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apocalypticavolition · 11 months ago

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Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 21: The Nine Rings

You can tell I'm getting into the weeds when it comes to chapter art. Frankly, the people who made this card were getting into the weeds when it comes to game mechanics because that card effect has nothing to do with Mr. Caldevwin. Is that a spoiler? The whole rest of this post is full of them when it comes to this series, so don't keep reading if that bothers ya.

This chapter starts up with the Harp icon as Rand performs this evening and reflects a little on Thom. I suppose it also reflects inns in general.

The innkeeper was a lean woman with a long nose and graying hair, but her wrinkles seemed part of her ready smile more than anything else.

A thin innkeeper? She must be evil! That's why she's giving a home to these soldiers.

“As you say, my Lord.” Mistress Madwen’s glance flickered to Rand’s sword; the bronze herons were plain on scabbard and hilt. She frowned slightly, but her face was clear again in a blink.

I was kinda joking because I don't remember much about this gal but she is very snoopy. I suppose part of it is just her job but her disapproval of Rand's weapon does make me wonder.

“We are not hunting the Horn, mistress.” Rand did not glance at the bundle in Loial’s arms; the blanket with its colorful stripes hung bunched over the Ogier’s thick arms and disguised the chest well. “We surely are not. We are on our way to the capital.”

A thousand miles away, Moiraine feels a sudden surge of pride and does not know why.

The innkeeper gave a surprised blink when Hurin sat at table with them—an Ogier, it seemed, was one thing, but Hurin was clearly a servant in her eyes.

All of this is pretty good set-up for how stratified the societies of the eastern subcontinent are. In Baerlon and the Borderlands there wasn't much concern for any divisions within the party except gender lines and Moiraine's being Aes Sedai, and it's hardly unreasonable to expect blurred lines in social divisions in a small group traveling like this, but it's clear that in Cairhien the wilderness is no excuse to start fraternizing.

Selene’s was still half full, but she motioned curtly for one of the girls to take it.

Lanfear's wondering what the odds are of her finding a stasis box with some proper Chinese food in it.

Rand hesitated only a moment. It had been too long since he had practiced the flute rather than the sword, and the coins in his pouch would not last forever.

Here's that important theme again. We're in book 2 and already Rand's worried he's losing his sensitive side to war. He doesn't even know.

Selene looked at Rand as if wondering what he was...

I wonder if LTT had ever picked up any instruments. Probably not.

Did she really let me go? I wonder if she’s following me. Or waiting for me. “Sit down, Captain. Please.” Caldevwin drew a chair from another table. “Tell me, Captain, if you don’t mind. Have you seen any other strangers recently? A lady, short and slender, and a fighting man with blue eyes. He’s tall, and sometimes he wears his sword on his back.”

Note here how Rand is already succumbing to the paranoia associated with his condition. Book 1 Rand wouldn't have had these thoughts and he wouldn't have felt compelled to ask questions like this immediately either.

“A wondrous place I have heard, Lord Rand—I may call you so?—and fine men, the Andormen. No Cairhienin has ever worn a blademaster’s sword so young as you. I met some Andormen, once, the Captain-General of the Queen’s Guards among them. I do not remember his name; an embarrassment. Perhaps you could favor me with it?”

You can tell that this guy is only a Captain because he's nowhere near subtle enough to play in the Cairhienien Major Leagues.

Just as Selene opened her mouth, one of the serving girls let out a cry and dropped a lamp she was taking down from a shelf.

Lanfear's really restraining herself here to not make the Captain himself have to run away screaming.

The Cairhienin’s eyes sharpened. “It is part of the statue, my Lord Rand,” he said slowly. His gaze flickered toward Loial; for an instant he seemed to be considering something new.

"Are the Ogier allying with Andor to steal our old statues?!" Sure it sounds silly but like, what else can they be thinking? They probably don't know that the statue's a sa'angreal (it's way outside of the usual) but why couldn't it be a war asset from ancient days? Why would the Andorians even know about it to send a spy? Rand's causing trouble again and he barely even knows it.

“I have five hundred laborers in camp beyond the diggings, and even so it will be past summer’s end before we have it clear. They are men from the Foregate. Half my work is to keep them digging, and the other half to keep them out of this village. Foregaters have a fondness for drinking and carousing, you understand, and these people lead quiet lives.” His tone said his sympathies were all with the villagers.

Well based on the size of the village, five hundred carousers hitting them up every night would probably get the place burned down in a week or two. Keeping civil order is an incredibly difficult task!

For twenty-three years Barin Madwen and I were arguing when we weren’t kissing, so to speak. That’s by way of saying I have some experience. Right now, you’re thinking your Lady never wants to see you again, but it’s my way of thinking that if you tap on her door tonight, she’ll be taking you in.

Again, the "skinny innkeepers are obvious Darkfriends" things is a joke but... it could work for Mistress Mad wen, couldn't it? Moves from Lugard to Cairhien to escape bad deeds there, runs the inn to keep her eyes open in case anything happens, Choedan Kal discovered so she becomes important, Ishamael takes her to the party so she's up to date, and here she is with advice that could be entirely innocent or could be straight from Lanfear - and why attack Rand like all the DFs from last book did when he's already in a Forsaken's clutches?

It's probably not remotely intended in the text but hey.

“Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand,” Hurin said.

In the Game of Houses, you win or you die.

Okay maybe I'm getting my fantasy epics confused but I do enjoy how Jordan managed to communicate all of GRRM's themes even though they're not central to his own thesis.

“He has the right of Daes Dae’mar, Lord Rand. Cairhienin play it more than most, though all southerners do.”

And this is a bit of cultural blindness, really. We saw that Malkier's end came from someone playing Daes Dae'mar and while everyone has to fall in behind their leaders for obvious reasons there's going to be some jockeying. The Borderlands are just so far away from the rest of the world that they don't have to play the game at all, especially since Tar Valon actually comes through for them consistently - but then, that's the Game too, in its own way.

But in the morning, Selene was gone. When Rand went down to the common room, Mistress Madwen handed him a sealed parchment. “If you’ll forgive me, my Lord, you should have listened to me. You should have tapped on your Lady’s door.”

I'd say this still fits the Darkfriend theory.

Loial almost missed a step. “I never like to be far from my books, Captain.” His wide mouth flashed teeth in a self-conscious grin, and he hurried to strap the chest onto his saddle.

Okay Loial, I guess I was a little mean calling you naive before.

“He had the inn watched, Lord Rand,” Hurin whispered. “The Lady Selene must have gotten past them unseen somehow.”

