#like the sound design of the whole episode was phenomenal but that moment oh my god

[protectorsoftheearth]

The clearing was incredible throughout. But my God did the sound design at the end when the marching drums of the citadel and the brass and the metal of it all swelled make me giddy with horror and understanding.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Legends of the Lasat"

Kevin Kiner please take all my money forever.

Right, attempt two at this. Seriously Tumblr what is the point of having an auto-save feature for posts if it doesn't actually save a decent previous version of the post?

Also WHY THE HELL DID CNTRL+Z DELETE BASICALLY THE WHOLE DAMN POST?!

Anyway.

I'm glad we got to visit this moon space base location again, I think it's such an interesting design.

Another tightly-written opening dialogue exposition scene here, in a few short sentences we learn what they Spectres are here for and why, and that the mission is urgent.

Lol Ezra being evasive about Hondo being his contact. I do wonder how exactly Hondo got that transmitter to Ezra. Did they reconnect sometime offscreen? Did Ezra swipe it during "Brothers of the Broken Horn"? Did Hondo surreptitiously leave it in Ezra's pocket?

However it happened, it's adorable that this once-ruthless bloodthirsty greedy pirate basically decided, "I MUST BEFRIEND THE BABY JEDI, HE'S MY FRIEND NOW I CLAIM HIM."

The camerawork in this scene is phenomenal. This first shot that tracks the Spectres and then dollies just around the corner, as if we are also peeking around it with the characters? This fast almost 270 rotating pan across the Spectres as they make short work of the troopers? Stellar.

(You can also tell they had budget to spare for this episode because the Imperial officer has a face. Lol.)

Love it when they let Ezra be casually awesome.

Hera sounds so aggrieved that Hondo is Ezra's contact lol.

And here we get the reveal, Zeb was captain of the High Honor Guard of Lasan. A bit later in the episode we learn this consists of being a bodyguard protector of the royal family specifically and all citizens of Lasan in general. Sooooo yeah, quite a bit of heavy personal guilt for Zeb here, feeling like he, specifically, personally, failed his entire world. Ouch.

"Hondo could use a little help." <3

Zeb's expressions this scene are painful. :(

Hondo being so dang fond of Ezra aww.

Though not so fond that he doesn't immediately screw everyone over, greedy bastard.

I saw Zeb rolling his eyes there, animators.

So Zeb's interactions with Chava and Grond are very much a Spiritualist vs Skeptic plot, with the expected tragic personal reason for the skeptic's doubt and disbelief. It's also heavily implied that the loss of Lasan, that trauma, made Zeb regress in maturity, made him snippier and more petulant and churlish. As Ezra says later Zeb does act "like a child", so perhaps his being cast as the Child archetype in the Prophecy of the Three was not so off base lol.

Ezra has such cute smiles this episode. <3

LOL Hondo's chipper little "Hello!" at the Stormtroopers.

"Well. This must look... incriminating." This man is a delight in every scene.

I mentioned the camerawork right? This is another nice shot here, this pan down from the cockpit to the nose gun turret to meet Zeb.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The smoke coming from the chimney top of the station.

...Is this Stormtrooper also voiced by David Oyelowo?

Ezra immediately noticing Zeb's scoffing like the empath he is. <3

Love love love seeing the unique cultural way that Lasat interact with the Force, the "Ashla" as they call it, mixed ritual and magitek, prophecies that revolve around certain narrative archetypes and symbolic figures. It's just so cool.

I haven't been talking much about the music yet (oh but believe me we will have much to say on that) but this cue here starts easing just slightly into the mysticism of the Lasat ritual. It's almost Stravinsky-esque in nature, carefully stepping flutes and clarinets, discordant strings. We incorporate just a very soft snippet of the Force theme.

Zeb auto-assuming Ezra is the child.

Lol Hondo putting his arm around that one Stormtrooper's shoulder.

He's so cute asjkhfkajsh. Look at him. He's all like, "Please Dad, can I chant with the weird purple people too?"

HE LOOKS SO FOND AND PROUD AWW.

The score takes a bit of an exotic turn, a mellow arabic flute and possibly a sitar adding to the texture of the melody.

The lighting in this scene egads.

I love this scene I love it so much. Ezra acting as counselor, with his mere presence and curiosity getting Zeb to open up about his past and fears and insecurities. There's so much hurt in Zeb's slumped posture, guilt and grief compete for space in his voice, and I don't think we see him this distraught again until after Kanan's death.

But with Ezra's encouragement, he pulls himself together.

Once again showing off the cool magitek with Chava's staff and Zeb's bo-rifle here and I just love the concept, I love the whole aesthetic of hearing whispers of destiny through the Ashla and then channeling the energy of the universe through arcane, almost magical technology to navigate the stars, like some kind of arcane mariners. And we all thought the bo-rifle was just some kind of standard ordinary weapon, SURPRISE, it's also an ancient Force-magic navicomputer.

And oh wow the parallels with the purrgil next episode and the Chiss sky-walkers in the Thrawn novels.

This is soooooo pretty. The animation here is gorgeous.

After the commercial cut we're in hyperspace and the Ghost is making an almost blind jump out into Wild Space. Hera doesn't seem terribly worried. (Behind the scenes material says she apparently does this all the time.) But the ship's safety protocols flip out when they sense the imploded star cluster and Hera quickly drops them into realspace and one of the most gorgeous moments of the series.

HNNNNNNGHGHHHHH.

This whole sequence is stunning. Some of the best animation of the show, accompanied by one of the best tracks in the score, the star cluster looking like a watercolor spectacle.

And the Stravinsky influenced instrumentation brings the strings front and center; a haunting choir whispers in the background.

Kanan putting one hand on the back of Hera's chair and the other on her shoulder, aww.

Just tell me you wouldn't want this as a wall painting. <3

Chava gives some inspiring words about not pidegonholing oneself into a single role in their prophecy and this motivates Zeb to find a well of inner courage and open himself up to the will of the Ashla.

What I wouldn't give for more on ancient Lasan tech, how their ships must have been designed to integrate with the bo-rifle staffs. It functions as pilot and navigator and also apparently encases the Ghost with a protective shield that keeps it from being crushed by the gravity.

Let that sink in a moment, the staff, when channeling the Force, can literally bend gravity around the ship.

AND AS "JOURNEY INTO THE STAR CLUSTER" WRAPS US IN A VIOLIN SOLO THAT EVOKES MYSTERY AND MYSTICISM KANAN AND EZRA SENSE THEIR HELP IS NEEDED AND CALMLY PLACE HANDS ON ZEB, LIKE THE LAYING OF HANDS DURING CORPORATE PRAYER, AND CHANNEL THE FORCE THROUGH THEM INTO ZEB, WHO LETS IT FLOW THROUGH HIM THROUGH THE RIFLE TO GIVE HIM THE CLARITY OF VISION TO SEE THE WAY THROUGH.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The sparks that pop from a wall panel on the cruiser as Kallus attempts to have it follow the Ghost.

THE CHOIR COMES IN FULL BLAST.

AND ZEB CLOSES HIS EYES IN FAITH AS THE LIGHT TURNS BLINDING.

Whew! And what a rush! The absolute quiet in the score right afterwards gives us a moment to inhale and catch our breath.

Chopper of course chooses to be a pest, releasing the tension.

Lira San being the ancient lost homeworld of the Lasat fits right in with the whole arcane vibe of their culture, like they were connected to a place and people that time forgot.

And tada, we leave with a character arc complete, a new hyperspace route plotted and everything bathed in an aura of serenity.

This episode is one of the best of Season Two, if not the whole series. Everything comes together beautifully in the third act and the story has a feel of both spiritual transformation and wonder. I've already gushed about how interesting and unique the Lasat culture is, how it's presented as a mix of mysticism and technology, with prophecies and wise women, royal families and warriors, and navigators that explored the stars, guided by the Ashla.

Zeb gets more character growth in one episode than some characters get in a season, and he's largely "finished" after this, his issues with his past resolved. (Which isn't to say I wouldn't have loved more character focus on him, just that this is so phenomenal.) His heart-to-heart with Ezra is touching and illustrates just how close they've grown.

And did I mention this episode was pretty? This episode is super pretty and the music is straight fire.

10/10 no complaints. Would give Kiner my money again.

