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antoine-roquentin · 4 years ago

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If every language is acquirable, its acquisition requires a real portion of a person’s life: each new conquest is measured against shortening days. What limits one’s access to other languages is not their imperviousness but one’s own mortality. Hence a certain privacy to all languages. French and American imperialists governed, exploited, and killed Vietnamese over many years. But whatever else they made off with, the Vietnamese language stayed put. Accordingly, only too often, a rage at Vietnamese ‘inscrutability,’ and that obscure despair which engenders the venomous argots of dying colonialisms: ‘gooks,’ ‘ratons’, etc.12 (In the longer run, the only responses to the vast privacy of the language of the oppressed are retreat or further massacre.) Such epithets are, in their inner form, characteristically racist, and decipherment of this form will serve to show why Nairn is basically mistaken in arguing that racism and anti-semitism derive from nationalism – and thus that ‘seen in sufficient historical depth, fascism tells us more about nationalism than any other episode.’13 A word like ‘slant,’ for example, abbreviated from ‘slant-eyed’, does not simply express an ordinary political enmity. It erases nation-ness by reducing the adversary to his biological physiognomy.14 It denies, by substituting for, ‘Vietnamese;’ just as raton denies, by substituting for, ‘Algerian’. At the same time, it stirs ‘Vietnamese’ into a nameless sludge along with ‘Korean,’ ‘Chinese,’ ‘Filipino,’ and so on. The character of this vocabulary may become still more evident if it is contrasted with other Vietnam-War-period words like ‘Charlie’ and ‘V.C.’, or from an earlier era, ‘Boches,’ ‘Huns,’ ‘Japs’ and ‘Frogs,’ all of which apply only to one specific nationality, and thus concede, in hatred, the adversary’s membership in a league of nations.15 The fact of the matter is that nationalism thinks in terms of historical destinies, while racism dreams of eternal contaminations, transmitted from the origins of time through an endless sequence of loathsome copulations: outside history. Niggers are, thanks to the invisible tar-brush, forever niggers; Jews, the seed of Abraham, forever Jews, no matter what passports they carry or what languages they speak and read. (Thus for the Nazi, the Jewish German was always an impostor.)16 The dreams of racism actually have their origin in ideologies of class, rather than in those of nation: above all in claims to divinity among rulers and to ‘blue’ or ‘white’ blood and ‘breeding’ among aristocracies.17 No surprise then that the putative sire of modern racism should be, not some petty-bourgeois nationalist, but Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau.18 Nor that, on the whole, racism and anti-semitism manifest themselves, not across national boundaries, but within them. In other words, they justify not so much foreign wars as domestic repression and domination.19 Where racism developed outside Europe in the nineteenth century, it was always associated with European domination, for two converging reasons. First and most important was the rise of official nationalism and colonial ‘Russification’. As has been repeatedly emphasized official nationalism was typically a response on the part of threatened dynastic and aristocratic groups – upper classes – to popular vernacular nationalism. Colonial racism was a major element in that conception of ‘Empire’ which attempted to weld dynastic legitimacy and national community. It did so by generalizing a principle of innate, inherited superiority on which its own domestic position was (however shakily) based to the vastness of the overseas possessions, covertly (or not so covertly) conveying the idea that if, say, English lords were naturally superior to other Englishmen, no matter: these other Englishmen were no less superior to the subjected natives. Indeed one is tempted to argue that the existence of late colonial empires even served to shore up domestic aristocratic bastions, since they appeared to confirm on a global, modern stage antique conceptions of power and privilege. It could do so with some effect because – and here is our second reason – the colonial empire, with its rapidly expanding bureaucratic apparatus and its ‘Russifying’ policies, permitted sizeable numbers of bourgeois and petty bourgeois to play aristocrat off centre court: i.e. anywhere in the empire except at home. In each colony one found this grimly amusing tableau vivant: the bourgeois gentilhomme speaking poetry against a backcloth of spacious mansions and gardens filled with mimosa and bougainvillea, and a large supporting cast of houseboys, grooms, gardeners, cooks, amahs, maids, washerwomen, and, above all, horses.20 Even those who did not manage to live in this style, such as young bachelors, nonetheless had the grandly equivocal status of a French nobleman on the eve of a jacquerie:21 In Moulmein, in lower Burma [this obscure town needs explaining to readers in the metropole], I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town. This ‘tropical Gothic’ was made possible by the overwhelming power that high capitalism had given the metropole – a power so great that it could be kept, so to speak, in the wings. Nothing better illustrates capitalism in feudal-aristocratic drag than colonial militaries, which were notoriously distinct from those of the metropoles, often even in formal institutional terms. 22 Thus in Europe one had the ‘First Army,’ recruited by conscription on a mass, citizen, metropolitan base; ideologically conceived as the defender of the heimat; dressed in practical, utilitarian khaki; armed with the latest affordable weapons; in peacetime isolated in barracks, in war stationed in trenches or behind heavy field-guns. Outside Europe one had the ‘Second Army,’ recruited (below the officer level) from local religious or ethnic minorities on a mercenary basis; ideologically conceived as an internal police force; dressed to kill in bed-or ballroom; armed with swords and obsolete industrial weapons; in peace on display, in war on horseback. If the Prussian General Staff, Europe’s military teacher, stressed the anonymous solidarity of a professionalized corps, ballistics, railroads, engineering, strategic planning, and the like, the colonial army stressed glory, epaulettes, personal heroism, polo, and an archaizing courtliness among its officers. (It could afford to do so because the First Army and the Navy were there in the background.) This mentality survived a long time. In Tonkin, in 1894, Lyautey wrote:23 Quel dommage de n’être pas venu ici dix ans plus tôt! Quelles carrières à y fonder et à y mener. Il n’y a pas ici un de ces petits lieutenants, chefs de poste et de reconnaissance, qui ne développe en 6 mois plus d’initiative, de volonté, d’endurance, de personnalité, qu’un officier de France en toute sa carrière. In Tonkin, in 1951, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, ‘who liked officers who combined guts with “style,” took an immediate liking to the dashing cavalryman [Colonel de Castries] with his bright-red Spahi cap and scarf, his magnificent riding-crop, and his combination of easy-going manners and ducal mien, which made him as irresistible to women in Indochina in the 1950s as he had been to Parisiennes of the 1930s.’24 Another instructive indication of the aristocratic or pseudo-aristocratic derivation of colonial racism was the typical ‘solidarity among whites,’ which linked colonial rulers from different national metropoles, whatever their internal rivalries and conflicts. This solidarity, in its curious trans-state character, reminds one instantly of the class solidarity of Europe’s nineteenth-century aristocracies, mediated through each other’s hunting-lodges, spas, and ballrooms; and of that brotherhood of ‘officers and gentlemen,’ which in the Geneva convention guaranteeing privileged treatment to captured enemy officers, as opposed to partisans or civilians, has an agreeably twentieth-century expression. The argument adumbrated thus far can also be pursued from the side of colonial populations. For, the pronouncements of certain colonial ideologues aside, it is remarkable how little that dubious entity known as ‘reverse racism�� manifested itself in the anticolonial movements. In this matter it is easy to be deceived by language. There is, for example, a sense in which the Javanese word londo (derived from Hollander or Nederlander) meant not only ‘Dutch’ but ‘whites.’ But the derivation itself shows that, for Javanese peasants, who scarcely ever encountered any ‘whites’ but Dutch, the two meanings effectively overlapped. Similarly, in French colonial territories, ‘les blancs’ meant rulers whose Frenchness was indistinguishable from their whiteness. In neither case, so far as I know, did londo or blanc either lose caste or breed derogatory secondary distinctions.25 On the contrary, the spirit of anticolonial nationalism is that of the heart-rending Constitution of Makario Sakay’s short-lived Republic of Katagalugan (1902), which said, among other things:26 No Tagalog, born in this Tagalog archipelago, shall exalt any person above the rest because of his race or the colour of his skin; fair, dark, rich, poor, educated and ignorant – all are completely equal, and should be in one loób [inward spirit]. There may be differences in education, wealth, or appearance, but never in essential nature (pagkatao) and ability to serve a cause. One can find without difficulty analogies on the other side of the globe. Spanish-speaking mestizo Mexicans trace their ancestries, not to Castilian conquistadors, but to half-obliterated Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs and Zapotecs. Uruguayan revolutionary patriots, creoles themselves, took up the name of Tupac Amarú, the last great indigenous rebel against creole oppression, who died under unspeakable tortures in 1781. It may appear paradoxical that the objects of all these attachments are ‘imagined’ – anonymous, faceless fellow-Tagalogs, exterminated tribes, Mother Russia, or the tanah air. But amor patriae does not differ in this respect from the other affections, in which there is always an element of fond imagining. (This is why looking at the photo-albums of strangers’ weddings is like studying the archaeologist’s groundplan of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.) What the eye is to the lover – that particular, ordinary eye he or she is born with – language – whatever language history has made his or her mother-tongue – is to the patriot. Through that language, encountered at mother’s knee and parted with only at the grave, pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed. 12. The logic here is: 1. I will be dead before I have penetrated them. 2. My power is such that they have had to learn my language. 3. But this means that my privacy has been penetrated. Terming them ‘gooks’ is small revenge. 13. The Break-up of Britain, pp. 337 and 347. 14. Notice that there is no obvious, selfconscious antonym to ‘slant.’ ‘Round’? ‘Straight’? ‘Oval’? 15. Not only, in fact, in an earlier era. Nonetheless, there is a whiff of the antique-shop about these words of Debray: ‘I can conceive of no hope for Europe save under the hegemony of a revolutionary France, firmly grasping the banner of independence. Sometimes I wonder if the whole “anti-Boche” mythology and our secular antagonism to Germany may not be one day indispensable for saving the revolution, or even our national-democratic inheritance.’ ‘Marxism and the National Question,’ p. 41. 16. The significance of the emergence of Zionism and the birth of Israel is that the former marks the reimagining of an ancient religious community as a nation, down there among the other nations – while the latter charts an alchemic change from wandering devotee to local patriot. 17. ‘From the side of the landed aristocracy came conceptions of inherent superiority in the ruling class, and a sensitivity to status, prominent traits well into the twentieth century. Fed by new sources, these conceptions could later be vulgarized [sic] and made appealing to the German population as a whole in doctrines of racial superiority.’ Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, p. 436. 18. Gobineau’s dates are perfect. He was born in 1816, two years after the restoration of the Bourbons to the French throne. His diplomatic career, 1848–1877, blossomed under Louis Napoléon’s Second Empire and the reactionary monarchist regime of Marie Edmé Patrice Maurice, Comte de MacMahon, former imperialist proconsul in Algiers. His Essai sur l’Inégalité des Races Humaines appeared in 1854 – should one say in response to the popular vernacular-nationalist insurrections of 1848? 19. South African racism has not, in the age of Vorster and Botha, stood in the way of amicable relations (however discreetly handled) with prominent black politicians in certain independent African states. If Jews suffer discrimination in the Soviet Union, that did not prevent respectful working relations between Brezhnev and Kissinger. 20. For a stunning collection of photographs of such tableaux vivants in the Netherlands Indies (and an elegantly ironical text), see ‘E. Breton de Nijs,’ Tempo Doeloe. 21. George Orwell, ‘Shooting an Elephant,’ in The Orwell Reader, p. 3. The words in square brackets are of course my interpolation. 22. The KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger) was quite separate from the KL (Koninklijk Leger) in Holland. The Légion Étrangère was almost from the start legally prohibited from operations on continental French soil. 23. Lettres du Tonkin et de Madagascar (1894–1899), p. 84. Letter of December 22, 1894, from Hanoi. Emphases added. 24. Bernard B. Fall, Hell is a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, p. 56. One can imagine the shudder of Clausewitz’s ghost. [Spahi, derived like Sepoy from the Ottoman Sipahi, meant mercenary irregular cavalrymen of the ‘Second Army’ in Algeria.] It is true that the France of Lyautey and de Lattre was a Republican France. However, the often talkative Grande Muette had since the start of the Third Republic been an asylum for aristocrats increasingly excluded from power in all other important institutions of public life. By 1898, a full quarter of all Brigadier-and Major-Generals were aristocrats. Moreover, this aristocrat-dominated officer corps was crucial to nineteenth and twentieth-century French imperialism. ‘The rigorous control imposed on the army in the métropole never extended fully to la France d’outremer. The extension of the French Empire in the nineteenth century was partially the result of uncontrolled initiative on the part of colonial military commanders. French West Africa, largely the creation of General Faidherbe, and the French Congo as well, owed most of their expansion to independent military forays into the hinterland. Military officers were also responsible for the faits accomplis which led to a French protectorate in Tahiti in 1842, and, to a lesser extent, to the French occupation of Tonkin in Indochina in the 1880’s . . . In 1897 Galliéni summarily abolished the monarchy in Madagascar and deported the Queen, all without consulting the French government, which later accepted the fait accompli . . .’ John S. Ambler, The French Army in Politics, 1945–1962, pp. 10–11 and 22. 25. I have never heard of an abusive argot word in Indonesian or Javanese for either ‘Dutch’ or ‘white.’ Compare the Anglo-Saxon treasury: niggers, wops, kikes, gooks, slants, fuzzywuzzies, and a hundred more. It is possible that this innocence of racist argots is true primarily of colonized populations. Blacks in America – and surely elsewhere – have developed a varied counter-vocabulary (honkies, ofays, etc.). 26. As cited in Reynaldo Ileto’s masterlyPasyón and Revolution: Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910, p. 218. Sakay’s rebel republic lasted until 1907, when he was captured and executed by the Americans. Understanding the first sentence requires remembering that three centuries of Spanish rule and Chinese immigration had produced a sizeable mestizo population in the islands.