Caldevwin has every reason to wonder if Lord Rand murdered his wife and is having the Ogier carry her corpse around in a box at this point. Good thing we'll never see or hear from him again, unlike Mistress Madwen who apparently gets mentioned again in Winter's Heart for some reason? Bizarre.

“Nothing is happening the way I expect,” Rand said.

And it never fucking will.

Next time: Stuff doesn't happen as Moiraine expects either! (Unlike Rand though, she'll sharpen up on her understanding of the future)

#let's read #wheel of time #wot #robert jordan #wheel of time spoilers #wot spoilers #rand al'thor #loial #lanfear #hurin #elricain tavolin #aldrin caldevwin

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victoriouscabaret · 5 months ago

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Every Single Song I've Posted Here Since 2013

Under the cut - I'll make a Spotify playlist to pin soon <3

2013:

The Space of Your Mind - Black Mountain

Annabel Lee - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Skinny Love - Birdy

Femme Fatale - The Velvet Underground

Crystal Ship - The Doors

Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground

Fault Line - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Our Brave New World - The Dolly Rocker Movement

When You're Evil - Aurelio Voltaire

The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & The News

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

So Sister - The Verve

Burn The Witch - Queens of The Stone Age

We Rise Again - Gogol Bordello

Dragula - Rob Zombie

Burnin' For You - Blue Oyster Cult

Sundrenched World - Joshua Radin

Like A Bad Girl Should - The Cramps

Beat The Devil's Tattoo - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Lasagna - The Knife

Am I Only - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros

This Is Halloween (Music Box Version)

Death Is The Road To Awe - Clint Mansell

Video Games - Kasabian

See My Vest - Mr. C.M. Burns

Heroes - David Bowie

2014:

Oh Comely - Neutral Milk Hotel

Abattoir Blues - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

One Way To Go - The Verve

Heat Of The Moment - Asia

Can't Help Falling In Love - Elvis Presley

Strange And Beautiful - Aqualung

Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Flightless Bird, American Mouth - Iron & Wine

Boys Don't Cry - The Cure

Lux Aeterna - Clint Mansell

West Coast - Coconut Records

Something To Do With My Hands - Her Space Holiday

Super-Sonic - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Teardrop - Massive Attack

Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies

She Did A Lot Of Acid - Neutral Milk Hotel

Stagger Lee - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Lorde

Cell Block Tango (He Had It Coming) - Chicago

U Angel U - Elvis Depressedly

Sweet Come Down - The Black Ryder

Outside - The Black Ryder

Stranger Than Kindness - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Nick The Stripper - The Birthday Party

The Killing Type - Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra

Exile Vilify - The National

This Mess We're In - PJ Harvey & Thom Yorke

It Girl - The Brian Jonestown Massacre

Bad Wine And Lemon Cake - The Jane Austen Argument

Champagne Supernova - Oasis

Criminal - Fiona Apple

Pepper - Butthole Surfers

Club Foot - Kasabian

Your Funeral, My Trial - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Blackberry Stone - Laura Marling

2015:

All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun - Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser

When Doves Cry - Prince

Love Cats - The Cure

Avalanche - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Silver Coin - Angus & Julia Stone

Dickhead - Kate Nash

Fable Theme - Danny Elfman & Russell Shaw

Bigger On The Inside - Amanda Palmer

The Sweetest Embrace - Barry Adamson (featuring Nick Cave)

Harder To Breathe - Maroon 5

Be My Baby - The Ronettes

Strength Through Music - Amanda Palmer

Strawberry Gashes - Jack Off Jill

Bullet Proof... I Wish I Was - Radiohead

Across The Stars - Richard Jones

Pavlov's Daughter - Regina Spektor

Briony - Dario Marianelli

Clone High Theme - Abandoned Pools

Phoenix - The Jane Austen Argument

Babe, You Turn Me On - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Lost Elf Theme - Trevor Morris

Hero - Regina Spektor

Crimson And Clover - Teho Teardro, Blixa Bargeld

2016:

Necessary Evil - The Dresden Dolls

Charmless Man - Blur

Enchanting Ghost - Sufjan Stevens

Enjoy The Silence - Depeche Mode

The Show Must Go On - Queen

Magneto - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Another Year: A Short History Of Nearly Something - Amanda Palmer

Samson - Regina Spektor

Princess Leia's Theme - John Williams

2017:

Take A Look At My Girlfriend - Supertramp

IDFC (Acoustic) - Blackbear

Age Of Consent - New Order

I'll Make A Man Out Of You - Mulan

House Of Cards - Radiohead

In My Time Of Dying - Led Zeppelin

Work Song - Hozier

Blake Says - Amanda Palmer

I Found A Reason - Cat Power

Satisfied Mind - Jeff Buckley

The Beauty's Wicked Wiles - Masayoshi Soken

Holes - The Jane Austen Argument

Shiola - Murder By Death

Love Me Dead - Ludo

2018: Nothing - I abandoned tumblr and did a lot of healing lol

2019:

My Sweet Lord - George Harrison

Vacation - Vitamin C

2020:

The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie

2021: Nothing - still not feeling tumblr

2022: Nothing - still getting my shit together

2023: Nothing - it's a process, okay?

2024:

Wild God - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Angel Of The Morning - Juice Newton

Let Me Teach You How To Eat - Reverend Horton Heat

Whatever (I Had A Dream) - Butthole Surfers

Black Me Out - Against Me!

Junkyard - The Birthday Party

Body Like A Back Road - JVZEL

Sleeping Late - Doctor Hook & The Medicine Show

Rabbit Will Run - Iron & Wine

Josh - Peach PRC

Spine - Myrkur

Lazy Bones - Joel Plaskett

John Finn's Wife (Live) - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Radicals - Matthew Good

Psycho - Eddie Noack

KD and Lunch Meat - Boy Golden

Be Gay, Do Drugs, Hail Satan - Super Cassette

Tempel - Colour Haze

When The Trickster Starts A-Poking - Gogol Bordello

My Backwards Walk - Frightened Rabbit

Let's Roll Just Like We Used To - Kasabian

Haunted Cathouse - Nekromantix

Alice's Restaurant Massacre - Arlo Guthrie

Welcome To: - Ani Difranco

Lost River - Murder By Death

I Found A Reason - The Velvet Underground

Son Of Yule - Jex Thoth

Dark Solas Theme - Trevor Morris

A Million Deaths - Fleshgod Apocalypse

Places We Won't Walk - Bruno Major

Let The Day Begin - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

My Friends - Laura Marling

Walk Like A Zombie - Horrorpops

For Whom The Bell Tolls - Metallica

Death Death (Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil Song) - Aurelio Voltaire

We Call Upon The Author - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I'm Blue - The 5.6.7.8's

Delicate Petite & Other Things I'll Never Be - Against Me!

