#michaela simpson

[sinceileftyoublog]

Hamish Hawk Interview: Pathos in the Ridiculous

Photo by Michaela Simpson

BY JORDAN MAINZER

"It's a very sunny afternoon here in Edinburg, so I'm in a good mood," Hamish Hawk told me over Zoom late last month. When I mentioned to him that I had spent time in Scotland's capital city decades ago and loved it, he lit up. "When it comes to Edinburgh, I'm such an enthusiast," he said. "I really like when people come here." Part of me was shocked that Hawk abided by such simple logic, that nice weather plus a feeling of civic pride equals even temporary happiness. On albums like Heavy Elevator, Angel Numbers, and his latest, A Firmer Hand, out Friday via So Recordings and Fierce Panda, Hawk is not necessarily a spoilsport, but he toes the line between truth and facetiousness. Such a balancing act has proven so far to be successful for Hawk, who has found himself fostering a long-term working relationship with Rod Jones of beloved Scottish rockers Idlewid and twice shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year award. But with A Firmer Hand, Hawk didn't withhold a thing, sharing an album focused on various types of relationships with men, from romantic to professional, as well as insecurities with masculinity. And he doesn't quite know whether people will like it. "[A Firmer Hand] is different enough from Heavy Elevator and Angel Numbers being safely on the cheaper poppy side of things," he said. "This one is lyrically and musically quite a change."

Don't get me--or Hawk--wrong: A Firmer Hand is very much a Hamish Hawk record, through and through. Jones returns to the producer's chair, the songs were written by Hawk, and the instrumentation was composed by his core band of guitarist Andrew Pearson, keyboardist/drummer Stefan Maurice, and bassist Alex Duthie. The songs exude familiar vibes, from the very opener "Juliet as Epithet", with its harmonic keyboards, rippling percussion, and of course, Hawk's unmistakable croon. But the first track also sets the mood for the entire record, individual verses encompassing simultaneous feelings of devotion, worry, bitterness, and self-aggrandizement. "So goddamn handsome he makes me anxious / He holds my hand thru the sad advances / Why wouldn't he tho? / I'm just the open secret no-one's ever gonna blow," Hawk sings, making you want to cry and laugh all at once. In general, Hawk uses explicitness not for shock value, but to reveal a similar contradiction within sex, that of vulnerability and hilarity. The album's double entendre title comes from dance punk jam "Big Cat Tattoos", one that both derides and expresses jealousy over traditional notions of manliness. "I think you'd prefer a firmer hand with big cat tattoos and a wedding band," Hawk sings to a lover, eyes rolled, taking down all types of compensatory masculine personas, from the tech bro and the music snob to even the strong-and-silent sad-sack within himself.

A skilled songwriter, Hawk both sings autobiographically and exaggeratedly, and he's able to present other perspectives without the pretense of becoming them. On A Firmer Hand, most importantly, you're not left wanting to solve a puzzle of what happened and when and to whom; instead, you can find a sense of solidarity with the imperfections and troubles of everyone involved, even if your life has nothing in common with them. The ivory tower narrator of "Nancy Dearest" may be lonely at the top, but what matters is that they're lonely at all. The slinky bass and trilling guitars of "Autobiography of Spy" visualize a suave 007 on paper but someone living a secret sexual existence in a sad reality. "We're footprintless on fallen snow / We wear the mist and learn the code," Hawk sighs. Yes, Hawk's clearly diffident himself on songs like "Men Like Wire" and "Questionable Hit", on the latter participating in a music industry where other men wont want to be him if he's clearly gay or effeminate, but thinking, "Will I never tire of fronting?" on the former. But he finds power for us all when adopting a devilish swagger on "Milk an Ending". "This is my ninth life / I shan't stand by like a half shut knife," he declares, continuing, "If you can't take this dance / If you won't fake romance, why should I?" After all, the right to live freely means the right to boast freely, too.

If I was surprised by the wholly sunny disposition of a purportedly autobiographical songwriter who made an album like A Firmer Hand, I was not taken aback by his willingness to break down its songs. Throughout our conversation, Hawk was honest about which aspects of the album were the results of a longstanding goal and which came naturally or even unexpectedly. Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity, and catch him on tour in the UK and Europe through the rest of the year, with the same band who played on the album.

Photo by Simon Murphy

Since I Left You: At what point did writing a "skeletons in the closet" record become unavoidable?

Hamish Hawk: The first song I wrote for the record was "Questionable Hit". It was written roundabout the same time as some of the Angel Numbers songs, or at least towards the end of the Angel Numbers era, as it were. There's something in the tone of "A Questionable Hit", and even of a song like "Money" from Angel Numbers, and of a couple others in my repertoire, that's similarly slightly finger-pointing, embittered, and cynical. But I felt with "Questionable Hit" there was a sharper tooth in there that I didn't expect. When I wrote that, I felt, even though it was roundabout the time of the Angel Numbers stuff, it wasn't going to fit very comfortably with Angel Numbers, so I sort of put it to one side. Then, my collaborator Stefan Maurice, my drummer, sent me a keys loop that essentially became "Machiavelli's Room". When I was writing that, I became consumed with it. Some songs come really fast, and others take months. This was neither. I ruminated on it, listening to it constantly trying to edit and redraft the lyrics to get them perfect. As soon as I finished it, I looked back at the work and thought, "Ok, I don't think a song like that is gonna sit very comfortably with songs that sound like Angel Numbers." It struck me quite quickly that whatever album "Machiavelli's Room" would appear on, the songs that surrounded it would have to be cut from the same cloth. It was from there that "Questionable Hit", even though it's got a slightly different tone, reared its head again.

