged, but Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and his librettist Elkanah Settle (1648-1724) change some of the text in ‘masques’, or musical scenes prompted by magical, supernatural, or drunken characters, to fit seventeenth-century dramatic conventions. “O, let me weep”, or as it is more commonly called, ‘The Plaint’ is one of these masques. It was written after the opera had already premiered, as a kind of showcase piece for countertenor or soprano performer—superstars in their own right during the Baroque era.

The Baroque era was the last period in which English composers held strong relevance until the turn of the twentieth century, compared to their continental contemporaries. Henry Purcell was a powerhouse in this regard; he was proficient in various styles of counterpoint yet mainly championed the English Baroque style in his works, composed in both sacred and secular genres with substantial popularity, and also composed for theatre and opera.

“V’adoro, pupille” from Giulio Cesare

Shakespeare wrote the historical drama Julius Caesar in Spring of 1599. The political tensions in England were high, as Queen Elizabeth reached the end of her reign. Subjects of republicanism versus monarchy were circulating, and to depict the killing of a king would be tantamount to treason. However, by using Plutarch’s Lives as his source material, an author that Queen Elizabeth I studied, he effectively avoided the threat of creative persecution. In the eighteenth century, however, the subject of a political history was ripe for opera seria—and librettist Nicola Francesco Haym (1678-1729) created Giulio Cesare in Egitto with Georg Frederic Händel (1685-1759) for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724 during the composer’s tenure at the English court. It was a relatively successful work, and one of Händel’s more (if not most) well known Italian operas to date.

Her presence may be more pertinent in the related Shakespearean tragedy, Antony and Cleopatra, but in Händel’s opera, Cleopatra’s affairs are everything but ignored. In this aria, she admires the young, handsome Julius Caesar, lamenting their never to be love, as she’s far past her courting years:

Fünf Lieder WoO post. 22 (Ophelia-Lieder)

The German translations of many of Shakespeare’s plays appeared in the early 19th century, sparked by Schlegel-Tieck’s publication. Among other composers to set Shakespeare’s works, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) approached the setting of Ophelia’s songs in a really interesting way by honouring the sing-song style of the text and folly and falter of rhythm in her speeches, and too had a particular choice of harmonic language. He uses very basic piano accompaniment that resembles a kind of pastorale Renaissance style—in the first and second songs, simpler, lute-like voicings and strophic melodies in the soprano. In the third setting, “Auf Morgen its Sankt Valentin’s Tag,” we hear an off-kiltered compound duple meter that almost feels like the pillars of a village dance. In the fourth and fifth songs, Brahms alludes to a sort of chorale or hymn form, but more notably uses a mixture of modes (variations of scales) between A-flat major and its relative minor key of F. This simple relationship ties together more antiquated musical forms and the Romantic style, which nineteenth-century composers defined with manipulations of harmony and tonal center.

The english translation given is not a direct interpretation of the German lyrics, rather the original text from Hamlet Act IV scene v, lines 23-26, 29-33, 48-55, 165-187, and 190-201, respectively.

“Je veux vivre,” from Roméo et Juliette

The stage of the French grand opera is the perfect setting for the melancholic story of the teenage star-crossed lovers. After his major success, Faust, Charles Gounod (1818-1893) and his librettists, Jules Barbier (1825-1901) and Michel Carré (1821-1872) premiered the opera at the Théâtre Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet, Paris in April 1859, and it rose to great success with over three hundred performances in the first eight years of its lifetime.

Juliette’s aria is a testament to teenage life and fleeting crushes. The viennese waltz setting is fitting for the scene in Act I, when all of the characters are meeting at the Capulet estate for her birthday. Juliette’s whimsy enchants Roméo, and all present. The foreshadowing in the lyrics is exquisite.

“Orpheus with his lute”

Oddly enough, the fervent revival of Shakespeare in the nineteenth century continued well into the following years—as theatres continued to perform his work, it was picked up and circulated. British composers especially, such as Roger Quilter, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Benjamin Britten, among others, sought to honour and redefine their nation’s artistic heritage in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was influenced heavily by Tudor music and brought elements of English folk song into his operas, ballets, religious music, and symphonies. “Orpheus with his lute” is an example of a neo-classical (twentieth century interpretations of Classical or eighteenth century compositional styles) reimagining of Patience’s song from Act III scene I of Henry VIII. The 1901 score is the first of two settings by Williams of the same text.

“Falling in love with love” from Boys from Syracuse

Boys from Syracuse is a 1938 musical by Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) with book by George Abbott (1887-1995) based on A Comedy of Errors. Adriana sings this tune in Act I, while recanting the stories of her romance with her husband to her sewing circle. Love, although promising, isn’t always as it seems. Rodgers used the dance form, the waltz in particular, to set the ‘mood’ of romance and anticipatory or longing emotions. In the age of Musical Theatre composition, the use of these subliminal musical association works to create further drama and ironic or comedic juxtaposition.

The collaboration between Rodgers and Hart was short-lived, and the pair had a falling out—not romantically, but the song holds as a testament perhaps not only to Adriana’s woes, but too their professional relationship.

“The Star Crossed Lovers”(“Pretty Girl”)

“Star Crossed Lovers” is a track on the album Such Sweet Thunder by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, released by Columbia records in 1957. The album is a twelve-part instrumental suite based on Shakespeare’s works, inspired by a visit to a Festival happening at the same time as their Stratford, Ontario performance by the band leader, Duke Ellington (1899-1974), and his arranger, Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967). The album was written in three weeks and performed the next year at the festival.

Interestingly enough, aside from the Morley piece, this is the only selection on the recital that doesn’t necessitate or originate from a gendered performance; rather, it can be interpreted by any singer, as long as it is addressed to the subject of the ballad, “pretty girl”. Strayhorn was an out member of the LGBTQ+ community, and in a small effort to display how not only musical styles but also social ideas changed, I wanted to include it (and this interpretation) on the program.

For full bibliographic references, or to see the project at large, visit symphonicshakespeare.tumblr.com