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moviemagistrate · 4 years ago

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ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD review

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD is my favorite movie of the 2010’s.

I’ll give you a minute to put your recently-blown mind back together.

So why do I love this movie so much? The overall response to Quentin Tarantino’s supposedly penultimate opus has been very positive if not rapturous, but I’ve seen some surprisingly lukewarm and even negative reviews, with people criticizing it for being slow, meandering, lacking in depth or *shudder* boring. Obviously the quality of any movie is subjective, as I’m quick to remind anyone who hates Michael Bay movies, but I honestly don’t understand people who dislike OUATIH. Maybe it’s a matter of expectations, because I didn’t know how to feel about the film for much of the first time I watched it either.

The year is 1969, a time of great political and cultural change in the country and in the entertainment industry. The star-driven films of yesteryear are giving way to grittier, artsier, more auteur-driven works as we primarily follow Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a popular cowboy show whose failed attempt to start an A-list movie career has left him relying on guest spots as TV villains-of-the-week to stay afloat. This is wonderfully laid out in the opening scene where he meets casting director Marvin Schwarz (Al Pacino, easily his best role since JACK & JILL), who lays out Rick’s lowering hierarchical status (“Who’s gonna kick the shit out of you next week? How about Batman & Robin? PING. POW”), while offering him an opportunity to be a leading-man again in Italian pictures.

Tagging along is Rick’s best, and maybe only, friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), Rick’s go-with-the-flow stunt-double who in the slowdown of Rick’s career has effectively become his driver and gofer, as well as Rick’s sole source of emotional support. Rick is also neighbors with Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), the beautiful young actress and wife of then-superstar director Roman Polanski (whose inclusion in the film is minimal and handled tastefully), as she lives out her idyllic life, beloved by those around her like the ray of sunshine she was in real life. Her gated, hillside home looms over Rick’s, as he ponders aloud about how even meeting her the right way could resurrect his career.

For almost two-and-a-half hours, we follow these three characters as they just live out their lives, Rick nursing hangovers and having emotional breakdowns in front of his 8-year-old co-star on set while contemplating his future, Cliff going where the wind blows him while taking care of his adorable and highly-trained dog, and Sharon as she drives around Old Hollywood, spends time with her friends, and sneaks into a matinee showing of one of her movies, her eyes and infectious smile beaming with pride when the audience laughs at her comedic timing and cheers her martial-arts prowess.

I think it’s safe to say it’s not the film any of us were expecting from Quentin Tarantino. Having only made loud, gory, over-the-top genre pastiches for the last 15 years, you’d expect from the trailers for this to be about an actor and his sexy stunt-double getting mixed up with the Manson family before teaming up with Bruce Lee to save Sharon Tate from her horrific real-life fate, mixed with the filmmaker’s usual self-indulgent homages to films of yesteryear. While some of this is true to some extent, it’s surprisingly a much more relaxed, easygoing dramedy that follows a trio of funny, charismatic people as they just…exist, as people living in the moment instead of relics.

OUATIH is much more concerned with atmosphere, character, and capturing the feeling of a bygone era than the traditional narrative structure. It’s more effective than pretty much every nostalgia trip movie I've ever seen because you can feel Tarantino's affection for this era of his childhood bleed through every character, car, song, radio advertisement, TV show, background poster, etc. It’s through this meticulous level of detail and willingness to just hang out with these characters and take in this world that he reconstructed, Tarantino successfully resurrects the era in all its 35mm glory, but with the knowing twinge of real-world melancholy.

I guess the reason I love it so much is because the love that Tarantino has for everything and everyone in it is so tangible that it’s infectious. Watching OUATIH I honestly felt like I understood him better as both a filmmaker and as a person. He shows a level of restraint and maturity I haven’t seen since JACKIE BROWN. Even most of his trademark foot fetishizing is tasteful and subdued (I say “most” because I recall at least three close-ups of actresses’ feet that definitely made him a bit sweaty behind the camera). He’s a weird, shameless nerd with a big ego, but he’s 100% sincere about expressing his love for film and its rich history. And it’s this love, and the skill and style with which it’s expressed, that just put a big smile on my face each of the 6 (SIX) times that I’ve seen it since it came out.

Tarantino offers a tantalizing contrast between reality and fantasy. Throughout the film, as the characters of Hollywood live in their own idyllic world, relaxing in pools or driving around in bitchin’ cars, we also see the disquieting eeriness and griminess of the Manson family. The soundtrack and accompanying old-timey commercials for tanning butter or Mug Root Beer that plays through a lot of the film is a joy to listen to, but we also hear news bulletins of the war in Vietnam or the aftermath of the Bobby Kennedy assassination. You could argue this is just to set the scene for the era, but it feels too deliberate, because even after that joyously fantastical ending, we remember that it was just a fairy tale and real life didn’t turn out as pleasantly. Tarantino’s ability to make his world and characters so meticulously detailed and lived-in works to great effect in instilling a bittersweet melancholy to this film in a way I was really taken aback by. It feels like a window into his soul, someone who yearns for the fantasy of the world he grew up in but remembering that not all good things last and not everything in your nostalgic past was good to begin with.

One beautiful, spellbinding scene is Rick and Cliff coming back from their excursion into the world of Italian filmmaking. In this montage, we see Rick, Cliff and Rick’s new Italian wife arriving at the airport and driving home before unpacking their baggage, interspersed with Sharon Tate welcoming a guest at her home and having lunch, before cutting to a series of shots of famous LA landmarks like Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Taco Bell, and Der Wienerschnitzel all meticulously resurrected in their retro glory as they light up the night. “Baby, baby, baby you’re out of time”, sings Mick Jagger as we’re watching multiple stories about people who are each embodying those words: Rick’s career, his friendship with Cliff, Sharon Tate, and Hollywood itself.

Tarantino himself feels like one of the last mainstream auteur filmmakers, as well as one of the last and biggest proponents of shooting large-budget movies on film (even Scorsese’s embraced digital now, the fantastically-talented traitor). And with the rise of streaming services, one can’t help but feel like the movie-going experience itself is also becoming obsolete, especially recently, what with theaters going to war with distributors over fucking TROLLS: WORLD TOUR, not to mention that global pandemic we’ve been having lately all but killing general audiences’ enthusiasm for the movie theater experience (Christopher Nolan’s TENET certainly didn’t help). If all these things, both real and fictional, are indeed out of time, then at least with Tarantino’s penultimate film they get one hell of a bittersweet sendoff, a great time that’s more of an Irish wake than a funeral, and it’s a film I have no issue calling a truly introspective, late-career masterpiece.

And that’s without mentioning uniformly incredible cast. Leo DiCaprio, an actor I normally don’t care too much for, gives the best and funniest performance of his career as a dependent prima donna actor clinging to his remaining fame. Brad Pitt earns the hell out of his Oscar as an embodiment of old-school masculinity and charisma with an amazing set of abs (and everything else) whose outward coolness masks his mysterious past and complete badass-ness. Margot Robbie shines in her depiction of Tate, a beacon of warmth and likability who in many ways symbolized the love and carefree attitudes of the swingin’ 60’s. I’ve heard people criticize her character for not having a lot of dialogue, but to me it feels like they’re ignoring the visual storytelling, which just gives way to them assuming the film is sexist just because the female lead isn’t constantly monologuing. Every member of the supporting cast is memorable with their own quirks and great lines, no matter their screentime.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Tarantino joint without some truly hilarious and shocking violence, and without going into spoiler territory, the last 20 minutes delivers on this promise to such a degree that I feel comfortable calling it the best thing he’s ever done. Some may decry the climax as unnecessary or over-the-top, but the way it leads to an alternate world while subtly acknowledging what happened in the real one is cathartic beyond belief. And if you’re paying attention, every scene in the movie has been quietly building towards this finale, which to me takes away any potential of feeling meandering in the story. If you saw the movie and didn’t much care for it, I recommend giving it another watch. Having the context ahead of time makes it feel so much more rewarding, and even on the fifth watch I’m noticing clever, subtle set-ups I missed beforehand.

It’s also just super cozy and really easy to watch. The two hours and 45 minutes fly by. I could watch a 4-hour version of this.

Quentin, if you’re reading this, please don’t let your last movie be Star Trek.

#tarantino #feet #hippies #brad pitt

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rhaellatully · 5 years ago

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Strings’n’Drums Chapter 10 (Fanfiction)

AO3:https://archiveofourown.org/works/13991202/chapters/58549480

FF.net:https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12814422/10/Strings-n-Drums

Summury: AU. In 1969, Lucy runs from home and becomes a journalist for the magazin Strings'n'Drums, this will lead the young shy girl in the world of rock music, to meet the colorfull caracters that populates it. In between running from her father and living new experience Lucy will make friends, gorw into an adult and maybe have some romance. Will include Nalu and mentions of other parings

Chapter 1:https://rhaellatully.tumblr.com/post/170156396003/stringsndrums-fanficition

Chapter 9:https://rhaellatully.tumblr.com/post/190235367348/stringsndrums-chapter-9-fanfiction

“So, are you guys okay?”

“I don’t know, one minute we are, the next we’re fighting”

Lucy wasn’t surprised by this, to be honest, she had a hard time thinking that anyone would have a relationship different with Gajeel Redfox, excepted, perhaps, Juvia Locser.

“Did you tell him?” she asked

Levy looked down at her shoes and muttered “No”.

Lucy didn’t answer, she was still unsure of how she felt toward the idea of a relationship between Levy and that man. Levy seemed to really desire it but Lucy worried that this relationship might end in tears. Perhaps the fact that they fought so often was a sign that they weren’t went to be, but would Levy see it?

Lucy looked at the stage with anticipation. Any moment now Rust would be coming on stage. Lucy had her appreciation for their music and was very curious as to what they would sound like live. She had to focus on that and not the eventual relationship between her closest friend and the lead singer.