[A Firmer Hand] became this wider exercise in seeing how direct, how honest, how diaristic I could be. I think the album has achieved that, but for that reason, I'm slightly more nervous about the release of this record than I was for the past two. It's a vulnerable record...albums kind of exist in this odd space before you release them where you feel you might want to change something, or you're not convinced of exactly what they are. As soon as they're released, it's like, "Ok, now that's done. I can close the door on that. I can orient myself towards something completely new." I'm still in that strange period with A Firmer Hand, admittedly, but I think it's a good piece of work.

SILY: It's not necessarily a logical step after you've gained critical acclaim and more fans to say to the general music listening public, "Here's an album where you might not like me very much." Would you describe the album as totally diaristic, or are there aspects that are tongue-in-cheek and a little self-aware?

HH: Across the board, even with Heavy Elevator and Angel Numbers, and even before that, the vast majority of the inspiration I get to write songs does come from real events and real life. I definitely write in heightened terms. I'm inspired by writers like Scott Walker and Jarvis Cocker who take mundane kitchen-sink narratives and bring them up to this level where they could sing about something incredibly ordinary, like taking the kids home from school or something, and put it on this big Las Vegas stage, this high drama Caravaggio lighting. That's a process I've always been really interested in. As much as my songs are autobiographical, they're not strictly autobiographical. I'll take the truth and polish it up a bit and inject it with this new dramatic or poetic energy. But if we were to go through my songs, I'd be able to point at lyrics and tell you exactly where they came from and what moment in my life caused them to be written. I'm definitely not an abstract writer in that sense: I don't attack things from the perspective of other characters, and I don't try to take on a different persona and write about a period in history or a place I've never been to. It is autobiographical in that sense. My songs are very personal to me. That's the only way I know how to do it, so within that frame, I am trying to push myself to write in different ways, but that's my medium, as it were.

SILY: Even if you don't inhabit other characters or mindsets, you still give space to other voices. There are conversational aspects of your songs where you're presenting the perspectives of others without inhabiting them. How do you find that balance when you write?

HH: I don't think it's necessarily the healthiest thing in the world. In the past, I've been guilty of other characters or people that feature in my songs turning into kind of cyphers, versions of them where they say the things I want them to say. Angel Numbers was when I first started working with other characters in the songs saying things that really did happen, exact phrases. I wouldn't note them down at the time, but they were etched into my brain forever. That continues into A Firmer Hand. I'm trying to be as cutthroat with myself as I possibly can, because more often than not, these characters are saying something to me or about me. This album was a warts and all approach. At the end of some of these songs, I'm not necessarily gonna look great. It was an exercise in seeing how true to life I could be without being fantastical or this sort of protection of artifice. Sometimes, when I listen to these songs back, I think, "Oh, I remember that, that wasn't [my] best day." [laughs]

SILY: On A Firmer Hand, you do write about the mundane, but at the same time, you include hyper-specific cultural references and, even if they're based on real people, tropes like the tech bro on "Big Cat Tattoos". I laughed at the line, "You vetoed every one of my miserabilist movies / You bored everyone from out of town with the virtues of shoegaze." Everyone knows someone like that. Do you try to connect with a wider audience by being hyper-specific?

HH: It's a really good question. In you saying that, I can see you agree with me in that often times, the more hyper-specific you can be, the more idiosyncratic, the more personal, the more likely it is to suddenly explode and be relatable to a huge number of people. More formulaic commercial pop music, there has been historically a belief that if you try to make things as generic as possible, it can be consumed by a much larger number of people. I think you find that the more you try to be generic, the more you try to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator so that everyone can get it, the more people are put off by it. I've always tried in my music to give a vast amount of credit to the listener. I don't want to dumb things down for anybody. I'd like to be immediate in my lyricism. I'd like my lyrics to be understood. I'm not trying to be so pretentious that no one can engage with it. The more personal I can be, the more it ends up relating to so many more people. By adding in cultural references or even local references, those things endear people much more than trying to get to them where they are. It's about creating something so they can approach you, as opposed to--I don't know--trying to be close to their life inauthentically. It's much stronger to be authentically you so people can move towards you.

SILY: It's almost a matter of humility. You don't know their life, and they don't know yours, but being hyper-specific is how we relate to each other.

HH: The song "Panic" by The Smiths has so many British references in it, but towards the end of the song, Morrissey sings, "Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ." He's talking about the songs the DJ is playing, singing, "It says nothing to me about my life." I don't think he's talking about songs that talk about far flung places, because even the songs that talk about far flung places can talk to him about his life. We don't have to have identical lives in order to relate to each other. There's so much more going on underneath all that. I like to give the listener fair credit and assume that they have what it takes to engage with the song on whatever level they'd like to. Pop music listeners are certainly very engaged and have the intelligence and willingness to engage on whatever level they'd like to.

SILY: And the internet prowess!

HH: [laughs] Yeah!

A Firmer Hand cover art

SILY: The mid-album back-to-back of "You Can Film Me" and "Christopher St.", I don't know the stories behind the songs, but they seem to me to comprise a tragic mid-section. Am I off base there?

