#i still have the rest of the battlestar song book to go through

[egoborderline]

I love music so much and it’s such a huge part of my life I wish I were better at creating and playing it

I can sing on tune and can kind of sort of play the piano (awful technique and it takes me forever to learn anything, but I can read sheet music) but I have never been able to compose a melody of my own. I can write poetry and fiction pretty dang well, but song lyrics are tough for me.

I’ve been trying to practice more of these skills, but it’s hard to know where to start with a lot of them, ESPECIALLY composition.

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Soooooo... Couples therapy didn’t go well for SamBucky... TFATWS THOUGHTS (long post + spoilers)

Ok. Ok some depth to dude in a suit.

Not a bad guy. But the good guy Erskine always hoped for???

Mmmmmm some parallels between Sam and dude in a suit. Nervous to fill that suit.

“You’re not Captain America”

Aww they referenced his song

“Punch your way out of problems” hmm

Well yknow this is very early Captain America when Erskine gets killed and all Steve could do was be a figurehead of the war and put on shows...so interesting parallels

Bucky finds outtttt and he’s probably gonna deck Sam for giving up the shield

Ahhhhhh I knew it. Boi believed in what Steve believed. And seeing the shield being touted by some other guy gotta hurt.

Wait. But how did Bucky know Sam was gonna be there. Is he even allowed on this base??? Who gave him access???

Bucky my love you can’t help but latch onto the only friend you have huh? Wanna protect the dude that Steve believed could take up the mantle.

Instant chemistry on screen I adore this.

Dear god the sexual tension

Awwww “DONT call me Buck. Only Steve can call me Buck” WHATS THE BET BY THE END HES CALLING HIM BUCK OR THERES A CALL BACK WHERE SAM CALLS HIM BUCK AND BUCKY SAYS STILL CANT CALL ME THAT

Ahahahhahha what happened to the cool guy who caught Caps shield??

Cant even jump out of plane with no parachute. No wonder you didn’t get chosen to be Captain America XD (I kid. Don’t come for me)

Yknow what glad they showed them putting in those ear pieces. Every time they do that, the nonsense of every single Avengers movie and Civil War gets whittled down a little bit more

Sam we need a brooding non blinking dude or else who else will be your comedy prop

That was a flirty smile. Stop flirting Sam you’re on a mission.

Also love that Bucky is kinda caught up in saying all the cheesy sort of “casual” mission banter lines

Wait is that his new hero name orrrr? Bc he’s trying not to be the Winter Soldier anymore..

Their ongoing banter is really refreshing when before in other MCU movies (and this is very back to classics) there was time for maybe one quirky line mid action and the rest is just serious on a mission mode unless Tony was around

Bucky running oh my god I forgot

We had the whole running scene in Civil War too XD

Oop she’s not a hostage

Bucky has to love redwing in future right? (Sike they kill Redwing)

Oooh Sam got the hero music playing!!!

I was wrong. Dude in a suit got CAPS MUSIC????

Oh damn roll through the grass guys take it easy XD

I’m sorry subtitler what are you doing. “Captain America”???

Ok but that tracking shot of them just walking and bantering is great

This is a fun shot oh my god

BIG THREE

Baby there is a bit of difference to Steve jumping on a grenade pre-serum no protective gear of any kind using HIMSELF as a shield and expecting to blow up but hoping to save everyone else in the process... vs you knowing you can get out of it unscathed despite intentions being similar

Not a bad guy but not the “good man” just yet. But hey am appreciating his character depth.

Wow love that they’ve pointed out Bucky’s staring XD

But also this guy was raised up by the government. Steve was the embodiment of freedom.

“Battlestar??? Fuck yo nickname!” Hahahahaha

Oof John really just said they were his wingmen huh

Sam was right tho. I can get behind what dude in a suit is going for but he just has to end it poorly

So Super Soldiers came back as a plot point after the tease that was Civil War huh?

Wait wait so Sharon is still an enemy of state???