Frogs - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Tower Of Song - Leonard Cohen

I Am The Antichrist To You - Kishi Bashi

Desire 126 - Hollerado

My Boy Builds Coffins - Florence & The Machine

Maniac - Carpenter Brut

Black Water - Timber Timbre

Slow It Down (Live) - The Lumineers

4 Minute Warning - Radiohead

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan - Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show

Devil Like Me - Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - Klaatu

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo - -Bloodhound Gang

Clap Hands - Tom Waits

The Lyre of Orpheus - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Two Little Girls - Ani Difranco

Mediocrity Rules - Le Tigre

A Bar Song (Tipsy) - Shaboozey

Watermelon Sugar - Harry Styles

Where The Wild Roses Grow (Blixa Version) - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Nita - Pezz

#v listens to music #i love that you can tell my life fell the fuck apart in 2016 based on the songs i posted then hahaha

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stachebracket · 2 years ago

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Round One 'Stache Match-ups

Peppino Spaghetti (Pizza Tower) vs Professor Rowan (Pokémon) Geppetto (Pinocchio 1940) vs Tim Lockwood (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs)The Lorax (The Lorax) vs William Riker (Star Trek: Next Generation) The President (Pikmin) vs King Dice (Cuphead) Nigel Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys) vs Kratos (God of War) Filbrick Pines (Gravity Falls) vs Mouse Kaboom (Happy Tree Friends) Tarzan's Dad (Tarzan 1999) vs Drayden (Pokémon) Morshu (Legend of Zelda) vs Magikarp (Pokémon) Luigi (Super Mario) vs Snidely Whiplash (Rocky and Bullwinkle) Dracula (Castlevania) vs Gaepora (Legend of Zelda) Hades (Hades) vs Geralt (The Witcher) Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction) vs Walrus Captain (A Hat in Time) Dr. Wily (Megaman) vs Charlie Swan (Twilight) King of All Cosmos (Katamari) vs Hizashi "Present Mic" Yamada (My Hero Academia) Drake (Pokémon) vs Craigor Smiff (Red Stitch Report) Blaine (Pokémon) vs Gimli (The Lord of the Rings)

Eggman (Sonic) vs Lando Calrissian (Star Wars) Archibald Dandy (The Adventures of Captain Wrongel) vs Walter White (Breaking Bad) Mung Daal (Chowder) vs Linebeck III (Legend of Zelda) Kingambit (Pokémon) vs Doc Louis (Punch-Out!!) Major Alex Louis Armstrong (Fullmetal Alchemist) vs Doctor Neo Cortex (Crash Bandicoot) Soichiro Yagami (Death Note) vs Murro Morton (Identity V) Baron Zeppeli (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1: Phantom Blood) vs J. Jonah Jameson (Marvel) Wulfric (Pokémon) vs Henry Henderson (Spy x Family) Gashu Satou (Your Turn to Die) vs Stanley Hudson (The Office) Alolan Golem (Pokémon) vs Landorus (Pokémon) King Harkinian (Legend of Zelda) vs Thundurus (Pokémon) Gustavo (Pizza Tower) vs Tornadus (Pokémon) Broque Monsieur (Mario & Luigi) vs Cadmus Ebcott (Red Stitch Report) Rhys Strongfork (Borderlands) vs Agustín Madrigal (Encanto) Bob Belcher (Bob's Burgers) vs Soseki Natsume (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles) Oscar (Duolingo) vs Professor Turo (Pokémon)

Soda Popinski (Punch-Out!!) vs Mario (Super Mario) Cliff Clavin (Cheers) vs King River Butterfly (Star vs the Forces of Evil) Stoutland (Pokémon) vs Grandpa Harley (Homestuck) Von Kaiser (Punch-Out!!) vs The Captain (BBC Ghosts) Mustache Girl (A Hat in Time) vs Tobias Fünke (Arrested Development) Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug) vs Randy Marsh (South Park) Wario (Super Mario) vs Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings) Kevin Ayuso (Identity V) vs Mr Pickels (Happy Tree Friends) Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride) vs Minimus Ambus (Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye) Kricketune (Pokémon) vs Eldstar (Paper Mario) Jane Crocker (clever disguise) (Homestuck) vs Advisor Mung (Hypnagogia 無限の夢 Boundless Dreams) Saguaro (Pokémon) vs Revolver Ocelot (Metal Gear Solid) GOING TO REMATCH Waluigi (Super Mario) vs Vincenzo Santorini (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) Mr. Rime (Pokémon) vs Raikou (Pokémon) Sportacus (Lazy Town) vs Ron Swanson (Parks and Recreation) Steven Magnet (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) vs Sir Humphrey Bone (BBC Ghosts) Sea Hawk (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) vs Duster (Mother 3) Varrick (The Legend of Korra) vs King Bradley (Fullmetal Alchemist) Omni-Man (Invincible) vs Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (Doctor Who) William Murderface Murderface Murderface (Metalocalypse) vs Lolorito Nanarito (Final Fantasy XIV) Mumbo Jumbo (Hermitcraft) vs Probopass (Pokémon) The Toy Soldier (The Mechanisms) vs Chancellor Cole (Legend of Zelda) Alakazam (Pokémon) vs Entei (Pokémon) Thom Merrilin (The Wheel of Time) vs James Gordon (DC Comics) Gomez Addams (The Addams Family) vs Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid) GOING TO REMATCH Asgore Dreemurr (Undertale) vs Taryon Gary Darrington (Critical Role) Julius Pringle (Pringles) vs Netero (Hunter x Hunter) Dudley (Street Fighter) vs Barret Wallace (Final Fantasy VII) BJ Hunnicutt (M*A*S*H) vs Daruk (Legend of Zelda) Mabosstiff (Pokémon) vs Vito Corleone (The Godfather) Cervantes (Fire Emblem) vs Don Paolo (Professor Layton) Gordan Freeman (Half-Life) vs Zangief (Street Fighter)

#stachebracket #stacheupdates

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periwinckles · 2 years ago

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The train back to twelve - chapter 7

Week 3 - Thom

Chapter Summary: Jack and Thom search Cyrus tent, for Haymitch's stuff. Someone might get punched.

When we reach camp most of the day's tasks have already been completed. Sae stirs a pot over the crackling flames of the fire. Two cleaners, likely on their way to the train station shower, hurry past us while a group of campers gather to retrieve their laundry from the clothesline. The bustling end of the day isn't the ideal setting for what we are about to do, but we need to make the most out of Cyrus’ absence from camp.