HH: Not at all. There is a link between those. I'm not going to disclose too much about it, if I may, but you're quite astute to pick that up. "Christopher St.", the music was written by Stefan. I've always been a fan of little vignettes in albums. The thing that makes Angel Numbers cohesive is that it is one unified voice: It is my voice. The band and I never worried too much about dipping our toes into different genres or different sounds or instrumentation within one album. Giving fair credit to the listener, they're able to deal with an album like Angel Numbers. It's not tricky: "Rest & Veneers" has a sort of country feel. "Elvis Look-alike Shadows" is bombastic and loud and high drama. "Frontman" is a harmonium-led lament. I don't think it's hard to engage with an album just because it has many different faces, so I've never worried about having fragments or vignettes or moments in albums that take you out of the world you think you're in, and suddenly they pull you right out. I've always been inspired by albums that seem like they have a left turn in the middle of the record.

I must say, to compliment him, that Stefan is an incredibly gifted piano player and composer on the keys. He's written so many beautiful songs for me and so many beautiful moments that no one's heard, so I was really excited to have a song like "Christopher St." [on A Firmer Hand] because it's such a beautiful piece of music. The writing and the lyrics came so, so quickly. I won't go too much into the inspiration or the stories behind the songs, but I think you're right. It's this tragic two sides. Everything that's in "You Can Film Me" is as bombastic and full of pomp, arch, raised eyebrow stuff I'm capable of, and "Christopher St." is about as earnest and as tender and as melancholic as I get. Those things are absolutely essential parts of my music, so to have them sit next to each other, you'd think it would be a contrast that could repel a listener, but I think--or at least I hope--it achieves the opposite. Having those things sit side by side is really effective. I've always been inspired by the idea of pathos in the ridiculous. Having something very deeply emotional and sad, the height of a certain emotion, next to something really amusing, silly, absolutely absurd. It makes the emotional thing more intense. It has this odd effect that you think would be uncanny and not work, but more often than not, it does.

SILY: Was there a general process for how you came up with the instrumentation on the record? Or was it truly on a song-by-song basis?

HH: It was different than the previous records. Heavy Elevator was one way, this sort of indie rock default. Angel Numbers took off and gave it a little more pomp with brass, horns, and pedal steel, embellishing the slightly rougher edges, softening them up, and bringing them to the fore. It was slightly ballroom. The band and I were very careful with A Firmer Hand to make it a band record. We wanted to be able to replicate all of the songs on the record on stage exactly as they are instead of having to make approximations or use samples or for someone to have to play the violin line on the keys or the trumpet line on the guitar. It was about having a band in a room. We wanted track 1 to track 12 to be obviously the same group of people and basically the same instruments. I think that limitation is really helpful and can often be really fruitful for a creative process. There wasn't too much pre-production involved in the songs. [Though,] the more we record and the more often we're in the studio, we think that's what we want to do next time, to have time to really work things out, as painstaking as it might be.

SILY: Have you played the songs from A Firmer Hand live yet?

HH: Some of them. We've played "Men Like Wire", "You Can Film Me", "Nancy Dearest", and "Big Cat Tattoos". Beyond that, most of the middle tracks we haven't touched yet. We've rehearsed them, and some of them are sounding really great. I'm certainly feeling--and I can't speak for the band--that it's an interesting experience trying to put these songs next to some of the older songs in our set. It starts to feel like a tale of two cities. I think that's exciting. I think it's probably somewhere where good things can come. I don't think it's going to be too much of a problem.

SILY: Do you have the same approach to adapting the new songs to the stage as you did for those on your previous records?

HH: I'd say so. I wouldn't say too much has changed. The first thing we've noticed is that setlists are becoming really tricky. Our sets are typically an hour and a quarter, an hour and twenty minutes, and we're having to cut out some of the mainstays of the set, turn it on its head completely and say, "Ok, suddenly, we're not playing that." Which is okay. That can only be good, to have a sense of renewal or rejuvenation. Reconfiguring the sets is tricky, but it's important we don't rest on our laurels. Any change is good for us. It's always the new song that feels exciting to play. With all these new shows coming up, we're excited to have some new blood in the set.

SILY: Is there one on this record that you're most excited to play, whether you've played it already or not?

HH: I have three, for different reasons. I'm really looking forward to playing "Machiavelli's Room" live. We've rehearsed it, and it's sounding great, but we haven't played it live yet. The first time that will likely get played live is before the album comes out. Who knows what people will make of it the first time they hear it? I'm excited about that one because it's so stark, and it's the type of song that's quite unyielding in the sense that it is what it is. You can't sugarcoat it. On stage, I love performing and love trying to engage with the audience and bring them in. Some of the songs on A Firmer Hand are more pushing people back, or more affronting in some sense. I'm excited to see how "Machiavelli's Room" works, not only in terms of how the audience experiences it, but in terms of what it does to us. It's a two-way street. We can treat the songs a certain way, but the songs treat us a certain way.

Another is "Autobiography of Spy". I really like that song, and I think it's a really interesting album track. It isn't a single, and isn't going to get that much limelight. But I really like it. I think it's a great length, the instrumentation is really interesting, and all the moments are sort of considerate and well thought-out. We're all quite happy with that song and how it happened.

The third is "Juliet as Epithet", the [opening track]. It's very atmospheric.

SILY: Do you use loops live?