Nice. (I don’t remember what this was for)

Wow. And now we see the reality. Bucky, albeit pardoned, was considered a war criminal.

But they still think Sam is the aggressor in a situation where, I think, he would be justifiably upset. A hero, a black hero, was erased from the history books, effectively.

Racial profiling doesn’t stop. They see colour first and person second. And it was only after they realised who Sam was that they apologised. Actually even worse, it took Bucky reminding him to realise who they were.

How goddamn messed up.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmn ok dude in a suit you are overstepping boundaries here.

Bucky definitely needs the therapy, and while I would like him to have more freedom, it should not be on your authority????

Oooh tell em Doctor Raynor.

COUPLES THERAPY TIME

Ooooooh gazing hell yeah time to fall in love lads

Hahahhahahah their legs oh my god

Bucky’s “ha I won” look

Awww no Bucky really believed in Sam because it meant hope for him too I cant

I was rooting for this guy but he is getting on my nerves SNATCH THAT SHIELD OFFA HIS BACK

Yo but I feel bad for the Flag Smashers a lil? Their cause isn’t bad. Their target is governments, corruption etc. but idk we’ll see how things play out.

Jfc Zeno chill out. This music tf.

SHUT THE FUCK UP HOE THATS IT

—-

So we finally have some Falcon and The Winter Soldier bonding action, we love to see it.

Clearly they’re not best of pals, nor do they have Steve as their mediator... gotta navigate their relationship together, and once they nab a bad guy together for the first time, they’ll have better bond and it’ll be nice.

That said, gotta appreciate Bucky was actually more honest with Sam present. So that was some progress.

I am still neutral about Dude in a Suit... he’s not Captain America but idk if he’s earned me calling him just John and he’s not the USAgent yet?? Is that his name??

I can see where his motivations are coming from but he is really buying into this government mandated position that was only possible because Sam gave up the shield, when we’ve looked at him by himself wanting to live up to expectations... but dude is just coming off as a leech??? And I do hope he has a moment where he realises that, despite being the perfect soldier, there is someone who is more of a “good man” that Steve was, that Erskine wanted to take on the power...

And yknow the meeting with Isaiah does set up the very real concept that POC figures of significance are forced to remain in the shadows, or are straight up erased by a white-dominant society that wants to present a specific type of person as a hero for the masses to look up to...

Which is why I found the convo with that kid calling Sam “Black Falcon” interesting. The dad, who told the kid to call him that, might’ve wanted that distinction. In a society that continues to vilify and destroy their “racial minorities”, having a black hero like Falcon (and Black Panther and War Marchine) is important... and that idea leads into Sam’s outrage about Isaiah being unknown for so long... (as a non-American, non-black but POC woman, these are just some thoughts I have)

But yeah. Behind this very MCU veneer, we have some real character-led drama coming through and I’m all for it!

[starrose17]

How about a geraskier Battlestar Galactica 2004 AU? No matter what fandom I’m in I ALWAYS resort to a BSG!AU. Cos there is so much angsty love potential (warning for a bit of non-con too).

Jaskier is a singer brought up from Caprica to perform on the Galactica in her retirement ceremony.  He’s dating Geralt whose a Viper pilot, and the CAG, and doesn’t know Jaskier is arriving, everyone’s been grinning and keeping it secret from him as they haven’t seen each other for a few months with Geralt being on duty here. 

Geralt is doing a flyby for the ceremony and is only listening in on Adama’s speech and entertainment through his viper (I reckon older!Ciri is a viper pilot too, took her under his wing when she first signed up.  And hell let’s make Yen one too, ex-wife, but remaining good friends).  He hears Jaskier start to sing and suddenly Ciri and the others are teasing him over the radio as he tries not to grin at hearing his loves voice (the others being the other witchers).

Back on the Galactica Jaskier hurries to Geralt’s quarters where he and the others are drinking in celebration.  As soon as Jaskier arrives everyone starts wolf whistling as Jaskier leaps in Geralts arms and kisses him deeply, and Geralt is just raising his middle finger to everyone as Jaskier kisses him and then tells them all to fuck out his cabin, he has a thorough ravishing of a welcome to attend to.