“They’re doing the final test on stage,” said Levy while looking at the stage, “I have to go.”

She went away to make her way across the barrier that separated the audience from the stage. Lucy waved at her and friend waved back before getting ready to do her job. There, only the photographs and members of staff could stand. They weren’t so many, like one could have seen at the other concerts. The crowd was also different. It was smaller than the other she had seen at the festival and much more heteroclite. Where you would have found generally one type of people at other concert, here you had all kinds, punks, hippies, teddy boys, beat and many others.

A great shout emanated from the crowd; Lucy didn’t need to look at the stage to know that Rust had made its appearance. There were cheers and claps as each members of the group picked up their instrument. In the middle of stage, with the second guitarist to his left and Juvia Locser to his right, stood Gajeel Redfox. He had his guitar in his hand and the mike against his mouth; he shouted into it “Shut the fuck up!”

The crowd laugh and clapped harder. Lucy didn’t know if that meant that they thought it was a joke or liked the fact that he talked to them that way, either way she didn’t join in. From where she stood, she could see Gajeel Redfox rolling his eyes, and she was half temped to join him.

He gave a nod to Juvia Locser and the gritty sound of distorted instrument filled the air, causing the crowd to go crazier than Lucy had ever seen. The sound was raw, violent and passionate. Which left Lucy to wonder how could Juvia Locser stay this impassive when she was playing this? As usual her face showed no emotion, the movement of her body were striped to their minimum. Her armed moved to play the right cord, but where any other musician would let their body move with the rhythm, hers stayed put. She looked so mechanical. Lucy was impressed, even though she didn’t know what she was impressed by. Was she somewhat capable of playing songs full of passion while not having any other herself, or was she capable of letting her passion out in her music without it showing on her face? Lucy had the feeling that she could ask the woman about this over a hundred times and not get any answer.

While Juvia Locser’s performance was impressive, the same could be say of Gajeel Redfox’s, or to be more précises the performance he was sharing with Levy. As he was playing, she was taking picture, and since Juvia Locser wasn’t putting on any show the only one she had to photograph was him. As such she was following him around the stage. That, he didn’t seem to appreciate. The second he would notice her he would run to the other side of the stage. Levy would discreetly make her way there, wait for the right moment, maybe kneel or take a few steps back to get a better picture, and when her flash would light up his sight, Gajeel Redfox would see her and run again. It was impressive the way he managed to avoid her and still play his guitar and sing his song. It was also impressive how persevered she was to follow him.

Lucy watched their dance during the entire show. Gajeel Redfox didn’t miss one key, which made her wonder in what kind of condition he had played in the past. Maybe he had needed to run from woman during shows before. Or perhaps he had needed to dodge object thrown at him. That seemed to be the most likely option. The more she looked at Levy the more she wondered if she was going to get any good picture. She didn’t know what to think of it. To be honest it made her feel like she was watching children. By the end of the show Levy was breathing heavily, and Lucy could tell Gajeel Redfox was exhausted as well.

She and Levy met up not far from the stage, her friend of sipping out of a water bottle.

“Did you get any good shots?”

Levy nodded and said, “Yeah I’ve got a few, but dam he was being difficult.”

“I’ve noticed, I’m not sure how the audience felt about his moving around.”

She had noticed that there were much less people present at the end of show, that could have been because they didn’t want to be late to another show, but Lucy wasn’t so sure. There had been something different about their performance. Every key had been strung the way it was suppose too, everything had been normal. And yet, Lucy had the feeling that something was missing, though she couldn't place what.

She told Levy about it and her friend said that it been going on for sometimes.

“Gajeel says that they need new songs.”

Lucy nodded, yes, they had probably moved on from their old songs. She supposed that if they no longer wanted to play their song they were bound to feel off.

Levy moved toward the back stage entrance where she found Gajeel Redfox, from where she stood Lucy couldn’t exactly tell if they were arguing or playing around with each other. As she got closer, she heard Levy’s laugh and noticed that Gajeel Redfox’s face wasn’t as hard as when she last saw him.

A part of her wanted to stay where she was and let them have their conversation, but Nastu Dragneel’s show was starting soon and she didn’t want to miss it. So, she went up to Levy.

“Are you going to see Nastu?”, she asked.

Before Levy could answer Gajeel Redfox scoffed, “You’re going to see that clown?”

“He’s not a clown, his one of the best musicians of our time,” objected Levy.

“I’m not talking about his music. I’ve met the guy he’s a joke,” retorted Gajeel Redfox.

“He’s one of my oldest friends!”

“Then stay with him, if you like idiots!”

Levy sighed angrily, “Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?” he grunted, having clearly no idea what she was talking about.

“Speak badly of any friend I mention!”

Gajeel Redfox had a small laugh, he rolled his eyes. A weird smile appeared on his face and he said “Because your friends,” he spited that last word like insult “, aren’t worth shit!”

“Oh really! Is that the issues, or is it just that you don’t like me spending time with other men!”

He took a step back, “What?”

“Well yeah,” began Levy with her arms crossed over her chest, “you never speak that way of any of my girl friends, actually now that I think about it, you just talk that way of every men I mention!”

“Maybe it’s because every man you know are tools!”

Levy went on to argue back. There’s was lot of shouting and Lucy felt out of place. She thought that this all thing was none of her business and felt uncomfortable watching them. She, therefore, left to see Nastu Dragneel on her own.

She managed to get there before there was too much of crowd, as such she was able to stand merely a few steps away from the front row. I didn’t take long for Nastu Dragneel to make his apparition, which was followed by loud shouts throughout the crowd, Lucy couldn’t deny that she had been among the one shouting. She didn’t really know why she screamed, perhaps because everyone was shouting, or maybe because she wanted to give Nastu some kind of support, of perhaps she was simply happy to see him. No matter the reason he clearly was unable to distinguish her voice among so many others.

The music started and once again it transported her. With just a few keys it made all her worries disappear and she was able to enjoy the music, just the music. It had grabbed hold of her soul and she enjoyed every second of it.

It was only in the interspace in between the song that she noticed the three platinum blonds at the bottom of the stage. She wondered a moment if they were who she though, she could only see the back of their heads and they could very well have been just some people who had come from the north of Europe for the festival. But then on them turned their head to speak to the other and Lucy recognised the face of Mira Jane Strauss.

The Strauss were at the concert, it made sense, they knew Nastu and from what Levy had told her they were close. If she wanted to be introduced, all she had to do was take five or maybe six steps ahead of her. But would they care for her? Even if she used the fact that she was friend with Levy and knew Nastu it didn’t guaranty that they would talk to her. Perhaps they were taking some time off to enjoy a concert and didn’t want to be disturb. In that case they would react badly to her coming to them. It was probably better to stay put.

But interviewing them could be a goldmine, all the incredible artist they had work with, they were an insight on so many aspects of the industry. She could write the most interesting article with their insight, the kind of article that would make never be question again be her superior.

She took a step forward, but then the fear over took her, she stepped back and told herself that she’d goes to them later. After that song. Never mind, after this one. This one. Now.

She didn’t move and the concert ended.

She felt ashamed, she thought she had gotten past this, that she could go introduce herself to people without fear now. She didn’t know what had just happened. Perhaps it was because they were three people this time, or maybe it simply wasn’t her day. Still she was a journalist, if she didn’t get rid of this childish fear how could she ever hope to succeed?

She made her way miserably to the entrance of the backstage. A small part of her had hoped that the Strauss would be there, and that Nastu could do the introductions. They weren’t. She should stop relying on Nastu for these things anyway.

“Lucy!”, she heard the shouting voice of Nastu Dragneel, “Did you like the show?”

“Yeah, I had a great time.”

He came in front of her and looked at her questioningly, “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yeah, what do you mean?” retorted Lucy.

“I don’t know, you seem… down, kinda.”

Lucy opened her mouth and closed it. How had he noticed? Was she really this obvious?

“It’s nothing”, she finally said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah”

“If you want we can-“

“Yo Nastu!” a raspy voice cut him.

They both turned around to see Cana Alberona making her way toward them.

“Move your ass! Gray’s concert is about to start!”

“Oh right, the bet”, he said.

“What bet?” asked Lucy.

“Gray- I mean John Fool and I made a bet to see who would get the most people at their live”

“Yeah” added Cana Alberona “and if we want to know who win we better get going.”

They started walking away and Lucy wondered what she should do. Before she could think about it, Nastu turned back and asked her “You’re not coming?”

She had wonder before, and while, making her way to the festival, whether she’d go see John Fool or Lee Richards, as they were both playing at the time. This made the decision for her.

They joined the crowed that was forming in front of the stage. “They were more people at mine”, said Nastu the second they got there.

Lucy looked around, she had a hard time telling, people were still coming in, and being inside a crowd doesn’t make you best placed to tell how many people are in it.

“I don’t know they are more coming,” said Cana Alberona, “I’ll go get us beers before it starts.”

And with that they were alone. Lucy glanced at Nastu, she had the feeling she should say something, but she had no idea what. Nastu was still looking around at the crowd trying to tell how many people were here. There was a determined look on his face. He looked like a boxer before the start of a match.

“Is this really so important?” she asked “I mean, it’s just a bet, right?”

Nastu looked at her in the eyes and said perfectly naturally “Yeah, but I wanna win.”

“Why? What are the stakes?”

Nastu seemed thoughtful, they had not set stakes, Lucy realised. There was nothing to win or lose, and yet he was taking it incredibly seriously. As a matter of fact, this was the most serious she had ever seen him behave. He had been casual during their interview, when he had introduced her to Erza, even when he was on stage, he didn’t seem very different than he was the rest of the time. All he had need was for someone to challenge him for it to change. She wondered what it was like to leave that way, to be lay back about everything, and to have an unmovable determination when in competition.

“To prove I’m better than him”, finally answered Nastu.