[heckyeahponyscans]

Yeloli Watch Party!

Season 1, Episode 5: Solitary Shelly

English translation

We start with Shelly heading down the alley, following the magic flower petals to the Yeloli Doll Shop.

The end of the alley is incredibly narrow and the shop is in a cul-de-sac. I love this little detail.  A cut off, quiet space in an urban environment--now that is how you set up magic.

Shelly is drawn to the doll shop, which still has Loli in the window, whoops. (Maybe she’s just visiting.) 

Heading into the shop, Shelly meets Evelyn and tells her the dolls are beautiful.

Shelly also talks about how lonely she is;  her studies and extra lessons mean she has no time to make friends and her parents are rarely home.  She has quite a lot of dolls at home, but they aren’t the same as a friend.

Evelyn says these dolls can be a friend.  But a doll and owner much mutually choose each other before leaving the shop.

Then Evelyn uses her magic to open the doll cabinets.  This lady is not circumspect, but I guess she doesn’t have to be.

So when I first saw this scene I thought it was weird how unsettling it was, instead of being a magic moment of awe for Shelly.  Then I translated the subtitles and you won’t believe what happened next (not clickbait).

What you are seeing here is a bunch of dolls rejecting Shelly. 

 “She’s rich, I’ll bet she’s a spoiled girl.” 

“She’s proud and indifferent, not my choice.” 

 “Didn’t she say she had some dolls already? She would ignore me.”  

And Shelly can hear all this, mind you.  Like, wow dolls.  You could just say “no thanks”, you don’t have to roast the poor girl.

So after all that Evelyn says, “I’m sorry, no one chose you.” and Shelly says, “Even dolls don’t want to be my friend. :( “

But then, just as Shelly is resigning herself to a life of loneliness, a mysterious voices says, “I will be your friend!  Only a perfect girl like you is allowed to be my owner.  I will make you happy!”

The voice is coming from a magic peacock feather, which leads Shelly down the hall.  (The animation on the peacock feather is phenomenal.)

Following the feather, Shelly enters a room full of more dolls, including a peacock themed one, who Evelyn introduces as . . . Peacock!

This doll is significant in that it’s the only that really got me interested in Yeloli dolls. What a beautiful design.

Anyway, Shelly and Peacock have a conversation--like, astrally, in a floaty magical liminal space--and Peacock kicks it off by saying, “Hi. I choose you.”  If only Ash had had it this easy with Pikachu.

Evelyn brings Shelly back to reality and tells her, “Peacock is stubborn and arrogant at times. The other dolls think she is proud and indifferent, but actually she is very lonely.”

Of course Shelly immediately identifies with this.

Unlike Mary, Shelly has plenty of money so she asks to buy Peacock.  But Evelyn doesn’t sell dolls.  Evelyn makes magic contracts from magic books.

Books that already have your personal info in them!  (Shelly asks how Evelyn knew her name and Evelyn says, “A doll told me.” Nice.)

I think the Yeloli contract thing is supposed to tie-in to the brochure that comes with the dolls, which has a space for kids to write their names, like the adoption certificate that used to come with Pound Puppies.

Anyway, Shelly agrees to the terms (being sole owner of the doll and never giving it away) and she happily leaves the store with Peacock.

At least she’s happy until she gets back to the car, where the driver frets that she missed her piano lesson.  Give the kid a break, she was getting a magic doll.

Shelly returns home, where she is sad to find she is returning to an empty house . . . again.  Her workaholic parents are never home, and she dreams of returning to the simpler days where they . . . ate whole turkeys together.

It’s especially devastating that they’re missing today . . . on her BIRTHDAY!  Dun dun dun!

So Shelly is crying on her bed, sobbing “I wish my parents would come home”, and oh hey there’s a wish-granting fairy in earshot.

Almost instantly there’s the sound of the front door--it’s Shelly’s Dad!  Followed a minute later by Shelly’s Mom!

A couple things about this scene:  

At first I was nervous that Peacock had magicked up fake replacement parents but no, they’re Shelly’s real mom and dad.

Peacock cancelled Dad’s meeting and Mom’s rehearsal to get them to come home.  Which is, uh, very utilitarian but kind of depressing that the parents weren’t motivated by suddenly remembering their daughter’s birthday or something.

Finally, I’m picking up some tension in the marriage.

Like, when Mom comes through the door this is Shelly’s expression.

And this is dad’s expression.

Then Shelly happily grabs them by the hands, but I can’t help but notice the parents are physically distant from each other and there’s a painting in the background that symbolically makes it look like there’s a big rift between them.

Time will tell if I’m reading too much into this!

For now, they are going to enjoy the cake that Shelly’s mom picked up.  You can tell China has different copyright laws because they sing the entirety of “Happy Birthday” (in Chinese, but same tune).

Shelly’s mom tells her to make a wish, and Shelly does.  For being a rich kid, her wish is quite modest and attainable:  “I would like to make friends at school with my classmates, and also to be able to have ice cream after class.”

Oh wait, it’s not attainable at all because Shelly’s mom is fucking furious.  How DAAAARE Shelly want to socialize and have a life??  Her destiny is to practice the piano at all waking hours so she can become a famous concert pianist like her mother.

Shelly immediately capitulates because she’s clearly used to having her dreams crushed.

Is the dad going to challenge this viewpoint?  No, he also wants Shelly to become a famous concert pianist and he gives her a piano music box for her birthday.  Go to hell, Shelly’s dad.

Shelly at least likes the music box and takes it to her bedroom where she reflects that she’s very happy that her parents came home early.

“But how did they get home so quickly? It's as if a fairy had granted my wish.”

From her box Peacock says, “Yes, it was me”, to which Shelly’s like “HWHAAAT?  I hear a VOICE??”

I really don’t get this; Peacock has talked to Shelly multiple times already.

We finish off with the narrator asking us, the audience, who’s talking to Shelly. We know who’s talking to Shelly, narrator!! Get it together!

[sanstropfremir]

excited to see what you have to say about todays episode cause like the other person said, the stunts from the atz/skz/btob also looked lowkey awkward to watch lmao. i feel like the dance part cant really be judged against each other just based on how different they were. also the ikon/sf9/tbz rap performance was much more khiphop inspired while skz/atz/btob were basically "kpop group's rapline does a unit stage" if you know what i mean lmao. im curious to see if you're going to talk about the judges and how some of them were picked solely to have exposure👀 or if there might be a reasoning behind all of them (the dance girl i understand but like... okay)

also, i have to ask if you watched rtk and if you'd feel comfortable sharing who you think should've won/if the boyz deserved it? as a deobi i know its not that big of a deal but i was lowkey proud and stunned by them during rtk and while i think they're doing good on kingdom too, their performances became way too overwhelming/doesn't leave an impression after for my little brain 🙃 i love them tho. also not that you care but i wish they would represent more their full dance line, because juyeon is doing amazing but it can be mentally and physically tiring to be the ONE guy who does all the dance and center parts, like do it as a trio or smt dont push it all on him while there are ten others on the team

i hope you enjoyed my (very) long review and my apparently literally opposite opinions from everyone else! that’s a lie they’re not opposite, i'm just looking at very different things. thank you for also clocking that the performance stages were two different styles! i'm fairly certain the rankings arent out yet for that stage at least, so i'm not envious of the judges having to decide between two performances that are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum. also i did make a mistake in my review, i just watched the first half of the episode and they do in fact call it the dance stage, so that’s on me. my point still stands though, group dancing is still dancing.