HH: We do, but they're never a cornerstone of the songs. They're never an essential part. It's more window dressing. We have little things that will continue throughout the entire record. There are a few songs where we have a loop going on in the background, but it's more painting. We don't like having too many major parts being played by samples.

SILY: Are you planning on coming to the US?

HH: Next year, it's looking like it. This year, we have two tours in the UK, one in August and one in December. We're going on tour with Travis in September throughout Europe. America is likely on the cards for March or April for next year, though it's more likely to be February or March. We've played SXSW twice and are hoping to get invited a third time, but surrounding that, we're hoping to get things sorted on both coasts so we have shows either side of SXSW.

SILY: Would you come to Chicago?

HH: That would be ideal. Obviously, it's all up in the air right now. The ideal would be New York, L.A., and something in Austin, but something in the Midwest would be awesome. Chicago would have to get done. Not only do I love Chicago, but in terms of the numerous art scenes in Chicago, we'd have to sink our teeth into them.

SILY: Have you played here before?

HH: Yes. I've played there and in America, but it was sort of a shoestring tour of the US. I was playing DIY house shows, no money was exchanged. It was me playing in people's living rooms. I've played in 26 states. I played in a living room in Chicago. I've played in Detroit, Atlanta, Athens, Baltimore, L.A., Salt Lake City, all over the place.

Photo by Elliot Hetherton

SILY: Are you the type of songwriter who's always writing, or do you compartmentalize between album cycles?

HH: Sadly, I do always write. Right now, I'm writing a little bit, but not much because I don't have too much time in my hands. But I've not been known to successfully compartmentalize and say, "This year, I've written my record, and next year, I won't write at all." I don't know how to do that yet. I don't have that relationship with my writing. It is quite consistent. When I do have a fallow couple of months, those months are full of insecurity and dread and self-doubt. Hopefully, in the future, I'll manage to foster something that says, "Okay, I haven't written something for 6 months, and that's okay." But at this stage, if I don't write anything for 2 weeks, I think, "Woah, what's happening? Is there something coming? Maybe I've dried up." Right now, the band and I are throwing some things around at the moment. Let's hope it's the beginning of the next record.

SILY: You could always write about writer's block!

HH: Exactly, but that's when you start falling down the rabbit hole of writing songs about writing songs, and writing songs about going on tour. Suddenly, no one relates to your albums at all except for musicians. "That album's so great, that one about being on the road." People don't really like listening to that on the way to work.

SILY: Is there anything you've been listening to, watching, or reading lately that's caught your attention?

HH: My listening at the moment, I don't know why it's happened this way, but it's been dominated by new country and roots music and new interpretations of traditional blues music. Since I was a kid, I've always really liked folk singers. My mum was a huge fan of James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Ralph McTell, Gordon Lightfoot, and these 60s folkies. It was my first entrance into singer-songwriter music. Of late, I wouldn't say I've been listening to anything specific, other than the absolute classics of blues, Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi John Hurt, and Lead Belly, which I've always gone back to fairly infrequently. At the moment, I'm listening to a lot of blues and country music. Who knows what that promises for the next record, because I don't think country had much of an input on A Firmer Hand. Maybe I'll see if Willie Nelson wants to do a collab.

SILY: I don't know, the guitar tones on "The Hard Won" at the end are kind of country western.

HH: That's true. That's the last track as well, so maybe that suggests what might come. Here's hoping.

[finemaleactors]

Jesse Plemons, Jimmi Simpson and Michaela Cole

[oceanusborealis]

Star Trek: Prodigy - Ouroboros, Part I, Part 2, and Full Season – TV Review

TL;DR – A beautiful end to a season, and hopefully not an end of a series. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series. Star Trek: Prodigy Review – Alas, we have come to the end of the second and hopefully not last season of Star Trek: Prodigy. What a season it was. We will take some time a bit later to explore the season as a whole, but…

[helmstone]

USS Callister mini-series in the works at Netflix

USS Callister mini-series in the works at Netflix

What’s on Netflix tells us a USS Callister mini-series (three episodes) is in pre-production at Netflix. It’s a spin-off from an episode of Black Mirror (yet another series I’ve not watched). Apparently this has been ‘happening’ for some years. Naively I thought it another Orville type Star Trek homage, it may be so, but not in the same sense. The first episode of Black Mirror Season 4, USS…

[toycoheartful]

PawPant's Voice Actor

(Rabbidbot "Toyco" White-Rabbit - She cannot talking about not voice anymore but She can Hissing like a Snake)

Rabbidmini - Voice of Amber Hood on Stun Bunny (Nicktoon: Attack of the Toybots)

Attilio Von Chupacabra - Voice of David Kaufman on Danny Fenton (Danny Phantom)

Carly Von Chupacabra - Voice of Katie Crown on Izzy (Total DramaRama)

Donnie Von Chupacabra - Voice of Andy Berman on Dib Membrane (Invader Zim)

Jose Von Chupacabra - Voice of Dan Castellaneta on Grampa Simpson (The Simpsons)

Minnie Monarch-Butterfly - Voice of Tara Strong on Princess Unikitty (Unikitty)

Wallace Yellow-Crested Cockatoo - Voice of Steven Kelly on Byron (Brawl Stars)

Robert Fusibot - Voice of Michaela Dietz on Amethyst (Steven Universe)

Andrea Satyr - Voice of Barbara Dunkelman on Nerris (Camp Camp)

Eva "Ninety-One" Xoloitzcuintli - Voice of Kate Micucci on Dr. Fox (Unikitty)

Mackie Computer - Voice of Carlos Alazraqui on Walden (Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!)