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

#citation 24 is gorgeous

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aflyingcontradiction · 3 years ago

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The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 159 - The Last

Peter Lukas: It’s odd, really. You each think you’re so focused on the other, but how much do you really know each other? How much time have you spent together when not working, or bickering, or fleeing from that latest thing that wants to kill you?

I mean, yeah, Peter Lukas is being manipulative in service of the Lonely but he also kinda has a poooooint...

Peter Lukas: You’re alone, Archivist. The last one standing. I did warn you. I did want you to leave, but… perhaps it would be better if you stayed a while. After all – you can’t hurt anyone in here. Jon (tired): Yes. Peter Lukas (echoe-y): Yes. Jon: Or perhaps you could answer some questions. Peter Lukas (still echoe-y but decidely un-breathy): What?

The moment when I realised Jon deliberately allowed himself to sink into the Lonely juuuuust enough to be able to see Lukas was such a "WOAH!" moment. I thought we'd lost you there for a moment, Jon!

Peter Lukas: From what I understand, severing the connection to your humanity is a cornerstone of an upper-class education… though I was spared the targeted traumas of boarding school, as my mother clearly believed the danger of friendship was too acute.

TMA once again not shying away from making strong statements about society and politics (very specifically British society and politics in this case.)

I suppose to call myself an “only child” is, technically, untrue. Two of my sisters still live, though they disavowed the family and moved far, far away. Still… to be cut off from one’s family is its own very special sort of loneliness, isn’t it? So we all serve, in our own ways.

I may have said this before in one of my relisten posts or maybe I only said it while discussing TMA with people but: I have FEELINGS about the Lukases-who-got-away. They tried so damn hard to flee the Lonely and they can't ever get away entirely because the Lonely was also what defined their fucking parental HOME, which they are now severed from and hence... To put it in a nutshell: AAAAAH.

They shattered the distance, my cocoon of quiet stillness, and I wished with all my heart that they would simply disappear. And one day… one of them did.

The first time Lukas sent someone into the Lonely is such an eerie tale, made only more horrifying by the mixture of nonchalance and happy reminiscence with which Lukas recounts it.

Gertrude was the one that scared me.

... fair.

Oh, it was a marvel of design! Deceptively-spacious apartments, yet no room quite big enough for a double bed or decent-sized sofa. Cooking facilities that seemed adequate until you tried to do more than microwave. An office space in every flat, but without a door, so you could never truly escape your work. None of them had more than a single bedroom – though each had a main bathroom and an ensuite, which is a small touch I was very proud of.

This entire attempt at a ritual is so ... horrifically creative! Perhaps the only ritual attempt that made me go "Wow, that's intricate!" even as I was screaming internally.

Then – of course – Gertrude Robinson happened. Do you know how she did it? What devastating weapon she used to derail my plan? The newspaper. She tipped off someone in The Guardian. (...) The thinkpieces started to pour in, the applications started to drop off, and I was up to my neck in community outreach programs.

But so is Gertrude's counter-plan. Just ... sometimes you need explosives. And sometimes you need THINKPIECES AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMS! Always the right weapon for the job, that Gertrude.

If I could convince one of his staff to willingly pledge themselves to the Lonely, it was all mine. He even let me pick the victim. He was so sure the price of the Institute, the Panopticon and a willing vessel to use it would be just too much for me to resist. And… he was right. Just didn’t go quite as I’d hoped.

Me internally listening to this for the first time: OH MY GOD NO FUCKING WAY WAS THIS ALL A BET! YOU MAGNIFICENT FUCKING BASTARDS!

Martin: No, you don’t. Not really. Everyone’s alone, but we all survive. Jon: I don’t just want to survive!

I'm not even sure if I want to go into this since it's kind of personal and built on years of grievances (and probably the people who have actually been following this blog for a while have seen some of that bleed through) but oh god that is too fucking relatable. If everyone would stop pretending survival is everything for two goddamn seconds...

Jon: Martin. Martin, look at me. Look at me and tell me what you see. Martin: I see… I see you, Jon. (now without echo and happily) I see you.

I love what they did with the soundscaping here, the echo that breaks...

My impression of this episode

Given that Lonely episodes tend to hit pretty hard for me, it's utterly unsurprising that this episode had a lot going for it: Jon seemingly giving in to the Lonely to trap Lukas, Lukas's childhood story, THAT FUCKING APARTMENT TOWER, GERTRUDE'S FUCKING WAY OF DEFEATING IT, Peter Lukas's death and ... well, yeah, Jon dragging Martin out of the Lonely... honestly, I love everything about this episode.

Favourite quotes

Martin (about the Lonely): Nothing hurts here. It’s just quiet. Even the fear is gentle here.

#tma relisten #the magnus archives

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flugzug21 · 5 years ago

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Rick Sanchez Analysis (Outdated.. season 5 changes things)

I read the latest issue of Rick and Morty and found this interesting dialogue between the two.

Rick is finally starting to learn that he's only human like everyone else no matter how much he tries to be detached and disclude himself/put himself above others as a sort of God figure (Im aware that this is the comic universe equivalent of Rick but this is a universe directly adjacent to the one we follow in the show so they're relatively similar for the most part).

With Ricks omega level intellect and infinite knowledge of the cosmos and reality itself, to him all existence is meaningless. but that's simply because he's that intelligent and omnipotent enough to see it all. To any ordinary human, existence has meaning in their own respective reality but if they could see everything rick does, they would likely be driven mad...

But for Rick, a person who can literally separate himself from reality itself sees things much differently.

Despite his nihilistic views, on the inside he's extremely lonely and depressed because he feels like there's nobody out there that he can really connect with on a personal level and thus he'll always be alone living a meaningless existence. Nobody really gets Rick and he feels especially alienated around his family and other people with his lack of emotion, social awkwardness and tendency to bring people down because of his cynical and nihilistic input on everything. he wants to experience life like all other sentient organisms but his hyper intelligence combined with his omnipotence and inability to comprehend things emotionally doesn't allow him to. Hes prideful of his magnificent talents but he hates that it seperates him from the rest of the universe in a sense. It's a very powerful gift and a curse.

In the episode "Auto Erotic Assimilation" it is revealed that Rick once dated a planet consuming society assimilating hivemind named unity. Reunited they enjoyed their time together, Unity expressed her surprise that Rick has reconnected with his family and inquired as to why to which he replied "maybe it's a part of getting old..or maybe I missed being with a collective".

Summer ultimately revealed to them both that they were toxic and only brought the worst out of each other. Unity realized this truth whereas Rick of course defiantly blew it off. Afterwards Unity left Rick a note explaining the truth of why they can't be together and Rick returned home depressed. It even drove him to attempting suicide..

Now lets look at Tony, a man that he relentlessly pursued and had the intention of killing simply because he used his private toilet on a beautiful alien planet (that he likely created himself):

Eventually Rick confronts and threatens Tony one final time before Tony reveals to him that he understands why he is so hellbent on keeping this spot private: his desperate desire to protect what he considers sacred. As tony put it "you know what shy pooping is Rick? A pointless bit for control. You want to take the one thing in life that you truly think is yours and you want to protect it from a universe that takes whatever it wants. It took my wife... It clearly took something of yours." This statement really resonated with Rick. For once somebody's words got through to him and he made a connection. This also of course alludes to Ricks own deceased wife, A major factor of Ricks suffering.

Just look at that face...thats not one that Rick makes.

Even after this meaningful encounter between the two, later on Rick In a petty fashion opens a portal and tells Tony this is his last chance to live because rejecting the artificially generated heaven Rick offered after taking pity on him is a big mistake. Amused, Tony jokes to Rick saying he'll be seeing him. offering his hand in friendship even as Rick, ill-tempered and stubborn, pretends otherwise. Tony reminds Rick that he isn't a bastard or a killer, what he's doing is all part of his plan to never let anyone get close to him (as he does) and that it's not a bad thing to open up and let others sympathise with him. Rick thinks this would be a sign of weakness but as Tony points out, he truly is a scared, caring human being after all.

Afterwards Rick does seemingly have a change of heart and eventually arrives at Tonys place of work (with the intention of setting him up for a trap/prank involving his sacred toilet) only to be sadly informed by the receptionist that he died in a tragic accident "living life to the fullest". This seems to devastate Rick as he states "I need to process this.."

Rick even showed up to Tony's funeral. Expressing condolences to his dad and giving him $8 billion in his local currency, a kit to clone a new son even though it wouldn't have the same brain as Tony, and even tries to comfort the dad (ableit in an unemotional and insensitive way). the dad sympathetically puts a hand on Rick's chest, intuitively saying it is hard losing a friend.

Rick has to live with the knowledge that he lost a potential friend whom actually seemed to understand him for once and his final words to him were "You'll be dead".. Its pretty clear that the whole message he left for Tony via holograms was a self projection of his own self hatred and loneliness. "All hail his majesty! The saaaaaddest piece of garbage in the ENTIRE cosmos!"

Bottom line is he needs to learn to embrace his humanity. Like comic Rick said, in an endless number of universes he does care about others which we've all seen proven more times than can be listed here. and he even admits that everyone else has what he lacks: Happiness, through family and companionship/unity.

#Rick and Morty #Rick Sanchez #Character Analysis #Rick #Morty

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theuniversitychallengereview · 4 years ago

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UC 50.35 - Imperial vs Warwick

This is episode thirty five of this years University Challenge. Almost exactly one year ago, on 23rd March 2020, the UK was plunged into what we thought would be its only lockdown. Instead it was the first of going on three, four? Where does a lockdown end and a Tier 4 start? Manchester, where I live, has basically been in lockdown for most of the twelve months since then, and who knows how much longer this one is going to actually last.

There is a peculiar magic to a revolution of the sun, with the circularity giving meaning to the meaningless marker of three hundred and sixty five days. Somehow it feels so much more momentous that a year will have passed than that a day less than a year has passed. You remember what you were doing as the lockdown was announced, where you watched Boris make his serious address from. The tingles of fear, and maybe even guilty nervous excitement made me restless. No one knew what any of it meant. So many things have changed since then, but in some ways we are exactly where we were. Stuck inside, nowhere to go, with no concept of when life will return to normal.

There was also a University Challenge match on the 23rd March. I don’t know if I watched it on the day. Probably not. I wrote about it six days later, by which point I was working from home with a pile of books stacked underneath my laptop acting as a makeshift stand. There is something strange about being able to read exactly what I was thinking at the time everything was starting. The following paragraphs are taken directly from that blog, and it still feels like we are in the same limbo state.

What is going on? When I wrote the last blog it was pretty clear that we were in a dire situation, but the inaction of the Government left it feeling like we were in some kind of limbo state, just waiting for the disaster to hit us. But then action was taken. Lockdown.

We now know exactly what we have to do (I was going to list the ‘Stay Home’ instructions here, but if you’re getting your lockdown lowdown from a University Challenge blog then frankly there’s no hope for you anyway), but it still feels really surreal. You’ve never done a home workout in your life, but you’ve done two in the past three days. People say ‘social distancing’ as if its always been a well-known term that was commonly used in daily life. There are never any beans (screw your toilet paper shortages, its the beans that really matter).