as far as the judges go........why are we upset about them.....? honestly they all seem fine to me. i mean, i can understand people being pressed about s*ju because they make people mad by just existing, apparently, but that doesnt negate the fact that they have nearly two decades of experience in the industry. if they arent going to have changmin do any judging than they might as well get some other sm vets, since yanno, they did kinda establish the industry (sm, not s*ju. although s*ju is the first kpop group i ever remember hearing way back in like, 2008. in canada. before having a personal device with internet access. sooooooo). and i mean, we all have opinions on the separation of art and artist and everyone can draw their own boundaries of who they choose to consume the work of, and that’s valid. i have lots of those lines too. but you can’t deny the sheer amount of experience, and shindong is a director and music video producer, so he ain’t stupid. i dont see any problems with having a lineup of some idol veterans, a frankly incredible choreographer, and some producers. oh wait, are people mad about the rookies????? why are people mad about the rookies?????????????? huh????????????? have people forgotten that rookies spend literal YEARS training before they even debut??? they’re not incompetent, they’re members of the industry that have worked hard to be there and have valid opinions and abilities to recognize what they think is good?? also.......what’s wrong with doing something for exposure? how do you think groups get popular in the first place? fuck, the prize for kingdom is a variety/reality show! which is exposure! you know that’s how arts marketing works, right? if you want people to listen to your music, you have to advertise it to people. you need an audience. if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it sell thousands of albums? thousands of tickets? why are you invalidating artists on the basis of wanting more exposure? are you worried they’re not going to ‘judge fairly’??? you know none of these groups' reputations are going to be hurt by their placement in the show, right. these are all high level groups already, with established brand rep. THEY are doing this show for exposure too. is this what people are complaining about on twitter?? so every stan account promoting fancams and comeback dates under hit tweets has to delete them now because artists aren’t allowed to do anything for exposure anymore. ?????? am i too old??? what happened to make people think that exposure was bad???

i have only watched the stages from rtk, and not while the show was airing, so i dont really have any context for the show as a whole. do i think they deserved to win? i dont really think anyone ‘deserves’ to win a competition show, but they did produce a couple of phenomenal stages, so was i surprised? no. personally i would have picked pentagon because they had the best vocals and also they took a few more conceptual risks that paid off really well. their cover of follow is a fantastic remake and honestly we need more dramatic remakes like that, ones that really change up the sound. i made a couple of conclusions about tbz in my episode four review that are relevant here (they’re at the end of the tbz section). although tbz are good performers, the problem is theyre trying to showcase those skills by being heavily conceptual, but their creative team is ALL over the place and nothing is landing. I dont think they’re doing terrible in kingdom, they’re doing very well, but their creative team is not providing them with a stable conceptual base. i know i make designing sound relatively simple, but it's not at all. i'm just smart and very good at my job. there are a lot of mediocre designers out there, and tbz just do not have a good creative team for kingdom. and i do actually think it's a shame that they’re fronting juyeon so much, because one of their strengths IS their group work. they have a more of a contemporary flavour than most other groups at the moment and they can do some really sharp synchronization that should to be seen more. i wish they had actually done group work for the performance stage, because we’ve already seen juyeon do a solo stage, plus he has solos in all the stages. give him a break and let the others have a chance to do something at least.

[everyone-has-their-story]

Season 3 episode 10 commentary with my sister:

Okay NOW can I stalk their instagrams???

Let’s have a moment of silence to mourn that this is the last episode

This recap is depressing the shit out of me, like thanks for the reminder but no thanks

Please tell me he is not playing video games

SENNE!

Wait, go back for a second!....the poster above the tv says “worry less, laugh more” and if that isn’t a fucking tagline for Robbe then idk what is

Exams? No, Senne, not exams

Senne just munching on some snacks while Robbe is having a crisis

It’s not your fault Robbe!

Senne give him some brotherly advice

Stop mentioning her name!

LOLLL Senne you fool

Listen to the man!

Senne dropping the knowledge on Robbe..i love it

Oh shit it’s Christmas! Definitely forgot about that

Stop fighting!!

Zoe wtf you doing?

That fucking ringtone again..

His phone is bigger than his head

YAY!! **raises arms to the sky to celebrate** (news about his mom)

Him smiling means I’m smiling

Wow way to be a Debby Downer Milan…

Okay, but Robbe...where is your man?

Oh the hospital! Is he visiting his mom or Sander??

FUCK. MY. LIFE! Not her

GONE? Gone where??

Idc if I’m a bitch, but I still don’t like her

Explain yourself to him! What did you mean??

Was that a drawing of Robbe???

LOL to Britt if that was Robbe

I mean I guess we can let you know..

It was him!! Damn he is good

Fucking hell the shaky breaths are back

So did Sander just like leave all his shit there?

Yes call him

Damn right there is! (”there is an us”)

Damn right you do! (”i love you”)

I want him to call ALL of us immediately...except Britt

Cool so still no Sander?

Waddup Jens!

Listen to Jens, don’t go down that road

Sander!

There is that chernobyl again

Good to know you’re safe, but he just wants to be with you

Yes, Robbe..Chernobyl- Wait, the school!!!!!

RUNNNNNNN!!

Why do I know this song?

Oh god there are flashbacks

Why do I recognize this song?

I knew it was the school

More flashbacks?? Lord help me

Sanderrrr where are you

Oh shit, go back that was so cool (the drawings turning into flashbacks)

So many memories!!!!

This is so cool

Where is-- FOUND HIM

**presses pause** I feel the need to take a moment because this is going to be an emotional scene…. **presse play**

He look so lost

No, don't go away!

Oh god he’s crying..help

PAUSE! ..are those drawings of Robbe above his desk?? **peers closely at the tv** oh god they are **presses play**

Shit! They are all over the room!!

Yes, stay!

Nope he will always be there

Ahhh no he will!

We were all worried

Oh god he is holding his--nope he is kissing his hand

Nooo you’re not toxic

Holy shit this is so good

We BOTH have never felt something like that (RIP to her bf again)

Oh boy he said I love you..i’m a mess

He will always say it!

Not in any universe

Oh shit the song is back...where is that from??  **informs her it is from the first kiss** Oh well way to fuck me up with the soundtrack

Oh a game!

Omg the minute by minute already?

Yes, let’s play that

Yes, very chill

His little smile 

This is so sweet

The song is back!

Oh nooooo! Oh god

I’m not okay...not at all

Omg I wasn’t ready for a break down...

I don’t even know where to begin...Sanderrrr

Honestly their acting in this is fucking amazing

OMG! Call back to their almost first kiss!!

Pause! I’m sorry but play that scene again…

**physically covers her mouth for the entire 2nd time watching it**

One more time and then I swear we can move on, I just feel like I missed things…

**third time through** all the pictures!!! This is so painful to watch, but also makes me so happy. I’m so torn...I’m happy Sander has Robbe because Robbe is so sweet...this is hard to watch...I’m emotional on so many levels please don’t judge me...this is so much harder to watch than Skam...I hate how sentimental I am being because it just reminds me of you and I hate it...don’t judge me….also these actors are so fucking good, and I know I’ve said that but it’s true

Before we move on and I don’t care that I’ve paused it and rewound it like a thousands times, you’re gonna listen to another rant. There is so much to say about that scene and I don’t know if i will ever be able to say it all or put it into words and like I said before I’m being overly emotionally about this so please don’t judge me. I know that this is so different form Skam because they combined two scenes and there was a lot more discussion, but I liked the changes because I felt like it fit these characters more. And I love that Robbe never tried to be like oh that’s silly don’t think that, he was just like yeah that shit might happen but I’m still gonna be here. And the call back to the almost kiss was perfect. The whole scene was amazing and well done. Idk, there is so much more to say but I’m just gonna shut up for now

Okay...we can move on now

Oh sweet lord I wasn’t ready...that is fucking adorable

Little spoon Robbe!

Is this a Grease song??

That is the most annoying alarm

Don’t worry Britt, he already has

This is sweetest scene and no one has talked

No! He would never leave you!

Lol to the universe again

Oh yeah...school..that’s a thing

Ofc he is coming back, you silly billy

Still weirded out by the fact that they have little windows on their doors

Does Robbe know what pants are? Like feel free to wear them

Oh mother fucker…

Please tell this isn’t happening

I didn’t go through an entire season of hell with you two to have it end like this

Oh sweet fucking lord..I hate it

CUT! Scene over! 

Noo!

Fuck my life…

Brother and sister right here..love it

Oh hey Moyo

I mean he’s had better days but thanks for asking

Only good advice you’ve ever given dude

You better be okay with it, but thanks for saying it

MAYBE? Maybe it seemed that way? Boy..

I mean I guess you can be broerrs, but you’ve got a lot of work to do my friend

Jens...what?? Check your eyesight

No he would NOT do you

Hahahhaha Jens is butthurt again

He’d choose dying

LOL at you Aaron

I mean, never say never Aaron

Robbe laughing? A rare sight and I love it

Are they out shopping together??