King Balor Boitatá - Voice of Paul Greenberg on Manjimutt (Yo-Kai Watch)

Zella La-Llorona - Voice of Megan Cavanaugh on Nissa (Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius)

Mahavir Great White-Shark - Voice of John Stephen Goodman on Baloo (The Jungle Book 2)

Cosmo Vintage Toy-Robot - Voice of Lindsay Jones on Space Kid (Camp Camp)

Kenia Russian Blue - Voice of Marissa Lenti on Nita (Brawl Stars)

Winona Unicorn - Voice of Kimiko Glenn on Izzy (My Little Pony: A New Generation)

Mr. Dicky Water Python - Voice of Rowan Atkinson on Zazu (The Lion King)

Rasputin "Raz" Mountain Zebra - Voice of Kai Skrotzki on Chester (Brawl Stars)

Izzy Jerboa - Voice of Katie Snyder on Colette (Brawl Stars)

Bella Firefighter - Voice of Cristina Vee Valenzuela on Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir)

Opal Petalmen - Voice of Maggie Roswell on Mona Simpson (The Simpsons)

Monday Poodle - Voice of Nicki Rapp on Lili Zanotto (Psychonants 2)

Eis "Eastern" Traffic Light - Voice of Howard Ryshpan on Geppetto (Pinocchio 3000)

Winter Polar Bear - Voice of Rachael MacFarlane on Hayley Smith (American Dad!)

Modem Sliverback Gorilla - Voice of Scott McCord on Owen (Total Drama)

Edward Pixie - Voice of Audrey Wasilewski on Tuck (My Life as a Teenage Robot)

Valentina Bilby - Voice of Wendy Schaal on Francine Smith (American Dad!)

Peter Pileated Woodpecker - Voice of Sonja Ball on Pinocchio (Pinocchio 3000)

Dexter Harpie - Voice of Jill Talley on I.Q. (Wacky Races 2017)

Cayden Jack In The Box - Voice of James Arnold Taylor on Wooldoor Jebediah Sockbat (Drawn Together)

Gravestone Black Flying Fox - Voice of Ed Mace on Mortis (Brawl Stars)

Blu Milk Snake - Voice of Kat Cressida on Dee Dee (Dexter's Laboratory)

Shay Ghoul - Voice of Steve Carell on Hammy (Over the Hedge)

Gina Green-Boost - Voice of Elsie Lovelock on Uzi (Murder Drones)

Stitches - Voice of Zane VanWicklin on Arnold Shortman (Hey Arnold!)

Corbin Black Panther - Voice of Jason Lee on Bones (Monster House)

Valentina Bilby - Voice of Wendy Schaal on Francine Smith (American Dad!)

Snow-White Polish Rabbit - Voice of Bella Ramsey on Hilda (Hilda the Series)

Hurricane Kirin -

[weclassybouquetfun]

The first trailer for seventh entry to the Transformers film franchise - TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS. The film introduces characters from the Transformers spinoff BEAST WARS.

The live action cast includes Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), Dominique Fishback (JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH) and Michelle Yeoh.

The voice cast includes the king Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal, Pete Davidson as Mirage, Peter Dinklage as Scourge, John DiMaggio (who was in AMCs INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE) as Stratosphere,

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Nightbird. I assumed Nightbird was this Autobot Baddie, but I was wrong. Thank you, bluebandedagate.

Nightbird Arcee Thee Stallion

and TED LASSO's Cristó Fernández as Wheeljack.

The trailer looks really good I'm hoping the film itself is as good, if not better.

I have seen every Transformers film and here is my much thought out and exhaustive power ranking of each film.

TRANSFORMERS: GOATED. The blueprint. Untouchable.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, DARK OF THE MOON, AGE OF EXTINCTION.

Trash. Simpsons tire yard fire level hot garbage.

The worst thing committed to celluloid since the Hindenburg disaster.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT - Better. But how I could I down a film with Autobots on a dragon and a sword wielding Samurai Autobot?

BUMBLEBEE: Cute.

[confessionsfromthesecondrow]

Fashion In Flux.

As 2022 drew to a close, the tectonics slowly began shifting; now, as we embark into 2023, fashion is finally facing a major vibe shift. 

While the past seven years have been peppered with rising talents and breakout stars, following the last seismic shift, it has undeniably been a two-man race between Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Balenciaga’s Demna. 

Until it wasn’t. 

Following Michele’s recent announcement that he’d be parting ways with the Italian house, occurring almost simultaneously with Balenciaga-gate, fashion finds itself in a state of flux.

Michele’s appointment as creative director back in 2015 came as something of a surprise – triumphant over more recognisable names including Riccardo Tisci, Christopher Kane, Joseph Altuzarra, and Tom Ford, again – with Kering’s chief François-Henri Pinault tasking the designer with taking the house in a ‘daring direction’ following predecessor Frida Giannini’s early exit. 

It’s a formula we’ve similarly seen strike gold in the years since with Daniel Lee at Bottega Veneta and Daniel Roseberry at Schiaparelli, but it has also been catastrophic, in the case of Justin O’Shea’s breakneck seven-month tenure at Brioni and Lanvin’s seemingly revolving front door.