We’re still in limbo, really, because we have no idea how long this is going to last. And we’re still waiting for the disaster to hit, because the worst of it hasn’t yet, and the lockdown won’t start properly helping for a few weeks. So what do we do? What can we do? You feel like you want to be distracted from all that is going on, but also to be clued up to the eyeballs with the latest news.

So we do what we can. We stay inside. We call our friends and family and play that stupid ‘chips and guac’ game on Houseparty. We take solace in books, or films, or TV…

As I did a year ago, I’ll try and distract you all (and myself too), with some words about a television quiz show. Let’s not bother with the rules, here’s your first starter for ten...

Imperial and Warwick have already played each other in this years tournament, with the Avonsiders coming out convincing winners, 200 to 120. They then beat another of the semi finalists, Magdalene, Cambridge, by 200 to 160. Fans of a nice round number, it seems.

But I wouldn’t write Imperial off. They followed up their loss to Warwick with magnificent wins over King’s and Durham. Their skipper Kohn is the most in-form player left in the competition, and has averaged more than six starters a game.

Having lost their first round match to Strathclyde, Imperial were given a reprieve via the high-scoring loser play-offs, and boy did they take advantage of it. This coincided with the gap in filming caused by Covid, and Kohn used the extra time to train intensely - think Stallone in Rocky but its just a guy furiously reading (with the same music playing, obviously).

Warwick, meanwhile, have had a relatively smooth path to the last four, winning by an average of 92.5 points. However, if you dive a bit deeper into those statistics, the margin has been decreasing each time (150, 100, 80, 40...), so if Imperial could get stuck into them early on then we’d have a real match on our hands.

Kohn is quickest on the buzzer for the first starter, and they take three bonuses, with Kohn saying that ‘this is giving me strong Dr Faustus vibes’, before giving Dr Faustus as the correct answer for the third. His speed is his downfall on the next starter though, and he loses five points with a neg, allowing his opposite number Rout to pick up the scraps.

A very long-winded biology question falls to no one, before another Imperial neg, this time from Wong, let Braid in to take the lead for Warwick. An incredibly easy bonuse set on Shakespeare extended this for them, though they didn’t recognise ‘Night of the Living Dead’ from its description.

Marrow, Imperial’s resident smiler, took the first picture starter to her evident delight, and a couple of bonuses tied the game at thirty fives. Braid is unlucky with his guess of ‘suffer no fools’ on the next starter - the answer is ‘suffer fools gladly’.

A trademark rapid-buzz from Kohn took the lead back to London, before a second neg from Wong allowed Braid to level the game again. Imperial’s tactic seems to be to win the buzzer race, regardless of whether or not they know the answer. So far they have three negs to three correct starters. An inspired guess of semi-colon from Marrow stole back the initiative. Neither side could string together a run of starters yet.

Not wanting to let Kohn have all the credit, Rout comes in super early on the next starter with Hamiltonian Operator. By now we have reached the music round, in a riveting but so-far low-scoring match. Kohn takes us to seventy apiece with the musical starter, giving Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck as his answer, even though the question had only asked for one person (to be fair to him, the question asked for ‘a bandleader and soloist’, making it seem as though they were two different people, but anyway, Paxman lets him off).

Both teams are making a dangerous habit of dropping bonuses, and six pass in succession with no correct answers. A pair of starters from Burrell, along with a few made five pointers, including some on Bulgarian football teams, gave Warwick the biggest lead of the match so far - fifty.

Kohn isn’t content to give up so easily, and takes the second picture starter, along with a pair of bonuses. Braid stumbles on a chemical elements question, and again Kohn takes advantage. Dismissing some of the bonuses as too easy, Imperial close to within ten.

Pollard gets his first starter of the evening with Yuri Gagarin, and a rare full set from Warwick gave them a thirty five point lead. A supremely clutch buzz from Kohn keeps Imperial in it, but Braid is quickest to identify/guess that a million seconds is two weeks (to the closest week), possibly putting the game beyond the reach of the Londoners. Paxman wastes some time by going on about how stupid it is to know that fact, and Warwick waste some more time with a lengthy conference on the bonuses. They are forty points clear, and probably heading to the final.

But HANG ON!

Braid negs. Thirty five points.

Kohn trips over his tongue, but gets the answer out in the end. Twenty five points. Could they do it?

No (sorry to have built up your hopes, if I did). The gong follows soon after, with Imperial still twenty five points adrift.

Final Score: Imperial 135 - 160 Warwick

Probably a deserved win for Warwick that, but Imperial were an absolute delight and it was a pleasure to watch their evolution over the course of the tournament, especially Kohn’s performances on the buzzer.

I’m looking forward to the second semi-final next week, which also promises to be a barnstormer. See you then.

If you’ve enjoyed this, but can’t wait until next week for another fix of University Challenge, then you can check out my Patreon, where I’ve been reviewing the 2015/16 series.

#university challenge #bbc2 #warwick #imperial #jeremy paxman

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officialotakudome · 3 years ago

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New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, Tech, and Geek Culture

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/sentai-acquires-new-anime/

Sentai Acquires New Anime

Sentai Filmworks has acquired several new anime titles for this year:

HOUSTON, TX — May 27, 2021 — Sentai announced today that it acquired Nozo x Kimi, the risqué comedy OVA spinoff series of Nozoki Ana, for audiences in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Republic of South Africa, Latin America and Scandinavia.

Kimio Suga didn’t intend anything untoward, but a cascading series of unlucky events leaves him hiding in a gym locker as his female classmates return from PE class. Luckily he’s found by Nozomi Komine, a shy classmate who covers for Kimio despite his incriminating predicament. But Nozomi isn’t as demure as she seems, because shortly after saving Kimio, she blackmails him into a series of clandestine and compromising scenarios!

A production of Studio Zexcs (Diabolik Lovers, Cuticle Detective Inaba, Say “I Love You”), Nozo x Kimi is directed by Masato Jinbo (Senryu Girl, Restaurant to Another World, Shomin Sample) with series composition from Hideki Shirane (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Hayate the Combat Butler!!, Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar). The OVA series stars Ayaka Suwa (The Fruit of Grisaia, Love Lab, The Demon Girl Next Door) as Nozomi Komine and Yusuke Kobayashi (Darwin’s Game, Dr. Stone, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-) as Kimio Suga.

Sentai will stream the Nozo x Kimi OVA in association with select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.

For Sentai’s latest announcements regarding this and other great titles, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Sentai

A Cool Japan Fund portfolio company, Sentai is a leading global supplier of anime and official anime merchandise, distributing and curating one of the industry’s most diverse libraries of top trending and classic titles. Sentai offers thousands of hours of content across both traditional and digital platforms and is dedicated to bringing captivating stories and iconic characters directly from Japan. With hit series that include MADE IN ABYSS, Food Wars!, Princess Tutu and Parasyte -the maxim-, Sentai’s catalog continues to grow with new favorites like Bloom Into You, Revue Starlight and O Maidens in Your Savage Season, as well as classic anime series such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes and The Big O. For more information, visit www.sentai.com.

HOUSTON, TX — May 24, 2021 — Sentai announced today that it acquired omnibus movie The Magnificent KOTOBUKI THE MOVIE, which sends the high-flying aerial action of The Magnificent KOTOBUKI to new heights. Sentai will distribute the film to audiences in the Unites States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Central America and South America.

In a desolate desert world, air pirates rule the skies. They prey on aerial commerce and hold remote towns for ransom, but the talented pilots of Team KOTOBUKI use their impressive aerial instincts and hard-won skills to defend cities and cargo shipments from these vultures… for the right price, of course. In their existent reciprocating engine aircraft and with ice in their veins, Team KOTOBUKI will take on any enemy that comes their way in an explosive frenzy of aerial dogfights, including never-before-seen new fights unique to The Magnificent KOTOBUKI THE MOVIE.

The film stars Sayumi Suzushiro (Bloom into You, We Never Learn) as Kylie, Eri Yukimura (A Certain Magical Index Ⅲ) as Emma, Sayaka Nakaya (AKB0048, Momokuri) as Kate, Asami Seto (Chihayafuru, Food Wars!) as Reona, Hibiku Yamamura (Arata The Legend, DOREIKU: The Animation) as Zara and Miyu Tomita (MADE IN ABYSS, Holmes of Kyoto) as Chika.

Sentai will release The Magnificent KOTOBUKI THE MOVIE on home video in Summer 2021.

For Sentai’s latest announcements regarding this and other great titles, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Sentai

HOUSTON, TX — May 20, 2021 — Sentai announced today that it acquired exclusive home video distribution rights to critically acclaimed Vinland Saga, WIT STUDIO’s Viking-inspired anime epic based on the award-winning manga of the same name. Originally a streaming-only release, Sentai is now readying Vinland Saga for home video and targeting a Summer 2021 release. Sentai is planning both collector and standard editions for this highly anticipated series.

Raised on tales of the legendary land of Vinland, where warmth and plenty abound, young Thorfinn dreams of leaving behind the cold climate of Iceland and venturing into the great unknown. But when Viking sails appear on the horizon, the young boy is conscripted into a life of violence and brutality at the hands of merciless Viking Askalaad. With nothing left to him save revenge, Thorfinn swears vengeance against the man who slew his family, plunging headlong into a sprawling, blood-soaked, coming-of-age epic that marches to the drums of war.

Vinland Saga is animated by WIT STUDIO (Attack on Titan, Great Pretender, The Ancient Magus’ Bride) and directed by Shuhei Yabuta (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: Director, Inuyashiki: CG Director, No Game, No Life: CG Director). Hiroshi Seko (Jujutsu Kaisen, Mob Psycho 100, Dorohedoro) provides the series’ script and series composition; Kenta Ihara (Ajin: Demi-Human, The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious) provides the series’ script and screenplay. Vinland Saga stars Yuto Uemura (Tsurune, Bungou Stray Dogs, Darling in the FranXX) as Thorfinn, Naoya Uchida as Askeladd (Dororo, Kaiji, Drifters), Kensho Ono (Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, Kuroko no Basket, Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign) as Canute, and Yumi Hara (Overlord, Trinity Seven, Brave Witches) as Anne.

The series was awarded Anime of the Year at the 6th Anime Trending Awards, with Gerald Rathkolb of Otaku USA stating, “[Vinland Saga] is one of those rare anime that could have appeal outside of the anime sphere because of its setting and focus on complex characters and the excellent political intrigue ever-present in the show. It comes with my highest recommendation.”

For Sentai’s latest announcements regarding this and other great titles, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Sentai

HOUSTON, TX — May 13, 2021 — Sentai announced today that it acquired the psycho-suspense thriller Alice in Borderland OVA series, based upon the manga series by Haro Aso, Imawa no Kuni no Alice. Sentai will distribute the three-episode Alice in Borderland OVA series to audiences in the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa as well as Latin America.

Be careful what you wish for. Antisocial misfit Ryohei Arisu wanted nothing more than to leave his mundane life behind, but a careless wish on a firework transports him to the post-apocalyptic Borderland, a sinister parallel reality where danger lurks around every corner and survival is not guaranteed. To live to fight another day, Ryohei and other unwilling contestants must win a series of deadly games, each more dangerous than the last — but returning home means putting not only his skills, but also Ryohei’s humanity to the ultimate test.

The OVA series stars Yoshimasa Hosoya (Akame ga Kill!, Chihayafuru, ID: INVADED) as Ryohei Arisu, Takahiro Sakurai (7SEEDS, Babylon, Mob Psycho 100) as Shuntaro Chishiya, Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Beyond the Boundary, Diabolik Lovers More,Blood, My Little Monster) as Daikichi Karube, Tsubasa Yonaga (Free!, Demon King Daimao, D.Gray-man HALLOW) as Chota Segawa, Maya Sakamoto (Cutie Honey Universe, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Arrow of the Orion, Black Butler) as Saori Shibuki and Minako Kotobuki (Punch Line, K-On!, Bloom Into You) as Yuzuha Usagi.

A production of studios SILVER LINK. (Chivalry of a Failed Knight, Armed Girl’s Machiavellism, Strike the Blood), the Alice in Borderland OVA is directed by Hideki Tachibana (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III, Armed Girl’s Machiavellism, Dragon Crisis!) with series composition from Ryosuke Nakamura (director Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions, episode scriptwriter Monster, Aiura).