“Having more people at your live doesn’t makes you better, just more popular.”

Nastu chuckled, “Yeah that’s true, but you know Gray and I we have this kind of rivalry going on, so we do this kind of things sometime. I mean you and the other journalist don’t you try to prove your article the best, or something?”

“No, I don’t really talk much with my co-workers,” Lucy admitted.

“Why?” asked Nastu with a worried look on his face.

Lucy felt heat making its way to her cheeks, “I’m shy”, she explained, “plus I’m the only girl at work.”

“Seriously?”

“Well, my boss does have a secretary but besides her…”

“And you can’t be friend with man?”

“It’s not really friendship they’re interested in.”

“They’re idiot.”

This made Lucy smiled. She thought that if everyone was like Nastu the world would be much easier to navigate.

Cana Alberona came back handing each of them a beer.

Lucy’s hand immediately went to her purse, “How much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Nothing girl. Hey! Aren’t you the girl I met on the first day?”

“Yeah”

Lucy didn’t had time to elaborate, the music started. She had never seen John Fool in concert before, he seemed rather reserved. His eyes were on his guitar, only rarely darting toward the crowed. She couldn’t tell if he was concentrating on what he was playing, or just shy. She was leaning toward concentration, because she doubted that someone shy could have transmitted such row emotions. There was this sadness, this melancholia in his music, but there was also something like hope. Yes hope, much more palpable live than on his records.

At some point, she noticed that Natsu was taking in the crowed and trying to figure out if there were more people here than his live. Lucy almost laugh at this, but instead she started looking at the crowed as well. From her place she was incapable to tell if the crowed was bigger. What she did noticed though, was that Mira Jane and Lissana Stauss were in the crowed, not too far from them.

A second chance, she couldn’t miss it. She took a good sip of her beer, told Natsu she’d be right back and headed toward them.

She put her hand on Mira Jane Strauss shoulder and said “Excuse me, you’re Mira-Jane and Lissanna Strauss, right?”

“Yes” Mira-Jane Strauss answered with a kind smile.

“I’m sorry to bother you, my name is Lucy, I’m a journalist for Strings’n’Drums”

“Oh yeah I know that magazine” stated Lissanna “There was a great article about John Fool in it recently.”

“I’m the one who wrote it.”

“Really? Well done!”

“I was wondering if I could interview you, and your brother, not right now of course.”

“Sure”, answered Mira-Jane, “Let me give you my number so we can do this latter.”

She quickly wrote the number on a piece of paper she gave Lucy. Lucy stared at it, she had Mira-Jane Strauss personal number. Her heart was beating so fast, she needed to get back to Nastu.

“I won’t bother you any longer”, she said and started walking away.

“Wait”, Mira-Jane Strauss told her, “where did you get that dress?”

Lucy looked down at her dress, it was a short summer dress with a floral pattern of pink flowers on a bleu background, the pattern wasn’t exactly special but the colour had a wonderful contrast, and the cut of the dress fitted her like a glove.

“I got it from a small shop not far from my apartment, in London.”

“You’ll have to take us there, or else no interview.”

“Alright.”

What had just happened? She had gotten an interview with the Strauss and a shopping date? These girls were incredibly friendly. To think she was scared of talking to them a minute ago.

She went back to Nastu and Cana Alberona. The rest of the concert went smoothly. Each song was incredibly beautiful and the audience responded positively to each of them. But the second the concert ended, Nastu grabbed her arm and said “Come on, we have to go see Gray.”

They were walking in the opposite direction of the crowed, which made their movements difficult. As she was doing her best to make her way forward, she thought she saw Juvia Locser. The woman in question had the same face, the same long hair, and the way she was dressed would fit the musician. But she was smiling. Her smile was one of the brightest Lucy had ever seen. That couldn’t be the emotionless Juvia Locser, could it?

Lucy didn’t get much time to muse over the possibility, because as soon as they were in front of John Fool, Nastu started to shout.

“Gray, they were way more people at my show.”

“No way, they were more at mine.”

Nastu disagree and they went at each other so passionately that Lucy expected them to start frowning fits at each other’s. But thankfully they settled for shouting in the other’s face. Lucy didn’t know what to think of that scene. This were two of the greatest musicians of her time, and John Fool had seemed so calmed and composed when she had interviewed him. But at this moment they looked like a couple of children.

Finally, Nastu told John Fool, “Having more people at your concert doesn’t mean your better than me anyway, it just means you’re more popular.”

Lucy raise one eyebrow. Cana Alberona burst into laughter. And John Fool frowned.

“Since when are you mature?”

Nastu had a satisfied smile and he winked at Lucy.

She spent the rest of the evening with them. Lucy wasn’t the most vocal during the conversations but they didn’t seem to mind her remarks. Spending time with them, seeing them laugh, argue, and talk made realised that they were human. She knew they were of the same species as her, but she had always thought of them as something more, something she could never be: artists. She had always wanted to be a novelist, but she didn’t think she had what it took, that she was less than an artist. But artists, as she was discovering, were just like every one else. Did it meant she could be one, one day? She couldn’t say she was sure.

As the night started to fall, she decided it was time for her to head back. She said her goodbyes and Nastu insisted on walking her back.

They were walking on the street alone, it didn’t feel like a Rockstar taking a journalist home, it felt like two friends walking together. It was nice. She just didn’t understand why he was friend with her.

“You don’t have to this,” said Lucy.

“I know I want to.”

“Why?”

“You’re great, and I don’t get to see you often, so I’ve got to make the most of it.”

#nalu #fairy tail #ft fanfiction #nalu fanfic #natsu dragneel #lucy heartifilla #gajevy #levy mcgarden #gajeel redfox #gruvia #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser #fanfic #ft #fairy tail fanfiction

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swearronchanel · 8 years ago

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As per request, 2.05

You guys have been so freaking sweet and kind to me with your feedback since I started making these ridiculous posts, it’s insane but I love it!❣️ I literally started these as a joke because my one friend who watches call the midwife didn’t pick up the phone (and bc I was under the influence whoops hahaha it happens) but now I have so much fun posting every week! I’m sure I won’t stop these any time soon (what will I do when this series is over until Christmas? Yikes lets not talk about it yet) Anyways @marialujan22 requested I rewatch and post for 2x5 & shit it’s been a while since I’ve watched series 2 but I couldn’t say no! Besides Im in a good mood because I have 10 days till spring break & only like 8 weeks left in the semester so here we go ..

idk if I’m mentally prepared for this

THE BIKE SONG I LOVE IT

“Somewhere far away, scientist we’re working on a magic pill, rumored to make pregnancy a case of choice..” Hell yea birth control, deff a magic pill in my opinion

Crazy that it took 3 series for the pill to become a thing & then there was still lame ass government guidelines

Jenny Lee! lol I often forget about her sorry not sorry, I liked her but she left. ya no importa

I love how “mature jenny” still narrates even though her character is never even mentioned anymore #letmenarrate lol jk I like Vanessa Redgrave’s voice

“Meanwhile other scientists were trying to send humans to the moon” fuck yea Hidden Figures

If CtM went up until 1969 that’d be lit, like the episode on mad men when they watched the moon landing! Just replace them with nuns and nurses and babies & replace the liquor for tea 😂

Shit I’ve said typed so much already

SISTER MJ💕 I wanna smack myself she’s brushing her teeth & I thought of that stupid toothbrush song from last week’s episode kill me

Nora’s pregnant again uh oh

Cynthia! SISTER E! Jane! It’s been so long

My bby Trixie 💕😍 I miss her pin curls! But now she’s serving those 60s looks so I’m here for it all

“Take that off this minute before you go to hell” LMAO TRIX YOU CANT TELL KIDS THAT

lol who am I kidding I would’ve said the same

I love sister Monica Joan, id quote everything she ever says but that’s too much work

Vicar’s wife? But who was the vicar?

LMAO WAIT DOESNT SISTER MJ FAKE A HEART ATTACK??

YES SHE DID IM DEAD I LOVE HER, WELL IT WAS LIKE ANGINA BUT IDC STILL FUNNY CAUSE SHE DIDNT WANNA GO

PRECIOUS SISTER BERNADETTE 😭💕

I STILL CANT BELIEVE MY BBY SHELAGH WAS A NUN, ITS SO STRANGE TO GO BACK AND SEE HER IN THE HABIT, LIKE YOURE PREGNANT NOW, WITH DR TURNERS BABYYY!!

anyone else really wanted to know how she was going to tell Sister Julienne “um i was already done with being a nun and now im love sick, I can’t stop thinking about Dr Turner so I gotta ditch this habit”

damn I feel so bad like she did not want another baby & had no choice but to deal with it

No Jenny, tea is not gonna help right now

And heres the lady that scammed her

How much is 2 guinnis ? Idk how to spell that u already know I’m an ignorant American

Did she really tell a married woman keep her legs closed? It Doesn’t even matter if she was married or not like who are u anyway?? I would’ve bitch slapped her too, good for u Nora

Sister MJ saying her horoscope was right, we are the same😭

Wtf is spotted dick? Also I laughed because I’m immature Lmaoo

Sister J eating the pudding, she knows how to get to sister MJ 😂 I love them

Trixie teasing Jane about the Reverend lol aw

“I can’t knit I had a heart attack this morning” ME TRYING TO GET OUT OF THINGS

8 kids in one bedroom though yikes

Cute and classic bedroom moments 😭💕

“Naughty version of eggnog” like coquito? Lol nah, coquito is the bomb

IM CRYING SISTER BERNADETTE LOOKING IN THE DOORWAY

THIS BREAKS MY HEART EVERYTIME

THEY FUCKING CLOSED THE DOOR ON HER, MY BBY. I WANT TO HUG HER 💔💔💔 she deserves the world

Who is this irrelevant ass vicars wife? “Cherrio”

I’m so sorry Nora

Ew wtf a rat just bit the baby?