“You didn’t tell me you were performing here.”

Jaskier grins, “That would be the point of a surprise.”

Geralt then fucks him senseless after two months of not seeing him, and its all love and cuddles and wonderfulness and then of course, the cylons attack.  

(The rest under the cut because this got bloody long.)

Throughout the chaos as the plot goes on Geralt proposes to him, but before they can get married Jaskier shoots Adama, because he’s the sleeper agent cylon here and has no idea.  His plot basically follows Boomers.

Starbuck tries to torture information out of him (like she did with Leoben in the series, trying to drown him etc), and Jaskier insists he is not a cylon he can’t be it’s not possible and is freaking out and just constantly asking to see Geralt. But Geralt won’t see him, Geralt is having his own crisis, of how could he have been fucking a cylon all this time?! And not fucking him but...he loved him, and it made him feel sick and furious and fool for being led on.  At this stage he’s too blinded by anger and humiliation to realise of course he still loves him completely, but he’s gonna realise that too late.

Starbuck continues to painfully interrogate Jaskier, and in the end in tears Jaskier says, “If you were told, right now, that you were really a cylon.  Would you suddenly know all their secrets?  Would you know everything about them? I don’t know anything!!! Please...stop hurting me...”

Getting nothing out of him it’s decided to throw him out the airlock, and he’s terrified and shaking as he stands there all alone as the others watch the through the glass window into the control room.

“Any last words?”

And he just stands there, hands and feet still cuffed, and he starts to sing.  His voice is small and terrified, but he’d always sung, and the song he sings is one he wrote for Geralt, back when they first met, he wants his last thoughts to be of the happier time, and not one where Geralt can’t even bare to come and see him.  And the doors open, and Jaskier is sucked out.

The fleet jumps away, and it’s just Jaskier frozen body alone in space, until a cylon baseship FTL’s in, and suddenly a new Jaskier in a new body is gulping lungfuls of new air as he fights his way out of that goopy liquid and bolts upright, surrounded by others cylons, and just looses his mind that he really is a cylon.

Back in the fleet time has passed and the Pegasus had arrived, boasting of capturing their own cylon agent and keeping him prisoner on board.  They’ve got a lot out of him but still need more, and they specially request Geralt.  Geralt wonders why on earth they want him, he has been depressed and angry and moping ever since Jaskier, and no one really trusts him because of who Jaskier was, so this was a chance to prove he really was human.

As they take him on board the officers are joking on how much they’ve tortured this one, making into a game, starving it, forcing themselves on it, after all its just a ‘toaster’ you can’t rape metal, laughing at how real and good it feels though.  Geralt is turning his nose up at this feeling bad for this cylon already, they’d all seen how human these models are, perhaps they did feel pain.

They take him into the same cell as in the show, the white room with the glass large glass wall, and in the middle of the floor lays another Jaskier model, wearing nothing but a white bedshirt that barely covers his arse, and Geralt stares.  There are bruises everywhere, arms, neck...thighs...his wrists are red raw, he’s thin and broken and already shaking in absolute terror at the sight of the officers. His blue eyes are wide and red and filled with agony and a wish for death.

Geralt is so shocked he can’t even move, he can’t think of anything but his own Jaskier, he can’t see anyone but his own Jaskier, and he’s filled with anger.  But, he goes in with a tray of food that they gave him, and promises him he wont hurt him, hating how this Jaskier tries to curl in on himself as though waiting for a beating immediately.  Geralt put the tray near him on the floor, and then backs away, sitting against the glass wall as the officers leave them alone.

“It’s not a trick,” Geralt said quietly, hot tears threatening in his own eyes, “I’m not going to take it away at the last second. It’s yours.  I’m just going to sit here. You don’t have to say anything.  I’m just going to be here with you.”