"I'll talk to Jack first, then we'll decide what to do. Do you mind putting my dry clothes back in my tent?"

Delly nods but looks unsure of herself.

"Are you sure about that? I don't want to intrude on your privacy. I'm sorry I went there this morning without asking, I wasn't thinking."

"Why wouldn't you go to my tent? Of course you can go."

I spot Jack talking to Mr and Mrs Steiner next to the supplies shelter. I need to get him aside before Cyrus comes back from his shower.

"If you're sure."

"Of course I'm sure, you can go to my tent anytime."

I signal Jack to let him know I need to talk to him and He promptly excuses himself from the Steiners and joins me as I lead him to the far side of the camp.

"Cyrus has booze."

He's quick to figure it out. There is no alcohol anywhere in the district, unless Haymitch Abernathy's house.

"How do you know?"

"He spoke to Delly earlier and she smelled it in his breath."

And I am so done with him breathing down her neck all the time. It figures he would feel himself entitled to take whatever he wants, whether it's food, valuable items or a place in the council.

We have two options. We can either wait for him and confront him about it or we can search his tent while he's gone and look for evidence.

"I say we do a quiet search and then confront him if we find anything relevant." Jack suggests, while taking a quick survey of the camp. Everyone's busy getting ready for dinner. From here I can spot Delly and she's taking her time to shake off her sleeping bag, while partially blocking the view to Cyrus's tent. That a girl!

"It's now or never." I tell Norbert and with a few quick strides I'm inside Cyrus tent, while Jack stays outside and chats with Delly.

I don't have to look hard, it's in full display next to his sleeping bag.

"THAT SON OF A…"

"Did you find anything?" Jack asks while getting inside the tent as well, and I hold up my hands to reveal the half-empty bottle of liquor and a strip of three condoms. I guess old habits die hard for peacekeepers. We all knew their weakness was booze and women and just the thought of him even speaking to Delly…

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?"

We hastily get out only to find Cyrus waiting outside, fuming and demanding answers, Delly looking apologetic. I'm still holding the bottle in my hand.

"That's what we would like to know." I tell him taking two steps to stand in front of him. "Do you care to tell us where you got this?" I do my best to keep myself calm but I've been wanting to punch this guy for weeks now. I'm not sure I'll hold it for the entirety of this conversation.

"We're not doing this here." Jack says with a low voice, holding my forearm and pushing me back. "We're going to the slag heap, all three of us."

"I'm not going anywhere with the both of you." Cyrus snaps back and he's loud enough that everyone's paying attention now. "You two want a word with me? I'm taking Ray as well."

Ray Thomson takes a step forward but Jack immediately pushes him aside with a warning. "Stay out of this, Ray!"

I get why Cyrus would feel intimidated. He is a former peacekeeper and he's physically fit, but he's no miner and I have several inches on him. And Jack is a beast of a man even in his late thirties, but he’s staying surprisingly calm. I’m glad for it as I’m usually the one with the cool head.

"We just want to talk."

No one dares to come close but all eyes are on us. He has no other choice but to agree.

"Fine."

We make our way to the slag heap, away from prying eyes and ears. Cyrus stands with his hands on his hips, donning clean clothes but sporting a fatigued expression. He waits for us to speak first, and Jack takes the lead.

"Someone 's been stealing from Haymitch Abernathy. A watch. Food. Condoms. And that's just what we know for sure."

The laugh that comes out of his mouth is loud but brief, almost as if he had his energy drained out of him. "And you think I did it?" He retorts incredulously.

"Where did you get the liquor? And the condoms? Were you planning on using them with anyone? OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO USE THEM LIKE CRAY USED TO?" I shove him and Jack holds me back by my arms, but Cyrus keeps his chin held up high daring me to take a swing at him.

"OH AIN'T THAT CONVENIENT,” Cyrus retorts, his tone dripping with sarcasm.” LET'S HOLD THE PEACEKEEPERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT THAT PIECE OF SHIT OF CRAY USED TO DO."

"Calm down, the two of you, just calm down!"

I run my hands through my hair taking a few breaths to steady myself. If there is one thing I always prided myself on is being in control of my temper. I was never one to get into fights or arguments, not even when I lived in the community home. However, Cyrus Johnson might be the one to put my self-restraint to the test.

Read the rest on Ao3

#the hunger games #the hunger games fan fiction #Thom x Delly #delly cartwright #haymitch abernathy #the rebuilding of district 12

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ao3feed-everlark · 1 year ago

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Every Breath You Take

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/qre7xRk

by VanillaCottonCandy

I wouldn’t go into this unarmed. I would go home and prepare myself with a loaded bow and a knife.

I would head to the woods, perch myself up high in a tree, and when he showed up looking for me, I’d take him out before he even had a chance to notice me. That’s what I decided would happen. That’s what I convinced myself would happen.

But unfortunately, that is not what happened at all.

A mysterious man comes to District Twelve. No one knows who he is or what he wants.

Just that he wants Katniss Everdeen.

Set two years Post-Mockingjay. Canon Compliant. Heavy on Everlark.

Words: 5040, Chapters: 1/3, Language: English

Fandoms: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: F/M

Characters: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy, Johanna Mason, Delly Cartwright, Thom (Hunger Games), Mrs. Everdeen (Hunger Games)

Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark

Additional Tags: Stalker, Inspired By Celebrity Stalker Stories, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Protective Peeta, also, Protective Katniss

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/qre7xRk

#everlark #everlark fic #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #thg #ao3feed

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the-90s-music-colosseum · 1 year ago

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Round 3 Match 5

propaganda below the cut! (huge wall of text warning)

Courtney Love:

"i want courtney to push me around and throw me on the floor SHE'S SO HOT AND HER MESSINESS MAKES HER EVEN HOTTER !!!!!"

"She's beautiful and gorgeous and the definition of 90s fashion. I'm convinced she could pull off any outfit ever she's so stunning"

"that one photo of her in red lipstick and a black dress smoking a cigarette… your honour i rest my case"

"I don't care what conspiracy theories you tell me. no one rocks the grungy makeup look like her."

"gonna be her for halloween"

Mike Patton:

"Mike didn't consistently wear BDSM masks matched with boiler suits and lick Trevor Dunn on stage just to lose this bracket. Also, if you don't think he's hot in every which way, you clearly haven't seen this: https://youtu.be/gjEbHBafvm0 or this: https://youtu.be/i9_hCjcFNO0 or this: https://youtu.be/Kfq7wHJu21c"

youtube

"Mike Patton collaborated with basically everyone who's anyone in music, and he speaks Italian too. He's great in a live show. And Mr. Bungle is unmatched and unparalleled, full stop."

"HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA FUNNY WHITE MAN SCREAMS IN MY EAR AND BUSTS IT DOWN SEXUAL STYLE"

"I'm a lesbian but I find him insanely attractive which I think says a lot"

"whenever mike arches his back and screams a part of my soul leaves my body and is shattered by the soundwaves."

"all you need to do to love mike is watch this: https://youtu.be/0gq_Jn41iMM&t=1375 the fact that he blurts that out and then super casually goes into the song leaves me crying with rage and hormones every time I see it"

youtube

Jonny Greenwood:

"Every art girl's (and boy's) wet dream"

"He wrote the tourist. That's all you need."

"Repeat from my Thom propaganda but he was a part of it so anyways. I had a dream once where I met him and Thom on the street and asked them to sign my Pablo Honey CD, so Thom pushed me into open traffic and I got hit by a car and died and Jonny laughed his ass off. 10/10, my last sight before death was his beautiful face laughing."

"I could probably snap him like a twig but I want to marry him and have 3 children with him before I do that"

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose 1/5 of Radiohead. Choose 1/5 of In Rainbows. Choose the man who wrote weird fishes, both Greenwood sisters ,the man in South Park, his telecaster and the stickers on it. Choose the bug Jacqueline Kennedy, his love for literature and poetry, and his lovely lisp. Choose his sublime score for Phantom Thread and his husband Paul Thomas Anderson. Choose the weird amount of straight men who thirst over him in the YouTube comment section. Choose his jawbone. Choose the most pretentious, unpretentious member of the band. Choose his silky hair and his (probably) Dove shampoo. Choose his great knowledge of music theory and how he often disregards it. Choose Astroboy's biggest fanboy (minus maybe Thom. Choose a very hot Alex James who eloped with a fish. Choose Jonny Greenwood. Choose your future. Choose life… Involuntary Trainspotting reference but please vote Jonny over Wario. Oh, and( even though Jonny lives in Italy at the moment), I live in Oxford and if I meet him, I'll tell him that he won."

"He keeps chickens guys, CHICKENS"

"I'm a straight guy but no joke Jonny is hot tbh maybe it's cuz he looks like a chick but like damnnnn"

"He's so gorgeous....kinda like an ant 😍😍😍😍"

#most attractive 90s musician #polls #poll #90s music #tournament #courtney love #hole band #mike patton #faith no more #mr bungle #jonny greenwood #radiohead

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ravenkings · 1 year ago

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tony soprano x jennifer melfi – mostly classic rock but with some other things sprinkled in

uptown girl – billy joel don't let me be misunderstood – the animals in dreams – roy orbison the denial twist – the white stripes i'll be your mirror – the velvet underground, nico light my fire – the doors this mess we're in – pj harvey, thom yorke somebody to love – jefferson airplane tape song – the kills she's a lady – tom jones i've got you under my skin – frank sinatra manic depression – jimi hendrix the operation – charlotte gainsbourg mrs. robinson – simon & garfunkel sweet dreams (are made of this) – eurythmics midnight man – nick cave & the bad seeds sympathy for the devil – the rolling stones

#i made this several months ago tbh but i rediscovered it today and i think it's pretty good #also i know music is a whole ~thing~ on the show but this is just me having fun lol #particularly bc tony and melfi always make me think of 'uptown girl'#the sopranos #k watches the sopranos #mix #audio

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dailynoods · 1 year ago

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Alanna Ubach

BornOctober 3, 1975

Downey, California, U.S

.Occupation Actress

Years active 1990–present

Spouse Thom Russo (m. 2014)

Children 1

Alanna Ubach (born October 3, 1975) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Serena McGuire in Legally Blonde (2001) & Legally Blonde 2 (2003), Isabel Villalobos in Meet the Fockers (2004), Maria in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Noreen in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), Jane in Clockwatchers (1997), Naomi in Waiting... (2005) and Still Waiting... (2009), Margarete in Being Us (2011), Jeanine Pirro in Bombshell (2019), and the voice of Mamá Imelda in Coco (2017), as well as Jo Hernandez-Frumpkis on Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce, Suze Howard on Euphoria, Tessa Flores on Guilty Party, Carol Atkinson on The Flight Attendant, and Susan Bennett on Ted.

She has provided voices for several characters in a number of animated television shows and movies, such as Liz Allan on The Spectacular Spider-Man, the title character on El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Lola Boa on Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Strudel on Pound Puppies, and four characters in the Oscar-winning animated film Rango (2011). She played the first female assistant/co-host, Josie, on the television show Beakman's World, for which she was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1992.

#actress #curvy #girl #model #sexy #thighs #hips #bare bottom #barefoot #beautiful #butt #actor

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belovedindierock · 2 years ago

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Rolling Stone #1155, April 26th 2012

Radiohead Reconnect

How the most experimental band in music learned to rock again

by David Fricke

Thom Yorke walks into the catering room backstage at the American Airlines Arena in Miami wearing a dark T-shirt, tight red jeans and a crooked smile. "I'm feeling quietly excited – and quietly nervous," Radiohead's frontman says as he pours himself a cup of coffee. Yorke flew in from Britain late yesterday – his eyelids are still heavy with jet lag – and he is due onstage shortly for Radiohead's final rehearsal before the launch of their most extensive tour since 2008: 58 shows over 10 months in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. They open here tomorrow night.

"Everything – the production, the new lights, the set list – is still a work in progress," Yorke says. "But it's finally getting started." Soon he can be heard warming up his voice behind a closed door, practicing scales in a high, precise warble, holding notes in long, clean aaaahs.

Radiohead are not only beginning a tour; they are unveiling a rebirth. The band is ending one of the most challenging and confounding eras in its career: nearly three years of public silence and private chaos during which Radiohead struggled with reinvention and their future. They made some of their most beautiful music on their least popular album, last year's The King of Limbs, but didn't promote it and stayed off the road, uncertain how or if they could be a performing band again.

"We're still flailing around," Yorke admits, sitting in one of the band's dressing rooms. He recalls the early practice sessions for this tour. "I was freaking out, going, 'Oh, no, it's not enough time. I want to do all these new things.'"

But onstage, a little while later, he and the rest of Radiohead – bassist Colin Greenwood; guitarists Ed O'Brien and Colin's younger brother Jonny; drummer Phil Selway and new second drummer Clive Deamer, who has played with the group for the past year – sound exuberant and confident as they push through "Bloom," from The King of Limbs. What sounded on that record like a glassy enigma of loops and ghostly incantation is now rushing water, arranged by the new six-man lineup as a fury of rhythms and murky-treble guitars. "Morning Mr. Magpie" is also harder and faster than the version on Limbs, while "Meeting in the Aisle" – an instrumental from the sessions for 1997's OK Computer – is played with fresh pepper, like Turkish surf music with a trip-hop step.