“Just tell me what you want sister” SHE WANTS YOU DOCTOR

THE WAY THEYRE LOOKING AT EACH OTHER OMG IM SHOOK

WHAT THE HELL TIM WHY DID YOU RUIN THE MOMENT ?!

sister MJ wants to roll bandages, make it happen! lol I love that Cynthia and Jane unwrap them all for her 😭

Aww i love babies !! but that one with a funny nose uhh

SISTER BERNADETTE BLOWING THE WHISTLE AND CHEERING 💕 MY HEART SHE IS SO ADORABLE

Aw I wish Trixie could have another scene going through old pictures and maybe share old stories with the new nurses💔 unlikely but you know I can hope. SHE DID HAVE THAT PHOTO OF HER AND CYNTHIA ON HER MIRROR LAST SUNDAY💕

“I’m a woman on a mission” beatrix, light in my life

Curly locks lol, when I was younger I was called Shirley temple and when I dyed my hair I was called Goldie locks.. mind u that lasted into high school 😂 I’m staying blonde for good though, I don’t think I can pull off anything else

DONT GO OUT WITH HIM TRIXIE, HE’S TRASH

Laura Main’s angelic voice ✨👼🏼

who am I kidding she’s an angel

you know what would be fun and a dream? to go out with the ctm cast and get drunk and take trashy snapchat videos singing

Gin & a hot bath??

Trixie looked him up lol, good move

BUT HE’S STILL TRASH and an asshole

Pickle knife ?

again, this irrelevant vicar’s wife? vete ya

Everyone thinks Sister MJ is senile but she knows what’s up with Sister Bernadette..

“..but is all blank sadness and continued tears” MY HEART💔 sister Bernadette/Shelagh has spent the majority of this show crying/being sad/distressed ugh!! Laura Main plays is beautifully but I CRY!? Let her be uninterruptedly happy please 😭💕

she (and helen) ruined me tbh, I used to have dignity

Is Jenny really naive or is she just pretending not to understand??

SEE SISTER BERNADETTE IS ON SCREEN AGAIN & IS UPSET

“I almost wish I was physically ill..” okay bRb CRYIN. THIS IS WHY I CANT WATCH THESE OLDER EPISODES I CRY TOO MUCH, I DONT LIKE TO SEE HER UNHAPPY

Remember when I started the show and didn’t know it was gonna ruin my life? Or before I grew attached? Yea me neither lmaoo those were the days when I thought downton killed me. I Didn’t know what was coming 😂 still love downton though rip #downtonmoviepls

Knitting needles?? aye dios mio

HA GREMLIN TIM AND JACK

Again how much is a gunniea and how do I spell it? I could google it but I’m busy here

She was willing to sell her wedding ring and risk her life for an unprofessional abortion. DO YOU SEE THE ISSUE? This isn’t just the a period drama either. Shit is real

“Are babies more valued because they can survive or do they survive beside they are more valued?” good question sis

lol Jane was so sweet and just bounced with no word

AT LEAST I KNOW WHERE SHE WENT THOUGH, THANKS FOR THAT NZ CUT SCENE

Trixie being a babe and getting ready to do her nails 😍💕 I wish I could do mine well but I’m trash and so I pay to get them done

The cross cutting in this scene is crazy but so well done (& yes look at me using real terms lol, I took a Music in film class last semester and had to know editing techniques 😂, I did fairly well too)

I really don’t know how she survived this

My bby trixie looking gorgeous as per usual. I love her so much, Helen u kill me

NO COÑFIO TRIXIE, HE’S NO GOOD

Haha why did I not remember the Gone With The Wind reference? Cynthia was so cute, I miss her carefree and happy

FRECO MOVE YOUR DAMN HAND, YOU ARE TRASH.

HE’S FICTIONAL BUT ID STILL FIGHT HIM

my poor bby😭💔 it is not your fault , he’s trash!! But this moment between the nurses warmed my cold heart

“Matrons in charge, virgins of iron” 😭😭

Aw Earth Angel playing, ✨🎼 I highkey pop to 50s/60s pandora stations

Jenny yes it’s illegal but do you think that matters rn??

TIM AS MAID MARION LMAO

Sister Bernadette looking at Dr Turner ah omg 😭they’ve come so far.

It’s not your fault Jenny but you should’ve told someone

Sister B & Tim won 👏🏼

LMAO ALL I CAN THINK OF IS THAT POST “WOAH CALM DOWN IM JUST TRYNA DATE YOUR DAD”

and she’s down, and the glasses flew

“You’ve hurt your hand” “well I’m sure there’s no need to amputate” ah sister b/shelagh lowkey has some of the funniest lines she just slips them in and people miss them !!

Here it comes ..

THE MOMENT..

“Would you like me to have a look at that?” UHM YEA

No but seriously I can barely remember what I thought when I first watched this but I knew something was gonna happen because a nurse can handle her own damn cut & well you know, she was in love with him

HE KISSED HER HAND. A fucking doctor kissed a nuns hand people, how scandalous & this was THE MOMENT I KNEW I WAS CORRUPT AND WAS GOING TO HELL, I AM SATAN I WANTED THE DOCTOR TO KISS A FREAKING NUN ON THE MOUTH LIKE WTF WHO RAISED ME? MY MOTHER WANTED IT TOO SO IDK BUT THIS KILLED ME, LIKE R.I.P HERE LIES GABBY, I WAS IN THE GROUND DECEASED. I’m actual trash. Someone dispose of me in the proper bin #recyle

for real, this is when I really knew that I was never going to love any other show like this and I allowed it to ruin me

BUT HONESTLY WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING? THATS A BOLD MOVE

BOLD IN GENERAL BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW IF SHE LIKES YOU BUT BOLD x1000 BC SHE IS A NUN, YOU KNOW MARRIED TO GOD, VOW OF CHASITY AND ALL THAt??

What if she would’ve freaked tf out or told sister Julienne? I don’t even know. I’ll just be grateful for how things turned out

“At this moment I only know I’m not turning my back on you because of you but I’m doing it because of him” AHHHH, DONT WORRY BBY GOD LOVES U AND UNDERSTANDS YOU LOVE HIM AND THE DOCTOR, LOSE THAT HABIT AND GO PROPERLY KISS PATRICK 😭

Sister MJ judging the baby contest is the purest thing & I need it to cleanse my disgusting soul that wants a dr to get with a nun #notsorrythough

“In Nonnatus we were good at tending other’s wounds and there were times I felt we were all each other’s children..” brb I’m crying I love that they’re like a family 😭💕💔

I’m so happy they didn’t kill Nora and she actually was happy in the end. I really wasn’t sure for a moment (obviously when I first watched lol)

“ Free reliable contraception came too late to help her, but in time the scientists triumphed. Her daughters and granddaughters lives remained transfigured, long after man left fleeting footprints on the moon.” Vanessa always knowing what to say in the end.

Lets see how the pill is going to be reintroduced this series, I’m interested in how it’s going to play out.

I’ve said that so many times though so I’ll be done

The End.

#call the midwife #im actual trash #I love this show too much #my thoughts #and rambles #lets get it 1962 #protect my bbys at all costs though #my commentaries™

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avva-rm · 6 years ago

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Jean Seberg Talks Breathless–Back in 1968

Harry Clein May 28, 2010 8:30 am

Back in 1968, veteran Hollywood publicist Harry Clein recalls, he visited the set of big-budget musical Paint Your Wagon to interview young actress Jean Seberg (star of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, which is being reissued). A transcript follows, including a visit from her co-stars, Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood (with whom Seberg denied having an affair).

As the Summer of Protest rocked the Chicago Democratic Convention and feminists stormed the Miss America Pageant, I was in Baker, Oregon reporting on the big-budget musical Paint Your Wagon as a leg man for Los Angeles Times columnist Joyce Haber. Like Jane Fonda, Seberg was on J. Edgar Hoover’s subversives list, due to her involvement with the Black Panthers. After I left Haber in the spring of 1969, Haber ran a destructive blind item that ruined Seberg’s life: The blond and beautiful “Miss A,” she wrote, was pregnant by “a prominent Black Panther.” At the funeral for her stillborn daughter, Seberg displayed the white baby in a glass coffin; her husband Romain Gary claimed the baby as his. After that, the fragile actress repeatedly tried to commit suicide, often on the anniversary of the baby’s birth. In 1979, at age 40, she was found dead of a prescription overdose in the back seat of her car in Paris, holding a suicide note.

But that dusty August day back in 1968, I was just a callow young man infatuated with the beautiful, sexy and worldly star of Breathless, who although she was my age, had already played opposite Belmondo, Beatty and Connery. Munching two green apples for lunch, Jean, in blue jeans and a red shirt, sat on the stairs to her trailer and harmonized on “My Funny Valentine” with a couple of hippie extras strumming a guitar and rubbing a washboard.

Jean Seberg: They come over for an occasional shower. I’d never deny that to any hippie. I do see a healthy movement among the scruffy young in the sense it is the first generation whose values aren’t material. But the whole drug scene is a drag. It’s a cop out. I’d rather see a friend run down by a car than on drugs like heroin or speed.”

Harry Clein: Breathless put you at the center of the French New Wave. Were you surprised?

JS: I was out of work and needed the money. The producer asked Columbia, which then owned my old Preminger contract, if I was available. He gave Columbia a choice of $12,000 or 50% of the world profits. With great foresight, Columbia took the $12,000. It was shot for $76,000 in five weeks. Most of the time we worked half days. We’d break and sit around in cafes. One day the producer saw us, it was his last card, and he got into a fistfight with Godard because we weren’t working.

HC: Why did the French fall in love with you?

JS: I know they loved the short hair. It was very daring then because of the concentration camp memories. Maybe they were happy because I married a French man [Romain Gary]. I’m just happy people think of me at all. I’m just happy to get jobs.