Oh right..it’s christmas time..

NO, let’s stay on topic Zoe

Robbe out here being the relationship expert now

Agree to disagree Zoe

Okay cool let’s not focus on his good traits…

Dude same (Zoe says she feels like shit)

Hahahahaha disaster gay again

Oh Robbe, thank god you brought Zoe

I love this friendship

Damnit right it didn’t feel right

It does indeed (robbe says shit with Sander sucks)

Hell yes it feels right between you two

Oh hey Noor! Legit forgot about you for awhile

Awkward..

I mean yeah..but who wouldn’t want you (robbe) around? Fools, that’s who

She’s pretty cool, I’ll give you that

He’s better than alright...he’s phenomenal

Oooh a party! Hope I’m invited 

Aww Milan and Sander bonding! Love that

Cozy indeed

Milan as a babysitter sounds like a terrible idea

Did he just call him an angel???

Once again Milan is me, I am Milan

They are so fucking cute...they deserve it

The virus??? Holy shit. They started the coronavirus! You bastards

**dances** party time!!

Interior designers over here

Milan you sneaky man you...NO PEEKING!

Jack Frost?!?! Hahahhahahaha OMG hahahaha

Aaron you weirdo wtf???

LOL at Sanders face!! Same, dude same

Also sidenote: him saying he is Robbe’s bf...makes me so fucking happy

Those smiles at each other..fucking adorable

Noor! You made it!

Presents for everyone!

Who is giving alcohol to the Hot Mess Express??

No idea what just happened but ROBBE IS SMILING

Back that shit up! **rewinds** They really looked at each other after Milan said that! (about a cute boy for a present)

Milan disappoint level 100

OMG Noor got Sander?? And a Bowie shirt? Fucking legend

LOL at the fact that Noor is in between Robbe and Sander

Cuddles! (robbe and Sander on the couch)

Luca she is never going to understand anything sex related..poor girl

Back up! **rewinds** Robbe out here spinning his man on the dance floor, so cute

Oh good Lord Aaron is going for it?

Aaron man, don’t fuck it up

I know I should focus on Aaron, but Sander in the background smiling has my attention and I don’t feel bad about that at all

Aaron, man the fuck up! 

There ya go buddy

She is one of kind that’s for sure…

I know I give Amber a lot of shit but you go girl!!

AHHHHH!!!

Shock level 1,000

LOL at everyone’s reaction

**dances** this is my jam!!

DANCE FOR ME, DANCE FOR ME!!

Robbe go and dance my dude

Wait I remember the vlogs..nvm don’t dance

Sander and laughing is a beautiful combo

Oooo I see you Noor and Moyo

He told his mom!

Oh shit Sander looks good in this scene

Oh you got jokes again Sander? 

Yes meet the parents!!

I hope we get to see it (LOL at Kennedy)

Yeah but you’re bringing the BEST boy home

Robbe’s got jokes now too

Sander’s philosophy around Robbe now: clothing optional

Aww they’re so happy and cute! 

That is very true Robbe

The looks between--- oh shit hey Hot Mess Express!

OMG! Robbe said fuck all y’all I’m gonna make out with my bf in front of you

The fact that everyone is cheering them on and Robbe is comfortable with doing that...I’m overwhelmed

WAIT! It’s over?!?!

Holy shit I wasn’t ready…

I have so many thoughts on this season...it was so fucking good. Willem fucking killed it and whoever played Sander (informs her of his name) they are both Willem?! Wtf that’s confusing...anyways they both fucking killed it!! Robbe from episode 1 to now...I’m so proud...I have more thoughts so listen up

**goes on a rant for 10+ more minutes** I am definitely rewatching this season next week because I felt like i missed a lot and I want to focus on the small things

[aion-rsa]

The Teleprompter Interview: Katy Wix ‘My First Screen Crush was King Kong’

https://ift.tt/33I5zd9

“Anchors, rigging, shackles,” lists Katy Wix down the phone, “poop deck, wheelhouse, three sheets to the wind…” The comedian and writer has had a productive year. Filming wrapped on Ghosts series two just as UK lockdown began. Since then, she’s finished one book – Delicacy: A Memoir – due out next April, is pitching another, writing a TV show, and thanks to a new-found obsession with Netflix yacht-based reality show Below Deck, has also managed to acquire an enviable grasp of nautical terminology. 

Wix is an established UK comic actor, with credits across the board, starting with cult hit Time Trumpet and going mainstream as witless, lovable Daisy in BBC mega-sitcom Not Going Out. She’s currently part of Channel 4’s Stath Lets Flats, the hottest comedy around, fresh from multiple Bafta wins. She plays Fergie in royal satire The Windsors, and was among the comedian-contestants in series nine of Taskmaster. In BBC One sitcom Ghosts, Wix plays Mary, a 17th century yokel burned as a witch and now part of the motley group haunting a modern-day stately home. Mary’s distinctive west country accent “just came out”, says Wix. “It’s an insult really, because I can’t claim to do that accent well. It’s sort of a stock noise. The more I do it, the more I think it sounds like Nanny from Count Duckula. Ducky!”

Ghosts series two, which lands as a boxset on BBC iPlayer on Monday September 21st , will give fans more about Mary’s background, says Wix. “I think people will really love it, and then there’ll be another series next year, depending on the big C. Not cancer. The other big C.”

From superyachts to Alan Partridge, The Day Today to Ghostwatch, Anna from This Life to formative sexual fantasies about prehistoric apes… here’s the Katy Wix Teleprompter interview.

Your parents were quite arty, working in dance companies and the theatre. Did your childhood allow for much TV watching?

Oh my god, yes! My routine was: come home from school, watch the tail-end of Fifteen to One, and when I was really young, repeats of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Then it would be The Broom Cupboard, something like Round the Twist, then the sound of the Six O’Clock News and turning over to The Simpsons. I still do it now, if I’m at home and it’s five to six, I’m going to watch The Simpsons, it’s a tradition.

Welsh telly was slightly different to the rest of the country. We have S4C rather than Channel 4. I remember going through the TV listings and seeing what was on normal Channel 4, like The Word, then I’d look at Welsh Channel 4 and it would just be something boring in Welsh at the same time.

Was there a TV show that inspired you to start acting and comedy?

The one I remember the most is Abigail’s Party. Seeing Alison Steadman’s performance made me want to do character acting. It was just a phenomenal, convincing, detailed performance. Years later, I wrote a radio sitcom that she was in. It was one of those absurd moments where you just have to leave your body and look down on yourself to be able to handle it. 

That must happen a lot, you’ve been part of a lot of great comedy casts…

What got me into comedy was Brass Eye and The Day Today. When I was about 15, that’s what changed my brain. It was the first time I’d seen adults being silly and coming up with absurd situations that were my sense of humour. Before that, comedy on TV would always feel like just something your parents would watch but this really felt like it was for us, for me and my friends. It was the same with The Office.

And then you were in This Time with Alan Partridge with Steve Coogan last year.

I was in sixth form when Knowing Me, Knowing You came out and I had it on VHS. Watching people like Rebecca Front and Doon Mackichan… anytime Alan had a guest on the sofa, the level of detail and all the reactions and the tiny little social awkward moments, that made me think I want to do that type of performing. So then, when I got to be in the last Partridge, it was mad. It was phenomenal to be that near to the character and all his tiny micro-expressions. Even the colour of his socks – this weird salmon pink – that was so perfect. Tim [Key] was there as well and we’re old pals, so that made it feel more like, well if Tim can deal with it. But I think even Tim now says he still has times where he has to go into the loo and give himself a moment.

Who or what was your first TV love?

This will sound like a joke, but I swear to God it’s true. It was a running joke in our family that my first crush when I was about four, was King Kong [laughs]. My mum used to tease me about it all the time. It was the combination of brute strength and these massive, soulful, pained eyes – which I still look for in men – that absolutely got me. It was an erotic connection for me. When I look back on it in a Freudian way, it feels like a really obvious, very heterosexual image for a little girl to have, because I wanted to be that woman in the nightie in his massive hairy hand. 

Unusual, yes, but then a lot of people our age cite the fox in the Robin Hood Disney film as their first screen crush.

I do get that. I do get that. What was it about that fox?