Sentai will stream the Alice in Borderland OVA in association with select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.

For Sentai’s latest announcements regarding this and other great titles, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Sentai

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Jake Reviews Stuff: Star Vs: Friendenemies

Happy pride all. I’m getting ahead of this one for a number of reasons: 1) It’s pride month and this episode is one of the most shiptastic things i’ve seen with two male characters since Robochris from bravest warriors. I mean it dosen’t quite reach “Creating a skull robot of your best friend because he won’t touch you a lot to make him jealous enough to do that” levels of romantic tension but it tries.

2) My good friend @jess-the-vampire is a tomco shipper, and with things being rough for her I figure she could use this sooner rather than later. 3) Shows are actually coming back with Amphibia emerging from it’s year long odinsleep the same week Close Enough finally escapes from it’s dumpster after 10,000 years to conquer earth before it gets put back in there then escapes again and marries lord zedd.. I lost the metaphor the point is I want to keep Tom train, and other star arcs I have planned, moving at a steady clip.

So with all of that yeah, i’m ready to go. No real exposition to dump again, come on let’s go after the cut!

We open with Marco at his laptop nervous about something and Star coming into his room tangled in christmas lights... so normal day at Casa Diaz. Anyways Marco can’t help star out of her latest self made prison because he’s preording tickets to a Mackie Hand Film Festival. Mackie Hand is Marco’s faviorite martial artist and movie star, who died performing a stunt on himself.. accidentally.. did he give himself a death punch? Is this the same universe as regular show.. please say yes. Anyway as is natural for Marco in the first two seasons as god apparently hates him, the tickets sell out instantly and he dosen’t get them, banging his head against his laptop as Star TRIES to comfort him , saying he might still be able to get them. Marco also says “Good things don’t happen to me”

I mean just look at Season 3. Anyways tom comes in licking a rainbow snowcone for no explained reason other than they wanted to make it obvious this was the Tomco episode. Tom asks to hang out and after Star, understandably at this point given you know, the horrible date where he tried to murder her best friend and the gaslighting a few weeks back, tells him a million times no, Tom explains he’s not here for her.. he’s here for Marco. Marco, given tom’s threatned to kill him twice now and tried to at least once, isn’t biting. Tom naturally has tickets to the festival as a trump card, and assumes that time he kidnapped marco and played him in ping pong for his freedom counts as a friend hang out, and geuinely apologizes for his behavior promising not to get angry. Really while as you probalby know we DO get the reveal later he was partly doing this whole thing to finish his anger managment... I do get the sense this apology, and a lot of this is GENUINE. We’ll get more into the why in a bit, but he does seem to genuinely want to bury the hatchet. Marco pulls star aside and, given the last two times he saw Tom, the boy had some horrible scheme up his ripped sleeves, he understandably, and as it turns out correctly, thinks Tom is once again up to some sort of scheme, star is fully on board. I have. mixed feelings about this. On the one hand STar did forgive tom for the previous episodes mess and Ponyhead for much worse and it does set up the tiny plot curnel of corn that would grow into an entire corn field of her still having some friendly feelings toward tom. But it just feels weird, even with how cahotic star can be to have her flip flop from “Stop calling me” To “You should totlaly go on a date with the guy who harassed me and tried to kill you twice now. “. Especially since next time she has an episode with Tom, She’s fully resentful of him and a bit snarky and spends and episode, in part thanks to aformentioned magical severed ponyhead, suspicious of him playing games with her head again. We’ll get there soon obviously, i’m just saying it feels mildly off.

So Marco decides, much like bart simpson that getting where he’s going’s worth it even if he has to ride with the devil himself and reluctantly agrees. We see the inside of Tom’s carriage for the first time, and see my good personal friend dead horse again on the outside, and it’s really nice.. lit by torches because mood lighting, but similar to his room it’s plushly decorated and even has two serious speakers and according to Tom 6 flatscreens. Damn I wish I had one of those.. that and I wouldn’t have to drive since I can’t due to my anxiety. Plus who wouldn’t want a firey horse skelton sidekick? Anyways Tom offers Marco cold cereal and Marco is frank with tom, pointing out he’s suddenly being nice to Marco after never being nice to him before and understandably isn’t sure he’s even a mackie hand fan but a bit of banter and trivia shows Marco that no, Tom really seems to be telling the truth. Tom then confides in marco that he gets why Marco didn’t belivie him: Most people dont’ get past their preconcived perceptions of him. And here the series does flesh tom out a bit: Tom admits to not having many friends.. which frames the previous two episodes in a diffrent light. Sure his actions to Star are still very much not okay... but you at least see WHY he was so obessive about her: She was probably the first real friend he had that wasn’t a casual aquantince, his own family member, or a pet. Most Mewman kids his age probably weren’t too keen to hang out with what to them was a monster, rich or not, little raicst shits. And in the underworld most people probably just did whatever he asked because they were afraid of his temper or his parents fury, even if his parents are the nicest people in the underworld. So when he lost her, Tom didn’t know how to properly react and while his first attempt to win star back was genuine, it was marred by his refusal to adress his anger or control issues that likely lead to Star dumping him in the first place. While Star’s forgivness HERE is a bit werid, her willingness to give him another shot wasn’t: Tom was SEEMINGLY genuinely trying. He was in therapy, he’d been anger free for several days and most glowingly, when a stranger karate chopped his hand off in a misguided attempt to protect star.. he got upset but instnatlly went into his coping mechanisms. The problem was as I covered in that review.. Tom didn’t WANT to change. That’s the thing about changing: you need to both know there is a problem and WANT to fix it. And even then, as we’ll see sometimes i’ts hard. I know, i’ve had my own personal issues i’ve had to change up as years went on. It’s a slippery slope you have to constnatly climb up. And BMB era tom.. just didn’t WANT to change he just wanted to do what he thought star wanted that would get her to take him back, and couldn’t understnad why she wouldn’t just listen to him and obey, two things not in star’s vocabulary for anyone much less her ex.

So , much like I did, rather than blame himself for screwing things up, he just saw it as Marco being in the way and tried to fix that. And so he sunk to rock bottom.. but it didn’t fix their relationship and it took Marco having an honest conversation, as someone who was also very close to her and knew her well, to get him to see that Star wasn’t going to take him back unless she wanted it.. what he was doing was selfish and self destructive.. and Tom probably realized in that moment he had to stop. He let her go, and thus as I put al ot of emphasis on last time, made his first step to being better. And to me that’s why this makes sense as his next step: While it’s partly to fufill a checklist... you get the sense he really DOES like marco on some level. They hung out, which I do feel tom did genuinely feel was like friends hanging out instead of you know the second highest stakes game of ping pong i’ve ever seen.

The first if your curious. So while part of this is Tom just wanting to get through anger managment for likely his parent’s sake, part of it is also him genuinely wanting to be somebody’s buddy, anybody but a bumbling butler. It’s just being Tom, he dosen’t know HOW to make friends or get them to see past who he is surface wise; a spoiled angry boy and see the inside, a nice kid who just has no idea how to talk to people beyond a surface level or understand them and we’ll see that more both in this episode and as we go. Speaking of going back in the episode proper, two bros drive up and insult Tom’s carriage also wondering if he’s going to his grandpa’s funeral. Fuck you both.. both on general principal and becaause his grandpapapapapapaaaaaaaaaaaa is alive and magnificent.

Satan bless you Relicor. Anyways, Tom is naturally pissed at this and Marco challenges them to a race.. but eases tom off actually following them as, since this isn’t a fast and the furious movie, the police immidelty arest them and we get the blessed image above. Let’s see that again.

NOGODWHY

Not right but it’ll have to do I fear what may happen if I try again. ONE BALLON DICK GIRAFFE LATER, our boys are on a high, as Tom finds there are things more fun than obletarating people. #tomhaskilledmultiplepeopleandisstillthebestboy. Marco is reminded of a song from his faviorite band Love Sentence, and Tom, suprisingy given his My Chemical Romance with a splash of metal astetic, is not only a huge fan but has a giant Helga Patiaki esque shrine to them complete with a cd player with shuffle. Fancy.

We then get a wonderful, shiptastic montage of the two just hanging out, hanging out with a white tiger. Having themselves a party. And given the song itself, sung by 98 Degrees and horrible realtiy show Newleywed’s alumnus Nick Lachey, even says “we used to be enimies but now we have chemistry” yeah I think this is intentional and they are a good ship. Are they my prefered ships for the characters? No tha’ts kelly and flame princess... the last one was recent and I love a good crossover ship sue me. But I do headcanon both as still Bi and still find the ship great, it’s just not my main one.

However the good times can’t last as it is film time... but Tom refuses to let marco leave befor eblowing his top off... dude that’s not how you build a suppportive relationship, you know this by now. Turns out the white tiger I haven’t mentioned to now is actually Brian, vocied my boy Stephen Root who apparently just.. lives at DIsney’s animation studios now as he has a tendency to show up in every other animated disney show. You may know him from Gravity Falls as Bud Gleeful, THe Mayor from Amphibia, or , in non disney voice work, Bill Dautrive. Turns out as I haven’t even tried to hide, Tom was in the final stage of his anger managment class and to get out of it had had to spend 3 hours with the person he hated most. As I said I do think part of it was GENUINE on tom’s part, that he was trying to be what he thought friends were... it’s just he didn’t get that Marco, if grumblinignly, probably STILL would’ve agreed if he were honest. However.. it’s still a step up. While i’ts still a scheme, and his LAST on the show.. it’s more benign after the last two; Instead of being harmful his scheme this time is just “Bribe my worst enemy into hanging out with me and get out of anger managment” it’s still not quite right, but compared to the things he’s done with star, it’s an improvment and a sign he is changing despite himself. He could’ve just kidnapped marco again and forced him to spend the three hours.. granted this might’ve just been Brian saying, obviously no tha tdosen’t count, but still, instead he tried being nice and giving an apology. Even if it was for personal gain on some level, Marco’s words clearly got to him and he’s now trying genuinely unselfish tactics. It’s also notable since he spent the three hours with marco, and at least half an hour of awkarndess before it got all fun, WITHOUT getting angry or falling back on old stratgies and only beefing it at the end because, as i’ve established, he dosen’t get people. So naturally tom gets mad.. while it is a sign he’s getting better he dosen’t do his trademark horrifying demonic EXPLOSION of rage... he’s still being petulant and sore over his failure is mad at marco for pritoritzing the tickets nad destroys them. Marco naturally calls him out, angry over him manipulating him to get some badge , as he puts it, calls him a jerk and a liar, accurate and the worst part to marco? “I WAS DUMB ENOUGH TO FALL FOR IT”

Credit where it’s due while I may not LIKE adam mcarthur as a person...as a voice actor he is excellent and his delivery here is perfect as you do get the pain in Marco’s voice as he genuinely ahd grown to care for tom. Wethere it was friendship or wanting to make out... probably wanting to make out, you get the pain in his voice. Tom admits the love sentence hting wasn’t a lie.. but too little too late.. whcih is marco’s second faviorite love sentence song and leads to another moment of shippy goodness. Seriously I see why this ship exploded in popularity after this. Also I will say both Adam and Rider have damn pretty voices. So Tom does what any romantic lead faced with a third act breakup would do.. say a demonic chant and bring Mackie Hand back from the dead. This is also the first time we see just how fucking powerful tom is. Before we’ve seen him summon his carriage and immolate some stuff and easily reattach a hand.. but this is the first time that we see he’s every pit as powerful as star, who probably could raise the dead she just dosen’t want to. Granted I don’t know why this sort of undead stuff hasn’t been used on say, Moons assitnated mother, but presumibly anti-monster stigma combined with the fact that we don’t know HOW she died or how much was left, and are probably better off that way solve that. It goes a long way to explain why Tom’s family are allies instead of the conquered like most monsters: They have equal , if far diffrent and spookier, magic power and are the only kingdom with this trump card besides the butterfly kingdom.