Revisiting his Autumn/Winter 2015 debut (the unofficial one), Michele’s maximalist magpie tendencies weren’t as grandiose as we’ve come to expect, but his willowy boys with their luscious locks, pussybow blouses, fur-lined slippers, and nerdy, oversized reading glasses were a world away from the stark streetwear we were seeing in menswear at the time. Similarly, his womenswear debut was an entirely different offering to Miuccia Prada’s smart and subversive Prada, Hedi Slimane’s svelte and skanky Saint Laurent, Nicolas Ghesquière’s sleek and chic Louis Vuitton, or Phoebe Philo’s salve for all wounds, Céline – before Slimane later axed the é. 

After presenting four collections – his AW15 menswear and womenswear debuts (presented separately, before the brand went co-ed in 2017) a Resort 2016 show in New York, and a stepped-up sophomore menswear outing – Michele was awarded International Designer of the Year at the 2015 British Fashion Awards for having ‘set the fashion agenda’ and ‘confirming Gucci’s position as a truly directional fashion house.’ 

Meanwhile, Demna, who we now know as the mononymous creative director at Balenciaga, was still somewhat unknown, just beginning to step into the limelight as design lead at Vetements, presenting his sophomore collection during the same season. He would be named as Alexander Wang’s successor seven months later in October 2015. 

In the years that followed, both designers began laying the foundations to create the behemoth brands today, albeit at opposite ends of the spectrum – Balenciaga the dark and dirty counterpart to the romance and nostalgia of Gucci. 

There’s the inescapable assault from both brands as the go-to for your celebrity faves: from Balenciaga’s Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Dua Lipa, Elliot Page, Justin Bieber, Isabelle Huppert, Michaela Coel, Nicole Kidman, and Kylie Jenner to Gucci’s Harry Styles, Jared Leto, Lana Del Rey, Florence Welch, Måneskin, Miley Cyrus, Phoebe Bridgers, Billie Eilish, Dev Hynes, Idris Elba, Janelle Monáe, Julia Garner, Andrew Garfield, Jodie Smith, Jack Grealish – you get it. 

Yet amid standout shows (Autumn/Winter 2018, Spring/Summer 2019, Resort 2020, and Autumn/Winter 2022) meme-orable moments (from severed heads to platform Crocs) and cohort of collaborations (adidas times two, Palace, The Simpsons, Disney, and even each other in fashion’s first multiverse moment) their commonality stretched beyond the creative into their forward-thinking business mindset. Whether partnering with the World Food Programme, aiding employees to find safe abortions, ditching fur, platforming upcoming design talents, hiring diehard stans, or branching into beauty, Demna and Alessandro represented a ‘new’ kind of creative director – simultaneously scrutinising the finer details while taking scope of the bigger picture. 

Yet it’s this painstaking attention to detail that makes Balenciaga’s recent ad scandal even more perplexing. Despite the brand initially blaming production company North Six – with a $25m lawsuit that was swiftly dropped – insiders question, rightfully so, how such images could see the light of day with so many stakeholders involved. 

Regardless of which side of the scandal you find yourself on, it’s impossible to ignore the endurance of this particular controversy. Thanks to the Right’s rebirth of ‘Satanic Panic’, luxury brands are forced to walk an ever-shrinking tightrope to do the ‘right’ thing, not because they want to, but because they have to in order to protect their bottom line. Remember when controversial ads were en vogue? 

Since Balenciaga-gate, Gucci found itself under similar criticism following the release of its ‘HA HA HA’ campaign – featuring Harry Styles wearing a teddy bear t-shirt toting a mattress that denigrators said belonged to a ‘toddler’. In a now deleted TikTok video, Coach was decried for Disney-themed teddy bears in its Sydney store that were described as ‘satanic’ and ‘evil’. 

For Balenciaga, the fallout (still falling) from its Chernobyl has seen Kim Kardashian, the poster child for Demna’s Balenciaga, noticeably out of the brand claiming to be ‘shaken by the disturbing images’ and ‘re-evaluating her relationship with the brand’. After appearing in the brand’s AW22 campaign, Euphoria’s Alexa Demie deleted all Balenciaga images from her Instagram feed and promptly unfollowed for good measure. Then the Business of Fashion rescinded its ‘highest honour’, the Global VOICES award and instead asked the brand representatives to attend to explain the saga – they declined. 

As the brand’s first show post-Balenci-gate approaches, the mind intrigues whether deep-thinking Demna will address the controversy. Amid the storm that has permanently taken root above Balenciaga HQ, the designer and CEO Cédric Charbit seem to be on borrowed time.

So, who does that leave in line to succeed fashion’s Iron Throne? At the end of 2022, Miu Miu took home Lyst’s title of hottest brand of the year for the first time – beating away heavyweights Balenciaga (who has topped the chart six times) and Gucci (topping 10 times and never placing lower than 4th). 

Thanks to its viral micro skirt set – which solidified its status on countless covers and via Shein knock-offs and homemade Halloween costumes – Miuccia trebled down from Spring/Summer 2022 through to Spring/Summer 2023, turning Moo Moo into a cash cow with churning out micro bras and adorable accessories.  

There’s also the new guard of next gen designers invited to make their mark at hallowed houses: Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Harris Reed will shortly present their debuts for Ann Demeulemeester and Nina Ricci respectively, while Maximilian Davis will reveal his sophomore runway collection for Ferragamo. With luck, an exciting opportunity to see what they’ve got, and not another revolving door. Bianca Saunders and Priya Ahluwalia next please! 