And slowly, very very slowly, a thin hand and a thin wrists edges its way cautiously forward, taking a single slice of apple and quickly bringing it back to his mouth, taking small, tiny bites, as though wanting to savour it not knowing it he’d be allowed to take another.

This plot follows the series, so this Jaskier, with Geralt’s help, eventually blows up the Pegasus killing himself as well, because no matter how much Geralt helped him, told him of his own Jaskier, he couldn’t live with that they’d done to him.  It’s never traced back to Geralt for helping, and life goes on, except Geralt has a new sympathy. He’s not on the cylons side don’t get him wrong, he never would be, but perhaps there was a way of working together, to stop all this killing.

HIS Jaskier, the one in the the new body, comes aboard Galactica with some other models to do exactly that, a truce, and no one was expecting him, and Jaskier cautiously gets off the raptor looking around at all these people he knew, and he locks eyes with Geralt, and Geralt can’t breath, because he sees the recognition in Jaskier’s eyes. It was his Jaskier. A(n already) long story short Geralt apologises so much for not being there for him, and Jaskier is understanding, he was revealed to be a cylon after all, oh he’s still hurt, terribly hurt, but Geralt just holds him and tells him all this time without him has been hell the things he’s seen he just wants this all to stop and he loves him he loves him so much and will he please, please, “Marry me, please, I still want to if you do.”

Jaskier starts crying in the first happiness he’s felt for ages and they make love and it feels like home again.  Except the “truce” is a lie, unknown to Jaskier, and they all get arrested.  Alone in his cell some of the guards decide to take a leaf out of the Pegasus book and go in with their hands on their trousers and have the terrified Jaskier bent over the desk before Geralt suddenly walks in and fuck everyone is dead in seconds as he bashes their brains in against the walls and he takes Jaskier’s hand and they run and go into hiding together.

And yeah, I dunno, somehow Jaskier becomes a key player in taking down a cylon baseship with Geralt’s help (perhaps what boomer did with the bomb but was aware of doing it unlike her) and he’s sort of welcomed back, by Adama himself.  People still find it hard to trust, and he has to do everything he can to prove he is on the human side (when the virus attacks the firewall system he attaches the lead into his arm to help like Boomer did), but yeah, they get  married and Ciri and Yen and the others who knows him and know Jaskier are the first the properly welcome Jaskier back, and it’s a little family and Jaskier is so happy and they all work together to try and stop the war.

[thestateofardadreaming]

I was tagged by @hairzier for this quarantine tag game. Thank you for tagging me,

Where are you isolated? (Country or city)

Switzerland.

What are you currently reading or watching?

I’m rewatching Battlestar Galactica. This show was made for time such as these. Best tv show ever made. It makes me think about everything with a detached perspective.

I finished reading The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad : a very poignant and well written book. I’m still letting this book sink in before I move on to the next. I have other less fun books to read but I’m procrastinating.

If you can go outside what do you like to do during this time?

We are allowed to go out for exercise or for grocery shopping. I just go for walks or runs. But there are too many people outside. 

I’m lucky to have a garden. So I meet my neighbor every day for a chat over the fence between our gardens. We both bring our chair, our own cup of tea/coffee/lemonade and keep the 2m distance. Her cat hops from one side to the other.

I also garden. 

Any fascinating concept you’re studying?

Cyclical time : whether it’s a monthly lunar cycle, yearly (like seasons) or in a bigger scope in human history or even natural history. Some things are repeated. And the the cycle moves on, like an unwinding spiral. We’ll live through this, we, the human specie has already lived through such times.

"All of this has happened before. and all of this will happen again" (BSG quote)

A song/s that resonate with your state of mind at the moment?

Mhh.... To be Human by Marina. My life is usual lived in a very different way from most people I know but this experience makes me feel part of humanity. I feel connected to the rest of the world. 

Favorite impulsive/ bad coping techniques?