So as we close Marco tries to use Mackie to get in, the usher dosen’t buy it and a fight insues, but Marco and Tom patch things up, Tom becoming a fan of Mackie now he’s seen what the guy can do and Marco forgiving tom since, evne if his actions were still a bit greasy, he immidetly did his best to try and fix what he broke. The two are friends again despite them both saying they hate each other... but they clearly mean it playfully. The End. Final Thoughts: After the Slog that was last episode this one is a fan faviorite for a reason... well okay 2 reasons. One...

youtube

And two.. it’s excellent. I feel bad it took me years to see this one, but it’s one of season 2′s finest. It’s funny, has great character stuff for both boys, introduces a new ship that’s fantastic and a great new dynamic between Tom and Marco that would carry for the rest of the show. It also beliviebly advances Tom’s character arc: He’s TRYING a bit but he’s still got a bit of the scheming and selfishness that defined his earlier outings, but it’s telling that after this episode, and hurting marco, he stops. This episode REALLY gets him to change that and for the better. Sadly Tom would only make one more apperance this season in Naysaya, an episode I will cover when I cover Jackie and Marco at some point, but has him show up for a cameo when it turns out the episodes antagonist, a curse that takes the form of a sentient head that spills the target’s worst secrets and insecurities when they try to ask someone they like out, is Tom’s fault from back when he was a baddie, and Tom genuinely apologizes and tells him how to vanquish it, if ribs marco a bit since he cast that curse presumibly sometime between BMB and MCC and is delighed and suprised that Marco seriously hadn’t asked anyone out in that time. But it’s a nice bit that shows their not only still friends but Tom is genuinely sorry for some of his earlier behavior. We’ll see more of that as we go and more of tom trying to be better.. he’s made up with Marco, next time we come back to tomtrospective, we’ll see how it goes with Star.

Coming up besides the obvious, as Pride Winds down I’ll have my first steven unvierse coverage, one of the first openly gay couples in western animation, and some asexula pride as we take our first look at Bojack Horseman..’s loveable rommate todd. Until we meet again, stay safe, black lives matter and later days.

#star vs the forces of evil #tomco #marco diaz #tom lucitor #tomtrospective #freindenmies #brian #star butterfly #98 degrees #newlyweeds #love sentence #mackie hand #martial arts #pride month #lbgtq+

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letterstothemidnightsociety · 4 years ago

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It's 2007 and somehow, miraculously, Supernatural survives yet another rocky (?) season of mediocre ratings to come back for a third season, or at least, half season, but that season starts out with a real bang! Like, just a real solid trio of an opener for season three. It reminds me of all the things I love about SPN and also it reminds us of all the things that frustrate the hell out of me on SPN. So where did we leave things off?

First up, there’s Dean, who sold his soul to the devil in order to bring Sam back from the dead. Sam, you’ll remember, was part of some overly complicated ponzi scheme to find the perfect vessel to open a door - yep, open a door - and lost to Aldous Hodge who just straight up murders Sam in the season finale. So Dean get’s Sammy back, but in exchange, he’s only got one year left before he permanently moves down south. Oh! And even though they got Sam back and Sam kills Aldous Hodge (RIP pal), they neglected to keep the door from opening. The door to Hell, that is, and now they’ve allowed a shiz ton of demons out to freely roam the earth. Way to go, boys, you lost again! They are two for two on these season finales guys!

OH but they DO kill the Yellow Eyed Demon, so that’s a plus, but not before he plants the most perfect seed of doubt in Dean’s mind - “How do you know what you brought back is all Sammy?” Like, ugh, UGH, ugh!!!! What a way to drive the knife in deeper! What a way to make the heart of this show slowly start to crumble! C’est Magnifique!! *chef's kissy fingers*

So with all that emotional baggage weighing us down, how do we start season 3? How else - with a threesome of course! And also some technicolor grading, it’s wild guys.

Oh boy guys, let’s talk about this opener for a hot sec. I got into it a little bit last season, but as much as I love Dean, you HAVE to admit that that boy is gross. Just like...he’s a little gross. I’m also old enough now to see exactly how many red flags he’s raising through the last 45 episodes. Like, sorry Little Me, but he is not boyfriend material. Not to mention that all this debauchery is 1,000% him distracting himself from the consequences of his own actions, but we’ll get into that later.

Meanwhile, Sam is doing something constructive and trying to figure out how to reverse the curse and save Dean’s soul. And here we have the culmination of two seasons worth of character development - faced with the imminent demise of Dean Samuel Winchester, Sam tries to step up and take care of his brother for once in his life; Dean parties like it’s 1999. There were two things I thought of during this episode - 1) isn’t this not unlike the sort of behavior you see in suicidal people who have finally decided to take their own life? Which is just, like, further held up by the fact that Dean’s big monologue at the end literally has the line “Truth is I’m tired, Sam. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” and like...dude, you are NOT ok! Why isn't??? ANYONE??? ADDRESSING THIS????? And 2) Dean is sharing a lot of similarities with the demons in this episode.

Because MEANwhile, there’s demons! So many demons! Specifically, the Seven Deadly Sins ones, but also, spoiler alert, Ruby, who is gettin’ reeeeealll into that ketchup.

All these baddies just really taking advantage of their time topside cuz Hell is, as they so artfully put it, it’s like Hell, so they’re just livin’ it up while they still can ~almost like foreshadowing or something~?!?!?

Real talk though, it being a real long time since I’ve watched this season, it’s these kinds of details that I’m impressed with this time around. There is so much character work that goes into this show and it’s something I definitely connected with the first time around, but not on conscious level. Now I can look at it through time and experience and articulate what I’m seeing, which makes this re-watch infinitely more enjoyable.

Episode 1 of this season continues what they started in season 2 and just keeps building out that Hunter Community. Like, there really is a whole Community out there that keeps in contact and works together and makes sure everyone’s up to date on the latest hot goss, and it all makes John Winchester come off like a real creepy splinter cell lone gunman type. And that in turn makes the Winchester sons look like total, unprofessional boneheads who managed to open a portal to Hell. “UGH Great Jorb Guys, but can we blame them? They’re John’s kids,” is a conversation between hunters that I am headcannoning, but also 100% support.

Honestly, I love the idea of the Winchesters being just these real, like, b-grade, Walmart Brand Hunters that other Hunters are just SO done with. We kind of see a little bit of that with Isaac and Tamara, but by the end of the episode, the Winchesters prove that they’re...better Hunters? I hope somewhere in the next 12 seasons I get an episode that is told from another Hunter’s POV who is legitimately better/more emotionally balanced than the Winchesters and the whole episode is them just, like, cleaning up a bunch of Winchester messes like, SONuvabitch, these two ASSholes. I think we see a fair amount of episodes from the POV of people who are less qualified than the Winchesters who end up being mentored by them, but I’d be stoked for them to run into just a group of people who hate them for totally legitimate, professional vs amature reasons.

Bobby does not count because Bobby signed up to be their Dad and so he agreed to take care of their messes when he took that job.

And then we get to “The Kids Are Alright” which showcases one of my fav changes for this season - BRIGHTLY! LIT! HIGH! SATURATION!!!! And of course, by fav, I mean, Most Hilarious.

I do walk a fine line on this one truth be told. Like, season 1 was definitely going for A Look. It’s super gritty and high contrasty and stylized. Now, I got what they were going for but I wasn’t always crazy about it, mostly because the quality on the DVD’s was terrible. Quick tip for everyone: in order to get 2+ hours worth of content on a DVD, you have to compress the final edit of the program to a pretty small bitrate. When we drop videos onto DVD’s at my work (it isn’t often, thank goodness), the discs themselves only hold, like, 2GB worth of content and that is NOT A LOT when it comes to video files. The more compressed a video file is, the less detail you’re gonna get in the visuals. Watching episodes on Netflix (where everything’s probably at a higher bitrate and therefore is a better quality visual), it’s not bad, but on my DVDs, the compression is so heavy that we get SUPER hot highlights and SUPER crunchy shadows - what a lot of people would called “crushed blacks” because you’ve lost all the detail in the shadows and you’re left with a grainy, noisy, black hole on the screen. Like I lost so much detail in the pilot episode guys, I could not make out this guy’s face.

A rough approximation of my DVD quality. Still recommend it over Netflix for the Accurate Soundtrack tho.

Season 2 SPN toned that Look down a lot, like, a lot a lot. Enough that you still got the general vibe they were going for but not enough that you couldn’t make out faces anymore. But through this whole process, the CW execs kept pushing for the show to look lighter, more colorful, less film noir more...well, CW. And in season 3 it finally happened!!!

I get what those execs were going for, but also, I feel like the colorists on these first few episodes just REALLY went wild out of spite. Lookit this shot from “Magnificent Seven” right before Envy causes some rando innocent bystander to beat a girl to death for her shoes -

GREEN GREEN GREEN GREEN!!!! I WONDER WHICH SIN THIS GUY IS????

Then in “The Kids Are Alright” the birthday party looks like everything is coated in day-glow neon.

The Winchester Bros look like they just got back from 3 weeks in Aruba - LOOK at the saturation levels in these skin tones! LOOK AT THEM!!

My screencap ability aside, only in SPN can a cemetery at night have brighter lighting than a diner in the middle of the afternoon.

This is definitely a thing I will be tracking the rest of the season because I have a distinct memory of a future episode where the brothers have been magically gifted completely different lives where they were never Hunters, they know nothing of Hunting, and they’re completely normal until the end when everything gets snapped back and the episode literally changes colors. V. Excited to see just how saturated this season stays through the end.

But maybe more importantly in “The Kids Are Alright” we learn that Dean does NOT, in fact, have a son. Not that he would be a good father...well...maybe? I mean, this Dean, this season 3, definitely-suicidal, completely-reckless, can’t-keep-it-together Dean, is not good Dad material. Later seasons Dean? Probably fine? Earlier seasons Dean might ALSO be fine? And if he’d found out that Ben was his legitimate kid, it could have made a WORLD of difference, who knows. I know he ultimately does become father-like to Ben and that gives me a lot of feelings. But this Dean is not in a good place to take care of anyone, including himself and really, someone ought to do something about that.

I gotta say, this is an actual bummer. I can’t remember if, in the later seasons, they do any clarifying on this or not, but I am legitimately bummed that Ben is not Dean’s kid and that as far as we know, Dean has no natural children floating around out there with surly attitudes and soft hearts. Dean’s motivation from Day 1 has always been family and despite what comments he may make in early seasons, Dean’s secret desire is to have the wife and the kids and the dog and the white picket fence. And honestly, we’re only 3 seasons in and I just want Dean to have nice things!!

And then guys, we come to “Bad Day at Black Rock,” and I just...WHAT a masterpiece. I had almost NO memory of ever watching this episode before and I don't understand why. What a glorious masterpiece this episode is. Let’s make a list -

More Hunters™, who should be really annoying but were actually kinda charming in a Marx Brothers kind of way

Gordon’s in jail, where he belongs, but also is masterminding a coup against the Winchesters which is A+ spooky stuff

Slapstick comedy that I didn’t know I was missing from my life

Bela F*cking Talbot

Guys, I think this is my fav episode so far purely because I felt, while watching it, that the last 10 years of my life were not in vain and that I had in fact grown as a human person. I remembered hating Bela Talbot. Like, I DID. NOT. LIKE. HER. To the point that I questioned if her British accent was even real. It is, her mother is from the UK and she lived there for a time, but like, honestly, the audacity of Little Me.

This time around? Oh she’s defs my new fav. Just everything about her is like, A+, Great Job, Why-Did-We-Cancel-Her??? Like, oh yeah, probably because somewhere in here they try to shoehorn a romantic side plot with Dean. I don’t actually mind rioting over shoehorned romance, but also, if they’d let this play out for a season or two and then got the two of them to bone? I’m on board. I’m 100% on board.

Maybe it’s just that she is unapologetically out for herself, maybe it’s the fact that she is definitely a match for the Winchesters in a non-murdery way, probably it is both of those things. She's smart, she’s crooked, she has impeccable taste, she’s honestly a helluva lot of fun and I am so excited to see more of her and so BUMMED that she will not make it past this season.

Despite the fact that I absolutely adore all three of these episodes, they also bring up the problem that I was starting to see in season 2 - WHO is this show about? Isn’t it supposed to be about the Brothers as a whole? But the majority of these first three lean pretty heavily on Dean’s emotional arc. Granted, it makes sense. I mean, of COURSE Dean’s demon deal is gonna be the BIG thing in a season where he is literally staring down the barrel, but knowing that there’s a side plot about Is Sam Evil?? seems like...something we should really explore more? I believe it comes up in season 4, or at least, Sam’s demon-blood powers become a bigger deal in season 4, but I would have enjoyed seeing Sam have a more active stake in this season. I can see planting some weird new ticks being planted for Alive-Again Sam that just get weirder and darker and then a mid-season finale or a run up episode to the end of the season where Dean (finally) decides he needs to stop his demon deal because he needs to stick around so he can keep Sam from going completely off the rails. As much as I love Dean 5ever, I do think the show works best when the emotional weight of the season is distributed equally is all. And to be fair to the writers this season, there could have been a bigger plan for something like that but they ran out of time - their season was cut by about a third due to the Writer’s Strike.