HC: What was it like making Saint Joan after winning the big talent contest?

JS: I didn’t do it. Some pimply-faced kid from Iowa did it.

HC: Are you still in touch with Otto Preminger, who discovered you?

JS: We nod across crowded commissaries.

HC: You also made Bonjour Tristesse with him. Was that a better experience?

JS: I was in it, but I was all tied up with that dashing young playboy [Francois Moreuil] who dashed away. I would have broken your heart. I was a pathetic soul. Everyone disapproved. Which naturally pushed me on. He was a good friend when I didn’t have good friends. He’s a very nice man, and when we were married, he was a very nice boy. I was a crazy girl. It was really a baby marriage, not even a childhood marriage. He did a foolish thing. He wanted to meet Romain Gary, the French Consul General in Los Angeles. We made a call on him with the beautiful eyes, who became the father of my son (Diego).

Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood came over as junket reporters from Oakland and Charlotte trailed after them. Eastwood’s vocabulary to the press in those days consisted of pleasant hellos, yeahs and nos, and there was absolutely no indication he would become a two-time Oscar-winning director. Marvin and Eastwood had flown down the night before to Los Angeles for a party honoring Toshiro Mifune who had made Hell in the Pacific with Marvin.

Lee Marvin: You and Claudia Cardinale are Mifune’s favorite actresses!

JS: Toshiro Mifune likes me! If he comes up, I’ll bake him a Japanese pie. What was I doing here in Baker? I wish I had gone with you.

LM (playfully): “No. You couldn’t have. I paid for the plane.

JS (haughtily): That proves you’re not a star.

LM: I don’t have to take that from a runway starlet.

My Baker interview ended when the six actresses who played French whores made a sensational helicopter landing on the set. The hormone-stoked male crew and cast cheered as the voluptuous women stepped out onto the Oregon dust in their high boots and their lavender, orange and yellow micro-dresses.

JS: It looks like Raquel Welch hitting Viet Nam!

My interview continued on Election Day, November 5, 1968 at Jean’s rented pink California colonial house on Coldwater Canyon. By the backyard pool, Jean was barefoot, wearing a floppy gray hat, jeans and a red gingham shirt tied at the waist. But she was not as fancy-free as she had been on set. A darker more reflective mood had set in.

JS: Bobby Kennedy is the guy I’ll be thinking about most today. I found him very candid and, surprisingly, he didn’t think he had a hope in hell of getting the nomination in Chicago because of the Johnson-Humphrey machine. Politically, as they say on television, there’s a breakdown in communications between the electorate and the candidates. But this is still the country where people live the best, despite the gaping flaws. I’ve friends who live all over. But after they leave America, they realize it. They come back.

HC: Didn’t you go to a White House dinner when John Kennedy was president?

JS: Kennedy was a pragmatist. We can only speculate, but I think he would have seen earlier that there would be no military conclusion to the war. That would have saved the maimed and killed on both sides. My God, on television each night the body counts are like racking up scores for either side.

HC: Despite the problems on Paint Your Wagon, how do you feel about it?

JS: I’ve finished all my work. Lee and Clint took me out to lunch the other day. I was sobbing. It was kind of like leaving summer camp. I was a basket case. I had freedom by the end of the picture. Lee is hard to work with. He plays broad, but it doesn’t look that way on the screen. Working with Lee is like being in the Army for four years. He enriches your vocabulary so much. It’s turned into such a big picture. When the weather was bad in Oregon, there was the rumor Paramount was negotiating to buy God.

HC: Any other films on the horizon?

JS: I’ve a second commitment to Paramount. Jim Brown has asked me to do Lions Three, Christians Nothing (a love story about a black NFL quarterback and a white actress). But I’ve got to have a big powwow with him about it. It could say good things, but it’s a firecracker. There are strong truths in it that I’d hate to see sensationalized. I had a talk with Sammy Davis. We agreed it would be ten years before the right story of an interracial romance could be told as it is. The point being that when people are in love they are color-blind. But we’re so hung up on the black-white sexual obsession.

HC: Is Romain coming to Los Angeles while you’re here?

JS: Romain’s film Birds in Peru opens soon in New York. It’s breaking records in Paris. I hope it does well here. It’s about non-compassionate love. It’s a ritualistic dance of fate of a frigid woman who seeks a man who will be the key to awakening her. She has periodic crises of nymphomania. She has a pact with her husband that if her nymphomania happens again, to kill her. It may be shocking to some people. Romain’s work is very impressive. I was terrified working with him. I wanted him to do it with someone else. But he turned out to be more visual than I expected. He is a very sensitive director. I hope to work with him again.

HC: What is the state of your marriage?

JS: We reached an ideal with what marriage should be. But the pressures of our careers kept us from it. We remain the closest of friends. Loving friends. The three month period he was in Majorca and I was in Baker was a trial separation. He’s basically a loner. We can accept our relationship on every level but the marriage level. The marriage was over when I spoke to you in Baker…The French have a nice way of putting things. Whenever a man presents his woman, he refers to her as ma femme. It’s the same word for both mistress and wife. The French also say ‘never apologize, never explain.’ The French say an awful lot of dumb things…The superb thing about Romain was that he created this Frankenstein. He pushed me to develop my own tastes. This inevitably created conflict. I have this character flaw. I’m a ship without a rudder if there’s not a man there. It’s my nature to mold myself around a man.

HC: Have you ever thought of moving to Los Angeles?

JS: Only when I am very tired like right now, I say ‘why go, why not stay?’ This town… Los Angeles, Hollywood… I find beautiful. I’m overawed by the variety of plants and flowers. But I find the total preoccupation with the industry to be a drag. Since my son is raised as a European, I’ll spend time there. I made a oath to Romain that Diego would be raised in Europe. I feel as if I’m a cork in the middle of the Atlantic. When I come back here, I realize I’m so American. To the French, I am a French actress. But my roots are here in America. Even if I wanted to think they aren’t, they are very much so. Do you know the old story about the chameleon? Put the chameleon on green, he turns green; put him on black, he turns black; put him on red and he turns red. Place the chameleon on plaid, and he explodes.

HC: What’s next?

JS: This is a paid advertisement. Any man who sends me flowers every day can have me. No diamonds, no jets, no Bentleys. Also I am hooked on good manners. I don’t mean opening car door good manners, I mean opening of hearts good manners. But I’ve learned a little on the way. I’m a lot less selfish, more giving. And if he’s someone who wants children, I’m now prepared to have piles of them. Maybe it’s a biological thing. Maybe the career just means less at a time when it should mean more. That, too, is a paid advertisement.

The next time – and unfortunately last time – I saw Jean Seberg I took her a single white rose.

#Jean Seberg #Breathless #Paint Your Wagon #Harry Clein #Actress #Interview #1968 #IndieWire

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epitomy-of-venegance-blog · 7 years ago

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Best Tv Shows All Time

'The Daily Show' 1996-Present

The fa-Ke information display that became mo-Re credible as opposed to news that is real. Comedy Central started The Everyday Show in 1996, but it hit its stride when Jon Stewart took over in 1999. The Everyday Present got more politically abrasive as the the headlines got worse. Stewart had the rage of a man who'd signed on in the conclusion of the Bill Clinton years, only to finish up with an America much more scary and more ugly for, as well as the anger showed. "It's a comic box lined with unhappiness," he informed Rolling Stone in 2006. While the franchise struggles on without him, Samantha Bee and Daily alumni John Oliver keep that hard-hitting spirit alive on their shows.

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'The Office (U.K.)' 2001 03

Ricky Gervais created one of TV's most agonizing comic tyrants in David Brent – a bitter, awkward, pompous ball of vanities terrorizing his workers at a London paper company. He fidgets, fondles his tie, cracks awful jokes, plays guitar ("Free Love Freeway"!), invisible to anyone except the longsuffering office drones who need to put up with him. This mockumentary raised the cringe level of sitcoms everywhere, spawning the surprisingly fantastic U.S. version (also on this checklist) while paving the way for the glories of Parks & Re-Creation and Peepshow.

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'Sesame Street' 1969-Present

No kiddie present has ever been as fiercely beloved as this urban utopian fantasy, emerge a brownstone neighborhood populated by a multi racial cast of smiling adults, a gigantic yellow chicken, a grouch in a garbage can, and z/n-loving vampires, plus many talking letters and figures. It's great songs, but most important, Sesame h-AS soul, which can be why the air h-AS stayed sweet for 40 years – or as the Count would say, 4-5! 46! 47 years!