He’s rakish. And politically, he was sound too – rob from the rich, give to the poor.

You’re right. And he was really confident too. 

Growing up, which TV character did you idolise?

There are two, a younger one and a slightly later one. When I was 11 or 12, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I would draw outfits all the time in my school books and I had the Usborne Book of Fashion Design and spend hours on it. So I wanted to be Hilary Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air because she just had incredible fashion. She always got boys and she was really cool and confident and wore amazing clothes. She was everything I wanted to be.

Then a little bit later, maybe sixth form or in my early 20s. I wanted to be Anna from This Life, so much and I kind of still do. Because she was tall and really cool and had dark hair and a lot of attitude and wore black a lot and smoked a lot and didn’t give a shit. That was my vibe at university. 

Is there a TV character you’d like to be now? 

Probably still Anna? 

Which TV show gave you nightmares?

The massive one for me, when I was about 11 or 12: Ghostwatch. I went to a friend’s house to watch it and I remember being a bit like ‘yeah right’ watching it, and then when I got home that night, I just cried. I was in the bath, hysterical and my mum had to come in and calm me down. It was horrendous. 

Everyone totally swallowed it at the time, because we were less TV-savvy in 1992. I remember they had a phone-in and someone called in to say ‘There’s a shape in the curtains’, which really fucked me up. The whole Pipes thing. I remember being in my bedroom and seeing a shape of an old man in the curtain all the time. I’ve got really vague memories of Craig Charles being in a park, saying that someone had killed a Labrador. I was thinking about watching it again. I actually don’t know if I dare. 

Read more

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When did you last cry watching television?

Last night. Have you ever seen the show Below Deck? I’m obsessed with it. I’m not massively into reality TV but it’s an American reality show all filmed on superyachts that rich people charter. It’s almost like a perfect sitcom family – you have a different captain every time and the deckhands and then the interior, who do the hotel stuff, and then you have the chef, who’s always a temperamental big personality and then each episode has a different group of insanely rich, usually quite horrible, sexist people with loads of money who get really drunk, that’s the premise. It’s non-stop drama. You’re just watching people fall off boats and have arguments. 

How did it make you cry?

In this episode, there was a girl who’d been really quiet and grumpy and everyone was slagging her off, and then she revealed that she’d got a text that morning saying her estranged father had died, so that’s what set me off. It’s got me through lockdown, it’s so addictive. 

When did you last laugh out loud watching television?

Below Deck, same episode!

All human life is there!

I think it was someone’s malapropism, that’s my favourite thing about reality TV, the way people talk in a kind of Stath-like way and get it wrong.

What was the last TV show you recommended to a friend? 

Below Deck! [Laughs] I’ve just got Lolly [Adefope] onto it, and Adam Drake – he’s a comedian in a sketch show called Goose and does Capital, a podcast with Liam Williams – he’s now devoted. One of my best mates was bemoaning that her boyfriend’s not into reality TV, but boys can watch Below Deck too. It’s got loads of boat stuff in it. Chains and anchors. I’m learning all these terms, like shackles, poop deck, wheelhouse, three sheets to the wind… That’s where the expression ‘in my wheelhouse’ comes from. Three sheets to the wind means you’re sailing off course. 

Which TV show would you bring back from the dead?

Changing Rooms. 

Good call.

I also loved The Late Review. I really loved that.

What’s a TV show you wish more people would watch?

Do you know Iyanla Vanzant? She started off on The Oprah Winfrey Show – I love Oprah so much – and she’s a TV therapist/healer/spiritual. She’s got a show you can only get on American TV called Iyanla: Fix My Life. She just speaks so much wisdom. She spends a week with people who are really traumatised and it’s their healing journey. It’s so moving, it’s so profound. She’s doing incredible work for the human race.

She did an amazing show called, I think, ‘The Myth of the Angry Black Woman’ with a house full of women of colour who all got to talk about this trope that they were angry and how they felt unable to speak without being silenced. She did a show that was rehabilitating people that had come out of prison and women that had been sex workers all their loves, just amazing. 

Which current TV show do you never miss an episode of?

In lockdown, what kept me going was I May Destroy you, obviously, Below Deck, obviously. I also became obsessed with the Japanese Big Brother Terrace House, but it just got pulled because there was a suicide. It was so, so awful. I read an article saying the producers didn’t behave well, so I feel like I can’t like it any more. I love Succession too. I started watching this show on Netflix called Intervention and got totally obsessed with it. Again, it’s maybe ethically a bit dubious. It’s American, obviously, and they’ll film an addict who’s in a really desperate state and then the family kind of trick them, or persuade them to go into a room and then the intervention therapist is there and they’re like ‘Guess what, you’re going to rehab now!’ Anything that’s got human suffering, and then a redemption story in it, I’ll watch. 

Given the power, which TV show would you commission?

I think about this a lot – what if I had a channel? I’d commission the sketch group Sheeps to make tons of series. That’s Liam Williams, Al Roberts and Daran Johnson, and so far they’ve only done live shows, but I would commission them for hours of TV. Colin Hoult doing his character Anna Mann, I’d commission hours of that. Everyone involved in Stath Lets Flats, I’d just say ‘Turn up, pitch and we’ll make it’. There’s a documentary from the 70s that I adore, that I would like to show again, which is John Berger’s Ways of Seeing. It’s one of the most beautiful, gentle documentaries. I feel like that should be on TV. And just whatever Gemma Collins is doing, commission that. 

Also, you know in the 90s, late at night you’d get some weird, bizarre performance art happening on BBC Two? I miss that. The sort of stuff that was on after The Word. And then finally, maybe just all of Peep Show again? 

What’s the most fun you’ve had making television?

Ghosts is where I probably laugh the most because of Lolly [Adefope]. We make each other laugh all the time. When me and Anna [Crilly] did our sketch show on Channel 4, it was incredible. It was stressful but exciting. It was such a nice atmosphere to be with all these gorgeous people that you find funny. 

Stath Lets Flats is like that, because we’re all genuine mates. When people take comedy so seriously I really love it. I love that attention to detail. Jamie [Demetriou] and everyone involved really cares. There’s no ‘that’ll do’ attitude, everyone wants it to be the best it can be. Why not treat comedy as a science that you have to absolutely get right?

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Ghosts series two starts on Monday the 21st of September on BBC One at 8.30pm. All six episodes will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer from then. 

Delicacy: A Memoir by Katy Wix, published by Headline, is available to pre-order now.

The post The Teleprompter Interview: Katy Wix ‘My First Screen Crush was King Kong’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/32GM7ya

[eggshellsreview]

Steven Universe (Season 1) review

The now incredibly popular Cartoon Network animated show created back in 2013 has only spiked even more in popularity due to the recently released movie that caught my eye and made me decide to dive into the show first hand just to see what I've been apparently missing out on the past few years.

Unfortunately for me, Steven Universe started airing on Television before the time that I was more open minded about animated series or even just wider genres as a whole. However, since then, a lot of animation and other content has made me spread out my taste and turned me not just willing to watch more animated content, but gladly willing to watch. And I will say, that so far, Steven Universe has only reinforced that new mentality as it surprised me in great ways.

Steven Universe follows a very young, very enthusiastic protagonist of the same name in his abnormal childhood adventures, rooted to his unwilling connection to what I can only describe as sentient rock extraterrestrials. These extraterrestrials are permanently referred to as Gems in the series and are equipped with what you'd expect: Super advanced technology/intellect, superhuman abilities, and a whole lotta backstory to unpack.

For context, I spent several years with a best friend who absolutely adored the series, and even though I wasn't particularly interested in the show, I'd always let her gush to me in great detail her favorite aspect of it; the lore. Because of this I'm already familiar with a decent chunk of the backstory that surrounded the main characters and their origins so to say, but I will say, that even though hearing about the show never made me want to go running and put it on to watch, watching how the information that I know unfolded through the show in its incredible pacing was a completely different experience.

The Gems that the story follows are a small group of short and sweet personalities. Pearl, the level headed scholar. Amethyst the rowdier, messy fun haver. Garnet, the quiet neutral one who doubles as the muscle of the team. And of course, the star of the show, Steven, the 10 year old rare half-human, half-gem hybrid trying to become a full fledged member of their team; The Crystal Gems. With their sworn duty to defend Earth from mystical threats, we watch as the Gems teach Steven some basic training and lessons of what it means to be a Crystal Gem as we simultaneously learn alongside him, who the Gems are and why they're here on our planet doing what they're doing.