Still, all in all, a solid opening to the third season. I want to say that these episodes feel like Classic SPN, but then I remember that this is season three out of fifteen. These ARE Classic SPN. Mostly self contained with enough emotional drama to remind us of the overarching plot. Maybe a little heavy on the emotional drama, but Dean’s only got a year to live and the show’s only got 16 episodes to resolve that crisis, so it’s fine.

#Supernatural #Supernatural rewatch #Season 3 #Magnificent Seven #The Kids are Alright #bad day at black rock #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Bela Talbot #Hunters #Sam and Dean #Writer's Strike #TV #TV History #Bela talbot is maybe great #and I should say it

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feelingfolegandros · 4 years ago

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Day 36 - 41: December 1 - 6 2020

I’m writing this, sitting outside, listening to goats bleat away and the goat master (I’m sure there’s an official word for this) making amusing noises and shouting at them.

The sun will start to set in about an hour, I’m guessing. I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to spend so much time outdoors. I’ve been warned that December isn’t really winter yet here in Folegandros, that January and February will bring colder temperatures and days in a row of rain. I know I can handle it. For now, I’m enjoying swimming in December.

Yesterday, Saturday, K.P. and I headed to Agios Georgios on the North side of the island, past Ano Meria. On the way, we stopped by the supermarket and the bakery. We each picked up a mikro (small) loaf of bread and some Christmas cookies to share. I met her and the man she’s staying with, A.L., in Chora outside a café where some people had gathered, semi-respecting social distancing. The sun was glorious. We dropped off A.L. at Agali, and he planned to walk to meet some fellow fishing companions at Agios Nikolaus, 15 minutes or so by foot. Fishing is not permitted at the moment, which is odd to me and I’d imagine most other people. It’s just you and the fish, right? Maybe you’re out there with other people, but are you really rubbing up against each other? Do people who fish like to embrace each other a lot? I have no clue!

When we arrived at Agios Georgios, we saw the two men who were supposed to be fishing with A.L., so K.P. went to pick him up and bring him back, so the fishing trio could unite. I laid in the sun in my bathing suit, listening to the metal playing on a small speaker they brought on the dock. It was glorious. I wrote in my notebook a bit, and then slowly but surely made my way into the water. Having a soundtrack to lazily swim around to was fun.

K.P. returned with A.L., and K.P. helped one of the other fishermen retrieve one of his lures, borrowing some goggles to get the job done. I took photos of her after she completed the task. She looked incredible. A man she sent the photo to afterward said she looked like a Bond girl, and I wholeheartedly agreed.

Unfortunately no fish were caught by our friends, but two spearfishers caught some! As K.P. and I played cards on the beach while the sun was still out, she joked that they should give us a fish. On the way home, we stopped to watch the sunset and danced on the roof of an abandoned building, listening to music on our phone speakers. Later, we made a Greek rice dish with carrots, leeks, and dill, I brought a fish from the store that had defrosted in my fridge and needed to be eaten, and K.P. grabbed some vegetables from the garden to make a salad. H.U., a friend of A.L.’s who fished with him earlier stuck around for a bit. The two of them drank vodka and raki (a spirit popular in Greek, Turkey, Albania, the Balkans, etc made of grape) and listened to music as we cooked. Another great meal!

We had started watching The Rose starring Bette Midler the day before but were rudely interrupted by a power outage, so we finished it after dinner. Midler was nominated for an Oscar for it. I liked it. Apparently, it was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. On Friday, before we watched The Rose, K.P. and I went for a walk in Ano Meria to a bay that is named after trees or something. Déntro (δέντρο or maybe it’s the plural δέντρα) I believe it’s called, simply because there’s a couple of trees there. She spotted wild dandelion on the way there, so we picked a bunch on the way back. It made me so happy to be able to pull my own food from the earth. We confirmed it was dandelion for sure thanks to Ireni of Ireni’s Restaurant fame. She said it was poly kala (really good), so definitely edible! We ordered some food from her to take home - meatballs with fried potatoes and bean soup. Delicious and comforting, as per usual.

Later, Z.X. brought over some souvlaki (no extra patates for me this time), then we watched Keeping up with the Kardashians together. Back to season 1 since we finished season 4 and on the TV’s mysterious Spanish Netflix account, only the first four seasons are available. After joking that Z.X. would fall asleep in 30 minutes, I fell asleep in 30 minutes.

The week before Friday wasn’t super eventful...Tuesday stands out to me as it’s the day I found out I have shingles... Ha! Last weekend, I had asked Z.X. to scratch my back, and when he looked at it, he was concerned. He took a photo of it and sent it to the doctor. We went to the doctor on Tuesday, and she said it was herpes. I spent an entire day freaking out, but then later figured out it’s Herpes Zosta - which is the same as Chickenpox and NOT the sexually-transmitted kind… The nurse, who I had met earlier this summer and is also a Cancer, put a bandage over it and gave me a small stack of more to take home along with some anti-histamines. I read about what foods to avoid and chocolate is one of them, unfortunately, so since then, I haven’t eaten any chocolate and I’m eating much less sugar than before. Boring, but it’s rarely a bad idea to consume less sugar. Today, Sunday, December 6, I stayed in bed for a while, finishing the latest episode of Love After Lockup and then a documentary called My Psychedelic Love Story. The latter is about Joanna Harcourt-Smith, who had a love affair with Timothy Leary (the LSD guy) in the early to mid 70s, while Leary was on the lam from the U.S. feds in Europe, and then subsequently brought back to the U.S. and sentenced. I really enjoyed it and she’s a fascinating woman that passed away shortly before the documentary debuted at the end of November. After sweeping the floors, I decided to take a walk without my phone to the Panagia, a church up a hill that’s an icon of the island. It’s a zigzag promenade to get to the top, and I stopped at the first zig. I sat on a rock and wrote. The sun was so strong and I was a bit sweaty so I took off my shirt. A copy of The Alchemist was in my backpack, and I finished the last 60 pages or so on the grass below the rock. Watching the clouds move past the sun again and again was wonderful. I definitely felt more connected to God, my destiny, etc. finishing that book in that setting.

Tonight, I think I’ll make the dandelion for dinner and count every single one of my blessings. The sun is beginning to set now, turning the sky the most magnificent colours.

Thanks for reading, once again! Love and light to you and yours.

#folegandros #greece #winteringreece #greekislands #island #greekisland #cyclades

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mykpopwire · 4 years ago

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interview: D-CRUNCH is back and ready to fly high with Across The Universe!

D-CRUNCH is back with a new mini album, 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe”.

Let’s have a look at what the members have to say about the album and more.

1. Please introduce your latest mini album, 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe”.

O.V: One year and five months after our last album, we are back with a new mini album which consist of powerful and energetic title track – Across The Universe, a ballad specially for our fans – Calyx, a song from D-CRUNCH’s heart – One Word and lastly a song where you can enjoy D-CRUNCH's cute charms – H.A.G.Y (Have A Good Young)

Hyunwook: This mini album is about how D-CRUNCH can fly off to anywhere whenever we are with Diana even when we are in difficult situations and an album where you can always listen to D-CRUNCH's various voices.

Hyunho: D-CRUNCH is taking a step further with this mini album. We worked hard to show you the more mature and cool side of us, so please look forward to it.

Hyunoh: We prepared many good songs for the album including the title track where we want to spread our wings and fly with our people who are going through a hard time and also a fan song with the lyrics written by ourselves. The members wrote the lyrics just as sincere as when we are writing our hand-written letters.

Minhyuk: Just like the title track of this mini album, 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe”, it means let’s fly, let’s go across the universe.

Chanyoung: This mini album is an album where we want to show D-CRUNCH's various charms! I think it's an album where we can fall in love with our better selves, better than before!

Jungseung: 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe” is an album with a title track where we will show a powerful performance and it also includes other songs with different charms! We worked really hard on it, so please listen to it a lot!

Dylan: The title track gives out the vibes of D-CRUNCH’s intense charm and energy. There’s also songs with sincere lyrics in this mini album.

2. Please introduce the title track, “Across The Universe”. Any special points Diana must pay attention to?

O.V: You need to pay attention to the powerful performance, but I also want you to focus more on the reason why we wrote this song! As you can understand from the lyrics of this song, no matter how hard and difficult it is, we can always fly if Diana is with us. It's a song made from the heart of being able to get across the universe, so I'd appreciate it if you could always be with us. ^_^

Hyunwook: There’s some really fancy dance moves for the title track. We put a lot of efforts and practiced hard to show you this! I hope when Diana see the special dance, they will think that we’re cool. Haha

Hyunho: The key point of this title track is the members' strong appearance and performances, and also the chorus part.

Hyunoh: It's a song about a dream of flying together with wings that my people have attached. It also contains D-CRUNCH’s earnestness to repay all the love that Diana has given to us.

Minhyuk: If I were to say the special point of this song, I think everything from start to finish is the special point!

Chanyoung: I think you can find D-CRUNCH’s sexiness in this title track and please pay attention to the powerful performance!!

Jungseung: The title track Across The Universe is a song that means let's fly away and get over all the difficult situations together! We practiced hard for the song, of course a song is yet another song but we practiced a lot, like a lot for the song performance. I hope you will watch the dance practice video a lot, too!

Dylan: The title track Across the Universe has a message that if D-CRUNCH is with Diana, we can fly high into the sky even in the difficult situations.

3. Renowned producers and lyricist are involved in the production of 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe” album. How do you feel working with them?

O.V: I think I've learned more about the perspectives on composition and lyrics. I also learned a lot about expression and realized the differences. While working together, I can feel they were giving lots of consideration and I’m thankful for it and it was such a good experience.

Hyunwook: Since we're still in the learning process, it was such a great opportunity to learn while working with these great people. I think we should continue to improve in the future.

Hyunho: They are very kind and I got to learn about lots of things, so it was a precious time.

Hyunoh: There’s certainly that sense of professionalism. I was able to see, feel and learn a lot while producing together with them. They were being considerate and gave a lot of advice and I’m happy we gained such good outcomes.

Minhyuk: We worked with really cool and famous producers this time. I learned a lot of things that I didn't know and received a lot of help too. I hope we can work together again next time!

Chanyoung: I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this album. I think I should work hard on this album and repay you with good results!

Jungseung: It was such a great honour and as great as the song they had made, I think we should achieve great result too.

Dylan: I was so glad they led me well and it was an honour to work with them and I was happy that I got to learn a lot.

4. G.I.G has been involved in D-CRUNCH album production since debut till now. Has your song writing style change or improve since then?

O.V: Since I’ve been working more systematically, I think my targets are definitely changed. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to say and how I’m feeling about Diana and I think I need to improve more. Hahahaha

Hyunwook: We surely have improved a lot. When I debuted, I mostly worked using my senses and feelings rather than professional knowledge. But now I’m glad that I've grown more professionally by learning from many people. But I always think that I need to improve and learn more.

Hyunoh: In the past, the three of us used to brainstorm and come out with ideas together. These days, we only discuss once the certain topic or goal been given. We've seen a lot of improvements. There are pros and cons, but we always communicate with each other while trying to make up for the shortcomings.

5. Could you share a funny episode while preparing for 비상 (飛上) - “Across The Universe” album?

O.V: Rather than funny, I’d like to share a quite dangerous episode. In the ‘Across The Universe’ choreography, there is a move where Hyunwook do a lift. And when he was practicing the move in the beginning, he fell. All the members are nervous for that part. So, please keep an eye on us!

Hyunwook: I had a lot of difficulties preparing for this album. Among them, I think dancing in the sand during the music video shooting was the hardest. There's a part where I have to go on top of Minhyuk and there’s a lot of sand went onto him. Minhyuk had sands all over him, I'm sorry Minhyuk!

Hyunho: When we were shooting the music video, the location itself was a little scary because it was located in a place where there were only few people. We also had some horror experience. Haha.

Hyunoh: While preparing for this album, when I thought of the fans who are waiting for us, every moment was exciting and fun. There is another funny episode, during the jacket shooting, there is a shot where we must jump. A funny situation where we were photographed in the air with frighten looks on our faces.