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'The Sopranos' 1999 2007

The crime saga that slice the the history of TV kicking off a golden age when abruptly something seemed possible. With all The Sopranos, David Chase smashed all the rules about just how much you could get away with on the little screen. And he created an immortal American antihero in James Gandolfini's Nj Mob boss, Tony Soprano over a crew of gangsters who double as damaged husbands and dads, men seeking to live using their murderous secrets and dark memories. As the late, great Gandolfini told Rolling Stone in 2001, "I noticed David Chase say one time that it is about people who lie to themselves, as we all do. Lying to ourselves on a daily basis as well as the mess it creates." What an inspiring mess it is. This particular poll was run away with by the Sopranos as the planet was altered by it. Chase showed how much story telling ambition tv could be brought to by you, and it didn't take long for everybody else to to go up to his problem. The breakthroughs of the next few years – The Wire, Mad Guys, Breaking Bad – could not have happened without The Sopranos kicking the door down. But Chase had a tough time convincing any community to take on a story of a guilt- while his mom plots to destroy him, gangster who goes to therapy. "We'd no idea this show would appeal to folks," he told Rolling Stone. "The show really unexpectedly made this type of splash that it screwed all of US up." The Sopranos stored heading having a wild mix of humor and blood shed for the long bomb over six masterful seasons on HBO. When FBI agents tell Uncle Junior which mobsters they want him to finger, he says using a shrug, "I want to fuck Angie Dickinson – let us see who gets lucky first." The Sopranos is full of damaged characters who linger on in the long term parking of our national imagination – Edie Falco's Carmela, Dominic Chianese's Junior, Michael Imperioli's Christopher, Tony Sirico's Paulie Walnuts. E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt became Tony's lieutenant Silvio – Chase spotted him on early Bruce Springsteen album addresses. (As Chase told Rolling Stone, "There was something about the E Street Band that looked the same as a crew.") It might not have been possible without Gandolfini's slow-burning intensity – he was the only actor who could deliver Tony's angst to life. But the writing, directing and acting went locations Television had never attained before. The Sopranos arguably hit its imaginative peak with all the well-known Pine Barrens episode, where Christopher and Paulie Walnuts wander away in the woods, realizing the gangster they tried to whack is still out there-in the darkness. They shiver in the cold. ("It is the the fuckin' Yukon out there!") They wait. And worry. The Sopranos never solved this mystery – for all we know, the Russian is nonetheless atlarge, however another key these guys can't shake off. In the streets, family loyalties flip, both on The Sopranos and a-T home. Beloved characters can get whacked at any given moment. It stored that perception of risk alive proper up to the ultimate seconds. And not quite a decade after it faded to black in a Jersey diner together with the juke-box playing "Do Not Cease Believin'," The Sopranos stays the standard all ambitious TV aspires to meet.

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'Friday Night Lights' 200611

"Obvious eyes, total hearts, cannot drop" is the golden-rule in a dusty Texas town where everybody else lives and dies for the large college football team. But Friday Night Lights isn't truly about football s O much as family, perform, class, the bitter flavor of dashed goals, with Kyle Chandler as Coach Taylor, Connie Britton as wife Tami and Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins – the most most notable of the many vulnerable kids who go through the Panthers' locker room. Riggins' tale becomes particularly moving after his grid iron glory fades and genuine existence beats him down.

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'Star Trek' 196669

The Starship Business took off using a five-year mission: "To explore unusual new worlds, to to locate new life and new civilizations," and it succeeded in making the most beloved of sci fi franchises, maybe not just inspiring numerous spin-offs but also codifying fan fiction as a creative art form. Gene Roddenberry's original sequence stays the the inspiration, with William Shatner's awesomely pulpy Capt. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy's logical Mr. Spock, Bones, Sulu, Uhura and Scotty. They make contact with strange and inexplicable lifeforms – Romulans, Gorns, Joan Collins. During its three years, Star Trek suffered from low ratings till NBC pulled the plug, but thanks to the most doggedly faithful of Television cults (re-member when "Trekkie" was an insult?), Roddenberry's vision lives long and prospers to this day.

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'Mad Men' 200715

The American desire and how exactly to sell it – aside from Don Draper as well as the hustlers of Sterling Cooper, selling is the American dream. Mad Men became a sensation as soon as it appeared, partly due to the glam surface – a New York advert agency in the JFK period, all sex and money and liquor and cigarettes – but mostly as it was an audaciously adult drama which wasn't about cops or robbers (or medical practioners or lawyers), staking out new story-telling territory. Jon Hamm's womanizing ad man, Don, is a genius a-T shaping other people's goals and fantasies, but he can not e-Scape his own loneliness – he's a con-man who stole the identification of a lifeless Korean War officer and constructed a new life out of lies. "A good marketing individual is like an artist, channeling the lifestyle," creator Matthew Weiner told Rolling Stone. "They're supporting a mirror saying, 'This is the way you desire you were. That is the thing you're scared of.'" A room can be reduced by Don to tears although the content family memories he is attempting to sell are a fraud. There was nothing on TV as seductive as Mad Men before – and years later, there still isn't.

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'Deadwood' 200406

Al Swearengen's moral philosophy: "you-can't cut the throat of every cock-sucker whose character it would improve." Spoken just like a Founding Father that is true. He is the villain of David Milch's epic Western set in the mud and slime of an 1870s South Dakota gold-mining c AMP. In the middle of it all (i.e., the saloon), Ian McShane's Al glowers, pours drinks, counts money and slices jugulars, in a frontier hell-hole total of prospectors, whores, drunks and dropped freaks looking for one last fatal battle to get in to (and often discovering it a T Al's place). It was like McCabe & Mrs. Miller with mo Re depressing sex scenes. The first two seasons are solid gold, the third, flimsier, but Deadwood is about how communities get built – and every one of the dirty work that requires.

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Third Watch TV Show

'Cheers' 1982 93

You require a spot where everyone knows your title – even if it's just a dive bar in Boston full of regulars with no place else to go. Cheers started with a focus on the mismatched romantic banter between Ted Danson's washedup Red-Sox pitcher Sam and Shelley Long's up-tight book-worm Diane. ("Over my dead body!" "Hey, don't b-ring last evening in to this.") By attracting new blood like Kelsey Grammar, Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson, but it regularly renewed it self. Cheers was to the purpose where you could tune in to see which regulars would hang tonight.

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rhaellatully · 5 years ago

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Strings’n’Drums Chapter 9 (Fanfiction)

FF.net:https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12814422/9/Strings-n-Drums

AO3:https://archiveofourown.org/works/13991202/chapters/53107363

Summary: AU. In 1969, Lucy runs from home and becomes a journalist for the magazin Strings'n'Drums, this will lead the young shy girl in the world of rock music, to meet the colorfull caracters that populates it. In between running from her father and living new experience Lucy will make friends, gorw into an adult and maybe have some romance. Will include Nalu and mentions of other parings

Chapter 1:https://rhaellatully.tumblr.com/post/170156396003/stringsndrums-fanficition

Chapter 8:https://rhaellatully.tumblr.com/post/189997948033/stringsndrums-chapter-8-fanfiction

AN: I'm back! And it took less than two weeks! I'm so proud of myself! I can't promise it will happen again though...

When Lucy got to the festival that morning, she was so excited she could barely stay in place. Today was going to be a great day. She was going to see Erza Scarlet live and after that she would finally see Guildarts, the bleus man who had been a source of inspiration for so many of her favourite artist. And best of all, she was going to spend the day with Levy. They hadn’t gotten a proper chance to talk yesterday, they hadn’t seen each other in so long, they had to have things to tell one another.

As she got to the meeting place they had agreed on, she heard rather loud voices, like a couple fighting. As she got closer she saw Levy speaking agitatedly to none other than Gajeel Redfox. Lucy couldn’t understand what any of this was about, since in their respective anger their sentences founded themselves being distorted. It didn’t take long before Levy shouted at him “Go! Just go away!”

He left and they were tears in her eyes. Lucy rushed to her friend and as she put a hand on her shoulder she asked her “Levy, are you alright?” Of course she knew she was not alright but this was the most polite way she knew to ask if she wanted to talk about it.

“Lucy” she said and you could see that as she spoke holding back tears became more and more difficult “it’s stupid, it’s so stupid.”

“Let’s go somewhere else” said Lucy before taking Levy to a more private place in between some trees.

Levy was whipping her tears away quickly and violently “He doesn’t get it” she said, “I try and I try and he just… doesn’t understand. It’s like he’s not even trying to! Or maybe I’m doing it wrong, I don’t even know how to do this.”

“Do what?” asked Lucy who had only found herself more confused by Levy’s rant.

Levy looked at Lucy than rapidly looked away, her lips were pressed and she wrapped her arms around her self. She breathed slowly and once she had seemingly calmed down she said, “Ask a guy out.”

Lucy froze, the first thing that crossed her mind was “Levy has dated guys before why wouldn’t she knows how to ask them out?” followed closely by “Levy wants to go out with Gajeel Redfox!”. Lucy was just as confused as surprised. Levy and Gajeel, Levy and the man who had her calling Lucy in tears. Why would she want him?

“Gajeel Redfox?” she asked hoping she had misunderstood.

Levy sighed and said, “Yes.”

“Why?”

She pressed her lips together, “I like him.” she said firmly.

Lucy stood there staring at her, she couldn’t think of reason why Levy would like that man. He was mean and rude. He didn’t seem to have respect for anyone and definitely wasn’t attractive. Why would Levy like him? She could tell that asking her why one more time would only anger her friend, so instead she tried to calm down.

As gently as she could she said, “So, how did it happened?”

Levy’s posture relaxed and she answered “ After a while of me following them, we started to sympathise, you know just talk about nothing and everything. I can’t say we were often on the same page but I like a good argument. And” a smiled appeared on her face “the way he treated me started to change, it’s not that he became nicer, but he started treating me as an equal. And I did the same. We do share a lot in common, on a more fundamental level. I’ve earned his respect and he seems to think highly of me. The way he talks about me, it’s “ she paused searching for the right word and then her smile grew bigger and she said “it makes me feel strong.”

Lucy was taken aback by what she was hearing, but she did her best to insure that it wouldn’t show. The way she described Gajeel Redfox was something she never though could have been associated with the man. But then again, Levy had spent much more time with him than Lucy ever had. Perhaps he was nicer once you got to know him. She really hoped that he was, she wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to Levy.

“It makes me feel strong.” It was the sentence that stayed in Lucy’s mind. How did he do that? How can one make someone else feel strong? And how did it felt? Lucy had rarely felt strong, but she remembered the unnatural feeling that had came to her when she ran away from home. That was strength and excitement. If Gajeel Redfox made levy feel anything like what she felt that day, then she was truly jealous.

They’re was still a mystery in Lucy’s head, if Levy liked him and wanted to go out with him, then what was the matter?

“What’s wrong then?” she asked.

“What is wrong, is that he doesn’t notice me!” she answered angrily “He notice what I do, what I say. But it’s like it all goes over his head! I don’t now what to do. I mean I’ve never done this before.”

“I though you had dated men, you told me you did.”