This is where the show excels most. The way the show feeds information to the audience is incredible. As a loose comparison of another family friendly animated series with lots of lore about non-human characters saving the planet, I'll use My Little Pony (MLP): Friendship is Magic. MLP is a show I binged entirely for its lore and characters after hearing about it from the same friend who put me onto Steven Universe. However, despite being very interesting world building and lore exploration, the delivery of all that information was almost exclusively the scholar characters giving us very lengthy discussions in between action of episodes. Steven Universe doesnt do that though. Instead we get the engaging method of the show dropping hints, clues, and tid bits of information in a chain of loosely related episodes. For a simple example, in the lore of the show, there's a cave of important value to Steven's character. However, instead of just having Pearl go "Oh, Steven, let me show you this important location and give you a 4 minute conversation about its importance", we see implications to this place's existence over the span of the first episodes. After that, we see Steven discover it through an entirely nontraditional manner and explore it alone not knowing what it is, therefore not giving us any information about what's truly going on. Finally, a bit after in the season, we get a formal introduction to the location by Pearl to wrap up what we need to know about it in a brief minute or two. What this does, is allow us as the audience to theorize the meaning of things or people for a while, then be gifted actual on screen information in a nonformal history lesson kind of way, then have suspense for when we finally get the last pieces of the puzzles. Its a much more engaging method of giving information while eventually saving time for the formal information which may not sound like much. But when the episodes are 11 minutes long, cutting down 4-5 minutes of a history lesson, to just 1 or 2 minutes leaves more room for episodes to visually show case the significance of key information in action rather than just spend half the episode talking about it.

I'd say the only thing more important than the lore of the show however, is the atmosphere. With its watercolor sort of aesthetic to help set the general feel good and innocent tone the show it usually carries, it tends to use its art style to also butter you up for some crazy emotions. Steven Universe may have simple characters, but their dynamic between one another ends up pretty deep. Whether it's something like Garnet's quietness dropping for a moment of genuine anger or hurt because of her reaction to something. Or Amethyst dropping her carefree attitude to reveal how much she cares about something happening. The context of these moments are always INCREDIBLY powerful and filled with sincere dialogue that has left me tearing up more than just a couple of times and in my opinion, are what truly made this first season of Steven Universe a phenomenal pleasure to watch.

Another reason this show manages to have extremely good portrayal of emotions is due to its now iconic music numbers. Though they're expected, the songs sung by the characters in their appropriate moments always portray just what they have to. Funness, sadness, distress. It's a real treat, and really helps characters with simple, but strong personalities express a larger array of emotions than natural dialogue could. My favorite parts are always when they sing during action scenes because admittedly, the non musical number tracks of the show arent especially stellar. They get the job done and fit the atmosphere, but there were fewer times than I wouldve liked that I actually thought, oh hey this background track is great.

All in all, Steven Universe is an incredible show so far. One that I'm immediately continuing as soon as this is posted. The show knows what it wants to be and how it plans to do it, leaving us just an objectively well paced, well written, and crazy fun ride through an original fantasy world where you constantly want to learn more and where teases leave you constantly engaged. There's so much more I could've said, and want to say, about things like side characters, character designs, Gem abilitied (especially Gem abilities), but with this season being so long, I'd like to prioritize the more key elements of the show. Though rest assured anyone who hasnt watched the show, the things I just listed are presented and written as well as everything that I was able to talk about. Ultimately, I give Steven Universe, Season 1, a 9.5/10 rating. With genuinely nearly no complaints, even though it took several years to even give the show a try, I was left not only entirely satisfied in every category, but it exceeded all expectations and had left me crying, jaw dropped, and emotional every time it wanted to. I'm a huge fan of the show right now, and I seriously think anyone who hasn't, should really give it a watch.

[yoursongpodcast]

For 'Tell Me About Your Song' #79, songwriter Marian Call talked about her song 'Oregon Trail', which is from her album 'Standing Stones'.

Wikipedia has articles about the actual historical Oregon Trail, as well as the 1970s/1980s education game 'The Oregon Trail'. The idea of the 'Oregon Trail Generation' was described in a 2015 article named 'The Oregon Trail Generation: Life Before and After Mainstream Tech' by Anna Garvey in Social Media Week.

I also recommend an essay that Marian Call wrote about her song 'Standing Stones', which is the song that follows 'Oregon Trail' on the Standing Stones album.

In our discussion, I made reference to Marian Call's interview on 'Make Me Smart', which you can hear on the Marketplace website.

More information about Marian Call and her music can be found on her website, where you can also find out about any upcoming shows. You can get her music on Bandcamp, as well as most other places where music is sold. She is also on twitter, facebook, and Patreon.

The 'Tell Me About Your Song' icon was designed by Shaenon K. Garrity.

If you want more information about your host, Jacob Haller, then check out my web page, my facebook page, or my twitter account.

'Tell Me About Your Song' on Apple Podcasts - rate and review us!

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Episode Transcript:

[BEGINNING OF 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

And we set out in the springtime with our bindles and our boots, And we reveled in our poverty, abandoning our roots. A brand new path, adventurers, All lonely, bold, and brave, Breaking free and making do, And telling tales of how we'd save ourselves.

JACOB: Hello and welcome to Tell Me About Your Song, the podcast where I talk to musicians and songwriters about a song they've written. Today, I'm talking to Marian Call, and the song she'll be talking about is named 'Oregon Trail'. So, where would you like to start, Marian?

MARIAN: This is part of a record called 'Standing Stones,' and, in that record, one of the things I'm interested in looking at is the stories we tell ourselves. Like, the myths that we have about who we are, and the myths of, you know, Western culture, myths of America. And this is one of those myths, the Oregon Trail, right? It's about being stron,g and independent, and adventurous, and setting out on your own, and conquering the landscape, and finding a place for yourself -- You know, all the things that we -- All things we want to do, in sort of our individualist society. It's about self actualization, and about claiming a space in the world, and that myth is so important to us. But I've been thinking a lot about how it doesn't necessarily hold up, either to our experience, or to a good model. Like, it might seem exciting to think of being a pioneer, and going out, and, you know, finding your own way in the world, but the more you actually read about what it would have been like back then, about (a) how horrid it was; (b) about the myths that the pioneers were often being sold about "Free land out west!" when, of course, that land was already occupied, and about the idea that it was our destiny to command and control the landscape and to have, you know, a country from sea to sea. That was not a given; that was a something that we decided, and then we made it real. And that may or may not have been a decision that sat well with everyone who was affected by it. Part of why I wanted to write about this was that it is one of our founding mythologies, you know? It's a real historic event, but it's also a mythos that is larger than this one event, and that's why I wanted to tackle it, and both honor it, and dismantle it, at the same time. [laughs] You know, every now and then, those think pieces come along about generations, and what millennials are doing, and what Gen X is doing, and everything like that, and I was part of this cohort -- and a lot of my friends were, too -- that fell kind of between Generation X and Y and millennials --

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: -- and we never got a name, but I still feel like our experience is kind of fundamentally different, and we're too young to be Generation X, but definitely too old to have a similar experience to millennials, in a lot of ways. And I read several articles in which some scholars and demographers argue for the existence of a Generation Oregon Trail, which is kind of a small cohort. I think it's like 1976 to 1987, or something like that -- or 1986.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: And that describes the generation of people who started school -- like, started, you know, their first few years of school -- without networked computing, but, by the time they completed school, the Internet was fully fledged and running. And so, like, kids after us grew up typing from the time they were, you know, very, very small. They don't remember before computers in the home, and before computers in school, to do all their tasks. In fact they stopped needing to even offer keyboarding classes in a lot of schools. They didn't teach typing anymore, because the kids would just arrive at school already knowing how to type.

JACOB: Mmm.

MARIAN: And that was not true for my group! We had to go through hours and hours of typing classes, Mavis Beacon and all the rest. So this song is about the peculiar life of that particular generation. I think this cohort of people is really cool, and inspiring, and interesting, and innovative, and has made a lot of cool things, but at the same time, there's a little a little bit of a sense of opportunity drying up, in a lot of ways, and I wanted to write something about that, and I thought the Oregon Trail was a perfect allegory for it. It describes the name of the generation because of that video game we all played, and it also describes a sort of a modern look back at that journey, that has been mythologized as one of the cornerstones of the American story, you know? Did you play Oregon Trail when you were young.