I don’t think I have any. I’m lucky, this quarantine isn’t affecting me in this way yet. I do check the local news more than I usual do in the hope that they have good news. I do check more on those I love and care about. I’m usually less stressed about keeping in touch. But I wouldn’t call this impulsive nor bad coping techniques.

 I’m tagging ; @myheartisblackandblue @duchesspeggy, @usuallyherdragon@uildaan  @corvidae-quills, @kandidlyrandom and @amongwildjuniper

[zachvillasource]

interview | zach villa - schonmagazine.com

As the infamous Night Stalker, Iowa-born actor Zach Villa is a chaotic evil in the latest series of American Horror Story. Entitled AHS: 1984, the show plays off the hopes and tropes of the 1980s, incorporating elements from films like Friday the 13th and Halloween into a spine-tingling thrill ride. The chief villain of the series is Villa’s Richard Ramirez, a reality-based serial killer set on making the lead characters’ lives a living hell — quite literally.

In real life, however, Villa is an obvious contrast. A multihyphenate with a strong career across a range of disciplines, he first caught the attention of the mainstream from his collaboration with Evan Rachel Wood in the project Rebel and a Basketcase. Now, as AHS: 1984 keeps audiences around the world thoroughly spooked, Villa opens up to Schön! about growing up in Iowa, his willingness to collaborate with Taylor Swift, and the unexpected call that announced his role on American Horror Story.

How did you get your start in acting?

Well, I’ve been on stage since I was two, so the whole shebang started quite early. Acting, oddly, was an afterthought when I first started. I had been dancing and singing on stage for years, idolising great song-and-dance performers like Gene Kelly, Donald O’ Connor, and Sammy Davis Jr. when it occurred to me that I should probably focus on learning the craft of acting if I wanted to continue pursuing that particular path in the entertainment industry. I had focused intensely on two out of the three “triple threat” disciplines, so I guessed it was time that I figured out the third part. It was an accessory to being able to perform musical theatre roles more effectively, and I guess that backfired in a sense and became a more central focus as I developed.

Iowa isn’t the most common birthplace for a big-time actor. What does your family — and presumably other Midwestern relatives — think of your journey into Hollywood?

They are both thrilled and confused. Don’t get me wrong — my family is very happy for me, and while we have had our spats over the years about whether or not I should be pursuing a highly volatile, financial unstable career, they have ultimately come through and rooted for me and my success.

That being said, I think pursuing a career in the mainstream entertainment industry is a very singular experience. Unless you’ve lived it and hit the pavement in NYC, L.A., etc., it’s very hard to understand the day-to-day struggles of a performing artist. I think that certain regions of the country are — generally — a majority of media consumers as opposed to creators, and there is a disconnect between the public and those of us pursuing an arts career that propagates the fallacy of things being easy and breezy, since you don’t have to get up every day at 6 AM, go to the office, and then come home and make dinner. People see that lack of structure as undisciplined and fancy-free. Let me tell you, it’s anything but. Artists have to hit the pavement in a very different way that is highly varied from day to day, and that uncertainty introduces a unique kind of stress, in addition, to actually trying to be good at your job. I always say that booking work is my “job” as an actor, and when I actually book a gig, that’s where the job ends and the craft and career begins. Translating that to someone without firsthand experience can be infuriatingly difficult.

Where were you when you found out about landing AHS: 1984 and the scope of your role? What did you do?Who did you call first?

I was in the studio recording an audiobook — one of the many ways that this particular actor has been able to supplement their income, and it has been such a gift. I was waiting on the call, and I stopped narrating mid-sentence — much to the puzzlement of my audio engineer — and picked up. I got the news, opened the door of the vocal booth and leaned against the front wall, sliding down to a sitting fetal position, and started to tear up. I called a few close friends and family and walked around for the better part of an hour mildly freaking out. The studio staff secretly went and bought a bottle of champagne down the street, and after I finished my page quota for the day they surprised me with a toast. Then everything in my life became a blur.

Of course, without spoiling anything, what can you tell us about your role as Richard Ramirez in AHS: 1984?