“Yes but they always asked me out, I’ve never had to make a move on anyone. I never though I’d actually have to.”

“I… can’t help you with that.” Lucy admitted. Sad but true she had even less experience in that domain than Levy. As much as she though of herself as a feminist she had to admit she too had always thought that man would be asking her out. If she were in Levy’s position, she’d probably be even more lost.

“I know” she said nicely “I asked Cana, but the only advice she gave me, was to sneak in his bed without clothes on.”

“I think you should just be honest with him” as she said it Lucy realised that if she were in Levy’s place she would never be brave enough to do so. When she though about being in her place she found herself thinking of Natsu, that was odd, she barely knew him, she did found him attractive but that wasn’t enough to desire a relationship with someone right? Maybe for other people, but for Lucy this was unthinkable. As a matter of fact considering the issues with her father it was probably best to avoid dating for now. It would make things just too complicated.

“You have no idea how much I just want to do that, but the second I’m with him I don’t know what happens, I just want to be… I don’t know he thinks of me as someone strong and capable and I want to stay that way in front of him, I wouldn’t want him to see me as someone vulnerable.”

Lucy had no idea what to tell her, she knew what it was like to want to look strong in front of other, but what Levy was describing was different. Lucy didn’t know how deal with this, she barely knew how deal with her own issues how could she help other with theirs.

“Why don’t we go see The Front Doors, the Strauss are their background singer for the festival, that ought to make me feel better.”

Lucy followed her to the petite scene where the band was preforming. She knew of both The Front Doors and The Strauss. The first was a soul band from America, they were quiet wonderfull and had a quite amazing saxophonist. The second was a background band, made of siblings, they each got singular and powerful voice, they match together pretty well and lots of musicians liked having them around, especially when it came to recordings. They made everything sound great and everyone wanted a piece of them. They were basically the most prolific background band around. They had release they’re own albums which mostly featured covers, it didn’t sell very well but it was excellent sample to show other musician. The fact that Mira Jane Strauss had dated a bunch of famous musician also made for brilliant advertising. Nowadays, they could basically choose whom they would work with, and if they had chosen The Front Doors it went they were good.

The journalist in her was delighted to go to this concert and was impatient to get her impression of this band. But at the moment Lucy didn’t felt like a journalist, she felt like a friend and as such she was far more concerned with Levy’s mood. She said this would cheer her up, and Lucy hoped that she was right. She knew how powerful music could be and how it could take over your own emotions to make you fell something. She only hoped it would be enough for Levy.

There wasn’t that big of a crowd in front of the stage. Which turned out to be a positive thing since it allowed the audience to dance freely to the music. Levy was the first to join in. It was as if she was taking out her frustration in her steps and Lucy was happy for it. She couldn’t dare to join her though. Her anxiousness was still present and even if the music was slowly making it disappear, she wasn’t quite there yet.

When the music shifted to a slow song, Levy came by her side with a smile on her face. Lucy was glad to see that her friend was feeling better. She hoped she’d stay that way for long. Maybe she should just hope to not run into Gajeel Redfox.

“I’m sorry I worried you.”

“It’s fine.”

“The Strauss are great.”

Lucy agreed, this was one of the best performances she had seen since she got here and she didn’t need to be a professional musician to realise the background was responsible for most of it. The performance given by there voice made every song more powerful than the last.

“Lisanna is really doing great since the break up.”

“The break up?”

Levy paused and her eyes widen, it seemed she just realised she said something she shouldn’t have. She then leaned toward Lucy and whispered, “She and Natsu broke up about a year ago.”

This revelation gave Lucy a strange feeling she couldn’t quite place. It reminded her a bit of disappointment, she didn’t understand what she could be disappointed about though. That Natsu and Lisanna Strauss used to be a couple? Why? She had only met Natsu a few times and she didn’t even know Lisanna, there was no reason for her to care.

She looked at the stage, toward the three platinum blond that were singing on the left. She had seen enough pictures to recognise which one was Lisanna. The small one with a very short haircut. She seemed so happy, radiant even. Lucy could easily understand why Natsu would want to date her. The weird feeling came back in her guts, she didn’t like it, she didn’t understand it.

As she though about it something crossed her mind, the fact that Natsu had been one of the few people to have ever been genially nice to her. When you put it that way it didn’t seemed like mush, but Lucy had always none they were some cruel part in the world and always expected the worst to happen. Natsu was one of those people, like Levy, who simply choose to show kindness to other. Of course it had impacted her, and the fact that he was handsome hadn’t help. He was pretty, kind and accessible. Someone you felt at ease with, it was normal for her to have this attraction toward him. But the reality was that she didn’t know him, and probably never would, he was a famous singer and her a beginner journalist. The cute affection she had toward him at the moment was nothing more than that and it would disappear just as fast as it had come.

During an upbeat song Levy grabbed her hand and tried her best to make her dance. Lucy danced little but she kept a bit of restrain, she was far too afraid of appearing ridiculous to dare let herself dance in front of people. The fact that her friend was making her do so made more nervous than anything, but she understood why Levy did it. She wanted to see Lucy have fun for once. But truth was she wasn’t ready for that kind of fun.

When they walked away from the stage, Lucy didn’t know what to say to Levy. She felt like she should do her best to avoid the subject of Gajeel Redfox, and at the same found herself incapable of thinking of anything else to talk to her about. The smile that had been on Levy’s face as she danced had disappeared and she now wore a though full look on her face. Lucy felt she should say something but came short. In the end, it seemed better to just ask her if she wanted to talk about something.

She was about to do so, but was interrupted by a voice shouting, “ There you are!”

Lucy turned and saw Natsu coming toward them. She expected him to go to Levy but instead he grabbed her hand and told her “Come on I need to show you Erza.”

“What?” asked Lucy.

“She’s over there waiting” Natsu explained.

Lucy was shocked, did he mean Erza Scarlet? Was she about to meet Erza Scarlet? The Erza Scarlet! She didn’t feel ready for this. She wasn’t prepared for this. What was she supposed to say? How was she supposed to act? Was she dressed correctly? What if it went wrong? What if she said the wrong thing? What if she made a fool of herself?

She started breathing fast and looking around, she couldn’t tell if she was searching for Erza Scarlet or an escaped. Which ever it was she didn’t find it. But Natsu made a stop.

“What’s going on?” he asked visibly confused “Didn’t you want to meet her?”

“I do” chocked out Lucy “but… I’m scared.”

“I get it Erza is pretty scary, but don’t worry it’s fine as long as you don’t steal her cake”

Lucy laugh, hard. What was that? As long as you don’t steal her cake it’s fine. It sounded like he was talking about a child. More laugher escaped her. This was the last thing she had expected to hear at this moment. This was the last thing she had expected to hear about Erza Scarlet. She couldn't stop herself from laughing, this was so ridiculous. Now Natsu was laughing with her, or at her, she wasn’t sure which.

They laughed and laughed. A few eyes stopped on them but didn’t linger too long. They probably looked like they had taken some substances. Lucy didn’t know why she couldn't stop laughing, this hadn’t happened to her a lot in her life. She had been forbidden to laugh in public before, and had learnt to make herself as discreet as possible about it. But, for unknown reason, at this moment, all of this had disappeared and she was just having a good laugh.

When she stopped laughing and managed to catch her breath, she felt fine.

“Can we go now?” Natsu asked nicely and she nodded as a reply.

They reached a meagre group of tables; at one of them there was a woman with long red hair sitting. Natsu and Lucy sat around the table and he said, “This is Lucy.”

“Nice to meet you.” said Erza Scarlet while extending her hand. There was a small smile on her face, and Lucy could understand why she was considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. Lucy shook her hand, it was firm and strong, which she hadn’t expected.

Ever since she had liked music, and even more once she became a journalist, she had heard things about Erza Scarlet. She had heard rumours that were the nicest and most naïve girl in the world. She had also heard that she was a perfectionist monster that all should fear. She had been told she used more than thousand beauty products a day. Or that it was just her natural beauty. She had heard man claim that they had had sex with her. And women swear that she had complimented then on their dress, or make up.

Lucy had learned a long time ago not to trust rumours. Now that she was in front of her, of the Erza Scarlet, the singer who already had three golden disk, and two Grammy Award, the woman who had become a millionaire at the age of 22. One of the greatest artist of their time. The voice that anyone could recognise. The face that she had been able to recognise from far away. Someone she had seen on the telly and the covers of magazine but could never have hoped to see in real life.

She was lost for words there was so much she wanted to ask and had no idea where to start.

She did managed to tell her, “Nice to meet as well.”

“I really like your dress.” she said.

Lucy felt a bit shy, she wondered if she might have been saying that just to be kind. After all, the dress she wore today had nothing special. It was just an A-shaped dress with a flower patterned. She guessed the patterned was likable, but there wasn’t more to it than that.

“Thank you.” she said nonetheless.

“Did you buy it yourself?”

Lucy was a bit taken a back by the question; she had a hard time seeing how she could not have bought it herself. Was she asking if it was gift, or if something like that?

“Um… Yes” she stuttered, “I bought in a small shop not far from flat”

“You have quite an eye, I’m afraid that not my case, I’m awfully bad at following trend, my agent buys me cloth most of the time.”

Lucy was a bit surprised by this, but she supposed that when you were an international star you had to be careful how you appeared in public. She wondered just how deeply her agent was involved in her life. Did they also decided what she ate and she where she went?

“Well, we can’t all be David Bowie.” she said to ease things.

“Quite right.”

Natsu was looking back and forth between them; there was a tiny smile on his face and his chest out. Lucy didn’t perceive what he was hoping to get out of this meeting. It’s when considering his that she realised what she could gain out of this meeting. She hesitated; Natsu seemed to notice it and gave her a big smile.

She felt a little warm inside and said, “Could I get an interview?”