Minhyuk: The interesting episode while preparing for the album reminds me of the scene where we dance in the sand during the music video shooting. The members fell because it was slippery and deep. But it was also cute and fun. Fortunately, we didn't get hurt!

Chanyoung: Interesting episode while preparing for the album! I think it was in the water-hit scene at the jacket shoot. We were all got hit by the water, so the pictures came out well, but we were all shaking in cold. Hahaha

Jungseung: Dylan and I got the vocal line for this title track and the note is higher than I thought. I remember having a hard time and my voice cracked while recording. Haha! I also remember I was sweating while working hard for the recording!

Dylan: I went into a building with O.V where all the lights were off to do horror experience at the music video shooting site. It was really scary but also fun.

6. Your favourite song from this album?

O.V: Hmm... I think it’s the song that I tried to be a vocalist for the first time, Calyx...? Please give it a lot of love, everyone ><

Hyunwook: I personally think One Word is perfectly matched for my preference.

Hyunho: Mine is Across The Universe. I like the addictive performance and chorus the most because they are impressive.

Hyunoh: I like all D-CRUNCH’s songs, but I think the best song in this album is the fan song, Calyx. I'll make lots of good songs so that my favourite song can always be updated.

Minhyuk: It’s Across The Universe. It also means let's fly! and when I listen to the song, my heart beats fast and I get excited!

Chanyoung: The title track in this album, Across The Universe is my favourite. This is because I like the magnificent sound of the chorus the most.

Jungseung: I like One Word the most. The reason is that there are many meaningful words in the lyrics. I like them because I can relate to them a lot. The song expresses my true feelings for the love that have been given by Diana.

Dylan: My favourite song in this album is a song called Calyx. I watch a lot of dramas and this song feels like a drama OST. It was a great song since I first heard it. I have this song on repeat in my playlist!

7. If you can go across the universe, where would you go? Why?

O.V: Everyone, do you know this?! It’s said that there is a planet in the universe that has the same environment as the Earth. We can't reach each other because it's too far away, but I want to go there!! I’m really curious. I wonder how the people there are like and if there's a parallel universe.

Hyunwook: I want to go to the planet Gliese 581, which is the most similar to Earth. I’m really curious how it’s like to live there!!

Hyunho: I want to go to black hole. I want to get sucked into a black hole and look around it!

Hyunoh: I will float in the universe freely and go to a place where I can see everyone who loves me.

Minhyuk: I want to go where Diana is! I want to go where D-CRUNCH can meet Diana and spend time together across the universe!

Chanyoung: If I were to go across the universe, I’d like to go across Diana’s heart~ Because no one knows what's on the other side of the universe, I think there's something beyond of what you think!

Jungseung: I want to go to the moon. Since it's close to the Earth, I really want to go and play there!

Dylan: If I could go across the universe, I’d like to go to the moon. I also want to go outside of the galaxy and see what’s around the galaxy.

8. Anything you would like to achieve or do for this comeback?

O.V: More than anything else, I hope D-CRUNCH will not get hurt, always be healthy and get to be known by more people! I also want to reach people through more contents!

Hyunwook: I’m sure it’s the same for every album, but I think our goal is to let the public know D-CRUNCH and to have good influence on our music.

Hyunho: I want to let more people know about D-CRUNCH.

Hyunoh: To let many people know about the group called D-CRUNCH and to listen to our songs. I hope those people will give a lot of love, receive a lot love and care for each other.

Minhyuk: Honestly, it's a big dream which is to win first place on music programs. I really want to achieve it!

Chanyoung: Through this comeback, I hope more people will notice that D-CRUNCH is this kind of group.

Jungseung: Of course, my big dream is to win first place in music programs! But I think it would be enough to show that we're better than our previous album without any members getting hurt!

Dylan: Through this comeback, I want to show Diana our mature and cool side through the stage performance.

9. Because of COVID-19, you have not been able to meet Diana as often as you want to. Are there any activities that you surely want to do once the situation get better?

O.V: Definitely the concerts. I can feel a lot of energy from Diana whenever we performed. I hope to have happy concerts with Diana soon.

Hyunwook: I really want to have concerts with Diana. Being in the same space with Diana. Diana have been watching us through the online concerts, but Diana is not in front of me and I can’t see them. That’s definitely something I'm sad about. So, I really want to have face-to-face concerts!!

Hyunho: I want to have concerts the most. Because it’s where I can meet and get close to Diana!

Hyunoh: I want to do concerts and stage performances too, but I really want to have fansign events or fan meetings where I can communicate with Diana. I want to express my feelings to all my people who are still supporting us and waiting for us even when we can’t meet due to Corona.

Minhyuk: Urm… There are a lot of things I want to do together with Diana, but what I want to do first are fansign events, fan meetings and concerts.

Chanyoung: When Corona situation gets better, I want to do everything~ concerts, fansign events and fan meetings ㅜㅜ

Jungseung: I really want to perform in front of Diana when the Corona is over. I miss those cheering and screaming from Diana. ㅠㅠ

Dylan: When the situation gets better, I want to do various activities such as fansign events, fan meetings and performances with Diana!

10. You will never leave home without?

O.V: AirPods!!! Whenever I walk around, I always listen to music according to the weather or the atmosphere of the place.

Hyunwook: It's definitely handphone. I'm restless without it!

Hyunho: It's a hat. I like hats so I always carry them with me when I go out.

Hyunoh: I always take my handphone, earphones, wallet, perfume and also good attitude.

Minhyuk: Mask, handphone, earphones and also clutch, perfume and wallet!

Chanyoung: Every time I go out I must bring mask and handphone! It sounds like an obvious answer, but it's a must these days!

Jungseung: Mask, handphone, wallet and AirPods. I will definitely bring these four with me whenever I go out.

Dylan: Nowadays, I always take masks, AirPods, wallet and handphone. Even with just these four, I can do anything and go anywhere. Haha.

11. Any dish that you can cook well?

O.V: Fried rice! It's a dish that I recently cooked. I think it's delicious!! (Of course that’s my personal opinion.)

Hyunwook: Kimchi fried rice...? Haha. Actually, I'm not confident in making any dishes.

Hyunho: Actually, I'm not good at cooking. But since I like ramyeon a lot, I think I'm good at cooking it!

Hyunoh: There’s nothing that I can’t do, cooking too. I think I'm pretty good at everything~ Haha

Minhyuk: I’m not really good at cooking, but the dish that is approved by my family is ramyeon!

Chanyoung: The best dish that I can cook is ramyeon. I still don’t know how to cook well yet, so I want to learn a lot. Haha

Jungseung: Fried rice, fried eggs, etc. I'm not really good at cooking, but I like to cook so I do it often.

Dylan: The most confident dish to cook is kimchi fried rice. The reason is I once made kimchi fried rice for my younger cousin and I remember he liked it because he said it was very delicious!

12. What is your best and worst subject in school?

O.V: My best subject... English?? I think it’s English. My worst subject is science. Science is too difficult...

Hyunwook: I was good at liberal art’s subjects, such as Korean, history and society. On the other hand, I think I was really bad at natural science’s subjects, such as math and science. Math is still too difficult for me to study…

Hyunho: My best subject is physical education and the worst subject is art.

Hyunoh: I'm good at all arts and physical education classes! But I can't do math or science. Hehe...

Minhyuk: My best subject is physical education and my worst subject is English...!

Chanyoung: My best subjects are math and physical education and the worst subject is social study.

Jungseung: I think I was best at Korean language subject. I like Korean language because I think there is always the answer in the sentences. My worst subject is math. I think math is one of the subjects that I always got wrong answers because there are so many formulas to memorize and the answers vary depending on how I write them.

Dylan: The subject I’m best at is English and the subject I’m worst at these days is math.

13. Dylan is the youngest member but is there any members that always behave as the youngest instead?

O.V: It’s definitely Chanyoung. The youngest member in my heart is also Chanyoung. The reason is when I first joined as a trainee, Chanyoung is the youngest then. He did a lot of aegyo to me and he acted cute a lot as well.

Hyunwook: This member is Hyunoh isn’t it? He has a lot of aegyo and cute, so sometimes I think he’s the youngest.

Hyunho: It’s Chanyoung. He’s a very mischievous boy.

Hyunoh: I think Minhyuk has a baby-like charm. How should I say this? Like a baekchimi…? (someone who is ignorant but somehow charming)

Minhyuk: I think it's Hyunho. He looks quite scary and strong on the outside. But when we talk, he’s cute like a baby.

Chanyoung: I think it's Hyunho. Unlike his appearance, he’s soft-hearted and shy. So, I think Hyunho is very cute!

Jungseung: Chanyoung haha. He has lots of aegyo and sometimes he’s cute too.

Dylan: I think it’s Chanyoung. We share the same room and compared to me who is the youngest, he’s cuter and loves snacks so much like a kid!

14. Can you share other member’s hidden charms which would make Diana fall more in love with D-CRUNCH?

O.V: Minhyuk’s hidden charm that cannot be hidden is his cuteness. Once you fall for his charms, you will get lost in his cuteness. Diana~ please know that from now on

Hyunwook: I’m the same age with Hyunho, but I can learn a lot from him and he’s a reliable person. Whenever I asked something from him, he always do his best to help and you can trust him. We’re the same age but I really respect and like him.

Hyunho: Dylan is young and cute, but sometimes he can be more mature and manly than me. So, I’m surprised.

Hyunoh: He looks like a mischievous boy. But when he’s leading the team, his hidden charisma is very cool. He’s good at making songs, good at talking and exercise hard too. O.V is very charming, isn’t he?!

Minhyuk: Jungseung’s charm is that he usually looks like a Binggumi (silly but cute and lovely), but whenever he’s working he’ll change 180 degree and I think that is very attractive.

Chanyoung: Hyunwook sings very well and he's so handsome. He has a good heart. He's good at everything and he's good at taking care of the members. ❤️

Jungseung: When on stage, Chanyoung is very sexy and he looks so cool while dancing. But off stage, I think he has the same personality as me. I think Chanyoung’s hidden charm is that he looks a bit like a fool. Haha

Dylan: Hyunoh is very sexy when he’s on stage. But off stage, he’s a very warm and cute person.

15. If you had to pick just one D-CRUNCH’s song to introduce to others, which song would it be?

O.V: Urm… I want to introduce all of the songs but I can’t. So I’d choose I’m OK. Since everyone is going through hard time these days and wish to be comforted, I hope you can cheer up and find strength by listening to our songs!

Hyunwook: I want to introduce this album title track, Across The Universe. Haha

Hyunho: I want to introduce One Word. I hope this precious One Word will give you a lot of strength.

Hyunoh: Well, it depends on the person's preference. But if I had to introduce according to my preference, I’d like to recommend Calyx, the fan song in this album.

Minhyuk: A song in this album which called One Word. This song makes me feel comfortable and I've been listening to it all the time these days!

Chanyoung: I'd like to recommend a song called One Word. This is because it has a unique charm that you can't find in D-CRUNCH’s title track!

Jungseung: I think most of D-CRUNCH’s title tracks are strong and powerful and many of the non-title tracks are the opposite and good to listen to, so please listen to them a lot!

Dylan: I think I will introduce the title track, Across The Universe. I want to show them our stage performance video too. Ha ha.

16. Few months left for 2020. Anything you wish to accomplish before the year ends?

O.V: I'd like to read the book that my mother bought me. Hahahaha. I think I'll read a little bit more if I write it down like this!!

Hyunwook: It's a pity that 2020 went by so quickly, without many memories. For the remaining two months, I want to make happy and good memories with Diana.

Hyunho: I want to meet, communicate and make memories with Diana.

Hyunoh: With this album we will definitely fly~!!!

Minhyuk: I want to show you that D-CRUNCH is growing into a cooler side.

Chanyoung: I want to go on a trip with the members before the year ends. I hope more people will know about D-CRUNCH with this album.

Jungseung: I hope we can finish our promotion without any injuries until the end of this year. I want to make a big dream and be in the music program ranking!

Dylan: Before the year ends, I want to go to the amusement park and fly just like the name of this album.

17. What is your goal or wish for the year 2021?

O.V: Rather than looking forward to many things, the things that we’re doing now, this comeback! It's my wish that this life will continue smoothly and my goal is to do my best and be satisfied with the outcomes!

Hyunwook: I hope the bad situation ends. Once the situation gets better, I hope we can meet many overseas’ fans, communicate with them and do performances too. Through this, I realized how precious ordinary daily life is and I hope in 2021, it will be as what we wish to be!!