Will Matthieu Blazy achieve a hattrick at Bottega Veneta? What has Raf Simons got up his sleeve? What Ever Happened To Phoebe Philo? With heavyweights in limbo – Alessandro Michele, Riccardo Tisci – a hotly anticipated debut from Daniel Lee at Burberry, and open spots at Louis Vuitton menswear and Gucci, the guillotine looks like it’s readying for more chops with LVMH’s recent CEO moves. 

Time to place your bets. 

[petnews2day]

Hamish Hawk Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Song “Big Cat Tattoos”

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/gBJk5

Hamish Hawk Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Song “Big Cat Tattoos”

Hamish Hawk Announces New Album, Shares Video for New Song “Big Cat Tattoos” A Firmer Hand Out August 16 via Fierce Panda May 02, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Michaela Simpson Scottish musician Hamish Hawk has announced a new album, A Firmer Hand, and shared its first single, “Big Cat Tattoos,” via a music […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/gBJk5 #CatsNews #AFirmerHand, #Artwork, #BigCatTattoos, #FirstSingle, #HamishHawk, #MusicVideo, #NewAlbum, #ReleaseDate, #Scottish, #Tour, #Tracklist

[charlottejacksonfineart]

David Simpson: First Light

January 26 - February 29, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, January 26th, 5 - 7PM

There is something inside the viewer that leaps in response to David Simpson’s paintings, a feeling that rises, draws a deep ah of breath, and becomes entranced, enmeshed in the orbit of each piece. These works have a kind of gravity – like small suns or worlds. They seamlessly pull the viewer to move, shift, to seek out the possibilities of light and color that transform across their canvases. This layered depth, this endless rippling change, gives a clue to explain why it is not only that jolt surprise of beauty that calls to us. These pieces feel alive.

The work included in First Light presents a survey of Simpson’s famous interference paintings from the past 30 years. Using a unique method of combining acrylic pigment with interference paints containing micro-particles of iridescent mica – Simpson painstakingly applies layer upon layer upon layer of translucent paint to the canvas. The painted surface becomes a three-dimensional space where light enters and has room to move – shimmering, reflecting, and refracting off these interference particles. It is this depth and chance interaction of light and particle that causes the signature color shifts that Simpson’s work is known for.

Each piece is a revelation – from the subtle to the radical. A piece like La Belle Bleu can shift from a shining, icy, saturated blue to a flat, pewter-heavy violet with a move from left to right. The intricately textured golden surface of Small Favor ignites into champagne pink and then deepens into frosted lilac. The deeply intense violet blue of Dark Violet Tondo glows as if with some kind of internal fire or bioluminescence, both arresting and calming.

Changes in viewpoint are not the only ways that these pieces can shift. The quality, color, and intensity of the light itself will cause changes in the paintings. Natural light or gallery light, a sunny day versus a cloudy one, the declination of the sun in summer or winter, these can cause a bright blue painting to become deep purple, or a red-shift in a copper one.

Which brings us back to that sense of these pieces being alive, unpredictable, and even mysterious. Like the show’s title, First Light, there is an analogy to these works in the beauty of a sunrise. Not only does it elicit that same kind of shock-of-joy-in-beauty, but no two are ever exactly the same. The light shifts. Clouds roll through. The sun ranges across the horizon. Trees grow. Mountains wear away. And the self seeing these sights is different from one day to the next.

Art is primarily a static medium: beauty (or terror) is caught up in paint or plaster, arrested in a singular moment to be experienced. What Simpson’s interference paintings do is to infuse the unknowable, transience, variation, changeability, to what at first appears fixed. Something of nature, a living element, shines through in these pieces. Never the same. Always beautiful.

- Michaela Kahn, Ph.D.

[bophtelophti]

I feel a little bad for Michaela Dietz credit-wise though! She was pretty explicitly one of the main characters of the season, but didn't appear in the opening credits at all; while, for instance, Jimmi Simpson was in maybe a third of the episodes, and had at most about two lines in each of those, and he's still credited as a lead.

I can't believe that they got the voice actress for Amethyst to play a Vulcan

[oceanusborealis]

Star Trek: Prodigy - Ascension, Part I & Part 2 – TV Review

TL;DR – Honestly, wow, I was sitting on the edge of my chair for the whole episode. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series. Star Trek: Prodigy Review – Have you ever been sitting watching a show and suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to [insert important plot point here]”, only to get slapped in the face with that plot point a few…

[rayman-25]

Podcast Adventure le film II et l'arc 1 : Teenage Years VO VS VA

Si le film marche, on aurais la possibilité de faire une suite de la fanfiction, ainsi que le premier arc de Podcast Adventure.

Le deuxième film se déroule après l'arc 1 donc en printemps 2014. Comme dans les Simpson, Bob l'éponge ou Pokémon, les âges reste les même. Il se déroule la moitie de la saison 3 d'Amphibia, la saison deux de Luz à Osville et entre la saison 1 et deux de Dead End : le parc des paranormal.

Durant l'arc 1, il se déroule après le premier film et les spin-off. Le premier épisode se déroule après l'Ecosse, tandis que l'épisode 2 et 6 se déroule avant le premier film et comme je l'ai dit : il se déroule à New-York et à Royal Wood

On auras aussi des nouveaux personnages des autres franchise.