Radiohead have worked up more than 75 songs for the 2012 shows, including material written during rehearsals this winter at their studio in Oxford. The band will run through a pair of newborns tonight, "Identikit" and "Cut a Hole." Yorke, 43, describes the former as "joyful, slow but with a wonky hip-hop beat." He beams. "That one wormed its way to the head of the class." Colin, who is 42, is excited about another new one, "Full Stop," particularly the part "where Thorn's voice jacks up into this amazing falsetto. The song just takes off."

20 Songs You Can't Believe Are 20 Years Old

In an interview before practice, Yorke credits the addition of Deamer, who came from the British band Portishead, with Radiohead's live renewal. "Having another musician to go back over old stuff was as important as coming up with new songs," says Yorke. He's slumped on a couch, but his voice crackles with restless energy. "Along the way," he says, "you discard songs, because you can only do them in a certain way. To breathe new life into them is a good feeling. You don't have to ask, 'Oh, how does it go again?' It's 'How can we do this properly now?'"

The best example at this rehearsal is the title song from 2000's Kid A. Recorded at the height of Yorke's loathing of guitar-band convention, "Kid A" was barely a song at all – a cloud of whoosh with Yorke singing through a vocoder like a child robot. Tonight, it sounds huge and metallic, a bolt of argumentative double drumming with a striking, classical temper in the piano chords, played by Jonny.

"It was an anti-song," says O'Brien the next day, in an ocean-view lounge at Radiohead's hotel. "Now it's something warmer, particularly the end. Suddenly, it has this sunrise." For a long time, in a lot of the band's music, he admits, "nothing was allowed to be genuinely beautiful. Jonny was always so brilliant about throwing that slashing guitar through things.

"This is very much where we are – and Clive has brought this," says O'Brien, who turns 44 this month. "Didn't they say when the Beatles got Billy Preston everybody was on best behavior?" He laughs. "Having someone break up the energy – that's good. It got people out of old habits.

"You hear it all the time," says O'Brien. "These bands say, 'We're in the best phase of our lives,' and they don't make very good music. I'm reluctant to say that. It's not our best phase. It's another one – and it's a good one. It doesn't feel like a new band. It feels like a band that knows itself."

Yorke isn't so sure – yet. "It's weird not to have any definitive versions recorded," he says of the new songs, "because that's where you make the final decisions. To be rehearsing new stuff, not have it recorded, with a sixth member in the band . . ." He rolls his eyes in mock terror. "It's all very fluid. I'm not really sure what it is."

Jonny, 40, sitting on the sofa next to Yorke, remembers the singer arriving for the first day of practice in Oxford: "He came in and said, 'I had a dream that we had an extra month for rehearsing.' I thought, 'Wouldn't that be great?'"

"We haven't played in front of people yet, so we don't know if it's any good," says Yorke. "We might not even find out tomorrow." He flashes that crooked smile. "Maybe it will take a while."

Radiohead have been a recording band for two decades. This year marks the 20th anniversary of their debut EP, Drill, and the initial release of their seething Top 40 hit "Creep." Since then, Radiohead have enjoyed the weirdest forward motion of any major rock band. Their hit albums, including two American Number Ones, Kid A and 2007's In Rainbows, are slippery and jarring: blends and collisions of violent guitar dynamics, cryptic dance-floor electronics and barbed, elliptical balladry. Radiohead's last "conventional" album, according to their longtime co-producer Nigel Godrich, was their art-rock classic OK Computer. "Essentially, that was a guitar record dabbling in other dimensions," Godrich says. Radiohead have begun every subsequent album the same way. "We start," O'Brien says, "with what we don't want to do next."

There has been substantial outside work in recent years. Selway's first solo effort, Familial, came out in 2010. Yorke is almost done with the first studio album by his band Atoms for Peace. Jonny, a prolific writer for soundtracks and orchestras, just issued an album with Polish composer Krzystof Penderecki. An independent act since the end of their EMI contract in 2003, Radiohead also explore alternative ways of releasing music. In Rainbows was first available as a pay-what-you-choose download. A gorgeous 2009 track, "These Are My Twisted Words," was free.

The King of Limbs arrived as a complete shock: a download with a week's notice and no publicity by the band. A CD followed a month later. But the surprise attack, combined with the music's vexing restraint, backfired. "There were clearly people who were interested in the band's music, but they didn't know Radiohead had released a record," says Bryce Edge, one of the group's managers. To date, The King of Limbs has sold 307,000 copies in the U.S. – Radiohead's first album to fail to go gold here.

But that tally, Edge points out, "doesn't include all of the digital stuff we sold" – an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies purchased via Radiohead's website. "The majority of the sales were band-to-fan," says co-manager Chris Hufford. "Financially, it was probably the most successful record they've ever made, or pretty close. In a traditional deal, the record company takes the majority of the money."

Radiohead played only three concerts in 2011, after recruiting Deamer to help re-create the overdubbed tangle of drum loops on The King of Limbs: a surprise set at Britain's Glastonbury Festival and two hot-ticket gigs at New York's Roseland Ballroom. So now the band is going overboard: Its long U.S. itinerary includes festival dates, two at Coachella and one at Bonnaroo. O'Brien says the group has already "talked about the way the gigs might evolve, maybe doing them in three sections – three movements, if you like." Colin is excited about the prospect of studio time along the way. "Maybe we'll do some hit-and-runs," he says, "go in over a weekend somewhere and play."

The band is touring mostly in three-week legs with substantial breaks, in part for family matters. All the group members still reside in the Oxford area except for O'Brien, who lives in London, and all are married except for Yorke, who has been with his partner, Rachel Owen, since they were students at the University of Exeter. The five are busy fathers. Colin, Jonny and Selway have three children each; Yorke and O'Brien have two apiece. "My kids are changing schools in September," Selway, 44, notes. "I wanted to be around for that."

But there is a strong sense in the interviews conducted for this story over the past year – in Oxford, London, New York and finally Miami – of a band anxious to engage the world again after spending too much time too close to home. The first night at Roseland last September was, O'Brien claims, "a great lesson. The sound-check was a fucking nightmare. The monitors were rubbish – we couldn't hear ourselves. We felt underprepared. But you know what? It was all good. Our managers were like, 'Top-five gig!'"