Hyunho: I want to meet with Diana from various countries!

Hyunoh: As always, my wish is to spend a healthy year while cherishing my people and love each other. Everyone, I love you >_<

Minhyuk: My goal for 2021 is to win first place on music shows, and my wish is to let the public know more about D-CRUNCH! Also, I hope all our members are always healthy and won't get hurt!

Chanyoung: My wish for 2021! D-CRUNCH to be number one on music shows!! 👍👍👍

Jungseung: My wish and goal for 2021 is that D-Crunch will grow more and be more mature.

Dylan: My goal for 2021, since it'll be the year that I become an adult, I want to do more activities and I want to be a broad-minded person like the broad world. I want to make more memories with Diana. Everyone, I love you and I Dylang you!!!

18. How do you want Diana to remember D-CRUNCH?

O.V: Cute idols who are chasing their dreams…? When I think about us, I think that is the closest!! All of us are the kids who are working hard to achieve success. Please give us a lot of love, Diana~~

Hyunwook: I want to be remembered as a group that works hard and also as a great group. I will put a lot of effort to achieve that. I also want to hear that we are a group that create something with our fans.

Hyunho: I hope you will always remember the passionate D-CRUNCH.

Hyunoh: Not only as a group who is good at singing and dancing, I hope we can be remembered as a group that cares and cherishes everyone. So, I will continue to work hard.

Minhyuk: Not only the good songs, but I hope you remember us as a team that is cool on every stage, has a distinct individual colour and has excellent teamwork.

Chanyoung: I hope you will remember us as a team that works hard in everything they do, always outgoing and bright, has great skills~ and great teamwork too! ^^

Jungseung: I hope whenever D-CRUNCH appears in Diana’s playlist, they will think, “Ah, I love their songs!”, “Oh, they are good at dancing!”. These kinds of thoughts.

Dylan: I’d be happy if you remember us as a team with good visual and performance, and good teamwork. ^_^

19. It has been one year and a half since your visit to Malaysia. Anything that you miss or something that you wish you had done back then?

O.V: I'm sure it's the same for any performances, but I really miss the way you cheered and sang along every time. It’s unfortunate that... I can't show you the current me...? Hahaha, I'm kidding. I can't wait to see you again!

Hyunwook: The sky walk in Penang was so memorable and I was so happy that Malaysian fans cheered and responded so much. So, I think I remember and miss every day I spent in Malaysia.

Hyunho: It would have been nice to make more memories with Malaysian Diana, but it was disappointing that time went by so quickly. I hope to see you longer next time.

Hyunoh: I miss everything. From the performances to the fan signing events, the fun corner and the anticipation of going to another country really made me excited and happy. What's sad is that I always feel sadder about the day I left, “Couldn't I have been nicer to the fans?”, “Couldn't I have shown a better side?” with that in mind, I wanted to go to Malaysia again.

Minhyuk: I think the time we spent together with our fans. I want to go to Malaysia again to meet and talk with my fans. ㅜㅜ!!

Chanyoung: Next time I go to Malaysia, I want to perform more! I want to look around the shopping malls too!

Jungseung: It has been a year and a half since I visited Malaysia, time flies... First, I want to meet with Diana! I also want to visit the shopping malls again! There are many things to see and lots of delicious food. So, I have good memories.

Dylan: I really miss Diana in Malaysia and the next time I go, I want to do a lot of performances and make lots of good memories with Diana.

20. Lastly, can you say a few words to Malaysian Diana?

Watch and rewatch D-CRUNCH’s latest MV here!

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#DCRUNCH #D_CRUNCH #디크런치 #비상 #AcrossTheUniverse #Across_the_Universe #mykpopwire #DIANA

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 5 years ago

Text

Ready for lift-off

Espionage thriller Summer of Rockets is the first screen work from acclaimed writer/director Stephen Poliakoff to draw on his own life, set in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. He and executive producer Helen Flint talk to DQ about merging fact and fiction.

As a writer and director for the screen over the past four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has been behind work that has amassed numerous Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. The playwright, who learned his craft in the theatre, counts series and films such as Perfect Strangers, The Lost Prince, Friends & Crocodiles, Gideon’s Daughter, Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary, as well as recent dramas Dancing on the Edge and Close to the Enemy, among his extensive credits.

Yet for all his fascination with the past – among many examples, Dancing on the Edge trails a black jazz group in 1930s London and Close to the Enemy is set in the aftermath of the Second World War – his latest series is the first to draw on his own family and life experiences.

Written and directed by Poliakoff, Summer of Rockets is a semi-autobiographical drama set during 1958, a year that marked the height of the Cold War as fear and suspicion clashed with the start of the mobile revolution and the Space Race. It was also the last time debutants were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace and the year of the Notting Hill riots in West London.

Stephen Poliakoff, writer and director of Summer of Rockets, pictured during filming

Poliakoff says the fact it is partly based on his own life marks Summer of Rockets out as “significantly different” from anything he’s done for the screen before.

“My first real memories are from this time – I was five in 1958 – so I could feel, even as a small child, the apprehension in the air, the feel of nuclear war,” he says. “The Russians were the enemy and yet I was half-Russian, so that made me feel an extraordinary sense isolation as a child. I was also sent to boarding school, as we see in the story, and was the only Jewish boy there. That was why I was drawn to this time.

“There’s a lot of resonance for us now, as Russia again seems to be our enemy and there is also unfortunately, tragically, anti-Semitism in Europe and it’s coming back to the UK. Well, it never goes away. But above all, it was a sense of the absolute epicentre of the Cold War; the fact nobody could be trusted, especially if they were foreigners.”

Another parallel between that period and today, he notes, is the “humiliation” of the Suez Crisis in 1958, which left Britain “a laughing stock” on the world stage. “Things have happened since I’ve written the piece and we’ve become a laughing stock for very different reasons, with people harking back to a sense of our past glories, which also plays a part in the story,” Poliakoff says. “This is not a story about Brexit or a metaphor for it, but nevertheless there are resonances in the piece.”

Toby Stephens (Black Sails) stars as Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian Jewish émigré modelled on Poliakoff’s father Alexander, an inventor and designer of hearing aids, whose clients include former UK prime minister Winston Churchill. The series also focuses on Samuel’s wife, Miriam (Lucy Cohu), and their children, Hannah (Lily Sacofsky) and Sasha (Toby Woolf). In the show, having developed a new paging system for hospitals, Samuel is is approached by the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 to demonstrate his work.

Set in 1958, the series stars Toby Stephens as Samuel, who is based on Poliakoff’s father

However, it’s not his inventions the agency (led by Mark Bonnar’s mysterious Field) is interested in but his fledging friendship with MP Richard Shaw (Linus Roache) and his wife Kathleen (Keeley Hawes), who also introduce him to Lord Arthur Wellington (Timothy Spall). As Samuel’s life becomes intertwined with his mission, he is left to question how far he is willing to let things unravel for his cause and who he can trust.

It was Poliakoff’s discovery that his father had been suspected of bugging Churchill’s hearing aid, a revelation he first heard when a journalist contacted him about newly released government papers in 2007, that sparked the story behind Summer of Rockets,

“It took me a long time to think about writing it because it meant revisiting my youth and a very traumatic time at boarding school,” he says. “I also tend to write slightly away from my immediate family experience because I find it easier to invent like that. But, after quite a considerable while, because the story kept haunting me, I broached it to the BBC.”

His father’s work, he explains, is truthfully reflected in the story by his hearing aids business, the deaf workers he employs in the factory and his invention of the paging system, which he created for St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“But I always saw that as a jumping-off point for Keeley’s side of the story,” Poliakoff continues. “My father was besotted with everything English; he was a real anglophile. He was a Russian Jew but he wanted to be an English gentleman, so there’s the story of him being involved in this English upper-class family who have their own darkness and trauma hidden away in a magnificent house. They have charm and grace, they entertain people, but this covers a deep unhappiness.

“My father would have loved to have been entertained in such a house, so that was what led me from that jumping-off point for the fictitious side of the story, but it’s based on the sort of things my father loved and was attracted to by English life and aspired to. The story curve shows Samuel learning that he doesn’t want to be the perfect English gentleman.”

Bodyguard and The Durrells star Keeley Hawes plays Samuel’s wife, Miriam Richard’s wife, Kathleen

Through the first episode, the story is laid bare against the backdrop of rockets being launched and rising anxiety over what might lie ahead, coupled with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that stem from the still-raw fallout of the Second World War. Samuel’s technological achievements also shine a light on how industry was set to move forward rapidly over the next decade.

“When you have six hours of television drama, it’s a big canvas. The joy of longform is that you can build a complex world and you can delve deeper into character than you can in a two-hour movie,” Poliakoff says. “It’s great to try to be ambitious when you’re given that length of screen time.”

Helen Flint, MD of Little Island Productions and Poliakoff’s long-time producing partner, admits the writer’s outlines need very little development as they are often fully formed, “very detailed and very ambitious” by the time she becomes involved.

“The thing is to identify where and how you’re actually going to make it happen,” she says. “Both of us have been around far too long. Therefore, between us and the heads of department, we can work out how to put this on the screen, which is our craft.”

With all of Poliakoff’s work filmed on location, the first task on Summer of Rockets was to find the house belonging to Richard and Kathleen Shaw, which is a constant presence during all six episodes. They eventually settled on Benington Lordship, a grand setting close to Stevenage, 35 miles north of London, which is notable for the Norman keep adjoining the 17th century house and expansive gardens.

Catastrophe’s Mark Bonnar plays the head of MI5

“The other important thing was when to film it, because getting lucky with sunshine in this country is not a given – so the schedule is everything,” Flint says.

Finding London streets that could double for the time period also proved problematic, with the slums of Notting Hill in 1958 far removed from the affluent neighbourhood it is today. Another set piece saw a queue of 1950s cars lined up along The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, which was filmed early in the morning to avoid the crowds of tourists usually occupying the area.

“It takes a huge amount of work, more work than anybody would imagine, weeks and weeks, and then huge amounts in post-production just to paint out silly lines and stuff like that,” Flint says of filming in London. “After that, it’s all of the countryside, the driving [scenes] and the minutiae. But because we’ve got a cast that is working all the time, we have to try to jigsaw them all in, which is very complicated at certain points. Once you have those actors, the schedule is dictated by that. Then other problems come to the fore because if they’re not available, you can’t do the locations. London exteriors are the hardest, and then piecing it together is a massive jigsaw.”

In some cases, however, the reality on which some of the series is based was too extreme to be dramatised. Poliakoff decided to tone down scenes where Sasha is at boarding school, as his own experiences at school were too “draconian” to be depicted exactly as he remembered.

Summer of Rockets debuts on BBC2 tomorrow

“When I started writing it, I realised it had to be more interesting and more inventive than the actual thing I experienced, which in reality was relentlessly grim,” he says. “A little bit of that was fine, but I didn’t think an audience would stand for that being repeated in each scene. So, oddly enough, the bit that was closest to reality was the most difficult to write.”

The series sees Poliakoff reunited with Stephens, who starred in his 2001 family reunion drama Perfect Strangers, while this was his first time working with Hawes despite having known her since she was just 19. “She starred in my wife Sandy Welch’s adaptation of Our Mutual Friend 20 years ago,” he recalls of the actor, who has recently starred in Line of Duty, The Durrells and Bodyguard. “I’ve known her for some time and we’ve always wanted to work together. She’s phenomenal in her role, which is a really very juicy role, so I’m thrilled. I think she gives one of her greatest performances.”

Following Summer of Rockets’ launch on UK pubcaster BBC2 tomorrow, all six episodes will be made available on the pubcaster’s VoD platform iPlayer. The drama is distributed internationally by BBC Studios. “‘Bingeable’ is not the prettiest word but, actually, I think my work was born to be binged,” Poliakoff notes. “People over the years have always told me they’ve sat down to watch something like Perfect Strangers, which is only four hours long. They tend to watch the first part and then they’re there four hours later.

“So I very much hope the story has that effect. It does have quite a powerful story that gathers and evolves and changes. It’s great for people to watch it in a linear way or in an immersive way. Either way, I hope people will really get into it.” - Michael Pickard (Drama Quarterly)

#toby stephens #this writer got wrong with kelsey's name #it is kathleen not miriam lol #jeez #summer of rockets #interview

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