Résumé :

Résumé de l'arc 1 :

VO et VA :

Univers TMNT

Léonardo : ? (VA : Nicolas Cantu)

Donatello : ? (VA :Micah Abbey)

Raphaël : ? (VA : Brady Noon)

Michelangelo : ? (VA : Shamon Brown Jr.)

Splinter : ? (VA : Jackie Chan)

April O'neil : ? (VA : Ayo Edebiri)

Bebop : ? (VA : Seth Rogen)

Rocksteady : ? (VA : John Cena)

Baxter Stockman : ? (VA : Giancarlo Esposito)

Univers The Loud House

Lincoln Loud : Nathalie Bienaimé (VA : Ashleigh Ball)

Lori Loud : Caroline Mozzone (VA : Catherine Taber)

Leni Loud : Claire Baradat (VA : Liliana Mumy)

Luna Loud ! Adeliene Chetail (VA : Nika Futterman)

Luan Loud : Leslie Lipkins (VA : Cristina Pucelli)

Lynn Loud : Marie Facundo (VA : Magali Rosenzweig)

Lucy Loud : Magali Rosenzweig (VA : Jessica DiCicco)

Lola Loud : Jessica Barrier (VA : Grey DeLisle)

Lana Loud : Frédérique Marlot (VA : Grey DeLisle)

Lisa Loud : Caroline Combes (VA : Lara Jill Miller)

Lily Loud : Caroline Combes (VA : Grey DeLisle)

Clyde McBride : Audrey Sablé (VA : Brandon Mychal Smith)

Charles : Antoine Schoumsky (VA : Dee Bradley Baker)

Cliff : Dee Bradley Baker

Walt : Dee Bradley Baker

Géo : Dee Bradley Baker

Lynn sr Loud : Philippe Roullier (VA : Kyle Hebert)

Rita Loud : Emma Clave (VA : Cristina Valenzuela)

Ronnie Anne Santiago : Leslie Lipkins (VA : Cassie Glow)

Bobby Santiago : François Creton (VA : Carlos PenaVega)

Sid Cheng : ? (VA : Marissa Lenti)

Carlotta Casagrande : Kelly Marot (VA : ?)

Carlos Casagrande : Frédérique Marlot (VA : ?)

Univers Gravity Falls

Dipper Pines : ? (VA : Justin Roiland)

Mabel Pines : Caroline Combes (VA : Kristen Schaal)

Jesus « Mousse » Ramirez : ? (VA : Alex Hirsch)

Wendy Corduroy : Prunelle Rulens (VA : Erica Lindbeck)

Stanley "Stan" Pines : Alain Eloy (VA : Alex Hirsch)

Stanford "Ford" Pines : ? (VA : ?)

Robbie Stacy Valentino : Sébastien Hébrant (VA : Brooks Wheelan)

Dandinou (Waddles VA) : Dee Bradley Baker

Univers Podcast

Marc Christivoirien : Dipper Crypte (VA : Mekai Curtis)

Jean Christivoirien : Dipper Crypte (VA : Deven Mack)

Alice : Diane Dassigny (VA : Shannon Chan-Kent)

Univers Kirbendo

Thomas « Kirb » Kirbendoworld : Kirbendo (VA : ?)

Manu : Emmanuel Gandon (VA : ?)

Wistone : Emmanuel Gandon (VA : ?)

Farod Games : Farod (VA : ?)

Jacksepticeye : Alexandre Nguyen (VA : Jacksepticeye)

Univers Amphibia

Anne Boonchuy : Julia Khaye (VA : Brenda Song)

Hopediah "Hop Pop" Plantar : Patrick Waleffe (VA : Bill Farmer)

Sprig Plantar : Maxime Donnay (VA : Justin Felbinger)

Polly Plantar : Nancy Philippot (VA : Amanda Leighton)

Mrs. Boonchuy : Micheline Goethals (VA : On Braly)

Mr. Boonchuy : Frédéric Clou (VA : Bradley Cooper)

Univers The Owl house

Luz Noceda : ? (VA : Sarah-Nicole Robles)

Edalyn "Eda" Clawthorne : ? (VA : Wendie Malick)

King Clawthorne : ? (VA : Alex Hirsch)

Bobou (Hooty VA) : ? (VA : Alex Hirsch)

Camila Noceda : ? (VA : Elizabeth Grullon)

Vee / Number 5 : ? (VA : Michaela Dietz)

Hunter dit le garde dorée : ? (VA : Zeno Robinson)

Raine Whispers : ? (VA : Avi Roque)

Darius Deamonne : ? (VA : Keston John)

Eberwolf : Kari Wahlgren

Univers Dead End

Barney Guttman :? (VA : Zach Barack)

Pugsley : ? (VA : Alex Brightman)

Patrick Gutttman : ? (VA : Kate Higgins)

Saul Guttman : ? (VA : ?)

Univers Legend Quest

Teodora Villavicencio : ? (VA : Annemarie Blanco)

Univers Super Mario Bros le film

Univers Miraculous le film

[hogwarthoggle]

every black mirror episode - uss callister (4.01)

what is space fleet? i'll tell you what it is. it is a belief system founded on the very best of human nature. it is a goal for us to strive towards for the betterment of the universe, for the betterment of life itself. and you assholes are fucking it up!

[theshapeofagua]

the new season of star trek looks good

[hunchoco]

Black Mirror, 4x01 - USS Callister [2/13]