JACOB: Oh yes!

MARIAN: I did, too. Several different generations of it, too, from the, like, big floppy disk, to the little floppy disk, to the hard drive version, to the -- Apparently, someone told me there was an Oregon Trail 2, and, like, an Amazon Trail, and they kind of did a couple of spin offs and sequels, which surprised me. I hadn't heard of those, but --

JACOB: Yeah, I had no idea.

MARIAN: Yeah. Hundreds of people have gotten in touch with me, to tell me, like, how this hit a nostalgia spot for them. So, yeah. I'm kind of revising that history in this song. Like, it starts out really great. It's, you know, 'We set out adventurous --'

[BEGINNING OF 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

And we set out in the springtime with our bindles and our boots, And we reveled in our poverty, abandoning our roots. A brand new path, adventurers, All lonely, bold, and brave, Breaking free and making do, And telling tales of how we'd save ourselves.

MARIAN: And then we gradually realised that it wasn't just us. It was everyone else.

['OREGON TRAIL' CONTINUES:]

'Til everybody else we knew Had started on the journey too. Then we were not phenomenal, no, we were not phenomenal. We never were phenomenal, Just part of our whole generation's vague instinctive mass migration. We were not exceptional, no we were not exceptional. We never were exceptional. We were longing longing longing though, And true. We were dreaming that the world was dreaming too.

MARIAN: And maybe we were being brave and individual, and making our own choices, but maybe we were also just part of this kind of global phenomenon that we couldn't really control.

[AN INSTRUMENTAL PART OF 'OREGON TRAIL' CONTINUES BRIEFLY.]

MARIAN: The opening sense of possibility that we had, as young people, when the Internet was new, was very much hit by, you know, two different bubble bursts. First, the Silicon Valley, and kind of that portion of the economy -- realizing, no, the internet doesn't do everything, and it doesn't change everything. It does some things, but not all of them. And then the housing bubble burst -- that, no, we can't all own a home on the income that we have. No, we're never going to pay off our student loans. No, we're never going to get out of credit card debt.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: No, we're never going to stop moving around the country. I think the number of times a person my age has changed cities is just, like, astounding now. it's really -- it's so different from the generation before. This is also part of a song cycle, and this is kind of in the middle beginning of it, so there's some resolution that answers this song a little bit later in the album. This is in the 'What are we doing?' stage at the late beginning on the record. I wanted it to start feeling like a very wholesome folk song, like -- I'm working on a folk festival this weekend, and I wanted it to sound just like a good old classic tune, you know? Maybe a little more complicated words, but the same chords, and the same feel, as, you know, a Willie Nelson kind of song.

JACOB: And the harmonies, too.

MARIAN: Yeah, the harmonies, exactly, are very straight at the beginning.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

Surrendering exceptional to lighten up the load, We woke up ...

[SONG CONTINUES PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND.]

MARIAN: But the deeper into the song you get, the more your perspective shifts, sort of. I think of it as, like, a moment when the sky opens, and suddenly you realize that the world is so much bigger than you thought.

['OREGON TRAIL CONTINUES:]

And the World Was all a road ...

MARIAN: And that occurs in the middle of the song, and we have this big, kind of -- We have a big, and sort of shocking, key change. It's not the way you would usually change keys from A to E by way of a C major chord, which is not in either key, but it's -- That's the pivot between those two worlds. And it's meant to feel this grand opening into a much larger universe.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

We bought some land out west, Though nowhere seemed to feel like home. And digging in the yard we found somebody else's bones. The moment that the shovel hit, We bowed before the things we should have known.

MARIAN: Gradually, our speaker realizes that they thought they were going out into empty space to make a name for themselves, and, in fact, they were going out into someone else's space. And that doesn't feel very good.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

Of course we're not the first ones here. We never were the first ones here. Just part of our whole generation's Childish frontier re-creation.

[SONG CONTINUES PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND.]

MARIAN: But if you don't do that, then there's not enough food, there's not enough security. It's a little bit of a story of getting lost along the way growing up.

['OREGON TRAIL CONTINUES:]

... adventurers We were longing longing longing and so lost We were barely what we needed, and it cost.

MARIAN: And it reminds me of a lot of friends my age. I do have some friends my age who are married and have, you know, houses, and kids, and things. But, you know, coming on 40, it's not nearly as many of us as we thought, right? And a lot of us are not housed, or are moving around the country all the time, you know, not settling in one city, or we're not -- we're divorcing and remarrying, or not settling into a family structure, getting old enough to be like: "Well, I guess I'm not having kids, then," without it really being ever a voluntary choice. I think that's one of those surprises that hits you along the trail, and that's what this song is about. [laughs] After we transition to E, then I start adding chords that are more modern -- chords that were not in the original, sort of, lexicon of vintage country music.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

... the first ones here. Just part of our whole generation's Childish frontier re-creation. We were not adventurers. No, we were not adventurers. We never were adventurers! We were longing longing longing ...

MARIAN: So I started adding, like, a flat seven chord, a D major chord, and I start adding minor IV chords, and it gets, basically, just messier and messier. It's like the chord progression sort of starts to disintegrate. And, at the end, the harmonies get weirder, and weirder, and weirder, and then the harmonies kind of fall apart, too. And the two backing voices kind of abandon the main voice, and wander off on their own, and get lost.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

No, we have not found shelter yet. We've eaten what we meant to plant, And the twelve ages of man are circling hungry overhead -- And grandmother would disapprove. We will make no more miles today.

MARIAN: It's really -- it's fun. It's like the oxen have run away. [both laugh] Yeah.

JACOB: Yeah.

MARIAN: It's actually a reference to a videogame, too. There's a lot of videogames in this song, not just Oregon Trail. I got hooked on 'Don't Starve', which is a ridiculous -- [chuckles] It's just, it's a very silly videogame. It's a survival game --

JACOB: Uh-huh.

MARIAN: -- and I played way too much of it in the year that I was writing this record, and it informed a lot of my thinking about just, like, what it really does take to survive. When you eat the seeds that you were supposed to put in the ground, you know, you survive another day, but you've jeopardized your future, and that's very much, you know, me and my other, kind of like, late 30s friends, having to spend our savings, or still being in debt, without any sort of assets. And it's not meant to be too hopeless, but it is meant to be, like, a moment of clarity, that I set out on this journey, and realizing we're not as far as we thought we were, and we haven't found anywhere to stop and plant.

JACOB: And it says, "The 12 ages of man are circling hungry overhead."

MARIAN: Uh-huh. And I have 11 songs that are divided by those 12 ages of man.

JACOB: Ah.

MARIAN: Yeah. I really worked on the structure of this one, because I like the idea of -- The 12 Ages of Man is sort of a late medieval pre-Renaissance Western European idea that, if a person lived all 12 ages of man, they could get to be 72. So there were 12 ages, and they were six years each, and they corresponded to, like, the months of the year, and they corresponded to the seasons, and to the horoscope, and to a map of the body, and everything. They sort of connected all these things that weren't necessarily connected. But I liked that idea, and so I have these 11 songs that are about different stages of life, and this one is very much the, like, getting out of college, and then realizing that it's not as easy as you thought, you know? [laughs]

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: Late 20s/early 30s. You've accomplished so much, and you've been set on this grand trajectory, and then you get out there in the world, and you're like, "Oh! Hang on!" it's kind of a letdown. But there's more to come in the story.

JACOB: You were talking about this in terms of it being part of a song cycle, so: What comes before this, and what comes after it?

MARIAN: What comes before this, is a song about about childhood, about being young, exuberant, and feeling like you can fill up your whole world, or like the world cannot contain you. It's a song called 'No Paper'. The original working title was 'Lauds', which is the name of the prayer for that hour of the day, that corresponds to the Twelve Ages of Man, that corresponds to all this big structure that I was kind of plugging into, from early, like, Renaissance literature. [laughs] You can leave that out, if you want.