"It was a fucking trip – the best adrenaline buzz I've had in absolutely years," Yorke crows. "It didn't feel like we were treading the old ground, walking over our graves. We were still wandering around in the darkness, stumbling. That was nice."

"It made us feel like a rock band again," Colin says, more thoughtfully, backstage in Miami. "It's fine to be in a band in a nine-to-five way: Get up with the kids, take them to school, do some work, come home. But I see my friends in Oxford who have jobs they work hard at that they don't enjoy, and it frustrates me. We have a job that is a passion. Roseland made us remember how great it could and should be."

Radiohead speak about The King of Limbs like it is unfinished business, an album with a future and an audience still waiting for it. The group is not touring this year "specifically to push that record," Selway says. But, he adds, "people hopefully will connect with it through that."

"It was amazing to just put the record out like that," Yorke says. "But then it didn't feel like it really existed." He mentions a chat he had about the album, a few months after its release, with Phil Costello, a friend of the band and a former executive at their old label, Capitol. "He was like, 'It's gone, just gone.' Really? Fuck.

"But that was the consequence of what we chose to do," Yorke concedes. "You can either get upset about it, or say, 'Well, that's not good enough.'"

It is a warm afternoon in New York, the day before the first Roseland concert, and Yorke – between sips of tea in a downtown hotel lobby – is recalling his Friday nights in college, working as a DJ while he was going for his bachelor's degree in art at Exeter. Radiohead were a part-time operation, writing songs and making demos under their original name, On a Friday, during the members' school breaks.

"I wasn't particularly good," Yorke says of his spinning, "because people were buying me drinks to get me to play what they wanted to hear. At the end of the night, I couldn't see the records." Yorke remembers mixing electro-dance tracks by a Belgian duo, Cubic 22, and the English trio 808 State with early Seattle grunge. He was especially keen on the way Manchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses were fusing Sixties psychedelia and British rave culture. "Which then stopped," Yorke complains. "Suddenly, guitars were the authentic way to go. We were a part of that."

Since OK Computer, Yorke has persistently fought to increase the distance between his band and customary rock instrumentation and record-making. "I talked about it endlessly while we were doing In Rainbows," he says. "It was a constant frustration that we were actually going the opposite way."

The King of Limbs is Yorke's student-DJ dream come true: rock fundamentals wholly transformed by electronics. The drum, bass and guitar parts are all samples, individually played by the members of Radiohead, then manipulated, looped and layered into tracks shaped by Yorke's reverie-like melodies and haiku-style lyrics. "Lotus Flower," "Codex" and "Give Up the Ghost" hover and throb more like suggestions than songs, exotic murmurs in no hurry to become declarative statements. "I can see why it's alienated people," Yorke says now of the album. "I didn't realize it was its own planet."

"We didn't want to pick up guitars and write chord sequences," Jonny says, sitting in a London cafe near Abbey Road Studios, where Radiohead made part of their second album, 1995's The Bends. "We didn't want to sit in front of a computer either. We wanted a third thing, which involved playing and programming." It was a long hunt: Radiohead worked on The King of Limbs in bursts from May 2009 to January 2011.

Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Radiohead Songs

Tall and shy, constantly sweeping a long curtain of black hair from his face, Jonny is the only member of Radiohead without a college degree; he left his studies in psychology and music at Oxford Polytechnic College when the group got its record deal in 1991. But he is arguably Radiohead's most gifted musician: a classically trained violist who also plays violin, cello and keyboards. Jonny also created the software program used to sample the instruments on The King of Limbs. "I was never happier," he says, "than when I was in my bedroom as a kid, working on rubbishy computer games.

"The brick walls we tended to hit," he adds, going back to the album, "were when we knew something was great, like 'Bloom,' but not finished. We knew the song was nearly something. Then Colin had that bass line, and Thom started singing. Those things suddenly made it a hundred times better. The other stuff was just waiting for the right thing."

"They are unlike any other band in the studio," says Godrich, who has worked on every album since OK Computer. "They could not record 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' because they don't have the attention span. If it's not happening straightaway, Thom gets confused. That's not his way."

Godrich cites one classic Radiohead song that was never finished in the studio, "True Love Waits," a popular concert ballad: "We tried to record it countless times, but it never worked. The irony is you have that shitty live version [on the 2001 mini-album, I Might Be Wrong]. To Thom's credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to exist as a recording. We could do 'True Love Waits' and make it sound like John Mayer. Nobody wants to do that."

Radiohead did not support Limbs with an extensive tour last year for two reasons. One: "We thought it might not be playable," Jonny says. The other "was partly my fault," Yorke acknowledges. The album "released such a load of weird possibilities." He wanted to go right back into the studio, then decided against "carrying on in the same vein. We couldn't do that, we couldn't play live: 'Aw, shit, now what?'"

Deamer, 51, a veteran jazz and dance-music drummer who has also worked with Robert Plant, was the answer. "I've loved his drumming for ages," Selway says. "He seemed like the natural person to go to." In early 2011, the two started dissecting the new songs and deciding which of the many drum parts they could feasibly perform live. A year later, Selway is on the phone from Oxford after Radiohead's final day of tour rehearsals there: "Everything is wide open," the drummer declares in an ecstatic version of his soft, gentlemanly voice. "Seeing that dynamic between the six of us bearing fruit – we have started something. A lot of bands at this stage don't get that opportunity. Or they miss it when it's there."

But, Yorke says, "There is no way in hell we could have come up with what we're doing now, live, if we hadn't been sitting in front of turntables and samplers, piecing the record together in this method. There is no way it would have turned into this dynamic thing."

Asked which songs on The King of Limbs have changed most in performance, Yorke mentions "Lotus Flower." "With the two drummers it suddenly got nasty," he says. "I quite like it." And he agrees that "Give Up the Ghost" – a spare, repetitive ballad on the record – became something else at Roseland: a booming, circular prayer as Jonny sampled and manipulated Yorke's live vocal.

"You're sampling what the mic is taking from the room too," the singer explains. "It's getting the room back, again and again and again. What it's going to sound like in an arena. . ." Yorke's eyes go wide with delight. "I'd forgotten about that. It could be something."

On a cool midsummer evening in Oxford, Colin is strolling briskly to a pub in the old center of the city, noting historic sites along the way. He gestures at a narrow door leading into Modern Art Oxford, a prominent gallery. When they weren't playing together or in school, the young members of Radiohead hung out in the basement lounge, "talking forever, each of us over a single cup of coffee for five hours," Colin says.

Around the corner, he points to a store – part of Cult, a clothing chain – and notes with a bemused smile that Yorke worked in another local branch as a salesman. It is an improbable image: Yorke, a compact man of impatient energy and lethal irony, closing a deal on designer jeans.