Oh, that’s a very difficult question. Richard Ramirez was a real person. I am playing a character that shares his name and is informed by him and his history. Beyond that, you’ll just have to wait and see.

What was the most memorable moment from shooting the series?

I can’t say my absolute favourite without revealing secrets! But I’ll say that the encounter with the hiker in episode two was quite “fun” — if you can call pretending to murder someone “fun.” The makeup and FX team on the show is the best in the biz, and the blood rig that was used in that scene was just wild. It was messy and crazy, and [there was] high pressure to get it right in one take, and I loved it.

What’s your method for getting into character, both in the weeks and moments leading up to a shoot or performance?

I have to play these cards close to the chest. Some of it is instinct. I just feel as though I am inside the character’s head at some point after spending enough time with the material, but it’s different with each role.

Sometimes I need to know how they sound, sometimes it’s historical research. It’s ALWAYS spending an exorbitant amount of time with the script — that’s the golden rule for me. Whether its Shakespeare or the 200th episode of Friends, you have to start with the text as an actor, and the most minute differences in phrasing, punctuation, word choice, etc. are clues to how this person operates as a human being and in the world. I always come back to the text. Any other secret sauce that I do I’ll keep secret for now.

What’s been the most challenging part of playing a character like this?

I’ll modify the question to ask what’s the most important part of playing a character like this… and that, I think, is being able to let it go at the end of the day — which I don’t always succeed in doing. Sometimes after an intense shoot it takes me a minute to let go of the energy I was carrying around on set. I pride myself on being able to flip in and out, but that is challenging from time to time for me on this particular project.

If you could only watch one film and one television series for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

The Back to the Future Trilogy for movies and Battlestar Galactica for TV. Nerd alert.

Apart from acting (and dance) you’re also well-versed in music. How did you begin as a musician?

The same time that I started hearing it, so very, very early. Growing up with a dance studio attached to your house, you hear a lot of very diverse music over the years. That all seeped into my subconscious, and I was writing full-on symphonies in my head walking through the woods in Iowa when I was seven or eight years old. Mind you, I didn’t have the skills to put that into writing or notation — and still don’t, not for the symphonies anyway.

I learned how to read music by playing the violin in elementary school. I didn’t pick up a guitar or actually start producing original music in any tangible way until my junior year at Interlochen Arts Academy. There, my roommate Filip — a wildly talented self-taught metal guitarist and visual arts student from Macedonia — taught me things here and there, and I also taught myself by ear. The Internet, man.

Who are some other musicians with whom you’d like to collaborate?

St. Vincent. Top of the list. Blink 182 — a childhood dream. Jimmy Eat World. John Mayer but only if he lets me be in his next ridiculous green screen music video. Mac Ayers, Tears For Fears, Snail Mail, and oh, I dunno… Taylor Swift. Come at me.

Who are your biggest musical inspirations? And what have you been listening to lately?

Biggest? That’s tough because it changes with each project. Tower of Power is a huge influence for me. My first band was funk-based, and man, they are so groovy. If you don’t know, now you know go listen to them. St. Vincent. Jimmy Eat World. And, regardless of the drama surrounding this artist from time to time, John Mayer. He really is one of the great guitarists of our generation, and more importantly, the songwriting that he produces is top-notch. I’ve learned a lot from diving deep into his material over the years. Miles Davis, and jazz in general, is huge for me. Brain fuel. Listening lately to Sleater-Kinney’s new record, Knuckle Puck, and a lot of 2000s pop-punk.

What else can we look forward to from Zach Villa — be in 2019, 2020 or later?

World domination.

The track on the video content [for this shoot] is the first single — a tease if you will — of my new solo project. Go check it out. My band Sorry Kyle will be dropping a ton of music over the next few months if you’re into punk and emo.

And that’s just music. Acting-wise, post-AHS I’m waiting to see what comes down the pipe. I’m always creating. I want to be fluid in music, movement, film and TV, directing, etc. There’s no time like the present and the present is, well, now. So hang on tight.