[EXCERPT FROM 'NO PAPER' PLAYS:]

There is no paper big enough for what I'm going to draw today.

MARIAN: It's a crazy rhythm jam, actually, with very little melody, but it has, like, a horn section, and some really wild harmonies, and just insane electric guitar. It's a very, like, expressive, creative, kind of Jackson Pollock-y song, about being young, and feeling full of possibility. It's also about protests, and protest sign,s and marching. The line is "There is no paper big enough for what I'm going to draw today." And it's just -- There's nothing that can contain me, or that can contain my message, and, you know, that feels very youthful to me. Both about, like, little kids, before they learn that -- Before they learn that art is supposed to look a certain way, and they're just like scribbling filling up the whole page, and, like, just the energy that people have, like, in college, when they're learning everything, and excited, and have a lot of passion, and so: Yeah. It's kind of a younger age.

[EXCERPT FROM 'OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS:]

We never were adventurers. We were longing longing longing and so lost.

MARIAN: And then, we transition to this song, which is a little bit, like, "Well, we thought we were going to go out into the world and conquer it, and then we had another think, after we got out there."

JACOB: Mm hmm.

MARIAN: And the song after it is the title track. It's called 'Standing Stones.'

[BEGINNING OF 'STANDING STONES' PLAYS:]

We drew nine lines from east to west We drew nine from north to south And we stitched our names in concrete veins Through miles and miles and miles of ground

MARIAN: It sort of reconciles that. It's about how our impulse to build things, and make things, and design, and scratch, and leave our mark, and change the environment -- how that impulse is really universal -- we all have it -- and also how it's impermanent. Like, it's going to pass away, but that doesn't matter, because it's just what we do, and that's beautiful. It's really, it's a validation of humanity, in the middle of acknowledging that we have a finite span, so, yep! And then it goes on, kind of more into, like, middle age, and then midlife crisis, of course, and then into a kind of acceptance. Some of the other songs on this record are much, much less complex. This one's through composed. Like, the chords don't necessarily repeat, and the lyrics don't repeat very much. But, yeah, it does reward repeat listening. It's definitely a journey. And hopefully catchy, too. Like, people will be leaving humming it, even though they can't remember any other words because they don't repeat!

JACOB: Have you played this song out?

MARIAN: Yeah, we play it out, and it's hard to communicate that groove change --

JACOB: Mmm.

MARIAN: -- So I just kind of have to do without it. But that's part of why I was so excited to put it on a record, too, and have it sound different on the record. I like doing it out. I wish -- I would love -- I would just die to do it with a trio --

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: -- you know, so we could sing all the harmonies. But that's, again, the joy of getting to record it! There's a video for it, that I really am proud of. Pat Race made an Oregon Trail style video of it, and, as it happened, somehow someone pinged the son of the man who created Oregon Trail -- one of the two men who created Oregon Trail. And he emailed me, and then his dad e-mailed me! So I got a message from the creator of Oregon Trail, which was great! [laughs]

JACOB: Wow, that's awesome! What did they say?

MARIAN: They really liked it! That was -- that made me happy! I was shocked and surprised. His name is Don Rawitsch, and he got in touch just to say that he was honored by the tribute, and that he thought it was interesting. Says, "Thanks for the tribute to the pioneers, and the game I co-invented 45 years ago."

JACOB: Wow.

MARIAN: And I can't believe it was 45 years ago, because I experienced it more like 33 years ago.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: But yeah. [laughs]

JACOB: Yeah, that video is great. I watched -- Like, I started watching it, and then I kind of had it on in the background, and I thought it was just the actual game, and then I went back and looked at it, and I was, like, "Wait a minute!" One of the things is a cellphone charger, and --

MARIAN: Yep, yep, yep, there's --

JACOB: -- and you come across this pile of skulls, I think, right around where the modulation occurs.

MARIAN: Yeah. It takes some twists. We were hoping, actually, that, at the beginning, people would think it was just kind of a GIF that repeats, you know, and doesn't really go anywhere.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: But, gradually, it kind of gets wilder, and wilder, and takes you out of our safe little sweet country song beginning.

JACOB: I think that this idea is one that I stole from Kai Ryssdal, because I listened to your interview -- or, I didn't know if it was an interview, per se -- but when you were on "Make Me Smart" --

MARIAN: That was fun. [chuckles]

JACOB: -- but he kind of asked you about, you know, being in Alaska, and kind of engaging in this sort of pioneering spirit that's involved in living up there.

MARIAN: Well, I think the connection is very much that, if ever there were a place where that American mythos is embodied, it's Alaska, for sure. There's there's some very bold, strong, self-reliant, competent people up here, you know? You can love them or hate them, but people kind of assume that you can split your own wood, and maybe fly a plane, and it's weirdly, like, one of the most and least sexist places I've ever been.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: The most, because we have really difficult rates of abuse, and things like that, here, because there's a lot of substance issues. But it's also the least, in that people -- People here very much assume that I run my own business. They don't think I'm arm candy when I go to a party, right?

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: We've had women politicians at a higher rate than a lot of other states. We have tons of women business owners. And if you're out at a cabin, people won't flinch when they give you a tough job. They won't be surprised if you pick up something heavy to carry it, you know? It's just very -- It's nice! I like it! I like the presumption of my competence, even if I'm not always competent. [both laugh] But the funny thing is, up here in the land of the most independent people anywhere, is where I find that people are very, very clear on the fact that we're not independent. None of us are independent. We all rely on each other, and we're all connected in really concrete ways, like, you know, so and so does this job, and so and so does that job, and, in a tiny town, they're the only people who do it. We need them, and we rely on them, so we have to take care of them. I know people who have literally gone out into the woods, to their own property, to clear logs, use those logs to turn them into a cabin, live in that cabin in the summertime, you know, and have just cut every board themselves, right? But those people are the ones who are the most aware that if they, you know, if they slip up and hurt themselves, and they don't have a friend, then they're screwed. You know, if they don't have help -- if they don't have everyone else to come over and assist at the crucial moment -- then their house is not going to get put up. You can't do it yourself, in this -- The kind of twofold lesson here is, you can be as independent as you want, but you can't do it yourself, and especially when nature is really a factor, the way it is here. And I really like that. So that's what -- that's kind of what this whole record is about, is, you can you can be as independent and strong as you like, but we still need each other. Alaska has had a huge influence on this record. [laughs] It's like embracing it, and at the same time unmasking, the pioneering spirit, as being a lot more complicated, and a lot less pure, and not at all what we dreamed it was.

JACOB: Mmm-hm.

MARIAN: It doesn't look how we thought, in the movies. [chuckles] In the video game.

JACOB: Right. So, if people would like to hear more of your music, what should they do?

MARIAN: You can hear more of my music -- I have ten albums now, and then a few singles -- at bandcamp.com/mariancall. So just look me up on bandcamp, you can find me on YouTube, you can find me on Twitter, you can find me at a Facebook page, and you can find me on Patreon, now. That's new. The new album is just on Bandcamp, as of right now. It should be up in a lot of other locations very shortly. You know iTunes, and Spotify, and all that.

JACOB: Great. And I'll put links to all of that. I put together a blog post --

MARIAN: Oh, excellent. Thank you!

JACOB: -- for each episode, so I'll put links to that, and that blog is at yoursongpodcast.tumblr.com [spells it]. So my name is Jacob Haller, and I have a website at JacobHaller.com. You can find all my music there, or on bandcamp, and links to my other podcasts and projects, and, as I mentioned, there's a Tumblr blog for the show notes at yoursongpodcast.tumblr.com. And there's also a Web site for the podcast at tellmeaboutyoursong.com. You can write interview us on iTunes, or Stitcher, or any of those places, and I would love it if you did that -- or just tell a friend. If you think they would enjoy this episode, send them a link. So, with all that said, we're going to go out and listen to the song we've been talking about: 'Oregon Trail' by Marion Call, from her album 'Standing Stones'. Thanks for listening.

['OREGON TRAIL' PLAYS IN FULL. YOU CAN FIND THE FULL LYRICS ON MARIAN CALL'S BANDCAMP PAGE.]

JACOB: So where would you like to start, Marion?

MARIAN: [laughs] Um...

JACOB: See? I warned you, and it still is totally --

MARIAN: Oh, you -- you were serious about that! Yeah.