Passing a phone booth, Colin remembers Radiohead's first, stumbling attempts to make records, before they got their EMI deal. "There was no e-mail or cellphones," the bassist says. "We'd find a call box, put money in it and call a studio." Once, when they asked how much a session cost, "the guy said, 'Nine hundred pounds.' We said, 'Thank you!' and hung up." Radiohead ultimately cut most of their first album, 1993's Pablo Honey, at a studio co-run by a producer who had worked with the Sixties-blues version of Fleetwood Mac.

Then there is the Bear Inn, a truly ancient pub (established 1242) with perilously low ceilings. Colin, an Oxford native, and Yorke – born in a small East Midlands town, Wellingborough, and raised for a time in Scotland – first met in their preteens. They were both taking classical-guitar lessons at Abingdon School, outside Oxford. At the Bear, the two managed to buy drinks even though they were underage and talked about their role models for the band they planned to form: New Order, Talking Heads and Yorke's favorite, R.E.M.

Over a pint of ale at a picnic table outside the Bear, Colin fondly recalls "that excitement of noise" at Radiohead's first local gigs, "when you play in a pub, borrowing some older guy's Fender bass cabinet and you've had four cans of lager to get your courage up. We did that for the first show we ever did. It was a 20-minute walk that way." He points down the street running behind the Bear, toward the Jericho Tavern. Radiohead made their concert debut there in 1986 under the name On a Friday, after their usual rehearsal day, when the members were all at Abingdon School. Selway, the oldest member, was 19; Jonny was not yet 15.

Later, standing outside a restaurant in a residential neighborhood, Colin notes another Radiohead shrine: the house near the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road that Colin, Selway and O'Brien rented in the summer of 1991. The band stored its equipment there, and all five members lived there, in varying combinations, for about a year. "Good times," Colin says with a sigh, "although Jonny never did any of the washing up."

Selway characterizes that period as "good training for tour buses. There were piles of pizza boxes in the corner. It would get so unbearable that someone would have to do the cleaning. I was coming and going for most of the year. I seem to remember Colin moving into my room after I'd decorated it quite nicely."

Yorke arrived after he graduated from Exeter. "We would come back from gigs," he says, "and listen to the answering machine. There would be messages from 10 A&R men."

The Ridgefield Road house was the end of Radiohead's adolescence – the point at which they became a full-time band obsessed with their work and progression. Jonny describes one Christmas when he was still in high school and the others were home from college: "We rehearsed in some hall in town every day, including Christmas Eve. It was insane. There was no concept. We were working on songs for some nebulous future reason we had not clearly thought through.

"That's the kind of intense time we spend together," he says. "That's how it's always been. Our gang principally revolved around playing musical instruments, songs to talk about."

"I think that was when we wrote 'Creep,'" Yorke says when asked about that Christmas. "There are these periods when you get energized. You can't force yourself to hang out. But when we're working, when it's happening and it's all good, all that shit just occurs."

Yorke's aversion to the road surfaced early. So did his distaste for the play-the-game decorum expected of a major-label band. Manager Edge recounts "a famous gig" in Las Vegas "when we'd done some ridiculous routing because of the seeming lack of knowledge American promotion guys have of geography. We were doing a radio show, supporting Tears for Fears, and everyone was grumpy." During the show, "in a fit of pique," Yorke smashed half of the stage lights. Edge maintains that "the idea of him doing anything like that now is long gone."

But Yorke looks back on his not-much-younger self – particularly the tormented anti-star preserved in Meeting People Is Easy, the 1999 documentary of the OK Computer tour – without excuses. "I was bored," he states flatly, backstage in Miami, of his aggro-zombie aura in that film. "I loved that record. But the idea of being stuck with those songs for a year and a half, in the same form, no change, no nothing – I struggled with it. We'd finish a song, and I'd stand there, frozen.

"I understand now why we did all of those shows," Yorke confesses. "If we hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are. But I lost my nerve. We've been through different stages – that was a bad one."

"What's different about us," Jonny chimes in, "was that right from the beginning, our obsession was songs. As a byproduct, we tour now."

"It wasn't a bunch of mates" on Ridgefield Road, O'Brien observes, "more like a bunch of co-conspirators. We had this common goal. That's what it was all about, dreaming it up. All this stuff we have now – there was never any doubt it was going to happen. And it did, because the material world caught up.

"But I would say this – they are my brothers. Some of the others don't realize that. But we'll be at one another's funerals. We've been through this. We're family."

That is "a strength we don't really acknowledge to ourselves," Colin says. "We're far too English."

There is a physical side to it that I find interesting – the breath," Yorke says. He is trying to explain where he goes in his head and what he feels when he sings. "It's a meditative state, like standing in the tube station when the train is coming through. Things go past you – trains, people.

"It took me a few years to learn how to do it," he says of performing, during a breakfast interview in London last July. "Seeing people like Michael Stipe and Jeff Buckley – I realized it's a good place to go. It's OK to shut your eyes."

Later that day, Radiohead convene with Edge and Hufford to discuss touring in 2012. Afterward, O'Brien describes the meeting as "fraught." Yorke already sounds uneasy over his egg-white omelet: "The level of machinery freaks me out sometimes. You walk backstage, and there's people and stuff everywhere.

"We never wanted to be big," he says. "I don't want to be loved in that way. You can say it is selfish. You can also say this is someone who gets a kick out of what they do: trying to fuck with your head." Yorke enunciates the last phrase with relish.

"Because that's what it's all about," he continues, "casting the net wide, creating chaos and trusting something will come of it – not panicking, just going with the blind faith and all of these moving parts. This idea – where will the band be in five years? Fuck that. I'm just looking for little diamonds in the dust."

"Thom has the most acute bullshit detector in the band," O'Brien says, with awe, in Miami. "It's that balance – an intensely critical life, with an ability to feel, to have great intuition. We're not necessarily making the smartest business decisions. But we are following our intuition. It's about the art."

"This is a work in progress – that's the bit I like," Yorke confirms, just before that last practice. Then he says something else. "I was thinking, when I was on holiday recently – I've been doing this more than half my life." He pauses. "That's bonkers!" Yorke proclaims with an astonished laugh. "And it's cool. It's a job – and a good job.

"We actually need to get on a stage now and see where we're at," he declares, ready to play. "It's a large stage, and there will be a lot of people." There's more laughter. "But I've been told that's OK."

#radiohead #fitter hapier #rolling stone #2012 #1155 #how the most experimental band in music learned to rock again #david fricke #rolling stone magazine #magazine #april 26 2012 #april 26

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