The smile left Natsu’s face “Does that mean I have to leave?”

Lucy suddenly felt very cold. This perhaps hadn’t been the right moment to ask.

“It’s fine,” said Erza Scarlet “you can come back when we’re done.”

Lucy was surprised, did this mean she had gotten the interview. She couldn’t believe how easy it had been. Usually when she wanted an interview she would ask it on the phone with a professional tone and lots of arguments. Here she had just blurted it out during a normal social moment and she had it. Maybe she had been worrying about nothing.

Natsu got up and left but he warned them that he would be back soon.

“So where would you like to start?”

She now remembered the other reason why she planed interview over the phone, it supplied her with plenty of time to prepare. She didn’t have time to search for question right now, she just had the time to take her notebook and a pen out, if she waited to long before asking anything she’d looked like an idiot. She remembered that she did have a question, the one she had been asking herself barely a minute ago.

“Let’s start with your agent, the fact that you told me they buy your cloth makes me wonder just how deeply they are involve in your life.”

“He is pretty involve, his an old friend, after all. He mostly helps me a lot. He helps me with the cloth thing but he also lots of places and people. The moment I need something all I have to do is ask and he gets it for me. I try not to abuse of it though.”

“How did you meet him?”

“We’re both from a small town named Magnolia.”

“So he’s a childhood friend?”

“More of teenage hood friend, but yes.”

“How did he end up becoming your agent?”

“Well that actually has to do with the creation of Great Tales Records. You see, the producers with whom I first work were not… they were a bad experience for me. But my foster father had been a musician so he knew the business and along side other friend who had had the same problem, we decided to ask him if, with his help we could create our own record company with people we trusted. During that time we were looking for people to come work with us, and Max, my agents, had experience in sales and that sort of things so he joined us.”

“You have a lot of friends in the company?”

“It feels like a big family.”

Lucy wondered if she was honest. The idea that a company that had signed some of the most popular artist of her generation was like a big family, didn’t seem quiet believable.

“How about we talk a bit more about music, tell me how are you enjoying the festival so far.”

Erza Scarlet provided her a long speech about all the artists she had seen, talking about their qualities what she though they could improve and of course which one she would like to work with in the future. Lucy wrote everything down as rapidly as she could, as she listened to her she realised that Erza Scarlet would have made a great music journalist. She mentioned something about the qualities of the lyrics of one band, which made Lucy look up and ask “Speaking of lyrics you don’t write any of your songs?”

Erza Scarlet glanced down at her feet and admitted, “Yes I’ve collaborate with lots of very talented writers and I have to admit I’m incapable of writing a good song. I’ve tried many times but I never seem to get it. I turning my thoughts and feelings into music is natural to me but I’m completely unable to do the same with words.”

“How does that usually works, are you given the lyrics, or do you work with the writers on what you want to express?”

“It depends, sometimes I get offered a full song and I then decides if I want to sing it or no, and sometimes I ask for a writer to put into words what I’m looking for.”

Lucy took notes, and she still had a question to ask on that subject, but she wasn’t sure if she should, this one came from deductions she had made and wasn’t fully sure of. Her curiosity won over her doubts and she asked, “Are all of your writers listed on your albums?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well it’s just that they are some of you songs that are written in a style very different from the other and it doesn’t match with the other works of the writer mention on the back of the records.”

Lucy listed the songs she had noticed, or at least the one she could remember. Erza Scarlet eyes had gotten as wide as saucers and she was staring at Lucy.

“You’re very impressive.” She marvelled “Yes these songs were written by someone else but we can’t put their name on the back because I don’t know who it is. I’ve received them through the post by an anonymous fan, I have no way of knowing who they are and they said they wanted to stay anonymous and didn’t want any credits.”

Lucy was astonished by what she was hearing. This wasn’t what she had expected for an answer and it only served to build a bigger mystery. She was extremely excited to write an article about it. And she was filed with the wonderful pride you could only feel from being right.

“Which do you prefer? Your anonymous writer or the one you usually work with?”

Erza Scarlet gave her a full and fascinating answer. She talked about the different writers she had work with and their manners of work. She ended by saying “Writers are cruelly underappreciated, they are praises for the singers and the musician but rarely for the writers, unless they are also the writers. Honestly I’m just a performer I don’t believe I should be given that much credits.”

“I wouldn’t call you just performer, finding the write words is very difficult but its just as hard to say or sing them right. The performances you give are always right and powerful. There’s a reason why you receive song from anonymous writers.”

At this Erza Scarlet looked away and thanked her. This was strange to Lucy; she hadn’t thought that someone like her could talk that way about herself. Self-loathing was familiar to Lucy and she had never imagined it could come out of a successful person. It was a strange reminder that Erza Scarlet, Natsu Dragneel and all the others were humans, like everyone else.

“I have another question to ask you, it comes from something Natsu Dragneel told me in an interview. He said that the industry didn’t appreciate you to the full. That you were one of the greatest musicians he’s ever met but that you are only allowed to be a singer. Is this true to you?”

Erza Scarlet smiled “A lot of that is just Natsu exaggerating. I’m not a bad musician, but when I started I couldn’t give my best at singing and playing at the same time, so I had choose, and I decided to be a singer, now I can do both at once but I’m not sure how my public would reacted if showed up with a guitar on stage tomorrow.”

“You play the guitar?”

“Yes as well as the bass, the drums, the piano, the saxophone, and the harmonica.”

Lucy froze. Six instrument. Erza Scarlet played six instruments. Lucy had heard of multi instrumentalist who played two or three instrument, but six! That was insane! Lucy had to agree with Natsu, someone capable of playing six instruments not using any on stage that was unbelievable, laughable even.

“Why did you choose to be singer?”

Erza Scarlet’s face changed, it was very hard to read, it somehow close of the emotionlessness of Juvia Locser but it was not quite it. “I had bad experience trying to be female musician.”

“Would you mind elaborating?”

“Yes.”

Lucy didn’t know what to say, she would have wanted to press her but she could tell she would receive no answer, actually she was afraid she’d never get an interview with her again if she did.

“They are female musician who have made their way in the industry today.” Lucy said, it was her way of encouraging her to assert herself as a musician.

“You mean like Juvia Locser?”

“Yes.”

“I admire her in a way.” She stopped to observe her watch “As much as I would love to continue I’m afraid I must get going”

“Of course.”

Lucy watched her leave and wondered if she truly was in a hurry or if her questions had made her run away. I this was the case than this could be a remarkably bad news for her carrier. She looked at her own watch and realise that Erza Scarlet’s concert would start soon enough for her to have needed to leave. She trully hoped her questions hadn’t made her uncomfortable.

Natsu came back not long after that, he asked how it had went and she told him about her worrying. He assured her that if she had made Erza uncomfortable she would have known. He was so certain of this that she started believing him. He invited her to join him secure a nice spot for Erza Scarlet’s concert. When they got close to the stage she noticed that they were already quite a lot of people here. And not just anyone. There was indeed lots of random people but among them some of another calibre. Natsu, who was here with her was a good start but in the crowd she noticed many more. Cana Alberona was taking sip from a bottle in the middle of the crowd. Toward the back there was the Strauss talking happily among themselves. Toward the right she spotted Lee Richard. John Fool was on the left side of stage. At the other end you could find Juvia Locser, Gajeel Redfox and Levy. These were the one she had seen but she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were more.

She though of joining Levy to make sure she was okay, but on closer look her friend seemed perfectly content. She wondered if they had talked while she was with Erza Scarlet. She was a bit curious but didn’t want to bother them.

Erza Scarlet delivered probably the best performance of the entire festival. She had that passion that none could match. Has she listened to her Lucy was transported. She did hope to see her take out an instrument, but it never happened. This didn’t prevent the show from being perfect. If her interview had disturbed her it didn’t show.

After her show, she grabbed something to eat with Natsu. She was less tens than the first time. She talked to him quite easily. They talked mostly about Erza Scarlet’s performance. They had both enjoyed it and were talking with lots of excitement. Natsu was incredibly eloquent when describing her performance, to the point that Lucy asked if she could quote him. Music was amazing; Lucy knew that if they had not just been to a concert she wouldn’t be able to speak so freely.

“Are you going to see Guildarts afterward?”

“Yes, you as well?”

“Yeah we go together?”

“Sure.”

It was strange, seeing to concert in the company of a famous musician in a row. The stage were Guildarts was playing was much smaller than the one Erza Scarlet had been at. But he had quite a crowd as well. If Erza Scarlet’s crowd had fifteen per cent made of famous musician, Guildarts was forty per cent. Many of the same faces as the one who had been at Erza Scarlet’s were also here, along side a few more. There was religious silence among them. No one said a word. Not even when Guildarts got on the stage, just respect full claps, not even a whistle. Once he started playing the silence came back. There was none of the occasional shouts you would usually hear. All eyes were focus on the man on the stage. His strings rang sad and true. His voice was low and carried the sorrowful truth of the world. Songs about poverty, the passing of time, hookers and the fear of a new war succeeded themselves. Lucy didn’t know when she started crying; maybe it was around the part about the death of his first love, or perhaps the one about coming back to his hometown in ruin. Lucy had no idea how to describe this experience. She thought that this was how she should have been feeling in church. She understood why so many musicians were inspired by him. She felt inspired at that moment, inspired to do more, to show her best, no matter if she failed.

Never had she had had more enthusiasm to check her notes when she got to her hotel room. She went through them, underlying the important part, placing little numbers here and there to remember which part should come first. As she went through them something intrigued her. It was in her interview with Erza Scarlet. She listed every concert she had seen and told her thoughts on them, but there was no mentions of Fernandez, even though she was sure to have seen her there.

#fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #nalu #nalu fanfiction #lucy heartifilla #nastu dragneel #levy mcgarden #gajeel redfox #gajevy #gale #fanfic #erza scarlet

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